Moving, Kids, and Chris . . . OH MY!

Okay, so it finally started to hit me that we're moving. We've only got about 3 weeks left - augh! When did that happen? We've given away the shed in our backyard, thinned out the toys, scheduled the packers to come, called the new school and new housing office, etc. I'm going through the usual roller coaster of emotions: sad to leave my friends and all the wonderful people here, reflecting on the good times our family has had here and how much we've grown, getting excited to see family and take a vacation en route, and excitement/nervousness at going to our new duty station. Fort Polk has given us some excellent family time and has been so good for the girls relationship with their daddy and for Chris and my relationship as well. I am so grateful for that. That being said, I am also feeling ready to move on to our next adventure and to live as close to family as we probably ever will in the military. We've heard good things about Monterey and as soon as we can get settled I think we will really enjoy it there.

Fun Family Activities for this past week include the following: The family joined Aly for lunch at school for Earth Day. Chris was making fun of it because he doesn't believe in Global Warming. It was pretty hot while we were sitting out on the lawn eating our lunches though . . . ;0) Last Sunday Aly made a treasure hunt leading up to our family game night. There was candy with the clues, which was a big hit. Also, Aly and Chris went on their Daddy Daughter Date. Aly had chosen to go to the rock climbing wall again. Come to find out, Chris climbed the wall ten times and was through. (That is no small feat - my arms hurt after just one time up the wall, which I don't understand because I haul 4 gallons of milk into my house once a week just to keep in shape!) Aly climbed the wall 12 times, wasn't tired, wasn't sore, and wasn't ready to leave. Go Aly! She smoked all of the teenagers there as well. In Chris' defense he was quick to point out that Aly didn't have to haul 210 lbs. up the wall each time, only 53 lbs. In Aly's defense I'd like to say, "she's 7; you're 33," but maybe that statement is in Chris' defense also. :) I also need to give an honorable mention to Chris doing an imitation of Pipi Longstocking by spinning around and around holding a stick horse over his head (in the movie it was a broom.) It was top-notch, let me tell ya. He isn't in special forces for nothing! Movie nights would be so much more dull without Chris making fun of everything and singing the wrong words to all the theme songs. (Sorry folks, Chris wouldn't let me take a picture of "the Pippi twirl".) Oh, and a favorite past time of Lise and Kate this week has been to go "scare" Chris when he's in the shower and run away screaming when he sprays water on them. I even heard Kate say, "Lise, c'mon. A Daddy shower." I think Chris has finally met his match for teasing when it comes to Kate.

Can you tell that Chris was feeling left out in the blog? He said I usually just talk about the kids so I told him I be sure to mention him this week. :) As for a serious update on Chris, he is doing awesome in school! With the move coming up he has completed all of his school work for this term early so that he can focus on moving the family. He's taken all of his tests and only has two papers left to complete for this term. Also, because of his extensive real world management experience, he was able to submit a prior learning packet and get credit for his three remaining courses without having to take the classes - whoo hoo! This means that he will only have his Thesis to complete (on top of starting his second master's degree) when we get to Monterey. I am always amazed at Chris' motivation and hard work. Chris' military job is wrapping up and he couldn't be happier. He says that his only regret in leaving Fort Polk is in leaving the ward. He really has enjoyed serving in the bishopbric and loves the people in our ward. I have seen him grow so much in this calling. He really has done a great job.

Aly and Lise each got a quote of the week and Kate got like 20 (of course):
We were reading scriptures and read something about "and the earth shall pass away." Aly asked what that meant and so we explained about after the Savior comes and the millennium and final judgement then the earth would be cleansed and renewed. So Aly, who never misses anything, says, "Oh, so then there will only be 8 planets in our solar system?"
I was making something for dinner that Lise didn't like and so she let out this exasperated "ughh" groan. So I said, "let's all practice our scary breathing". So Chris and I do some great Darth Vader impressions and Lise says, "That didn't even scare me." One day my kids will catch on to my sarcasm, and then my fun will all be over.

And now for Kate. Even as I sit down to tell her tale, she creates new things for me to write about. She just dumped over the garbage can next to me. When I made her clean it up she took the opportunity to examine every piece of garbage before rethrowing it away: every used kleenex she blew her nose in, she examined every dead bug we'd smooshed, smelled every candy wrapper, and looked at every band-aid wrapper. It was a whole new experience for her and she loved it. It was supposed to be her punishment for spilling the garbage. The other day Kate got the dishsoap and headed towards the bathroom to give herself a "bubbo bath". I'm not sure if she could open the dishsoap, but I wasn't about to let her try. When Chris asked Kate, "Whatcha doing, Kate", her reply was "nothing!" Other Kate quotes of the week, "No Way" (whenever she doesn't want something you offer her), "Um, sure" (when she doesn't understand what you're asking her), "Guess what, Mom", "No I nap yet", and "Mom, a help us" (whenever she wants me to help her. I guess the "us" part is for her multiple personalities).

Like Sand in the Hour Glass . . .

These are the Days of Our Lives. (Yes, I often feel that my life would do well as a tv series and even a soap opera.)

