Just a few things.......

It's way too late tonight to try and sum up the happenings during my blogging hiatus, but here is a rundown of the last week or so. Mark made it home from Portugal for a 2 weeek visit. We sure were so happy to see him! He is finally done with his Master's degree and will officially graduate from Georgia Tech in December. Congrats babe--you're the best. I love you and am so proud of you!!! So the school work is done, and the 2 weeks he was home was vacation from his job, so we got to enjoy all that time with him, (minus the Bishop stuff he had to do). As a graduation gift from his parents, Mark was given his mom's piano! He absolutely loves to play and we have been piano-less ever since we left BYU. (That's a whole different story for a different day!) So needless to say, he is ecstatic to finally be able to have music in our home again. Thanks Mark and Susan for the fantastic, heart-felt gift!





But all good things must come to an end, and Portugal was calling. So Mark left yesterday for his final stint there and we sure were sad to see him go. But life is keeping us busy as always. We survived the first day of school today! 3 of my kids at school, 3 at home with me. I wasn't quite ready for summer vacation to come to such an abrupt end, but you just have to jump in head-first I guess. McKenna and Jacob will both be starting piano lessons next week, and soccer the week after that. I hope I can stay sane!



Joseph was thrilled today when I told him it was just going to be he and the babies at home. He yelled "yeah" at the top of his lungs! And we did have a lot of fun today! That sure does beat the few days before Mark got home when I spent the night in the hospital with him for dehydration.:(


(Joseph's eye was the first casualty of the piano bench)

And the babies have been getting HUGE! They have both tripled their birth weights and are doing great. At 5 months Janie weighed over 13 pounds and Harrison over 15. I can't remember the exact number at the moment, but one thing is for sure....you would never guess that they were preemies!



It's been a great few weeks and we have been so blessed as a family. Especially by those who have helped out while Mark is gone doing such simple things as mowing the grass and taking out the garbage, or just calling to check on us. Thanks!!!

Quick Trip To Madrid

I went to the Madrid Spain Temple last weekend and had a great time. My plane was two hours late but everything went well. I talked to some people in Spanish in the airport in Porto while we were waiting for the plane and they showed me how to get around the city and where to go. I ended up taking a taxi with them at 2:00-2:30 in the morning to a bus stop since the metro was not running when we got there to help save on costs. Then I waited on the bus for about 15-20 minutes and took it into the heart of the city. Then I walked two blocks until I found a hotel for the night. What was amazing was the number of people out at 3:30am. You could have told me it was 7:00-8:00 at night and I would have believed you. I should have taken a picture of it. Well, I finally got to bed at 4:30-5:00 am and slept until 11:00 that morning. Then I took a taxi to the temple and snapped some pictures on the way. Madrid has some awesome looking buildings and a lot of places I would like to go back and see. The temple was great and the Celestial Room was one of the most beautiful celestial rooms I have ever seen. I also talked to a few people inside the temple including the temple president and am looking forward to going back in a few months. Well, that's all for now. Mark

