Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break was so great. We were so lucky to have Roger's mom, Margaret come visit for a few days prior to Thanksgiving. Then we had our good friends the Ellsworth's come visit for a Sunday dinner (which was too short, can't you spend the night next time? (I know you can't because Chris' family is here, blah, blah, blah)) Then we made the drive to Boise to spend the night with more friends before continuing on to Portland. We knew our Boise friends before we were married and I love seeing the life people have made for themselves over the past 12 years. There are so many things that we don't expect, but it always works out. We love you Cole's, it was so good to see you!

Why is Portland so far away? I wish we could see the Stewart's and the Worth's all the time. It was the most relaxing vacation. I slept in almost everyday (shocking, huh?) because the kids were happily playing with their cousins. I felt like I hardly saw our girls, they were so busy. The Stewart's always spoil us, it's like they don't want us to leave (we don't...) Thanks again, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again soon.

The Thanksgiving dinner and guests. Look at the pomegranate jello, the Vielstich's are so proud that it's a must for many a Thanksgiving dinner!

Our kids with the Stewart girls. Brooke was the best baby sitter, Liam loves you!

Then and now

I can't believe it has been a whopping six months since my last post. Don't worry dear blog, I have not forgotten you. So much has changed in six months, here's just a part.

First the biggest change

Then:

Now:

We moved back home in July. I didn't take one picture of the drive out. I can't believe it either. It was a great drive out. We did it in four days. We were off the road every night by about 7 so that we could eat dinner and swim at the hotel pools. That made all the difference in the world. The kids did great and I would drive across country again in a heartbeat (not to move though, just vacation!) Roger transferred with Pricewaterhouse coopers and he is now working most weeks in Los Angeles. It is working out better than we could have hoped. I am so thankful to be home. The move was one of those things that when I look back I can't believe it worked out. We honestly hardly fussed about details, we were more action oriented. That could go horribly wrong but it didn't. I can't help but marvel at how tremendously blessed we were through the whole experience.

Then:

Now:

(Horrible sunny cell phone picture)

We closed on this house in Sandy at the end of September. The best news about it was we knew we were buying it before school started so the girls started at the new school. I was so worried about changing schools, it has turned out beautifully. We love our new house. There's plenty of room if you need a place to stay... (we still own the other house, if you need a house in Pittsburgh, let me know)

Then:

Ashby age 8, Avery age 6 and Luke age 2.

Now:

Ashby age 9, Avery age 7 and Luke age 3. The three oldest celebrated birthdays within the last month. Phew we made it through another birthday season!

Then:

Liam 3 months old. Can't do much of anything yet...

Now:

Liam age 7 months. He can crawl on all fours and he has an alarming 6 teeth! A few months sure does make a difference.

There's no way I can catch up on all we've missed. We have been enjoying life and have adjusted well to the move. Thank you to everyone who helped us get out here and helped us once we were here. We are so truly blessed and are watched over in every aspect of our lives. Yay for more blogging!

The Horror

The word on the street is that we are moving back to Utah this summer. There are still several (ok all) important details to work out before we do. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and Chelsea decided it would be a fantastic time to make Roger redo the bathroom. It had some serious nasty pinkness going on and I'm really hoping that the house will appeal to someone with it gone.

Here's a kind of before shot. See the nasty walls. Anyway they are gone now, yay!

Let me just say there's nothing and I mean nothing, like finding this in the ceiling... (I feel sick just looking at the picture) It was long dead, but still.

We're not finished so more pics to come.

Easter and oh no

Easter came and went. I really love to dress the kids in matching clothes for Easter, it's the only time of year I support such cheesiness. It's quite a dilemma though because I have both girls and boys, some are little some are big, one absolutely WON'T wear dresses (I won't name names, but it starts with an A and ends with a shby) so this year I settled for a common color. Orange it was. They don't really match, but they look cute all the same. And yes I am an IMMACULATE housekeeper.
We also dyed eggs before Easter. The kids loved it (ahh who am I kidding? I loved it too). Luke is going through his not smile smile for pictures phase. Love that kid.

Things to blog about 101

There are so many good blogs out there and I read a lot of them. I wish I was a good writer/blogger. I'm really not, but I do like to blog. So what do you write about when there's nothing creative or profound to say? Spring break will do...

The kids actually had a reasonable spring break this year. Last year they were making up snow days so they only had one day off. This year they had almost a whole week! Yay! I ended up taking the kids to Niagara Falls. Roger had to go to Salt Lake, but I didn't want to stay home the entire break so off we went. We stayed in Buffalo, NY they went on to the Falls the following day. This was our score of a hotel. There was an indoor pool in a courtyard of sorts that two floors of hotel rooms looked out upon. It was perfect because we didn't have time to swim again in the morning but Luke was satisfied watching other people swim while I packed up.

I wanted to go to Niagara Falls to ride the Maid of the Mist, but alas it was not to be. I had no idea until we arrived that the boat doesn't start sailing until Memorial Day. I'm not an idiot, I checked the website and everything and it didn't say anywhere that it was still closed. It was probably better anyway because it was freezing. That wind was a blowin' and we were cold!

