Cousin Braelyn

We had a fun day with Braelyn yesterday while her mom, Kali, was having her baby. Braelyn now has a baby brother. Last I heard they were thinking of naming him Ryker. He was 7 lbs 2 oz, 20 " and born around 10:10 pm Wednesday. I can't wait to see the little guy. We made these fun sock snake puppets out of baby socks. The kids wore them on their hands for the next 2 hours and chased each other and me around the house with them! Jimmy has put his on several times today as well. They've been a big hit and they only took about 15 min each to make.

I told Jimmy and Braelyn they could have a sleepover and they got SO excited! I don't think they knew what it meant. I put both of them in Jimmy's room and surprisingly enough they both fell asleep quickly and slept well. In the morning I heard them talking and giggling with each other.Oh and Glader boy got his first haircut. Hopefully it grows in much thicker now and not so old-man-ish!

and there you have it...

And now the work begins. What do I take, what do I leave(there's no way all our stuff would fit in a small Holland house. How in the world do I pack for this? I'm excited, sad and just about a million other emotions right now! It'll be an adventure, that's for sure!

This is BIG.

First of all, I just wanted to say that thankfully Glade was MUCH better on the flight home than the flight to. If he hadn't played peek-a-boo through the plane seats I don't think the people behind us would have even known we had a baby with us. He did however poop through both outfits I had packed for the trip home and thus sported a blanket the remainder of the flight.

He really was a joy to have on this trip.

Most of you know we went to the Netherlands recently. Most of you don't know that my husband was offered a job there and they want us to move August 15th. The contract is for a minimum of two years. We have to let them know our decision TOMORROW. Yikes!

Here are a few things I loved about Holland:

1. Practically everyone has at least one bike and uses it very frequently. They still have cars but most of them use their bikes when they can. They strap their tiny little babies on and I saw people carrying as many as three kids on just one bike. Oh and you know 5:00 traffic jams? Well they have them with their cars and their bikes!

(this bike has 3 wheels, 3 seats & 2 handle bars...interesting!)

2. I really love all the very old buildings. They have so much character. Their homes have a lot of character as well and are so small and cosy. A small home = less to clean, that's gotta be a plus! Their yards (they call them gardens) are very small if they have one at all. I don't know if that's something I love but I know Jarom would rejoice in not having to mow the lawn and maybe I could handle a garden that's only the size of my current kitchen table.

3. The people there were so helpful and friendly. Jarom claims that people in the US are as well but we just don't notice it as much because we aren't walking around looking lost! Still, they were very nice people.

4. The LDS church there is much smaller although not too small. The ward we went to had 100 members and about 80 were there the day we went. Church was in Dutch but since most of the people speak English, it wasn't difficult to find someone to translate for us. During Sacrament meeting we wore these cool headsets (and yes, I did feel so cool) and an intrepreter sat in the back speaking in English into a microphone for us to hear. The neat thing was I could wander the halls with my wiggly baby and still hear the talks. I often find myself singing the first Dutch song I remember singing, "Kom tot Zion, Kom tot Zion." Those were the only 3 words I could pronounce in the whole song and I'm sure I butchered those a little too.

5. Jarom would have 26 paid vacation days a year (plus regular holidays). They also pay you an extra month's salary so you can have money to go on vacation (or holiday as they call it). There are so many neat places close to Holland that we could literally take a weekend and visit Paris! Also not too far is Germany, France, England, etc. What an opportunity!

6. It's very beautiful...gorgeous trees, water, etc.

On the flip side of things I cannot imagine being that far away from the family I love for at least 2 years. It's sad for me to think that my boys wouldn't be able to see their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins frequently. If we're lucky we would see some of the family maybe once or twice the whole time we're there. Plane tickets are just so expensive. I don't think a day goes by that Jimmy doesn't ask for "Gamma", "Gampa", "Naenae", "Lala" or "Baenyn." It breaks my heart to think that we would have to make do for conversations on Skype rather than personal visits, hugs and kisses. I seriously can't think about it or I cry. The decision isn't completely set in stone until Jarom signs the contract. Tomorrow is a very big day.

