It's nice to be in Utah

Though leaving Kansas was hard, there are some nice things about being in Utah. We finally get to participate in the family activities. We especially enjoyed going to Great Grandma Heaton's 85th birthday and seeing our extended family members. The Blairs are a fun group to hang out with. Anyway, we are grateful for family. Another great thing we were able to do was send the kids off to the grandparents' houses for Spring Break. I send Emily and Ashley together and Taylor and Parker together. Each set of kids got to spend two nights at each set of grandparents' houses. We met mid-week at the Utah Natural History Museum to switch the kids, and to enjoy the day. Poor Carter didn't get to go this time. He was pretty bored on his own. Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun, and hopefully the grandparents did too. One of the highlights was getting together at Temple Square so I could get all of the kids back. The kids got to tour temple square and enjoy some of the displays. It was a really neat experience.

Easter Egg Swim

Yes, I know it is way past Easter, but I still wanted to post these pictures. My kids tried a new kind of egg hunt this year - one in a pool. A near-by town was offering a family fun afternoon which included swimming, an egg-hunt, pizza, and games. At first I wasn't so sure I wanted to do it since Jeff was not available to go with us, but then the kids talked me into it by promising to be really good and not whine when I told them it was time to go. They did pretty good. We got there right at 3 pm when the fun started so we could hopefully swim before it got too crowded. We actually had a great time, and virtually had the pool to ourselves for the first 30 minutes or so. As the hunt time approached, the pool got more crowded, but it never became unmanageable. The kids did the egg-hunt which was ok, but they were disappointed with the three egg limit. I was glad we went early to swim instead of depending on the hunt to be our main sourse of excitement. After the egg hunt, we got out to have pizza and games. The pizza was great, the games were only fair. Who runs a game booth for kids and only gives the kids who actually make it in the basket, or hit a balloon with a dart a prize of a tootsie roll. Whenever we have done games things at church or school every kid who tries gets a tootsie roll, and those who actually win get a better prize. Needless to say, the kids were not happy with the games. They were also saddened by the fact that some of the kids who found empty eggs in the pool were able to trade them in for large baskets of toys, or big stuffed animals. There had been some empty eggs put into the little kids area, but they were all green. When the green eggs were traded in the child got a pencil. What three-year-old wants a pencil when the ten-year-old next to him is getting a big stuffed bunny. So yes, I was not exactly pleased with the whole egg hunt part of it. I like the good old fashioned hunt where everyone just gets eggs with candy and they go home happy. So, in the end, yes we were glad we went because the swimming was fun, but the kids learned a hard lesson about how life isn't fair.

C is for crazy!

I'm not sure why is it, but there seems to be a correlation between crazy kids and the letter C, at least in the Blair family. Carl, Cayden, and now Carter seems to be following in their footsteps. It could be that my terrific two-year-old is just deciding to express his independence, but that has yet to be seen. Hopefully he will settle down and follow after his sisters or his brother Parker. They are pretty mello. Taylor has never really left his energetic stage, so I guess Carter may go either way. Honestly, it's not bad when all of the kids are around because he just blends in with daily noise. This last week, however, I sent the older four kids to the grandparents' houses for Spring Break, and I saw the true Carter come out. I don't know if he was just bored or what, but he was into everything. I finally took him out to a store to do something different, and boy was he loud. You can always tell we are in the store because Carter is talking up a storm and he only has one voice level - loud. He's not mad or anything, just noisy. He is usually just jabbering about what he sees, but occasionally he likes to break into versions of ABC or Wheels on the Bus. It's not too embarrassing because people usually think he's cute. The only bad thing is when a cute little grandma will try to talk to him and he scowls, points, and says "No, go away!" That's a little embarrassing. I think he'll get over that part. Anyway, as crazy as he is lately, he is a cutie and we love him. He keeps us on our toes.

There's no place like home

Just like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz, Jeff and I felt it was time for us to head home to be near family while our children were still young. We wanted them to experience spending time with their grandparents more than just once or twice a year. Well, we got our wish and found ourselves being taken away from Kansas instead of toward it like Dorthy in the movie. Although we knew it was the right thing, moving from Kansas has been one of the most heart wrenching things I've even done. Kansas had become our true home, with the people there being like family. Jeff and I had never lived anywhere as long as we lived in Kansas, and we had really made some incredible friends. It was also very hard to see our kids cry over the loss of the great friends they'd made. Kansas was really all the kids knew. Anyway, I want all of those friends to know how much they meant and mean to us. You influenced our lives in so many wonderful ways. I'm grateful for all of the wonderful advice and examples many of you shared with me because I feel I am a better person and parent because of it. Thank you also for all of your help as we were moving. It was such a neat thing to watch as this small army of men came and delivered all of our stuff from our storage unit into our garage in a matter of minutes. The Elder's Quorum should start a business or something. It was also so nice to have meals brought in, and to have help with cleaning. We really appreciate it. Everyone took care of us so well. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks for the wonderful going away party also. Although it was hard, it was nice to have the chance to say good-bye, and the invitation for anyone to come visit still stands. We love you all and miss you terribly. We do like our new area and the ward has welcomed us in, but I have to say the Kaw Valley ward is pretty special. We hope to bring some of that influence into our new ward here. So, though Jeff and I are returning to our childhood home, our children are leaving theirs. Home, however, is the place you are surrounded by people who love you, so that can be anywhere we've learned.