Monday, September 29, 2008

Monday Night MisAdventures

Okay, I know you are probably wondering why I'm posting pictures of our air conditioner, upper level windows and Jaxon's bedroom window. Well, here's the story...........
It's Monday night and it's beautiful outside. For FHE, we decided to go to the park and play. The kids are excited, raring to go. Sean gets a phone call and is outside talking and I get the kids ready to go. They head outside, just as Sean is finishing up his phone call. The conversation between he and I goes something like this:
Holly: Are you ready to go yet?
Sean: Yes, give me just a minute.
Holly: (walking out the door) Do you have keys?
Sean: (shutting the door as he speaks) Yeah, I've got the house key.
Holly: Okay. Kids, let's go!
Sean: Oh crap! I grabbed the old house key! I don't have the new keys! Do you have yours?
Holly: NO! I asked you if you had your keys!
Sean: Well, I've been too busy to change the keys around on my keyring. What are we going to do?
Now, mind you, it's 7 p.m. and it's starting to get a little dark. We make some very frantic phone calls--to the handyman who replaced our door last week (hoping he had our landlord's phone number, which he did), to the landlord who had the second new key to our door but who didn't answer, and to 411 to find a locksmith, who wanted to charge us $150 to come out and unlock our door. I have never felt so desperate in my life!
Well, lucky for us, I hadn't locked the van earlier in the day so the kids and I were able to hang out in there while Sean tried to figure out what we were going to do. Abby, Jaxon and I, while sitting in the van, decided to say a little prayer. We asked Heavenly Father to help us figure out a way to get into our house quickly so we wouldn't have to pay the $150. Not 5 minutes later, the doors on the van started opening and Sean came out with the keys to the van in his hands which could only mean one thing-- he had been able to get into the house somehow.
He had gone around the back of our townhome and climbed on top of the air conditioning unit and was able to climb up on the roof to check the windows to Abby and Jaxon's rooms. Apparently, when Sean had closed the windows yesterday when the rain started, he hadn't locked one of the windows in Jaxon's room and he was able to lift the window up and climb through into the house. Talk about an answer to a prayer!
As soon as we got in the house, we knelt down as a family and said the most grateful prayer we could offer. And right after that, our landlord called. Talk about timing.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I'm A Big Girl Now

Abby and Jaxon on Abby's first day of preschool She would NOT give up the sunglasses or the notepad before going into school. What is a parent to do???? So, Abigail started preschool last week and this week, she gets to go the full three hours, twice a week. She LOVES it!!! She loves her teachers and I swear, they must have magical powers because they can get her to do things that I've been trying to get her to do for months! All in a couple of weeks! Jaxon has had a tough time not having his Abby around but I think he's starting to like this mommy and me time he's getting. We went the park today and he had my undivided attention for 2 1/2 hours. He was in heaven! Ahhhh, the price one pays for having their children barely a year apart!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Out of respect for the Amish, we didn't take any pictures of the people themselves, however, we were able to take some pictures of the buggys and wagons that they use as well as a picture of one of the homes that is used to show their way of life. We learned so much about these simple people and it really hits home the idea to "Simplify."
This was the final trip for the summer. We went to Lancaster County, PA, where we were able to have fun at the Dutch Wonderland park, visit some real working Amish farms and just have a fun time relaxing together as a family before we start preschool and Sean starts to travel for his job. We had a ton of FUN!
Sean, Abby and Jaxon were making smoothies with berries that we picked at one of the local farms here in New Jersey. The kids loved it!
Sean and Jaxon mowing the lawn at Grandpa & Gram's house in Iowa
Our Bathing Beauties! This was at the water park in Utah. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins!
Taking Grandpa "Sniff"(Smith) for a walk around the living room at Grandpa and Grandma Erickson's house. This was his exercise for the day and Abby and Jaxon loved to make sure that he did it, much to his chagrin!

New Blogs

So, I've been a little MIA over the past 7 weeks since we've moved to New Jersey. We finally have internet and I'm slowly but surely getting things organized enough so that I can start to put some new pics up. Stay tuned..................................... I've been sent to a new blog that I think is one of my new faves: http://aroundthequiltblock.blogspot.com/ It is a fun blog and it really crafty (which I love). I hope you'll check it out! Thanks for the suggestion, Savannah!