Change

...and I don't mean pocket change. We've had some change around our parts and we're just barely starting to feel some kind of normalcy after moving into the new home. Some points of interest over the past....little while (wink wink):
Caleb turned 4!We had many celebrations for him and he knew exactly what was going on. The Caldwells celebrated three cousins' birthdays and it was so fun to have my family visit.
Here's Caleb showing Woody his new biography:
Here he is giving some love:
And here's Jenny getting more excited about Hallie's gift than Hallie. What a good mom.
Caleb had his first "friend party" and because we were moving soon, invited some friends that he had made at our old house. I was a bit last-minute this year and slopped together some birthday to-dos:

A sorry attempt at a "horse-shoe breakfast cake" that he LOVED (who needs to think ahead when there's always something in your freezer that'll work?):
A sorrier attempt at a birthday cake..(Adeylnn just asked me, "Is it a turtle?") I am still laughing about this one, but if YOU ran out of time, would you make a plain...uh...blue cake, or one with sublime character...like this:
The culprit that caused me to run out of time was these hand-made-by-me cars...
I was a little, no, a lot naive in thinking that it would be fun for all the kids to make their cars themselves. I decided the night before to quickly try and make one for a sample. The "quick sample" took me, well, way too long and, not to underestimate the skills of these beautiful children or anything, but it was clear that I had had unrealistic expectations of the soon-approaching birthday party. I ended up staying up way later than planned. At the party, I had them each paint and attach just a few of the parts themselves. Needless to say, the party went way better than it would have.

Then came July. Such a fun month for families.

Our kids' first Children's Bike Parade was a hit. Here they are anxiously waiting for Judd before it started.

Waiting... waiting... and waiting.
Here we are at the very END of the parade line. After some wondering on my part, Judd finally did come. I am soooooo glad we don't have to worry about him "working at the house" anymore, and more importantly that HE doesn't have to "work on the house" anymore. Those words have been way overused by us.

July 4th, I ran in the 5K Liberty Fun Run. My first race, and I was just glad I made it ;) What? The medal? Oh that's nothing. It just says "Winner" on it. It might say "Fast" or "Grease Lighting" on it, too. I'm not really sure. (the truth: It was left over from Caleb's Race Car birthday party and I was proud of myself for trying something new :) And No! I didn't come in 219th. That's just my number, okay?

The parade was fun. Loud and fun. You can't see it in this picture, but the parade announcer's speaker was right to the left of Caleb. Within a foot. Pretty sure it was on full blast.
This is how Adelynn coped with all the loud fun.
Not too long after, Adelynn got a hair cut. Here she is with her new hair and Caleb with his hair..y....chest...? Sorry. I'm tired.
And that's World in a Minute. Sorry, it was more like 5 minutes. Obviously, it's not July anymore...and it's nearing the end of August, so there'll be more to come before I'll feel "caught up." Funny. Does anyone out there ever feel like they are all caught up? Have you ever said, "Hm. I'm all caught up on everything." I'd like to meet you. Maybe even pay you to catch me up ;) I'm taking best offers.

What to blog about?

Wow. So, I can't think of anything to blog about. There aren't really any updates in our lives right now. No changes. Really nothing is going on or has gone on in the past....what....3 MONTHS???!?!?!? Okay, so I think it's high time I did a post and I'm working on the update. It just might not be posted in the next couple minutes. It's gonna be a real doozy for me.

The House

The house is sheet-rocked and getting ready for paint, etc. Boy, oh, boy, I'll never forget this experience! It's getting harder to take pictures of the progress because it will started changing a lot more on the inside, but I'm gonna try to keep up on it.

Caleb the Cowboy

Caleb graduated from his first year of preschool. He hated it at first and then loved it by the end. Miss Kim was the perfect teacher for him to have fun and experience an organized enviornment. Although he was the youngest in the class, (and during the graduation all he wanted to do was go play on the swing set--notice that all the other kids are doing the actions),
it was good for him to be involved in something like this. He perked right up when they sang "I'm licking up my baby bumble bee, won't my mommy be so proud of me." He loves that part. Notice he's a bit ahead of the group...It's such a fun age and he was totally stoked to get the "Little Cowboy" award and would much rather get that, I am sure, than to get the "Kindergarten" award like just about everybody else in the class. ;) He is LOVING cowboys and every day asks to wear the exact same cowboy attire. Yellow cowboy shirt, cowboy pants, the ones with the yellow adjustable band, cowboy boots, long socks, rolled up bottoms, a belt, and cowboy boots. oh yeah, and his shirt has to be tucked in because "that's what cowboys do, mom." His clothes are not wearable more than one day in my opinion, but that rule has to be bent a bit because I am sick of washing the same outift over and over. We can thank Grandpa Brad and Grandma Mary for all of it, because this all started at the rodeo in Oakley. I know what you are thinking..."it's not from all those hicks in Richfield?" and no. I don't think so, but the people wearing cowboy hats definitely get him excited.

Adelynn Jane turns 2!

