The Wandering Wallaces

Juggling Glass Balls

2011-06-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

Once in a while I feel like I've gotten in WAY over my head and my "to do" list takes on a life of its own. This is usually my own fault as I am the one who over-schedules my days and sets up a standard for myself that is far too high for even Superwoman to achieve. I start to "drop the ball" so to speak by missing appointments, forgetting to be where I said I would be, not following through on something I promised to do etc.

Several years ago I was in a church meeting and the lady giving the lesson talked about the juggling act we all do. We juggle the kids, house, bills, exercise, scripture study and church callings (service), marriage, temple attendance......well, you get the idea. Sometimes we start to feel overwhelmed and start dropping balls. It happens to everyone, but the important thing is that we DON'T DROP THE GLASS BALLS. Those are the important ones and as long as we keep them going, everything else will be alright.

I've been reflecting on this a lot lately and trying to decide what my "Glass Balls". I guess for me it is the relationship I have with my family and friends, my personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and my health. As long as I keep those precious Glass Balls in the air, the rest can hit the ground once in a while!

Charlie

2011-05-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Speaking of joy, the newest member of our family, Charlie Decker Wallace brings us PURE JOY every day!! I'll be honest. We were not planning to have anymore kids and were surprised when we learned there was another little one coming along to join us. Now that he is here, I am so in love with the little angle that I can't even imagine life without him. I'm so grateful that my life doesn't always follow the plan that I invent for myself!

Charlie was born on January 14th. 6 lb. 13 oz. 19 inches long. He had to spend the first week of his life in the NICU due to some lung trouble. He has been a mellow and happy baby from the start. Thank goodness I have an easy one this time!! ( I think I earned it.) Charlie is now a very chubby baby as you can see, and I love every fat roll on him!

All of the kids LOVE him to pieces! Sometimes a little too much. Savannah is a huge help and loves to dress him, hold him, make him smile etc. Thank Heavens she is old enough this time as I really don't know what I'd do without her!

A Quest For Joy

2011-05-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

Around Christmas time my good friend Stacy Poll and I were reminiscing about the "good old days". Stacy and I met in Jr. High and have been BFF's ever since. We used to have so much fun. Clean fun of coarse : )! But now in the present we both realized that we don't have fun anymore. It's just work. We've forgotten how to have joy. So we decided that our New Years resolution should be to go on a Quest to find Joy again. So now that it's nearly June I've decided to get started! HEY, don't judge, I've been busy. Here is a quick re-cap of our past year.

We sold our house in Illinois.........

.......and moved in with Jeremy's parents.

4 months later we moved to this tiny little rental home. It had 1 bathroom, no dishwasher and no disposal. We called it the "mud hut" We were so very crammed in there.

We also began building our new home in Mountain Green.

And we had this. (His name is Charlie and he's very sweet).

Then we FINALLY moved in to our house. It is beautiful and I love everything about it!!!

What a great year full of so many things to be joyful about!! And yet after this long journey I find myself completely exhausted, fuzzy brained and unable to be productive. Obviously there are many parts to a joyful life and there needs to be balance. Spiritual, emotional, physical, social. I'm going to take it one step at a time and not necessarily in order of most important.

STEP 1
Energy. Must find more energy!! All of the moving, pregnancy and Charlie waking up at night has really taken it's toll. I'm sure it's not that I'm getting old. Not to mention that I haven't been eating very well so this is where I've decided to start. A friend of mine has a blog about healthy eating and I got some great ideas/reminders from her. She suggested smoothies every day which is a great way to get in all of those vitamins and nutrients we need (and sneak them to the kids). She also suggested setting out a veggie tray during the day before dinner. The kids are so hungry at that time they'll eat anything! Ok, who am I kidding....I will too. Usually I'm sneaking some chocolate while fixing dinner, but I'm willing to mend my ways : )

Frozen grapes, carrots, spinach, yogurt, watermelon, cantaloupe, lemon and lime juice, strawberries, honey and protein powder (Shaklee of coarse!) The kids liked it and I put the leftover in some glass jars. They are supposed to stay good for a few days, but we finished it off by the end of the day!

I'm off to the store today to get veggies for the veggie tray!

Alex's baptism

2010-10-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

This post should have come a few months ago....ooops! Guess I've been a little preoccupied with moving, getting settled, building a house and the new baby to come. But this was definitely a very important event that needs to have it's own post on "The blog".
Alex was baptized on July 3rd by his Dad. It was a wonderful day and we were blessed to have many of our family and friends celebrate with us. We had only been in Utah for 24 hours so we were all tired but we were so happy to have finally made it "home" and to be able to share such a special occasion with our loved ones.
I think the look on Alex's face sums up how we all were feeling. PURE JOY! And you can find this look on Alex's face 99% of the time which is one of the things I love most about the kid! Love you Alex!

Back to School.....Again!!

2010-10-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

The kids started school on Aug. 25th and so far they are loving it! Savannah is in Middle school and has made lots of new friends. She has already experienced the joy of turning a piece of ordinary wood into a work of art (a giant die) in shop class and is on to the torture of P.E.!!

Alex is in 3rd grade and has also made lots of new friends. He is in the same class with his cousin Makenna, which I admit I wasn't sure would work out very well, but it has not caused any trouble and he is enjoying his new school. His teacher says he's always happy and a joy to have in class!

Micah is in 1st grade and is one of the top readers in his class. I get to watch him at recess a couple of times a week when I take Gray to preschool which is located in the elementary school. He is always running around with a group of kids and a huge smile on his face. This new school has 3 recesses which the boys are LOVING!!! And so am I!!!

