Moving Day!

...or at least it will be once my alarm goes off in 5 1/2 hours.  I didn't want to leave my 3 readers hanging (shout out to Rebecca, Melissa, and Tracy!), so I thought I would write a few quick lines about each member of the family.

July 4, 2012

Jonah is adorable, brilliant, and completely without a schedule (poor 3rd child), but still a happy and easy little 4 and a half month old.  He was 14 lbs, 14 ounces at his last checkup, so let's just say "He's 15 lbs."  He is pretty long for his age, so he's outgrowing all of his footie pajamas.  This is okay though because he usually wears just a onesie to bed since he has to be swaddled up tight each night to prevent the dreaded "rub my face with both hands until I wake myself up".  I have to hold him for naps or else he doesn't have them.  This was fun for a few weeks, but is practically impossible right now.  I've been waiting to sleep train him until he's in a real crib and out of our bedroom.  At least then I can turn on his mobile and leave the room and not feel like I am completely abandoning him.  Next week!

Not the best picture, but he still looks super cute

Kevin is the most adorable 3 year old ever.  He had a great birthday and I will have to put up lots of pictures soon since I made his cake and turned out pretty well.  I mean: I will have to put up pictures soon because Kevin is so amazing and fun! :)  He is a great kid and he tells us daily "I love you SO much" in the cutest voice you've ever heard.  Part of me will be very sad when he learns to correctly pronounce L, R, and TH.  One of my favorite phrases right now is. "Why can I not?"  I will also be sad when he realizes that he can shorten it to "Why not?"  He also gives sweet, wet kisses and has the most contagious laugh which becomes less contagious and more maniacal at times depending on sleep deprivation and his sugar intake.

She loved the wave pool at a nearby water park

Kevin loved the slushies the best

Elena is such a little lady and immensely helpful.  She is thoughtful and she really loves being independent (picking out her own clothes, taking showers, making her and Kevin's lunches while I feed Jonah, etc.).  We cannot believe how suddenly she is growing up.  Now that we have an address, I enrolled her in kindergarten, so we've been talking a lot about that.  She is half excited, half nervous.  She is a smart cookie and always keeps me on my toes.  I have NO doubt that she will love school.  It will also be nice for her to get her energy out at school because one of her favorite past times has become getting Kevin as riled up and silly as she can.  They then run around and chase each other until someone falls down and or cries.  You know - usual sibling stuff.

A picture with all 5 of us in it!

Dan has started his second year of residency.  Woot!  Woot!  He is working in the emergency department this month and he loves it.  It is definitely one of his faves.  We are happy that he is happy and that this month's weird schedule has allowed him several days off during the first two weeks of the month.  He, interestingly enough, is either working or on "jeopardy" (kind of like "at home call") for 9 nights in a row starting the night before our move (aka: tonight).  So, the timing of the move is not ideal, but we are excited and will make it work!

Where Kevin has slept ever since birthday.  Although now he sleeps on a toddler mattress inside his new tent.

I love this picture of E.  I know it's upside down, but I'm too tired to fix it now.

 There is nothing noteworthy going on with me.  I am just trying to set up utilities and finalize all the little details of the move.  In the morning I will drive a 17 foot UHaul for the first time, so that's interesting I guess.  I'm just eager to unpack and get settled, but I have no idea how long that will take.  The last time that I had to unpack all our belongings, Dan had the summer off to help and we didn't have kids yet.  This will be a little different.  Hopefully we'll be all set by the first week in August because that is when we get our first house guest!  My friend Tina (we had all our education classes together at BYU) is moving to DC and stopping to visit with us on her way.  I'm so excited!

He's too tired to continue to run around, but nothing can keep him from playing with the cars that he carries in his pockets everywhere.

I'll try my best to keep you 3 readers up to date on all our comings and goings over the next couple of crazy weeks. :)  It might make things easier that I will have my very own personal computer again soon instead of sharing with my mom, dad, or Dan like I have been for the last year.  I'm not sure what other fun things we'll have once again when we unpack 2 storage units of boxes and furniture this weekend.  It has been so long, I don't even remember some of it.  I'm sure that we'll have a sizable donation for Goodwill soon though!

Emma saw boats, had a birthday, and Dan took a week off!

This year the city were Dan works hosted OpSail/Harborfest.  Harborfest happens each year, but the last time OpSail was here was 2000.  Sailboats from around the world gathered and opened themselves up for free tours.  There were also free concerts, yummy fair-like food, and various demos, plus historical figures from the time of the war of 1812.

We drove on over and hung out for about 6 hours.  That was much longer than I had anticipated, but Jonah was happy and Kevin and Elena were enjoying themselves, so it worked out.  We stayed and were able to enjoy 3 concerts:  Andy Grammer, Gavin Degraw, and Colbie Callait.  They were all great, but Colbie Caillat was my favorite.  I used to go to a lot of concerts as a teenager and college student, so I was super excited.  I love live music.  The kids had the most energy (and the most room) at the first concert, so they were dancing around and having a lot of fun.  By the time the third concert rolled around at 8:30, we had to buy them lots of snacks to keep the whining down. 

In between concerts, we toured boats and the kids made these pirate bandanas.

This is the actual view from our concert watching spot.  You can see the white cover for the stage on the left.  The sailboat on the far right is from Ecuador and the middle ship is from Colombia.  I don't remember for sure, but I think the one of the left is Indonesian.  I was speaking some Spanish on the Colombian ship and one of the crew members asked where I was from.  I was so excited!  That might mean that my accent was good enough that I sounded as if I come from a Spanish-speaking country.  Or he thought I was crazy.  Whatever.

My birthday was fantastic (See how happy I look?), but the real fun happened during my birthday week.  Dan had the week off starting with the day before my birthday - which he spent shopping with the kids. :)

 We went bowling,

 Jonah became a biker (Dan is holding him and hiding behind),

we played tourist at the beach,

dug holes in the sand,

we went for walks as a family, visited various parks, and we bought a minivan!

How cool is that?!  I can't believe I don't have a picture of the outside.  It's a used silver Honda Odyssey, and it is everything I ever wanted!  I wanted one with automatic side doors, reasonably low mileage, and an 8th seat.  Everything else was just a bonus.  It has a DVD player with cordless headphones so that we can still listen to cds/radio while they watch a movie.  It has leather seats, a sunroof, all weather rubber floor mats, a million airbags, etc.  I love this car!  We found it at a tiny dealership through Craigslist.  I ran over there during nap time one day.  I brought it back to the house during my test drive so Dan could check it out, then I drove it by a mechanic.  I took it back to the dealer that afternoon and told him we would be back to buy it the next day after he had it detailed and changed the oil. 

Dan and I are very cautious consumers.  We "visited" our refrigerator at Sears probably 3 times before we bought it.  We "visited" our TV at Costco so many times that it sold out before we bought it (We later got a similar one at Walmart).  It felt really good to find what we were looking for, at the price that we wanted, and to go for it.

Twinkle Toes

This was a few weeks ago, but this video is so perfect, I had to post it.  Elena occasionally takes a little ballet/tap class at the local rec center.  On the last class of each 6 week cycle, the parent's are allowed to watch, so the kids can show off a little (rather than doing a performance/recital).