The move - before & after.

So I've been putting this off for a while now.  It's hard to catch the blogging fever once you've fallen so far behind. 2 months ago we moved.  But before that move we hit up the drive in movie in downtown Glendale with Wells/Emily & fam.  It was fun.  The kids loved Kung Fu Panda II.  Zina giggled and giggled and giggled.  I enjoyed the movie too, but spent a large portion of it keeping Sam out of other's vehicles.

The girls: Zina & Ellie

The boys: Kurty, Wilson, & Bo

we miss our arizona cousins!

Zina and Wilson also managed to have such an intense wrestling match that Wilson ended up here.

And they really were playing, not fighting!

The here happens to be Julio's dermatology practice.  Mark really wanted to do the stitches and we really didn't want to spend 3 hours in the ER.  Julio was Mark's home teaching companion and we were super grateful that he loaned us some lidocaine and suturing stuff, oh and, and his clinic!

Wilson's first stitches!

Because of this day Wilson was a champ and didn't cry, or even move a muscle during the whole thing.  I told him to go to sleep like he did when they played surgery and I seriously had to double check at times to see if he really was sleeping.  He is one amazing 3yr old!

And back to that whole moving thing. seriously. so. much. work.

DURING the move.  Sam got into all kids of trouble.  He was busy doing 

this

and this

and this

(I could not keep up with him.  He was and is constantly climbing up on everything)

while I was doing this

and this

mostly by myself because Mark had to take an exam in Philly.

So he was busy doing this

and this.

oh ya and a really really long exam.  Still don't know if he passed it. 

Mark, did you pass?  Yes I passed!!

Anyways,

we packed up the moving van Thursday night, had a great group of guys come out to help and they had almost everything loaded in almost an hour.  Until we ran out of room that is.  Then they started taking things apart and stuffing them in as tight as they could.  I may have been freaking out.  How did we fill a 24ft moving van AND sell a whole load of furniture before we even started moving?  I am going to force myself to NOT buy anything more at yard sales or anywhere else.  The move (AGAIN) in one year is already looming....

Huge thanks to all our friends who helped us move and clean and sent us down the road with goodies, and music, and stickers, and toys etc!  Seriously we left some of the best people I have ever met back in AZ! I feel so blessed to have rubbed shoulders with them. (and that is seriously a weird saying because we didn't really 'rub shoulders'??)

Anyways we spent the night at Wells & Emily's (Emily watched the kids all day and made us a delicious dinner! - owe her big time!) and woke up early to head on down the road.

The kids once again rocked the road trip'n and Brooke's traveling tunes kept me awake and happy. :) Thanks Brooke. We stopped at the St. George temple for stretches and a picnic.  Zina was super excited to see Palm trees because she had already said goodbye to them all when we left Arizona. :)

So we pulled into our new little house right on time.  Unfortunately our landlord didn't and after driving 12hrs we had to sit and wait for her to drive 20 minutes to us.  I tried not to be annoyed. but really. I was.  a lot. it was RED flag #1.

and I really don't want to rehash the horrible weekend that it was.  

So let's just say that the house was absolutely disgusting.  We had Judy (Mark's mom) look at places for us and on first glance the place really did seem fine.  She also saw it with the previous tenants in it and thought that it would be cute once cleaned and fixed up.  There was no way we or she could have known that the landlord wasn't going to clean it up - especially when they said they would!

and Mark and I aren't real aggressive people so we just thought we would make it work and moved all our stuff in.  Then I started cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.  Gross stained carpets, boogers off the walls, thick layers of dust and holes in the walls -yuck.  Good thing Angel, Luis, & Liz were there to talk me through it all. I ended up NOT cleaning and doing free labor for something that our landlord got a $600 security deposit to take care of it herself and long story short Liz helped me be assertive (in a professional sort of way) and our landlord gave us our rent and deposit back and we started looking for somewhere else to live.

