Advice?

So for all the moms, or anyone else that wants to answer: I have a problem. One thing that really annoys me about my boys is that they take their sippy cups all over the house and then lose them. When they want more drink I can't find their cups. I say to Will, "Go find me your sippy cup." He says, "No. I can't. You find it." That irritates me so much! I often find them in cupboards, under beds, in the backyard, etc. Sometimes I find them days later with milk still in it! The worst is when they find it before I do and drink the old cheesy milk! I have started to give Will normal cups but don't all the time. So, what should I do? Should I just start giving him normal cups or make some strict rule about leaving sippy cups on the table or they get some kind of punishment (except that Ike is still pretty little for any real punishment)? What do you do?

Trunk or Treat 2007

We had our Trunk or Treat on Saturday night this year. Sarah, Steven, and Rebecca had a lot of fun. Sarah had a great time with watching people putting things in her bucket! After we got home, she enjoyed playing with her candy, she even tried to eat it, wrappers and all! Steven was Abe Lincoln, Becca was a pirate, and Sarah was a bee. Sarah also was a cat, and Magenta from Blues Clues. (I have updated our blog with pictures of all of the kids and costumes.)

Nick in Argentina

Nick walks

Jess told me that I needed to put a video of nick walking on the blog, so here it is.

Laura and Nick take a trip

On Sunday, Laura and Nick will abandon me. They will be flying to Buenos Aires and should get to Tucuman by Tuesday. Laura is very excited and Nick is very cute! In December I will join them and then we'll come back in January.

Argentina

Hey, isn't Laura going to Argentina this month? When do you go? We hope you have fun seeing your family.

FREE FOOD

I know that Mandy's new baby is very important, but I found something very exciting.

Brace yourselves....

If you go to this website you can get two bags of gourmet popcorn for shipping and handling costs only. It will cost you $5.90 for two bags of popcorn. It may not be worth it to you, but it is worth looking at...check it out.

www.daleandthomaspopcorn.com

Congratulations!!!!!!!

Congratulations to the Pitcher family for their new addition. Let us know when you have a name picked out, and we'd love to see pictures soon.

Here in Bismarck...

So life goes on, even though we have moved. Things are different, of course. A normal day for us goes like this: We all get up and get ready for the day and are out of the house by 7:45 at the latest. We drive Mike up to work, which starts at 8am. Then we drive down to Mikayla's school, which starts at 8:35am. If we get there before 8:05 we sit in the car until that time. She can go wait in the gym but she doesn't like to. Kids can be on the playground at 8:05, so she waits until then. Then the boys and I drive home. We do whatever it is that we do all day. I'm still not sure what all that is. Then at 3pm the boys and I get back into the car and go to MIkayla's school, out at 3:05 and bring her home. At 4:50pm we get back in the car and go pick up Mike, off at 5 pm. We come home and have dinner and then look around and think about hanging pictures.
Apartment living has many negatives....
*We had to write a formal complaint against our neighbors for being up several nights out on their balcony being very loud and using foul language, until 5 am.
*Today we had a girl come tell that our kids had been running around being too loud last night at 10:30pm... well, my kids were in bed before CSI started, so that was a false accusation, which made me made.
*We live on the second floor, which means lots of trips up and down stares, carrying groceries, or children or both.
*We have to use a stupid key to get into the building, which means putting down whatever your arms are full of to open the door.
*The kids don't get outside as much as they used to. I try and get them to a park occasssionally, but it's not as easy as letting them go play in the yard or ride their bikes around the neighborhood.
*Since we have to buzz people up, there are no solicitors, this is a good thing.
On joining a new ward...
*We get there five minutes early each week and still have to sit in the overflow. I hate that. We are used to sitting in the front of the chapel. Apparently this ward is all about being early to church.
*The ward is large but the primary isn't. This means Mikayla is the only kid in her class, and Braden is the only boy in a class of three girls. They both used to have 12-14 kids in their classes.
*The nursery has about 12 kids, but the room is so tiny, they can't do much in there.
*The bishop asked us if Mike had any involvement in scouts.... do that do that in Canada? OH NO!!
*Since I am going to have a baby soon, I figure they wont give me calling immediatley.
*Since our in-laws are in the ward and told everyone we were coming, whenever we meet someone they say, "Oh, we heard about you..."

On the up side, we are all over the flu that seemed to hit each one of us this week. We have been looking for a second car, and hope to make a decision before the baby comes. Mikayla likes her school. Mike likes his job, but has some considerable stress right now over learning new stuff and keeping up to his deadlines, let alone waiting for a call that the baby is coming. Our apartment is really a nice place, but we hope to be in a home by spring/summer next year. It's fun to have family so close. Mom is coming on Thursday, so if we can make it that far, then I think I can survive another baby. If he comes early... well, I just don't know what we'll do. Who will do all that driving???

