Brag on Myself Time

Sorry, I just had to take a second and tell you all that I was able to figure out how to post the videos all by myself. How cool is that!?! I didn't even have to ask Shane how to do it. My first foray into the world of posting videos is a success, so you may just get to see more every once in a while. Grandma's - got any requests?

Looks Like Fall

I looked outside the other day and noticed that all of my neighbors have a lawn service that had been coming and mowing lawn, raking leaves, trimming trees. I looked at my own lawn and realized that I was going to have to kick it in gear if I was going to keep up with all these neighbors. I know, I shouldn't feel that way, but I really did want to get the yard looking nicer and wasn't going to pay anyone to come and do it, so I guessed I'd better get the rake out and get busy. After I had raked out most of the front flower beds and most of the leaves in one area, I went in search of lawn bags to put the leaves in. When I came back, this is what I found.








I also saw this, which undid most of the work I had done that hadn't been undone by Tanner and Parker raking.



So much for keeping up with the neighbors! =>

PS - Today Shane finished the job I started and got all the leaves raked and the lawn mowed. Thank you sweetheart!!!

Our Newest Family Member - AKA - Kaitlin's Birthday

Well, we did it, and I don't know how I feel about it, so I'll just tell you what it is. The kids have been so excited to get a pet since our move. The backyard was littered with dog "presents", so many that the kids filled two walmart sacks with them. They thought it was a sign that now they could have a dog, too. No dice, say Mom and Dad, but maybe a cat. Well, Kaitlin had her 11th, yes 11th, birthday Tuesday, and one of her gifts was a cat and all the trappings. She went to our local humane society to adopt one, and was hoping to adopt one of the kittens that were listed on their website. But when we got there the kitties had been adopted already. She looked around and found a big black cat that liked to sit on shoulders and a smaller one that the lady said was probably spoken for. The lady said that she would check if we could wait one more day. After a big sigh and an "I guess so," we went home to return the next day. The one she wanted was on hold for someone else, but the lady had picked up a cat from the vet that day that had just been neutered and was ready to go. As soon as Kaitlin saw that one, she was hooked.




Well, that is Leo. He must have been left my someone who had a family with kids, because he takes all the "tough love" that Tanner dishes out without batting an eyelash. If I were the cat, I would have scratched him long ago, but Leo takes it all very patiently. He is still learning where his litter box is, as last night about 11:45 p.m. Kaitlin knocks on our door to tell us he had pooped on her bed. It was lovely. Anyway, needless to say his nighttime domicile is now the garage. During the day he wanders around, hiding from Tanner, and sleeps on Kaitlin's bed. She loves this, and Mom is trying to be patient with the cat hair that ends up on everyones clothes. Oh, the things we do for our children.

Easter Fun

Well, Easter was a little different this year, because we didn't have our families around, but we did manage to have some fun. All of the kids but Parker decorated Easter eggs. Because Tanner is still unaware of a lot of things, he got the eggs that Mom accidently dropped or got cracked as they were boiling. He just wanted to crack and peel his, so his are a little rough looking. But I think they had a good time, dyeing and tatooing their eggs.




The Easter bunny decided to bring the kids new Sunday clothes this year, and boy, did we have some good looking kids on Sunday. Shane kept teasing Josh about all the girls that would be after him, but he wasn't convinced. He did say, however, that no one at church commented or noticed how handsome he looked. I told him that I did, but I don't think that counted much in his eyes. Parker was getting a quick morning nap before church because he wakes up way to early here (6:00-6:30 a.m.), so he wasn't in the pictures.





Our church day went much better yesterday. First of all we have to tell you that we love the internet. We were able to access a radio station's website from Idaho Falls that plays LDS church music on Sundays. It's called "The Sounds of Sunday" from KLCE, and they have their music available over the web. So we had some lovely church music to help set our mood before we left. When we got to church, Shane had to speak, so after the Sacrament, I had both little boys solo and they were loud and all over - again. We had brought toys and a snack, hoping that we could use that little coat room that I talked about in the last post. But after the meeting, the Primary President came up to us, said that she was running a nursery today, and could Tanner go with her? (Do chickens have wings? Of course, he can go with you, we were thinking.) She took him into a room where they had some toys and kept him for both hours. He was the only nursery-aged child there, too, so we were so impressed that they would do all that just for him. He was much happier, getting to play, snack, and not be quite so quiet as he had last week. We were very happy just be able to mostly listen to the lessons. We still had Parker, but he found a friend, and the friend had new toys, so he was happy. I know that they are meeting to talk about a nursery with the branch presidency, so one of us may get called to be a nursery leader, but if it keeps Tanner happy, contained, and out of everyone's hair, it's definetly worth it.

We also got invited to a friend's house yesterday for Easter dinner, and her children put together an Easter egg hunt for the kids. The kids were so sad about missing Grandma Clayson's Easter egg hunt this year, so this helped ease the pain a little. The dinner was yummy and we've found some people who will like to play games, inside and out, so we will have a couple and family to get together with on a frequent basis to play with. Overall, it was a very good day. Sorry that you can't see Josh. He's behind Luke, but I didn't notice until we got home.

