Birthdays, Fundays, and summer days :)

We just finished "Birthday Season #1"  It was so fun to celebrate Eliza-Jane's birthday this year. We now have a 6 yr old, 5 year old, 3 year old and a 2 year old.  It promises to be a very adventurous year for us.

We were getting very ambitious and planned a trip to the Oregon coast.  A 13 hour drive to indulge my love of the Pacific  Northwest and to deliver to the children a long long promised "beach trip"

Eliza-Jane came to me as we were packing, holding her swimming suit and said, "Put this on Mommy, so I can go swimming in the deep ocean!"

I finally convinced Hazel and Miriam that sharks do not come up on the beach, and Jacob was so excited he couldn't stand it.

I warned the kids it was a long drive.  I told them we would get to see Christmas tree forest and many other exciting things along the way.

We began our drive with the car all loaded up and spirits were high, but 30 minutes into the drive we had 2 passengers who were deathly carsick, showing no signs of improving in the next 13 hours.  Hazel fell asleep asking if we were there yet.  Jared and I jokingly said, "Isn't the beach at Bear Lake very sandy and ocean-esque?"

We were an hour out of town and looking for a place to turn around.  Bear Lake, know as the "Caribbean of the Rockies", was our new destination.

Hazel began to awaken, and said hopefully "WOW! Now we must really be close Mommy!  Did I miss Christmas Tree Forest?"  We chuckled because she had awakened at the exact spot she had drifted off to sleep about 2 hours earlier. 

"Oh yes," I said, "We are really close now!  You did not miss Christmas Tree Forest."   I was sure that Logan Canyon would be full of pine trees :)

We had a marvelous time at the "Caribbean of the Rockies." 

Eliza-Jane did try to swim in the "deep ocean", but the water was warm the sand, was soft, and the kids had a great time at our beach trip.

The best part for Jared and I was we only had to drive an hour to get home!

Someday we will make it to Oregon, maybe even Washington, but not this time.

Everyday's a good day, when you paint (even if you have to do it digitally!)

For my birthday Jared has been letting completely indulge my artistic side :)

I haven't enjoyed myself like this in a long time.  

Pure entertainment.  

The sisters are a dark-haired version of Miriam and Hazel.  I think I will be staying up late to completely enjoy my hobby. 

The Funnies

Jacob: 

Jacob has been working really hard on controlling his behavior.  In the past when he gets hungry or too tired he will flop on the ground and say, "BLAH BLAH!!!"

He has discovered he can control his meltdowns.  The other night we stayed up too late, and I was putting 3 tired girls in their jammies and brushing their teeth.  Jacob came and sat beside me and said, "Mommy, would this be a good time for me to melt down?"  I said, "Jacob, please, no, not now." 

And he said "ok "  And then went and put on his pj's

Miriam: 


Miriam and I were looking at the gospel art pictures and she saw this one of Mormon abridging the plates and she looked at me at said, "Mommy, why is he sitting on a lion?"  I explained they used animal skins as blankets and chair covers.

Hazel:

I was telling Hazel how wonderful heaven was as she fell asleep.  I told her how she watched our family before she was born, and she started to cry.  I asked her why she was crying, she said,  "I must have been really scared in Heaven, with no Mommy or Daddy,  I was very sad in heaven." 

So we talked about her heavenly parents, but I don't think she is convinced!

Eliza: 

Eliza loves to come and flop on me and then she looks at me and smiles and says, "Just me mommy, just me!"

This morning she came up to me and ripped my hair out and pinched my nose, and then she said,  "Just me mommy, just me!"

what do you think

I have been working on this forever! or so it seems, and I have almost finished!  I am going to make them into wall decals.  I have had so so so much fun.  I am going to rework a few of them and I am trying to decide how I want the letters to interact with the animals, but my rough draft is done!

Sweet 16

Greetings from Wellsville!

We hope, and we are crossing our fingers, not making any total promises, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, we have finally settled, lucky move number 16 and in Cache Valley of all the places.

3 Sleepy sisters worn out from moving

When Eliza saw this picture she said, "Look!  Hazel pushing me!"

YEAH!  Two front teeth gone!

Jacob can make amazing things out of legos, check out his robot.

Cheese!

The moving truck ramp is so fun, and dangerous!

Sunshine Miriam Smiles :)

Jacob and the bubbles...

story time

The kids made these little creature people on sunday, they wanted me know know that they were all in the Sunday clothes

nap time

Daddy and Eliza in our driveway

Everyone in the driveway

Eliza LOVES corn on the cob and this particular piece helped us dodge a nasty post naptime melt down.  Thank you corn!

If you look closely you can see Hazel is chasing the giant weed seeds we found on our walk with Grandma.

Hazel

Sarah took this on our walk to our mailbox

Jacob down by Little Bear River.  I am only slightly nervous about the name of the river...  He saw a big crawdad, but no bears.

Family

Eliza is adjusting to a new house and takes random naps when and where she can.

RUN!

"The Girls"  by Jacob

"Mommy and Eliza" by Jacob

"From the Driveway" by Sarah

"Lost Shaver" by Kathleen

Sometimes we feel like we are on the moon....

Maybe mars....

We are getting used to rural life, getting our water from a well, using propane (stored in tanks on the property), civilization 15 minutes away, and of course all the wild life!  Jared caught a turtle on our gravel road, crawdads in the river, we have seen so many colorful birds, and lots of bugs.

Our neighbors are great and have nine children (from 14 down to 2).  They match up with all our kids ages.  They are are only real neighbors that live down our dead end gravel road.  That should help keep us social.

Over all we are loving it out here.  We are just 5 miles away from my parents and we love that!  Wellsville is a cute LITTLE town with no stoplights, but a very nice post office, slow internet (sorry Jared), and we are excited to call it home :)

ipad to the rescue

Yesterday Hazel locked herself in a room.  We were getting very anxious to get her out, but she couldn't figure out how to unlock the door from the inside.  All our coaching was to no avail.  Jared finally had the idea to do video chat with her and slip the ipad under to door.  We were able to see her cute little face and via video chat I was able to show her exactly how to twist the lock, and she was rescued!  She came out very frightened and we had a lesson on how to unlock doors :)