The Bell's were here!

A little while ago my bestest friend came back for a week to visit us (oh - and probably their family and other friends too). The best part about Karli coming to town is that she always plans activities everyday. So I took the opportunity and did all of them.

On Tuesday we went to the dinosaur museum in Lehi

We spent some good quality time at the sand/water station.

Noah is so focused - I love it. This is how I usually see Noah playing - looking down at his little toys creating his own little world.

Brock and Payton

The giant shark!! In visits past my children were TERRIFIED of this shark. Tears, running, the whole sha-bang. But this visit (about 8 months since our previous visit) - it was their favorite part. They still talk about it.

On Wednesday we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. We went in the afternoon - the weather was pretty nice and there was hardly anyone there. We got there just in time for cow milking.

Brock gave it a try - Noah was too scared. I would have thought it would have been the other way around, just when you think you have your kids figured out... they switch it around on you.

Megan just enjoyed her time in the stroller eating her kix.

And of course the pony ride.

On Thursday we went to Discovery Gateway.

Lydia - Karli's youngest.

The water station has been my kid's favorite the past few times we have gone.

Noah concentration on his little toys again. I love it!

Brock is really into figuring out how things work.

My kids are the biggest mooches. The love the coin game. I usually try to remember to bring a few pennies. But this time I forgot. So they sat there and watched other kids' parents give them coins to put in the whole. Each parent felt back for my kids and gave them a penny each time. Everytime I protested and said, "no, they are fine, they don't need a penny." But each time the parent insisted that they get a penny. I had to drag my kids out so they didn't mooch off of everyone.

On Friday we were supposed to go swimming. We decided not to go - we were all a little burnt out, it was snowing, blah. So we had a girl's night out at Karli's mom's house. That was the much better choice.

On Saturday we had Payton over for a few hours. They all played together really well - it was a great afternoon.

Megan Bug

That is what we call her, Megan Bug, or just Bug sometimes. She is 10 months right now and so so fun. Last Sunday we had some extra time before church(rare) - and she was looking extra cute, so we grabbed a few pictures.

She had actually been sick - you can tell by those eyes. All red.

She loves to stick out her tongue. She knows she is being silly when she does it - which is even cuter!

Megan is so mobile. I love it. I thought I would hate it because of all our stairs and levels. But believe it or not I have not gotten out one baby gate. She is so responsible about the stairs. She learned very quickly how to go up and down the stairs and to turn around and go feet first. This is her favorite place to stand in the whole house. She can walk up and down the stairs if she is holding onto the railing.

She really just stands here forever watching her brothers. She thinks she is so big. She loves to play with toys. In the morning I sit her by our book case that has all our toys on it and she plays with each and every toy for about a half hour. Then she crawls upstairs and plays with her bucket of toys. She is so content and so happy.

She has learned to play peek-a-boo with a blanket and does, "how big is Megan?" "sooo big". She says "daddy" every time she sees her dad. Have I mentioned she loves him more than anything?

She loves when we do itsy bitsy spider. As soon as the song is over she starts to cry and hits my hands until I start again, then she immediately starts smiling and waving her arms in delight - it is very dramatic.

Blessings

Tonight Jason gave Noah a blessing. After the blessing Brock said he wanted one. Jason said that he could - and then asked what he wanted from the blessing.

Brock said, "I don't know... but one day I want to be a race car."

Is this what He means by having the faith of a child?

Confession

I know my blog has been lacking in the picture/fun activities posts and falling mostly into the journal genre. But I seem to have a lot on my mind lately and not many friends or people to share my thoughts with - so it goes out into the world via my blog.

For tonight I have a confession. Something that has been in the making for about a year - and only a few months ago I was really ready to admit what I am about to say.

I miss Provo. I miss it desperately. For anyone new to my blog, or didn't know me in my "Provo years" - I HATED Provo, HATED it. I was embarrassed to even tell people I lived there, and most the time I didn't, I maintained that I was from Salt Lake. In my years of Provo I always meant to do a post about the reasons I hated Provo - I wish I would have done it because for the life of me I can only come up with a few reasons. And I know that some of the reasons I hated it are now the reasons I miss it.

