Adin's Three

Better late than never. Our little guy is three. It has flown by. This kid is the greatest. He is easy going, sweet and hilarious. He loves to dance and makes up some pretty inventive moves. He is starting to get back at Meg for all the picking on him she has done, but he is her protector when we take her to school. If Meg feels like some has wronged her in her class, he comes the next day armed with a sword to hunt them down. He thinks he is one of the big kids on the playground and we often find him over "hanging out" with kids who are three or four times his age. He is polite to the core and expects all the proper things to be said like excuse me, bless you, sorry, etc. He absolutely insists that if he tells you he is sorry that you respond with "it's okay," if not, he will continuously say sorry until you do. He always has plenty of kisses and loves for mommy and daddy and is really sensitive to our moods. He is 1/2 way potty trained (grrr, Meg was so much easeir). He loves to be outside and will spend hours in the backyard. He runs, jumps in every puddle we pass, buries his hands in snow even though he knows it will hurt, gets muddy and dirty and climbs everything (except out of his crib, yea). He, like Meg, is rarely himself. He is basketball man, dinosaur man, guitar man, spiderman, batman, angry man...the list could go on and on, but when he is not someone else he is very defensive of just wanting be "regoolar Adin". We just love everything about this littly guy and can't believe he is three.

Adin didn't get the whole birthday idea. The only advance preparation we made was deciding what cake he wanted. So, as we were prepping him the days before his birthday and trying to get him excited, he would often say, "Ummm, no, I don't yike (like) my birthday. I don't want cake." He didn't even seem to get the idea of presents. We kept explaining that he would get presents and he just would act confused.

Adin's birthday was on a Monday, which is Brian's logest school day. So I took the kids to Mcdonalds to play on the playland for his birthday. Then after his nap we decorated the house for him. When Brian got home he got to open presents. After the first one, he quickly got the hang of what was going on.

Adin with the loot. Let the sharing war begin. :)

Meg made Adin a "birthday tiara" because her preschool did that for all the kids on their birthdays so she wanted to do one for Adin. Thank goodness he agreed to wear it or her poor little heart my have broke.

Last but not least, the sibling jealousy caught on tape. It's kind of long and the same thing over and over, but, nevertheless, pretty funny.

Halloween

It's been so long since I've posted. It always gets crazy around this time of year for us. Hopefully things will slow down so that I can post of some of the stuff we have been up to. With the holidays coming up, it's probably not going to happen.

Adin was a pirate and Meg was a black cat. I made Adin's costume from a picture that I found on the internet. Meg wanted to be a fairy and was being very specific about how she wanted to look. I was really worried about sewing a costume for her because it was quite complex. Thankfully, she switched to a cat. I was so relieved and it was so easy.

Here are some pics.



Adin checking out his loot. He was so fun to watch trick-or-treating. He often jumped the gun and would say trick-or-treat before anyone even came to the door. He was so excited that people were giving him candy. About halfway through, he started asking to go home. At first I thought it because he was tired. Then it hit me that he just wanted to eat candy. I kept telling him he couldn't eat any candy till we were done so he just wanted to be done. Meg was the opposite. Her goal was to fill her basket to the brim before we would go home. Hopefully Adin will be a little more on her side next year.

This is Brian's version of Meg's painted cat face. He wanted it to look realistic not cutesy. He did a pretty dang good job. Brian can't wait for the kids to want to dress up as something scary like frankenstein or a bloody mummy.

Adin in his pirate costume.

My cutesy version.

Summer Fun!

Why is it that it is so hard to post in the summer (for me)? I remember having this same problem last summer. I don't mind that summer is ending. I absolutely love everything about fall. Utah summers are hard. It gets so hot in the afternoon that you really end up stuck inside. Meg doesn't handle the heat really well. She lasts about 2 minutes and then ends up complaining and back inside. Adin stays out longer but gets really flushed and hot within about 10 minutes. On top of that, this is our first summer with a swamp cooler. We are all excited for fall and slightly cooler weather.
Brian did the unthinkable. He gave Adin a summer buzz. While he is still adorable, I am really excited to have it grow back. This is his "cheese" face.

