The Life

I know sometimes I complain about my life but as I was hanging out today at Eagle Island with the kids and some of our friends I thought, "Ya know, being a mom (especially in the summer) is pretty awesome. I'm just hangin' out here in the sand with the kids, enjoying the sunshine, and watching the kids have a great time. How many moms out there wish they could do this every day with their kids but can't?" I'm pretty fortunate that I have the luxury of staying at home with my kids. Yes, I wish our financial situation was better, but with a free place to stay we're doing ok and I haven't been forced to find a job outside the home yet. Which makes me think, what will I do with the kids tomorrow? Hmm... maybe the pool. Life is good.

You say good-bye...
and I say hello.

We sold one of our Subaru's tonight so we could purchase this little beauty. We are picking it up tomorrow. I love my Subaru but I'm excited to have some extra room and with the baby coming we really didn't have a choice. An SUV with third-row seating was not an option for me. It seems like it would be a pain in the bum to try to wrestle kids into the back seat. No thanks. I'll take the less-cool mini van any day. We (I)have had my eye on an MPV for a while now but they are super hard to find. We called on this one within two hours of it's posting on Craigslist, drove it that day and bought it. It's a 2006, 55,000 miles on it for only $9100. The interior is impeccable. I almost hate to let my kids ride in it. The mom who owns it never let her kids eat in the car. I think I may be adopting that rule now, or at least non-colorful, non-staining items. And seat covers are first on my list to buy.

Camping

We went camping last weekend with my two brothers and most of their kids. We camped along the North Fork of the Payette River. The weather was great and the kids seemed to have a good time. This was James and Ruby's first time camping and I think they had fun. The kids took turns singing songs around the campfire. James' selections were always primary songs. We stayed one night and the next day the kids played on a sandy beachy area along the river and swam around. James and Ruby were both asleep within 2 minutes of pulling out of our campsite. James didn't wake up until we pulled into our driveway and said surprised, "Well, that was a short drive!" I think we may go camping again in a couple of weeks. We invested in an 8-man tent so we figure we better get our money's worth out of it.

Little Royalty

Here is our little princess Ruby. She is proudly wearing her Tangled dress that her Aunt Lindsey made for her. It was very sweet of auntie to make this for her but I knew as soon as I laid eyes on it that Ruby would demand to wear it every single day. I proved to be prophetic on this. She has a meltdown if her dress is not available to wear. A lot of times I kind of lie and tell her that it's dirty or wet or in the washer. She will not take it off at bedtime. Sigh. She's a willful one so I just go with it most of the time. She loves Tangled and she'll sit at the computer and watch/listen/sing along to the soundtrack. The other day, wherever we went, whatever we were doing, she sang the line 'And at last I see the light and it's like the fog has lifted' over and over all day long. It's pretty stinkin' cute as sick as I am of that show. Fortunately, we don't own the movie. I really never thought that my daughter would be into princesses and dresses and pink. I blame it on grandma as she was the one who introduced her to all of them while we were on vacation. I guess it was love at first sight. But just look at that smile.

Raccoons

These are the little guys who were hanging out in our tree for a good three hours or so one morning. They are pretty cute. We haven't seen any sign of them since but the kids had a great time watching them. They keep asking me where they live now and if they are coming back. The same day, the aforementioned BIL came over and would not let his daughter step foot outside without him checking out the place with a stick. The man is a little neurotic especially when it comes to his kid which is fine but it made me laugh. At him.

Walk-Ins Welcome?

I have to say it here because I can't say it on Facebook, even though I would really like to. Ok, does anyone else find it odd that my brother-in-law, Adam's oldest brother, just walks into our house without knocking? I mean, I understand that we're living at his grandma's house and that he has never had to knock before but we're living here now and I find it really rude when he just walks in. One time he came over and it was just me at home, deathly sick on the couch and my mom had taken the kids for the day. I thought it was Adam but when I looked up it was my BIL looking down at me with his little daughter and it was really uncomfortable. I mean, I was sick and had he knocked, I would not have even answered the door. Instead, I was forced to make small talk with him for a good 20-30 minutes while he hung around for awhile. I honestly would not mind at all and don't mind when women-folk in the family stop by and they don't knock but it feels totally different when a male member of the family comes barging in unannounced. I mean, we go to the pool a lot and maybe I would prefer to be a little more covered up if company is coming over or whatever. Not that I walk around the house naked or anything but I suppose it's my right to do so. He came over the other day without knocking and was surprised to find Adam home, like he was just going to hang out with me and the kids, which is fine but I would prefer a knock at the door. Or am I being too uptight?

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.