Wednesday, June 29, 2011

{More Updating}

I am so sorry. I don't have the time to go through all the pics i want to post, photoshop them, and then post them. It takes too much time. So, you will have to keep getting updates without pictures. Keepin it simple people.

MOM AND DAD
My parents came in town a couple weeks ago and were here for a week. We had sooooo much fun with them. We always do. I got my exercise groove totally back. My dad brought his back and we went biking a few times and went and swam laps a few times. We had nice bonding moments doing that together. :) My mom and I went and did some shopping. We went crazy on the sunglasses and both bought more than a couple pairs of them! :) Thanks mom! They were here for my Triathlon and i LOVED having them there to see me do it! It made my birthday that much more special. My triathlon ignited a fire in me like i haven't felt in a LONG LONG time. I am soooooo back in my workout groove and will be doing another sprint tri in a week and I cannot wait to sign up for more in OKINAWA!!! :) yesssssss!

LAURI
Shortly after, my best friend and her daughter came to visit us! We had tons of fun! Let's see if i can give you the SHORT version of our time....

1.Took the kids to Jump for Joy,
2.rented a movie for the kids and built a fort for them to sit under while they watched their movie and ate popcorn,
3.TALKED AND TALKED,
4. had a huge birthday party for all of them,
5.tried to teach a couple of them to ride their bikes without training wheels,
6.watched one of the TIME OUT FOR WOMEN dvd's.
7.Lauri and I hired a babysitter and left for the day to go eat lunch, watch a movie and do some shopping.
8.We put CARS tatoos all over the kids arms and went to watch the 2nd Cars movie on the opening day. We brought our mcdonald's lunch in the theatre(hoping we wouldn't get kicked out for it), and then had tons of candy and popcorn for them while watching it. They loved it!!!

We always have so much fun with them and we have been so lucky to live close to my best friend while here in Wichita Falls. It's so sad knowing we are now going to be so far away. BUT, good news is that Lauri and Jocelyn are going to come visit us in Japan! I can't wait! :) She is truly the best best friend anyone can have. I don't know any better. AND i actually do get to see her ONE more time in logan. She is going to be at Bear Lake and the day they leave to drive back home they are going to come watch me do my Triathlon! yay!! I feel so loved! :)

RIDING
Shane and I have been getting up early in the mornings to go for bike rides. We absolutely LOVE it. We love riding and we love doing it together! We might be tired when we wake up , but once we get on our bikes we are a whole new person...almost giddy. I know, lame. But its true.

Tanner is now riding his bike without training wheels. ALL three boys go out and ride their bikes all day long in this terrible heat. They love it! Shane just got Tanner and Gavin both new bikes. Jaydon got one on his b-day. It's a bike, but with no peddles. You should see him on that thing!!! It's GREAT, so dang cute and hilarious. He is so speedy on that thing. Sometimes he looks out of control, but he never falls. It's hilarious, really. He will catch on to riding a bike in a year i bet. His new bike really helps him to learn balance. It's cool.

FAMILY
We will be with family this weekend and we are soooooo dang excited! Next time i get back to wichita falls, we will only have about 2 more weeks in this town! thank heavens. We can't wait to move on! :)I like Texas, but not wichita falls so much. :) AND i can't wait for shane to be able to just WORK....no projects, presentations and writing up extremely detailed long notes on each patient. No more long hours and waking up at 4 a.m. It will be Just WORK. AND time for us. :) Yessssssss!

My boys are getting so grown up. It's so crazy watching the new things and the more adult talk. I shouldn't say "adult"....just more mature sounding. :) ALL three boys LOVE playing together. They are all stuck at the hips. They are such good friends, and i am so glad. They really have something special b/w the three of them. I hope it always stays that way!

The heat here won't let up. I guess it's preparing us for Okinawa. I hear that the heat combined with the humidity in Okinawa can be terrible. My dad looked it up and their forecast was almost 90 degrees(86)...but with the humidity it makes it feel about 110 degrees. Well, here in wichita falls we have been 100-110 for WEEKS upon WEEKS. So, i think we will manage Okinawa heat. The only thing i am worried about is my hair in the humidity there. hahaha! Seriously, it will be frizzy every single day with that humidity.

