It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...The Middle Of January...

So it looks as if my hopes of a new house for Christmas are put on delay...We were initially hoping for our New Year to start in our new home, but things slowed down - almost to a screeching halt!  I found out today that the construction supervisors were changed and basically Ivory Homes dropped the ball in the transition.  They are now waiting for the gas line to be hooked up to tape and mud the dry wall.  If it isn't hooked up by next week, they are going to bring in portable heaters.  VERY little got done last week and it's the same for this week.  With Thanksgiving falling in this week, I don't know how much they will accomplish by week's end.  

So here's the update:

~Interior is dry walled

~Exterior stone was started today...my hope is that they work Friday and Saturday, but I won't hold my breath

~Garage doors are installed

We're going to go over to the house tomorrow morning for a look around.  It's amazing how quickly it gets dark these days - even with being at the end of the time zone, it's dark shortly after 5pm!

Hoping to get some new pictures to post without construction workers and in good light.

Dear Santa

Every year Riley and I take a trip to Toys R Us to begin the long wish list for Santa.  He tells me what to items to take pictures of to put on his list.  This year Uncle Kevin came along with us.  That was nice because he watched Kendall while Riley and I were snapping away!

Here is his "wish list":

We didn't find this anywhere, but Riley would like a brown UPS truck.

Legos are a popular choice this year.

Lego City Camper

Lego City Police Command Center

Lego Soldier's Fort

Lego Brickbeard's Bounty

 Multiple Lego Bricks & More:  Large Green Baseplate Accessory

Leapster cartridge - Batman Strength In Numbers

Leapster Cartridge - Digging For Dinosaurs

Matchbox Mega Rig Pirate Ship

Tonka Mighty Motorized Garbage Truck...Will he EVER outgrow his love to push trucks around the house?  He's 5 1/2 years old and still wants trucks!

Star Wars is still popular again with him this Christmas...

Star Wars R McQuarrie Signature Series Action Figures

Star Wars Legacy Collection - Disturbance at Lars Homestead

Star Wars Clone Trooper Costume

Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Gunship

True Heros Talking Military Utility Belt

True Heros Military Deluxe Set

Ikea Large Stuffed Shark

I think Santa is going to add a Razor Scooter and possibly a sled and cup stacking to his list.  He needs a new scooter, but has forgotten about it because it's colder out now and we don't get it out as often as we did before.  If we get a big snow storm before Christmas, he may end up with a new sled before then, but we got rid of all of our before we moved to Florida.  We left one in PA at Grammy's and the other headed to North Carolina with Nanny & Pappy.

Riley understands that he will not receive everything on his list.  He knows that Santa won't bring him everything he wants, but will try to bring him some of what he wants if he's a good boy.

Both kids are getting their own stuffed chair from Pottery Barn from my parents for their playroom.  We want to have a little reading corner for them and they are going to love them.  They were on sale last month so we snatched them up while we could.

Kendall's list is much shorter.  The kid lacks for nothing.  She's got all of Riley's hand me down toys and plenty of clothes to last through the winter.  Right now she's been very interested in books, animals aka ga-ga's, Elmo, her baby doll and dress up.  She loves to look into the mirror we have in our bedroom!  I have it propped up against the wall so she has a full length view of herself.  You should see how dirty it is from her touching it!  Here are some ideas of things she might enjoy:

Any board books with pictures of animals in it would be a great hit!  Ikea has some cute yet inexpensive play kitchen accessories that we could add to our kitchen once we get it out of storage.

Santa will most likely bring the following for Sissy:

 

Fisher Price Laugh & Learn: Learning Puppy

Elmo Live Encore!

Melissa & Doug Pretty Purse Fill & Spill

Any type of dress up accessories that she can't choke on - she still puts  A LOT of stuff into her mouth.  Any type of safe jewelry or brushes, etc. she'd love to play with...she's forever going after my stuff.

Family members have been asking for this info so I hope this gives some of you (and Santa) some ideas for the Chunko children for Christmas.  Boy Santa is going to be busy this year...Thank goodness our "Elf On The Shelf" will be making an appearance the Friday after Turkey Day!

A Girl After Her Pappy's Heart

We went out to eat on Sunday afternoon.  Riley choose to go to Texas Roadhouse because he and Dad are "meat eaters" and they like the steak there.  We decided to splurge and try a Baby Blossom which is their smaller version of Outback's Bloomin' Onion.  We assumed Riley would try it and like it, but no such luck.  To our surprise, Kendall LOVED it!  She kept going back for more.  


