Catch Up

I can barely begin to sum up this past month:

• packed entire household for the second time in four months, said good-bye to friends we loved, and drove away from what was our home for the past 6 years
• traveled across the country in the middle of winter (great roads though!) with our three kids, Nate's mom and I in the van, and Nate and my dad in the car - got to stay with two of my dad's siblings along the way as well as spend a night in a hotel with a pool. I think the kids actually liked the whole trip because they got lots of candy from grandma, played with new toys at our stops, watched multiple movies a day, and got to eat and play at McDonalds a lot
  
• spent a few days relaxing at Nate's parents house, then left our kids with them while Nate and I headed down to Rexburg to see our new house for the first time and unpack (we had over 20 members of our new ward show up to help unload the moving van so that part took about 45 min., then Nate and I spent the next few days unpacking basically everything inside the house
  
• back to MT for Christmas, spending a lot of great time with both families - games (mostly Blokus), cutting down a Christmas tree, swimming in the Wing's indoor pool, hardly parenting with all the grandparents and siblings around, singing, arm and leg wrestling
  
• then back to Rexburg again with the whole family - the kids loved seeing some of their stuff was out for the first time in several months
• Nate starting teaching at BYU-I as well as working on data for his research
• me trying to get adjusted and organized after all the craziness
•  overnight visits from my brother Bryce and sister Ally on their way to BYU Provo
• another overnight visit from MC and Tiff on their way back to Utah
• Mom, Dad, and Wade visit overnight on their way to Ogden to visit grandpa Nielsen who had a heart attack, which I ended up taking the kids and going with for the week, then Nate drove up for the weekend so he could visit his grandma in Provo while I spent a wonderful day at the temple doing family names for the first time
  
• And oh yes, Snow, Snow, Snow........

The kids have loved playing in the snow almost daily, followed by hot chocolate. There has been enough that they have started body sledding down the piles on the sides of our driveway. Preston's favorite word since he could barely talk has been "ball" but now he often says "no ball" because he likes snow balls

Nate in his new office before classes started - moving his stuff in, preparing lectures, and working on research data.

My mom, dad, aunt Kathy and Dennis, and Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen and I at the Ogden temple. It is the first time I think any of us had ever done work for our own family. It was a very special day. Some of the names we did baptisms, confirmations, and initiatory work for included Granpa Nielsen's mom, Dennis's dad and sister, and several others on the Nielsen side of the family. I helped Grandma put a lot of the information she has on paper into the computer, much of it written in other languages which she had had translated. It was a very special day and week with them.

Being in a new place always takes some getting used to. For example, Walmart (and basically the entire town of Rexburg) closes at 10pm on weekdays and 11 pm on weekends. What! Our ward is the biggest in Rexburg and looks like stake conference each Sunday. It is a bit overwhelming. Nate and I just got called to work in the Primary in one of the four nurseries!

We like our new home and neighborhood. We have a lot of work to do to finish the basement, but that's ok because I like working with my hands.


Preston is getting three new teeth all at once, two of them molars, and the girls had a bit of a cold, so this week involved some not as happy kids stuck in the house a lot. I have discovered our public library has these wonderful file bins arranged by topic that are filled with books, folder games, stories and activities for young children. They are great. I try to have "school time" each morning with the kids. Baylee can write letters surprisingly well.

Overall, I would say we are adjusting well and there are some definite perks to being here. One, we get to listen to devotionals every Tuesday either on campus or on the radio. This week, Elder Nelson will be speaking and then Elder Ballard (and I think Elder Ballard is presiding at our stake conference too) next week. There is even a special fireside with sister Nelson that all the women faculty or women spouses are invited to attend this week. The temple is beautiful and only 4 min. away.

The members here help clean it nightly and I was able to help do that last week. Funny thing is that they said they give you clothes to change into so in deciding what to wear, Nate convinced me that I really should wear a skirt, because it was the temple and everyone would be dressed up. So I did. Then I get there and everyone is in jeans and the clothes they give you to change into are long sleeved, white coverall pants. I had on this long skirt that I had to bunch up my skirt under my overalls! Nice...

There are lots of fun events and concerts going on at the college that we can attend either for free or for $5. Our whole family has access to the Hart gym which includes the pool, racquetball, exercise equipment and free exercise classes. All our neighbors on every side are members.....it is a good place. I just need to remind myself of these things when I get lonely during the days and am missing many of my Bloomington friends and wanting some adult conversation.

Home is where the heart is

Today we officially own a home in Rexburg.......
and we've never actually seen it in person!!!!! Looks cute though doesn't it?

