Playing Catch-up.....

.. is never fun. I have really been a blogger slacker. Sorry. I know that there are grandparents who like to hear our adventures and the pictures to go along with, so I will try to be better.

For Presidents weekend we took a road trip to Bear Lake. My grandpa gets condos there every year for the whole family and they all go snowmobiling. This was the first year we have been close enough to go. And it just so happened that my mom and younger sister April came up to. It was alot of fun. It was nice for me to be able to sit around and actually have some adults to talk to. Most of the time the Men took the people out on snowmobiles and the women stayed back and chatted and kept warm. It was fun to be around my dads family, and be with my grandpa. Colin had a blast and we came away from the weekend deciding that when we make our millions we definitely want to get some snowmobiles, and a cabin. The boys really loved snowmobiling. They definitely have their dad's daredevil genes. They just wanted to do more and more, and go off lots of jumps. Here are some fun pictures from our fun visit!!

jakob and colin

Conner

colin and conner

Alexa All bundled up

What did I get myslef into????

I stumbled Upon this website that was about the "cleaning fairy" It was someones idea and they were trying to make money off of it. I thought the idea was good and worth a try, but i didn't think that I need them to pull it off. So I decided to try it out on my own. The "cleaning fairy"is Santa clauses sister and she goes to all the kids rooms that are clean and leaves them a note and a little treat. The idea behind it is to try and get your kids to be excited to keep their rooms clean. Well it worked intstantly for me. The second I told jakob about her he ran to his room and got it all cleaned. The "cleaning Fairy" delivered a few hours later with a note and a coupon to go to chucky cheese left on jakobs bed. This was a few weeks ago and I never could of imagined the monster that I would of created. Jakob is frantic about keeping his room cleaned, and also about the cleaning fairy. He is constantly checking to see if she came. And when she hasn't he has a melt down because he thinks his room isn't clean enough or heaven forbid she forgot him. Now when I started this whole thing I was prepared. I went and found lots of little fun treats that the the cleaning lady, I mean fairy could leave behind. I was naieve in thinking that I could leave 1-2 treats a week. You see now I have a much bigger problem, all 3 of my kids have started to clean their rooms constantly. Which I am more then grateful for, its just that Its getting to be way to much. I didn't want to give candy as treats so I have been leaving things like finger paints, puzzles, books, notebooks, coloring books that sort of thing. But man does that add up fast. And as many of you know all of my kids birthdays are in March( I know poor planning) This year jakob and alexa birthdays are on hoildays( saint patricks day, and easter). And with this thursday being valentines day and the valentines man NEEDS to deliver something good. He has been asked by 2 certain someones to bring more transformers( I am ready to be out of transformer phase). So my question is what is a mother to do? With cleaning fairy treats, valentines man, birthdays, easterbaskets, I just have no idea how to pull it off and not spend to much money. I don't want to stop the cleaning fairy cause well its working wonders. But how can I go backwards and start leaving less exciting treats. And my goodness, how do you celebrate a birthday and easter on the same day with out one trumping the other. I guess we will see what happends. Wish me luck.

Our Yearly Trip

Yes once again its that time of year where we made the dreaded trip. That is right we had our yearly visit to the ER, well the byu-i student health services, yesterday afternoon. Alexa was running down the hall tripped over a blanket fell and cracked her head on the corner of the bathroom wall. I was right there in the bathroom when it happened and i knew as soon as she hit is would be bad. I saw her forehead split i watched her skin loose all color and the blood just start pouring. Its wasn't even a questions if she needed stitches or not. I knew she did.


The student health services got us in right away, Much faster then a regular ER. Everybody was really nice, they thought Alexa was adorable, and very fast. we saw the DR. with in seconds. The only thing we had to wait for was the cream they put on her head to numb it, to do its job. While we waited the 20 minutes or so the nurses kept bringing Alexa candy. She loved it. She had been amazing no crying, no being scared, until they came in and swaddled her with a sheet so we could hold her down better. That is when the screaming began. I think she was screaming more because she was being held down, but she fell asleep before the last stitch was in place. Funny girl. She has 5 stitches in her head.


She gets her stitches out in five days. Then we wait and see what kind of scar is left behind. She might just be one of those girls that has bangs!!! But I pray that it goes away Conner's scar from his stitches is pretty much gone so that gives me hope!!