I will start with the biggest reason I hated it... and still hate this part. I would move back in a second if it weren't for this ONE reason (oh - and our mortgage and wonderful neighbors)!

Traffic.

Ahh!! My blood pressure rises just thinking about the traffic and the crowds. The traffic is so crazy. To wait through 3 lights to turn left it pretty typical. You get a small break for spring and summer semesters - but even then the traffic is about as bad as Salt Lake is during rush hour. And then they all come back (the students), and you just want to cry... cry I tell you.

Then the crowds. I actually didn't notice this until I left. I like to do my shopping at night - after 8 - when my kids go to bed. This is one of the worst times to shop in Provo/Orem. Especially Walmart or Maceys. It is one of the most crowded times - all the way up until about 11 pm parking is crazy and the lines are crazy. I still anticipate this every time I walk into Walmart at 9:00 at night (even a year later) - and I am pleasantly surprised to find a front row parking space and Walmart almost completely empty. Walmart is NEVER empty in Provo/Orem... NEVER.

ok - so now that my vent is over.

What I miss.

I miss everything else.

In Provo you get the best of both worlds. Because of population businesses think of it as a big city, so you have everything. You have all the restaurant chains, 2 malls, all the stores - but it is a small town so it is all within 5 or 10 miles (this includes Orem of course). Now that we live in "Suburbia" we realize how rare it was to be able to go out and get take-out or even just a milk shake and be home in 5 minutes. (it has drastically reduced our eating out budget). Plus it is small enough with enough history to still get some great mom and pop restaurants. We hate not having any close restaurants - especially our favorites.

I miss my quick outings with the kids. This is the number one thing that I miss. I miss it SO SO much. We were so close to campus, there was so much always going on and things to do. If I needed a quick 30 minute outing - there were always great ones. Duck pond (I miss the duck pond SO MUCH), watching sports (we would walk to the tennis courts, or the indoor practice facility, or the stadium or the baseball field, or just watch a pick-up game at the Smithfield house), the museums, the Bean museum, we often went the the Joseph Smith or Gordon B Hinckley buildings to look at the pretty pictures, there is the temple, the library (more on that), Rock Canyon, Provo Canyon (more on that), Veteran's pool, and just campus itself was an outing alone, so many walls to climb on and paths to run down. I miss it all.

Some pictures showing my dearest memories:

Duck Pond

Brock - April 2008

Brock - August 2008

Me and the Boys - September 2008

Me and the Boys - April 2009

Provo Temple

The boys - October 2008

Me and the boys - October 2008

Boys - June 2009

Fun Places to walk on Campus

Brock - October 2008

Me and Brock - April 2009

Veteran's Pool

Me and Brock (kinda Noah) - August 2008

The library. By far the best library. I have gone to every library around to try to find one that is even half as good as Provo... nothing. Provo library loved children. They have a whole separate wing for the children. They have computers that don't really work but have pictures come up so the kids can play with them and think they are working. I know kids aren't supposed to run around and be loud in libraries - but if it happened in Provo - no one cared or EVER said anything. They just smiled. My children are constantly being shushed at the Bingham Creek library - so annoying.

I miss the friendships. Even though they are not there anymore - just the over all feeling of friendship. We all know we are only there for a short time, so you would think we wouldn't waste time making friends, but the opposite seems to be true. I "fell in love" with more women and couples in a shorter amount of time than ever. I think because we are all so poor, and so busy, and so... everything else... we just serve and love and don't judge each other. I am amazed when I think about some of the sisters that I miss most from my old ward and I realized I only knew them for a year or a semester - I can't believed I developed such a deep love and respect for them in such a short amount of time. That doesn't seem to happen in the "real world".

