Today

Here we are 5 years later! We have baptized 2 boys with the third baptism just months away. We have had 2 babies, one a very pleasant surprise. We have had 2 kids finish elementary school and 2 kids start their school years.

Madsen has been ordained a Deacon and serves as the Deacon Quorum President. He is days away from turning 13! Sully has survived surgery and learned valuable lessons in honesty and is looking forward to being ordained a Deacon in February. He is our only kid to earn all 4's on a report card. Declan has gone from a little boy to a fun big kid. He is turning 8 next month and looking forward to his baptism. He will be in 3rd grade. Cannon was born 5 weeks after we moved here. He is such a character! He will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.

Matt has finished his post-doctoral fellwoship and now has a real job! For the first time in our 14 year marriage, we are not affiliated with a university! He has served in the Young Mens presidency, Cub Scouts, Primary and now as the 1st Counsleor in the bishopric. He has gained some weight and lost some hair!

Waverly has been born and adds such a sweetness to our family. I have served in Relief Society, Primary and Young Womens presidencies and gone to girls camp more times as an adult then a girl! I have run my first 10k and looking forward to my first half marathon. We have loved the beach and missed real mountains! We have become accustomed to humidity and lots of oxygen!We have out grown our house that once seemed so big and look forward to buying a new one, some day! We have made great new friends. We have found the place we hope to never leave. The past five years have been very busy and fun. We have experienced much and look forward to so much more to discover out here!

5 years ago...

Today is our 5 year North Carolina Anniversary. Here is the moving van that took us from our little home in Colorado across the country in 4 horrific days. I was way pregnant with Cannon an driving the van with 3 boys. It was such a long, slow trip. I had a hard time staying awake while I was driving. I was following Matt and he could not go too fast. Every now and then I would fly by him and tell him I would meet him at at the next rest stop. We spent the 4thof July in a little town hotel, I don't even remember what state we were in. When we finally reached Sheila's house in Ohio, I had had it and the boys had had it. It was such a welcome relief to stop and visit and eat real food. We still had one long day ahead of us.

When we finally reached NC we were welcomed by 25 people from our new ward waiting at the house to help move us in. My feet were so swollen and my huge body just ached. I was so happy to see so many helping hands and meet new friends.
This is how we looked back then. The boys seemed big but they were so little. Matt and I were young too! Quite a bit has changed in the last 5 years.
I thought we would come out here, do the Post-doc thing for a few years and head back west where things are normal. Now we love it out here and hope we never have to leave. The boys have grown up and of course we have added Waverly. Life has been very good in North Carolina.

O-R-E-O

This was Waverly's first Oreo cookie. She really liked it. I gave her little bites and she would open her mouth like a little baby bird waiting for more. It is not the cleanest food to eat, but she is washable! I love her sweet little smile of chocolate bliss!

Academic Awards

The boys had another successful school year. They all received awards. Declan was given the Principal's Award. Each teacher picks the student who is the best, ok, maybe not their choice of words, but the one who follows the rules, does well academically, is friendly etc. Declan was one of his teachers favorite students. She often told me that he is a model student and she would tell other kids to watch Declan and do what Declan does.

Sully received both the Principal's Award ( barely, see What a tangled web we weave post) and the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. I sorted all the kids school work I have saved over the years and Sully received the Principals Award every year except 3rd grade. Pretty Good! He got all 4's on his final report card for Elementary school. We were pleased. He laughed at the letter from President Obama, not believing that he wrote or signed it. We saved it any way.

Madsen was on the A-B honor roll each quarter so he got his certificate for that accomplishment. He did a great job. He has been on the honor roll every quarter of middle school and rewarded at the Academic awards both years. Only one more to go!

Here is Cannon getting his "way to go, you finished Joy School" certificate. No fancy pre-school graduation here! He was happy and we had a fun picnic with his friends to celebrate. I think his biggest accomplishment of the year has been learning to read. He does a great job and is so excited to go to kindergarten.

Helmet explanation

Cannon and Declan like to put the Bumbo chair on their heads.

Strange as it may be, they are welcome to do this... to themselves!

Guilty or innocent?

This is what it is supposed to be used for! Waverly sits in it to eat!
One of her naughty big brothers was trying to put the chair on her head when I heard Matt telling them not to. (see quote of the day post)

Poor girl! It will be amazing if she can make it through these brothers with out any serious damage!

Quote of the day

"No, no, no, that is not a helmet for your sister!"

I am afraid I will hear many warnings similar in nature over the next 18 years.

Picture to explain this will come later!

2 strikes, we are out!

The baseball Gods were not happy with us this week. I do not even know what we did to upset them! We enjoy going to a few Durham Bulls games each season. It is relatively cheap entertainment and the boys really love it. We decided to go to the game Tuesday night. We had it all planned. Tuesday dawned nice and rainy. Rain all day. It was not raining on our house when it was time to make a decision, to go or not to go. Matt and I decided for not to go. A rainy ball game with 5 kids, 2 pretty little, did not sound like our idea of fun. Madsen said we could wear jackets. We stayed home. Declan was invited to go to that same game with our neighbors, so he got to go. Madsen was jealous. Disappoinment #1.

We decided to go to the game on Friday. They have fireworks every Friday night so that would make it even more fun. I packed a gourmet picnic. We headed up to meet Matt at work and eat our dinner. All is well! Then we get to the ball park. I have never seen so many people in that area at one time. Something is looking fishy. We park and make the trek to the ticket counter only to discover there is standing room only. If a rainy ball game with 5 kids did not sound fun, does standing for a ball game with 5 kids sound fun? NO!!! So, after much dileberation and complaining, we opted to go home. Madsen was disappointed. We did get our $3 parking fee back! Disappointment #2.

We have gone up to the park with out tickets before and been able to get in. We have never been to a sold out game. It never even occured to us to see if there would still be tickets. Then we heard that they were playing the Boston Red Sox farm team. It was a stadium record number in attendance. No wonder we could not get tickets.

We were smart though, bought our tickets to the July 3 game while we were there. Not a complete waste of a night!

The boys were upset. Cannon said to me, "thanks for ruining our whole day" on the way home.

So, to make it up to them we drove through some really fancy neighborhoods looking at houses on the way home. Sully said, "you already made us mad, are you trying to torture us now?" OK, looking at the houses was for me!

We did stop at Target and get icees to make them feel a little better and we went home and watched The Princess Bride.

Lesson learned and we will have fun at the ball game on July 3!