I found the problem!!

I finally figured out that it was this internet protection thing that Joe downloaded that wasn't letting me post. So here are a lot of pictures...

The last week of school before Christmas break there was this storm that came through and the whole week of school was canceled!! They annouced it day by day so Joe was always waiting by the phone each night like a little kid. So instead of the week break it is now a three week break. Sometimes it pays being a teacher! 

This was the first day of snow on sunday. We got a call at 8 am telling us that church was cancelled!! I looked outside and had to laugh. The snow melted by 11 am. It doesn't snow much here and when it does there's a panic. After being in Rexburg I was laughing.
Tyler HATES being cold and he also hates being bundled up, so snow  it not his thing...mine either.
The next sunday we got another phone call and church was cancelled again! I looked outside and there was ice everywhere! There was atleast and inch to 2 inches of ice on everything! You couldn't step outside without slipping. Trees were falling down the the power was going on and off all day.

Our power was off from 2pm to about 5pm. I really didn't mind except it got down to the 59 degrees in our apartment. This isn't the best picture of us (me) but it just explains the day.
The next day Joe made us all go out and build a snowman. Tyler and I didn't last long

Christmas Eve we watched Prancer and made cookies for Santa.

In my family we weren't allowed to go downstairs and see what santa brought until everyone was awake and then we went down in age order. Last year Travis wanted to start his own tradition and wake up at 2am and open all the presents by himself. I was hoping that this year would be different and thankfully it was. The boys ended up sleeping in our bed so we caught them before going downstairs. When they came downstairs they just looked at everything in amazement.  

Travis loved the wheels! it took him a minute to figure out that they go on the wagon. Sometimes I wonder if I should just get him a bunch of different wheels.
Joe is always complaining that the boys have too many toys so we made them a "train table" and the grandparents gave them tons of new toys.  

bloggin' blues

I'm having some posting problems!!! For some reason my pictures won't upload. My sister tried it on her computer and it work, so I have no idea what's going on. if anyone has any advice please comment!!! when i try to upload a pictures it either goes back to the browse page, just goes blank, or it just loads and loads and does  nothing. help me if you can!

Mary's favorite sister Britty and her nephew Chase

gobble, gobble

For Thanksgiving we went over to Grandma Meg's house. The cousins from Montana were there too so I thought I'd make a turkey pinata. I think that I had more fun making it then the kids did hitting it. I think it will be a Thanksgiving tradition for us from now on.  

being a boy

So last Sunday Joe went to pick up Travis from nursery to find him and the nursery worker standing outside the door waiting for Joe. I guess Travis had spent the last 10 minutes or so in time out for hitting, breaking things and being wild. I thought...what do you expect from a three year old Sloan boy? This has not been the first time that Travis has had trouble or i should say has been trouble in nursery. I felt bad for the nursery people so I made a dozen cinnamon rolls (the ones in the picture are ours), made Travis deliver them and say sorry to them. I hope that keeps them happy for a few weeks until he's in sunbeams. If not I'll be making them dinner next. 

Sewing city

My house is a mess, there's tons of laundry to do, my dishes have yet to do themselves and what do I do? Sew! That's what you're supposed to do instead of everything else that needs to get done. I've joined this $5 quilting club and I love it. You pay $5 at the beginning and as long as you show up every month with the finished block from the previous month you're good to go! If not you pay $5 again to get the next block. They go for a year and it just started when I got here so it was perfect. I like it because you get the stuff and then go home and do it. At the monthly meeting that just talk about new stuff. It's fun and it gets me a ticket to get out of the house childless once a month. Oh, sweet freedom!! On my side bar I have a slideshow and I'll post the new blocks as I finish them. I also did two other "projects" instead of cleaning. I went a sewing enrichment and we made lunch bags. I probably won't use mine for lunch but it turned out cute.


When I was sewing that at my friends house she had this bag hanger pin cushion thinger. I didn't think anything of it then when I sat down to sew it was cool to have it right there. So I checked it out and went home and made one. I think it's pretty handy!

