My genius idea that worked!! kind of...

For some reason right when it's time to make dinner, my children suddenly meltdown and can't seem to function without me. The girls get super whiney and need my help for everything and Cam just latches onto my leg, throws his head back and lets out his signature howl that is the opposite of awesome.  So yeah, to survive I've resorted to plugging them into the TV or iPad to buy myself some cooking time in a sane environment.

The only problem with that is when Taber comes home, excited to see his sweet little cherubs, he's greeted with stone faced TV zombies instead. Not ideal...

So the other day, inspired by my friend Joanne, (Who has 6 kids and rocks at motherhood) I decided to forgo TV time and set them up at the table with homework, puzzles, blocks and coloring stuff to keep them occupied while still using all their brain cells. 

And it worked!!

Well, at least long enough to get dinner on the table. 20 minutes into their brain session Cam's tower fell down and he lost one of his blocks which sparked a meltdown. Still, for 20 beautiful minutes my kids were quietly engaged without the help of technology. Score a mommy victory point for me! ;)

This is what your pantry looks like when your husband works for a food company...

Taber had an opportunity to get cases of cereal and other food products for super cheap at work a few weeks ago, and let's just say he got a little excited... (as in, 144 boxes of cereal excited.)

If anyone ever wants to have a breakfast party, you know who to call :)

Halloween 2012

Since Thanksgiving is just a few days away, I figured I should probably blog about Halloween :)

In the morning we sent Teya off to school and then I made Brinley and Cam wear cute matchy Halloween shirts and take pictures on the stairs.

Taber had the day off, so in the afternoon we took the kids over to Teya's school to watch the costume parade. Grandma Karen had sent out a care package earlier with costumes, toys and some hand knitted scarfs for the kids. Teya was convinced that Grandma's scarf was part of her costume so she wore it with her fancy dress in the parade. So cute :)

 The kids liked watching the parade  playing on the playground at Teya's school. Cam looks like such a scrumptious little nugget in that puffy jacket. Love him!

After Teya got home from school we got the kids dressed up in their costumes (all courtesy of Grandma Karen) Teya decided to switch things up from princess to Pirate princess. 

 The cutest Belle, Superman and pirate princess on the planet!

 Cam's cheese face kills me. 

 He can also do duck lips. He's very versatile :)

 It was nice to have Halloween a week after we moved in because it gave us a good excuse to go meet all our neighbors. Our next door neighbor dressed up as a dinosaur to greet the kids. Totally awesome.

 This was Cam's first year trick or treating since last year we got snowed in on Halloween. He was digging it. 

 While we were out we ran into our cute neighbor boy who is in Teya's 1st grade class. She was so excited to see a familiar face and ended up trick or treating with him the rest of the evening. 

 We covered our whole block and got a pretty good loot

 We also hopped into the car and drove over to our bishop's house, since he lives in our neighborhood, and indulged in his Halloween tradition of grilling up hot dogs for the trick or treaters. Saved me from making dinner which was a huge bonus!

 When we got back to the house we let the kids dig into their loot. 

Then I put Cam to bed while Daddy and the girls carved pumpkins (better late than never :)

Fun night and fun way to kick things off in our new neighborhood. 

Happy Halloween! (a month late) :)

Trekking to Chicago!!

After a week of final goodbyes and moving preparations, it was finally time to go.

Our house was packed...

And the truck was loaded.

Taber flew in late Friday night and we crashed with our awesome friends the Hanns, who had a crib for Cam, trundle bed for the girls and a queen bed for us. It was the perfect set up. 

Dawnett made us a fabulous dinner the night before, and the next day she loaded us up with tons of delicious snacks for the road, including peanut butter jelly sandwiches for everyone and bags of homemade cookies, popcorn, chips and candy. Love her so very much :)

Ricky also helped Taber take one final load of junk to the dump before we hit the road, and he did a milk run for Cam so we'd have a good supply for our trip. He is the best :)

After big hugs from the Hanns we loaded up the troops and began our trek West!

The kids did awesome for the first 8 hours, they played on the iPads, colored, and slept. 

We almost made it through the first day without incident but an hour before we got to hotel, Cam had the most epic melt down of his life. He was screaming like a crazy person so we pulled over at a Wendy's to give him a break from the car seat, but even after getting out of the car he wouldn't stop screaming. We tried everything, food, candy, electronics, cuddling, soothing, but for 45 minutes he screamed and screamed. Finally we got the Wendy's people to warm up some milk for a bottle and it settled him down. Not my favorite part of the trip.

After the meltdown we continued on to the hotel. We got there around 10pm but the kids were wired so Taber took the girls swimming at the pool and I let Cam swim in the bathtub in our room :) They finally got all settled in bed around midnight. Sweet little snuggly bugglies.

The next day it was back on the road. Cam stayed entertained with his coloring books, Monty stayed entertained (or at least super comfy) cuddling up in my lap...

and Teya stayed entertained with my fatify app. Good times.

We arrived on Sunday night at Naomi's house!! My brother Jake happened to be in town so it was extra awesome seeing him and Scarlet too. 

The kids were excited to see their cousins, and so excited to be staying at a house with TOYS instead of a hotel!

