Deployment

So, life as usual has been very crazy lately.  I have been having troubles with my computer for the last month and a half, so I haven't been keeping up on my blog very well.    Anyway I've probably already forgotten most of what has happened in the last month and a half, but the biggest thing is that Travis deployed.  Now, before I get to that, Travis and I were able to go to General/Chaplain Conference the beginning of October.  We got to go, just the two of us, it was so nice to be able to spend some time together before he had to leave.  We were able to get a Young Adult preparing to go on her mission, to watch our kids for the six days we would be gone.  She did an amazing job, and the kids were all fine while we were away.  We flew to Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 2nd.  We met Travis' sister Maia for lunch, and got to spend a little time with her.  That night we attended the banquet where Gary Stevenson (soon to be called apostle) spoke to us.  While we were there for Chaplain conference we got to hang out on Saturday with two Jordanian religious leaders who were there as VIP speakers for the conference.  It was really neat learning more about them and their country and touring around salt lake city, provo/byu, and sundance with them.  We ate ice cream from the BYU creamery, rode on a ski lift up in the mountains, and had a wonderful Jordanian dinner with all the Palestinian students from BYU.   Sunday we were able to attend all the sessions of conference, and go to dinner at the military relations missionaries house that we knew in Colorado Springs.  Monday, we attended all the sessions of chaplain conference, wonderful speakers (including the two Jordanians, and the wife of newly called apostle  Rasband)  We went to dinner at the cheesecake factory with some friends from Colorado Springs.  While we were walking back to our hotel, we ran into a man and woman who asked Travis about his military uniform and the "crosses" he was wearing on his uniform, and when he found out he was a chaplain asked him to pray for him, as his wife died last night.  We ended up sitting on a bench talking with them for a little while, and Travis prayed for them, it was interesting to see Travis ministering to them, the way he would for his soldiers, (I don't usually see this part of what he does firsthand).  Tuesday we had our final day of conferences.  I love going to conference, I come away feeling so rejuvenated, and filled with the spirit.  We spent the last night, just the two of us at a nice little Italian Restaurant that had delicious food.  We left Wednesday morning and flew back home, we had an almost 4 hour layover in Texas, so we didn't get home until almost dinnertime.  The kids were sure happy to see us.  Malachi would not let me put him down, or let anyone else near him.  We were very busy getting Travis ready to deploy, and he left Friday, Oct. 23rd.  He is getting settled in his base in Jordan, and we have been able to talk to him almost daily, so we know he is doing well.  The kids and I are adjusting to having him gone.  We are keeping very busy, as a lot of things got put off, since we were getting him ready to leave.  I was able to sell Travis' car for him this week, so I'm glad to have gotten that done.  The kids and I all went to a trunk or treat at the church Friday night, and we all went trick or treating last night, except for Joseph (he stayed home to pass out candy).  The kids all loved trick or treating, and had a lot of fun.  For the first hour, Malachi insisted on walking all by himself (he didn't want to sit in the stroller) and carried around his bucket of candy too.  He finally started tiring and allowing me to push him in the stroller at the end, but I was surprised how long he lasted. Other things that happened this past month and a half include:  Malachi split his chin open again, while we were at the park, and I took him to the ER and got it glued shut, (fastest ER trip ever, in and out in 45 minutes).  Travis had his birthday, I made him his delicious cake!.  Took a tour of the hospital labor and delivery area with Travis before he left.  Went to a fall festival on post as a family, and had a lot of fun.   Had Parent/Teacher conferences with all the kids teachers and they are all doing pretty well.  Finally got the kids all registered with CYS, so I can start using free childcare hours.  Austin had her first Orchestra concert.  Took Caleb and Malachi to the pumpkin patch with Joy School, and they had a blast!!  And the last thing I remember is that we had our primary program in church.  I also played the organ that sunday, and travis had already deployed, so the kids ended up by themselves for all of the sacrament meeting, becuase I went from playing the organ to playing for the primary.  But, Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb were all up on the stand with me for the primary program.  They seemed to do well, I never saw anything big going on, and Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb all did a great job on their parts.  We are now busy preparing for the holidays and the new baby to come.

