Obviously I need to keep on top of where Cameron throws his sippy cups. I left the room for a minute today and came back to find Miles doing this. SO FUNNY!

Oh, and the reason he's naked is that Cameron was "helping" him out of his too-big onesie. Thanks, brother.

I'm sure you're happy to hear that we're still sick. And yes, as long as we're sick YOU'RE going to have to hear about it. I figure if I'm miserable I might as well make everyone aware of it...

But despite being sick we managed to have a pretty fun weekend. Chase didn't work on Saturday which was glorious! We started off the morning with haircuts for the boys (including Miles). Chase sat each of them in his lap and buzzed 'em before turning the razor on himself. It was traumatic for Cameron (isn't everything?) but Miles was mostly curious. I think they all turned out so cute!

After the haircuts was the obligatory trip to Costco at lunch time. Sure Costco is crazy on Saturdays but it's worth it to get filled up on all of the yummy samples. Plus we really needed 12 cans of chicken broth, 48 nutrigrain bars, 184 diapers, 40 capri sun drinks, 10 scallops, 3 lbs. of chips, 9 mangos and 2 gallons of milk.

We capped off the day with a trip to play putt-putt. Now, you may think that being in Dallas it was a nice balmy evening of golf, but I assure you this was not the case! It was SO COLD! What were we thinking?! But it did end up being fun! Cameron miraculously got a hole-in-one almost everytime. I'll let you figure out how THAT happened...

Lastly, Alyssa reminded me that I haven't posted any pictures of the outside of our house. Here they are! We love our house. Yes, it does have a very '70's look to it, but I really like it. Plus, we somehow ended up with the greenest grass in all of Texas. Seriously, look at it! It's practically glowing, while our neighbors all have brown grass. I suspect that this has something to do with the fact that our house has the storm drain behind it, which means that we are the lowest lying point in our neighborhood. So basically everyone else is paying to water their grass and the water ends up in our lawn. Sweet.

Enjoy, and happy Sunday night. I'm not even talking about the Superbowl...Poor Bears...

This week has been one of sitting and being sick, so there's not much to tell. The only slightly productive thing I've done is re-cover our piano bench. If you look at the pictures I posted last month of the house you'll see that the piano bench was a blue velvet/corduroy material. It was getting old and didn't match at all so I found some material that I liked and Chase and I put it on. Not hard, but it's amazing the difference it can make in a room. It blends much better now. Now we just need to refinish the entire piano...but that's a project for another year and another budget.
This week Miles also got his first black eye. So sad! I was folding laundry and had give the boys my empty baskets to play with and somehow Cameron ended up whacking Miles in the eye with the edge of a basket. I've informed Chase that once the kids are in school I may pursue a career in the circus or zoo as an animal trainer. I feel I've gotten plenty of experience just keeping these two from shedding blood on a daily basis. Honestly, who better to fend off fierce lions than someone who can simultaneously keep Miles from falling into the bathtub (in pursuit of my razor) with my left leg, pull up Cameron's pants with my left hand, brush my hair with my right hand and step on the toilet paper stuck to Chase's sock with my right foot. And let's not forget about the cross-room leap to keep Miles from pulling the filing cabinet down on himself, or the skillfully thrown nerf ball that kept Cameron from putting yet another toy in the VCR...It's quite a resume if you think about it.
Oh, and earlier this week Cameron and daddy had some nice relaxing time after work. Cameron was in his "Peter Parker" outfit, which doubles as a "Going to work like daddy" outfit, so it was only suitable that Cameron help daddy "Work with numbers." Only Chase can make being an accountant sound so exciting and heroic.

Oh, and the roof pictures...Chase finally took the blue tarp off the chimney and took some pictures of what the past residents had done to the flashing there. NO WONDER there was a leak...Thanks to our neighbor that's all fixed now!

