Moving

Monday (9/20) we had our last family home evening in our house. We started the night off with a fancy dinner and went and got ice cream at Iceburg. We have loved living within walking distance to two 7-11's, Arctic Circle, and our favorite - Iceburg. And to be honest, I don't think we abused it). Emily got a chocolate ice cream cone - dipped in chocolate. It's now her new favorite. That girl sure loves chocolate.Tuesday I gave the kids their last bath in our house. They are so cute together in the tub. It's so fun to watch them learning to play and interact together. Jacob has really learned how to splash in the tub and he sure enjoys doing it.

Tuesday night Jeff and I went on a date. I know, I know - great timing. We rarely go out and of all the times to take a night off it wasn't the best. But we'd bought tickets to Lion King months ago and weren't about to pass on it. So we took a break from packing and cleaning and went and had plenty of never ending pasta at Olive Garden, ran into my old boss and chatted for a while, and then met up with some of my family at Capitol Theatre. It was an awesome show; Fun music; Amazing costumes; And great company. Thanks Arline for watching the kids for us and Mom for encouraging us to get tickets!

I feel like I've been packing forever. Maybe it's because Emily has been trying to for months. We've been talking about this impending move for so long she has tried packing up her toys in any container I might have laying around the house - box or bag. It took quite a lot of explaining and convincing to get her to stop packing and keep playing with her toys. When it came time to actually pack up Emily was a great helper - and Jacob just loved getting into everything he possibly could.

Wed (9/22) I spent the morning/afternoon running carloads of food and clothes to the new house. Then Wednesday night a few friends, family, and Elders from the ward came and helped us move our beds and other furniture. It of course ended up raining and some things got wet, but we survived. It was a very long night - one in which we lost Jacob's pacifiers and ended up sending Aunt Niki to the store to buy more. Advice for anyone moving with a baby: clip a paci to the baby before all the crazyness hits.

Thursday (9/23) I spent the day at home trying to get settled in (and as evident from the few pictures below, it was a necessary thing). The following Monday (9/27) we finished moving everything else out of our house that is going to storage. We can't believe how many truck, trailer, and carloads of stuff we had crammed into our townhome. We took several trips up to Mike & Niki's place to store (Thanks again guys! You're awesome!) and just as many to Dave & Arline's to move in. It has been quite the chore to mesh these two households and I'm sure it will be 10x the headache to undo it all when it comes time for us to move out. So here are a few pics I snapped that first night we moved in before stumbling to bed. (And they really don't seem to do it justice).

Family Room
Kitchen Bedroom

Tuesday was spent mopping, scrubbing, puttying, painting, tightening, cleaning, dusting, sweeping, wiping, and any other such '-ing' you can imagine to get our place ready for renters. Jeff and I finally made it home after midnight that Tuesday night and had Chris clean the carpets the next morning. Our lease was signed Thursday afternoon and our renters moved in right away. It was an exhausting month and one we're happy to have behind us. However it looks like October will be just as tiring.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped pack, move, clean, and babysit. We could not have done it without you!

Take A Deep Breath

Me, so I can make it through the next week. You, so you can make it through all the new posts.

We went to visit my grandparents the other day. Great Gma Newman broke her foot so we took her some cookies, a beautiful picture that Emily drew, and some flowers. It was fun to see both Gma & Gpa and for them to spend one-on-one time with Emily and Jacob. It's sad how busy life gets and how you just don't get out to see as many people as you should. I'm glad I took the time to visit and snap a few pics. If only we can just get them online so they can now view these pictures.

It's officially Fall ~ Football has Started.

While we're thrilled to be watching the Go Utes right now and enjoyed their win over Pitt. We're missing our daddy on Friday nights while he runs all over the valley to ref High School games. Oh well, as long as he loves it and makes some money for Christmas I guess it's worth it. Right?

Emily is really into different languages and has been for the last several months. She loves it when Jeff teaches her words in Portuguese and will often pester him with questions and translations till she stumps him and he has to pull out his dictionary. Emily has also requested that whenever daddy sings to her, he does it in Portuguese. So for Father's Day she gave him a Portuguese Children's Songbook. Here is a clip of her singing "Called to Serve."

