Our mini-vacation... whirlwind Northern Michigan Tour

This is a super-long post, but we had a busy, long weekend up north and I haven't figured out the slide show feature to this blog yet. So here goes... we left Thursday night for Higgins Lake and Grandma Staub's house. We spent Friday at the lake, Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie, Sunday on Mackinac Island, and Monday in downtown Houghton Lake.

We got this headress for Grayson, but it looked cute on Scarlett. The moccasins were actually her souvenir from Zubler's.

Grandma Staub realized the kids were getting bored and pulled out games. Here they are playing "barrel full of monkeys".

All of us in period clothing at Fort Mackinac

At Zubler's Indian store in downton Houghton Lake.
Riding the cheesy rides at Children's funland.

Playing at the lake.
Flying Grandma's kite. Tadj and Sofia actually did pretty good, but could have used more string.
The boat took FOREVER to come into the Poe Lock in Saulte St. Marie. We got bored and left.
On the ferry to Mackinac Island
Sofia in front of Arch Rock. We took a carriage tour of the island. We thought we should do it now, because you have to pay for kids once they turn 5. So we only paid for Tadj and I. We thought it would be fun for the kids. Unfortunately they were bored and kept wanting to get off. Arch rock was one of the stops. Grayson had fallen asleep on the carriage, so he and I missed it.

ahhhh memories!!

I stole this from Hilary

1. Leave a comment on my blog, one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

The Best Day EVER!!

Sofia went to Disney World today. She called and said it was "The best day ever!!". Although it was at least 100 degrees there today, she refused to take off her princess dress. All day long everyone called her "Princess". She is in 7th heaven. She got to be the first one in line to take pictures with all the characters. I'm still not sure how exactly that happened, but here are the pictures that Disney posted on the web. I stole them for my blog (hee hee). I think she hugged EVERYONE!

Minnie, Sofia, Grandma, Grandpa, and Mickey. Please excuse the blue shoes. For the life of me I just can't figure out why Grandma didn't put on the pink sparkly ones!! Well, at least her hair got done.

Missing you X 2

We're missing Sofia. We sent her to Florida with Grandma and Grandpa Hardie to represent our family at Great-Grandma Hardie's funeral. The house has had less fighting and screaming, but we really miss her. She's been gone almost 5 days now!! She even lost ANOTHER tooth while she's been gone. Today she's in Disney World and having the time of her life!! We just imagine her walking around in her princess dress-up meeting all the princesses. We can't wait to hug her tomorrow.

We're missing our dear friend Ali. We met the Van Giesons about a year ago when they moved into our ward. What a fun family! The Mom, Ali, was killed in a terrible car accident on Saturday morning while driving with her parents and 3 kids to a family reunion in SLC Utah. Her dad was also killed. She leaves a husband alone to raise young kids, ages 5, 3, and 1. We're so sorry for this tragic loss. Our friendship with this family was still new, but we will greatly miss Ali. I'll miss chatting while the girls have their ballet class. I'll miss sitting next to her on temple Saturday or taking our turn babysitting 25 kids with them. I'll miss running into her at the grocery store near both our homes. Ali was such a sweet person and patient mom. She was the kind of person that could bring calm to a crazy situation (i.e. babysitting the 25 kids!!) and I'll miss that serenity. We wish only the best for her family and since they were sealed in the temple know that they will be reunited again when this life is over. XOXO

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Grayson, Scarlettt, and Dad

Dad Jumping with Scarlett

Scarlet just crawls around the trampoline. But she thinks it's fun!!

Here is Mom trying to jump with both the kids. Yikes!!


Here is Daddy getting fancy with a flip. Luckily Grayson was distracted by the dog next door and Tadj didn't land on him.

Mr. Bush's stimulus rebate check allowed us a couple of purchases. We got a used trampoline on Craig's list a few weeks ago. Since Tadj grew up with a trampoline in his yard, he definitely wanted one for the kids. The downside to this one is that it didn't have the safety net around it. Come to find out, there are actually more injuries from tramps that have the net than those that don 't. We're trying it without and so far so good. I think Grayson fell of once or twice, but was fine. Here is a picture of Daddy and Grayson jumping.

Are we related to Gene Simmons?

Scarlett's favorite new discovery her tongue. It's always hanging out of her mouth and we've realized that it's SUPER LONG. Apparently, this gene runs in the family, because Grandma Hardie can actually touch her nose with her tongue (gross!!). I think Grandma and Scarlett should start a Kiss tribute band!

The best mommy job ever!!