It was all super stressful and we were so grateful for Grandma Judy who let us bunk out at her place for a few days.  This all means that we moved into that house Sat. morning, moved out Sunday night and into a storage unit looked at 5 or so places and then left for a much needed 2 week vacation in Canada!!

Craziness.

We finalized with a different house while we were in Canada. 

While we were looking at houses and before we left for Canada we did make it up to one of our favorite Payson places.  The Grotto!

and then there was

CANADA!

The first thing we did was head off to the Raymond 4th ward campout.  I think this is our 3rd year making it to this so it just seems so normal for us to be there.

Wilson LOVES his marshmallows!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was going to Good Sam's to see Grandma & Grandpa Williams.  Grandpa is 100 yrs old (or maybe 101 I can't remember)!  We all sat around and sang hymns.  I love it when my family sings together.  I think it is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard sung by some of the most beautiful people I know.

And this is how we kept Sam happy....

Love this boy!

We were so excited to get to Alberta in time for Attena's graduation. Seriously I had more fun at hers then I did at mine!  We were able to go shopping together and find just the right accessories for her dress and practice makeup and hair and get her all fixed up and it was seriously so much fun to just be together doing girl stuff. 

Zina getting her nails done by Aunt Colleen.  Zina was SO into the whole get fixed up like a princess thing and was super excited to have nails just like Attena's.

The Graduate! Congrats Attena. :)

That was the other fun part.  Wearing all of Tena's clothes.  I think she has approximately 100x more and cuter clothes than me.  But that's what sisters are for right? :)

Love these People!

After we sent Attena off for the second night of graduation we ran over to Coaldale to see the Birds of Prey.  They. were. AWESOME!  So glad we went.  Who knew that such a cool little place existed.  Zina and Mark have been reading the "Owls of Ga'hoole" and so Zina was especially excited to see all the owls.  It was super cool to be able to hold and touch the birds.  We went right before they closed too so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.  I highly recommend this to everyone who is in the area!

This was Spirit a Golden Eagle who was blinded by a pellet gun.  Because he can't see you he isn't aggressive and we were able to pet him.  It was really amazing.  Especially when we walked past the other eagles and saw them trying to attack the workers.  They were super aggressive!

I can't remember this owls name but it was super grouchy and pecked the trainer really hard right when she picked him up so I was a little nervous holding him.  He was a lot heavier than the other owls too. 

After the Birds of Prey center we rushed back for the presentation of the Grads.

and that's my little sister!  She is smok'n!  I tried stealing a picture off facebook that shows off her sweet dress. Why didn't it work?

That night Mark and I went and supervised the all night grad party.  We had to give my mom and dad a break because they are getting old and all... :)

And that brings us up to about June 28th.  Ha ha.

Hopefully more posts to come soon!

Tough

There has been a lot going on.  Like moving.  Finishing up 3rd year of medical school.  Taking a $1100 test in Philadelphia.  Did I mention moving?  We've managed to throw in things like the drive-in movie, swimming, and dinner appointments all of which I'd like to blog about.  But instead I'm going to blog about this girl. 

who just won her 3rd provincial championship of her high school rugby career. 

Ya, I'm a pretty proud big sister.

And she's a pretty tough little sister.

I'm pretty sure she could kick my trash.

:)

Love you Attena!

Congratulations!

A cut and paste.

From the family website to Elder Keeler.

Dear Adam,
This week was my last week of my surgery rotation. no more cutting people open, playing with their insides and then stitching them back together. I enjoyed it whiled it lasted. It was my last rotation of 3rd year and now on to 4th year. I spoke in church today about priesthood authority. It was a really great talk, probably the best one anyone has ever given. It was mostly a lot of quotes from general authorities that were strategically placed to form a talk. Anyway, enjoy your mission. This may be the only letter you receive from me. Mark only received one letter so I think I have fulfilled my quota.
Mark T.

