Four Months Later and Finally a Post!

While we were in the apartment it was kind of hard to blog. Granted, I was just being lazy part of the time, but the kids would inevitably get into something they shouldn't or break something else while I was otherwise occupied. Not to mention the fact that I had morning sickness a good chunk of the time that we were there.

So this post is 4 months late since it's from Taylor's birthday. I can't believe I have a 6-year-old! It makes me feel so old. He really is a great kid. He does really well in school and the boy loves to learn. He will spend hours reading and trying to memorize different things, like countries, capitals, or the presidents, and he has quite a good memory. I love this boy!

He had wanted a fish for a while. Good thing, because that's about the only pet I'm willing to do right now. We got him the aquarium stuff and he had to save up for the fish. The first fish he bought were some school fish that apparently needed more maintenance than we could give them. Not surprisingly they died. He was so upset since he had saved up all his money, so we bought him a beta fish. It's still alive so I'm pretty sure it will live forever since we almost forget to move it to the new house with us...

And here's a picture of Melanie since she's just so darn cute. Taylor wouldn't wear the birthday hat that he got from his teacher, but Melanie loved it.

Brownies

So now that we live in Columbus, GA, I had to get a membership at Sam's Club. Now if you know me well enough, you know that I love me some brownies and ice cream. And I'll only buy one kind of brownie mix- the Ghirardelli mix from Costco. Since I knew there would be no Costco in Georgia, I decided to stock up on brownie mix- so I bought 24 mixes. However, I've been having a hard time using them. The closest Costco is in Atlanta, but I won't have a membership anymore anyway, and I feel like I'm just hoarding them so I can have the comfort of knowing that I still have plenty of brownie mix. But I finally decided to make some more with some help from Erik.

And some help from Mr. Alligator. While we were still in Washington and the packers were packing up our house our neighbor watched Erik for us. When I went to pick him up that afternoon, he was holding this alligator, and he's loved it ever since. Thankfully Claire had two and graciously gave Erik this one (which is good, considering he practically refused to let it go)

One of the girls that Kent worked with in Washington made Melanie a bright pink blanket before she was born. And Erik quickly took a liking to that, as well. I got tired of the pink blanket, so I took him to the fabric store to pick out the fabric so hopefully he would carry that around instead of that bright pink blanket. After I cut the scraps, Erik would get the long strips and play with them as snakes. He would even get other scraps to use as blankets and pillows. It was actually really cute.

Hello again, Mr. Alligator.

The apartment seems to be getting smaller and smaller while we're waiting for our house to be built (which seems to be going painfully slow, especially since we'll drive by, and what do you know? The house [which is a slab of concrete] looks the same as it did 3 days ago...). It's as hot as sin here, and so going for a walk is out of the question. So I try desperately to convince them how fun our deck out back is. It's tiny. But it will have to do for now.

Melanie seems to like it enough.

First Day of School

Yesterday was Taylor's first day of school. He goes all day now! I'll miss him, especially since he's getting to the point where he's helpful and fun to talk to, but it will be nice to have structure again. And to be able to go grocery shopping without people giving me looks of sympathy as I drag my 2 carts through the supermarket (I refuse to let my kids walk).

And then today was Erik's first day of preschool. Honestly, I have pretty low expectations for a preschool. Mainly I would like them to teach my child that he can't flush random things down the toilet or dump flour everywhere. Except I don't think they'll do that. Maybe I can just hope that he learns that it's rude to take things from other children. And to not eat his boogers.

And here's a picture of Melanie, who's not going to school. She's actually just drooling on herself right here. But she's still cute.

So when I'm getting ready to pick up Erik from school on this same day, Taylor's school calls me to let me know that Taylor really isn't feeling well. Normally I'd tell them that he's probably fine (he can be dramatic at times), but since he never even went to the nurse's office in kindergarten, I went to pick him up. Upon entering the car, he promptly threw up everywhere. Which then made me 10 minutes late picking Erik up on the first day. Now I'm sure they think I'm that mom who's always late. Awesome.

