1572 miles

1572. Thats how many miles away Nana and Grandad are from us.

We miss them so much and wish we could see them all the time. We also LOVE having them come to visit us. When Brian and I went on our trip to New Orleans, my wonderful mother came down to watch the kids. My favorite was the phone call one night "JENI, they wont go to bed. I dont know what to do." It was serious I could tell, but I also recognised the conversation. It was the exact conversation I have with my mom quit frequently, but I am on that end and this time it was her calling me. I had to laugh. Oh I am so grateful for my mum!
So they came in for conference weekend and we packed everything we could in considering my dad was here for 1.75 days. I am now going back and relistening to all of the sessions that I didn't get to hear with 3 kids crying, shouting, pouting, fighting, laughing, and talking my ear off that day. So far, it is all wonderful!

So We decided to go to breakfast at Breadwinners, yum, and then the Aquarium for the first time. The kids had a lot of fun. Water animals are so interesting! It probably didn't matter where we went though, as long as we had fun with Nana and Grandad (which is anywhere we are together!).

Seriously, greatest mom ever to watch our crazies for us and still love us! And greatest Dad ever to come and spend time here on his few days off his busy life. We sure wish yall would move here!!

Lets Move

Getting ready to sell a house is hard. there have been months of preparation for the big day and then who knows how long it will take to sell?!
Well we have planted flower beds, painted the enire house including all baseboards, we have completely cleaned out every room and closet, had garage sales, got brand new carpet through the whole house and then finished it off with a fresh coat of paint on the front door.
Can you guess what color we painted the door?
You got it! RED! Court thought the extra paint Brian had left out was really fun. She even thought it tasted great. WOW! I love it when my hubby is mowing the lawn and he all of a sudden comes in yelling "JENI! Why is Courtney in the garage?!" then I see red all over her hand and body. I swore it was blood. What a mess.
When we had the garage sale, Natalie and stephen both wanted to help out. They made signs, although boots' was just a bunch of scribbles. Then they wanted them on a post so they could hold them. It was adorable to see natalie go to the bottom of the driveway and wave to cars holding this sign.

After the garage sale, we decided to donate anything that was left. These trash bags were full of so much of our junk. It feels so good to get rid of it all. The hardest things to part with were my baby items, like the basinet and car seat... tear.

We are exhausted though. As of tomorrow the house is up and I am so excited about it! I am not excited about keeping the house clean with the kiddos. I am not excited about showering, cooking, eating, or living in a house that we could get called out of at any minute. Any tips and pointers from those who have done it? I just hope we will seell quickly.

So for now, all we can do is sleep and snuggle when we can!

Easter Sunday, and Saturday, and Friday

We have had such a fun Easter week! Natalie has been really interested in both the real meaning of Easter and the fun. We talked a lot about the crusifiction and resurection of Christ, Boots even told me on the way home from church that he got to see the resurected Jesus in primary! haha Also he was the spotlight today which means he got to tell all the kids what he likes (toast) and what his favorite thing is (going to friends houses) I think they both really enjoyed church today. I was awesome and didn't take any pictures in their adorable church outfits. Ill have to pretend another day.

Friday we had a school class Easter hunt and play date at the park.

Saturday we had a fabulous lunch and egg hunt over at Grandma and Papa's house. Dying eggs was fun too. Gotta love the stains on the kids clothes from that! This is one tradition I will never pass up. Love it. I even tried to blow a few into hollow eggs. My mouth hurt bad. I dont really understand that point to that.

Then we headed over to Yaya's house for another Egg hunt and bounce house fun!! Man, the kids were in dream land all day. Candy out their ears, easter bunnies, easter hunts, pure kid fun.

Then came Sunday. Natalie was very curious as to how the bunny would sneak in without waking anyone up and leave things in the right place for the right people. She decided that he tippytoes everywhere. They couldn't wait to find a basket with a few goodies. Then the bunny left an egg hunt in the backyard with all of the eggs we had dyed the day before.

So Happy Easter. I know that our Saviour died for us and I know that he lives again. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the resurection and the beauty of the plan of salvation. I love my wonderful children and all of the good bad and ugly that they bring into our family. We are truly blessed to know what we know and have what we have.

