Cheap Entertainment

So the kids have been doing some funny things lately. Here's some highlights:

Landon - Picture full on HEAD-BANGING and AIR GUITAR and imagine some hard rock "tune"... Landon's been working on a song for his "band" and this is what he's come up with so far:

Down Down Down in the deep blue sea, all I could see was a picture of me.

I thought it was red but I forgot the sea was blue
The next thing I saw was you.
You took me here. You took me there. Then you took me everywhere.

It's a work in progress. But it's defininitely funny to watch him rock out. I love it!

Austin - This is Austin's version of chasing his own tail. Seriously, it's pretty funny. He does this while I'm getting ready in the morning. You can hear how hard he's breathing; that's because he had been doing this for a good twenty minutes before I even got the camera out. The kid's got stamina!

Isaac - Zac's been staying busy too. He is crawling like crazy. He's constantly in any cupboard that he can open. Literally, IN any cupboard he can open. He's pulling up on furniture now. He can crawl up the stairs and thankfully has only made it up two before I've caught him from falling back down. He chases Landon and Austin around all the time and drives them crazy because he wants to EAT whatever they are playing with. He is already "all boy". He loves balls and is just starting to be able to play "catch" (before he would hold on with a death grip but now he knows if he rolls it to you you will roll it back - unless he's playing with Austin!). He says Dada, cracker, more, all done, hi, and just started saying Mama. It's so cute to hear him talk. I LOVE it!

My kiddos keep me busy; that's for sure. They give me all the entertainment a mom could ever want!

P.S. if your wondering why there are no pictures yet - my external hard drive ate them! I'm not crying yet. Cameron's taking our hard drive to computer guys at work tomorrow. If they can't extract the files then I will be crying... our whole summer was on the hard drive and of course when I downloaded them to it I erased them from our camera. Cross your fingers that they can find them, k?

It's A Dairy Queen Night

It's common for people to eat when they're stressed, right? When I'm stressed I want the good stuff: cookies, candy bars, ice cream, those gross nachos from 7-11... Well, tonight is definitely a Dairy Queen night. I sent Cam out for a Mint Oreo Blizzard. I had to.
So I've had a wonderful weekend. My mom was here Sat - Tues and Cameron's sister Shauntelle and her husband and three kids were here Mon - Wen. I loved having them.

I've been waiting all day to put my kids to bed so I could get some pictures downloaded and ready to blog. There's so much to say - fourth of July, Utah trip, good times with my family. So after dinner I thought I should call the primary president to make sure I'm not supposed to teach my new class on Sunday (I got called to be the 11 year old Sunday School teacher - at least it will help me study my scriptures a little more). Since no one's given me the lesson manual yet I just assumed I wouldn't be teaching... I was wrong of course. So I decided tomorrow would be my lesson planning day.

But then my phone rang and it just happened to be another member of my ward asking me to speak in church on Sunday. Say What? Um... I've got to plan a lesson already and now a talk for Sacrament and it's Thursday night. I need time to prepare people! So much for getting my fun summer documented - it's going to have to wait until next week. For now I will be reading and writing and praying that I will not make a fool of myself on Sunday!

Oh, and as long as I'm griping can I just say... why doesn't my family close closet doors? At any given moment in any given room there is at least one closet door open and it BUGS me. Especially the coat closet in the entry way. I close that door at least five times a day. Help me out kids and close the door (you too Cam!).

Off the air...

So they say getting there is half the fun... Well after being stuck in Des Moines airport for 16 hours when we came for Christmas I thought getting here to visit our families from Colorado Springs would be a little easier. And truthfully it was but still it wasn't exactly "fun".