Gray is in preschool 2 days a week and for the most part he loves it. Once in a while he cries when I drop him off. We're hoping he comes out of his shell a little!

And here's the big announcement, for those of you who don't already know. We're having another baby in January. This was a big surprise and has taken a little while to come to terms with. We found out 3 weeks ago that it will be another BOY!!! One more and we could have our own basketball team.....but we won't!!

Home again, home again jiggity jig!!

2010-08-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

We're home! We're finally home!

In January, Jeremy took a new position with his company that would allow him to work from home when he is not traveling. We spent 3 1/2 long months fixing up our house in Chicago and then put it up on the Market in March. Just when we were starting to loose hope we got an offer and had to be out 3 weeks later. We closed and moved out on June 30th and were in Utah July 2nd. Just in time for Alex's baptism on July 3rd!

We are so happy to be home among our family and friends and of coarse the beauty of the Mountains!! We are staying with Jeremy's Mom in Mountain Green while we build our new home (also in Mountain Green).We haven't started yet.........still trying to decide on a house plan. We plan to die in our next home (NEVER moving again!!) so we're feeling a lot of pressure to get it just right!

A Visit from the Chocolate Fairy

2010-05-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Late last night I had a visit from the chocolate fairy. I was on a conference call when I recieved a text from her (I'm assuming the Chocolate Fairy is a female.......because the love of chocolate is truly girl thing) that said "If you haven't checked your porch your chocolate fix is there"

Earlier in the day I had posted on facebook "There is just not enough chocolate in the world today. At least in my house there isn't enough."

So after a brief moment of debating weather this was a trap by some psycho trying to lure me outside with the promise of chocolate and then mom-napping me while my children were sleeping and my husband was out of town, I looked and this is what I saw.

Well it looked just like this, but bigger.

There were more brownies last night.

I won't even tell you how many I ate.

Hey! Don't judge! Would you be able to resist this?

And they were still warm! I just knew that if I faithfully paid devotion to the Chocolate Fairy by partaking of chocolate EVERY Day I would be rewarded!!! Thank you Chocolate Fairy! I believe!!

Ok, really the best part is (aside from the fact that my kids were asleep and my hubby out of town and I had a whole plate of warm quadruple chocolate brownies in my possession) that I don't know who my chocolate fairy is. But while trying to guess, I came up with several good friends who love me and that I could easily imagine would do such a thing.

But it did make me wonder.....if one of my friends received a late night visit from the chocolate fairy, would my name pop into their head while they were wondering who it could be? It's been far too long since I have been of service to my friends.

So THANK YOU Chocolate fairy for the kindness you've shown me AND for the reminder of the importance of service!

Where does all the time go?

2010-02-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

How do I keep getting so far behind on this blog? I guess it's because I get busy living my life and forget to make time to record it. I'm not going to go all the way back to the fall and fill you all in on the happenings, I'll just start from here.

On January 22 we set out on our trip to much anticipated trip to Disney World. We have been planning and saving for about 3 years so we were all very excited to see the day FINALLY come! The first day we drove to Atlanta, Georgia where we stopped to see some of our friends, the Evans family. We lived across the street from them in Arkansas and they were like family to us. It was great to see them again and catch up! We got to Disney World on Saturday afternoon and stayed until the following Saturday.

The trip was everything we could have imagined. The kids loved meeting all of the Characters and all of the rides and shows. Alex and Savannah were able to go on all of the rides and there was only one ride that Micah couldn't go on. Our faverite rides were Space Mountain, The go-carts, Arosmiths Rockin' Roller coaster and the Tower of Terror.

And then there was Gray. He was not an enjoyable person to be around that week. I guess it comes with being 2, almost 3. He didn't want to ride in the stroller but then he would stop and pout or just run off if we let him walk. I thought he'd just take a nap in the stroller, but I think that only happened once. We still love him though!

We left on Saturday afternoon but had to take a different route home due to Tennessee being hit so hard with snow/ice. We didn't get home until about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night.

It was a great trip and we enjoyed spending so much time together. We made a lot of memories that I'm sure we'll re-tell over and over for years to come!

And They're Off!!!

2009-10-06T11:45:00.001-07:00

Hip-Hip-Hooray!!! After such a fun-filled summer I was very ready to send the kids back to school and get back to a schedule. They are all doing very well in their classes so far. Savannah is in 5th grade, Alex is in 3rd and Micah started all-day Kindergarten. I was a little worried that Micah would be grumpy and tired after school for a while, but he gets on the bus with a smile and still has a smile on his face when he gets home! He also begs me to give him homework. Wonder how long that will last : ) And now I think I'm caught up on all of our happenings! (Except for the ballet recital video's that I still need to post!)

Savannah 5th Grade

Alex 2nd Grade

Micah Kindergarten

St. Louis

2009-10-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to the Shaklee conference in St. Louis. When she asked me I happened to be having a bad day with the kids and she could have asked me to go away to a poop convention and I would have agreed as along as it meant a few days off from the "mom gig"! We had a blast! I'd been using Shaklee products for a while and I think the company and their stuff is amazing. It was great to hear all of the science behind their products and to
get a better feel for the company. After I got home I joined Shaklee so that I can start earning my products for free! It has been a bit of a roller coaster so far but I've really been enjoying learning all about nutrition and how to help the human body to be healthier! If you want to know more about it, I have a website. Check it out! www.greenandhealthylife.myshaklee.com

After several nights of staying up way too late and then getting up really early I was in desperate need of coke. St. Louis, however seems to be a coke free city. Pepsi everywhere. But NO COKE!!!