I've just been thinking lately that I think I have the best job in the world. I've been working as an OT for 5 1/2 years now! My how time flies. When I graduated I had grand thoughts of working full time for the rest of my life in a pediatric sensory integration setting. Afterall, that was where I spent my my fieldwork experience. I loved the play therapy. As it turned out, the job market was very competitive and I had to take the first job that came along. I sent out 60 or so resumes and recieved only one call for interview. Obviously I took the job. It was at an orthopedic outpatient clinic that involved some homecare too. Not really what I was looking for, but it opened up a whole new world to me. I found that I loved the freedom of homecare and the personal attention I could give to a patient in the comfort of their own home. Boy am I glad that I stumbled upon this area of OT. Fast forward to today, I now contract and can work as little or as much as I want. I tried the full time working mom thing for about... 3 months!! Now I can work when I want. Right now, I'm working 4 days a week from naptime (around 1pm) until 4. That way I'm only away from the kids while they're asleep. Not too long ago, I had a patient just a couple blocks from my home that I would see when Tadj came home from work. I've taken my kids with me to work... smiling babies do wonders for ailing arthritic old ladies. I am so grateful to have stumbled into my career. The Lord truly knows our needs before we do!

There's a tooth in my hotdog!

Yesterday Sofia had a hotdog for lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Hemingway's house. She spent the night there Saturday night and spent Sunday with them. While eating her hotdog, her tooth fell out. We didn't even realize it was loose. She told me last week that it was, but I just blew her off and didn't believe her ("yeah, ok sofia... you're only 4"). I called the dentist today and apparently it's normal for 4 year olds to start losing teeth. Tadj and I just didn't until we were 5 or 6. Here are some bad pictures from Tadj's camera phone (I sure do miss my stolen camera). In one she is showing off her new gap and in the other she is showing of the 2 quarters the tooth fairy left for her.

...It just gets worse.

I was telling my mother-in-law about everything that happened with the camera and realized that I didn't really look to hard to see if anything else was missing. Well, the DVD player was taken from the van too. I guess I probably should have noticed that first. Bummer!! The homeowners insurance has a $500 deductible, so I guess we just lose :( . I hope our day gets better soon.

Where is that dang camera?!

Sofia lost her first tooth today and we wanted to take a picture of it. Since we used the camera all weekend for Independence Day celebrations I thought it was close at hand. We've looked high and low and can't figure where it's gone... but then I remember the car. When I went to the car this morning, it was unlocked. $2 and and a couple of pop cans were missing. I thought Tadj cleaned out the car and pocketed the cash, but when I questionned him about it he said he hadn't. Now I'm realizing that someone must have gotten into the car last night and taken the camera which we must have left there after we came home late from fireworks!! We unloaded everything else but I think that the camera was overlooked. Thank goodness Tadj took the video camera in the house. We've never had this kind of problem in the 5 years since we've lived in Eastpointe. Ugh!! How frustrating!! Oddly enough, we just had an alarm system installed on the house 2 weeks ago. Thank goodness for Adam from APX systems who talked us into buying it. We didn't think we needed one, but he was church member from Utah just off his mission here for the Summer to make some school money. We thought we'd help him out and try the system. He offered us a GREAT deal. Clearly, that is the best purchase we've made recently. Who knows what else could have happened. We were starting to see the decline of our city, but it hadn't yet affected us so closely. There are empty, forclosed homes all over the neighborhood and homes selling for dirt cheap to dealers who then rent them out to a less than desirable kind of tenant. I've seen some pretty peculiar looking characters walking up and down the street lately too. Time to move out?? YES!!! As soon as I hit the lottery for enough to dig us out of this house and put down on a different one, we will. We figure that would be somewhere around $50K. Until then, here we sit... hoping we survive the housing crisis and the neighborhood doesn't turn into a drug trafficking hot spot.

P.S. We took a picture of Sofia and her tooth with the camera phone tonight. After the tooth fairy comes tonight, we'll post those pictures. As for the holiday celebrations... gone forever I guess :( .

A fourth bedroom... PLEASE!!

When we moved into this house 5 years ago we figured 3 bedrooms would work for us because we'd only live here for 3 years. Well, 3 kids later and and change in the Michigan housing market, we're going nowhere fast. After Scarlett was born, she was bedroomless for a few months. She bunked with Tadj and I for a while and then in the living room. In February we decided to move Grayson and Sofia in together and give Scarlett Grayson's room. We knew the girls would bunk together eventually, but Scarlett was still waking up in the night. That worked for a while, but in the last month or two, Grayson has had a hard time going to sleep and likes to keep Sofia up jumping on the beds until 9:30pm sometimes. It was time for a change. I changed the rooms around again on Monday. The girls are together now and Grayson has his own big boy room... though he's really sad and misses Sofia as his partner in crime. So far he's sleeping better, but of course the moment we changed things Scarlett started waking around 5 or 6am. We think she's just teething and will get back to normal soon... hopefully!