7th out of towners

In keeping with tradition of traveling to a new Temple and City for our anniversary... for our 7th Anniversary we went to New Orleans, LA.

DAY 1. It was a nice 9 hour drive, and I say nice because there were no childrens movies playing, or childrens music blasting in my ear. It was 9 hours of adult conversation and music. Ah Peaceful.
So lets just start with the hotel. It was fine and great, until we looked at the pillows. Yes that is my hand, and yes the pillow is barely larger than my hand. We called the front desk to ask about it and they indeed said "They are normal sized pillows sir." WHAT? Clearly they are tiny.

Anyway, head into town for the most delish Mexican. I THINK (and this is huge since I think Dallas has the best Mexican) that this was the best Mexican we have ever had. So good. Superior Grill... The best Queso ever. That night we headed over to a movie theatre in a sketchy part of town (by the way, I think all New Orleans is a sketchy part of town) and we saw Hunger Games. My second time, Brian's first. We both Loved it.

DAY 2. WE SLEPT IN. Seriously, I cant remember the last time this happened. So Brian loves ear plugs. He wears them all the time to not be able to head our kids. I refuse every time, you know, to be responsible. So we are gone and guess who brought the ear plugs?! Thats right, I wore them and it was right, so right. I wore them and didn't hear anything until 10. Oh 10!!!! It was awesome!
Anyway, we woke up and headed down for lunch at Central Grocery. We went for the famous Muffeletta sandwhich. Italian meats, olive salad, and yummy bread. It was good. I wouldn't go back to NO for this again, but it was good to try.

As you can tell, I have been having to eat everything with knife and fork. It sucks. Sandy's with forks? Not fun. I literally carried a set of plastic cutlery around in my purse all week. (FYI this will go on until June. JUNE!)
Took a little walk down the Mississippi and took in the nice cool breeze. Can I just add this little story. On the drive down, I mentioned something about the body of water we were following to be the Mississippi. Brian them made fun of me "Jeni, whats the River called? MISSISSIPPI! Hello, are we in Mississippi?" ok soooo I felt dumb, until we discovered that indeed the MISS river goes right through the city.

The architecture in the French Quarter was really pretty. It was a lot like Paris with the way the blocks are organized with just a small entrance every few to get into the middle of the block. So it was pretty, BUT dirty and some run down. This building was tilted. It was weird and run down. This is how much of the area was.

That night we went for Seafood. I dont do Seafood, but I made a mistake a few years ago in Boston when I made Brian leave one of the oldest best seafood places in the country because the smell was aweful. Anyway, I wont ever make him miss out of food again because I dont like he smell. He got these, chargrilled oysters. He liked them. I didn't taste them.

DAY 3. Headed out early and had Breakfast at Cafe du Monde for some Beignets. They were good. It was fun. I would call them a big fat funnel cake.

We did pay for one real live tour. It was part of the Haunted Tours and it was to a cemetary. It was totally worth it. We loved the info about the city, like how the first people to come to the city were prisoners and prostitutes from England. Clearly the city hasn't changed much! The way they bury people there in the city in crazy. Lets just say, they share these with several people. They just push the remains back after a year or so and put another one in. Very interesting. Oh, also they obviously cant bury them, so they are all above ground since the city is under sea level.

Lunch, we headed over to YO MAMA'S which was a doorway in a wall. Smokey, dark bar that we almost walked out of. Im glad we didn't. It was so good. Brian got this peanut butter and bacon burger. Surprisingly delish.

That afternoon we went to the WWII museum. This was a highlight of the trip. It was very interesting and tearful. We learned so much and heard so many of the stories of those who fought for us. We spent hours there, but it wasn't long enough and we missed out on the whole Japan side of the war. Next time. ALSO please notice the strange face I am making in all the pictures. I am totally hating my smile from my surgery and it feels weird, so I dont really do it.

Also, I noticed that my hands are totally wrinkly and old looking.

