Birthday dinner for grandpa

We took Garth out to dinner for his birthday last night.  He wanted to go to Cracker Barrel.  It was fun to visit and eat yummy food.  I'm always nervous to take the kids to a restaurant, but they were great.

The kids were so excited to see these big checker boards outside.

Hallee would play for a minute and then she would run off and sing.  She is constantly singing and dancing.

We played checkers until we were all freezing and then we headed home.  It was a fun night.

A night away

Last night we stayed in a hotel in Provo that is right next door to Keith's office.  The car we just bought for Keith has been nothing but problems.  We have already had three major repairs.  Luckily most of the repairs have been covered under the warranty.  The latest problem is the heater isn't working.  Poor Keith has been freezing the last couple of weeks.  We took it to a dealer in Orem so Keith could use their shuttle to get to work.  They tried one thing and that didn't work so we had to take it back in again this week.

Our warranty was saying they weren't going to cover it so the guy at the dealer escalated the call all the way to the divisional level and finally got them to cover most of it.  After that he talked to his boss and got him to waive the rest of the fee because he felt bad that he hadn't fixed it the first time.  I am so grateful to him, he saved us a ton of money!

Anyway, they had to keep the car over night and we had a home we wanted to look at on Thursday so we just booked a hotel next to Keith's work and decided to make a fun little getaway out of it.  It worked out great, he just got up this morning and walked over to work.

We found a home in Provo and we were so excited about it.  I just knew this was the one for us.  Me and the kids picked Keith up from work on Thursday and went over and met Paul at the house.  The house was even better than we expected.  Paul and Tiff were celebrating Tessa's birthday so while they did that we went and checked into our hotel.

The kids were so excited.  I made sure the hotel had a pool and a nice breakfast in the morning. 

We ate a quick dinner and then headed down to the pool.  The pool was pretty cold, but you got used to it after a while.

Wyatt can't stand to be cold so he didn't last too long in the pool.  They had a hot tub and it was more like a warm bath so we let the kids go in there.  We had the whole place to ourselves it was great.

Jonah loved being able to play catch and jump in the pool without anyone else around.  We played different games and had races and we all had a blast!

Jonah was thrilled that they had cable so he could watch sports.  After we all showered we went to Walmart and picked out some snacks and then we ran over to Tiff and Paul's to sign the offer.  It was pretty late when we got back to our hotel so we all got ready for bed.  We didn't get a ton of sleep, but that is to be expected with four kids in a hotel. 

This morning Keith got up early and went to work.  The kids and I went down to breakfast and then the kids were so excited to go exercise in the hotel's little gym.  Luckily we had that all to ourselves too because the kids had a blast trying out each machine.  After that the kids and I just hung out and watched TV (okay I slept) until Keith came back over for lunch.  After that the kids and I headed home for an afternoon full of packing! 

We are not under contract on this home we love yet, but it looks like it is going to work out.  We are praying it does!  We love the house and it is so obvious that the owners take such good care of the home.  If all goes well we will be in that home just in time for Christmas!

Full Service Realtor

Paul is the first realtor that we have loved.  He ends up doing both realtors job and he has to stay on top of the lenders too!  Luckily we have a great lender, but Paul has to stay on top of our buyer's lender.  Anyway, he makes sure everything is taken care of and that everyone is doing their jobs.  If it wasn't for Paul, deadlines would not be met.

So not only do we have the best realtor, but Tiff watches our kids while we are out with Paul.  You can't ask for more than that!  Last Friday she kept Wyatt and Hallee while we went with Paul for the inspection on our new home.  The inspection didn't go well.  We found a lot of things that we were concerned about.  The biggest concern was the foundation, we didn't want to chance getting into a home with a bad foundation.  We decided to pull our offer and walk away from the home.  It was hard to do, but I am so grateful that we did.  This week we found an amazing home in the same area.  Hopefully we will be under contract soon and they said they will let us move in before Christmas!  We are so excited about this new home.  I felt like we were giving up something on every other home we looked at, either the area or aspects of the home, but this one is everything we want in the area we want!

The kids had a blast playing with their cousins while we were gone.

I love everything about this picture.  I love Hallee's squishy face and Tessa's expression!

The boys had fun watching a BYU game!  Paul and Tiff are also letting us move in with them for the few weeks before we can get into our new home.  Talk about a full service realtor!  I can't even express how grateful I am to them for this, it has taken so much stress of my plate.  I'm really excited to stay with them for a couple of weeks, it will be so fun.  Hopefully we won't drive them crazy!