I've been collecting pics all week long and haven't had time to sit down and post them, so you're getting them all at once!
Last Sunday Chase and I gave talks in church and then hosted family dinner at our house. There were two January birthdays to celebrate, mine and Eric's. Anyway, it was AWESOME to have everyone at our house to eat, but we missed "Grape-Grandma Rawlins" as Cameron refers to her. She's been dealing with major migraines, but is feeling better now! Yay! Anyway, the boys all sat around watching some game - it wasn't the Bears game, that's all I know. I think the Colt's were playing? So after dinner we had a birthday cake and everyone sang for me and Eric. Well, Cameron thinks that every birthday is HIS birthday so once we blew out the candles we re-lit three of them and said he could blow them out. Well he just sat there. When we said, "cam you gotta blow out the candles" he insisted that he needed the birthday song first. So everyone had to sing happy birthday to Cameron! That did the trick! And Aunt Jeni was so sweet because she sang Happy Birthday for him repeatedly - which made him think he was SO cool - and she even put another candle in his piece of cake and lit it for him. Sweet!
Let's see what else did we do this week? Oh, right, we were sick AGAIN! I HATE BEING SICK! The boys have been super sick, too. Let's hope we just get through this season with no more colds. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, though.
On Saturday, despite my inability to breathe (are you feeling sorry for me yet?) I went to Little Philmont to be trained as a Cub Scout leader for the Wolf Den. BORING! But necessary. I definately feel like I know a bit more about it now and I'll feel more comfortable with the den and pack meetings coming up.
While I was at Philmont Chase stayed home with the boys and Uncle Garrett came over to help mow our front lawn that has been doubling as a meadow. It has rained every week since we moved in so it was SO LONG that the grass would literally wave in the wind. Terrible. SO the boys got it under control, but not before Garrett came out looking like the grinch. Thanks a ton, Gare Bear.
Lastly was Saturday night tubbie (Saturday, after all, is a special day). These pictures illustrate that Cameron HATES the tubbie and Miles is a complete fish who would live in the water if we let him.
Whew...that was a long one! Now I know why you post several times a week, Jeni!!!

Well, it's true! Chase fought the law and.......................CHASE WON!
So for those who need a refresher, here's the scoop. Chase tried to take a knife on a plane. If you want more info than that, READ THE BLOG MORE OFTEN. So, he was charged with a class C felony. Apparently that's not a good thing. So we got a lawyer (to the tune of $1500) and we were pretty convinced that he was going to have to plead it down to a misdemeanor and be on probation and pay a fine. I guess they take knives personally around here. Actually, in the state of Texas it's illegal to carry a knife at all. Guns yes, knives no. So that only added to our thinking that Chase would get convicted of something.
So yesterday was the date for the grand jury. Chase put on his best blue suit and went to meet with the lawyer so he could practice his "I swear I'm innocent" face. He's already pretty good at it, so it wasn't too much of a stretch. At around noon he went in before the grand jury and told his story. They didn't ask a single question of him! I guess that's pretty abnormal, so the lawyer thought it was a good thing. Well, today we found out that they completely dismissed the whole thing! Not a misdemeanor, no fine, no probation. Chase is free and clear!!!!!! What a blessing! So we're very happy and very excited. Here are some pictures of Chase enjoying his freedom.
Lastly, we found some great pajamas that Kevin and Susan (Chase's aunt and uncle) gave us. They used to be Brandon's and now they're Cameron's (or Spiderman, as he introduces himself to people in nursery and primary). You can see he's getting pretty good at throwing webs! If anyone needs saving, let us know. We'll send him your way.

Here's the recipe, people!

1 C. Mayo
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
1 C. buttermilk
2 cloves garlic
1 cup cilantro
3 tomatillos

Place in blender. Puree. Eat. Stop. Unbuckle pants. Eat some more. (putting on top of salad helps, but is not necessary:)

ps I like to add half of an avocado. It helps to thicken and it adds a yummy flavor.

