The Bestest Day

Today is an amazing day.  Here are the reasons that November 30, 2012 is my favoritest!

1.  Today is my little sister, Danielle's birthday.  Happy Birthday sweetheart.  Cowabunga-to-the-rabunga!!!
2.  Today is my half birthday.  I am officially 31 and one half years old!  I love birthdays!!
3.  We are selling our house today.  They are sitting down to sign papers at this very minute.  I'm so happy for both of us.  For them getting a bigger beautiful house (if I do say so myself.)  And to us for selling our house and finally being debt free!!!!!  Wish it was debt free with a paid-off house, but with the money in the bank, I'm not complaining:)
4.  And last, but not least, today is exactly 18 months since I've stopped biting my nails!  Yep, I'm officially awesome.  Now it's onto another bad habit.  Just have to decide one of the many!

Happy November 30, 2012.

Thoughts

In a matter of fact voice, Shelby came up to me and said, "Mom, me and Brennon kissed on the lips.  We thought it and then we did it."  Man, have I got my work cut out for me with these two.  I love that they love to be together, love to laugh together, love to dance together, but I draw the line on kissing.  On the lips.  At 4 & 5 years of age.  My first kiss was at 16!  Yikes, everything begins earlier these days.

Cuties

While taking Shelby to PM Kindergarten today I wanted to remind her that she needed to take the bus home with Keilie.  I was reminding her that their bus is the "orange" bus route, so I asked her what else was orange to make it stick.  I was naming different things, Orange Juice, Oranges, so that she would remember it well.  I can get a bit anxious when it comes to my kids riding home when I'm not the one driving.  I said, "Oh, and Cuties.  Those are orange."  Tyson gasped and said, "Mom, I'm not orange."  I'm not quite sure if he realized he was making a joke, but I laughed out loud anyway.  Cutie!

Winter

I used to think the cold was what made me dislike Winter.  Then I had kids and found out what I really hate about Winter, Sock Season.  When you have 14 socks used each day, it adds up quick.  So does my aversion to Winter!  Double Blah!

Early Present

Randy got me an early Christmas Present.  Golds Gym is literally across the street from our house.  When I found out they had child care I was practically singing.  Randy said I could get a membership.  Except that's not my present.  My present is his membership!  Saturday was our first day going.  We packed up the younger kids (since those are the ones that will go and have their own "membership") left the other two home to duke it out for the remote and went.  I LOVE the elliptical, so that's where I went first.  Randy wanted to go swimming.  It was so much fun looking up sometimes and see him through the window.  I was in my zone, wanting to quit running, telling my brain to quit whining when what do you know, the most handsome man I've ever seen gets on the elliptical next to me.  I know I must have looked like I was glowing.  We were actually working out together!!!  It only lasted 12 minutes because he doesn't like the elliptical, but I didn't care.  Exercising makes me so happy.  It makes me feel better, look better (although it will be months to lose all of the weight I've packed on in the last 2 months) and calms my nerves.  None of that compares to the happiness of this years Christmas Present.  I love going with Randy.  It reminds me of an eCard I saw once.  "Let's work out together and get skinny to make other people jealous." 

Off

While we were shopping the other night the sun went down and it got pretty dark.  Tyson noticed.  "Mom, Jesus turned off the lights!"

While at the carwash today, Tyson whispered through giggles, "The car is getting a cold shower."  He was making fun of the car;)

Returns

This morning Shelby was in a tither because the wand that she got from Chuck E. Cheese got broken.  I'm not sure how she didn't realize that if you leave a little plastic toy on the hard stools, when someone sits on it without realizing, it's going to get smashed.  She came up to our room in hysterics, "Mom, Dad, we need to go to Chuck E. Cheese today and return this for a new one.  Mine's broken!!" 

When we were getting ready to leave, we let our kids pick out a gift for their closest friends.  Shelby gave one to Kennedy (of course) and Havyn from school.  Havyn brought Shelby a BEST FRIENDS necklace with matching bears to remind Shelby of the bear she'd given her.  The next day Shelby came and showed me that one of the arms of the bear was gone.  "Don't worry, Mom!  I'll just take it back to Havyn and have her Mom buy me a new one."

