The rest of the visit

For a lot of the rest of the time that Grandma and Grandpa Campbell were here visiting it was FREEZING cold. So we didn't go out much. We hung out at home and enjoyed the time together. It turned out to be a good time to have them visit from a purely selfish point of view because Janet is not afraid to get her hands dirty and did a big cleaning project for me almost every day, which ended up speeding up our preparations for putting our house on the market. She scrubbed our kitchen floor until you could actually see the original color of the grout. She also spent at least a half hour scrubbing and scouring the master bathroom shower which was originally white, but the floor hasn't been all the way white since before we moved in. With some baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, and some good ol' elbow grease (and a little help from Rachel) she got it looking better than it has since we've lived here. 

While the girls worked on the shower, Ryan worked on cleaning the door stop.

Annie wanted to get in on the fun, too.

Movie night watching Ice Age 4:

On their last day here we decided to try to snap a few pictures. Most were a flop since the kids have zero attention span.

Grandma and Grandpa with their only grandson:

Trying to get a picture with all the kids proved to be a little difficult. Annie was NOT getting out of her "bed" and Rachel was totally distracted by the camcorder I found when I was packing up all our junk on our desk. It doesn't keep a charge for long at all, so we stopped using it shortly after Annie was born when we got a new camera, so we let Rachel have it. 

This was probably the "best" one we caught with all the kids:

Then Ryan was off to explore.

It was great having G&G visit! Thanks for making the trip. See you this summer!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit: and bring snow with them!

The weather man said it would get cold on Friday and it did. We got a light dusting of snow Friday morning. Dad said that the cold weather had been following them around since they returned from Alaska. They visited Mark and Ashley in San Antonio right before coming to see us and San Antonio had had some unseasonably cold weather while they were there.

Grandma and Grampa Visit: Old Tucson Studios

Grandma and Grandpa Campbell were in town to visit their grandchildren for the first time since returning from their mission to Alaska. We were happy to have them in town for a whole week.

The weather man predicted that Thursday would be the last warm day that week, so we stole Jake from work for most of the afternoon and went to Old Tucson Studios. It was lots of fun.

One of the first places that we stopped was the Mercantile.  We listened as the proprietor taught us about how an old west Mercantile was operated and what he carried in his store.

Here's Grandpa taking some pictures while Grandma and Rachel look on.

Ryan was exploring the Mercantile on his on terms/territory.

Grandma and Grandpa looking at what the shop had for sale.

The proprietor talking to Grandma, Grandpa and Rachel.

 Just outside the Mercantile, the studio re-enacted on an Old West gun fight.  Here are some pictures of us waiting for the shoot out to begin.

We did our fair share of exploring.  Grandpa was by far the most interested in looking around and taking pictures.

Jake said am I using the force to push Ryan's stroller in this picture.

Ryan with Cheerios. What a happy kid!

Ryan arching his back to smile at Momma.

Big Jake's BBQ!

Miscreants behind bars where they belong.

Come on Grandma! I want to ride the train!

The studio has a small train that will take you for a ride.  While Grandpa looked around and took pictures, we grabbed our sandwiches went on a ride to see the sights and start eating lunch.  Jake and the kids really enjoyed the train ride.  Ryan of course is always happy to be outside.

Hello everybody!

Sandwich: yum. Munch, munch

Ryan wonders if he can have one of these at home.

Not far from the train station, we finished our lunch and then went to ride the carousel.  We were the only ones on the carousel, so we rode it twice.  Rachel loved riding the horses.  Annie decided to give it a try, but quickly determined that the horses were not for her.

Ryan liked the carousel as well.

Grandpa, Grandma, Ryan, Annie, Rachel

We all had fun at Old Tucson, but Jake had to go back to work and Annie and Ryan needed to nap.

Later that night, we all got into the beanies that I crocheted for Christmas and asked Grandpa to take some pictures.

 

More fun with Grandma and Grandpa to come...

PS This was written by Jake trying to write as me. He did a decent job, except that he used big words like proprietor and miscreants which totally is not my lingo. But yay for Jake for posting to the blog! He must have gotten impatient with me being a little too busy to post lately. We're putting our house on the market this week, so the last couple of weeks have been full of packing extra junk, cleaning, etc. Maybe now that that is done I'll have time to catch up on the blog. Or just let Jake do it for me.