Here is a sample of my fabulous shoes and all of the foot care paraphernalia that goes along with them. I really like to get dressed up!!

Me, Chrissy and Cathy on our final night.

Sister Trip

2009-09-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

My big sister Becki came out for a visit over Labor Day weekend. We drove down to a little town in Southern Illinois called Vienna, but pronounced Vyenna. It was a very small, kinda redneckish town. When we pulled up to our hotel, we were scared! The "lobby" smelled so nasty (stale cigarette smoke) that we asked to see our room first before we paid. The girls said ok, but I could tell she was laughing on the inside. You see, there was only one other hotel in town and this was the nicer one.
Well, our room was alright, we just had to hold our breath to run up the stairs because it was like 40 years of trapped cigarette smoke in the stairwell. That's right, no elevator. Oh well.
So the first night there we drove around to find a restaurant and picked the one that had the most cars in the parking lot figuring that it must be the best around. It was called Jimmy's Char House.....Think Hometown buffet or Chuckaramma........except a whole lot worse!!! There was a lot of breaded deep fried food. I didn't recognize most of it, but I'm pretty sure there were fried frog legs in there. I had mashed potatoes and gravy and I'm pretty sure they were from a can.

Well, you may be wondering why we chose to go to Vienna Illinois in the first place. Well our cousin (actually our cousins son, so that must make him a first cousin once removed or a second cousin or something) was getting married and we hadn't seen that side of our family for many moons so we went. I'm so glad we did! It was so good to catch up with them and spend a couple of days together!

We all went on a beautiful hike to a waterfall where we watched a pore little frog in a pond get attacked by a small fish. The frog lost. I'm still a little creeped out by that. It rained on us on the way back. We also went to a town called Metropolis where we went to the Superman museum. Very cool. Then we went to lunch at an interesting little place that listed about 22 different deep fried catfish dishes. I had a hamburger.

It may not have been a luxury vacation but I had so much fun with my sister and cousins and I would do it again in a heart beat!

Camping in the Black River Forrest, WI

2009-09-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

We took a quick 2 day camping trip to the Black River Forrest in WI. It was Beautiful and the weather was great. We had Rain at night and not too hot during the day.

BEST Apple Pie I EVER ATE

2009-09-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

In a little town called Troy in Wisconsin there is an old, old electric train that you can ride up and down a track. One of the stops is at this wonderful little market called The Elegant Farmer. It has all sorts of goodies. Cheeses, breads, mixes, jars of salsa, fresh fruits and this amazing bakery. We read in a newspaper that Bobby Flay had challenged the Elegant Farmer to a Throw Down on their Apple pie and the Elegant Farmer WON! So we had to try the pie! We bought a caramel apple pie, some black berries and some cheese curds, took it out to a picnic table, gave everyone a spoon and dug in! It was so good that we went again in September when my sister, Becky was visiting. And now I've found the recipe online and made the pie for the first time over the weekend. YUMMY!

2009-09-23T07:14:00.001-07:00

Here are the best pictures (out of the million or so I took) of the kids. Notice we didn't get many with Gray in there. Oh well. Maybe next year. I took tons of pictures....too many to post. Mandy, Lesli, Liz and anyone else who wants one...I'll put them on a CD for you.

The Cousins are Comming!!!

2009-09-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

In July we had a lot of visitors! Jeremy's Mom, Bella (Jeremy's sister Liz's girl) Sister in law, Mandy and her kids (Makenna, Parker, Nate and Smith) and later in the week, brother Seth all came for a visit. It was pure excitement and craziness, but as always the highlight of our summer is to get together with family! The girls all slept in Savannah's room and did girl things (giggling until all hours of the night and writing songs) And the boys all slept in the boys room (that was one stinky room!). Here is a peak at our week. The gang arrived on Friday night (July 10th).

Saturday, Mandy and I rode the train downtown to shop the Magnificent Mile. We saw a dress for $3,000 and a purse for over $2,000. We discovered a great store called Lush that sells organic soap where we each bought a "buffy". It is an exfoliating soap that the sales girl said would get rid of our cellulite. Well, I've buffed and buffed, but somehow that stubborn cellulite is still hanging on. Hmmm. In another mall we somehow got talked into buying this great little nail file that shines up your nails to look like you have clear polish on. I still think that was a good investment! On our way back to the park and ride, we (ok, Mandy is innocent....I) wasn't paying attention and rode all the way to the end of the line only to have to get back on to go back a few stops to our car. OOPS! Sorry, Mandy.

Chris

Mandy

Sunday we rested and Monday we dressed the kids up and took them to the park for a photo shoot. I'll post those pictures separate. Tuesday we went to Lego Land. It wasn't great, but the kids had fun.

Parker and Alex

Wednesday, all the girls went back to school shopping while Jeremy loaded up all 6 little boys and picked Seth up from the airport. They went to the lake for the day. And you guessed it. They took zero pictures!

Thursday we went to the horse races at Arlington Park. Then we went out to eat Chicago style pizza and then home for our annual Kids B-day Party.

