The toy that traveled thousands of miles....

My friend Jenn in Norfolk and I we talk a lot on the phone, even more now that I've moved thousands of miles away, but got vonage to keep my local number. =) So anyway, I mentioned that I wanted to get Wyatt an Exersaucer, and said it was too bad I hadn't bought hers from her before we left since she hadn't sold hers in her yard sale. Well, she managed to convince Josh before he left to see if he'd try and fit it in the car. (since I told her there was no way he'd bring it all the way to California!) It fit, so he brought it! He complained about listening to the thing rattle for those 4,000 miles (I think it's less than that, but this is what he said!)This man must really love me!
But, isn't the smile on this cute little guy worth it??

First Day of School

We had our first day of school today! It's hard to believe it's here already! Maddie has AM Kindergarten and goes until 12:45p.m. and Jonas is getting out an hour early this entire week, 2:30p.m. instead of 3:30p.m.
They seemed to enjoy their first day. Jonas informed me lunch was a Burrito which he said he ate and liked. It's amazing how if everyone else is eating it they will too!
He and his friend Jonathan from church are in the same class, so he seemed much more excited to go than he was when we talked about it yesterday. Maddie had a good time, didn't cry of course, although I guess there was one girl who did. Maddie has a class with our neighbors son, and they sit by each other. I wasn't even remotely emotional, I was so ready for them to go, and Maddie was very excited too. Eliza didn't seem to miss them too much, she happily played most of the morning quietly. Josh and I played Dr. Mario on the Wii, it was fun! So here are the kids first day of school pictures!

Family Get togethers

We are lucky to live near some of my extended family, and my cousin
Kendall
and his wife Robin live two hours away. We got invited to a big birthday bash Saturday, and the kids had a fabulous time. We hadn't seen most of them since the last reunion in 2004, so of course no one had seen Eliza or Wyatt yet! And I got to meet my Uncle Glade's new wife Grace, who is so sweet! And my cousin Mike's new wife Lacey! It was also good for us to go out on a little road trip and pass the time before Josh got home. He actually made it home 5 minutes before we got home! We are so glad he's back.

Last Days of Summer

We went to the beach last week, and enjoyed our last days of freedom before we became slaves to a schedule that's not our own! We had a good time, it was a lot of fun!

Big things are happening

1. Eliza officially went potty on the potty seat yesterday all by herself without anyone putting the thought in her head.
2. Wyatt is trying to crawl for real instead of rolling all over, he's now pushing up on his knees, so I expect him to be fully crawling really soon!

3. Josh will be home for good in ONE WEEK! He officially hands over the aid job on Tuesday.

4. School starts in 8 days, I'm sooo ready! Maddie will be starting Kindergarten!

Registering kids in school = making all Mom's across america want to shoot themselves in the head

School starts in two weeks on August 25th, and registration for late comers such as myself started today. One would think they would have several people in the front office getting people's stuff making sure they had everything. NO! I get there a few minutes after they opened registration stuff at 10:30a.m. and I got lucky number 7. I took the kids thinking it wouldn't take more than an hour right? So we were there an hour and a half and still only on number 4 so I called some friends begged and pleaded (just kidding they didn't hesitate to say yes!) to have them watch my older three, then dropped the kids off. So I returned to school and didn't leave for another hour! ARGH! They had one single lady taking peoples stuff, making copies and coming back. Then another lady was sitting there putting it all in the computer. The lady doing it doesn't strike me as being the nicest person in the world either.
I was just glad I didn't forget anything except for one date that needed to be added to Maddie's immunization card that thankfully I can get taken care of and show on the first day of school.
I'm so excited for school to be starting! I think I'm more excited than the kids are!

Here is a picture of the kids school

Hair Cut...

Yesterday after swimming with our friends my friend Toni offered to give me a hair cut since she's a cosmotologist, and knows how to do these things. I really just needed a trim, since I'm officially growing my hair out again. Maddie has been asking me to get her hair cut too, so I finally let her do it after explaining it takes awhile to grow out, and she said that's fine.
Maddie before the hair cut

Maddie after her hair cut

She loves it by the way, and I do too! I think it makes her look older!

4 against 1.... update on us...

