FALL TIME

A lot has happened since I last posted anything so I figured I would update this a little bit. The weather is starting to get much more tolerable here and I think I am getting use to the humidity a little bit. I started working for Air Wisconsin Airlines about a month ago, and am really enjoying learning all about what goes on behind the scenes at an airport. Collin started school in August and is loving being in Kindergarten again, his maturity has majority improved since last year and he was student of the month for September! He also plays soccer for Fair Grove Soccer Academy and has made a lot of goals! He has also made friends in our cul-de-sac and plays with most of them everyday after school. He has been having some issues however with going to the bathroom IN the bathroom and we have had to jump on him for having gone and than attempting to go again in the floor heating vent in his room! He has also gone in the trash can and in his sisters baby bath...It is pretty disgusting and he has not enjoyed his punishments so hopefully he continues to remember to go to the bathroom in the toilet. Him and his cousin Jenny enjoy hanging out together and getting in as much trouble as possible so that keeps us busy but kids will be kids. Yesterday when me and Collin were making dinner I asked him which box of mac n cheese he wanted (since it was his turn to pick dinner) and he picked the cheese explosion box and than gave me a really concerned look and asked if the house was going to blow up, it was pretty funny! He has a great imagination and thinks he knows everything just ask him. His favourite thing to say is " I knew you were going to say that."
Azaria just loves being mobile now, and tries to get into and reach everything you can think of. Her favourite thing to do is to follow Collin and be with Collin whenever he is home, she especially loves it when we let her play around on his loft bed. She is very ticklish and loves feeding herself, she stuffs her mouth so full of food sometimes you would think we never feed her! She started saying her first word the other day "Uh-oh" right while she was knocking over my milk, she is very jibber jabbery and loves to yell. She always tries to mess with our laptops any time she can and mess up the dvds and games whenever possible. She is also always on the look out for if we left any doors of rooms she is not suppose to be in open. She is really smart like that and will crawl around testing doors just to see if we did not shut them tight enough. I am pretty sure she has eaten a couple of Collins Lego's, and she loves getting into the garbage can in the kitchen looking for food. She is trying really hard to stand by herself and I am positive she is going to just jump up and start running on of these days. She can be quite the dramatic baby but she is so so cute!

Nate stays busy taking care of Z and Collin and especially trying to take over the world wide web. He helps out the PTA all the time and had a photo booth at the Fall Festival. He may even become the new Vice President of the PTA! He cooks us delicious dinners and helps out a lot with cleaning and doing laundry now that I work. We are both pretty excited to start flying for free and are going to plan some vacations once the busy season is over. He also has been staying busy spray painting a bed for Z and taking apart his bike to repaint it. I just love him sooooo much. My family is awesome!