Caleb playing at the park at the family organizational day for Travis' troop

Travis with his little boys

At the fall festival getting to pet a horse

At the fall festival Joseph and Samuel sparring.  Poor Joseph has a pretty big advantage, Travis finally told Samuel just to dive for Joseph's legs to know him down, and he did.

Malachi loves his stuffed animals (Ralphie is the dog and has been passed down from Travis to each of our boys)

Travis and I at Sundance, UT

Travis with the Jordanians

Happy Birthday Travis!

Getting Malachi's chin fixed

Caleb having fun at the pumpkin patch

Malachi swimming through the hay after jumping in with reckless abandon (just like he's been taught by older brothers)

Running along all the hay bales

Malachi and Caleb with their Joy school group

Caleb wanted to be a nerd like me, and stole my glasses

Caleb shaved a bald spot into his head, with my razor

Caleb playing at the park, loving the beautiful fall weather

Zombie Sam

Olaf and Monkey

All my little trick or treaters (okay, and some not so little)

Betsy Bunny

Austin Angry Bird

Looking for what was lost, and I don't like it when my baby is sick

Only two major things to report.
1.  We couldn't find Travis' official passport, and spent almost a week looking for it.
2.  Malachi got sick with croup, so very sad.

On Monday of last week, Travis called me from work to tell me he needed his official passport.  I had no idea where it was, I have him keep his important stuff for work, and I keep mine and the kids important documents in with my files.  Apparently right before we moved, Travis said he put his passport on top of my files, so I would put it with the rest of the passports.  I spent all Monday tearing apart the house and going through my files, I couldn't find it anywhere.  I told Travis it must be in with his work stuff at his office, since he hadn't unpacked his boxes there yet.  I kept looking for it throughout the week, but could not find it, finally on Friday, Travis and I went on a "date" to his office and worked on going through all his boxes there, but it wasn't there either.  So, Saturday we both spent the day looking for it more at home, finally Travis found it in a small pocket of a suitcase in the garage.  Whew!  So relieved he finally found it, he would have been in big trouble at work if he had lost that.

So both Austin and Betsy started getting sick with colds last week, and Malachi got sick starting Friday.  Unfortunately, Malachi's turned into Croup.  Travis also started feeling sick Saturday/Sunday as well.  Poor little Malachi just kept getting worse and worse, he was not sleeping at night, and Travis and I (mostly me) would be up with Malachi all night, since he was struggling so much to breathe, and he had the croup cough (sounds like a barking seal).  Travis, Austin, Betsy, and Malachi stayed home from church on Sunday, but by the time we got home from church, we decided it was time to take Malachi to the hospital, is was lethargic, and struggling to breath, and feverish for too long.  So, Travis and I took Malachi to the hospital while the other kids stayed home.  The ER wasn't busy, and they got us right back, and after checking his lungs, quickly got him back for a breathing treatment and steroid shot.  They waited a while to see if those would work, and when he was still struggling, they gave him another breathing treatment with different medicine.  He was finally starting to breath a little easier, but still not well enough, and they ended up giving him another breathing treatment.  The wanted to keep him overnight, but after seeing him happily using the hospital bed as a slide, and starting to climb all over things, they decided we could just continue giving him breathing treatments at home with our nebulizer and steroids and home to help him with his breathing.
So even though we had a four day weekend, due to labor day, and Travis had the days off work, we didn't do anything fun, just looked for his lost passport, and took care of sick Malachi.  Malachi's breathing is much better, he still has a bad cold and fevers, so hopefully he will get all the way better soon.  I'm getting tired of just staying at home all day.

Moving to Kansas, anniversary, and birthdays

Malachi's birthday present!  He's 2!

Before we moved, we went and saw the Wizard of Oz movie (a fitting movie since we were moving to Kansas)

Joseph, and Samuel riding a ride at the carnival

Caleb and Malachi riding the train ride at the carnival

It's a little hard to see, but Malachi is holding his "baby" on his shoulders just like Daddy is holding him.  He is very happy about it!