Jonas, Maddie, Eliza and Wyatt. vs. Me that's how it feels sometimes.
The summer is going by fast, yet slow at the same time. Each Day different from the next. Some days are good, some are terrible. Some days I almost want to yell.... FINE then I'm going to MY ROOM and you guys stay downstairs and take care of yourselves! (YEAH RIGHT! Imagine the disaster I'd find when I decided to return.)
Then there are other days that aren't so bad. If you're wondering today has been a pretty good day. But Tuesday wasn't.. but we dealt with it.
Wyatt is rolling, all over the place, and sometimes he tries to crawl, but finds rolling is an easier way to get around, it's pretty funny. He rolls well!
We're making new friends, and getting out of the house. Both good things for all of us. We went swimming today with some of our new friends, and I didn't take any picture but sometimes I think that's okay because it can almost take away from the moment if you know what I mean.
I'm trying to finish A New Dawn by Stephanie Myers, which I stayed up till Midnight last night reading, and am still not done yet! Almost, I have just a few hundred pages to go.. so far I'm loving it!
Maddie is going to her friend Parker's tonight for a sleepover, her first one here, so she's pretty excited, they are becoming good friends. I'm sure we'll have her over here soon. Jonas is anxiously waiting his turn to go over to spend time with Parker's brother Connor.
Eliza I can say is definately Maddie's playmate. They play together a lot, and Eliza is usually Maddie's shadow, and she has now gotten into playing games on the computer. She knows exactly where to click on our computer to start Nick Jr. or Sesame Street!
18 more days until school officially starts... =)

If My Nose was Runnin Money...

My friend showed me this on You tube... hope this gives you a good laugh to start your week!

Cards

Many of you know that I'm a Stampin Up Demonstrator (I just celebrated my 5th year, and got a cute "5" pin to wear!) Anyway, back in Norfolk whenever I'd make cards I'd usually show Jenn, but seeing as she's a few thousand miles away I figured I better start posting some of my projects on my blog. So we got some new paper at Stampin Up that I love it's called Bella Rose and it goes along with some of our new colors.. which I love! (of course I say that EVERY year, but that's why I love Stampin up!)
So here are some birthday cards, some cards or sisters I visit teach, and a baby card I need to mail (once I get her new address) that I made recently... enjoy!
Oh and yes I was on a kick with my new scallop edge punch, and my scallop punch...love it!

Some quiet time...

A new friend here in San Diego her name is Toni, called the other night and asked if I'd watch her kids and I said sure, and she offered in exchange to watch mine and Josh and I went out the other night on a date. It was so much fun. And she even offered to watch them today so I could go on a needed trip to the grocery store. I took Wyatt, he's so easy. As I was browsing the yogurt in the dairy section this cute old man asked me, "What Aisle did you find a baby at?" I just laughed and smiled at him and thought I wonder if you'd be saying that still if you saw me with ALL 4 of my kids, the usual comment I get is, "boy you have your hands full!" I think I'd love to create a sign that says, YES I Do so anytime anyone says that I don't even have to answer, I can quickly flash the sign and move on.
I have so say I really enjoyed grocery shopping, it was so easy and Wyatt fell asleep right as we were checking out! Then it was back to reality.
I don't want to leave this pictureless so I'm going to post a picture of Maddie doing her Model poses for me.. it was so funny to take these pictures!

6 months gone by...

Can you believe 6 months have gone by since this little sweetie was born? I know I can't! Where does that time go! We go in for our 6 month visit tomorrow.

A video of Wyatt...

Thought you might all get a kick out of this... Wyatt is at my favorite stage of being a baby, he's interactive with others (not just me), he smiles at everyone and likes to stare people down until they look at him so he can smile at them, he squeals a lot (everyone heard him on Sunday, our ward is very quiet compared to Norfolk), and he also giggles, and my favorite part: he's not mobile yet!

Time for some campaignin'

This video is for my friend Heidi!

Money, Money, Money must be funny in a rich man's world... or so ABBA Says...

This is what $2,000 looks like when you hold it in your hands...
it was really nice to hold it and imagine for a moment what I would spend this money on.
Unfortunately the money was essentially already spent! I had to get some cash to pay for the cars Josh's 1955 Chevy and his 2006 Pontiac GTO we had shipped from Norfolk to San Diego. I would've liked to have deducted $100 because they were supposed to have the cars here Thursday or Friday they told us, when really it ended up being Sunday. (I was trying to be sneaky and take a quick picture, so it's not the best, but you see what's taking place right?)
I'm just glad they made it here, but I have to admit that really I had an alterior motive here than just the safe arrival of Josh's precious vehicles. Josh put some stuff I ordered that got to the house after we'd left Norfolk, (and before we sold it) was a Kit of the month from creating keepsakes, the School Kit. I ordered one for each of the kids. So I really had a reason to hope the cars made it safe! lol!

