Off On Another Adventure...

We are gluttons for punishment. We really are. After an amazing 18 months in Southern California, we are leaving.

Never mind that we just moved two months ago into a nice new town house, we are off...

Never mind that we have a happy life with friends and fun in this slice of paradise, we love adventures (and packing and stress and lots and lots of change)...

Never mind that we have a stable job here, we love this crazy life we lead, so new chapter, here we come!

Here we come Utah, here we come new job, here we come new house, neighborhood, schools, friends. 

We are ready for anything and have everything because we have each other, the gospel, and the surety that we are not alone on this bumpy path we are traveling. 

Good bye dear friends in Orange County, we will come visit soon. 

And, Hello again Utah and the friends and family we have there. Here is too many good memories to be made. 

Fall

Southern California is famous for so many things including its weather. I must say, we have taken advantage and enjoyed the time outside. However, I MISS FALL. Autumn here consists of hot and cold intermittent days full of green foliage with a few dying sycamores. Randomly you'll see a yellow tree and maybe a red, but they are rare and surrounded by flowers so their effect is minimal.

Not long after Siya was born, I took an hour to myself one evening and to Home Goods just to window shop. I saw a framed print their that brought tears to my eyes. An autumn landscape with aspens in the foreground. It reminded my of fall in the Wasatch mountains, so, after checking with Adam, I bought it.... and love it. I have my fall now and am satisfied.

1 Month, 2 Years, and 5 Years

Baby Siya at one month. She is chubbing up, smiling so easily as long as she can focus on you, looking like she was male patterned baldness with her baby hair falling out, and sleeping well some nights, not so well on others. My mom came out to visit again and we loved having her here. Siya loves being held and loves her siblings. She loves to arch her back and throw her had to the side and behind her which is what she would do in the womb to make herself turn transverse, which happened during labor by the way. That is a whole other story. 

Baby Jo is not the baby anymore. Although, she will always be my baby in my heart. I can't believe it was already two years ago she joined our family. I feel so bad for her that she has been displaced in some ways. However, she has put her foot down on some more independent things now that she is not the smallest, such as, she no longer tolerates being in the grocery cart and demands to walk with the other kids. We had a fun party with my sister, her husband, and my mom. Jo is spunky, sweet, feisty and just so darling she melts me heart multiple times a day. Even with the baby here, I love having time with her while the older kids are at preschool. She talks so much and I don't pick up everything she says when the other kids are around.

Amy and Beau. Beau sleeps every time he visits without fail.  He's so busy and sleepy

Delicately opening her presents...

Pretty ballerina. She puts her fingers together and then lifts them above her head and spins.

Baylub is FIVE. He is such a big boy, entering the phase of LOVING to tease his sisters constantly... for no reason at all. I enjoy that so much (insert sarcastic tone here). He is helpful and more reasonable as well. I forget how much he understands and still try to enforce things just because I'm the mom rather than explaining situations out to him. When I do explain, most of the time, it goes so much easier. He gets it and cares more now. We had a party with Adam's brother and his wife who were visiting us from Utah. We had chocolate cake and played spin the bottle, per his request. He learned of the game from the book "Arthur's Birthday" but we switched the kissing to hugging instead which was much more appropriate for a five year old birthday party.

 Spinning the Costco water bottle.

Baby Siya, looking so bright with the flash

One whole hand old! I remember my 5th birthday party. That, to me, is crazy that my baby boy is at that same age.

We have so much to be thankful for and have had a wonderful time this month celebrating the wonderful angels who have been sent to our family.

We moved... awhile ago

But I'm just getting around to letting the internet world know.

It has been uh-MAZING. Imagine living in large hotel room with a kitchen with three children, a wall a/c unit, and a couple of crazy neighbors and you will know my life for the past year and a half.

In August, the perfect storm occurred of Adam getting a raise, our downstairs issue-riddled neighbor flipping out and becoming quite confrontational as well as our next door alcoholic children-loving neighbor getting out of jail for a couple of DUI's and a hit and run. I was just done and the raise made our escape finally possible. We were still in our lease but we had to go. Our land lords worked with us thankfully, so we rushed around to find a place and viola...

we did.

