Ready to Learn, to Get Some Knowledge!

Mike just called me after finishing his second day of classes.  (Not that he's coming home yet, because studying on campus is definitely the place to be.) Do you know how weird that is? My husband is a med student.

And because he was starting school yesterday, I decided there were some traditions we needed to uphold.

Katie was supposed to be smiling, but there was a bug on the step.

Yeah, I know. We're the coolest people ever. (And I did NOT eat the rest of the blue frosting that was in the piping bag. It was obviously an elf or something . . .)

The only thing I'm going to say that's negative is that Peter cut his first tooth yesterday. Great for him, pretty uncomfortable for me. And he and Josh are both drooling like maniacs.

But for the rest of this post, we're going to be talking about the road trip we took to get here (and quite a substantial road trip it was).

In fact, I'm not really going to talk. Except for captions.

Oh wait! Story first. Remember this post back in February, when I had a double baby shower with my friend Valerie, who was expecting twin girls? Well . . . we may have set our kids up on a date.

Josh, Jemma, Peter, Gia

When we first put them all on the blanket, Josh was totally asleep, so Jemma tried to go for Peter instead. Unfortunately, Gia was already chewing on him. And Peter was totally lovin' it. ("Yeah, girls! Right on!")

We decided the date should be over when Gia started getting fresh and grabbing Peter's knee.

Okay, now for road trip pictures.

I meant to take a picture of every state sign we passed, but . . . it was always nighttime or a raging thunderstorm. But here's when we left Idaho!

"Look at me! I'm gonna go touch the butte!" -- Sarah, my very wise and mature sister

We did not plan this at a random stop in Wyoming.

"Mom! I saw a giant naked head at the pharmacy!" -- Katie

Katie cared more about dirt than lunch.

Peter has been gaining weight recently.

It's in Nebraska, in case you need a cool place to go.

In case you need one.

This is apparently the Iowa border. I didn't see any real signs . . .

I found Hobbiton. It's in Iowa.

This is really what our trip looked like. Millions of these things. (Also, this picture is not edited. Muahaha.)

This was a big deal.

Everyone did their part!

A ceremonial picture of the last box to leave the truck . . .

A trip to the city was mostly sitting in traffic and getting lost, but still cool. 

This is the whole reason Sarah came to Chicago.

That last picture requires more than a caption. See, I had an appointment set for Thursday night to turn our gas meter on. When we knew we weren't going to be there until Friday, I called the gas company, but their next available appointment was for Monday morning. So for church on Sunday, most of us got cold showers (and boy was I awake!) Katie, however, got a sink tubby full of microwaved water (I also have a gas stove). Fairly sure she was the only one who enjoyed her bathing experience.

Well, so far we love it here. We have an awesome ward, we have already had a playdate (with a Katie-aged girl and her little twin siblings!), and we have directions to weekly "park day" with the other moms and little kids in the ward. I think we're going to have fun here.

That Toddlin' Town!

You said it, Sinatra . . . at least in my case.

Yes, we are totally here. And mostly moved in. (Well, at least we have beds.) (And my mom totally made short work of my kitchen.)

After a week of driving until our eyelids caught on fire, eating too many donuts from the continental breakfast, and trying really hard not to strangle the various people that we were forced into close quarters with (sorry, tios, I still love you), we officially live in Chicagoland. (Apparently that's what it's called when you live in the 'burbs.) And you know what? So far I don't hate it. I thought I was going to be completely depressed and miserable when I couldn't just drive to my mom's and dump my kids on her, but so far I'm okay. I'm willing to bet it's a combination of being so busy it's absurd and knowing that driving to Boise isn't an option so I don't get upset when I can't do it.

The only problem is that now I have to do all the unpacking by myself. I have seriously amazing family (Thank you Megan, Tess, and Jeff!) who packed us up and moved us out while I was an emotional wreck, and more seriously amazing family (Thank you Jeff and my family!) who drove all the way across the country to move us in while I was an even more tired emotional wreck.

So now I'm a slightly less emotional wreck (but not much) with a house full of boxes. And I have to re-teach my two-year-old about discipline because she spent a couple of weeks covered in grandmas. And the boys are being all clingy because I've spent so much time not holding them.

Good thing I don't have a time limit this time, huh? I can just leave it how it is! And really? I probably like it this way. As long as we're "just moved in" I don't have to stress about how messy my house is. Score! (I just probably need to get it clean at some point so that we can return the play date invitations we've already gotten.)

