Weekend with the Sutera's

Jamie, Anthony, Carmine and Braxton came all the way (1 hour :) ) from Virginia on Saturday. We had a big family sleep over. It was great, at least I thought so. Maybe Braxton (on the right) didn't like it so much since Neelah followed him the entire weekend yelling "Mine!!" Plus, he got stuck riding either Neelah's pink trike or Dora truck...whichever one she didn't want at the moment.
Lunch was a real treat. 5 kids are quite a circus. At least they got ice cream with their meals.

Before lunch, we split up with the hubby's and Jamie and I took the youngest 2 kids with us and sent the oldest 3 with Eric and Anthony. They thought they got the easier end of the deal until I get this text from Eric saying that he can't get anything done with all these kids! He was at Sears trying to purchase a ride-on lawnmower. Neelah had to sit on each and every model and Finn and Carmine were running around like maniacs. Welcome to my life. :) Jamie and I went to the craft store and got everything we needed to make our mom's presents. I will post a pic of them after the gifts get to the mom's.
All these pictures are backwards. This was that morning at breakfast. Jamie and Anthony brought bagels from Panera Bread. Holy Crap they were SO GOOD.

I love that we have a house big enough to have visitors.

I am Back!!!

YES! We have finally gotten internet access! It is a Christmas Miracle! So these are a few things that have happened over the last few days.

Last night after dinner, Finn announced that he had to "do his work". By that he meant to use this cool toy to do addition and subtraction. Thanks Grandma Sharlene for such a great learning toy! He was so proud of himself and was sad when it was bath time.

We took advantage of the hour that it wasn't raining and went over to say hi to the horses. Of course Neelah is trying to climb over the fence. She is such a MANIAC!! She is all over the place and always falling off things. Pretty much everything she climbs on which is EVERYTHING. She is so different than Finn. She is anything but mild and I am still getting used to that. If she wasn't so darling I would have lost my mind weeks ago. It's like she turned 2 and THAT DAY decided to be a drama queen. The days of the 8am sleep in are over. Neelah is awake at least 30 min later than everyone else and probley an hour before us all. She lays in her bed or in front of the door and sings at the top of her lungs...all the songs she knows...all inter-mixed together.
It is highly entertaining except when it is completely obnoxious.

Bootlegging

I am bootlegging an internet signal from one of my neighbors...who knows which one. There are only 5 houses on this street. Needless to say, I am almost going mad without constant, high-speed internet access. I feel like a pioneer. Okay, bad analogy. But you get the point.

This was our back yard the other night. Way spooky. Each day I love our house and yard more and more. I was really nervous about living in the boonies but when I can send my kids outside and know that I will be able to hear their conversations because there is no traffic around, well... it is very pleasant. The flip side of that is that since we live so far from everyone and live on such a big piece of land, Eric had DRAMA mowing the yard last weekend.

We went to buy a lawn mower (the regular push kind) and that was our first mistake. It took him like 3.5 hours and he only got 2/3rds of the way done. He had to abandon the rest of the yard and admit that we either needed to suck it up and pay the big bucks for a ride along mower or pay someone to come mow.

This weekend we are planting flowers. The big cherry blossom tree in our front yard is blooming with pink petals and I LOVE IT. It smells heavenly. Come visit everyone!!!

bummer

Blogging from my blackberry is near impossible. Since we are farmers (as I have aforementioned) there isn't a company who has layed fiber-optic cable line to our street. That means no internet for us in the easy, plug into your cable outlet and go. We are working on some other options so until then...

I can type this from my blackberry but can't figure out how to upload pictures. Sucks to be me right now ;)

Randoms that I couldn't leave out.

Above is Eric's best efforts at a Mickey Mouse Pancake. That was Neelah's request.

Below is the funniest video I have ever taken of Finn. He is playing the Wii. Just watch him shake those buns!

Easter 2009

Maile really wanted to hunt for Easter Eggs with us. Too bad that if we had let her she would have had to have her stomach pumped. All the eggs were filled with CHOCOLATE!! Yipee!

Grandma Sharlene and Grandpa Rick brought over lots and lots of eggs first thing in the morning. It was the perfect way to start the day!