Not the best of pictures, but I had to prove Liam (under the blanket) and I were there too!

See all that white stuff in the bottom right corner? Ice. Awesome huh? Nothing like upstate New York for spring break!

Liam Paul

Liam finally arrived on March 14. He was only 2 days past his due date, so I guess that's forgivable! He's so very sweet and we all love him a lot.

We don't have very many good pictures of him, it's like we've been busy or something.

Liam Paul Worth

March 14, 2011

7 lbs 14 oz

20 inches long

Brown, Black, Yellow and Pink

Avery participated in a mini cheer camp last month. It was so great. She seemed to enjoy it even if the picture looks sad. Their school district's colors are brown, yellow and white. We did our best to color coordinate. She performed at half time at a varsity basketball game and she was so busy people watching she kept missing the dance moves, it was awesome!

This here it what I love about Pittsburgh. The girls were supposed to wear all their black and yellow in support of the Steelers on the Friday before the Superbowl. They had a pep rally at school and everything. We were sad they didn't win, but we still had a good time celebrating the return to the Superbowl!

I also have to brag about how well the girls did on their Valentines this year. They both chose to make something rather than buy some to share with their friends. Avery made flowers and butterflies that you attach to a lollipop (from here). She cut out every one. I was so proud of her. She didn't complain once and finished it all in one evening.

This is her box that she made to take to school. Simple, but cute and of course, pink!

Ashby made little hearts out of card stock that you fill with M&M's to share with her friends (from here). She also cut them out and filled them herself (I did help a little because there are 27 kids in her class..... 27!)

This is Ashby's box that she made for school. It's a Valentine's ghost, see? I was pleased to at least see that she wanted to put valentiney stickers on it.

And this kid, what can I say? This is what he looked like all week because we were potty training. He's a total champ. I was expecting the worst and was very surprised at how easy it went. I know there's a long way to go, we hardly went anywhere last week, but I think he's made an impressive start. We've only have one wet bed since we started a week ago. Go Lukey!

When mom's busy

three lollipops are always better than one.

It feels ridiculous...

to post pictures of Christmas, but there were a few I wanted to remember, so here they are anyway.

This is what I love about Christmas day, still in your jammies playing with the new stuff. Ashby and her Lego's and Avery with her DS.

Luke got some new trucks and a new puzzle. The puzzle he doesn't really care about anymore, but the trucks and the trains are still full steam ahead, yea!

Avery got a scooter. And see Luke with the dart gun, was it his favorite? Yes. Did it cost the least? Yes.

Ashby got a new bike. It's a bummer to get bikes and scooters during the winter, but come spring it will be lots of fun!

Quilters: Look away now. I wanted to post a picture of this apron because I was so darn proud of myself. I stole the idea from a friends to give aprons to the girls' teachers for Christmas. I had a lot of irregularly cut squares that I didn't use for another project. I loved the fabric and still wanted to use it. So I sewed them all together knowing they were different sizes then sewed strips together hoping it would look purposefully skiwampus. I put a black background on, black bias tape around the edges and a black satin blanket binding for the tie. I was so happy how it turned out because it all came from my little brain. It turned out better than I imagined, yippee! I know the quilters are shuddering in horror at the imperfection, that's why I told you to look away and it's not my fault if you kept reading and then looked at the picture...

The regular freak out

There's always a freak out, right? I mean sometime during the year it's bound to happen, right? This is my week. Why do you ask? Well I got called to be the Primary Chorister....yes you read that right. Chelsea, who has zero musical talent to speak of was called to teach songs to and sing with kids every week at church. Yikes. The good news is that I love the kids and it will be fun to sing with them. I can't help freaking out about the new songs I have to learn and then teach them at the beginning of the year. I know if I prepare enough and pray enough I can do it, but I still want to freak out and pray for so much snow it cancels church until June...

I'm feeling a little....

ripe and drained. I haven't had a proper shower since Saturday, gross huh? Although, I shouldn't underestimate the goodness of a sponge bath, it works well in a pinch. Why do you ask? Because Roger found about an inch of water in parts of our basement on Saturday, our hot water heater was leaking. What was so very annoying about it other than the lack of hot water, was that the heater wasn't even four years old. The good news is it was still under warranty. We got a new one for only the price of installation. I'll be thrilled to take a shower later when the water is warm!

For those of you keeping track at home, well really for myself, 2010 hasn't been a great year for household items...

We replaced our fridge in June because it wasn't working. This is the new one.

We replaced our car in August. The old one was working, but needed a lot of repairs.

We replaced our furnace in September. It had been non-functional since March.

And I really hope lastly we just replaced our hot water heater.

Do you see why me and my bank account are feeling so drained? I would be remiss though if I didn't say how truly blessed we are. This has been an overall great year for us. We have learned and done a lot. We are so looking forward to the holidays and the birth of our baby boy (did I mention we found out we're having another boy?) in March.

