Boom-dee-a-da, boom-dee-a-da...

Well, it wasn't quite that ideal, but I did get really brave and take all 3 kids to the cabin on Wednesday. My parents were up there all week, and Jeremy was working, but I wanted to make sure Reilly and Jaina got to go up at least once before we left, so they'd somewhat remember it while we're gone. I sort of meant to stay the night, but Reilly was overly tired and fussy and Katy has been teething still/again and was grouchy and clingy. She had cried most of the way up because she was tired but fighting sleep. I could tell things really might not go well, and we'd had a bad night the night before, so we just came down that evening instead.  Combined with a late start, we were only up there for about 6 hours, but it was better than not going. It was a little exciting when we got there because my parents didn't know we were coming up that day and had locked the cabin to go on a big hike.  Thankfully, I had everything we needed for lunch, so we had a picnic on the porch while we waited for them. (And thankfully they hadn't JUST left...)  The kids had a good time. Grandpa played with them in the rocks and mud of the creek.  Katy enjoyed crawling around on the porch and in the cabin and getting kind of dirty, and Reilly enjoyed asking me 42,000 questions all the way down the mountain. (Since I moved his car seat to the front seat so we wouldn't have any carsickness episodes.) We got into town at almost 8 o'clock and stopped at McDonald's for some quick "dinner." I was exhausted! Hopefully we'll go up again around the end of June, right before we move to Virginia, and hopefully things go a little more smoothly!

Biggest Loser

I have been watching Biggest Loser (it's the only show I really do watch regularly, not missing an episode on Hulu) for like 6 years now, and I just have to say that this season has been my absolute favorite. It's possible that I have cried during every single episode... There has been very little drama or fighting, and mostly they really do care about each other and are supportive, and it has just been completely awesome. So inspiring, and I always feel happy after I watch it. I am so excited for the finale! (but so sad it will be over) That's all. It's my blog, I can post about random non-family stuff sometimes, I guess. :)

Sleep walking, pictures, and 6 year anniversary

(warning: there are a LOT of pictures in this post. I'm too lazy to make separate posts about the different events of the last 2 weeks...)


The whole newborn-to-8-months phase is still not that far behind me, and it puts nice perspective on "tired." Things aren't that bad at all right now, but I could use more sleep... Katy woke up crying hard at 4:30 this morning (she just had a little tummy ache I think) but even though she fell asleep in my arms twice, she wouldn't let me lay her down. So now it's 6:20 and we're still up. I am so thankful we are living with my mom right now, which means there is a huge chance I can go back to bed when she goes down for a "nap" in a bit here. The 4:30 thing wouldn't be a big deal if I had gotten to sleep before midnight, or if Jeremy and I hadn't been dealing with stomach flu Saturday and Sunday, but as it stands, I'm a little tired...
But let me back up. :) Things have been mostly good around here. Jeremy has been trying to stay busy working on a project for his mom and looking for housing in Virginia. We've been dealing with a silly law that says you aren't allowed to rent a 2-bedroom house/apartment to a 5-person family (even if the smallest 3 weigh less than 100 lbs combined) which has left few options we can afford in neighborhoods we're not nervous about. I know that will work out though, and that something will come up. We still have 6 weeks, and there ARE options, it's just a waiting and hoping game. I've really been missing our wonderful little home in Davenport. We couldn't have asked for better neighbors, the back yard was really nice, our landlady was nice, and we had so much space! We were paying $600 there for our 3-bedroom duplex (with basement) and I'm guessing a place like that in Chesapeake/VA Beach would be more like $1400-1500. So the first year there could be a little interesting, but it will still be good.

(later - after a nap, and Katy's STILL sleeping at 11 am after going back to sleep at 7)
Last week we (through my dad, who works there) got invited to the EAC All-campus picnic. It's always interesting to go back there, since we both went to college there the first few years, met there, and I later even worked there while Jeremy finished up his prerequisites for chiropractic school. It was pretty warm, but the kids had a good time with some of the little games they had set up, and it was fun to see some people we knew.
Here is Katy -not- liking the grass, and Reilly and Jaina doing the fishing game and being goofy.

I just remembered that we haven't uploaded the pictures from Jeremy's camera in a while. So here are a bunch of goofy pictures of Katy, pictures of Jaina getting to hold her newest 2nd cousin, (and then her sister), our matching $1 pj's, and some of our silly munchkins at the Gila Valley Temple.

This last weekend was our 6th anniversary! It was a Friday the 13th, which was fun, because we got married on Friday the 13th. We actually got away for a night without any kids. That hasn't happened since before I was pregnant with Katy, so we were pretty excited. We almost didn't go, considering this is the scene that we left that morning:

Yep, Jaina woke up sick and throwing up, and Reilly didn't feel well either. This happened the last time we were going to go somewhere and leave them (when we went to graduation and took Katy). So frustrating, and I feel bad leaving them!! I probably wouldn't with anyone but my mom, and I feltbad doing it to her, but we really needed to go somewhere. Thankfully (since we DID leave) by noon Reilly was fine, and Jaina felt pretty well by that evening.

Of course we couldn't afford to spend almost ANY money this year, but that was okay, because we got to go down and stay at Phil & Sophie's and hang out with them (which we've been wanting to do). We went to lunch at Famous Dave's, then walked around IKEA with them for 2 hours. Poor Kinzi suddenly got very sick at the end of that trip though. We were hoping it was just too much of Famous Dave's cornbread muffins, because she was happy and fine after a 3-hour nap. We bought a bunch of junk food and watched two different movies with them that evening/night, and hung out for awhile the next morning before we went off to "sightsee." We saw the new Gilbert temple starting to go up, and checked out the new outdoor San Tan (?) mall. We also split some Panda Express and saw "The Adjustment Bureau" at the cheap theater. It was a quick trip, but we had a good time. Not completely sure if it was worth the awful stomach flu I woke up with early the next morning, or that hit Jeremy even harder the next night, but I'm still glad we went. We're mostly recovered by today, and getting back into apartment-hunting and organizing our stuff.

Shipping out

way, WAY out. We've been talking about it a little bit, and anyone that's friends with Jeremy on Facebook might have seen it, but again, our plans have changed. We've known for a while that we were NOT ready to start a business (especially in this economy) like we hoped, but I haven't felt like writing anything about it until we knew for sure what was going on this time. Anyone else bored of hearing our "plans" and then having them change 2 months later? (over and over again?) I guess that's just the process we needed for us (okay, me) to be ready to accept this kind of opportunity. But the contract is signed, so it really is going to happen: We are moving to Chesapeake, VA at the end of June. Most definitely NOT "no more than 12 hours from home" stipulation I tried putting on our life 7-8 months ago. But the position Jeremy has accepted with Dr. Packer in Chesapeake (just inland of Virginia Beach, in southern Virginia) is a great opportunity for him to learn from a Board-certified NUCCA doctor who is also successful in business. He will gain some great tools during the next 2-4 years. And there are SO many things for us to see while we're there. It's going to be quite the adventure. Sometimes I cry because it's SOOOO far from home, and we're going to miss some things (like my little brother coming home at the end of July and a eagerly anticipated family vacation to the beach in August), but I'm really excited for the opportunity, and if we're going to be so far from home, I'm glad it's somewhere beautiful and interesting. That's a long sentence. Anyway, that's all.

Except

A very Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there. I have probably learned things from all of you, whether you know it or not! We have a wonderful set of mothers here in Arizona that have put up with a LOT from us over the last 7 months, but we couldn't have done it without them!