Tramp

Even though the trampoline is how Preston broke his arm, I just don't have the heart to keep him off of it. He loves it soooo much. At least now he understands it can be dangerous which I think makes him a bit more cautious. Hopefully. But it is so fun to watch him on it and see the huge smile on his face.

He says "Watch this mom! It's going to be super cool!" over and over as he shows me his awesome moves. Or should I say his awesome move, since he really only has one, which is crossing his legs and landing on his bum.

And this little lady loves it too.

kitty kitty!

We got a kitten. It's kind of weird because I wasn't expecting to get one and it was a total spur-of-the-moment decision. I'm not really a cat person and haven't wanted to get a pet just yet because I think of it as another thing to take care of and clean up after. But Lars has been wanting a pet ever since we moved and he kept trying to talk me into it. One day at work he had seen someone giving away free puppies in a parking lot so he called me and told me to go get one, or at least go look. I wouldn't even go because I knew I would't be able to resist a cute puppy. Then a few weeks ago he heard about an adopt-a-thon going on at the Boise Humane Society because they had so many kittens that needed homes. So he talked me into taking Kenna to just go look at them. I thought I could resist a cat but apparently not. I came home with Olive.

I have mixed feelings for her. Driving home she pooped in her carrier (which was super stinky) and cried/meowed and tried to escape the whole way and I started wondering what I had just done! But the kids LOOOVE her and she is pretty entertaining. She is really great with the kids too. She doesn't claw or bite them and puts up with them pestering her. Kenna likes to follow her around the house saying "hi kitty!" and lays on her belly to look right in her face. It's pretty cute. Lars actually loves her to. When we first got her, he was worried since it was her first time away from her mommy cat, so after I informed him there were no animals allowed in my bed, he actually slept on the couch with her for the first 2 nights. If that's not kitty love, I don't know what is. :)

The things I don't like about her are that she jumps onto the kitchen table whenever we're eating (super annoying), the smell of her litter box (even when it's clean) and she seems to really like me, even though the feeling is not completely mutual, and is always getting in the way. I usually have my laptop on my lap when I sit on the couch and she thinks it is her personal platform to dance around on and presses all sorts of keys that mess things up. I have some capris with drawstrings that hang off the legs and she always attacks me when I wear them. She also likes to attack my hair. I was trying to paint the other day and my bangs were hanging in front of my face and she would not leave me alone! I trip on her a lot, she tries to run into places before I can shut the door, like the refrigerator, my craft room, and my bedroom. And when I try to work on something, she looks at me with her cute little face saying "hey, wouldn't you rather be playing with me?"

So that about sums up all the bad things, but despite all that complaining, I do actually kind of like her.

Update

Just wanted to give a little update on poor, broken-armed Preston. It has been 5 weeks and 2 days since the break and he should have been getting his cast off about now. Originally they told us 4-6 weeks but that kids are usually more towards the 4 weeks since they heal so fast. But for whatever reason Preston's isn't quite ready. When they set the bone at the hospital it didn't line up exactly right, there was a 5 degree angle. They said it wouldn't be a problem, but I think that might be why it's taking a bit longer to heal. But at the appointment today we did get to go from a long arm cast to a shorter one.

Long cast:

Short cast (he still chose blue, his current favorite color):

They took his cast off and sent him for an x-ray before putting the new one on. I thought it was pretty funny because he didn't know what to do with his arm. He hadn't been able to move it for 5 weeks so it probably felt a bit weird. He made me hold his hand palms together and rested his arm along mine just like we did when I carried him into the ER.

After looking at the x-rays they decided we have at least 2 more weeks in the cast. I am mostly just bummed about missing the whole summer swim time. That is one of my favorite things to do in the summer and instead I have just been sweating away at playgrounds early in the morning and hiding indoors the rest of the day. Hmmm... that sounds kind of selfish. Just keeping it real!

Random Picture Time!

Just a few fun things we've been up to lately...

