Picture tagged

My good friend Alisa tagged me with a pretty funny tag.

The rules: The rules are you have to take ten pictures of the following things. And you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose. Then you tag five others.

I was a good girl and took them immediately. It's not as bad as it could be, it didn't require pictures of my room or the office, which are in AWFUL shape.

So, here goes:

1. Kitchen sink
Okay, I can't get this pic to load, but suffice it to say that our dishes from lunch AND dinner are in there. Sigh. I'll do them in the morning.

2. The toilet


We have two, but the one in the master bath, I can't get to, due to the boxes. My room is on the list for tomorrow.

3. Laundry Room


It's actually a laundry closet, but you get the point. BOTH work now and I need to start that load in the washer.

4. The fridge


You can kind of see the diet coke that exploded all over. I'll clean it up tomorrow. I'm TIRED!

5. Your children/spouse RIGHT NOW


Isn't that beautiful? My handsome little men were asleep by 6:39 this evening. (Which isn't atypical, Henry doesn't nap and Spencer gets up EARLY) so bedtime is beautiful.



Derek is at work, so there is the door, awaiting his return.

6. Favorite shoes


These and my blue crocs, which I'm sure Jae doesn't approve of. :) But I love 'em. The hot Vegas blacktop melts the bottoms of the crocs though.

7. Favorite room


This is where I spend the majority of my day, and it's unpacked, so it's my fave.
8. Dream vacation:
I have lots, but


















9. Self-portrait


I'm breathtaking, I know. Try to contain your amazement with my stunning beauty. ;)

Now, I must tag five people so here goes:

Alice, Erin, Sarah (HAHAH), Maren and Kara Nelsen.

GO! NOW! DO IT!

A couple of sidenotes

1. It occurs to me that I had not announced to the cyber-world of our impending #3, so there you go. April-ish we'll expecting a surprise baby. I've been sicker than ever before with the boys, so my mother is convinced it's a girl, we'll find out in 7months.

2. I feel I must clarify, that while we had a giant moving truck, our crap only occupied 14 feet of it. 3 other families shared the moving van with us.

3. Carl's Jr. is not nasty, Erin, when was the last time you went there? It's quite good. I know, I was shocked too. Maybe it only tastes good when you've got a fetus eating all of your food...

4. We managed to eat 3 whole meals at home today and it was FABULOUS. I finally got gas.

5. My dryer works.

6. No matter how low I turn my a/c it is still hot. Poo.

7. Henry informed me today "That makes me grumpy" when he discovered I'd be cutting his nails after the bath. I tried not to laugh, unsuccessfully.

8. Spencer has learned to say "MORE" which he SCREAMS whenever he desires MORE of whatever it was he was enjoying. It's kind of cute, kind of annoying.

There you have it folks.

Blogging amongst boxes

I have returned, triumphant...

Okay, maybe not, but nonetheless, I write to you all from friggin' hot Las Vegas. We made it, all our stuff made it, and we even got the scooter and minivan here. AMAZING. Both children are alive and well, both Derek and I are still speaking to one another, we have hot water after three days of none and I am really hopefull that perhaps tomorrow, they will come and fix my dryer.

So, now a picture essay of our move to Las Vegas.

Derek, trying to get our utilities squared away BEFORE leaving Kansas


Boxes, everywhere, still in Kansas


Spencer "helping." He opened the drawer and climbed in.


My 25th birthday was two days before we left and we went to dinner with our good friends, the Boyles. Spencer, enjoying pizza at Old Chicago.


Jeremy and Everhett enjoying dinner. I don't know why I ever think going out to eat with our kids will be fun. We never even get to have a conversation...


My dear Amelia, and Spencer's bethrothed, Florence


Derek and Henry, who refused to look at the camera or smile.


So, we left a bunch of stuff in Kansas, stuff we gave away. One of those things was this desk that Derek has had since he was single in college. At some point, he'd written in one of the drawers and so we didn't want to throw away THAT love note, but in the end, it wouldn't fit, so I took a picture instead.


I meant to take pictures of the boys shoved into the minivan which was full to capacity but I didn't, because I just didn't.

Leaving was okay. I had my mental and emotional breakdowns (Yes there were several) on my birthday, so by the time we were ready to go on Thursday, I was okay. Henry asked repeatedly why we weren't bringing Everhett. Sigh.

So, we drove and drove and drove. We got to see our friends Jen and Jon and their new baby in Denver. Then we visited with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins in Denver which was GREAT. We really wanted to stay the night with them, but we were on a schedule, so we kept driving until Frisco, CO, which is an incredibly beautiful small ski town that was a fantastic 50 degrees in the morning. It made me depressed to know that by the end of the day, we'd be in 115 degree heat, but alas, onward we went.

We got to our apartment by 4:30 and quickly discovered we had NO A/C!!!! Not an option for Vegas. So, we packed another over-night bag and went out to stay with Derek's cousin who lets us come without hesitation (We are so blessed with great family and friends). They came and fixed the A/C on Saturday morning, and then immediately returned to replace my washing machine that was spilling forth mulitudes of water onto my floor. The dryer also doesn't work, but again, I'm hoping that someday they come fix it. Our truck arrived right on time to unload and the young men from the ward came and helped. It was FAST!

You know you live in Las Vegas when you can see THIS from your house:



Movin' in:


More moving, the elders were very helpful.