Friday was our big day! We got up early and got on the train to go downtown. All 5 adults and 9 kids. We ate breakfast on the train then took a bus to Navy Pier where we took a ride on the Tall Ship Windy and listened to the Pirates tell stories about Piracy of the Inland Seas. The kids even got to help with the sails.
Makenna and Savannah on the train

Chris and Gray

Seth and Nate

Jeremy and Gray

Lesli and Savannah

After the Ship and a quick bite to eat we hopped on a couple of these family sized bikes and tooled along the Lake front and back, stopping for a photo op. This was my favorite part of the day! Jeremy and Chris

Jeremy, Chris and the kids.

After the bikes some of us rode the Ferris Wheel.

Savannah, Makenna, Bella and Lesli

Jeremy, Micah and Alex

And then took a long walk through the city to have dinner at a fun diner called Ed Debevic's. A place where the waiters are rude and yell at you and dance on the tables, but it's all in fun. Then we walked back to the train station and rode back home. Very fun day!

Dupage Children's Museum

2009-09-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

The kids earned tickets to a children's museum through the summer reading program at the library. It was about an hour away, but well worth it! We went with some friends of ours, the Zimmermans (They were with us on our camping trip to Starved Rock as well). It was very nice to let the kids go and touch and not have to tell them "NO". Well, that is until we played in the water. We about got thrown out because the kids kept making water spray all over all of the other kids and parents. That was embarrasing!

Gray was in awe of this floating ball.

Savannah, Gray, Joseph Z., Sariah Z., Micah, Alex

Building with real tools.

Princess Savannah.

How many kids do I have? Notice my boys are all in Orange so that I could find them easier!

Great big Light Bright!

Wild West Town

2009-09-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to a cute little place called Wild West Town. Because of the cooler weather and rain in the forecast there were NO CROWDS!!! Yipee! All of the Cowboys and Cowgirls who worked there were very friendly to the kids and we all had a great time! The highlight of the trip was when a little girl from Alex's class saw him and yelled "Hi Alex!". Alex waved and then tried to be really cool and jump over a fence. His feet caught on the top rail and he face planted. He was so embarrassed. Am I a bad mom because I couldn't stop laughing?

Sling shots

Panning for gold.

Pony rides.

Canoe rides.

Archery.

Train rides.

Hand carts.

Carousal

Free Zoo Day

2009-09-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

I made the mistake of taking the kids to the Brookfield Zoo on "Free Zoo Day". Lesson learned. There were way too many people who were not very respectful of personal space. We'll just leave it at that. But I think the kids had fun. Savannah and her friend Emily were way too cool for it all, but I did catch a few smiles!!!
Micah wearing dads glasses to protect his stitches.

In this picture....two random kids on the left. Alex, Emily and Savannah on the camel and Gray in front.

Stitches

2009-09-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

In July, Gray threw a rock at Micah.......and..... well, he got him good. Micah had to go in for 5 stitches. Gray has a really good arm and has a bad habit (that we're trying to break) of throwing things. He did say sorry to Micah.

Baseball Season

2009-09-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Coming HOME!!!

Thanks Dad!

Jeremy had the chance to be an assistant coach on Alex's team this year. Alex has a lot of talent and he really loves the game as you can see by the grin on his face in most of these pictures. What a heart breaker!

Swimming Lessons

2009-09-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

The kids were in swimming lessons the week after school let out. They all did great and will move on to the next level next year!

Happy 10th Birthday Savannah!!!

2009-08-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little girl is 10!!! We went to Red Robin for dinner then home for cake and presents. The boys gave her a swan Webkinz and Daddy gave her a cubs hat and tickets to a cubs game. She opted for a shopping day with Mom instead of a gift this year and we had lots of fun shopping! We were going to have a Luau for her birthday party, but of the 11 girls invited, not one could come. They all had swim meets, soccer or softball games or were gone on vacations so we are saving the Luau stuff for next year. I was really proud of how well Savannah handled the dissapointment. I guess she really is growing up!

Camping at Starved Rock

2009-08-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our Summer break is officially over. Savannah and Alex started school yesterday and Micah started all day kindergarten today. They all love their new teachers and are adjusting very well to being back on a schedule. So today was the big day that I've been looking forward to all summer. I was going to have my first bit of "alone time" as soon as Gray went down for his nap. Unfortunately for me, Gray decided not to take a nap today. Seriously.

Down to business. As soon as school was out we went to Starved Rock to camp for a few days with some friends. It is in central Illinois and is named Starved Rock because there were two Indian tribes at war and one tribe was up on a large rock (or cliff ) surrounded by the other tribe and they stayed there and starved to death rather than surrender.

We went on a beautiful hike (well, there are no mountains so it's more like a walk) up to the "Starved Rock" and then had a picnic. We all had a great time and the kids loved every minute of it! They even got to make ice cream by putting the ingredients in a container and then putting that in a ball with ice then passing the ball to each other.

We were camped pretty close to the bathroom and one night at about dusk Jeremy took Micah to the bathroom and then decided to leave him there and told him he'd come back in a few minutes to check on him. Well, we were all enjoying the campfire and getting ready to do marsh mallows. The kids were all running around playing tag and I decided to do a head count. I couldn't find Micah so I started to call for him and look for him. Finally I got nervous and started asking the other kids and adults if they'd seen him and they started looking too. Then suddenly Jeremy remembered that he had left him alone in the bathroom about an hour ago. The poor kid had been sitting in a dark, creepy bathroom crying his eyes out the whole time. I felt so bad for him, but I'm sure it's one of those stories that our family will repeat over and over for life.

It was so fun to just hang out and enjoy our friends. We didn't want to come home and decided that 2 days was just not long enough.

