Happy Easter!

3 years old

tips

here are a few tips that I have learned and thought I would pass on.

1)Use the hottest water out of your faucet when filling your pot to boil something. It cuts way down on time spent waiting for it to get little bubbles so you can add your pasta.

2)Call local branches- I hate calling 1-800 numbers. I almost never do anymore because I figured out that you can call your local bank (chase, Wells Fargo) or phone company. I keep those numbers saved in my phone and call them instead of waiting to dial a pin and account number and talk to an automated system about a problem.

3)Scope things out online- Ikea is one of my most favorite stores and my kids like it also but only for about an hour. So I try to scope things out on their web site first so that I dont have to run around that ginormous store hauling my kids and my wayward cart. (are those carts the worst or what?) Online you can even check your local store to make sure they have what you are looking for in stock.

4)Brown your meat when its fresh- Thawing meat is so frustrating for me when I have 1 hour to make dinner (and I dont like to use a microwave). When you bring home 10lbs of meat
from costco, take an hour to brown ALL of it with onions or whatever you like and then freeze it in freezer bags. Its so much easier to thaw and its already cooked for whatever you are adding it to.

5)Call a different time zone- Its hard for me to make phone calls during the day with my kids screaming in the background. And now that we are on the east coast it feels like everything closes by the time I get them to bed so now i just call the stores in California with questions.

5)Make your own white noise- When we move for the summer and we live in an apartment its hard to keep this place quiet while Neal naps. So I just put a load of laundry in the washer and dryer and turn them on and leave the laundry door open. And at night I run the dishwasher and all the bathroom fans. It has really seemed to drown out the music from my computer and Grace's playing.

6)Buy clothes for your kids when its the right season- I have wasted so much money buying Grace something for "next year" and then when the next year comes around it doesnt fit, I dont have anything to match it or I dont like it anymore. So now I just buy my kids 5-7 outfits at the beginning of that season and they wear them once a week. I bought Neal 4 different colors of the same long-sleeved onsie and I rotated them with different pants all winter long. It was simple and easy to keep track of. And his drawers were not full of things that he just never wore.

I bet none of this is new to you, but hey! If so, great.

thinking about something

Grace is a thinker! Today while we were out for a walk we were stopped several times while people drooled over my little babies in the stroller and then they saw my huge tummy and said Wow! another?
After a while Grace yelled out "Mom that is this many (holding up 3 fingers) Grandmas that have talked to us!" I was so impressed that she was keeping track!

On the plane ride here I pulled out a few surprises and new things to keep Grace entertained and the last one I had was a set of flashcards for her to get to know what ALL of her letters look like. When we started to go through the stack, she already knew every single one! I was so shocked! Guess I was a little late buying those things. Now on to numbers

And my most favorite:
I tucked Grace in and she said Mom, I love you more. Then she told me to tell her I love you most.- from the movie Tangled

Quincy's Fancy Nancy party

Happy Birthday Q!

(Isnt my friend Stacy amazing! She is over the top with all of her parties and each ones turns out perfect)

Wes' parade

Happy 4th Birthday Wes!

getting there

Josh and I decided that we needed to simplify a little and move completely out of our house ( I mean like EMPTY, not a thing in any closet!) and head out to DC. We will rent the house while we are away and have peace of mind knowing that someone is there taking great care of things, but I will sure miss our wonderful friends and ward. I really have some of the sweetest friends that all live right there on the surrounding streets of our house.

Josh left 3 days before our flights were scheduled and while he was away it was really nice to have some sweet sister-in-law time with Hill. She took such good care of us for a couple days and it was fun to just be together and chat. We even woke up to hot blueberry muffins in the morning.

On Monday Josh called me and told me that he blew a tire on the trailer and that the guys who we hired to help us move accidentally put all of his tools into the storage unit instead of the van so he had to wait for a highway patrol to come help. Luckily Josh is an inspired man and had picked up a spare tire late the night before he left just in case. So after a 5 hour set back he was back on the road headed to Kentucky and then on to DC. I finished packing the house and had the cleaning ladies come and polish off the house.

On Tuesday I got a call from the "perfect renter". I was so excited! He wanted to rent and wanted to pay everything in advance and was excited to take great care of the yard and everything that sounds just right. And I even met him at our house and gave him a quick tour and he handed me his application all filled out and wanted to sign and move in the next day! I called Josh and couldn't believe he wanted to think about it for a day before we signed. I just wanted to sign the guy and hop on my plane and not think about it anymore. Well while I was thinking about it for the day, I hopped on google and thought I would do a little research on this guy and his 14,000 sq foot house in Alpine and his all of his "businesses". The first search of his name turned up a fraudulent case from another state and his birthday confirmed it was him! I was so sad and mad at the same time and even a little scared. I called Josh and we decided it would be a good idea to let him rent from someone else. Later that night the trailer snapped in 3 places on the frame and so Josh was stuck in Kentucky until uhaul opened in the morning. So when the kids and I landed in DC at 11:30 Tuesday night he wasn't going to be there to pick us up. I didn't stress about it until I got on the phone and called 4 hotels there at the airport and all of them were booked. (I don't usually get stressed about things that I or we have no control over so I knew we would be fine) So I was about to get a shuttle to a rental car place and a lady from our plane came over and started talking to me. She was really sweet and friendly and offered to take the kids and I to a hotel that would be on Josh's way through town the next day. It was really so generous of her to clear out her car and load me and my 2 kids and their car seats and stroller into her car at 1 in the morning and take us to the Hyatt.

Wednesday the kids and I camped out and slept in and the sweet janitor brought us orange and apple juice. It was really nice of him! We had to be out at 1 so we packed into the stroller and headed off to McDonald's for breakfast. It was really a bummer that Grace left her shoes in the nice lady's car because that entire day I made her sit on the front of the stroller because I didn't have another pair with us. We went to about 7 stores and out to lunch at Chipotle to kill time and besides Neal throwing up in the pet store all over Grace and himself and me not having a change of clothes for either, we had a great time. By 5 o clock I was getting tired of walking around so we went back to the hotel and I let Grace swim in her underwear in the hot tub while Neal took a nap in the stroller. Josh came at 6:30 and we were all so excited to be back together as a family! When Neal saw Josh walking toward us he yelled Daddy and cried. And I did too. I have NEVER been so excited to see Josh in my entire life.

Anyway, we are here now and I think I'm really going to like it. The apartments we live at have 2 playgrounds and even an 8 inch deep kiddie pool where we will be spending our days this summer. We are mostly unpacked and the kids didn't even take any adjusting to the 2 hour time change. Jenilyn gets here next week and we cant wait to have some cousins to play with and have an Easter egg hunt with!

(I hope this story doesn't make me sound like I am complaining, it was just an adventure I wanted to document and remember)