Bed Time

At Christmas Annie got a new mattress and both the girls got the promise of a new bunk bed. But with all the painting and new carpet we were getting done we decided to wait until that was over to make less furniture that would have to be moved around. So last Thursday the inside finished getting painted, then Friday we got carpet installed and the outside painted, so Saturday we finally got around to putting the bunk bed together. Everyone was very pleased with the exciting new "toy." They especially liked how easy it is to make a tent out of it.

We managed to keep Annie off the top bunk for maybe 2 days before she figured out how to climb the ladder. We still try to keep her off with time outs enforcing the rule that you have to be 5 or older to be on the top bunk, but we all know how well 2-year-olds obey. 

We also left the crib up for now. For naps and bedtime she usually wants to sleep in her "Hello Kitty big-girl bed," but after a couple chances if she's out of bed playing, or up on the top she loses her chance and has to sleep in her crib. Mostly she hates that, but last night there were apparently monsters in her bed, so she requested her crib. In a week or two we'll have to take the crib down to make a little more space in the room before we put the house up for sale, so hopefully she gets used to sleeping in her big girl bed real soon. She actually does nap there almost every day, but she's only been able to sleep there at night once in the week it's been up because night-time is just too exciting to stay in bed.

Perhaps if we let her have a binky she would stay in bed easier. Annie threw her binky away shortly after Thanksgiving, with some motivation from a little doll she wanted that she couldn't have until she threw her binky away. It was easier than I thought it would be in general, but she still feels a big connection to binkies. Whenever she finds one of Ryan's she sneaks it into her mouth and goes somewhere unobtrusive to suck away. Sunday I found her under the table laying on her blanket. I asked if she was sleepy and ready for a nap, and when she turned her face towards me to reply I realized why she was laying so quietly:

Its been a lot of transitions for Annie the last few months, with potty training in November, then no more binky in December, and now a big girl bed. I try to remember that when she's having a hard time settling down these days.
And the last bed-time picture: after scriptures and family prayer the girls like a "ride" to get their teeth brushed. Jacob is usually happy to comply.

Holiday week

Jake got a week off of work last week and we enjoyed having him home. Thanks to my little brother we are going to be looking for a bigger house soon (we had planned to wait until we could break even before buying a house, but Todd inspired me to look into it now and it turns out we are way closer to breaking even than I thought, like if it weren't for realtors getting a cut we could probably break even). Woohoo! So I spent some of the vacation time starting to pack and prep the house. Our freezer is moved to the garage, a big bookcase in the girl's room is emptied and in the garage, and lots of toys and books are packed up. Jake kept telling me to enjoy my vacation (like moms ever really get a vacation), and I tried to tell him I was enjoying myself. Getting things done at least 3 times faster than they would be done were I the only one home having to split my attention between watching and taking care of the kids and getting some work done was a definite plus in my book. It was so much easier with Jake there to entertain the kids.
But I did take plenty of time to relax and enjoy myself, too. Jake and I went to the Hobbit on a date one day, and most days we enjoyed some time outside, even if it was a little cold for us Arizona wimps.
Tackle Dad!

 We also jumped our back fence almost every day to go play on the playground at the elementary school. The last day we took a camera to document the fun.

 Ryan got pretty darn good at climbing stairs, and is totally fearless on the slides. On the colder days he'd had socks on his hands for mittens and discovered how fun it was to slide down head-first. When we went on a warmer day it took 2 or 3 face plants before he learned to lift his hands up to slide down fast.

 He also loves (eating) dirt. We try to plug the mouth, but it only lasts a minute or so before he decides he must taste this fascinating stuff and spits out the binky.

 Rachel and Annie had a blast chasing Dad. He's a good Dad to play along for so long. "Come and get me, Dad!" "Get me again!" "I'm going to get you!" All up and down and around the playground equipment.

 Some of our attempts at a cute picture:

 And proof I was there:

 We have some cute kiddos.

It was a fabulous week full of fun. We were sad to have Jake head back to work. As for progress on our house, this week is the week of painting and new carpet and, once the carpet is in the girls will finally get their bunk bed, which Rachel is getting more and more excited about... Thankfully my parents are visiting Todd and Savannah in Seattle for the week, so we get to use their house as home base for a few days while our house is discombobulated with the work being done. And it looks like we're on the way to putting our house on the market maybe by the end of the month. We hope to stick close to where we are. We like our ward, like the schools, and don't want Jake to have to drive any longer than he does to work. We'll see how things work out.