We're back!!! (Sun-Wed morning of the OR trip)

For those of you who don't know, we've spent the last week in Oregon visiting Rob's family. We had a wonderful trip! We have so many pictures that I can't post them all here, but they are all on my facebook account and I'll post my favorites here.

Sunday afternoon we flew from DFW to Portland, getting in to PDX around 9pm, so by the time we picked up our rental car and drove to Vernonia, it was after 11pm. My throat started to hurt on the airplane and by the time we got to the Knowltons, I had a fever and my throat was really hurting. We got the kids to bed and crashed.

Monday we had planned to go visit the great-grandparents and then have dinner with an old friend of mine, but I was feeling worse, so I called and canceled the dinner and we stayed home. Rob worked outside with his dad, chopping wood. The kids played inside and out. They watched tv with (and on) Becca (see picture below) and ran around outside. I think half the yard got brought inside by Kylie, who announced every time she found something new, "I have to go show Gamma!" I slept and got sicker.

Tuesday I don't have any pictures of as I was out of it the whole day. I think it was about the same. I think that was the day that Grandpa introduced the girls to Wallace and Gromit, which Beth especially loved.

Wed morning I was so sick that we decided to go to an urgent care center. They told me I had a pretty severe case of strep throat and gave me an antibiotic. I went home and went back to sleep.

Jack exploring the outdoors

The girls watching Dad chop wood

Picnic on "the bench"

Grandma reading to the kids before bed

Happy Father's Day Rob!!!

Shirts we made for Dad. They say "Dad's Posse" on the front and have each of the kids' special names (that Dad made up for them) on the back with the number child that they are.

I know it's a few days early, but I don't think I'll get the chance to type this for the next week.

Thank you so much Rob, for everything that you do. Thank you for being such a great father - I love watching you play with the kids. They look forward all day to seeing you walk through the door and so do I. Thank you for thinking it's important that we work together on things and being involved in everything we do. Thank you for all you do around the house to help. Thank you for the thousands of loads of laundry you've done, the thousands of dishes you've washed, the thousands of bags of trash you've taken out. Thank you for always being willing to watch the kids and send me out somewhere. Thank you for wanting to share everything you are interested in with me. Thank you for putting up with me when I'm moody or upset about something and for doing everything you can to make me happier. Thank you for working so hard to support us and for making sure I am able to stay home and take care of our kids. Thank you for eleven years of being my best friend. I love you! Happy Father's Day!

Last day of gymnastics for Kylie and Beth

Today was the last day of Kylie and Beth's gymnastics classes. The girls have been taking classes at our local rec center since I was pregnant with Beth (they are in the mornings though, so Megan hasn't been able to take them this year). All three are signed up for the summer session, but we took pictures to show everyone anyway :)

Other than that, life has sort of settled down. The kids are all feeling better and we are starting to settle into a routine. We love having Megan home all day, although it's taken some adjustment as for the last 9 months, Kylie has been the oldest at home and now that Megan is back full time, they occasionally have problems figuring out who is sort of charge.

This week we have mostly been getting ready for our trip to Oregon. We are flying out on Sunday to go spend some time with Rob's family and see one set of his grandparents. We'll be back on Saturday. We can't wait to see everyone! I may not be able to blog much while we are there, but I will post lots of pictures and stories when we get home!

We'll miss you Elder Hales!!!

Our weekend was busy. Rob ended up not having to work the catering job on Saturday because they moved the job to Sunday (he doesn't work Sundays), so we sent him off to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC that afternoon instead. We (everyone stayed in the car except for Rob) went to the farm to get our milk in the morning before he left and we brought a load of stuff to donate to a nearby charity. We (the kids stayed in the car with Rob) checked out the thrift stores near us for a couple of things I am looking for to complete the library (3 round pillows for pillow covers that I have, a floor lamp, and two frames) and although we didn't find anything on the list, we found a mini recliner for the kids that is in near perfect condition and was really cheap! The library isn't completely done yet - there are still a few pictures to be hung over the couch - but it's so close that I took pictures anyway :)

Yesterday we ended up missing church because Megan had a fever still and Kylie had a stomach bug. Sometimes it feels like we always have someone sick, but I guess with four kids five and under, it's kind of like a daycare and daycares always have someone sick. Hopefully once they start to get older, we won't have as many illnesses.

