A Rainy Day

This girl's surgery went good! She is not crying at night cause her teeth hurt anymore, and she's got 3 teeth coming in already. :) We are so glad!!

 I am so glad these two have each other. Every girl needs a sister!!

It was a bit windy. ;)

Emotions of a Mother

I certainly didn't mean to fall off the face of the earth with this blog, but I'm hoping now to perhaps try and stay caught up on it. :)
     Some few quick updates: Aaron is still loving what he does as a surgical technition at the hospital out here in ND and I got a part time job working at one of the local gas stations in the afternoons. :) Vivian is getting so big, and is a little sassy and super busy!!! Hard to believe she'll be 2 in 2 short months.  As for Logan and Trav, well, Trav is been real into learning lately, he'll do well with kindergarten in the fall. Logan is counting down the days til his birthday on the 23rd. He just can't hardly wait to turn four. :)

   Miss. Jenna is gearing up and preparing for some major dental work that is scheduled to be done this week, she will be having around 8 teeth pulled due to cavities and to crowding issues in her small little mouth. To be honest with you, I have cried many tears over her having to have this done, and I still worry it will be a huge adjustment for her and she'll feel bad about it. We've talked about it lots, and I tell her that her smile will look different for a while, maybe even a year, but she's got beautiful shiny grownup teeth that are waiting to come in and take place where the baby teeth were, and that she will have the best smile on the block when it's all done.

 I am going to talk to her teacher about it this week, to maybe help her classmates not tease her when she gets back. Kids can be mean, and I don't want her to ever feel bad about herself. So, fingers are crossed, and prayers have been said that it is a smooth transition. I feel and know in my heart that this is the right decision, but I really wish we didn't have to take this route. :( It's going to be harder on me, as the Mom, than it is on her I think. I know kids are resilient and recover quickly, so I just keep telling myself that the end goal of a nice straight smile is our prize, and this is the first step to getting there.

 

Picture taken when my parent's came to visit us, and we went and explored a national park about two hours away from us.

Jenna and Vivian

August Adventures

 Travis spent hours down at the pond catching frogs at my mom and dads house. :)

 camp sunset

 Uncle Levi and Vivian

 there were new baby chickens in S.B*y, and Jenna was in her glory holding them and chasing them down.

 Someone enjoyed her blueberry pancakes...:)

All 10 of my parents grandkids. :)

 

August was bsuy! We had a few different adventures, one of them going home for five days. :) The weather wasn't very warm, bet we still went and crammed our summer into a long weeked! It was quick and busy, but lots of fun.

Fun Facts

Here are a few facts I have learned about our new town in the last week we've been out here:
1. It is not uncommon to see between six to eight big semi's with some sort of big trailer on the back waiting at each intersection.
 2. The parades don't skimp on candy. At home it was like each kid had to fight over about four pieces of candy. Here, each kid got about two handfuls from each float.
 3. There are alot of big pickup trucks that have the wo...rks on them.
 4. The Walmart here sells big plastic boxes that they try to pass of as homes. But hey! They are insulated, have cable and ac, all for a steal of 20,000! ;)
 5. It's alot nicer than people make it sound out to be. It's very family friendly with all the new parks, splash pad and the youth pool. I'm happy to be calling it home because it's where we are a family again!

Overnight company

We had our first over night company this week. Wally T's family came to ND to see what the hustle and bustle of this busy little oil town is all about, and ended up staying the night at our new home. It was fun to have them over! My kids were bummed when it was time for them to start heading home back to the U.P. the next morning!

A New Experience

Well, it took us 19 hours to move, but we made it to North Dakota! We had to take a big detour zig zagging through Minnesota due to all of the rain causing flash flooding and road wash outs on US2 and I35. But we eventually made it here, and it is beautiful! I had no idea what to expect, and had never been to ND before, so I was pleasantly surprised. We are loving the endless blue skies and rolling green hills with homes tucked in them here and there.

 As far as unpacking, it's safe to say that I am probably 80 percent of the way done. The new place is really nice! We are really liking it and now spacious it is. It's close to Walmart and the grocery stores, so that is a bonus as well.

The kids and I are going to go to a splash park this afternoon after Vivian wakes up. I have to plug the street number into the GPS, as I really have NO idea where anything is yet, and it's pretty confusing to me! But we'll get there, and we'll enjoy keeping cool. It's not the big lake, but it'll do for today. :)

Soaking up Sunshine

We have been trying to sneak in time at the camp while packing to move. :) It was a beautiful weekend, and we were able to soak up some much loved sunshine!