Its Official

We got Married! That is right, me and Nate actually took the leap and got married! It was at the Greene County Courthouse, by Judge Holden. He was a really funny man. We were running late in the morning. and when we thought that everybody was ready to go, we came to realize that collin was wearing his skull shorts(black shorts with skeleton skulls all over them), rather than the brown shorts we wanted him to wear. Well he is not the quickest dresser and so that made us even later, not that I helped on being on time(: We made it there at eleven which was the time we were suppose to be getting married. Going through the metal detectors at the courthouse was not the easiest thing in the world for Nate, first he had to take off his shoes, than his belt, than his hat and than was still scanned front and back with one of the hand held metal detectors, after they felt he was safe to enter the building, we were on our way to the third floor to get hitched! When we arrived we apologized for being late, and he asked for the paper work. His court recorder than filled it out and we waited in the pews. There were a lot of people in the court room and I had not pictured being married in the courtroom, I thought it would take place in his office or something. He asked us all to come forward, we than stood and chatted for a bit, he was a really funny man. After a couple minutes he said, "Well it looks like neither of you are going to run, although she (referring to me) is being pretty quiet" I than piped in with " Well I am kind of embarrassed, I did not know so many people would be watching us" he than responded with, "Well if you would like, I can go get all the inmates from holding to come witness it too." We all just laughed. He than chatted with Collin a bit, and told him that he needed to take care of us, he was being really quiet, and was suppose to be the ring boy, but since we had left our rings at home, (and while driving to the courthouse Nate remember that they were still at home but since we were so late we did not turn around) We borrowed Ashley and Josh's, Nate told the judge that we had left the rings at home, and he said that it is not official without the rings, in a very serious tone. He than offered to have the bailiff hand-cuff us together! It was pretty funny. Susan came and was a great photographer, and all in all it was a really enjoyable experience. I will admit that I was super nervous going through the vows, and Nate could not help but give me crap later about the fact that my arms were crossed when we were holding hands. But it was all good, I was shaking a little bit and Nate did notice my lips were shaking pretty bad....Hey it is a big thing to get married! I did however notice that Nate looked very nervous himself, AND pale! When we left while getting into the elevators he even admitted that he was more nervous than when he swore into the military, and that was the most nervous that he had ever been... But we love each other so it is ALL good! When we were outside taking pictures, Collin said something that was very funny. The other day him and Jenny were playing and got rocks all over Susan's yard, she told him that he needed to come over later, and help pick all of the rocks up, he said " I need to come pick rocks up? Usually I have to pick poop." It was really cute! (sometimes when he gets in trouble as punishment we make him go and pick up the dog poop in the backyard with a shovel as punishment since he really hates it!)
Back to the subject, While we were taking pictures we found this awesome old car that we used as a prop, and took a few pictures by. We than went to Little Tokyo and ate some really delicious sushi. We than all drove home, and everybody said good-bye. Than as a family we went and had a water fight in the backyard with water balloons. It was a lot of fun! And a great end to a very fun but extremely hot day! for pictures or videos from the courthouse check out our Facebook page!

SUMMER 2010

Summer in Missouri has been a lot of fun. Azaria is getting SO big, she can sit up by herself and is trying really hard to crawl. Collin spent the first part of the summer with his dad. Me, Nate and Azaria had fun camping at Stockton lake, where we caught a ton of fish with Cameron. Going to the race track in Bolivar and Wheatland with Susan and Jenny. Going to flat bridge almost everyday and camping at Flatbridge over the fourth of July and floating down the river with our friends Ashley and Josh. And having lots of fun bbq in our backyard around our fire pit and swimming in our pool. Going to the farmers market in Fair Grove every Wednesday afternoon, and singing Karaoke a couple weekends at Dennis's Place. We had a couple tornado warning, and our power had gone out once. Trevor had come out and hung out a few times which has been fun, and Jasmine has also visited us a few times. We planted a cool garden in what would have been our flower bed, and have grown some delicious pees and have a few pumpkins that our getting big. I have been having fun at cooking different friendship breads, and have enjoyed trying other recipes, I really love cooking.
Collin finally flew in to Kansas City on the 12th with my Mom, and we had a great time at the Crown Center playing at Kaleidoscope and eating at Fritz's. We took her to the Bass Pro Headquarters and ate lunch at Hemmingways, we than had a fun BBQ that afternoon. The next day we went to Fantastic Caverns and than to the farmers market. It was a lot of fun having her in town. We have since gone to Willard pool, and had a fun time down at Flatbridge. We are just getting ready for school to start and trying to plan a couple more camping trips before than. More to come on the rest of our fun summer! The kids are getting really big, Azaria loves sitting up all by herself and pretty much any baby food that you feed her. She makes the cutest noises and can go from happy to drama in zero seconds flat. Collin has been our injury prone child this summer first he biffed it pretty hard at the park when we were meeting a bunch of new kids for him to play with, less than a week later he smashed his thumb in the door of the car and cut it up pretty bad. Collin has taken a real interest in reading thou which is great, and he is doing great at writing.
He has started a phase of saying " its not fair" and has become very brave, he jumps of the rope swing at the river and goes through the tubes which I wont even do! He is obsessed with video games and talks about them all the time. He also loves Star Wars and Indian Jones, especially Legos. We love hanging out as a family and have a blast doing pretty much anything together.

