Following up on good intentions!

So, getting back into blog writting may be harder than I anticipated. Kudos to all of you who faithfully update your blogs so I can stalk you via the internet and keep up to date with your lives!  My life? Less interesting for sure, but flying by non-the-less.

So what have we been up to the last 3 years. Well,  in a nut shell (well,  I'll put it in 3 long post) here it is!  ..........
I think the last time I blogged we had just moved to Columbus Ohio so John could start his PhD in Marketing at OSU.

(There is no fancy photography here so enjoy the moments, not the "photographic art"!)

We moved into a cute little blue house in a little community just north of Columbus city. Rent seemed astronomical for what we were renting, but we had awesome neighbors (thank you Hymas family!) who helped us feel very welcome.

- cute little rambler, but a little scary on the inside!

Living room, with the first of many furniture arrangements.

Tyler being cute and the dinning/kitchen off to the right.  The kids used to take these trucks and zoom them back and forth in the hallway on the left.  In the dump truck they would kneel inside and zoom themselves around.  That's one good reason to not want wood floors in a house with boys!

Weston and Tyler loving that the hallway was small enough that they could climb the walls!  Not such a fun trick after falling a few times.

The jewel of the house was the 'red-neck' bathroom in the basement.  There was a large, long room oposite the bathroom that had carpet (if it could be called that), oh it was orange. A built in dry bar and office ceiling tiles. The room was always cold, but we put all the toys down stairs so the kids had a place to play - convienently across from a bathroom. But this bathroom had a shower that was a nozzle tied up to water pipes with a tile base, and the toilet was in the next 'room' over. The door didn't go all the way down or up, so it was like a commercial bathroom. But cold, dark and scary enough that our kids refused to use it. So we eventually moved the toys upstairs!

We actually had a lot of fun in this little house. There was a decent sized yard and though the kids rarely played in it, it meant that we weren't on top of our neighbors in any direction and the neighbors with kids (Thanks again Hymas family!) had a nice yard with toys so our kids were over there a lot playing!  

Elayna started pre-K when we moved there. She had an IEP for speach delay and so she qualified to attend a free preschool that focused on developmental delay issues. It was awesome and she loved it almost as much as I did. I never had to go, it was 2 1/2 hours 5 mornings each week and she got  2 days a week of speach therapy. Her speach improved dramatically. We eventually still had her tongue clipped which really was the issue, but all the speech therapy made everything click once she was 'clipped'!  

Elayna started showing her 'signiature' smile!

Weston started in boy scouts and continues to half love it to this day!

This was a common scene in our house, still is in fact!  Only now, they are a lot closer and are more verbal in telling John what to do when he is in the drivers seat!

The Columbus Zoo is awesome!  Oh how we miss that zoo. I especially miss the petting part of it because we could always go and let Elayna and John get their fill of goats.  Since moving away and into a place with more 'country' space. I hear a lot more about how we need to get our own goats..... I really miss that zoo!

Weston had a great experience being in a new school.  I wasn't thrilled about the school we had come from and this one was ranked really high.  I found I cared less about that and more that my kids felt comfortable enough to really enjoy themselves.  (Weston never dances, hardly smiles and is always very serious... this was a rare sighting. Kind of like seeing a unicorn! too bad it's not a great shot.)

This was a common site for Tyler.  He was and is still always wanting to do some sort of complicated and overinvolved project.  We thought letting him see how hard it was would deter him. No, he was still interested, but we finally realized that parental help.... the hands on kind, was necessary if we wanted to keep our furniture and his limbs as they were.

Elayna really started to blossom in her creativity and expression of self.. especially in her clothing choices!

She still kept on smiling through it all though!

Being 3 was a time of a lot of experimentation.  She tried shaving and soon realized we didn't fully support that. So she turned to dancing for a short time! Still be ever so stylish!

Lots of play time which was nice... 

especially when it meant we could play with Jason and Becca!

(eating at Jenny's ice cream)

We really had a great time that year. We found COSI, the Columbus Science center and went on average once a week unless the weather was good and then we went to the zoo. We played a lot with friends and generally had a good time keeping somewhat busy while John was in school.  We occasionally went to a local ice cream legend 'Graters'.. Honestly, I didn't love the ice cream but there was one location that had a nice indoor playground that made cold days awesome, and apparently pushed my kids to rebellion!

..............

 (some of our good friends during that first year!)

Occasionally we had Family Night.. Mostly it wasn't a success, but a few times we made it fun for at least 2 of the 3 kids!  Then threatened the 3rd (Yes, most of the time it was Weston) to have fun or it would just last longer.

We played as much as we could, whenever we could for as little money as we could.  The easy answer to that was a lot of wrestling and trying to harrase Weston with taking pictures of him. Elayna really got into that aspect of it!  Notice the bangs, yes, she cut them because she didn't want bangs and was trying to cut them off.  It's taken a few more bang disasters to teach her that to get rid of bangs you have to let them grow longer!

Weston turned 8 and was baptized. A great chance to have Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. We were spoiled enough to get Jason and Becca to come to. We planned it over Tyler's birthday so it was a fun, and very full weekend!

We ate a lot of Korean food and learned to really love it! Thanks to Sang. Johns PhD cohort!

Still exploring her fashion sense!

The end of the school year was bitter sweet. We were really ready to have a break from school, but we were moving again. This time it was only an in town move (sort of), but still sad for the kids because not only were we moving to a new neighborhood and new school but the Hymas' were moving out of state and we were going to be a good drive from the Rasmussens who had been just a street over. Windermere was a school full of parent support and awesome actiities that were fully supported by the school district.  Our move, even just a 10 mintue drive away was taking us to a different school district.  We were a little sad, and very aprehensive.

 Before we actually moved houses, we were able to be just a short drive from the park that our ward hosted their annual Memorial day picnic at.  The kids had a fun run with awesome medals and tons of fun. Sad to say I was home with the flu, but even more sad, was that I was feeling better in time to do a lot of packing and hauling for the move on my own. John helped with the big stuff, but he was busy with school and the majority of that move fell on me.

Whoooo... 

Year 2

(next post)