Saturday night was so fun! We started out by going to Chase's cousins basketball game. He's eight and aside from a few superstar kids (who YOU KNOW are providing vicarious success for their over-eager crazy sport parents who spend thousands each year enrolling them in private sports lessons and buying them expensive equipment, only to enroll them in the local league so they can smash the smithereens out of the regular joes...but I digress), the kids were all pretty funny. I wish I had taken a picture. You've probably seen it. The kids basically just run from one end of the court to the other and try to get under the basket without any regard for whatever play the coach was trying to get them to follow. And then when one kid gets the ball everyone just tackles him until the ref calls for travelling. ANYWAY, it was a fun game and Brandon is so cute.
So afterward I announce that I have a lasagna at home and whoever wants to is invited to come eat it. The Rawlins boys arrive in force! I love watching people eat my food and love it. I also made the Cafe Rio salad dressing (which is so good it's drinkable) and watched them put it on a variety of things other than salad. It was so fun to have people in our new house!
After dinner we put the boys to bed and Chase and I headed off to the mall so I could use my gift card and left everyone there. When we got back it was time to game. We played cards and laughed our butts off until I had a headache from laughing so hard! It was midnight by the time everyone left (with Brian demanding more games so he could figure out the card game well enough to kick everyone's trash...a true Rawlins trait). Kathleen and Eric actually stuck around to use our internet so they could finish their talks for church. They didn't leave until 4 AM!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully their talks were all the better for it.
Anyway, we love living so close to the Rawlins clan! Enjoy the pictures!

So I feel like I've been without a camera for so long that I have no choice but to take pictures obsessively. And Chase is working late (bring on the busy season!) so I'm bored. So here are a few pics from the past couple of days. We're all sick so never mind the red noses. I threw in a shot of Cameron while he's got the nebulizer going just to show you how pathetic the poor kid is. He's got "reactive airway disease" which is basically what they call asthma for kids. Anyway, when he gets sick he starts wheezing and coughing constantly and it's rather sad. He's such a trouper, though. I think it might actually be harder on us as parents than it really is on him. As soon as he gets done with a treatment he's up and running and making messes and picking on Miles. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy the pictures!

Well, finally, some pictures of the house. As you can see we have a few projects that we'll be doing over the next year or two to get it how we really want it. Overall, though, we're really happy to be in a house (finally) and we love this place! It's hard to explain some of the pictures, but I'll try. The deck sits in the middle of the house, kind of like a courtyard. There are windows on all sides of it, and if you see the sliding glass doors in the picture, that's where the master bedroom is. The mini blind picture was taken to show two things: First, the house is full of these ugly mini blinds that we need to replace with 2" wood blinds. Second, the windows on the very front of the house are all long and skinny and in groups of two or four. Very 70's. We have to find out if they are load bearing and if not we'll make 4 skinny windows into 2 large ones. The other projects on our super long list are:
Wood floors
Paint, paint and more paint
Re-do the deck
New windows throughout
Re-do bathrooms with new tile, new countertops, new fixtures
Re-finish all of the cabinetry in the kitchen and bathrooms
In the living room we'll be taking out the wetbar and that hideous book case and replacing the white mantel (what were they thinking?) with one that will match the hard wood floors. The wetbar will become the new pantry in the kitchen.
Front walkway dug up and re-poured
The yard...it needs help.
Lastly, we'll have to do SOMETHING about the garage floor...

So we've got a lot on our plates, but it is mostly cosmetic. The house has good bones for the most part. I'll take a picture of the outside of it when I'm not in my bathrobe.

After reading all of the Christmas posts from my family's blogs I realized that I missed out big on Christmas day. We did spend most of it unpacking. The Rawlins boys brought over some food and then fell asleep on our couches while watching the Incredibles. That was festive. Anyway, here's to a better-late-than-never Christmas best wishes to all of you. And oh, yeah, Happy New Year.

It's a house!

