Dean Weigant Park

A couple of days ago Amber (the other mom that's here in Oklahoma for a couple weeks with us) and I went for a walk with the kids (she has 2 girls) and stumbled upon this cool park. It's an older park with older toys, but they have toys for kids of all ages. In fact, it looks as though the toys for the younger kids are a lot newer. The kids had a blast, but since I wasn't intending on going to a park, I didn't have my camera...so I got Chris to go with the boys and me last night after dinner.Looks like I have two boys who love being outside!!

Sick Kiddos :(

Well we didn't waste any time in all getting sick within the first couple weeks of being here! Parker got sick first with a fever one day and the cough and runny nose shortly followed. Luckily his only lasted a few days. He in turn however helped out by giving it to the rest of us. Only, Tyler got it worst of all. He had a fever of between 100 and 102 degrees from this past Monday through Wednesday. He lost his appetite, wasn't sleeping well, had a runny nose and a nasty cough, and had thrown up his bottles a few times those three days. I decided to get a recommendation for a pediatrician so I could take him in on Thursday to make sure everything was okay.

I was able to get an appointment that afternoon with a nurse practitioner who quickly found poor Tyler had an ear infection in each ear, and on top of that he tested positive for RSV (a serious respiratory virus that makes it hard to breath and is down in the lungs). I was so glad that I decided to take him in since that morning his fever was gone. We left with 3 medications and a nebulizer. The nebulizer is a machine that blows air through a tube to help diffuse medicine out of a mouthpiece or mask into Tyler's mouth. He actually does really well with it. He has to have that every 4 hours (for 4 times every day) and he will usually just sit there and suck on the mouthpiece. We also found last night that he is working on cutting another bottom tooth! Poor guy is just a mess, however he is doing SO much better!! I am happy to report that last night he only woke up once after he got up at 10 pm.

It was so sad seeing him feel so miserable last week with his eyes half closed, and just very somber and motionless and I'm so happy that he is doing better! Chris and I are still overcoming our sore throats and stuffy noses, but we are also just about over it too and we'll finally all be back to normal!!

Cruisin'

While we were waiting at Sears for the tires to get put on, Chris took the boys on a little walk and found a car stroller (you know, one of the ones you rent at the mall?) that someone had left, so that gave Parker something to play with. Both boys loved playing with it!He's on a mission!!I love how Tyler gets so mad when Parker tries to play with the car too...He started clapping last week too, it's so cute!

Moving Recap

**Mainly for my journaling benefit! But feel free to read all about our adventures the past couple of weeks!**

Since we got stuck on Sunday night we had to wait until Monday to hear from the dealership. When we finally heard Monday evening they told us that the transmission was toast and that it would take about a week or so until it was fixed. We could NOT wait in Wichita a week so on Tuesday afternoon we took our rental car and drove down to Oklahoma so Chris could get started on the job. Wednesday was spent checking in to all the apartment complexes we are renting for us and the crew, and going to get some stuff to get us through the rest of the week (our trailer was still parked at the dealership in Wichita).

Chris then spent Thursday-Saturday working and on Saturday afternoon we took the company truck up to Wichita to pick up the trailer (we will no longer be pulling anything with our car!). Well as luck would have it, about 15 miles outside of Wichita the front tire blew out on the truck!!! Due to a slow leak in one of the other tires the spare was being used and the other tire was back in Oklahoma, which meant that once again we needed to call a tow truck AND a taxi. Awesome! The irony here is that about an hour before the tire blew one of Chris' managers called and told him to go ahead and put 4 new tires on the truck whenever he gets a chance. Looks like his chance is now! At this point Chris and I were just laughing because it seems we just can't go to Wichita without breaking down just outside of the stinkin' city. Things got done a lot quicker this time around and it only took about an hour and half to get picked up and dropped off at Sears. We called Sears about 6 pm and said we would be there in about an hour or so and asked if they would be able to put all new tires on tonight. They said they would. Well turns out Sears isn't very quick about putting new tires on because we got there around 7:30 pm and left at 10 pm with ONLY 2 tires put on!!! (They close at 9) Not very impressive, which meant that once again we got to stay in a hotel. But we got all of our stuff finally! We'll just get to go back to Wichita 1 or 2 more times to drop off the rental and pick up our car, and hopefully we'll be able to go up event free!

