First week in Virginia!

The kids and I started the vacation to Virginia with a drive with Grandma Fox.  She flew in and we set off the next morning.  I was super prepared with a bag of dollar store goodies and plenty of snacks. The kids did great and we made it there in 11 hours and 20 minutes.  Not bad since the GPS said it would take 11hours...we made 3 stops..but only did potty and gas at the stops.
We got in and the kids were so excited so it took a little while to go to bed.
The next day was dentist appts. for the kids and I.  We are so blessed that Grandpa Fox is our dentist.  We had the whole crew in for cleanings and they did great.  I was really nervous about Jacob since he had a filling filled last year and it was kinda traumatic..we didn't do it at Grandpa's office.  Luckily one of the hygienists let Jacob ask a million questions and hold every piece of equipment..his favorite is the suction..I mean who doesn't love the suction tube?
I kept forgetting my camera so I am really bummed that I have very few pictures the first week. Don't worry I more than made up for it the next week.
Wednesday we went to Cafe Rio and met a few friends from church.  The kids were so excited every time they turned around another friend was there. Luckily we were able to eat outside because we were a big group and a lot of kids and very loud!
Thursday I had to go back to the dentist for a tooth that has been bugging me for a little bit..turns out it was cracked so I had to be prepped for a crown. I have my mother's teeth...not good!
We also went to Chuck E Cheese. I remembered my camera but only snapped a few pictures.  We also got the cutest shirts from Grandma Fox. They are all red with their initial and name underneath. I thought they were so cute.  Aren't Giselle and Lucy so cute. I have a bunch of cute pictures of the two of them I will post later.  The picture of Nolan cracked me up. Nolan is Jennifer's youngest. Jennifer is Brett's sister.  He is riding a horse that you direct what it does. He took it very serious and if you know Nolan you know he's a serious kid. So the concentration in this picture is just priceless.
Friday night a HUGE storm came in with 70-80 mph winds. It was the freakiest thing. I was on the phone with Brett when I heard the wind coming. It was like a wall of wind. Within probably 15 minutes or so the power was out.  What we didn't realize is that a big part of  a tree had cracked off and fell on the drive way.
So the next morning. Grandma, Grandpa and I went out to see how it all looked. I can't believe I didn't take a picture but it's probably because we had no power and it was boiling hot!  So we moved the big tree in the road...I had quite a few friendly creatures on me after that...eek!
Luckily Brett's parents had a generator and got the fridge and freezer running but that's all it could handle.  With it being so hot we decided to see if we could stay with a friend for the night.
Luckily we have very kind and generous friends.  We stayed with the Kotter's and then went to our old ward the next day!

A Romney Rally!

You might be wondering why I have this picture in this post.  Well let me tell you.
Jennifer ( Brett's sister) told me that she heard Mitt Romney would be having a rally over by her house. Now, she should have known better than to have told me that because I of course said...LET'S GO!!!
So we packed up all 8 of our kids and went over there. Not knowing what to expect or prepared for oh say a line over a half mile long.  We got in line and waited and waited and waited.  The kids actually did a really good job of just standing there but it was hot and we were not prepared with snacks or drinks, anything. Luckily a volunteer was super nice and brought us bottled water and even went back and got us more when she realized how many of us there were.   We didn't pre register so we had to wait in a separate line before we could get in the security pat down line. Luckily the registration was quick and easy.  After a good hour and half of waiting in line we finally got to go inside..which was a warehouse.  It wasn't very big and there was quite a few people.  My big girls were super excited to be there and kept yelling GO ROMNEY!!! It was adorable..well at least I thought it was adorable.   The place kept getting more and more crowded and louder and so the kids were getting more and more anxious.  Of course they always do quite a long introduction of special guests and important politicians before Romney comes out.  While waiting for each speaker the kids would dance to the music and talk..sometimes rather loudly. Well quite a few of the older women in attendance...yes WOMEN. Were not to happy about our cute, absolutely adorable children being there.  They kept Shhhh the kids and telling them to be quiet. which by the way NO ONE was being quiet there.  I couldn't hear very well what some of the women were saying which is a good thing because I wouldn't have just smiled.
A staffer of Romney took some cute photo's of all the kids holding stickers of Romney but I haven't been able to find any of those pictures. I did find the above photo from the Rally and I'm pretty sure one of those ladies was one that was not so nice to us.  If I had known what she said I would have been happy to tell her. That I brought my children here so they could know who mommy was talking about. So they could know that they aren't too young to get involved. So they could know this is their country too and that it's important for them to know who is running it.  I want my children to know that I want the best for them and just because I have these adorable kids home during the day does not mean that I have a lesser right to be there than anyone else!!
We ended up only staying for a few minutes of his speech but that's OK. I am still so glad we went and I am so glad my children could experience being a part of history.  I kept telling Jennifer that this is an adventure..and I am so glad she came with me.

