Us in Arizona - It's Jill's Big Day

On the road and having a great time - for real, for the first part. Just look at 'em. I had new songs to listen to, and between that and naps, we got most of the way to Gary's brother's house in Arizona. A big dinner at Cracker Barrel and nightfall got us the rest of the way.  We stopped for lunch at a playground in Panguitch, UT, and saw a guy put an ENTIRE stalk of celery on a sandwich. Not a hoagie, a regular-bread-celery-severely-hanging-out sandwich. He looked like he was in heaven eating it, and Gary was highly entertained.

Our first stop on the trip was Arizona because our niece Jill got baptized! It was really great to see that and to spend a few days with her family and Gary's parents. Seeing them was even better than the cheesecake they fed us. Narrowly. Thank you, Jill, for being a great example to my boys and congratulations on an important step.

The cousins after the baptism - Leah, Josh, Noah, Jill, and Lissy.

The girls LOVED Lissy and played with her all weekend long. I know Lissy was excited not to be the only one for once.

Jill with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Lissy.

Andrew was so exhausted he fell asleep in the car on the way to the baptism, then slept through the entire thing. He woke up just in time to get the last scoop of ice cream, so I took a picture to prove he was there.

After the baptism, Christian and Candacy got everyone In N Out and had a swim/snowcone party. What more could kids want? The perfect celebration, for sure.

The kids were excited to get ready for swimming in their cousins' new pool, but Leah was a little camera shy. Josh teased the girls that someone had to kill a bear to make this big teddy.

Sydney, Jill, and their friend Daisy all wore pink swimsuits and all got really excited when Lissy got in the pool. Everywhere Lissy went was a swarm of pink.

Grandpa looking on at his little grand-fish.

Jill is about to jump out of the water and yell "peek-a-boo!"

Andrew was too afraid to get into the water at first, and spent a very long time yelling, "Go . . . fetch!" and throwing dive rings into the water.

He would get on the little shallow step and play with dive rings . . .

. . . splash with his sister . . .

 . . . and accept the rings back from the girls, who would bring them back to him every time. He and Leah played fetch for a very long time.

The great scorpion hunt. The boys loved this, and Uncle Christian was so great to make it fun for them. He told them they had to get a little poke from the hunting stick before they could be an official hunter and go out, and when they went inside unsuccessful this first night, Noah went up to him and asked, "So, when are you going to poke me with that stick again?"

The next night the full crew went out to the empty lot next door with two scorpion sticks. Must have been the trick, because they found two. (Of course the point was to get rid of them, so they did, no worries.)

Gary is holding a blacklight flashlight, and when it shines on a scorpion, it glows. It's the weirdest thing.

Josh and Noah wanted a picture of them being cowboys. Ok.

Josh wanted a picture of Andrew playing with his cousins' hexbugs. This is the pose he struck.

They also wanted one last picture of them in front of Sydney and Jill and Leah's pool. Noah may have a treasure map, while the others are power rangers.

Two great days with Christian, Candacy, and the girls, and off we went. The boys didn't want to leave so soon, but more adventures were to be had, more people's house to trash . . . thanks for everything Arizona family!

Sunday Update from the Lone Star State

June 25 update:

Right now Andrew is playing, "On your mark, get set, shake your booty," and Lily is BELLY laughing. She thinks Andrew is way too hilarious. It's also funny to watch them play because they look like Jack Sprat and his wife.

So, guess where we are? (Texas)  We are having a grand time. Call Me, Maybe became a huge hit of the road trip. Josh is constantly asking for it, and even Gary got the bug in his ear. Gary told me that Colin Powell likes it, and that image was enough to keep us smiling all the way to Texas. Another thing that made us chuckle was the bathroom in Ozona, TX with two toilets in a room without any stalls (efficacy is for families?).

I will blog pictures about all of the major happenings, so this is just random happenings. Today was a relaxing Sunday, I got my first nap in weeks and my first moonpie in months. Aaaah . . . This morning Lily wouldn't eat her breakfast (not unusual), and Noah said, "I guess Lily is fasting. I think Lily fasts every day." Lily is spiritual. 

After the sacrament today, I went to the mother's room, and while I was nursing the ward clerk stuck his head in to count the people in there. That's a first for me. Must really have budget problems.

