Excuses

I'm alive!! Just being a slacker. Actually, I have some very good excuses as to why I haven't been blogging.

First of all, Prison Break. Enough said. But we are finished the series and I miss it. A lot. Go and watch it if you haven't already.

Second of all, moving into a new house and keeping the computer far away, downstairs.

And my biggest excuse, I was really sick and feeling awful all summer. And now I am just really tired and have no energy or motivation to do anything productive. It may be the result of another child growing inside of me. I'm due the end of February and it's a boy!! We are more than excited to even the numbers out. And there is no exaggeration in that.

So anyway, we had a pretty good summer. We moved into our house July 9th and the next day the kids and I headed to Canada. We had that trip planned for a long time and there was no way the kids were going to let that change. They looooooove going to grandpa and grandma's farm. Dylan disappears almost the whole time with his cousins as they "help" grandpa and uncle Chad do chores. He learned to drive the 4-wheelers by himself and was proud of that. Cassie joined in with the chores a few times and she loved every minute that they would let her help out. We love spending time with all the family up there and going to get ice-cream too.

One crazy summer...... so far

Summer has barely begun and we have been loving it! Well, most of it. Not the part where the neighbor kids come over every morning at 8:30 to play. I gave them a 10:00 rule, but they seem to forget. Everyday.

The kids have had on-going swimming lessons and love it.

We spent a week up in Montana with both of our parents and really enjoyed it. It's always a hoot when we get them all together. Dianna and the twins were there too, which was great to spend time with them. And yes, we went the rainiest week of June. But that didn't really matter, the cabin is great anytime of the year. I just love it. The water was so high too, everyday it was at least 6 inches higher. I can't wait to see how high it is when we go back in a few weeks.


Lots of fishing.

And Nate and I were the only brave ones that braved the water. Well, the kids did a little too. And it was cold! But we put on the wet suits and we weren't afraid. It was fun.

Dylan loves selling juice on the street and has been asking since March to do a lemonade stand. So I finally let him. I even baked cookies for them to sell. They made $14 and we ate cookies for the rest of the week. I won't bake that many next time.

We've had some long hot days this last week. The kids have been playing outside non-stop and it really wears them out. Claire was so tired one day she fell asleep on the counter.

And the reason this summer has seemed so crazy so far is because of this...

We are buying a house!! I know, awesome eh???? After 9 years of being transients and never knowing what the next few years will bring, we are finally planting some roots. And we are pretty excited. We came here thinking we would buy a house with in a few months and nothing happened. We couldn't find anything we liked or that felt right. We did have our eye on some land and we have been wheelin and deelin with the stubborn old farmer since about the time we moved here. It was the perfect piece of land. 5 acres and we even recruited some really good friends with kids the same age as our kids to build there with us. But months of trying to negotiate this piece of land had us to the point of plotting ways to kill the farmer off. Okay, not really. But it was annoying. But there were no homes that we liked for sale and no other land that caught our eye. Plus, this was right by a cool park, in the same Stake, still in Hyde Park, we would be back at the elementary school we started out at last year, it would be a cul-de-sac, we would have the coolest neighbors that we hand picked ourselves, I had house plans and ideas all ready.. etc. etc. etc. It was perfect. Except there was no way to move on it. No one could afford the ridiculously large amount he wanted to sell it for. And then it happened. One day our friends told us that his parents were going to sell their house in a couple of months and that we should go look at it. We really didn't want to, but felt like we should since this friend took effort in setting up an appointment. So we went. And we liked it. And it felt so right for both of us. And we are closing on it this week. It all happened to fast! I spent 3 days with a headache and trying to talk myself out of it. It wasn't the right color. It wasn't in Hyde Park. It wasn't in a Cul-de-sac. Our friends wouldn't be there. The lot was smaller than we wanted. Bla bla bla bla bla! As soon as I decided that yes, this is the house, all those things didn't matter and I have been so excited ever since. So what if it isn't the style or color I wanted? Who cares! It's a house and now I don't have to make any of those choices! I know building would have been a headache.

Circumstances had it that we wouldn't be moving until September, but things have changed and we might be moving in a week or 2! Crazy, I know. I haven't done a single thing to get ready for this. And it has changed our summer plans a little. But we are so excited to finally get settled and to stay in a ward for more than 2-3 years.

Here are a couple more pictures of the inside. And no, we don't get to keep the animal heads.

Wow, that was probably way to much info for a public blog.

End of school

Dylan finished school June 2nd and will really miss 1st grade. Mostly because we are buying a house and it puts us in a different school zone. He made some great friends and had a great teacher, Mrs. Knight. I was able to go help out once a week in his class and will really miss everyone there.



The first grade classes sang a few songs to end the year. Dylan kept telling me he was the tallest in his class and I didn't believe him until I saw them all lined up. He's on the back row in the middle.

They also had a fun little carnival on one of the last days that I brought the girls too.

Cassie finished preschool in April. She was lucky to make it into the lab at USU and loved it. She is very ready for kindergarten to start and she asks everyday how many sleeps are left. About 60, I think.

Soccer in the rain

May was filled with soccer and it was a coooold season. Most games were rainy and wet, or breezy and cool. I was glad to see it end. Both Dylan and Cassie were almost the very youngest on their teams and did pretty good considering.