Me, eating at Carl's Jr. after church on Sunday. GO AHEAD AND JUDGE! I don't care. I'm pregnant, we had not gas, therefore no stove, I hadn't been to the store and I was going to vomit. So there. :)


So, we are here, Derek starts work tomorrow, and I continue to unpack boxes. We have been to mulitple stores, multiple times and my poor children are just hanging on. We have a playground and a pool in our backyard, along with grass, so I can't complain. It just going to be an adjustment, but we'll be all right.

So, in the meantime, I'll have to stop blogging immediately because "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas..."

HAHAHAH! That was a terrible joke, but let's just chalk it up to exhaustion and heat stroke, okay???

P.S. If you come to visit we'll take you on a dam tour, take all the dam pictures you'd like, if you have any dam questions...

117 boxes

is how many I have packed.

Why do I know? Because I have carefully labeled every single box, with a number, a color code, which room it belongs in and what the inside contains.

Why did I do this?

Well, if you must know because two years ago when we moved to Kansas, we got robbed. BLIND. It took me almost a week, A WEEK, to realize that our vacuum was missing. So, I am not going to miss stuff this time. Each and every box will be accounted for.

I'm basically done. I have a few boxes left to do next week, right before we go.

PHEW!

I'm awaiting my last Kansas doula baby. Baby is due today and Mom thinks she's in labor. Hurray! It's a real bummer though since Derek isn't here. I'll have to call my neighbor to come sleep on my couch, should I get called out in the dark of night. I tried to help Henry understand that if he needed something in night, it MIGHT be Jeremy who's here with him. But he didn't care for that idea and tried to lock me in his room before he went to sleep. Poor kid. Maybe the baby will wait until tomorrow day, which would be better.

Housing woes

I would now like to rant a little about moving.

I hate it.

But you say, "Morgan, who DOESN'T hate moving?"

I don't know, but that doesn't negate my hating of it. It's AWFUL. I detest packing boxes, I detest deciding to keep or throw away. Do we keep the dishes? Freecycle them??? ARG!

Trying to convince my two-year-old that he CAN NOT bring his best friend Everhett with us is heartbreaking and extremely frustrating. "NO MOMMY! Everhett come to New Vegas with me!" I don't care for that.

Having my husband be there and me here is not cool. He's working and I'm here, packing boxes and trying to keep Henry from climbing on the stacks of boxes. Deciding what I can live without for the next 15 days... ARG.

But, the number one most detestable, horrific experiences about moving is FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE. It is DISGUSTING how much houses cost, and we're not buying so we're limited to rentals. Throw in an "Academic Intern"'s salary and we're even more limited. Super. So, we are being forced into a 2 bedroom APARTMENT. GAG! I'm very very irritated.

So, Derek is out driving around Las Vegas telling me if the apartments are scary, if the neighbors are scary, if there are drivebys happening in front of him, drug-deals out in the open???? I just don't like it, not one little bit.

So, there. I have packed 68 boxes. The office is all that is left. I hate the office. We will have no office in Las Vegas. Sigh. I'm avoiding it.

I'm almost out of boxes. I need to go raid some stores again, which is SUPER fun with two kids.

See? I have done nothing but rant this entire post. So, I shall leave you with new kiddo-isms.

Henry: Mommy, I love you. You're THE BEST!
Me: No, YOU'RE the best.
Henry: NO! YOU'RE THE BEST!

If I ask Spencer if he wants to take a bath, he starts yanking on his clothes, trying to get naked. He LOVES baths.

Okay, rant over.

Henry's quotes

"Come on Mommy, we go get Daddy, we ride in an elevator and pick Daddy up in Las Vegas" (This one broke my heart, He put his shoes on and was standing by the door).

"Mommy, we build Daddy a new house. You wanna help me?" (Henry is desperately missing his daddy).

Henry: Mommy, I have a filishpod
Me: Yes, that's a fishing pole
Henry: Yes, a pooping fool.

And a quick one from Spencer: Derek was on the phone and Spencer was "talking" and suddenly said, "DADA!" it was awesome and a first.

My poor sweet husband is missing his boys pretty bad. Less than two weeks left!

Spencer's first BIRTHDAY

My baby is one today. WOW. He's so big, it's hard to believe!

Some facts about our Spencer-Man:

He was 9lbs when he was born and quite rolly. We loved it!

He literally never cried for the first month of his life. He was just content. He'd wake up and whine a bit until someone would get him what he needed.

He smiled starting at day 2. You are allowed to think it was gas, but when you pick up your two-day-old and say, "Hello baby!" and he grins right at you, it's hard to deny. Ask my mom, she was there. :)

Spencer adores his older brother, a lot! Henry is hilarious to Spencer, it's pretty funny.

Spencer's favorite food is watermelon.

He loves to sleep! He's always been a pretty good napper. When it's nap or bed time, I'll go to his room with him, get his blanket, turn on his white noise and turn off the light and he laughs and laughs because he's so excited.

Spencer is saying the following words: Ball, Hi, Hat, Mama, Dada. Sometimes he'll say "bath" and "Uh-oh."

Spencer is still somewhat bald... just a bit.

We love him!

So, we had his birthday party on Friday because Derek left for Las Vegas on Saturday. I had never thrown a one-year-old birthday party before. For Henry's first birthday, it was just Derek and I, so this was kind of fun for me.

We had watermelon and watermelon cake (remember, it's his favorite).


He was a fan:


Very Serious about his cake:


He did a good job:


He was very proud:


Spencer and his penguin that HE picked out:


I had a cute outfit to put on him, but then just left him in his diaper. All he did was get messy anyway...

The boys destroying their room, birthday-style:



Spencer One year ago:


Spencer, two months old:

Spencer, five months old:


Seven months:


Spencer this morning: