This is for you Wynne.
So we want to move. We just need to find the right place to move, er more like the right job that would take us to the right place.
John flies out to S. Carolina next weekend for a job interview there. It looks good, it is something we are considering but aren’t totally set on yet.
Our rental lease is up at the end of September and so it would be nice to have a new job and place to call home before we say adieu to where we are at now.
Any more questions?
We are back. Home that is. We spent a week and a half in Utah. I am to lazy to count how many times we have been to Utah just this summer but I do know it has been a lot. We were half way home and Curtis asked me when we were going to go back. No plans to return in the near future though. I plan on staying put for awhile. At least until we move (that is if we do move).
This last trip I didn’t take pictures. My batteries were dead and it was just so nice not to lug the camera around and not have to worry about taking pics. However, my SIL Natalie did take some pics of my whole fam for me and once I get those I will post those.
The reason for this trip was my sister Shannon had a new baby. A little (he looks so tiny) boy. Her first boy. My parents flew in, Nicole and her two girls flew in, and the kids and I flew in. My parents crashed with Shannon and Nicole, Myself and our kids crashed at Janeen’s.
John’s grandma was nice enough to lend me her car (thanks a ton!) and so we were all able to go do lots of things.
So here is what we did. Drumroll please……
-X’s baby blessing plus lunch and dinner at Shannon’s. The sandwiches were divine and so was the dessert. The company was great too.
-Swimming at the rec center near Janeen’s house. Cool slides, a huge bucket that drops water on your head, diving off the high dive (almost having a heart attack doing it. It reminded me of bridge jumping in college).
-Good Food. Not enough exercise. Yet only gained 2 pounds. It was worth it!
-VanDenBerghe Olympic Games. Lots of made up games and races with medals for the winners and even a pinata. Plus an attempt at a family picture but 10 kids under the age of 5 makes it nearly impossible.
-Dinner with my In laws. Playing outside with more cousins. And gaining a new member to the family. John’s brother Chris and his family welcomed a new baby girl, Ruby this week. I saw her briefly and she was adorable. Why do other people’s newborns look so tiny? I swear my kids were never that small.
-Whining, complaining, tattling, crying mixed with laughter and fun.
-Lagoon. Rides galore, good corn on the cob, kids smiles and tears.
-Chuck E. Cheese where a kid can be a kid. Celebrated Allie’s 3rd Birthday. Cupcakes, pizza, games.
-Ikea without kids.
-Poppy pants (lucky for me my kids did it while my dad watched them) and soiled undies (too many kids potty training).
-More swimming and a Stake Party. Nothing like having a family reunion at your stake party. Free food and free bouncy houses.
-Church. Confusing Janeen’s whole ward. (I am her twin).
-Walk around Temple Square in the hot sun.
-Shopping. Too many things I wanted.
-Looking for a stroller since mine got ran over on the last morning there. DI is the place to go. I got a single jogger stroller for $12. Score!
-Flying home. Only an hour flight. So bearable.
-Finally seeing John and being all together again.
Ahh, vacations are nice but they sure wear you down. We had lots of fun. Thanks everyone for the fun times.
Today I came across one of the most funny LDS Church rumors that I have seen in a long time. You’d think that the rumor that the LDS Church owns Coca-cola would be enough. Nope. Today, a very reputable source Venture Beat, just lost some of its credibility when it posted that the LDS Church was trying to buy Facebook.
I still can’t stop laughing just thinking about the idea. Can you imagine? Facebook started as a college network that represented partying, drinking and all sorts of college like behavior. I’m pretty sure that was the church’s motivation. They wanted to represent those high ideals.
By the way, if you’re on Facebook, you can add me to your friends here.
On a different note, what do people know about Greenville, SC?
This past week was spent mostly stressing out.
I was stressing out about working out enough to win my family’s little weightloss challege. I lost by half a pound. Can you believe that? Nicole beat me by half a pound. How annoying. The kids and I have been working out in the Las Vegas heat for nothing. Okay not really nothing since I did lose a fair amount of weight that I needed to lose but still. Thursday night I went for a five mile bike ride in the 106 degree heat just so I could take the win. Oh no such luck. I guess there is always the next round. I still have plenty of pounds to drop.
The rest of the stress came packing and planning for Utah. The kids and I flew in yesterday to SLC. I swear we ought to just move here we spend so much time here. The stress is packing for the three of us and only having one suitcase. It worked out okay though. Everything fit. We managed to get the car seats packed too. John’s grandma was also nice enough to lend us her car for the week. That makes things so much easier.
So now we are here in Utah. Yeah! Curtis had quite a few melt downs yesterday. I am hoping he sleeps in today so he gets caught up on his sleep so he won’t be quite as cranky. Alessia on the other hand does not sleep well in Utah (one reason we shouldn’t move here). She has been up since 5:30am and so have I.
My parents fly in late tonight. Yeah. We will all meet up tomorrow for Shannon and Adam’s little guy’s baby blessing. Nicole than flies in with her kids next week. So here is to hoping that this week is more fun than crazy with 10 kids under the age of 4. Wish us luck.
