I have a lot of updating to do. My computer is on the fritz...yet again, and so I don't have any way to update photos. So I am sorry. I only have words for you.

I have been struggling a lot lately with my little 3year old Harrison. He is such a joy.... sometime. He is so difficult... most of the time. I am at a loss with him. Everywhere we go he is running around.... screaming.... hitting.... punching..... name calling.... and spitting. I really do not understand what I am doing wrong. I get glimmers of hope everyonce in a while that I am doing something right when he talls me "mom, you are the best mom in the whole world". I know most of you who read this will say to yourselves.... "thats boys for you". I have 2 other boys. This is not what I have experienced. I REALLY wish that Heavenly Father sent these kindred spirits with a how to manual.... or at least a short summary of how to trouble shoot.

Tonight for example... Jackson and Lincoln had been asked to participate in their schools dedication ceremony tonight. We were all excited to go and there were lots of children there. Harrison takes in upon himself to scream and yell at me... tell me that I am the meanest, proceed to run up the isle away from me, kick and hit little London, kick Bailee and her friend that were sitting in the seat in front of them, and throw his toy that he had brought with him. I then picked him up and hauled him out while he screamed at the top of his lungs. SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!! That was one of those moments that as a mom you want to just cry and throw your hands up in the air and say"I'm done". That was me tonight.

Benis in Calgary right now for work and he had the opportunity to go to the temple open house tonight (I am very jealous of that fact). I just opened an email that he sent me. He doesnt know that I am posting it, but I have learned that the Lord works in very mysterious ways. So after the day that I had today (which Ben knows nothing about) I get a letter like this:

Honey,

I wish with all of my heart that you could be here with me. I am just waiting in the chapel to go on a tour. The Spirit is so incredibly strong right now. It is absolutely touching. I hope you can somehow understand how I'm feeling right now, it's very similar to cuddling with London at night and singing her a lullaby, or watching our children sleeping peacefully.  While you cannot be here with me, you can do these things.  If you have a sad feeling, go and see the kids.  Be happy, God is here and His angels are pouring out His Spirit upon us now. I just saw Lance as well, he's giving tours.  I got to give him a gigantic hug.  Anyways. I'm sitting here emailing you and crying. I hope you understand how much I long to have you here right now. I miss you incredibly and love you so much. We are so blessed to be where we are.  When I get back, let's plan a temple trip immediately (the following Friday). I was talking with Al and he told me to get the daughter of the guy from the Sundance ward to babysit. He said she's a great girl.  Let's remember to catch them on Sunday and ask if she's available for Friday night. We need to go. I Love You.

Love,

Ben

I am very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows just how to lift me up and a loving husband who listens to and follows prompting of the spirit.

Life has been so busy since we arrived in Texas. I thought that our life was busy in Calgary (and it was), but we have not stopped since we have arrived. It is different busy here. I thought that life would be simpler (and it is in many ways) and I would not be as busy with 3 kids in school full days.... but it isn't. Here in Katy PTA is HUGE!!!!!!! If you have a child in school, and you are not involved in PTA then.... well then, you suck as a parent (okay maybe a little harsh, but you get what I am saying).

So, somehow I got suckered in to becoming the chairperson for popcorn Fridays. What is popcorn Fridays you ask? It is just that, we pop popcorn for the kids at school every Friday (each grade gets a week out of the month). That doesn't seem like too much right? I didn't think so either, but apparently it involves more than I thought. It has been super fun and a good way to get into the school and get to know the staff and the kids teachers and some of their friends... but non the less, still busy.

I have been slowly trying to get all of the kiddos in for their yearly checkups here. Their stats are as such:

Bailee:   wt: 40% ht: 38%
Lincoln: wt: 50% ht: 50%
Harrison: wt 75% ht  97% (yes you read that right... we have a giant on our hands).
Jackson has not gone yet and little London is still riding her own little curve and doing so well.

Jacksons vision has gotten worse however and we now have to get new lenses for him. Both Jackson adn Lincoln have new cavities (I take the blame for that... I am the worst flosser ever.. I should probably be better at that).

Life as we know it is going good. We still are loving the weather, loving the people, loving our ward and really strating to feel like this is home. We really miss all of our friends and family in calgary but I am so thankful for modern technology and the ability that I have to text with Allaina while she is making dinner, or skype with my ex-neighbour, or to pick up the phone and call my mom. It makes the distance between Calgary and Houston seem just a little bit smaller.

Londons new trick

So this is going to be short and sweet. I am sure that London is not going to like this post when she is older... but I am going to post it anyways.

She went poop and pee on the potty today!!!!!!!!

Lincolns first football game

So Lincoln wanted to try football when we got to Texas, so we signed him up for a fun little flag football leauge. Today was his first game.

 This is Hunter Mason (a friend from Calgary ) and Lincoln after their game. The worked really hard and had lots of fun.

 Lincoln insisted on keeping his mouth piece in his mouth for this picture.

Since football seems to be the ting to day here in Texas we are taking the kids tonight to their first ever high schoo football game. We will see how it goes. :)

What a day

Yesterday was a very "special day".. in a very nonspecial sort of way. It started early (as usual) with getting the kids up and ready for school. At 738am our day completely changed. The lights went out..... I thought it was a normal outage like others that we have been through and the lights would come right back on in a few minutes...not!!!!! I quickly hurried the kids to finish their breakfast and shoved them out the door to the car (we usually ride bikes but they were in the garage... now I know what you are thinking, just pull the latch and open the gargare manually...well I did that once and couldn't get the garage door back down and had to wait until Ben got home from work that night to close it.... and since Ben is in South Africa and would not be coming home until Monday I figured that I wold play it safe). So we hopped into the car and arrived at the school promptly at 8am and off Harrison, London and I went back home to hopfully find our lights on..... No such luck. Long story short the energy company turned our lights off by mistake (when we registered for our power they imputed the wrong address and so they turned the power off here because up until yesterday the home builders were paying our bill :) So I spent 9 hours going back and forth between the service company and the service provider to try and despirately get our power turned back on yesterday. Apparently begging is not as affective as I thought because I was informed that it could take up to 48 hours for it to be turned on despite tears and children loudly begging and crying in the background also. Trying to be a good mom and make this experience fun, I allowed the kids to all sleep in the same room and have a "camp out" (Im not sure it was my best idea, but I was pulling at strawes by this time). I had previously ran to Target to grab some extra flashlights in preparation of a dark and quiet night yesterday, so each child now has their own headlamp. By 11pm the fighting, complaining of someone bugging them and being too loud and complaints of being too hot (remember we are in Texas where it is still summer weather and no AC). I myself was laying in bed pleading very quietly that a miracle would occur and our power would be on when we woke up. Once again.... no such luck. Poor Bailee went to school looking a little homeless with her bangs laying every which way on her head, and Jackson had extremely wrinkled pants, but we all got up, out of the house and to school on time. And might I mention, when me and the 2 rug rats arrived back home... we had power!!!!!!!!
Long story I knowm but one worth documenting. I must also say that we have been blessed with having some awesome people in our ward. We had dinner at a girls in the wards house, the kids played with their kids and her husband worked for quite some time to try to get their generator working and they were willing to let us use it to keep the fridge and freezer running. Unfortunatly he could not get it working, but I do have to say that my prayers were answered in those regards because our food was still cold in the fridge and frozen in the freezer after 25 hours with no power.

This is a video of the weather that we have been experiencing here. CRAZY rains.

 

I just had to add this video in because I thought that it was so darn cute. She has a mind of her own.

Ben's new job

So, I don't really know what Ben does for work (I am asked that  lot and really couldn't honestly tell them), I know that it has something to do with oil and gas and consultaning, but how they all go together, I don't really know. Ben's job with Worley Parsons is the reason that we have landed here in Texas. He was transfered here and placed in a global position. I think that his title is something like "Director over US and Global Operations"... so we knew that there would be travel involved. He is over all of the US, South America and Trinidad. RIght now he is in South Africa at a leadership meeting of some sort (for those of you who know Allan McDonald, he is there also). Apparently South Sfrica was the half way point for everyone attnding the seminars (it makes me wonder where everyone else is from). Anyways Ben has been tellign us how cool it is there and how beautiful it is. Here is an email that I recieved from him today... (He assures me that he really is there working  :)

Dear Mom and Kids,

Hope that you are all having a good day today. I really miss you so much. I thought I would tell you a little about my day. I got to go for a run tonight, it was amazing. I ran by giraffes that were eating the leaves in the trees. We then ran by a herd of gazelles and chased them for awhile. After that, we ran by the pond with the hippos in it, they yawned as we went by. As we were running by the hippos, a crocodile scooted off into the water, apparently we scared him when we were running by. It was awesome. Then at dinner tonight, the manager of the hotel told us to come with her and be very quiet. We tiptoed along and were really quiet, then right in front of us, not too far away, were the hippos again. They were out of the water. They get out of the water at night to eat the grass on the golf course. They were HUGE!! It was awesome. They manager warned us to be careful and not make any sudden movements, or the hippos might charge us, which would have been pretty scary. Then all of a sudden, the hippos took off running. We all began to back up slowly, as we didn't want to get run over by the hippos. They were actually chasing each other, and weren't running towards us. It was really cool.

For some reason, I cannot send you the pictures I took of a giraffe and the monkeys that were on the golf course today. I'm very sorry. I will make sure that I send lots of pictures tomorrow, as tomorrow, we are going to Kruger National Park. You should look this up on the internet to see where Daddy is going tomorrow. I will probably get to see Lions, Rhinos, Giraffes, Zebras, Water Buffaloes, Crocodiles, Hyenas, Leopards, and Elephants. I promise to send you these pictures tomorrow, if you are good for Mommy.

I love you all and miss you so much. Please be so good for your Mom, and I will also make sure I buy you guys smoething from Africa. If you're bad, Mom will tell me and then I can't get you anything. Remember This!!

Love You,

Ben

Garbage day

So I know that these are not the best pictures ever taken (I was trying not to look to suspicious), but here in Katy garbage day occurs twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Recyling day occurs every Tuesday. The garbage men here take EVERYTHING. If you were to put a TV out on the curb they would take it (that is if a local Mexican did not get to it first). So we have been off loading as much as we can for the last 2 garbage days, since we have no vehicle to facilitate a trip to the dump. There have been a couple of new people move in on our street the same time that we did, so everyone had large piles of garbage. Tonight I noticed that there was a slight difference in our amount as compared to our neighbours. Like I said the pictures are not great, but I think that my point is made.....we have a lots of garbage.

 

This is our next door neighbours and they neighbours garbage.

This is our garbage.