I Didn't Sign Up For This

UPDATED WITH PICTURES!!!!!

When We decided to move to Rexberg I knew it would be cold in the winter, I knew we would get tons of snow, but I just am not prepared for today. Today it is -20 degrees and when the wind blows its -35. What, I can't handle that. When Colin woke up this morning and told me how cold it was, I told him for sure they have canceled classes,they don't want students walking in that cold of weather. I was wrong. Don't get me wrong it is absolutely beautiful today the Sun is shinning and the Snow looks so pretty. But it is so misleading. I had a glimmer of hope yesterday when the snow plow guy plowed our parking lot so good that after a few ours of sun beating down you could acutully see Parts of black pavement. So I was excited thinking finally its warming up and we can go out. But when we drove to Sam's club last night. We had to wait for the INSIDES of our windows to defrost. That was definitely a first. And then after we were done with Sam's club they were frozen again on the inside. A nice little sheet of ice.

The other night I was talking to my parents, and I was basically telling them that I was going stir crazy. You can only walk Walmart so many times, and you can only eat McDonald's food so much. It also doesn't help that there is no extra money to go spend to pass the time;) Anyways my dad started to give me a hard time about not taking the kids out to play in the snow. This is when it was -8 , So I told him it had been way to cold and that the snow was way to high ( on the parts that haven't been plowed) that Alexa would be would be pretty much covered by it. In the parking lot where it gets plowed its just a thin sheet of ice. I get nervous with them just walking on it to the car. Or the other option is for them to go play on the huge pile of snow from where the plow piles up the snow. And it is huge. My dad didn't seem to believe me about any of this. He thought I was exaggerating. So I had planned to march right out and take some pictures so he would know I was telling the truth. But I am not crazy enough to go out in - 20 degree weather to take some pictures for my dad. Sorry Dad I love you, but I guess not that much:) So today, once again, we will be staying home in our tiny apartment with our heaters blaring going stir crazy. Wish us luck!!!



***Update****
So it warmed up to about -4. So I braved the weather, took out the trash, checked the mail and took some pictures. Now you tell me if you see any place you would let your small children play in the snow?This is right out side our front door, our dryer vents are right there and they kick water out. My next door neighbor did laundry today and this is what happened. It all froze!

This is the house Across the parking lot. If my kids were to play on the grass covered in snow Alexa would be up to her eyeballs, Its a good 3 feet there. Just aside note this is an accumulation of about a week and a half. this house is for sale so they regularly shovel the snow down to the grass.

Our parking lot right after the plow came through . This is all ice

this is is where the street has been carved out, yes the snow is covering all the side walks.

this is the lawn that my kids played on in the summer, where the swing set is, this picture is of my kids 3-31/2 foot slide . This snow would be up to Conner's eye balls and Jakob's shoulders

this is the pile up of snow. this picture doesn't make it look that big but if you look, its as tall as the house in the background. also at least another 20-30 feet long

And this is the other snow pile directly across from the other one. And also you can see the black pavement that gave me false hope. Now its just black ice.

So you tell me, where is the best place for me to take my kids to play, the whole town is like this. I would love any suggestions before I go Stir crazy

Back in to the Swing of Things

Well we survived the journey. That's right we went home to Washington for Christmas. well actually for 3 weeks. we were really blessed because Colin's old job wanted him to come back and work while he was in town. They paid him his old salary which is more then 3 times the amount he is making here in little ol' rexberg. So our week vacation turned into quite the stay. Thanks to both our parents for putting up with us for so long. It was really fun to be with family again, On my side all my brothers and sisters were there and on Colin's side his sister and family and brother surprised their mom and dad. So it was fun to have everyone ( minus one brother on colins side) there to celebrate with. The kids had all their cousins around to play with and they loved that. Colin and I even got to get a way a few times ( thanks to both sets of parents for watching the munchkins) and go on some dates. Colin's old work even invited us to the Christmas party where we got to go on a argosy ship and be part of the Christmas boats that was alot of fun.