Mom taught a really great lesson in Relief Society. Everybody really felt the spirit. She did a good job of keeping on topic and sharing a great story about her great grandfather that drove the point home. I sat next to mom's visiting teacher, and she is so fun and hilarious. They passed out the visiting teaching message they had copied from the Ensign, and the picture on the page turned out as a big black rectangle. I said, "Hmm, that turned out well." She said, "Oh, yeah, you can't even tell what that is." I read the sidebar and guessed, "Maybe it was a picture of Eliza R. Snow." She replied, "Well, she wasn't really a beauty anyway." HA! (To get the full impact of the hilarity of this, know that mom's vt is an older woman.)

Lissy loves to watch everyone these days; it's actually getting hard to feed her because she is always trying to see what's going on. She especially loves watching Noah, who is apparently hilarious. Today Noah did somersaults, cartwheels, and various tricks for around half an hour, and Lissy squealed and laughed every time. She waves her arms like she's cheering him on. Andrew and Lily got in on the action, too, and had some great tricks to add.

I won't recommend going on a late June run in Gatesville at 10 o'clock. I lost a gallon of sweat, and only survived because mom brought me water in the end. I felt awesome that I did the whole hour, though, and spiritual that I accidentally discovered the church.

We are actually doing pretty well with sleeping arrangements, but Andrew will be Andrew, and still wakes up in the middle of the night. The other day I got up to feed Lissy at 5:50 and Andrew was in the kitchen drawing all over himself. He'd already managed to make himself look like the Hulk, and had taken the lids off of every marker. A few hours later Andrew was back to soundly sleeping and Josh and Noah were awake. They told Katie Andrew did it, and she didn't believe them. 

Okay, well, I've got a Ticket to Ride, so bye ya'll! (We then played the game for a long time . . . hooray for families!)

Mom's comment: It is so hard with sleeping here.(We did great, actually.) But it is pretty dark for the most part. For the most part they  do well. love these guys. And I'm a doctor. I've fixed Noah's Piggy for the 2nd time. (She fixed him once before several months ago.) And he was in bad shape, loosing his innards. Also, he only has one arm now. (Poor Piggy. We tried to save his arm for the repair, but probably left it in Arizona. He still looks like a great pig, though, and has Noah's total love, so all is well.)

Hannah's comment: I love Noah and his observance and comment on Lily and how he still sleeps with piggy and how mom fixed it.

It's the Regular-Day-Us

Little things happen every day that don't quite fit into some blogging theme. Not that I try super hard to keep to themes these days, but these got left out nonetheless. I like them, though, so I'm keeping 'em.

Josh and Noah found the fireman guys in the preschool stuff and matched them with this toy, which they had never done before. It was so cute to listen to them make up little scenarios. Josh kept yelling, "Calling all hose guys, calling all hose guys!"

I love seeing them so engrossed and interactive.

Andrew insisted on wearing this outfit to Noah's soccer practice. Yeah, he's in full gear, but didn't make it far . . .

As part of our discussion on wind in preschool, the kids blew paint around with straws. It was interesting to see who was good at it. Noah did pretty good, but hyperventilated quickly. Andrew, however, who has mega problems with paying attention, was fantastic at this activity. It's fun to discover their different talents!

Here's the master. To see what else we did with wind, click here for the Prezi I made for my class.

Lissy is a little monkey. For real. She holds things with her feet and then bats at them with her hands. Here she is balancing a ball on her feet.

When we went to Idaho for Noah and Sophie's birthdays, we got to play with little kitties they have up there.  Do I have to say the kids loved it?

Noah and Josh really wanted a picture with their neighbor friend Tyler. And good thing, because they play with him almost every day, and we never take pictures!

Gary hung up another storage thingy in the garage on Memorial Day. Andrew loved sitting in it.

Finally, we had a big party for the last day of preschool at my house. I tried to take pictures, and here they are, on the preschool blog, here's the link.

Twas the Morning Before the Roadtrip . . .

So Lissy woke up at 5:30 to eat and went back to sleep, but although my head is buzzing I am so tired, I can't sleep because of all I have to do before leaving to Texas tomorrow. But if I do them, my kids will hear me and wake up. It's the curse of the bright summer morning. So, I type . . . 