I've been trying to plan all the moving details and get over my denial that we really are leaving Bloomington in a matter of weeks. It was such a beautiful fall day today that the thought of leaving brought me to tears several times, especially while I was driving the kids home from a mall trip with Sally and her kids, and Mckenna kept saying "we're moving to Idaho, we will miss our friends." Maybe it is that we've been saying we are leaving for so long, because we originally had planned to leave in August, that it seems like it's never really going to happen. And though I am very excited in many ways and know that change is important and inevitable and necessary and promotes growth, right now it's been hard for me to think about.....hard to gear up for packing everything again, hard feeling like things are winding down here and I don't have much purpose, hard being alone with the kids so much because Nate is working more hours to finish what he needs to get done, hard feeling like I really don't have anything to look forward to the coming month, just hard saying good-bye to this place and our friends here and all that we know and are familiar with. Ahh, sorry for feeling sorry for myself. I just can't believe how much I've come to love this place. It is home and home is always hard to leave.

IU campus Fall Pictures

We had a friend take some family pictures for us so I thought I would share a few....I know it looks more like summer than fall .........but it really was fall time!

October

Pumpkin Carving and Trick-or-treating!

As an adult I'm really not into Halloween all that much. In fact I think it is such a weird holiday. Knocking on random people's doors and asking for candy? And doing it dressed up in crazy costumes??? But as a kid I remember not being able to think about much else other than what I was going to be for Halloween and trick-or-treating for at least a week before Halloween. I mean what could be better to a kid than dressing up and everyone giving you free candy???

For pumpkin carving, we opened the tops of the pumpkins and let the girls dig into all the slimy messy inside. They loved it! Nate and I really just wanted the seeds. Yum. We drew a couple faces on a piece of paper and let the girls choose which ones they liked best for us to carve. Baylee wanted a "mean pumpkin" and Mckenna wanted a "silly face." We ended up with 2 mean faced pumpkins, and one silly faced.

We went Friday night to our our ward Halloween party. I am always amazed at how many people come to this and how many of them (entire families) are fully decked out in costumes. In fact, I was in the minority of adults not having a costume on. Almost embarrassing. Here are the only pictures I took of the kids in their costumes. Sorry Grandmas. I meant to take more the next night before trick-or-treating but Nate ended up working late so I took the kids trick-or-treating by myself and totally forgot about pictures. I will say they looked pretty cute, Baylee was a pink poodle, Mckenna a purple dragon, and Preston a lion, "Raaaaaaar."

Mckenna had way too much fun roaring and chasing people trying to scare them because she was a dragon. I finally had to tell her to stop.

I wish he had his lion hood on.........he has now picked up on roaring when asked what a lion says.

13 Articles of Faith

The girls both passed off their final article of faith to our Primary President last week. They got to go into Primary to get a big chocolate bar. I was surprised how they ran right up in front of all the kids to get them, not scared at all. They were so excited.

Fall is come and almost gone.

We took a Sunday drive to see the fall colors and hiked to the top of the old fireman's tower. It seemed a lot higher looking down from the top than I had realized on the ground, especially with all the kids with us!!! Nate and I both kept clinging to their hands the whole time. Wow, what a view...

Many firsts

First birthday, first haircut, first determined walking........

Baylee and Mckenna and Preston all have their birthdays within a day of each other, so we celebrated them all the same night this year with "our best friends Kate and Reese" says Mckenna. I can hardly believe my little baby is already 1! And the girls are 3!!! It was a fun night with lots of cake and ice cream.



I made Preston's cake (he loves any kind of ball) and paid service points at a relief society service auction (which was a great idea, thanks Jeanette for making it) for a "free decorated cake of my choice" which I used for the girls beautiful purple and pink princess cake. Saved me having to make two or three. And in defense of the cake I made, the frosting I started using to write and make the lines on the basketball was all runny. I tried to wipe some of it off, then that wasn't working so I tried to cover it with another color but ran out, anyway, I liked the idea but it didn't turn out quite as I was imagining. =)


We opened presents, made lots of noise and a good mess.




Preston loved the candle. He got off to a slow start eating the cake, but ended with double fistfuls of cake. Nice!




The girls have enjoyed their girls presents which have trickled in from that night until today when the last of Grandmas/Grandpas presents arrived in the mail. It has actually been kind of nice to spread it out over the week. With some of their B-day money from G&G Rawlinson, the girls picked out 3 real goldfish (which I have already managed to accidentally kill, woops) and some princess barbies. The barbies are still sitting on our shelf in the living room as an incentive for good behavior until they earn their 50 popsicle sticks (by listening to mom and dad quickly, obeying quickly, sharing, helping around the house, etc --thanks for the idea Sally).

I gave Preston got his first and much needed haircut.....so far 2/3 blonds...while Nate wrestled him to keep him somewhat still.



Preston has been able to take several steps since I went to Montana and his aunt and uncle Kristi worked with him, and he has had really good control and balance for a long time, but even still he just hasn't taken to the walking thing......until just a couple days ago. It's like he just decided all of a sudden that he could walk and wanted to walk and so that's what he has been doing.