Still two bedrooms but almost twice the square footage, a two car garage, no one above or below and just recently remodeled so everything is so nice and new I don't want to use anything for fear of smudging it. Another huge plus is we are in an area that is chuck full of young families with small children. Our ward has three nurseries, 150 children in primary, and absolutely the loudest sacrament meeting I have ever been to. It is quite unreal but I appreciate it on so many levels, mainly that our kids FINALLY aren't bothering anybody. What a relief.

We moved two days before my due date and a week before Siya was born. I am so grateful we were able to bring her home here and not to our other little apartment. I sigh with contentment every time I open or close our garage doors, and a smile when our kids run around loudly not having to remind them to walk quietly or else we will suffer the consequences of our crazy, downstairs, agoraphobic, never-leaves-his-apartment-except-to-yell-at-us neighbor. It's a little slice of paradise to be sure.

Happy Halloween

 Halloween is becoming a more and more beloved holiday. People, it seems, deck out their houses more each year than the last and parties become more extravagant. I'm not a hater, I love Halloween, but maybe not as much as others. I never quite get into the spirit of things before the holiday is over. But, here are our spooky festivities we have been enjoying.

To start off the season, Baylub had an art project at preschool. The teacher asked him to make a Halloween picture out of the pieces of yarn. Every other kid made a pumpkin. I asked him what his picture was of and he said "It's a spider that's been shot. Those are his legs." I'm still laughing about it. Wow!

Somewhat unrelated but also funny, we had an FHE lesson on sins and the atonement. Very simple. To give you an idea, our spirit was represented by a paper towel, sin was ketchup, and the atonement was a bowl of water. Anyway, a few days later, Lulu was commenting on how Siya's skin was peeling on her forehead. She then gasped and said "Oh no! She can't go live with Heavenly Father." I was quite confused by her statement and asked her why. She said "Because she has skins. She can't live with Heavenly Father." I tried not to laugh and talked with her again about what sins are. It's amazing what kids do (and don't) absorb.

We had a super duper Halloween Preschool party. As you can see, Siya didn't allow me to get many good shots of the party. She was HUNGRY!

The goodies were darling; mummy dogs, spider cheerio treats, ghost cookies, cake pops, and a graveyard bean dip. The potion drink was ornamented by a peeled grape with a tiny olive making it look like an eyeball.

We painted pumpkins..

... or plastic pumpkin buckets.

Toddlers in costume are so CUTE!

Our costumes this year are Jo as a chicken (recycled from last year, it is just too cute to pass up) Baylub as a dragon, Lulu as Belle (a sassy Belle apparantly), and Siya as a black cat. 

Lu's hair made her look so princess-ish, like a ballerina.

We went to a ward trunk or treat that was PACKED. We circled the parking lot pretty quick and many were already out of candy. Lu wouldn't go to some of the cars that were a little too scary. Jo wasn't phased and Baylub was brave! 

We can't wait for our actual Halloween night. Jo wouldn't go to sleep without her bucket of candy by her bed.

Goldie

Meet our new pet "fish" Goldie.

A few weeks ago, Baylub picked up this rock while we are at the beach and dubbed it his new pet fish.

He's tried to feed it raisins and peas and has cleaned out it's water twice. He says that Goldie is the cutest fish in the whole world. I hope our landlord doesn't find out. We do have a no pet policy in our contract. I suspect that he won't mind.

Anastasiya Megan

She is finally here!

7 lbs 5 oz, 20 in, her arrival was much more long and difficult than I anticipated but we made it with a prize worth every second at the end.

We decided to be cruel to our new little girl and give her a difficult name that she will have to explain and spell out for people for the rest of her life. It is the russian pronounciation of "Anastasia." Ah-nah-stah-SEE-yah.

Jo right before she fell and chipped her other front tooth on the hospital floor.

He nickname will be Ana... or Siya... or something cute.

We are all so excited and happy she is here and healthy and safe.