Speaking of waking up at 6:30, that's what time Josh and Noah woke up on Saturday morning because they were so excited for their last soccer games of the season. They were planning to get medals, so that's pretty great. They were in our room in full uniform before 7 asking us to tie their cleats . . . yeah, no. Unfortunately Josh was pretty tired for his game, but he still had a great time, he gets so excited about stuff like awesome goal-blocking, which he does a lot of. His team played a team that really gave them a battle, and all of the dads were pumped about the quality of the contest. I went running after Josh's game (hello 10k comin' right up), and was about 15 minutes late for Noah's . . . and apparently missed him making 5 goals. He was taking a rest when I arrived, but I was able to see him make 2 more goals and a couple of assists, plus some other shots on goal. He was pretty proud, and it was adorable. The boys earned their medals, for sure.

On Sunday Cindy and I met up at Doug and Elaine's house to make the mom-switch (she had been in Idaho, and then came to visit us). Cindy schooled me in current pop-culture, then gratefully mom drove on the way home so we did not expire due to my late-night cleaning. It was really great having mom here, the boys keep talking about wanting her back. We went on a walk on Monday, then she took the boys to McDonald's for lunch . . . and surprise haircuts! They look cute, and Gary has been saved tons of time. Also I don't have to clean hair from my kitchen. Hooray! 

Andrew had his evaluation with the occupational therapist on Wednesday morning, and it was fantastic! It was two hours long, and most of it was the therapist really trying to understand what is going on with him. She recommended right off the top that he get a complete workup at the pediatric G.I, and maybe also an allergist. She said that if he's not feeling good inside with all of his gut/ENT trouble, that could be a big part of his issues, because kids (and big people) who don't feel good inside try to control their environment because they can't control the inside of their bodies. She said he definitely has some sensory processing issues (you should have seen him when they busted out the shaving cream, the only time that morning his anger showed was when she got some on him), and gave some recommendations. There's a lot to it, but he does need some therapy. She already sent us home with rules for eating, which I am very excited about. Andrew did not love the "kitchen is closed when it's not mealtime" rule, and had a good cry yesterday. So Josh crumpled up the rules and put them in the dumpster to make him happy. Dumpster diving for me . . . Anyway, the therapist said we'll work on stuff but he is a delightful, cute boy. He sure is!

So, other than that, Sam's Club was very fast rotating my tires, but Bob's Garage doesn't know if they can fix the issues with our car before we are supposed to leave tomorrow. Dangit, Bob. Yarg . . . Cross your fingers. Or pray, that's good, too. Lissy has ear infections, her first ones. Poor girl hasn't been feeling well for a good bit of time now, but she still chats will us adorably, so hopefully the medicine will kick in before those mountain passes do. A few hopefully-s here, but we are all SO excited to leave on our big adventure tomorrow. The boys have been counting down, and every morning inform me how long they have left. One day . . .

And P.S. for the blog, Bob did an amazing job at getting the car ready right before we had to leave. Thanks, Bob, it feels good to drive with a new water pump, fan belt, tie rods, alignment, oil change, antifreeze,  and head lamp. Good thing we brought it in.

Mom Here, Friends There, and Buying a Great Big Box

The boys are sleeping now, so I can do whatever I want. Since there is totally nothing to do around the house, I will do my update. Lissy is up with me, poor chica is sick. Just a fever and general sadness, but you know. She doesn't say her other symptoms. The boys fell asleep while reading because we are all BEAT, and not only have they done summer bedtimes, they jump out of bed the second they gain consciousness so they can watch Scooby Doo. They got it at the bookmobile and I may have to hide it so they have no motivation to arise. 

So, when last I left you, it was Memorial Day weekend. Since we played Saturday, we worked Monday. Gary got muy muy sunburned from putting together the climber the kids got for their birthdays, and it was an instant hit. He also put up another hanging storage in the garage, and I will someday get everything arranged to go on it. I think I did basic firefighting that day. I could get so much more done if the kids didn't grow or the seasons didn't change, the changing of the clothes is a project. However, growing and seasons have much to be enjoyed, so I guess that's just general one-reason-I-live-in-a-tornado commentary.