Grandpa Rick is helping Neelah find some eggs. Nice Diet Coke Grandpa.

My kiddies in their Sunday Easter gettups. Too bad we couldn't get better pictures. Neelah is almost impossible to get to cooperate with pictures anymore. It's a dang shame since she is so cute.

The big move!

As I begin the tale of our driving, keep in mind that the Penske doesn't go over 70 mpm downhill. So much fun for us.

Whew! This last week was not the happiest or most pleasant. Packing was really difficult with 3 kids. Either Savvy or Neelah were crying (or both) or Finn was torturing Neelah and getting himself into trouble. Eric insisted that he and Nate (our bro-in-law who was kind enough to take the trip with us...THANKS NATE!!) have "trucker hats".

Here is our very own 26 ft Penske truck towing our car. Such fun to drive!!

Finn was good at helping us label the boxes.

OUR JOURNEY:

We started off on Friday morning heading south to I70 hoping to miss the weather. Not so much. It pretty much snowed on us for 12 of the 16 hours that we drove that day. Going into the Rocky Mountians isn't the greatest choice on a snowy day but it was either that or try to cross Wyoming with the wind/snow storms.

This picture was taken from the van which followed the truck almost the entire way to Maryland. When we got up to 10,000 feet (Vail Colorado) we were going about 30 mph up the mountian and our heads were ready to explode from the elevation. How anyone can live up there is beyond me. I guess there is the fact that THE ROCKY MOUNTIANS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!!! Wow is all I can say.

From Colorado we entered Kansas. Completely opposite of the Rockies. FLAT and WINDY. We stopped at Denny's somewhere in Kansas and bless their hearts, neither our hostess nor our waitress had teeth. What more is there to say.

Missouri was next and we passed through St Louis and saw the Arch. Pretty cool. Not much else to say about Missouri.

And then into Kentucky on Sunday. Actually Indiana was somewhere in there but I have no idea whether it was before or after Kentucky. It all blurred. Kentucky was really pretty. Here is a shot of one of the freeways that was blasted with dynamite to pave the road. The houses and rolling, green hills were really nice to look at and it was a gorgeous day.

We had spent the night in Louisville with Brinn and her family. She made us a tasty french toast breakfast and sent us on our way. Thanks Brindle.

I didn't get any pictures of West Virginia...sorry.

Savvy is crying so I will have to finish this post later.

Duece

Yesterday Neelah turned two. I seriously can't believe it. I had just found out I was pregnant with her when we moved back to Utah. My life hasn't been the same since. She is so different from Finn. My mom says she reminds her of me when I was that age. Hmmm. She is seriously HILARIOUS. She has started singing (even if she doesn't know the words, she improvises with the names of our family members) and dancing (with arms held high in the air going round and round in circles). And though there have been days where she spends the first 2 hours of the morning crying because I can't hold her ("Mommy, carry you!"), she brightens my day with her sweetness.
Where Finn never wanted to be the one to say the prayer over meals, she wants to say it every time. Finn didn't like to get dirty and Neelah is a disaster. But Neelah loves to cuddle and have her tummy tickled just like her brother and daddy. She insists on singing Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy spider every night before bed. She still caries around her "lovey" but has learned that we don't take it into stores with us anymore. She is a tease just like her brother too. Always wanting to make a game of anything. Her eyes melt my heart over and over again every day.

Anyhow, here are some bday pics that of course are in random order. Above is her new tricycle. That was the favorite gift this year.

Think she is enjoying her cake?

See what I mean about her eyes?!!?

Aunt Alisa made a FABULOUS bday cake for Neelah. A lemon-y, cream, berry concoction that was to die for. Alisa, you are the BEST!!

She didn't much like the elastic around her chin.

Alisa's Birthday Cake Masterpice. Way better than the costco cake I served the kiddies. :)

Neelah is such a sweet little girl and I am so blessed to have her in my life. One day she won't ask me for "chok at meewk" first thing in the morning and I will be so sad when I can't hear that little voice asking such an innocent question.

Party at the Aquarium

Finn was invited to a birthday party at the aquarium today. It was fun to meet all his friends from school and their parents. These are the Parana fish and Finn was fascinated by the fact that they could eat HIM.

