Pre-Christmas Fun

The 3rd grade classes at Brown put on a production of the Nutcracker. It was a really cute version where all the songs have lyrics and each kid either had a speaking part or a dancing part. EZ was very excited to be a toy soldier. He had to have a black turtleneck and let me tell you that is not an easy thing to find. I didn't want to pay a lot for one, but even if I had been willing to pay a ton it didn't matter because no stores around here had any. Thankfully, his school has a facebook page where I posted asking where people found their's and the librarian posted that she had one we could borrow. I am so grateful for such helpful people! EZ is the 2nd from the right on the pic below. It was pretty much impossible to get a good pic or good video for that matter, but EZ and all the kids did a great job. It was crazy how many people showed up to watch the show. The gym was standing room only and we had to have kids on laps to all fit. Luckily, EZ's part was in the beginning because by about half way through Conrad was all funned out so we spent the rest of the time running in the halls.

So I am slowly starting to adjust to the grocery stores here. It has taken almost a year, but I no longer want to cry every time I go grocery shopping and I no longer wander around lost and continually unable to find what I need. Don't get me wrong, I would kill for an HEB, but I can work with Meijer. The kids love to get to ride this horse at Meijer and I love that it only costs a penny. For Christmas they had this special display up and you could take a picture of your kid and then post it online and enter to win some contest. Well that contest part never happened, but we did take some fun pics. EZ had an especially fun time.

Now I normally do everything possible to avoid taking all 4 kids to the store, but this time I had no choice because John got to spend the second week of Dec in Italy! There was a possibility that he was going to go there right before we went to Utah for Thanksgiving and I was going to have to fly to Utah by myself and have him meet us there. Thankfully that did not happen. Now being gone this close to Christmas wasn't exactly ideal, but it was way better timing then the November trip would have been. Of course he spent most of his time working and didn't get to really do much sight seeing, but he got to eat some amazing food! Italy is on my bucket list so hopefully I will get to go with him there sometime.

With John gone, we were left to do all the Christmas decorating on our own. Keeping all the kids inline was a little difficult and some decorations never made it out of the boxes, but we got enough up to make everyone happy. Of course, all I wanted was a picture of everyone in front of the tree and it was Conrad's turn to be the one who refused to cooperate. 

We watched a bunch of Christmas movies and one night the kids brought down their sleeping bags for a little movie party. Conrad really wanted to share a sleeping bag with Netta and I don't know why he does't have a shirt on, but it was really cute. Chances are he spilled something on his shirt, because lately if he spills a drop of anything on his clothes he has to take them off, so he is running around naked a lot.

 Netta and John get to spend a lot of quality time together after he picks her up from dance class. She always seems to get him to take her out for dinner or a treat. Sometimes I will wonder what is taking so long and when he finally gets home he says "Netta wanted hot chocolate" and apparently that is all she has to say to get what she wants from her dad. But let's be honest, he just wants some hot chocolate, too. Her Netta is on one of the post-dance treat runs showing off her now 2 missing teeth. She is loved all the attention and everyone's "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" comments. 

I am really impressed with Netta's dance teacher Ms. Lisa at The Citadel. Netta loves class so much and she is learning a ton. They did a little mini-performance of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Netta was super stoked to get to be Rudolph, because she got to be the head of the line and was the only one with a glowing nose. She hounded me relentlessly to make sure I went to the Dollar Store and got her one. I ended up getting the last one and I am glad I didn't have to face her wrath if they had been sold out ;)

There is a little and I mean little house they set up in downtown St. Joe with a Santa inside that the kids can deliver letters to and take pictures with. This Santa was legit with his own real beard and all. He was also a miracle worker because somehow we were able to get a good picture of all 4 kids together on the first try. Each kid also got a coupon for a free chocolate bar from the South Bend Chocolate Factory. Score!

After Santa we made our way down to the carousel to get a picture with a live reindeer. It was crazy busy and John was stuck at work so we rode the carousel first to kill some time. 