Malachi's first hair cut, he did awesome at holding still!

Before we moved, a picture of all the LDS chaplain spouses at fort carson, I will miss them all, we are the only LDS chaplain family here at Ft. Riley

Betsy opening her birthday presents, she turned 11

Malachi enjoying the train ride at the carnival

Caleb having fun being silly

Malachi finished his haircut!  Such a sweet, handsome, little boy!

Caleb and Samuel playing with fish that some friends caught in a pond before we moved

All the LDS Chaplain couples at fort carson

Malachi loved eating Betsy's chocolate ice cream!

Malachi and Caleb love scootering around the new neighborhood

Malachi opening his presents for his birthday, with a little help

Betsy, Caleb, and Malachi in our new house

Joseph helping to move into our new house

All the LDS Chaplains at fort carson

Samuel at his cub scout campfire activity

It's a boy!

Malachi blowing out his candles on his birthday cake!

Joseph still helping to move in (I had to take a picture of him working, to have proof that he does indeed work sometimes!)

Malachi using my mixing bowl as a helmet

All of Malachi's stuffed animals invaded his nap.  He has begun sleeping in his rocking chair instead of his bead.  

Travis working hard to move us into our new home

Beautiful Betsy and her birthday cake, I can't believe she is 11 years old already.

I got a new haircut in Colorado just before we moved.

