Dan started a game with my kids. As we are driving through the miles of farms on our way to and from town, the kids have to shout, "CORN" when they see a corn field before the other people in the car shout it. It has turned into quite a serious competition. Well, anyways, this morning Corom shouted, "CORN!" And Noelle, knowing that it was not corn, shouted, (I wish I could say that she was calm about it) "THAT IS NOT CORN, THOSE ARE JELLY BEANS!!!!" When I looked over, I got a good laugh, she was looking at a sugar beet patch! Similar in name, I guess! Noelle makes me laugh!
This afternoon I was snuggling Corom (my 3 year old) and he said to me, "I really like Brenda, she is a nice girl." Brenda is Dan's boss's wife and had tended him for awhile today. Corom just loves expressing his feelings, it makes me smile every time.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Oh, Corom
My little Corom gave me an eye-opening experience this morning. Corom is quite possibly the sweetest child I have ever met. He makes friends everywhere he goes. This morning the painters knocked on the door. (Painting the exterior of our rental home) I was in the shower. Corom opened the door, "My mom is in the shower right now and we are eating breakfast. Do you want some breakfast?" When I got dressed, I came in the living room, opened the door to introduce myself to the painter and he recounted the conversation. EVERY TIME I get in the shower, I drill the kids on not opening the door until I get out. I was mortified. Corom hasn't any fear when it comes to strangers. It is scary! Lucky for me, the painter was nice.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Lazy July Days
I have been neglecting my journal, so this post is going to be a bit of an entry that I typically wouldn't put on my blog. Sometimes you just have to write things down before you forget them.
I had a bit of an ah-ha moment the other day. The kids and I drive Dan to and from work every day. Transitioning from grad school, we are just trying to gain our foundation and a second car is one of the things that has been put on the back burner. Most mornings I wake up from a dead sleep to get in the car to take him. We pull the kids out of bed in their jammies and with their blankets. Anyhow, I believe it was Monday, I was driving home after dropping him off. I checked the temperature. It was 57 degrees and gorgeous. First we pass by the temple, and a field with cows. Elijah points out the sprinklers every day and says hello to the cows. When we pass the temple, the boys sing, "I love to See the Temple." It makes me smile every time. Elijah also says hello to Moroni on top of the temple and points to his trumpet. We pass through miles and miles of farms before entering our little community. We were driving down the road, the kids were singing to Simon and Garfunkel at the top of their lungs. (Li-li-li-CHHHHH!) We sing the Boxer, "ELIJAH-LIJ! CHHHH!" If you know the song, you can see how the kids think it says Elijah's name. As we passed through the farms, we were naming the crops: corn, onions, alfalfa, hay, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, etc. When we first moved here, I couldn't get over how bizarre it all seemed to be in the middle of farms and yet on that morning, I felt a deep sense of gratitude for my life, for my beautiful, innocent children, for Dan's job, for our surroundings and for our new beginning in this land that still feels so far from home. I don't know why this particular moment hit me, but it did. I love that I am a mom, that I am blessed to stay home and raise my children and I am also grateful for the time we get to spend as a family each morning. I was also telling Dan today that I have felt more in tune to the Spirit since we moved here than I have felt in a long time. There aren't any distractions. The children and I are together all day. We spend most of our time outside and go to the park for lunch daily. The TV is off and most of the time, though the children do talk a lot, I have time to think. Life is simple, but it is good.
Last night Dan volunteered at the soup kitchen and the kids and I got take out and went to the park to picnic and play. When we got home, we went on a nice, long walk and set up the tent in the living room. This morning we picked up our Bountiful Basket (food co-op) For just over $20, I came home with a HUGE basket of produce. (an assortment of fruit, veggies and a mexican mix with peppers, onions, cilantro, tomatillos, etc.) It is like Christmas every time we pick it up, you never know what you are going to get. We lounged, napped and then went to the lake for a bit and then to our Stake Pioneer Day Celebration. Tonight, Dan slipped away to go see Harry Potter.
Again, I apologize if this is more of a journal posting than a fun one. Thank you all for tuning into our blog and keeping up with our family. They are growing and I love recording our lives sharing it with so many of you who live far away! Have a great week!
Friday night means camping out in the living room. The kids get to stay up late and watch a movie. Elijah REALLY gets a kick out of it, but has yet to settle down enough to actually fall asleep. Last night we watched Tangled! Then on Saturdays, the kids wake up to Dan's waffles and eggs. I live for the weekends these days!