Cassie sort of got thrown into the mix with out hardly even practicing. I was a little worried about her not being aggressive at all it until her first game when she literally shoved and then pulled at least 2 or 3 kids down. Guess we should have gone over rules first. I was a little embarrassed because it kept happening. She really did well though, always getting in there to get the ball. She scored a few goals by the end of the season.

Easter, Vegas style

It was really nice to escape our rainy (and snowy) weather and escape to Vegas for a long weekend. I had to dig our summer clothes out and realize I really need new clothes.

The first night there, we all went a walk and it was so warm! I was in need of a warm evening walk. We played a fun game of night tag at the park (adults too. Well, some of us).

Little Jim was blessed and we enjoyed a wonderful Easter with the family that could be there.

We had an egg hunt at the park.



The "tweens" were teaching Nate how to ride this slider scooter? Not sure what it's called.

Brian is so tough...

My cute mom and dad...

Lani and Dave's family. Such great hosts!...

In Vegas, they don't roll eggs. Or even throw them. They hit them with a bat...

Lots of ping-pong was played too. And it's really nice to have nieces and nephews that are old enough to leave all the kids with. Us adults were able to enjoy some awesome Thai food down by the strip with out kids! Love that!

Miles and miles...

We spent a lot of miles on the road during April. And a lot of miles on our feet while we trained for and ran a half-marathon.

One weekend, we drove up to Moscow, ID for a baby blessing. Yes, that is a long way to drive for a baby blessing, but we really wanted to see Mike (Nate's brother) and Natalie and their cute little baby. We made a fun little road trip out of it. Friday, drove to Boise and the kids (and Nate) enjoyed the pool. Saturday, drove the rest of the way and enjoyed the evening with family. Mike and Natalie took us to see the grizzly bears at Washington State University. It was pretty cool to be so close to those big ol' beasts and they couldn't do a thing to us.

Sunday, more family time and great food. We headed back to Boise in order to break up the driving. Monday, home. So, we drove about 20 hours in 4 days, but it was worth it. I loved seeing new country and we only had one barfing incident. Claire, of course.

A week and a half later, we headed to Las Vegas for another baby blessing. Yes, I know. We are probably the best family supporters out there. Actually, we were just looking for a reason to get away from this cold and rainy Spring we are having. And it was Easter and half of my family were going to be there. So we just had to be there too. But that will be a separate post later because I have too many pictures.

Then 5 days later, we ran our half marathon. My brother-in-law, Jason, has been on a running kick and talked Nate into running the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon with him. Four weeks before the race, I decided to sign up too because I felt like I would kick myself if I didn't. But man, those were some cold training weeks. Seriously. My long runs consisted of wind, snow, hail, rain, sleet, nasty storms, and mud. Lots and lots of mud. But I did it! I went into the race not very confident. I am not a very fast long-distance runner. Sprinting, yes. Even 6 miles I can do okay. But longer than that is always a struggle just to finish. However, that feeling of finishing the race is so awesome.

We stayed with Amy, who was kind enough to help out with the kids. I was pretty nervous the night before and didn't sleep much at all. And to add to that, we woke up that morning to huge flakes of snow falling and at least 6 inches on the ground. Great. Luckily, there wasn't too much snow at Thanksgiving Point and it melted by the end of the race, but it was still a cold, cold day.

So anyway, we thought this race was supposed to be relatively flat. Oh. My. Gosh. I am not sure there was much of any flat spots at all. We wound up and down through the gardens. And more gardens. And down along the river, and back and forth through the golf course. These weren't long hills, just lots of little hills one right after another. Despite the hills, this race was really well organized with great aid stations and they even had pacers running. I started running with the 2:10 pacer and quickly caught up to the 2:05 pacer. But by mile 11 I had to slow down and walk a few times because of those dang hills. Those last 2 miles were so hard. I finished in 2:09:23, which was 18 seconds faster than my first half. I was pretty happy with that, but I still feel like I could have done better on a different course. Utah has quite a few half marathons, most of which are down hill races. And yet, I am pretty sure we chose the hardest of them all. Nice.

One of the nice things about this race was that it covered such little area and we were able to see each other a few times through out the race. I never saw Nate because he was so far ahead (he finished in 1:39. I know. He is fast). But I was able to see Jason and my cousin, Nicole, a few times. Nicole and I ran together off and on and pretty much finished together. That was fun.

The kids ran in a mile fun-run afterwards and really enjoyed it. Dylan and Katelyn did really well, I think they finished in 10 1/2 minutes, which is good for their first race. I think. Dylan keeps asking if he can run 2 miles next time.

We spent time with my grandpa that day and it was really nice to visit with him. We also went back to Thanksgiving Point because we had free passes all day. We cruised through the dinosaur museum and can now check that off our list. We were all so wiped out the whole day, but us adults still went out to Texas Roadhouse and were able to finally sit and relax with out the kids.

Next, I am hoping to get on my bike and start a new hobby. I just really need to practice slipping my clip-on shoes out so that I don't fall. Anyone have advise? I am sure I looked pretty funny the other day while Nate was running beside me trying to help me.

Ducks and a boat

Dylan really wanted a remote control boat for his birthday, so my parents got him one. We went to first dam a few days after his birthday to try it out. The ducks were enjoying a leisurely feed from Whitney and Claire...

When out of nowhere, what shall appear?...

A boat!

And yes, Dylan thoroughly enjoyed chasing the ducks with it...

And he has been asking every day if we can go back.

And Nate might have been enjoying this just as much (or even more) than Dylan was.