The first is obvious. We changed the look of the blog. We needed a new look. Enjoy it while it last. I may just have an itch to change it often.
And then the best news of the day (well yesterday) is John’s brother David (and his wife Amanda) welcomed their first baby to their family. Little Olivia Kristine (great name, don’t you think?) was born yesterday. We are super excited for them. I stole a picture off their blog so here is a picture of the happy family.
Congratulations. Wish we lived closer so we could hold her and see her red hair in person.
Rain, Rain. Please Stay.
It doesn’t rain very often where we live. All week there have been beeping warnings flashing across the bottom of the TV (causing Curtis to go nuts because he “can’t hear” his show) screen with the threats of not only rain but floods. 5 days of this and you begin to think someone is crying wolf a little too much.
Well then it happened. It poured. It sounded like hail. I yanked Curtis away from a puzzle and made him go outside and play in the rain. He wasn’t too impressed. We came back in and then the thunder started and it awoke Alessia from her slumber. So I took her outside in the rain too. By then it was just sprinkling and so Curtis decided it was okay to be out in the rain.
We grabbed a popsicle stick and a straw and had fun racing then down the gutters. Oh the joys that can be had when it rains. I then took him to the sewer so Curtis could see where rain goes. He was highly impressed and wanted his stick and straw to go take a trip to Lake Mead (where the water flows) too but then I reminded him that he likes to swim in lakes that aren’t polluted with garbage.
Oh I do love a good rain. It is now so very cool outside. We took a two hour walk in the heat this morning if I only knew it would be 20 degrees cooler in the afternoon I would have waited.
Here are the few pictures I got of my cute kids in the rain….
Curtis (smiling his best smile) and his boat he made at Home Depot. We tried to get his boat to float down the little stream but there wasn’t enough water. Thus we resorted to sticks and straws.
Alessia cheering on the straw and sticks. She tried to get the current to take her away. Good thing she is so sturdy we wouldn’t have wanted her to end up in sewer.
Alessia sunbathing afterwards. I just love her little curls. They get to be even cuter in a little humidity.
We have a new Nephew. My sister Shannon gave birth to our newest nephew yesterday morning. It is her third baby and first boy. It was about time another boy joined the family. Curtis was the last boy grandchild born (on my side of the family). There were 5 girls after him. The kids and I fly out to Utah next week to visit the new little guy and see the rest of my family who will also be flying in for the big occasion.
We are also awaiting the arrival of two more additions to the family. John’s two brothers are expecting (or at least their wives are) and are due this month as well. Yeah for babies.
A few of the things Curtis has said lately
If anyone says the number 4 he always pipes right up and says, “I’m four”. Mention the number 1 and he says, “My baby is one”. I never realized how much I say the numbers 4 and 1 until he started doing this.
Today he had a friend over. He wouldn’t sit next to him in the car thus the following conversation
me: why didn’t you want to sit next to your friend?
Curtis: i was scared
me: why were you scared?
Curtis: i am just shy boy mom
Never have I heard him call himself shy nor did I know he knew that word.
Later I asked why he wasn’t playing nicely with his friend he said, “he isn’t my friend”. When I asked why he said, “he isn’t a girl, like Aurora (his friend across the street). So i guess he has decided he likes to only play with girls and not boys.
And my favorite saying came yesterday when we were at the grocery store.
“mom, we are buying lots of food. You are going to have to exercise a lot”.
Listening to my kid whine all day is not my idea of fun. You would think having a friend over and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese would have helped but no it has just made my kid more tired and more whiney. I am swear I am not getting paid enough.
Yesterday we attempted Family Home Evening. Some weeks it goes really well and I feel super pleased and almost prideful at how well the lesson and activity go. Yesterday was not the case. That is why I say we “attempted” it. I guess technically we did have it so we more than attempted it we did have it but I don’t know if the intended gospel principle was taught received.
One of the best things about teaching the 5 year olds at church is that my little 4 year old is taught out of a different lesson book and so I can adapt the lesson I taught to my 5 year olds to Curtis for FHE. Pretty much I get to kill two birds with one stone, a lesson for my class and a FHE for my family.
This week it was on gratitude and we read of the 10 lepers who were healed yet only one gave thanks. I let Curtis draw leprosy all over the 10 lepers and then when Christ came he got to erase the marks. Doesn’t that sound fun? My 5 year olds loved it. Curtis wasn’t too impressed. All he cared to talk about was what we read in the scriptures at breakfast. I guess I shouldn’t complain, it was gospel related.
He now loves to tell Dad over and over about Adam and Eve and how they ate fruit (bananas is what he thinks they ate) off the tree and they couldn’t be in the garden any more. I guess he learned something yesterday just not in FHE.
Although FHE didn’t go quite as I planned it we were still able to spend time together (although frustrated with each other at times). I know that it is important. If anyone else has any good ideas for some good FHE lessons for 4 year olds please feel free to share. We need all the help we can get.
And now we are off to begin another day.