Catch-Up

So clearly I'm awesome at keeping the blog up-to-date. And by "awesome" I mean I'm really horrible at it. A quick re-cap is in order, seeing as we now live on the other side of the United States.

First, Kent graduated residency. He's now a real-life pediatrician (though technically not board-certified, since he doesn't take those until October, so I guess it's not quite over yet...).

If you can't quite tell which one Kent is, he's the one under that thing called a mustache.

I'm gonna miss these girls SOO much!

So the whole reason Kent had a 'stache was because Kent's brother, Scott, was getting married. The brothers thought it would be hilarious to grow out their 'staches and wear them to the wedding. Ummm.....

Clearly it wasn't one of their better ideas.

Since we only had Melanie with us, we took a duck tour through D.C. It was great!

So after we got back from D.C., there was a whirlwind of cleaning and packing to get the house sold (yahoo!!) and to get ready for the move to Georgia. Since Kent's sister, Kelli, lives in Utah, we stopped there for the fourth of July and hung out there for a few days.

Here are the cousins altogether! Please ignore Melanie's sweet belly hanging out.

I was going to catch the blog completely up-to-date, but I'm tired of typing- our computer is on the floor (long story), and my wrists hurt...

The Tulip Festival

Seeing as how I don't scrapbook, I figure I should probably keep the blog updated. I know it's been four months, but hey, I've been kind of busy (okay, maybe you can say, "lazy," but we'll just say "busy" for now).

Every year there's a Tulip Festival about an hour and a half away from us. This is the first year we actually went. I'm sure anyone from Holland would probably laugh at it, but I thought it was beautiful. And of course the place was covered in mud. Which means my kids ended up absolutely filthy.

We also met up with some friends there. Here are Taylor and Erik and sweet little Brooklyn.

Melanie was always on the floor. She would run and just fall down and roll over in the mud. And then small groups of Asian people would come over and laugh at her.

See- I told you there was lots of mud.

It was like pulling teeth trying to get the boys still enough for this picture.

There was a grass field next to the tulip fields. The kids wasted a lot of energy running around in it.

Pretty, ain't it?

Because We Are THAT Awesome!

My friend, Tara, told me about how she thought it would be a fun idea if we had an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. I admit- I'd never been to nor heard of one before. But I thought it would be a GREAT idea. When I told Kent about it, he looked like I told him Christmas was coming early and that we wouldn't have to pay for gifts.

Because when we say an Ugly Christmas Sweater party, we mean an UGLY Christmas Sweater party.

The best party about Kent's was ALL of the bells. Oh yeah. And it sang "Jingle Bells."

If you can't tell from the picture, my sweater has REAL tree branches on it. None of this faux stuff, faux sure (yes, you must laugh at that).

I wish we would have gotten a picture of everyone before people started taking off. It was awesome!

Not surprisingly, Kent won the Ugliest Sweater award. But for your viewing pleasure, meet Scott, Tara's husband. I almost died laughing when I saw him.

And because I'm still playing catch-up, here are our Polar Express pictures. We went with two of the same couples from the party. And it wasn't easy to get a picture of the kids-

And before you even ask, YES, I made our jammies. Why? So my kids can be embarrassed for the rest of their lives. And we look more organized. And I'm cheesy like that.

Lumberjackin'

I'm a die-hard real Christmas tree kinda gal. So off we went to the local tree farm to chop down our Christmas tree! Luckily they had warm apple cider ready for us. And by "warm" I mean numb-your-mouth hot.

I love when Kent doesn't shave. I think he loves when he doesn't have to shave, too.

"Taylor, don't go in the mud!"

"This mud, Mom?"

"Yes, Taylor. That's the mud I'm talking about."

Now which one is THE tree?

Melanie and her usual cute pacifier-in-the-mouth self.

Yes, that's Kent chopping down the tree while holding Melanie on his back. Isn't that how real lumberjacks do it?

And she started with two socks. I swear.