Should I Stay or Should I Go

Oh how the tables have turned. Evan's employer decided they just can't live without him and after much debate (and a decent pay raise) we decided to DECLINE the new job offer and STAY in Logan. It is officially official! Man, what a roller-coaster ride this has been. But we feel good about our decision and are optimistic about the future! Thanks to all of you for your prayers, support and for lending a listening ear as we repeatedly weighed the pros and cons in the midst of all the unknown. Three cheers for Evan being an awesome human being who everyone wants on their team! :) hip hip hooray!

We Like to Move It, Move It

Well, it's official! Evan is going to be working as an Estimator for Vulcraft, starting October 5th, and we are in the market for a house! We are excited and scared and anxious and all sorts of other emotions :) This will be our tenth, and hopefully last (for a while), move in 4 1/2 years.... I guess we like to move it, move it ;)

Cuties

I love these cuties!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Thanks to his siblings, It may take Hunter a while to eat all his birthday presents!

Happy 14th birthday Hunter!

First Day of 8th Grade

Handsome guy!!

Final days at the Claytons

Our final creative projects.  By the way, all of the fun projects we did can be found on one website.  It is http://aplus.com/a/asia-crito-fun-at-home-with-kids. This website was GREAT!  Check it out for yourselves. For the record, some of the biggest hits were The Shaving Cream Paint, The Rainbow Foam Dough, the Magic Foaming Dough Snowmen (seen below), and the Polka dot slime. All worth doing. And none of them were hard to do.

Aren't our snowmen cute? They are made mostly out of baking soda.

Now the fun part...melting them...

Don't judge me by their hairdo's. It was still early in the morning... maybe...

This Foam dough was really fun! I really enjoyed playing with it myself. 

I didn't get a picture of us really playing with it because at that point my hands were way too messy for picture taking. Sorry. But soooo fun!

Final project was the polka-dot slime...it was quite entertaining as well.

Taycee has the funny faces here.

The kids also spent many fun hours on the Claytons' Alligator Slide, which I didn't get a picture of, but it's a great big blow up toy with a pool at the bottom.  Very fun. And our favorite activity before going to bed was playing the game of "Mau".  We played several nights and always kept the new rules from the nights before. It was getting really hard to remember all the rules, but Kaden and Taycee were amazing at picking up on it all!!

So....after 9 days of playing at the Claytons, Hunter and I were more than ready to return to our normal boring lives.  But we hope we made some lasting memories, and that the kids will remember all the fun we had. They're great kids. We LOOOVE YOU!!!

More Fun with Grandma and Hunter

Saturday we made Magic Puffing Snow. It started out more like clay...

Then we added the secret foaming ingredient...

That night we played games with glow sticks. We played glow stick tag, and I will pass this "glow" from me to you to you. We also played Boula Boula. 

I'd have to say that the glow sticks were a bigger hit than the puffing snow.  Longer play time value as well.

On Sunday I heard a loud boom, and the power went out for a couple of hours. (The kids wanted to make sure I mentioned that. :))  Then when we got in the car to go to church, the battery was dead. (Noooooo!  I don't get my two hours of kid-free relaxation and meditation?) After getting help from two nice gentlemen, we got it started, and only missed half of sacrament meeting.  Hunter was kind enough to stay home with Brielle who napped nearly the whole time we were gone.  Kaden and Taycee loved introducing me to their teachers. After church and dinner, we went to the park and took a walk and played on the toys. Orange Juliuses were a big hit after our walk. (What??? You've never had an orange julius??)

 Kaden says to say that... "Today we had a yummy breakfast and it was French toast." The kids said french toast was a new breakfast item for them. 

Today we colored our salt castles. Aren't they beautiful?

 

Completed works of art... Hmmm... The salt didn't set up as well as we would have liked.

Jill said the kids love to go to the library and can spend lots of time there.  So off we went today to return an armful of books and check others out, and enjoy the small kid-friendly toys there - without bothering anyone (being quiet) - and trying hard to keep up with the two younger ones who like to repeatedly pull out books- look at them for 5 seconds-- and then reshelve them in random places, or not at all... or they want to take what the stranger kid is playing with... and dump out bins of small items and play for another 5 seconds (you get the picture) - Hunter and I were ready to restrain them in the car after just a few minutes. But here's a picture from the library that I quite like.

I wish I had a picture of Brielle. After the library we went to McDonalds and then to the park to eat our food and play on the toys.  Somehow Brielle was just about black from head to toe after playing on the toys and drinking and eating. I had to not look as her black hands came back and forth for more food. Jill probably already knows this secret, but the tub is an excellent place for Bri. It keeps her from destroying the house, while giving her a place to play and stay clean at the same time. I'm thinking maybe five baths a day would be a good idea? (We only had two today.)