Moving is...

... proving to be very difficult with a 5 month old...

... and pretty much IMPOSSIBLE with a 2 3/4 year old.

Well, I take that back, moving wasn't really the issue, I could keep the kiddos corralled in the car while I just stuffed around them... (literally:)

(yes, this is really how we drove over with one load... this picture is our own version of "where's waldo - in our case Ben... can you find him??!)

...but once we got everything here

and I busied myself carting boxes from the garage to the various locations in the house,

Joshua busied himself with finding every door leading to the outside (aka freedom!).

... and with no fence or high bolts/locks/any other child proofing devices on the doors, he was quite successful...

... like the day I tried to put the boys clothes together in their upstairs room, and realized things were a bit too quiet on the main floor....

... I walked down, to find an open door,

... and walked out to find our across the street neighbor's husband walking Josh down his driveway, smiling in a 'trying not to be annoyed' way, and saying (in a trying not to be annoyed-nice voice), "hi, I found him in our van..."

... or the next day when I was carting in boxes from the garage and had a good view of him on his tricycle outside, only to find on one load that said tricycle had been abandoned...

... and after searching around and finally went around to the back of the house to see him on the porch of our back yard neighbor chatting it up. The neighbor said he had been sitting in the kitchen when little joshy showed up at the back door, knocking and smiling ever so sweetly...

... I'm sure the "welcome to the neighborhood" banners are set to go up any minute now...

... along with my mother of the year award :)

... so mom and dad, if you open your door to see a child sized box with air holes punched in it, don't be too surprised...

... don't worry, we can come and pick him up when we come out for the reunion :)

Panini Palooza!

... so a couple of weeks ago, hubby and I were watching a food network show that was featuring paninis and we both instantly got the craving to expand our culinary cuisine to include this delectable sandwich.

... but since we are about to sign over our life for a new house, it had to go on the wish list.

... enter freecycle mormon style - aka mormon mom networking at it's finest (we have a listserve here where different members post different thoughts, questions, or things they want to give away).

... not even 5 days after our little panini craving, one woman listed that she was giving away her panini maker

... I called

... I got it!

... when I picked it up, I found that it had never even been taken out of the box!!

How's that for frugality?!

And I couldn't wait to try it out...

... even ventured with ALL FIVE kiddos (5 hungry and tired kiddos!) to the store to get the ingredients while Jerry was at meetings at the church.

And Jerry made it home in time to help make the inaugural panini press

yummm... pesto chicken panini
superyummy was the declaration by the kiddos at dinner :)

panini party, anyone??!

the end of an era...

Bailey Brewer...

What can I say?

If you are relatively new to the Brewer Bunch, you may not know the extent of this epic adventure that has been our life with a dog. Here is it in a nutshell:

We bought a house the 2nd year of med school. Since we had fertility issues (5 kids later you would never have known that little tid-bit, would ya?!), we thought it would be quite a while before we actually had any kids, so I thought, "hey, we can get a dog, and it can be our little family until we have kids..."

So I got a dog for Jerry... in October

and got pregnant with twins... in November

And after the first few chewed up poopy diapers (among many other chewed up things), I pretty much have been at my wits end with Bailey ever since...

And so began our love/hate relationship with Bailey (Jerry loved him, I, well... hate is a strong word... let's just say I had other emotions towards our dog...).

After way too many incidents to re-iterate on the blog, I have been trying to find a new home for our very canine dog.

But Jerry has resisted

...Until we decided to upgrade our housing situation

...To a beautiful NEW house (read: CLEAN house- not 50 years of grime built up everywhere!!)

... with white carpet...

... and no fenced back yard...

... and a sprinkler system (which makes it hard to put in an underground fence for dogs)

... and after a last ditch effort to make it work (getting a bark collar for Bailey, and a new 'walking collar' and suddenly becoming very interested on taking Bailey for walks every day...)

... Jerry came to the sad realization that it was probably best to find Bailey a new home...

... and he put many stipulations on such a new home (which I thought would be downright impossible to meet...)

Until I met Susan Perkins aka our fairy dog-mother...

Who called me up out of the blue after receiving an email about Bailey's plight to find a new home.

She came to meet him, and they hit it off smashingly.

Took him out to meet her two dogs, and Bailey actually liked them as well.

And suddenly Bailey found himself a new home, with TONS of room to run around free, and get to be, well, a dog!

We even get full visitation rights, whenever we want (one of Jerry's stipulations...)
We have already been out to visit twice at his new home, and I have to admit, he looks so HAPPY - there is just a content look on his face at getting to have a whole new lease on life in a fun, new place that is VERY conducive to extremely active, somewhat ADD dogs :).

... and the kids? Well, they get the best of both worlds...

They get to visit Bailey, but even more exciting for them, they get to see all of the other animals on the farm...

... and help feed all the other animals on the farm...

(I actually think they are more excited about being with the other animals then actually visiting Bailey...)

And Jerry gets to still have his beloved Canine in his life...

... just not on his new white carpet... ;)

And thus ends the era of the Dog.

... and me? Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't overjoyed at finding a new home for Bailey.

... But I do have to say, It does seem a bit quiet around here without the boisterous Bailey -

... and I do find myself missing him a bunch (did I actually say that??!) (shh!!! don't tell my husband!!)

Farewell thee fair friend...

Our dearest winter weather friend, wii

You have helped us survive many a wintery, blizzardy, sub zero-y days of being cooped up in our humble home...

But alas, we have once again discovered the great outdoors, and have been busy...

... hauling sticks (the great spring branch pick-up)...

... going on walks...

hauling the wheelbarrow around...

...planting our garden... (yes, I do realize we are not out of the 'snow-woods', as a blizzard at the end of April a few years back is still vivid in the memory, and yes, we are in fact moving in a few weeks, but hey, it's warm, there's dirt, why not plant?!)...

... performing some car maintenance...
... taking some laps with the scooters..

... rediscovering spring wildlife...

... introducing baby E to nature...

... finding out that there really is land under the snow...

... and that there really is a color green in nature...

... and getting some sun while crocheting ??! (I don't know if I'm more surprised by his crocheting, or by his sitting in the sun without first bathing in sunscreen...)

... yes, we will remember you, our dear friend wii with fondness, but bid you adieu until we are once again buried beneath the tundraland of frozen frost.