Noelle "helped" me sew her a new skirt yesterday and then today we had fun shopping for a shirt and sweater to go with it for church!
Can you say ,"brothers?"
My birthday was on the 10th. I turned 30!!! We celebrated with cupcakes from Coldstone. They were AMAZING! I was wonderful having my birthday fall on a weekend with Dan home.
Our fun dad! Always the life of the party!
CHEESE!!!!
The ice cream cupcakes were a little cold!
Daisy is really growing and has turned into quite a mellow dog already. We will have her for a few more weeks and have found a good home for her. Our time for a puppy will come when our children are a bit older!
The kids spend their days in our backyard. They can dig in the dirt all day!
I had a bit of an ah-ha moment the other day. The kids and I drive Dan to and from work every day. Transitioning from grad school, we are just trying to gain our foundation and a second car is one of the things that has been put on the back burner. Most mornings I wake up from a dead sleep to get in the car to take him. We pull the kids out of bed in their jammies and with their blankets. Anyhow, I believe it was Monday, I was driving home after dropping him off. I checked the temperature. It was 57 degrees and gorgeous. First we pass by the temple, and a field with cows. Elijah points out the sprinklers every day and says hello to the cows. When we pass the temple, the boys sing, "I love to See the Temple." It makes me smile every time. Elijah also says hello to Moroni on top of the temple and points to his trumpet. We pass through miles and miles of farms before entering our little community. We were driving down the road, the kids were singing to Simon and Garfunkel at the top of their lungs. (Li-li-li-CHHHHH!) We sing the Boxer, "ELIJAH-LIJ! CHHHH!" If you know the song, you can see how the kids think it says Elijah's name. As we passed through the farms, we were naming the crops: corn, onions, alfalfa, hay, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, etc. When we first moved here, I couldn't get over how bizarre it all seemed to be in the middle of farms and yet on that morning, I felt a deep sense of gratitude for my life, for my beautiful, innocent children, for Dan's job, for our surroundings and for our new beginning in this land that still feels so far from home. I don't know why this particular moment hit me, but it did. I love that I am a mom, that I am blessed to stay home and raise my children and I am also grateful for the time we get to spend as a family each morning. I was also telling Dan today that I have felt more in tune to the Spirit since we moved here than I have felt in a long time. There aren't any distractions. The children and I are together all day. We spend most of our time outside and go to the park for lunch daily. The TV is off and most of the time, though the children do talk a lot, I have time to think. Life is simple, but it is good.
Last night Dan volunteered at the soup kitchen and the kids and I got take out and went to the park to picnic and play. When we got home, we went on a nice, long walk and set up the tent in the living room. This morning we picked up our Bountiful Basket (food co-op) For just over $20, I came home with a HUGE basket of produce. (an assortment of fruit, veggies and a mexican mix with peppers, onions, cilantro, tomatillos, etc.) It is like Christmas every time we pick it up, you never know what you are going to get. We lounged, napped and then went to the lake for a bit and then to our Stake Pioneer Day Celebration. Tonight, Dan slipped away to go see Harry Potter.
Again, I apologize if this is more of a journal posting than a fun one. Thank you all for tuning into our blog and keeping up with our family. They are growing and I love recording our lives sharing it with so many of you who live far away! Have a great week!
Friday night means camping out in the living room. The kids get to stay up late and watch a movie. Elijah REALLY gets a kick out of it, but has yet to settle down enough to actually fall asleep. Last night we watched Tangled! Then on Saturdays, the kids wake up to Dan's waffles and eggs. I live for the weekends these days!
Noelle "helped" me sew her a new skirt yesterday and then today we had fun shopping for a shirt and sweater to go with it for church!
Can you say ,"brothers?"
My birthday was on the 10th. I turned 30!!! We celebrated with cupcakes from Coldstone. They were AMAZING! I was wonderful having my birthday fall on a weekend with Dan home.
Our fun dad! Always the life of the party!
CHEESE!!!!
The ice cream cupcakes were a little cold!
Daisy is really growing and has turned into quite a mellow dog already. We will have her for a few more weeks and have found a good home for her. Our time for a puppy will come when our children are a bit older!
The kids spend their days in our backyard. They can dig in the dirt all day!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
VISITORS!!!
As an update to my last post, Dan found a zip with some retrieved photos. PHEW! Thank you for all of your suggestions. You can never be too careful with precious pictures!
We had a fun weekend. Emily came up and brought the kids. (Jeremy stayed behind to take a test!) We played hard and loved spending time holding the baby. Here are a few pictures! Again, we love visitors if anyone else would like to come our way! Thanks Emily for a fun weekend!
