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.



And life continues

I thought that it would be hard to make new friends and meet new people here....but honestly it has been super easy. Everyone here is super friendly and so willing to say hi (good old southern hospitality). We have become friends with a couple of families in the ward and sonce we had just moved into the house last week for Jacksons birthday, we decided that we could shove some boxes aside and have some friends over tonight to celebrate Jackson turning 5!!!!!!!!! So with 13 kids (9 boys and 4 girls)..... Jackson got to celebrate his birthday a week late but as Jackson said tonight (that was the best birthday ever)

London has had a vey sore bottom the last little bit so I decided to try and give her some relief in a baking soda bath. Now London is extremely nevous in the bath. She does not like it one bit. She spends the entire bath shaking and screaming out of fear, so I had to come up with a creative way to get her bottom end wet without her having to actually be in the bath tub..... This is what I came up with.... As you can tell....she loved it (maybe I should start bathing her in a bowl).

First Day of School

Bailee, Lincoln and Jackson started school today!!!!! It was a very bitter sweet day. The kids were very nervous going to a new school, meeting new friends and having new teachers. They were super excited to wear their new clothes, shoes and pack their backpacks for the day.

Harrison desperately wanted to go to school today also.

 

 Bailee's first day of 4th grade ( There are certian things that make me stick out like a sore thumb... one of them being how Canadians would have said grade 4.... I believe that scientist would call this adaptation)

 Jacksons first day on Kindergarten. All day kindergarten might I say. Harrison missed him so much today. Jackson was to tired when we picked him up from school that he was asleep within minutes of getting into the car. (He made sure I got a picture of his "doggy" backpack)

 

 Lincolns first day of  second grade. He was very nervous and anxious, but his teacher is amazing and calmed his nerves right away. He was so brave today.

 

 The kids outside of their new school. It is A LOT bigger than Cranston school. Right now their are 700 children in the school. but they have room for double that!!!!!!!!

 

Jackson in his Kindergarten class. Your growing up too fast buddy.



My observations

So everyone here is always saying how brutal the weather is right now... are you kidding me!!!!! This is amazing. It really feels like summer. Now that being said no one here will ever complain about the winters.... in fact they all say that we don;t really get a winter. They will tell you that they have about 6 months of summer 3 months of Fall and 3 months of Spring.... sounds pretty good huh?????

Our Real Estate agent informed us that when we start to llok for Halloween cosutmes to make sure to pay attention to how heavy the material is in the costume because the kids can get too hot in them..... ummm really????? I informed her that for the past 9 years I have been buying Halloween costumes 2 sizes too big so that I can fit snow suits under them :)

People are VERY aggressve drivers... If there is an inch between you and the person in front of you, someone will squeeze their way in....with no warning might I say. People either drive with their blinkers on continuously without switching lanes, or they don't use them at all The roads are very busy...very well planned out though. Right by where we are staying is a 9 level over pass (that would be 9 overpassess stack ontop of eachother). There are a lot of people going in a lot of different directions. Betty (my GPS) has become our families new best friend. Sundays are the best day to drive on the roads here because everyone is in church. I'm not joking. There is no one on the roads before 12. .Everyone goes to church on Sundays here!!!! We really are in Bible country. Every church that we pass have cars in the parking lots.... and the road are clear.

All in all, this move has been really good. Of course there are things that I miss (friends and family mainly), but we are really trying to embrace this and try to always look for the good in things. I can always find things to complain about... but that isn't going to do me our anyone else any good. So we are going with a glass half full out look and seeing where it is going to take us.

On another note....The kids start school tomorrow. They are nervous and excited (understandable). They are starting at a brand new school. We have told them that it is perfect timing because everyone in the school will be new. I know that they will make a whole bunch of new friends and have many amazing experiences. It will be a bitter sweet day for Ben and I tomorrow. Jackson starts kindergarten. There is no stagered entery and no half days. He will be gone from 820am-340pm Monday thru Friday and eating lunch in the cafeteria with everyone else...starting tomorrow. I am really going to miss the kids. I was so lucky to have them ome home for lunch last year and get a little snipit of their days mid day. It is going to be hard for me not to have them home. I have really enjoyed our time together this summer. I feel as though we have made some really great memories and formed some really great relationships. Good luck tomorrow Bailee, Lincoln and Jackson. Mommy and Daddy love you very much.

