Pit Stop #1

Along the trek back east, we managed to stop for about 5 days in Tennessee so see my family. My little sister is in Alaska with the army, so I didn't get to see her. And my brother just moved to Arizona, so I didn't get to see him either, bummer. BUT, I did get to see Heidi and her 3 kids, Paul, Ryan, and EmmaLynn. And my parents, of course. I was super excited to go visit them, even though it hadn't been that long since we'd seen each other last. I'm very grateful for how often we've been able to visit this year since I usually only get about 2 visits a year. Heidi's kids hadn't met Charlotte yet and hadn't seen Ivan in person since he was about 3 months old. Now that had been a long time!

He loved playing on the "tractor." He kept saying he was just like Papa. 

The kids took a little while to really warm up to each other. This hammock was just the thing they needed to get comfortable. They kept swinging on it and tipping over just like this. At one point we had all 5 kids on there, laughing and having a blast. 

We got some pictures done of all the grandkids while we were together. This is just outside the photoshop. Ivan looks a little worried about EmmaLynn's driving. 

Hanging out at the pool at Heidi's hotel. This little pool was awesome. It was only about a foot deep so Charlotte could walk around comfortably. 

And she got bored of playing in the water so she started biting my face! 

While we were there we managed to lose Ivan 2 or 3 times. That boy just loves to explore and run and be free. And my parents have a lot of land. A couple times he ran into the woods in the back yard (and came back with ticks all over). Once he ran all the way to the neighbors house, this was all in a matter of minutes. We were getting in the car to go somewhere and I had Charlotte and was getting her strapped in the car seat. I assumed Michael had Ivan and Michael thought I had Ivan. Oops. Away he went. That kid sure can run. The kids both loved all the animals. They got to feed the chickens, which was very exciting until Charlotte got bit. Then she started roaring at the chickens. Ivan did a happy dance for the kittens he found and Charlotte managed to badger poor Blondie, my mom's dog, into a state of pure terror. 

We went to Dinosaur World too. It's this really cool... exhibit? in Kentucky with life size replicas of dinosaurs. There is a small museum and a place to dig for fossils too. It was kinda chilly that day, actually the coldest day we were there and we were outside all day, ha. Ivan was in heaven! Almost everyday since we went there Ivan has said, "Gonna go to disagor world tomorrow with Papa. It gonna be so fun!" 

We're awful happy to be inside a dinosaur's mouth. 

Cousins! Left to right - Ryan, Paul, Ivan, EmmaLynn

ROAR! 

This is the giant dinosaur you can see from the interstate (which is just on the other side of that there fence). Apparently it's a fictitious monster created just for fun, and to draw in the customers. 

I'm amazed at all the detail put into each of the dinosaurs there. There are over a hundred and fifty life size dinosaur models. And all the dinosaurs are made on site! 

This is Charlotte roaring at the dinos. 

I think these ones are called the ultrasaurus. It is the tallest and biggest dinosaur that ever existed. 

I love this picture of my dad carrying my baby girl. It makes me think of all the times he carried me like that when I was that little. 

All the dinosaurs had name plates saying some info about them. I just really liked the engraving under the description of this one. Ha ha

They had a super fun playground area. Lots of stuff to climb on. 

This is the fossil dig. The kids all thought it was really cool and they even got to keep a couple of the fossils they dug up! (Most of it was just fossilized poop, but that makes it cooler, right?)

And of course any down time at the Roney Ranch meant it was time for a walk. We took many walks down the road to visit the creek and throw rocks in it. Not quite sure what's so amusing about that, but it sure entertained all the kids. Ivan and Mina (the dog) are best buds now. She's a good dog too, if Ivan got away from us, she would be right by him.

Road Trip

Did you know that if you're moving across the country that you have to drive there? With 2 toddlers? And a car so full of stuff you can't move? And it's 2,400 miles away? Which is supposed to take about 36 hours, in good traffic. And you pass through 10 states?!

Yay!

We normally make the drive from Idaho to Tennessee (to visit my family) in just a straight shot. It's been an added difficulty to bring along two little kids with us, but what are our options, really? It's almost better to just get in the car and go go go til you get there, then be out of the car for a long time. In my experience it's harder to stop for a couple hours or over night several times on a long drive cuz it just makes the drive seem that much longer. Every time you get back in the car you dread the long hours spent just sitting. Well, that was my thinking before this trip.

Our house is all packed and ready to go!