Christmas was alot of fun, we were more then spoiled by grandmas grandpas, family, and by each other. The boys basically had a transformer Christmas, and Alexa had a baby doll, princess Christmas. Colin got lots of clothes and computer stuff, but I think his favorite was the Guitar Hero. It was popular with evryone!!! I got to much stuff to list off ( once again we were seriously spoiled) but my most meaningful gift was that Colin got me an upgrade on my diamond. I was totally surprised I never even thought I needed an upgrade. But I love it. Thanks babe!!

The drive up to Washington was fine the drive home was quite the adventure, We left in a hurry trying to get out of the pass before a major storm hit. But in the end it was worth it. We have been back for over a week now, we are unpacked, Christmas put away, clothes washed, and Colin is back in school and working. I am back in full swing doing the mothering thing by myself again (which is something eles I was spoiled with, lots of help from grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and yes even the cousins cause well they entertained my kids)

Here are some fun pictures of our Christmas adventures!!

3 children for sale

Today for lunch we had left over spaghetti. We were all sitting down and eating nicely. The phone rang it was my brother trying to come up with a date idea. I left the room to talk where it was quiet. We talked at the most 5 minutes. I came back to spaghetti decorated children and kitchen. The children where covered head to toe. Jakob literally had to scrub it off his feet. So I dragged the kids to the bathroom. I probably should of put them in the bath tub. But that would of been something they enjoyed, so one by one I scrubbed them down at the sink. Did I scrub a little to hard? Probably. Then off to bed they went. Iwent back to the kitchen to survey the damage, man it is every where. My table was covered.
my floor was covered
The back of our nice chair was covered.
And of course the walls.
I decided that I should probably get the mess cleaned up before Colin got home, which was in a few minutes, because the kids needed one parent to love them today. And it certainly wasn't going to be me. Maybe we will try again tomorrow, if they are not sold by then.

And a Bahumbug to you to.

It is our tradition to get family pictures this time of year. When we lived in Seattle We went to picture people to get our pictures. We always had a good experience with them and always got great pictures. Well of course there is nothing like that here in rexburg, or Idaho for that matter. Our only choices for pictures is jcpennys or sears. I looked into both. jcp charged $9.99 for a sitting fee person. I found a coupons but they all were for only one free sitting fee. So we would still have to pay $40 just to sit down. Not good enough. So sears it was with only a $14.99 sitting fee for the whole family. They day comes of our appointment, we get all spiffed up. Once we get there we wait and wait.Were they busy? No, there was only one other family there but they were viewing their pictures. There were 2 studios open and one of the workers was available but she was on her cell talking. Finally she got off and called us back. Our appointment was at 7pm finally at about 7: 35 we get in. And off we go, she gets us settled in our spots and starts taking the pictures. Now any of you with children know that in order for your kids to look at the camera and smile you have to have a photographer who will basically make a fool of them self and be totally silly. This was not happening for us, she would just yell at the kids to look at he camera. Didn't work of course. After about 4-5 poses the kids were done and frankly so was I. My husband gave me a look that told me he was thinking the same thing I was. " I don't think we are getting any of these picuters. " So we told the yelling lady that "I think we were done". But she informed us that she needed to have 9 poses so 4 more. Ok what ever just hurry and snap some pictures, we are so done and just don't care anymore. When we were finally done taking the pictures we were ready to view them. But our lovely photographer informed us that they had closed at 8, it was now 8:35( funny that its the same time we waited while she talked on her cell) and that we would have to come back the next day to view them. We then told her that we lived in rexburg( a 30-40 minute drive away) and that we didn't want to come back tomorrow we just wanted to see the pictures. We already knew what package we wanted. and that we were only going to get one pose for all the pictures that we needed. She wasn't having it. So we went out to make our appointment to come back. But there was 2 other families out there waiting to view there pictures. We brought that to her attention but she just said "sorry we are closed". Now let me just say that Colin was pretty mad at this point and I knew we just had to get out of there so he, we could vent. The next morning we called the place to talk to the manager, but we were told that she wasn't in yet. So we talked to the sears big store manager who9o apologized and told us that she would have the studio manager call us. Never happened. We called a couple of other times but she was never in. So when we went in at 6:30 to view our pictures we were told that the manager got off at 6. Which mean that she was there the times we called. We were then told to wait. Of course the workers were in the empty studio just chatting and laughing. Finally they called us up and asked our name again said they were having a hard time locating our file of pictures. After another 20 minute wait they call us back. The pictures were just like our whole experience with sears. Horrible. Most of them the kids weren't looking. There were a few that had majors shadows over a few faces. But 1 did turn out. It was the one where we told the kids to make funny faces so that we could get another pose to get to the 9. It was cute enough to not pass up. But not what we were looking for in a family pictures to give to family members. So on the way home Colin and I decided to just wait till we get home to Seattle to get anymore pictures, at the place we know and love!!! We will never be back to Sears.

