I am actually cheating and adding these pictures at a way later date (Feb. 4, 2012 to be exact) but I took these pictures a long time ago and meant to post them and forgot! So here they are! Our New House! We officially closed on it August 26th, 2011 and moved in a couple of days later. We love it!
I am pretty behind on posting pictures but tonight I finally sat down and cleared out my whole camera. Here are the boys on their first day of school. Gabe started kindergarten this year and we are so excited that the school he goes to is right across the street from our new house! He goes every day from 11:40 - 2:25. Then Caleb started at a preschool (the same one Gabe went to ) and he goes to the three-year-old class Tuesday and Thursday from 12:00 to 2:00. So far they are loving school! Caleb's class even took a trip to the campus planetarium last week after studying about planets this month. Gabe is busy learning his letters and numbers some more. The last picture is of Josh by his police car. I just thought that was funny. Sorry I don't have one of me in front of Northgate!
Oh my goodness, it has been a while! I finally have a moment to write a quick blog. Since my last post, we have been to Wisconsin for a visit, quit the full-time apartment manager job (I am now a part-time assistant manager) and bought a house of our own in Rexburg! Gabe has also started Kindergarten and Caleb has started 2-day-a-week preschool. Lots of changes in the Rhodes family! Josh is still a policeman, but everyone else in our family is making some big daily schedule changes. The biggest and most benefical one though, is that I feel like I will finally have more time to spend with my kids. As a manager, ever though I worked out of the home, I felt like I NEVER LEFT WORK! It was getting to be pretty overwhelming. Now I feel so happy to be able to do my four hours, then get in my car and drive home and spend the afternoon and evening with my kids, without any interuptions over AC's not working, or the volume on the movie theater not working, or a room mate complaint over dirty dishes! It has been SO NICE and it's only been a week since we moved out! We also feel so lucky to have found a brand new house that we love, just across the street from Gabe's school, that we bought from the owners/builders of our apartment complex for a really good price. Josh just thinks the one thing missing is a new dog...
that is one change that I am not sure I am ready for yet.
Here's some pictures from our trip to Wisconsin! We drove out there on August 10th and spent about a week then drove back, just in time to move out of Northgate into our new house!
This Summer took forever to get here (it was hailing on Memorial Day and 48 degrees...) butit finally got to Rexburg sometime in June I think. Here is some of what we've been doing!
This is very overdue but Happy 3rd Birthday, Caleb! We had family over for a party in the clubhouse at Northgate. He was very into Cars 2 stuff this year and almost all his presents had to do with the Cars 2 race set. He had been asking for a Lightning McQueen remote control car since January when he first spotted it in a Fisher Price catalog we got in the mail. He was pretty excited to finally get it!
He is growing up so much. He is still very cute and cuddly but he definitely has a mind of his own. He can be such a tough little guy. He and Gabe wrestle all the time and it's usually a pretty even fight! The other big milestone is that I'd say he's 90 percent potty trained. He still wears a diaper at night (cause I was sick of washing bedding after the first accident) but during the day he does pretty good.Another fun thing - since yesterday was Fourth of July Saturday - we went to Rigby Lake and everyone noticed he has no fear in the water!! He loves swimming! His other loves: Superheroes, The Backyardigans, the color orange, and hot chocolate. Here's some pictures of the big BOY!
I have not been so good about blogging since we moved here. But I am trying to keep going so I can print it off into a book at the end of the year like I did last year. It's the closest thing to a journal I am doing right now! So... first I have to talk about our trip to Wisconsin.
The first week of May, me and the boys flew to Wisconsin for a little visit. I was a little nervous about the two boys on the airplane, but they did great. Our layover in Minneapolis was so tight though. We flagged down a little golf cart guy as soon as we got off the plane and zoomed through the airport dodging pedestrians the whole way and STILL barely made it! They were announcing the last call for boarding to Milwaukee as we were zooming down the last little hallway and I was like, "Step on it buddy! That's us!!" But we just made it. The boys thought it was fun. :)
When we were in Wisconsin we did a lot of their favorite Wisconsin things - including playing at McDonalds (yes, we have one in Rexburg but I guess the Fond du lac one is cooler), playing with their cousin Jasmine, playing at Lakeside Park and climbing to the top of the lighthouse, going to the Children's Museum, and of course Culver's. If I could choose four things to build in Rexburg,they would be: 1) A really cool Children's Museum (the flood museum does not count) 2)An indoor waterpark 3) Culver's and 4) Menard's. I miss Menard's. I also wish people in Rexburg did more Rummage sales (or I guess they are called garage sales here.) There's got to be a lot of quality baby clothes just going to DI out here (that's like their Goodwill store.) People are too nice out here and they just give stuff away. In Wisconsin, we're like, "No way! I'm gonna make $400 off this stuff!" I need to go through my baby stuff bad. Do you think if I just throw away all my baby boy stuff it will guarantee I have a girl next? I wish. :)
Anyways, we stayed in Wisconsin for a week and left on Mother's Day. We all brought colds back home with us. We are finally now just getting over them I think.
Once we got back to Idaho, Gabe had only 3 weeks left of preschool. He was really busy with his last field trips and activities. He also had his last speech class until Fall. He loves his speech teacher. He went twice a week since we moved here and she helped him tons. I hope he can work with her again in the Fall. Then Gabe also had a field trip to the Idaho Falls zoo. We all tagged along with him. :) It was actually a pretty nice zoo. I think they had some kind of fun park outside of it too, but it was raining by the end and we left just in time. Gabe's favorite part of the zoo was the otters. He had to get this stuffed otter before we left. Then this last week was the end of preschool for him. H had his official graduation on Thursday night. Then he had a bowling trip on Friday for their last day party. He's going to miss all his little buddies, especially Hudson.
So one more quick story: the night of Gabe's graduation at about 5:00, Gabe and Caleb were playing out in the clubhouse while I was talking to two girls in my office. Caleb suddenly started to scream and I ran out only to find his head gushing blood. The gash on his forehead was pretty deep and I ran into the office carrying him and said to the girls, "Do you think he needs stitches?" (I've never had them) and they were like, "Oh yeah, definitely!" So one girl drove us to the ER while one stayed with Gabe. On the way there Caleb told us he had been riding his bike (his little bike with training wheels) near the game room and "Gabe pushed me over!!!!" as he rounded the corner. Then we think he fell and bumped his head just right on the base of the heavy bar stools that go around these high tables. So we got to the ER and he was freaking out more after I said, "We have to go see the Doctor" than just from the initial pain. Josh came over too (in his police uniform) and helped old him while they stitched him up. He got five stitches in the corner of his forehead. It was so sad! But he was fine as soon as we left the hospital. He's playing like normal right now.
So! That's been the news here! We're just still waiting for Summer it feels like. There's still lots of sweatshirt days and rainy days going on here. It gets so cold and windy at nights too it seems like. Gabe keeps asking, "When will it be Summer?" I'm like, "I wish I knew!" They are building this water park here but it doesn't even look close to being done and even if it were it'd still be too cold anyways. They probably should've made it an indoor one. Oh well! We'll look forward to our Wisconsin trip in August and the waterpark there! That's all for now!