Birthday and project update

2009-06-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

First of all...
Happy 36th Birthday to Jeremy! We didn't get to celebrate much on the actual day. We did give him a gift.....a nail gun! Ok so maybe it was a gift for me too since we had been tiling our laundry room floor and all that was left to do was to put on the wood piece that goes on the bottom of the base board (I don't know what it's called ??) so that we could move the washer and dryer back in. I was getting desperate...we needed clean underwear! We did get to celebrate over the weekend though. Bob (Jeremy's Dad) came out to visit and we went out to dinner and then had strawberry shortcake, which I'm sure you all know is Jer's favorite. It was a fun weekend. Savannah and I had our dance recital (pictures soon to come) and Alex pitched in his baseball game.

And here are some updates on what's been going on here. Over Memorial Day weekend, Jer took of a few extra days so that we could get some projects finished. We have our garden in and have planted some flowers. The rhubarb has been going crazy and we've had several delicious desserts allready.

Here is the laundry room floor. We only did the wood baseboard behind the washer and dryer and still need to do the rest of the room then paint the trim. And FIALLY here is the tile backsplash.

With all this work done, we are ready to go play and enjoy our summer. We have a lot of fun adventures planned!

Happy Birthday Micah!

2009-05-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Micah turned 5 last week! He is Soooo excited to be a 5 year old because he will get to ride the bus to school next year. We a fun little party at home where we enjoyed this beautiful soccer ball cake. (I now know that the pattern on a soccer ball is made up of black pentagons and white hexagons. I thought they were all pentagons. Guess I never took the time to look that closely)
Micah chose to go bowling as a family rather than have a birthday party with friends. I was very glad to not have to throw a party, but in the end, an hour of bowling and a few arcade games each turned out to be more money than a party would have been.

Bowling for the first time with the family was quite an interesting experience. Micah would roll the ball down the lane so SLOWLY that we sometimes wondered if it was going to stop right on the lane. On Alex's first turn he somehow managed to get the ball wedged in the gutter on the bumper. Jeremy had to go down and get it and he almost wiped out twice. Savannah managed to roll the ball sideways and it went down someone's lane......in the gutter.....she was mortified! And Gray, well, he was trying to pick up the balls and when he got tired of that he ran away to the arcade so that Jeremy and I had to split up and take turns entertaining him in the arcade. All in all it was a fun day for the family. (I'm tired again just thinking about it!)

Jeremy wanted me to share this picture with everyone. The kids and I gave Jeremy a smoker for Fathers day last year and he has been practicing different recipes and cuts of meat. They have all been good, but a couple of weeks ago he smoked a pork "butt" (which is actually the shoulder...I don't know why.) And it was AMAZING! I made BBQ sauce that turned out great and a coleslaw to go with it...in traditional southern BBQ you put it ON your sandwich. So if anyone wants to come on out we'll feed you some yummy barbecue! Good Job Jeremy!

Our Exiting News!

2009-05-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here is our big news. We bought a building lot in Mountain Green!!! Ok, so it's not nearly as exciting as a new baby or moving like some of you guessed, but it's a big step in the right direction for us! We don't plan to make the move for a year or more. We are still waiting for the housing market to come back up and then Jeremy will need to find the right job, but we have faith that everything will fall into place eventually. So for now we'll just be busy paying off the lot and trying to see and do everything around here. If any of you have been wanting to come and visit Chicago, you'd better do it now before you're free room and board is gone!

Now for the bad news......because this might be our last summer here, we've decided to forego our usual trip back "home" to Utah so that we can spend our time on some fun adventures out here. We are excited that some of our family (and maybe some friends too!) will be coming out to visit, but we'll really miss the rest of you.

Here is our lot. There will not be any neighbors behind us for miles.

Here is the West view of Snow Basin out the front.

Here is the view South West....Kaysville Peak.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-04-19T15:52:00.001-07:00

13 years ago today is when it all began. My mind keeps wandering back to our wedding day. It was a beautiful April day (even though it had snowed the day before and again the day after). When Jeremy arrived at my house to drive down to Salt Lake, he was in a panic because he'd forgotten to bring his ring so we drove back to get it and made it to our wedding breakfast at the Lion House a little late. After eating with friends and family we went across the street to the temple and had a beautiful wedding ceremony and a reception in Layton later that day. What I keep thinking is that way back then I would never have guessed that 13 years later I'd be raising four kids and living in Chicago! We never know what lies up ahead for us. We've been through some really hard and stressful times and had a lot of fun and excitement also. If I had my life to live over again, I wouldn't change a thing about our marriage. There is no one else I'd rather be going down this road with!
We celebrated our anniversary in February with a trip to Mexico so we're not doing anything special or exchanging gifts today, but I did make a list to give to Jeremy and I want you all to see what a great person he is.
What I love about Jeremy
1. He's patient with me.
2. Plays with our kids.
3. Works hard to provide for us.
4. Does the dishes on Sunday.
5. Supports my hobbies.
6. Honest
7. Great back rubs!
8. Puts family first.
9. Good with the deacons.
10. Smart.
11. Is respected at work because of how he acts.
12.He understands where I'm coming from.
13. Enjoys the outdoors.
14. Forgiving.
15. Involved in our children's lives.
16. Likes cooking with me.
17. Shares my dreams
18. Tries to make me laugh.
19. Let's me have a break when I need it.
20. Fun to play games with.
21. Humble enough to admit when he is wrong.
22. He apologizes when he needs to.
23. Fair.
24. Always tries to better himself at work.
25. Likes to learn.
26. Good Kisser!
27. Tries hard to keep promises.
28. reliable.
29. Shares his day with me.
30. Says nice things about me when I'm not there.
31. Teaches the kids to respect their mother.
32. Respects his mother.
33 Gives credit where it is due.
34. Gives me more credit than I deserve.
35. Likes to try new things.
36. He has a wealth of knowledge.
37. Still a kid at heart.
38. Responsible.
39. Can function on very little sleep.
40. Cheerful in the morning.

