Gordon's par-tay

I think I am loosing my mind. Well, I am definitely loosing everything else. We can't find our camera. The last time we remember having it was at the Halloween party at my parent's ward...hopefully it turns up.

So I am more than a week late in posting about Gordon's 4th birthday. I had to borrow my sis-in-law's camera. The theme was: BUGS!

I got this idea from Cara. I just loved it. Super cute and pretty easy. The only problem was we made the first batch of bugs too skinny so when transferring them to the cupcakes, they all broke. But once we learned that lesson...easy, peasy.
I made antennae headbands for all the kids and I must say, "Super cute". My twin nephews had the brilliant idea of using them like headset walkie-talkies so everyone kept going around, "Come in commander, can you pass the glue." Aaa-dorable.We made little bug scenes with stickers, markers, glue, and paper while we waited for all the kdis to arrive. Then we played stick the dot on the ladybug with Oreos. Lick it and stick it. That was fun even if the my ladybug looked a little squashed.
Each kid also got a tiny magnifying glass and had to go outside in the back yard and hunt for bugs. Then we did cupcakes and "bug juice." The kids loved that and Gordon still asks for it. Silly, silly. My dad was telling all the kids that they had to squeeze so many grasshoppers to get all this juice. Gross.
I didn't get very many pictures of the opening presents part because the kids kept crowding around. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the garbage truck we got him but I'm not joking when I say that thing was gone before I could blink. The kids loved it and Gordon has been playing with it non-stop. It looks pretty much just like this. All in all, it was a fun time. And I know someone who really enjoyed their cupcake...
Happy Birthday Gordon. We sure love you!!

Good Morning Heyburn!

Good morning everyone. My kids woke up yesterday at 6:30 and today at 6:00. For me, that is too early. Is anyone else having trouble with their kids and Day Light Savings. We are still on "old time" Since we had breakfast an hour earlier, we had lunch an hour earlier, dinner... and so on. I say we boycott Day Light Savings; who needs it anyway. It is just too depressing when its dark at 6:00 in the evening.

Guess who's goin' on a mission

Click here to find out.

A few things I love about this video:

1- all the cell phones with family members on the other end
2- when we all scream after we hear where Katie is going. I tried to figure out who started the screaming and I think it was "Chad's Katie." Can you confirm or deny this.
3- I LOVE my sister!! She will be such an awesome missionary.

We went through the Twin Falls temple for Katie's endowment on Saturday and it was so neat to have everyone there. We are getting closer to our family goal of having all members of our family in the temple. Only three more years!! Anyway, we are so proud of Katie and I will miss her so much when she leaves!!

September came and went

Wow. Here is one of those really long posts about what I did for the WHOLE month. Get ready!

I read Harry Potter 4, 5, 6, and half of 7. I know, I am a little late hopping on the band wagon here. I was getting sick and tired of everyone giving me the shock, "You haven't read the Harry Potters!!!!" But, really I do love them. I have also been watching the movies in between each book. Pretty fun stuff.

I threw a totally awesome, tubular, rockin' DANCE party for my family. It was fun. I just love throwing parties. We danced, we sang karaoke, and we ate way too much food.

I started a Joy School pre-school with some ladies in my ward for Gordon. I do not like being in charge of things like this but I wanted a home pre-school, so instead of waiting around for someone else to do it, I started one. I don't know yet what I've got myself into. We'll see how it goes.

Started a few posts, but never finished them. You know how it goes... All of our favorite TV shows started up again, so my time for blogging is limited.

The family went on a little weekend trip to Las Vegas. My old roommate from college got married and Chris's sister lives about an hour from Vegas so we got to spend some time with her and her kids. Gordon had tons of fun and can't wait to go back again...maybe next year! Chris and I also got to see a fun show in Vegas thanks to his sister for watching our kiddos.

Chris's brother Kolby left for his mission to Buenos Airies, Argentina. Good luck Elder Tatton!

My sister-in-law had a little baby girl and she is so precious. You forget how tiny babies are. Was Edison really that small?

We had some friends from Logan come up and stay a day with us. We had tons of fun seeing the sights. You know, the sights...we've got a ton here. Come and see us and we'll show you what we mean!!

Entertain ME

Gordon has to be constantly entertained. He rarely plays by himself for longer than 5 minutes. Since I am always trying to come up with fun things to do I thought I would share what I've come up with if you promise to share your ideas too!The other day Gordon and I made some vanilla pudding and I found this great idea to put the pudding in a muffin tin and add different colors to the tins and do some finger painting. It really was fun, fast, and easy to clean up.Then when they were done painting, I gave them graham cracker sticks to eat it all up with. If you think this is gross you should see what else they put in their mouths.Another easy way to entertain kids, especially boys, get some flour or oats and pour it onto a large cookie sheet and let them dig around in it with their little cars. Gordon loves this. The first time we did this he would play for the whole time I made dinner every day for a week. It was great. Now he only plays for about 15 minutes to a half hour depending.In this picture he is telling me to stop taking pictures so he can just play. Hence the angry look. So what are some fun things you do to keep your kids entertained?