We knew we weren't going to drive completely straight through because I wanted to see my family. My sister and her kids were on spring break and headed to visit home. Heidi lives in Virginia and is about 10 hours further east and in the wrong direction for it to be feasible to see her on the way. Yay for great timing! So we planned to stop in Tennessee. But that's still 27 hours to get there. How were we going to manage that? We planned to stop in North Platte, Nebraska, gross I know, but it was about halfway. And we planned to stop in Atlanta to see Michael's brother. And again in Gainesville, Florida to see one of my dear friends. So with stops in mind, I actually gained more sanity and peace of mind with a light, or several lights, at the end (middle?) of the tunnel.

We had the moving truck and all our stuff loaded and taken care of on Friday, so that was out of the way. But Michael still had 4 more days of classes to finish before we could leave town. That meant almost a week of sitting on the floor or on camp chairs, having no furniture, eating off paper dishes, etc. Then Michael found out he didn't have to stay til Thursday, but that he could actually finish up his classes by the afternoon on Wednesday. Oh man was I excited to get the heck out of Rexburg!

The car was packed to the top! I definitely get my packing skills from my Dad. 

We still had to figure out what to do with our extra car, since I'm pretty sure it would blow up if we tried to drive it that far, and driving 2 cars across the country is just ridiculous. Thankfully we have some friends that could use it while we're gone and they took it off our hands and stored some extra stuff for us as well. Worked out perfect! Then came packing the car. I didn't actually get a picture of it (dangit) but that car was so loaded with crap that it sat lower on the tires. We were only able to fit about half of the stuff we wanted to bring with us, the other half being camping stuff. We do have a cargo carrier for the top, but a big SUV wasn't going to get good gas mileage as it is, much less with adding more stuff on top of the car. We opted to leave our camping stuff behind (sniff sniff) and just take the necessities. By necessities I mean clothes, toys, fishing supplies, hairbow making supplies, and of course any expiring food from our food storage. About half of the trunk was just food. That's going to make a big difference for us since I can only imagine the cost of living difference between here and there.

Bye bye mountains. I'll miss you. 

Finally the house is all cleaned, all our stuff is out, or so we think, the car is loaded up, and we are ready to get on the road. Ivan had a heartbreaking goodbye with the neighbor's boy, Sterling and we left. We stopping in Rigby to drop the car off and actually started our long journey east. On the way we went through the Palisades. Man I love that place. Driving through it made me miss it already. And it gave us quite the send off. We saw a goose sitting in an osprey nest! It took us a long time to realize what kind of creature was in that nest, and sure enough it was a Canada goose. Just outside Alpine, WY we saw a mountain goat just chilling on the hill side. Then around Hoback Junction we saw hundreds of elk. I've never seen so many of them all together before. And it wasn't even on the wildlife reserve. Continuing on we saw probably about a thousand mule deer. And we even stopped to see a couple moose.

All those little dots out there are elk. And this was just a small portion of what we saw. 

Two moose, just hanging out. They were so chill that a magpie was hopping all over them. 

The whole time we're seeing all this wildlife, we kept telling Ivan to look out the window for the animals. Then he started telling us "there's a big elk out there," about every 5 miles. Then there actually was an elk out there when he said it and he about jumped out of his seat he was so excited! Then he switched to saying "here it comes, here it comes" when he wanted to see an animal.

We also saw antelope! 

Then we witnessed a miracle. We participated in a miracle even. We were passing a semi truck on the highway where there were 2 lanes. So we switch to the left lane to pass and there's a car in front of us on the highway. About 2 seconds later, we notice the car is not going near as fast as us and see that they have their turn signal on to turn left. Because they had their signal on, we slowed down and didn't crash into the back of them. It doesn't sound as cool written down, but it was intense.

Driving through Nebraska on Thursday we saw a ton of sandhill cranes! Seriously, hundreds and hundreds of them. Everywhere. Hundreds. 

A few other fun stories from our drive. I was reading a book to Ivan and he really enjoyed it. So I read the book again, and again, and again. At the end of reading the book for the third time, the same book mind you, Ivan says "you supposed to read it again." Ha!


We left Rexburg around 3 in the afternoon Wednesday, stopped for gas and to let the kids run and got to the hotel in Nebraska around 4 in the morning, central time. Silly time zones. The kids, and Michael slept well that night and I was up and hungry for Marriott waffles around 7:30 or 8. After loading up on an awesome breakfast, watching lots of cartoons, and getting showers, we loaded back into the car around 10 in the morning. Now we had to make it from western Nebraska to middle Tennessee in a day. Not too shabby. We did stop at a playplace for lunch so the kids could get all their energy out and Michael could take a short nap. Back in the car and we finished our drive sometime late that night.

