my first week in okly

I havent had internet the past couple days and they've been extra long. What did I do with myself before the internet days? I must've had a life back in 2002 when the internet was just something I had at work & my email account would expire due to lack of use. I think the day just dragged on yesterday without it because I have become so appreciative of it being away from home for the first time. I dont think I depend on it as much at home as I do here. It's awesome that you can instantly connect with family & friends instead of waiting weeks to hear from them in a letter. (Although, I do love a good rare mailed letter..hint hint!) So anyways, we have been here in Oklahoma a week. It's been an adjustment for sure, just cause I always get withdrawls when something changes. Yes, I get that its only for the summer, so I'm not trying to come off whiny. But I have never left AZ to live somewhere else. So I'm letting myself be okay with occasionally getting a little anxiety over it. I finally cut the umbillical cord. well i'll be reconnecting to it in August, but whatever. I kept myself and the kids pretty busy this week...that is the goal since Steven is gone until about 10pm every night. It makes it way nice that we have a cozy apartment, though. It has furniture but I'm going to do a summer picture wall and develop the pictures and have them start at one end of the wall and try to fill up the whole wall before we leave.

The view from our balcony.

i missed you walk in closets! I can hide all my crap in you.

Monday:

we went to a park you can see through our window that ended up being a school playground. So after naps we went to another one.

it was so windy..I loved it.

Tuesday:

we stayed at home all day except for a walmart trip. Now that I have to bring all the kids by myself when shopping for food..its a little crazy and 2 people said to me "God bless you" & "you have your hands full" I mustve looked like I wanted someone to shoot me for getting 2 comments in a 30 min walmart trip. I am realizing how spoiled I was in AZ. Having a husband who came home from work at 3pm & a mom who would help whenever. But also It's good to know that I can do things myself & makes me feel like I dont have to be so dependent on everyone. It's a good learning experience.

Wednesday:

we met at a splash pad with Connie & Brody. which was not open until memorial day. it was so hot..the poor kids were overheated so, luckily there was a hose spout right in front of our apartment stairs so I grabbed our water balloons (remember the green ones that are like grenades?) I bought some of those a while ago. so the kids had just enough fun getting cooled off with them.

Thursday:

we went to a firefighter museum which was way cool. It was only 5 bucks for me & the kids were free. It had so many old fire engines and a huge collection of fireman patches from all over the world. my favorite one was the one from England that said "London Fire Brigade" I love the way those Brits word things. I love the word brigade.

there was a do not climb on display sign, but this cute little firetruck was too tempting.

I didnt realize how green and pretty it would be out here.

Friday:

kind of a boring day, but I picked up the pictures I took with my pool camera and they turned out pretty cute considering I couldnt ever tell if I was actually getting anyone in the picture under the water. (which I didnt with your underwater picture Amos..sorry! but at least it's a good view:)

poor jappy just doesnt like group pictures

Saturday (t0day!)

this morning Steven found a baby turtle on the sidewalk & brought it in for the boys to see. I asked Bastien "what should we name him" ANd Bastien said " We should name him Jorgen?" I dont know where that came from but maybe it's cause Jorgen looks like a cute little turtle? So here is Jorgen#2, the turtle

.

he escaped from three crazy giants

Bastien was so sad we had to take him back to his home today. I was just too nervous about the babies stepping on him or throwing him since we didnt have a cage. I can't deal with cute little animals dying while I have them.

before i left.

While Steven was gone I kept really busy with Nicole & Amy during the day. And even the nights. You could say we partied. I loved having things to do every day with my favorite people. A mother's sleep is precious..but we sacrificed alot of it my last couple weeks here so we could squeeze in as much as we could of eachother. And our late, late, early talks & laughing are some of my favorite memories. I never thought you could find girlfriends like this after marraige & being a parent. I thought you were immediatly boring, old & used up. I have my close friends from before I was married but it's cool to know that you can make best friends again after! I'm so grateful that I found friends like this. They are amazing mothers & have learned so much from them in all aspects! :) Things will never be exactly how I left them and that was the part of why I was so sad to leave. Amy is abandoning us for a life in Hawaii. And Nicole is only here for another year before her husband's dental school is finished. We really will have to find a way to hook all of our kids up. We already have a plan for Embs & Avie. But Nicole or I will have to produce a girl or we will have to pair up Jasper & Jorgen..desperate measures. Last Summer Nicole & I went to the pool every Tues & Thurs at 9am. It was a sure thing. Sometimes it sounded like too much work in the morning, but I knew I would have fun once we got there& Bastien would actually get to go to the pool, and he loves Gunnar. (Or how he says it "Gunnow") I probably would have never gone if it wasnt for knowing someone was counting on me to go. I recommend everyone finds a pool buddy this summer. It could be be the start of something great! (cheesy) Anyways, we started our pool days up a little bit early this year so we could have as many as we could before I left. And it's awesome cause it's only May & my kids & I already have tanlines and white white bums compared to their dark backs. I took pictures of a pool day with a waterproof camera which I still have to get developed so I dont have alot of pictures. But, here is a few pictures of what we did during our short AZ summer. Really, we did way more than these pictures. I fell short of my goal to take pics of everything.

eating snacks with grandma. we stayed at my parents house & I was spoiled by them. I didnt ever have to worry about anything, they took care of it. They're the best. My mom helped out with the kids so much it almost hindered me now that I am here by myself all day. :)

this picture would make me sad instead of laugh.. except now Jasper can definitely hold his own. look at embry's psycho face. "you hold still now"

my handsome little Japps

our wednesday night bbqs were moved to the pool, so we were there alot.

the saturday before I left we went to eat Dim Sum with the Owan's. It was so delish. Paka is so silly with his white man stash. (i can say that, right..half of me can)

Bastien said: "Would it be creepy if I made this face forever?"