At Chili's!
The boys couldn't resist climbing in Daisy's cage! Quite funny!
Playing in the dirt on our construction site. We never let the kids get out to see the house's progress and this picture explains why!!!
The kids had so much fun, but were soooo dirty!
Our basement walls have been poured!
According to the builder's calendar, our house should be complete in 9 weeks!!!! We shall see!
We had a fun weekend. Emily came up and brought the kids. (Jeremy stayed behind to take a test!) We played hard and loved spending time holding the baby. Here are a few pictures! Again, we love visitors if anyone else would like to come our way! Thanks Emily for a fun weekend!
At Chili's!
The boys couldn't resist climbing in Daisy's cage! Quite funny!
Playing in the dirt on our construction site. We never let the kids get out to see the house's progress and this picture explains why!!!
The kids had so much fun, but were soooo dirty!
Our basement walls have been poured!
According to the builder's calendar, our house should be complete in 9 weeks!!!! We shall see!
Monday, July 18, 2011
A little bit of I told myself so!
Ever since our family decided to go digital with our photography, I have been obsessed with printing photos immediately. I have had a fear of loosing photos, or simply a fear of putting photos onto a computer and the pictures never being seen. I have a theory about pictures being for viewing, not for storing on a hard drive. I don't think my children someday will want to try to convert their technology to try to retrieve pictures that I was too cheap to print. (That is me, I know many people could care less about printing) Okay, I am on a soap box this morning because I am so frustrated... I want to SCREAM! When we transitioned into grad school, we were on a tight budget, I stopped printing pictures. We had 2 computers, a laptop and a desktop. ALL of our pictures of baby Corom were on this computer, not to mention pictures of Noelle as a beuatiful 2 year old. When we got to Utah, our desktop crashed. We retrieved some photos, but MANY were lost. Our laptop has since gone to heaven. I am trying to put together baby books for Corom and I can't find anything. NOTHING! We are missing basically the first 6 months of his life and the next few months after that a sparse, until we purchased our new desktop. It makes me want to cry. I can hear in my head all of the "I told you so's," but it all comes down to the "I didn't." If anyone has pictures of my children in 2008, I would love them. From here I out, I will be more diligent about saving and printing, but there is no going back now. It makes me sick.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Our little Elijah
I cried when I put this picture up. I miss his teeth already. We will have to wait 5 or 6 years to see a smile like this again.
We were loading up the car today, preparing to go to the park. The kids were playing in the front yard and Daisy (our puppy) was running around the grass. We have a bed of rocks in our front yard and the kids love crouching down and playing in them, like a sand box. This is where Elijah was. I heard him crying and he came to me to be held. I rocked him for awhile, before I noticed the blood on his mouth. When I checked to see if he had bitten his lip, I noticed he had broken teeth. One front tooth was knocked backwards and the other was cracked in half and dangling a bit. His side teeth were jagged. When I asked Noelle if she had seen what happened, she said the dog had run into Elijah, knocking him down, without time for him to catch himself. He landed on a cement landscaping brick. We first took him to an oral surgeon, who referred us to a pediatric clinic. The tried to salvage his tooth, but it was too fractured to do a crown. So, they extracted one front tooth, and the other is out of place, but still in tact. He has been himself, very lively and happy to be eating popsicles. Every time I look at him I cry, I am mourning the loss of his beautiful teeth. I know I should be grateful, and am grateful that he is safe, but I am devastated about loosing his smile. As for the dog, we are feeling like we should pass her along to a more fitting family. She does really well with Dan and I and even Noelle and Corom, but we have a had a few run-ins with Elijah. We have placed an add for her. If you know of anyone interested in a 9-week old Bassett Hound, she is cuddly, cute and mellow, just not a good fit for babies. We do think in time, she can be trained to do well with babies, but she does not understand her strength with Elijah. We are willing to send her or take her wherever there is a family who can love her. We really want to find a good home for her.
