Tractor rides

Tractor rides and nature walks are pretty fun at grandma and grandpa's house.

More fair pictures

Here are a few more pictures

Lake county fair

Yesterday we took the kids and Ethan to the lake county fair. my favorite of course was the livestock auction and I got to explain this in detail to rich. I guess I haven't told him all about my life as a 4-H kid.

The kids had fun eating and on the rides and eyeing all the toys for sale.

Earthquake

I haven't blogged about the earthquake yet because it has been so busy!  The earthquake woke us up from sleep around 320 am. It was violent but fast. I believe I screamed and grabbed onto rich as I sat up in bed. Right away I jumped out of bed and ran into Ryann and cara's room. I jumped in their bed and started to ask if they were ok. I quickly explained what had happened.  During this time rich had gotten Mac who also had woken up from it. 

When I had ran down the hall to get the girls I had stepped on some glass picture frames. I did t realize that I had done this until my dad came down the hall with his headlamp. I asked him to check the bottom of my feet for cuts but I was good. I figured I would have felt it, but adrenaline was running high.  

My dad then went to assess the damage while I continued to comfort the girls. We explained what happened and how they couldn't get out of bed until we cleaned up all the glass.  They went back to sleep and we put Mac back in his crib. Rich and I then went to work with my parents. My parents went to check on my grandparents while rich and I cleaned up.  Our tv which was in our room fell and made some marks on the wall, a couple pictures fell from our room, a bunch more pictures from the house, a bunch of dishes and a lot of food storage. We still have yet to clean the pantry.

The fridge opened up, my parents dresser fell, the fountain, some potted plants, but overall we were lucky.  The worst part was no electricity for almost 24 hours. My grandparents weren't as lucky in the breaking of material possessions though. My grandma, for those of you that don't know, was an avid garage sale-er for many years. She has quite the collection of dishes. I have spent the past few days working on cleaning up their place.

Sunday morning once the kids got up we made them wear shoes inside the house. We had to carry Mac the whole day because we couldn't vacuum up any of the tiny glass pieces. We then Got ready for church since rich and I were speaking. As we were about to get in the car my mom told us that church was cancelled because he church building didn't have any power.

Rich was my super hero that day. He watched the kids the rest of the day while my mom and I went around to ward members and checked on them and cleaned.  One apartment we cleaned in an assisted living facility was undescribable. Like wow. Stuff everywhere. Imagine hoarders with medicine and a giant earthquake on the top floor, I don't know how to even describe it.  Anyway, I am thankful for the service I have been able to do while living here for this earthquake. I will just leave it at that.

I didn't take many pictures of what happened because it was dark, middle, of the night, no wifi, no cell phone chargers, and because it was too overwhelming. However, lots of other people took pictures on Facebook so I can always look there for  a reminder in case I forget.

Now my mom and I are on a mission to help clean my grandparents house. We completely cleaned my grandparents room... I found a maternity body pillow that they won in 2008... So I started counting all the grand kids that have been pregnant who they could have given it to in the past 6 years, and let's just say it is more that you would think, like at least 8 or 9 granddaughters through at least 14 pregnancies. Totally awesome. And they had no idea it was still there.  I am finding all sorts of treasures.

We also started cleaning out their cottage. It is filled to the brim with everything that doesn't fit in their house anymore. Gorgeous dishes that aren't even the best ones! I am sorting them now but i have at least 2 more days of work to do that. After the pottage we are moving on to he shed.  I can't even imagine how many lawn mowers, gloves, gas tanks, clippers, nails, and screw drivers are there. I will let you know.

 And no blog post is complete without pictures. You're welcome. 

Obstacle course

This afternoon was magical. We took a family bike ride to the grocery store to get dinner, then went to the park to eat it. At the park there was no fighting, all fun, beautiful weather, and am awesome obstacle course that I won of course... unless you talk to rich who says that touching the ground means you are out. Whatever. The kids had a blast and we wore them out so hopefully they will sleep well.

36 years

This week was my parents anniversary. It was so nice and kind that someone painted the Mormon moose in honor of them! (I promise it wasn't me!)

I hope that they had a wonderful day and I am so thankful that 36 years ago they were sealed in the temple and stated this amazing journey for us all!

Bear run

Today on my run at about mile 2.5 I needed a pick me up. Mac was eating snacks so he wasn't the best conversationalist. So I turned to look around and I saw this awesome bear I had to take a picture of. He picked me up and I made it the rest of the way home.

Lucky one

I am the lucky one. Seriously. I get to play with this little guy all day long. It helps that he is so adorable and fun. Also the naps he takes are great too.

Daddy's first day of school

Since rich was out of town last week he hasn't been able to see the girls of to school. So today he came with us to check it out.

Frog kisses

Ryann totally kissed this frog, I tried to scare her with warts, but that didn't stop her.... the hope of a prince I guess?

Or probably the reaction of squeals when she talked about it made her do it.

That's my girl.

And she found this guy at Cory and Katie's house while we were Apple picking.

School pick up

Day 2 of school was a success. The campus isn't closed like it was in Arizona so all the parents mingle with kids by the playground.

Today the kids rode their bikes to and from school, we will see how much they want to do this.

First day of school

The girls had their first day of school at my old elementary school. Many of the teachers are still the same. Ryann was pretty lucky and got one of my old teachers for het second grade teacher. I was so excited to see that.

