Rainy day

The last few days have been pretty rainy round these parts. We (meaning me and B) have actually really liked it because the rain has made it even less humid! It's already significantly less humid here than in south Florida. So even less humid is like less humid squared! It has been awesome! Anyway, there are two small children that live in this house that don't totally love the lack of clear skies. When it was still rainy yesterday they were more than a little done with it. The arguing started early. We're talking like sun up and they were already at it. I was trying to think of something we could do to help them get along more. Then it came to me! There are two steps down into our living room. We could take pictures of them jumping off the steps! Holy cow, they totally loved it!

 They were able to work out who went first. K was to go first and set the bar. He set it pretty high! I think because he's a boy, he has a better natural jump than M is. We didn't have to tell him to pull his legs up.

M on the other hand needed a little coaching. We had to not only tell her what to do, but show her too. Once she got that she was supposed to keep her legs bent and held high, she was in jumping heaven! We jumped for a really long time. That lead to a rousing game of hide and seek. By the time the game was over, lunch was ingested and we had watched Tangled, did an exercise video and went running, the rain had finally stopped and we were able to go ride bikes!

This wasn't taken the same day as the other ones. He's just too cute to not put a picture of him on here. He rolls and talks and loves to blow bubbles, especially when he has carrots or sweet potato in his mouth. We love him so much and are so thankful that he's part of our family!

Utah part II

Just because you didn't get enough from the last post, here's another one! This is a three generation picture. Not as cool as a four generation picture, but it's still pretty awesome!

 We were able to spend one blessed morning with the Tuckett's. Oh how we love this family and are so happy that we were able to see them. M loved having E to play with. Once they saw each other, they were inseparable.

 The same went for these two. We played and played and then we ate and played for a little while longer. When it was time to go, K cried and wanted to know when he was going to be able to play with C again. I know it's good for life to change, but it's so hard to make such great friends and then have to live so far away from them. Being able to spend time with them was really great!

 Yellowstone! We did a family reunion up at Island Park, Id. We were only about 20 minutes away from west Yellowstone. That just happens to be where Old Faithful is. We were able to go see it! We got there right after it had gone off. So we waited around for an hour and a half until it went off again. It was so awesome! We were right in the front and so B was able to get this awesome picture! The only bummer was that M and K were sick of sitting there waiting for it to go off. So, in the video we took of it you hear me saying things like, "knock it off! stop arguing! leave each other alone! turn around and watch it!" At least this picture turned out! Hopefully in the future we can all laugh about the screaming, fighting children and the frustrated mom that you hear on the video!

 This was at the huge craters that are in Yellowstone. The waterfall is boiling hot water and the river is cold. I wanted to touch the water a little ways away from the waterfall, but it was all fenced off, so I couldn't. I wonder if it would be warm or hot or if the water in the river is cold enough that it would just be cold. I'll add that to my list of questions I want to ask when I get to heaven.

 Boating at Island park was fun except there were green floaties in the water. It looked like lawn clippings. When you were launched into the water at high speeds from a tube behind a boat, the green stuff got all over you and had to be scrubbed off in the shower at home. It turned the inside of swimsuits green. It was pretty gross. Not gross enough to not get on the tube of course, but gross nonetheless! Little B didn't love being squished into a life jacket but was ok as long as the boat was moving.

 B was able to waterski! He hasn't done it in a really long time, so he was sore for three or four days, but loved it anyway. I guess it's like riding a bike and you don't forget how to do it. I think this picture is pretty sweet!

 M learned how to ride a four wheeler alone. She was really scared at first, but then she loved it and that's all she wanted to do.

 She even let K get on the back and get a ride. Now before you go call DCFS on us, this four wheeler has a governor on it that won't let it go above a certain speed. I totally love this picture!

 When we got home back from Island park, we went on a group date with some of my siblings and thier spouses. Clearly we went shooting. Shooting a gun is not fun for me. It actually scares me a lot. I don't like that a gun has so much power and that they're so loud. We had ear plugs and I still had to put my fingers in my ears. I will say that I love this picture. B loves to go shooting so he was like a fat kid in a candy store!