The next time you hear from me on this blog will probably be RIGHT BEFORE we move to Japan OR after we get there! I will post everything JAPAN from here on out. I am teaching myself Japanese and i can't wait to eat their food and cook it as well. AND hopefully learn to like fish. :) Keep following along b/c my blog will be full of fun adventures!!! :) luv u all!

Friday, June 24, 2011

{update}

Life is crazy lately! Here is the jist...

Starting end of May...

1. Shane's parents came in town for five days.
2. My sister came the day they left and she stayed for 5 days.
3. My parents came a few days after she left and stayed a week.
4. My bestest friend and her daughter came a day after they left and stayed for 5 days and just left today.

We had a BLAST with all of them here. We are grateful they all made trips to see us. It made us feel loved. We have our house to ourselves now for Six days, which i am also grateful for. :) THEN we leave and will be visiting idaho for 2 weeks and minnesota for 2 weeks. When the boys and i get back we will get thrown into the packing process IMMEDIATELY b/c the movers will be there that day. :) haha! We have our tickets and fly out of here on august 10th to head for Japan. We have our orders, we have all our paperwork done and all our clearances, we have plane tickets, we are on the housing list, we have all our passports. We are pretty on top of everything b/c of my dear husband. He is amazing. While i know there are lots of things shane couldn't do without me, there are also lots of things i couldn't do without him. It's been a crazy, yet fun month. It's creeping up on me fast!!

5. The heat here won't let up. It's been up in the 100's for weeks and has no sign of cooling off and no sign of any rain. I have never wanted rain, but i do now. :) The curious thing is that Okinawa will be this hot, but with humidity. haha! Good thing we will have beaches. :) Beautiful beaches, i might add. Sorry, had to throw that in there!! :)

6. Did i mention i LOVE biking. Shane and I have been on a couple bike rides this week together for the first time with our new bikes. AND it's so fun. We love it. We love that time together too.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

{My 30th Birthday}


Here is what i did on my 30th Birthday!
TRIATHLON....I seriously have been wanting to do one for YEARS, and i FINALLY did it on my 30th birthday!

My pictures are obviously backwards. My triathalon started with the swimming and ended with the running. The running portion was only 2 miles. And the biking was only 8 miles.
The swimming was 250 yards. In this picture below i was getting my shoes on right after the swim to head out on the bike portion.
I was a little nervous for the swimming b/c i had not swam laps since highschool. I was on a swim team in highschool so i felt confident i could swim, but i wasn't sure if i would die out quick or not. I got tired FAST, so instead of staying with the freestyle swim, i switched to breast stroke and also to back stroke for the last half of it. It worked out fine though. :) Here i am doing the breast stroke and sneaking in a smile when my head came out of the water. :) I SERIOUSLY love swimming. It was my life all growing up and i LOVE being back in the water swimming laps.
There i am in the blue swim bottoms getting ready for the swim. I am putting on my goggles. They let one person enter the pool at a time, every 15 seconds.
Here i am before the race started, talking with the girl who is setting her bike up next to mine.

It was so much fun that i searched and searched for another triathlon i could do before we head to Okinawa. I found one in Logan when i will be there. AND i am doing it with my sister-in-law! I cannot wait!
There were 100 people in the race and i finished 33 overall! I beat all the girls in there 20's!! Which was awesome! When i saw that i realized maybe 30 isn't so bad! I am at the top of my game now! :) haha!
I can't wait to get to Okinawa b/c they have lots of races there, of all sorts, going on every month. I can't wait to get involved. And i heard biking is BIG over there, so i am excited about that! :) I really enjoy biking. My parents have been here for just about a week now. My dad and i have been going out and riding our bikes, every other day, together. They have nice bike trails here. We have also been going and swimming laps! After getting into the water the second time, it was so much easier to get back in my swim groove. It doesn't take long to get it back. Did i mention i love swimming?. :) haha! Anyway, i swam almost 2/3 mile yesterday. Tomorrow we are going back and i plan on swimming ONE mile. It's been so nice having family in town recently b/c it helps me actually to be able to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and do the things i ENJOY doing. :)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

{It's Summer Time}

Sorry, some of these pictures aren't that great. This week is the only time this summer where i will get to be with my boys alone, at least for that amount of time. Soooooo, we are trying to make the most of it.

