Grateful for Emily

Today I'm feeling grateful for Emily. I got really sick last night--nasty stomach virus--I won't elaborate. Anyway, sweet Emily fixed all the kids dinner, entertained them, and even did scriptures and prayers with the other kids. I'm so grateful. Feeling a little better today.

All's Well That Ends Well

Trevor had yet another tire blow, and had to get towed, but he did make it to Logan by Sunday afternoon. He's visiting with his Dad, and getting the first steps of the business started. He met with accountant and attorney today, and applied for a business license. He's also spending some time getting things set up at the Book Table.

Update on Trevor

Trevor called a little while ago and had a tire blow on him half-way across Wyoming. He was able to put on the spare, but now it is after hours on a Saturday, so I'm not sure if he'll be able to get it fixed. If he can't today, he might be really stuck because tomorrow is Sunday, and who knowsw what might be open on Sunday in the middle of Wyoming. He might just try to make it to Logan on the spare. (which isn't as bad as it sounds because the spare is actually full size)
We'll see. Poor guy. He had been hoping to make it into Logan late tonight, but probably won't now. I'm sure he's exhausted.
Meanwhile, at home, I've spent the day cleaning up the aftermath of the past two days. Emily spent the night at a friend's birthday party last night, and I picked her up around noon today. Well, it turns out that she hadn't slept AT ALL last night. So I said, "well, there goes my helper this afternoon." She, of course said, "oh no, Mom I can still help, I have lots of energy." About 3 seconds after we walked in the house, I found her asleep on the couch. Couldn't wake her up for 4 hours. Then, boy was she GRUMPY!!!!

Sam and Matthew at Nature Reserve

We took a little hike at the nature reserve with just Sam and Matthew one day. I really enjoyed walking with just Sam. It was a treat to be able to give him that much one on one attention. We found a turtle shell, a snake, were chased by an angry goose, dragonflies, and lots of muddy little toads.

more pics of Purina Farm

Easter bunny!
Julie and Matthew waiting for the dog show
Ginny and her friend Sona looking at the fish pond down below
Our good friends Elise, Walker, and Sona Andrews

Ginny's best friends, Sona

Pics of Wheeler's visit/Purina Farms/

Matthew and Mom
Sam singing on barn rope at Purina Farms
Sam, Max, and Ginny petting the baby bunnies at the Farm
They had lots of cute baby farm animals that the kids could gently touch.

Julie and Matthew Wheeler visited us awhile back, and we had some fun adventures at Purina Farms and the Shaw Nature Reserve. The boys had a great time playing together. Julie and I had a lovely temple trip and nice dinner out, too. Here are some pictures of their visit.

Trevor left for Utah today!

He's on his way! At this point, part of me is really excited, part of me is terrified about him driving all that way dragging a trailer behind him, part of me is saying, "What were we thinking? We can't start our own business, sell a house, and move all the way across the country!" and part of me is just thanking the Lord for the blessings we have received to this point.

I am exhausted. He planned to leave at 1:00 or so, but didn't actually leave until 5:00. He left for the first time around 2:00 but came home 20 minutes later because the trailer was fish-tailing like crazy. A guy at the shop adjusted some things, and told us we had distributed the weight of the load incorrectly, so we reloaded the whole thing, and it worked better after that. Hopefully he'll still be able to get 5 or 6 hours of driving behind him tonight. The last two days have been crazy, and now tomorrow I'll have to pick up the pieces at home. My house is a certified mess!!!!!

Max's Birthday

Max in Hawaiian clothes from Tutu and Papasan with his new baseball bat.
Oh somebody has a birthday, the dear little Max here, may Father in Heaven Bless him, through all the coming year. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, May all that you wish come true. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, we're wishing Dear Max for you.
The boys at Summit Archery
Ready, aim...

I'm definitely late to be posting this, but wanted to put up a few pictures of Max's birthday clear back in March. So much has happened in the last few weeks, that it seems like ages ago, but I guess it is just a month. Anyway, we celebrated Max's birthday by having a family dinner on the day with gifts, of course. We gave him camouflage pants and shirt that he wears as often as he can, the necessary socks and underwear, a release for his archery kit, etc. Then, a couple of days later, we took him and about 7 friends to Summit Archery where they all shot arrows at targets for a full hour. Talk about little boy heaven! They all had a great time. Matthew and Julie Wheeler were visiting with us, so they got to come, too.

house pictures

Here are some pictures of our house. I'm just putting these in here for my sake. Most people already saw these on realtor.com, but I wanted some in here for me to look back at and remember some day. We've really enjoyed this neighborhood. Our neighbors are just good old-fashioned friendly!

Preschool group

I've mentioned periodically about our little preschool group that meets on Monday mornings. We have a lot of fun learning about the world and ourselves, and of course our letters and numbers, too. Here is a picture we took on our Easter themed day. (That explains the bunny ears!) This has been a great little group. We'll miss it when we get to Utah. I hope we can do something similar when we make new friends there.

vacation photos

Emily unlocking the secret door in the study before the magic show
Magic pre-show. We ordered and thoroughly enjoyed fancy desserts.
Wilson's creek battlefield. This house is 80% as it was in the civil war.
On the grounds of Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in Mansfield MO

The Wilder home where she wrote her Little House books.