 This is the girls that went. From left to right it's, my youngest sister G, then my younger sister, S. I think her shooting with a pregnant belly is so cute! Anyway, I'm next, then my sister-in-law, J and then my older sister,S.

This is the boys. We didn't even plan to have them stand so when the pictures are under each other, they are lined up with their spouse. Left to right, my brother-in-law, J, my other brother-in-law, J, B is next. Then my younger brother, B and then my brother-in-law, J. If you go left to right the boy goes with the girl right above him. That's cool right? Anyway, our trip to Utah was fun. it was totally exhausting because we just went and went and went, but it was a lot of fun! We loved being with family and making so many good memories!

Utah part I

Now, I know that it's been a long while since I posted anything. But, we were on vacation and so being a vigilant blogger wasn't a huge priority. Actually, it wasn't a priority at all! Anyway, we went to Utah, were there for a while and then came back to normal life. I shouldn't say normal life. It doesn't feel normal at all to be here. Normal would be going back to Florida, suffocating in the humidity as we walked to Tuckett's and bumming at their house whilst B was at school or studying for a test or writing a paper etc. It feels really weird to be here, not know anyone and see B and not have him be doing school, talking about school or looking on Gasworks for a job that catches his eye. Anyway, I digress, going back to Utah was a fun filled adventure! We were able to see all of my siblings at my youngest sister's wedding. Well, not all of them. I had one sister that didn't come, but that was to be expected. The wedding was real swell! I got to see my three older brothers that I haven't seen in years. That was awesome except for when I saw R for the first time and he said,"You look the same except you're older and fatter!" Rude! Why I ask are brothers rude no matter how old they are?! I would have punched him in the face except he's like two feet taller than me... We were also able to see all of B's siblings. That was awesome too! I feel so far behind in the blogging area of my life. So, I'll spare myself the ache that comes with typing a ton and just put tons of pictures on instead. I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to see our vacation pictures,so here's just a small taste! 

Here are the girls from my family at G's wedding. My oldest sister wasn't at the reception. She's really sick with Lupus, so she was at the temple, but couldn't come that night. My second oldest sister wasn't there either, but her not coming is for another Opera. Not to mention it's Sunday today and so I'll try really hard to only say nice things, so we'll just say she didn't come. ;)

We were able to bless this dude while we were there. I'm so glad we waited to do it until we got there. That way so many of our brother's were able to stand in the circle. B said when he finished the blessing and opened his eyes, little B was laying there with a huge smile on his face. The bishop stood up and said that during the blessing he had opened one eye and little B was just laying there being very attentive to what was being said. It was really awesome!

Here we have a four generation picture. We have been able to get one of these pictures with all three of our kids. I think they're so cool. I just love the people in this picture!

Stadium of Fire! If I knew how to spell the sound a firework makes, I would have done it. If you know the song then you know that after the word fire there should be a firework sound. Anyway, I love that we were able to go this year. Kelly Clarkson and Carly Rae Jepson were there. Needless to say, I was able to sing my little heart out. It. Was. AWESOME!! Now you might be looking at this picture and thinking,"Why, K?! Whatever did you do to your spectacles?!" Just in case there are other five year olds reading this and they happen to have spectacles... glasses don't bend in half. Now that you know that, you won't have to try it out for yourselves.

This little dude slept through the entire Stadium of Fire, including the fireworks. He woke up as we got to the car. He was so happy from his three hour nap that he was smiley the whole ride home!

We went to a farm for my nieces first birthday party. M got brave enough to feed a horse. K was brave enough to keep putting hay up this poor horses nose. B and I kept asking him to stop, but he thought it was hysterical to hear the horse try and blow the tickley feeling out of it's nose. One time the horse had had enough! B was standing on the other side of the horses head, K inserted a piece of hay, the horse moved it's head really fast. My younger brother ducked out of the way, but B didn't move, the horse's head stopped right in front of B. The horse stomped it's foot, showed it's clenched teeth and spit/blew it's nose all over B! I know I shouldn't laugh but every time I think about it, I crack up! I see B in my minds eye getting horse spit and snot all over the front of him, standing there and saying,"Sick! That's disgusting!" Oh my word, it was so funny! Even now as I write it I'm weeping from laughing so hard! 

