Clark's 1st Birthday

Clark turned 1 back on October 11th. His birthday happened literally in the midst of our move. We were moving boxes and unpacking things and we realized Clark's birthday was the next day! We had no presents for him, no cake, no nothing! Poor kid! (At least he'll never remember!) So we went to the store and picked up the goods the morning of his birthday. His first birthday was very different than Chase and Mallory's first birthdays. We always have a big family party and everyone comes to celebrate. It's a big deal! This year we had the pleasure of having Uncle Ben and Aunt Crystal and Tristan there. And they're usually the ones who can't come because they live so far away! The party was much smaller, but still just as fun. We ordered pizza and wings for dinner. Our tradition is usually to barbecue hamburgers for their birthdays, but not this year. We didn't have the kitchen unpacked to cook anything and we have no barbecue grill now. So x-nay on the hamburgers! Oh well, Clark LOVES pizza. He thought it was great! (You can't hardly tell Craig and Crystal are brother and sister can you? Straight smile, eyes in the corner, head tilted :) ) (Nice picture Ben!) Clark loved his cupcake! Of course he loved the frosting the most. He kept looking from us to the cupcake, from us to the cupcake when we put it in front of him. I think he was wondering what to do with it. He figured it out real quick!

Some good stuffing action!

After a quick bath Clark opened his presents. And of course he was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts themselves!
He enjoyed all of his presents. He loves toys that have lights and buttons!
This will definitely be a memorable birthday. For us more than him. Our first few weeks away from family, a crazy cross-country move, and our sweet baby boy turning one! (Isn't he handsome?!)

Rubber Snake Continued. . . . .

If you missed the last post you might want to go back and read it or this one won't make sense :)

So I took Mallory back to Wal-Mart the day after the "thieving" event took place. We went to the customer service area since I had a return to make anyway. The lady in front of us had just finished making her own return and was walking away from the counter. There was no one else in the customer service area. I thought this was perfect because there would be no other distractions while Mallory made amends. No other impatient customers waiting in line behind us. Just as we got to the counter a very upset man barged right up to the counter beside us. He had a TV in his cart (obviously broken). He just started complaining about something with the remote and this and that about the TV not working. There was only one woman working in the customer service area mind you, and this man had TOTALLY disregarded us and started going on and on about his TV to the ONE customer service worker. The woman behind the counter told the man that we were here first and she was going to help us and then she would be right with him. He made a face and stopped his complaining. You could tell he was pretty upset about his TV and even more upset that he had to wait his turn. The customer service lady turned to me and took my receipt and bag of things that I needed to return. She started on the return process and was almost done when I lifted Mallory up above the counter with the snake.

Me to the Customer Service Lady (CSL): She has something to tell you.

Me to Mallory: Go ahead. What do you need to tell her?

(Mallory froze!) (We had practiced many times, but she froze!)

Mallory: Um. . . um. . . um. . .

Me prompting Mallory: I'm sorry. . . .

Mallory to CSL: I'm sorry I stealed your snake.

Mallory handed the snake to the CSL.

CSL to Me: (a confused look on her face) What is she saying?

Me to CSL: She's said she's sorry for stealing your snake. We were here yesterday and she walked out of the store with the snake without paying for it. So she's giving it back now.

Mallory to CSL: Sorry.

CSL laughs and thinks Mallory is really cute.

CSL to Mallory: (gives the snake back to Mallory) Oh, that's ok sweetie! Here you can have it!

Me to CSL: No, we didn't pay for it.

CSL to Me: That's ok. It doesn't even have a price tag on it. If I would have seen this laying around the store I probably would have just thrown it away. It's just a little rubber snake.

Me to CSL: (me taking the snake out of Mallory's hands) Really she can't have it. If I let her have the snake the only thing it teaches her is that when she steals things she gets to keep the item anyway.

CSL to Me: Well, I'm probably just going to throw the snake away so she can really have it if she wants it.

Me to CSL: I can't reward her for stealing. I'm not going to teach my child that.

Angry man with the TV to Me: (he had been listening and watching this entire exchange) Oh, I see what you're doing. I see why you won't let her have the snake.

Me to CSL: You can throw the snake away if you want to, but we're not taking it home with us.

Me to Mallory: Mallory what else do you need to tell the lady?

Mallory to CSL: I'm sorry for stealing and I won't do it again.

CSL to Mallory: That's ok. Thank you, honey!

