New Pictures

You may have noticed our new picture at the top, now with Allie in it.

Thanks to my wonderful friend, Katie, we have beautiful family pictures again:

 Thirteen years

 Handsome boys.

 Allie wasn't very cooperative.

 But cute, nonetheless.

Beautiful, aren't they?  Thanks so much, Katie!! 

opinions

 This girl is getting opinions.  My mom gave her these little shoes that squeak when she walks and she brings them to me all the time so I can put them on her.  They're her favorite.  Today I pulled out this raincoat that my sister loaned me and Allie stuck her arms out so I could put it on her (which she's never done before) and would not take it off all day.   Even when she played in this little pool and got the sleeves soggy wet, she wouldn't take it off.  When I would start to undo it she'd throw a fit, crying and swinging her arms at me and grabbing the coat.  It seems she's turning kind of bratty; she moved a little bit closer to 2 today.

Something new, at least

Okay, enough of "School's Over."  I need to revitalize this blog, it's getting a little stale.  The problem is I don't have much to say at the moment.  So maybe some pictures? 

 Eating rocks. YUMM!

Jason teasing his sister by putting grass on her head.

Something feels weird up there . . .

We took a trip to Idaho last weekend and had a great time with my family. 

There was a huge hail storm which was really cool.  And yummy; the kids gathered it and ate it.

The best part was bringing home salamanders.  While we were there we had 3 in a container, which escaped during the night into the house (Milissa was not happy about that, and who can blame her, eh?).  So we got 2 more, then found the three fugitives.They are really smelly, and eat nasty slugs and worms, so I'm not sure how long they'll be staying.

 Allie wasn't always thrilled about Grandma.  She has no idea what she's missing out on.  It won't be long before she knows grandma is way more awesome than mom.

It was a good vacation.
Hmm.  Idaho.  That seems like a nice place to live . . .

Summer is Over

Is it just me, or was this the shortest summer on record?

It makes up for last summer, which was the LONGEST.
This was the summer we waited and worried about Jared's job. We didn't do a whole lot else, besides takin' it easy, but it was still a blast. Next summer I'm doing a bucket list, so we get more fun packed in.

We spent a lot of time at Seven Peaks.  Only it wasn't until the very end of the summer that the boys agreed to try out some slides, and discovered they loved them. 

We spent a lot of time in the lazy river, wave pool and kid's pool.




This is what we named "The Water Jumpy Thingy."  I got the idea from Five Real Moms.  You duct tape two shower curtain liners together and fill it with water, and literally chill out on it.  Very cool.  Only I forgot about it and killed a big patch of grass.  Oops!



We watched baseball games

Tyler learned how to ride a bike (sometimes with the handlebars backwards, as shown here).  At the beginning of the summer we didn't have much hope for him.  He had absolutely no balance.  But he stuck with it, and was SO proud of himself when he finally took off.

Now he and Dougie can ride around together.He also lost his first tooth on his first day of first grade. 

Back to school!  So far, so good.  They all say their teachers are nice, which is the most important thing, if I recall correctly.  They have friends in their classes and a good time at recess, so their lives are good.  I am enjoying my very long and quiet days with just Allie and me.  Unfortunately I'm already out of bon bons, and I can't stand Soaps anymore, so I'll just have to get my house clean, play with my baby and sew some fun projects.  It's a hard life, I know.

Joey turns 11

Joey loves Minecraft these days, so naturally he wanted a minecraft cake. This is a "piece of dirt with grass on it" cake, and a diamond pickaxe and shovel on top. You'd have to be familiar with the game for any of that to make much sense. He loved it.

Same sort of pinata.

Which they had a blast destroying, as usual.

And I now have an 11-year old. I couldn't ask for a better kid.

Oh Happy Day!

Well it looks like the job hunt is over. 
FINALLY.
Perhaps it didn't seem that long for all of you, but it felt like a lifetime to some of us.
Jared had an interview in Colorado as I mentioned a couple months ago, and then he had one here in Utah.  Both were really promising, and so we had to make the decision on where we really wanted to live. 
We agonized over it.  We have been planning to move to Colorado for years now, but now that it came down to it we weren't so sure.  It was going to be really expensive to move (not to mention a humongous pain in the butt), but mostly we have worried about whether it's the best thing for the kids. 
We could think of little else for these past weeks.  We prayed to know what we should do, we asked the kids what they thought (they were ok with either way), talked about it endlessly, cried about it, lost many nights of sleep, and had many stomache aches.  The problem was that there wasn't a right or wrong, really, they are both good places.  We couldn't lose either way, but we also couldn't win; if we move to Colorado it's farther from my family.  If we stay here it's farther from Jared's. 
In the end we felt like we really should stay here for now.  It feels right.  Who knows what will happen down the road, but for now we're here to stay.
Jared got an official job offer today at the hospital where he did his preceptorship!  They have to do a background check, and then he can start, which should be in a couple weeks.
I don't have to pack all our stuff into a huge UHaul and drive it hundreds of miles.
The boys can stay at their school with the kids and teachers they know and keep the friends they have.
We're not farther from my family  :)   We're not closer to Jared's  :(

I thought I would finally sleep well tonight, but now I can't stop smiling and thinking about our future.
It was a good day.

Allie now

Allie is moving right along, in her own way.  She has two teeth now, and it looks like the next ones that are going to appear will make her look like a vampire.  At first I was thinking "NOOOOOOOO!  I don't want her to look like a monster!"  But now that I've gotten used to the idea I think it will be funny, and interesting, and very like her, to do things in an odd sort of way.  Besides, vampires are in style.  Not as much as Zombies, but still.

 She drinks tons of milk, fortified with formula.  She eats lots of different kinds of food.  She loves all fruit, except peaches, and she'll even eat things like taco soup; onions, beans and all.  But she just doesn't eat very much of anything.  So it's good that she drinks milk.  Weird to me, though, because none of my boys would drink it.

 She is right where she should be in her motor skills and her cognitive development, but she is behind in communication; she doesn't point at things, or shake her head for yes or no, things like that.  She just started saying "Hi," which is her first word, and I think she says "Tyler."  When someone knocks on the door, nine times out of ten it's Dougie, wanting to play with Tyler.  So we call "Tyler!"  Now when she hears the door she yells "Tyler!"  At least that's what we think she's saying.  It sounds like it. 
But the way she mostly communicates is through whining and crying, which can get pretty annoying.  We're working on baby signs, so hopefully that helps, or hopefully she just starts talking soon. 

Her hair is growing slowly.  She's starting to reject all her cute headbands  :(  I can't complain because she's the only 1 year old I know who will wear them.

She gets into everything; she pulls stuff out of the garbage can, turns off the computer, plays in the toilet, etc. 

Here's what she did 2 minutes ago:

 Help, Mom!  I'm stuck on this huge cliff!!!

She's the sunshine in our lives, a precious blessing from heaven, and a huge pain in the neck.  :)