That night we headed to Emerils (Yes Lagasse... BAM!) It was so yum! Especially the desserts. Lemon Ice Box Pie, Im salivating think about it now. Now, this says a lot considering that I got food poisoning later that night from Emerils. Yes that sucked, no it didn't last long.

After dindin we went to The Lion King play. I had seen it before in Toronto, and this was just as great. It was fun to experience it with Brian. haha Not to get into too much detail, I will just say that there were a lot of cheering for the animals going on. Brian knows what I mean.

DAY 4. We planned to leave early and go to the temple in Baton Rouge on the way home. Because I am so awesome and plan things out so great... turns out you can only go once a day, at 7pm. So what are we going to do all day now? We took our time heading out and went out for Mexican again. It was still so good.

Then we headed up the road to one of the many plantations that are along the Mississippi. It was really pretty, and old, and huge. However, it was not worth 40 dollars for the tour. But of course because we are who we are, we have too much fun everywhere we go!

Finally, we arrived at the highlight of the trip. The Baton Rouge Temple. Please notice Brians great Sunday attire... shorts and a plaid shirt. Once we were almost there, we realized we had left his clothes in the closet. Classic.

And then we drove home until 4am. I really enjoyed sleeping the night away in the backseat of the accord, WITH my ear plugs in. Oh, I cant wait until next year when I can put those ear plugs back in.

Happy 7th hun! New Orleans was another fabulous trip to add to our list!!

April Fools

First off, here is the fat lip. It is long gone now but when it was here... it was bad. Again, call me Cindy LooWho. My stitches are out and I got the go ahead to brush my teeth. However I am still waiting on the approval to bite into anything. So I am having to cut up everything I eat and stick it back. I can eat whatever I want, it is just a pain! So I have been carrying around a knife and fork with me for a few weeks.

while sitting relaxing between Conference sessions today, the two older kids were playing in the back yard. I noticed that it was unusually quiet outside, so my mom (who is visiting) went out back to check it out. The yard was empty. So we went around the house and checked every room. It was empty of the 2 kids. I ran over to the 3 neighbours houses that they may have gone to and noone had seen them. We checked all of their backyards and around their houses. No kids.

Now was the time I was starting to panic a little. I started to cry and my mind went blank. I ran inside the house to wake up my dad, and Brian and I just looked at my mom crying, "what do I do?!" I grabbed my keys and ran out to start driving the community. Brian got in the other car, and the 2 neighbours got in their cars. We all drove around the surrounding blocks, checking between houses, on the roads, and at the parks. I was stopping at anyone walking along the sidewalk or working in their yard if they had seen 2 little kids around. Noone had seen anything.

Now I was in a full blown panic. Natalie knows better than to wonder off and so there was only one thing that could have happened. They must have been taken. I was praying, bawling, and hyperventilating while trying to drive and see through my tears as to the houses around me. All the drivers were still out and about and the Neighbour had now called the police, and she was also in tears.

I have never in my life had those feelings and fears come to mind. I thought my childeren had been kidnapped and it was the scariest moment of my life. Finally I was passing our street and one of the neighbours was waving me down. As I drove up, I saw my dad holding his arms out, like he was saying slow down Jeni, its ok. After shouting out the window to him, he said "The kids are in the house." I was wondering who found them and brought them home. He then explained that he had the feeling to check the house again. He was looking under beds and all around. He peeked inside of Boots dark room, and into his closet. There in the corner of the closet he saw the two kids squatting watching the IPAD.

I had called their names in the house and searched everywhere, but the closets. Boots usually is never still that long and quiet enough to hide from me that long. NEVER! I went in sobbing still, unable to think of anything else. I pulled them out and talked to them about how we only hide when we play hide and seek and that taking the ipad is fine, but when you hear mom call you...you come and tell me where you are.

Brian told me that he thought I was playing an April Fools trick on him, even when he saw me crying. After seeing people outside were involved he finally believed me. Turns out the kids were the ones playing the April Fools trick on us, and they didn't even know it!

I love my Kids and Family so much and if anything ever happened to them, I would be devastated. I learned a few things. Check the closets, put a lock on the gate outside, and I suck under pressure. They continued watching the IPAD, but I made them move onto the bed. No more closets please!