On this wonderful day of Thanks, I'm so grateful that I don't have anything I'd like to return.  I'm so Thankful for...
My Body, Randy, My Kids, My Mom, My Dad, My Sisters, Jackie, Darwin, My In-Laws, Friends, My  Home, Food, Randy's Job, Laughter, Books, Movies, Color, Grass, Our Cars, My Piano, Talents, Health, Mountains, Reese's, My Bed, My Pillow, Blue Blankie, School, Living Prophet, Book of Mormon, Temples (especially a close one!), Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher, Telephones, Email, Texting, Internet, Electricity, Toilets, Doctors, Law Enforcement, Hospitals, Medicine, Nature's Sunshine, Candles, Vacuum, Oven, Nature, Carpet, Money, Bread, Date Night.

These are in no particular order, however, there is one that will always be at the top of my list.  My Savior.  My Redeemer.  How Thankful I am to have the atonement, to repent of my sins and have the chance to live with my Heavenly Father again.  To hopefully have my family by my side if we all live faithful and endure to the end.  I like to imagine that we're all holding hands, smiles on our faces, clothes a little tattered to show that we really lived and learned and loved.  Tears in our eyes as we look upon the face of the One that gave us the most amazing gift.  A Choice.

Multnomah Falls

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Oregon

 We didn't choose the perfect weather day to explore Oregon, but it didn't deter us from having an exceptional day.  It was lovely!  If I didn't know it was Autumn, didn't know that the sprinkling of yellow, red, and orange trees meant Autumn, I would have thought it was Spring in Oregon.  It was SO green everywhere!  Beautiful!  I'm sad that I forgot our camera, but glad I had my phone.  They're not great pictures, but they do capture some of the beauty.

 Randy thought he saw a waterfall off of the freeway, so he took the next exit, then took the side road.  This is the unexpected we came upon.  Under the freeway, hidden behind all of the roadwork, is this area.  It took my breath away.  I'm glad we took the backroads.

 Look at the size of this leaf.  It was bigger than my head.  I would have held it up, but it was raining and we all know how I can't stand wet clothes!  Little did I know that the rest of the day would be spent outside in the pouring rain!

 From this side road that led us to the beautiful river, we found this picnic area.  If it's this beautiful in the rain and Autumn, imagine the splendor in the Spring and Summer.  We'll definitely be camping in Oregon this Summer.

 Horsetail Falls. 

The first of many falls on our beautiful side road.

 I couldn't help myself from taking a picture of these leaves.  I was getting out of the car to see the tunnel below and couldn't help by marvel at how much contrast there is.  Green leaves, super green ferns, brown ground and golden leaves.  It even smelled of rain.  Perfection!

 Doesn't this place scream family pictures!!!  Where's my official photographer, Kimberly, when you need her?  And matching dry clothes, of course:)

 Multnomah Falls.

The reason we ventured to Oregon.

This is the most visited attraction in Oregon.  Over 2 million people come per year.  I found it on kevinandamanda.com.  She always has the best pictures, views, and ideas.  This one was my favorite of hers by far.  

 I was so taken by the waterfall that I didn't notice Ty was having a stubborn moment and turning away from me.  Little brat!  :)

 What am I doing with my legs?  It looks like I have to go to the bathroom.  Or they're broken and mangled.  Oh well, how can you notice my legs when there is such beauty in the background.  Or such a stud at my side.

 Again, I couldn't help myself.  Look at the colors.  The contrast.  The moss growing on the rock.  Living on the dead.

 The rain was coming down, but that's not the mists you see swirling around them.  That's from the falls.  It was so loud and majestic.  However, I'm glad I was the one that got to stay back and snap the picture.  Again, wet clothes, not my favorite.

 It was a small hike up to the bridge.  Just .2 miles.  Caden was super disappointed that we didn't get to hike to the top.  6 miles.  No thanks!  I was happy, later, to show him the notice that that hike was closed due to the weather.  It had been raining for days, not just the one we chose to come on.

 Downtown Portland.

It was only 40 miles more to go to Portland.  I'm glad we went.  However, I'm glad to be gone.  It was beautiful, but the traffic was a nightmare.  There are so many roads, so many cars, and so much rain.  I was a bucket of nerves by the time we were back on the road headed for home.  I am proud to say that I did drive in it.  And we survived.  Unscathed.  

 Bonneville Dam.

We were told we could see spawning salmon.  They were mistaken.  It's the end of the season.  We've vowed to the kids we'd bring them back next season.  I want to see that as much as they do.

 Fish Hatchery.

 Rainbow Trout.

Isn't it huge?!  It's one of many on display.  The other millions are in tanks ready for transport.  Or growing.  

 Sturgeon.