I love you Jeremy!!!

Happy Birthday to Gray (and Happy Easter)

2009-04-18T10:30:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling guilty that I haven't gotten Gray's birthday pictures up on the blog yet. I got Alex's birthday pictures up right away, but poor Gray has to wait and wait. And what is even worse is that I only took a couple of pictures of his little party. I promise, Gray, I do love you as much as I love Alex. So here it is. Gray turned two on March 27th. We just had a little party with the family. He has recently discovered Curious George and so I made him a cake that looked like a monkey (Kinda...I gave it my best shot anyway!). He blew out the candles on his first try. We gave him a little wagon with some blocks in it and he thought that was great. Happy Birthday to you Gray! We all love you and get a kick out of watching you do all of the cute things you do!

We had a fun time dying Easter Eggs last Saturday. Gray got really into it and was a little rough with the eggs. He kept dropping them into the dye and splashing all over. It was nerve wracking with all those cups of dye and all those little excited hands, but we survived with not one spilled cup! Easter morning the kids searched for the eggs as is a tradition for us. We were surprised at how quickly Gray picked it up. No one had to show him, he just started grabbing eggs as fast as he could find them. Then we all worked together to get our traditional Easter breakfast ready. I is a recipe that my mom made when I was growing up. I don't know if it has a name but it is basically deviled eggs with a cheese sauce on top...you put it in the oven until it is all bubbly. Yummmmmmy!!!

Ok, so I know this isn't the most exciting post, but my next one will be much more exciting. I have some great news to share, but need to wait a week or two to make sure everything goes smoothly and I won't have to eat my words later! So stay tuned....

Still working on the tile.....we still need to grout and then put the final seal on. Why do our projects always drag on for so long? Oh yeah....time. We don't have any. I have a calendar up on the wall that has everyone's activities color coded. It is amazing how full it gets. Saturdays are especially crazy. We usually have multiple over lapping activities that we have to decide between. Today it was a Primary activity at 9....Savannah and Jeremy had a fishing trip with the Girl Scouts from 9:00 to 10:30. Micah had Soccer pictures at 10:45 then we all met at home because Alex and Jeremy had to help out at field day for baseball. Savannah had ballet from 12-1, Alex's baseball game (Jeremy is assistant coach) at 2:30, then of coarse Jeremy and I will need to fit in a work out because we are doing P90X together (I'll save that for another post) and well, you see how it goes! This is just Saturday. Jeremy is also working about a gazzilion hours a week. So maybe we'll get this tile done before summer?

Happy Birthday to Alex

2009-03-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

Alex has been counting down to his big day for months now. To every one's relief March 20th finally came. We had a very small party on Friday, and gave Alex his gift; a rocket ship. The real fun was on Saturday when friends came over for a Mad Science party. We made exploding volcano's, slime and then lemon juice rockets. I made a lovely volcano cake, which I'm sure I couldn't make again if I tried. While we ate cake and ice cream Jeremy did the experiment where you put Mento's in diet coke. For those of you who haven't seen this before, if you put Mento's in Diet Coke it explodes 30 ft. into the air. We were lucky to have a nice day and had the party outside. Alex got several Bokugan balls (I'm still not sure what they do or how to play with them, but it's all the rage around here). Last night Jeremy took Alex to the store with some of his birthday money from grandparents. He's had his eye on a new light saber that automatically extends when you push a button. We already have several light sabers but this one is clearly superior to the others. Now Micah wants one......a few more months until his birthday though.

I can't believe Alex is 7 already! He's such a good kid with a quick smile. He's easy to please and still gives me good hugs. He's always been very smart and amazingly coordinated, strong and agile. I love you Alex!

Still working on the tile back splash.

Sunshine on My Sholders

2009-03-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is attempt #2 at this post. I had it just about done last week and then Jeremy accidentally closed it without saving. So here goes again....

It is finally feeling like spring most days here in Chicago. We are actually playing outside!!! Whahooo! Gray had a blast jumping in puddles. That kid can really jump! And the big kids had a snow ball fight with the last bits of snow on the ground. I've had a chance to run outside a few times and it's all so refreshing.

Savannah sold almost 100 boxes of girl scout cookies! Way to go Savannah! I think I've eaten a few (boxes) too many; hence the running outside.

Jeremy and I decided to start a home improvement project last weekend. I'd like to know from everyone else; Is it just me, or does every project have to have some unexpected problem? We decided to put up a tile back splash in the kitchen. Simple enough, right? We pulled of the old Formica board back splash and found a giant gap between the counter and the wall. So we came up with different ideas to try to get around the problem, but in the end we just put a bunch of mortar down the hole and let it dry. Because of the set back, we didn't get to finish our project, but hopefully this coming Saturday after Alex's birthday party we'll get it done. So here are the before pictures and I'll get the afters up later.

On St Patrick's Day, the kids were very disappointed when they woke up and found that a leprechaun had not come to mess up the house while they were asleep. Wen they got home from School and went out to jump on the trampoline, they found confetti and a pot of chocolate gold coins. They were ecstatic and all is well in their world!