The line to see the reindeer was out the door and I tried to convince the kids that we should just go to the children's museum instead, but EZ was dead set on meeting that reindeer so we made it work. Luckily, John finally was able to make it once we were about half-way through the line and he could take over chasing Conrad, who I had already lost like 3 times. We got a picture of our whole family with the reindeer, but of course I can't find it right now, so here is one of EZ and the second reindeer who was just for petting.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our kids are always anxiously awaiting our yearly trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. Before Thanksgiving EZ has to make this chart at school comparing the first Thanksgiving and our family's Thanksgiving activities. It became clear that the highlights are Aunt Buffy's motor home and Aunt Nikki's rolls. Netta was also super stoked about seeing the motor home again and for a couple weeks before we left that is all she wrote about in her writing assignments at school. The motor home was being stored and the kids didn't actually even get to sleep in it this year, but they had SO much fun with their cousins that they weren't bothered. 

This year we started off staying at John's brother Jeremy's house. There kids line up really well with ours in age, so everyone has a buddy to play with. They live pretty close to Thanksgiving Point and there is a newish kids' museum there that is amazing. I have never seen one so big and my kids loved every area of it. They had a water room and had this awesome water table for babies. There are high chairs in the table and the babies are surrounded by water to play with. Conrad isn't really a baby anymore, but he was small enough to still fit in it and he loved it.

They also had this wind machine and my kids couldn't get over how funny their hair looked in the wind. The picture doesn't do it justice, but they really thought it was hilarious and wanted me to take a tons of pictures. 

The highlight of the museum trip actually happened outside and had nothing to do with the museum itself. We were in the outdoor play area when all of a sudden some guy started yelling about how their was a girl up in a tree. Well it turns out a little girl who was there for a school field trip decided to climb like 20 feet up this tree and in the mean time her school group had gone inside and no one had noticed she was missing. So the guy ran inside to look for her teacher and meanwhile the girl started yelling that she was stuck and "allergic to the tree." They finally found the teacher, but the tree branches were really skinny and I don't think any adult there wanted to climb up and possibly hurt themselves or sadly take the risk of being held liable if the girl got hurt on the way down. I swear 10 years ago someone would have just climbed up but everyone is so quick to hold someone liable now, even a good samaritan. Anyway, the fire department had to come to get her down and of course we stayed outside the whole time watching everything unfold. 

We watched a lot of movies while we were there thanks to Joe's seemingly endless supply. He is also a baby whisperer so Conrad and his cousin Caleb loved hanging out with him. It was hard to get a really good picture of the 2 of them together, but they look so much alike that Kimmy and I kept confusing them. It was especially hard when they were wearing almost matching outfits like in this pic. This is the first time one of our kids has looked a lot like a Brown cousin or any of their cousins for that matter, so it is fun to see.

Whenever we go to Utah it seems like John always has to work a couple of the days, so that is always my chance to head down to Provo for a BYU trip. Katie and her family were also in Utah for vacation so we got to see them and we got to see my friend Marlene from MSU, who now teaches at BYU. Her and her husband actually both teach there now and I am really jealous. I loved my teachings days at the Y. Oh and I even saw Eric, one of my old BYU Arabic students who was living in Austin and is now back at BYU getting his PHd. I was hoping to see his whole family, but then his girls starting throwing up and after the barf fest we had a few years ago I could not risk getting any of us sick. On that nice note, we ate a lot while we were in Provo. In fact, we ate a lot the entire trip. I know we always eat a lot at the holidays and when we visit family, but now that we live in the land of no good restaurants we took it to a whole new level this trip. Of course the creamery was on the list of musts. It's amazing ice cream and it's cheap. It doesn't get any better than that.

For Thanksgiving we all met at Buffy's church building. We have become such a big group that it was hard to find a room outside of the gym to set up all the food in so that we could have food and games going at the same time. Of course the highlight of the games is always frisbee dodgeball. I should say it is the highlight for John and my kids because I have no desire to get beamed by one of those things and I am usually busy trying to keep our little ones from getting bowled over by everyone. (Netta got these antlers at her cousins birthday party and wore them the entire trip till they fell apart).

King was not so interested in the game and instead he preferred to sit with the older boys and play their video games. I have a picture of EZ doing the exact same thing when he was King's age so I guess it runs in the family. Luckily, my kids have amazing older cousins who are more than happy to oblige them.