Also we decided to try and get photo Christmas cards this year, but that means that we needed to have a good family picture to put on them. here are a few of our attempts at getting a family shot

A New Favorite

This last Thanksgiving weekend we decided to rent some movies. I told Colin that if they had Hairspray to get it. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. So I started watching it while I was peeling potatoes for thanksgiving dinner, I got to watch about 20 minutes, but later that night after the kids were in bed and Colin and my brothers were playing video games i decided to finish watching it in my room. I loved it. It was funny and I love the music and the dancing. The next morning i made Colin and the kids watch it with me. They all loved it. Yes even Colin. Last night he was trying to down load the soundtrack, but I told him I want the CD from the store so that can read the words to the songs and learn the word quicker. This morning I woke up to him singing "Good morning Baltimore". I love my husband, what other guy would be into a musical with me. He even told my brothers that it was good and that they should watch it on a date!!! Yes I have trained him well!! Any ways back to the movie. I was blown away by the singing and dancing. Zac Efron is in it and I thought it was just a small roll, but man did he do a good job. He has a big part, he sings he dances. Its way better then highschool musical. All the other people in it were great. I loved it. Its already been added to my Christmas list along with the soundtrack!!! If you haven't seen it go rent it, If you love musicals like grease, you"ll love this. Then let me know what you think and be aware that you will get the songs stuck in your head, and you will feel like dancing!!!

I Love to See the Temple

The Rexburg Temple is beautiful. It sits on the only hill that is around for miles and there are no tress to block the view. So you can see if from everywhere. Walk out of Walmart there is the temple. Go out side and play there's the temple, anywhere on campus, any where in Rexburg you can see it. When coming back from Idaho falls you can see the temple miles before you get to Rexburg ( especially at night). Now let me tell you about Jakob. He is my worrier. He is very aware of his surroundings and what is going on, some times I think to much aware for a 4 year old. With that said our first week in Idaho we ventured to Idaho falls to see what kind of stores they had so we knew what we had to work with, you know checking out our new neighborhood so to speak. Of course having been our first time there we got lost, or should I say trying to find the freeway again. Jakob was very nervous. He even cried a little cause he didn't know how we were going to get home. We found the freeway but that didn't rest his worrying mind, not till 30 miles later and he spotted the temple up on that hill. Then he was fine. The temple let him know he was safe and back home, which is what Colin and I had been telling him the whole time, but we couldn't reassure him, just the Temple.
A week or two later when Colin had a job interview and the job was someplace that we had never been before, we decide to go take a drive and find it so the next morning he wouldn't get lost. Which was good because we found the place easily enough but it was a farm town which mean no lights any where and it was totally dark, so of course we missed the turn and drove around in circles for a while. Once again Jakob got very nervous and was very worried about things. And the same thing happened he wasn't ok until he found that Temple.
So now every time we go anywhere even out our front door I hear " Mom there's the temple". The other 2 have joined in and its now like a game, who can spot the temple first and how many time can they see it.
Maybe some day my kids will see the real irony of always having the temple in their sights to feel safe. Maybe then it wont be just a land mark for them, but an eternal destination. And a place to always feel safe and home again.
And yes we plan on taking him( maybe the other 2) to the open house. I think it will be something that he will remember forever.

Cinderella and her 2 Incredible body gaurds

We had a very fun Halloween. Conner screamed his head off when we put his costume on, I think he might of been scarred of it. But once we got it on him and he saw other kids wearing costumes he was fine. After we got home from trick or treating Colin noticed that he put Conner's mask on upside down. We are so bad that we didn't notice earlier in the night. Oh well. The kids had alot of fun trick or treating with there new friend and neighbor. Also it was lot of fun to all the other ward members out and about. Here are a few fun pictures.

like I said earlier Conner's mask is upside down.

Doing what she does best, making a mess



Before we got costumes on!!!

