Nope. Still no Princeton.

So we have big news!

We are moving. To Pennsylvania.

Dan has accepted an offer to work for The Hershey Company. We tried to be hush hush when discussing the option since we didn't want the kids to know anything was happening until it was for sure happening. But they didn't seem to notice that we were constantly talking about moving, changing schools, etc.

They had a half day last Thursday. We picked them up and told them we were going on a special trip. We took them home to use the bathroom, pack up the van and go.

This is when we told them that we are moving in January, and our little trip was to go house hunting.

I was NERVOUS to tell them that we were moving. Especially June. Every single day, June waxes poetic about her deep and abiding love for New Jersey and especially for the house we have been renting (???). She LOVES her school.

But I knew it would "sweeten" the deal when we told them that Dan was working for a chocolate company. June has had moments of "but I will MISS my teachers!!" but she loves telling people that her dad sells chocolate.

Hershey is only two a half hours away, and I've promised her we can come back and have lunch with her favorite aide every summer.

Here are the worst bellhops I ever saw, driving our luggage at crazy speeds blindly down the hallway, darting back and forth at different angles.

The trip was productive. I went house hunting while Dan was stuck in a hotel with four children. Our children so, it was rough. Luckily, Home Alone 2 was on, and they have never seen it and thought it was the FUNNIEST THING EVER. We also stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool the size of my palm, but it worked!

We have an offer in for a house. Fingers crossed.

At the end of it all, we took the kids to Hershey Park!

Dan was so excited because we used to go to Busch Gardens in Florida all of the time, and it was especially fun at Christmas.

Of course, there is the small difference of about 40 degrees that made it a still good, but different, experience.

In other news, I went to parent teacher conferences and while there, spotted this hilarious picture of Gwen as a pilgrim.

I realized on the way to the actual conference that I hadn't given a second's thought to what might be said at the conference. Honestly, I hadn't heard a single thing from Gwen's teacher all year, and I kinda like living in Ignoranceville. But her teacher reassured me that Gwen was doing great, and I flew outta there before she could change her mind. Seriously, I got back into the car to drive home and realized that I wasn't even sure if the teacher was done talking when I was done listening and left.

Speaking of, Gwen was also asked to be the Student of the Week and to fill out this poster about herself. She has been working on it for the past two nights and has only screamed and cried three times! What a special bonding experience for us.

And lastly, this 5 and a half month baby is trying to crawl. He's very very close, and I just want to knock him over with every attempt. Though at least when he can crawl, he will be happier. He's so frustrated with his immobility. I LOVE his immobility. But nobody cares what Mom thinks. Womp womp.

The End.

Still Haven't Gone to Princeton.

Did you know I lived on Princeton Place growing up?

'Tis true. And yet I still haven't seen Princeton University. You know, the one that is one hour away and we were supposed to go to 2 weeks ago?

We didn't go this past weekend either. But for good reason. We went to the Philadelphia Temple instead.

Or, actually, I went to the temple. Everyone came with me and waited in the waiting area. But when I came out to relieve Dan and give him his turn, he said, "We need to go home now."

Turns out I missed quite the show while I was in the temple. At one point, Dan was trying to get everyone onto the elevator, but while he was helping Beck, Gwen and Harris ran onto the elevator and pressed buttons, and the door closed before Dan could get to them. They got out at the parking garage where a nice man helped them go back to the waiting area. They eventually reconnected with Dan. At least, we're pretty sure we brought home the right kids.

Also, a certain oldest child threw a huge loud tantrum. Like bonkers loud. And a nice visitors center man had to come over to Dan and see what was going on and ask her to quiet down because people couldn't hear what they needed to. 

In other words, the 5 month old baby was our best-behaved kid.

But I had a great experience at the temple! I was grateful that I was able to go. The peace I feel there is not of this world. The second I leave the big front doors and am back on the loud streets of Philadelphia, I'm a little sad. I receive a lot of revelation while I'm in there. How to parent, how to wife, how to human. It's the best.