This is kind of random, but cute. Adin driving my brother Andy's police car. Adin thought it was so cool.

Liberty Park is a lot of fun. They have this play area with streams and waterfalls and a very small wading pools. It's free and the kids love it. We've made quite a few trips there.


A sad, sad replacement for our planned trip to Disneyland...Lagoon. Blah. The kids loved it, but it just really isn't that cool. The first day we went was a beautiful day. It was about 80 degrees and on a weekday so it wasn't very busy. Brian's dad came with us and the kids loved that. His dad hadn't been for 30 years.

The only negative to the weather was that it took forever to dry off after the water rides. Out of everyone, I got soaked the worst. We did the water rides in the morning and I was still soaked by the end of the day. At lunch, I pulled my socks off and rung them out and left a huge puddle. Meg had just barely dried and then Adin spilled an entire cup of ice water in her lap.

Ha Ha! I was shocked that Wendell went on this. I didn't even go on it. He did lose his hat about 5 seconds into the ride.

One of Adin's best buddies (again the cheese face).

Not sure why I didn't zoom.

We bounced back a few weeks later with my family. It was really hot this day and we were all trying to chug the water to keep hydrated. It was a lot of fun to be there with my family. This is Adin's FAVORITE ride. He rode it over and over and over again. He would get off and then run back into the line. He mispronouces the word space ship. He really emphasized his mispronunciation and would yell this over and over. He would replace the "p" with a sharp "t".

Daddy was Meg's best bud at Lagoon. She was nervous about a lot of the rides and since Daddy is her protector he got to be her consant companion. He didn't mind.

Oddly, the stupid haunted rides were Meg's favorite. She always closed her eyes and gripped our hands, but then wanted to do it again.

DIS-GUS-TING! Corn dogs bigger than their heads.

My fam riding Wicken. Our kids adore each one of them. I had a serious Dr. Pepper withdrawal migraine so I hung out with the kiddos and let Brian ride some of the grown up rides with these guys. At least Brian got to have a little more fun the second time around. Kuddos to Sarah for riding all the scary rides.

This was Meg's general attitude the whole second day. Sheesh! It all started when we convinced her to ride the rickety white roller coaster. She came off bawling. The ride is horrible or I am old.


Summer is over for us on Monday. Meg starts kindergarten. I have already shed many tears about this. She is just plain excited and counting down the days. She has 14 days worth of outfits hung up and tagged in numerical order. I just hope she sticks to the order because that means 14 days that I don't have to argue with her over what she wears that day. I am really excited for her. I know she really wants to go, and I know that I bore her at home.

And, to end on a happy note. This is just a silly little video of Adin jammin'. It is quite a calm version. Usually he dances and does some back and forward leans along with the jammin' face.

Big Changes

So now that we are all settled (and loving it) in Salt Lake, we are about to have our lives turned upside down.

Meg starts kindergarten on the 31st. Online it listed that our elementary school's kindergarten was a full day. Brian and I were having a lot of anxiety about that. We felt like she was being yanked away too early, and we worried about her getting bored with a whole day. I went to her registration on Monday and was happy to find that I could choose between a full day and a half day. Now, I feel much better about it. I am actually really excited for her to get entertained by someone other than me again. :)

Brian starts school on the 24th. We've debated back and forth over whether he would keep his job while in school or not. His bosses were begging him to stay. They told him that even though he is on salary that he didn't need to work 40 hours a week. They told him 30 would be fine and he could do his homework while at work as long as he got all his work done. This was all jibberish to me because I know how busy he is working 40 hours. There is no way he could do it all and school. We had been looking at trying to get a research assistantship on campus because it would waive Brian's tuition and pay him a stipend. Apparently these are really hard to get. All Brian had to do was email the dean his resume, she emailed him back requesting an interview, he interviewed and they wanted him. Phew!

I will no longer be driving to Orem three times a week to work. We have been waiting to find out about the assistantship before I quit. I knew I would quit either way, but since he got the assistantship I know that I don't need to get another job right now. Meg is so excited that I won't be working anymore. She says that she is so happy that I can do fun things with her again. I am not sure where this came from because I usually work when she is asleep. :) Cute, nonetheless.

