Fall Family Photo-rama

Alright, if you've already seen these on facebook, or google +, it might not be worth your time to see them again.  You can skip to our update at the bottom.  Otherwise, welcome to the Fall Family Photo-rama! 

I rarely like having my picture taken.  But I have to say, we had a lot of fun playing in the leaves yesterday.  It was absolutely beautiful!

I like how tough and seriously Eliot looks here with with little bear ears.  

Vote: Healthy complection? or Oompa Loompa look?

I love my guys.

I think the reason I had fun yesterday (as opposed to every other time I've set out to have my photo taken), is that it was just us.  Anthony was the photographer, so there was no self consciousness with a stranger, or weird unnatural poses, just family fun.  You can tell Ant has the remote in his hand on the right.  He did a great job.

Ira faces.  This was the beginning of the end.

Ira got a little angry and hit Dad...

 and then did it again.

Meanwhile, Eliot began melting.

 We just stuck the kids in the car for food and sleep and continued with the photo-rama.

  

 My shorter than intended bangs are showing their awkwardness here.  They do alright if gravity is pulling them the right way. 

So, that's pretty much life.  We're happy.  My throat periodically acts up, but I think we have it under control for now.  I survived preparing the Stake R.S. dinner for Conference and am gearing up for a friend's baby shower.  Work is going well for Anthony and he's been Ira's parent of choice lately, which means, he's been reading a lot of bedtime stories and playing a lot of T-rex.  

Ira's quote of the week was probably, "Make up my mind, Mom! Make up my mind!"  Oh, if only I could.  I'm not exactly sure what he meant, but he's been pretty hard to persuade when he wants to be.  Eliot is cuddly and cute as ever.

The house buying is progressing, I guess.  We got it inspected last week, and are moving forward with the next steps.  So many steps!  We're hoping to close before the month is over.

Hope everyone had a great Conference weekend!  I'm searching for a politically correct way to celebrate Columbus Day if anyone has any ideas. 

Riding Around

Life has been a whirlwind.  Since we've been in Michigan, we've bought a car, registered the car and committed to MI driver's licences, taken a trip to Nicaragua (Anthony), visited the Urgent Care Center 3 times, and have gotten reacquainted with our friends from last time we lived here.  

Our "new" 2003 Odyssey. 

It seems like the majority of our spare energy has gone towards the house hunt. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that we are completely obsessed and have almost been constantly looking for our future home.  We've attempted to make offers on three houses, and viewed about 25.  Our poor real estate agent!  

The morning we found out that our dream house was bought by someone else, before we had a chance to offer, we were cheered up at GE's "Family Fun Day." It was at a place called The Henry Ford's Greenfield Village.  It's surprisingly amazing. I can't believe how little I knew about it before this opportunity to go.  In a nutshell, Henry Ford was so stinking rich, he decided to create a living museum by purchasing historically significant buildings and transporting them back to Detroit.  

So, within a couple of blocks you can tour the Wright Brother's Bike Shop (where they engineered the first planes), the Court House Abe Lincoln practiced law in, Edison's entire research campus where he invented the light bulb, Robert Frost's home, and on and on.  Amazing!  Although Ira is pretty unaware of all that, he was aware of this.

Trains!  He was in heaven.

 We also got to ride in a 1914 Model T...

and a Carousel built in 1913.

 This is me getting busted.  I guess it's one person per horse.  And Eliot could be the straw that broke the hand carved 99 year old horse's back. 

Ira:  He is keeping us busy.  He continues his obsessions with dinosaurs and trains, and has now added Anthony to the list.  Ever since Ant's trip to Nicaragua, Ira's been  extremely attached.  If I read him books at night instead of Ant, you'd think he just received the death sentence.  Other interests would include the alphabet!...and agression.  He's excited about letters and their sounds, but also kicking and biting and punching.  The other day I remember saying, "'Sorry Eliot' means, 'I'm not going to kick you in the head any more, Eliot.'"   sigh....

 But Eliot is surviving just fine!  In fact half the time I get worried about Ira's roughness with him, Eliot just responds with squeals and laughs.  The other half of the time he ends up with some scratch or bump, or mini-bruise.   I welcome other moms at this point to tell me that this is normal?  :)

 Ira's been sitting (and falling) a lot lately, making new consonant noises, and making us all smile.