Halloween

Every year after we do three birthdays in a month's time, it shocks me that we still have Halloween to get through. If it wasn't for Grandma Worth's Costume Store, my kids would go as themselves. The kids love Halloween and chose easy costumes.

Ashby was what she called a black ghost. I'm not sure what that means and honestly it was kind of lame, but she loved it.

Avery was a pirate girl. I thought her costume came together pretty well, considering all the time I put into it (about 30 seconds)

Luke was a cowboy. He was really cute with his hat and stick horse, unfortunately he wouldn't hold either one while we trick or treated. It was really cold too, so he had to wear his coat. He looked like the kid without a costume. At least he wasn't 15 and still trying to pull it off.

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. The kids did most of the gutting themselves. I loved this pictured because it shows them all getting in on the messy action!

I really would like to make some cute creative costumes for my kids. Maybe if I get it done in July...

Wolf and Delo

My parents were here for Ashby's baptism and stayed for about a week after that. The visit was as usual, too short. We had all kinds of plans, but weren't able to do as much as we wanted. My dad was sick for the majority of the visit, Ashby was sick too as were Roger and I. We still had fun and managed to cram some fun in with all the germs. We took the girls out of school one day so we could go to the zoo. It was the perfect day, not too busy and not too cold.

The polar bear exhibit is seriously so cool. You can see the polar bears from ground level, but they have this cool tunnel that you can go in as well. The bears were extremely playful and put on a good show. I could have stayed and watched them all day, but the kids wanted to see something else....

There was also a tunnel for shark viewing. Luke was digging it, can you tell?

This is the only picture I have as proof that indeed my mom was here. We had so much fun and were so sad to see them go.

When we were all feeling better, my parents, Luke and I drove out to the Flight 93 memorial. It's about 2 hours from here. A permanent memorial is being constructed, but what is there is truly powerful. Here's the plaque that hangs in the overlook area. The overlook area is where the media and most of the investigative crews set up in the days following 9/11. When Flight 93 struck the ground the plane was upside down and going over 500 mph. It immediately burst into flames and created a huge crater. A few days after, a crew back filled the crater and it became the permanent resting place for everyone on the flight. Only family members are allowed on the ground where the plane actually went down. The first phase of the memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011.

Here's the field as you can see it from the overlook. That's memorial construction going on in the right of the picture. If I read the plaque right the plane crashed in the field in the middle of this picture, where the little mound of dirt is. What really struck me about this site is that it is truly in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a street address. The passengers on Flight 93 were definitely heroes.

What have we done?

While Kevin and Kelly were here, we gave Ethan a hair cut. While the clippers were out I thought we'd give Luke a trim too. Did you know that even though you use the longest clipper attachment it's still really short? I didn't and was very sad to see all the curls go. The cut is growing on me though and I can be almost sure that the curls aren't gone for good.

The before/during. He didn't mind the buzz of the clippers. I was glad it wasn't as traumatizing for him as it was for me. Yes, yes I know it was my idea, but still...

I didn't take an after picture, but this is about a week later. Sorry about the dirty shirt, he just finished carving his pumpkin, doesn't he have skills?

Ashby's festivities

Ashby's birthday was also in October. She's our big eight year old now. She was baptized at church by Roger on her birthday. We were so lucky to have both grandmas and grandpas here as well as several aunts, uncles and cousins. Do you think I took a picture of any of these guests? If you thought I did because that would be smart, you are sorely mistaken. I was just looking through my October photos and it's horrible. I didn't take a picture of anything. I do know that Roger's brothers Bryan, Richard, Kevin and his sister Karen were here with their families. We had lunch after the baptism at church and I can't even tell you how wonderful it was. We had several friends stay with us for both things and their help and support was truly invaluable. I really feel awful I didn't take any pictures, but it was a wonderful day and I hope Ashby will remember it anyway. One thing I would recommend, don't let your daughter ask you to speak at her baptism because you will be crying so hard it will be nearly impossible.

That Sunday was also our primary program. The girls were so excited that so many family members were here to see it. The program was exceptional and added to the great day.

Here she is before church opening her new scriptures. I like Roger in the apron, don't you? We were shredding pork for BBQ sandwiches. He was smart and wore an apron, I was again unsmart and was already in church clothes while shredding and ended up with grease stains all over my skirt. Do you think I changed before church? Sure didn't. I went with the story that it was water and would be drying any minute.

Before the baptism. I can't believe she's eight. Ashby is such a good girl, she is the best example to her siblings and to her friends at school. I am often struck by her compassion and can-do spirit. Ashby we are so proud of you for making the choice to be baptized. I can tell your testimony is growing each day. We love you!!!

Ashby with her new Penguins shirt. After all the fun of the day, we still got to come home have under the plates, cake and ice cream and open presents. Look, look I did get a picture of a visitor... that's Baby J, Karen's daughter. We were lucky enough to have them stay with us for a night.