Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Tonight, we put the kids in bed a little early--like 10 minutes, which is 1 hour in kid time. A few minutes later Gracie came in to say Hallie was laying in the middle of the bed (they share a queen bed). Tony went in to resolve the issue. Hallie sleeps at one end, Gracie at the other. As he left he had a little exchange with the girls. It's pretty typical--for us anyway.

Tony: Now don't get out of bed again or you lose your Wii time for tomorrow.

Gracie: What if we're bleeding or on fire?

Tony: Then just yell, "I'm bleeding!" or "I'm on fire!"

Hallie: Well, you'll have to hurry!

Tony: I will, but neither of those things are going to happen...just go to sleep!

This is almost a nightly occurance for us. Usually they're worried about more dramatic things, like earthquakes. Please tell me we're not the only ones!

P.S. Hallie has already gotten out of bed twice since I started writing this. If I were a good parent I'd tell her she's lost her Wii time, but tonight I'm too tired!

I know, I know...

...it's been way too long since my last post. We made it here to Athens, AL in the beginning of August. My mom and brother, Todd, flew in to help us make the move and I am SO glad they did! We would not have been able to do it without them. We drove a U-haul from Tallahassee to Athens and what should have taken 7 hours took nearly 12 (it's a long story--maybe someday I'll go into it). Once we made it we got the kids registered for school. I found a doctor and made my first appointment for the week my mom was still here. I wasn't sure if they'd do an ultrasound at that first visit, but they did and you'll never guess. We're having a....nother girl! Yep, that makes 4 girls and 1 boy. They kids took it really well and now we are all excited for the new addition (who still won't be here for 10 more weeks).

Tony started his new job and is doing really well. Everyone he works with is really great and they all LOVE Clara. Every time I go to visit there are about 4-5 ladies all gathered around to watch Clara climb the giant staircase in the front of the library. In other big news, Tony finished up his dissertation last week. He defends next week and we could not be more excited. Ever since we got here he's been working 10 hour days, coming home for dinner then going back to work for another few hours after the kids go to bed. We haven't had much of a chance to explore the area, but now that he's done we have lots of plans! I'll let you know how the defense goes once he passes.

So here's a few pictures of things I should have shared a while ago.

Now that Tony isn't spending Saturdays working, he took the kids on a little hike yesterday before conference started. Here they are as wolves (I'm sure it was Will's idea).

I just love Hallie's poses!

Our new house has an awesome porch swing. Here's my mom with her grandkids. We're out there at least once a day.

While my mom and Todd were here we visited the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

Before we left Tallahassee, our awesome home teacher brought over some of his light saber collection so we could have a real light saber fight. Clara was a formidable opponent.

He even brought over a real Darth Vader mask. Combine it with the red light saber and you've got the real thing!

We also had a birthday party for Hallie before we left. It was a great way to see all our friends one last time.

We miss you all in Tallahassee! Everyone here has been great and we really like it, but it's just not the same. I guess it's just taking me longer to get used to this move than I thought, but looking at all these pictures makes me miss you all so much!

Clara's new look

A few months ago Tony and I noticed Clara crossing her eyes...a lot. At first I thought maybe she was doing it on purpose, but she's a little young for that. Since it was Gracie's eye crossing that lead me to an eye doctor with her (at age 16 months) I decided to take Clara in. And sure enough, she has the same thing Gracie does. It's called accommodative esotropia--which means she's far-sighted and crosses her eyes to see clearly. Now she has glasses and won't need to cross her eyes to see. Luckily I kept the only pair of Gracie's glasses that survived toddlerhood, so I got Clara's prescription put in them. I also got another pair through insurance so now we have the luxury of 2 pairs--something I never had with Gracie. It's taken her a few weeks, but now she'll keep them on for long stretches of time. She looks adorable and when she looks at books she looks like a little baby genius.

I also gave her her first official hair cut. Now it sits right at her shoulders and slightly curls under all on it's own. Pair the hair cut with the glasses and I think she looks doubly adorable.

Another new thing for Clara is to climb up as high as she can. We have a "mountain" of boxes in the front room and anytime we leave the door open she climbs up the boxes as high as she can get. She also discovered how to climb to the top of the computer desk. We usually have some paper and a few Books of Mormon up there, so of course, she has to clear those off before she climbs up. She also can climb up William's toy shelves in his room. So far she's never fallen off, but there's a first for everything.

