An Update of Epic Proportions

The craziness of our lives the past 6 months has caused me to eliminate blogging from my endless list of things to do. Life is now returning to somewhat of a normal state and I feel like I should get caught up a little.

May

Brent and I celebrated his 30th birthday on a Caribbean cruise. We had such a wonderful time. Looking back at all that has happened this summer we are so grateful that we were able to spend this time together. I think it will be a while before our next vacation without kids.

Andrew graduated from preschool. Notice the sling. He broke his collar bone while we were away on our cruise. We were not surprised to get the news...of all our boys he is the one this would happen to. Oh, we love you Andrew.

Andrew celebrated his 5th Birthday at the end of May. He had his first "friend" party. He was thrilled to celebrate with his friends. I survived the madness only to realize I had not taken one photo of the event. Sorry Andrew.

I did get some documentation of this celebration however. This is how his Aunt Katy decided to let the kids "party" while I was preparing for the family party on his birthday. It's a good thing I wasn't there. They had a blast.

June

Will graduated from kindergarten. He had such a fun year.

Summer sports begin.

One of the most difficult days of the summer for the boys was saying goodbye to their uncle David who is serving a mission in Kobe, Japan. Don't let the smiles fool you, they were all crying their eyes out. We miss you terribly Dave.

We spent a rainy weekend up at Redfish lake with Brent's parents and sister. Because of the rain we changed our plans from camping in tents to spending the weekend at my Grandpa's cabin. Not such a bad thing. We had a great time.

One of the wonderful changes in our lives has been having Brent's sister and her family move to Twin Falls. My boys love spending time with their cousins. This picture is of Jacob and Lucy pretending to go to school.

July

I think the highlight of our summer was spending a week at Snowbird with Brent's family.

There were so many activities to do. We all climbed the rock wall.....

Jumped and flipped like crazy on the bungee trampolines...

Enjoyed the bounce house...

Went on nature hikes...

Raced down the Alpine Slide...

Conquered the electronic Bull...

And ended each day like this!

We came home from Snowbird and said goodbye to our first house and moved over to our new (Brent's parents old) house. We said our goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa Nielson as they moved to Utah. We were sad to see them go, but found comfort in the fact that we would be so close for at least a year. The original plan was for them to train in Salt Lake for a year and then they would be given an assignment overseas in August of 2010....well things changed slightly.

The day we moved into the new house we took one of these and found out we are expecting our 4th child. I am due on March 26th. The move was easy because we own so little. There is literally a drawer or cupboard for each individual thing we own in this house. So much space and nothing to fill it. It is so empty compared to how Marcia had it. It's actually slightly depressing but exciting at the same time. It is nice to have this blank canvas that I know will be the house I work on making my home for the rest of my life. We love the space. It has been A LOT of work and a lot of adjusting. The most difficult part for me was trying to adjust and keep up with the work load while feeling absolutely miserable. I feel so much better now and I'm so grateful that we are here.

This is one of the boys favorite activities in the new house. They love the big jetted tub in the master bath. I must admit it is one of my favorite things too.

The last week of July we were able to spend some time with our McMahon cousins. My sister lives in North Dakota and we only see them once or twice a year. We were so thrilled to have them visit this summer.

We spent some time at the cabin again with my family. Grandpa Crandall and Uncle Aaron taught the boys how to fish. We found a perfect place to fish and everyone in the family caught a fish, including Jacob. Guess what we had for dinner?

August

We spent a few days at Lagoon with the boys and Brent's family. I spent many hours in my yard and garden. We also enjoyed the Twin Falls County Fair. This was a very sick month for me and as a result I don't have pictures of anything. I must have been having a good day on the boys first day of school because I managed to get one of these.

Both boys were very excited about going to school. They both got the teachers that they wanted. Will feels like such a big boy now that he is in school all day. He loves having 3 recesses and eating lunch at school. He really is maturing. Andrew is making a lot of new friends. He loves learning to read. I think his favorite part of school is that he gets to be like his big brother.

September

Soon after school started, they did vision and hearing screenings at school for all of the kids. They sent a paper home saying that Andrew had failed his vision screening and needed to be seen by a opthamologist immediately. We scheduled his eye appointment and sure enough his left eye is "lazy". His right eye is 20/20 and doing all the work. They put him in glasses that day and they are supposed to help his left eye get the workout it needs to function properly. The doctor asked me if he was more clumsy than my other kids... UM YEAH! Guess I should have though of that and gotten his eyes checked a few years earlier. OOPS. He looks so darn cute. Don't you think?

Again, lots of adjusting to new house, new ward, new calling, school, homework, keeping house clean, being sick, keeping up on the garden, harvesting garden, canning, making jam, etc. None of which I have pictures to show for, not that you want to see pictures of those things anyway. And here we are in...

October

We were able to attend General Conference and watch Brent's dad speak. What a wonderful weekend that was. Just before conference Brent's parents were asked to serve in the Area Presidency in New Zealand. Suddenly our time with them was cut short about 9 months. It was wonderful to spend conference weekend with them and the rest of Brent's siblings. We are so sad to have them go but we are so grateful for their examples of service and sacrifice. Our lives are being blessed tremendously because of their obedience. I am so grateful that my children have such wonderful grandparents.
We are planning to go visit them sometime in 2010. We can't wait.

Coming in November....

What will this baby be??? Is there really any question? Why some people think our chances are 50/50 I don't know? I am putting my money on BOY! Honestly if that is the case I will be THRILLED!!! If by some crazy fluke it is a girl, I will also be THRILLED, and SCARED OUT OF MY MIND!!!

I will keep you updated.