At the Boise Zoo they have a cool new butterfly exhibit. You go in and they are just all over the place and land right on you. Kenna loved it at times and was a bit freaked out at times.

Identifying butterflies:

We went with cousins and it was way fun

We wrapped Preston's cast up in plastic and went boating

I've been dying not being able to swim for the last month (because of the cast) so it was great to be able to play in the water.

Skateboarding


And here is Kenna learning to jump...

The Beach

So I guess just to make things even more hectic we decided to do our moving right after returning from vacation. Nothing like returning to harsh reality after an awesome getaway. :)

But our trip was well worth it, we had a blast!

We went to Washington and hung out with my family for a few days before the whole gang headed to the Oregon coast to a beach house in Lincoln City.

We threw a surprise baby shower for my sister due in November. Check out the awesome diaper cake my mom made and the cupcakes my sister-in-law made. That's talent!

We saw Harry Potter. So good!

Then headed to the beach!

Lars and I hadn't been to the ocean since our honeymoon so it was really fun for us to go back and take 2 kids.

The whole group:

It was a little chilli but a few of us braved the freezing ocean water.

We went crabbing off the docks in Newport

We stayed for 3 wonderful days then stopped at the Portland Zoo on our way home.





The kids actually did really well in the car.

It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back!

We moved... again

Moving is definitely not fun. But for some crazy reason we decided to do it twice in 2 months. When Lars got offered the job here it was pretty short notice and they wanted him to start right away. So we made a trip to come look for housing. We thought we had found one and left the next day only to find out it had already been taken. (Why they didn't bother telling us a bit sooner I have no idea.) So basically Lars moved to Idaho to start work and stayed with his parents while looking for a place. He found a house with a month-to-month lease so he signed the lease without me ever seeing it. I was a bit nervous. When we first moved in there were a few things I wasn't crazy about but after we got settled in I didn't mind them and the house grew on me. But those same things started to bother Lars more and more. So here are the reasons we moved:

1. The upstairs was hardwood floors which was great but they were sooooo squeaky.

2. There was only 1 bathroom. It was upstairs and our bedroom was downstairs. This started bother Lars because he gets up to use the bathroom almost every night. So he would walk all the way across the squeaky floors and pass the kids room which would sometimes wake them up. Not cool.

3. It was not the best neighborhood. We were lucky that the house on one side of us was vacant and the other side was a sweet elderly couple that goes to our church so I didn't think it would be a problem. Then I decided to look up the sex offender registry. There were 80 registered sex offenders within a 1 mile radius. Totally freaked me out!

4. When we moved in the lady told us she would be taking the fridge with her. What kind of rental doesn't come with a fridge?! Weird. She gave us 2 weeks to find our own so we bought a cheap one from Craigslist. Turned out to not really work. It sort of kept things cool but not cold enough. Everything in the freezer was slushy and things in the fridge would go bad really fast. We dealt with it for a while but it got REALLY annoying so we decided we could spend a bunch on a nice new fridge or find a different place that came with one.

Once we decided to move we had a terrible earwig infestation which was like a sign we had made the right choice. :) This house costs a little more but is a lot better all around. We are loving it so far. So here she is, our new (rental) house:

Beautiful, eh?

Here's the living room (you can see the front door on the right)

And if you keep going you'll see the kitchen (back door on the left)

On the other side of where our kitchen table is, there's a bonus room which is my sewing room and Lars' computer room. Off of that room is the laundry room, a bathroom and the door to the garage.

Then you go upstairs:

To Preston's room

and kenna's room, another 2 bathrooms, and our bedroom are all up there. But they're all too messy and full of boxes to show right now.

And finally, here is our cat

Apparently this neighborhood is full of stray cats. This one likes to spend his morning on our front porch. The kids love it but all I can think about as they pet it is what kind of random diseases it probably has.

So I guess moving twice was worth it. I put a guest bed in Kenna's room today so anyone is welcome to come visit!