Last night we figured out that the a/c wasn't working, so Rob ran over to our friends' house to pick up our window unit (we had lent it to them when their a/c was on the fritz and hadn't gone over to get it yet) and we all slept in our bedroom. This morning I called a company run by people who used to go to our church until the congregation got too big and was split into two congregations. They were over in less than 30 mins and had it fixed in another 30 mins. Apparently there was a part that needed to be replaced, but fortunately it was a small part, so it wasn't as expensive as it could have been :) Thank heavens for that! I don't know how we would have paid for thousands of dollars of work!

Saturday night we got a phone call and it was Elder Hales letting us know that he was being transferred to a different part of the mission. Elder Hales is one of the missionaries assigned to our congregation and is one of our all-time favorite missionaries. (yes, Elder Larson, you are too, but I wasn't blogging when you left!) We are really going to miss him!!! He better keep in touch with us! I'm so glad there are things like facebook because hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with more of the missionaries we become friends with. Elder Larson and Elder Hales worked together here for a few months and the combination of the two of them was one of our favorite sets of elders ever, so we really hope we stay friends with them both! Good luck in your new area Elder Hales! Come back and see us!

I love Megan because . . .

Megan's teacher put together a little memory book for each of her students. It includes a page of nice things that other students said about each child. The page starts with the phrase "I love _____ because . . . " Here are what the other students said about Megan ~
"Because she is nice to me every day" Makayla
"Because she lets me borrow her pencil" Maddison
"I like her because she lets me play with her" Braylen
"Because she is smart" Brandon
"I like her because we play with her at centers" Kyle H.
"Megan helps me with my work" Anwar
"She is my best friend every day" Paula
"Megan is pretty and a princess" Shelby
"She is a good reader like me" Cooper
"I like her because she helps me" Tyler
"Megan is very cute, but I am not going to marry her" Kyle K.
"Megan is nice and kind and once I went to her house to play" Steven (he goes to church with us)
"Because she is funny and is really good at drawing pictures and reading and she is kind to me" Ethan
"Because she is cute and smart" Trevor (Megan's "boyfriend")
"Because she is beautiful" Trevor

Megan's last day of school!

Meg

Shelby

Trevor

Cooper

Meg & Mrs. Robertson

Cooper, Keegan & Paula

Anwar & Tyler

Kaylee & Braylen

Kaylee & Maddison

Makayla, Kaylee & Braylen

Kaylee & Paula

Today was Meg's last day of school! Yesterday Christy gave us her old digital camera as it doesn't work half the time and she bought a new one, so we let Megan take that camera to school. She and her friends had lots of fun taking pictures, and I am glad that it was a digital camera because half of the pictures were of cards from card games or shoes or something like that. They had a pizza party and Megan brought her presents for all her teachers. Megan ended up feeling sick about 45 mins before school was over though, so I ended up picking her up about 15 mins before school got out. The pictures on this post are those Megan and her friends took (and one that I took this morning of her and Rob).

Another haircut - this time unplanned

Kylie got a hold of a pair of scissors this morning. (Megan brought home all her stuff from school yesterday, including her pencil box that had her scissors in it and apparently took the scissors out before putting the pencil box away.) I walked into the playroom and found a trail of hair leading to Kylie, who was hiding in the little kitchen happily cutting away. I took the scissors away, took a picture, cleaned up the hair and took Kylie into the big kitchen. She cried and cried while I cut her hair to make it even. She kept saying "don't cut all my hair off!!!" I told her I wasn't cutting all her hair off, but she cut a fair amount off, so I had to make it even. She now has a bob. It's very cute, but both Kylie and me really miss her long hair! I now don't have any girls with hair long enough to braid :( Oh, well; it will grow out eventually. Kylie cried again when she looked at her haircut in the mirror and then she sat on my lap for a few minutes crying that she didn't like it. I told her it would grow out and not to cut her own hair again. I'm glad I didn't get mad - the haircut was enough of a punishment for her. She was feeling better after a while and came up to me about an hour later, very excited because she said that her hair grew a little bit!

Other than that, it's been fairly uneventful. Megan and Rob went to Skate Town last night with Garett, Jalynn, and Jessica since it was a free night for all Hughes Elementary students. Rob said she got very proficient at skate walking :) Garett told Beca that night that Megan was very popular :) We're glad she has so many friends!

Tonight Megan and I (and maybe Kylie?) are going to Kohls to get end-of-the-year presents for her teachers since tomorrow is her last day of school! Rob's friend Dan is coming over to watch the UFC thingy on tv with Rob. That's about it for us! We are working on organizing stuff again. I have the library almost done! I'll have to take pictures when it's finished.