::reunited and it feels so good::

We went to Dallas over the weekend (more on that later).

It was fun.

We're back.

I'm glad.


(my new necklace from the Mr. Isn't it beautiful?? Don't you just LOVE Texas??)

It was so fun to go, but so nice to be back. I missed my babies SO much! They stayed with Grandma & Papa Snowman Thursday (night), Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. When we pulled up, the kids were outside on the swing set (which you can see from the road). Matt honked the horn. Chloe looked over, and screamed "It's Mommy!!!" All 3 started squealing and running towards us. They all hugged me. Chloe started crying. Then they moved on to Da-da. Chloe, Coop, and I went to the backyard to play on the swings for a bit. Portie went in with Da-da and Ava. He spent a good half hour (probably) by her side. He missed her a lot. We talked with Matt's mom & dad for a bit, packed up the kids' stuff, and went home.

(all our stuff! Ours and the kids')

And it's nice to be home. It's even nicer to be all together again.

(Chloe drew this picture of she and I)

It was a pretty fun trip. Anyone who knows me and our family knows we don't separate too often. I don't handle it all that well. I only left them overnight for the first time (other than when I'm in the hospital with a new baby) last year. It was a little rough. I was worried about everything. Everything! I cried a lot when I would think about it. Even the night before, when we were tucking them in at Grandma Snowman's (our flight left SO early, so we had them stay the night rather than wake them up at 2 am) I was so sad to leave them that I almost didn't want to go. Chloe had a rough time. She cried a lot. She called me at 6:30 (5:30 Utah time) in the morning on Saturday crying telling me she misses me and wants us to come home.

But we're home, and all is well!
We had school this morning. I overslept and Chloe had to get ready in like 15 minutes to make the bus on time, but we made it! She was excited to wear her new Texas necklace (looks kinda like mine), and also her pink Toms, to school today. Bubb is driving his trucks all over my arms and the computer right now, and I love it.
:)

::dressed::

Today, Bubba picked out Ava's outfit.

How'd he do??

Bubb: "See wanna weah huh fishy shuht (shirt)"

Me: "Her jeans are dirty, and she doesn't have any shorts to match"

Bubb: "She wanna weah deez ones (pink, orange, and purple plaid)."

Me: "But they don't match"

Bubb: "See wanna weah deez, mom!! Heeuh (here), Ava, put zuh (your) leg inneuh (in there)"

So then I told him to pick out a hairbow. He picked a bright pink one. I said "you like that one?" He looked at it, then at Ava, then back at the bow, and said "it doesn't match." Then he picked out a big red one and the white one (2 bows!).

She still looked cute though. Good job, Bubb!!

In other news...

So, Port learned how to ride his bike without training wheels, and all he ever wants to do is ride his bike! He loves it. I told the fam I was going running tonight, and Port piped up and said he wanted to go. I kept trying to talk him out of it (it's a long run (5 miles) for a little guy), but he got pretty upset. So we just went on a little short run (probably not quite 2 miles). He LOVED it! He thought it was so fun and awesome that he got to come with me on a run. Sweet little Portie.

::3 things::

Okay, so earlier in the summer, I told Portie that there were 3 big things he had to learn before school started...

1. learn how to tie your shoes (more on that later)
2. learn how to read without any help (that's a work in progress)
3. learn how to ride your bike without training wheels (check!!)



(Portie. Age 5. No training wheels.)

I tried to teach him earlier in the summer. I tried again when Matt was deer huntin'. I tried every sort of bribery too. I told him it'd be the awesomest thing ever if we could surprise Dada with it when he got home. I told him I'd buy him a bigger bike. I told him he could come on our runs around the lake in Mantua if he'd learn. He could go faster. He could keep up with Chloe and Brianna. No dice. He kept giving me all kinds of excuses "you know how 'cause you're older. Chloe's older. Our driveway isn't flat (which I took care of by taking him to an empty parking lot-a flat empty parking lot). It's hard." blah blah blah

Then, the motivation...
We looked at Cousin Addy's blog the other day, and her mom posted about how she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. I said "Portie, look! Addy doesn't have any training wheels!" He was all kinds of upset about that. "WHAT?!!?" He wanted to go out and learn right that second. I convinced him to wait 'til Da-da got home (which was pretty soon). Matt taught him. He did awesome. I guess when it comes to teaching him things, our personalities just kind of clash. He's so resistant to learning new things, and I guess I'm not a good teacher for him-except for reading. We do okay together with reading.

Anyway...look at him go!





And the tying the shoe thing....check!!