DAILY ROUTINE:We wake up and do our daily chores. Each of us is given something different to do everyday and then we mark it off on the paper. I don't know what i did different this time versus other times, but they are actually DOING their chores JOYFULLY. They are enjoying it! Who knew?!?!

Then we have reading time where Gavin reads us a story. He is an excellent reader. I am shocked by some of the words he can figure out. It's exciting watching him!

Then we open up The Friend and turn to the Summer Reading program that's inside the most recent issue. They give something to do each week, but we finish the one week in two days. So, we are going through it fast.

Then i usually will pop popcorn and we watch a movie together.

Then we go outside and play in the pool for at least an hour or two, and give them their daily popsicle. When the boys are done playing in the pool they decided they like to shower in my shower. They like it a lot better than their own shower for some reason. :) haha....

Then i usually have them play on their own for a bit. Then we get dinner ready and the table set.

Then of course we have our evening routine of playing around a bit, reading scriptures and bedtime routine. They go to bed at 7:30 , which is early for summer, but i want them to get as much sleep as possible b/c when family is here or when we go there they just don't get enough sleep. I am trying to fill their cup as much as possible. :)

HEAT!!:Showings are picking up again, for the house. We only have ONE car. Feels like old times when we only had one car for awhile in cleveland. Sooooo, shane will take the car most days, unless i need it that day for some reason. It's up to 100 degrees here everyday and sometimes OVER 100....so when we have showings i have to take the boys on a WALK for an hour, in this heat. We did this the other day. It was hot. I was HOT, but i was fine. I was just worried about my boys being in that heat for so long. I tried to keep water down them as best i could.

MYSELF: In the middle of this schedule, i manage to fit in time for things i enjoy, like running or biking, reading, and cooking. I LOVE biking. And i just learned that biking is a big thing over in Okinawa, so you can probably guess my excitement about that! :) I am trying to prepare myself as good as i can for my mini triathlon this saturday. I went and bought myself a swimsuit...well, more like a surfer's outfit. It's cute and looks A LOT better than those speedos. I used to wear a speedo when i was in swimming in middle and highschool. I forgot how TIGHT those things cling to your body. It didn't look good! hahaha!

SOUP KITCHEN: Recently i had the opportunity to go help cook food and serve food at a soup kitchen. It was a great experience and i wish i could do something like that more often...plus have my kids help me! When they get older i will make sure they have that experience. I want them to always know how grateful they should be for what they have.

Here are a few pictures recently. This picture is Jaydon wearing Tanner's underwear. He likes to put it on and wear it around. It makes him feel like a big boy. Here is Jaydon's new bike and bike helmet that he got for his birthday. The bike has no pedals and he loves it.










Balloons everywhere in his bedroom on the morning of his birthday. He loved it!











Grandma and Grandpa were here recently. Grandma sat down with the boys and read a few stories out of The Friend magazine. They were glued to it pretty good for a short period of time...then Jaydon decided his brothers were too close to him and he didn't like it. :) haha



Here is Jaydon on Spaghetti night. This is typical when he eats spaghetti. He makes a huge mess of himself. He just rubs it all over his face. I am not sure why. I am surprised that i have a shirt on him b/c i usually make sure to take his shirt off when he eats it!



















Monday, June 6, 2011

{Quick Catch-Up}

It's been awhile since i have posted! Let me give you the run down of what is happening...

1)We have been working hard at getting all of our papers turned in and getting all the dental and medical exams done for clearance. We turned everything in and we should be getting our orders ANY DAY now. That means i will get to put our name on the housing list for ON-BASE housing and that also means we can set the date to fly to Japan! :)

2)Shane's parents came in town for about 5 days. We had lots of fun. We had nice bonding time through conversation. We went and rode go-karts and played at the arcade. We showed them the prairie dog exhibit. We ate at Golden Corral TWICE(it's shane's and his dads favorite place). We had fun having them here with us. It was nice too b/c they were so helpful while they were here...helping with keeping things cleaned up. I had forgotten how nice it can be to have HELP. Shane's just been so busy that i don't get much help around here. And i was able to get out and exercise!! Ride my BIKE! And RUN OUTSIDE! Ohhhhh so wonderful!

