The Springs

So, since selling our house we have been hanging out in the apartments down the road from our old house. We put most of our stuff in two PODS. (Can I just say I love these things--They are brilliant. They drop them off, you fill them up, they take them away and store them for you. When you are ready you call them back up and they drop them off wherever you want. No renting a truck and storage place, loading and unloading and reloading and unloading.--I love it). I got off track. The apartments actually aren't bad at all. Our has two levels, so there is no one above us or below--That's a good thing. We only have people to one side of us, and, interestingly enough, they moved out this last weekend. They swear it had nothing to do with our kids. I'm choosing to believe them:)

Because we choose to do a month to month contract we have to pay more rent a month. So, to cut costs, we decided to go with the two bedroom unit. Ms. M is now sleeping in a pack-in-play in the closet in T and A's room. She's fine with it. Actually, it's a good size closet and we can close the door when she takes a nap and A can still play. It's worked out great. My only complaint would be that we sold our kitchen table before moving. It suited the space it was in, but not most houses so we decided not to take it with us. However, that left us with no table. I didn't want to buy a new table until we were in a new house and I could see what we needed. Sooo, we have been using the coffee table as a kitchen table, eating Japanese style.

It works out okay, but the girls not having a chair to sit in is mostly a bad thing. There is nothing to stop Ms. M from running from plate to plate. She likes to inspect each plate to make sure she's not missing out on anything. And she's not above taking what she wants. Then the screaming begins. Oh, the joy. Dinner is a little crazy. But then, even when we did have a kitchen table it was crazy.

We have found a house we like--mostly:)--so hopefully things will work out okay with it. If all works out we will close and move this week. I'm actually a little sad. I haven't minded the apartment, and we will be making a lot of changes. S says it's good for me. I'm still sad.

(This is after an Easter Egg Hunt--See how happy M is--She has probably eaten 15 pieces of chocolate by this point--out of control).

The big event in March

The big event in March was we FINALLY got our house sold. Rejoice! Actually, it officially closed in February, but the people let us rent it for a month, hoping we would fine a home to move into. We didn't. Well, we did, but things didn't work out with that one and then we found another, but that didn't work as well. We ended up moving into the apartments down the street. They have worked beautifully for us. There are a few things I would change, but overall, they have worked out just fine.

Some funny things with packing:

1. S was out of control with the packing. The first thing he packed up was all my food storage/pantry. I had no food to cook with. Not necessarily bad, except when the kids get hungry.

2. While packing the living room S found a bag behind the piano. He asked me what it was and I said probably something the kids threw back there. He pulled it out, yelled, and dropped the bag. It was Bob--as in bobcat. I don't know if you remember my December post about the co-op white elephant Christmas party I went to, but Bob made his first appearance there. Since then he has been traveling around, "visiting" different homes of those in the co-op. After the initial scare, S saw the humor in it. I laughed so hard I was crying. T wanted to keep Bob, but he has since ventured on to another home. We loved having him and I couldn't have planned it better to have S find him.

Scary looking, huh...It 's the eyes.

3. This is what happens when you are busy packing and not paying attention to your two small children.

Thank goodness we had already packed up all the scissors or who knows what might have happened.

We need to say a BIG thank you to the ladies from church that came in and helped me clean my house. It was so so so so helpful. I also had people bring in dinners and men helping us move. We were really overwhelmed by all the service people provided for us. My visiting teachers were amazing. They showed me how to be a better visiting teacher in the future. My co-op group brought us dinners and lunches, as well. Like I said--We were overwhelmed with love. Thank You!

On to March

Little Ms. A turned 4 the first part of March. After MUCH debating, she finally settled on a theme of "Going on a Bear Hunt". In pre-school Ms. Katie read that book to the group and A loved it so much Katie sent in home with her. I would read it and A would say, "Read it again". I can almost tell the story without the book word-for-word (the adjectives always mess me up, though). Anyway, I was leaning toward the bear hunt theme, T was in favor of a My Little Pony party. Fortunately, Ms. A choose wisely.

The invitations told everyone to wear clothes tht could get dirty.