We took a different way to the temple this time and saw an ice cream shop and a fudge shoppe, and we determined that's where we would stop on our way home. And we did.

The hoodlums:

And the nice baby:

 And we went to church yesterday. And Harris really likes brushing his teeth.

And we took the nice baby with us. Here's a picture of him doing what he does best while I was taking pictures of the other kids.

This week, the girls kept talking about Western Day coming up at school. I thought they made it up, and I was happy to let them dress up like cowgirls if they wanted to. Come to find out it really was Western Day, and my kids just pay better attention than I do. I actually like that a lot. If they can take care of the things like Western Day and all that jazz, I can take care of everything else. 

I know--they don't look very Western. But this is what they came up in 5 minutes.

And last but certainly not least--Gwen's teacher challenged all of the kindergartners to read 100 books with a parent before the 100th day of school. Which is in February. But we love to read, and so we got it done early. I'm glad because I just want to read whatever book I want, long or short, and not have to worry about getting our number of books in.

We're reading Thanksgiving books now, and I have bought some new Christmas books we shall start soon.

Life is good, even if I never see Princeton.

The End.

Princeton or Bust! How about Bust?

We've lived here almost three years, Princeton University is one hour away, and we have yet to check it out. It's driving me a bit nuts. I have a list of things I want to see in New Jersey/NYC, and Princeton is at the tippy top of the list. And yet, here we are.

So I marked this past Saturday on the calendar several weeks ago as "Princeton Day". I figured out where to park, what to see, and even had a recommendation for "the best ice cream ever" near the campus. I don't know if this person has ever been to Last Licks, so I'm skeptical. And yet willing to try.

True to Doug Beck form, I had an exact time I wanted to pull out of the driveway. Twelve noon. We all went to the YMCA that morning so Dan and I could work out, we came home and fed everyone a huge lunch, cleaned up and were pulling out of the driveway at 11:56. I felt AMAZING. Promptness fuels my soul.

I rarely fuel my soul.

The "low pressure" light came up on the dash, and we made a quick stop to fill up the tires. You know me--I'm a nervous gal, and I asked Dan if he would do it. He said he would but wanted me to get out and watch because it's REALLY not a big deal and something I should be able to do.

So I got out and watched.

Poor Dan. The nozzle on our tire BROKE, and the tire was flat in about 30 seconds.

Of course, the first thing he said to me was, "Okay, Heather, this NEVER happens and you can do this!" And I looked at him like he was crazy town.

The kids took the news worse than I. I was bummed about Princeton being bumped yet another week on the schedule, but they were very upset that ice cream had been bumped. Gwen bawled and bawled.

We were about a half mile from home, so I got out the double stroller, strapped the boys in, and the girls and I walked and pushed the boys home while Dan changed the tire and took the bad one to get fixed.

Gwen had brought this awful blow-up guitar from Chuck E. Cheese in the van for our trip to Princeton and insisted on carrying it all the way home. Puts a new meaning to the phrase "air guitar", right?

Pretty leaves covered the sidewalk.

We had to cross a tiny bridge, and the kids wanted to throw leaves into the creek below.

It was about 40 degrees out so everyone was cold when we got home. So I whipped up hot chocolate with cream AND marshmallows and asked if this made up for the ice cream.

Gwen insisted that it didn't.

Dan came home two hours later. A couple of guys at the gas station offered to help him change the tire, and none of them could get the old tire off. They had to kick at it quite awhile before it would budge. And then he had to wait awhile to get the nozzle fixed.

I took the girls to the library for a drop-in craft and then YES, I took those poor deprived girls out for ice cream.

Gwen kept closing her eyes and waving her arms in happiness while she ate the ice cream. She is a sad case, my friends.

And yesterday the girls were able to wear new-to-them fancy coats that someone in the ward passed along to us. June says she's a London girl now.