I'm not going to go get my camera just now (don't worry, there will be a big 'ole crazy picture post about the drive soon . . . ish. Soonish.) but I do have an index card (an upgrade from the sticky note).

Are you excited?

Mike: "I think you have a silly bone."
Katie: "In my HEAD?!?!?!! Actually, it's in my body. It's growing, and it's furry."

(After placing her hands on Peter's forehead) "Please bless your head . . ."

"Welcome to the House of God. I'm so glad you're home with me!"
also,
"He's my brother. I picked him from the House of God."

"Take a bow and sit on a cow. Now you say it."

(When I ask her what she wants for breakfast) "I pick . . . Prince Charming!"

And how about all you Imagine Dragons fans out there? "Hu-u-u-uh ho, Hu-u-u-uh ho, Radioactor, radioactor!"

And finally, you know how a lot of kids have imaginary friends? Well, Katie has an imaginary kid-from-down-the-street-who-won't-leave-you-alone. Fairly sure he's a monkey, but she often refers to him as "Monk." She'll play with him for a few minutes and then she'll decide to change games and say, "No! You stay over there! Stop following me!" Or, today while we were sitting at the table eating lunch, she kept smacking something behind her chair and saying, "Leave me alone, Monk! I'm eating my lunch! Leave me alone!"

I really don't know how to react to that.

Anyhow, I should probably go take my contacts out . . . if I can find my case . . . unfortunately my bedroom is one of the last places that is still a disaster. Most of the rest of the house just looks like we're slobs, but my room is still covered in boxes. It's awesome.

A Word (and Pictures) from the Headless Chicken

Yes, I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Want to know why? Because we are moving across the country in two weeks. TWO WEEKS. And somehow, I've got to help with and attend my sister's wedding (!!!), pack up my house, clean it, get utilities worked out, and deal with the emotional trauma of living a jillion miles away, all while not neglecting my children or starving to death . . . or letting them starve to death, either. That would be also bad. (Although, really? Katie eats almost constantly and I regularly have to clean dried up drool and lint out of the boys' fat creases. No danger here.)

So that's why I haven't blogged recently. The good news is that we do have a contract signed for a place to live, and many family members who are willing to come with and help us get settled before Mike's school starts, and also it's almost my birthday. That's always good news, right? (At least while I'm still in my 20s . . .)

But, since I should really be emailing my new landlord and calling the power company and continuing to box up my kitchen, I'm just going to give you the sticky-note of recent Katie-isms and post our recent family pictures. Deal? Deal.

• Remember when I told you about making my belly good? Now it's, "Want to do Pilates? I'll get the maps out!"
  
• When I was folding clean laundry, she would grab a shirt, run around the room with it, wad it up on top of a pile of clothes, and declare, "I'm a genius!"
  
• She stopped one day at the threshold of the living room, and shouted, "Okay! I'm here! It's the Katie!" And cleared her throat.
  
• Katie: No! Don't wash my hair! I don't like it! . . . Oh, did you get the sunscreen out?
  Me: Yes, I washed your hair to get the sunscreen and pool water out.
  Katie: (In her pitiful voice) Oh, thank you, mom. You're the best!
  
• (Whenever she starts over singing any song at all) "Okay, here we go, kids!"
  
• "There's a powerful monster in my closet!"
  
• Me: Do you know why we have fireworks? It's because we live in a country called America.
  Katie: No, we live in our house.
  Me: Yes, but our house is in a country.
  Katie: No, it's right here! Not in a country!
  
• "Look, Mom, I have a cute, little bummy. And you have a great, big, huge bummy!"
  
• Me: Who were your new friends in nursery today? What was the girl's name?
  Katie: Her name was Hazel and she was very nice!
  Me: What was the little boy's name?
  Katie: Oh, he was just a boy.
  

And now, we commence the list of song adaptations by Katie. See if you can recognize them.

• "Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. If you see a lion, don't forget to roar!"
  
• "Old McDonald had a potty, Potty Song! Potty Song!"
  
• (Five minutes later) "The potty song is dead now."
  
• "I'm pretending to be like Jesus!"
  
• "Do you know the Mustard Man?"

Yeah, she's the coolest kid ever.

Now for our family pictures. Happy Fourth of July!

Blessing day!

I hope you appreciate what is happening right now. I promised last week that I was going to post this week about blessing weekend, and what am I doing? Posting. I deserve a medal.

As you can probably guess, we blessed the boys this last weekend. (Just in case someone besides my family reads this and is like, "what?" giving a new baby a blessing is a tradition for us comparable to christening in other faiths.) And it was especially awesome because all of Mike's family came to town for it. Party time!

