We're going on a moose hunt, we're going to catch a big one!

This past weekend we went on a little hike with the Garners in Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was around 4 miles and I was nervous about how the kids would do, but we didn't have any major meltdowns until the last half mile or so. Whew! They both did really well, thank goodness. Of course they did have Uncles and Grandparents who took turns carrying in arms and on shoulders and kept both kids happy. The most surprising part was the Mommy moose and her two babies at the trail head. They were right there, so close! It was crazy. The rest of the hike, Miles talked about finding the moose again so he could talk to it.

Two things about Sunday: 1. I was called as a primary teacher. Wonder if I'll ever be called as anything else. And 2. I snapped this cute picture of these two.

Oh yeah, happy first day of school Richie! This is his first official day teaching as a real, live seminary teacher. He couldn't be any more calm or prepared. It's not fair, because I would be a basket case, even if I was over-prepared. And the fact that he is so calm is making me a little basket-casey, and it's not even MY job. He can't wait to meet his students!

It's time

I'm sick of seeing the same blog post on my page every time I pull it up. So just for the sake of change, here are the latest pictures from our camera.

FHE night! The idea is that since we live close to so many temples now, we'll take the kids on "field trips" to all the feasible ones and take their pictures. Then we'll hang up the pictures in their room and pin point all the ones we've visited on their map. Hopefully that instills a love of the temple in them. If that doesn't work, I guess we'll just keep making temples out of rice krispie treats. They really liked that. :)

Snake Bubbles! Big hit round these parts.

That's why you marry a Garner boy

Over the past couple of weeks we've been greatly blessed with free produce! Being in the more populated Salt Lake Valley, we've been taking advantage of Ksl and Craigslist, more specifically the "free" sections. First we found apricots for free from an unused tree at at apartment complex in downtown SLC. Yes, it does cost gas money to drive there, but it makes for an outing with the kids.

About a week later, we found plums for free in West Jordan. Richie went and picked plenty on a Saturday, in addition to picking up free firewood and gravel for our window wells.

This past week, the Garners picked bushels and bushels of corn for a friend who wasn't going to use it and gave it to us!

We've figured Heavenly Father knows that putting up food is important to us and has humored us a lot lately. Most nights lately, include Richie and I sitting around the table pitting apricots, freezing plums and cutting corn till late hours while we watch shows and talk. It's so wonderful. If I had to pull that load by myself, I'd be crazy at this point, but Richie puts in a full effort doing a "woman's job". Not only Richie, but all of this brothers! One night, we invited them over to watch a movie and when they saw all the plums, they insisted on helping can the plums while they watched a movie.

This last picture is just too funny not to post. Before the boys came over, we had been outside running in the sprinkler. I had just finished "de-robing" the children to go inside and get in their pj's when the uncles showed up. Miles hopped on Ross' back, fully naked, and got a piggy back ride through the sprinklers. Miles thought it was awesome.

It's not a mess, it's creativity in action

In Rexburg, we did "school" every morning before early naps and watching a show. Just the basic singing songs, checking the weather etc etc. Miles and Gwen just loved it! However, as it got closer to moving, Miles started to get sick of it, so we stopped. Now that we're settled here and trying to solidify a routine, I miss having that structured "learning" time. So instead of the same "school", we have an activity we do before mornings naps and shows. Sometimes we're pretty easy going about it and just pull out the play-dough, bring out the blocks, or make bird feeders again (which the kids never think is as cool as I hope they would). But thanks to Pinterest, some days are pretty awesome.

Mixing the colors for our sidewalk paint

Check out these two blonde Jackson Pollock's in action :)

"Alright, your toys are trapped and you have to get them out! Here's your tools."

Miles got pretty capable with that hammer as time went on. It was really cool to watch.

One day we tried to make bouncy balls. The recipe sounded so easy and fool-proof. It was an epic fail. I didn't even take a picture of the disaster, it was so sad.

