Pictures Galore, and our "Final Resting Place"

First, the pictures from the Bean Museum that I promised the other day. It really was pretty cool! The kids want to go back so Daddy can see it all! I haven't had the heart to tell them that Daddy will probably enjoy it about as much as a trip to the dentist, animal non-lover that he is...

These next few are just pictures from a few days ago (the 25th, I think) that were particularly cute.

Last night (Thursday) we got to meet up with several of my roommates from BYU days. That was so fun! Kimberlee's complex has an amazing clubhouse that she was able to reserve for us, and it was fun to see everyone! We missed everyone that wasn't with us! I haven't seen any of these particular roommates since graduation, almost 6 years ago! Katy wouldn't let me set her down for this picture, and the "group" picture from our camera didn't turn out - Susie and Russ got cut off! Hopefully Susie's camera got a good one...

TODAY (the 28th) was a very long day! Here are Reilly and Jaina playing their v-readers this morning while Jeremy worked on his business plan that's due soon (that's all he does in his spare time these days) and I tried to get Katy to nap after cleaning the kitchen.

We spent the afternoon and evening in Orem at a graveside service for Jeremy's great-Uncle Robert. His Grandpa Jim was able to make the trip from Colorado (thanks to a great home teacher that brought him). It was really nice to see him. The last time was about a year and a half ago. Here are the kids all ready to go.

A real smile. It's hard to get one of those these days for the camera.

Here is a picture of us with Grandpa Jim at the church afterwards. We wish he could have stayed longer!

And Jeremy already mentioned this on Facebook, but we finally got an "answer" about where we're supposed to be. We've been trying to make it work here in Provo, but even though Jeremy has the option of staying, it just doesn't seem the right fit for us. The other night in the temple he finally felt that we should move back to the Mesa/Gilbert area and start our own practice. It is a little scarier than associating somewhere, and will be a lot of work, but we know it will be the best decision for us in the long run. I really hate the heat of that area (even hotter than our hometowns) but it will be worth it to be close to family, and other than the heat, we like that area a lot. So in about 2 weeks, we'll be wrapping things up in Utah and moving home. We'll be there for a few days before Jeremy, Katy and I travel to Iowa for graduation, then he'll be staying another 3 weeks to study for and take his last set of Boards. The kids and I will be staying in Pima until we find a place to live (and a little income, since it will be a while before he can get licensed) in the Valley. Hopefully it will all go smoothly!

Happy 7 months!

 First of all, we're alive and well here in Provo. Jeremy's internship/precept program is going well, and he's learning some good stuff. :) We have been trying to enjoy the area while we're here, and there have been some decent days. The kids and I went to the Bean Museum the other day, but those pics are on the other camera, so I'll have to put them up later. We've enjoyed walking the malls around here, taking some pretty drives, eating out at some different places, etc. Our ward is nice, and we've been able to visit with a few friends.

And second, a few days ago, Katy hit 7 months! She is still such a mama's girl, and prefers me to sit with her on the floor or carry her around as much as humanly possible. She's starting to decide she wants daddy sometimes too, though. Once he has her it works best if I stay out of sight... Jeremy managed to get her lone tooth to show up in one of these pictures. We're hoping the second one breaks through soon, so she's not such a grump some days! She is taking 6-7 oz of formula a day now (in addition to nursing) and eating everything we'll let her. Her night sleeping is mostly better, and she's back to 3-4 hour stretches. Thank goodness, because that every-2-hours during Christmas was about to kill me off! She wants to crawl, but hasn't figured it out yet...

The cute fabric-flower shirt and bow were given to me by neighbor, Melesa! She is awesome...