One night we went camping. We picked the only night of our entire trip that it rained. It started to rain as we pulled up to our campsite. I'm pretty sure it stopped raining as we drove out of the campground the next morning. Even though it was raining we still had so much fun! The mountains are beautiful! My older brother that lived in the checz republic said that when he told people there that he was from Utah they would tell him they'd been saving money their whole lives to go to the mountains in Utah. He also said that the mountains in Utah look just like the swiss alps. We miss the mountains so much and totally love that we were able to go camping even though it rained the whole time.

I don't know how the boys made a fire stay through the rain, but I'm glad they were. I had forgotten that in Utah when it rains, it's cold rain. I hooked B on to the front of me and wrapped him in a blanket. That was on top of his long pants and jacket. When I took him off of me to put him in bed, his hands and feet were still cold even though he had been wrapped up so much.

I don't know why these pictures are not in a neat orderly line. It really bugs me but I can't figure out how to fix it. Anyway, our best friends in the whole world were able to come up to the canyon for dinner and to just hang out. They couldn't stay the night because it was a weekday, but we still loved to hang out and spend time with them. M and K loved having R and R there to play with. We love this family so much and we are so happy that we were able to hang out with them a few times while we were in Utah.

We had to hike to Stewart Falls while we were there. It was so awesome to be able to be outside in the middle of the day and not die of the heat. M and K said more than once that they loved that it wasn't so hot there like it had been in Florida. The falls were more beautiful than I remember them being. It was an awesome hike!

We floated down the river too. The water is still freezing cold! It didn't take too long before my bum was numb. K refused to sit in the little raft we had for them. I secretly wanted to push him into the water and if it hadn't been so cold, I would have! Now, that's good parenting right there!

Graduation!

First of all I can't believe that it's been a month since I did anything on this here blog. In my defense, B did graduate!!!! We moved, unpacked at our new place and then flew to Utah four days later. So, we've had things to do. Anyway, as mentioned before, B graduated!!! I can't believe that it's actually over. He has been in school full time since we got married. He has worked so hard to get where he's at. I'm not gonna lie, graduation was a little anti-climatic because he still has to study for the national boards. So, although graduation day was so exciting, I knew we weren't out of the woods yet. I tried to prepare myself for the kiss goodbye and the dreaded sentence, "I'm going to study." But when it happened I hadn't prepared enough. I was instantly irritated. Why oh why can't the national boards be part of the last semester? Why can't he graduate already knowing that he had passed his boards? Clearly the idea of graduating and still needing to study for a test was thought up by a man; just sayin'. Anywho, graduation was wonderful and glorious. My only job was to take pictures. Not one of the one's I took turned out. Thankfully B's mom was there with her fancy phone and she got some really awesome pictures.

 Here he is being hooded or receiving his hood or whatever it's called. I didn't even know that they did this so I was totally unprepared to take his picture. I tried to figure out how to zoom in, but clearly I wasn't able to figure it out. When they called his name and he walked across the stage, my eyes filled with tears. I am so proud of him! Truly he has worked so hard. He has sacrificed so much time and energy and sleep. But, he's done! Holy cow are we ever excited 'round these parts!

 

I feel like I should say that we all made it! I know that B was the one in the program and that he had to deal with the mean Dr that said,"You need to be able to multi-task in this job and you can't even single task!" (That has now turned into a joke at our house and we laugh about it a lot. But it for sure wasn't funny when it happened.) Or the crazy Dr that flipped him off while yelling swear words at him , or the Dr that he accidentally poked with a needle, thankfully it was clean. The crazy Dr that throws things across the room and the patients that don't want anything to do with a student. Not to mention the awful nurses that treated him like he didn't know the difference between Tylenol and Ibuprofen. I get that he had to deal with a lot of things that weren't great. But, so did the other four people in this picture. There were many a nights when daddy just wasn't around. The weeks when he was gone doing a clinical rotation hours away. The weekends that went by when we didn't see him because he was taking tests and then working. There were missed birthdays and major holidays. But, we did it! We know that he wouldn't chose to be away from us and we're so excited that he's done with school! We know that he'll still be busy and probably have to miss things, but I would venture to say that it's more tolerable if one is getting paid for such things. 

