Best Friends

Connor and Tara have been so cute with each other lately. When Connor wakes up, he asks for Tara. When I tell him she is sleeping, he says "I see." Then when I tell him no, he will say "but Tara play?" When she gets up asking for food and not to play, he is not a happy camper. He tells me "No! Tara play" when I put her in her high-chair.

She loves to follow him around and do whatever he is doing. Unfortunately, he is the same way. So they go back and forth wanting whatever toy the other has or to sit in whatever seat the other is sitting in etc.

It will be interesting to see how the 3rd one fits in!

Virginia it is!

Well, it looks like we will be moving to Virginia in January! ACK!!! There are so many details to work out. For starters, a doctor to deliver my baby 1 week after we move! I may just stay here for a few months while we try to sell the house. But then, I am at home alone for the first few months of having 3 children under 2 1/2. That does NOT sound like fun! But, if I plan to go out, that means I need to find us a place to live before Jan 7th (Mike's start date). Now how am I supposed to do that during Christmas? I guess we will just be going out that first week in January to find something. CRAZY!!!

We will be so sad to leave all of the great friends we have made here in Vegas. It was really starting to feel like home. The 4 years we have been here is the longest we have lived anywhere. In our 7 years of marriage, we have lived in 5 states and in 9 different homes. We are excited for our adventure though.

Canning in Idaho

I never got this up after we went because I went to Ireland and Switzerland right after this trip. I went with my good friend Maren up to her home town of Burley Idaho to do some canning. The kids loved it! Casey's parents have a huge yard that is enclosed by a gate so the kids could run wild. The kids loved being able to be outside for longer then 10 minutes because in Vegas, you would get heat stroke. We went the first week in October. It was great fun! We canned

• Grape Juice (the best stuff EVER!)
• Apple Sauce
• Apple Pie Filling
• Tomato Sauce (Ok, so this was done for us when we got there.)

It was hard work but my food storage looks so much better!

Oh and I cut my hair 10 inches while I was there. This is the second time in 3 years that I have donated my hair. But that really isn't hard to do when you are pregnant for 3 years straight!

Daylight Savings...GRRR!

Connor and Tara are not doing well with the whole time change thing. I guess I have put their little bodies on too strict of a routine. Connor woke up yesterday at 4:30am and was ready to PARTY!!! I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and I heard his TV on in his room. I went in and he said "Hi mom!" Like it wasn't weird that he was up and watching TV at 4:30 am. (Thank goodness for TV!) I went back to sleep for an hour. He fell asleep in his highchair at 8:30am. Tara has been waking up an hour earlier too and they have both been ready to eat dinner at 4:00pm Sharp! This morning we did a bit better. Connor slept in until 6:15 and Tara got up at 7am. Hopefully this will stick.

I am raising a boy!

So last night I was laying on the couch while Connor and Tara played out in the back yard. Connor came in and held up his hand and said "look mom!" I screamed really loud and made him drop the HUGE grasshopper that he was holding on me. NASTY! It scared me so bad!

Happy Birthday Casey

So these are our great friends that live here in Vegas with us. These are the fabulous people that I referred to as "the babysitters" in my Europe postings. It was Casey's birthday on Saturday. So we threw him a surprise party! SURPRISE!!!!

Flaming Red Hair

Now you know why I don't let Mike do their hair for church...

Days 5 and 6 of our Trip to Europe

Day 5 was a travel day for us. We woke up to the beautiful view of the Swiss Alps out our B&B window. We got all packed up and said goodbye to Gimmelwald and our new friends we had met from our B&B. We went down and spent an hour in Interlaken searching stores for a Chocolate cookbook for our babysitter Maren. That is all that she asked for. You would think that in Switzerland, that we would be able to find a chocolate cookbook easy enough. NOPE! 1 hour and about 30 stores later, we had to throw in the towel. We found MANY cookbooks but none on Chocolate and very few in English. I was even willing to settle for a cheese cookbook. BUT NO! I did find one but it was in German. But it still wasn't chocolate.