Charlotte's Birthday Party

I love parties. I love throwing parties. I love making all the goodies that go along. And I absolutely love how special it makes my kids feel. So yes, I might be a little over the top. And yes, I probably put too much time and effort into a single event. But, my kids will look back at this and see some physical evidence that I do care enough to do all that for them. There, now you can look at the rest of the blog and not judge me. :]

We combined a going away party for with Charlotte's party, that way we could invite more of our friends, even if they didn't have kids.


Michael's sister, Brenda, and her husband Gavin came for the weekend. Michael's parents also came early, around lunch time or so. That meant I had tons of helpers! Thank goodness for that.

I had my very own balloon blower uppers. 

Craig served as a baby entertainer. 

And Charlotte wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and help too! She loves sweeping and carrying the broom all around. 

The theme was elephants. The cake was divine. I made cupcakes, my great grandma's chocolate recipe. And the actual cake was 3 layers. The bottom two were from scratch vanilla with cream cheese fruit dip and blueberry pie filling between layers. The top layer, Charlotte's cake, was banana bread, since bananas are her absolute favorite. I iced the bottom with white chocolate buttercream and the top with cool whip (less sugar but still enough fun for her birthday). Then I topped all that with some baby carnations. It turned out fantastic! It was incredibly difficult to frost the cake the way I did, but the results were worth it. We also had white chocolate dipped Oreos, fruit pizzas, soft sugar cookies, cake balls dipped in raspberry dark chocolate, and a snack tray with pepperoni, ham, cheese, and crackers. I did apple juice boxes for the kiddos and a variety of specialty sodas for the big kids.

Some finishing ribbons on the top tier. This is the cool whip portion, which looked a lot more white than the buttercream. 

Kitchen counter display. The baby food jars in front are filled with M & M's and are party favors. 

The final product! I don't think this cake could have turned out any better! 

My (almost) famous soft sugar cookies. I used an icing recipe that hardens like royal icing but tastes delicious! 

You gotta have chocolate covered Oreos!

I found a fun website that all sorts of birthday printables. Pink, grey, and elephants, it was meant to be!

The kitchen table display. And that's my friend Jennifer. :]

This is probably my second favorite decoration (my favorite is the elephant and streamer banner hung above the couch). The tulle in the background is actually a tutu that Charlotte wore on the actual day of her birthday. 

Here are those cute juice boxes! And as favors for the kids, we had a puppy adoption. 

 We had a blast! Tons of people showed up. Almost all the food got eaten. Charlotte loved her presents! She received books, stuffed animals, clothes, toys, and a rocking horse from her mom and dad. That was her favorite, thank goodness! As a parent I always try and guess what my kids would like the most and what would actually maintain their attention for a long period of time. I hope I'm not alone in this. And this task is especially hard for the younger ones who can't voice what they really want. Well sure enough a horse did the trick!

We blew up almost 70 balloons. They were everywhere. Ivan thought it was so cool to frizz Charlotte's hair like this!

There's that cute banner in the background! And I made a photo collage in the shape of a "1" with only pictures of Charlotte. That was so fun to see tons of pictures of her throughout her first year. 

Cake time!

She didn't really understand that there was cake under all the cool whip. She just kept licking off the icing without taking any cake. Then she started playing it like a drum. 

So I snuck in there with a fork and pried off a piece of cake for her to eat. That's one big bite!

I think she likes it!

That's her signing "all done."

While opening presents, Charlotte just kept going back to the horse and playing with its mouth. 

Not quite sure what to think of that puppy, although she did sleep with it that night. 

Shortly after this was taken, Charlotte put her feet on the back of the horse and stood up on it while rocking it. Quite the show girl already! Notice the change in hairbows? A friend gave Charlotte that beautiful new feather one and it was the exact color of her outfit. It must be fate!

Charlotte is ONE

Today is all about my favorite little girl. Charlotte is one year old today. I cannot believe how fast it has gone by.

All about Charlotte:

she loves snuggles with Momma
peek-a-boo is her favorite
cows are her favorite animals
she loves books
her favorite food is anything Ivan is eating
she absolutely adores her big brother
she's a climber
she loves the swings at the park
'moo' was her first word (and only)

We got a free photo shoot from our favorite, and only, photographer. So we went there for pictures for her one year. She didn't smile a single time. Not once.

She's adorable anyway. I made the blue and white dress she's wearing in the last pictures. I just love those blue eyes!

Have I mentioned...

We're moving!

Yay!