Josh wasn't excited to see this big box that he was going to have to take with him across the country so he decided the trunk of his GTO would be better.. I'm glad he did, otherwise I'd have had to wait another month!

3 hour countdown.....

We're no longer on days, we're down to hours..3 hours in fact until we go to pick up Josh at the airport.

I'm so excited to see him. It's hard to be seperated from him knowing that it is possible to see him, not like he's on a ship half a world away like deployments! After this trip he will be here for good! Yeah! We're all looking forward to a long weekend with Daddy! And I'm ready to give him a nice big smooch, that will probably look like this!

Have a wonderful weekend!
p.s. This is what happens when I blog too long...

Home

Buying a House
by Vesta Nickerson Fairbairn
Not brick and plaster, tile, and stone,
Nor floor and roof and walls-not these alone
We buy. Nor is it land we own.
Home is the heart of all our days and nights
Where love provides security, unites
Us with the bonds of sorrows and delights.
This house becomes a sanctuary where
Togetherness enriches, where we share
Our hearthfire's warmth, our love, the strength of prayer.
My Mom sent this to me after we moved into our new place here in San Diego, now we're not home owners, but it still applies. It definately is something I needed when she sent it to me as it was right after we sold our house in Virginia. I felt sad about selling our home, even though it was the best thing for us to do. It was still difficult to sell the house we had made so many memories in, and to leave all of my friends there to go to a new place (that I'm still adjusting too, and missing all of my friends in Norfolk still) so this poem was fitting. I'm also posting this for Marie (see the my link of blogs I read, Marie's hectic life) as she is sad because of not being able to be home for a Family Reunion! I hope you'll be able to go to the next one! Miss you!

adventures...

Yesterday we went to the coolest kids dentist I've ever been to, and they are called Super Dentists, there is an orthodontist office (the male superhero) and the pediatric dentist (female superhero) you can check out their site (for some reason the link didn't work so here's the address)
www.thesuperdentists.com
Jonas and Maddie both needed their teeth cleaned and a friend of mine told me this is where she takes her kids, and they love it. I wondered how much a kid could really "love" the dentist, and after going I see why. One side was decorated like a space ship port hub, imagine Toy Story and the Rocket Pizza Palace place, that's kind of what it's like, that's the orthodontic side then the other side is like a forest with trees and that's the pediatric dentist, and that's because the female dentists character is like a fairy super hero. Anyway, the staff was super nice, and the kids had a good time, although Jonas had some cavities between his teeth. I'll be the first to admit it's my fault for letting our flossing slip. So anyway they gave us a bit of a discount for coming in today to get them filled, and Jonas did great! He just complained about starving because he wasn't allowed to eat before the visit.
I meant to take pictures of their office but forgot about it! I will definately have to post some next time we go.
So my girls lately have taken to putting up their "tent" and putting their little green Ikea table inside and covering the tops with blankets. (thanks Aunt Marilyn for the tent, it's still played with even 3 years later or however long its been since you gave this to us!)

Then Jonas comes through and will push them over just to make the girls mad, which works, because Maddie instantly screams at the top of her lungs (which it echos in the room with high ceilings, I think she does it because of that) and say Jonas is tearing down their "Club House".
So every night we put it all away, and every morning it comes back out. Another favorite of course is playing dress up. We have MANY dress up outfits, and the girls especially love to take off all their clothes and dress up.

Don't you love Eliza as a cheerleader!
So we had not had our pick up yet of the toys last night and EVERYTHING was out and our neighbor that lives next door comes over to see if we had seen their kitten in our yard, so I let them in to see if they call it in our backyard that he'd come, he didn't. It's funny how you can have the house picked up, and then the one time you don't is when you get company... it's the story of my life! lol!

Like Father, Like Son

I have this picture that Josh's Grandma Hensley gave me of Josh as a baby, and it's amazing how Wyatt gets older how much he looks like Josh! Josh has some pretty strong gene's! I took this picture tonight of Wyatt by the way!

4th of July Pictures a little late

I know these are obviously late.. but I figured I'd post our pictures anyway. We had a fun time at the beach. Josh absolutely HATES the beach, so I was very surprised when he agreed to the idea to go to the beach. I told my friend Nicole this, and she said that Josh must really miss us to agree to it, and I think she's right! He didn't get in the water, but played in the sand with the kids, and held Wyatt so I could splash around in the water with Jonas and Maddie. Eliza would only really touch the waves, but didn't want to have anything to do with getting really wet. The water is REALLY COLD! Wyatt's shirt says "Red, White, and Cute".