 So after finishing all the sewing projects I still have laundry to do, dishes to clean and screaming children. But I can say that I accomplished something that really wasn't on my list to do.

some of this and that

Things have just been really busy lately, it's hard to find time to sit down and blog. Here are just a few pictures...

We heard of this place to get $1 pumpkins, any size. It was way cool! And durung summer they have a "u-pick" farm with almost anything you can think of. We will be back there next summer for sure! I put Ty down to ick his pumpkin out and he went from pumpkin to pumpkin trying to pick them up. It's funny because he grunts while he does it. 

Our little free loader Travis wanted to get in the wagon too. 

For Halloween we went to the ward trunk or treat. Travis was a "Kachow" (Lightening) pit crew guy and Tyler was a bee, thanks to a friend for lending us the costume!
Travis turned three on Monday and he thought he'd start it off by his first three minute "nose on the wall". We had moved to the nose because he liked to sit too much.
I don't know where my mind has gone too but it dawned on me at 3 in the afternoon that Travis needed a birthday cake. Luckily as long as you have a car Travis if fine with anything.

I didn't get any good pictures of him with his present. He got a pair of frog boots, which I have found out are a necessity here and then he got 7 Little Critter books.  

Package from Grandma!!!

This is mainly for my mom. She sent a package to him (birthday) and it was so cute I had to show how much he liked it. Travis never really liked the little people but Tyler is all over them! 

Travis is having a hard time with our 24 hour rule, I got that from my mom. The rule is when someone gets something new they are the only ones that are allowed to play with it for 24 hours. Some may say that's mean and kids need to learn to share but that's just what we do.  

when mom leaves...

This is one of those "mom" stories that you hear and you just have to laugh, but you feel for the poor mom that it happens to. Here it is: 

I was excited because it was "Stupid Saturday" as my mom calls it (super saturday). I had been looking forward to getting out of the house, with out the boys, and sitting, relaxing and crafting. I was gone for about three much needed hours and was refreshed and ready to deal with motherhood when I got home, so I thought. I walked in the door and Travis ran towards me yelling mom, mom!!! This always makes me feel good, like I must do something right in life for him to miss me. I gave him his crayon roll that I made for him and then showed Joe all the cute things that I had done and like a good husband he told me how cute they were. Travis was standing by me and I put my hand on his head and then looked down to realize that half his hair was gone. I then glared at Joe because he had been wanting to shave Travis' head...again. He then said, you should look at Ty's hair. He was asleep and I wasn't going to go look and wake him up so I just stood there waiting to find out what happened. I thought he was kidding as most of what he says is just to see a reaction from me. He then proceeded to tell me that Travis took the scissors from the counter and but a chunk from the top of his head and then went to Ty and cut an even bigger chunk from his head. Joe then took them upstairs and finished the job. Normally this wouldn't upset me because they're boys and you just shave it off. But I haven't cut Ty's hair yet and that's just a right of passage that a mother (atleast for me) shouldn't miss. When Ty woke up and I saw his hair or lack of it I was crushed. My little baby boy was now a little boy. There were still a few long hairs left so I finished up what Travis and Joe missed and atleast got pictures of that.

This is a picture of him on his birthday last week.   

This is him sitting in the sink while I was cutting it. He loves toothbrushes.
And this is the end result. It does look cute but he has a lot of blond so he looks like a cancer patient too.

apples anyone?

Before
After
As you can see we had a lot of apples and they were all free!! We picked some from a family's orchard in our ward and then when we went over to see Joe's mom we pick some at their friends place over there. I didn't realize that we had so many until they were all together. I decided to can some applesauce and I actually did it! We only did half the applesauce because I ran out of jars. We also had a ton of baggies in the freezer full of blackberries (free!!) that we picked this summer so we did 12 pints of jam too. I just hope this will last us through until next summer. 

I was talking to another mom in our ward and she has four kids and cans tons. She grows the majority of all the fruit and veggies too. She cans about 60 jars of tomato sauce and tomatoes! I was impressed. She inspired me, so next summer I'm going to try to do tomatoes too. We'll see what happens. I know it take s a lot of time to do it but right now we have a lot more time then money!! And we need to start somewhere with food storage.  