Well, we've found a house and we're closing on December 21!!!!! It's a cute little place and we're so excited about it. The whole house hunting experience was rather amusing. We really thought we were going to move down here and find a brand new, beautiful, perfect house in the right school district for less than 150K...we were WRONG! Jeni, my sis-in-law, was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT when she said that the pictures can fool you. The realtor would send us these listings in our email and we'd look at the pictures and say, "Oh, that house is PERFECT" And then we'd get there and it would be a DUMP! So needless to say, it took us a little while to find a house. But we found it and it's just right. It certainly needs a little work. We're starting with the bathrooms. We originally thought we'd start with the kitchen until we went back to the house and realized that all of the glazing the seller had put on the bath and tiles was chipping off. That seems like something MIles would enjoy eating, however it also seems like something that would be highly toxic. So we're still deciding if we want to reglaze the tubs and then re-tile, or if it would be better just to put a shell over the whole unit. Any advice would be great. After the bathrooms we'll get to the kitchen where we're going to have the existing cabinets sanded and repainted. Also, we'll be knocking through the wall of the existing pantry (which is PUNY) and extending it into the space currently being occupied by the wet bar. We'll be so sad to see the wet bar go, of course. It's such a classy addition to any living room, and you know how we like to keep our beer and peach schnapps handy... But really, did these things ever get used? Even in the 70's? Honestly, I feel like we need to put a black light in there and wear leisure suits just to be in the same room with it. So anyway, that will be a rather fun project. Chase is looking forward to all of the demolition.
The other exciting news is that we're pregnant... Okay, not really. But we did get living room furniture after FIVE LONG YEARS of sitting on old DI (deseret industries for those of you who are not in-the-know) couches. My special thanks goes out to Carl and Kendra who recommended Ashley Furniture Store when we visited them last time...Guys, we didn't forget and you were right! They have great deals! We're very excited about our two couches, loveseat, ottoman and side tables. Plus we got new area rugs. I'm beside myself at the moment.
As for the boys...they're really enjoying being around so much family. Miles is loved on every minute of the day, especially by his Uncle Garrett and Uncle Eric. Cameron gets spoiled rotton by Nana and Grandpa and has really enjoyed their collection of movies. Well, he's really enjoyed their copies of Spiderman 1 & 2. And I love the back yard with the 6 foot privacy fence. I can literally just throw Cameron outside and let him pretend to be Spiderman all day! Lastly, we're really enjoying the weather. It's fabulous. I know I won't be saying that in July, but for right now I'm loving it.
Anyway, I just wanted to bring you all up to speed. We'll post pictures eventually...

So some of you are probably wondering where we've gone! We're in Texas! And what a crazy, crazy ride it's been. I'll spare you the drama and tedium, but basically we decided to get here BEFORE December in hopes that the apartment complex would find someone to take over our lease. We made the final decision to move TWO DAYS before we actually did it. Literally. All week we hummed and hawed because we didn't know what to do and I finally had enough and made an executive decision. We felt good about it and went ahead with our plans. So on Saturday the 18th we packed up the truck and headed south. By Sunday we were here without any real incident. I say without real incident because it wasn't incident-free! Sunday morning as we were leaving our skanky motel Chase locked his keys in the truck and we had to call a locksmith. A cool 25 minutes and $65 later we were on our way. Now, for those of you who know of our previous trips to Texas, you know this isn't really that serious. Afterall, no cars were totalled or tires blown up or moving trucks breaking down. So it's all good.
The REAL drama came the following Friday right after Turkey day when Chase tried to fly back to Chicago. He was scheduled to take the Financial section of the CPA on Saturday morning. I dropped him off at Love Field in Dallas at around 6:15 pm. We kissed, we hugged and he told me he would call when he arrived. His plane was scheduled for a 7:15 departure. WELL at 7:45 the phone rang and I could hear my father-in-law talking to Chase. I thought nothing of it because what plane actually leaves on time the day after a major holiday? So I listened to dad's half of the conversation and became increasingly alarmed as I heard things like "They're holding you where?" and "So where are they taking you?" Turns out Chase had been arrested while going through security and he was on his way downtown to be booked. NO KIDDING! I guess Chase had thrown a knife into his backpack at some point during the move and had completely forgotten it was there. It just happened to be big enough to be considered a "prohibitive weapon" which is also a Class C Felony. So they cuffed him and hauled him away and he spent the next 7 hours sitting in a holding cell with a bunch of druggies and one guy charged with manslaughter. It was awful. Mostly for him, but for me too! Thinking of him down there was terrible! So we were so relieved when my father-in-law posted his bond and got him out of the clinker. So now Chase is trying to find someone to represent him on a pro-bono basis and we're trying to figure out how much it will all cost. It's been a huge bummer to say the least.
As for house hunting...that's been a real treat. We've seen some total dumps and some really nice places. We're trying to find something in the middle. We've actually found a house that we like a lot and we're considering putting an offer in on it. It's older and needs some work in the kitchen, bathrooms and backyard - mostly cosmetic stuff. But it's got good space and a good layout. It's small'ish, but it's a good size for a starter home. Once we figure out how much the legal fees will set us back we'll decide whether or not to put a bid in.
Stay tuned and we'll keep you posted...