The rest of the week was recovery from insanity week the week before, visiting teaching (sorry, end of the month, but it was fun), and the T-family moving. Which reminds me, before the families woke up on memorial day, Kami and I went on a run up a trail across the highway. It was quite challenging, a super pretty view, and good conversation. Then I came home to pancakes. Wow, looking back, it was a fab day. Anyway, yes, last week we went over to T-house to chat and clean, watched their kids a little, and when they left on Friday morning I made them pancakes on the way out of town. I had been trying not to really think about the move, but on Friday night I got pretty darn sad. First for me, then for Andrew, too. Poor kid isn't in the spotlight a lot, but he did have one little friend that was his thing to look forward to. For the record, I know we will still have a good life, but I just really, really miss them.

Saturday was a pretty great soccer day for the boys. Noah had his game first, and had several goals and assists. I saw 3 goals, he says 6. Hmm. Josh was determined to get a goal in his game, too, and worked his rear off to get one. However, his league is a lot tougher, and though he came close lots of times, and we talked up his team work, his big moment didn't come until near the end of the game. But it was awesome.

Sunday was my big family history class debut, and though there were only a few people there, it was fantastic. I actually like the only a few people setting, and they are all great girls. The fantastic came from the stories mom shared with me. I spent a very long time talking to mom about family history that night, and it is fascinating.

The kids and I spent the day at Liberty Park on Monday with my friend Julie and kids and Kami and kids. The T-fam displaced right now and were staying with his parents, so we took the chance to play. I nearly cried when I couldn't find my camera beforehand. Still don't know where it is. :( However, it was a very, very lovely day. HOT, but nice in the shade. First we had a picnic and chatted in aforementioned shade, then off to the water features. They have little waterfalls and streams to wade and splash in, and one area where the water is a couple of feet deep they thought was a swimming pool. The kids had an absolute blast there, but that was the end of the adult conversation and the try-to-keep-track-of-the-kids portion. Definitely not a sipping lemonades in while watching the kids situation, but it was so great to get out and see everyone.  Except now I'm going to cry over the camera again because re-painting the scene did not happen with words. My, I am camera-emotional.

As you all know, Mom got here on Wednesday, and we were all so excited to see her! We chatted while going to get me fingerprinted, making a Winco run, eating Mexican food, and chillin' at the homestead. Except not a ton of homestead chillin happened because I had to drive some youth from our stake to Dugway for their trek early Wednesday morning, and also get my health assessment done in Tooele. Mom bonded with the boys over cleaning mouse poo while I did all that. (I am SOOO grateful!) Then, up to Layton to meet the Idaho crew for lunch at Rumbi and chopstick battles. (Um, the camera would have been good to capture grandma moments. We will have more soon, so I do not despair.)

After Rumbi, I decided to brave Target with my kiddos alone. And it was great! I got two carts and had Josh push Andrew in one, and Noah had the option to hop in back behind Lissy or walk. He did both, but Josh was too busy to distract him. We got all of the items I intended to, including a very large deck box. I am tired of the sun ruining my sterilite containers on the back porch and having to replace them every year, so when Gary and I saw a sale in the paper, we decided to invest. All was great with the 3-cart wagon train going out to my car (Target workers had a cart with the huge box), until we tried to put the huge thing in the car. It fit, but took up the spot where Josh's head should be. So, I had him crawl underneath the box, curl up, and put the seatbelt around him. It took him a while to figure out a good way to do it, and the Target guys were dying of inner laughter, I could tell. They weren't making noises, but any time I talked to them they would sound like they were choking down giggles. When we finally got it, they walked away laughing. I felt awesome. Yeah, Josh, you have to buckle up perfectly every time, no messing around, it's dangerous . . . unless mom wants to bring home a deck box. He was a great sport about it, though, looking cute in his new sunglasses, and doing various techniques of balancing it on his head and feet. We ended up meeting Gary at the airport to shuffle the kid situation. I asked Josh if we need to and though he was cheerful, he said, "I would appreciate it if we met dad at the airport."

Josh was awesome at helping me put together the box today, what a kid. Of course they all had to get inside when it was done. I texted Gary, "The boys are inside the deck box." He replied, "Investment realized." Gary also rode along with the Highway Patrol yesterday and won an award at work. I want him to tell you about it, so you should ask.