The Week

So at the beginning of the week I got to spend a lot of time with Cami. She and Tyler came and stayed over night on Sun. and Mon. It's always so much fun to have her around. We even went and played tennis Monday night and that was the first time in probably 2 1/ years I've been able to play. I wish it could happen more often, but maybe someday.



We went swimming every day of course, because it's obviously far too hot to do anything else here. On Saturday Kenny came swimming with us for a bit and helped the kids practice swimming without floaties. We keep saying that Bryn will learn before Ty because she's fearless. They both swim very well and will do pretty much anything with floaties on. Ty's just scared to death to take them off. He keeps saying he needs to wait until he's 5 years old haha. Oh and it even rained a few times this week! Houston's in a major drought this year, so any rain is much appreciated.

On Thursday we took the kids bowling and that was lots of fun for them. Tyler is getting so big. He wanted to do it all by himself and he did. He'd walk up and grab the ramp, push it over to the lane where he wanted it, come back and heft a huge bowling ball using his whole body to carry it over to the ramp, then push it down with pride. He liked to help Bryn on her turn too.

Friday night my parents and siblings all went on a youth temple trip. Kenny and I drove down to the temple with our kids and met up with them there after they finished. We switched cars, they took our kids home, and we got to stay and do a session. We called on the way home, thinking they'd be putting them all to bed or have them in bed since it was 9:00 and they were all out swimming!! hahaha. Ty and Bryn loved jumping over grandma's head, and into the pool! :) I'm glad they were making fun memories with their grandparents since we'll be leaving this week, I say just soak up all the family and fun you want. But Kenny and I decided since we never get to go out anymore that we'd go catch a movie since we were already out. We saw Super 8 and it was a good show, considering I had no idea what to expect going into it. Mostly it was just fun to get out together for a night.

Saturday we took a family trip to Ikea again, but this time walked away with two new beds for Tyler and Brynlee. I'm so excited to get into our own house so they can use them. That night we went and watched my sister Sarah sing in a stake Show Choir. They put on quite the performance and it's always fun to watch her perform. Sarah rocks the house, she seriously is an amazing singer.

Sunday we got to substitute teach a primary class and it was so nice to actually do something again. We've both noticed how uncomfortable it is to not have a ward right now. We haven't been able to have a calling or pay tithing or anything since we left and it's very unsettling. Hopefully we'll find something very quickly once we get up to Cleveland.

Father's Day--June 19th

This is a little taste of how our family pictures go:

Notice: Bryn squeezing her cheek and Madi grabbing my necklace

Notice: Bryn's had enough and decides to walk away

Notice: Ty's face, Bryn's hands, Madi with my necklace again

Notice: Ty's face, and it is finally brought to my attention that she keeps grabbing my necklace.

Notice: more funny faces and necklace issues

What is going on anyway?

BUT, we finally got one

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE WORLD'S BEST DAD!

I'm so glad you're the father of my children

P.S. We sure make cute kids ;)

Westons and Webbs--Vegas Pics

The order of children's ages: Tyler 4, Eva 4 (they're like 6 weeks apart), Leighton 2 (will be 3 next month), Brynlee 2, Dean 9 months, Madison 6 months. What a party!!

Here's a few pictures from our 2 weeks there...

Having a water gun fight

Finger painting, and possibly ruining the porch cement

Eating at the buffet

Other fun non-photographed memories:

Steph and I working out every morning together at 6 a.m. GO GYMBOX!

Watching the kids get to know their cousins better and having so much fun

Playing at the park

Swimming

U Swirl frozen yogurt and yummy food places

Costco trip--all the shopping trips actually

Loading 6 kids into 6 carseats to go anywhere

Being so worn out at the end of every day and winding down with a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich and watching a documentary (America: The Story of Us) or So You Think You Can Dance

California--what were we thinking??

Having at least one child crying what seemed like all the time!

One meltdown after another tantrum after another fight...it never ends!

Doing preschool together since Ty and Eva use the same curriculum

I loved having someone to talk to all throughout the day. Steph is amazing and I'm so glad I got to spend that time with her and her beautiful kids. We dream of the day when we can all live closer and visit each other more regularly. As for now it's either we live together in the same house during the visit, or we don't see each other for like a year at a time. Feast or famine--it's annoying, but it is what it is.

Our California trip will have to wait (again) for yet another post because I'm having some computer issues.

Pictures from Hoover Dam--June 11

Back from the dead

I absolutely hate not blogging for a long time because I have so much to catch up on and then I leave out all the details, which is usually the funnest part to remember. But here I am with several weeks behind me, and the catch up game begins...