Her Pappy Hershock is a fan of onion rings so he will be thrilled to know that he will have a buddy to eat them with him!  


Here's the proof:

Expensive Lesson Learned

Today we went out to lunch as a family.  After stuffing ourselves like pigs, we headed over to the mall to walk it off.  While we were there I stepped into the Hallmark store to ask if they carried last year's popular "Elf on a Shelf."  Meanwhile Riley decided to pick up a snow globe and bobbled it.  It came crashing down to the ground and the next thing we know there's glass, water, and glitter all over the floor!

Well, he learned a $30 lesson today!  Can you believe someone would spend that much on a Christmas snow globe?  Well, we did.  Riley got embarrassed, and felt bad about it, which is good because he learned that you don't touch in stores like that.  We came up with a plan for him to earn back the money that it cost for the snow globe.  He's going to help around the house (there isn't a whole lot more he can do - he already makes his bed, puts laundry away, clears his dishes, cleans up the toys in his room, feeds the dog, etc.) but now he's going to help Daddy take out the trash, fold laundry, etc.  Each task is going to be worth a dollar, so he has to help with 30 extra tasks.

He immediately asked his dad if they could take out the trash tonight!  I hope this helps him to learn to keep his hands in his pockets while we're in stores with breakables!

What Is It With Me and Tires?

I seem to have an issue with tires on our vehicles...When we lived in Jax, I lost count of the number of tires that needed plug because of all the nails I ran over while they were building houses in our development - that was a result of sloppy sub contractors who NEVER cleaned up after themselves, not of my poor driving.

Right before Andy drove the truck to Utah from Florida, I took it in for an oil change, etc. and came to find out we needed to replace the front two tires because there were nails in the outer portion of the tire - not where they could plug it!  Tires for the Tundra are EXPENSIVE!

Well, many of you know, I just got a new car a little over a month ago.  They are building our new home and I drive over there almost daily.  I've been trying to be careful to not drive where they could have dropped nails, etc.  Well, Friday night, on my way out with some women from my MOMS Club, I noticed the tire pressure in one of my back tires was about half of where it should be...and not because I'm terribly observant to my tires, but because the sensor came on and told me that was the problem!  So I just kept an eye on it while I drove to my MNO and the next day I had Andy look at it.  It had dropped from 16 to 8 overnight!  YIKES!  It's supposed to be around 32!

I had Andy take it back to Acura yesterday afternoon and they discovered that there was a tiny piece of metal that had pierced through the tire.  NOT something I could have run over while checking on progress of the new house!  Whew!

The Acura dealer where we bought our MDX is awesome!  The whole sales gang came out to greet Andy and they took it back immediately without any appt.  If anyone is looking for a new car, I highly recommend checking out Mike Hale Acura in the Salt Lake City area.  We were blessed with great service for our Toyotas at Arlington Toyota in Jax, but that's because Andy worked with the girlfriend of the service manager.  We never paid full price for any service so we were bracing for the worst with dealer service.  Not so with Acura.  I get free oil changes for life, free loaner car if necessary, and couldn't ask for nicer people to do business with.

So, my tire got plugged and we're ready to head out for our next adventure!  I can't believe how many miles we've put on that car already!

She's Growing Up So Fast!

Some of you know I joined the MOMS Club in the town where I live - all the members have the same zip code as me.  Kind of cool, huh?  Well, today was our first playgroup play date.  We met some other moms and their kids at Bouncin' Off The Walls.  Its a smaller version of Pump It Up in Jax.  

K was a little tentative at first.  She was the youngest by about 6 months, but you'd never know it.  Once she warmed up to the environment, she was good to go.  They had a big slide there - you know the inflatable kind - and that was her favorite thing to do.  She kept signing "more" and "please" after we'd get down.  She even got brave enough to slide down it by herself.  She did that about 5 or 6 times!  I'd follow her and scoop her up at the bottom and she'd be giggling and smiling!  She had a great time.  

I'm really glad that I went.  The other moms were incredibly nice and they had girls as well which is great for K to have some new girlfriends.

We broke down and finally joined a "gym" out here.  This place is incredible.  They put a bubble over the outdoor pool for winter usage.  Spa - haven't tried that yet, but I'd have child care so I may need to take advantage of that!  There's a cafe where you can order food for the pool in the summer or to go after your work out, lots of classes and kids programs as well.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays they offer an Aqua Babies class.  It's half water aerobics and half baby swim lesson/water safety, etc.  K decided to literally "voice" her independence during the class yesterday.  She's capable of all that we did, she just wanted to (loudly) express that she didn't want to do it.  And of course, she echoed all over the pool area.  I'm surprised I'm not deaf from her screaming in my ear.  The other moms assured me their kids started out the same way and since she's the youngest, I'll have to take their word for it.  We have to skip tomorrow's class because we have MOPS, but we plan to try it again next Tuesday.  If nothing else, it exhausted her.  

