Ahoy there, Mateys!

It has been WAY too long since I've updated my blog. Much has happened since our last posting. First of all, we moved into our new house, which we love. We're next to some families in our ward in a GREAT location. The kids have had a ball in the new house. They pretty much have free reign on the bottom level of the house since it is still largely unfurnished.

Okay, so here's the quick recap on the kids. First off, Jacob had his pirate party today. He was thrilled that so many of his friends came, 18 in total. It was a little chaotic and we were surprised that so many kids came but we had a great time. Every child got an eye patch and bandana upon arrival, then we decorated foam swords with beads and jewels, then we had a fun treasure hunt throughout the house and yard, we also pinned the "X" on the pirate map and of course chowed down on pizza, cake and ice cream. I think Jacob was on cloud 9 the whole time.

Ready to dive into Pirate Cake


Decorating our pirate swords


Aubrey has really grown up a lot lately and has become more of a little girl than a toddler, which makes me a little sad, I have to admit. She loves, LOVES, her little princess toys, polly pockets and Dora. She still loves to drink her milk and will take that over any food or other drink. She can throw terrible tantrums, if she's not happy, and has started picking on her little brother (like any good 2 year old big sis!) She hates the wind... and will bawl if her hair gets messed up in the wind. And finally, she still roams the house in the middle of the night and we still find her laying on the floor in the mornings half the time. Why she prefers the floor to her bed is beyond me, but it's pretty funny!

Aubrey and a friend at Jacob's party


And lastly, Evan has also hit so many milestones lately. He is full on walking all over the house. His favorite thing to do is empty out my cupboards and rearrange my plates in different cupboards. He loves looking at books, although he doesn't like me to read them to him. He just likes to look at them at his own pace. He is learning to fight back when big brother or sis take away his toys. He loves to dance to music and does so by crawling in circles when he hears music.

After church in the new house

Back to an Only Child

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, my 2 oldest kids are with Grandmacita and Papa (my parents) in DC until next week. So Dallin and I have been home alone with our baby, Evan. I swear, that boy has been SOOOO happy b/c he hasn't had to compete for attention for the last 2 weeks. It's been nice devoting more time to him instead of just stringing him along to all of his siblings' activities every day.

His language is starting to take off and we love trying to decipher what he is saying. Some of his favorite words right now are "mommy, daddy, melmo (which means Elmo), Nana (aka banana), and bye bye. He is learning to walk and took his first steps last weekend at a friend's house. It was actually pretty funny because he hadn't really been taking any steps at all on his own. He was standing up holding onto one end of a sectional couch, when all of a sudden, he turned around and walked completely to the other end of the couch! He didn't just take a step... he took like 10 steps. It was crazy. I was like, um, did anyone else just see that?!! Ever since then, he practices walking morning, noon and night.

Evan absolutely melts my heart. All of my kids do, don't get me wrong, but I have a soft spot for Evan because he reminds me so much of Dallin. Evan is Dallin's "mini-me." I think they look identical. And Evan smiles just like Dallin; he squints his eyes just like Dallin; and his temperment is just like Dallin's. I LOVE it!!

The Little Earthquake that Shook BIG

So, many of you may have heard in the news that Reno has been experiencing hundreds of earthquakes the last few weeks. Well, about a week and a half ago, we got hit by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake. You may think that doesn't sound very strong, but let me tell you, that is the most scared I've been in my whole life. It doesn't help that the epicenters of these earthquakes happens to be less than a mile away from our house.

It happened on a Friday night right before midnight. We had already gone to bed when Evan woke up crying sometime after 11 p.m. I ignored his cries and he went back to sleep for a little bit. But then he woke up again, and I ignored him a second time. Finally, the third time he started crying I got up and fixed him a bottle. When I went into his room, I noticed he had gotten his leg stuck in between the bars of his crib (which he hasn't done in ages). Anyway, I figured I was up already so I might as well give him a bottle. I picked him up and sat in the rocking chair when all of a sudden I felt a strong tremor. I immediately stood up and started walking into the hallway (that's our designated earthquake spot) when it stopped. We've been having LOTS of tremors lately so I figured it was a usual tremor. As I was sitting back down into the chair, that's when the next one hit. This one felt like a mack truck had just rammed into the bottom level of our house. Everything immediately started shaking really bad. I started to run out of Evan's room when all of a sudden his dresser toppled over, just barely missing us. By the time I made it to the hallway, I saw Dallin sprinting down the hall to grab our two other kids. He ran into Jacob's room and I started yelling at him to grab Aubrey too. I crouched down in the hallway, Dallin passed off Jacob to me and then grabbed Aubrey and sat in the hallway until the shaking stopped.

I was terrifed and my kids couldn't stop shaking. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than seeing your child absolutely terrified. I told Dallin that we needed to get downstairs because I thought it would be safer. We tried going down the stairs, but there was an immediate aftershock. Once that one stopped, we all ran down the stairs as fast as we could. We had about 50 aftershocks that evening. We all slept on a foam mattress in the middle of our hallway that night. I didn't sleep a wink that night because every time I felt a tremor I kept thinking another big one was coming.

Anyway, we've continued having smaller tremors. My nerves have been somewhat shot during all of this. It's hard because I worry so much about getting to all of my three kids during a major earthquake. They're all so little and I just don't know if I could get to all of them if a big one hit.

My parents offered to watch my kids in DC for a while so I took them up on it last week. I flew all of my kids out to DC and left the 2 oldest ones there for two weeks while I flew back to Reno with Evan. We're in the middle of buying a house and renting out our current house so I need to be here in Reno for all of that.

Anyway, I miss my kids terribly but I feel so comfortable knowing they are in a safe place, not worried about upcoming earthquakes. I hope and pray that a big one does not hit Reno. I really worry about what would happen if it happened. So everyone keep Reno in your prayers!

On another much happier note, my Jacob turned 5 last week. We didn't have a big party yet (b/c of everything going on) but we are going to throw him a pirate party when he gets back.


Evan's dresser that almost fell on top of me during the quake


Celebrating Jacob's birthday in DC with the cousins