Summer

Contrary to popular belief, I have not disappeared completely from the blogging world. I have merely been crazy busy with summer. Having six kids all day long is definitely a full time job. But don't get me wrong, we have had a great summer so far. A few of our excursions so far; Zach's graduation; a flight to Utah; Thanksgiving Point petting zoo with Katie, Morgan and Sadie; Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum which is the largest one in the world. We went with my best friend Cindy and her 3 boys, and Katie and her 3 kids; 4th of July parade and Fireworks; Provo's patriotic service where we got to see Uncle Jon sing; BYU's Bean Museum; Hogle Zoo with Laura and Luke, Jenn and Cade, and Katie and Morgan; and Amanda and Aaron's wedding where Jacob got to be the ring bearer. We have had a bridal shower, a wedding, Father's Day, my birthday, Kaitlyn's birthday, and many other extended family members' birthdays as well. I have an awesome family who have watched the kids for me so I can have some me time. I saw "Transformers 2" with Zach and Cassandra and "Harry Potter" with Bill, Zach V., Zach L. and Cassandra. I went to lunch with Laura and 2 of my best girlfriends and then we had a girl's night out on Monday with me, Laura, Cindy, Liz, Krystal and Tina where we had dinner and then saw "The Proposal." The kids have played outside pretty much the whole time we have been here. We love grandma's fenced in backyard! The little pool and slip-n-slide have definitely gotten their money's worth this year! I have also had a ton of people to play games with. We have played Train with dominoes, Yahtzee, Phase 10, Rummikub, Cranium, and let's not forgot--Scrabble! My family is addicted to Scrabble!
As much fun as we have been having, we are just about ready to go home. The kids are dying to see their daddy, and I know he is so ready to see them. The babies have gotten so big that I am sure he will hardly recognize them. But he gets to see them as we are able to video chat online. School starts September 1st for us so we will have 2 weeks home, 2 weeks with dad, and then real life starts once again. Time has gone by so quickly and there are still a few things we want to do before we leave.
I hope everyone is having a great summer as well! I am posting a few pics, but will do a more in-depth picture spread later!

Sunday Afternoon

Hello Everyone,
I just finished meeting with the missionaries at my apartment here in Portugal. Their names are Elder Charon and Elder Zacheu (I might have the spelling wrong but it is close.). Elder Charon is from Murray, Utah and Elder Zacheu is from Brazil. Both are awesome missionaries and are doing a good job here. They gave me some material last Sunday at Church to learn the language so I am going to start concentrating on it as soon as these classes are out of the way. The ward I am attending has two sets of missionaries and is the largest ward in this area. The Bishop is young. He is 28 and has been serving for 3-3.5 years and he speaks English. That is very helpful. The Porto mission just got a new Mission President as well. Lots of good things going on over here.

Well, I wanted to add that I finally bought ingredients to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I ate one yesterday and it was awesome! You never know how much you miss peanut butter, jelly and bread slices until you don't have them for almost 3 weeks.

Also, I am including pictures of the fireworks on St. John's Day on June 24, 2009. They are from my hotel room and I zoomed in to get a good picture of them. Also, my first homemade meal and the mess I made are included. Then I was craving some american food Friday night so I talked to one of the guys in our group named Ben and asked him if Pizza Hut delivered here and he told me how to do it and what number to call. The pizza was pretty good. So much for the cholesterol. I am also including a picture of what milk looks like over here. Yes, it is the green and white box at room temperature before opening.

I just wanted to say I miss everyone and can't wait to see everybody again. Talk to you later.


Mark

Fish Better Than Dad's Steak

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to say hello again. Since this is the most free time I have had in a very long time, I have decided to try this blogging thing out. To tell you the truth, I really miss being busy....most of the time. Anyway, about the topic of this blog, I was in my hotel room last night and decided to order room service. I looked over the menu and found a dish named the Golden Bream. So I ordered it and thought, well maybe this fish will be ok. I will just say....that that was the best fish I have ever put in my mouth. In fact, it was so good, I almost ate the head of the fish including the eyeballs. I will tell you right now that if I had a choice between one of my dad's famous ribeyes and that fish, I would have chosen the fish. I have never eaten anything like it. I told a few people about it and they told my dad and when I talked to him today we had a nice discussion. Well, I gotta go. Talk to you later.

Mark

Porto, Portugal

Here are some pictures of the city of Porto from the airplane. Also included are pictures of the view from the mall balcony where I ate dinner. I was on the 3rd floor. The bridge you see was built by the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower. I don't think I spelled that right but oh well. In fact, I think the name of the guy who built the Eiffel Tower was Eiffel. One thing I will say about Portugal is that so far the people are very friendly and laid back and families seem to be a priority. People also eat dinner around 8:00pm. Talk to you all later. Miss you all and love you! Mark

Awesome!

I don't think I have ever watched Jimmy Fallon, but I found this online this morning from his show last night. Talk about a blast from the past. Laura, this is for you!

p.s. Click on the little box to make it full screen--it's still great quality, plus you can see the spray-on tan a whole lot better!