World's worst blogger!!!

2009-02-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok, I know I'm really bad at keeping my blog current. I get a little behind and then a little more and before I know it, I'm so far behind that it's too overwhelming so then I put it off a little longer.

Where to begin??? I guess I'll start off by saying we had a wonderful Christmas. We spent two weeks in Utah visiting family and friends. Savannah, Alex and Micah learned how to ski and they were fearless! I was impressed that they could just zip down the mountain without poles. No crying or anything!
Here they are with their cousins.

We brought our Wii with us and everyone had fun with guitar hero. Jeremy's brother, Dan was a complete addict. Jeremy had a great time staying up with him until the "Wii" hours of the night several times.
Here we are on Christmas Eve. The kids always get matching pj's.

All in all we had a great time!

Now some not so great news. My Grandma Decker passed away on February 7th. She had been in a nursing home for 5 1/2 years after having a paralyzing stroke so in some ways this is a blessing and I am so relieved that she is no longer a prisoner in her own body. But I will truly miss her. She and I were two peas in a pod and had a lot in common. I feel so blessed to be her granddaughter and to have spent so much time with her. I was fortunate to be able to travel back "home" for the funeral. (Jeremy and I had a trip to Mexico planned so I had to do some schedule switching) My sisters and I made a floral arrangement for the funeral. We choose flowers that reminded us of picking wild flowers at the cabin with Grandma. It turned out beautiful! I had a great few days visiting with them. It's not often that I get to spend time with my sisters without all the kids running around.
The funeral service was beautiful. There was so much that could be said about how wonderful Grandma was. She was an artist, great cook, immaculate housekeeper. She had a strong testimony and showed us all what it means to endure faithfully to the end. I know that I was her favorite grandchild and I'm sure the rest of the grand kids feel the same. (I really was though:)) Grandpa wouldn't leave her side during the viewing and when it was time to close the casket, he was helped up out of his wheelchair to stand and kiss her goodbye. He kissed her so gently and said "Goodbye, Bernie. I'll be with you soon." We had all witnessed a love story. There was not a dry eye in the room. We were both heartbroken for Grandpa, but so grateful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge that Grandma and Grandpa (and all of the rest of us) are sealed for eternity and will be together again. This is what it's all about.

I also had the privalege of meeting the newest member of the Wallace family. Ben and Megan had their first baby about a week after we left and we were sad that we wouldn't get to see her until....well, who knows when.

Introducing....Maria Elizabeth Wallace. She is a cutie with nice round cheeks. We can't wait to spend more time with her in the future.

From Utah I went straight to Mexico to meet up with Jeremy and his Brother, Seth and sister in law, Mandy. It was warm and relaxing and just what we all needed to thaw us out from all the snow. (ok well the truth is that Seth and then Jeremy got terribly sick with fever, chills, body aches, and then congestion and coughing. Turned out to be Bronchitis and a Sinus infection for Jeremy. Mandy also got congested. But we'll focus on the positive!) We rode on a crazy jungle buggy to some caves to snorkle. On the way back the buggy got stuck in reverse so we had to get on a different one. We went on an all day trip to the ruins at Chichan Itza and then to a cenote to swim.

And of coarse we got to go SHOPPING!!! Good thing I had Mandy with me since Jeremy and Seth were less than thrilled to be shopping. All in all it was a great trip. 10 days without my kids was not, however, great. I missed them horribly by the end and was ready to come home and be a mom again! Thanks to our amazing Moms who flew out to cold, cold Chicago for a few days each to take care of our kids. When we got home, Gray wouldn't come to me. He would cry for Grandma every time I tried to hold him. I guess that means they did a great job spoiling the kids. Yes, I was a little sad (ok, maybe more that a little!) that my little guy didn't want me, but we are back to being best buds again so all is well.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we had our good friends, the Cheneys' over for the weekend. Jeremy went to high school with Ben and we have kept in touch with them over the years. They now live in Wisconsin. Jeremy started the day by playing football with the other old guys in the ward. I wasn't there, but rumor has it that Jeremy was the star of the game! We had a delicious and huge dinner as usual then stayed up late (1:30 am) playing Settlers of Catan. Then Rachel and I got up to go shopping on Black Friday. We got some great deals and had a blast! On Saturday we kept our tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree. There are not any national forest close enough to go truck through to woods out here so went to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. We saw a real reindeer, and took a hay ride to the field where we cut our tree. It was very muddy, but at least it wasn't a blizzard like last year! We also got to visit Mrs. Claus in her little house and she taught us a few things about Santa. Did you know that his favorite kind of cookies are the colorfull ones? We also got to put the kids names on the "nice" list! All in all it was a wonderful weekend.
As I was cleaning the house to get ready for company and Thanksgiving, Micah came up to me and asked if his hair looked any shorter. Of coarse that question made me stop what I was doing and look. Sure enough he had cut a lot of hair from the top of his head and he cut it SHORT!! So I had to try to even things up by cutting off all of his beautiful golden curls. Very sad, but it will grow back.......eventually.

P.S. I somehow deleted all of the blog addresses for all of my friends. Will you all please leave a comment with your blog for me? Thanks!!

Catch up!!

2008-12-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Kids with the coats we collected.