Our Move

On May 17th we started our crazy adventure of moving across the country to Missouri from Utah. It was a VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY long drive. Through the mountains we could only go about 20 mph because the Uhaul Nate was driving was pulling one of our trucks. We stopped on the side of the road and slept for about five hours in Colorado and other than that drove 39 hours only stopping for gas. I had a cold so my ears were all clogged up and I could not hear anything for a while it sucked! When we got here we passed out at Nates aunts house and than woke up the next morning and Nate went and got the keys for our new place. It was a rainy day so we unloaded the truck really fast thanks to the help of Luke and Jenny. Azaria was such a good girl through all of it. Collin stayed in Utah to finish school and hang out with his dad for part of the summer so he is not out here yet which gets depressing but his flight is in July so that is going to be exciting. We got our fishing license's and have been a couple times, we also went swimming at this cool spot called flat bridge, and put a pool up in our backyard that is really nice on the humid days. We have gone to the local race track and watched amatuer drivers race, some as young as 13 going super fast! I found a Target out here so that is good and we found a great Karaoke bar we have been to a few times and had a blast at. We planted a big garden and they are growing really well. We have also pretty much unpacked all the boxes and our house is looking really good. We have people over all the time for bbq's or just to hang out so that is fun. And there are a lot of stars at night out here so that is pretty sweet.

Missouri

On March 25th we left for Pleasant Hope, Missouri. We took a detour, and stopped in Oklahoma to stay with Nate's uncle Ben's family. While we were driving we went through a snow storm, and I got to see Pikes Peak ( I lived in Colorado Springs when I was little and that was my mountain). We stopped at a cool war memorial, that was mainly just a real tank from war where we took some pictures. We got to Oklahoma pretty late but his aunt and cousins where still up waiting for us, his uncle works nights so he was not home. We talking til later and than were woken up early by his uncle to go to his uncles company party (he works for an airline) and they were having a big Easter hunt at the Tulsa Zoo. I stayed at the house with the baby because it was a pretty cold rainy day. Nate, Collin, Trina, Kathryn and Ben all went to the zoo and had a blast. They got to ride on camels and went to Collins favorite place after HotDonalds (his rendition of Mcdonalds since he was little so we still call it that). When they got back we went out shooting with his cousins Regina, Trina and Andy on the backwoods of there huge property. We shot skeets and other random things, Collin also came and got to practice a little shooting too, but he was mainly interested in picking up the shells. We than went back and had a really good dinner his aunt made and visited some more. The next day we left for Missouri and were pretty happy it was such a short drive compared to the one we had been on a couple days before. When we got there Nate's Mom, Luke and sister Jasmine were waiting for us. His Mom had purchased Collin some Aquasand so he was really into playing with that, and we visited for a while. Than his aunt Susanne came over with her daughter Jenny who is Collins age, and they played and we all ate pizza. We than headed over to his Aunts house to have a sleepover and Collin and Jenny got to play some more. His aunt let Jenny miss school the next day so that they could play all