Parent Teacher Conferences

We had parent/teacher conferences this week. It was nice to talk to my kids teachers and learn what I'm doing right and more ways that I can help them. It's nice to know that my children are indeed smart (and it's not just mommy pride) It's interesting that their teachers had noticed the same strengths that I have seen in them. It was also interesting to see just how differently they learn and how different their strengths and weaknesses are. Eileen is reading around a 3rd grade level - but it was interesting to see in some of her responses and work how she thinks. If you ask her a question, she skips the obvious and simple answers and gives one that requires more thought - the only problem is that she doesn't always explain how she got to that answer, so it doesn't make sense to her teacher. Anna has a huge imagination and as she tries to write, she has so many ideas she wants to write down that she gets frustrated with her slow writing (lol - not slow for a kindergartener - but slower than her thoughts) It's nice to know I have a couple gifted children :)

We got some good news this week - we will be closing on Wednesday - a full 2 days earlier than we had hoped!! Aunt Tina and Uncle Frank are going to watch the kid for a few days this week so that Dan and I can focus on getting stuff moved and some unpacking and set up done so that we can pick up the kids and bring them back to our new home!

It's kinda funny - Eileen has taken to reading in the most unusual positions - this is one of the less odd - but she caught me taking out the camera and moved :( It's funny to watch her squirm and wiggle around while she reads though :)

Thursday I had a doctor's appointment. Aaron and Anna came with me and were SO well behaved!! It helped that the wait wasn't too long - but they sat in the two chairs in the room patiently while the doctor talked to me and checked me and the baby out. The baby is doing great - I am about 26-ish weeks along and I have a very wiggle boy in my belly. As the doc tried to check the heart beat, he kept running away - she would find a spot where she could hear it really well - then he would wiggle and move so she could hardly hear it again.

Saturday, we made a trip to Ikea for some shelves and other things for the new house, and we met the real estate agent at the house to spend some time there planning and measuring and letting the kids see it and see their rooms. The especially loved running around in the yard and Eileen gave us a careful count of the number of trees we have in the back yard. We also found some rather amusing little things that got left at the house - including a golf club stuck in the corrugated roof over the back porch and a stuffed animal hanging from a tree.

Now comes the insanity!!!!!

In case you hadn't heard....

Well 2 weeks to moving day - the last 2 weeks have gone so fast. Plus we still don't know for sure when we are moving - we don't know if we are going to be able to cram it into the weekend of the 28th - partially because we don't know if we will close on the 28th or the 31th.

We are very excited about the house and about having a place of our own again. We are planning and preparing and already mentally making a plan for future improvements in the yard and the furnishings :) Yes we are actually considering the idea of maybe some day getting furniture that isn't second hand..... :)

As you can see - the kids are still enamored with Dan's balloon animals. Eileen and Anna love trying to make them, Aaron loves taking them apart and Evie wanders into our room where the balloons are kept and tries to get one saying "loon?" over and over again.

This week has been rather long and exhausting for me. I have spent a lot of it working on a quilt for the service part of our Super Saturday. On Tuesday, I watched my friends 3 little boys in addition to my own kids and we also had preschool kids over. The kids were generally well behaved - but they had a penchant for exploring and getting into things that they shouldn't. And I don't have that many sets of eyes! My house may be fairly Evie and Aaron proof, but apparently it isn't that kid proof....

The choir had concerts this weekend. We had a concert on Saturday night and sang at the Temple Workers Devotional tonight. It was wonderful - but exhausting!

In addition to choir stuff, the primary had an activity on Saturday morning to prepare for their program today and the big Super Saturday thing was right after. It was all fun, but it kinda felt like we never had a moments rest!!

The primary program today was wonderful. The leaders did a great job preparing and managing a large group of kids. My sweet girls sing so loud that you can hear them over all the other kids even from the back of the chapel. Eileen got to sing as part of a small group. She was so excited and practiced hard for it. While she was up there, I was mouthing the words at her - she didn't like it - she put her finger to her mouth - shushing me and then rolled her eyes at me. But she sang wonderfully!! It's so fun to watch them gain a love of music - I hope they keep that for their entire lives!

We miss Daddy!!

Well - the week was normal. I realized that I am not capable of doing everything that I usually do around the house, and everything Dan usually does around the house - I think i have to re-realize that with each trip.... By Wednesday the house was a DISASTER!!! and driving me nuts. Dan kept telling me that I didn't have to worry about it, but it's hard when you can't walk across your basement floor.... The kids were mostly well behaved, but between a lack of sleep (theirs and mine) and a week with out daddy, I am not sure we could have gone one more day than we did with him gone. We need him and miss him too much. I guess that's the problem with being married to such an amazing guy (lol - not a bad problem to have!)

Thankfully Daddy came home to help restore order, and to provide another lap for Evie's millions of daily requests of "Up pease!!" with book in hand. She promptly sat down in his lap with this book and started reading all the parts she remembered to him. Such a smartie pants!


Just a couple more weeks and I will be into my 3rd trimester. This pregnancy has gone so fast! I really am starting to feel it though - I have gotten to the point where I fall into my chair instead of sitting down. As fast as the first part of this pregnancy has gone - I get the feeling that the next few months are going to go even faster.

Bye Bye Daddy :(

Yep - after nearly 2 months with no traveling, Dan left on a business trip this Friday. So we are all missing daddy, and the kids keep looking for him and thinking that he is getting home from work.
Thankfully we have had a weekend of General Conference to distract us. We watched the first session with some friends from Church, and the kids have really been well behaved for the rest of them. Though for some reason, Eileen doesn't understand that sometimes "Shhhh" doesn't mean speak quietly, it means now is not a time for talking. :) Either way, I really enjoyed conference. I always end General Conference with a desire to be better and a feeling of peace that I'm not doing too badly :)

This Friday was a carnival at the school. Anna wanted to be part of the Clown Contest, so we dressed her up for that in a clown wig and pj's. She loved it and had a great time. She especially loved winning "Smallest Clown" and getting a slinky (which is already about busted) Of course they kept making up new categories until all the clowns had won something, but she was excited anyway!

The other kids enjoyed the carnival - they loved the silly little games and the bounce house. They loved the face painting and the balloon person (though I think that was less exciting than it might have been since they can make some themselves!!)


Evie didn't like how loud the DJ was and kept pressing her hands over her ears and saying "noisy!" She liked the games, but wasn't really big enough to play most of them. And because it was noisy she wanted to be held most of the time.
Aaron was a bit reluctant at first to do anything but be grumpy and shy. After about 20 minutes he started getting into things a bit more - he really liked the mini golf stand. :)


I think over all the kids had a good time - mommy however has decided that she will NEVER again go to one of these with out Dan. Between having 4 kids to stress out about losing, a 2 year old who wanted to be carried around, a cranky 3 year old, and standing in the hot sun for 2 hours, I was tired to the point that I was feeling light headed and woozy. Even making the kids sit down with me for a while didn't seem to help much, so instead of staying and having hot dogs there like I had planned, we went home for left overs.

So Dan and I have been looking at houses. We are ready to get into our own home. At the same time we were not feeling any real rush to decide. We just looked at houses as they interested us and while we found lots of stuff that was close - there was nothing that just grabbed us, so we were content to wait. We had mostly decided that with the start of Dan's traveling, that once we got to the end of September, we would take a break from house hunting and wait until spring. We looked at one last house on Thursday before he left. We loved it - a nice home, a great size, a great neighborhood, and well suited to us. We made an offer and we are now officially under contract!!!!! We close October 28th.... right before Dan leave for another trip... HELP!!!!