Chris finished up the footing of the building on Monday which gave him the rest of the week to be able to work at home . The other 2 tires got put on in about 15 minutes at a tire place here in town (that's more like it!). We also found out that the warranty company would only pay for 5 days for a rental car, so we decided to head back to Wichita to return it and just use a company car until ours was done. The dealership called us and had told us that it was going to be at least another week until the transmission was done because the warranty company took so long to decide that the dealership can just rebuild it and then it takes a few days for the parts to come in, so we didn't want to pay for another week or so for the rental. We drove it back without any problems!!! Then while we were eating lunch we got a call saying the parts for the transmission had come in early and the guy cranked it out last night so it was ready for pickup! YAY!!! That means we don't have to go back a 4th time!

And now, after a week and a half of getting here we are finally all moved in and mostly settled in!!

Bath-Splashin' Fun

On our last night in our apartment we gave the kids a bath. This is just a little view of what happens at each bath time...all those involved (whether you're in the tub or not) gets soaked!!

And the Adventures BEGIN!!

Well as I mentioned before, we wanted to buy a car that had the capacity to haul a trailer of our stuff so we wouldn't have to drive separately. Little did we know that on Sunday we would only get to Wichita, Kansas, or about 20 minutes before Wichita, before we had trouble! When Chris looked in the side mirror he noticed a bunch of smoke coming from the car so we pulled over to take a look and found that there was stuff leaking from the transmission. Great. So since we didn't want to drive it anymore we had to call a tow truck and a taxi (since we couldn't all fit in the tow truck) and get towed to our hotel (which I had just booked through Hotwire about 20 minutes before!). Well it took about 3 1/2 hours or so for the tow truck to get there and get everything hooked up and situated and for the taxi to get there, which meant by the time we got to our hotel and got dinner it was around 10 pm!! Luckily we weren't very far from a big city, with a Ford dealership close by.
A little preview of the car!Just hangin' out in the tow truck while we wait for the taxi. He was a little nervous about being in there at first, but as long as we stood there right next to him he was fine!

Saddle Up

When we hit Rock Springs, WY we stopped for dinner at Arby's and then walked over for dessert at McDonald's so Parker could get some energy out. Let me just say that was the nicest McDonald's I have EVER seen!! It had a fireplace, soft sofa-chair things in the play area, little tables with saddles for seats for the kiddos and apparently TV's in the bathrooms! In the kids area they also have a console thing with 3 different video games, which was really all that Parker wanted to play with at first (not really what we had in mind!).

Moving :(

We left Idaho on March 18 for Shawnee, Oklahoma. We will be here for about 3-4 months for Chris' work. The school is building a dome for a new cafeteria. We were sad to leave Rexburg and all our family and friends but we shall soon be back!! It's always a new adventure going somewhere new for a while.

New Car!!

That's right, we finally bought a new car on March 9, 2011!!! We have pretty much grown out of our little civic making any sort of long trip virtually impossible with 2 little kids, so we looked for either a mid-size or full-size SUV, that also included a tow package so we could haul a trailer whenever we move. We ended up finding a car we love...a White 2004 Ford Explorer!! It's in really good condition, under 100k miles, leather seats, the 3rd row that folds down into the floor, rear air and a tow package! The boys love it, Parker calls it the truck and the best part is that when we have another child we won't have to find another car for awhile still!!

**Since we bought it a week before we moved, I have been too busy to take any pictures. I will get some shortly!**

8 Months

Wow, this month has gone really fast and I am still finding it hard to believe that Tyler is now 8 months old! He is getting bigger and bigger, loving to eat every couple hours and loves watching his big brother play. He hasn't started crawling yet, although he can push himself backwards, but that's about it for now. Eating everything has become a favorite pastime of his and has tried pancakes, waffles, bread, cheerios and several new 2nd step baby foods. This little guy has already learned to steal food off of Parker's plate, as well as try to grab his arm and basically annoy him at all costs (it is quite funny!).

I love getting him up in the morning or after naps and seeing his happy little face and kicking legs as he plays with his little mirror and stuffed cow. He is always so excited to see us! Fortunately he also hasn't gotten any more teeth. His bashful/shy stage is starting to set in also and he will rest his head on our shoulders when meeting someone new. For now this is kinda nice because I consider it cuddling, however I really hope it doesn't become a problem later on down the road!
I can't get over how adorable Tyler looks in his new church clothes!! It's a little bittersweet because he looks so big in this outfit though :(