Here's the run-down of my weekend. Saturday, I took Mike and Katie out to the farm because Amy and Jared had already arrived the night before, then left to go wedding dress shopping with Hannah (who's getting MARRIED?!!!!!?!?!???!). BUT, on my way down the hill, I, um, got pulled over. It was terrifying. He didn't give me a ticket (either because of the two squirmy, crying babies in the backseat or because I was hysterically sobbing) but I was pretty much traumatized for the rest of the day. Good thing my mom had chocolate when I got to the dress place.

Three things I learned from helping Hannah look at wedding dresses:

1) She has the kind of figure that looks good in EVERY kind of dress. It's disgusting. Nick, you better appreciate this girl, 'cause she be good-lookin'.

2) Hannah and I have radically different taste in dresses. Mostly because she just wants a straight skirt and lace, and I'm all about the tulle and the sparkles. (Her color is yellow, and I've already decided to come to the wedding as Belle, ballgown and all.)

3) If I were to go back and do my own wedding, things would be way different. I was thinking all simple back then, but oh boy. *See above note about tulle and sparkles.

After several long hours of doing that (and also discovering that almost nobody sells cute yellow dresses), I went back to the farm to wait for all the rest of Mike's family to get there. But oh man was I tired. We had pizza and chatted and had fun and all that, but I was quite exhausted. I don't actually remember what else we did that night.

Saturday night, at approximately 3am, so I guess I mean Sunday morning, I woke up before the boys because I was all shaky-achy and discovered that I had a fever of 100.8. Awesome. Good timing, Britt. But I took some ibuprofen and that made it go down, so it was all cool.

Sunday would have gone slightly smoother if Mike hadn't had a surprise Young Men's presidency meeting early in the morning. We were still on time to church (and all three children were clean and pretty), but we only got squishy chairs because both of our families beat us there. Yeah, we're cool.

The only thing that went wrong was that Josh was really mad at me during Relief Society. See, they usually sleep for like 4 hours in the afternoon anyway, and have never needed to eat at church before, so I totally wore a dress that I can't nurse in. (Also, I looked really good 'cause I'm skinny these days. I was going to put up the picture Mike took of me, but he forgot to tell me to put those hanger ribbon things back in my cardigan, so no cigar.) But Josh decided at the beginning of Relief Society that he wanted to be awake, and therefore threw a fit. So I spent the last hour of church walking around outside (in my 5-inch heels) because he started yelling whenever I even went inside the building. It's okay, though. We got to hang out with Mike's dad who was outside with cousin Bryce, who's not quite old enough for nursery.

After church we went home and all changed out of our pretty clothes so I could feed the boys. Without taking a single picture of the little men in their blessing outfits, probably because I was slightly feverish again and therefore a total space cadet. More on this later.

After nap time, we went out to the farm where pretty much everybody we're related to was already eating dinner (I had to wake up my family to get them to go before midnight). The party was huge. It was not just for my boys, but also for Sarah's high school graduation (the night before) and approximately five May birthdays that had as yet been uncelebrated. And we sang all of our birthday songs and now my in-laws know now exactly what kind of a crazy family I come from (crazy AWESOME!)

And I did bring my camera to this event, so we got pictures of both families while we were all together. But that was mostly my mom's fault.

Then, Monday, we spent the whole day out at the farm playing with Mike's family. It was awesome. All of the able-bodied people played ultimate frisbee while I played with little people, we played games, and various siblings got father's blessings. We stayed out way too late and were rather strung out and emotional by the end, but it was worth it. We finally carried Katie's unconscious carcass home around 11.

And then we went places and did things Tuesday and Wednesday, so yesterday was the first day we had to just snuggle on the couch and watch movies and recover from the weekend. But I did do two productive things.

First, I realized that Katie totally had a hair-in-the-face problem. So . . . she got her first haircut! Just the bangs, you understand. (Like I would cut off any if those curls when I'd been coaxing them along for so long!) And for trying to cut hair on a kid who is incapable of holding still for any length of time, I think I did pretty well. (Also, it looks a lot better today, when she let me brush it out all nice.)

The second productive thing I did was to finally take portraits of my sons in their blessing outfits. Because I'm a space cadet mom and forgot on Sunday. So I got out my sheet again and . . . ta da!

Joshy hanging out in the bull pen

And the results are rather cute. But I now have to wash the little white outfits again before I can send the borrowed one back to Mike's sister (sorry, Kliss!).

I think that's it for this time. Maybe I'll start a new sticky note for next time. Happy June! (Well, almost.)