Yesterday was Tessa's birthday.  Me, my mom and Mel went to Tiff's for the afternoon.  Wyatt and Hallee were so excited to give Tessa some presents and eat cupcakes!

We went back over late last  night to sign some papers and Tessa and Hallee were excited to play together again!

We met Allison at McDonalds this week.  Hallee and Jack had a lot of fun together.  I love Jack, he is such a cute kid!  Allison and I always have fun visiting and catching up.

I'm not going to be your brother anymore!

Our kids have been fighting a lot lately.  They always start out playing well together and then it gets ugly!  Hallee got a little confused and told Wyatt that she wasn't going to be his brother anymore when she was mad at him!

I have been trying to capture the moments when they are getting along!  Wyatt made this cute hat at pre-school.  He was trying to teach Hallee how to give a "man hug."  Jonah and Wyatt give each other "man hugs" every morning before Jonah leaves for school.  Instead of embracing they just pat each other on the back.  I'm not sure how that started, but it is pretty funny.

Wyatt's pre-school teacher asked the kids to start collecting change about a month ago so they could do some Christmas' in a box for children in need.  Wyatt went around the house asking us all for money.  Caitlyn gave her whole allowance for the week and Jonah and Wyatt both gave some of their allowance.  I kept giving Wyatt money because he was just so cute when he asked!  He was proud to take all of that money back to his teacher.  They put the boxes together this week in pre-school.  I'm really sad to leave his school, I have been so impressed with his teacher.

Wyatt's separation anxiety has been really bad again.  I had to carry him into pre-school kicking and screaming a few times.  I told him that he could earn a Jake and the Neverland Pirates game if he went to school without screaming.  The deal was that he could earn it the first day he didn't cry, but if he cried after that then he had to give the game back and earn it back again.  He was so proud of himself for not crying and he hasn't cried since.  He was really excited that Boston passed down his Jake costume so he could play his game in the costume!

We have boxes all over our house.  I'm trying to pack up what I can and get at least a couple of boxes packed each day.  Wyatt and Hallee had fun playing in the boxes one day.  I realized that Hallee has been packing up things from her room.  One item per box!

Jonah is such a sweet older brother.  Hallee wanted me to read to her but I was in the middle of something so Jonah read to her instead.

He can always make other kids laugh!

I gave all of the kids a haircut last week.  Caitlyn is loving her shorter hair.  I hated to cut Hallee's, but the ends needed to be cut off.  It is still pretty long and it looks so much healthier.

On Monday my mom took Hallee to see the new Peanuts movie.  Hallee loved it!  My mom said Hallee seemed to enjoy the movie, especially because grandma got her popcorn!  After that grandma took her to her house for lunch and to play.  We are so lucky to have my mom, she loves my kids so much and that makes me so happy!

Can I hide?

Hallee loves the movie "Boxcar Children."  I loved that book when I was a kid and I like to watch it with her.  She always gets scared when the baker chases the kids.  She knows when that part is coming, so she will say, "Can I hide mom."  She goes under the blanket until that part is over.

On Monday we met up with Audrey, Tiff and Katie at the park.  It was a little cold when the wind picked up, but overall it was the perfect day for the park.  It was so great to get out and visit with them while the kids all had a blast playing together.

Wyatt was excited to go on a grandma date this week.  They had a great time playing games together at grandma's house.  Grandma took him to get a treat because he said he didn't like ice cream sandwiches, apparently Wyatt thought my mom was going to give him ice cream on two pieces of bread.

It has been nice to have some free evenings since the boys aren't in sports right now.  The other night the kids were being so funny.  Jonah is always a crack up.  He was showing us his muscles while doing the belly roll and brushing his teeth!

Wyatt was so excited that he got some new clothes from Boston.  He loves his new pajamas.  He is such a cute kid.  I had to drop Wyatt off screaming at pre-school both days this week.  His teacher is patient and says he calms down pretty quick usually.  I hope he does better this week because it is no fun leaving him screaming.

Hallee and I went to McDonalds with Allison and Jack on Wednesday during pre-school.  Hallee took a minute to warm up, but after that her and Jack were so cute together.  I should have taken a picture of them, they had so much fun together.

Caitlyn and Jonah were laughing so hard the other night.  I came out to find Jonah with a ball in his jacket.  Caitlyn said, "look at my cute boyfriend."  They are so funny!