As we walked away from the counter we heard the man with the TV begin his exchange with the customer service lady. He was speaking in much kinder and softer tones with the woman. He was calm! Him witnessing Mallory's apology had had a soothing effect. It was powerful!! There was a sweet spirit there as my little Mally girl learned to right her wrong.

After getting the boys loaded into their seats I talked to Mallory for just a minute outside the car.

Me: How do you feel in your heart Mallory?

Mallory: Feels good.

Me: Do you think you made Jesus happy by saying your sorry?

Mallory: Yeah! Jesus is happy!

It was a very sweet experience. One thing I did not expect is for the angry man to calm down like he did. I really thought he would just rip into the lady after we left. It's amazing how powerful the words "I'm sorry" are!! They can have such an effect on people who aren't even in the situation. I was truly amazed! It was neat to watch Mallory go through the steps of repentance. Even though she will remain sinless for the next five years this was great practice for her!

Another thing. . . . since when did Wal-Mart start GIVING things away that don't have price tags? Am I to assume that if the item doesn't have a price tag it must be free? (Seriously, it's happened twice now!)

P.S. - As for Mallory. . . . she will not be serving any jail time. As for Chase. . . . .twenty years from now if you're ever pulled over by an Officer Kurtzeborn. . . . . whatever you did, no matter how small of a law you broke. . . . you know you're headed for the slammer!!

Jail, Justice, and a Rubber Snake

The kids and I went to Wal-Mart today to pick up a few odds and ends. While walking through the store the kids found a rubber snake laying in the middle of the aisle. They picked it up and were playing with it as we got the rest of the things we needed. When we got to the check out Mallory asked if we could buy the snake. I told her no. (We already have 2 rubber snakes at home). We finished checking out and I loaded the kids up into the car and the few grocery items. Got home, unloaded everyone and everything, and I notice a snake in Mallory's hand.

Me talking to myself in my head: Did she take that?! How did she get that by me? No alarms went off in the store when we left. I buckled her in the car and took her out and I did not see that snake! The little sneak!

Me to Mallory: Mallory, did you take that snake out of the store?

Mallory: Yeah. (At least she admitted it. Usually she blames Clark when she knows she's in trouble.)

Me: I told you you could NOT have that snake. And now you've stolen it. That is a bad choice! We don't steal things! Go sit in the corner!

Many tears later. . . she sat in time-out until dinner (about 25 minutes) and when Craig came home I filled him in on what our sneaky little thief had done. He had a talk with her.

Craig to Mallory: Mallory, did you steal from the store today?

Mallory: Yes.

Craig: Mallory we don't steal. Do you know what happens to people who steal?

Mallory: No.

(Chase is now listening intently.)

Craig: They go to jail. Do you want to go to jail?

Mallory: No.

Chase: Yeah, let's put her in jail!

Craig: Do you know what happens in jail?

Mallory: No.

Craig: They feed you yucky food.

Mallory: I'll be hungry. I don't want to eat yucky food.

Craig: Do you know what else they do in jail? Sometimes the girls fight. And they hit and kick each other and they're mean.

Chase: Let's put Mallory in jail!

Craig: Do you know what else happens when you go to jail? A police officer puts handcuffs on you and you can't use your hands to steal things.

Chase: Mallory, you gotta go to jail because you stole the snake!

Mallory: I don't want to go to jail. I'm just gonna run to the forest and hide and jail won't find me!

Craig: Then you would be a fugitive and that would make it even worse. Do you want to go back to the store and tell them your sorry and give them back the snake?

Mallory: Yeah.

Chase: Let's take Mallory to jail!

Me to Chase: Wow Chase! You are all about the justice! Do you want Mallory to repent and say she's sorry to the store? We can show mercy and let her apologize and take the snake back. Or do you just want her to go to jail?

Chase: I just want her to go to jail and get beat up.

(Oh goodness!! I think Chase might have some pent-up emotions about Mallory right now that are surfacing. Maybe he has some type of a personal vendetta against her? Maybe he coerced her into taking the snake so that she would get into trouble?!)

(At this point in the conversation we're also wondering how we got on the topic of jail fights. After all we are talking about a 3 year old and a 99 cent rubber snake! Is Chase influencing the direction of this conversation?!)

Me to Chase: Chase that's not very nice. We need to help Mallory out and help her to make the right decision. How do you think you can help her make the right decision?