Well now its time to focus on fixing thanksgiving dinner and getting Christmas gifts. I love the holiday season. I just hope the weather cooperates so that we can drive home and be with family for Christmas. We saw our first Christmas commercial last night so i guess its officially that time of year. I am thankful that we only have like 3 channels and the one that the kids watch it PBS so not many toy commercials. So I don't have to hear " mom I want that for christmas" every 30 seconds. And maybe my kids won't realize that "Santa" doesn't have the money to get them all they want this year. If they only ask for 2 things then they will get all they asked for right!!! Well Happy shopping and baking to everyone!!

And so I cried

Sunday was a big day for Jakob. It was his first primary program. He was wearing his suit which he had set out for about 2 weeks for the big day. He had his part down. So when it was time for him to go up we were all so excited. When he got up there and sat in his chair behind the sacrament table with his scriptures in one had and his family picture in the other, he waved down to us and I cried. I cried because he looked like a missionary, he was so full of confidence, and he is just not my little baby anymore. I was so proud of him when he said his part, once again full of confidence, all by himself ( the only sunbeam that didn't need help). But I cried some more, he is just getting so big. I feel like Jakob has done alot of maturing lately. He is writing words, well copying words, but he can do it. He wrote his first letter to Santa this year. I wrote what he wanted to say then he copied it. He was so proud of himself. It just catches me off guard sometimes when he says something to me like what time it is. I have been doing preschool stuff with him since we moved here to late to get him into preschool. I am amazed each day with how easy it is for him and i love to see how his little mind works . He is my big boy now and he will be off to kindergarten next year. I cant believe it. And I'm sure i will cry that day as well.

DAD STOP THE CAR...

So I know that by the title of this blog some of you know what I am going to type about but at least you will get a good laugh at me. You guessed it I had another run in with a bee and it was not a pretty sight. NO I didn't get stung. For those of you that don't know, I for some reason ( well it could be because when I was little we went camping at sequoia national forest and there were thousands of bees that year it was horrible and I had one fly up my shorts and sting me so I'm sure that is where my fear comes from) have a horrible fear of bees. And I seriously over react when they get close to me or on me. When we were camping (a different time and place) as a family we had been at the lake and had got in the car, as my dad started to drive us back to our campsite I noticed a bee on the inside of my window, I panicked and yelled to my dad in my horrified voiced "Dad stop the car" and because I must of sounded scared to death my dad pulled right over and I flew out of the car before I told anybody what was going on. When I told my family it was because there was bee on my window, they laughed and then my dad got kinda mad( I think I really scared him and he thought something horrible had happened) that i made him pull over for a bee. Since then I have not lived that down and I always get "dad stop the car" . Now back to today, we are sitting at the table eating dinner, and out of the corner of my eye I see something come flying at me and hit my sweatshirt. I was about to yell at the kids to stop throwing food when I looked down to see a Bee climbing into the inside of my sweatshirt arm. And once again I let out a terrified squawk and was flailing allover the place. I was out of my chair and had the sweatshirt off in record time. When i finally settled down I looked at Colin and he had this look on his face that said "well its finally happened, shes lost her mind". When I told him there was a bee climbing into my sweatshirt, I could tell he didn't believe me. He thought I was over reacting to a piece of fuzz or something. But like the good husband that he is, he took my sweatshirt out side to do search. Of course he came back in finding nothing, and i had been looking in the house to see if I could find it. Then I had Colin do a search of me " is it in my hair, climbing up my back, inside my shirt" still no sign of it. So I kinda started doubting myself thinking maybe it had been a piece of broccoli that had been thrown. But I hear a familiar squawk come from the living room and there it was a WASP. It was promptly smooshed. Then I started the whole "how did it get in here, we don't have any windows open or doors. So once again my great husband chimes in to tell me that it probably landed on my when I was outside with the kids (3 hours earlier) and it has just been hanging out on my sweatshirt the whole time. You know how if you get a bug on you then every time you get an itch or a tickle you think its another bug and then your mind starts tricking to believe that there is a bug in your hair, your arm, your shirt, well that is where I am at now. Squeamish. I really hate bugs, I wish they all would just stay out of my house.