3)Gavin had his last day of school, on Friday, while shane's parents were here. It was a very exciting day. Maybe more exciting for me than it was for Gavin. I was so excited to not have to do the crazy routine every morning anymore. And to have to drop him off and pick him up every single day. I am pretty positive that since we will be living on base in Okinawa that gavin will be able to just ride his bike to school. That will be awesome for both of us!

4)Gavin finally decided on his OWN that it was time for him to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. His friend Coby came over and Gavin noticed he was riding without training wheels. Gavin came running inside and said "come watch me!! i can ride without training wheels!" Sure enough...he was out there riding without training wheels and was sooooo proud of himself! We were so proud too and so excited to watch!

5) Auntie Holly came in town to visit us for about 5 days. The boys LOVED having her here and i enjoyed it as well. I was able to go exercise. I had some help around the house. We talked. Did our nails, watched movies, played with our hair, layed out in the sun, etc. It was lots of fun.

6) While she was here Jaydon had his SECOND b-day!!! CRAZY! After he went to bed, the night before his b-day, we blew up about 50 balloons! Before we went to bed we quietly put all the balloons in his room! When he woke up and realized they were in there it was fun hearing his tone in his voice! He started yelling "Maahhhhh(mom)"!!! ALL of us busted in and sang happy b-day to him and we threw all the balloons in his crib. It was like one of those bouncy ball pits! He LOVED!! it. It was so fun for him. For his birthday he got a new bike helmet(from sza sza and papa and auntie holly). He LOVES helmets. He loves buckling them and unbuckling them over and over and over again. And he likes wearing it. He got a new bike(from mommy and daddy). It's a bike, but without wheels. So, he gets himself going with his legs. They are so cool!! And he loves it. And then he got some LEGOS(from sza sza and papa and auntie holly). The boys have loved playing with those more than Jaydon has. He had a really good birthday.

7)I have a mini triathlon coming up this Saturday. My parents get here the day before, on Friday. They are going to come watch me!! That same day is my 30th B-DAY!!! eeeekk! I don't like that i am turning 30!! That is why i found a triathlon to do on my 30th birthday! Take the focus off my b-day!

8)My boys are getting so big. I really am enjoying Gavin being home from school for the summer(at least for now). He keeps Tanner busy and he is becoming a good helper with Jaydon. He is growing up so big! We get the FRIEND magazine and he decided he wanted to draw a picture and send it into the FRIEND magazine so that it could get posted in it. We just sent it off today and he is excited to see his picture in the magazine. He drew a picture of Joseph Smith with a Book of Mormon next to him and then wrote at the top "Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God". I didn't help him. He thought of it all on his own. That was a fun moment for me watching him do that. We are staying busy by playing out in the pool, watching movies(and eating popcorn), having fun with doing our chores everyday together, coloring, reading, listening to music while we dance, riding bikes, etc.

9) I have been reading some great informative books lately about parenting, finding Joy and losing the guilt, and finding satisfaction with what you have. They have been great reads and i feel like they have been so helpful and i am learning so much. I read one of my books each day, the scriptures and the Ensign. Heaven knows i need the help and boy it is all helping so much! I love it.

10)After my parents leave, my best friend is coming in town for about 4-5 days. Then after they leave we are heading to Idaho for awhile. Shane has a Friday and Monday off of work for the 4th of July. He asked his commander if we could take and additional 2 days off during that time and surprisingly he let him! So he will get five days in Idaho, and i am staying out there with the boys for an additional 6 days. Then we are flying straight to Minnesota from Idaho. We will be there for 2 weeks. Then we will fly home and pack and load our stuff and probably head to Japan August 10th. We plan to get out of here FAST. :)

11) Every Friday we have homemade pizza night. I make the dough and i make my own sauce. It's a fun tradition we have started. I also planned on having doughnut day the first saturday of each month. We have done it once, but i forgot to do it this last saturday. The boys remembered the day before and reminded me, but forgot the day of. haha...

12)When we read scriptures we try to make sure Gavin reads a little bit each time. He really enjoys doing it and pays attention a little bit more knowing he gets to read. :)