Chase to Mallory: Mallory, you gotta go back to that store and tell them your sorry and not take the snake anymore!

Me to Chase: Good job Chase. That's a good way to help Mallory.

Craig to Mallory: What happens when we take things from the store?

Chase: We go to jail.

Craig to Mallory AGAIN: What happens when we take things from the store?

Chase: We go to jail.

Craig to Chase: Yes, thank you Chase, but I would like Mallory to answer the question. Ok?

Craig to Mallory: You aren't going to go to jail, ok. But we need to go take the snake back to the store and tell them your sorry. Can you do that?

Mallory: Yeah.

Chase: And Mallory, when you go to jail and those girls try to beat you up I'm gonna punch them and kick them and throw them in the trash can!

(Now Chase is defending her? What is going on inside his head?)

Sounds like we need to have a talk with Mr. All Justice and No Mercy too.

Needless to say, we will be taking Mallory back to Wal-mart tomorrow to return the snake. I'll let you know how she does. . . .

Our First REAL Fall

I guess living in AZ pretty much our entire lives we have never really had the opportunity to experience fall in it's fullest form. Craig served his mission in Wisconsin so he was able to experience 2 fall seasons there and a few visits to Utah throughout his childhood. But other than that we haven't really been anywhere to enjoy the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees for the full fall season. The colors change on a daily basis! We always took our vacations in the summer growing up so I don't ever recall being elsewhere in the country during the fall season. I honesty can't recall ever seeing a tree go from green to red, or orange, or yellow. It's beautiful! It really is! The colors are so vibrant. I remember one time living in AZ we saw a couple on the side of the road taking a picture next to a cactus. We thought they must not be from the desert. To us cactus' are no big deal. But someone from elsewhere in the country has probably never experienced a cactus! Therefore, the perfect photo opportunity! We found ourselves taking pictures of the trees when we first got here. WOW!! TREES!! Green trees. Thick trees. Big trees. Tall and lush looking trees! Trees that don't look stick-like. . . . and dead. We took even more pictures when the leaves started changing colors! It really is gorgeous and we have enjoyed every minute of fall here! Phoenix is 50 degrees hotter than NJ today. The high is only 43 degrees. It snowed this morning off and on for about 4 hours. I have never seen snowflakes that big! I didn't realize they came in all shapes and sizes! We have enjoyed bundling up and the kids get so excited everytime we get to put our coats on to go out. They think it's thrilling to be bundled! Except Clark. He seems to get more and more upset the more layers we have to put on him. We've had to loosen his carseat buckles enough to allow room for his winter coat. I keep forgetting how cold it is outside here. I actually have to take the time to put shoes and socks on. I've gone out in my flip flops a couple of times and my toes are frozen and numb by the time I get back home! The pictures really don't do it justice, but here are just a few fall pictures. . . .




These are the trees outside the kitchen window. Doing dishes takes on a whole new meaning when you get to watch the leaves blow off the trees! The colors are even more vibrant and deeper now. We'll have to take more pictures as the colors continue to change!

We're Alive

Ok, so we just got our internet up and running. Literally 10 minutes ago. Yay, FINALLY! It's almost midnight now. . . . another late night. We have so much to share! We have over 300 pictures to download onto the computer from our adventures here! We'll save the sharing for another night, we're a little sleepy now. Thanks to everyone who has left comments or e-mails wondering about us. We feel very cared for :) Talk to you soon. . . .

For now, goodnight from New Jersey. . . .sleep tight :)

A Place to Call Home

Ok, so this post is long overdue. Back in June I did a post called Lessons Learned. I wrote about our housing "crisis" so to speak. So if you haven't read it or you want to refresh your memory you can click on June in the column on the right hand side and catch up! This post is a continuation of the Lessons Learned post. If you're interested that is :)

Anyway, the last part of that post I talked about how we had done some house hunting, but we really felt that we should hold off on buying a house. For about the first month or so that we lived here with my parents we continued to search for a home. We looked in many different subdivisions in the area and we even got the information on some homes that had been foreclosed on. Some of those foreclosures were screaming deals!! Each time we looked at homes and had found one that we really liked we would start to get a little excited and think, "Yeah, we could live here! This is a great house!" But the same feeling would always come afterwards. . . . Wait. We would house hunt again and again and get excited again and again and then - AGAIN that feeling would come, every time. . . .wait. One night I remember asking Heavenly Father, "What are we waiting for?" He didn't tell me. But we did take the hint after that and we quit house hunting. And we just decided. . . . .to wait.

