GRANDMA NIKOLAUS, 5 WEEKS!

Kellen's mom came for a visit, which was way awesome! She had a hard time coming earlier because of the holidays, illness and work. But we sure were spoiled to have her stay with us for 4 whole days! She even spoiled the kids with legos, puzzles and books, even though it was her birthday! We did get to celebrate with her by taking her out to lunch, singing to her, and having some yummy triple chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting. We were going to bless Eli while she was out here too (even though it was ward conference), but as luck would have it, a winter storm came in and church actually got cancelled. I think in the 7.5 years we have lived here, this might be the second time this has happened. But boy did we get dumped with snow - something unusual on this side of the state - around 8 inches! So we got to stay home and spend the whole day together.

Then I was going to let Shade stay home from school on Monday so he could spend more time with his grandma, but they ended up cancelling school. So in addition to getting to play with grandma, we got to go sledding down the big hill by our leasing office with the Daltons for awhile. It was cold (18 degrees), but SUNNY and only slightly breezy (it is sunny maybe only a third of the days in the winter here in Michigan...), so it was BEAUTIFUL with the fresh, deep, white snow. I even dared to go down 5 times (2 with Shade, 3 by myself). I still have a hard time sitting up from a laying down position, so I was afraid to crash. I did get snow in my face a couple times, as I was also having difficulty crossing my legs in front of me and went down with my feet hanging off the front of the sled... but it was still awesome to get some SUN and fresh air! Kellen also got to work from home that day due to the roads, and he even got to come out and join us for a bit.

Kellen's mom was supposed to fly to Georgia on Tuesday, but since all the flights were full (she flies standby because Kellen's sister works for Skywest/Delta), she stayed one more day. So I was going to let Shade stay home from school again, but again they cancelled school! So we all got to stay home together without any homework. Only Kellen had to go into work that day.

On Wednesday morning, Kellen took his mom to the airport really early, then he got to work from home that day (Wednesday is his usual day of the week to work from home). We are so blessed to have had her with us. We don't get to see family that often, so we cherish every minute of it!

The only pictures we got were in the apartment, since it was never tempting enough to go anywhere. With the kids:

With the kids and parents (3 Generations):


As for me, I finally got up to running at 4 mph for 20 minutes. My best yet since the surgery. The longest I walked after that was another 40 minutes, but that usually varies by day. It is still difficult, even going that slowly and for that short amount of time, and I have wear my 2 knee braces until I build up my joint strength again. But like I mentioned before, it feels sooooooo good to be able to exercise again! It is just hard to find a time when both little kids are either occupied or asleep at the same time, and I don't feel like I need a nap myself or need to clean instead. But I'm not training for a race...yet... :)