I love the crazy things Jonah comes up with to get a laugh.

Caitlyn and Jonah were sharing a blanket while they watched a movie the other night.  It was so sweet!  Caitlyn is so sad and worried about moving.  I'm glad these two will have each other.  They are such good friends, they fight, but they really do love each other.

Keith planned an Elders Quorum Temple night on Friday night.  We went to Leatherbys for dinner first and then we went and did a session.  It only ended up being us and one other couple, but it was a lot of fun. Grandma came and stayed with the kids because we were gone until almost 11 PM.  Thanks mom!  The kids loved having that special grandma time.  Wyatt took a nap so that he could stay up with grandma.  It was a relief to know my mom was home with them.

Wyatt and Jonah have so much fun playing together lately.  This morning they both put on their Spiderman suits and slid down the stairs over and over.  The suits are silky so that helped them go faster.  Wyatt asked me to take a video and send it to Gordon Hayward.  He is a funny kid!

Mel and Earl got a dog this week.  She is so cute.  Her name is Pepper and Caitlyn wants her!  I took Wyatt and Hallee over to meet her on Friday.  She is so sweet and calm.  I hope we can find a dog like that!  Yesterday Caitlyn spent the day at Amarie's.  She was in heaven, a dog and Amarie, it doesn't get much better than that. 

Jonah and I went to Elijah's football game yesterday.  It was a great game, Elijah is so talented.  Jonah went home with them after the game, so Keith and I just had the little two last night.  It was great because we were able to get some errands and some more packing done.  Jonah had a great time watching sports with EJ and Elijah.  He came home and begged us to get a sports channel!

Yesterday the older three kids were at a practice for the primary program so Hallee got some one-on-one time with mom and dad.  She is so funny.  She always makes us laugh.

The kids did a great job today.  They knew all of the words to the songs and they all did great on their parts.  I love the Primary Program, you can always feel the Spirit so strong.

Please bless it will be Halloween again so I can be Minnie Mouse

Hallee had a hard time deciding what to be for Halloween.  She wanted to be Minnie Mouse, but then she changed her mind to Tinker Bell.  I talked her into staying with Tinker Bell because the Minnie Mouse costume is a little big.  I guess she had regrets because that night on our way home from my mom's she said, "I think I want to be Minnie Mouse instead."  I told her it was too late because Halloween was over.  When she said her prayers that night she said, "Please bless it will be Halloween again so I can be Minnie Mouse." 

Wyatt was excited to be Spiderman!

Caitlyn made a beautiful Prison Princess!

Jonah is like me, he doesn't really enjoy dressing up.  We came up with this Harry Potter costume and he got excited about that.  Caitlyn had the wand, Mel passed down the cape, we took out the lenses for Keith's old glasses and he wore a tie from my grandpa Hawkins.  This was probably one of my all time favorite costumes.  Jonah looked so cute!

This was the first year that we didn't have a party or anything before Halloween, they only wore their costumes once this year.  Keith and I were out house hunting all day, so I had to rush home and put finishing touches on costumes before we headed to my mom's for our annual Halloween dinner and trick-or-treating with cousins.

Jonah is seriously so funny.  He can always make me laugh.  Here he is casting a spell.

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I do love how excited the kids get for trick-or-treating.  We went to the usual houses around my parents neighborhood.  We didn't do a picture with all of the cousins.  All of the kids looked so cute.

Hallee was a little nervous at first, but she got the hang of it really quick.  She would run to me after every door and show me what piece of candy they gave her.  She got so excited every time!

I'm so grateful that my children are so carefree! 

When we came home Caitlyn and Jonah wanted to go out trick-or-treating alone.  It shocked me when I told them yes.  I sent them with my phone and they just went up and down our street.  They loved being independent and I felt a moment of sadness at how quickly they are growing up.

Hallee and Wyatt were so excited to stay home and pass out candy.  Hallee, my little girl who lives in dress up couldn't wait to get out of her costume!  Wyatt and Hallee loved passing out candy.  They were constantly opening the door to see if anyone was coming.  They had a system, Hallee had to pass out the candy to the girls and Wyatt handed it out to the boys.  After that we let the kids stay up and trade candy.  We stayed up late and had a fun night.  We paid for it the next day when Hallee and Wyatt were grouchy and exhausted, but we had a great Halloween!