While we were staying at Misha's house I looked over and Conrad had climbed in this baby swing, buckled himself in and turned it on. We still refer to him as the baby, buy clearly that isn't true. I am not sure when we are going to stop saying it though.

EZ got really spoiled on this trip and got to go to 2 basketball games. First he went with John and his nephew Winston and his wife Andrea to a Jazz game and then John's brother-in-law Adam got some sweet VIP tickets to a BYU game and so EZ and his cousin Arden were living large with courtside seats. They got to have a special meal at half-time and also got loaded up with a ton of candy and treats. I was really jealous of the treats more than the basketball.

A highlight of the trip for Netta was that she finally lost her first tooth at 6 1/2. She has been anxiously awaiting her first loose tooth since she was 6, since that is when EZ lost his first. She also became obsessed with this partially pictured stuffed dolphin that she got at the DI thrift store. I always take the kids there and they always want stuffed animals. I have to admit that buying used stuffed animals creep me out a little. 

We got to have lunch with John's brother Tim's family right before they left town and their one daughter just kept crying because they were leaving. Heather said she does that every time they leave Utah and she pretty much cries the whole way home, because she hates leaving her cousins. Oh the guilt is almost too much. Unfortunately, we will never be able to be close to both sides of our family. I love being close to my parents right now and I would hate to be far away from them, but then again I wish my kids could spend more time with their Brown cousins. Maybe someday we will end up out west at least for a little bit.

We also had a chance to stay with John's sister Buffy and her family. Back in July her son Harrison committed suicide and I actually didn't blog about it, because I don't know, I felt like it was their experience, but of course it did affect our family and I was really affected by how their family has handled it. Harrison was 21 and had struggled with depression and was trying to get his life in order, but he just couldn't handle it anymore. It still makes me cry to think of anyone feeling that sad, especially someone who was so loved. He even told his mom at one point that if he killed himself, it wasn't because he didn't feel loved. He just couldn't handle how the depression made him feel. I have known depression is an illness, but having something like this happen to a family member has really opened my eyes to how powerful of an illness it is. When John went out to Utah for the funeral he commented on how amazing Buffy and her husband Stewart were handling it and I got to see that first hand this trip. Their faith is so amazing and it has reminded me that no one is safe from trials in this life, but if we are doing everything we can to strengthen our faith and testimony in our Heavenly Father and the atonement of Jesus Christ then we can make it through the most difficult trials. 

November Fun

I had big plans of going to one of the pumpkin farms here and getting the kids awesome pumpkins, but then we everyone throwing up and John have surgery that all went out the window. When we finally did get around to carving pumpkins it was already November and all we had were little ones that our friends Jon and Elise had let the kids paint when we went to their house to visit. The paint had peeled off so voila tiny carving pumpkins. 

I just realized that since I didn't take pictures when we went to visit those guys, I didn't blog about it. Well they are friends we have from MSU and John actually officiated their wedding. They visited us once when we were in Austin and they were in Nebraska. Well then they moved back to Michigan and we thought we would never see them again, but surprise now we are back and it was so fun to get together with them. They live on the other side of the state by Ann Arbor, so it is a bit of a drive, but totally worth it.

And next we have yes a lovely picture of King's butt. I just had to document his recent obsession with his own behind. He insisted that I take this picture and also take a video. I am not sure how long this will last, but for the sake of him making friends, hopefully not too long ;)

The kids had November 13th and 14th off for parent teacher conferences. I had mixed feelings about this, because my teachers did their conferences earlier in the week after school and I did not like have 2 days off like that so close to Thanksgiving. I would much rather have just had all of Thanksgiving week off since we always travel. Would it really be that big of a deal to make the days off later in the month? Especially since they aren't really used for very many conferences? Anyway, the kids of course didn't mind at all. We got our first real snow that the kids could play in and I was afraid that this was going to be the start of a nasty winter, but luckily it was just a one day thing.

The kids love playing on the trampoline in the snow and I love seeing Conrad going flying all over the place. I repeatedly tried to pull him off, because I was sure he was going to get launched off the side, but he refused to be moved and luckily managed to stay on the trampoline the entire time. 