Boys to Men

Its weird, it happened over night really my brother Brian went from being a college boy to an Army man. That is right he joined the National Guard. He will be leaving for boot camp the beginning of February. Then after that he will be going to fireman training. I am so happy for him cause I know its something that he has always wanted to do, but I am also scared to death. I know that he will get to go and do tons of stuff that the rest of us will never get to do. Like when we went and watched him and the rest of the byu-i rotc squad get trained and then take off in a black hawk helicopter. My kids thought it was so cool.
This is something that I never thought I would be apart of, have a family member in the army. Right now we don't even have TV so I have no idea what is really going on in the world. But I now know why people are so passionate about getting the troops out of Iraq. It's personal now. There are so many good things that can come from him joining, like the training he will get as a fireman, and self discipline, and stuff like that. And I am excited for my brother to live his dream. All I can say now is "Bush bring those troops home now, and keep them safe for the next 6-10 years". Please, so my brother can stay close to home and finish his school and just do the "guard" 1 weekend a month and be safe. Please just keep him safe

Suggestions??

We have been officially potty training in our house for a little over a week now. Conner has been doing really good with going pee. No accidents since the first day, yea!! I knew he was ready cause every time he did anything in his diaper even just a drop he wanted his diaper changed, so i just told him ok tomorrow we are going to start going on the potty. Like i said hes done great with going pee. But going poop is a whole nother thing. The 2nd day he had a accident in his underwear. I feel like I didn't get to mad at him, just said that he needs to go poop in the big boy potty. And then I took him in there and we put the "no no" in the potty and flushed it. Then we wiped his bum like we would of if he went in the potty. Everything I have read says to do that. But now he wont even sit on the toilet. He pees standing up now, after watching Jakob of course he needs to be just like him. days 3 and 4 of potty training we could tell that he needed to poop but wouldn't. We tried sitting him on the potty and reading books, then we tried giving him his privacy. Nothing but crying cause he didn't want to be on the potty. so we put a pull up on him and tried to convince him to go in there, it took another day for that to happen. but finally he did that and we cheered, because I would rather him go in a diaper then have him be constipated and have to take care of that. So that is where we are now. I have been reading up on it, and everything I read says that if they show major resistance to stop and try again later. But Conner is doing great with the peeing. He tells me pretty much when he needs to poop, he just wont sit on the blues clue potty. Jakob has been taking him in the bathroom when he goes so Conner can see how its done, and I keep hoping that the want to be like his big brother will kick in and he will sit on the potty. So I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions, or ideas. Any help would be appreciated. I am so ready to stop the crying when he has to sit on the potty and just take care of business.

Stress Levels

As many of you know we have had a pretty crazy 6 months or even year. And with the craziness comes stress, at least for me and it so it takes a toll on my kids and husband. Trying to sell the house and packing and moving sure can stress you out. And to that all the house renovations we did created alot of stress. On top of that there always seemed to be something else going on, a major vacation where your kids vomit the whole plane ride, or funerals where you have to pack and be out the door in day. But I have come to realize that if we can survive those 6 months of craziness we can do anything. Now that we are here, and unpacked and settled, For the first time in who knows how long our stress levels are down. I have noticed it in our kids, they are not so uptight. I for the first time can take the time to really clean things and keep them clean, so I don't have to do a mass clean every few days. Its nice oh so nice. And the biggest thing for me is for the first time since Alexa has been born I DON'T feel overwhelmed by having 3 kids. I am actually enjoying it. Maybe its that the stress levels are down or maybe its because they are all in a "good" stage right now but either way I'll take it. When I told Colin the other night that I actually feel like having 3 kids isn't so bad and that I am enjoying it he said " uh oh" so of course I quickly told him that I am not baby hungry, I am just enjoying my kids and the low stress right now. Which he was so relived, and thankful that I wasn't getting any crazy thoughts. The other thing that I feel is a blessing is because we have been living with so much craziness and stress I feel like it has prepared me and Colin for the stresses of school and work. I know Colin has alot on his plate, and that he has more stress right now then I do with homework and all, but I feel like it's manageable (Colin might disagree on some days) compared to how overwhelmed we were feeling with trying to get everything done to sell our house and move. So I guess I just need to say Thank you to my Heavenly Father for all the blessings that he has poured upon us, and for the calmness in our lives right now. I am thankful to have a husband who listened to that little voice that told him it was time to go back to school, and for his bravery and faith to go forward with it. And I am oh so thankful for my 3 children, they are a handful but I'm loving just being able to be with them (stress free) and enjoy this new adventure that our family is on.