Everybody is poor and everybody thinks that it is awesome! There is no expectation for anything. I loved it. We had so many close friends there - for 6 years - and we never went out to eat with any of them - you just have people over to your house for games and dessert. Nobody paid anyone to watch their kids - we all just did it for each other. Spending $3 on a ward cookbook was a HUGE deal for everyone. Everything is also cheaper in Provo. I miss simpler times.

I miss Exchange Park - best park out there. And the Provo river trail. Oh - and everything up Provo Canyon - I really miss Provo Canyon. Sundance, Bridal Veil Falls, Vivian Park, Deer Creek Reservoir - I have the most wonderful summer memories with my boys up there - some weeks we were up there every day at one of those places.

Exchange Park

Noah - September 2009

Sundance

Me and Brock - August 2007

Bridal Veil Falls

Family - September 2009

Brock - July 2009

I will also put myself out there and say I miss the Spirit of the place. I know - gag. This used to be one of the things I hated about it - people always said "there is such a great spirit about it" - well I never felt it, until I left. On any given evening if you drive over by the temple you are bound to see at least 2 couples get engaged. I loved seeing the missionaries from the MTC at the temple and walking around campus. You see SO much young love - it is easy for it to remind you how it felt when your first started dating/first got engaged/first go married/expecting your first child/had your first child, when every where you look you can see at least 10 different couples in that stage. It is easy to remember what is important.

I miss the people. There were always people (also what I hate about it - double edge sword). I like having people in my life - even just around. We would go out in our front yard and people would just be walking by. Now, somedays, we go outside in the morning, and there is NO ONE - our street is really quiet during the days. Chalk one up for safety... I guess.

Don't get me wrong - I love my life now, I could do a whole post (and I think I have) about how wonderful this stage has been for us and how we know that we are where we are supposed to be right now. Everything is better for us now. I just miss Provo. It is the perfect place to raise young kids with no money.

Disclaimer: Jason does not miss Provo at all and would completely disagree with everything in this post. Everything.

Wanted

So this is kind of embarrassing... and not at all the purpose of my blog... but does anyone have some 10 lbs weights that they are not using that I could borrow?

I have had a gym membership for all my other pregnancies and have always worked out... well, it turns out that is why I always felt great for my other pregnancies... this time... not so much. I feel like I am 35 weeks pregnant at just 12 weeks!!

We canceled our gym membership, but I desperately need to work out. I am going to a stake aerobics class 3 times a week, but I need to do some weights. So, if any of you were on a working out kick a few years ago and bought some weights and now they are just sitting there, let your failure be my success :) haha

seriously though, if anyone has them I will be forever grateful and will pay you back with cookies or baby sitting or something awesome like that. :)

New Years

Is it possible that I am still blogging about New Years? Well it is true. Over the break we had my "older brother" and his family come from DC where he is attending dental school. (James is a boy that moved into our home when he was 16 and my parents took legal guardianship of when his family moved back to Brazil. He was my older sisters friend. He is still a part of our family and now so is his wonderful family).

Here is a picture of all the grand kids.
bottom left: Spencer and Emma (James' kids) Audrey and Sam (Katie's kids) Megan (mine).
Three boys in the back: Brock, Noah (mine) and Brad (Katie's)

On New Year's eve we actually went out with friends. We went to Chile's with another couple and were kid free. We realized it was the first New Years Eve we have done something since we have had children. It was fun to get out. But don't worry - we were home by 9:00 and all were asleep by 10:30. Oh well.

On New Year's night we went to the Thomas' house. The Thomas' are basically my second family. We love them.


Leslie had just had her baby - so with all the babies we had to get a picture.
Sam (Katie's - 6 months), Spencer (James' 4 months), Megan (mine 9 months) and Jack (Leslie's 3 months)

Sam, Spencer, and Megan


Megan had a long day. With this picture I want to get a word in about this little girl and her daddy. They love each other. Oh my goodness do they love each other. Jason was sure that Megan was a boy and he was even more sure that he never wanted a girl. But how this little one has changed his mind. They have a deep love and connection that he never expected. She adores him. She needs him - and he needs her. She prefers him to me - and I love that. She is 100% a daddy's girl and has loved her daddy most out of any of our kids at such a young age. She has stolen his heart. This has been a hard year for Jason and he has often said that the reason Megan came to our family when she did was to help Jason get through it and to love him unconditionally. They have a very tender relationship.