Well, that's that. Just wanted everyone to know what we're up to.

Where have we been?

Things have been so crazy for us so posting has been put on the back burner. About 10 days before the end of June, we had our first phone call on our condo. The guy and his wife happened to be standing outside our window looking at our for sale sign. I let them in. The liked it but we tried not to think much of it. Three days later they wanted to come see it again with their two sons. Their sons were crazy about the amenities so they loved it more than their parents. That pretty much sealed the deal. They came and made an offer the next day. They asked what we needed to break even and gave us that for the place. It all happened so fast. We are very blessed. There are many nicer and/or cheaper condos in our complex that have been for sale for months to no avail. Again, we are very blessed. The guy bought it for his two college-aged sons. He paid cash for it so we didn't have to go through all the waiting for loans and inspections and such. He wanted us out by July 1. That left us only one weekend for the actual move. So we started the search for a place to rent in Salt Lake. That took three days leaving three days to pack and move. Then I had a couple days to get the condo cleaned. It was a whirlwind and more stress than anyone should deal with, but we are now settled in and loving it. We wanted to shout out a special thanks to Mike and Mel, who were here vacationing and spent a large majority of their time in Utah helping us pack and move. We REALLY could not have done it without them!. Another special thanks to my mom and Sarah who saved me from a serious mental breakdown. Because of them I didn't have to spend a few days cleaning our place dealing with two kids who were melting down from lack of sleep, attention and normalcy. They cleaned the majority of my place while I mostly dealt with melt downs and tantrums. Also, thanks to my brother Brian, Wendell, Mike (again), Dallin and Zach for helping us unload. You guys are all the best.

Our place is a 3 bedroom completely remodled duplex in Murray. It is more space than we have ever had before. We have a private fenced-in backyard and a big finished basement for toys and misc. hobby stuff. It has been a great change for us and we are really loving it here.

Here are a few pics of all the in between stuff of the last month.

Adin's first time out in the new place. I have never had problems with him staying in time out before, but for some reason he just kept getting off the chair. This was grandma's solution.

All the cute Droubay girls. This will definitely be framed for Meg's room. Love it!

I am now officially married to an "old man" (or so he calls himself). Brian turned 27. It was a much bigger deal for the kids, but I guess that is how adult birthday's are. Meg is very into making birthday's special. We blew up tons of balloons and filled Brian's car while he was at work. Meg used window pain to draw pictures all of his car. Then she insisted on decorating the house. She was also certain that for her present she wanted to get daddy a new CD for him to listen to in the car. I thought that was so thoughtful of her to notice that music is one of her daddy's great loves.

Meg finally passed PRE!!-Level 1 (after 3 tries). She is quite the chicken. After some heavy bribery she finally dunked her head under the water. After that, all she did was dunk under over and over the whole lesson time. We'll see how Pre-Level 2 goes. :)

The kids had a blast and the cousin swim party. Thanks Kimber! Let us know when the next one is.

Meg's Birthday, Party and Preschool Graduation

PRESCHOOL GRADUATION

My little princess is so grown up. It is so sad for me. I couldn't believe how emotional I got over her being done with preschool. I have felt heartsick over it (ridiculous). I kept asking her if she was sad it was over and she would just shrug her shoulders and tell me not really. She had amazing teachers who I will miss and she made so many friends that she just loves and she even met her future husband (according to her). Her teacher commented many times to me how much Meg would surprise her. She expected her to be a total girly girl and in most ways she is, but then she was closest friends with all boys. She was apparently the ring leader every day on the playground in playing pirates, robbers and any other chasing/capturing game. Her teacher also mentioned how surprised she was that during insect week, Meg spent every spare minute holding the pet worms. At every parent/teacher conference they would list sections of development and discuss what we could work on at home. When they would come to her social skills, they always had nothing for me to work on. They said that out of all the kids she was the most expressive and polite.