I'm playing catch-up now.
We had a fun Halloween with the trunk - or - treating and the trick-or-treating! I was able to help out at Savannah and Alex's class parties. Then we went to our friends, the Temples' house for a party. All the kids went trick - or - treating together then we ate and chatted with everyone. When it was over we lugged at least 25 lbs of candy home (ok I'm exaggerating a little but they really got a lot of candy). The candy is now gone.
For our family service project in November we did a coat drive in our neighborhood. We colected over 20 coats along with some hats, snow pants, gloves and boots to donate to a family shelter service. The kids had a great time and learned a lot.

It's getting colder!!

2008-10-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

Fall is in full swing around here. We need jackets to go out, the leaves are changing and we're busy with all sorts of fall activities. I've always thought of Halloween as the kickoff of the Holidays. After Halloween it's just a blink of an eye until Thanksgiving and then comes Christmas!!!

We hosted a Halloween party on Friday for Savannah and some of her girlfriends. Alex also had a friend over. The little boys were running around yelling and screaming but they were nothing compared to the girls who were playing a clean version of "Truth or Dare". Jeremy was amazed at how crazy girls can be. They all had a great time.

Saturday we had family pictures taken. Hopefully they turned out well. It was a lot of work to get the kids to cooperate all at the same time. It will be worth it I'm sure!

Tonight we took time to carve the pumpkins that we picked out last Family Home Evening (or Family Out Evening). It always amazes me at how exited the kids all get at the smallest things. It is always such a huge ordeal, I can't imagine not following the tradition. The pumpkins are carved and sitting out on the steps and the mess is finally cleaned up! The kids are in bed and I'm sure they are dreaming of their Trick-or-Treat buckets overflowing with candy!

Other news: Alex lost his second front, bottom tooth. Gray is now in the Nursery at church, but he won't go alone so I'm going with him. He looks like such a baby compared to all the big kids who will be Sunbeams in January. Hopefully he'll do better once they have all moved on.

PS Could someone please tell me how get a cute background for my blog, put slide shows and music on? Thanks!

Conference Weekend

2008-10-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

I was planning on updating every week, but............well, you know how it goes. We had a wonderful weekend listening to General Conference. I loved the talk by Elder Wirthlin about how to handle adversity......."try to laugh". I also enjoyed the talk by (??? can't remember now) about living in the here and now and being thankful for what we have. The kids did great and stopped to listen to our Prophet whenever he spoke. They kept entertained with their "Conference Packets" which had lots of fun activities and pictures to color.

I did have to pause the tivo a few times on Saturday to take Savannah to ballet class and pick her up and I had to take Alex to a football game (he made a tackle!!!). A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I went shopping to buy the supplies we needed to put together 72 hour kits. During the break between the Sunday sessions we assembled our kits. I'm amazed at how much stuff we needed for a family of 6!!!! Hopefully if anything happens that we would need those kits, we'd be able to use them at home or use our car because I don't know how far we'd get on foot. Hopefully we'll never have to find out, but it a peacful feeling to get that taken care of. (It only took us 12 1/2 years.)

As for other news for the past few weeks......Savannah has been doing lots of homework. I finally cut Alex's hair. He also lost his first tooth and is $1 richer!!! Micah got his foot caught in the spokes of a bike while getting a ride from a bigger boy. It is gruesome to look at but he's ok. He and Gray have been playing a new game where Gray lays on a blanket and Micah pulls him around on the wood floor. Gray got some new teeth in and has been busy finding pencils and writing all over the walls with them. He also had his first hair cut and is big enough to wear the much loved "cow suit" !! ( I thought you'd like to know that Ben and Megan!) I've been busy cleaning walls (and everything else). I'm also attempting to make "quiet books". Wish me luck!! Jeremy, well, you can guess what he's been doing. Working and crying over the Cubs.

Back to school

2008-09-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Many of our friends and family members have requested that I start a blog. Well, I actually started one last October, but only put one post on. So I guess I'll try this again!!

The kids started school 2 weeks ago and it has bee wonderful! Savannah is in 4th grade, Alex is in 1st and Micah is now in preschool. Savannah likes school and has a friend in her class that has been with her in the previous two years. That is rare considering there are 16 4th grade classes in her school.

Alex is loving PE and could do without the rest. He has fallen asleep in Art class twice already. Maybe it is not a good idea to have him go to lunch/recess, then PE and then off to Art. Can a 1st grader fail Art? Hmmmm.....

Micah had no trouble at all going to preschool. He walked right in and didn't look back! I was a tiny bit late picking him up on the first day but he didn't mind. Now that I think about it, I was late picking Alex up on his first day too.

Alex has started playing flag football. Savannah starts ballet next week. I have started running and lifting weights and ballet classes again. It is fun to be back on schedule and time is once again flying by.

October 2007

2007-09-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Alex's Kindergarten class went on a field trip to an apple orchard on October 9th and I got to go with them. We got to go on a wagon ride pulled by a tractor out to the apple trees where we each picked 5 apples.

Alex thought the tractor driver was so cool because he stood up while he was driving.

There was a small petting zoo, a playground......

.......................and a little girl who couldn't keep her hands off of Alex!

We learned all about the pollination of an apple tree and about honey bees. We were surprised to learn that it takes 12 bees their whole life span to produce 1 teaspoon of honey. Wow!!

Gray had a doctor appointment at the end of September. He is healthy, happy and 18 pounds!

Gray got to start eating baby food and started with rice cereal. He had a hard time figuring out how to swallow, instead he kept spitting it out.

Micah loves to cuddle and play with Gray.

Alex is a natural at baseball. He has a great swing. His team was made up of boys ages 5-8. He was the youngest and had no experience. At first the coaches and team were nervous to have him in there, but he did great and they all loved him.