For some reason I can't get my phone to upload photos to my computer anymore, so it has taken me forever to finally update my blog.  I finally emailed the picutres a few at a time to myself, and then downloaded them to the computer that way, and then uploaded my blog, it's a lot more work, and the picutres aren't in order, but I least I finally got them on.  Hopefully I can figure out a better way soon.  Anyway it has been a very busy month since my last post in July.  The last week before we moved was crazy busy with packing and cleaning, and Malachi got sick with coughing, and fever a few days before we moved so it made things even harder.  He had a fever on a off for almost a week, before finally getting better.  He did end up sleeping more becuase of it, and slept most of the time we were traveling.  I really don't like moving while pregnant, it is exhausting work even when I'm not pregnant, so it is even more difficult to add the pregnancy in the mix.  I have also been dealing with headaches and plugged ears for the past couple months every single day, and can't seem to get rid of it.  But we made it!  We had a trailer dropped off at our house a few days before we moved, and Travis was able to pack it as full as humanly possible over the next few days.  The first night of him moving stuff into the truck he was supposed to have some guys from the ward to help move stuff, but no one showed up, so Joseph and I were helping Travis move stuff.  After moving the first huge wood cabinet from upstairs to the truck, I told Travis I could not do that anymore it was not safe, and I posted on the relief society facebook page that we need help, and we were able to get a couple guys over to help.  Most of those moving days are a blur of hard work, and exhuastion, so I don't have much to tell about it.  I do remember that I took Joseph to his last Nuerofeedback appointment and while he was there the rest of the kids and I went to  a park nearby with a pond.  The kids had great fun, and made some friends that had little fishing nets and were catching fish and putting them in a tub.  Samuel loved handling the fish, and grabbing them and petting them, and feeling their slimyness.   I didn't have any hand sanitizer with me, so I just told Samuel and Caleb not to touch anything until they could wash there hands.  When we picked up Joseph, he sat in the back next to Samuel and I guess was being really loud, so Samuel put his hand over Joseph's mouth, so Joseph licked his hand.  I couldn't believe it, I told Joseph that Samuel had just been touching a bunch of fish from a pond, and hadn't washed his hands yet.  Joseph shrugged it off, and said he has a strong immune system, but it certainly made me gag just thinking about it.  Anyway apparently Joseph was right though, becuase he hasn't seemed to get sick at all from it.
So moving day arrived, and we loaded up the final things from the house, and finished up all the cleaning.  The upack company picked up the trailer and delivered it to us in Kansas.  By dinner time we were ready, said goodbye to our home and loaded kids in the van and Travis' car and drove to HuHot for dinner.  We had an enjoyable dinner and then drove another hour and a half to Limon, Colorado and stayed the night there in the hotel.  For some reason Caleb had peed in his underwear twice on the way there.  I'm not sure how, he went to the bathroom before we left the restuarant, and the drive wasn't that long, and he never told me he had to go.  Anyway, I tried to wipe down his car seat with wet wipes as best I could, and we took Caleb in the hotel room to give him a bath.  The hotel was pretty run down (I was trying to be frugal), and it took forever to figure out how to get some warm water, and the bathtub didn't plug, but I just stuffed his peed on shirt in there and it worked.  There was no toilet paper in the bathroom either, and it took forever to get some, and was not very clean,  but I got Caleb all washed up, and we finally got everyone to bed.  There was no a\c in the room, but there was a fridge/feezer, so Travis just left the doors open all night, and that helped cool things off.  We got up early and got packed back up and went to denny's for breakfast, and went on our way.  The traveling went pretty well, Joseph and Samuel were in Travis' car, so the van was much quieter than usual.  Malachi and Caleb slept a lot of the time, and we listed to church history cds in the car, that helped the time go by faster.  Other than stopping for gas and lunch we drove straight through and made it to Junction City, KS by 4pm.  We got checked into our hotel (a much nicer one, although it cost a lot more too), and Travis drove onto to post to check in before the end of the day, so he would get 10 days leave before he needed to check in again.  We took the kids swimming at the pool in the hotel and then got some dinner.  It was so hot outside (over a 100) and humid, I could barely stand it outside.  Early in the morning, like around 3 or 4 in the morning there was a huge storm, that woke me and the kids up, and there was even a tornado watch, it was quite the welcome from Kansas.  I finally fell back asleep once the storm was over, and then I heard Travis get up and leave the room a little later, so I looked over at the clock to see what time it was, and it was 8:10 in the morning.  We were supposed to be at the new house by 8:30 for our final walk through and then closing at 9am.  I quickly got up, and changed my clothes, and ran a brush through my hair.  and went over to the kids room (Joseph, Austin, Betsy, and Samuel were in the room next to ours) and told them Caleb and Malachi were still asleep and to take them downstairs for breakfast when they woke up, and to babysit until we got back from closing.  I assumed Travis went down for breakfast, and went to find him, he wasn't there, and his phone was still in our room.  I started walking all over the hotel, checked the weight room, and even checked for his car.  I went back to our room, and we wasn't there either,  I finally realized I hadn't checked the pool, and found him there.  I told him we were late to our final walk through for the house, and he quickly went back to the room and changed, I guess he was still on Colorado time, and thought we still had an hour.  We made it to the house about 10 minutes late, and did our final walk through.  Everything looked good, so we went and closed on the house.  We picked up the kids and drove to show them our new home!  The kids loved it, and we moved in the stuff from our vehicles.  