So wait we did. My parents were great through all of this. They kept telling us, "Don't feel like you have to hurry out of here. You can stay as long as you need to. Take your time." I just didn't want them to feel like we were leeching off of them or something. But they were so nice about everything. Living here we have grown so much closer to them, we've grown closer to my grandparents who live downstairs in the basement (it's complicated, really :)), and we've grown closer to each other. My parents let us get out pretty much every weekend. We haven't dated this much since we were dating! We wouldn't even ask them if they could babysit the kids. They were so nice and would just offer to watch them if we wanted to get out. Of course we took them up on that offer many many times! It's been nice for Craig and I to be able to get out with each other like that for some good one on one time. They have been so kind to take us in and take care of us like they have. We've been able to get into a better financial situation living here as well.

Meanwhile, sometime in July Craig had gone on a business trip to Maryland. His company has a facility in there. The man who was the manager in Maryland got caught doing some dishonest things and the company ended up letting him go. So they flew Craig there to help the guys out in Maryland who now don't have a manager. Craig was out there for a week and almost every night I talked to him he would say, "I can't believe how beautiful it is out here. It's so green and there's trees! I could live here!" I would laugh and at one point during the week I told him, "Well, hey there's a job opening there now, maybe they'll ask you if you want to move out there and manage in Maryland." He really loved it there, but never thought that would happen. A little bit after he came back from his business trip we went to the Temple together. We were talking (whispering) before we started our session and I noticed that the lady I was doing the temple work for was from Maryland. I kind of smiled and pointed it out to Craig and said, "Hey, maybe the Lord's trying to tell us something!" Craig laughed and said, "I would rather move to New Jersey than to Maryland!" The company Craig works for also has a facility in New Jersey that did not have a manager.

Two or three weeks later Craig got a phone call from one of his bosses from the corporate office. His boss wanted to know if he would be willing to move to New Jersey and manage the facility there. He told his boss, "Let me talk to my wife first." (Good answer, babe!) I very clearly remember the morning that Craig called and asked me how I would feel about moving to New Jersey. I had just finished bawling my eyes out to Heavenly Father. I was sick of waiting. I am a planner. I like to have a plan. The last few months of life had had NO plan. And I was at a loss! After standing still and waiting for so long I wanted to feel like we were moving in a forward direction. It's almost funny how a few hours later the phone rang and a PLAN landed in my lap. Craig asked me how I would feel about it and he told me he wanted my honest opinion. I started laughing! I said to him, "Do you remember what you said a few weeks ago in the Temple?" He said, "No." And I said, "You said - out loud - in the Temple - that you would rather move to New Jersey than to Maryland." (Apparently Heavenly Father listens in on all those side conversations we have in the Temple!) He then remembered saying that and he started to laugh a little. We don't know if Craig was ever being considered for the Maryland position or not. But he did get asked to manage in New Jersey none the less.

He DID accept the offer. After much prayer and a couple of trips out to New Jersey we do feel that this move is right for our family.

Looking back we now see why we needed to WAIT. Had we put money down on a home here- we would have been out all of our earnest money! The home we are supposed to move into is not here. It's in New Jersey. Across the entire country. Very far from family.

So why the impression to move closer to family in the first place? In the Lessons Learned post I had mentioned that I wasn't sure why I had had that impression. One of my guesses - actually my first guess - was: Maybe Craig will get a job transfer out of state and we will end up raising our family far away and this is a time to be close to family before we leave. I think I hit it right on the nose with that guess. We are so glad that we did not move back into our home after we found out that the sale fell through. We would be stressing about what to do with our house. It probably would not have sold yet, we can't know for sure but with the way the market is it most likely would not have sold. We would be stressing with thinking about putting renters in it before we leave or do we just leave it on the market to see if it sells, etc.? We would have had to pack EVERYTHING up all over again! Most of our stuff has just remained in storage the past few months. So it's nice that there wasn't much to pack, just the stuff we had at my parent's house. We already have renters in there and things are going very smoothly. The house is being taken care of and it's one less thing that we have had to worry about as we have prepared to leave. Shortly after breaking the news to my mom, she came to me teary eyed and said one of the reasons the Lord put us here was for her. She expressed how grateful she was that she got to be so close to us for a time. She's loved watching the grandkids grow. Clark wasn't crawling when we got here and now he's standing on his own two feet. I've caught her telling Clark a couple of times, "I want to see you walk before you go!" Chase lost his first tooth and Mallory turned three. She says it's been a special tender mercy that the Lord has given to her to have us here in their home. Mom and Dad, we can't possibly thank you enough. . . . .