The BEST packing tip EVER!

My sister in law Nichole mentioned on facebook that she was going to do the storage bag trick for packing clothes and wanted to know if anyone had success with it.  I had never heard about it so when one of her friends put a link to someone else doing it I clicked it and was intrigued.  I couldn't believe it. I got ALL 5 of my children's clothes in ONE suitcase.  I packed 8 outfits for Jacob and Giselle each. 7 outfits for the big girls. Each bag had a shirt, pants and undies.  I also packed swimsuits and church clothes for all kids. Yes, I also packed church shoes...all in ONE suitcase.  I also loved that while I was on vacation I never had to dig for something.  I was lucky to be staying with my in laws so we had a washer and dryer. So I would just put the outfit back in the bag ready to go. I didn't keep it as neat as I would have liked but packing up was so much easier since I knew I had enough bags for each outfit.  So if you are going on a trip and want to get pack a lot with a little space. Storage bags are the way to go.
 FYI for anyone interested: make sure to squeeze as much air out before zipping up!!!
I used quart sized bags for Giselle and Jacob and Gallon size bags for the big girls. I also took a sharpie and labeled each bag. I now have a pile of bags ready to be used for our next trip!

WE LOVE DAD

Happy Father's Day to the world's greatest dad. Brett we love you so much! You are such an amazing father. I'm pretty sure our children think so too.  Just like the song says....I'm so glad when daddy comes home. Glad as I can be.  We LOVE you!!!!

Mini High School reunion and Lake Erie!

OK, so they are not in order but I had a fun quick trip to Michigan!  I was lucky to be able to see quite a few of my friends from high school and meet their children and a few spouses who just so happened to also go to school with us.  It was really hot outside but the kids still had a blast and a gift to us moms..tired kiddos.  I love that I haven't seen some of these more than a handful of times in 15 years and we can still get together and it feels like only yesterday.  I just hope the next time we get together it  wont be 15 years!

Since it was so hot we decided it would be fun to go to a Lake..you know there are a few of them in Michigan. A close one is Lake Erie. It's not the prettiest but it still was fun.  The best part was that you could walk out far and it isn't deep. Giselle and Jacob even felt like a big kid..even if I had to pull Giselle out a few times because she thought she could jump and swim...silly girl!
Baby Wyatt got in the action for only a photo op but he was rockin some cute swim trunks.
Thanks for a fun mid week getaway!!!

Free Museum Day in Chicago!

The museums here in Chicago are really nice but pretty pricey. So it is a GREAT idea to head over when they offer free days for Illinois residents.  We were lucky to go with some friends from church which makes it even more fun.
We went to this museum before with Brett's parents but it was at Christmas time and it was SO crowded and so many lines that it wasn't as much fun.  This time there were no lines and so much more relaxing.  We were able to see so much more but I have to say there is still so much to see. Since it was free we didn't feel like we had to stress and jam as much in as we could.
We brought our lunch which made it even a better deal.
We were also lucky to see a bunch of baby chicks hatching.  The kids were very fascinated with it. I think the mom's were also pretty fascinated. It's amazing how long it takes those poor babies to get out of that shell.
The trains were of course a HUGE hit as well as the idea room.  The big girls really liked the Internet room. Learning about how it started and how much has improved.  They also were able to see a few experiments and even a big burst of flames.
Love free days and hope to try some more places out!

Jolie's 1st Art Class!

Jolie  has 3 big loves: Fashion, art, and teaching.  She decided to put all 3 to work. She made flyer's and passed them out to a few neighbors and waited to see if anyone would be interested in an art class taught by Jolie.  She was super excited to find out 3 neighbor kids and 3 siblings wanted to come.  She prepared her lesson and got all of her supplies.  They did self portraits for the first class. It was a whole hour and she loved every minute.  The pictures were great and we finished with a snack. I think Jolie is doing such an amazing job at practicing her talent. Way to go Jolie!

p.s. nothing is wrong with Jacob's eye he is just doing a weird blink here!