We went to the airport hoping that we would be able to find something in those touristy shops for her. We were lucky to FINALLY find a chocolate cookbook. I was so excited that I bought it even though it was in German. It has some great photos that she will enjoy. She is all about the presentation anyway. Also, there is always the internet to convert from German to English. :)

We flew from Zurich, Switzerland to Dublin, Ireland. We were met by my Father and Mother in law along with William, Mike's cousin's husband. He lives in Northern Ireland but has never been down to Dublin for anything other then a couple of church meetings. But he has never done any tourism down there. That is just crazy! I mean he only lives 2 hours away and has never ventured down there for fun. I found that this is not uncommon among the Irish. That would be like me living 2 hours from Zion's Park and never having been there. CRAZY!!

Anyway, they picked us up from the airport and we traveled to a friend of Bill and Carol to sleep at his house. They were a very cute couple. He is the Stake President down there. Once we found the house (we got VERY lost), we ventured out again to find dinner. We found a “Chippie” shop. Now a “Chippie” shop is a heart attack waiting to happen. A “Chippie” shop is a Fish and Chip store. Fried Fish and French Fries. Where is the health in that?

We stayed up late that night learning about Carol’s side of the family.

Day 6

On day 6 we woke up early and drove south a bit (or what we thought was going to be a bit) and went to a place called Glendaloch. It is a beautiful area south of Dublin. It used to be a monastery. We took a little hike up to the upper lake. It was very quiet and serene. But I can’t decide which was more beautiful the drive to Glendaloch or the place itself. Se we took the scenic route to the area. And wow was it scenic. It was almost worth the extra 1 ½ hours driving in the car. We were driving up through the Wicklow Mountains to get there. After touring Glendaloch, we had our Pub food experience. This was the best meal I had had on the trip thus far. We had roast turkey with mashed potatoes (the Irish are big on their potatoes) vegetables and a roll. Man it was good to have food that wasn’t fried!

From Glendaloch, we went to the Trim Castle. Trim Castle is where they filmed much of the Braveheart movie. It is this huge preserved castle in the middle of a city. Kind of funny. The road signs in Ireland are NOT geared toward tourists. I really don’t know if it is that they don’t want us there or if it is just because the troubles have just recently subsided so tourism is now possible like it wasn’t before. Anyway, we got lost and it was really hard to get directions from anyone. They would say take your second right then at the round about go left and then take your third right. They would never give an actual street name because street names were not marked on any of the streets. It really is amazing that we found anything there.

From Trim Castle we went to the Hill of Tara where my baby girl was named after. It is an ancient royal place. There is an ancient coronation stone. This coronation stone, the Lia Fail, is said to roar when touched by the rightful king of Tara. It was fun to walk up in that area. I was really bummed though because when we were done walking the area, I went back to the gift shop to buy a wooden box with Tara carved into it for my baby girl and the shop had closed 3 minutes earlier. GRRRR!!! If anyone is back in Ireland at the Hill of Tara, buy the wooden Tara box for me.

From the Hill of Tara, we droved up to Belfast. We went to the church to see everyone because it was Enrichment night. After saying Hello to Mike’s Aunt and cousins, we went for Pizza…again. But hey, it was better then more fried food! The Pizza Hut pizza actually tasted really good that night. After all, it was 9pm. Sometimes touring takes precedence over eating. After dinner we went to The Rinka. Ahhhhh, The Rinka! They have really yummy ice cream at The Rinka. My favorite was the Pooh Bear ice cream. It is vanilla ice cream with crushed up honeycomb in it. YUMMY!!! This is an evening ritual for us when we are in Northern Ireland.

Bill and Carol slept at William and Stephanie’s (Mike’s cousin) house. Mike and I slept in Zetta (Mike’s aunt & Bill’s sister) and Stewarts cottage. Cutest little cottage. Watch your head! Come to find out, they have only had a bathroom put in, in the last 15 years or so. Can any of you imagine growing up with out a flushing toilet in your house? Zetta’s house is so cozy. Her front room has a fireplace with a few couches and chairs surrounding it. Man, you could sleep for days in there. Well, that is if you don’t stay up till the wee hours of the morning chatting with Zetta and Stewart and whatever children happen to be at the house that evening. There is a chair for Zetta. It is Zetta’s chair. If she isn’t cooking in the kitchen or doing laundry in the kitchen, then she is sitting in her chair knitting the most beautiful things ever! I have talked her into knitting baby #3’s blessing gown. (I just have to name the baby Zetta…that’s all) YEA! I am so excited. She does the most beautiful things.