Dear Adam,
This week I did a lot of packing and very little sleeping. But, Sam no longer nurses at night and sleeps in his own little Sammy bed (until 3am when he toddles down the hallway to climb in bed with me - but trust me that is much better then the way things previously were). Due to said lack of sleep I had a lovely moment of losing my sanity and duct taping Wilson's arms to his body so that he would stop punching his little brother and saying, "What's UP!" It wasn't the most effective form of discipline I've ever used. I am proud to report, however, that Zina IS learning to use her words just as I have been teaching her. Case in point:
One afternoon as I was trying to put Sam down for a nap I overheard Zina telling Wilson the following (picture her fists clenched, face red) "Wilson, grrr, I am so frustrated with you. YOU better run as fast, rrrr, as fast as you can or I'm going to hit you and it's going to hurt really REALLY bad!" I promptly heard Wilson's feet race down the hallway to the safety of his room. Then race back to Zina where he said, "I'm telling Mama!"
At least she used her words before threatening to use her fists. right?
Also after helping Wilson wrestle Papa (because he came running to me for help) I gave Mark a big smack on the lips only to look over and see Wilson with raised eyebrows and an all-knowing look on his face. He then stated, "You guys are maywwied, huh." Yes, Wilson. We are indeed married. :)
So, in a nutshell. This week was just like all the rest. Learning to control our tempers, curb our tongues, love each other and enjoy the ride. :)
Perhaps this week we will find somewhere in Utah to unload all of these boxes I've been packing?
:)
love you lots.
bec

Here is Sam.  His new thing is to bring us all sorts of clothing and want us to put them on him.  He is wearing his socks, robeez shoes, sandals, my socks his shorts and shirt and one of Mark's garment tops.  And he is happy as a clam. :)

And last but not least. On Friday my friends took me out for a goodbye becca party and bought me dinner.  So sweet.  I feel like this move is premature.  I guess because it is.  We really weren't planning on moving for another year and I am going to miss these girls!

We went out for dinner at 7.  The cafe closed at 9 so we just visited outside until 10:30.  You could tell no one wanted to go home quite yet. :)

From left to right: (sorry for the crappy pic)

Kindi, Callie, Brooke, Amanda, Tiff, Me

Funny thing is up until last week before Amanda had her baby I was the only one of these girls not pregnant. Did that make it sound like I'm pregnant? I'm not but I feel like everyone else is. :)

Experiment

The other day Mark got off early in the afternoon.  He was trying to study (in the playroom?) for his surgery shelf exam so I was trying to think of things to keep the kids entertained and not disrupting him.  I decided it was school time. This isn't new.  It happens periodically around here.  This day we hunted around the house for things that started with the letter "F" (I had pre-planted labels here and there).  Wilson pointed out the letters for us and Zina read the words.  We did a few other things and then we started a science experiment on density.  This was really fun.  It was so fun that Mark just could not let us alone.  I sort of figured this would happen :)  We started with colored water and oil.  We learned some new words like density and immiscible.  And Wilson who LOVES to stir things stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred but they just wouldn't mix.  The kids that that was pretty cool.

Then we took it up a notch.   We started with honey - which (talk about GROSS) a big fat fly came out of the honey pot when we poured it into that glass.  Just thinking about it gives me the heeby geebys.  (Promise I threw ALL the rest of the honey away)

And the fly actually made the experiment that much cooler. 

Ok

Honey

dishsoap

water (colored red)

oil

rubbing alcohol (colored green)

actual instructions found HERE

I poured the rubbing alcohol in a little to fast so it did start the mix but it was really cool to see the different liquids all sitting there on top of each other.  And then the fly who started out at the bottom slowly started to float through everything to the top.  The kids were FASCINATED!

 Then Wilson who just couldn't quench the desire to stir gave a big whirl and we set it on top of the hutch to see what would happen.  

It was a fun little experiment that I highly recommend to anyone with kids.  

Then Mark went back to studying and we started making cheesecake for our family home evening treat. (Wilson was in charge of the treat and that is what he picked - Lauri's cheese cake with raspberry's. Yum!)

I just had to take this picture because I had a moment of, "I can't believe I have to pull up 3 chairs because I have 3 helpers!" Where has the time gone!