Finn is trying to convince Neelah to crawl in. She wasn't having any of it...too scary.

We are in a place with thousands of fish, spiders, reptiles and bugs and she is only interested in the balloons. Appropriate.

Spring in the Park

We took an afternoon outing to the park this week. I loaded the stroller and Finn's bike in the car and we went up for a couple rounds around the track. I promised the kids time on the playground after we went a couple of miles. Finn told me that he could ride his bike "super-fast" which was "114 fast". Very fast indeed.

This I know...

As I have blogged about before, my love language is "acts of service" and "gift giving". Eric sent me these flowers this afternoon. They smell so good!! I have them on my kitchen table so that I see (and smell) them at least 50 times a day. What does that mean? It is as if Eric is here telling me that he loves and appreciates me 50 times a day. Aside from wanting you here with me honey, I can't ask for more! I love you Eric!

Happy St Patricks Day!

We love this holiday around our house. I wish that all my kiddies had the red hair! If you make a trip into Cafe Rio today and tell the person at the register "Happy St Patricks day" you get some sort of treasure! Hopefully I will get my own treasure.

trials at the table

Tonight's dinnertime tragedy was inevitable. It was going to happen sometime. I will admit that I had been toying with the idea for about a week now. Savvy has graduated to the highchair and so since I only have one, Neelah "gets" to sit at the table. That means that I "get" to tell her over and over to sit down. I "get" to chase her down when she is wandering the house with random bits of food.

Tonight was different. I had too much going on in my head. I have a LONG LONG list of things to accomplish before we move as well as continue to run this house in a semi-normal fashion and I didn't have the patience to deal with "roaming Neelah" tonight.

Introducing the packing tape.

Am I a terrible mother that I admit to hoping that being taped to the table was traumatic enough to get her to sit and eat her food from now on?

spring sports

Finn came home from Grandma and Grandpa Watson's house this afternoon with some new toys. A baseball mitt, bat and ball. After he figured out that he is a lefty, he really did well. It was a glorious day today and we enjoyed the 60+ degree weather.
A sunny day is incomplete without shades.

More pictures of our MD house

I have never understood why when I load pictures, they don't post in the order that I load them. It is really annoying. So we start with the master bedroom closet. There are 2 of these...one for me and one for ME!! Just kidding, I guess I will give one to Eric.
This is the master bathroom. On the left is a little room with the potty and the wall opposite has 2 sinks and vanities.
This is the Master bedroom. The picture was taken from the door to the bathroom. It is HUGE!! I am so excited!
We are so excited about this AMAZING paint job!!! Uh. NO. This will be Savvy's room after a quick paint job.
Also after a quick paint job, this will be Finn and Neelah's room. Along with these bedrooms, there is an upstairs guest room and full bathroom
The kitchen of course. I don't know what I am going to do with all the cabinet space.
This is the great room. On the left of the picture is a 20 ft stone fireplace. We also don't have enough furniture to fill half of this room.
Formal Living room....right! Like my kids understand the word "formal"
Formal Dining room.
Entrance way. We are so excited and can't wait for lots of visitors!

Slacking Off

I know, I have been such a slacker lately. I really do feel guilty. I feel like I am missing out on documenting my kids lives. Here are a few things that have happened over the last few weeks. Finn drew this picture for Savvy to make her happy. She loves her brother and sister. Finn is such a helper with Savvy. Neelah is starting to really take an interest in Savvy...always asking where she is or if she is happy. She loves making Savvy laugh, they both do.
Since I switched Neelah into a toddler bed and gave Savvy the crib a few weeks ago, every night when I go in to cover the kids up before going to bed myself, I find SOMETHING in bed with Neelah. Wow, what a run-on sentence! Above is the perfect example. If you look closely, you can see that after I left the room, she managed to get her shoes on the wrong feet. She was obviously playing with a soccer ball, piglet book, Backyardigans book and her baby doll. What a combination! I love this girl...ALWAYS full of surprises!
Exhibit B. I walk into the bathroom and Neelah (who has peed in the potty twice now) is sitting there reading the Pottery Barn catalog. Need any decorating tips? Neelah is brushing up on her skills.