Cameron and I are always kind of "checking up" on eachother. A couple of times we paid the same bills twice because we didn't think the other person had paid it. So when Cameron asked me to look at the map and find the exit we should take to get to Utah through Fort Collins I figured he really knew the right way and he was just asking me so that I could double check him. Well, turns out he really was depending on me to find the right road and it turns out that I'm not the best map reader in the world. (In my defense I did think he was going to double check me or that he already knew and so I really didn't take my job that seriously)

So after an hour of driving the wrong direction and finding our way back to the freeway we stopped for gas, ate a quick lunch and took off again. After turning onto the highway Cam looks out the back window to change lanes and oops - he thought I shut the trunk and I thought he had. Luckily not ALL our suitcases had fallen out. And even luckier they fell out just before we turned onto the highway so it wasn't too hard to get them back!

We made it to Flaming Gorge. Dropped off Landon and Cameron and the other kids and I took off for Ogden. Austin and Isaac were FINALLY asleep and things were good. Then I had to slow down through Laramy, WY. The kids woke up and I had to listen to them crying for an hour and a half (I think I sang every song I could think of, told every story I could remember, pointed out every possible interesting thing outside the window and finally I just cranked the radio and told them I was sorry but I had to concentrate on the road so cry if you must but I have to keep driving) until I FINALLY made it into my parents driveway. Let me tell you, no driveway ever looked so good.

So now that I'm here I am going to enjoy my time. No blogging for me (well, MAYBE!). I'll be catching up later. So... I love you all, good night, over and out, stay cool and have a fun summer....

A LITTLE PRAYER

If you're reading this please say a little PRAYER...

Cameron's sister MARCENE is having her first CHEMO treatment today. She was diagnosed with stage three Lymphoma two weeks ago.

Marcene, this must be the hardest thing you've ever been through. We are praying for you to have STRENGTH, COMFORT, and PEACE.

Your good attitude is an inspiration. We are thinking of you. We love you.

Corn Dogs for Breakfast and Other Ways of Coping

Yes... I said Corn Dogs for BREAKFAST!!! The kids are adjusting well to the "Springs" and I'm really starting to as well. But just to make the change a little easier here's some things we've been doing...

* Corn Dogs for Breakfast just to make life a little more fun - I personally, could NEVER eat a corn dog in the morning but the kids loved it!
*Unpacking boxes - STILL



*Making cookies
*Chasing the squirrels in our backyard - although I recently found out they are burrying Peanut shells in our lawn... who knew? Some neighbor must be feeding them peanuts. Austin is NOT allowed to touch them and Landon is on peanut lookout duty. What a pain to be worried about your kid touching peanut shells.
*The Library's Summer Reading Program
*Swimming - the pools are all indoor here because of the crazy weather changes so... we got our own mini-pool that the kids LOVE

*Making Friends - this neighborhood has a ton of kids for Landon and Austin to play with; they are over here all the time. Our ward has 3 families in it with three boys our kids exact age so it's pretty cool. The kids are in heaven and I'm really having fun getting to know the moms.

*Garage-Saleing - A friend that lives down the street took me out to teach me the art of shopping garage sales. I found some fun things. I got 4 barstools for my kitchen and a LAZY BOY couch and chair. Yes they're blue but they're hardly used and really comfy. Great for our family room.

* Playing outside - there are some awesome parks here. An Alice in Wonderland park has themed play equipment that makes you feel like you're in the movie. The Charolette Web's park has a spider's web and barn. There are tons of walking trails and lots of places to ride bikes.

*And this kid is staying quite busy learning to crawl and clap. When you shout "YEAH" he starts clapping and he also claps to tell you he's happy about something. The crawling is still manageable - I'm not chasing him around quite yet. He really only crawls to get to someone or something.

* And last but not least I am within 5 minutes of the mall, Target, Costco, church, Walmart, Bank, Prairie Hills Elementary (Landon's School), grocery store and LOTS of other places I usually go - all of which were 10-15 minutes away when we lived in Iowa. FINALLY, I don't have to LIVE in my car!!! And an added BONUS there are people from my ward in my neighborhood. Hallelujiah!

