How Can Little Babies Make Me So Proud?

Bryce has been asking for a "black bike" since we moved here. We gave away his little car when we moved and he was more sad than we expected. But then he decided that a black bike would be a fine substitution.

So, yesterday I decided to look into garage sales. They have about a billion of those here. Every weekend. And they start on Thursday (so they can finish Saturday instead of Sunday. I love living in a Christian community!).

I've never really shopped at garage sales, so I was a little intimidated. I decided I would just start with two big ones yesterday. I figured it would take a while to find a bike small enough for my little man.

The first one was tragic. All of the stuff was pretty worn out and there were no bikes of any size.

In order to save time at the next one, I just asked the lady at the front if they had any bikes. She didn't think so, but then asked a guy nearby. He took me over to where they'd be (this was a huge 23-family sale). There was only one bike. What are the chances that it would be a tiny little black bike? Not very likely.

But it was. We are so blessed! We got it for just $15. And it even came with training wheels. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself all day!

Doesn't he looks so cute?

He looks like he's getting the hang of it, but he really can't pedal at all. Any tips for teaching kid how to do this? Kayli just kind of picked it right up.

What a good lookin' daddy!

Have I ever mentioned how much Kayli hates having her hair done? Or combed? Or touched? Seriously. Ever since she was a baby, she's hated to have anyone touch her head. Bryce, on the other hand, used to pull my hand over his face to fall asleep and loves to have his hair played with.

Back to Kayli. After another battle to comb her hair yesterday, I asked if she wanted to just cut it short. I thought she might think this one through a bit because I know she loves it when people tell her how pretty her hair is.

She immediately and enthusiastically responded, "Yes!"

Blake works with a woman whose granddaughter recently cut her hair and donated it to Locks of Love. We explained what that is to Kayli and she said she wanted to do it.

I thought I'd explained it pretty well, but then she asked, "Do I need to give them all of my hair?"

I thought that was so sweet that she was willing to give it all away. But I quickly showed her how much she'd have left.

I forgot to take my camera, so we brought the hair home with us instead of having the salon mail it for us. They put it in an envelope for me to bring it home, but while I was tidying up so you wouldn't all see how cluttered my little apartment is when I took a picture, Bryce got a hold of it. He pulled out a few of the hairs. I was feeling bad about losing those.

I handed the pony tail to Kayli and told her to keep it away from Bryce while I got the camera out.

Then I looked up to see her poking her finger through the top of the hair. She pushed about half of it out onto the floor!

No one can say we didn't try. I hope what's left is enough to be usable.

Can you believe how long her hair was?! I struggled not to cry at the salon. I think she looks adorable with her new cut, it just made me sad for the change. She seems so grown up with it. I'll have to take some more pictures. It's a stacked bob in the back.

In case you forgot how long it was. This was taken when we invited our friends over just a couple days ago.

Well, It IS an Awesome Zoo...

That's right, we went again on Saturday. On the way in, we saw people and animals from the Humane Society out front. I fell in love with one of the dogs. I can't remember what breed or his name, but he was the sweetest dog I've ever met. Sadly, they said he probably won't be there by the time we're moved into our house (yes, that's our kitchen!)

The kids were dying to show Daddy the zoo

This guy was just chillin' like this. Seriously, no part of him was moving. I have no idea when resting your open mouth on a chunk of concrete would ever be a comfy way to rest. But he sure seemed cozy.

This one seemed a little more normal and was excited to have Kayli feed him with the hopper. I was excited that my kids could feed a camel without getting camel lips on their hands.

I don't feel great about giant grasshoppers touching my babies' hands either, but my protests were futile. Yuck!

I hope you all had a happy Memorial Day weekend. We had a lot of fun. We did try to explain to the kids what the holiday is for, but things like war and guns are pretty foreign concepts to them. I guess that's just one more reason to be grateful to all those who have or do put their lives at risk to keep our country safe. I'm so grateful that my children have no reason to know about those thing at their tender ages!

We went to a barbecue sponsored by our church. It was tons of fun. I took Boston Cream Pie Minis, and I'm not gonna lie--they were the fastest dessert to disappear. They're so easy. If you haven't made them, you really should. It was great to meet new friends, let the kids play, and Blake even got to play some football.

It was just a fun, relaxing weekend. Unfortunately, the kids have been struggling with the adjustment to Blake going to work every day again and three days off in a row really set us back in that department.

We have this conversation ALL DAY:

Bryce: Where did Daddy go?

Me: He's at work.

Bryce: Why? (If you've never heard him say this, you're really missing out.)

Me: Because he has to work to get money to pay for all the things we need, like this food, our house, etc.

Bryce: Why?

And so it goes...

Hello, Pretty Kitchen!

Zoo-pendus!

Guess where we went yesterday?

The zoo.

