I guess you should know....

Well, all the people that know us really well, know we are slow about making a decision. And fast to act on it! Everything will fall into place at the last possible moment and we get thrown into a whirlwind!
We are going to move back to Kansas city. It seems like everyone we know that has moved away is moving back at the same time. We are excited and crazy all at the same time. We decided it was time to go back yesterday(Thursday) and elek has to start school on Wednesday. So here we are is a flurry of activity renting a truck, packing, closing up one house and opening up another - all in one weekend! Shockingly all the utility companies are working in our time frame-one day!
Maryland has been a wonderful home. Our one year stay turned into two and a half years. We've learned a lot about ourselves, grown up in some areas, grown our family(Camden will always have a little Baltimore history to follow him). =) We've made fantastic friends. Had lots of weekend trips to Ohio to visit family. I've loved getting to see our nations history first hand. I never was interested in history until we moved here. I'm grateful for all our history lessons and the memories that our children have here.
We are sad this has happend so fast that we really don't have a chance to say good buy to anyone. But we will miss everyone in Maryland. Savage Mill has been my favorite family ward. It will be hard to be away. 'Till we meet again!
On the other hand - elek is jumping out of his skin to start school! He is so happy to finally start school. Today I was outside and noticed a kid running down the sidewalk. I looked up to see who it was and I was startled to realize it was Elek. He somehow grew when I was looking right at him and never noticed. I still think of him as my "baby boy." Which he will still answer to... and now he's going to be in school!
Well this is us - signing out till we get settled.

D.C. Temple 2009

While Shaun had some time off we decided to take the kids to the D.C. temple. The boys love going on the nature walk behind the temple. So here is a photo journal of the trip =)


They were really interested in some small bug on the sidewalk.


Shaun thinks this is the funniest picture! He loves the boys taking off behind me. He thinks its a glimpse of life to come. (Me trying to coral three boys!)

Camden being super sweet giving daddy loves ;)

You can't see it, but there is a baby deer in the middle. We have never actually seen live "nature" on the ten billion times we've walked this trail, but this time there were five deer. Shaun thought he should walk up to the deer and take their pictures. The only big animals I've had experience with (bears and moose) you don't walk up too! Shaun insisted it would be fine. I, however, was not convinced.

Cool picture of the glowing spire.

I didn't realize the kids are all wearing blue... They were being so sweet - holding hands and looking for animal prints in the mud. Fun times!

There are two places along the trail were these tree pieces are layed out. The boys love them. They line up on them, jump on them, and are basically just silly!

Looking for nuts and paw prints.

Shaun in charge of the camera...

Anyways, fun times! We love that our children already love to go to the temple. We love that we live close enough to drop by the temple just to walk around the outside or take a quick look at a new exhibit in the visitor center.

Bethany Beach

This is the first time we've gone to the "big beach" (the ocean) as a family. We had lots of fun together! The boys loves wading out into the water with their Dad! Shaun would hold them firmly by the arm(someone looking at them would think they were in big trouble by the way Shaun was holding them!) so they wouldn't wash away when the wave came in. One wave came in a bit higher than Shaun was expecting. It completely took Shaun and Keenan out! Shaun and Keenan went from feet just barley wet to drenched with sand in their hair in about a minute! It took Keenan a few minutes before he went in again =) Camden mainly hung out on the towel. The boys would bring Camden a bucket of water then Camden would fill up a water shooter and spray everyone within shooting distance with a twinkle in his eye ;)

All in all it was a great relaxed day. Snacks on the beach, family time, sand castles and water fun!

Boys playing with water shooters!

Ha Ha! love the way this pict looks. The boys running to shaun. Shaun looking at a huge wave coming in!

Keenan getting sandy.

Elek being a turtle.

Raspberries!

My sister and I went to Larriland to pick strawberries, but the pickins were slim :( Someone mentioned the raspberries had opened up that day to pick. My sister and I went down to check them out. The berries were so plentiful they begged us to pick them! All we had to do was walk up to the bushes and pick them off. There was no searching just taking the ones on top. The raspberries were bigger than the strawberries we came to pick! They were so yummy! We ended up with 13pounds!!! Four batches of jam and still about five pounds for eating!

Raspberries?!?! What raspberries? =)

Keenan funnies:)

Starting a movie the other night, the "dream works" moon comes up. Elek says, "there's the man in the moon." Keenan says, "That's not the man in the moon. That's Heavenly Father fishing!!"

Driving home at night. The kids are tiered and quiet. Suddenly Keenan SHOUTS "ARE YOU CRAZY!?!!" It was the funniest thing! Shaun and I burst out laughing! Then Keenan says, "it's not day time it's night." Apparently there was a song on talking about day time and keenan had something to say about that!

Happy Birthday Keenan

Keenan has been a lucky boy this year! In years past he hasn't had birthday parties. He has never been "into" anything to build a party theme around. But this year he is so "into" dirt, worms, outside stuff and bubbles that a theme started coming out. I had an idea of having dirt delivered to our backyard and having a dirt cake with worms in it that we decided to through a party for him! The lucky part for him is that we were traveling on his birthday and so he had little parties everywhere.

It started out in Missouri. Keenan had a brownie cake with his Haney cousins.

Then dinner at Red Robins with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Alaina. The waiter made him a balloon hat that hung around his ears and floated up. When the waiter brought out Keenan's birthday ice cream he was so excited his mouth went into a big "O" shape with his eye brows at the top of his head. At the same time he couldn't stop smiling so the "O" shape turned into a oval shape:-)

Then on our way home we stopped in Ohio. We stayed an extra day to visit. My sister made Keenan a reverse lady bug cake(brown instead of red). Thanks Aunt Rissa! The boys had a great time having another party and more cousins to play with! Even Camden had figured out how to blow out Keenan candles! hehe:)

So that brings us to Keenan's final birthday party at home. Many, many Thanks to Aunt Lisa for saving the day and coming over early and staying the whole time to help me(shaun had to work last minute)!! I let Keenan open one of his presents-a bubble machine - before the party so we could use it. Keenan opened it and in a voice of awe says, "Mom, I just love you so much!!!" What a sweet heart! He is *crazy* about bubbles and to have a bubble machine was a dream come true! We also made a sand box (big tupperware) and put regular sand with purple sand in it. Oh the joy of colored sand for a kid! Then I made a "dirt cake" out of chocolate pudding and oreos and put gummy worms in it. Keenan was in heaven! On a funny note: one of keenan' s little friends doesn't like getting dirty and when I mentioned a dirt cake with worms - he wanted NOTHING to do with it. Not one taste not a gummy worm nothing! No amount of children asking for more would get that boy to try it!! So funny:)

The kids were so good at opening presents. I was surprised at how giving a bunch of four year old were. They were so excited to give their gift and to see what someone elts had brought. They were so sweet! Thanks to all the friends that came to celebrate with us!

Well, Happy Birthday Keenan Myster:)

A little of this and a little of that from Mo

The boys are loving the outside time at their Grandparents house.

While Keenan and Elek were doing this.....

Poor frog - totally getting smashed then streched!

Camden was doing this.....

Then they all "helped" plant a garden and of course there was plenty of this....

If I only had a picture of what they all looked like when they came in....just think MUD!