New Post!

I can't believe James is five! What a momentous birthday. He's so proud to be able to say that he's five now and hold up all of his fingers on one hand. I hosted quite a large party for him this year which included 10 guests (he has a large primary class). It was pretty crazy and chaotic but the kids are young enough that they just ran around and jumped on the trampoline and had fun. I decided to do a police themed party so I started the party with the kids making and coloring their own police hats and vests. Party favors included candy and handcuffs from the dollar store along with free information, stickers, and pencils from the local police station. I think it was a success. I think I will definitely scale back next year.
As for other updates, obviously Adam didn't get the job in Sioux Falls which I'm not totally sad about. He has another job interview this week with a local company so hopefully that will have a good outcome.
We have settled into grandma's house and have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will probably be here for a while. The house is fine and we are really grateful to have an entire house to live in for free; we are just having a really hard time adjusting to our old/new ward. The kids ask me almost everyday when we can go back to our old ward which makes me sad because I want to go back probably worse than they do.
We have also been staying busy going to the pool (we go 2-3 times a week) and we went to Sandypoint last week.
We had a crazy 4th of July, as always, at my parents--kids running everywhere lighting off firecrackers, smokebombs, and bottlerockets. It looked like a warzone by the end of the night. We had a few mishaps with mortars that sent people running in all directions but that's all part of the fun.
We find out what the baby is next Monday. I'm already feeling huge even though I just have a little gut so far. I just look tubby more than pregnant. I thought each pregnancy was supposed to get easier but that has not been the case with this one.
On another exciting note, found out this week that our next training meeting for the exchange student organization will be at Disneyworld in February. Even though I had to take a leave of absence, I still placed enough students before that to qualify to go for free! We are pretty excited and the kids are thrilled! I thought about giving up this gig permanently but now that I've had a break from it, I've realized that it's just too good of a job to give up. The free travel alone is worth it and I'm actually good at what I do.