Find a New Pediatrician - Stat!

Moving to a new place is always full of challenges.  Finding a place to live, a new church, school, and doctors.  When Riley started school, his school nurse told me he'd need his Hep A shot booster in November so I figured I had until then to find us a new doctor.  Well, it's November and we finally found a new pediatrician for the kids.  I researched the internet for doctors in the town where we live and found a fantastic office nearby.

Sissy was due for her 15 mth. check up so we scheduled both kids on the same day.  We talked to the doc about Sis's lack of vocabulary.  She understands EVERYTHING, but doesn't say a whole lot....well, let me clarify  that, she says a lot, but we don't typically understand much of it.  With Riley being a delayed talker due to the excess amount of fluid in his ears resulting in tubes, we're a little more sensitive to the matter.  (I know some of you probably don't believe me that Riley didn't talk from the moment he was pulled out of the womb, but it's true.  The kid just hasn't stopped talking since he got tubes in his ears!)  Sis says "Da Da" and "ball" as well as "gaw gaw" for animals or "gog" for dog.  But since she signs for milk, more, please, all done and eat, the doc wasn't concerned one bit.  I just needed to be reassured that she wasn't too far delayed.  Doc said that signing counted as her words for now so all is good.

K weighed in a whopping 20 lbs. 9 oz at 15 months!  The Chunko children are born skinny and seem to stay that way.  She's in the 10-25th percentile for weight but in the 90th percentile for height.  Maybe she'll be built like her dad?  She already has his long torso.

I don't know how she knows, but as soon as the nurse comes in with her tray of shots, K freaks out!  The past two times she's been a mess.  She knows exactly what's going on.  I had to hold her pretty tight because she was trying to squirm her way out of getting stuck.  Thank goodness Andy didn't have to do it, he can't stand watching anyone getting shots.  What a wimp!

Riley was prepped for his booster shot but come to find out that he was 7 days early!  So now we're headed back on Friday for a well check for him as well as his shot.  Poor kid!  He's dreading his shot!  Momma better have something special planned for the rest of the afternoon, huh?

Ahoy Me Hearty! It's Time to Be Makin' Me Some Whoopie Pies!

Riley wanted me to make him an apron to use when we bake together.  We were at Robert's which is a craft store out here similar to Michael's (but with a HUGE scrapbooking section), and found these kid-sized aprons for a few bucks.  I couldn't make it for that price - by the time I bought the material and spent the time to sew it, it didn't make any sense.  So I splurged on the apron and then we decided to paint the skull and cross bones on it to give it a "manly" feel.  Once I took the picture of him helping me make whoopie pies on Sunday, I realized that it resembles the poison symbol!  I hope this isn't the reason the whoopie pies didn't turn out!  Here I was blaming the altitude!

The whoopie pies got flat instead of nice and fluffy like they do when baked at sea level.  I even reduced their baking time and temperature.  They taste alright, just don't look as nice.  Poor Riley...He wanted to make them all weekend.  Saturday we didn't have the instant coffee we needed so we settled for chocolate cupcakes with caramel icing instead.  On Sunday at church their verse was Ecc. 4:9 "Two people are better than one.  They can help each other in everything they do."  They were supposed to draw a picture of themselves helping someone else do something...so guess what Riley drew?  A picture of him helping mom make whoopie pies!  Needless to say, I stopped by the grocery store after church and picked up the last ingredient and we finally baked whoopie pies together.  He doesn't care if they don't look quite the same, he enjoys them regardless!

Happy Birthday Noodle!

So my new favorite craft is stenciling shirts...It's amazingly simple to do.  I made a Mickey and Minnie shirt for each of the kids with the intention of visiting Disney, but that trip to Jax and Disney got canned.  Our dear friend Nick, who lives in Florida, had his 3rd birthday this week and we were bummed that we had to miss it.  The plan was to take his present with us and hand deliver it, but no such luck.

Nick LOVES pirates - that may be an understatement.  He lives and breathes pirates.  When there was a baby alligator in the pond behind his house, he spent the days looking out the back window saying "tick tock" the entire time!  Any time I would babysit Nick, he'd always ask if I could put Kendall to bed so he and I could play with Riley's Lego Pirate set!