So today is Tuesday. We leave Friday. It's real. I can't believe it's real. But it's happening whether or not we're ready for it. All of our stuff is packed in storage boxes that will be shipped across the country. Our cars are being shipped as well. We thought about driving, but after weighing the options we decided that flying would be better. We could spend 4 days, in the car, driving across America - with three children - or we could spend 4 1/2 hours on an airplane. Driving would have been a little cheaper, but the many times we pictured driving, we pictured it as going something like this - "Mom, he's touching me!" "I have to go potty." "She's not giving me back my toy!" "He hit me!" "WAAAAAA", from the 11-month old who's sick of being in his car seat! Then we would just be yelling at our kids. I'll take the airplane thank you! It's already stressful enough on us moving our family across the country. We didn't want to pass that stress on to the kids.

Craig flew out this last weekend and rented us a townhouse. We thought about buying, but with how bad the economy is lately we didn't wanted to take on another mortgage. Maybe when we get our AZ home sold we'll talk about buying something out there.

We'll miss a lot of things about AZ, but we're excited for the adventures we'll have in NJ. There will be many changes. The wards in New Jersey encompass 7 or 8 cities. The closest temple is in Manhattan. It rains approximately 4 inches a month. And snow, we WILL have snow! And big puffy warm winter jackets with mittens and hats! NYC is less than an hour's train ride away. Washington DC is three hours away. The beach and Atlantic Ocean only 35 minutes away. Philadelphia is 30 minutes. Six Flags Theme Park - 30 minutes. It's against state law to pump your own gas. You wait in your car and someone does it for you. No tip required! Adventures, yes. . . . there will be many. . . . .

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go. . . . . leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. . . .

Eventful Weekend

We have a big family reunion every year for Labor Day. We always go camping in Northern Arizona. This year was actually the 51st year that our family has had this tradition. It's kind of fun to see our 2nd and 3rd cousins and great aunts and uncles, etc. We only get to see these people once or twice a year, so why we choose to go camping I still have not quite figured out. Camping makes you stinky and dirty and you look and feel gross because you haven't showered in 3 days. I would rather not have extended family remember me in that way all year! Oh well. . . . it's still fun to get together none the less.

So we got to the campground Friday afternoon and actually ended up driving into Payson to have dinner at a restaurant. We were celebrating 2 of my brother's birthdays and we hadn't been able to find time to get together before the campout so we had dinner in town. They picked a Mexican food restaurant that was actually really good, except the salsa had WAY too much garlic in it! We all walked out of the restaurant WAY too full and apparently smelling like garlic. Later that night at the campground one of my cousins was holding Mallory and she asked me why my daughter smelled like garlic. Lovely. . . . .hopefully we didn't all smell that way! :)

On Saturday the little kids got to go on a scavenger hunt and collect acorns, rocks, and leaves from the forest. Chase and Mallory loved it! They had a blast playing in the dirt and throwing dirt on each other. They got to throw rocks and dirt clods at trees. I always forget how easily entertained a little boy is with just a stick in hand. Chase has never been happier! I've decided that Santa Claus is going super cheap this year and will be bringing sticks and dirt clods!! It was a little bit harder to camp with Clark. He's not quite walking, but he's a busy boy and didn't want to just sit on a lap the whole time. So we let him crawl around in the dirt when he just wanted to be down and playing. That ended up being a really bad idea. He broke out with a rash all over his body. He had hives everywhere! He was probably itching like crazy! We gave him some Benadryl and it helped with the redness a little bit. If anything it helped him sleep too. He wasn't napping well. His little body was probably just so uncomfortable with his allergic reaction plus he was in a strange place. He wasn't sleeping at night either. He was screaming and we didn't want him to wake up everybody else in the campground so we finally just stuck him in bed with us. Which was also weird for Clark because he's never slept with us before. He was trying to go to sleep and he puked in my hair and all over my pillow! Gag me! Saturday night was a looooong night!