I am so excited to move that I've packed almost all my house. And I started packing a while ago. We have filled up our shed with tons and tons of boxes. I took the pictures off the wall a couple days after I found out we were moving. I figure if this place feels less like home, then where we're going will seem more normal to us. And I can always bring a picture or two to put up in our new place. It's a little frustrating to know so early that we're moving and that it's not just happening already. A big reason why I'm packing so much so early is because of our housing situation. We're moving into a one bedroom house and can only bring with us what we can fit in the car. So we'll have just the bare minimum. I think it'll be easier to adjust to that while we're still in a familiar setting and then the minimum will be familiar already when we get there. Make sense? Works in my head. And I want to have most of the packing done early so I can have plenty of time to get all the silly cleaning done.

As I'm packing, I cannot believe how many toys the kids have! I've had their toys on a rotation for some time now. It's been working really well for us. I pack up a big box of toys and they don't get played with for a month or so. Then when the toys they do play with get boring, I pack those up and get out the ones that have been stored. It's pretty great really. It keeps me from buying new toys, it keeps the toys fresh and actually entertaining, and it means there are less toys accessible to make my house dirty. I will definitely be doing this again when we get back to Rexburg.

Then there's all the clothes. I have keep most of the kids' clothes so that I can reuse them if or when we have another baby and to share with Brenda. I was organizing them one day and realized I have given away most of the 0-3 months size baby boy clothes. So if any of you that are reading this happen to have some of my boy clothes in that size, I wouldn't mind having them back. Sorry if that sounds rude.

Then I can't figure out what to do with all our really big picture frames. I eventually decided to wrap them up in blankets and tape the blankets together. That way there's a consolidated packet of frames but then I'm not wasting a huge box. And our food storage! Man, I wish I'd had a little more time to use that stuff up. We're going to bring some of it with us to cut down on cost, and use what needs to be eaten according to best by dates. But the rest is going into storage. And that makes me nervous. I don't want mice in there and I feel food would be a good way to encourage them to make a home there. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

In all the time we've spent in this house, I don't think I've ever taken any pictures of it. I have been so happy here. It's a modest home, that's for sure. But it's been my home. I have brought both my babies back from the hospital to this house. I've had many birthday, Christmas, and whatever occasion parties here. We've had countless cookouts, trampoline parties, and play dates here. We've painted, remodeled, and updated this place to be our own. I'm glad to say I've lived here. I'm also glad to say I'm not coming back to live here when we get back to Rexburg. And I'm even more glad to say I'll never live here again. Leaving this house means this part of my life is over. We're moving on. And even though we'll be coming back to Rexburg, living somewhere else will help it feel transient, temporary, and will help encourage us to find a place to call home... somewhere not in Rexburg.

My kitchen. This has been my most favorite kitchen of all time. It's huge! Gas stove, huge microwave, tons of cabinets, and even more counter space! We replaced the kitchen faucet and painted it. I love the farm theme for kitchens.

Our living room. The kitchen bar opens right up to it. We have a gas fireplace in the corner. It never actually gets used cuz the kids play on it. Except when the power goes out in the middle of winter, then we invite the neighborhood and we're warm and cozy and cooking eggs! I love the color scheme and the rug that ties it all together. One day I'm gonna refinish that entertainment center to be a dark chestnut or something. 

This picture shows my gallery wall. Michael bought those frames for me for Christmas and promptly helped me hang them all. Love it! And I'm so glad my favorite things from this room are ours to keep. 

Our super long hallway! Oh how the kids love, LOVE running up and down the hallway. Pretty sure it started with Ellie Romero. :)

The kids' room. Big enough for both cribs and tons of toys. 

Should have gotten a picture of the closet. It's big enough to fit another whole crib in there! We put our food storage, extra clothes, extra toys, a chest freezer, and a ton other stuff in there. 

Our bedroom. We painted it colonnial woodland gray. I got those curtains from Ikea, friggin love Ikea. Michael's mom made that quilt for us. It's my favorite. My dad painted that painting with the trees and river. Love it! 

Direct bathroom access from our room. One of my favorite features. Don't know why I don't have any pictures of the bathroom. We just remodeled it. It has 2 sinks and a separate shower and tub. That's also where the washer and dryer are located. We put new faucets in the sink and a new shower head in. We resurfaced the bathtub. It had this green linoleum tile, the same as the floor, and I thought that was too much green. So we peeled the tiles off and put beadboard up. That got painted white and we painted the cabinets white too. 

Found that frame and picture of the Tetons and Jenny Lake at the DI for $5. Michael got a killer deal on that dresser. It has a mirror that matches and another armoire that matches. And he found another set that came with these ones. So 4 dressers, 2 different sets, all for $75! Whoa! So we sold the other set for $75 and kept these ones.