Vacation photos

vacation photos

Here are some pictures of our Branson vacation. We packed a whole week's worth of fun into 2 days. We didn't tell the kids where we were going or what we were doing, so everything was a big surprise to them. So all weekend we just telling them we were headed to the next surprise, and then they were excited to see what the next adventure was! We visited a beautiful cave called "talking rocks". It was so much fun to see the wonders of nature. We descended down a hundred feet and explored the nooks and crannies of these formations. Amazing! We visited the fish hatchery, which was very interesting, and then spent several hours playing in an indoor water park that was inside our hotel. There was a giant tree house with water slides and splash/spray toys, a lazy river, several bubbly hot tubs, a basketball pool, a great toddler area, etc. The kids loved it. We visited the Hollywood wax museum and took some fun pictures, and then the best part was a magic show. We sat in the front row and were thoroughly amazed at the illusions. It was incredible. We walked away saying, "How did they do that?" Sam was even called out of the audience to help with one of the tricks. On the way home, we stopped at the Wilson Creek civil war battlefield, and saw a house that is original to that period that served as a hospital during the battle, as well as the actual bed in which one of the union generals died. Amazing that these things get preserved! Then, we made one final stop...a pilgrimage to the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder where she wrote her Little House on the Prairie books. Wonderful! They had the actual school slates that she and Mary used, her sampler stitches, Pa's fiddle, Almanzo's watch, the clock he gave her for Christmas when they were first married, an original manuscript, letters Laura had written, lots of photos, etc. I loved it. We're so glad we took took the time to have some fun family time before the move gets really crazy. Trevor is leaving this Friday!

the trailer for Teuscher Band Instrument Repair

sam and Ginny at the park

We picked up Trevor for lunch today and went to the park. Beautiful spring day.

hot dog!

Ginny quote of the day. "I'm a little hot dog...come eat me up!"

missing mom

I was going through some papers today, and found a bunch of letters that mom had written right before she died, as well as the letter I wrote to her and the talk I gave at her funeral. There was a lovely tribute written by the teachers she worked with at the middle school. Anyway, I sat there reading them and found myself weeping. I was missing her so much...thinking about how she would have loved all the grandkids, how she would have driven me crazy worrying about us starting our own business, how she would have just loved me and let me call her with any trouble or joy. Sam found me crying, and he came over and just put his arms around me. Sweet boy! He has a tender heart. I ended up calling my Dad to talk about mom for a little while, and it was nice. We were remembering all the fun stories about her. It helped me to know how much he still misses her, too.

Taking care of a lot of business details today. Insurance, advertising, signs, etc. So many details!

kid quotes

Here's an almost teenager quote for you...(Emily to one of her siblings)..."You are taking up valuable space in which someone else might actually be able to do something useful!"

We were playing I Spy with my little eye for Family Home Evening, and Max gave a clue saying, " I spy something that is squishy." So Sam immediately says, "Is it mom? Mom is really, really squishy!" Squishy is not an adjective that I necessarily aspire to....

This weekend on our vacation, after a long day of many fun activities, we were headed to one last surprise, which was the biggest one of all...a magic show we had reserved tickets for. Well, Sam, not knowing what the surprise was, and already tired out from all our activities, said, "Mom, I think I'm done having fun. I don't want any more fun today." But, he quickly recovered when we got to the magic show, and we all had a wonderful time. It was amazing! (More on our weekend trip later...)

Sold!

We sold our house this weekend! What a relief! It was a a good offer for the price we need, no contingencies, and the closing date is right after school gets out. Whew! We have been greatly blessed. I know the Lord has been mindful of us as we make this transition, and we feel so grateful for all the divine and earthly help we have received. We received the offer as I was on my way back from a weekend trip to Illinois. We had a great time there visiting our friends. Emily stayed with her friend Lily and also visited with her friends Amy and Andrea. The boys and I stayed with the Wheelers, and enjoyed a visit with the Vazquez family and a nice trip to the Discover museum to see lots of friends there. The highlight for me was a dinner at a local Thai restaurant with 10 of my dear friends from Normal. We had a good laugh, caught up on the news, and tasted some really delicious food. I'm going to miss all of these ladies. David Wheeler watched the boys so Julie and I could have this ladies night out, so we were very grateful. On Saturday, we visited Mado and her girls, had a quick visit with the Ringers, and were able to see my cousin Genny and her one week old sweet baby girl. It was a lot of visiting, and the kids grew tired toward the end, but we had a great time, and I'm really glad we made the trip.

Easter was absolutely lovely and quiet at home. We had a visit from the Easter bunny, dyed eggs, hunted eggs in the backyard, and had a simple easter dinner. Church was lovely, and reminded me of the importance of showing gratitude to the Savior every day for the blessing of His atonement.

Now we are back to handling all the details for our move. Reserving trucks, ordering tools, making information packets, switching insurance, etc., etc., etc. One day at a time, one detail at a time, things are coming together. I'm also planning a surprise trip for all of us this weekend to spend some quality time with Trevor before he leaves us. More on that later...

i've got a bunch of pictures to post of our visit to Normal, Max's birthday, the Wheeler's visit here in St. Louis, etc. If only I could find the cable I need to download the pictures onto the computer!