Brotherly Love

Lately we've been noticing Luke (who is 3) acting extremely overprotective of Sam (who is 5). For example, a few nights back Sam kept throwing his quilt around during bedtime, so I came in and took it away from him. As I walked out of the room Luke started crying, "But you can't take it! Sam NEEDS it to go to sleep!" His little plea made me almost want to give it back to Sam.

Another example- early this morning Sam did something (I'm not sure what) that made Luke run out of his room in tears. I gave Sam a time out and then I went to comfort Luke. He was pretty worked up, but as soon as I told him he could watch a cartoon (so I could shower, of course) he immediately stopped crying and said "Oh! I need to tell Sam!" My response, "No, he needs to have a timeout." Luke ignored me anyway and ran away yelling "Sammy! It's cartoon time!" I just stood there shaking my head saying, "I don't understand!" Wasn't Sam the cause of Luke's anguish not one minute earlier?

While I still maintain that kids can be extremely selfish (Who cares if you are putting the baby to bed... "I want a snack NOW!"), I am amazed at their ability to forgive and forget. Grudges simply don't exists in the world of those under the age of ___ (you fill in the blank- I don't know the answer to this statement yet). Although difficult at times, it has been a pleasure watching my boys grow up together. They continually conspire together ("You can do it! Mom's not coming!"), play strange games ("First you knock me down, then attack me and then you steal the ball. That's how the game goes."), and are best buds. Hopefully no matter what life throws at these two they are always able to work it out and remain close friends.

Andrew's 30th and an afternoon on the Farm

The Big 3-0
During college I student taught art at a middle school located in Springville, Utah. We only had one car at the time, so Andrew often drove me to and from school. One morning we were running late and I was dropped off right as the school buses were pulling in. The following is a conversation I had with one of the 7th graders about an hour later-

Student- "Hey Mrs. Willis, who was that guy who dropped you off today?"
Me- "That was my husband."
Student- "EWWWWWW! He is so OLD!!! What, is he like 30???"

At the time Andrew was a mere 23.

Well, as of last Monday Andrew is officially "old"... at least according to one 7th grader. I always thought I would have a big surprise party for him, but (a) we have to move in 3 weeks so my life is utter chaos right now and (b) he had class that night until 10 pm. Since he had to go to Scouts the following night, I decided to bake some cakes and cupcakes and have the youth and leaders surprise him. It sounded like it went well!

Farm Visit
Contrary to popular belief, we actually live very close to the country. Proof of that took place yesterday when our friends invited us to their relative's farm for their daughter's 4th birthday party. The farm is located on Sugar Loaf Mountain, and I'm posting a picture of the mountain for all our of our west coast friends to have a good laugh (I'll admit, it is a very liberal use of the term mountain). Either way, we had a blast! For me, the best part was that our kids could run and explore like crazy and I never had to worry about them. With that said, I think I may have worried just a little had I known that what I thought was a cow freely roaming around was actually a bull (he was later penned up). Aside from the bull and cows, they also had ponies which the children were able to ride on. I'm pretty sure that they weren't trained, but they behaved well enough to let each kid have a short ride. It was also great to be together with some of our friends who we don't get to see so often anymore.

Luke with one of the ponies

The Mountain behind Afton (going at her front carrier) and me (I chopped off 7 inches of my hair this week)

Easter 2009

Prior to Easter, it had been 7 months since our last visit to New Jersey. I know that may not seem long to some, but when you only live 3 hours away from your parent's house, that is a long time! The reason for this delay was my largely growing belly and then Afton's arrival. But, we did make it home for Easter and it was about time!

It still shocks me to see the family dynamic now that my little sister Becca is the only one left at home. I am the oldest of 5 and when I left for college the three youngest were 13, 11 and 7. At that time it was impossible to sleep in because they were always up at the crack of dawn, usually riding their scooters in circles THROUGH the house with the DOG following them. There was also no such thing as "privacy" because they LOVED to spy and report back to my mother. Now my little sister sleeps in until 1o am or later. 10 AM! She also has all of the privacy in the world...unless my mom is spying on her. What a life! I guess I will get my shot at sleeping in 20 years from now.

me and my sisters in 1999

Back to Easter. It was great to be home with my family! We did all of the traditional Easter activities- egg dying, egg hunt and a nice ham dinner. I also dressed the kids in cute outfits Easter morning, but by the time I was finished getting myself ready, well, I just didn't have the energy to get a picture of the 3 of them. Lame! It was a very fun, relaxing trip and hopefully we'll make it back home again soon.



Here are some other pictures from this past week-

Afton is now 4 months old and a happy little baby

The boys love climbing trees now, and found a great one at a nearby park

Changes and Cherry Blossoms

Postpartum jean shopping. Road Trips. Driving through Nebraska OR Kansas. Sick kids. Potty training. Cockroaches. March Madness. Dickie V. Jimmy Buffett.

The above are all things that I hate, and now I have something new to add to my list...house hunting. We sold our condo 1 week ago (YEAH!), but since then I've been on the brink of losing my mind. I thought that finding a house would be fun and exciting...ohh how young and naive I once was. Why was I not adequately warned of the stress that accompanies this process???