She's growing up!!

My Alexa is growing up and it is so fun. She defintley is a girl, drama and all. She loves Cinderella, she loves shoes, dolls, painting her toe nails, and watching mommy put on makeup. She wont got to sleep with out her pink blanket with hearts on it, and one of her little princess books. I thought for a while it was any book, so I gave her a barney book before bed, nope it had to be a princess one. At disney land we bought her a tinkerbell wand that ligths up on the end, she walks around saying bibbity boppity boo to everything. It is so fun for me to watch and see how different she is from the boys. Now of course she also loves playing with her brothers and their games and toys. She has learned how to fight back pretty quickly, and can hold her own. She is my big helper and wants to do everything that I am doing. And how can you turn down her cute face.We recently bought her some boots, some hot pink ones and also some brown ones she looks so darn cute in them . But she wants to wear them everywhere. At least boots are really in style here. At least she will fit in.This last weekend we went to my sister inlaws house for a baby blessing, Alexa had so much fun playing her her little girl cousin, and it was so cute to see them both pack around their dollys. Also she was so sweet with her new baby cousin she wanted to hold and kiss him all the time.
Alexa has discovered that she can get a small chair from the boys room and drag it in the kitchen so she can help mommy with all the stuff that needs to be done. Here she is "helping" with the laundry.

I know that my mothers words will come true someday and that she will give me lots of attitude and sleepless nights. But right now I just love hearing Bibbity boppity boo amongst all the shooting noises coming from the boys. And I cant wait for all the fun adventures to come.

A Sad Goodbye

Well its official, we do Not own a house anymore. And its sad really. It might not have been the best house, the biggest, or even the nicest but it was ours and we have so many good memories there.We had 2 babies born while living there. 3 great Christmases, 3 fun Halloween parties, 3 loud 4th of July parties, and many sleepless nights. I think that house will always hold some of my best memories, of kids learning to walk and talk, and all of our crazy adventures. It also holds some pretty stressful memories like discovering I was pregnant with Alexa 3 months after Conner was born, or making the decision to come back to school and sell the house, and then of course everything that it took to get the house on the market, and moved out. But we said our sad goodbyes. The kids and I said goodbye to our bedrooms and down stairs, I said goodbye to our kitchen and bathroom. As we drove away for the last time I cried, it would of been different if we were moving up in the world and getting a bigger better house I might not have been so sad. But now that we are here, the house papers are signed, the money is in the bank, I can say my final goodbye to our great house Thanks for all the wonderful memories. We will never forget them!! Here are a few pictures of the big ol' truck that we got to move. It was really nice we load it, they drive it. So nice!!

the town of big hair, bugs and babies

Well to first catch everyone up to speed. We are moved. I know it was quick but everything just kinda fell into place and we went with it. Not to say that it wasn't crazy, but we made it and that is all the counts. Our apartment is nice but small. We realized very quickly that we would need a storage unit, and alot of creative shoving to get all our stuff to fit. we only have one box left to unpack so we did good in that aspect. Its just that I now need to go back and reorganize everything to get it all to fit with out looking to cluttered. So still lot of work to do.

Now on to the title of the blog. Holy cow do the girls have weird big hair here. I went to enrichment to night and the relief society president had big hair just poofed and sprayed to perfection. Her side burns were dyed a bright violet purple. she is in her 40-50 and was dressed regular, but her hair was just so very bad. I have seen big hair before But rexburg definitely takes the prize.

On to bugs they are huge, the 2ND night we were here we had the biggest beattle cock roach this i have ever seen it was like 2 inches long and like and inch wide. Gross and the spiders here are huge and poisnous. I hate bugs.

And let me just say babies, babies galour. everyone here is pregnant or has a new born or has like 4 little kids. And i am wondering what the car seat, seat belt laws are here. I have seen a few family with 3-4 kids all in a little 4 door car. No one has a minivan, its all trucks and little cars. and they just pile the kids in. So unsafe.
All right well I promise that I will get some pictures of the place and get them posted.so you can see how creative I have really had to be!!