Our trailer with the rest of our stuff was dropped off, and we had some missionaries from the branch and ward there to help us unload.  Unfortunatly it was the hottest day of the year between 104 and 106 degrees outside with 100% humidity.  To make matters worse, there was a misunderstanding with our utilities and they were all turned off.  So we were moving in with no water or electricity.  I spent a lot of time on the phone working with the utility companies, and was finally able to get our utilities turned back on by the end of the day.  I did run to the store and buy bottled water and ice cream bars for everyone, so that helped slightly, but boy was that sure a rough day.  We spent the next week working on getting everything unpacked and setting our house in order.  It has sure been hot ouside and very humid, it has been an adjustment from Colorado weather.  We live in a great neighborhood and the kids have all found lots of friends to play with.  Kansas is full of bugs, lots and lots of bugs!  Samuel got his first tick, just playing in the neighbors back yard.  Austin has become our official tick checker and loves to check everyone for ticks.  She found one on Samuel's head, and travis was able to get it out, and I put some oils on it to help as well.  Now Joseph is scared to walk under trees or play in the grass, becuase he doesn't want to get a tick.  Malachi can easily open all the doors in the house, and loves to go into my bathroom and climb into my big soaking tub and turn on the water and push in the plug.  I've had to buy child proof door locks for several doors to keep Malachi safe.  He and Caleb love to ride their scooters outside, Malachi is starting to get pretty good at following Caleb around on the scooter, but he still has a ways to go before he can reach Caleb's speed and agility on it.  After Malachi fell and got some road rash on his forehead, Travis insisted that he wears a helmet from now on.  Travis started work the beginning of August, and got right to work, with a busy work schedule.  His unit is deploying in October so he has a lot to do to get ready.  Our first Sunday attending our branch, they gave me the callings of Music Chair/Chorister, primary pianist, and choir pianist.  They didn't waste any time, they asked Travis to fill in as a temporary gospel doctrine teacher, but didn't give him an official calling since he is deploying soon.   I spent the next couple weeks getting kids all registered for school, and getting dr. appointments and things.  We also had Malachi's 2nd birthday!  Austin made him a chocolate cake, and he got some fun toys for his birthday.  I can't believe he is 2 years old already, that seemed to go by way too fast.  Travis and I had our 15 year anniversary on August 9th.  Travis and Austin spoke in church that Sunday as well.  Joseph and I spoke in church on the 23rd.  To celebrate our anniversary, Travis and I went to the Kansas City, Missouri Temple about a 2 hour drive away (we left all the kids with Austin).  After the temple we went to Costco about another 1/2 hour away, and shopped for several hours stocking up on all sorts of things, as we were cancelling our membership after this trip, due to it being too far away.  It was fun, but exhuasting stacking our shopping carts and flat bed carts full of items, and then packing it all into the van as well.  We didn't make it back home until after 8pm, but the kids were still up, and helped us unload everything.  They loved it, and couldn't believe how much stuff we had gotten.  We also celebrated Betsy's birthday, she turned 11 years old.  We drove to Salina, KS (50 minutes away) on Saturday the 22nd and dropped Joseph off at the stake center for his youth activity, and then took the rest of the kids to a family fun center called Jumpin Joe's and they had fun playing miniature golf, laser tag, go karts, arcade, and a soft climbing area.  After that we picked up Joseph and went to the Olive Garden for lunch.  After lunch I saw a JCPennys store nearby and remembered that we needed to get a few clothes and shoes for the kids, and Travis needed to buy some clothes to take with him to Jordan.  We had received a prepaid mastercard with $950 on it after closing on our house, and JCPenny was one of the places we could use it at, so we decided to get our shopping done.  Now I'm not much of a shopper, and I don't ever take my kids to department stores to shop, so this was kind of a new experience fort them.  We were in the store for 2 hours.  Caleb said that shopping was more fun than the family center.  The little boys were having too much fun running around.  The kids all had fun finding things they wanted.  I had Betsy trying on shoes, becuase she had been telling me for quite sometime that her shoes were hurting her feet.  I felt so bad when I realized that she had been wearing shoes 3 sizes too small for her.  In fact, her feet are the exact same size as mine, size 7.  We even took our shoes off and compared our feet, and sure enough they are the same size, and Austin is now wearing size 9 1/2 or 10.  Man they have sure been growing fast.  When Betsy was shopping for a new dress, she found one that she liked, and I told her to try it on and see if she liked it, she looked around and said "Mom, there are people in here",.  At that comment I realized that she didn't even know what a fitting room was, so I explained to her what a fitting room was, and had her go try on her clothes in there.  Anyway after 2 hours I was thouroughly exhausted from running around chasing children all throughout the store, so we made our purchases and drove back home.  Betsy ended up having a great birthday, and loved her ice cream cake I made her and her presents.  I'm so proud of Betsy, she is such a good girl, I love the influence she brings to our home.  So once Travis started work again, we had to change our morning devotional time to 5:30am, also due to Joseph having early morning seminary.  So every morning we get up all the kids and have our morning devotional at 5:30am, it then takes me the next 2 hours to get everyone off to work and school, until it's just Caleb, Malachi, and I at home.  One nice thing about waking everyone up so early, is that they are too tired to misbehave during morning devotional, and are really well behaved., it is a nice way to start out the day.  We found out we are having another little boy.  I was disappointed that we aren't having another little girl to even things out a bit, but after the girls and I had our little pity party, we were fine, and happy to be having another little boy.