Catching Up

Hello again everyone!! We arrived safely in Nebraska, are mostly moved in (thanks to Shane), and have the internet again. It's funny how much you rely on it to do so many things these days. Anyway, we thought we'd catch up all up on our adventures in moving.

First of all, the company that Shane works for paid to pack and move us. We were told by the liason that the packing would take 2 days and the loading of the semi would take 2 days. They came at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning and by 3 p.m. had almost everything in the house boxed up. They only had to pack our beds and bedding up, and a few other things. This is what we came home to after they packed the first day.





The next day they came at 8 a.m. and had the rest of the stuff packed and everything loaded by 2 p.m. We spent the next day cleaning, and were done by Wednesday night with our house. We will sure miss it, especially it's country setting. We are in the middle of a neighborhood here and miss the wide open spaces we used to have.

Thank you, Suzy (Shane's Mom), for letting us hang out at your house for a few days after our house was cleaned and before we headed east. It was so nice living next to family while we were in Pocatello and Aberdeen. We really miss Suzy and the kids and being able to pop in for a visit. It was really hard to leave them that Saturday morning. Many tears were shed on both sides. It's very weird to think that we are so far away from our families now. That will be the hardest thing to adjust to, I think.

Anyway, we left Saturday morning for Salt Lake City. We figured that we'd better take the kids to see Temple Square one more time since we don't know when we'll be back that way and get the chance. We saw the temple, the visitor's center with the Christus, and another museum that we don't remember. It had the exhibit on the prophets, a children's museum, and a lot of pioneer things. We even got our picture taken with an almost life-sized Angel Moroni.





Sunday morning we started driving for Cheyenne, WY. Boy, what a boring, boring drive that is. Wyoming is so flat and dull. The only thing that saved us with the kids was a traveling box from my mother, Michelle. She sent a box with games, movies, fun books, treats, etc... to pass out along the trip, and boy, was it a lifesaver! Thanks, Mom, for the box of goodies. We did see many "cantalopes" (antelopes in Luke speech). It took a while for him to be convinced that cantalopes were fruit and antelopes were the animal we were seeing. I don't think he thinks we know very much. After all, we are just old parents. Someday .... We got to Cheyenne around 6 p.m., got dinner, and hunkered down for the night.

Monday morning we made the last leg of the trip. Nebraska is very flat, too, but is very beautiful (I think). It has rolling hills that will be gorgeous come spring. There are many, many corn fields, too, which will be interesting come July and August, as that is all that you will see as you drive that time of year. We got into York around 5:00 p.m. and were very glad to have arrived. We didn't get to close on our house until Tuesday afternoon, so we spent a couple of days in a hotel and swam to pass the time. The kids loved it. Tanner has no fear of the water. He just jumps right in and tries to walk by himself, which is a little difficult since the water is at least 3 feet deep and he is lucky if he's that tall.

The kids started school on Wednesday, since the moving truck was scheduled to unload that day and it was better to have them out of the way. They were very nervous going in, but had a great day with lots of kids coming up to them and asking them to be their friend and sit by them at lunch and be in their clubs. The people in York are very kind and friendly, and the kids are no exception. We were so glad that they made our kids feel so welcome there.

Again, thanks to Shane, we are mostly moved in. Shane doesn't like to put off putting things away. He digs right in and gets it done, which works great for me. As I type, he is putting away odds and ends that have been hanging around all week. I feel a little guilty about not helping, but not enough to actually stop and help. => Sorry, honey, but you know I'd just get in your way. Speaking of Shane, he started his job on the Wednesday that we unloaded the truck. It was a whirlwind few days as he jumped in and started learning exactly what he'd need to do and getting oriented to the company, but he is feeling pretty good about things now. He is excited to start planting and get his fingers in the dirt again.

The last thing I'll talk about tonight is the branch that we are now in. It is located in a town about 25 miles away called Aurora. They are about 25-30 active families in the branch, but I use the work "families" loosely. Many of the families are single adults or older married couples with no children left at home. There are no young men in the ward, and only 3-4 young women. There are probably 15-20 primary children, and I think that that includes our kids. Two minutes after we walked in the door, I (Casey) was asked to play the piano for Sacrament meeting. I was a little rusty, but think I did OK. The hard part is having Tanner and Parker with us for the whole 3 hours. There is not a nursery at this time, although Shane and I have a plan for that. They have a coat room that is not being used (we don't think), and we are asking the Branch President if we can run our own nursery so that our two little ones don't disrupt everyone else trying to learn. We were about ready to pull our hair out by the end of church last week. It was totally crazy, but we seemed to be the only two that seemed to be really bothered about their noise. The branch members are really glad to have us there and are ready to overlook the noise for a while. When we're not the novelty anymore I'm sure that will change, but for now we're OK.

We'll, that's it for now. I'll post a few pictures of the trip and kids and hope to get back to writing on a somewhat regular basis. We hope that all of you are well and happy!!