Today we made baked cotton balls! Crazy huh? All you do is mix equal parts of flour and water and add food coloring to make your "paint". Then the kids made "pies" by dipping cotton balls in the paint and putting them in the cake pans. Then you actually bake it in the oven!

I made the comment that Gwen's looked like a blackberry pie, so Miles insisted that his was a Green pie. Sounds appetizing.

So once Gwen is down for her morning cat nap and Miles is watching a show, before I get to shower and pretend I'm a girl and not a dish towel, I spend a good 30 minutes cleaning up. Today I even broke a sweat trying to get the "blackberry pie" off of the nice, clean, upholstered dining room chairs from my folks. Who needs a gym right? It ends up taking a fair amount of effort on my part, but it's oh so worth it.

Visitors

What better way to christen a new house than to have visitors?? Last week my mom and dad made a special trip to come up and bring us some needed furniture. Thanks to them we now have a twin bed (that means you can come visit and you'll have a place to sleep!) and a kitchen table and chairs (the same one I grew up with)! They brought a tag-along with them named Paris. Miles was over the moon happy that his cousin came to play! He still asks where Paris is in the mornings. Here they are having a water fight, playing with play-dough, and staying up late and watching a movie together.

The crew was only here for a short time, but while they were here they not only set us up with furniture, but also helped us fix our toilet, gave me an art lesson, also played with play-dough and ate some yummy food.

Just a day after they left, we welcomed my niece Taysom! Her semester was ending and she was flying back home out of SLC, so we got to have her with us for a few days. It was just like good old times back in the burg. Once again, Miles was super happy that someone was willing to humor him and play the "fight the monsters downstairs" game.

On Monday 3 more visitors dropped by! Natalie, Jo and Ozzy. Nat and Jo only stayed a few hours, but Ozzy decided he liked it so much that he's going to stick around. :) Remember when I said Richie was desperate for a dog? Well, it just so happens that My brother and sister-in-law are moving and have to get rid of their long time family dog. They were looking for a good home, and we were looking for a good dog. Perfect match! The kids are in love with him and Richie, the old softy, is convincing me to keep him inside, not outside like we talked about. However, this morning I was glad he was an indoor dog. We were finishing playing downstairs and the kids beat me upstairs. Suddenly I hear some strange noise and Miles shouting "Scary bird!!". (Miles has a fear of birds, FYI) I figured their was a bird bumping into the front window. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was shocked to see Ozzy standing over a newly dead bird on the living room carpet! YIKES! My guess is that the bird came through the chimney, ended up in the living room and Ozzy, the fearless dog, killed it right there and saved Miles from the nightmare of a bird trapped in the house. We gave him a standing ovation and lots of loves.

Richie had Pioneer day off so we put the time to good use and finished some house projects. One of which was a fire pit! We LOVE hanging out outside and roasting mallows, so we used the materials we had on hand and whipped one up. Not perfect or fancy, but works just great. To mix some fun into the day, we took the kids and the rest of the Garner crew to the splash pad and then back to our house to make some smores. Our little neighbor friend hopped over the fence and joined us, and we had a party on our hands!

To finish off a wonderful day, I washed our picnic blanket in our beautiful washing machine and then let it hang dry on our new clothes line. Perfection.

Settling in

We moved in on a Friday night. I'm grateful the kids (and ourselves) seemed to adjust well and there were no major melt downs about wanting to go back to Grandma's house or back to our old house. We were trying our best to keep things "normal" despite the mess of boxes everywhere, so we had our usual waffles on Saturday.

Then after cleaning and getting ready, we found the nearest splash park. Let me tell you, the parks here in Riverton have nothing on the parks in Rexburg. But it was nice to get out and do something non-house related and focus on our family. As we were running around, I couldn't help but notice (for the one-millionth time) the huge mountains right in front of me, and I thought, "This is our home now." and let out a contented sigh. I sure love living next to these beautiful mountains.