So in honor of Nick's love for all things pirate, I made him a Capt. Hook shirt for his birthday.  I think Riley is a little jealous because I made a pirate shirt for Nick, but he'll get over it when he sees all the shirts I have planned for him!

I bought each kid a red long sleeve shirt and plan to stencil snow flakes on it for Christmas!  Can't wait to see how they turn out!  This is so much fun and a cheaper way to give my kids one of a kind shirts!

Sibling Love is the BEST!

Two days ago Riley had a melt down because I denied him his halloween candy dessert after lunch because he intentionally stepped on a toy of his sisters that she was trying to pick up.  We discussed what "on purpose" vs. "accident" meant and I'm not sure if he really grasped the point, but regardless his consequence was no candy after lunch.  The tears started and the cry fest began.  Poor Sissy didn't know what to make of all of it, but somehow she knew he was upset and needed some lovin'.  Her solution was to kiss him, hug him and pat his head to make him feel better.  It was one of my favorite moments as a mom.  To see her show him compassion at such a young age warmed my heart.  

Both of my kids are so sweet on each other.  They are each other's best friend.  I think Kendall is the reason Riley did so well with this move west.  He has a constant playmate.  The best part is that they both love to play with each other's toys!

This picture was taken yesterday of my two lovin' on each other again.  K is really into books right now and R is doing a great job of reading so she picked up one of her favorite books (Itsy Bitsy Spider) and sat in his lap and he read it to her!  

I have to keep these images in my head for those days where they are getting on each others' nerves as well as my own!  It's these moments that I need to cherish because siblings will argue and fight over the years, but in the end, they love each other and I hope they will remain the best of friends.

Cancelled Mini-Vacation...

So Andy has a trip for work schedule for Jacksonville in 2 weeks.  Little did he know that his business trip was going to double as a mini family vacation!  How could we turn up such an opportunity?

Well, Andy calls me this morning to let me know that he'd been on the phone with Southwest Airlines and they will not allow us to use our Rapids Rewards points to fly with Andy on his trip because they are overbooked for Thanksgiving the following week.  If we were to purchase 2 roundtrip tickets, it would cost us $1300!  Ouch!  So, now, our trip is cancelled.

I am SOOOO bummed.  I was looking forward to hanging out with my girlfriends, eating at Angies and sucking down as much sweet tea as I could in a few days as well as getting a quick trip in to Disney.  I even had made the kids matching Mickey and Minnie tee shirts to wear at Disney.  At the rate my kids are growing, they won't fit by the time we get back to visit after the New Year.

I guess there is no point in waiting to get my Utah license now...We were planning to get a Florida resident discount at Disney.  Oh well, we'll end up paying full price but at least we can plan it around another trip to Jax for work and use free flights...

Sorry to all my Jax friends.  I miss you all so very much!  We'll try again after the holidays!

Here are the adorable shirts I made the kids...

Utah's Version of Central Park

Today was so beautiful that the thought of staying inside seemed criminal.  So after some research online, we decided to check out a new park.  So far I haven't found the "it" park.  In Jax, it was Sunshine Park in Jax Beach and in Lancaster, it was a toss up between West Earl Park in Talmage and Long's Park.  All three have AWESOME playgrounds for the munchkins.

Liberty Park has a water feature for the warm months and an all-ability playground which means K and R can both enjoy the same area.  There was a dried up pond where the ducks and geese were trying to hang out in the small puddles.  In the spring time this might be a fun place to go and feed the ducks.  There is also a paved bike/jogging path around the entire park.  It's a big park - I wonder how many laps is a mile...could easily be just one lap.

Here are some pics of our fun day.

K loves attempting to climb things...She's a real monkey!

Brother is such a good helper!  He asked if he could push her in the swing...just needs a reminder to push gently from time to time!

I'd like to think she's counting in this one, but that's probably just luck!

We found a pile of leaves to jump in!

This is how K spends most of her time at the parks...walking around and making Momma nervous that she'll wonder off and I won't see where she went!

Family Fun Time on Sunday

After church today, the sun was shining and the temps had warmed up so Andy suggested we take the family on a hike.  It was a glorious day to do just that.  We drove back to Corner Canyon and hiked up the Jacob's Ladder trail...boy does that trail go up, and up, and up the mountain!  This trail is very appropriately named.  It felt that we'd make our way to Heaven if we just kept going.  We got to the top of the canyon, but not the top of the mountain.  Our trail connected to another that wove around the other side of the canyon so we decided that since Riley was exhausted as it was, we'd better just head back down the way we came.  We passed a number of sections along the trail that were still snow covered.  Thank goodness the trails weren't too muddy today.