PS Thanks, Addy, for being so awesome and learning how to ride your bike without training wheels! If you hadn't learned, Portie might've grown up and had to have a 10 speed with training wheels!!
:)

::peach days::

This weekend was Brigham City's Peach Days festival.


How good does that peach cobbler look?

Amberlee & I ran the 10K early in the morning. It was freezing when we started! But we warmed up pretty quickly. It's a pretty hilly run. I can't decide if I hate that or not. It's kind of fun once you get to the top of the hill-you feel like you really accomplished something...plus it's working your butt pretty good, which is a big plus. Our time was 1:05. I got SO tired at the end. It was a slight but steady up hill stretch for about the last half mile or so. I'm running another 10K in October...hopefully I'll do better.


We went to the carnival, ate some dutch oven dinners (YUM!), ate some peach cobbler (YUM YUM!!), walked around the car show (Matt's uncle had a '55 Bel Air in the show, it was a sight to see!), and called it a day.





In other news...
Here's BeeAva. She didn't make it into any of the Peach Days photos. Mostly because she slept in her stroller the whole time (almost). She's not feeling too hot. She has her first cold! Runny nose, cough, sneezes, little fever. Poor bebe. I think she's less stuffy today though, so that's good. Hopefully the other kids don't get it too.

Isn't she cute? She loves to goo-goo. She's squealy and spitty and smiley. She laughs at Porter. A lot! She loves baby cereal with applesauce in it. She likes to be held. She almost always pulls her bows down over her face. She rolls over all the time. She grabs onto her toes and puts them in her mouth. She gets mad if her diaper needs to be changed. She's so cute and so much fun :)

Also...
NFL football starts today (well I guess it really started Thursday), and if you think that Matt didn't put his Cowboys jersey and yell "are you ready for some football?!!?" all day long--well you would be wrong.

::supercalifragilisticexpialidocious::

Mary Poppins came to Salt Lake!!
And we got to go see it!
And it was fab!!


Just Chloe & I. Matt stayed home with the other kids and ordered pizza and played Mario. I told Chloe the play was going to start right around her bedtime. She didn't care...she was SO excited. We met up with Grandma & Papa Kitty and Grandma & Grandpa Asay for the 8 o'clock show.

We loved it! Chloe was so excited she almost couldn't contain herself! She's been watching the movie all week, so she was excited to see the play rendition. She noticed some differences, but thought it was completely awesome! She did get a little tired during some of the slower parts, but during the faster, more fun songs, and after some gummy bears and coke at intermission, she perked right up :)

Steffanie Leigh played a great Mary Poppins. We loved how she went upstairs. Our favorite parts were the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the rooftop acts. The rooftop one had something like 50 people onstage dancing all together and tap dancing, and also Bert walked in slow motion up the wall and on the ceiling and tap danced upside down! It was kind of amazing.

We had so much fun! We're excited to go see Beauty & the Beast next year (Port will want to go to that one) and also the Sound of Music. Usually I don't go for musicals, but these ones I like.

And that was our Friday night.
:)

::a wedding::

Yesterday, we had the privilege of attending Keely & Casey's wedding (Matt's older brother's daughter). They were married in the Bountiful temple (same as us!), and had a reception later in the evening. I kept thinking all day how weird it was that she was getting married. Time just goes by too quickly.


(Keely (age 9-almost 10) at our wedding in 2002. She caught my bouquet! Isn't she a doll?)

She's all grown up and married. Married!

Aren't they beautiful??



Chloe was completely in awe of Keely. Almost speechless. Almost. "Mom she's so beautiful! Look at her dress! I want a dress like that, but maybe I want a pink one. Did you see all the sparkles? Did you see the diamonds? Keely looks so pretty, Mom!"

(a quick snuggle between cousins)

The reception...


On our way out, I grabbed a quick shot of the bridesmaids decorating Keely's car. They're cute aren't they?


Congratulations, Keely & Casey! We wish you every happiness in your new life together! Thanks for letting us share in your beautiful day!

::over the weekend::

So we made it through our first week of school. I think they both had a great week, but were excited for the weekend. They were pretty tired. Portie played at a friend's house on Thursday. His name is Jaken. He's cute. They're on the same football team. So after they played in the afternoon, they had a game that night. When they got home (the other kids and I stayed home this time) I asked how Portie did. Matt said "horrible!" He said that Port and Jaken kept goofin' off and weren't paying any attention to the game. haha

So, Jared & Sarah moved to their new apartment last week. They kept a lot of their things at my parents' house (so they wouldn't have to get a storage unit), and we helped them get it all moved in to their new place on Saturday morning. After they got all the stuff loaded, Matt took Coopie home with him (he was going to take Portie too, but he wanted to stay and play with Liam and Tristan), and Grandma and I bottled some tomato sauce and salsa (both made from tomatoes from our gardens :) ).