The Aquarium

 

Today was the kids last offical week day before school starts on Monday, so we thought that we would try to make it an extra special day. What better way to start a special day than with breakfast at I Hop right??? 

 

After we stuffed our selves with pancakes, bacon and eggs we headed downtown to the Houston aquarium.

 

 

Jackson hanging out with the sting rays.

 

 Ben touching the sting rays. The other kids were too scared to touch them. They loved watching them though.

 On the train to see the sharks.

 London and daddy

 

 Bailee and Lincoln on the farriswheel.

 

 London didn't really like the merry-go-round. Do you see the fear in her eyes.

 

 The three boys... I mean Ben and two of the boys.

 

There was a white tiger at the aquarium. London loved it, can you tell?



Our new home

Ben and I came to Texas the begining on July and in 2 1/2 days looked at many beautiful homes. In our search we found the perfect floor plan for our family. We went to the builder and he said that he had a spec home that would be ready the middle of September. We put our deposit down and it has been a fight ever since to get it done (not because the builder has been difficult, but because there are no trades people to do the work... sound familiar Calgary). Needless to say our possesion date has been moved to end of Septemeber to end of October. Not going to happen. I have said it before, we have been blessed many times over in this move and this next opportunity is no different. The builder notified us that he had a house come on the market that is the exact same floor plan as the one that we were building... who's buyer has fallen through and we could have it in 10 days.....AMAZING!!!!!! So (sound the trumpets please)..... THIS IS OUR NEW HOME!!!!!!

 

 The back yard

 Bens favorite room in the house... the media room

 The master bed room

 The master bathroom that has the biggest closet I have ever seen in my life. Honestly my kids rooms were smaller than this closet. I don't understand how people could possibly fill it all.

 Bailee's room

 Lincoln's room

 Jackson and Harrisons room

 My favorite room in the house.... the kitchen

 View from the front enterance.

 

London does have a room also, but she wouldn't cooporate for a picture.

The front view of our home

Let the adventures begin

Me and the kids arrived in Houston on Friday. We surrvived the trip. I am eternally grateful for my mother-in-law who was willing to fly with my to Houston for the day. Our final tally for travel gear was:  10 suitcases/ 2 carry ons/ 4 car seats/ 1 stroller/ 5 children and 2 adults. It is amazing that we arrived with everyone and everything in tow.

Our Summer adventures

As a lot of people may know the kids and myself spent the month of July and August in Nampa Idaho visiting my in-law. The kids and I spent the days swimming and playing with their cousins and hanging out with granma and grandpa. Jackson became an avid farmer, helping grandpa collect corn and pick tomoatoes from their garden and Bailee helped to gather beans. They all became very good at shucking corn. Harrison was very helpful to grandma in cutting the corn off of the cob to freeze too.

When we arrived in Idaho Jackson could not swim on his own and Harrison was terrified of the water and wouldn't even get in. When we left a few days ago Harrison was jumping into the water and Jackson was swimming laps. Amazing what daily dates with the neighbourhood pool does :)

We also celebrated Lincolns 7th birthday with grandma and grandpa and all of his cousins.

London is growing up before our very eyes. She has fallen in love with shoes, lip gloss, purses and babies. She is quite the ham and makes us laugh on a daily basis.

We have had a lot of fun, but also miss all of our friends and family in Calgary. We have spent many hours infront of the computer skyping and trying to stay in touch with everyone what we can. I am hoping that this blog will help everyone keep up with us and we will be able to keep up with everyone else.

Here are a few pictures of our summer adventures.

 Harrison and Ali swinging at a park in downtown Boise.