"Don't smoke when you get big, kid!" This is the advice we got when we arrived at the park this afternoon. Not exactly what we were expecting. We showed up at the park which was crawling with kids because it was SO NICE today. Anyway, as we're walking onto the playground Cameron notices a guy walking on the path who is hooked up to oxygen and is pulling the tank behind him. I tried to just divert Cameron's attention, because he really lacks tact at the moment. Of course, there's nothing as interesting as stuff with wheels, so Cameron was drawn like a moth to a flame. I think he thought it was some great new toy that he should have, too. So he's standing there, mouth agape, pointing. I knew the guy saw him so I tried to hustle him onto the playground before he said...oh, no, too late..."MOMMY, LOOK!!!!!" The guy was cool and gave him a big smile and said, "Don't smoke when you get big, kid!" Nicely handled by the guy with the tubes. I just laughed and smiled at him and then realized it was the saddest thing in the world. So I'm passing along that advice to all of you. Just in case you forgot. Don't smoke.

Okay, I have the Sunday blahs. We are all SICK...AGAIN! I HATE BEING SICK. If you have not read any prior posts about us being sick (you don't have to look far - we're sick all the time), then let me just say that being sick ranks right up there with having a baby without any sort of painkillers. I hate it THAT MUCH. And that's without having other people to take care of. Chase learned this lesson about a week after we got married when I ended up with a sweet "bladder infection." I cried, I moaned, I groaned. I laid on the couch waiting for death to take me at any blessed moment. And that is my preferred method of getting through an illness. So you can imagine that when I'm sick the last thing I want to deal with is my kids being sick. So this morning I decided that I would stay home with the boys. They're both really gross and I've got a killer sore throat. Then I told Chase he'd better tell the missionaries we can't feed them tonight. His response was "Oh, no. We can still do it! I'll do everything." I tried telling him that I just didn't feel like it. After all, it's hard to remain in a stupor on the sofa when you've got eight eyes boring holes in you and asking for referrals. SO I've dragged myself into the shower and I'm just trying to conjure up the energy (and desire) to go blow-dry my hair and put on makeup. Yuck. On top of that we are up to our eyeballs in boxes. The house is completely pulled apart and we're half in and half out of boxes. I hate that, too. Hmmm...I hate a lot of stuff today. I guess I'm just bitter that my day (which started out by watching the Bears and Steelers games and knitting a hot-pink scarf) has reached the point where I've got to be productive. Argh. Anybody got any Calgon?

Just for those of you who are wondering and waiting for pictures of my babes, I don't have any. I know, it's awful. I just don't have a digi camera right now. We're getting one for the house hunt, so I'll get the boys in their costumes at that point...
Thanks for wondering, Sara!

