Busy Days

Well, things are just getting busier and busier around here!! That's what happens when summer winds down. And we are excited for fall to start tomorrow (one season closer to snow, as Collin puts it).

Collin continues to LOVE soccer. He and Jessy are busy with practice and games (I guess we all are, since we usually go watch). He scored 5 goals in his second game, and this past week scored two (5 of the 6 players on his team scored--it was great!). Preschool is going well and it is his favorite part of the day.

Savannah loves her tumbling. Her tooth fell out (2 hours or so after school pictures were taken...I guess there are always retakes). She also loves school and her favorite parts of the day are riding the bus, recess, and lunch.

Hunter is a crazy man, but we love him. He dutifully tags along to all the extracurricular activities and is pretty good about it. He also is my little helper--with laundry, sweeping, garbage emptying and yardwork.

We've been going to the BYU football games (I nearly died when Jessy agreed with Chris that we should get season tickets), and love spending all day in the car with Erica and Mark, at the tailgate party with the Whetstone side of the family (and Jenny and some friends), and at the game. Hunter makes the rounds of sitting on everyone's laps (until he gets a stinky diaper...) and loves watching "the gun" (they shoot a cannon after each score). Collin follows the game pretty well and is very much into shouting "first down" and singing the fight song. Savannah's favorite part of the game is going out with Angie and Colton when he gets restless and doing cartwheels in the shade (and sometimes being spoiled with Dippin' Dots). It's a good thing BYU is having a good season--it's keeping Hunter and Collin happy, at least!

Jessy has another full-time job. He is working like a mad man on the basement. He just finished the heating and AC duct work, and is now working on wiring the lights and outlets. The plumber will be in next week, followed by the drywall crew in the beginning of October. He's set on finishing it before the baby comes, and I believe that he will indeed. He just got a new calling as well. Any guesses? He's the second counselor in Young Mens and the scoutmaster. I know he'll be great at it--he's had a similar calling in our previous two wards!

Speaking of the baby, I had an appointment this week (I was so excited-ha!-to get there, I got pulled over. Thank you, Mr. Ogden Policeman who called it a "pregnant moment" and let me off with that!)--according to the ultrasound, we are on track to have a 9 1/2 pound baby...again!! Isn't once enough for anyone??? I also got a job. Kind of by accident, but I'm not complaining. When we first bought the house and all the details on the mortgage and payments and everything, Jessy was wondering how we could pay it off and half-jokingly told me to apply at some local colleges to teach (he knew I liked doing it in Albuquerque, too). I checked a few out and actually applied to one, just so they would have my resume on file. (The HR people told me to do so because sometimes they need a substitute or something.) Nothing happened for weeks and I wasn't devastated or anything, but then, out of the blue, I got a call saying that this person wanted an interview with me. No details, so I figured it was about subbing. When I went, they said they wanted a person to teach at night at this other campus. And it has worked out great! It is more like a tutoring position as there are three sections of math, ranging from basics to advanced algebra and trigonometry. The students can enroll anytime and then they just work their way through the packets of each class until they are up to speed for what they want to do (nursing at Weber State, advanced electrician classes, etc.). It is ideal for me--I go twice a week for 3 hours. Just enough to get the mental stimulation I need and enough for the kids to miss me!! I also started working with the activity days girls, which should be a fun challenge--those 9-year-olds are crazy!!

So, our lives are getting busier, but it's making time go faster as we wait for Baby 4 to join us!

In case you need a reference...

Nanny McPhee

Napoleon Dynamite

Nanny McPhee and Napoleon Dynamite

When Savannah came home yesterday, I noticed something wrong with her mouth as she was talking to me. She proudly showed off her loose tooth. It looked like Nanny McPhee's scraggle tooth, but I didn't say anything so as to not hurt her feelings. When Jessy came home, I told her to show dad what was different about her. Jessy immediately said, "You look like Nanny McPhee!!" I about died laughing! It's gotten worse today, it still hasn't come out, and tomorrow are her school pictures!! Jessy tried to pull it out tonight, but he couldn't do it like Grandpa did it, so she just may have her scraggle tooth for this year's pictures.


We also have our resident Napoleon continuing to dress himself and amuse his mother (and probably all those who drive past our yard). Not only does he put on his boots with every outfit, but he found his "mailman helmet" today, and has taken up wearing that again. He's quite a sight, out there digging in the dirt with his get-up! We love our Hunter!

Seven years later and still going strong

For anyone who has never witnessed a Savannah tantrum, either as an infant or as she has gracefully matured, here's a small taste. She had toned down by this time, but we thought we'd preserve a memory or two for posterity.

Game On!!

