ballet, karate, and soccer

Well not much is new but I feel like I should blog since it's been a week or so. We are slowly getting things done around here. Lidia will begin ballet next week and Aiden will begin Karate next week and they are both on a waiting list for soccer. Ballet and Karate are twice a week and soccer would be too if they got on a team but that may not happen very soon. The kids start school on Tuesday which is good for them and me but we are not in the habit of getting up early so that will have to change. I ordered a double jogger type stroller so I could push both Avery and Tristan when walking to the school three times a day. It came yesterday and we went for a walk last night to the church and then over to the stake center to switch to the new recommends. It handles the two of them very well and is easy to maneuver thanks to the swivel wheel in front. It can be locked in place if you want to take off for a jog or something but I don't see that happening. Cory's work seems to be going well. Everyone seems nice and there is a gym where he can work out during lunch or whenever. He ran on the treadmill there yesterday. Some of the guys play soccer together everyday. Yesterday my friend Carrie and her three kids came over for a visit. It's fun to have her close by now. We are going to have a vinyl fence installed but we are waiting for work to reimburse us the rest of our money from moving. Cory is going to do the landscaping and sprinklers himself. We have gotten some curtains up upstairs but none downstairs yet and I am bringing in one or two boxes a day from the garage. It will all eventually get done. We have opened every box and couldn't find potholders anywhere. I think we may have left them at our old house. I just bought some new ones at Wal-Mart. At least they don't cost very much. We did get the kids a little turtle sandbox and some sand to play in on the patio but they are wanting grass and a swingset or something. Yesterday Aiden said he missed our old house b/c it had grass. The dirt in our yard turns to mud as soon as it gets wet so I think we will need to add some topsoil that drains better or something. Avery is talking more but the kids have taught him to say stupid. That's just great. My older sister Heather had surgery Monday to have her thyroid removed because they found two benign goiters. She is doing very well. Cory's car is getting great gas mileage as hoped, like 45, so we are happy with the diesel. He had to replace the headlight bulb but it wasn't that bad once he read online how to do it and it was only 7 bucks. That beetle is pretty compact though so somethings may be hard to get to under the hood. Once our insurance gets switched over I will have to line up doctor visits for everyone. I need to ask people at church which doctors they like. So we are liking it here and everyone seems very nice and I think the kids will like it even more once they get into school and activities and make new friends. Oh, Aiden has started scouts. Last Friday was pack meeting and he has an activity every Wed. afternoon at 4. I went and bought him his shirt, patches, kerchief, hat and book and it was over 60 bucks. That scout store is a ripoff. The shirt is not even good quality. At least he can wear jeans instead of the scout pants. Anyway Aiden loves wearing this uniform and he likes the activities. He was upset though that he had to say the promise that he doesn't know yet. Cory will have to go over some things with him. Lidia has activities with the girls at church every 2nd and 4th Friday at 2. The early out every Friday will take some getting used to. I am glad their activities are earlier in the day though and since the church is so close it doesn't seem like such an ordeal. One of us just walks them over to the church and then one of us walks back over to get them in an hour or their leader brings them home. One thing that is weird to me is how many parents just let their kids walk to school and church by themselves. I can't do that. I have to know that they made it there safely. OK I've babbled enough.

a few pics

I bought this desk at costco. I went to buy it yesterday thinking I would just bring it home in my van. Wrong! It is solid wood already assembled and in three huge boxes. I did manage to get the two desk boxes in my van with the rear two rows of seats out but Cory had to go rent a truck from Lowes and pick up the hutch piece today. It's also really heavy so some of the neighbors helped him carry it in.

Aiden loves his new bed

waiting for ben and brooke to come out of the temple

tristan had fun sliding on the side of the stairs

boys trying to escape?

right before my battery died

my lovely new table set
solid oak and heavy and hopefully durable

silly kids eating lunch

a chest to go with our bed

i can finally do laundry

busy week

so i have no pics to post really b/c i keep forgetting to take my camera anywhere we go and then i took it to the wedding and the battery died before they came out of the temple. thursday we went up to idaho to see jay get home from his mission and hung out there for a few hours and drove back home that night. saturday we got up at 5 am to get to ben's wedding in salt lake by 7am. then that evening was the reception. we took naps in between. it has been fun to be with family the past week and take part in these special occasions. ben and brooke are a beautiful couple and are very happy together. the reception was beautiful and fun too even though it rained a while after it started. the kids had a blast taking pics with the disposable cameras, blowing bubbles and eating ice cream and lollipops. jay hung out with us today and went to church with us to our new ward. it was good. the people seemed very nice and funny. the building is new and a couple of cool things i noticed is that all the classroom doors have windows so you can look in without disturbing the class and the rs room has an electric piano that can play the hymns itself if there is no pianist. it doesn't sound as good as a real piano though. one kind of bad thing is that it has normal windows like a house that open easily but there are no screens. tristan went into an empty classroom before church started and came out a few minutes later and informed me that he had just climbed out the window and then climbed back in. he was so proud of himself. i told him that is good that he can do that in case of a fire but if there is not a fire he should stay inside. the kids did well in primary and lidia is happy b/c there are a lot of girls her age. the kids love their aunts and uncles. lidia wanted to follow ben around at the reception and avery would run and hug ben and jay's legs a lot. he loves men especially. when jay got off the airplane avery kept hugging him and wanted him to take him on the airplane he had just seen him get off. will and zara are very cute and fun to watch. the kids love playing with will. he is at a very fun stage. it has been nice too see so many family members that we rarely saw in the past and meet new ones. it's nice to know that now that we live closer we can see family more often too. tomorrow cory starts work and i've got to get busy unpacking and grocery shopping and stuff. maybe we can finally settle into some sort of routine. all this going and going has been great but we're exhausted and have a lot to do. i have some furniture and a washer and dryer being delivered tuesday. i'm looking forward to that, the dirty clothes are starting to pile up.

