He's Back!!!

The kids and I survived three weeks without Derek (not counting the less than 24 hours he was in town last weekend). It went better than I expected, but I won't lie, it was lonely. I do not know how military families survive. I have a lot more respect for them, and what they sacrifice to serve our country. Three weeks is nothing compared to fifteen months.

Here is Jared looking very cute with his Elmo and Blanket. He really missed Derek.


On Saturday morning the kids watched a movie while I took a shower. I loved that they all brought blankets and pillows, and sprawled out on the bed.


Derek got home around 4p on Saturday. We were very excited to see him. It is so nice to have him home. We have just been hanging out as a family, and enjoying Dad. Welcome Home Derek!!!

Here is the sign the kids made for Derek. Each of them had a page they decorated. They are standing under their page.


Here is a closer view. Jenna did "Welcome," Jared did "Home," Kevin did "Dad!"


Kevin decorated this sign. He wanted to make sure I took a picture to show that he wrote "I love dad" on his sign. You can kind of make it out just under "Dad!"


I think we wore Derek out. Three kids will do that. :) Neither Derek nor Jared was actually sleeping when I took this. Derek had just woken up (as had Jared), when Jared decided he wanted to "sleep next to Daddy." I thought it was very cute.


On a completely unrelated note, I need your help. Derek and I are once again preparing to run the D.C. Ragnar race on September 25-26. We are very excited. I know many of you (or your spouses) have done other Ragnar races this year. Last year we did both the Utah and D.C. Ragnars. They are a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Anyway, we are short one runner. This is a team relay race that is about 193 miles total. You can read all the details on the web site. Each team has 12 people. We have 11 right now and one person that said they will do it if we cannot find anyone else. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in running this with us, please let me know ASAP. They do not need to be fast, but they do need to be able to do long distances (9-10 miles at a time). The cost is about $90. Thanks!

Happy 6th Birthday Kevin! (And other fun too)

This turned out to be a really great week. With Derek still gone on his internship, I have been pretty lonely. My sister is awesome, and she decided to come up and visit for a couple of days. She came up on Tuesday with her little boy, Levi. My kids love Levi and Levi loves them. (OK, Jared is iffy when it comes to Levi, but Kevin and Jenna LOVE him. Jared likes him sometimes, but gets very jealous of him easily). Rachel was a great help! I was able to run without having to push a jogging stroller the two mornings she was here. She watched my kids for me a couple of times. She kept me company in the evenings (the loneliest time of day). She helped with Kevin's birthday cake. She made Kevin's day by being here for his birthday. She is the best! Thanks for coming, Rachel and Levi.

Levi and Rachel - the proof that they came. :)


Kevin turned 6 on Wednesday. Where did the time go? I am going to ask that every birthday that every one of my kids has. It really does go fast. Anyway, he is 6 now. He had a great birthday. I took cupcakes to school for his class. We talked with Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma on the webcam during the celebration, so that they wouldn't miss it. He got awesome gifts, all of which he was very excited about. It was actually really fun to watch him open them. He has used all of them, except the two that require batteries. Hopefully I will get batteries this week. He reminds me multiple times every day that he needs batteries. :)

Kevin wanted a cake with motorcycles on it. Rachel came up with the design (OK, she borrowed it from someone else's blog). :) I put it all together. It was so easy, and I thought it turned out well.


The cake from another angle.


Kevin with his cake.


Jared, Kevin and Mom with the lit birthday cake. You can see Jared waiting there anxiously. He blew out half of Kevin's candles before we could stop him.


Jenna, Kevin, and Jared with the cake. I love this picture.


Kevin with goggles and snorkel. This was one of his presents. Lookin' good buddy!


Kevin got a Lego Stars thing for his birthday. Kevin has just started to really get into Legos (mostly because with other small children, I didn't keep any in the house). He had a great time putting this together. It was really fun for the two of us (I helped because he is new to this and would often put the Legos on backwards). I think I am going to let Santa know that Legos would be a great gift for him this Christmas. :) It rained all day Saturday because of Tropical Storm Bill. That meant we couldn't go swimming, but the kids didn't mind. Instead they stayed inside and worked on Legos. They are the perfect rainy day toy.

Here is Kevin working intently on his Star Wars Lego ship.




Kevin with finished Star Wars Lego ship. He was really proud of this. He has played with it quite a bit. Unfortunately, Jared has broken it a number of times too.


Jenna trying to figure out how to build a lego house.


Jenna with finished Lego house. We had fun building this too. I think I may let Santa know that Legos would be good for Jenna too.


Unfortunately we don't own any of the little kid Legos. (You know the ones that are really big, so you can't swallow them). That meant that Jared had to watch Kevin and Jenna play with Legos. He was a good sport. I had to get after him a few times for touching the Legos. He wasn't actually touching them (as he pointed out), he was ramming his UPS truck into them. :)

Jared smiling for the camera while watching Kevin and Jenna build things with Legos.


Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the two other highlights of the week. Derek has been gone finishing up his internship for the last two weeks. He doesn't actually finish until this Friday. On Saturday afternoon around 2p there was a knock on my door. I peaked out the window to see who it was. I thought "that looks like Derek." I glanced to the driveway and saw his car there. I was so excited. He drove home for a surprise visit! He was here less than 24 hours (he left right after church today), but it was so nice to have him here. The kids were so clingy to him, but that is to be expected after not seeing him for two weeks. I will be very happy when he comes back for good next weekend. I miss him a lot.

Derek couldn't have picked a better day to come home. Last night at our church activity Kevin was eating dinner, and realized that his tooth had gotten very loose (it has been loose for a while). He said he thought we could pull it out when we got home. I looked at it, and it was very loose. We got home, and I told the kids to floss and brush their teeth. Somehow while flossing, Kevin got the floss stuck under his loose tooth. Derek came up to help him, and ended up pulling out the tooth. It was a bit more painful than we had hoped, but Kevin was so excited to have lost his first tooth. He was even more excited when he woke up, and found that the tooth fairy had left him a whole dollar. I told him that when I was little the tooth fairy only gave me 50 cents. Lucky kid! :)

Back to School

Kevin and Jenna both started back to school this week. Kevin is in first grade. He started on Monday. Every day he seemed to really enjoy school. He talked excitedly about it, and said he had a good day. However, today he was telling people that he didn't want to go back to school because he doesn't like it. I think he must just get nervous when he is away from it. He also doesn't like that he has different people in his class than he did last year. He does know about 4 other students from last year, but that is all. I think he will have a good year. He just needs to get used to being there again. The hardest adjustment for the kids is getting up early. They usually sleep until 7am or later. During the school year they have to get up at 6:35a. That is a little tough for them. Eventually they get used to it. I never do. :)

Here is Kevin on Friday. Yes, I am such a good mother that I waited until Friday to take their picture. :)


Here is a picture of the inside of Kevin's backpack. This was an early birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa. He is really excited that it has so many pockets.


Jenna started her second year of preschool on Wednesday. She will go Monday, Wednesday, Friday this year for 3 hours each day. She is going to the same place she went last year, and lucked out by getting the same teacher again. She has a few people in her class from last year too. I am excited for her. I really like her school and her teacher. Her best little friend, Alex (a girl), is in her class, which is nice for both of them.

Here is Jenna on Friday, her second day of school.


I have started working on letter recognition with Jared. I did that with Kevin and Jenna before they went to school too. We just started on Friday with the letter A. For some reason he already knows B. He keeps calling "A" "E", we are working on that. It's fun to have a little one-on-one time with him.

Jenna wanted Jared to be in one of the pictures with her. Gotta love that smile.


The kids made chains to count down to Derek finishing his internship. Jared ripped all of the links off of his the first day. I guess he is ready for Derek to be done. Me too for that matter. :)

Jenna with her chain

Kevin with his chain. He is such a poser.


Jared with his chain.

Our Final Summer Excursion

This was the last week of summer break for our family. Kevin starts 1st grade tomorrow. Jenna starts preschool on Wednesday. This summer has gone so fast. It has been the best summer. I am sad to see it end.

This past week we left New Hampshire on Tuesday to return to Virginia. It was an 11 hour drive. Then on Wednesday morning we left Virginia to fly to Utah for my sister-in-law's wedding. While there we also got to hang out with my best friend, Stephanie and her family (I need to get pictures from her to post). Thanks for letting us stay with you!!! Derek was also able to meet up with his old BYU professor, and some old co-workers. We left Utah at about 1am on Saturday. I had never taken a red eye flight before. I don't know that I would do it again. The kids slept the entire flight, which was great. Jenna and Jared even slept in the Atlanta airport during our layover. Derek and I, on the other hand, did not sleep too well. We were both exhausted. I was unable to stay awake on the drive home. Derek made it, but just barely. He said if we would have had to go any farther, we would have been in trouble. We got to our house around 1p yesterday, and everyone went to bed for about 4 hours. :) We are still pretty tired, but I think we will recover in a few days.

Anne and Adlai's wedding was beautiful. Anne looked so elegant. I loved her dress. They seemed very happy, and I am excited for them. They had dancing at their reception. Kevin danced the entire time. He asked several women to dance the slow songs with him. He was so cute. He said it was the best night of his life. :) Thanks Anne and Adlai! It was nice to hang out with family. I wish the trip could have been a little longer.

Overall, we had a great time in Utah. I wish we could have stayed longer, but that was not possible with Derek's internship. I am sorry that we couldn't see more people while we were there. Kevin wishes we would move back to Utah. He really misses it there. He says there are too many trees in Virginia. Derek and I think he's nuts. :) I guess when you are born in Utah you love the desert.

Here are some pictures from the wedding:

Anne and Adlai right after the temple ceremony


Jenna and Anne. I love this picture.