As we approach Halloween evening, the night of trick-or-treating, I am coming to a shameful realization...Cameron and Miles are not just my sons on Halloween, they're my patsies. My stool-pigeons, my decoy, my cover. Whatever you want to call it, I use my sons to get me some yummy candy. Up until this point I think it was subconscious. I really WANTED to drag Cameron out all night, freezing his tush off and pulling at the "feathers" I had sewn on him (2005), or the anchor tattoo Chase had drawn on his arm (2004). I really LOVED the idea of watching him go door-to-door and thrust his little open bag up into the air, looking expectant. It was CUTE to hear him learn to say "trick-or-treat", which sounded more like TickTeat. But as we count down the days the thought of all of those glorious mounds of candy piled on my living room floor after a dutiful night trudging down the streets makes me giddy. I LOVE candy. Perhaps it has something to do with my up-bringing or maybe it's encoded in my DNA; I don't know. All I know is that when I see people stringing up orange lights on their trees or sticking skeletons in their front windows I positively drool at the thought of the forthcoming bounty.
So am I ashamed, you ask? No. I have also recently come to realize that I'm not the only parent who feels this way. The more I think about it, the more I realize MY parents were probably known to dip their hands into our confectionary coffers. Think about it. Halloween night usually went like this: You run out of the house with some sort of paint on your face and a great thrift-store dress (or fatigues) that your mom found. In your right hand is a flash-light and in your left hand is a pillow case. No plastic pumpkin for you, no, you plan on striking it rich tonight. For the next FOUR HOURS you cover (and re-cover in many instances) the streets located within a 5 miles radius of your house before returning home exhausted. You and your siblings or friends proceed to dump out your goodies and start categorizing the candy. Then you start trading. But before long mom comes in and tells you that you can have one more piece and then it's time to hand it over and go to bed. No, you're not allowed to take your candy into your room because then you'll just spend all night eating it and getting cavities. So, as a trusting young child you hand over the candy and head for bed. Now here's what you didn't know...it's at this point in the evening that mom feels VERY rewarded for having borne children. She and dad rifle through the bulging bags like homeless people at the dumpster behind Olive Garden. They laugh, they giggle, they pour the candy on the floor and lay down to make candy angels in it...Yeah, I can see your wheels turning. You know I'm right.

We call him Raccoon Rawlins! Miles has taken up a new sport...trash can hunting. He has always loved to eat paper and paper products and we try to keep it far from his reach. However, since he started crawling he has learned that one place to find paper is in the garbage can next to our desk! So if we leave the room when he's on the floor he takes the opportunity and races for the waste basket and before we can run back in the room he has rifled through it to find a discarded credit card offer or some other such thing. We usually find him with half an envelope hanging out of his mouth and a big grin on his face. What a rascal!!! Too bad we still don't have a digital camera or we'd have a picture posted. It's the funniest thing!
This weekend we have been trying to be productive. We spent the day yesterday cleaning. Well, I was cleaning and cooking like a fiend and Chase had to work 2 hours away in Indiana. We fed all four missionaries and that was so much fun. We have a great couple of elders in our ward. AND we got our loan approval taken care of! Now we just have to go find a house! We're so excited!!! Now we're just counting the days until we leave!

89. Just keep that number in your head for a moment. Okay, so those of you who have been to our apartment know that it stays quite warm through the whole year. I don't know if it's because we're on the second floor or because it's insulated too much or because we're actually living directly above hell. One way or the other, it's hot. So we look forward to cool weather so that we can open the windows and patio door and get some fresh air. So tonight Chase and I are sitting here on the couch reading - well I was reading US magazine and Chase was reading it over my shoulder, which, as a Kilgore, I cannot abide so I gave him his own copy. Anyway, we began to realize that it was hot as blazes. Seriously, hot as an actual blaze on an actual fire. So I put my hand by the vent to see if the heat was on. It wasn't just warm, it was hot. So I check out the thermostat. 89 degrees. And our thermostat usually reads a bit lower than it actually is, so I'm guessing our apartment is somewhere in the 90's as we speak. Clearly this is the work of Cameron T. Rawlins. Thanks, Cam.

