Emilies 4th Birthday

Emilie had her 4th Birthday last week. She was so excited. We had it a little late due to the move. But she had a blast. She had a princess theme this year so all the girls got to dress up in princess crowns, necklaces, shoes & rings. We invited some family and friends over for a fun party. We stuffed our faces full of pizza, salad, cake and ice cream...yum. Anyways, so here are the pictures to sum up the night...enjoy.

We had a great night. Emilie is getting to be so big. She has a sassy personality and we love her very much. She is healthy and strong and we feel very blessed. At her last check up she was:

Weight: 36 lbs - 59%

Height: 39.5 inches - 55%

She just started Dance class and Gymnastics and has loved both of them. She loves princess and girly things. She always has a crown or necklace or high heels one. She loves the rings and bracelets too. She plays with Easton pretty good, Easton is just chill with most everything. So if emilie takes something he doesn't really care. I'm sure that will change soon but for right now they play pretty good together. Anyways, Emilie is sure funny and we love having her in our family.

Just a side note. Easton had his 18 month check up at the same time as Emilie and he was:

Weight: 24.3 lbs - 27%

Height: 33.5 inches - 88%

Head: 47.5 cm - 26%

Halloween 2010

This year the kids spent Halloween with Grandma Gilberg. She took them over to Hurricane and went to Scott and Sara's ward party and then on Halloween she took them to the local Trunk or Treat and Carnival.. Emilie was set on being a scary witch for Halloween, but all the costumes we got looked stupid and didn't fit right. So she gave in and said...ok I'll just be Dorothy. So She was Dorothy and Easton was a Giraffe. They got lots of yummy candy and I think they had a great time. We were on the road somewhere in Tennessee at the time so we missed out on the festivities. But here are a few pictures of their costumes.

 Emilies Ruby Red Slippers

Leaving Virginia

These last few months have gone by so fast. At times I thought we would be in Virginia forever. But we have now moved back to Utah and I thought I would post a memory of our home in Virginia. There were a lot of things I think about now that I wish I would have gotten pictures of. We will miss our simple lives there. It is super nice to be home and to have family close. We have been home a week now, and it has been so exhausting and overwhelming. We have come home full force. After moving most everything into storage or our new basement home :) we had a birthday party for Emilie's 4th birthday. We have seen so many friends and family that were missed for a few years. Emilie is now in Gymnastics and Dance. She gets to play with friends and asks all the time if she can have a friend over. Daniel has started driving to Hurricane 4 days a week, so we hardly see him. And I have been keeping busy with the kids, enjoying my runs in beautiful so. Utah, helping my mom and mother in-law with things, I also started working for a friend about 6 or so hours a week which shouldn't been too bad, I have been loving being able to stay busy. I do wish I could get a good nights rest one of these nights. Easton has been awake the last 3 nights, I have no clue what energy I am running on but it has got to be the last of it. If anyone has a cure for the high fevers and sore throats that Easton seems to get all of the time I would love you forever. I'm really close to insisting that Easton gets his tonsils out. He is sick all of the time. We are really excited to be home! We left VA on Oct 30. My mom and Mark flew out to help us drive home. Daniel and Mark drove the budget truck home and my mom and I drove the Mazda home. It was long, very long. I'm so happy we didn't have to make that trip with the kids. I missed them so bad and Easton didn't want me to touch him for the first 4 days. But now things are good and I will leave you with some pictures and video of our home in VA.

Here we are getting ready to take off.

This is what someone drew on the truck...nice huh.*please don't take offense, I thought it was funny that we got the truck with this drawn on it, WE DID NOT DRAW THIS...lol. Don't look if you get offended easy.

 I wish I would have gotten pictures of the kids with Josh & the McClure's. Josh was a friend who was in Pharmacy School with Daniel. He came over about once a week and we would play games. He was pretty much part of our family. Daniel and him would play basketball, golf, and racquetball all the time. I'm so sad that I don't have any pictures of him at our house. And the McClure's are a family that had treated us like family while we were there. Mike McClure was our Branch President and we really enjoyed working with all of them.

Next is the Vandykes...Who are Family to us. They were parents and Grandparents to our family. It was very hard to say goodbye to people we have grown to love. I feel truly blessed to have known them and will always consider them family. My kids love them. They did so much for us whenever we needed help they were always there. Whenever we were homesick, we knew we could stop by and they would make everything feel better. Whenever we were bored out of our minds we would stop by and they would make things fun. They would drop whatever they were doing to hang out with us or do things for us. We will miss their fresh garden and fruit trees. Those blueberries might have to be mailed. We will miss the BB Q's in the backyard and Paul spraying the water hose at the cats or dogs that came sniffing by. I am glad we will see them again soon and hopefully get them out to Utah soon.

Here are our Goodbye pictures at their house.

Emilie and Easton with Paul & Cleo

Here is the whole fam...

Here is a quick video so we can remember our house, town and church. I wish I would have done more video around the house, the steep hill we lived on and the shopping but time flew by...so here is what we got.

We also had Mike McClure snap a few pitures of the Family so we could remember our time here.

Anyhow, thats it for now.

