Around the House

Just a little sample of some candids we've taken over the last month:

Preston with Mom.

Preston with Dad.

Adelyn took this picture of the three of us. She did a great job!

Apparently Preston thinks that sitting in Adelyn's doll stroller reading books is a great way to spend the afternoon. (Do you like his new haircut? I cut it this time.)

The kids love trying on our shoes.

Painting! Please disregard Preston's apron. Trust me, it is essential to cover him from head to toe, even if he has to wear purple flowers.

As we've been getting everything out of storage and ready for the new baby's arrival, Preston has taken upon himself the responsibility of testing everything to ensure that it's safe. This mesh baby bath passed his inspection--it was able to hold the weight of a boisterous two-year old. In case you were wondering, the baby's crib can also withstand very large amounts of weight and jumping forces without collapsing.

Playing tennis with mini-rackets.

My cheesy little swimmer.

Adelyn's super-hero swim party.

On Pioneer Day morning, the Stake Primary had all the kids put on a Pioneer Parade and march around the neighborhood. This was my not-so-successful attempt to dress Adelyn up like a pioneer.

Quality Time With Dad

There have been many times in the past where Ryan was unable to come on adventures with me and the kids, but this summer has been a little bit reversed. Because he gets summers off, I have been the one stuck working. It is a sad day indeed when he has to take the kids to things alone and I have to go to work. But I am thankful that he is such a great dad and has the courage to handle the kids alone. As a result, they've been able to create lots of great memories together that will be treasured during the coming months when he will be very busy with work and school.

The Provo Freedom Festival is always a lot of fun. This year, they all went to the parade in the morning. Adelyn's favorite thing was the huge Madeline balloon; Preston's was the colorful floats. You can tell from this picture that it was a very hot Independence Day. Adelyn is melting, even though she's wearing Ryan's hat.

Preston, petting a turtle at the reptile show. They got to be right in the front and see the huge snakes and other rare animals.

Ryan also took the kids to his Homedew family reunion for the weekend. They stayed one night in Jackson Hole, then camped in Star Valley, Wyoming with all of his mom's family. The kids love camping and I'm so glad they took this opportunity to see family members we haven't seen for a long time.

Oh....So Pregnant

So, I am WAY pregnant. I am on the final count down: just 11 days until my due date. I would post a picture, but I'm not really into that. :) Basically, I look like I swallowed a soccer ball, watermelon, or maybe even a beach ball--you get the idea. I have been in major "nesting" mode for the last few months and have thus become a terrible blogger. Sorry about that.

During the last month or so, I have had a blast painting my house! We finished the whole main level (family room, kitchen and bathroom) as well as the upstairs kids' bathroom. I LOVE the effect of color on the walls. It makes me happy. I also bought some bar stools on KSL and covered them with beautiful apolstery fabric and plastic (so the kids can't destroy them)--a very fun and rewarding project. We also recently did a $100 remodel to our bathroom. A new mirror, light fixture, hardware, paint, and a few decorations have made a HUGE difference. We also put hardware on the kitchen cabinets, ceiling fans in all the upstairs bedrooms, and organized our food storage. I love doing little home fix-it projects (or watching Ryan do them :) My current little project is making bedding for my new baby's crib. I admit that I am not much of a seamstress; but fortunately, my mom is. She's helping me finish a new bumper and crib skirt that matches Adelyn's throw pillows since they'll be sharing a room. Everything is just about ready for my new little one's arrival.

I have also been working more this summer since Ryan is not currently teaching. It has been pretty difficult (especially the 12 hour graveyard shifts). But after this week, I will be done with that. I am very much looking forward to life slowing down. I have absolutely nothing on my calendar or to-do list after this week (apart from adjusting to being a mother of three, of course) and it feels so refreshing. I am excited to just enjoy the all-too-fleeting weeks of my newborn's infancy. I cannot wait to finally meet my little princess. Anyway, until then...

Beautiful San Diego

We just got back from a fabulous family vacation to San Diego. It was the first big road trip we've done as a family since Adelyn was 4 months old (almost 4 years ago). It was so much fun! We drove to Las Vegas and stayed over night at "Terrible's Hotel and Casino." Despite its ominous name, we had an excellent nights sleep and a delicious buffet breakfast before we hit the road again the next morning.

After more driving, we checked in at our hotel in San Diego and spent the evening at Sea World. We stayed late and got to see all the awesome night shows, including an amazing killer whale show. With help from a bag of cotton candy, we were able to keep the kids out until after 10:00pm. We returned again on Friday to see all the morning shows. "Circ de la Mer" was my favorite.