Does anyone want to try out Netflix for a month? I have an offer for one free month if someone wants it. Let me know or I will just delete it from my email.

Adrianne

First Haircut

Ryan got a hair trim. Come to my family blog.

Some pictures

The blog has been kind of quiet so I thought I'd post some pictures of when we went and fed the ducks.

We need to take better care of our important things...

Every one guess what Nick has in his hands in the pictures. I'll let you know if you're right after a few comments (I always feel better when my posts have more comments).

Laura and I were eating dinner tonight, and had let Nick down from his chair once he stopped eating. He wandered around the ground for a while and got into a few things and when I looked at him he had these in his hands and I needed to take pictures to show you all. I chased him around our diner table and into the kitchen but couldn't get the picture I wanted. Good luck.

We have an escape artist on our hands

This morning I got in the shower before Mike left. I made sure that Will was all set up on his starfall program so that he could practice his ABC's while I was in the shower. Isaac was watching him do it. I heard Mike close the door when he left. I always leave my bedroom door open and occassionally leave my bathroom door open too (Isaac likes to try and climb in the shower so I have been closing the door lately). Anyway, I got out of the shower and thought, "Hmm, it's quiet in here. The boys usually come to see where I am when I shower. What are they doing?" I hurried and got my garments on and then heard a knock on the door so I went down the hallway and the doors were open and the boys were both outside! I saw my neighbor Max on the doorstep so I ran back to the room, grabbed Mike's robe and then came to the door. Max was like, "I saw both boys outside and I didn't see you or Mike so I wondered if everything was ok." When I told Mike about it at church he said that he had closed both doors and locked one of them. That is so scary. We live on a busy neigborhood road not a busy town road if that makes sense. What are we going to do now that Will can get out of the house? How am I going to take a shower now? It reminds me of my brother David. He used to pull chairs over to the door and get it unlocked then leave somewhere. Once he crossed a busy street to go to the church where my brother was at YM's. Another time he tried to follow my parents when they left on a date and ended up on a busy overpass. We spent hours looking for him. My mom finally got a leash for him and put hospital braclets on his wrist incase someone found him when he ran away.

It's a Crazy Life...

Just wanted to update you all about our crazy life. Last week Mike was offered a job in Bismarck as the Assistant Attorney General. After a week, we decided that was the best option for our family at that time. On Monday, he accepted the postition, and Mikayla went to the first day of school, and Mandy started packing. Mike is still working 30 hours a week at his old job. Mandy has been packing from about 8am to 5pm with occassional breaks for visiting teaching, eating, changing diapers, doctors appointments, looking online for a new place to live, etc. Today, Thursday, we will go pick up Mike at work, at 5pm, and drive to Bismarck, 3 1/2 hours West of here. We have a few appointments to look at homes and duplexes to rent. We will come back on Saturday night, go to church on Sunday and hope to pack up the truck on Tuesday and drive out to Bismarck that day. On Saturday we have to be in Cardston, Alberta, Canada, a 12 hour drive from Bismarck, for Mike's youngest brothers' wedding. Mike will then start working on the following Wednesday, the 12.
In the meantime, we have to pack up the whole house, cancel all the utilities, take Mikayla out of school, clean and check out of our old place, etc. etc. etc....
Did I mention that I am 8 1/2 months pregnant???? Even writing it down is exhausting! Just wanted to share some of the craziness. We will let you know when we are settled and how it all went.

Here is another picture of Steven. The computer would not let me put more than one on at a time.

Steven Hits 2 Home Runs!!!

Steven finished his baseball season about 1 month ago. The tournament team that he was playing for did okay, but Steven had a very sucessful season. He hit two out of the field home runs, they were over 8 foot fences at a distance of 200 feet. Steven also plays catcher and did a great job, playing 20 out of 26 innings in one tournament.

birthday party-1

As promised, some pictures of Nick's party yesterday. To get an unbiased opinion you'll have to ask Richards in Seattle, but I think every one had a good time. After reading about Mandy's kids parties mine was pretty dull, but every one got some good burgers and good cake, thanks to Steven and Laura respectively.

Birthday party 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS

One year ago today, I was called at 2 or so in the morning. Dad asked me "are you ready to be a father?" The answer to that question is still no, but I'm learning, and Nicholas has certainly taught me allot over the last year. Most reciently he's been teaching me how high I need to put things if I don't want him to bite, throw, or break them. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do tonight, but tomorrow, Nick will have a nice party in a park nearby. More pictures will follow.