Here they are, ready to listen to the story. After, we got ready to "go on a bear hunt". S tried to scare them by telling how we sometimes have bears try to get into our garbage cans--nice. The long, wavy grass.The cold, icy river (I don't thing those are the right adjectives--I sometimes make up my own:))--Oh, and a big Thank you to Ellen for letting us borrow her brand new, never used blow up pool for the kids to tromp through.--Kisses! Also, looking at these pictures you might be asking, who is this party for, T or A? That's a good question! Next year we might arrange for T to be somewhere else.The oozy, gooy mud--S wouldn't let me soak the garden boxes, so it wasn't nearly as exciting as it could have been. So you get the idea, we also went through the dark, something forest, the snowstorm, and added in a mountain because the kids could climb up the toy structure.

We ended in the deep, dark cave. Of course, S was the bear. There was only one little guy that jumped--everyone else thought he was halarious. We had gone to the dollar store and bought stuffed bears, so all the kids could take one home.Don't be scared about the state of the shed--it added to the "hunt"--really.

Lastly was cupcakes and ice cream. I thought about doing a bear cake, spent hours, well, one, looking into it. Then I thought about doing bear cupcakes, but ulimately settled with chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles, because that's what I do--cupcakes. I will cry when my kids decide they want a cake--or go to the store and buy one.

Also, a side note--my mom bought that "4" candle for T's fourth birthday and somehow we saved it--I have no idea how or why. T found it and decided it HAD to go on the cupcakes as well.
Whew...one more party down! Happy (late posting) Birthday Ms. A. Our life wouldn't be complete without her. She brings sunshine and hugs everyday.Also, don't mind the crazy hair and ribbons--That's just how it is sometimes:)

I almost forgot

I almost forgot a very important event the end of February. My sister and brother-in-law and his parents came down to visit--Okay, they actually came down to go to a Brad Paisley concert, but Saturday we got to take B, C, and K while they went to the temple. Cousin B is my Ts favorite person on the planet--even more than her mom (she told me). T made a list of things she and B were going to do. It was really darling. I should have saved it, but I didn't. It included the event and the amount of time they would spend doing each activity. For example, "play with the babies--7 minutes". Some things on the list were "do crafts" ,

and "playing sports outside"We were hoping to fit the zoo in as well, but ran out of time--(and T only scheduled 78 minutes for that, anyway). We did fit in a trip to IKEA--love it! Hopefully, next time they can stay longer:)

Let's start with February

I know it's been a while since I've written. I'm soo sorry! Life has been slightly chaotic, but then, when is it not. Let me try to update you as to what we have been up to these past few months.

Let's start with February. We spent Valentine's Day weekend in the Tri-Cities. Friday night my in-laws watched our kidlets while S and I went out to dinner. It was such a treat! S took me to the same restaurant we went to on our very first blind date. Good food, and not so awkward as before.

The next day, Valentine's Day, we watched multiple basketball games that our nieces and nephew were playing in. It was so fun. It inspired us to sign T up for spring basketball--that, and the fact she screamed and hid from the ball while playing with her cousin. She's too much like me:)

That night we went to my sister's house for a family dinner. My sister is living in my parent's house while they are on their mission. They are doing amazing with all the cows, chickens, cats, dogs, etc.. Anyhow, we had dinner with my two sisters and their families. (We did Olive Garden take-out--Yummy!) And that is sparkling cider everyone--don't get excited. Also, we broke out The Chocolate Fountain. It was kind of fun, kind of a lot of work, and kind of messy. The kids, however, loved it.It might have been better if the kids were in bed. They required lots of monitoring.
It was fun to spend the weekend with our families. Sadly, we had no cow experiences to report.

The other event in February was my birthday! Unfortunately, S had to work in Sunriver the weekend of my birthday. Since the idea of spending my birthday weekend alone with the girlies wasn't that appealing, we all went with him. I had never been to Sunriver. It was fabulous! We took the girls ice skating,

played in the snow (which was patchy, but the girls didn't mind),and celebrated my birthday (with a mostly yucky snickers cake from the only grocery store in town),

The next day we checked out the High Desert Museum, a recommendation from the great Ms. Brittany. It so happened that we went on the day everything was free. A credit union in Bend was sponsoring the event, so not only was it free, but there were tons of people dressed up, doing demonstrations and explaining things. It was very interesting, after we waited 30 minutes to get in and find a spot to park.