The land of no refills, no tips & $1 ketchup

Well here we are...
we have been in the Netherlands since Sunday am. The plane ride was...well, miserable! I don't think miserable even cuts it. It was worse than that. We left our house at 4:45 am on Saturday and arrived Sunday at 6:30 am (the Netherlands is 8 hrs ahead of UT). We had all had it. I only had 2 hours of sleep Friday night because even though I started to pack one week prior to this vacation I still was up late preparing and then Glade got up to eat at 3 am and we had to be up at 3:45 am to get ready. Of course having Glade refuse the bottle (he went 13 hrs without eating and I finally gave in) put a loop hole in things and I had to repack for him since he was coming with us and not staying as we had hoped.

There was a lady on the plane sitting next to us who had her two little kids with her. She was traveling alone with them (ages 3 and 10 mos) and going twice as far as us. I felt so bad for her. I was beyond exhausted so I knew she must be totally spent. I tried to entertain her little boy and comfort her little girl when she was dealing with the other one. Sometimes it worked. Others around us were very helpful and understanding.

When we got off the plane it took awhile to get out of the airport and find our tram. Then the tram ride was an hour long and then we had to find the metro to take us to our hotel. We hadn't exchanged any money yet so we didn't have a way to pay for the metro. Jarom left me with all the luggage and a SCREAMING baby for 25 minutes while he tried to find a way to pay. Finally they had pity on us and allowed us to ride for free. We sat on the metro and I began to cry. I was so exhausted and I just thought of that poor lady that was about to board her next plane and I cried for her too.

After eating and sleeping we all felt much better, although Glade is still trying to get used to the time change and wakes up from 1:30-3:00 am each morning. We've discovered so many neat things about the people here, the culture, the land. It's all so interesting to me. Just a few...there are no refills (that's an American thing), most people don't tip here because the servers are paid at least minimum wage, oh and if you want ketchup with your french fries at McDonald's it'll cost you ,60 which is about $1. Needless to say, we will carry around that extra ketchup packet until we use it because we paid $1 for it!

Hah, and one more thing, my taxi driver yesterday looked like Wormtail! What a fun and interesting place!

Boys in my house

"There are boys in my house – and Spiderman shoes
And 200 papers in various blues.
There's dirt on a face and a smudge on a nose;
Grass stains on knees and sand between toes.
There's bathtime at night with bodies to scrub,
And when we're all done there is dirt in the tub!
There's odors most icky; there's boogers so green
There's more yucky things than I'll ever get clean.
There's piles of laundry; there's stories at night;
There's bedtime and bathtime and dinnertime fights.
There are cute little vests and darling neckties
Dragged right through the mud – oh what a surprise!
There's running and climbing and jumping and falling
And laughing and crying and hugging and brawling
There's tantrums and time outs and extra loud noise –
There's love in my house shaped like two little boys."
-Erin Jo Kilmer

Twilight

How many of you are excited for this...

Twilight


I LOVED the books but I'm trying to not get too excited about the movie. I don't want to be disappointed. Usually the books are better than the movies.

Phew, a nice guy discount.

We had an exciting excursion Tuesday night. We went to the Bees baseball game with Kali & Isaac. If everything would have gone as planned the night would have been probably slightly forgettable (but still fun). However, a few twists and turns made it into one to remember...

After dropping off the kiddos we drove to SLC and then attempted to find a parking place. Well, there were plenty but they all cost money...what's up with SLC anyway?! Who wants to pay $5 just to park? But we outsmarted them - we remembered that we saw a Lowe's as we got off the freeway with TONS of parking and still close to the game. We saw that as our best option.

Our seats were really close and I was surprised how much fun I had. I always considered baseball to be the boring sport. This still doesn't mean I'll watch it on tv though. We decided to leave early. Jarom admitted he hadn't enjoyed much of the game because he had been worried about the car the whole time. $5 would have been worth the peace of mind. As we walked to where our car should have been we noticed there were NO cars there. Yup, they had been towed. It was then that we noticed the millions of signs plastered all over that parking lot. I swear before the game there was only one small easily unseen one.

Thankfully there was a # to call and they were still open (although they did charge an after hours fee). They only took cash so we first had to walk to an ATM machine (2 blocks in the opposite direction). Then we walked for about an hour (poor 8 mos prego Kali). Once we finally got to the tow place we were prepared to pay the $244 to get our car back. The guy then said that since DH didn't swear at him he would give us a $4 discount. WOW, now that's generosity! Good thing I married a nice guy!

On a side note, we really did have a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, we got a break from our adorable kiddos, had plenty of time to chat and even got a nice workout in (yes, I do consider leisure walking to be a workout). I'm just glad I had on comfortable shoes.