Finally!!!

Yeah!!!!!! we finally have a computer, internet and yes, after almost a year we have cable...basic but yes we have it. Some people frown upon cable/tv but for me HGTV is my release. I really don't want to tell the long horrible story about getting our computer so I'll just tell a shortened version. we went into get a MAC (a month ago) and then decided that they were too much. so two weeks later we went to the store just to get a basic computer and realized that we did have enough to get it but the store didn't have any in stock so we were going to come back next week and get it...they still didn't have any!! They said they would ship one down from Portland and that it would be there in two days. So we called two days later and still no computer and yes we had paid for it already. The next day it finally came in...they said. So we drove over there (1/2 hour drive...1 hour in traffic) and waited 45 minutes for them to tell us that it really wasn't there and there was no record of it being shipped. So they shipped it overnight...which turned out to be three more days. We got it home and hooked it up to find that the printed we bought from them didn't work either. It kept on saying there was a paper jam. So then we were waiting for our internet guy to come out on hook-up the internet for us(2 weeks). Well after being here for three hours he finally got all the "stuff" hooked-up, the last thing was to do the router (that we had bought from the store too). Well, he tried everything and finally said the router was shot. Needless to say that I will no longer be shopping at Best Buy. That ended up being a lot longer then I wanted...literally.

We love it here!! The town is almost exactly what we wanted. I love the weather, so far, and the boys are doing great. The boys love to pick black berries as you can tell from the picture. I think we've picked enough to make plenty of jam. Travis is finally talking more, his new thing is to say, "I no like it!" and "that's scared." When ever we meet new people it's always funny to see their reaction to Traivs because he looks like he's four and talks like he's 2. He's Travis and that's that. Ty is just too cute. He crawls like a mad man and has no desire to walk at all. He stands up just fine by himself but that's about it. He loves to put things in baskets and buckets and when Travis isn't looking he plays with his cars. Joe is loving teaching and yesterday he got to break up the first fight on the school year AND it was a girl fight. Me? ummm I've decided that having 2 1/2 bathrooms is over rated! It takes me longer to clean the bathrooms then the rest of the house. I just joined a $5 quilting club. It's once a month and you pay five bucks to sign up and then another five at the first meeting. You get a new block and the fabric with it every month and at the end of the year you have a quilt. As long as you complete your block before the next month you don't pay anything else. I'll take picture of the blocks as they are finished and post them you can tell me what you think.

        

Here is Tyler on his birthday a few days back. I'm not one to buy cheap Walmart toys but he love this thing! It Giggles and moves when you sit on it. 
These pictures are more for my mom. Here's the story: 

She sent him this disney costume, it's pit crew outfit and a helmet. I was worried that he wouldn't put it on and I was right. He opened up the package and was all excited about it until he realized that you were supposed to wear it. When I asked him to put it on he got mad and started stomping his feet (yes mom, just like I used to)! I then explained to him that this is what you have to wear when you race cars just like in Herbie (his favorite movie of the month). Well, after I said that he hurried and put it on and then went over to Joe and said, "go in race car Dad!!" He calls the honda the race car. So then Joe had to go and take him out to race.

 Sorry about such the long blog but I have to make up for the past month or so. 

We Are Here!!

Yes we did make it to our new place and yes there was record breaking heat that week end. Hopefully this will be it for a while because everytime we move the strangest things happen...for example a fire on the I-5 that stop ALL traffic (includuing us) for two hours. I have pictures that I'll post later.
We are currently with out a computer. We are trying to get a MAC and it's taking a little longer then we thought. So until then I get to use the library computer or go to school and use Joe's. Either one is hard to do with my two wild men running around.
Things are good and we love it here! I hope we get stay here for awhile.
I'll try to post but I'm not promising anything. If I do use a computer I check my e-mail first and that's about all I get to do.

It's almost over

We finally found a place to rent in Oregon. We figured that we should probably rent until we know if we really want to be there. We were looking for a house to rent but we put it off for too long and couldn't find one. We finally found a town home! It has washer and dryer hook ups, a fenced back yard, a garage, three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. It's about 1,200 square feet!!! It's in a new neighborhood and looks decent. I'm excited about it and most excited to be out of an apartment. We only have about a week and a half left.