We were loading up the car today, preparing to go to the park. The kids were playing in the front yard and Daisy (our puppy) was running around the grass. We have a bed of rocks in our front yard and the kids love crouching down and playing in them, like a sand box. This is where Elijah was. I heard him crying and he came to me to be held. I rocked him for awhile, before I noticed the blood on his mouth. When I checked to see if he had bitten his lip, I noticed he had broken teeth. One front tooth was knocked backwards and the other was cracked in half and dangling a bit. His side teeth were jagged. When I asked Noelle if she had seen what happened, she said the dog had run into Elijah, knocking him down, without time for him to catch himself. He landed on a cement landscaping brick. We first took him to an oral surgeon, who referred us to a pediatric clinic. The tried to salvage his tooth, but it was too fractured to do a crown. So, they extracted one front tooth, and the other is out of place, but still in tact. He has been himself, very lively and happy to be eating popsicles. Every time I look at him I cry, I am mourning the loss of his beautiful teeth. I know I should be grateful, and am grateful that he is safe, but I am devastated about loosing his smile. As for the dog, we are feeling like we should pass her along to a more fitting family. She does really well with Dan and I and even Noelle and Corom, but we have a had a few run-ins with Elijah. We have placed an add for her. If you know of anyone interested in a 9-week old Bassett Hound, she is cuddly, cute and mellow, just not a good fit for babies. We do think in time, she can be trained to do well with babies, but she does not understand her strength with Elijah. We are willing to send her or take her wherever there is a family who can love her. We really want to find a good home for her.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Happy Birthday America!
HAPPY 4th of July! You can take a second to view the pictures or scroll down to read what we have been up to! Thanks for stopping by!
Noelle waited for hours last night to see the neighbor's street fireworks. By the time they started, she saw a few and Dan sent her to bed. This is how we found her!
It is a good thing this little puppy is so cute! It has been quite a roller coaster week. Yesterday we were just certain that we were going to have to pass her along to another family. One by one we changed our minds and decided to give her a another chance.
The question we get repeatedly is "Oh my goodness, are they twins?" Funny huh? 18 months apart! They were so excited to get spiderman shirts!
This little boy is growing so quickly. He is a riot! He talks from the time he wakes up, until his head hits the pillow. I love teaching him big words, as he will repeat anything we ask him to say. Yesterday it was, "FANTASTIC!" He is busy, cuddly, silly and very loving with his family. We love this baby!
I am so excited to be posting today. Many of you know that this move has been hard for me. I had fallen in love with Salt Lake, had made wonderful friends there, have family there. I just thought we would settle there. I also would have loved to go back to Sacramento. As we were considering job options and praying about our decision, we felt a strong hand lead us to Twin Falls. It is where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives. Yesterday we were in Sacrament Meeting (At church) and we sang the Star Spangled Banner for our opening hymn. I could not contain my emotions. I think sometimes prayers are answered when we least expect them to be. I thought to myself that I have so much to be grateful for. I am really in a wonderful place and we are going to find a great life here. I am so thankful for this wonderful country that I live in and that I am able to raise my family in. The government has many flaws, but there are many freedoms that we are able to enjoy. Ultimately, I am thankful for the freedom to worship as I choose, that I am able to wake up each Sunday and attend church, without any threat of persecution or government restrictions. I am thankful for the people who devote their lives to the run and protect our country. We had a friend back in Salt Lake who devoted a year and a half of her life, away from her husband and son to work as a medic in Iraq. She speaks about the joys for serving her country. I am so thankful for those wonderful people. I am thankful for a government who helped us get through graduate school on so many levels: grants, loans, food and health care. I now have a greater appreciation and desire to feed back into a system that helps families like ours. Like I said, I know the system is far but perfect, but it is wonderful no-the-less and this Independence Day, I am feeling a deep sense of appreciation for my life here in the United States! We are going to celebrate tonight by burning our money, I mean street fireworks with friends. The kids are SOOOOO excited!
As for what the Aldamas have been up to, I am going to do this in bullet- form:
-We have been parenting 3 young children and a puppy. (I could stop here!)
-We took a really, really quick trip to Salt Lake (24 hours including driving!) last weekend to attend the sealing of Calisa, one of our friends from student apartments to her husband and 5 year old son. She was sealed to her family in the Salt Lake Temple. It was beautiful!
-We had 10 people (one of those a new born and also a puppy!) in a student apartment for a night. We hadn't seen Emily's baby and wanted to spend as much time snuggling her as time would allow! It was a blast!
-We tried our first Bountiful Basket last week (food co-op) and have been enjoying yummy farmer's market produce all week!
-We have been doing lunch in the park everyday- it is amazing, healthy, yummy lunches and tons of kids!
-We are juggling having just one car and enjoy our time taking and picking Dan up from work. This is a huge part of our day. We get to drive by the temple and often attach it to errands in the "City!"
