School Orientation

Read more here. If you haven't been invited to the private blog leave your email and I'll send an invite.

The delio

So here's the deal, since the only thing I don't like about Private blogs is I can't be updated through something like google reader when there is a new post, I forget to check the blog etc. So... since I like to hope that people read my blog I will continue to post the title of each post here, and link it to the private blog. This way you can still be alerted from this blog when I have posted something new and it will link you with the "real" post to the private blog. Confusing? Let's give it a try.

My new post on the private blog is "You made it" read more here. Just click on here and you should be taken to the new blog. Let me know if there is a problem.

It's time

It's time I fear, to put my blog "private". I am just a little uncomfortable showing where we are going and living and things we are doing. I feel like if it's private I can be even more detailed about the place we live and the things we do etc. So join us if you like by leaving your email... Thanks!

Yum-o

The first weekend we were here on our own we decided we should get to know our city. The first stop? A bakery of course. I heard about a great Italian local bakery and figured we should give it a try. We walked the 1/2 mile and were in heaven. We tried our first cannoli, and maybe a few other deletable things like a poor man's apple purse, a lemon tart, an eclair etc. etc. Let's just say it's a good thing we walked. We then walked up to the downtown of our cute little town. Our city is such a cute place and I am amazed at all there is to offer basically in our front yard. In town we enjoyed a pizza by the slice for dinner and ended the evening at a playground to rid ourselves of some energy and a few extra calories. A delicious way to start our new adventure here. If you come visit we'll take you there too!

Tooth Fairy's broke

When we arrived in this here "Jersey", our Anna was lookin' mighty fine. Her tooth front teeth were pretty darn rootin' tootin' loose. But they were only loose on the back side. This made both front teeth appear to be rather "buck" if you will. I wasn't too thrilled about it being a tooth person and all. Our first week in church was approaching quickly and I didn't want my darling daughter to make her first appearance with buck teeth! Rude mother I know. But she's so cute otherwise. So...I pulled one of her teeth. Once it was pulled it was apparent that the root was completely gone and the reason it was bucking out was the adult tooth was already pushing it's way into place and the baby tooth just needed to move out of the way.

Well the tooth fairy as usual either got our address mixed up with the move and all or just forgot to make her appearance due to utter exhaustion. So, in the morning the "tooth fairy" was trying to make it better and put the money unnoticed in Anna's room but Anna walked up right then making said fairy make a rash decision to throw the dollar as hard as he could into her room and under her bed to avoid being "caught". Whew, it worked.

The good news is, just days later the other tooth was pulled and the tooth fairy remembered to do her job correctly this time. The result? One happy little Anna Banana. In fact once the teeth came out her permenant teeth were already quite a bit into her mouth. Now, just weeks later they are almost half way in. Just in time for our cute little miss to start Kindergarten.

Our day at the beach

Didn't have time to upload the rest will do later...



Yesterday we spent the day at a beach town called Avon-by-the-Sea. It was a beautiful, little town and the beach was as good as any California beach I've been too. Ethan spent most of his time out on the boogie board hitting wave after wave and saying how awesome it was.

Anna spent time with her new little friends jumping waves and catching fish, starfish and crabs. I am still amazed at how brave she is with that sort of thing. Holding a flopping fish or pinching little crab in her hand doesn't phase her even a bit. She is always really brave.

Kate loves the water and you never have to push her to "get in" there were several times she would just walk off towards the water so we had to be good to watch that she was going in again. She liked to jump over the waves and just splash around.

Jane spent most of her time in her pack n play covered by an umbrella to stay out of the sun and breezes. She honestly didn't fuss once and was so good. She ate, looked around and napped like a champ. She is finally getting on a more regular schedule here and you can tell she is feeling better because her fussiness has settled down and she is back to her "old" self. Speaking of old she turned 4 months yesterday. We moved her out of our room this week and that has been so hard for me. I know she's our last and she is growing up way too fast. When I see Randall holding her I see how big she has become and can hardly believe it. Our whole family has really enjoyed her. She "talks" and smiles a lot. She isn't rolling over quite yet but part of that is that since we only have hard wood floors except in Anna's room she doesn't spend much tummy time or time on the floor at all to practice. I figure then maybe she won't crawl anytime soon either so I'm good with that.

I think we brought home half the beach in sand and you should have seen the bathtub after all the kids were bathed. Sand is not one of my favorite things.

Kate's 3rd Birthday!

Kate all tuckered out after a day of fun in the sun.

Hello kitty cake. It was a coconut cake with coconut, jr. mints for eyes, a mike and ike for nose and fruit by the foot for bow. Pretty cute if I do say so myself.



I love the way she is "posed" in this one. Can't believe she's 3!!!
August is the birthday month at our house. We celebrate 3 birthday's within 9 days. Needless to say there's a lot of cake eating going on. Since Kate's birthday is today and mine Monday we decided to do something we both would enjoy. We had heard from some friends from our ward about a great beach an hour from here and decided to try it out. It was awesome!!! It was a very nice, clean, sandy beach. I just wanted to pinch myself as we drove up not even an hour after we left our house. The neighborhood was darling, just packed with amazing cute large and small beach houses. The beach was busy but not overcrowded. We got there about 10 and stayed to almost 3. All the kids had a great time. We invited another family to go with us to make it even more fun for all of us.