So here's what we did. We tasted the salsa. It's pretty spicy. We want to do some more in the next couple of weeks, as more tomatoes ripen.


So while we were hard at work, the little cousins played, painted, and slept.




In other news...
We leave for Texas in about a week and a half. I'm SO excited! I was looking up some places on google maps (our old houses, church, school, Matt's apartment, etc). It was fun. Things have changed quite a bit since I was there. I'm excited to see it all. I can't wait for some GOOD BBQ and Mexican food! I can't wait to hear the locusts in the trees, to smell the air, feel the humidity, touch the grass, hear the bumps on the road when you change lanes, see the sideways traffic lights (which I never thought were sideways 'til we moved here). I wouldn't mind a good thunderstorm. I'm excited to just drive around and see if I remember how to get places. I can't wait to see the stock yards, Cowboys stadium, Northpark Mall, the Harbor, downtown Dallas. Bluebell icecream! I'm excited about the North Mesquite football game and the reunion banquet. I can't wait to see old friends. I'm pretty nervous too. I hope that subsides a little and doesn't get worse. I'm having a lot of anxiety about leaving my 3 babies for 3 days-AND being in another state! I hope everything and everybody is okay while we're gone.

::first day::

What a day!! It started at 6:30 this morning. I got Chloe up at 6:45. She popped right out of bed--she was SO excited! She got dressed, we fixed her hair, brushed her teeth, she ate breakfast, Bubb came out to the kitchen, I made Chloe's lunch, she woke up Portie, I got the 2 boys breakfast, I fed Ava, got me, Coop, & Port dressed, fixed Port's hair, got a few pictures of Chloe, and we were all out the door by 7:40.

The second grader...

...the kindergartener

Then all 5 of us went to Chloe's school to see her off. We went in, took some photos, found a desk for her to sit at (she got to pick where she sat), hung up her backpack, took some more photos, kissed her goodbye, and we left. Back to our house (Port's school didn't start for another half hour). So I took a few pictures of Portie, grabbed his backpack, put on a bit of makeup, and we left our house by 8:25.

(Chloe's school. 2nd grade. Mrs. Barker's class)

Then the 4 of us took Portie in to his class. We said hi to his teacher, found his chair, said hi to his buddies, hung up his backpack, took some pictures, kissed bye, and left. Then it was just Bubb, Ava, and I. Bubby kept saying "no big kids, just us!" We played in the pillows on my bed, did the dishes, showered (me), and took BeeAva to Grandma Snowman (because I volunteered to ride Portie's bus with him-parent volunteers help the drivers figure out their route and which kids get off where). Portie and Bubb thought the bus was the awesomest thing ever--until we'd been on our bus ride for over half an hour (first day of school-takes longer).


(My baby boy in his big school. It's not preschool, it's kindergarten! He was so excited. I thought he'd follow me out the door and grab my leg like he used to do in preschool, but he didn't. I felt pretty good about him being there, but was still a little worried. I hoped he'd have a good day and make friends.)


(He had an awesome day! He told me all about it too! He colored a gingerbread picture, learned about gingerbread, and ate gingerbread (strange time of year for gingerbread, no?). He played outside with 3 little friends. He likes his teacher, and said he loves to be in big school. )


(Us on the bus. His bus driver seems a little scary. He's kind of a grumpy-old-man, and yells at the kids who are being loud. Even at the ones not being loud. He just yells-and he's kind of gruff-even to the parents. I just told Portie to be good on the bus so he won't yell at him! And also a photo Bubb & Port having some lunch after school.)

Then, a few hours later, Chloe came home! She had an awesome day too. She told me about a game they played, a new friend she made, how she sat with 2 girls on the bus she knew from last year, and her lunch was SO good! She was a little bummed that Portie played games and had a treat at school and she didn't. She had to listen to dumb rules all day. Poor 2nd grader!


And that was our first day of school.

In other news...

Bubb is showing Chloe his owie. He fell off his little bike and I guess he hit his mouth on the cement. It was all bloody. I felt to see if any of his teeth were loose-they weren't, but he chipped his front tooth. The chip isn't too bad, but it's a little sharp. I called the dentist to see if we could have it filed down a bit (got an appointment for tomorrow). As the evening wore on, his gums started to show a pretty dark purpley bruise. Now I'm nervous that might've done some major damage like kill his tooth or something. Cross your fingers that he didn't! Portie chipped his tooth last year, and when Matt was little, he completely knocked his front ones out! Welcome to life with boys, I guess.