The largest one is a male they've named Herman.  He's 500 pounds.  The one you see, that is as long as my kids placed side-by-side, is a small one.  So glad there was glass dividing us.  It gave me the creeps being that close!

 Wouldn't you feel so lucky to work in a place so beautiful every day.  That's kind of how I feel being a stay at home mom.  Not as beautiful as this stream, but beautiful to me.

 The last adventure on our drive was feeding the fish.  You can kind of see how many there were.  The kids loved watching them swarm greedily for their share.  It was loud and exciting.  Oregon may have some weird laws, such as 65 MPH freeways and no pumping your own gas, but it is extremely beautiful.  Not sure I'd like to live there, but we will be exploring more of it's beauty soon.

Setting it straight

Last night for FHE I took the kids to the temple grounds for the beginning.  We sang, prayed and had a lesson on the blessings we get when keeping God's commandments.  Then we headed to our activity... Chuck E. Cheese.  The whole way, Caden and Keilie were talking about the tickets they hoped to get.  They wanted to beat the score they got the last time we went in Utah.  Don't ask me how they can even remember how many they got all those months ago.  I don't know how anyone can remember anything as soon as they walk out of there.  It's so loud!  When getting our tokens, Caden made the comment that he hoped he'd get 300 so he could get this notebook in the case.  So, when the time came to cache in our tickets for the seriously awesome prizes (not) I was surprised when Caden took his time getting smaller prizes instead of the one big prize he wanted at the beginning.  The babes used most of the tokens on the rides, so they each got one small candy.  Keilie took her time choosing the exact prize she wanted.  What a surprise, huh;)  As I was prompting Keilie to hurry up, there was a line forming, I noticed Caden dividing his prizes evenly among the babes.  They were jumping up and down, exclaiming their excitement at getting more stuff.  Tears sprang to my eyes as my heart felt like it was going to burst.  He'd used his hard earned tickets to get them prizes.  He gave up what he'd wanted most to give them more.  So many times, when others see this kind of thing, they remark to the parents that "they must be doing something right."  I thought of this as I watched in pride as his face lit up with his own satisfaction, unaware that I was watching.  He wasn't doing it for me.  He was doing it for them.  And for himself.  I want to set the saying straight.  Because it was nothing that I did to make him so generous.  Nothing I did that prompted him to give up what he wanted most.  It was his own giving heart.  His own love.  It was all Caden!

Welcome!

Welcome to our new "rental" home!

 Love that I have a porch!  Wish there was something in my pots.  I also have to finish my ladder words with an eye hook on the letters.  It's supposed to say GIVE:)

 View from the front door.  Not many people have seen this view.  What say you about coming to my house?!

 Powder room. 

 I don't like that it's directly by the front door.  One of the only visitors I've had got to see Tyson come out buck naked in the netherlands and say, "Do.Not.Go.In.There.  It stinks!"  Of course he had his pants off!

 Come in a little more.  Don't be shy!  Unless you're scared of the dark. Yikes, this is a dark photo.

 Great Room.

You'll notice that we don't have any kitchen chairs.  To this, I am grateful.  Not that we don't have any yet, but that we don't have the crap chairs we had in Casper.  Glad to be rid of those beauties!

  Kitchen.

I love that the kids can eat at this bar.  Tyson sits on the left, Brennon sits in the middle, and Shelby on the right.  They just sat at those seats and go to them every time.  No questions asked.  No arguing.

You'll also notice the pad lock hanging from the fridge.  Yep, that made the move!  We also took the lock from our master bathroom, since it's only Randy and I that use it, so we could lock the pantry.  We'll switch it back when we move out.

 Our tiny laundry room/mud room.  Not my favorite!  We had to actually buy a new dryer because our was a gas dryer.  We bought a pedestal, but couldn't use it because the plug-in was too low to have it.  Another perk to get our house built!

 The washer door is slightly ajar.  As you can see, this barely fit.  The garage door will not open if we have not "closed" the door.  Not sure why they decided to make this so small.  Glad it fits at least!

 View from the fireplace.  Love the stairs!  This is a good visual aid for us because we're going to have 9' ceilings in our home.  We want a closet under the stairs, like this one, so I can now visualize how ours will look.  LOVE me some visual aids!