Overall, we had a great weekend. I was glad we didn't stay home--I probably would have been grumpy.

Joshua Scott Ringer

This darling little boy is my cousin's son. He was born one week and one day after my T. Last Tuesday I got a phone call from my Aunt B letting me know that Joshua was hit by a school bus and killed. I can not tell you how heartbroken I am. I can not imagine anything worse. My brother and sisters and I love our cousins and their families. We tried to figure out how to make it to the funeral, but due to the speed of the funeral and the location we couldn't. I am so grateful to have a knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know families can be together, even after this life. I am so grateful to my Savior who made that possible.

Please hug your children a little tighter and give them extra kisses. I forget what a tremendous blessing they are and I regret I had to be reminded in this way. I am grateful my cousin and his family understand the plan of salvation and know that Joshua has returned to his Father in Heaven. I know they know they will see Joshua again. I know they know our Savior died so we can live again. I hope that eases their pain a little. They are an amazing family. I try not to brag about how cool my cousins are, but trust me--this family is amazing.

As I said before, I was not able to attend the funeral, but the eulogy has been posted. If you care to find out what a truly remarkable boy Joshua was, take a trip over to http://manhattanmelody.blogspot.com/, but have a tissue handy. I am grateful to know that families are forever, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let us hold hands, never say "hate", name our cars, visit people, and keep all our cookies. Thank you for touching our life.

Hawaii--part two: Maui

I've actually sat down to do this many times but something always came up. However, I want to finish this up so I can also post some of December as well. (I know, I'm waaaay behind).

Maui was amazing. Perfect!

This was the view from our balcony. I wish I had taken a picture of the view from our balcony in Waikiki, because it was the complete opposite. It was a view of another huge hotel that was probably 10 feet away. I didn't know places like this were real.

We mostly spent our days alternating between the pools

and the beach S and I both snorkled, but not usually together. We'd take turns watching the kids and would go out with S's brother and/or sister-in-law. We saw some great fish--I wanted to see a turtle, but no luck--B saw one, though.Some fun things we got to do were going to a luau (T and A learning to dance the hula)

and whale watching. We were able to see tons and learn tons about Humpback Whales. The captain of the boat knew soo much and talked almost the whole time we were out. It was very interesting.I didn't get any pictures of them jumping out of the water (grumble), but we saw it. Again, it seemed a little unreal to me.

Sunday we went to Church with S's cousin K and her family. Soo soo nice. Also, it was funny--there were probably over 50 visitors and that is quite common.They don't usually were lais to church--It was ward conference and her husband is the bishop. I could tell you all a funny story about S wearing a Hawaiian Shirt to church on our honeymoon and getting seriously chastized, but he might not want that on here:)

After church we took family pictures and drove around the island.

S also got to celebrate his birthday in Maui--Lucky! (Only he got no presents--The trip was his present). His cousin K and family joined us for swimming and also brought a yummy, homemade birthday cake (Daughter H was the chef). It was so sweet. They also brought a bag of gifts for each family. We were spoiled. For dinner S picked Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., had a tasty dinner, quoted many lines from the movie (Forrest Gump--in case you haven't seen the movie 23 times), and answered trivia from the menu.Also, this was not the only time Ms. A didn't make it through dinner--poor thing. We didn't stop to take naps and she would be exhausted by dinner and fall asleep. I wasn't being a super good mom, but I hated the thought of spending the afternoon inside (and actaully, she would have hated it as well.) Also, this resturant is right on the water and there was a big puffer fish my nephew was throwing french fries to--that's their normal diet, I think.

Our last day, after checking out, we went to the aquarium. Again--excellent. The kids (and adults) loved seeing all the marine life and the workers were full of interesting bits of information.

After the Aquarium we waved good-bye to the sun and warmth and flew home, happy and very tired. Taylor is the only one that didn't sleep on the plane ride. She was busy finishing her homework. (Again, I know I'm a slacker mom).
Good-bye Hawaii! We love you!