Lots of long stories

After 7 (count them, 7!) full days of horrible stomach flu and one mental breakdown on my part, we were finally healthy ...and way behind on the house remodeling.  Brandan and I were taking turns working at the house.  I would go over in the early morning while he got ready for work and then he would go over while I put the kids to bed and stay way to late into the night.  Then, like a little miracle, Dan and Jill, Boe and Kamber came up for the weekend after his interview in Burns, WY.  They were completely amazing!  They spent 9 solid hours painting and working at the new house while their kids entertained Dash and Colt at the old house.  I seriously can't say how grateful we are for their help that weekend.

We've spent the last week working on the house every spare minute.  Brandan had a youth temple trip scheduled for this last weekend, and I'm sorry to say I wasn't sad when the Bishop had to cancel the trip because the roads to Billings are flooded out.  So we've been able to get most of our stuff moved.  We are moving in even though we don't have the carpet installed,..or an oven.  FYI : Never, ever, no matter what have contract work done by the Home Depot.

So we should be done moving by tomorrow, just in time for Brandan to go to Laramie for his Masters Program orientation day.  Despite it all, we are really excited to get into the new house and we feel super blessed to be getting such a good deal.

Dash loved to help with the moving.  He created his own "furniture dolly" with his Tonka truck.  He loaded that full toy box all by himself, including taking it down the front steps.

Other than the house, the other big story here is the weather.  It has been raining, and I mean raining, most every day for a couple of weeks now.  The water table is only 18 inches under ground here so all this rain really has no where to go and so there has been flooding.  Growing up along the Snake River, it makes since to me that a river might flood, but it is weird to see land miles and miles and miles away from a lake or river start flooding. 

Last Wednesday things got particularly crazy.  A huge storm moved in and dropped a ton of rain really quickly.  From our kitchen window we could see the cross street down the road literally flowing, complete with rapids and everything.  I was suppose to go to Newcastle to go visiting teaching so I waited for as long as I could and then headed out.  I couldn't cross the new river road so I found another street, but Main Street out of town was almost as bad.  The water was right under my bumper.  I was pretty terrified, but I just kept going and just a couple of miles out of town everything was dry...it hadn't even rained there!  The next day though, Upton was a mess.  The water broke up some of the asphalt in the streets and scattered it everywhere.  A couple of houses flooded and a business roof collapsed.  So, again, I guess we were pretty blessed to be completely untouched.

It's hard to tell by the picture but this street is flowing with water several inches deep all the way across.

Miscellanous

We have had lots going on since my last post, so I'm going to have to do a quick catch up.

On May 6th, we finally closed on our house and it only took until late May 9th to get water.  Slow start.

Brandan and the boys made Mothers' Day extra nice.  Brandan reminded the boys to tell me Happy Mothers' Day throughout the day and Dash came up with ways Sport could be involved as well.  Sport had a rough drive home from church (a half hour trip) and when we got in the house Dash said, "You know Sport is just saying Happy Mothers' Day when he cries so I guess he must love you a lot since he said it the whole way home".

Brandan and the boys made me a candy bar poster for Mothers' Day.

In fact, Sport is learning all sorts of things.  About a month ago Dash taught the family a little song to help us get our arms folded for prayer (Brandan has a real problem with reverence).  At one point in the song everyone "gives a little clap".  Now every time we start singing the song, Sport immediately starts clapping.  It is amazing to see how much he is changing.  He went from innocent baby to pesky little brother overnight.  The older boys are always complaining that Sport messes up their towers and car races by crawling into their toys.  It doesn't seem to matter how many other toys I give Sport, he knows that the funnest ones are the ones his brothers have.  He is certainly learning to hold is own.

I was planning to get a lot of work done in the new house this week, but unfortunately for everyone, especially me, all three boys got the stomach flu this week...one at a time.  Colt is still battling a rocky tummy this morning, but hopefully he will be over it soon and Brandan and I can both put some serious time in at the new house so we can have it all cleaned up and painted before the carpet installers come.

The reason I don't post lately.  The new house is exciting, but lots of work.

Friday was my birthday so Brandan really had to do double duty this last week.  He did a great job though.  When he got home from school Friday afternoon he herded the boys back to the bedroom and then they came out with a large black bag.  Before they had even handed me the package, Colt called out, "It's a temple!"

Brandan is the plasma cutter expert at the school and so he has the perk of using it when he wants.  He designed this himself.  I love it!

Brandan finishes up track today and has only two weeks of school left before I set him to work in the new yard.  Busy, busy!

Crawling

Yesterday Sport really started trying to crawl and today he succeeded.  The older boys loved tempting him over to them with different toys they would normally not want him to touch.  Brandan is proud of his little crawler, and true to form, I'm sad to see my baby growing up.

Sport at 6 months

Sport's six month appointment confirmed our suspicions...  he is our kid, small with a big head.
25 inches long - 6th percentile
15 lbs 1 oz - 10th percentile
head - 70th percentile!

After his appointment, the boys and I had a picnic at a really cool park I found while driving around Spearfish.  The weather was awesome and the boys had a great time and came home super dirty.

Sport loved swinging.  Notice his headwear to protect his large scalp from sunburn.

The boys swinging.

The boys spent about 45 minutes throwing things into the creek.

Sport loved bathing with the big boys after playing at the park.