The beach was called Avon by the Sea.

When we got home we did dinner, and then had her Hello Kitty cake. We are all tired and a tad sunburned after a great day at the beach! A fun way to celebrate some birthday's if say so myself.

Somethings about our cute "Kater"

-Her nickname from Randall is "Pumba" and she is very protective of that and loves that he has a pet name for her.
-She is usually a very bouncy happy go lucky little girl. She is definitely testing her limits recently. I think 3 is harder than 2 years.
-She loves snuggley things like soft blankets
-She loves anything that she can put stuff in, like backpacks, wallets, purse, bowls etc.
-She loves to pour liquid from one cup to another over and over and over
-She loves to be read to and her favorites right now are "Pinkerella" and "Ten Timid Ghosts"
-She loves baths
-When I do her hair in the morning she remarks about what a beautiful girl she is :)
-She has had the hardest adjustment with the move and that breaks my heart
-When she is nervous, tired, upset etc. instead of sucking her thumb or something "normal" like that she pulls at her belly button! Seriously, it's weird, but the doc say's that's a "normal" thing too.

We sure love you, Happy Birthday!

I tried to load my pics of the beach but got an error, I;ll do that tomorrow.

Our ER visit (warnig: blood mentioned)

Don't mind her lunch all over her cheeks and still in her mouth. This actually looks good and much smaller than how it was initially. That "hole" was huge and more detached.

Just an added bonus. I finally found out why the toilet is getting clogged and where all our toilet paper is going! Apparently Kate thing the whole roll is needed to get the job done.

This is her lower lip where her teeth had gone in.

The "outfit" she wore for me to pick up the prescription. A ballerina PJ shirt, with a tutu and dora underpants. At the pharmacy they asked me if I was "new in town" how could they tell!?! Just 4 kids and one in underwear? They also were kind enough to tell me they deliver :)

Wednesday night we had just finished up dinner when all of the sudden Kate just fell and smacked her mouth on the edge of our wooden bench. I jumped up from my chair and immediately grabbed her and already there was blood everywhere. I grabbed a dish cloth and wet it with cold water and just shoved it in her mouth and had her bite on it. There was so much blood I didn't even know where it was coming from. I was just hoping and praying she still had some teeth left. After the bleeding slowed a little I could see that she had put some teeth into her lower lip. I thought maybe that was what happened but when I let go of the rag the bleeding was still pretty intense and I knew there had to be an injury somewhere else. I lifted her upper lip and sure enough she had cut the ligament(frenum) between her two front teeth and up into her lip. It looked like a big and deep cut, but again with all the blood it was a little hard to tell. We called our Bishop and he quickly reccomended a pediatric dentist. We called him and explained our situation and he thought we better take her to the ER to have a oral surgeon look at her. We called some friends we just made in the ward and asked if we could drop our older kids off. In our experience with ER's in the past you basically wonder how many hours or days later you will get out of there. The hospital is right behind our house, literally walking distance so we got there quickly and ran in. By the time I got there Kate was beginning to calm down. Her mouth was quite swollen by then but the bleeding was under control. She was so sweet and good the whole time. The checked us in then we went to triage and she never fussed or told them not to look at it. They took us back quickly to be seen. Side note: When I got to the ER I was so annoyed because a woman in front of me had just brought in her little girl with a little rash on her arm. I wasn't aware that a rash on an arm warranted an ER visit(insert sarcasm here) I was just mad that my daughter was distressed and bleeding all over. Anyway... The nurse came in then the Dr. soon after. They decided not to do stitches and said it would heal either way. I was shocked because I have seen this type of accident several times and with this severity there was always stitches. For Kate's benefit though I was glad she wouldn't have to go through that and be traumatized etc. She was as sweet as could be the whole time. The Dr. looked her over completely and also found she was getting an ear infection in her left ear. I couldn't believe it. I don't think she has ever had an ear infection and she hadn't fussed about anything. They were going to put her on antibiotics for her mouth to help avoid infection and said it would also help her ear.

I think we were in and out of there within an hour. They even gave her a dose of antibiotic and pain meds right then so that we wouldn't have to go to the pharmacy that night. I was so impressed! I felt like we were so blessed that night that most importantly it wasn't more serious, 2nd that our friends who we've known such a short time were so willing to take our kids, and 3rd that we were in and our so quickly and so well taken care of.

We had a follow up appointment for Kate yesterday and things are healing well and the ear looks good. She was such a brave little trooper and we were so proud of her and so glad she' doing so well.