Sunday wasn't any better as far as his rash went. He was so fussy! Chase was playing on this wooden platform thing and got "spliders" (splinters) all over in his hands. I pulled over ten splinters out between both of his hands. I felt really bad for him. He screamed bloody murder while I was pulling them out. At one point I looked up at him while he was screaming and I saw a tooth in his mouth. A permanent tooth! It kind of shocked me. He's only four, I didn't think kids lost their teeth until they were older than that. Both of his lower front teeth are loose and one of them is going to fall out any day now! I brush his teeth every night and I was just surprised that I hadn't noticed before then. So that was kind of exciting! We'll have our first visit from the tooth fairy soon! It rained really, really hard for a while and we brought the kids inside the motor home to watch a movie.Later that afternoon, Chase ended up getting lost. He was playing on a wood pile and we turned around to check on him and he was gone! We went around to everyone's little camps thinking he had just gone over to play with a cousin. But he wasn't at anyone's camp. I started into panic mode and was screaming his name. Craig and my dad were screaming for him and we split up to check some different parts of the woods. It had been about 20 minutes. Every time we go camping I pray every morning that none of my kids will get lost. (It's a major fear of mine.) It had also been raining and there was a full creek nearby. Another thing to panic about. I started toward the treeline at the back of the campground screaming Chase's name and he came running out of the forest. He was crying and was screaming, "Mommy, I'm lost!" I gave him a big hug. I was relieved, but part of me wanted to yell at him! I told him he scared me and not to ever do that again!! There were three other little 4 year old boys with him and one ten year old. Apparently the ten year old was taking all of the little boys out to the forest to play hide and go seek. Three of the little boys were crying that they were lost! I had to tell the ten year old that you don't take 4 year olds out into the forest to hide them!! (I was very angry at this boy) But a huge feeling of relief washed over me that Chase was safe!! I had a good talk with Chase about only going into the woods if he has an adult with him. We had already had this talk twice before, but apparently it didn't get through to him. I think he understands now :) I took him for a nature walk in the woods and we walked over a brdge that crosses the creek. It really is a beautiful area. About 10 minutes into our walk I told Chase we had to go back to the campground because I had to go to the bathroom. (My parents had rented a motor home that we could go potty in.) Chase wasn't ready to go back yet so he tells me, "Mom, you could go pee on a tree!" Gotta love his perspective :)

We were going to stay until Monday morning, but ended up leaving Sunday night. Clark still had hives everywhere and was pretty fussy. We wanted to get him home to sleep in his own bed and to get away from whatever type of weed or pollen that was bothering him. We got home just before 11pm, bathed them, and put them to bed. They all slept so good! We had hoped Monday morning would be better for Clark's hives. When we got him up out of his crib his face was swollen! His right eye was almost swollen shut! His left eye was starting to swell and his little nose was all puffy! The pictures really don't do it justice.
I almost cried! Of course this had to happen on a holiday so the doctor's office was closed. I drove to Urgent Care and they were closed too. The only place left was the ER. Obvioulsy he was having an allergic reaction to something and it wasn't getting any better! I know with some allergic reactions airways can start to close up and his condition was getting progressively worse. I was starting to get really scared for him. I wanted to cry every time I looked at my baby! Luckily the ER was completely empty so we got right in. The ER doctor said that Clark was probably allergic to something in the dirt or some type of weed or plant or pollen or something that was up there. And chances are, we'll never find out what it was that caused the reaction. So they gave him a steroid to help the swelling go down and to make the redness in his skin go away. The doctor said he would start to get better after he had the steroid in his system. He has to take it for three more days. The swelling has gone down now and the redness in his skin is getting better. We thought maybe he got a little sunburned up camping and that that's what might have been causing some of the redness, but the doctor said if he had a sunburn his skin would feel hot - it would be burning. His skin didn't feel hot so that's how they knew it was an allergic reaction. Plus hives are a dead give away. So my poor baby! I'm glad we're moving in the right direction with him now. My boys sure were handfuls this weekend! Miss Mallory was as sweet as she could be floating around from tent to tent making friends with distant cousins. Regardless of all of my complaining about the weekend it was actually really nice to be able to spend time with extended family and to renew friendships there. We played a really fun game around the campfire on Saturday night. My sister-in-law, Natalie, won both games and out smarted everybody! I love to be in the woods and to hear the crickets all chirping in unison in the evening, to stare into the fire, and to be able to see every constellation in the sky without all the city lights. It was an enjoyable weekend. . . . eventful. . . .but enjoyable to say the least!