Collin had his first soccer game yesterday – and he was on cloud nine the entire day … with the small exception that he was so disappointed he couldn’t play another game the same day. His game was at 8:30 in the morning and he just couldn’t wait … good thing he didn’t have to wait until the afternoon! Mom and Nathan came up and spent the night to catch his early morning debut and it wasn’t a disappointment! The ‘White Sharks’ as they have labeled themselves (and as evident by the color of their uniforms – Collin wanted to be called the white crocodiles but he was out voted --) were pitted against the Red Dragons in a ‘classic’ match. The fields are set up so that there are two PVC goals on each end of the field which is about 30 yards long and 15 yards across. Collin was just excited by the fact they didn’t have to use cones for the goals (unlike practice!) They play 3 v 3 with 6-minute quarters and a break long enough to change the players out. Collin started on the sideline (the whoas of being the coaches son) but we were quickly down 4-0 by the first quarter because the other team had quite the bruiser who literally threw elbows and ran kids over! The kids fought back though and Collin scored two goals! They were running all over the place. It doesn’t take much to knock the boys over, and they are overly dramatic in their response to a little kick in the shins or running into each other. All in all it’s hilarious to watch. Collin’s teammate Cooper added one more goal in the second half and the game ended up a 7-3 loss for our team. If there was any disappointment about losing, it didn’t show long once the koolaid drinks and fruit roll-ups came out of the bag. That is, of course, except for Collin. As we were walking back to the car, Collin asked if we lost. I told him that the other team scored more goals than we did, so yes, we didn’t win. Collin thought about it for a moment and then responded, “Dad, I don’t like to lose.” … in a somber tone. The he added, “I’m going to go tell my friend Carson that we had our first game today … and lost!” I responded with, “Why don’t you tell him you had your first game and had fun.” He thought about it for a second and then said, “I’ll tell him that later.” Not sure where he gets his competitiveness from … not that he ever had a chance between Kelli and I. We did have a lot of fun and look forward to many more games and fun. Just another funny saying from one of the boys -- at practice on Wednesday I was trying to teach them to pass. One of the boys picked up a weed (obviously wasn't pay too much attention to the important task at hand) and turned to me and said, "My Mom has these kinds of flowers in her yard!" Yes, many more fun days on the 'pitch'.

And one tired boy as a result!

And the race is on ...

Kelli has been the diligent one in making sure that there has been some level of continuity since moving into our home here in Ogden. Between spending heaps of time trying to get the yard looking semi-descent, unpacking boxes and rearranging furniture, rooms, kids, … and finishing the triathlon training, it’s been more than a hectic last couple of weeks and months. Now that the yard is somewhat in order and the triathlon has finished, attention has turned to finishing our basement. We bought this home with a reasonably sized basement that is mostly unfinished. It’s good in the sense that we get to put it together how we’d like, bad in the sense that we have to put it together J So we’ve spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how much of it we can do on our own and how much we need to bid out. All in all we’re hoping to have it done before the baby gets here … but we’ll see what happens!

Anyway, there have been a couple of recent happening with the kids which just can’t be left undocumented. Hunter has been the most hilarious of late. We had some neighbors give us their little battery-operated jeep which Hunter just can’t get enough of. He is just tall enough to be able to push the ‘gas’ pedal. He cranks the steering wheel to one side and will literally just go around in circles for a half hour … or until the battery dies. The other day Kelli went outside and was trying to tell him to come inside and get some lunch or something. He stopped his jeep just long enough to look at her blankly for a second … and then respond, “Hey Mom! Close the door! You’re letting flies in the house!” His level of manipulation at this age is approaching his older sister! Then tonight we were out running some errands and Hunter was in the back in his car seat. He was trying to get her attention and got a little flustered when he couldn’t. Then he finally broke out with, “Mom, hey Mom, ding ding, hey Mom!” Ok, so those are cute and funny, but he’s also been increasing his vocabulary in areas which aren’t so good. He’s exploring his d’s and a’s and m’s and n’s … generally putting them together in that order. Kelli has tried to get the kids not to make a big deal of it and hopefully he’ll just pass through this phase without letting it stick. In the store tonight he did start shouting out, ‘darnet, darnet’ so at least he’s becoming slightly more ‘clean’ with his language.

In other news, Collin had his first soccer practice last Saturday. Kelli and I are the default coaches since they had enough kids sign up late they just set up a whole new team. It’s going to be 3 v 3, which should be quite entertaining. I thought we would do hour practices, but after 15 minutes the kids were just plain tuckered out so maybe we’ll go back to 30-minuters. We also did our first BYU football game over the weekend. Uncle Chris (affectionately known among his niece and nephews as ‘King Chris’ – yes, they have been brainwashed!) set up a monster tailgate party complete with generator and 2 TVs so we could all watch the Utah/Michigan game. It was quite hot, but the kids were so excited to finally be able to go to the game after waiting so long for it to come. Collin is an avid fan (so avid in fact that when his Aunt Jenny gave him a U of Utah doll, he promptly told her he didn’t want it and to go throw it outside!) I could only laugh when after BYU’s first score, they started to play the BYU fight song and there were Kelli and Grandpa Whetstone just staring at Collin as they were singing the song and making sure he got all of the actions in. If there was any hope ever left that he might have a tint of red left in him … I knew at that moment he was gone forever. Alas, at least we can look forward to an entertaining college football season!

Well, that’s about it for now. We are thoroughly enjoying being back home and closer to family. There are moments of panic and anxiety on whether we made the right decision, but there is also a quiet sense of peace that things are in order and will work out. We wish everyone the best out there and looking forward to hearing from you if you have a free moment. Cheers!