Some pictures...finally

I finally got the batteries in my camera. There were these pictures from the beginning of January when me and the kids went to Chuck E Cheese one morning. Chuck E Cheese used to be one of our favorite winter places in Provo. We went at 10:30 when it opened and we were always the only ones there. Brock and Noah were too young to really know that we had to put money in the games/rides. We would be having a ton of fun for like 2 hours and I would only spend about a dollar - just enough to get the right amount of tickets for a sucker on the way home.

Brock is getting older and is very aware that he actually wants to PLAY every game and RIDE every ride - shucks. This time it cost me around 5 dollars and we had only been there an hour. Plus the closest Chuck E Cheese is about 25 minutes away. So I guess it is worth it every once in a while.

Megan thought it was great. She could have sat in every car all day long.

Onto some other news. Yesterday was apparently my last official day breast feeding. I am really really sad. I have always been able to breast feed my other children while I was pregnant and I always kept enough milk. But this time it didn't happen. It has been dwindling for about 2 weeks now. About a week and a half ago I broke down and did something I have never done before - I gave Megan some formula (gasp). I expected it to be horrible... she would hate it, it would give her an upset tummy, it would mess with her bowels, etc. But to my surprise, she drank it as if it were breast milk and never had any problems digesting it. It was quite the blow to my ego. :)

I kept breast feeding, but had to supplement almost every feeding with a 2-3 oz bottle. Then this morning I went to nurse her, and nothing. No milk. Saddness. So while my boys got breast fed until they were 12 months and never had a bottle or formula (straight to milk in a sippy) - Megan stopped breast feeding at 10 months and takes 4 formula bottles a day. I know it is not a big deal - but it is to me.... although admittedly it is 100% pride, I just always liked breast feeding for a year - I felt so successful. Doctors were always impressed, and when I was on WIC, they always gave me a quilt for nursing for a whole year. But I digress, because I know that it is silly, and I am sure I have offended at least 20 of you. Sorry.

Other than that we are doing good. We have been very blessed with great friends, family, and a terrific ward. Everyone has been so willing to help. We have had people stop by and have gotten some anonymous gifts left on our porch (if you read my blog - THANK YOU). We have had several great leads in the job department and we got our pipes and basement fixed (for now) - they will need some more work come spring - but for now things are good. Oh - and did I mention my car broke down? Well, we got that fixed too.

When it rains it...

Floods.

Last night when I got home from Young Women's I made a few phone calls and went into wash my face and there was no water in the pipes. Not a huge surprise - our pipes have frozen a few times this winter. I went downstairs and gave the blow dryer to Jason and told him the pipes froze again. He started blow drying them when he heard a pop and water started pouring in from underneath our base boards.

So our pips have burst and our basement got flooded. We got the water turned off in time before any real damage was done - just soaked carpets. So now I am at my mom's house with the kids and Jason is back at the house tearing down walls trying to find the burst. Yea. Silver lining - he doesn't have work today - so he was all the time in the world.

Not silver lining: today is actually Jason's birthday.

Last night (before the flood) I had planned on doing a birthday post for him - after last night it is all the more deserved. But I am being summoned by my children so that will have to come later. Bye

Today

Jason got laid off this morning. If you are thinking you should have gotten a phone call instead of reading it on my blog - don't worry EVERYONE is learning about it from my blog. I just didn't want to make that phone call again.

There were signs that a company wide lay-off was coming - and since Jason's position was just created for him when he took the job (four months ago) - his position was obviously dispensable. Jason is a hard worker and I know he will find something else soon. Please keep us in your prayers - we need them.