How Emily Got Her Groove Back

Finally, I feel like I am myself again. Yes, it took awhile. For the past month I have been ornery, lazy, tired, nagging, blaming everything on everyone but myself, and being just plain, old grouchy. But now I have energy (well, at least more than I had before. These boys still wear me out) and I actually do things with my kids and I am happy when my husband comes home from work instead of complaining that he is late. What has caused this wonderful change in my behavior? Well, a few things: 1)Chris and I got to go to Boise for a business trip. Just a nice overnight vacation to rejuvenate and spend a little time with my husband who hasn't had a day off since we moved here (excluding Sunday) 2)and yeah! he has this Saturday off! We are going to clean this house from top to bottom! 3)I think I just realized that I've got to get with it. No one can make my circumstances better but myself.
But there is one thing I cannot do for myself. Get commenters!!!! I think I left half of my four readers in Logan. Now lets see how many people can comment on this here post. Who's with me?!

Its a good thing I didn't go into child psychology

Could someone please tell me WHY-

• it is so much fun to throw food on the floor
  
• my eighteen month old drools so much he needs a new shirt by midday
• Gordon likes to stick things in the back of his underpants and keep them there. (It tickles his bum, he says.)
  
• my almost-four year old has to tell me he needs to go to the bathroom EVERY time before he goes (he doesn't want my assistance just the knowledge that he needs to go.)
  
• but he cannot ask my permission before he gets any food out of the fridge
• kissing an owie makes everything better (not complaining about this one)
• it is fun to throw toys down the stairs or dump all toys on the floor- not to play with them, just to have them all over
  
• and what is so enticing about screaming in the car? Happy or sad. Edison loves to scream in the car
  

Name them one by one

I am having a hard time here but instead of listing the many things that are keeping me down I am going to try the opposite. As my friend recently reminded me, "It's count your blessings not your trials." So here goes:

1. We live close to family- Brett and Maren, Josh and Katie, My Parents, Chris' Parents, Justin and Ellen
2. I love our kitchen, it is so big!
3. We have aluminum flooring in the dining room- no more carpet!
4. Gordon is so grateful we live on the bottom floor and can go outside all day
   
5. I am thankful that a hose with a sprinkler head can entertain my kids when I am too worn out
6. We live about two minutes drive from Chris' work
7. Chris enjoys his work
8. Chris has a job
9. For the most part I really do have wonderful kids
10. We live one block from the park
11. There is absolutely no temptation to spend more than our budget because there is nothing to do here or no where to shop other than Wal-Mart
12. Our circumstances are forcing me to be more creative in entertaining our children
13. We have what really matters- each other, our health, happiness, and a loving Heavenly Father who knows what is best even when I don't
    

And...We're Back Online

Finally we have the internet again! Life here in Heyburn is slow but we get to see a lot more of Chris so I'm not complaining. Gordon and I have had some great conversations. Here is one we had yesterday.
(We could here our neighbor girl screaming and so Gordon said she was throwing a fit and got locked in the tower FOREVER. After discussing the many ways she could escape, Gordon told me a dragon knocked down her door and saved her.)

G: And then the dragon will come and eat you.
M: I thought he was a nice dragon?
G: He is. He only eats fat people.
M: I'm not fat.
G: Yes you are.
M: Gordon, do you even know what fat means?
G: Yes, it means you are like an elephant. And you are like an elephant and you have an elephant nose.
I stopped the conversation after that before he could come up with even more insults!

Let's Be Honest

The real reason I haven't been posting (or posting anything real) much because I have had only one thing on my mind as of late and it wasn't really a subject I wanted to share with the world. As most of you know, Chris graduated in May in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Finding a job has been tough.

Plain.
old.
no.
fun.

After about a month of rejections (about 5-10 a day) Chris decided to give it one more shot. (Now you have to understand here: Chris had NO job once school let out because during school he was a teacher's assistant so we needed something quick.) He applied to an international company hiring in the middle east, specifically the Kingdom of Bahrain. At first I was like, "Yeah, okay, apply for a job in Bahrain or whatever. It is not like we are going to ever move there!" Then I started to really consider it when the company was actually considering Chris. We did a lot of thinking and praying, talking and fasting, back and forth-ing. Right around the same time my brother Brett offered Chris a job at the family business. Now things were heating up. We had to make a decision. Chris and I both felt that Bahrain was the right thing for our family. We were so excited and started dreaming of our life abroad. When they finally offered Chris the job we were ecstatic. We both have never wanted something so bad. This was the biggest decision, since marriage, that either of us had ever had to pray over. We felt everything was falling into place. Then the contract arrived. The company was not willing to pay more than they would pay a middle eastern worker which would definately not support our family. Chris was very disappointed and had to turn it down. Why then, did we both feel it was the right choice? After months of stress, wondering, hoping, praying...we were left broken hearted. I told Chris we had one day to be angry about it and then we are moving on. We came to the conclusion that maybe the reason we felt it was right was because if we hadn't put all our effort into getting the job we would have always wondered, "what if?" Now we can move to Idaho, moving forward with no regrets. Knowing that we gave it our all.
So...Chris has been living and working in Idaho (and loving it!) for the past month or so and I have been here trying to adjust to single motherhood, pack, and find a place to live 135 miles away. It has been a little hectic around here. In fact I have had this post for about two weeks with no time to finish it up. Well its time because we are moving in two days to little, old Heyburn, Idaho. I mean, I don't even know if they have internet there! =)