Later that night we celebrated Nicole's birthday. Her husband is in Israel for a month so she really needed to get out! Amy's sister Amber was here for a week. We adopted her, I love her. It's not hard to, though. We went to PF Changs & talked there forever until it was time to relieve the sitter & then watched "Leap Year" at her house. It had a hot foreign guy, I was entertained.

this is a preview of our essence of summer blog. .We have 30 things we have to do before the summer is over and we have to blog them. Some are little things, like eating a popsicle, on a hot day, on the grass.

at the mall. that was self explanitory. at least I didnt say.."gunnar and bastien waving to the camera at the mall"

Steven came home! Even though I was having fun while he was gone I missed him like crazy! I missed his humor, he's my favorite. He flew in Thursday morning & we drove back Saturday. Bastien was so missing his daddy. I wasnt hurt at all that Steven said hello to the kids for 5 minutes at the airport before he even looked at me. (I really wasnt. I got all choked up) But all 3 boys wanted Steven to hold him at the airport, it was cute.

when we were at Walmart Bastien wanted Steven to hold him the whole time & he said "Daddy, I missed you so much" heartmelting, right? I love Bastien.

I'm happy I got lots of quality time with Amy & Nicole before I left. I will miss them this summer. It was an amazing chapter in my life I will always love. I'm excited to be here in Oklahoma. Even though change is hard at first I know it can also be really good. I will see you in August, Nicolett and Amy..there is a HUGE excuse to go to Hawaii now.

one last thing

We were at the mall yesterday and had some fun in a photo booth! It was a little different than the old days with 8 kids and waiting for Jappy to stop the screaming so we could do it... only to have 2 more kids cry as soon as he stopped. But they still turned out pretty amusing. Please love that I look like Shrek in a couple of these..not my best angle. (holy nostril!). I'm gonna miss these girls. (and their cute kids!)

i survived

I get to see this hOT person sitting with my babies, my baby daddy...in less than 2 days! It's been almost 4 weeks and I'm dying for some Steven!

Bastien, you're my favorite..shhh dont tell anyone.

(Steven always says this to Bastien...and Embry & Jasper)

My friend Nicole caught this cute picture of Bastien being a little scared of some tubes in a playplace we were at. I love his face. Bastien & I have had sort of a challenging year with behavior. This is my first time dealing with my own 4 year old and you know what..lately I'm realizing just that. He is four. I need to have 4 year old expectations from him & not any more. I was talking to a friend the other day about needing to step outside of yourself alot to realize what you have. And I've been feeling like, intense love spurts for Bastien lately. How lucky am I that Heavenly Father trusted me with him? Sometimes he does this thing where he walks around talking in a really sarcastic tone (where on earth would he have picked that up, i know)and one time I asked him to speak nicely to his brothers and he said "But I thought you love it when I'm funny?" It was so cute and I thought of how much this kid loves to be loved. And that is the main thing I want Bastien to always know throughout his life, is that I love him SO much! He's such a fun kid & I'm so thankful I get to be his mommy. (obviously I feel this way about my other 2 but this one's just for Bastien:)

Lana's 5th birthday

Leilana & Bastien are 6 weeks apart. I cant believe they're already 5 (& almost 5)

I loved the rainbow cake Mary made.

Embry giving baby Zaac some snuggles

Mary really outdid herself with the inside of the cake!

steven is 27

It was Steven's 27th birthday on April 26th and I am a little late with this, obviously. It's so weird that we've been together since he was 17. When I see pictures of him at that age, he is a different person. He's "youth conference/i had a crushon/dating" Steven. I'm so glad I married Steven. Sure, by marrying my high school sweetheart a year after high school graduation I know I missed out on the whole fun college experience (and so did he!), but everytime I think about it. I choose the same path. I would never change a thing. Steven is the best. I think I got a little TOO lucky, actually. He always makes me feel funnier than I am and never fails with the compliments. I love his ability to say the most absurd thing with a straight face. I love that he doesnt mind that I tune out alot of his nonsense talk, I miss that background noise Steven! I need it. (except for when I'm watching LOST!:) I miss hearing him rap Eminem from the shower. I miss his loud, body jolting laugh. I think I take him for granted alot of the time, and I'm realizing this more being away from him.(Its only been a week?!) I love you suumpp! It'll be weird when you're 37 & i'm still 26.

rediscovered book

When I was packing I found my (really) worn out copy of this book that I read back in 2002. I remember carrying it around with me everywhere at New Vision (where I worked) and people teasing me that I was reading the Bible. (It's like 800 pages and it was a hardbound copy) As I was remembering parts in this book today,I looked down at my arms and I had major goosebumps. That must mean its a pretty dang amazing book, right? Instead of packing it, I took it out of the box it's been in for years and I want to read it again. I never really felt connected to our Pioneers until reading this. You will love the characters so much and cry through most of it..its one of those books that needs to be read.