Pirates Booty

I think Andrew has been having some tummy trouble the last couple days because he has been going poop multiple times a day and he usually has a BM every 2 days or so. Now, I know this may seem like a little too much information, but bare with me there is a fantastic story that goes along with it! 

Yesterday Andrew had gone poop on the potty and then went down stairs to watch a movie. Whenever the tv is on Andrew is sucked in like a bug to light. Unfortunately that means sometimes he has a potty accident because he is too engrossed in whatever it is that he is watching, to get up and go potty. We had a couple out of town guest stop by our house last night and I was chatting with them when Andrew came in the kitchen to tell me that he had an accident. I thought he had wet his pants so I took him upstairs to get him changed. We were in his room when he told me "I didn't mean to go poo poo in my underwear" oh great, I thought. I explained to him that although he was watching his movie, he still needs to get up and go potty right away and not hold it, he knows better. Miss Carol had told me about a trick she used when she potty trained Andrew, and I thought I'd try it out this time. She told me that if he poops in his underwear to make him clean them out in the toilet so he can see just how gross it is so that he won't want to repeat the incident ...

Andrew and I were dunking his Pirate ship underwear (one of his favorite pairs I might add) in the toilet to get most of the poop off. Our water level in the toilet is pretty low and it was time to cycle some new clean water in the toilet. Holding on to Andrew's pirate underwear I flushed the toilet. To my surprise our toilet has quite the suction capabilities and it sucked those pirate ship underwear  right out of my hand and down the toilet!! Andrew was on the verge of tears, while I on the other hand was fighting back tears of laughter! He screamed: "Hey! why did the potty eat my underwear?!" Still trying not to laugh I said I don't know they just got sucked up and tried to reassure him it was ok and he had plenty of other underwear that he could put on.

Needless to say the pirate ship underwear have set sail! But I'm happy to report the our flushing capabilities are still intact - thank goodness it was just little boy underwear!

Lesson learned: Next time I'll use the utility sink in the laundry room:)

New Home

The movers came this past Thursday and got all of Rob and the boys belongings that have been in storage since moving out of their house in February to the new house. Some things did get damaged in the move, but for the most part it was a smooth transition. The movers set up some of the big furniture in the living room and some of the beds, although we had to go on a while goose chase to find the hardware for James crib. It wasn't until late in the evening when Rob, our Mom and I were unpacking boxes that we finally found it. This last week we've been living in box city, slowly but surely getting things unpacked. Gram and Auntie Kendall came over from Seattle to be with us this past weekend. They were a big help getting us unpacked and had a great time playing with the boys. The bedrooms are set up, the kitchen is unpacked as well as most of the boxes. We are slowly starting to organize the chaos and have been discussing decor ideas for the house - oh the possibilities. Rob and I have made quite a few trips back and fourth to Boise for Costco, Target and Lowes run and even managed to pick up an area rug and new bed for one of the spare rooms.  The town of Mountain Home is decent size in terms of the amount of houses but as for amenities like restaurants, groceries, shopping the pickings are slim. I'm not a big coffee drinker myself, but I'll put it this way, the town doesn't even have a Starbucks. Luckily Boise is a short 30-40 minute drive and has everything you could need.

For those of you who don't know I came out to Mountain Home with Rob back in February to help him pick out all of the interiors/ exteriors for his new home to be built. Between his Realtor and great friends the Henry's (who also live in Mt. Home) we were able to get pictures and updates on the progress of the house while we were in North Carolina. There were quite a few things that needed to be fixed along the way, but thankfully we had our "spies" to capture everything so the problems could be fixed before we arrived. We are very happy with how the house turned out. I am loving all the space we have (especially compared to the 3 bedroom apartment)! I told Rob that he can't move into anything smaller than this house or else his stuff won't fit! He has set the standard of living at a 5 bedroom house from here on out!