Adelyn loved the killer whales, that is until one splashed us and we got drenched. It took several hours to convince her to forgive the whale and that they were still nice--they were just trying to involve us in the fun.

We loved seeing the sharks, manatees, penguins, sea turtles, polar bears, whales, walruses, dolphins, and all the different kids of fish.

A lion fish: one of my personal favorites.

Addie posing on this cute little garden bench.

We braved the HUGE San Diego Zoo the next two days. We couldn't believe how much there was to see. Panda bears, koala bears, polar bears, hyenas, anteaters, etc., etc. We were so AMAZED at the variety. We could have spent a week there and not been bored.

My two favorite bugs.

A way cute picture of my three little rascals. :)

Me with my best friend.

I'm not sure what animal it is that we are on: saber-tooth tiger maybe?

The Wild Animal Park was also a treat. We got to go on a safari ride through what appeared to be an African plain. We saw a rhinoceros galloping over the grass, herds of antelope, an ostrich with her eggs, and so much more.

I just love this picture of Addie.

There were beautiful botanical gardens all throughout the park. I especially loved this tree with the striking orange blossoms.

These beautiful lorikeet birds would sit on your arm and drink nectar from a dish on your hand. It was really neat.

If you look close, you will see the most darling little baby elephant by its mother. It was born just this past March, but it had so much spunk and had to nearly run to keep up with the herd.

Ryan at Mission Beach with the kids. The water was a little too cold for my children's delicate skin. Just a few seconds after I took this tranquil picture, they were screaming in protest. But we had lots of fun playing in the sand.

We took a little drive to visit Old Town San Diego, which is apparently the birth place of California. There are rows of darling little shops, restaurants, and old houses. We ate dinner at a cute little Mexican restaurant called Fred's (I know, it doesn't sound very Mexican, but it was still really yummy).

We found a great park while visiting Coronado Island. We let the kids play for awhile, then watched the sun set over the waves while walking along the beach. It was pretty incredible.

How we all felt by the last day. After all the walking, it was definitely time to go home.

Backyard Makeover

We put in a fence last fall so that our kids could play in the backyard without worry, but then we realized our back yard was boring and they had nothing fun to do out there so. . .

We bought a swing set. I am most excited about the awesome deal I got on it: only $109.50 at RC Willey Outlet. They were sold out in one day, so I'm very glad I jumped on it.

The swing set happens to be my kids' favorite new toy.

Every fast Sunday in church, we have had a combined lesson on Provident Living. Over the last few months, we've been working like crazy beefing up our food and water storage, improving our budget, compiling our 72-hour kit, and although I thought our 1/10 acre lot was too small for one, Ryan decided it was also time to plant a garden. Besides a few perennials, we planted raspberry bushes, a few tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, cucumber, and some various herbs. Last night, we needed some green onions for our potato bar and so we just went into the back yard and grabbed some. Now that was a proud moment.

Raspberries...yum!

The rest of the garden.

Ryan also built the kids a sand-box out of the left over wood that was sitting on the side of our house when we moved in. We just need to fill it with sand and the backyard makeover will be complete.
Here is the prettiest addition to the backyard make-over. Lilies are one of my favorite flowers.

Happy VERY Belated Easter!!

I know what you are thinking. It is WAY too late to post about Easter. Perhaps you are not a miserable procrastinator like me. I apologize, but you will just have to put up with a quick post so I can share a couple darling pictures of my little egg hunters.

Grandma Rocque always puts on a HUGE egg hunt. Although she only had four grand kids come over this year, she hid enough eggs for 20 kids or more. Maybe that is her way of encouraging us to have more kids--so the sugar will get spread out over more little bodies.

Um...case in point. But it sure was fun!

Because at Grandma Ostler's, there was about 20 kids for roughly the same number of eggs, my kids think they need to get a little more creative to get their fill. You can see that Preston has abandoned the on-foot egg hunt and resorted instead to racing for the eggs in his favorite set of wheels. We also enjoyed dying eggs with the kids and eating a nice dinner. How grateful we are for our Grandmas' houses!

P. S. The following four posts are also the result of procrastination and I hope you'll forgive me for dumping them on you all at once. :)

Creative Obedience

This is the result of abandoning your daughter while watching "American Idol." I told her to quickly get her pajamas on and brush her teeth (while I remained absorbed in the TV). This was her very logical and creative alternative. Perhaps she thought I wouldn't notice that there were no children in this display of attempted obedience. :)

Slave Driver

I often get somewhat exasperated with the all too frequent pig sty I find when I come home from work. Ryan made sure that this time, the house was sparkling clean when I came home. His method: putting the kids to work. Imagine, if you will, Ryan sitting on the couch watching golf while he enforces his new genius design with a whip...