So I'm thinking maybe it's just Mondays. For those of you who didn't see Sara's post about Cameron's lack of pee-control last week in Iowa, just know that it was a long, messy Monday. And here we are again, one week later. I feel like it's that camp song, you know "Second verse, same as the first but a little bit louder and a little bit worse." Seriously! He was louder and WORSE! Cameron's day was complete with two "accidents" (and I only call them that to give him the benefit of the doubt - they're really LAXIDENTS, as in the kid is just way to lazy and lax to get up and go to the bathroom) and an episode of really bad aim. I guess it's a little like a waterhose and when you turn that spigot on you better have control of it or who knows what will end up getting wet. SO anyway, I thought it was just him, but maybe it's just Mondays. Maybe this is what I have to look forward to every Monday from now until, well, maybe forever. NOT COOL, CAM!

I just felt like putting up some fun pics of the family. First there's Cameron looking like a thug. He loves to put his hands in his pockets. I haven't got a clue where he came up with that idea but I hope he keeps doing it. SO FUNNY.
Second you'll see the ladies of my family. You ladies are fabulous. From the left: My cute mom holding my equally cute nephew Ty, big sis Chrysta holding neice Gaby, 'lil sis Cathryn standing behind neice Lydia, sis-in-law Kathryn, neice Taylor next to the bride Alyssa my sis, on the other side of the bride is sis-in-law Christy (mom of Ty) and Sara (Mom of Gaby, Lydia and Taylor). So many hot mamas!





Next there's the pic of my bro Scott and his family Christy, baby Ty and Zach. I like this pic because of Scott's uniform. I'm seriously considering telling Chase to sign up for the Navy.
















The last picture is of Halloween 2005 in Iowa with my bro Jerry and his family. Cameron was big bird. I SLAVED over this outfit and needless to say, my talents lie elsewhere. This year I bought costumes from the Disney store...

Miles is crawling! He's been working on it for the past month and this week I just knew he was going to do it before Daddy got home from training. Sure enough this morning I was opening the mail and looked down just in time to see him crawl about 2 feet to get a toy! I can't believe it! He'll be 7 months on Monday. He's got two teeth and he's crawling. I feel like he's losing his baby-ness too fast! I'm so proud, though. What a smart little monkey! Now if I could just get him to sleep through the night. Sara, since I know you're wondering, he was up three times last night. Midnight, 3:15 and 5:30 and then he was up for the day at 7:20...I've GOT to get him on a better schedule. He's just SO STUBBORN! If we could cut out the 3 am feeding that would really be ideal...
In other news, for those of you who did not get the email, WE'RE MOVING! Long story short, we originally planned on moving next September and Chase just happened to see a bunch of people from the Dallas office on Monday. They convinced him that he should come ASAP. We talked about it and prayed about it and by Wednesday the deal was done. Now we just have to get packed up here and find a house when we get there. 11 weeks feels like a long time until I realize how much packing I have to do by that time. Oh, man. My head is totally spinning. We're so excited, though! We'll either live in Carrollton or Allen. Carrollton is more central and it would be a better fit for Chase's job since he has to travel in all directions. I'm more interested in Allen, though, because house prices are lower, houses are newer and I think there are more young families. We'll just have to wait and see what shakes out! Yay for Dallas!

More pics of the boys and their cheek-sucking ways. SO cute! On Monday Owen got dressed first and when he came downstairs I had to laugh because he was wearing the same outfit that I was going to put on Miles! So here are the pictures...Enjoy!