 My cute guys.  I can't remember what they were doing.  Pretending to be worms?

Anyway, life is good!  We're waiting to hear back from the bank on a foreclosure.  We'll keep you updated!    

The Move

 So, you may have guessed by now...but the move happened.  We arrived in Michigan a month and a half ago, and hit the ground running.  Things have been just a little stressful, but life is starting to calm down a little, thus I finally have time for a blog post!

We're thinking of boycotting U-haul for our next move.  They didn't have the van we reserved (and confirmed) and had to use this "Jumbo Hauler."  Better too big than too small though!  I felt kind of like I had the tough job with the two kids in the car, while Ant drove the truck....until I saw how big it was.  Envy no more. 

 Here's Ira getting some wiggles out and playing hide and go seek at Chipotle.  This reminds me of Charlie Brown hiding behind the tree, with his big head sticking out on both sides. 

The best part of the move, was the few days we spent with Mom and Dad in PA, while we were apartmentless.  We were fortunate enough to visit with some of my best friends and of course revisit....

I think we rode the Chocolate World ride at least three times before we convinced Ira to go eat giant cookies in the cafeteria. 

We also went to the "Turkey Hill Experience" for the first time.  It's not free, but it is AWESOME.  I'd say at least 50 times cooler than the Ben and Jerry's factory.  The big difference is that you have to pay at Turkey Hill, but there are loads of fun activities and all you can eat ice cream and lemonade samples.  We ate a ridiculous amount of ice cream before we rolled out of this place. 

Mom, concocting her dream ice cream flavor. 

Go Steelers!

 There's nothing to get you ready for two more days of driving, like over-eating sugar and fat.

We arrived exhausted, but extremely blessed to have a couple friends show up from the Ypsilanti ward to help unload.  It was short notice, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week.  Hooray for service!   

Water

 Ira has been loving water lately. 

 Before the Ellsworth Reunion he wanted to wear clothes in the rain.

 Now he just wants to strip down to the essentials.

We had fun with the Applebees when they came for a few days after the reunion.  Their last day, Ant got off work so we could go into New York with them.  It didn't work out for us though, mostly due to sleep deprivation, so we stayed to get an hour or two more of rest, then realized that it was probably our last chance to make it to Rhode Island while we're living here.  It's the last of the New England states on our list, so we planned a spontaneous trip to the Ocean State and hopped in the car. 

 Ira was unenthusiastic to be at the beach at first.  He played in the sand for almost 2 hours, before he even considered playing in the water.  The lady next to us noticed our encouraging Ira to get into the water, and gave us a friendly lecture about not changing children's personalities.  And then she looked at Ira, and in the best New England accent I've ever heard said, "ChAHrish who you ah sweet haht."  :)  

At first I thought this is as wet as I was going to get with a grumpy baby strapped on.

But then he fell asleep.  Woohoo!  The water felt great!  The waves were fun, and it wasn't too crowded...

and with time, even Ira decided to join us. 

 but not without his hat.

 He had so much fun, he didn't ever want to leave.

 Eliot of course, was having fun chilling on the beach.

Good thing we brought Ira's swim suit so he had something dry to wear home.

In other news, we started packing last night.  We load up the truck in three days, which suddenly feels a little too close.  We'll take the drive to Michigan slowly, over three days, with a long weekend in Lancaster visiting friends and family.

Today, Anthony started his new job remotely and is enjoying it so far.  

Ira has been acting more his age lately.  He's kind of like a preschool Jeckll and Hyde: super cute, loving and funny one day, and then extra aggressive and defiant the next.

Eliot is grabbing things left and right, though I don't think he's quite realized that he has thumbs, which is funny since they seem like especially large thumbs to me.  He's started growling lately, not when he's grumpy.  I think it must be all of Ira's dinosaur growling that he's picking up on.  It's pretty cute. 

Nothing much is new with me, except for starting an online class through coursera.  It's Listening to World Music, which is pretty awesome.  Thought I'd ease in with something not too demanding with all the craziness this summer.  

Anyway, life is good and busy.  Wish us luck with the move!