We have been busy here and the boys are enjoying evey minute of it. Here's a picture of the grandkids, the ones that live here. There's always a kid around.
I shaved Travis' hair and then Jake wanted his shaved, then Wyatt, and then there was a line and everyone decided to get theirs done too! So here are all the boys and their mid-summer cuts.
After we shaved Travis' and Jake's I kept mixing them up. They are about the same height and their heads are the same size. Jake is two years older then Travis!
There are tons of parks around here so we go a lot. The other day we decided to go ice blocking. The kids had a blast!!
We went bowling too. Travis tried to bowl for everyone. I think it will take him a while to understand the game.

Tyler was sick the other week. After three days of a fever and a visit to the doctor we found out it was just a virus. And he was kind enough to share it with the rest of us! Sharing is caring.

the wagon and the fourth

The boys and I went to Target with Grandma Meri and we talked her into getting a wagon (along with some other thing :)

Travis helped put Papito put the wagon together.
We also got Travis a helmet but couldn't find a bike for him. He had to wear it all through the store. He really is our "Special Ed Ted" now. Tyler loves to sit in the wagon. When all the kids are out side they all take turns pulling him around.
We finally made it to the beach. My sister and sister in-law go two times a week and stay for hours with their kids. I can only take 2 hours and I waited until Joe had a day off to go with him. Travis hates the sand and he doesn't like the ocean either. He doesn't like how the water goes in and out. After a while he finally decided he was fine and started building sand castles.
Tyler really didn't like the sand either. I finally gave up and we went home to take showers and take naps.
The Fourth was fun. We went to the town fair and the kids bought these confetti eggs. They had fun with that!
We all came home and set up the water stuff. Travis loves being around hios cousins and Tyler is finally ok with the noise level...but not me.

Our summer home

YEAH!!!! We are finally here!!! After packing all of our stuff into storage and driving 18 hours we finally made it! The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I'm glad we don't have to do it again for 2 months.

On the way down here we stopped the first night at a hotel to swim, eat and sleep. Travis LOVES to swim. I told him to go to the bathroom before he put on his swimmin' suit. He came out and this is what I saw. Joe and I couldn't stop laughing!!

As long as I can remember we have always given a bath to babies in the kitchen sink. Tyler loves this becuase he can still keep an eye on everything that's going on.

Since we've been here Tyler has learned to pull himself up, crawl up stairs, and is now in 12 month clothes!! My Tyler is growing up way too fast! It's only a matter of time before he starts running.

Travis is loving it here with all his cousins. He is always asking for them to come over and when they do (everyday) he is constanly running around trying to keep up with them. He isn't having anymore problems going to sleep at night.

we're outta here!!!

You would think that I would've learned my lesson last time we moved, but no I didn't. Joe got a new teaching job in Oregon which is actually were we wanted to live in the first place. He will be teaching Spanish kids English and helping them with school work. It's called ELD. I guess its a new thing that they are doing, we'll see what happens.
Washington just wasn't right for us. After living in Rexburg we need a small town. We are actually moving two times...Joe is going to work for my dad this summer doing construction in California. So we'll live with my parents, which I thought I'd never do, for about two months and then we'll head to Oregon. I think I'm most excited about not being in an apartment anymore!!! We're looking at renting a house until we decide if it's the right town for us. Things are a little crazy right now trying to get everything ready but I'll try to keep posting. Which reminds me our computer (actually my brother's computer that we are using right now) has died so I don't know how often I'll be posting.

Our new pet!

When the boys and I went outside earlier today Travis found a caterpillar on the stairs. He thought it was "cute," everything is still cute. When we came back in it was still there so I put it in a jar because he kept asking to hold it. After I out it in the jar he took it out on the patio so that they could play, it didn't stay in the jar for very long. Here are some pictures...

He kept on asking to hold it...
AND HE DID!!!
He's giving him caterpillar kisses.
We finally put him in our strawberry plants for a nap.