My kids are awesome

Last Sunday we went to our new ward for the first time and it was fast and testimony meeting. Jaden got the idea in his head that he needed to go up there and speak into the microphone. He was really insistent, but Scott held him off until after the meeting was over telling him that he needed to practice first. We know our son well enough to know that he would either get up there and yell some gibberish into the microphone or more likely get nervous and run away...either way not the best way to make a first impression to the congregation. In hindsight maybe it would have gotten us noticed since no one really spoke to us all block.

When we got home from church Jaden reminded us that he wanted to practice his testimony so he went and found himself his own little podium. I've wondered how much he picks up on at church since he never seems to be paying much attention, but I was very impressed. He started talking about things and then in the middle stopped and said, "I need to blow my nose" and pretended to do so before continuing on talking about nursery and his family. It was hilarious. I know I won't do this justice with my poor story telling skills but the funniest part was a little later on and he knew he had the crowd going (dad, mom, and grandma) so he was being really silly. The stand that he had chosen has a little door on the front and he walks around, bends down and opens the door and exclaims, "come on out President Hinckley, you aren't died anymore". If you are a loyal reader you might remember that Jaden had some trouble with the whole casket/being in a box thing. I don't know if he was thinking that the door was a little box or what. We often keep old ensigns in there so I'm assuming he has seen President Hinckley's picture kept in there? Anyway, that story probably doesn't make sense, but it was priceless to us.

So now we have pretend church on a fairly regular basis at our house. This is a video we took Saturday in between conference sessions. He's getting pretty good.

Not to leave Logan out because he is awesome too.

Settling In

Oh where do I even begin?! Despite a few bumps in the road we are here and happy out here in Eastern Washington. We moved so quickly we didn't want to have to jump in and buy something right away and didn't want to have to lock ourselves into a year lease renting a place either. We thought we had found a great solution in renting a house from a small family who spends half the year in Italy. The lady had sent us some pictures and was really flexible with how long or short our stay would be until we found something permanent. We knew the place was small and old but we really didn't have any other options so we figured that it would work.


When we drove into town we headed straight over to meet the lady who was managing this couples house and she took us to see our new home. I didn't even have to go inside to know that it wasn't going to work. It was terrible - extremely small and very old! Not only that but the people still had their things everywhere. Bottles in the refrigerator, toys scattered around the house, random furniture left when it was suppose to be empty. The nice management lady was like "huh well you're not saying anything, so what do you think?" I told her that I didn't see how it would work but we didn't really have a choice. We had everything loaded in a moving truck with no place to go. Thank heavens for us though this nice lady told us that she had a 3 bedroom duplex that was empty that she would let us rent through the summer. We drove over there and upon walking in the front door we told her we'd take it. It's smaller than what we had in Seattle, but we have a yard! Our place is in no way ready to take pictures of and post yet, but hopefully by this weekend we'll get all of our boxes put away.


We really are enjoying living here so far. Scott mentioned that he already feels more at home here than he ever did after a year in Seattle and I have to agree. I love that it takes Scott 5 minutes to get home from work, I love that we are paying $500 less in rent than we were in Seattle, I love that we can actually buy a home here, I love that I found Winco to shop at - Amy you had told me great things, and now I'm a believer. Seriously we were like kids in a candy shop while picking up our groceries. The same brand of ice cream that cost $6 in Seattle was regularly priced at $3 there. Everything was cheaper, except for milk which is a bummer since we go through at least two gallons a week.

When Scott was about 4 years old his family moved from Kansas City, MO to Utah and while his two older brothers got to ride in the moving truck with his dad Scott had to fly there with his mom and little sister. Apparently he remembers being so upset about it that he was insistent that Jaden could ride in the moving truck with him. I tried to protest, but you can see who won that battle. Just look how happy they are!

Easter weekend

We are moving in just a couple of days but rather than spend our last weekend packing up we last minute decided to go to my parent's house for Easter. Right now looking around at all we have left to do I think it was a pretty crazy choice, but I'm still glad we went. Jaden of course loved every minute of it. He was able to color eggs with his cousin Jackson, run around outside on a day that actually felt like spring, go on a easter egg hunt, and play with the different toys at my parents house. Once again he was interested in the girly things. I walked in on the boys playing at Jaden had the box of all the princess dress clothes open and was trying to get Jackson to join in. I'm not worried though, his first love will always be sports.

As you can see by the giant (but I think adorable so I left it big) picture of my kids on top of my page we really tried to get a decent family picture while we were there on Easter. We literally must have taken like 30 and when all was said and done I don't know if any of them ended up with all four of us looking at the camera. I finally ended up cropping some of the pictures to edit out those of us with funny faces but still keeping a cute one of someone else.

Well the easter bunny did make it our way this year. We are thinking about having him come on saturday next year so Sunday can actually be focused on Christ rather than candy and bunnies. My brother asked Jaden at dinner what his parents had taught him about why we have Easter and his response was "bunnies hop". Whoops - I guess we have work to do in that department.

What did you do today?

I saw this the other day and it made me laugh. So this if for all mothers who have ever felt this way, and for husbands who have ever asked this question.

One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house.

Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.
In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"

She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world did I do today?"

"Yes" was his incredulous reply.

She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

On the road again

Since we can't seem to stay put anywhere for longer than a year at a time, we are getting ourselves ready for another move. Scott accepted a job last week working for ISP Sports at Washington State University which is across the state in Pullman. Unlike our many moves in the past where we've had plenty of time to plan and get ourselves organized we now have about two weeks to get out there...just a bit overwhelming!
We weren't planning on leaving Seattle so soon but when Scott was approached about this job we decided that it was a good fit for our family and we jumped on it. We drove over there Sunday afternoon to see the area and try to find a place to live. We only had Monday so it was a quick trip and sadly we left without any solid leads on housing. I'm concerned but not too stressed about this yet, I'm holding on the hope that something great will magically fall into our laps this next week.
In case you haven't been to eastern Washington I included a picture I took on our drive there. Pullman does have hills and a few trees but basically it's out in the middle of nowhere. We are really going to miss the beauty of Seattle, but are excited to move to a smaller community.

Getting in touch with his feminine side

Scott is in California this weekend so I took off a few days ago to visit my family in Yakima. Jaden has loved having all the room to run around and playing with all the different toys at my parents house. He's been particularly fond of all the girl toys they have here. During bath time is so excited because there are mermaids to play with. Several times he has asked me to play barbies with him. Yesterday he found a doll and took her on a stroller ride then put her down for a nap. Later on in the afternoon he told me he needed to go check to see if his baby woke up. He came back upstairs with her and excitedly exclaimed "let's go comb her hair"!

Birthday Week

I'm not sure exactly how it started, but for years now we have been celebrating my birthday week rather than just my birthday. I think that it was a combination of Scott being gone on my actual birthday and the fact that I like to milk the attention for all it's worth. When I say celebrate my birthday week that means that I can ask Scott to do anything for me or eat whatever I want (and the calories don't count) because it is my week. Scott is so wonderful to put up with my antics year after year.

Jaden decided that I needed to have a basketball birthday party and insisted that we all change into our basketball clothes. I have such cute boys!

My parents have been on a trip for the past two weeks but flew back the night of birthday so they spent the next day with us before heading home.

People often ask me if Logan looks like Jaden when he was a baby. I decided to recreate a picture to see how similar they are. In real life I think they look more alike then they do in this comparison.