It was even better because we went with some new friends from church. We were supposed to meet them there, but got started a little late after signing up for a zoo membership. And then, we somehow managed to get started in the wrong direction which lead us to our friends.

Coincidence? I think not. I'm pretty sure we're still being watched over and blessed. Because the rest of yesterday was a very homesick time.

Did you know eagles had that big of a wingspan?

I didn't.

He's so cute!

Did you know there is such a thing as a white peacock?

I didn't.

Sorry for the blurries. By the time I switched over to the right setting, he had turned his back on us.

I figured you'd rather see a blurry front than a crystal clear bum.

Unfortunately, the butterfly garden isn't open yet because it's still too cold at night.

But we made good friends with this giant caterpillar.

Bonjour Butterfly!

Bryce is a big time fan of Fancy Nancy, too

My little spiders, joined by one of our new little friends. She is adorable!

Then we learned how different creatures hatch out of their eggs

These little baby goats were so sweet!

I'm not really sure what to say about this.

He started doing that and then said, "Popcorn popping... on my head!" And broke into a huge grin.

Personally, if a picture is worth a thousand words, that's how I feel about the whole house shopping thing.

Didn't See That One Coming

Yesterday I heard an advertisement on the radio about something to keep my cattle from getting sick.

Again, they were completely serious.

Again, I laughed.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything funny about sick cows. I just think it's funny that I live close enough to people who own enough cows to be considered cattle. I think I'm giving the wrong impression here, though. We actually live in a fairly thriving metropolis. I haven't seen any cattle since we moved here. But they aren't far from here. I saw (and smelled) plenty on the way in.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day round these parts. Kayli's been doing so well on her bike, I thought I could actually get some exercise jogging and pushing Bryce in the stroller behind her. I don't know if that made her nervous, or what, but yesterday she went so slow and she kept stopping. So, I did get exercise, but in the form of pushing her (and the stroller and Bryce) up all the hills because she didn't have the momentum to do it herself.

So, we got to the final lake (very small lake, by the way) and I challenged her to go halfway around without any stops.

She started out great, but then turned back to look at me. The next thing I know, she had veered off onto the grass and was heading for this huge ditch surrounded by three cement drainage pipes. I was terrified to say the least. I ran and kept calling her name, but I was pretty much helpless since it was happening pretty quickly. I saw no other ending than her speeding headfirst (she was wearing a helmet, but still...) into at least one of the cement pipes.

Her guardian angel must have taken over because she managed to fall off of her bike into the grass. She scraped up her chest a bit, I think on the handle bars. But other than that was physically fine. Her guardian angel didn't stop there, though. I thought the bike was going to be a goner too after slamming into concrete pretty hard. But it managed to steer itself into the trunk of a little tiny tree and stop there, hanging just above the water.

I don't think words can adequately portray how absolutely terrifying this was for the both of us. I've never felt so helpless. Even when I got there, I couldn't do much. It's super windy out here and every time I let go of the stroller, the wind had its way with it. So, I couldn't let go of it now, for fear that Bryce would then end up in the ditch. Poor Kayli had to come to me when it was all over, instead of me rushing to her.

I felt so bad for being upset with her for going slow just so I could get some exercise. She was so distraught. She (while bawling her eyes out) said that she was so scared that she was going to miss me. And then she said, "Mommy, I'd miss you! I love you so much!", in such a desperate tone that my heart broke. I'm not totally sure what she meant by this, but I'm hoping that it was that she was afraid she would get washed down one of the pipes and never see me again (there was only a trickle of water, so this wasn't one of my concerns). I hope she wasn't afraid that she was going to die.

That was definitely the most frightening moment I've had as a parent. Maybe ever. And yet we walked away virtually unscathed. I feel so incredibly blessed. There isn't a doubt in my mind that she was protected yesterday and I am indescribably grateful.

And it definitely inspired me to be more patient.

After that, the rest of the day was busy, but pretty normal.

Well, we did have another experience that was the opposite of New England. Back East, people would see me with my two kids and say, "Oh, one boy and one girl. How nice! So, you're done." It wasn't a question. It was a statement of fact. And I would think, "Umm... no idea. But remind me who you are and why it's your business?"

Yesterday a guy said, "You have just two children?" "Yes." "You need to have one more." Okay.

So, at least you can see, I'm getting plenty of opportunities to laugh while we're here.

The kids go crazy when we're home. So, we try to not be home as much as possible.

Thank goodness for our awesome friends!

And their awesome water snake. Bryce kept laughing so hard. I love when something makes him laugh.

You can't really see it, but little streams of water are shooting out all over this snakes back. The kids had a blast until the wind made it too cold to be so wet.