They are so excited to have their daddy back! 'Nuff said about that!

This lovely couple is what made living in Florida tolerable. We hung out a whole lot. We did Sunday walks together. We went swimming together. Our children played together almost every day. We laughed and cried together on more than one occasion. (Not the boys of course, at least not in front of each other!) Looking at this picture and knowing that we won't live around the corner from them, makes my heart feel really sad. She is the amazing woman that put up with me as I tried to lead the music in primary. I can't lead music to save my life. She is an amazing piano player and knows to just keep playing as I am waving my hands around like a crazy women. When we think of living in Florida, they are what we are going to miss. We totally love you guys and miss you bad enough that tears have been shed.

Now when I say that we were good friends, I meant we were really good friends! These fellas liked each other so much, they had matching backpacks! They loved taking a football to the park and playing catch. It didn't even have to be at the park. On Sunday evenings as we would walk around the circle, on occasion they would try and throw it back and forth. If my memory serves me well, I think they even requested to go to Port St. Joe together. That's the clinical rotation that's about ten hours away from home. They couldn't stand the thought of being apart for three whole weeks, so they tried to go together. When it didn't happen, I'm pretty sure they cried. This picture feels me with so much happiness! All joking aside, they are really good friends and not having them as part of our daily lives is going to take some time to get used to.

All that's left to do is for B to pass his boards. Then I feel like we can really say that he's done and we can click our heels together, do more than one cartwheel and maybe even throw in a somersault! Yay for graduations!

 

  

Thank you!

Now, I know that this is an old picture. Well, as old as you can get when one of them has only been outside the womb for ten weeks. Anyway, These fellas are pretty awesome for a lot of reasons. But, one HUGE reason is because they are under the age of six. We actually checked the mail one day. That's something that we don't do very often. We always forget. Anyway, we checked it and there it was, the dreaded call to jury duty. That's the problem with becoming a registered voter. They, have your information and you get called for jury duty. I know it's my civic duty. That I should feel honored that they picked me. Blah blah blah. Honestly, I don't want to do jury duty. B said that it would be awesome to do if it was a cool case. I asked what a cool case would be and he said,"I don't know something like a cool murder or something." Boys are so weird! No matter what the age. I don't think there is such a thing as a cool murder. Anyway, jury selection starts the day before B graduates. So I was hoping that that would get me out of it. But, then upon closer examination, I saw that if a legal parent is unemployed and has full custody of a child six years of age or younger, they might be able to be excused from jury duty! I clicked my heels together. I have TWO children under the age of six! If they weren't already in bed, I would have hugged and kissed them. Instead I waited until the morning. When I squeezed K so tight he started to grunt he said, "Why did you squeeze me tight?" I told him that I love him and I was so happy that he wasn't six. He just stared at me weird, but that's a look he gives me a lot. Yipee for little boys that get me out of my civic duty!

House hunting

This last weekend B and I went up north to see if we could find a house. We didn't have to come here to find a house when we were looking before we moved here. We were hoping that would be the case with moving there too. Alas, that was not to be. We went up there on Thursday after B got done at the hospital. We only had Friday to find a house. The problem is, there are not a whole lot of places to rent up 'round those parts. The realtor had sent a list of 12 homes to look at. We narrowed it down to eight that we wanted to see. She responded the next day,(this was all via e-mail earlier in the week last week) telling us that four of the houses we wanted to see already had applications in on them. So, we were going all the way up there to look at four houses. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little bugged that we were leaving our kids with friends, spending all this money to go look at four houses. Looking back, it was indeed a tender mercy!