We Made It

Through 4 years of Dental School:

Out of Iowa before the floods hit:
(this is the Coralville strip. The bridge is right in front of the storage shed we rented when we put our house up for sale. The yellow building is El Dorodo, where Cameron and I met for lunch all the time. It's just so weird - I just shopped at that Walgreens! It brings tears to my eyes to see my home like this. Even though we have moved it still feels like home. I am praying for all of you in Iowa. I wish I was there to sand bag and try to help. I just can't believe that I drove down this street just last week.)

(this is the road we took to get to Cameron's graduation - less than ten minutes from our house. This area is under 10 feet of water)


Through Saying Goodbye to Our Friends:
(I love you all and we will all miss you. Landon wants to marry Morgan so Connor will be his brother in law. Austin wants Collin back in his primary class. Thank you so much for being my friends. Thanks for watching my kids on Tuesday. I love my "Super Mom" Playgroup friends too. You girls got me through the tough years!!!)


To Colorado With the Help of My Dad:
(thank you, Dad for your help - You will never know how much your support means to me. I can always depend on you and Mom. Happy Father's Day, by the way; oh and thanks for putting up with all the stops we had to make along the way - you really helped me more than you know)


To the Top of Helen Hunt Falls:
(we took the day off from unpacking to go on a little hike. It turns out that the altitude really does make a difference. Talk about being out of breath. The kids loved it. We really like being here. I forgot my camera. It wouldn't matter anyway because I can't find the USB cord to download my pictures. Hopefully, I will find it soon so I can post some more pictures.)

The Year of the Lego

Landon is 6! He had a great birthday party with his friends. We went to the Iowa City Gym-Nest. The kids loved it. They went crazy in the gym and I didn't have to lift a finger! Landon wanted to invite his whole Kindergarten class but with his church friends and neighborhood friends that was too many kids. So we decided on an all boy party. It turned out great.
Landon made a Lego dune buggy for his Lego cake. He's into Lego's lately so we tried to make a Lego cake. Not the prettiest cake but I did my best. Landon loved it and that's all that matters, I guess.

Thanks to our friends for all the great presents, and for driving all the way to "town"! You guys are the best. Cameron had as much fun as the kids - throwing them into the foam pit and playing dodge ball with them.

Grandma and Grandpa Perigo sent a pakage that all the kids loved opening. Thanks for the V-tech games and Legos. Landon has already set up a galactic battle with his Star Wars Legos.


Sunday was Landon's actual birthday and he wanted brats for dinner. We braved the humidity and took off to Bluestem to roast brats over the fire and make dutch oven peach cobbler for his birthday cake. Despite the nats and humidity it was really fun just being together. We sang camp songs, played in the water, watched the kids climb trees, and tried to steer clear of the smoke that kept blowing in our faces.
Once again Landon got more Legos. I bought him Technic Legos (a snowmobile and jeep)from the Lego Store in Chicago. He's been working on putting them together a little each day. Cameron thinks they're awesome because you put them together and it shows how a real engine, steering shaft, etc. works. The two of them working on the snowmobile together is pretty cute. Landon keeps telling me thanks for his Legos. I'm just glad he's happy with his birthday.

We love you Landon:
*You're always smiling
*Your favorite foods are Brats, bacon sandwiches (BLT's), Macaroni and Cheese (processed much?!)

*Your favorite things to do at school are recess - the sandbox; and reading - you love that you can read chapter books
*You love playing T-Ball and Hockey
*You like watching Scooby Doo
*Your favorite football team is the Cowboys, even though you really don't watch football
*You are always helpful around the house. You unload the dishwasher often. You make your bed and clean your room everyday. You get yourself ready for school in the morning. You are obedient. Your polite and respectful. You LOVE to help Dad with anything. You'll play with Isaac if I ask you to but now that he can grad things away from you you'd rather play out of his reach. You really love riding your bike. You are good at teaching Austin things like his letters and how to play games. You still love to snuggle with me. You are a great kid. Happy Birthday.