Three Little Monkeys

First I guess I should throw in a few highlights from our trip home. We were going to drive home (to Provo) on December 30th, but a fairly intense storm all through northern AZ and UT caused us to change our minds. We drove down to Mesa the afternoon of New Year's Eve, and spent the night at Phil & Sophie's. We actually stayed up until midnight, which I don't think I've done in at least 2 years... it was pretty fun, and the kids all enjoyed getting to spend some time with Uncle Phil, Aunt Sophie, and Cousin Kinz. Phil works hard to make sure he's a fun uncle, even though we don't see him much. Here is Katy, about to be airplaned all over the living room:

This is one of many very exciting pictures I took of Phil and Sophie. We'll just leave it at that. :)

Probably the weirdest part of New Year's was all the fireworks people were setting off in the streets at midnight. Though still technically illegal in some aspects, the recent law change made a big difference in the number of "celebrations." Pretty cool.

The next morning we drove to St. George, (fairly uneventful) stopping briefly to visit 2/3 of our belongings in our storage unit in Henderson. We got a pretty nice little suite, and everyone slept well. Jeremy and I even went to bed at 9:30 with Katy. We were pretty tired from the festivities the night before and all the driving. :) 

I randomly called my friend Naomi while driving through the endless desert somewhere around Kingman, and found that she and her family were ALSO going to be in St. George that night. Score! We hadn't seen each other in about a year, since our friend Karen's wedding, so that was really cool. It was also fun because I hadn't met her sweet little one and she hadn't met either of my girls. (She saw Reilly shortly before Jaina was born). Of course my kids were being punks, but they weren't very excited about leaving all their grandmas and grandpas again, and all the traveling was already getting to them. That's my excuse, anyway...

I don't know if you'd call it a highlight, but when we were 40 miles outside of Provo, Jeremy called me and said he had a flat tire. We were driving two cars up, and he and Katy were in the Cavalier. We went back to the exit he had stopped at, and while he was changing the tire, I noticed it looked like it had no tread. I looked at the other front tire, and it was also completely bald. The tires were only 18 months old! Apparently (we figured out later) we should have had it aligned after his dad replaced the struts. He carefully took some back roads about 15 miles until he could get to somewhere that was open (it was Sunday) and bought new tires, then finally made it the rest of the way home about 3 hours after us. It was cold and snowy, but we were so grateful it happened with plenty of daylight, and not in a storm, and that the tire only went flat instead of blowing out on the freeway (where the speed limit was actually 80 mph much of the way). We were definitely being watched over!

We're doing well here in Provo, and it's been really nice having a car. We have shared a car for about 4 years now, and it's great to not have to worry about giving rides, or who needs to do what, etc. The kids and I have ventured to the library twice (I really like the Provo library!), the mall, Wal-mart, Target, etc. all during the middle of the day. :)  Attitudes and sleeping seem to have finally settled down after being "home" almost 2 weeks now, and everyone's doing fairly well. We have no idea what's going to be happening 6 weeks from now, but I'm just trying to enjoy the "normalness" while we have it.

All bundled up and ready to go out!

She sits well, but the boppy is still nice to prevent some head bonks...

Poor thing woke up with a swollen eye this morning.
Already looking better though!



These three keep me so busy. Reilly and Jaina just play and play and play all day. We are constantly telling them to stop playing during mealtime too and PLEASE JUST EAT. They fight a little, but mostly they entertain each other right now. And Katy. Sometimes I get lucky and I can sit her in their room with them and she'll watch them for 20 or 30 minutes while I get something done. Much of the time she's her happy little self, but she's also teething (her first one popped through last week - yay!) off and on, and has had a bit of a cold. She is SUCH a mama's girl. Neither of my other kids were ever this bad (that I remember). It doesn't matter who's holding her - if she can see me, she starts whining to get to me. Sweet, but a little difficult at times!

Reilly and Jaina are growing so much. The other day I told Jaina to go do something and she rolled her eyes and said "whatever, mom!" She was smiling, and actually went to do it (which doesn't always happen) but isn't just barely 3 a little early for this sort of thing??

Tonight Jeremy went to the temple, so I did baths (pretty much a weekly occurance right now - trying to get them all clean at once wears me out!!) and put everyone to bed. Here are some pictures we took before Reilly and Jaina (finally, after like 30 minutes of "bedtime" stuff) went to bed. (On Reilly's mattress - what passes for beds around our crazy household right now)



They are silly, and they drive us crazy sometimes most of the time,  but they love each other, and we sure love them!