So, it's been a few weeks and, of course, much has happened at the O'Gwin bungalow. As you can see, Kate has found many uses for underwear, the least of which is wearing them on her head. For good or for ill, she has also been showing an interest in the toilet. She loves sticking huge amounts of toilet paper into the bowl to clog it. She has started telling us she needs to poop before she actually goes and loves to sit on the toilet . . . and do nothing. I am not encouraging or discouraging at the moment but just letting her do her thing. I'm excited that we may be close to being done with diapers with Kate, but am just not ready to have a newly potty trained little girl drive cross country with me. I think we'll wait until we get to California before we go hard core with the potty training. Besides, Kate is having too much fun putting other things in her little porta potty for now - like a polly pocket (this must be in memory of all the polly pocket shoes that came through her diapers), a dolphin (to swim in the water, of course!), and her brown fuzzy puppy (at least she got the color right). And finally, the other day while I was cleaning the bathroom I hear Kate yelling "yee-haw, yee-haw" in the other room and found her using the toilet brush as a horse to ride around. Yummy.

This is a picture of Analise giving Pearl a haircut. She gave her a nice fro and then instructed me to stop watering her so she wouldn't need another haircut. I did and Pearl's hair died. Hooray, Pearl is in the trash can and I've got one less thing to worry about. Analise has been progressing a lot getting ready for kindergarten. We've been working with flashcards on number recognition and one day Lise says, "Mom, if they're 'flash' cards then they need to glow." Another day Lise said to me, "Mom, I can never stop talking in my mind. I try and I try but I can't." This must be why Lise is in her own world half of the time and Chris and I can never get her attention. We can't compete with the voices in her head.
For the Saturday before Easter, we were invited to a friend's house for lunch, games and and egg hunt. It is one of their fun family traditions that I may need to copy when we move. The Easter bunny also made it to our house and, according to Chris, is named 'Butch'. Of course we were also able to celebrate the true meaning of Easter and I was very impressed at how much the girls remembered about the Easter story.

I've got to make a comment about General Conference as well. It was truly amazing. It was so uplifting. I am so excited to get the talks in the Ensign and on CD so that I can digest a little more and incorporate the messages into my life.

The main thing conference helped me with was overcoming my jitters about moving - making new friends, getting the kids a good school teacher, getting into housing, unpacking, etc., etc. I really was starting to get anxious over the whole thing. But as I listened to conference I realized that Heavenly Father has always guided and watched over our family every step of the way. He has provided for us and made sure that we have had sufficient for our needs and then some. The message that kept coming out over and over to me was to have faith not fear, and to "Be of Good Cheer." I feel so much calmer about moving now and know that the Lord will provide for us. I just need to trust in Him.

We carried on the tradition of building the "Reverence Tent" and it went over very well. The girls actually listen really well when they're playing conference bingo with M&M's! We also had our traditional girl's night while Daddy was at the priesthood session. This year we invited over the Gordon's for Banana Splits - yum!

For Spring Break, we decided to go on a trip with the Gordon's to Galveston, TX (yes, the place where the hurricane came through - we got a killer deal! :)>) We were also accompanied by Natalie's sister-in-law and 10 month old son. The drive was a good test run to see what I'm in for when we drive cross country in a few weeks, and actually the girls did really well (I so love the DVD player in the minivan!) The trip was pretty low-key, which is exactly what 3 moms with 7 kids needed. We played at the beach, dug in the sand, did some body surfing, collected shells, and swam, swam, swam in the pool.

Kate, little miss independent, was ready to use the water wings in the pool and kept saying "no mommy" because she didn't want me to hold her - she wanted to do it by herself! So I let her and after swallowing a few gallons of water she learned to keep her mouth closed and did pretty well swimming by herself. She loved jumping in and learned how to kick as well!

Above all, we loved hanging out with our friends. Oh how we are going to miss the Gordon's. They've been with us at two posts now and are such a huge part of our lives. I don't think we even fully comprehend how much we are going to miss them.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the best part of the trip! That was when we got home and Chris had vacuumed the entire house and had dinner waiting for us (he ordered pizza :)>). Huge bonus points in my book! Thanks, Chris.

(This is Kate's very own Monkey Kid leash. It was extremely helpful at the beach and I'm sure it will come in good use later on.) As far as other happenings around here, we've been making a conscious effort to have a lot of good family togetherness, which I am so grateful for. There has been a lot of whining and fighting

amongst the girls lately and I was beginning to feel that the girls thought that all we ever did was homework and clean. It made me worry that I wasn't spending enough positive time with my kids and that our home wasn't a place they wanted to be. This was making me especially nervous with the upcoming move where the girls will only have their family to depend on, not friends, for the first little while again. So we've made a special effort to try to enjoy being together and even making the work fun. We've started a family game after Sunday dinner tradition which has been so good for improving everyone's attitudes on the sabbath. We did another family fire (we won't be able to take the fire pit with us. :( ), went to Aly's family literacy night, and the girls and I have been having races at bedtime to see who can get ready for bed first. Aly has been my big helper lately. She's helped me put a year's worth of pictures into photo albums, and I made her a photo album to stick her pictures in as well. Also, while Chris and Lise went on a daddy-daughter date, Aly and I played Lite-Brite, played her Hannah Montana guitar game, and folded laundry while listening to a Hannah Montana CD. It was good times.