For the record, Ryan really doesn't own a whip (I'm sorry if I had you worried) and he actually does a pretty good job at keeping the house clean while I'm gone. More importantly, the kids are always happy and well cared for. They absolutely love spending time with their Daddy.

Dinosaur Encounters

It is no wonder that my kids have a sudden new obsession with dinosaurs. I realized that over the last month, their dinosaur exposure has greatly increased. Over Spring break, Ryan took the kids to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. They had a fabulous time.

Addie really enjoyed playing in the sand making dinosaur cities, coloring fossils, digging for dinosaur bones, and watching the movie about how dinosaurs became extinct. She frequently tells the story about the "HUGE meteor that struck the earth" to whoever will listen. Preston thought the dinosaurs were fun for awhile and he enjoyed practicing his growling and roaring noises for them. But after awhile, he just wanted to run through the museum as fast as he could. He also thought it was funny to tease Daddy by ducking under the ropes and becoming part of the exhibits. He is such a little pill!

The happy threesome in their paleontologist hats.

The following week, I took the little rascals to the small dinosaur museum at BYU. Adelyn enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with her good buddy Jaron.

Preston is always so busy making new discoveries that he won't ever pose for me anymore.

Addie and Jaron again, this time by the T-rex skull. Incidentally, after we wore out this museum (which only took about 20 minutes), we went to University Mall and let the kids run out some more energy at the dinosaur adventure play area. I personally am very grateful that there are so many fun and educational ways to spend the day with kids these days.

The Geyser in my Front Yard

It has been over a month since I've posted and over three weeks since this incident happened, but now that everything is resolved, it is all much easier to laugh about.

So, we got our water bill last month: $164.00! Of course, I was immediately on the phone telling American Fork City that there must have been some mistake. I demanded they come and recheck our meter. They came the next day, but unfortunately the meter reading was right...and it indicated we had a water leak...somewhere in our front yard. (Oh, is that why our grass was already so green?) Anyway, so we turned off the water for the day. Fortunately, I had my trusty 72-hour kit water (28 gallons worth) in my garage, so I was able to survive...barely.

I couldn't stop fretting the whole day. How in the world were we supposed to find where the pipe was leaking? And IF we ever found it, how were we supposed to know how to fix it? That night, Ryan called one of our neighbors over to help him figure things out. The next thing I know, Ryan had a glazed look in his eyes (with a hint of boyish excitement) and he told me they were planning to dig up the yard and fix the problem that night. Thirty minutes later, I peaked outside and noticed there was one of those Bobcat back-hoe diggers on my drive way. Yikes! Fifteen minutes later, while putting the kids to bed, I daringly looked out again and saw the back-hoe's huge metal claw hacking away at my front lawn!!! I stared speechlessly and within seconds, to my horror, I saw water spraying 15 feet into the air from a pipe they'd hit. I took a deep breath, shook my head in disbelief, and continued reading "Where the Wild Things Are."

Once the kids were finally in bed, I looked out again and saw that Ryan was neck deep in a HUGE muddy hole shoveling; our neighbor was holding a light so Ryan could see inside the hole. Our neighbor's friend, the one who operated the back-hoe, was at Lowe's getting the supplies to fix the pipe. It was POURING rain, dark, and VERY cold outside. I ventured out to join the fun and to find out if Ryan had any intention of eating dinner. He kept digging, so I decided to just feed him mouthfuls of chocolate chip banana bread between shovel strokes. After some questioning, I found out that the back-hoe had completely broken the leaking pipe (remember the geyser) and they were searching for the other end that they needed to reconnect.

Well, to make the rest of a long story short, Ryan finally came to bed around 1:00am, drenched and freezing cold, bless his heart. It never stopped raining, but they did fix the pipe. After another long day without water, we had a plumber clean out our pipe filter that had gotten filled with little rocks and we got our water back on again.

We are so grateful to our neighbor and his friend who helped us find and repair the pipe. I am amazed that they were willing to stay out there in such miserable weather until after midnight to help us out. I cannot imagine how much it would've cost to fix the pipe if we had hired someone else to do it. We feel very blessed that it turned out as well as it did.

I would never wish a lawn geyser upon anyone else, but this experience has taught me a great lesson about service. I have learned what a blessing neighbors can be during a crisis. It has renewed my determination to look out for and help those around me, even when the circumstances aren't the most convenient. I really hope that I will be someone that my neighbors and friends will call when they need help getting through a crisis. After all, isn't that what neighbors are for?