The kids were super excited about getting to go to Steak n Shake. As seems to be the case a lot of the time when it comes to restaurants, I did not share their enthusiasm, but I have to give that place credit for being the only sit down restaurant that provides enough activities to keep my kids in their seats the entire time.

After Steak n Shake we went to check out the bounce house in the mall. I hadn't really gone into the mall before it was actually pretty depressing. There are so many empty stores and nothing in the food court. The kids liked the bounce house, but they really need to work on some logistical things there since the closest bathroom was on the other side of the mall. Not the best idea when you have a bunch of kids who don't always give you much warning before they are about to pee their pants. Luckily, someone has bought the mall and is trying to revamp it so here's hoping it will be getting better soon.

Happy Halloween

Of course we had a bunch of Halloween activities this year. We kicked things off with our church's Trunk of Treat. We searched pinterest for some cute cupcakes to bring and came up with these Frankensteins. King and Conrad just kept say in high pitched voices "They are so cute!"

The Primary Presidency was in charge of the event and since I am the second counselor that means I spent a lot of time running around like a crazy person and didn't get any pictures of my kids or John and I. Luckily, one of activities was a photo op so we were able to get some pics after all. (Not sure if I blogged about this before but a couple of weeks after we moved here we got called into the Bishop's office to receive callings and I honestly thought they would be really small since no one knew who we were, but to my surprise I got called into the Primary Presidency. It's been a blast although I am still trying to memorize the names of all 100 kids. It's huge).

I have to say that I was pretty proud of John's and my costumes. The track suits were a sweet steal at a church rummage sale. 

King had a Halloween party at school, but unfortunately this is the second year in a row he has missed it because a stomach bug has hit the house. October must not be a good month for us. This year it all started when we got a call from the office at school saying Netta needed a change of pants. I assumed she had maybe peed her pants, but when I got there she informed me that she had farted and poop came out. Lovely. So we took her home and within hours she was throwing up and then that evening I started puking and then to top it all off King woke up in the middle of the night blowing oats. John was having eye surgery later that week so he couldn't risk getting sick, which meant I got to clean it all up. What fun! Luckily, by Friday everyone was better so Halloween wasn't completely ruined. Well it was somewhat ruined for poor King again because it decided to turn freezing cold and start to hail/snow. We went downtown to Trick or Treat at the local businesses right after school, but King was freaking out about the cold so we didn't last very long.

I wasn't sure if Conrad would like to use Netta's old Baby Jaguar costume, since King never did, but he is obsessed with it. In fact, when he saw me writing this blog post he insisted on putting it on again. (Poor runt Conrad. Part of the reason King never wore it is that he grew way to fast)

After freezing our butts off we headed to Qdoba for dinner. Another place that I don't really love, but we end up eating at a ton. The older kids were allowed to wear their costumes to school, but for some reason 1st grade and under were not. Netta was not a fan of this so of course we had to find one of our costumes that was enough like a regular dress that she could still wear it.

John was at home in an ambien induced coma during all this fun. Halloween morning he got PKR, the newer form of laser eye surgery and he basically had to sleep all weekend. I would joke that he had the easier weekend, but really the ambien didn't work very well for him and he was in a lot of pain. Luckily, the surgery went well and he survived that weekend and now he is finally free from glasses and contacts!

Since John was out of commission I had to find a way to stay at home and pass out candy while still letting the older kids trick or treat. Luckily, we have great friends from church who live like 2 doors down. The mom Laura is my friend and visiting teaching companion, they have a son Ryan who is EZ's age, they have a daughter Amanda who is in between Netta and King and their oldest daughter Heather babysits for us. Laura was kind enough to take EZ and Netta out with her kids. King absolutely refused to go out in the cold again and I wasn't going to make her deal with Conrad out there, even though she is great and she said she would have. 

