Legoland Pics

On our way to Tucson, we stopped in San Diego to visit Legoland and Seaworld.  I loved Legoland.  The rides were mild and the Lego statues were amazing (especially the Obama Inauguration one)  Just a thought, if McCain (or my favorite-Romney) were to become president, would Legoland have done a great big Legoland Inauguration for them too?  I wonder? 

New Favorite $4.99 Toy

The other day I took Zach and Nathan to Toys R Us.  Zach has a lot of money in his savings account but he doesn't want to spend very much of it.  He goes around the store and asks how much everything costs.  It doesn't matter what it is, if it is $5 or less, he wants to buy it.  Of course, most of the things are junk!

But then he came across the yo-yo aisle and decided that he wanted one because it cost $4.99.  I said, Eric probably has one for you to borrow.  Nope, that wasn't good enough, he wanted his own.  Turns out, we didn't have a single yo-yo in the entire house until Zach bought this one.  It was a hit with Eric.   He was letting Zach play with his most favorite (and even expensive toys)  in exchange for using Zach's new yo-yo.  Zach decided to be generous and buy Eric his own yo-yo.   Then Erin decided she wanted to try it out.  Next thing I know Zach is playing with Erin's American girl dolls while Erin plays with his yo-yo.  I decided this was way too much power for Zachary and decided I may as well purchase Erin her own yo-yo so she wouldn't have to let Zach play with her expensive dolls anymore.

It is amazing how many hours the kids have played with these $5 toys.  I love it because they are spending time together learning how to do tricks with them and best of all, they are off the computer!

Way to go Zach for picking out a great toy!  

Having Faith

Today we were having FHE and I asked the kids a question like, "What should be some new rules for our house." It was apparent that Zachary was not paying attention. When I called on him, he said "Faith!" Mario told him that would be a good answer for almost any question at church, but not for my question.

But speaking of faith, I am so grateful to have faith and to know that Heavenly Father knows best. We had been looking for a rental home. The top priorities for finding a house were good schools, a church very close, and a short commute for Mario to work. We thought we had found a great house in a new neighborhood with brand new schools and about a mile from church. Mario and I really wanted the house. It was a really good price, but we couldn't get the realtor to send us any pictures. It was very frustrating to us because we were ready to send in our deposit if we could just get some pictures. We were so disappointed when the house rented out. I felt like maybe we should have just rented it sight unseen.

Fortunately we found this other house that is about 800 sq feet bigger with room for food storage and close to the park and 1 mile from church. We felt very blessed. Then we found out that the original house we wanted was not in the ward that we thought. It was actually about 6 miles to the church instead of 1. I know that to some 6 miles doesn't seem like much, but when you have 4 kids and callings, you spend much of your time at church (esp. when your kids start seminary). If we would have rented that house and then later found out about the 6 mile drive to church, I would have been so disappointed.

I am sure Heavenly Father knew how important it was for me to be close to the church and schools and he blessed our family with the perfect place. I need to always have faith that things will work out because they always do.

Our New Rental Home

Mom's fun day at the park

Today I dropped the big kids off to school.  Then I took the twins for a little walk through the park behind our new rental house.  They love the area because it is very "desert" and has lots of wildlife (maybe too much--snakes).  So, this morning was all about the twins having fun walking and running around the park and skatepark.  

When we were leaving I said I needed to run to Trader Joe's for some groceries.  On the way we passed a McDonalds.  Nathan asked to stop for ice cream.  I said no, we aren't getting any sweets for awhile.  His reply was "We did what you wanted to do this morning, now it is our turn to do something."  

I guess he thought we stopped at the park for my enjoyment.  If I would have known we were there solely for me, I would have left much sooner!    I really should think of my kids more often!!

Homeless No More

We finally found a home on Friday.  I have been looking for months for the perfect house.  While this house isn't Mario and the kids "perfect house," it is pretty darn close.   The only thing it is missing is a pool.  But the house backs up to a community park that has a pool.  The big kids can even go without me.  So for me, the house is perfect (except for some stained carpets-but we can throw some big rugs down.)  I don't have to maintain a pool which I was nervous about from the beginning since Mario will be deploying.

We thought we had found a house earlier and were really excited about it until we went to view it.  The landlord is an attorney that apparently doesn't take off his "attorney hat" very often.  He scared us off because we were afraid of all his legal mumble jumble.   He also thought that we should share the expense if things broke in his house, like the AC.   We ran from that house as fast as we could.  I am not paying a dime of an AC unit that is 10 years old.  What happens when the electrical work or plumbing needs repaired?!  No thank you.

I was about to give up on houses and take the kids back to the hotel when I drove up to a busy intersection.   There on the corner was a box with a homemade sign advertising a 5 bedroom/3 bath home for rent.  I immediately pulled over and called the number.  Within a half hour we were in viewing the house.  I knew as soon as I walked through the front door that I wanted the house.  I saw the kitchen and it was huge and enough said.  The kitchen was the selling point for me, but it didn't hurt that the house is more than twice the size of our home in CA (and less than half the rent of CA.)  Plus I have an extra bedroom for food storage.  I had been praying that we would find a home big enough for our food storage.  Mario has been hassling me for at least a year to get our food storage in order but we never had the room.  Now I have no excuse.  The house also has a 3 car garage which is Mario's dream.   The kids are excited about the grapefruit/lemon tree (yes 1 tree, 2 different fruits.)  They love the grapefruits.

Our new landlord is a minister.  He has been praying for the right family to move into his house.  He feels his prayers have been answered and we feel our prayers have been answered as well.  We feel that he will be a fair landlord and we can't wait to move in April 20th.   We have plenty of room for guests so please come visit.

We are in Tucson

We made it to Tucson around 8:30 last night.  The kids and I were so happy to be back in warm weather.  It was shocking to get out of the car and not have to wear a jacket.  Wish us luck as we go look for a house today.