Halloween Time

I thought I would start to get into the Halloween spirit. I love October and Halloween but this year its not quite the same. Instead of decorating and carving pumpkins...We get to move, which is super exciting but the kids will be spending it in Utah and we will be on the road. I'm kind of sad about that but I know they will have fun with our without us. After a long thought process and Emilie really wanting to be a scary witch she gave up the ugly witch costume idea and decided to be Dorothy. Easton is going to be a Giraffe. They are all set and ready to go, Emilie wants to wear her costume everyday, and is watching The Wizard of Oz and acting out the same things Dorothy does. Anyways, I don't have any pictures but thought I would get at least our blog into the Halloween spirit.

Fall but feels like Winter.

This past weekend we went to the Richlands Fall Festival.  The kids had a blast. They had a bunch of free bouncy toys and Emilie finally did all of them with a little pumping up. Last year she would only do the tiny baby one. So we were super excited when she finally bucked up and did the big kid ones. The Fall Festival consists of Booths of all sorts (cute crafts, but nothing compared to Utah), Kids area with bouncy toys and a train ride, food (fried to be more specific), and some very backwoods bluegrass music (there is a video at the end if you would like to see :).

Here is Easton in the Kiddie Area.

This is a dragon tunnel. Emilie was so scared to go at first because when you go in the initial opening it shoots a burst of air out at you. Once she got past that she did it like 15 times.

Here she is going down one of the slides in there.

Here she is coming out of its butt.

Here is the fam on our train ride. The driver had him a pack of chew and was set for the rest of the day.

Easton Boy

Me and Easton

Emilie and Daniel

And now, welcome to fried food. Who doesn't love a funnel cake...well it gets worse. They fry everything. We had to try a few before we left and so we got a mini sampler of all of them. And if you are wondering what the tornado potato is the schools mascot is the Blue Tornado. Pronounced with a thick southern drawl... "Blue Tor-NA-da"

Here is Daniel ready to puke at the thought...lol

A nice up close view so we will never forget...haha

Here is the big one. Emilie did this a few times with Daniel and I and liked it. Then she got the courage to do it by herself. And she loved it. She was so proud and happy. Those boys in line with her were counting to see who they would be going up against. And when the boy saw he was going against Emilie and not one of his friends he got all embarrassed and started blushing.

This was the first time we went down, I love this picture because it totally looks like I'm pushing her off and her face is so funny.

And last, I turned 27 yesterday. Yippee...not. It ended up being a great day. Daniel ended up getting let out early so he got home at 1 and said lets go to Kingsport....I said Ok :) Kingsport has shopping, Texas Roadhouse and Craft Stores. So we went shopping for a while  and I got a few things for  my bday (one of which this man didn't take a censer off my sweater so I have to take back...who knows when) then we went to Texas Roadhouse and then I requested a pumpkin pie blizzard from DQ for my Bday Cake. I love fall just for those. Whats funny is I hate pumpkin pie but love the pumpkin pie blizzard.

Daniel and Emmy at Dinner (it was .99 cent kids meal night so Emilie got her own steak) That girl loves her some steak and A1. She downs it and prefers it over chicken potatoes or most anything.

 Mom and the kids

Here are the kids enjoying our birthday ice cream

The hubster and I

This is what I got for my Birthday. The Nike Ipod chip that fits in my sweet nike shoes I got last year. And then the I pod arm band. So I will finally be able to tell how far I have been running outside, without taking the car out for a drive after :)

I'm super excited for these two things because I am training for the Mesquite 10k in November and the 1/2 Marathon in St. George in January. I am super excited for those because it keeps me motivated to work out. So anyways, the birthday was good. I have so many things to be thankful for. I have a great Family. 

Fall has hit us here in Richlands, it actually feels more like winter because I have been freezing the last few days. But the colors are starting to change, and this year will be the last of the beautiful fall colors.

Today has been very crazy and I can't wait till the kiddos go to bed. I went to the store and we were picking out pumpkins out front. Emilie decides to push this empty cart next to us out into the street of oncoming wal-mart traffic. I didn't see it so someone else had to run and grab the cart before it crashed into a car. So I had a bunch of angry people mouthing things under their breath at me when they were walking in. I spent like 2 hours in wal-mart getting groceries and stuff. I had all my stuff on the belt and the lady started ringing me up. I went to pull out my card and oops, Daniel has it. He didn't put it back in my wallet. GRRRR. How embarrassing. They wouldn't let me do it over the phone so I had to take everything off and leave the store. All that time....wasted. So we go out to the car and I open the trunk tell Emilie to get in the car, she is screaming at me that she has to go pee. I said I don't care, pee your pants...(in defense I was so frustrated that I just left groceries in a cart, and she just went and hour before that, I knew she could hold it) then I proceed to shut the trunk and Eastons fingers are in it, he is screaming now. I am freaking out because his 4 fingers are all smashed. They were black, blue and indented. I felt so bad. Luckily they are not broken because he has been using them. Needless to say today has been ruff and exhausting.

To end on a happy note, I really enjoyed conference. The talks were great and it really is nice being able to sit at home in your pjs all day and go to church. Most members out here have to go to the chapel to watch it still because you have to have satellite to be able to get the byu tv. But I enjoyed the break from a  normal stressful Sunday. 

 Here are the videos. Living her literally has made us feel like we have went back in time 20 years. Enjoy yourself some bluegrass.

Here is Emilie going on the big bouncy toy by herself.

Well, thats it folks. 26 Days. Wahoo.