Fun with Visitors and Few Random Things

We were lucky enough to have 3 of my sisters come to visit between the end of September and the middle of October. It was a bit like running a bed and breakfast and totally worth it. Rachel and her husband Robert came to visit first and sadly I don't have any pictures of us together, but it was with them that I discovered Grandpa's Cider Mill. While we lived in Texas, if anyone asked what I missed about Michigan, I always told them fall and cider mills. I especially missed the cider donuts from said mills and Grandpa's Cider Mill did not disappoint. They have a cider bar where you can taste different samples of their 20 some flavors of cider and of course they have amazing cider donuts. I ended up eating a ton of donuts between all the visitors and I never got sick of them. 

My next set of visitors were my sister Meghan and her kids. Her husband was going to Utah for a wedding and she was stuck at home alone with all the kiddos, so it was a perfect weekend to come visit. I kept joking that I loved having a "sister wife" here and I really did. It is nice to have another adult in the house to talk to while you are doing all the mundane chores and what not. While they were here we decided to hit up the local corn maze. It actually had a lot of fun activities in addition to 3 mazes. The kids loved racing around the course on these peddle cars and even Conrad and Timmy got in on the action with some help from Uncle John.

We tried really hard to get a picture of all the kids together and we basically had to give up hope of getting one where everyone was smiling and just go with everyone kind of looking at the camera.

We were able to do 2 of the 3 mazes. We probably would have abandoned ship after 1 but the older kids were so jazzed about doing another. 

Each maze had a little puzzle card that you filled out as you went along. This definitely helped keep the kids engaged, even if they all insisted that we fill out each one of their cards which kind of drove the adults a little crazy. During the second maze, Lucy announced that she had to pee right in the middle of it. There was no way to get out in time so she had to go in the maze. The poor girl had been wearing one of Netta's old leotards and I guess she doesn't know the old pull the crotch to the side trick because she got butt naked to take her pee. Amazingly she wasn't fazed by the cold and I am pretty sure no one but us saw her.

The weather was chilly, but still nice enough for a trip to the beach. The wind had blown the sand around so much that it had buried one of the benches. 

While I was hanging out with Meghan, John and the boys went further down towards the water and John got these amazing pictures. I gotta say our kids are so stinking cute and the backdrop was so amazing. I am jealous of how well John's phone takes pictures. I am counting down till I get to upgrade.

Basically the minute Meghan drove off with her family I headed to the airport to pick up my sister Katie and her kids. King was all over baby Kaelyn. He still has a soft spot for those little ones. I really enjoyed having the babies in the house, but I have to admit that it did kind of confirm to me that I am not interested in having anymore of my own. I think we already have enough on our plate.

We went back to my new favorite apple orchard and again the kids played so much doing the extra activities that we didn't actually pick any apples. Somehow I managed to get a ton of pictures of Conrad and Noah smiling, but almost non of King. In fact I am pretty sure it took some mild threats to get the last pic here. You would think that you could count on the older child to smile at the camera, but no.

Katie and I also got to go to the women's craft night at church. It was a lot of fun and we made some sweet stuff. I have never been a huge crafter, but since moving here I have gotten on Pinterest and I have done a couple different projects. I joke that it's out of boredom and I don't mean to insult those who have always loved to craft, but really there isn't as much to do here so I have to find some way to fill my time and try and challenge myself. Plus, there aren't as many places to shop so sometimes you just can't find what you want. 

Now, on the to the few random things. Netta also played soccer this year and she had a blast, but not from the actual playing soccer part. She was much more interested in making friends and after every game she would tell me the name of her new friend on the other team. She also really enjoyed kicking all the mushrooms she found on the field. After one game she came to me crying because she hadn't scored a goal, but she had literally spent the entire time kicking mushrooms. I really think that's not the best choice if you are keen on scoring a goal. She is loving dance and is asking to take more classes, so I am not sure how long lived her soccer career will be.

October was the schools Walkathon fundraiser where the kids pledged to walk laps at recess. Parents could come and walk with the kids and so we went once a week to walk with the kids. For some reason King got mad at me for taking him there every single week so he would just sit on the side and Conrad and I would walk with Netta and EZ. Conrad would also play on the playground and he always had a following of little girls wanting to help him. I got this picture of Netta during one of our visits and I think her outfit sums up her personality perfectly.