-On Friday we went out to dinner and had amazing food at a restaurant with a case full of guns on the wall and taxidermy all around us. We knew we were in Idaho! HAH! It is starting to feel normal!
-We visit our construction site daily. SLOW progress, but progress. They have the foundation down, the skeleton plumbing for the basement and have all the frames ready to poor the basement walls. It is scheduled to be done the 22nd of September, which is a bit of a stress for us, since the house we are living in is pending sale and the landlords have given us until August 31st to be out. We shall see. There is no speeding up the building process. It is slow!
-Noelle and I watched an entire High School Musical Marathon on Saturday-all three movies!!!! We love it! Even Elijah and Corom can sing every single song.
Noelle waited for hours last night to see the neighbor's street fireworks. By the time they started, she saw a few and Dan sent her to bed. This is how we found her!
It is a good thing this little puppy is so cute! It has been quite a roller coaster week. Yesterday we were just certain that we were going to have to pass her along to another family. One by one we changed our minds and decided to give her a another chance.
The question we get repeatedly is "Oh my goodness, are they twins?" Funny huh? 18 months apart! They were so excited to get spiderman shirts!
This little boy is growing so quickly. He is a riot! He talks from the time he wakes up, until his head hits the pillow. I love teaching him big words, as he will repeat anything we ask him to say. Yesterday it was, "FANTASTIC!" He is busy, cuddly, silly and very loving with his family. We love this baby!
I am so excited to be posting today. Many of you know that this move has been hard for me. I had fallen in love with Salt Lake, had made wonderful friends there, have family there. I just thought we would settle there. I also would have loved to go back to Sacramento. As we were considering job options and praying about our decision, we felt a strong hand lead us to Twin Falls. It is where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives. Yesterday we were in Sacrament Meeting (At church) and we sang the Star Spangled Banner for our opening hymn. I could not contain my emotions. I think sometimes prayers are answered when we least expect them to be. I thought to myself that I have so much to be grateful for. I am really in a wonderful place and we are going to find a great life here. I am so thankful for this wonderful country that I live in and that I am able to raise my family in. The government has many flaws, but there are many freedoms that we are able to enjoy. Ultimately, I am thankful for the freedom to worship as I choose, that I am able to wake up each Sunday and attend church, without any threat of persecution or government restrictions. I am thankful for the people who devote their lives to the run and protect our country. We had a friend back in Salt Lake who devoted a year and a half of her life, away from her husband and son to work as a medic in Iraq. She speaks about the joys for serving her country. I am so thankful for those wonderful people. I am thankful for a government who helped us get through graduate school on so many levels: grants, loans, food and health care. I now have a greater appreciation and desire to feed back into a system that helps families like ours. Like I said, I know the system is far but perfect, but it is wonderful no-the-less and this Independence Day, I am feeling a deep sense of appreciation for my life here in the United States! We are going to celebrate tonight by burning our money, I mean street fireworks with friends. The kids are SOOOOO excited!
As for what the Aldamas have been up to, I am going to do this in bullet- form:
-We have been parenting 3 young children and a puppy. (I could stop here!)
-We took a really, really quick trip to Salt Lake (24 hours including driving!) last weekend to attend the sealing of Calisa, one of our friends from student apartments to her husband and 5 year old son. She was sealed to her family in the Salt Lake Temple. It was beautiful!
-We had 10 people (one of those a new born and also a puppy!) in a student apartment for a night. We hadn't seen Emily's baby and wanted to spend as much time snuggling her as time would allow! It was a blast!
-We tried our first Bountiful Basket last week (food co-op) and have been enjoying yummy farmer's market produce all week!
-We have been doing lunch in the park everyday- it is amazing, healthy, yummy lunches and tons of kids!
-We are juggling having just one car and enjoy our time taking and picking Dan up from work. This is a huge part of our day. We get to drive by the temple and often attach it to errands in the "City!"
-On Friday we went out to dinner and had amazing food at a restaurant with a case full of guns on the wall and taxidermy all around us. We knew we were in Idaho! HAH! It is starting to feel normal!
-We visit our construction site daily. SLOW progress, but progress. They have the foundation down, the skeleton plumbing for the basement and have all the frames ready to poor the basement walls. It is scheduled to be done the 22nd of September, which is a bit of a stress for us, since the house we are living in is pending sale and the landlords have given us until August 31st to be out. We shall see. There is no speeding up the building process. It is slow!
-Noelle and I watched an entire High School Musical Marathon on Saturday-all three movies!!!! We love it! Even Elijah and Corom can sing every single song.
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