Riley and I enjoyed some trail running on the way back to the truck.  We had almost reached the trail head (and we were running at full speed) when a snake slithered across our narrow trail and up into the woods!  I screamed so loud that I heard my echo across the canyon!  What a wimp I've become when it comes to snakes.  You'd think that after my 2 years in Jax, I'd be more use to the idea of snakes.  I think it's because I was surrounded by so many poisonous snakes in Jax, that I'm even more cautious and scared of them.  Once we all reached the trail head, and we were walking back to the truck, we came across a second snake!  Thank goodness both were more scared of me and my girlie screams than we were of them!

The view from the top of the canyon was worth all the work to get to the top.  I carried K in the back pack for the first half of the trip - all but a little bit of the ascent, then when my lungs felt like they were going to burst out of my chest if I went any further, I handed her off to Andy.  He had the easy part of hiking down the mountain.  But that's alright.  I needed to burn off the extra calories and I had fun running with Riley on the way down.

My two guys taking a break against a big boulder

Sissy's rest stop

Riley loved his walking stick that Daddy found for him.  When we were descending the mt., I convinced him that it would be safer to leave the stick while we were running, so he buried it in a pile of leaves hoping it would still be there when we return.

At the top of the canyon, this was our view to the south...This is Utah Lake in Utah County, just south of where we live.  We were east of South Mountain looking over the Alpine/Highland area.

This was the view looking back into the valley...somewhere down there is where we parked...Across the valley is Kennecott Cooper Mines.  This mine can be seen by astronauts as they fly over the United States!  It's 2 3/4 miles wide and 3/4 of a mile deep.

Looking up the rest of the trail towards the south east.

Our view of Mt. Timpanogos.

Where the trail seemed to continue towards (looking north east)...See why I told you it was appropriately named Jacob's Ladder!  I would love to know how high we climbed!  No wonder Riley kept saying he felt like he was dying for the second half of the ascent!

The Candy Fairy Visits the Chunkos!

We started yet another "fairy" tradition.  The candy fairy visited our house last night and took away the kids candy and left them with presents instead.  Now don't get to thinking that we're mean, horrible, awful parents who don't let their kids have ANY fun!  Riley did get to pick out a quart sized ziplock bag of his loot to keep.  But he had such a large amount of candy that even as good as we ration it with him, he'd still be finishing it by the time Valentine's day rolls around!

Last night after removing his favorites, Riley placed both bags on the front door knob in hopes that the candy fairy would arrive overnight.  When I got up this morning, he couldn't wait to show me what the fairy brought him.  He was thrilled to receive 3 new Hot Wheels cars.  Sissy got a Veggie Tales movie full of short clips that I got for a few bucks a month or so back.  Riley is excited for her present too because he knows he'll get to watch it with her.

So the candy fairy was a hit for everyone.  The kids get to keep a little bit of candy, they got presents and mom and dad don't have to worry about having so much around the house!  The plan is for Andy to take most of it to work so it doesn't sit around in our house, tempting us.

Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet! Give Me Something Good to Eat!

Last night was Halloween and our kids had a blast!  It was nice because it was the first time we went trick-or-treating as a family.  We drove over to our new house and parked there and headed out into the neighborhood.  It was nice to meet some of our new neighbors and for Riley to see some of his friends from school.  K would walk up to the door with her brother and take a piece of candy in her hand and then go back to her Daddy and put her treat into her candy bag.  She'd scream when we left her in the wagon and didn't allow her to go up to the door!

When we approached one neighbor's door, they had a mechanical witch that made noise and stirred her cauldron...well that was enough to freak Kendall out!  She doesn't like anyone dressed up as large characters - she freaked over Curious George at the Halloween Haunt on Monday too!  After seeing the witch, she wouldn't get down at the door for at least a block and a half!  She warmed up to it again and had so much fun collecting candy!  She had no clue as to why people were giving her treats, but it was fun.

Riley on the other hand has turned into his Dad when it comes to trick-or-treating...He was in such a hurry because he was afraid that the neighbors would run out of candy!  We couldn't keep up fast enough.  It's no wonder he wanted to hit as many houses as possible...some of our neighbors were giving out full sized candy bars and the rest were giving out 2-3 pieces at a time...We're going to be broke keeping up with everyone next year!