We're here in Iowa while Chase is training this week. I hate staying home by myself in our sweet apartment complex. Actually I hate just walking through the parking lot of my apartment complex, so that should give you an idea of how I would feel staying by myself. Anyway, everytime Chase goes out of town we come to Iowa and we love it here. The kids are having so much fun playing together. Miles and Owen are great friends. They sit together and grab each other's faces. Usually Owen ends up falling over, at which point he starts to "steam roll" Miles. He scoots until his head is up against Miles and then he keeps pushing until he has rolled over Miles. Then Miles sucks Owen's cheeks or hands or other appendages. It's all very sweet and very slimy. Nothing like love, right?
Anyway, I got some pictures from the funeral from my sister, Sara, and I had to post them. My earlier post talked about my crazy grandma going down the slide in her swim hat and goggles. Now you can see it for yourself. Everyone needs a crazy grandma for a little comic relief, right? The other pictures are of the kids in Galena. Miles and Owen had the cushiest ride around town in my double jogging stroller. They looked pretty happy. Once Sara gives them to me I'll post pictures from this week in Iowa - including some cheek sucking pictures.

Here are more!

This is just the first of many pics to come. We got our family pictures taken today. So cute. The boys were pretty good. Cameron insisted on having his Lightning McQueen race car in his hand. Oh well. There was a cute shot of the boys together, too. I'll post more after I get some lunch in me. Yum.

Birthday party! Here are pictures from Cameron's birthday party three weeks ago. It was a double birthday party with Charlie who is the kid next to him. They're best friends! It was a really fun time!

Today was the happiest day of Cameron's life! The local fire station had an open house and we spent a couple of hours there this morning. We started out by putting on a miniature-size fireman costume complete with boots and suspenders! Then we got to look at several different fire and special rescue trucks. Very cool. They even let the kids get up into the big engine right after it got back from a call. Then they had a fire extinguisher demonstration. I got to use the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. That was a cool experience. The absolute highlight of the whole day was when the Life Flight helicopter arrived. It came overhead and circled a few times and then landed about 50 yards away from us! Cameron couldn't even believe it! We got to go inside it. The hardest part was getting Cameron OUT of it.
Chase was also having a very good time. At one point I was about to go inside one of the fire trucks with Cameron, leaving Chase outside holding Miles. I looked back and noticed he was frantically trying to get inside, too, while pushing the stroller and holding all of the bags. I really don't care much about fire trucks so I volunteered to stay outside with our stuff, much to Chase's relief. He was happy to get a chance to go inside. How cute is that? We will post pictures as soon as we get them!

I forgot that I needed to post these pictures of the wedding in Salt Lake (thanks for sending them, Jeni...one day we'll get a new camera). This was just about a week and a half ago. Enjoy.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems...
Okay, so we just got power back today! Monday night there was a crazy storm here! Chase and I were watching it out the window and all of the sudden our power went out. We didn't think much of it. We just waited a few minutes for it to come back on so we could finish "Barefoot in the Park." Anyway, that didn't happen so we decided to light some candles and play Scrabble. I kicked his butt...again. When it still didn't come on by bedtime we just figured we'd have it by morning. Not so. To make a long story short, we went 58 hours with no electricity and no hot water. That's WAY too long when you've got two little kids!!!!! Yesterday I finally decided to suck it up and go to my friends house to take a long hot shower. Chase had to take icy cold showers every morning. He said it reminded him of Russia. You know it's bad when your $900/month apartment could remind him of post-communist Russia...Anyway, we were delighted this morning at 5:30 when it finally kicked on. Then we were mad that the lights were all blazing!
Anyway, I thought this was a funny shirt that I found for Cameron. Yeah, that's Tupac.

It's a tooth! Miles had a tooth come through today! It was his bottom-middle-right tooth if that makes sense to anyone. We're really excited! I wrote it in his baby book. He also had bananas for the first time today! Yay!
Conference was awesome. At least the parts that I heard. I love having kids, but it's SO HARD to listen to conference! Oh well. Thank goodness that you can just look up the talks on LDS.org.