Gwen and Beck before church.

After church, we ate a ton of lasagna and decided to take a walk before eating the caramel brownies I had made. On our walk, we spotted wild turkeys, and they flew away. This started a huge discussion on whether we really saw turkeys because can turkeys fly?

Yes, they can. Google says so.

You just have to believe.

I believe I can fly.

The End.

Happy Heatherween 2019!

Here's a secret for you. I LOVE trick or treating. Like more than my kids. 

Trick or treating involves:

1. Lots of walking. Walking is my favorite exercise. It's the exercise that feels good but doesn't feel like work to me. I love you, Walking! I love you.

2. Talking to Neighbors. I'll admit, I'm not always the most neighborly. We're all busy and all that. But Halloween is more chill, everyone is in a good mood, and everyone is excited to see each other and look at the cute kids. 

3. Candy! I am not as much of a candy lover as I used to be. I still LOVE chocolate and baked goods and all that but I can't hold my candy like I used to be able to. Still, it's fun! 

The girls and Dan and I were excited about their group costumes, and we just sorta assumed that Harris would LOVE being Peter Pan. He really didn't. He HATED the hat.

After pictures, I let him take off the hat, and he was somewhat better after that.

It rained all night and all day before trick or treating time. I was getting NERVOUS. The kids were devastated at the thought of not being able to go. And then at 5:30, it cleared up and we were on our way. And it was WARM. Low 70s. A dream come true.

Harris insisted on climbing up every step by himself, and we did a lot of waiting. That's fine by me--no rush on Halloween!

The neighborhood was dead. I am not sure if it's because of the rain or if people just go to the mall to trick or treat now. Either way, I was sad! Let's all go trick or treating!! But the kids certainly benefited from the lack of attendees. Everyone gave them gobs and gobs of candy.

And candy-passer-outters received a treat from my kids as well. More like a trick. Gwen is the most blunt person in the all the land and often told people the first thing that came to her head when they answered the door.

"You're BALD!"

"You look like a GRANDPA!"

and my personal favorite:

"You need to mow your lawn!"

We had many talks about it in between houses, but she just doesn't see any offense in the truth. I was a little mortified.

Harris wasn't the only one to modify his costume throughout the night. I seem to forget every year that costumes need to be low maintenance. Nothing that needs to be constantly adjusted. No props to hold in order to have the costume make sense. I've been doing better, but this year Harris had the problem hat, and June's dress dragged. We kept tying it in knots to make it better.

We went for two hours, and it was bliss. I have a sprained hip that I'm going to PT for right now, and it was certainly a little irritated, but the rest of me felt so alive!

The LOOT:

And no picture of Harris with his candy because he went to bed with no complaints the second we stepped in the door.

And the next day was my 35th birthday. 

June is a special girl and remembered my birthday is the day after Halloween. So before that, she got the other kids together, and they made me presents that they gave to me the morning of the 1st.

This is what I opened from Gwen. It's a game she made up. The top of an acorn in a water bottle lid. You shake the lid, and if you can shake it and keep the acorn inside the lid, you win. If it falls out, you lose!

This wrap job was done by June. The thing on top is a bow.

And on the inside: a "fan" she made me for when I get cold this winter. Haha.

Also, Dan and my BFF Linz gave me a great present. Linz flew in, and Dan watched the kids while we went to NYC Saturday. We met up with some of Linz's friends for lunch.

Linz and I saw Phantom for the billionth time. We always laugh and cry and make fun of it and love it all at the same time.

Sunday after church, we took the girls with us so Linz could see the Priesthood Restoration Site. Probably my favorite church history site. The Spirit is so strong, and I just love it.

Linz has since gone home, but my kids haven't recovered. I've had two kids crying for Aunt Linz ever since she left.

And in miscellaneous news, Gwen poured and flipped these pancakes all by herself.

And Beck has finally reached swing stage and loves it.

But can fall asleep anywhere. It's genetic.

The End.