Dragging my children house to house...not fun. Keeping my children from touching the personal property of others...not fun. Trying to find a house in our budget, in a good neighborhood, with good schools AND close to the metro...NOT FUN! With that said I think the hard part is over. There have been tears, gnashing of teeth and hair pulling. We've aggressively scoured the county and I think we have narrowed down our search to 3 neighborhoods. At this point we are just waiting for the right house to pop up.

In addition to selling our condo and house hunting here are some extra happenings for us this past week-

• Luke now requires CONSTANT supervision while awake. His latest activities include shoving mounds of toilet paper in the toilet, coloring 70% of his body with marker, and overflowing our bathroom sinks with water.

• I've now embraced the official "mom on the go" uniform- jeans (or sports pants), a sweatshirt, and sneakers. Ensemble completed with wet hair thrown into a ponytail and minimal makeup.

• Afton has decided that she no longer likes to sleep in her car seat, thus making the whole "mom on the go" thing a little tricky.

AND FINALLY....

• The cherry blossoms arrived this week!!! I'm convinced that the Japanese were thinking of me when they gave the US the cherry blossom trees nearly 100 years ago. We went downtown Saturday morning and were able to enjoy them during their peak period. Between that and General Conference I have to say that the week definitely ended on a high note.

*Afton was with us, she just slept the entire time. So much for coordinating her outfit to match the cherry blossoms!

Bye Bye Hyundai

I always knew this day was inevitable and it has finally arrived... Andrew was in a car accident. I'm not saying it was inevitable because I think my husband is a bad driver (I don't), but because I am a psychotic wife who sometimes imagines the worst scenarios possible (like Andrew having a terrible accident). With that said, this was not a terrible accident. Yes the Hyundai was destroyed, yes the accident caused major delays during rush hour (sorry Grant!), but with the exception of a few scrapes to the knee, Andrew is perfectly fine. It's in times like these--and thankfully there haven't been many of them for us--that you realize how unimportant things like cars really are.

The accident was caused when Andrew (who was going straight) and the driver of a small SUV (who, coming from the opposite direction, was turning left) collided in an intersection. Since both were only going about 25 miles per hour the damage was substantially minimized. Here are some pictures of Andrew's now-wrecked car.

What was stashed in the back of the car (and trust me, it was a lot) went flying out the back window.

For the time being, Andrew is back to taking the bus to the metro. So far his only complaints are the occasional long wait for the bus and the crazy people who ride with him (example: once a woman jumped out of her seat, pointed at Andrew, and started yelling, "He's a homosexual! He's a homosexual!" over and over...). Eventually we'll replace the old Hyundai (Thanks Tim for giving it to us in the first place), but in the meantime I'm looking forward to hearing some more fun public transportation stories!

One more gift just for me...

When I discovered that our neighbor was moving I thought that there was no way this month could get any better. Ohhh was I wrong! Anyone living in the East knows that for the last week or so we have had weather in the 70's. After what has seemed like a never ending winter, this is just what we (I) needed. It has been so nice to let my stir crazy boys get outside and run, jump and play til their little hearts are content.

Andrew had the day off on Friday, so we went down to Great Falls and hiked a portion of the "Billy Goat" trail. The next day we headed downtown and hit up the newly reopened American History Museum. While fun, it was packed and my kids kept looking for the dinosaurs (sorry boys, wrong museum). Since it was such a nice day we decided to skip out early and walk around the mall and memorials for a while.

Andrew and the boys at the base of the Washington Monument

Now the only thing that could possibly make our March better would be if our condo sold...of course that just might be asking too much for one month.

Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!!!

When we first bought our condo (nearly 4 years ago) it had a clean, crisp aroma to it. It was August at the time, so the combination of sunshine and fresh-smellingness made our new home very inviting. We lived like this for nearly 2 months. Then one day a strange, distinct odor entered our lives. For the longest time we couldn't figure out what it was or where it was coming from. We started smelling "the odor" from under our bathroom sink, the garbage disposal and even the dishwasher, until it ultimately took over our entire home. It wasn't until weeks later that I noticed the same smell coming from our new neighbor's apartment. Upon closer inspection I was immediately able to identify the mystery odor- cigarette smoke.

For a while we tried to ignore the smell, but it turned out that this neighbor was a SERIOUS chain smoker who stayed indoors ALL DAY LONG. After a little deliberation, I convinced (forced) Andrew to go downstairs and kindly ask if she could possibly smoke outside, or at the very least, crack open a window every now and then. Her polite response, "no".

In a nutshell, we have been dealing with this stench for years. To say that it has been an inconvenience would be a major understatement. "Life altering" would be a more accurate description. Nothing we did (and believe me, we tried it all) alleviated that stale smoke smell from our condo. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT??? I am totally willing to put that all in the past because this past week I had the pleasure of watching our neighbor pack up and move!!! I've been dreaming of this day for what seems like forever and now that it has arrived I can honestly say that it has surpassed my expectations! For the first time in years I have been able to walk through my door and NOT be smacked in the face with that disgusting smoke smell. I feel like I should be in a Frabreez commercial!

Underneath it all my now ex-neighbor really was a nice lady. I wish her all the best in her new home!