day and we had a great time visiting and hanging out. Nates brother Trevor came over in the morning and needed some help with his cars alternator so they started working on it and spent the whole day doing that. Nates cousin Candy came over too and brought her cute little boy Tristin with her. She was there to pick up Jenny to take her to the mall to get her ears pierced, so we decided to tag along, and I ended up getting Azaria's ears pierced as well and they turned out super cute! We than left the mall and headed back to meet up with the boys and go to Nates moms house again. She had bbq some hamburgers and I got the kids asleep and than we all hungout and talked. The next Nates grandpa Bill came over to see the kids and had a fun time teasing Collin. Nate cooked us all a really good breakfast and his aunt came over and thought it was so weird how grown up Nate was. We wanted to go check out the Bass Pro Shop Headquarters that is close to her house and grandma offered to babysit. We had a blast walking around and seeing all of the cool stuff, it was SO HUGE! When we got back Jasmine was at his mom's again, and we all had dinner and hung out. Jasmine got out a box that had a bunch of pictures from when her and Nate were babies that were cool to look at. The next day we wanted to go to Branson Missouri. We left the baby with her grandma again and took Collin to have some fun. We rode on this amazing go kart track, and Nate and Collin had a blast on bumper boats. We went to a Ozark shop and purchased some cool cowboy hats and other fun stuff. And than we headed back and played outside at his mom's for a while and most of the night because it was a beautiful night. The next day we headed over to his Grandpa Bills for lunch, and met up with his brother Trevor again, it was such a hot day! Collin got to ride his grandpas motorized wheelchair and loved that. And loved playing with his video games with Trevor. We than went back to his mom's and watched Avatar and I ruined a perfectly good pizza (apparently I am not the "typical girl who can cook" according to Nate). The next day we went out to breakfast with his aunt Susanne's family at the Waffle house (yummy) and than took Jenny and Collin to "How to train your dragon" which was a great movie and they both loved it! We than headed back to his mom's and Jasmine and Matt (her boyfriend) were there again with about 12 different kinds of cookies that she had baked (they were SO good!) We had yummy shish kaboobs and than went over to his aunts to color some easter eggs with Jenny. They had a great time coloring eggs and Nate had fun talking guns with uncle Steve. We than headed back and got Collin to sleep and than got there Easter baskets going since we were doing Easter on Saturday instead of Sunday since we were traveling all day. We woke up and Collin was so excited about all of the fun Easter stuff! Trevor was over and Jasmine had purchased Collin a cool bubble blowing set that he had a blast with. Jasmine made some really good breakfast! We than headed over to Susanne's to hide Easter eggs. The kids had a blast finding all the eggs. We than had to leave so we could go meet up with his grandpa Bill at Red Lobster for lunch. It was such great food and we had a great time hanging out with Nates whole family. Than we headed back and had to start to pack. Collin had a blast playing frisbee with Trevor for a while. And Nates mom gave him one of his grandpas hierloom guns. We than headed home and spent Easter on the road. I hit a bird that was CRAZY and we had Easter lunch in Aspen. We dropped Collin off at his dads when we got home for a nice week long break. Our trip was AmazinG and we already miss everyone!