Rob got a few bids on landscaping and fencing for the yard today and they will start on that tomorrow. He has been doing his in processing and will start work next week. They boys are loving their new house, especially going up and down the stairs. But most of all they are loving getting to play with all of their old toys that have been packed away, it's like Christmas in June!

Pictures of the house before the movers arrived

Tada! There she is! Outside doesn't look like much, but the inside is beautiful!

Living room from the front door

Standing in the kitchen looking at dining room

Double fireplace from living room into dining room

Dining room looking at kitchen

powder room bath

down stairs guest bedroom - hard to capture the size

Laundry room / utility sink

2 car garage with a 3rd bay added - so big!

from kitchen looking at the stairs and living room

top of the stairs looking over to the loft playroom/ office and doorway to James bedroom

James room with big closet (on the right)

guest bedroom upstairs - this room is really big, can't tell from this picture

Standing in the loft looking back over the staircase at master bedroom and Andrew's room

Master - again huge room, bad picture

Walk-in closet - big enough to be it's own bedroom!

Master bath

Andrew's room

Upstairs bath/ kids bath

Back down stairs looking at back yard from the dining room

Back yard to the left - grass is being replaced because it's not level or growing evenly

yard to the right

Just so you can see how big the yard is....I'm standing on one side of the yard and if you look carefully you can see a small blue speck - that is Andrew on the other side of the yard

edge of the yard looking back at the house

Can you see Andrew?

We made it!!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us, that's why it's been a while since my last post. Rob finished up his training in North Carolina the first week of June and we spent the days after that getting ready to make the big move across country to Mountain Home, Idaho. That meant,  packing up our belongings, cleaning out our apartment, having Rob's two cars shipped and getting ourselves to the airport - with a lot of baggage! Of all my time spent with Rob and the boys, I'd have to say the flight across the country has been the biggest challenge I've faced thus far. I realized it wasn't going to be an easy task, but I thought two flights, each about 2.5hrs long, one layover, it can't be that bad....right?

Our day started with Rob and I schlepping 6 suitcases, 3 backpacks, a stroller, pack n play, 2 car seats, diaper bag and 2 children to the check-in counter at the airport - with no help from anyone but the two of us. Next stop was security, we got into the designated line for families as TSA has recognized that families usually have more things and take longer to get through security checkpoint. Rob and I were trying to get all of our things loaded on to the x-ray conveyor belt as the line behind us was stacking up. It came time to remove our shoes, but Andrew was not having any of it. We told him he needed to take his shoes off because it was the rules and he started to pitch a fit. Much to his dislike, shoes came off and it was time for Andrew to walk through the metal detectors. Andrew was still clutching his Bear Bear stuffed animal when the guard told him he needed to put Bear Bear in the bin on the conveyor belt to be x-rayed, and that's when our patients started to go out the window. Andrew throws himself on the floor in a temper tantrum because he does not want to part with his Bear Bear. There is a line of people waiting and staring as I frantically pick Andrew off the floor and lovingly push him through the metal detectors and to the other side. Although embarrassed and a bit frustrated, crisis somewhat diverted. . .

