This week

This is as posed as I could get the kids for a picture.  Pretty typical!  The kids NEVER seem to stop moving!

Charlee's favorite word the last few days is NNNNNOO!  That's exactly how she says it.  She'll sit and play with her toys and yell out NNNNNOO! every few minutes.  It's really funny.  I tried to get her to do it in the video, but she didn't say it with as much gusto as she usually does.  She has been babbling a lot to anyone who will listen to her, especially in church.  It's very cute.

So I am leaving for Utah in a week.  Jason will be alone with the kids for about 8 days!  I am nervous, but I think it will be good for them.  I hope the kids get some good daddy-bonding time.  As for me, it will be fun to have a whole week to myself.  Of course, I will be pretty busy with the classes and stuff, but I have a whole day on Friday to spend having fun with my friend Marie and my mom.  Hooray!!  Plus, I'll be staying the whole week at my grandma's house, whom I hardly ever get to see anymore, so I am really excited for the trip.

Jayden's last day

That last post drove me crazy.  I couldn't get anything to go where I wanted it.  Ahh!!  OK, got that off my chest.  

Jayden had his last day of preschool last Thursday.  They had a party at Gibson park.  There is a big pond there with lots of ducks and some swans to feed.  Jayden couldn't contain his excitement!  He kept throwing whole slices of bread at them instead of breaking it up into little pieces.  The kids played for a while on the playground and then had a picnic.  There was duck poop everywhere and I had to push my stroller through it.  Yuck.  :)  Miss Carol also had a parachute that we played with.  The kids didn't so much play with the parachute as fight over who got to hold the beach balls we were trying to bounce on it.  Oh, well.  They're 3, right?

I am kinda sad he's done.  Carol is the best preschool teacher ever.  She loves those kids so much.  Since we will likely be moving sometime later this year, I didn't reserve a spot for him in her 4 year old class.  Maybe if we're lucky, she'll have an open spot and he can go for however long we live here next school year.

Cute pics

Charlee gets really funny and happy at meal times.  The way to that girl's heart is through her tummy, I tell ya.  She is very cute at the the "how big is the baby?" game.  For a while she was only doing it with one arm because that's all Jason could do with his hurt arm.  It was pretty cute.  She is such a daddy's girl.  The other day in church I kept saying, "say mommy!" and she would laugh and say "dada" over and over again.  What a stinker!  :)

Speaking of food, Jason gave her a chocolate chip cookie the other day.  As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed it!

Catch up

OK, so again, it's been awhile.  We went to Utah all the sudden this week for a quick trip to see Jason's family.  It was a good visit, but too short.  I had too many commitments to make the trip longer.  The kids really enjoyed seeing their grandparents and cousins.  Charlee took instantly to grandpa Hope.  They had a good time playing together.

Jason is healing relatively well from his broken clavicle.  He is still in pain, but it's getting slowly better.  He has been doing about 1/2 days at work.  He has also watched the kids for me when I get called to births.  He is a good man to do that even though he hurts.

This is my Mother's Day gift from Jason (the flowers).  It is exactly what I wanted.  But in addition to that, he gave me a digital frame!  I'm spoiled, I know.
This was the huge snow storm the last day of April.  I was so bummed.  But, the snow melted and now we are just waiting for the trees and shrubs to have leaves.  Utah was in full blown spring.  I was so jealous and it made me not want to come home!  It's the middle of May and I'm still waiting for spring to come.  Ugh!  :)
This is so funny to me.  I have a picture of me as a baby at about this same age crawling around with a bottle hanging from my mouth, too.  Like mother, like daughter, I guess!

James's 6th birthday

James turned 6 on April 6th!  I can't believe he's so old.  We had a fun party at the Children's Museum.  There was a small turn-out of kids, but I think James still had tons of fun.  He had been asking for a Bulkhead Transformer toy for weeks, and he was very excited to get it.

New House

OK, I know, I know.  It has been a while since I posted.  Here is my excuse.  We had 2 weeks notice to move out of our old house and into an almost brand new house on base.  They are going to tear down the houses in our old neighborhood this summer.  This announcement came while Jason was tremendously busy at work getting ready for his 6 week TDY (basically, he's gone for 6 weeks to California).  The housing office said they were supposed to give him 5 days off for moving.  He got 1 1/2.  My parents mercifully came up and my mom watched kids and helped pack and my dad and Jason did all the heavy lifting.  It was a ton of work and we owe my parents a ton of gratitude for all their help.  Anyway, Jason barely had time to get all the moving paperwork done and pack for his trip before he was headed out the door for 6 weeks.  We didn't even have time to have a night out together or anything because of all the moving chaos.  Anyway, I had to clean the old house and unpack the new house (a work still in progress...probably will be until we move again) by myself.  I didn't do homework for almost 3 weeks, a fact that is causing me much stress now that things have somewhat settled down.  

So, as you can see, blogging was just about last on my to-do list.  Although my plate is still full, I wanted to post some pics of the new house (remember, it's a work still in progress) for those of you who were curious.  

Front of house

View when you first walk in the door

Bedroom

Dining room and family room/playroom

Living room

Charlee is 1!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!  It's depressing and exciting all at the same time.  I think her brothers enjoyed her birthday more than she did.  They kept asking when Charlee was going to open her presents.  

You'll notice in the background that there are boxes.  That is because we have to move!  We were told on Monday that we are being "kicked out" of our house and moved onto a newer house on base.  They are tearing down the houses like mine and building new ones.  Many of our friends and neighbors have already been moved to new houses.  It stinks because we will be PCSing at the end of the year.  Two moves in one year.  Oy.