Adelynn turned two this month and although it's hard to believe she's already that old, we have a ton of fun! She is such a blessing in our family. Her sweetness is almost good enough to eat, dimples and all. She loves her babies and books and was excited to get anything having to do with those two things for her birthday. Caleb loves having a "sissy" and has asked me more than once if we can get FIVE baby sisters because "we need more chairs." Judd and I wouldn't mind having more Adelynns around. We love her just as much. The other day the two of them were out in the sand box and (this happens quite frequently) Caleb dumped as much sand as he could find, all over Adelynn. I usually hear some kind of objection from Adelynn when Caleb is teasing, but when it comes to him dumping sand on her, she just takes it like it's nothing. Funny.

She is also very observant and loves to mimic. The other day I was in the kitchen making a meal and she kept telling me she wanted to cut the "doe does" (tomatoes). I kept telling her to wait just a little bit and when I had finished what I was doing I looked down to find this: If you put kids off long enough, it's only a matter of time before they take matters into their own hands!

We love the two years we've had Addie in our family!

1sts

April 1st, 2009
We've had a lot of 1sts lately.

Judd has had his first attempt at doing electrical work on an entire house. Here's an updated picture on where the house is at. Judd amazes me and I am so proud of how well he's doing. Beside the fact that he has a sorry excuse for a helper-AKA me, he is steadily progressing. I tell him he's my hero and that he can do anything that he tries and I believe that.

As for my first, I got my first ticket. I was sooooo mad at the cop at first. I wanted to kill him. I was in a hurry to do an errand while Judd was at home for lunch and failed to stop completely at a stop sign. After trying to get just a warning by pleading, "You're not going to give me a WARNING? This is my first ticket!" The cop described it differently: "You didn't stop. You slowed down a bit." ooooooo. I was mad. and yes. I admit it. It was because I got caught. I wasn't sorry. He took forever to write the darn thing up and after we parted, my rebellious side came out and I floored it around the corner as fast as I could reach 25 mph. Just for spite. Then on the way back from Albertson's, the cop was still in the same spot he was when I left him. For more spite, I went about 10 MPH past him and waved with a happy grin. (I didn't dare go too fast, but too slow? Yeah. That'll get him. I couldn't see his face, because of the glare on the window, but I am sure I got him where it hurts. He'll think twice about pulling ME over again.

I thought it had ruined my day, and then, I remembered that not more than two weeks ago, I gave a little lesson in RS about how you can't change anything but your attitude. So reluctantly, I changed my attitude and pretended everything was fine. I have the ticket on the fridge in fact. Instead of a big red A+ on it, it reads: $80.00. And I can't wait to pay it. Okay. That LAST part is an April Fools joke. But I did admit that we DO need policemen and I really DO think it's important that people stop at stop signs. There. I said it. oh yeah, and I should have stopped completely at the stop sign. My bad.

Caleb had his first this past week, too. He wrote his name. He cleared it all up for me and told me that his teacher wrote the top one and that he wrote the bottom one. I love what he comes home with from preschool. My favorite so far is a man made of noodles, or "Noodle Man" glued on a paper. Huge head. Eery eyes. Priceless. His teacher said it was pretty entertaining to watch him go so big on the head. Good job, buddy. I like big heads, too.

Adelynn said her first prayer all by herself yesterday with no prompting. "Father... Day... Cereal... Bib...Name Jee Jee Righ, Amen."

Our family played our first sport all together in a somewhat organized manner. Our kids are old enough that they can actually participate and DO things by themselves, like go get the ball, hit the ball (in Caleb and Judd's case), and run as fast, or faster, than we "speed-demon" parents can. (Do you like how I categorized myself as being as fast as Judd? yeah, no.) It was so fun to realize the potential for more family fun like this in the future.

And for the final first for our family: We are expecting twins in December. Gotta love fertility pills. ;) See the first comment.

Just Beat It!

So, I had to blog this cause I was so excited. Plus, you fellow bloggers have given me so much support in the past that I want to share one of my mini joys.

Our digital camcorder started to zoom in all by itself. I would have to hold it until it finally zoomed out. When I let go, it went right back to zooming in. So, I called my insurance company, and they asked if one of my kids dropped it (otherwise they couldn't cover it). I was scanning my memory trying to recall one of the times my kids probably DID drop it. To my dismay, I couldn't think of any specific times. So it was either send it in for $150.00-200.00 to get it fixed, or bite the bullet and buy another one.

(Don't tell Judd, but I was excited to have an excuse to buy a new one with newer features etc.)

I resited that temptation, started looking at how much ours was worth and decided to try one last attempt to salvage it, not expecting any solutions. BUT I found a site that suggested hitting the base of it on something hard. At first, I wondered, is this suggestion from a bored weirdo that finds joy in ruining other people's camcorders?

Then after seeing about 15 other success stories with the same problem, I decided, what the heck?

After three bangs, each one a little harder, our camcorder is working again. Hooray for hitting things. If you ever run into the same problem, just beat it. It's very satisfying.

And if you're in the mood:

P.S. I do not support or endorse Michael Jackson