Goodbye Clear Water Ct.

Holy Cow, I can't believe we are almost done moving... Well you know, except for all that little stuff that seems to collect at the end of the move, the stuff you randomly just start putting into any box just to get it "moved" That's it. WE ARE TIRED! I forgot how much work it is to move. We'll be off-line for a bit while we decide which Internet provider we'll be using at our new place.

Okay, I have to share a funny story from yesterday. Our wonderful Bishop came over with some guys from the Ward to help Randy move the heavy stuff onto the truck. He brought a couple of his sons to help including his little one Daniel. So we were wrapping things up, everyone left, and suddenly we heard a noise coming from our boys bedroom. It was Daniel, playing quietly by himself with some toy trucks we hadn't put on the truck yet. The bishop had been gone for about 10 minutes and we wondered how long it would take him to realize that he forgot one :) So, our nice neighbor Earl, drove him home... I guess that's what happens when you have a pack of kids. I know, because not too long ago I was halfway to the kids School in the morning and didn't hear the baby and suddenly thought "oh, no what if I left him at home?" Lucky for me he was in the car but most days I live on auto pilot due to new baby sleep deprivation.

Anyhow, that's it, we'll update when we are settled in the next week so Goodbye to our house on Clear Water Ct. We'll miss you, our friends, neighbors and especially our ward, which we have grown to love. We've had so many wonderful times here and a part of us is sad to leave. As I've been surveying the empty house I am noticing some things which I'll say goodbye to now (and happy to do so:

*Goodbye to my striped dining room with that one last stripe I never painted because the wall wasn't straight and I couldn't figure out how to end it
*Goodbye to that one strip of sod we forgot to lay
*Goodbye to that little bit of sealant we ran out of when sealing the concrete in the back which gave us some shiny and some dull stamped/colored concrete
*Goodbye to the truck border that Jack peeled off the wall when he was 3 (right after I put it up)
*Goodbye to the white walls in our bedroom that we never painted
*Goodbye to all the unfinished projects that we never quite got to...

Be well good house, and we pray that the next family that graces your presence will find as much joy and happiness as we have :) Time to move on and keep making memories!

Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving! It's been an interesting one for us this year, a bit nontraditional but a grateful one for sure. We spent most of the day moving... Been waiting for keys and they came sooner than we thought so what the heck, we packed the truck last night (almost all night long) and took a load over at 8 AM this morning (we were on a schedule because my FABULOUS Mother was meeting up with us to take our kids until Tuesday :) Well everyone except the baby of course. YAHOOOO. So we unloaded, met up with Mom and Cal at Home Town Buffet. (Yes, we ate our Thanksgiving feast at Home Town Buffet) I must say that I haven't been to a buffet in at least 5 yrs or so, and the food was so good I was remembering why... CALORIES. Yummy and no mess to clean up. So, my Mom took the kids home with her and Randy and I went home with Nickolas to veg for the evening. So not the most ideal day to start moving but it worked out. We found out we'll have more great neighbors ( we LOVE our current neighbors which have become great friends) We are 8 houses away from a FANTASTIC park which backs up to the kids new school!! Yes, they can now walk to school. I am so grateful that we found such a great house in a great neighborhood next to a great School for the kids. Grateful.

I have been keeping a gratitude journal for a long time now, so I won't post my entry here but I am truly blessed and I know it, and am grateful for the awareness of it. I am grateful to have a wise, loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful for happy, healthy kids, grateful that Randy really is my dearest friend, grateful to be loved by so many, grateful for wonderful friends, grateful for devoted parents, grateful to be close to my siblings, grateful for growth, grateful for the kindness of others, grateful to have the strength to weather life's storms, grateful for the peace I feel amid the chaos that surrounds me. Just GRATEFUL... Far too many items to list.

Dry days up ahead!!

YAHOO, so it's been 4 days of potty-training and so far so GREAT! No accidents for 2 days now... Shoot if I had known it was going to go this well, I would have started sooner (or not) But happy day, I am so happy that I will only have one in diapers. I didn't think this day could come soon enough :)

Chocolate Privacy??

So, it's "that" time again... Time for potty-training. Lets get out all the bribery candy and the charts, the potty seat (this time is a Disney cars one) the cute little (boy) underwear and a VERY positive, optimistic attitude (and a few prayers won't hurt) I've had great luck in the past potty-training both Mackenzie and Jacksen in a day however, Lukas is my fun one. He's had this potty issue for some time now so I've been hesitant to start (and a newborn doesn't make it any more appealing) So, finally I got up the nerve to spend a day with him, pumping him full of fluids and "practicing" running back and forth to the potty to go. Well to my utter JOY he's excited and ready. We are on day 3 and so far so good. He's gone through plenty of candy (I'll do whatever it takes) and is having a blast marching his pirate around the map. I found this cute little download on supernanny.com. Every time he goes, he gets to move the pirate one space until the pirate finally reaches the ship. Once there, I give Luke a special treat and we start the pirate at the bottom again. Okay, now something funny. Yesterday I asked Luke if he'd like some privacy (thinking he knew what the word meant) he said: "yes, I'd like some privacy, some chocolate privacy" I think all the candy is getting to his head... Wish us luck!!

Happy Birthday Mark!!

Happy Birthday to my brother Mark!! Look at these cute baby pictures you :) We love you.

Spittles

Lauryn and her friend went as a hot dog and fries

Nickolas the bunny and Logan the monster

Emily and Logan

Luke the fireman

Jacksen the power ranger

Mackenzie the fairy

Had a great Halloween again! We all went to April's old neighborhood to spend the evening with her former neighbors (they have the best block parties all year long) We started off with a pot luck with about 15 families or so complete with "brain jello" mummy dogs, plenty of fabulicious chili and more. After dinner we all went out trick-or-treating as a big group. What fun! The kids loved spening time with their cousins and friends while collecting a ridiculous amount of sugary treats. Someone gave Lukas a full size bag of skittles and he came running down the sidewalk and said "look Daddy, I got spittles" He's never called them spittles before so it was great for a laugh. We got a bit of rain towards the end of the evening so it gave us a great excuse to head for home ( I was praying for it, since my feet were in pain after all the walking and I had to nurse the baby) Happy Halloween!

Back to the farm

I spent last Thursday back at Bishop's pumpkin farm for a field trip with Mac and Jack. I have really enjoyed being able to go on School field trips with them. They picked out some great pumpkins (which we never did carve...) The day after Halloween Mackenzie said " hey, we still need to carve our pumpkins Mom" Someday we'll get them carved BEFORE Halloween.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lukas!!

Wowee!! A new Trike

Uncle Chris visiting and of course Puzzling with Lukas

Making a wish

More Cars!!! Yahoo

Can you believe it?? I am 3!!

I am a bit behind on posting recent happenings at the Onstine house. We celebrated Lukas' 3rd Birthday last week and boy did we have fun! He wanted to share the day with a few of his good buddies: Jimmy, Gavin, R.J. and Noah. We had a "Cars" party since he is still not sick of Disney Cars (it's been over a year now that he's been married to all his cars) He got a new trike thanks to the Birthday Money from the Grandparents (Thanks everyone)

At 3 Lukas is:

Smart ( I think it's all those puzzles)

Funny ( we have Randy to thank for this one)

Witty (of course he is, he's 1/2 Witt)

Helpful ( he doesn't have a choice :)

Imaginative (he loves to play and make up funny dialogue)

Strong-willed (we have Amber to thank for this one)

Loves to sing (we sing songs all day and sometimes late in the night)

We love you Lukas Christopher, Happy Birthday Bugga!!