Between Birthdays

Got some pizza.  Anika wanted to help carry it so, of course, Seth did too.

We went to the Ocee Library.  Hooray for libraries!  We went for the painting activity.  It was so simple, but so perfect for little kids!

We got to color too.  I guess there are always crayons and papers

out for kids to color.  Painting was a special activity.

Playing superheros with Dad and the new capes.  What a good sport!

Anika is fighting the dragon.

Seth is waiting to be saved.

Now Seth is waiting to be kissed by a princess.  Princess Anika has

taught him how to wake her with a kiss.  Ha ha.

We went to the Alpharetta library on Saturday.  Hooray again for libraries!

Anika is making a card for soldiers.  We just so happened to make it

for the Friends of the Library book sale. 

Our Little Library Astronauts

Here is some of our haul from the Friends of the Library Book Sale. Kid books were 5/$1. We got picture books, sticker books, coloring books, a magnet face book... 15 books, a grand total of $3 that someone else paid for us and said, "Welcome to Georgia." How nice 

The lizard who hangs around our hotel stairway when it is warm (not often enough yet).

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese on Saturday night.  It was crazy busy.

We went to check out the Alpharetta City Park.  It was so good to get outside.

They have a fun "Castle" playground (as Anika likes to call it),

similar to the one in Pleasant Grove and West Jordan.

Play time at McDonald's.  I have never been so glad to have

fast food play places before.

Anika and Seth got disposable cameras for their birthday.  I don't expect Seth's to be anything but a diversion so he won't take Anika's.  He knows how to wind it up and snap a picture.  It will be fun to see what pictures Anika takes.

Seth's 2nd Birthday

Our birthday boy chose hot dogs for dinner.  He saw them at the store and said "hot gog."  I bought them, but we were considering getting pizza for dinner and eating hot dogs another night when I saw Seth climbing on the dishwasher door trying to reach the buns while asking for "hot gog."  So hot dogs it was.

 We had some grapes, mandarin oranges and cauliflower with it.  

Here is is silly face.

Anika colored and wrapped this picture for Seth.  She was very concerned when we were about to open presents that she hadn't finished making something for him.  I helped her finish up so she wouldn't be upset.  I l love that she likes to color pictures for people, so I try to encourage it.

I got rid of some of our bath toys before moving, and the kids want toys in the bath here at the hotel.  So Seth got some bath toys!

I love it when kids squat like this!

 Here is Seth looking at the picture that Anika colored for him.

In this picture the lights are actually off and we are singing to Seth as

Nathaniel walks Seth's cheesecake over.  

Seth loves to climb on the table.  Even more than that, he loves to reach over that half wall and turn the sink faucet on and off, on and off, and on... and off and on, and off.  I am soooo glad we have two bedrooms each off one side of a living room while we are here in the hotel.  But sometimes I still feel like it would have been best to stay in some sort of jungle gym.  The kids like to have the couch pulled out a couple feet so they can climb over, play behind, pretend to be caught or stuck, do somersaults back over, etc.  They also climb on and under the end tables and jump on the beds.  Hmm. 

Birthday Boy!  He doesn't say much, but he can tell you how old he is :)

Blowing out the candle.  I also like the picture of the Georgia Temple in the background.  My friend, Suzanne gave it to me before we left.

Random cute note:  Seth has started saying/singing, "Go, go, go, go!"

while waving his arms up and down.

I took a picture of the cheesecake because it was so cute and little.

Anika wanted me to take a picture of her eating, so here it is!

This is part of Nathaniel's new office building.  I was worried that the security car that roams the parking lot for his company was going to chase me off.  His company is very serious about security.

In this picture toward the right you can see Nathaniel coming out.  We have been picking him up from work at the end of the day, but he has been leaving a half an hour early each morning to walk to work.  We are a bit limited with no bikes, 1 car, and kids sleeping halfway between a UT and GA schedule.  He even walked on the SUPER cold days!  

Airplane and Hotel

The kids did well on the plane.  I was sitting in between them and was very busy trying to keep them quiet and happy and entertained.  Nathaniel was across the isle and up one row.  Seth cried some, but hopefully it wasn't too

bothersome to others on the plane.  I was really worried, though,

when had gone through 4 "presents" per kid before we had

even taken off!  We had to wait quite a long time while the

windows were defrosted or something.  At least our flight wasn't cancelled!