Our New Digs

Well, in my effort to catch up as quickly as possible, I left out a few great things:

• The kids swinging in my parents' backyard with my dad. We watched the videos of it that my mom sent over this morning. The kids were belly laughing. Then the movie ended and we all got sad because we really miss Grandma and Grandpa.
  
• Blake and his dad also toured Kirtland, Ohio. It's a big part of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


• We had snow our first couple days out in Utah. The kids really wanted to play in it, but all their stuff was--you guessed it--packed up on the truck.


• Playing games with Blake's family and mine.


• Hanging out with Jemmifer and then having a sleepover at my little sis's house with all of our little family plus my mom in one room. Good times.
• Enjoying my mother-in-law's wonderful cooking


• Negotiating and then accepting a job offer


• Changing our plans about a zillion times

You can see, there really wasn't enough time to do all that we thought we'd be able to. Sorry, to all of our friends out that way. We wanted to see everyone, but it's hard when we have to fit in all the family time too.

Hopefully, we'll be out that way to visit again before too long. It is within driving distance. Just looooooong driving distance.

Speaking of the drive here, let me fill you in on those good times. Remember how I've been talking about how blessed we've been through all of this and how easily things seem to have worked out? I even told Blake that I didn't think he'd get the job here because it "just seems like we should have to struggle more." I spoke too soon.

We decided to make it a two-day trip to make it easier on the kids and because the Uhaul goes so stinkin' slow.

The day before we left, I kept thinking Bryce felt like he had a low grade fever and finally, before bed, it seemed to be getting worse. He woke up early and super hot. Yay. Apparently, he picked up a really bad cold during all of our adventuring.

Dare I say, that was kind of a good thing? See, Bryce hates driving in the car. Hates it. But since he was so sick (and sleep-deprived) he slept most of the first day. It was really sad when he woke up because then he was usually crying in pain and he has the sad cry very well mastered. But I figured, when he was asleep, he was at least unconscious of his suffering.

Kayli was a pretty great traveler. Her favorite place to be was up in the truck with Daddy. We brought a big stack of books (thanks, Grandma Cindy!) and she read those over and over again.

That first day we spend about 14 hours traveling. That included rest stops and stops for lunch and dinner, but it really was a lot of driving. I was feeling pretty loopy (and not at all safe) by the end of it. I don't know that I've ever been happier to see a hotel.

Bryce slept horribly that night, but Blake was kind enough to sleep next to him and take care of him so I could get some rest. We started out again early the next morning, all pretty tired.

We pulled into our new hometown a little after 1:30 PM and got all checked into our new apartment just in time for our new ward members to show up and help us move. Our new landlord was pretty impressed that we found so many people to help us move in a new town. I told him we just belong to a great church! It definitely helped that our awesome friends here set it all up for us!

The kids and I actually skipped out on the unloading part and headed off to Target for some lunch and grocery shopping. It was after 3 PM and the kids were starving, exhausted, and very ill. So, you can guess what a fun shopping trip that was. I like to think of it as us announcing our arrival to our new community. Because we were very loud. And cranky. Did I mention that our move here was full of good times?

The rest of that day is better left not described. It was miserable for everyone in and around our apartment. I'm pretty sure that our neighbors suspected that the spawn of Satan had just moved in. It was REALLY bad.

Turns out Kayli was sick, too. And she got so upset about being sick that she made herself throw up. Very nice.

After virtually no sleep before 4 AM (for me), Blake was kind enough (again) to sleep with the kids so I could get a little rest.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Yeah, we kind of missed that boat. I was fortunate enough to get to go to church the next day though. Blake stayed home with our deathly ill children and they all slept. And slept. And slept. Don't worry, they whined plenty in between, but they did sleep a lot. Thank goodness! And I came home from church with a much better attitude and I'm happy that it has been the dominant attitude in the time since.

So far, we're pretty happy in our new location. It's incredibly different from New England. Some good, some bad. But it's a change I was very ready for, even though I didn't know it before. There is so much more of a community feel here. People smile and say 'hello'. I like that. It's family-oriented. There are bike trails all over and people use them all the time. I like that.

Our ward congregation is very friendly and welcoming. Again, it helps to already have friends here. In addition, my high school seminary teacher lives here with his family too. How crazy is that?! We've been to the playgroup, and besides one child being a bully (oops, that was mine), it was a lot of fun.

It's very beautiful (especially when it's not windy--I hate the wind!). But flat. I was looking forward to living near mountains again. I guess I can't have everything.

Living in the country is definitely a new experience. One of my first days here, the radio person (blanked on that title just now) announced that she'd be reading the stock report. She proceeded to list the going rate for corn and beans and things of that nature. On an FM station. And she was not joking around.

I laughed anyway.

We're living in a small two-bedroom apartment. We have to find a house soon or the kids will either go nuts or kill each other. Or both, I suppose. I do love how easy it is to keep it clean, though. And I love love love our location. We have one of the aforementioned bike trails literally in our backyard. Next to a little pond/stream. It's so pretty! That's what we get a view of every morning at breakfast.