Our first flight was from Raleigh to Chicago was approximately 2hrs long. Our seats for this flight were a bit split up, it was a smaller plane with 2 seats on each side of the isle. Andrew and James sat next to each other and I was assigned a seat the row in front of the boys. Rob was across the isle from the boys but on the window seat. We thought for sure once we got on the plane that people would be willing to trade the isle seat next to Rob for my window seat in front of the boys so that we could all be in the same row - but I guess some people would rather listen to screaming fighting children for 2 hours. The "gentleman" who was sitting in the isle seat next to Rob and  across from the boys did not want to switch seats with me because he wanted to have more legroom being on the isle. Since Rob was against the window there really wasn't much he could do to control the boys. I on the other hand got  to be referee by sticking my arm between the two seats and reaching back to stop the boys from fighting with each other, hand them snacks, pacifiers, movies, books and the like. We had about 20 minutes left of our flight when we got an overhead message from the flight attendant that we would not be able to land in Chicago at the moment because thunderstorms had rolled in and no one was able to land or take off from the airport -great! We flew around in the air for about 40 minutes in hopes that the storms would clear, but of course it didn't and we were forced to land in nearby Columbus, Ohio to refuel and wait it out. While waiting on the tarmac in Ohio for about and hour, James entertained himself and everyone else on the plane by going up and down the isle showing off his Buzz Lightyear toy. He was not too thrilled when we had to strap him back in his car seat for the 50min flight into Chicago. Thankfully the day's events  (thus far) had tired him out and he was able to nap the rest of the flight. Our connecting flight out of Chicago to Boise was canceled due to the weather and the only other flight going to Boise was not until 8:30pm which meant 6 hours to kill at the Chicago O'Hare airport. Thankfully Chicago O'Hare is a huge airport with a lot to offer. They had a big indoor playground that we took the boys to so they could run out some energy and kill time. Since Rob is in the military we were able to take advantage of the USO at the airport. For those of you not familiar with the USO it stands for United Services Organization, run by volunteers , there are USO's at most major airports, it's a place where military personnel and their families can go to relax in between flights, get some food, watch tv and get waited on by their amazing volunteers. They had a separate family room that we hung out in. It was filled with toys, books, tv/dvd player, it couldn't have been more perfect. A cozy room filled with everything the boys could ever/want and need, they were not even concerned that we had been hanging around for 6 hours because they were having so much fun playing. Rob and I on the other hand were getting pretty antsy. 

It was finally time for us to catch our flight to Boise - which ended up being delayed about 40mins. The boys did great on the second flight and slept almost the entire flight - and this time we were able to sit together;) We finally arrived in Boise just after midnight Mountain time - which meant 2am for us. My parents had met us at the airport, and thankfully all of our luggage was there waiting for us too. Between my parents rental car and Rob's rental we were able to get all the luggage to fit as we pour our tired bodies into the car. Unfortunately our trip was not done we still had to drive 40 min to get to Mountain Home from Boise. We checked into our darling Bed and Breakfast and crashed - well almost. I thought for sure I'd fall right to sleep but I kept going over the days events and I tossed and turned for an additional hour before finally getting some rest. It was a very long day, but I'm glad we finally made it!!

The boys enthralled in a video on the plane

Wilmington

Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we took the boys to Wilmington, a popular beach city about and hour and a half away. They have a great Aquarium and Children's Museum that we took the boys to. Andrew and James had a great time looking at all the sea creatures and exploring all kinds of things at the Children's Museum.

Day one: North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher

James checking out the fish. He wasn't scared at all, he would walk right up to the glass and peek in...Andrew was a bit more timid and liked to stand back.

Albino Alligator...it looks fake doesn't it?

James and the giant gator...they were both right up to the glass staring at each other

Almost looks like he is giving the gator a kiss

The beaches in North Carolina are notorious for breeding loggerhead sea turtles. Here is one of many that was born on the beach right outside the aquarium.

They had a giant 2 story fish tank, the boys loved to watch all the fish and sharks swim by

Octopus curled up and taking a nap

Jellyfish

Lobster anyone? He was HUGE!

NEMO!! The boys were so excited to see Nemo and Dory at the aquarium:)

This fish had a thing for Andrew and James he kept swimming back and fourth in front of them - showoff

He must of thought they looked quite tastey...

this is a perfect illustration of how the boys were - James: upfront against the glass to catch all the action. Andrew: standing back taking everything in.

On our way out they had a nature park and I saw this sign...it measures the water height of past hurricanes. the top sign in this picture says Hurricane Floyed 1999 10 feet of water.

this was the rest of the pole. The top sign says: Hurricane Hazel 1994. 17 feet under water - Unbelievable!

We stopped at the gift shop and let the boys pick out a souvenir. They each chose a turtle stuffed animal but their turtles look different.

James about 3.5 min after getting in the car - all tuckered out!