SATURDAY AT THE MAGIC HOUSE

Saturday we decided we needed to get out so I drove over to Kirkwood and we spent the day at the Children's Museum.  The kids love it!  It is an old Vicotrian Home that has been revamped into a Children's Museum.  There is tons to do for all ages.  We have a membership so I am thrilled that on HOT days like yesterday we can go and have some fun!

Chapter 9

2012

I am starting this post half-way through the year so I am sure I will miss a lot.

Starting with today May 6, 2012  

We have moved to Creve Coeur Missouri and are living in a town home.  So far it has been extremely exciting and fun.  Jon is working for Vivint Alarm for the 9th year in a row!  Wow that sounds crazy when I write it down.  We have been searching for a job change for nearly 4 years now, but this has been revealed to us that it is what the Lord wants us to be doing so we will be patient with His timing.

Makenna is in 1st grade and I was really nervous for her to make the change.  She loved her teacher, Mrs. Fry, and was learning to read quite well.  I didn't want her to have a dip and I worry about her confident.  However, the move has proved to be just the opposite of what I had thought.  She is very proud of her accomplishment of moving and making new friends and her schooling hasn't dropped at all.  She is actually doing even better as she gains more confidence in herself and being adventurous!

Autumn is my very active strong willed one.  I was very anxious to get her involved upon arriving in St. Louis.  She doesn't do well with just hanging out.  She needs to stay busy, otherwise disaster can srike.  I therefore decided it would be beneficial to put her in a preschool and happens chance that there is a Methodist church across the street from the elementary school that does one.  I enrolled her and it has been a fun new adventure.  The school is quite cute and there are 3 women that run it.  Two of which are older like grandma's.  Autumn comes home with the cutest crafts and is learning all about St. Louis.  The other day she came home with a life size paper of herself with the body being the state of Missouri.  On it, it said. . . I live in Missouri and then there was a heart on her chest that said "And Utah"  Autumn has such a wonderful ability to make people fall in Love with her and to do the things she wants!

Dean has been a new challenge.  He is very attached to mom and dad and with the move he has wanted more and more attention.  This proves difficult seeing that Lily is also very needy.  However, I am finding that as I love him more and try to show him and tell him.  He has been more willing to grow independent. We started potty-training this week!  One of my least favorite things of parenting and so far it is going well.  He is about 50/50 and I am certain he will have it by the time we arrive back in Utah.  

Lily, my sweet baby is growing and growing.  When we left Utah she barely could sit up.  In the past month she has learned to sit, roll-over, scoot, army crawl, and crawl!  It is nice to see her finally hit these milestones yet I wasn't encouraging them intensely because of the challenges that come with crawling.  She is nearly one now so I should expect it :)  She is such a happy little thing, and when you look at her she always smile's back.  She also waves at you when you wave to her, and is constantly making silly funny faces.  She is darling and I love my baby!

Jon is selling well as always and working hard to support our family.  We celebrated our 8th Anniversary a week ago and we are still in love and happy married even more so than when we got married!  He's a great Dad and very helpful to me I couldn't be more blessed.

I am staying super busy with the 4 kids.  From taxiing kids around from school to going to the Zoo, The Magic House, and I also put the girls into a gymnastics class which is super Awesome!  I have started running again and am planning on doing a 10K and then a Half Marathon!  It excites me to have fun things to accomplish.  Also, the ward here immursed  me quickly.  I had my records transferred, the next week gave the opening prayer, and then the next week gave a talk and received a calling as a primary substitute.  WOW!  

SPRING VACATION and MOVE

This year we are going to St. Louis Missouri!  Yes that sounds redundant because it is.  We were there two years ago, but we are excited to go back and root for the Cardinals again.  What fun times!Debbie was sweet to come in as always and drive our second car and we even picked up a UHaul this year for the travels so that we could bring more stuff which I am super excited about

We've decided it would be fun to make a vacation out of the long drive so we stopped at Mt. Rushmore the first day spent the night and enjoyed the amazing sights and going to a reptile house as well as the awesome water park inside the hotel which Makenna wouldn't come out of.  She stayed with her Dad for four hours going around the waterslides!