Miles still refers to this house as our "new house", but both the kids have adjusted seamlessly into these new surroundings. Maybe it's all the extra room, or an actual yard to play in. :) Most of our things are in the semi-right place by now and we're catching up on the list of necessary home improvements. Within 48 hours of moving in, our old fridge finally bit the dust, as did our hand-me-down washing machine. We quickly found a new fridge on ksl, and then my parents bestowed the most beautiful washer and dryer I have ever seen upon us. They've easily taken the lead of the nicest things we own, and we've both been caught just standing there watching the cycles go. We've also replaced the broken garbage disposal, fixed a toilet, fixed our van AGAIN (this time it was minor, thank goodness), bought a clothes line and installed it, fertilized and re-seeded the lawn, brought in some hand-me-down sod to put in some problem areas, brought in mulch to build up the flower beds, planted a pear tree, got our internet installed, and made plans to re-shingle our roof. Busy little bees, yes? All those other fun things that we want to fix up will just have to wait. I've already started hoarding the extra cash in a jar in my closet.

Today we went to a park and Miles spotted some boys his age horsing around. He forgot all formalities and just ran straight into the group and nearly tackled a kid from behind, all in fun mind you. Miles thought it was the perfect way to get in on the action, but the other kid sure didn't. I tried to help him smooth things over, but the kids wouldn't play with him after that. Miles tried tagging along, but they would tell him to stop following and run away. Did you hear that? Yeah, it was my heart breaking. They weren't being malicious, just 4 year olds, but still. Maybe it hurt me so much because I felt kind of the same way. All these other mom's were in groups, chatting away. I felt like I wasn't invited to the popular table. I spent my time erasing now unnecessary Rexburg numbers from my phone and chasing the kids. I think Miles and I are both desperate for friends. There are 2 girls that share our backyard fence line and every time he sees them, he runs out shouting, "FRIENDS! HEY!!" Luckily, they're pretty nice to him. I have to keep reminding myself that it takes time, right? Good thing we have a good time with each other.:) We made play-dough for the first time the other day since our other play-dough some how went moldy over the course of the move. Yuck.

27 & 4

Monday July 2nd, 2012, was a momentous day. Richie turned 27 years old. For his birthday, we bought a house. :) He got off work early and came with me to sign papers at a fancy office building. The kind of office building where they offer you bottled water and snacks as you wait for your appointment. Like I said, fancy. I can't believe how many times we signed our names and how much paper work is involved! When we finished, they gave us a bottle of sparkling cider to celebrate the milestone. Despite how fun it all was, we couldn't help but being nervous. It doesn't show, does it?

After dinner, his folks surprised him with some yard necessities and we had rhubarb crisp. YUM! I then told him we'd have to drive to Herriman to go pick up my gift to him. The only things he's been wanting for a while are A. a nice camera, B. a nice ukulele, or C. a dog. I think his hopes were high that we were actually going to buy a dog from someone, and when the nice man rolled his used lawnmower out, I could just see the disappointment on his face. Lame wife has to go and be all practical...again. Maybe one day we'll buy something really fun and unnecessary.

Richie then drove me around the area to familiarize myself with our streets and we ended up at OUR home. We had signed the papers, it was officially ours. We took a few pictures to commemorate the day. I think we already look like tired home owners in this picture, don't you?

A few days later we celebrated the 4th of July. All of his brothers had the day off work, so they decided to come work at our house, naturally of course. They trimmed trees back, cleaned out gutters, got the sprinklers working, washed walls, washed blinds, and on and on. What troopers!

Later that night we tried the kids out on their first fireworks. True to Miles, he was not a fan of the sparklers at first, but played it safe with some pop-its. True to Gwen, she jumped right at the whole sparkler thing and loved it until she grabbed a hot one. After some TLC from her uncles, she was ready to go at it again. Miles eventually warmed up to the sparkler idea, although very cautiously. After the kids went to bed, we watched some big fireworks from a distance and enjoyed some popsicles.

A good week for the Garner family indeed.