California

On March 5th we loaded up our new Durango, and took I-80 to Patterson California. While we were driving we stopped at a gas station and we were trying to decided what to drink when this wierd guy came up into our faces and only said "Coffee" He then proceeded to look like he was going to get some for us than wandered off, we just looked at each other and started laughing, it was so random. We stopped in Reno at about four in the morning, and decided to stay the night since we had made pretty good time, and did not want to show up at Nates dad's house at six in the morning with no sleep, and unable to check into our hotel until noon. We slept there until about eight in the morning, and Nate said it was the most expensive nap he had ever had! LOL. We then drove the rest of the way to Cali, getting there at about noon. We visited with his Aunt Joy and Uncle Ben for a little while, and I took Collin to a park that was next to there house so he could play because it was such a beautiful day, and had been snowing in Utah the day before. At two we went to his great aunts 100th birthday party! She was such a funny and cute lady, we took lots of pictures, and they had an amazing lunch buffet for everyone. She was such an avid Pepsi drinker all her life that Nate's step mom had sent Pepsi a letter telling them about her and they sent her one back with a special pepsi botte and shirt just for her. We had to leave at four to drive to San Francisco so we could go pick up Nates sister Jasmine who we had flown in for the weekend as a graduation present. It was only about an hour drive, and we got to go over some cool bridges, and Collin saw the ocean for the first time. We were so glad his uncle lent us his GPS because we had no clue where we were going. We got lost in all the construction a couple of times, but finally got his sister. We than headed to Fisherman's Wharf which is located right off of Alcatraz. We walked around for a while, and than stopped at a famous sourdough bread company and ate clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls that were amazing! We picked up some cool souvenirs than headed back to our hotel. On the way we drove over the bay bridge and Collin said "oh we need to make a wish, I wish for GOLD!" It was so cute! On the way back Nate's dad called and said that he was warming up his hot tub so we should come back to his house and hang out for a while, it already being midnight, we were pretty tired, but decided to go over there since it was not to far from our hotel room, and we all wanted to sit in the hot tub after driving so much. We laid Collin down right when we got there in BJ's room since he had gone to sleep at a friends house and Azaria was asleep in her car seat so we started hanging out and talking. Not realizing it was so late we didn't even get in the hot tub til about two in the morning, and than sat in it until about four thirty in the morning all just talking and drinking. We headed back to our hotel room at that time and all slept in (well Collin woke me up early, but I had him take a shower for a while and than watch cartoons) until check out time. We than headed back to there dads for breakfast, to eat some of his famous bacon waffles, and to hang out with his great aunt for the day. Collin swam in the hot tub for a while, and Jasmine played Skipbo with there aunt. We took a bunch of pictures, and than at about five we loaded up and headed to Monterey for the night. Me and Jasmine drove in my suv with the kids, and Nate rode with there Uncle Ben who came down to Monterey with us. It was fun to talk to Jasmine for a couple hours, and she helped keep me awake because I was so exhausted by this point. When we got to Monterey we checked into the Otter Inn, and than walked down Canary Row and looked at the ocean. We went to Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co for dinner and had a whole bunch of different shrimps that were so yummy! We than walked around a little bit more and went to bed. The next morning we woke up early and went and had breakfast at this local spot called First Awakenings, they also had amazing food. We headed over to the Monterey Bay Aqaurium and toured through there for a few hours. They had amazing exhibits Collin especially loved the hands on exhibits that they had where you could touch star fish and crabs. We saw the coolest sea horses and they had a lot of areas where you could go outside and see great views of the ocean. It was kind of a rainy day so we did not spend to much time outside by the ocean but Collin was so cute when he was looking for shells, and a wave surprised him, and soaked him! He tried to run away, but the wave was fast, and he thought it was so funny that the waves were always different, he did not want to leave but we needed to be heading home so we could try to beat a storm we had heard of that was heading our way. We stopped by Nates dad's work to say bye and than started driving home when we hit the Donner pass area there were notices that all truckers needed to put chains on there vehicles so we figured we had better buy some chains for our vehicle just in case. No sooner than we had purchased the chains on the side of the highway when I-80 was closed. We stopped to find out for how long and met some people who were forming a caravan to drive on some road a guy had found on his GPS. We passed on driving in the blizzard with crazy people and got a hotel room for the night. It was pretty relaxing and we ate Taco Bell and watched Yes Man. We woke up and the weather was great and the road were open! We were so happy to be heading home when our radiator decided to freak out on us. We went to a repair shop and the guy said luckily it was not our radiator just the cap so we bought a new cap and headed on our way again when it spazed out again. We had to baby the car the whole way home finding out that if it had to kick into any other drive it would heat up. This made for a long long long drive but we finally made it home on Nate's birthday at five in the morning. He had to leave for work a few hours later so he slept and I tried getting some sleep thou Z was not tired and wanted to play. Nate went to work and I went and bought him some stuff to take him to work since I felt bad that he had to work after that awful drive. All in all the trip was GREAT! Our car is fixed (it was the thermostat some repairs still needed of course!) and we had a blast with his family and at the beach!

HAPPENINGS

I have never blogged before, I use to make fun of people who did. But I have been wanting to start a journal lately, so that I can remember cute stuff my kids do, and figured this would be the easiest way to do that. I have never been good about keeping a journal, and own about five crazy vague ones, I hope this attempt works. I labelled this Happenings because I have been hearing the word happenin a lot lately, Nate started asking Azaria "What's happenin?" whenever she cried, and so Collin (wanting to copy everything that Nate does) now has to say it repeatedly every time she cries. It has gotten old but is cute. Azaria has a little cold but is still such a good baby! Definitely a cuddle bug, but Collin was never much of one so its nice. She is extremely smiley, probably because she is extremely gassy all the time.