Emily also knows mommy, daddy, little brother, toad, I love you, good night, calm down, several I can't come up with right now, and a whole bunch of random lines from different primary songs. That girls sure loves to learn.

1st Day of School

This year Emily's going to preschool three days a week. She has a few friends from last year in her class which is fun. Of course we're all thrilled that McKenzie is one of them. She calls McKenzie her cousin best friend. Emily's also made friends with a darling little girl named Olive. Emily will talk to the boys occasionally but for the most part she just wants to play with the girls. Which is just fine by me!

Yeah!!! Aunt Lisa's in town!

Lisa's here for 3 weeks to have piano lessons. Even though she's busy practicing 10 hours a day, we still get to see her occasionally and we've loved every minute. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing her. It's been so fun to have both sisters here and to get together. We'll miss her when she leaves in a week.

Gpa Holbrook took us to the U vs UNLV game last Saturday. It's always so much work to get ready and take the time to go - especially with kids. It's definitely easier to turn the Tivo on at home and watch it when it's convenient. But once I get there I always remember how amazing it is to be in the stadium and then wish I could go to every game (of course I do still miss the instant replay for when the kids distract me). Unfortunately this game was right in the middle of Jacob's afternoon nap. Surprisingly - and fortunately - Jacob laid his head down on my chest and slept for an hour. That made the game a lot more enjoyable... for all of us. He loved playing with the little girls sitting behind us and they were very generous to share their toys with him. Emily spent a good portion of the game on Gpa's lap - playing with him, his binoculars, and eating the churro he bought for her. And she of course loved the woman sitting next to them because she shared her kettle corn with her. It was a fun game and had some awesome plays. Thanks Dave for the great day! Go Utes!!

9 MONTHS!!!

Our handsome little guy has mastered his crawling and is continuing to develop other skills. He's picked up speed in his crawling, learned how to go up the stairs, figured out how to get past the child locks on the kitchen cuboard, climbs over, under or through anything in his way, and loves to play with doors. He loves peek a boo (and will often cover his face or mine with his blanket), patty cake, and attempting to sing. He will still follow his sister around and wait outside the bathroom door when she's in there. He l.o.v.e.s. to move and it's quite a task to get him to hold still while changing his diaper.
Jacob's becoming a lot more interactive and it's a lot of fun. He'll start to crawl after Jeff or Emily and if they start growling he'll turn around and book it back into my arms and bury his head in my neck - laughing the whole time. He loves to make noise whether it's banging things together, on the tile or wood floor, the sliding door, or vocalizing. You can almost always catch him sitting on one leg with the other straight out in front of him - ready to take off in whichever direction he fancies. Jacob also LOVES to stand. He started pulling himself up right after he learned to crawl. He doesn't usually cruise, but he loves to let go and just see how long he can stand. He's getting really good and will go for 6 or 7 seconds before he either looses his balances or his interest.

Playing on Aunt Jenny's tramp

Checking out his new carseat

Seeing how much noise he can make

Emily's playing soccer this fall. She just started on Tuesday and her first game is tomorrow. Jackson is on her team and it's fun to see those two together. Emily sure tries to mother him. We're excited to see how she does since she hasn't played before. She's very excited for it and can't wait. Whenever anyone asks her about preschool she always quick to add that she's playing soccer too. We hope for a successful season for the Alligators!

Stan, Mel & Heidi are in town for a few days. On Tuesday we all went to dinner at Red Robin and then went back to Gma & Gpa Holbrook's to play. Emily and Heidi loved playing with Stan in the love sac. It was fun to see the girls giggling and having so much fun. Gma & Gpa have a princess tea set that all the grandkids just love. Jacob and Heidi sat next to each other for a while playing with it. Then Heidi found a spoon and decided to feed Jacob with it. He was fine with it at first, but by the time I got my camera to film it, he was about done. It was cute.