Ellis Island

While my parents were here we thought it was only right that we do something fun! We had worked long and hard and wanted to indulge of something "local". We decided we all wanted to go the the Statue of Liberty. Well, I guess when we say "all" I mean the adults. Ethan wasn't overly thrilled and kept getting Lady Liberty and the Eiffel Tower mixed up. Who wouldn't :) I realized that like many other times with parenting you just have to go with it and hope the kids later in life realize how awesome you were to take them to do and see cool things. I'm too tired tonight to write under all the pics so I will just explain. We drove to the place to get on the ferry first. We kept getting lost and were so worried we weren't going to be able to get on. We finally made it though and that must happen a lot because the ticket time is actually for 30 minutes past when you are told to be there, thankfully this time. You had to go through airport like security to get on the ferry to go out to the island. Most of the pictures are on the ferry on the way over. In the back ground you can see New York city. It was really a neat experience and the kids thought it was neat to be on a boat. The weather was beautiful and for the most part not overly hot. Our first stop was to Ellis Island. There we saw a 40 minute movie narrated by Gene Hackman and included many many original pictures and stories of people who came from Europe and all over to come to America. I had no idea the sacrifice it was to come. The boat conditions across the Atlantic were horrific and yet they still wanted to come for the opportunity of America, even knowing once they got here they could actually be sent back and be separated from their family and their hope for a better future. The people were completely packed onto the boat like sardines. Many were horribly sick. I can't even imagine what the sanitation was like and what the people must have smelled like when they arrived here... It certainly was a good reminder for me how good we have it. The man who introduced the film said his parents were both immigrants, his mother from Trinidad and his Father from Hong Kong. They met here and married and raised 4 children starting out with nothing. The man grew up in a 12x14 studio apartment as one of 4 kids. What a huge sacrifice. I was hoping that Ethan was able to get something out of it. The other kids probably not so much. They had other displays and things too that were interesting to look at it. They had a display from "Barbie" for whatever reason too with a Barbie dressed in ethnic costume from many, many countries. Of course the girls and myself admittedly like that. We also enjoyed some lunch outdoors there too. It was such a beautiful view of the Hudson river and the city. The kids had a great time chasing seagulls. It was a fun time to spend with my parents while we were here. Next post I will finish up with the Statue of Liberty.

Moving forward

The moving van all loaded up with all our belongings and the van. Randall and My Dad left Utah on Saturday the 31st and arrived here on Tues. August 3rd. They made great time and everything went well. Most people thought that would be miserable to spend 4 days in a truck with your father in law, but thankfully Randall really likes my Dad and My Dad him. They both said it was enjoyable and they never lacked for conversation. Enjoyable or not we are grateful they were willing to drive and let me fly with my Mom and the kids.

Just a little shot of one of Jane's cute fat rolls, really there is a lot more but her diaper covers the biggest roll so of course we show a little disgretion. She is cute and rolly polly though.

Cute cousins. The girls love cousin Mariah. They played a lot the last two weeks so I could be at home with baby packing up the house. I'm glad they got to be so close and had such a great time. Anna is saying Mariah is going to come out for her birthday, um ya that would be nice. Not gonna happen, at least not this year.

This picture basically makes me want to starve myself for the next month or two but it's of some of my very best friends when they came to say "see you later". No need for goodbye's because we will see each other again.

While the men were driving we enjoyed an evening of dinner and the park. Jane is looking ready for bed.

Such a cute picture of all the kids snuggled up together in bed. Love them!

A picture of poor miss Jane and how she spent the last month of her life. As I tried to pack and prepare we would do just about anything to keep her happy and quiet so swing, swing swing. Poor little thing!

We're here!

I know I need to post pictures and I really will, and lots of them, but I just wanted to post that we are here and doing well. For the most part all is very well and we are settling in quickly. My parents have been a huge help and Thursday we unpacked ALOT! Now we mostly just have all the many "misc" boxes and decor but for now are too tired to worry about all that. I just wanted to quickly document how blessed we are feeling tonight. We feel like we are living in a good home in a good neighborhood with great schools and a great church congregation. Today we went to church and people were very welcoming and kind. Tonight we decided to go to the kids school to show them where it it was and play at the park and randomly someone from our ward came with 4 of their 5 children. Their kids are similar in age to ours and they go to the park every night by the stream and catch frogs. Our kids caught frogs with them and had a blast. I feel like it was no coincidence that we "ran" into him tonight, our kids are already thrilled that they have "friends". Tonight as we were sitting down to dinner someone from church brought over some yummy brownies, then when we got home from the park our Stake President came over with a pan of home made cinnamon rolls. He is married to a woman that my mom just happened to sit next to that happens to be her cousin making us 2nd cousins or something like that, small world. Then after that the door bell rang again and I could hardly believe it, it was the family from the park with another dessert. They came over because she wanted to meet me and they invited us to dinner this week. They just moved here from Utah a month ago and are loving everything about it!

Yesterday we went and saw The Statue of Liberty, and I had to just keep reminding myself that we actually live here, and will be able to see and do so many amazing things. While this move has been a sacrifice in part I really think we will have so many rich experiences and make friends with amazing people.

While everything is going well, tomorrow my parents are leaving. I have mixed emotions as you can imagine. It's been great to have them here and share this experience with us. I feel like I am being brave in venturing out and trying to be independent but I worry what tomorrow will bring. They will leave and Randall will head into the city and "real life" will begin. I know that we will and have been blessed and we will be taken care of, but it will be all new again not having any family around us, as well as the good friends we have come to love and rely on. I guess I just look at it as an opportunity to grow and be challenged and I'm really looking forward to that.