I labeled this post and went to start it about two months ago in February. I felt like we had some sort of establishment despite not knowing when or if our home would sell, and also despite having any clue as to where I even wanted to look for a home. But now tomorrow is May 1st, our home in Ogden is closing today, and we are in the process of buying a home in Little Valley near Liz. So some catch up is in order! Hopefully I didn't forget too much of the good stuff. It has been a very nice six months.
Ada started walking in December, and by January was up all of the time! She is such a mover, and keeps Grandma on her toes! Mom is always willing to watch the kids if I need to go somewhere, and definitely takes the edge off of staying at home. She has left town on two different weekends, both of which I kind of broke down, probably due to not having another adult to talk to face to face any time I want.
It is still really hard to think that she is my last baby!!! I think we are all done with weaning now, but once I knew it would be soon I tried to take lost of pictures to capture the wonderfulness that is nursing a baby to sleep.
Mimi bought matching jammies for the girls. So darn cute. Ada was sick for so much of the winter. We all were really. Two different doctor visits both showed double ear infections. Lots of medicine, lots of cuddling - but also lots of whining and not getting ANYTHING done because she wanted to be held all of the time.
Whenever she was feeling good, it was like she had to make up for the lost time. She now basically just runs around looking for easy messes to make or places to get into. Liz was babysitting her once and found a glue gun plugged in behind a chair. Liz is currently her favorite person ever. Ada runs to her like a long lost child to her mother, and kicks and screams whenever Liz leaves and hands her to me. I like my kids to have people they like but really it's kind of ridiculous. I am a bit nervous to be in their ward, since I am pretty sure all 4 of my kids will want to sit with Liz, and zero of her kids will want to sit with us. Which might actually turn out awesome! Haha!
Lily bore her testimony of one night that she and Jack went to get her out of her crib because she was crying, and saw she was covered in throw up. Lily told how she said a prayer that Ada would feel better the next morning, and she did. Lily never does the formulaic testimonies, tells very detailed stories that worry Adam and I down in the stands, but she always shares something faith promoting.
The Groves came to visit before moving to Germany for three years! It was so fun to see them. We went to the Snow Canyon sand dunes and to Zions. It was a pretty cold and rainy day but so beautiful.
Jack and Jake. Such good friends, Jack was very sad to hear they wouldn't see each other for so long! Jack is showing the (sad for me) signs of growing up. Every so often he will refuse hugs and kisses and seems to show frustration more than he used to. Such a sweet heart. After he was sick one day, he went to get dressed and came back with a favorite outfit. He asked me quietly, "Did you clean my clothes while I was sick?" I said yes and he responded with a "thank you" and a hug. Best thing ever, as I believe that is one of the first times anyone has ever thanked me for doing laundry!!
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I love this shot of Isaac in motion. He is such a cute three year old. Lost the two year old cuteness and added quite the tantrum aspect, unfortunately. He is very spoiled with movies and popcorn and chips on most days, especially when Grandma is babysitting him. They have quite a funny relationship. One morning Mom mentioned to me that it was a good day since it was 9:00 a.m. and he hadn't threatened her with throwing her in hot lava. He is quite violent in his vocabulary, talking a lot about punching people in the face, or the hot lava comments.
Jackson has loved being with cousins. The current obsession is Pokemon cards. Crazy! I hoped it would be a fad but nope. They are apparently the greatest thing in the universe, which is nice because it has lessened the amount of begging for watching Star Wars cartoons on the computer or having a phone with games.
We got Jackson into speech, which has been good. We think the chair he sits in is pretty hilarious, his therapist called it "supportive" after I suggested "confining". She has sent home games that the kids love to play, and Jackson is really good at practicing sentence structure and pronunciation.
We thought we would take the kids again a few weeks later. We went on the Canyon overlook trail, one that I did a bunch in high school and college. Before I had kids. Funny to compare how dangerous everything seemed this time around!!! Jackson is such a runner and jumper, I was freaking out almost the entire time at the top, whenever they got near this fence. That night I had trouble falling asleep, thinking about all of the places where the kids or Adam with Ada in his back pack *could* have fallen down the cliffside.
Adam is so far enjoying his new job at TCN. For a while it seemed the added stress was an equal trade with not really liking his job at JD Clark, but things are evening out a bit so that is good. Everything has a transition period, I guess.
I have to admit I don't particularly like living in the desert during a drought. If you ask the kids if they like living here, they will inevitably say they miss the snow. We told them at the beginning we would take them to Pine Valley for snow, but then we only got one storm, which was bad enough that we didn't want to go up the steep dirt hill to the cabin. So their snow time lasted about 20 minutes on the street, mostly due to the fact that while we found most of the snow equipment in the storage unit, we only found one pair of gloves.
Back at the beginning of December Mindy texted and asked if I wanted to do a weight lifting program at the gym. Saved my sanity and got me to get rid of the 10 pounds I gained during the move from Ogden. I feel very lucky to live near my sister in laws - they are good friends. Mindy, Audrey and I met at Bloomington Hills park one day with the kids. This picture doesn't show their two babies - 13 kids all together!
One thing I have always wanted to do if we moved down here was to start a book club. I did and it has been fun so far! Good books and good conversations, and a night away from the kids. The group is Peggy (although they are moving to Australia in two weeks or so), Becca, Mindy, Audrey, Liz, two of Becca's in laws, and a few other friends I don't know too well. I really love book clubs. My visiting teaching partner also invited me to join a Learning Circle, a group of moms in the area that read an article every month and meet to discuss the challenges and rewards of mothering. The goal is to be a deliberate mother, and I have loved the insights from the other women and the chance to be in a setting where we can talk about the frustrations of child raising (without kids around to hear) and to really feel like we're not alone. I have enjoyed that so far.
Swimming during spring break. We found some boxer undies for Isaac to wear as a swim suit. hehe Finally one that doesn't fall down! When he was wearing swim diapers it was okay, but now that he uses the toilet he just has nothing to hold up a normal suit. I think we had one poop in the pool incident before he came along...then he had two within about a week and apparently Adam and I shamed him enough that he trained himself in about a week to not have any accidents (with oreos and mini marshmallows as incentive). So that was nice. It was kind of challenging to even start with him since Mom insisted he had a diaper on so he wouldn't pee on all of her stuff. Totally understandable! Ada is another little water baby, and loves to jump in and splash around. Such a cutie.
We spent a day in Vegas over spring break too. I am not a fan. Everything is so showy but in reality it is just average. We paid $60 for tickets to the Aquarium and it was basically being shuffled down a walk way next to some kind of big aquariums and then out the door. The kids did love the sharks though. We tried to pet the sting rays but they were too much of a reach for Lily and Jack. We also went to the Hendershot's trampoline park, which is so fun and the kids just love.