It was super cute seeing Taber and Kevin read the kids bedtime stories. Such sweet Daddies.

We stayed with Naomi and Kevin for 2 days while we closed on our house and had the movers unload. 

Our 2nd night there we had a fun family home evening where we carved apples and painted pumpkins for Halloween.

my cute little pumpkin painting her pumpkin

Glad we made it safe and sound and so pumped to be just a short 45 minute drive from my sister. It's totally a dream come true, for both of us :)

Auntie CJ to the rescue!!!

As the details of our moving timeline came together, we realized that Taber would be out of town, starting work in West Chicago the same week the movers were scheduled to come. The thought of trying to do all my mommy duties while orchestrating a move was majorly stressing me out. Taber was worried so he sent out an email out to our families to see if anyone could come help, and my amazing sister in law answered the call. 

With last minute noticed, CJ rearranged her schedule, and her mom rearranged HER schedule, so she could watch CJ's 5 children while CJ flew out to New Hampshire to help me. I know it was a big sacrifice for her and her family and I just can't thank her enough for coming to the rescue!

As soon as she got here she jumped right in and got to work. As a seasoned mother she was a pro  helping Teya with homework and getting the kids bathed and ready for bed. I never had to give her any instructions, she just took care of business!

Even though she had never been to NH before, she bravely plugged addresses into the GPS and set off on adventures with the kids. She took all of them to Chuck E Cheese (30 minutes away) by herself!(something I don't even dare to do!) She is awesome!

The kids had so much fun with her and were always completely worn out when she brought them home.

She also took the girls down to the Boston children's museum for a day. I have many native NH friends who refuse to drive in Boston traffic, but she just went for it!

For 4 days, she kept my kids, fed, entertained, clothed, carpooled, bathed, and cared for while I focused on the move. It was so nice for them to have the stability of being with the same person instead of farmed out all week. It was also nice at night, once the kids were in bed, to have CJ there to help me patch walls, scrub bathrooms, or just stay with the kids while I went out shopping for appliances and running other odd errands. I literally don't know what I would've done without her!!

Thank you CJ from the bottom of my heart for being my lifesaver that week! It was a lot of hard work, and I love and appreciate you so much for being willing to come to that for me!! So blessed to have such an amazing sister in law :) 

Taber's new hobby

Shortly before we left New Hampshire, Taber's good friend Kenta, introduced him to the wonderful world of Remote control airplanes. 

At first I thought it was just a fun little toy, but apparently this is a full on hobby that requires practice, skill, and geek like to devotion to learning all things RC. 

Taber started out with a little Champ that he affectionately named, "Bequita."

He took advantage of every opportunity to hone his skills, including waking up at 5:30am to meet Kenta at the field to go "flying."

On several occasions we'd go as a family to the park to watch Daddy fly. The kids had a blast playing on the playground and Daddy got in his airplane fix.

Once he mastered flying his little Champ, it was on to bigger and better...

His next project was to spend a week in Kenta's basement, building his own airplane. 

This is the finished product. He was pretty happy about it. 

Once the big plane was built, Taber and Kenta starting spending a lot of time together on "flying dates." It actually made me really happy to see Taber so excited about something and to see him carving out time in his schedule to do something he enjoys.

There's the plane in flight.

Cam is fascinated by it

Here are the the boys with their planes.

Since we've moved Taber has missed having Kenta's wise RC tutelage, but he's doing pretty good on his own keeping up the habit. Our new house is on a golf course so it's the perfect set up for him to just walk out the back door and fly his plane out there for a few minutes before dinner.  Happy Hobby = Happy Hubby :)

Saying Goodbye... 10-14-12

On our last Sunday in New Hampshire our dear friends the Noel's hosted a going away party for us so we could say one last goodbye.

Russ and Teresa Noel are two of the kindest most genuine people on this earth. They constantly opened their home to us and always made us feel like part of their family. Teresa came to my house many times to watch my children for me, and she was there for me until the very end, helping me scrub walls after the movers took all our stuff. I love them both so much and am grateful to have been blessed by their friendship.

We spent the evening chatting, eating yummy food, and giving lots of big hugs to our wonderful friends.

It was nice for the kids to say goodbye to their little friends too. 

 I took a ton of pics because I wanted to remember everyone, so I'm just going to post them all because I love these people so much :)

Lovely ladies from my Nashua 1st ward

And these are all families from different wards who we became close with (through the play and girls camp) Some of them had to drive over an hour to come. It really meant a lot to see everyone. 

So many amazing friends! We love them all so much and are grateful that technology allows us to stay in touch so much easier. 

Later that week we had a few more friends drop by to say goodbye.

When Teya met her best friend in preschool, I was introduced to her mom, who became one of my best friends too! The girls were in the same preschool, kindergarten, and first grade class. We love Mia and Laura and their sweet family so so much! Glad they came by to say goodbye one more time. 

Another family very dear to our hearts is the Blanchettes. Teya and Emerson and Brinley and Eliza (all snuggled together on the top row) have been the best of friends since we came to New Hampshire. Jenn has been one of my closest friends as well. There's no way we could've left without one last group hug.