Her graduation/last day fell on her birthday. It made for a crazy day. I am still very bitter about the amount of pictures I got. I went and bought new batteries for the camera the night before. I got through the first song of the program and my old batteries died. I opened the package of new batteries and they were 100% dead batteries. They wouldn't even power on my camera. Argh!!!! I loved the program and even got teary eyed throughout so I am so sad to have just a couple pictures.

Meg with her main teacher (and favorite) Miss Dani. Meg was crying because she didn't win the drawing for the class pet goldfish.

BIRTHDAY

This birthday held so much more anticipation for Meg than previous birthdays. She has been counting down since Christmas. She also had some very specific ideas about what should happen and how things should be. I don't know how she picked up some of these ideas maybe TV shows or something. She wanted to be involved in all of it. She wanted to help me put up decorations, bake the cake, decorate the cake...she even would have loved to help me wrap her presents.

I think we pulled off a fun day for her, but it was so much more of a stressful day for me than her past birthdays have been. I think its because I worked so much around her birthday that it was hard to get everything done. She really wanted me to make her favorite foods for dinner. I asked what that was and she said mashed potatoes with gravy (gravy was very important), chicken and corn on the cob. Sheesh! I thought I could pull it off, but everything was just too busy so come 6:00 at night we ended up at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was a poor substitute from what she was used to, but she didn't care. She just thought it was cool to go to a restaurant on her birthday.

PARTY

Meg probably had more fun at her party this year than on her actual birthday. I tried to explain to her that her party was on a different day than her birthday. It must not have clicked because the night before her birthday she was in tears that she wouldn't be having her friends over on her birthday. Her anticipation for the party was crazy. She was bouncing off the walls for days. I was not excited by any means. I knew this was a good year for a party because she lives closer to her cousins and has lots of friends from school and church. Still, I desperately didn't want to plan a party and tried to convince her to go to Build-a-Bear instead. She insisted on the party. Darn it. It was worth it to see how much fun she had. She is still talking about it and was so happy that so many of her friends came. I know it will be a lasting memory for her so it was definitely worth my pain.

Brian told the kids to sing as loudly as they could.

This is just a totally random pic I had to throw in. Adin is such a goof ball, and he gets goofier the older he gets.

Now we are through the crazy week and I am so excited to start a summer of fun and sun. . . if only the sun would stay around for longer than a couple days. :)

Befores and Afters--Improvements...hopefully

Well, this past year has been the first year in my life that I have felt that nothing in life can be predicted. What we thought was such a good decision turned into not such a great decision. Now we just want to get out. :) We placed our place up For Sale By Owner on Sunday night. There couldn't be a worse time to try and sell, but we figure it doesn't hurt to try. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

BEFORE--Meg's Room



AFTER--Meg's Room





BEFORE-Adin's Room


AFTER-Adin's Room


BEFORE--Main bathroom

This picture doesn't do justice to the horribleness of this bathroom. The man before us was obsessed with black and cream and did a very poor (VERY POOR) tile job all over the bathroom. The floor was not level and kind of squishy as you walked.





Credit goes out to my parents, who gutted our bathroom last Thanksgiving. The floorboards were rotting and then we found out that the foundation (cement) wasn't even level. My dad had to pour cement. We removed all the wallboards (damaged from tile on walls and mold) and put in new sheetrock. My dad installed our new vanity from KSL. Then my mom helped me lay the linoleum floor. They did all that in ONE day. Brian and I have spent the last, hmmmm, six months painting and decorating. It has about four coats of paint on it as we tried to find the perfect color. I think this is the biggest transformation.


BEFORE--Kitchen




AFTER--Kitchen


Blah! If we had any more money it would go right here! I despise the tile.


BEFORE--Front Room


AFTER--Front Room


Credit on this goes to my brother Brian who made the cabinet doors to cover up the TV.



BEFORE--Master




The all to famous master with sheet metal crown molding.

AFTER--Master

Well, there you have it. I am sooo happy to be done with changing things. It is a pure joy to not focus on projects anymore. As hard as the work was, there is no part of us that wants to stay. We both desperately want out. Funny how that happens.