 London and her shoes

 London feeding her baby

 Cousins at the zoo

 Bailee's very sore thumb. She gave evryone the thumbs up for weeks while it healed.

 Happy 7th birthday buddy!!!!

 The kids all in the most amazing tree. You can't see it in the picture but there are 2 tire swings on this tree. Every kids dream come true.

 Jackson shucking corn with papa.

 London getting ready to go swimming

Our new begining

For all of our friends in Calgary and Idaho and Utah.... I promised that I would start my blog again when we arrived in Texas... so here I am living up to that promise.

The internet in the apartment that we are staying in is extremely slow. I tried to load some photos, but I think that was a little too much for it to handle because it froze up on me. So I promise that I will add photos as soon as we get into our own place..... which will be in 10 days by the way (YES!!!!!!!).

We have already had many adventures in Houston. My mother-in-law flew with me to Houston and I am extremely grateful for her. I really don't think that I could have done it by myself (Final tally: 10 checked pieces of luggage, 4 carseat, 3 carry-ons, 5 children, and 2 adults). Thank you Charla!!!!!

Ben and I have had many blessings lately. We are very lucky to have such amazing friends and family. I don't know where to even start to thank everyone for the support that we have recieved. Thank you Calgary for taking such good care of Ben the last 6 weeks. Thank you mom and dad for being there to do everything that I was not there to do myself and to take care of Ben for me. Thank you to the Cranston ward for loving our family so much. Thank you to Charla and Dan for letting our 5 children and myself take over your house for 6 weeks. Thank you Andy, Kelly and girls for being our best friends and to Scott and Nicole and Lucy for playing with the kids and giving London a little cousin to learn to play with. I can say with 100% certainty that our Heavenly Father has had his hand in our lives, guiding my family, giving us strength when we thought that we had no more, for carrying us when we could go no further, for making us stronger through our triasl and triumphs. I will miss everyone that has touched my life over the last 7 years. We have learned that it is never good bye, just see you later. So I hope that I will see you all later (we will have plenty of room in our home for any passer-byers). I have told the kids that we are going on one big adventure hunt...so here is to many adventures and a new begining for our family. Thank you all.

Londons first steps!!!!

London took her first steps today!!!!! I was fortunate enough to catch them on video too. She was so proud of herself. We were so proud of her. Way to go London.

Here's the video so you all can watch them too!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufnxMbXrdZo

Life lately

London has had countless tests and procedures done in the past 13 months. There was one left that they had not done yet. Her doctors had put off scoping her because they weren;t sure that they would find anything and did not want to risk her going under general anesthesia. Well the day came last week that they decided that this was the one and only test that they have not done and it is something that needed to be investigated. London was so good. We arrived at the hospital at 630am. London was taken to the OR at 515pm. It wa a VERY long day for her, but she was so good. We spent a lot of time walking around day surgery and talking to all the great nurses.

 We got the test results back yesterday. As expected, they all came back normal. Back to square one. We went to see Londons pediatritian yesterday, Dr Kelly, and he said that she looks great. So much more alert and healthier than he has EVER seen her look..... What an amazing compliment.

 London has discovered that she likes to hang out under the sink. Seriously I turn my back for one seconds and she heads for the sink. Her favorite thing is to sit there and knock everything out and onto the floor.

 We got London a helmet so that she can go for bike rides with us.

 A couple of weeks ago we thought that it would be fun to take the kids to Elbow fals for a picnic. It was gorgeous in Calgary and the snow had all melted, it was still gorgeous at the falls..... but the snow had not all melted.

 Only real Albertans have picnics in the snow...... the kids loved it.

 My baby turned 9 on April. Seriously. 9???? I can;t beleive how time has flown. I love you Bailee. You are turning into such a beautiful and grown up little girl. I can;t wait to see what the next 9 plus years bring.

 Bailee and her American Girl Doll... Taylor. She has been asking for one for 2 plus years. She was so excited when she opened the box. It has become her favorite new toy. She goes everywhere with her.