You thought you weren't getting any photos, didn't you?

This is basically in our backyard.

I've never seen him so willing to pose. I wanted to just snap pictures all day. Doesn't he look adorable in his flip flops? He calls them "fwip fwops". Did I mention he's adorable?

This one is precious too. Just much less cooperative in the posing department.

See what I mean? She isn't pointing to anything. She's just doing that.

Look down at their feet. I jogged down this path a couple days ago and i think I came across at least a dozen families with all these cute little fuzzy ducklings. Maybe I'm still a little girl at heart, but I can't get enough of them!

These guys are pretty darling too. See the little goslings there in the grass?

Blake tightened one side of her training wheels that has always been a little loose and suddenly, she's no longer afraid to ride. Now we're afraid. She gets going pretty fast!

(That boy behind her is holding a full-sized shovel. Why would anyone bike while carrying a shovel?! He was kind enough to slow until Kayli had turned a different direction, so at least he has the common sense not to knock a 4-year old in the head with it.)

There you have it. We're here. We're happy. And I'm ready to be done house hunting. It's not as thrilling as I always thought it would be. Keep your eyes crossed and hopefully, we'll be living in a home of our own (with more than 2 bedrooms!) by July. And then we'll re-open the open invitation to one and all to come visit us. Who knows, maybe we'll actually invest in a guest bed!

"Giwlfwiends past" & "Coow beans"

My baby keeps repeating those two phrases. A few of you know why. I hope you're happy.

Ready for some more?

Good.

First, many of you are asking where exactly we live. Since this is a public blog, I will be emailing out more specific information when I feel like dealing with the monstrous demon that is my email account.

For now, I can only stand to be near it long enough to shoot of a quick email to the realtor and then I'm outta there.

Cousin love

It probably wasn't very nice of us to put our kids in swimsuits just as their cousins were putting on their pj's and getting ready to head home, but they had been waiting all day (and really needed to get to bed themselves). Sorry again, cousins!

The kids could not get enough of their super fun uncles (and Grandma, of course!)

Kayli got this new dress from my mom just before we left, so my mom never got to see her in it. I couldn't get a normal post out of her for the life of me though! Good thing she's just naturally cute.

Blake's grandpa came to visit. I always love that! He is such a good, kind man. Kayli instantly attached herself to him and wanted to sit by him wherever he was. She has good taste.

The kids and I drove up to my older sister's house, along with my mom and my other sister. At that point, the four hour drive was the longest I'd ever driven. Boy, was that about to be topped!

My darling niece in in gymnastics. The awesome place let Kayli join for a day. For FREE!I didn't really get any good pictures, but she had a blast. She's been practicing her own style of gymnastics ever since and keeps asking when she gets to go again. The curse of being so stinkin' tall! She's wearing size 6 shirts most of the time and they still struggle to cover that cute belly!

The kids had so much fun playing with these cousins, too.

I just love all the facial expressions in this one

Can you guess what these two are doing?

Did you guess "Two-Person Duck, Duck, Goose"?

It was too cold and windy for the adults to play, but that didn't stop these two for a second.

My mom picked up some Fruit Loops and the kids went to town making super long necklaces.We decided to do manicures just before we left. Kayli wanted to paint her own. She actually did pretty well!Bryce didn't want to be left out, but I told him we could only do his toes since we'd be heading to our new destination soon and I didn't want any one's first impression of us to include a little boy with pink fingernails.

A few minutes after I finished with him, my niece was ready for her nails but we couldn't find the BRIGHT red polish she wanted.

Guess who had it?

Bryce.

Guess who is really good at opening bottles?

Bryce.

Guess who dumped BRIGHT red polish all over my favorite pair of his pants?

I think you know who.

Fortunately, it came out for the most part.

Post-manicure hugThis is the best picture we got of us four girls

Not bad when you consider our photographers

They were pleased to keep on clicking away

After we returned to my in-laws, the kids were getting pretty restless from a non-normal life for so long. My mother-in-law suggested a few great places to take them and Kayli chose the Discovery Museum. We all had a lot of fun playing there!

I thought he's be a lot more excited about this since he's obsessed with fire trucksShe looks like she thinks this is a rodeo ride or something!This was Bryce's VERY favorite partI think this is a super cute picI don't think I'll ever fly with this pilot

And then after what seemed like just a few short days and eternity, moving day was here.

The truck Blake drove from the East Coast to the West and then back to the Great Plains

The drive started out pretty smoothly.

Bryce put these on (thanks, Mom!) and promptly fell asleep

Kayli never wants to be left out of a photo op.

And it's time to go see more houses, so I'll fill you in on the exciting trek here next time.

Stay tuned...