moving day

we are moving in today. closings on both homes went smoothly. the kids all have upset stomachs but not like constantly or anything so i think they will be fine. they just need to get settled somewhere and get out of the car more and run around. we've been running a lot of errands. yesterday we closed on the house, signed up for utilities, requested a key to our mailbox at the post office, bought a wedding gift for ben and brooke, bought cory a new suit, looked at furniture, and bought cory a car. It's a 2003 vw beetle tdi(diesel). it's silver with black leather interior and a sunroof and heated seats and mirrors. it doesn't have a cd player though but cory can use the ipod or listen to the radio or put a cd player in. it looks like the previous owner had a cd player with disc changer in the armrest compartment. Anyway it's in good shape and drives really well and it was a fair price. TDIs are not abundant and have a high resale value so the choices were not abundant anyway. i drove it back from sandy last night. i was surprised how well it takes off, guess i'm too used to driving vans. right now i'm at the hotel with the kids. they are still sleeping. i am not going to wake them any earlier than i have to. cory is at the house waiting for the truck.

thanksgiving point

We drove down to Utah this morning and had our final walk through at our house. Then we ate lunch and headed down to draper for Cory to check in at work. He thought it might take a few hours so I took the kids to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun. The kids really liked it, even Avery and Tristan. They have a lot of interactive things for the kids to do and they love looking at the dinosaur bones and stuff. After looking around we had a snack, got a few little dinosaur toys from the gift shop and then went to the 3D movie on the mammoth screen. It was soo cool. It really was 3D. The kids kept reaching out in front of them trying to grab the stuff. It was even scary at times b/c it seemed like the dinosaurs were jumping out at you or running over you. I loved it and so did the kids. Avery was frozen the whole time. I covered his eyes some b/c I thought he might be too afraid and forget it's not real. The other kids screamed and covered their eyes a few times on their own. When we came out from the movie Cory was in the car waiting for us. His coworker had dropped him off about 10 min before we came out. We stopped by a few car dealerships looking for a car for cory but not much luck yet. We are staying at the Comfort Inn b/c the LaQuinta's boiler broke and they have no hot water. We close on our house at 3pm tomorrow. We should move in some time Wed. We will all be soo glad to be living in a house again with our stuff. The kids like the house and ran all around it and in and out this morning. They especially love the cold room in the basement b/c they run in and then the others turn the lights out and it's totally dark in there and they scream. They also really liked hiding in the window seat toybox in Lidia's room. They can all fit in there together. We will have to get a fence up ASAP and I will need to put bars or chains on the doors up high so the little guys can't just come and go as they please. Oh and I definitely need a child proof cover on the switch to the fireplace. Tristan kept turning it on and laying in front of it on the floor gazing at the fire, cute but hot. I told him he can only do that in the winter.

Family Reunion

Galena summit

We had a good time at the family reunion. Thanks so much to all of Cory's aunts and family that planned and prepared everything to make this happen. It was fun and spiritual too. Great grandpa and great grandma had some cool things to say and we really appreciate the video the Lotts made for everyone. When I saw great grandma on the video when she was younger, it looked just like Rachel...We miss you Rachel! The activities were fun and it was nice to just see everyone and chat. I wished I could have talked to more people but the kids keep us on our toes. The kids loved playing in the stream and lake and just enjoying nature and all the family. Tristan talked to a lot of people saying who knows what. He took this picture of Sage and said he could get it on a poster and put it on his bedroom wall. I don't know where he gets all his funny ideas. We were also lucky enough to have some of grandma's family, Aunt Tracy and her family and Uncle Tom and his wife, come visit us at Redfish. The weather was awesome. My skin is drying out. We are going to have to adjust to the dry climate.

Aiden's birthday and baptism

after aiden's confirmation

playing with all the legos aiden recieved for his birthday

happy 8th birthday!

transformer

Aiden was confirmed by his dad, grandpa, great grandpa, uncle ben, uncle bill

About to go into the lake

going in...

getting baptisedgotta get some dry clothes on
getting warmed up...

Aiden had a nice birthday over a week ago now and he was baptised Saturday evening in Redfish Lake in Stanley, Idaho during the family reunion. He was nervous before but had a big smile on his face when he came up out of the water. He was cute and he said it wasn't as cold as he thought it would be. Ben and Jordan were nice to go out in the water to be witnesses. Kelsey and Bill gave talks. It was a great family evening.

2:30am

We decided to keep driving and just hurry up and get somewhere so we arrived here at grandma and grandpa's at 2:30 am this morning. The drive has been pretty boring except a bird hit my windshield right in front of my face as I was going down the freeway at like 85. It left behind some feathers. I assume it's dead. That scared me and then late last night a much bigger bird like maybe an owl or goose flew out in front of me but I hit the brakes and it made it across and up before I would have hit it. So now we will stay here and go up to the family reunion tomorrow afternoon. I'm a bit tired and sick of driving.

monday

right now we are in omaha. we went to rachel's sunday afternoon and spent the night and left there before lunch today. it was nice to visit them. the kids had a blast playing with luke. travel is going ok. the kids fight and yell a lot. it is kind of annoying. we are punishing them by not letting them go to the pool at the hotel tonight. perhaps they will do better tomorrow? i doubt it. we'll see. today is cory's birthday. he is 33. Happy Birthday Cory! Sorry we are not doing anything fun or special.

day 1

Well the first day of driving went ok. We spent the night in Crawfordsville, IN. We will drive to Rachel's today and stay there till tomorrow morning. Everyone is traveling pretty well and the weather has been nice.
By the way, I decided not to color my hair. So if you see me it's natural, including a few gray strands.