View at the top of these stairs coming soon.  It's a nightmare up there.  The boys' room has toys all over the floor, the girls' beds need to be made, and our room/office looks like we seriously just organized the boxes into a nice pile and haven't thought about them again.  Which isn't true!  I've thought about them a lot.  Had anxiety about them a lot.  However, I've already made dinner and dessert for tonight, cleaned breakfast, decorated above the kitchen cabinets with what I could find from said boxes, took pictures, and blogged.  You can tell those boxes are keeping me up at night:)

Safety Issues

Upon our arrival to our new "home," all of the kids booked it out of the car.  Who knew that it was 65 mph through Oregon?  Talk about LONG!  Anyway, the kids were both excited to get out of the car from the long drive and to see our new place.  While exploring the house, running like mad with excitement, Shelby wanted to see the outside.  Not knowing there was a sliding glass door because it was SO clean, she bashed her face into it as she was running outside.  If it wasn't my little girl, I would have laughed pretty hard seeing her rebound off of that window.  So, ladies and gentleman, this is why I'm not going to clean my windows until we move into our own home.  I don't want this tragic accident to ever happen again!  Safety First!

First Day! Again!

Keilie & Shelby's Elementary

Friday was supposed to be the girls' first day of school.  Shelby got up early, dressed herself, made her own breakfast of juice and bread, and sat by the front window to wait for the bus.  She was so excited to go to school!  Little did she know that things weren't going to turn out the way she planned.  Randy happened to be home, so he came with me.  Keilie and I had toured the school the day before, so we kind of knew what to expect.  TONS OF KIDS!  This schools' fourth grade alone has more kids than the entire Bar Nunn Elementary!  You could fit Bar Nunn Elementary in this building at least 1.5 times.  There are kids ev.er.y.where!  So, on Friday, we took Keilie up to her class to meet her teacher (who is out for maternity leave until April) and then show her how to get to Shelby's class.  Shelby practically danced around the school.  She just couldn't wait to meet her friends and teacher.  The moment we got into the class and started talking to the teacher I knew there was going to be a problem.  She asked if there was any way that I would consider putting her into the PM class since there were less kids.  I didn't mind at all since we came from a Kindergarten class of 17 to now a class where she'd be number 27.  PM would make her the 25th.  The only drawback to the whole thing was Parent Teacher Conference.  They mixed up the schedule so that AM went one morning, PM went the other, and so on, so that the teachers could take the afternoons to have PTC.  This happened to be an AM day.  Shelby was told to grab her things and come back on Tuesday.  She did alright, but you could tell she was SO sad.  So, come Tuesday, she was up early, dressed, breakfast of Nutella on Bread, with coat and backpack on by the time I woke up.  She was ready and there was no stopping her today.  I'm super sad that she came from full-day to half-day.  She is already reading and doing 1st grade work, so it's hard to send her when they're learning one letter a week.  Her teacher actually said that she could help the other kids' learn.  So, on the times she's home, I'm going to work with her.  Just one more way to get in that extra snuggle.  Especially since she's almost 6!  

Rubber Bands

In a home with three girls, one of which wears a ponytail almost every day, there are going to be a bunch of "rubber bands" in the house.  Last night after I'd put Tyson's diaper on for bed, I was holding him and snuggling.  Sometimes I just need a break to snuggle, especially when he's been a grump since the move.  He looked at me with his cute face and said, "Mom!, I flushed lots of rubber bands!"  With raised eyebrows I said, "What?  You flushed the hair things?"  He kind of pulled back a bit and said, "Um... could you put me down before I say yes?"  Sure enough, we're out of elastics for our hair.  I do my hair, I promise.  I just don't like the feel of hair on my neck while I work.  And, with a house with five kids, I'm cleaning a lot!

Seattle, WA

Since Randy was gone from Monday to Thursday, we took Saturday to explore our new State.

Washington.

 Entering Seattle

 Space Needle.  Once the tallest building in Seattle, now the 7th!

 See the word Marlin?  Is the M a spider or painted on? 

Give up?

Painted.

 View from the top!

 

 We wanted the kids to experience a ferry ride.  Not good for me!  Being dizzy only makes this ride miserable.  At least the kids had a good time.  If I didn't have kids to sit with, I might have had a good nap with my eyes needing to be closed.  I'm not usually motion sick, but this time, I was green!

 We rode over to Bainbridge Island, turned around in the parking lot and got right back on.  First ride novelty, second ride BORING!  I didn't even get out of the car.  Randy took Caden and Keilie for a treat to bring back.  The babes played in the car while I closed my eyes again.  No naps this time either!

Leaving Seattle.  

Next week we're going to Portland, OR.  It's fun to live within driving distance to so many cool cities.  We're exploring our own town each day as well.  Sometimes a move is more of an adventure, really!