Now, let me say that with a rental I understand that you go into it with a level of understanding that it's a rental. There are probably going to be things that you don't like, but since you're just renting, you can live with it. I will try to explain the houses the best that I can. I don't think that we asked for too much. It's not like we wanted our dream house. We wanted M and K to have their own rooms. Sleeping together, they play more than they sleep. We trust M enough that we thought that once B sleeps through the night, that he could sleep in with her and live to tell about it. That may not be the case if he slept in the same room with K. So, we wanted three rooms. Other than that, we were good with whatever.

Let's start with house number one. As we drove into the neighborhood, there were houses with more weeds than grass in their yards. There were old cars in these weed over run yards. Tires mixed in with the weeds. I was thinking that the house we were going to look at must be the best one in the area because the picture she sent us made it look pretty good. Oh how wrong I was! When we pulled in to the driveway, it was almost more weeds than driveway and the driveway was cement. I'm not sure how it was accomplished, but truly, there were a lot of weeds. We walked in to the house and it was fine except for how dirty it was. It was gross enough that I wouldn't take my shoes off to walk through the house. Now, I can clean like no one's business. But, I don't think there was anyway I could clean it enough to ever feel like we wouldn't get a fungus of some kind if we walked barefoot through the house. I think the carpet had been white when the house was built, but under the piles of dead ants, the carpet was gray-ish, black-ish. In the Kitchen there were more piles of dead bugs. I didn't get close enough to see what kind of bugs they were. All I know is that it was nasty! The door to the laundry room was broken and hanging from it's hinges. At least the back weeds had a fence, kind of. It was open to the road on both sides of the house and open to one of the neighbor's houses. At least there was a lovely pirate flag flying in the weeds! As long as there's one of those, what's there not to like?!

House number two was very similar to number one except the neighborhood was really nice. That house was the one that you look at and sang the song,"One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong." That would be the house. There were three bushes in front of the house that were well trimmed. Other than that, everything was over grown and gross. The door leading from the garage to the house didn't shut without slamming your whole body against it. That would be awesome to hear when B leaves for work at five o'clock in the morning. 

House number three, there almost aren't words. We went in to the house with really low expectations. We knew from the picture that we would feel like we were living in a circus house. We already knew that there was blue and white striped wall paper in the kitchen and it continued throughout the living room. But, to say we were unprepared for what we saw and smelled would be a gross understatement. The bushes growing over the sidewalk to get to the door, could be tamed. So, we were willing to look past them. The weeds that almost swallowed you as you got to the door could be cut and hopefully killed. As we walked through the front door, words to describe what we were seeing left me. The wall paper was more overwhelming then we thought. There was Dr office wall paper in the bathroom. It was navy blue with white, flowery paisleys. The boarder paper was pictures of tan pillars. Which was fine, it would add to the excitement of living there! We saw three bedrooms that all had flower wall paper in them, but we could live with. The only thing that I worried about was the ceiling fans that were on and looked like they were going to fall off and chop up whoever was unlucky enough to be standing under them when it fell. When the realtor told us there was a basement, I said,"A basement?! That's where the monsters live. I don't know if I can go down there." B told me to be brave, opened the door to the basement and started to go down. Now, when he opened the door, we were hit with the smell of cats. I don't know how many cats lived in this house. All I know is that it was a lot! The more stairs we went down, the stronger the cat smell got. There was a fourth bedroom down there. The carpet looked really plush. I thought that was nice, but then I stepped on it. It was damp! To make it worse, I was wearing my flip flops. So the carpet was thick enough that when I stepped in it, it went up on either side of my flip flop and got the sides of my feet wet. Sick! To have it smell like cats and then have plush, damp carpet, I'm pretty sure I threw up in my mouth. Not to mention the huge orange stains that were all over the damp plush carpet in the awful purple paint room. Then we went in to the laundry room. There was a door in the wall of the room. There was no door frame to this door. It was like the owner woke up one day and thought, I'd like to add a door in the laundry room. So, they took a saw, cut a square out of the dry wall, put little knobs in the square of dry wall that was now cut out, and called it a door. When I pulled on the door to see what was behind it, the entire thing fell towards my face. It was fairly traumatic as my life flashed before my eyes. I could just imagine one of our kids pulling on the knob and having the thing fall on them. Having smashed children in a house that smells of cats didn't sound great. I'll spare you the details of the dead bugs that were in the bathroom down there. Disgusting is a nice word for this house.