Seth watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates while squeezing a new snack I got just for the airplane.

Anika had some fun games and fun movies on this old iPhone.

My brother, Josh, and his wife, Emily, were kind enough to give it to

her/us just before the trip.  They fly a lot with kids :)

Just so we can increase everyone's chance of getting sleep, Anika is in with me and Seth is in a pack-n-play in the room with Nathaniel.  Although I wonder how well I am sleeping with a squirmy girl who makes noises, puts her feet in my back, and needs to be re-positioned so she won't fall off the bed :)  I guess Seth has been waking up during the night lately again too.

Anika always gets to cut so I finally gave in and let Seth have a supervised go of it.

He was so entertained!

For comfort and packing and flying purposes, I made a fleece blanket for Anika and Seth (if I can claim such a thing as making fleece blankets).  For Seth's blanket I cut a slit near the top of the fringe and looped it through.

I did a sort of braid for Anika's.  I gave the kids the plain fleece for Christmas,

and then I had to finish the blankets because I didn't have time before

for some reason.  My kids really enjoy blankets, and I hoped it would be

easier to take on the airplane too.

I made them capes for Christmas too.  Nathaniel made these eye masks.

Seth is wearing the "Thunder Flash" cape, and Anika is "Princess Superhero Anika" or something.  I actually ended up making 5 capes.  I got the fleece for a cheaper price by buying remnants, and I had extra fleece and felt.

Back To Blogging

I'm not the best blogger in so many ways, but that's okay.  We'll see if I can get this blog up and going again so I can document our adventures in Georgia and keep in touch with people.  If nothing else, grandparents can enjoy some email updates :)

While Nathaniel was in Georgia without us, he asked if I could send him a

picture of the kids.   Seth is saying "cheese" through his binky and Anika is

trying to show in her face how much she misses Dad.  Oh, they make me laugh.

Here are pictures of our house after the Monday of packing.

Nathaniel's company paid for our stuff to be packed and shipped.  It was super nice but definitely had it's own difficulties.  I don't think we would have taken the job without the moving benefit.

The movers packed some things they shouldn't have,

but hopefully it isn't anything too serious.

Then these pictures were taken Thursday after closing on the house, 

cleaning and crying.  I cried a lot that day :(

Every time Seth came into the house starting Tuesday night after it was all packed into the moving truck, he would say, "All gone."

Anika is taking pictures with my phone.  She figured it out all by herself.  Honestly I had had the phone for 6 months and had still not figured it out.  

Kamee Zachreson and Emily Beck came to help me clean on Wednesday.  I was seriously amazed and surprised when they said they could stay longer than a couple hours.  And they did!  It was like a burden was lifted and I had hope that we could get it done in time.  We worked from morning until around 4:00, and they were absolutely AMAZING!  So good and fast and AMAZING!

My brother and sister-in-law were out of town all month so they sent their cleaner to help me finish a few things on Thursday afternoon.  It was perfect.  She did the fridge and the oven and a few other hard spots.  I was happy many times when I remembered that I didn't have to clean the oven :)

This was seriously one of the hardest weeks of my life!  It was right up there with the first week or so after having a Anika and Seth (and I have not done well with that!)  It was busy, sad, stressful, and sleepless.  We were packed and moved, shipped the van, closed on the house, and did a million other things while Nathaniel was in Georgia.  I had so much to do and think about that my head was seriously swirling.  I had to coordinate with tons of people to figure out moving our stuff (plus all the pre-moving prep), and arrange babysitting for my kids a million times.  My kids were having a hard time with it all too... regular potty accidents, poor sleep, hard behavior.   

Thankfully I had a lot of help.  My home teacher, Jared Hansen, shoveled my backyard (yes the grass) and the back alley twice because it had to be all clear for the movers.  He and Bishop Belnap came to help do some other random pre-moving prep.  

My family came to help with more pre-moving prep.  I had at least a dozen people help with my kids at one point or another.  I was so relieved to know that 

they were in good hands and could have fun and happy places to go.  There is 

NO WAY I could have done it without all that help and blessings from Heavenly Father (even with all that help I had to stay up until 5am Sunday night to get 

everything ready before the movers came).