Getting closer

Our days left in Arizona are in the single digits, and Jeremy and his Dad actually left yesterday with the truck and 95% of our stuff.  All we have left are what I (and two preschoolers) can carry on the plane(s) on Monday. It's coming up fast, and I'm trying to be more excited about getting there and less nervous about all the traveling Monday.  :) I'm not worried about Reilly and Jaina so much, but Katy is really at the stage where she doesn't want to be contained in any way, and I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get her to sleep without a crib or pack 'n play. It should be interesting to find out how it goes. :)

Here are some pictures from visiting at Grandma Cohn's the other night.  Check out how long Jaina's hair is here and you can appreciate the haircut (her first in 2 years) that appears in the bottom pictures.



This is my Grandma that Katy is named for. (Kathryn) All of my kids love her
and we're all going to miss her when we leave!

Can I not look even a little bit like my mom?

.

Pictures we took the other night while we were looking at the awesome sunset through the smoke of the fire over in San Carlos.  Katy's teething (again), and we get these kind of faces a lot and a lot of yelling when she doesn't immediately get what she wants.

Crib Recalls, Computer Viruses, and Other Fun

I know this is old news to most people. I thought it was old news for me. When the whole slew of crib recalls came out a couple years ago, I dutifully checked both (!) of our cribs, and we were good. I heard more were recalled, but I didn't think they were the brand we had, and they were both being used as toddler beds at the time, so I didn't pay attention I guess.  Fast forward to now, when we were trying to get rid of Reilly's crib, since the older two kids will finally be in "real" beds (bunkbeds!) when we move to Virginia.  So weird that they're getting that old.  Reilly talks a lot about how he will be 5 soon. I told him that 5-year-olds don't throw fits. I'll let you know how that goes. :)  So Jeremy took a load of furniture we were given down to Mesa to add to our storage unit (since that's where they're loading the truck - next Wednesday evening if anyone can help him!) and brought back a few things we DON'T want to cart all the way across the country (again). The crib was among them, and since none of my siblings need cribs, and since even my mom has one, we "listed" it on Facebook. A few people were interested right away, and someone was going to come look at it this evening. I tried to look up the manual online, so they would have help putting it together if they needed it, and found that it was now recalled! Like quite-a-few-deaths kind of recall. Fun times. I'm glad I found it out and not the people we sold it too; I would have felt really bad! So I was a little bummed until I started looking into the recall process.  Apparently, Simplicity (the company that made the cribs - mine was bought in late 2007) went completely out of business because of this, so you can't go through them.  What most people said was they took their cribs back where they bought them and got full refunds. REALLY? For my 3.5-year-old (albeit still in great shape) crib? Sign me up! Definitely exciting. I called our local Wal-mart (we bought the crib in Davenport at Wal-mart) and the lady was super helpful and spent a good 10 minutes looking up my specific model.  The paperwork was all ready when I brought it in. So now instead of a crib we didn't need, we have the full price we paid for it. SO helpful at this point in our expensive life.  And we also have an extra crib mattress.  Hmm.

That was a really nice thing to happen, since I had spent the preceding hours dealing with yet another virus. Which Avast (free virus protection) was blissfully unaware of. It even had the nerve to smugly inform me that "Avast virus definitions have been updated!" several times during the process. Piece of junk. Apparently, "Vista Spyware Protector 2012" or some other similar fake program had just found 32,000 viruses on my computer and wanted me to quickly activate my subscription so it could get rid of them. It was also, kindly, protecting my computer from further problems by blocking my internet access and keeping me from opening any programs that might have any effect on it. Thankfully(?) this is the third time this has happened to my computer in the last few years, and I've become a bit of an expert at getting rid of it. Also, thankfully, we have another computer in the room, which made it helpful for looking up the process again and downloading the latest sweet little virus destroyers. It took almost 2 hours (because it kept recognizing the files I'd try to run and I had to go look up different versions of them) but we are virus free again.  Thank you bleepingcomputer.com. That place is a lifesaver! Love it.

There is SOME fun to report on. :) The day after we had Katy's birthday, we got to go down to Mesa (which is currently hotter than even the Gila Valley, which seems hotter than you-know-where) to celebrate Kinzi's first birthday! There are cute pictures on Phil & Sophie's blog, and here are a few more:

She thought she was hot stuff with Kinzi's walking toy!

Birthday girls!

This girl loves water. Hot, cold, lots, a little, on her head, WHATEVER. She loves it!

She finally got through all of that frosting and found her cake!

True love, right there...

The kids had a good time, and the trip was worth it, even though it was a lot of driving in one day. (Now that we're not used to the 10-12 hour driving days anymore...) We were so happy to get to be there!

We were planning on driving up to Las Vegas to deliver something and see two sets of our best friends this weekend, but those plans fell through. :( I'm sad, but at the same time, it's hard to be too upset about missing out on 18 hours of driving through the desert in June. And if there's anywhere hotter than Phoenix, it's got to be Vegas.  So we're going to do a little bit of Stay-cationing and let Reilly and Jaina spend a few days with their Grandpa and Grandma Kerrigan. :) Katy too, but I'll probably bring her home at night, since she'll most likely sleep better here.  We'll mostly pack some more, probably, but I'm hoping to finish up some computer projects while Jeremy is working, because he's getting anxious to pack my computer. :-s   I hate packing my computer! I guess I just need a laptop next time or something... :)

Kathryn Emily: The Big Uno!

