The little things that make my heart smile.

There has been sooo much craziness going on in this household, that I wanted to get out and do something I knew the kids would LOVE...pumpkin patch's.

Except..this year we haven't been to any.... And this year we would be minus one cute daddy. The kids promised to take lots pictures for daddy.

In p_town, we would probably visit over 10 pumpkin patches in the months of sept/oct. We had a tradition to go to as many as we could fit in. It was always a super cheap and fun adventure to take the kids on.

We have had a rough spout with tough luck lately ...so yesterday I wanted to get away. I wanted to get away, and do something with my boys! I wanted to do s,omething that I knew would take us all out of our funk, and make us happy. I called up my parents. I loaded up my kids, and off to grandma and grandpas we went.

We deiced to go to a cute little pumpkin patch by their house. Lets just say, it was just what the Dr ordered. I am not sure who had more fun..me, my boys, or my parents. It was nice to escape the pressure of my everyday life, and just take some time to to enjoy the simple things in life.

The winter weather has definitely settled in good ol Ut. It has rained/snowed off and on for the last 3 days. Yesterday, it was a high of 40 degrees maybe. The weather cleared out for a few hours and it was PERFFECT! The sky was perfectly clear,..The clouds were AMAZING,...the air smelled amazing,..and you could see the first snowfall that had just fallen on the mountains. It was a perfect day. We even enjoyed the MUD. I almost got my silver bullet stuck in this clay like mud..which would of added to the humor of everything seems to go wrong..i would have had to call triple AAA..but thank goodness the good ol' van pulled through, and i was able to get out! Phew! I didnt even mind the mass of mud we all accumulated on our shoes!(thanks dad for cleaning those for us!)

I wish i could have recorded my kids excited screams of joy when they say the snow on the mountains. It was cute because Gavinator saw the mountains. He then asked me if I could take him back to "Mountain HOod"(thats what my boys call MT. HOOD) to go sledding. I told him this year he wouldn't need to travel to "mountain hood" to see snow..that this year there would be snow in his own backyard.. both boys squealed with delight. They were so baffled that snow would be in their own yard to play with..For them it was the best news EVER! The fact that they would not have to travel to great lengths to get to it made them sooo HAPPY. It cracked me up!

I mean really...these would make any ones heart smile.















I just want to say how much I love these little Guys! They make life worth it!

water chestnuts

Tonight we sat down for our first family dinner in a looong time. The boys chose stir fry..its a family favorite.

We are all eating enjoying every bite..when conner turns to me and tells me how much he loves waterchestnuts. I tell him he must get that from me...because i too love water chestnuts. He then stops eating and I can tell he is thinking. He then asks, "mom...where do water chestnuts come from..? do they come from treasure chests?"

Before I have a chance to respond, gavin asks us, "please pass the treasure nuts?"

he didnt even reaize what we were saying, and he too wanted some more waterchestnuts! We all cracked up.
...and we laughed. Just what i needed.

Man it is sooo good to be home to my boys. I have missed them terribly.

A month has already come and Gone

I cannot believe a month, actually more..has actually come and gone. I feel like i am still in this crazy bad dream and i need to be woken up. We have had quite the whirlwind of trials around us, but we are alive. We are enduring and we are making it through.

In the last month, We have moved into our new home. We barely started to get a little bit settled, when we had to turn around and come back to Ptown to get jesses poor foot checked out. Once the swelling went down we both saw that is clearly wasnt healing correctly. And since the good ol health insurance was in portland..we packed into the van and headed back up to PTown.

In a month we have:
*packed up house and moved to a new state
*got to see family!
*had the besties hitch a ride with the Shane Myster while he hauled down a second 24 foot trailer to our house from portland because we ran out of room on the first trailer(we had WAAY more jumk than we thought we did)
*had the besties surprise me in utah and help unpack and decorate(first time ever i have been speechless before) and cannot thank them enough for what they did for us
*spent about 32 hours in our little silver bullet commuting back and forth to utah then back to portland.
*got to see our BESTIES
*Got to enjoy their adorable kids
* kids got to miss almost a total of 4 weeks of school due to the move and then the sudden trip back up to ptown.
*got to enjoy a good ol highschool football game
*Had 3 docs mis diagnose J's injury in the first place
*instantly became a foot legend in the orthopedic doctorate world
*learned all about the les Franc injury and how shocked docs were to find out this is really what J had..and watch as multiple people who worked at the clinic would come in just to take a look
*spent hours on end in hospital
*endured major surgery..a bone graph from knee...fusing of the bones together..6 screws and slicing of the calf muscle to shorten it and help remake an arch.
*J mastered his crutches( a good thing since he will be on them for 3 months)
*Told lots of "screw" jokes due to the screws in jesses foot
*had my sis nickname J the bionic foot man!
*kids got strep..the bestie totally helped take care of them the day of jesses surgery...that was one of the hardest days EVER..but i was soo grateful to my bestie..sad as it was..it was a huge blessing they got sick b4 they went back to utah so i could take them to the doc and get it taken care of with health insurance.
*kids got to enjoy a plane ride back to utah with gramma
*kids have been having a blast with gramma...cousins..aunts and uncles..and have been amazingly cared for by the family.
*spent 3.5 days in the hospital..and happened to get the stinkiest of room/floor
*endured listening to the man in the room next to us at the hospital cough, scream out loud and wretch over and over
*made it through hardest part of recovery
*learned to take things one day a time, sometimes 10 min at a time
*been able to enjoy a continental breakfast almost every morning
*Shed lots of tears
*lots of alone time to think and ponder
*lived in a rockin hotel room for almost 2 weeks
*Had the besties make some amazing meals for us..like super amazing
*had the incisions revealed last week and could not believe what i saw. I was in shock (pics to follow soon)
*found out my little niece who is only 1 broke her foot..so ive tried to talk j into a hot pink cast to match hers!(sadly dont think he will go for it)
*had the laptop totally break ,infected with a virus,then found the COOLEST COMPUTER repair shop that was able to fix it for only 40 bucks..(another miracle)
*been away from the kids for what feels like an eternity..We have not liked it one bit
*realized and actually feel at peace that utah is where we should be.
*read one almost two books(a miracle itself)

IT has been a whirlwind, and i am really anxious to get back home to my kids. We are on the countdown now...less than 3 days if all goes well tomorrow at the follow up apt. It has been quite the month. Cant wait to get back to my kids. We are actually ready to get back to the promised land...lets hope this next month is alot less exciting.
I am ready for some normelness(if that is a word)
Here is to our apt tomorrow that everything will be ok..here is to one heck of a month..and here is to another 14 hour car ride back to the promised land.