Saturday, June 21
My parents' stake held their annual 5K and 1 mile family walk/run. My mom was so nice to take my kids on the family 1 mile walk so that Kenny and I could run the 5K. When Tyler woke up that morning, he was so excited and all geared up for his "race". He put on his lightning mcqueen underwear and shoes, certain that they would help him run extra fast. So instead of a nice 1 mile walk, my mom ended up chasing Tyler, while pushing the double stroller with Bryn and Madi in it haha. He was determined to win, it was so cute. The 5K went well also. I really didn't know how I'd do, I haven't raced that since like highschool, so I just said my goal was to get under 26 minutes. I finished at 25:26, and ended up getting 1st place for women 20-29 (which there were obviously not very many of if I won 1st place with that time). Kenny finished a little bit behind me, but had a sore ankle from rolling it the other nigh at basketball. But anyway we all had a great time. Certainly not like the times I used to get in highschool, but I was happy, and it felt good to be in a race again.

During the weeks we didn't do much. Just a lot of playing, really. Continued preschool with Tyler, he has mastered the Wii, esepcially sword fighting and wants to ask Santa for one for Christmas :). There's a little boy next door named Walker, and he and Tyler are really cute friends. We also jumped into doing playgroups with the young moms in this ward, and of course loved going to the park and swimming often.

The next weekend, Saturday June 28th, we made a last minute decision to go visit my sister, Steph in Las Vegas. Her husband, Andrew, just deployed to Iraq and we figured since I didn't have anything here that I needed to stay for, why not go out and visit her. We made the decision, packed up the car, and were on the road within a few hours. Sometimes we are just a little bit nuts, and this was one of those times. Kenny quickly got on the computer and bought a ticket to fly back, after driving us out there. But once we got on the road, a couple hours into our trip, he realized that he bought the ticket from houston to vegas, isntead of from vegas to houston!! So Steph helped us fix it since we were computer-less and he got the last seat on the only flight left the next day. But it was going to be short on time. We didn't have a choice though, so we were bookin it! Thank goodness LV has a 2 hour time change btwn. here and there. We had some close calls and miracles on the way down. Like when we ran out of gas on the exit ramp and literally coasted up to the gas station pump. And when a bird hit the windshield in the middle of the night while going about 85+ mph and cracked it really bad, but it was on the side by the bar. Had it been a foot over towards the middle, it would have totally gone through the window and hit me. But after that 22 hour road trip straight through the night we only had one speeding ticket, and zero accidents. We went straight to the airport and without even seeing Steph or her kids, Kenny had 55 minutes to catch his plane back home. Phew!!

I stayed there for 2 weeks and it was, in a word, INSANE. Seriously, 6 kids ages 4 and under is a lot of work for two single moms haha. I will do a separate post about those two weeks later. But we did a whole lot, including going to California for 2 days to play on the beach. We were very brave (and probably stupid) but we made some great memories and isn't that what it's all about.

Oh and I forgot to mention how a couple days after I had posted on here that we were moving to Cleveland, Kenny's company told us to hold off again, because it was no longer certain. We had been getting yanked around so so much before, and I waited several days after hearing the news to post it on here because things change all the time with this company. But I thought it was for sure, and then it wasn't again and we continued to wait. We got our hopes up again for going to Idaho Falls and were so looking forward to that. But after a couple more weeks we were finally told that Cleveland was for sure again, and now we're starting once more to look for somewhere to live. So that all happened while I was away, which was a nice distraction to be at Steph's while we waited to hear the news. But anyway, we're getting very excited to start our lives there, and we'll be going up there July 1st (at least that's the plan for now).

On Thursday, June 9th, Kenny flew back to vegas and got in around midnight. He stayed the next day and we had a good time. Friday night we all took the kids to a buffet at one of the big hotel casinos and it was yummy. We were joking about how we looked like polygamists with Kenny, me and steph, and our 6 kids hahaha. Then we went home, put the kids to bed, a babysitter came over and we went to a Cirque de Soleil show!!! It was absolutely amazing!!! I have never been to a show like that and I totally loved every second of it. The next morning we packed up the car and headed home. We stopped at Hoover Dam on the way out and that was neat to see.

The ironic thing was the day after we left for Vegas, my sister Camille and her husband Tyler arrived here in Houston! I missed them by one day. And I missed my sister Kim, by one day the other way, since she had just barely left Steph's house. Pretty poor planning on our part in both directions, but oh well. I have loved being near Cami since we've been back. It's so much fun to hang out with her again. So basically we just sleep in every morning, go swimming every day at least once, and do lots of shopping as well :). We're still getting things sorted out with moving, and it's coming up all too quickly and yet not soon enough at the same time.

Well I realize this post desperately needs photos but I will have to do that later. I promise it will be soon!