The next day was grueling as we drove for nearly 15 hours to Nauvoo.  We got in late, tired, and on edge. . . . But after a good nights rest we enjoyed the beauty's that only Nauvoo has to offer!  We walked around and visited the houses.  Ate at some yummy diners.  And shopped for some trinkets.  We slept soundly then awoke to the beautiful sunrise over the temple.  Our hotel room had a window that looked right out to the temple!

This day we drove into our new place in St. Louis and settled down as we nestled in for a fun filled summer.

New Years with the Cottle's

After Christmas we packed up our car and took a drive to Texas to visit grandma and grandpa Cottle.  It was one of the most wonderful family trips we have taken to visit them!  It was a party from the day we started to when we left.  The kids had a blast seeing there aunts and uncles and niece.  We did tons of activities including going to the BYU football game, Aquarium, park, Justin for boots of course, Six Flags and WHIRLY BALL which is Jon's new favorite sport.  It was fun hanging out with the gang and we got some major spoilage.  All of US!!  Dean got his first set of Geo-Trax which has become his new love, and Jon and I got a Mac Book Pro.  Yep I am an Apple girl now :)
It was hard to leave and we will miss everyone, but I am glad we got the opportunity to hang out.

UEA Weekend

We had a wonderful week. My sister Wendy drove down with her 5 kids, so proud of her to do it alone. We had a blast Going to Black Island Farms and riding the tractor to pick pumpkins, sliding down the Hay Bale slides and letting the kids roam the farm. I was brave enough to take the girl scout troop which was fabulous because we got a group rate. We had 20 kids, but thankful 8 adults. That night I attended Natalie Garritson's viewing with my Mother. Natalie looked beautiful and the family seemed to be holding up incredibly well. Later that night Wendy and I let Jon take the 9 kids while we did some late night sister bonding and shopping. The best part was finding a coat rack for our other sister Whitney and pounding on her door and waking her up to give it to her. I will remember that forever :) Then my dear family gave me my birthday dinner. I requested going up to Deep Creek and doing Dutch Oven. My Dad cooked it and it was delicious and so fun and warm. Loved it tons. Thanks Family. Saturday we went to Gardner Village to end with a bang. I enjoyed hanging gout with my family and my kids loved the cousins. Makenna cried Sunday morning because she missed Faith. They are like to girlie peas in a pod. Dean and Austin had fun playing tractors and being boys. What a blast. I took some 5 month photos of Lily. Well, Jon did on his phone because yes I lost our Camera ;( But they still turned out amazing. Good Times. I also posted a picture of my girls playing soccer. They are so fun and it has been a fun new adventure for us. Autumn's team is called the Little Mermaids and it is so fun to watch them, she is one killer player and scores lots of goals. Makenna is just enjoying the social aspect and being part of a team.

Camping

After enjoying a few days of rest I decided I wanted to take the family camping. So I went to Cal-Ranch and bought a dutch oven and looked up some delicious recipe's. Mountain Dew Chicken won my choice to I went and got the ingredients. Jon, myself, the kids, and my dad packed up and headed up Deep Creek to enjoy some tent camping. Whitney, Ryan and Maylee joined the group and my mom even hopped off the plane for a little while to spend the night with us. It was so much fun and something that hopefully becomes a family tradition. My dad and I cooked up a storm with the Dutch Ovens while the kids played in the trees. It was Heaven. Then on Sat. Morning we awoke to take the girls to there first Soccer game. Yep, they started soccer and wow is Autumn an athlete she scored 9 goals ???? Crazy Girl. Also one of the other weekends we went down to the cabin with my mom and dad so Jon could enjoy Panguich lake. I talked my dad into starting up my grandpa Lamar Wall's old fishing boat and we took the kids around the lake for rides. No, we didn't catch many fish, but it was sure fun. Then I took Jon to Yankee Meadows on one of the most beautiful 4-wheeler rides I have ever been on. It was wonderful. I loved the 4-wheel date I had with him. I feel so blessed to have these experiences.