Rich missed their day because of a work trip, but they were able to talk to him about it. I was sad he wasn't here because I had to fill out all the crazy paperwork by myself! No fair.

I think these girls are going to have an awesome year... we'll just have to see how it unfolds!

My man

I miss this handsome man! He is on a work trip to Nebraska and then gets to go visit Devyn, Jason, hazel, and Mitchell. I am so jealous!

Zoo day

Today we were lucky enough to go to the zoo with some friends. It was perfect weather and no melt downs. Each girl behaved so well that they got to go home with a compass from the gift shop. (Basically the cheapest thing there!) They are excited to go treasure hunting with grandpa with their compasses.

A day at grandma's house

Most of our day at grandma's house starts with some breakfast, then getting on our shoes and going outside to play. Or exercise. If we are playing we do the Swings first, then pick some food from the garden, then playing tag on the grass. After that I am usually requested to use the broom to sweep away some spider webs so they can play some more without being scared.

Occasionally when I am getting rid of the spiders I get instructions on how to do it from the girls. Most days they tell me not to kill any spiders that have families... so if there are 5 spiders in a group I can't kill them because it is a spider family just like ours. Cara is recently concerned about marriage so if there are two spiders together I can't kill them either because they are married. And I definitely can't kill a spider with a baby. Yikes. Lone spiders or spiders in groups of 4 are usually the only ones I can kill.

After the spider killing I put Mac down for a nap and then try to get errands or chores done. Then it is lunch and we do it all over again. But that will soon change when the girls start school on Wednesday.

Tender Mercies

This will be a boring post, mostly for me to look back on in 10 years to see what was going on with our family.  As most of you know I am waiting on California to approve my nursing and midwifery license. It has been a long and drawn out process which started in October of last year when I first submitted my application. 3 months later the application finally made it from the inbox and it was opened. From the day they open the application it has approximately 90 days to have an answer. Well, during this time I applied for and was offered a job. I was planning to start in may when the girls finished school. At approximately 90 days after my application was recieved I was given a letter letting me know that my license had been denied based on my history of probation in Arizona 4 years ago. I had completed the probation successfully, held job and did quite well for myself as a midwife after all of this. I had no idea that my license would have been denied in California as well.

So I hired myself an attorney and started the appeal process in order to get my license. The average time is 90 days from the appeal. At 30 days I contact 1 Calfornia congressman and 1 California state senator.  At 60 days I contacted 5 other local politicians. Finally I got an answer and someone who knew someone who was willing to help me speed things along. I called the attorney general's office (who handles appeals) and they told me 1-2 weeks. I was thrilled. I expected to start working around the 90 day mark and so we made plans to move to California, live with my parents for a few weeks and then start our grand adventure.

At 90 days past the appeal process my attorney got ahold of the attorney generals office and they exclaimed, "we are almost done, it should be 1-2 weeks."  And here we sit. No license in hand.

However, let me tell you how this thing called "planning" works. It DOESN'T. I mean, sometimes it does, sometimes you have a plan and it works fairly close to it, but most of the time. It doesnt. Seriously. Especially with big life changing decisions where you move your entire family back to your home town, start your kids in a new school, and move away from all, I mean ALL, of your friends.

But here is where the Lord comes in. He loves me. He loves my family. If I would have had my license back in may, my kids would have left immediately from playing every day with friends to absolutely zero friends, and it is hard to find friends in the summer when your parents work and you are stuck in a day care all day long.

If I would have had my license at 90 days after the appeal, then my girls would have had to start school with no one but each other. No cousins, no grandparents, no friends, and both parents who work. But the Lord knows me, he knows my sweet children and their needs are the most important right now. My eternal family needs to be together right now. With a mom who can take them to school and pick them up every day. They need to be with grandparents, cousins, and they need a mom who will get thousands of play dates together so that they can make friends. They need a mom who is rested and not grumpy all day. The Lord is looking out for us.

The Lord also knows that this is my forced vacation. I would have never taken time off between jobs if my license was ready. For the past 4 years I have been seeing over 125 patients a week, working 72 hours of call a week on top of the 5 days a week in the office. Working every saturday for the past 2 years.  It is about time I spent some time with my family and make sure this transition to California is the best possible thing it can be.

The Lord is looking out for Rich of course too... we are out of 115 degree weather so that makes him happy!  Also, since the move his brother got a great job at Amazon so it seems his family is being blessed having us gone as well... haha... i didn't really mean it like that. But, Rich was so worried about leaving and knowing that they will all be okay makes things that much easier.

I truly am blessed, even living through this period of uncertainty.

Animals

This morning we headed over to our cousin's house to take care of their animals. Highlight of the day for these kiddos. I also posted a video on instagram... Mac squealed every time a goat came close to him. Pretty cute.

Park time

Being a stay at home mom, living with your mom has some awesome perks. Like I get to go running every morning with the kids on bikes and pushing a jogging stroller. Today we ran to a park and the kids got to play. It is so much fun having Ryann be old enough to help Mac do things.

I will miss these kiddos when they go to school, but hopefully I will have a full time job by then and won't have enough time to miss them.

The weather is awesome, we survived the dmv, haven't attempted registering the kids for school (they start next week), and so far it still feels like vacation.