House number four really wasn't that bad, other than the smell. It smelled like some kind of food. It's a smell I have never smelled before. It wasn't like the food was cooking in a crock pot and that's why it smelled like that, the house just smelled that way. So, if we lived there, we would smell like that forever, even after we moved. So, that wouldn't be great. Not to mention there was a deck that if  a small child climbed it and fell over the side, they would die. The house was built on a hill, so the deck was really tall so the posts could make it all the way to the bottom of the hill. Needless to say, B and I were feeling really discouraged. The realtor said that she did find another home to show us. Neither of us were feeling like we wanted to go see another house. I am so glad that we went and looked. As we drove I thought that we just need to look for the most weeds, and if it had a couple broken windows or doors hanging on their hinges, it would be the house that she was taking us to see. The most frustrating part is that we weren't looking at super cheap houses to rent. All of these houses were well over a thousand dollars a month. If we had been looking in government houses, then I would expect the things that we were seeing and smelling. So, we were driving through the neighborhood to find the last house. We pulled up to a house that looked really nice. I thought that she must have missed a turn and we were turning around. When she turned her car off, I was so shocked that I asked in a very surprised voice, "This is it?!" When she said yes, I almost cried. When we walked in I said that we didn't need to see the rest of the house. We could just sign the contract. It was clean and didn't smell like weird food or cats! There was no basement where the monsters lived AND the realtor told us that it has four bedrooms! I almost kissed her! That means that each of our kids get there own room and since the formal dining room has carpet in it, there's no way we'll put our table in it. So, we can use it as a play room.

Isn't it lovely?! I know that the grass in this picture looks awful, but it was taken in the winter. The grass, although long, was green! It needed to be cut, but it was actually more grass than weeds. I am so glad that we went up there to look at the houses. If we hadn't, then we probably would have just gone with one of the other four without going in them. What if we had gotten the one that smelled like cats and had a scary, monster like basement with damp carpet, dead bugs and doors that weren't meant to be there? That would have been awful! Two weeks from this Saturday is graduation! We can hardly wait! B had heard that after he took his last set of tests, going to clinicals would be really hard. They told him he would just want to be done so bad that he REALLY wouldn't want to go. He thought that he would be fine. Well, he took his last set of tests about a week and a half ago. Ever since, he's had a really hard time going to clinicals. He is so ready to be done. When we found this house, he looked at me and said," I need to buy a lawn mower and a trimmer! And, I'll even have time to mow it and trim on a Saturday morning!"  We are so excited to have a house. We were worried that we were going to be homeless for awhile. We are so thankful for tender mercies and answered prayers.

Let's go on a adbenture!

Every morning when we are driving home from taking M to school, K asks if C can come play. It works out so perfectly because as we drive into our community, C is usually walking to the bus stop with E and E. So, we pull over, ask C if he wants to come play and off we go. It has become our new normal and today when we pulled over we hadn't even asked before C was running to the car. I opened my door, he climbs over me and goes in the back. I must say that I love that he wants to come play everyday. On the days that C can't play for whatever reason, K is not happy. As we all know, I don't play right and he usually just ends up telling me that he'll just play alone. Well, for the last couple weeks, everyday these two go on, "A adbenture."    That means that they usually load up their back packs(C told us today they aren't called back packs, they are knapsacks!) with cars or stuffed animals or hat's or books or flashlights or clothes or blankets or all of the above. Then they run around the house whilst wearing their knapsacks. Then they pile toys on K's bed. The bed is a truck and it takes them where they need to go. Truly, they play this game for hours and are so happy to be in each other's company. We honestly don't know what were going to do when C moves and we aren't able to see him everyday. All we know is that it's going to be a hard adjustment to not have him and his family around.