Can't believe Katy is one! I love how big she's getting and how strong her little personality is. (most of the time) She can definitely hold her own with her older siblings, and knows what she wants at all times. She's not interested in walking yet, but she's crawls like mad and I can't imagine her getting around much faster on her feet. She's such a good sleeper 95% of the time, and takes good naps. She has like 5 1/2 teeth, and is working on more, I think. She still loves her bottles, but I'm not ready to go there yet with a long day of traveling to VA (and all that adjustment to a new place thing) right ahead of us. We'll work on that in a month or so. Her hair is -starting- to come in, but mostly just in back. My poor little baldy!  I appreciate that she still leaves her bows on pretty well. (I try to be nice back, and only make her wear them when we're going out or sometimes taking pictures.) She says mama, dada, ball, and "hi" (she pretends many things are a phone, so we hear this often). She LOVES balls right now, and gets very exciting about them, no matter the size. She is starting to give kisses (when she's in the mood) and wants to try anything she sees others eating. She's doing a thing where she doesn't want it in her mouth unless it's in her hand first. Pretty silly, but she's adamant about it. She loves her grandmas, and prefers them over almost anyone (except Daddy, and Mommy, if she hasn't seen me in a while).  She loves people and parties, and hers was no exception. She was completely in her element, and loved all the attention, cooed cutely about all her presents, and thoroughly enjoyed her cake. (Thanks, Grandma Kerrigan for cleaning her up!) Good times were had by all, and then today we got to go down and celebrate her cousin, Kinzi's, birthday. A long day, but worth it to be there with her!

For more pictures of her birthday party, see HERE.

Things are starting to pick up

In two short weeks Jeremy and his dad are going to drive all of our stuff out to Chesapeake. It's getting close, and it's a little crazy!  I have been starting to make lists trying to figure out the basic things I need to not pack for the remaining 5 days, but at the same time, stuff I don't mind lugging around in our carry-ons. Fun times.  Which reminds me, does anyone (in the Gila Valley) have a car seat/booster seat or two we can borrow for 4-5 days at the beginning of July? Jeremy's taking the car seats with him...
Things are starting to get busier around here; Sunday was a busy day, with church and a trip down to Globe to celebrate Jeremy's Grans' birthday. I took some video of that, but didn't get too many pictures.

Watching the NBA finals with Grandpa

Finally crashed in a playpen after being up for over 4 hours

Reilly doesn't often go to sleep anymore, but he crashed on the
way home (at about 6:30) as well...

Just before we went down to Globe, and then again yesterday, we attempted some family pictures. They were just somewhat color-coordinated (with the limited wardrobe that ISN'T in a box somewhere) and taken in the backyard and the carport. Half the time with the remote and the camera on a tripod. Sometime in the next few months hopefully we'll get some more taken (a little less haphazardly), but for now at least we have pictures with our whole family in them!  Here are a couple, and if you'd like to see more, you should be able to look HERE.

We've finally been getting into the swimming picture, and have spent some time in pools in both Grandmas' back yards, as well as a few trips to the public pool here in Pima. These pictures are from the first trip, where we spent the whole time in the baby pool. Sadly, this was also the day they were having trouble with the ph level, which led to both older kids' swimsuits getting washed-out looking, and complaints whenever said kids peed for a day or two. :( Poor things! Katy didn't act like it bothered her, thankfully)  She is such a water-baby though; she LOVES to be in any water.  We had to keep holding on to her to keep her from plunging down into the water where it was too deep for her (to crawl in anyway) in the middle.

Finally getting a little braver. This was the first time they had been in a "real"
pool for over a year, and they (especially Reilly) were a little uncertain about
deep the water was and getting their top halves wet.

This one was TOO brave...

Jaina actually took to it faster than her brother.

And here are a few more pictures of Katy, just because.  We're gearing up for her 1st birthday party this Friday. (And Kinzi's, down in Mesa, the next day!)   :)

My poor little mostly-bald almost-1-year-old!

Helping me fold sheets

Hanging out with Grandpa

Making a colossal mess last night, and enjoying every bit of it!

She finally said her first recognizable word
(other than ma-ma-ma and dada) - "Ball!"

{crickets chirping}

Nothing much has been going on around here.  We're mostly just playing the waiting game until it's time to go to Virginia. We haven't been up to much that I can think of since my last post. Jeremy is working a temporary job trying to get a little more saved up to make sure we can actually afford to get into an apartment once we get there. :) It's been weird having that again; we're used to him either being home all the time or being gone completely for weeks at at a time. His schedule is all over the place, but we're just glad he gets to work. He is now officially licensed in Virginia, we just don't happen to be there yet. :) The next few weeks will probably be a bit of a whirlwind; I think we have something going on every weekend until we leave, including the birthday celebrations of a couple of pretty important little one-year-olds. :) So hopefully future posts will be more exciting.  Until then, here are some pictures from the last week or so!

She loves to get into trouble. Loves it.

Helping Grandma make muffins

A rather unusual scene: Jaina and Reilly are letting Katy play WITH them...

A trip to McDonald's with Grandpa and Grandma Kerrigan

The kids love computer time most afternoons!

Is she sweet, or what?

Or what. "Katy, leave the books alone!"

This kid is turning 5 in a few months. So crazy!

One more little mess...