See, she looks like she can actually read that book!
One last new thing for Clara is her love for our front room closet. I keep most of our food storage in there. But since I've packed most of it up Tony thought it would be fun to stick Clara in there--he thought she might like it. He set her in there and closed the door. It was pitch black so you might have expected an immediate cry, but Tony opened it to find her playing with a box of noodles and saying "bye, see ya later" over and over again. So he got her a light and left her for a minute. Still, she was fine. After a while he forced her out and she threw a huge fit. The next day she wanted in again and when I wouldn't let her she threw another fit. It's really cute, I just don't have time to sit by the closet door waiting her to to want out.

More news...

...are you ready for more! Most of you already know this, but I'm expecting baby #5! I'm due in the middle of December, right around Gracie's birthday. That puts me at 13 weeks now and feeling much better. We don't know what we're having yet and won't find out until we move in August. William wants me to have twin boys so then we'll have equal boys and girls. I'm not so sure about that idea. But I do at least want one boy!

Everyone here is super excited about the new baby--except maybe Clara. She doesn't realize what's coming, but I do know she doesn't like it when I pay attention to other babies. So it will be interesting. She'll be so happy, though, once he can walk and talk and she has someone to play with all day while the kids are at school.

Here's a cute picture just for fun!

Our favorite tree in Tallahassee...the big one at Lake Ella. William actually was having a good time, but I had just told him it was time to go home. It was so hot I was melting.

ASU here we come!

No, not Arizona State (although that would be awesome!). Tony has accepted a position at Athens State University (and no, it's not in Georgia, it's in Alabama). He'll be directing the writing center there as well as implementing their quality enhancement plan to improve writing across the university. It's a really great job and the university seems like a perfect fit for him.

So, as of August we'll be Alabamans(?). Tony's going to finish up his dissertation in the next 6 weeks, then he'll come back to Tallahassee to defend in September and be set to graduate in December. While Tony is finishing his dissertation the kids and I will be packing, cleaning, and organizing. It's going to be a busy summer with lots of changes but we are all super excited. We will miss Tallahassee, though. I've never met people quite as awesome as the people here and I really don't know if anywhere can top this. But leave we must. I know this is where the Lord wants us to go. Everything has been working together so Tony could get this job at this time and it is the best place for our family to be. So look out Alabama...because once we get there, you'll never be the same!

Atlanta

Last week Tony went to a conference in Atlanta. He left Wednesday night. About 2 hours before he left I found out the Atlanta Temple was having their open house starting that Saturday. Since Atlanta is only 5 hours from here and Tony already had a hotel room paid for, we decided that I'd drive up with the kids Friday night so we could tour the temple on Saturday. Then we'd drive home and be back Saturday night.

While I was driving up Friday afternoon Tony got a call from his best friend from high school that lives an hour outside of Atlanta. They invited us to stay Saturday night. Since we already had our Sunday clothes to go to the temple we decided to stay. So it turned out to be a crazy weekend but we had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning Tony went to his conference so I took the kids to the Atlanta Children's Museum. Then we met Tony at the temple. The tour lasted about an hour and was great! The kids loved how beautiful everything was. I showed the girls the brides room and explained how when they get married we could go in there and I would help them get ready. Gracie thought she was getting married right then. It took some time to explain that I meant when she was older! I also showed them the mirrors in the sealing room and how the reflection goes on forever just like our family. Hallie especially loved that!

After the temple we went to our friend's house. They were so nice to have us stay when they had just walked in the door from a vacation. We went to church with them the next day and left that afternoon after lunch. So although the trip was quick it was definitely worth it. I didn't get any pictures at the temple because there were so many people around and they kept us moving pretty much the whole time, but I did get lots at the museum. Here are a few...

The museum has this giant contraption that moves plastic balls all over the place. There are about 15 different places you can pull levers or turn cranks to make the balls go different places. Will spent most of his time here.

They had an African exhibit. Hallie must have been really tired after a long camel ride.

Clara took Gracie on a really long tractor ride.

They had 2 big tables with moon sand. Gracie spent most of here time here.

Clara watching herself in the mirror. I love that little hat!

There was a little play area for kids under 2. They had this little piano which Clara LOVED! She could fit right on the bench and play. When she plays our piano she always falls off.

Hallie and Gracie painted. You paint on the wall then when you're done they clean it off for other kids.

There's a big shipping truck with boxes and a conveyor belt. Will loaded up boxes and sent them down for someone else to unload. They also had a little grocery store with shopping carts and baskets. You can fill your cart up from the shelves and check out at a little register. So cute!

Hallie learns about Mexico

Last week Hallie's class did a little play about Mexico (they've been studying Mexico for the last few weeks). It was pretty cute--mostly because it's fun to watch the little kids--and at the end Hallie was part of a group that did a Mexican Hat Dance. She's the girl in the front right wearing the white shirt and green skirt.