Anne, Adlai, and Jenna. Jenna is going to love her new uncle!


Nana and Jenna. This is a great picture.


Jared was a little bored. Can you tell?



A decent family picture.


Kevin, Mr. GQ himself.


Colin, Jared and Kevin. We think Jared looks a lot like his Uncle Colin.


Anne with Jared, Jenna, and Kevin


Colin, Diana, Anne, and Derek. The siblings minus one.


Kevin, Alexina, and Jenna. Alexina was awesome! She and her twin sister, Jenny helped out so much with our children. They helped make it very enjoyable for Derek and I. Thanks!


The siblings and their families.


Adlai and Kevin exchanging "High 5s" Kevin will also really enjoy his new uncle.


Anne and Adlai with the niece and nephews.


Jared on the roof of the reception center before the reception began.


How can you not love that face? Such a cutie!


Jenna hanging out with Gordon, Nana and Aunt Edith on the roof of the reception center.

More Summer Fun

I skipped posting last week because I was in Virginia at girls camp the whole week before, and Derek didn't take any pictures while I was gone. I was gone for 10 days, away from my husband and children. I am not an overly sentimental or emotional person, but I was more than ready to come back to my family. The picture above is of Jenna with fudgesicle all over her face. The kids had them while I was gone.

This week we had another fun summer week. Unfortunately for Jared the week did not start out so well. I drove back from Virginia on Monday (an 11 hour drive). About an hour before I got here I got a call from my mom. She said Jared had been stung by a wasp on his face, and his face was very swollen. They gave him some Benadryl which helped to bring down the swelling, but it took about two full days for his face to return to normal.

Jared's swollen face. They told me that in the beginning he couldn't open his eye at all.




Tuesday we took the kids to the library and park. They have really enjoyed being part of the library reading groups this summer. That night they had "Big Truck Night" at the library. They brought in a bunch of huge trucks and let the kids play in them. Kevin and Jared had a blast! Jenna hated it. She didn't like all the noise (the horns were going constantly), so I took her inside the library, and read her books until the boys were done.

Jared in front of the police car at "Big Truck Night." I know a police car isn't a big truck, but the kids loved it anyway.


Kevin on a police motorcycle. Yet again, not a big truck. :)


Jared on a police motorcycle.


Jared in a big truck.


Kevin in a big truck.


Wednesday we took the kids to Salisbury beach in New Hampshire. It was about 90 degrees outside, but the water was freezing! I did not expect that. My feet hurt being in the water because it was so cold. Eventually they went numb, so it wasn't too bad. :) Kevin didn't mind the cold water. Jared hated it and wouldn't go near the Ocean. He kept saying he wanted to go home. Jenna warmed up to it by the end.

Kevin at the beach


Jared at the beach


Jenna at the beach


Mom and Kevin playing in the waves.




Thursday we took the kids shopping for school supplies. Kevin and Jenna both had a list of supplies they needed. They had a good time picking out the folders, notebooks, scissors, etc. that they wanted. I wanted to do that here because the stores near our house in Virginia are not the best for buying school supplies.

Friday my dad took the day off from work, and took us (minus Derek) to Story Land. Story Land is a young child's amusement park (think under 12). It was a really cool park, great for little kids. The problem was that it rained the entire time we were there. The kids still had a great time. Jared loved the train (his latest obsession). Jenna loved the flying fish and the shows. We saw a circus that was awesome, and an imagination show. Kevin loved the polar coaster (roller coaster). It really was a fun place and I am glad the kids had such a good time. Thank you for taking the day off to spend it with us Dad!

Jenna, Kevin, and Jared on thrones in Cinderella's Castle


Jared, Jenna and Kevin participating in the Imagination show. They were the animals for "Old McDonald Had a Farm"


Kevin and Grandma shooting balls at Grandpa. This was part of the imagination place. I wish I had more pictures. It was really cool. The kids spent about an hour playing there.


Saturday we started packing things. We leave Boston to head back to Virginia this week. This is the last week of summer for the kids. Kevin starts school (1st grade) a week from tomorrow and Jenna starts preschool a week from Wednesday. It is hard to believe that summer is over. We have had the best summer. I am very sad to see it end. Thank you mom and dad for making it so wonderful!

Today we took the kids to the Boston temple to walk around. We enjoy going to walk around temples. We used to do it fairly often in Utah. It was a nice temple. I am glad we made it over there before heading back to Virginia.

Jenna, Kevin and Jared at the Boston Temple


Jenna, Kevin and Jared looking at the Boston Temple


Kevin, Mom and Dad at the Boston Temple. Jenna took this picture. Not bad for a 4 year old.


Amanda and Derek at the Boston Temple. Kevin took this picture. He did a great job.


We have had a great time in New Hampshire. I am glad we had the opportunity to spend a summer up here. New England is a beautiful place. I don't know that I could survive their winters, but their summers are great.