Together Again!

Kevin came home last night!!!  and we are one happy family....  here are some pictures of us pickign him up at the airport.  Ethan was all for Daddy and kept saying his name the entire ride home.  Blayne, knows he is supposed to know him and knows his voice but is still a little unsure of this strange man....

waiting for daddy to come thru security

Blayne not so sure about this man

It's Official!!!!!!!!!!!!

First things first.  Kevin is coming HOME!!  He arrives home on Sept. 22     We are so excited to have him home and to have our little family together again.  The fact that he is coming home, means we have our orders to where we will be transferred next.  When we were denied Germany, our hearts sank and we had come to the conclusion that we just weren't supposed to be there and we were OK with that.  Our hearts still longed to be in Europe, somewhere, but most importantly we wanted our family together in one place more than anything.  We had decided that it didn't matter where we would go just bring Kevin home and send us somewhere we could be together.  The next few days and weeks decisions had to be made and paperwork filed.  There was lots of prayer and as Kevin put it (his words not mine) some "crack deals" made in the middle of the night, and next thing we knew we had a new destination.  We have known for a couple of weeks, but wanted the final orders in hand before we announced it.  Let me just say it was the hardest thing to keep it a secret.  I just wanted to shout it from the top of the highest roof top!  So hear it goes:  we are going to, drum roll please,   (seriously have you not figured it out by now?  I even gave you some theme music):

RAF Mildenhall England!!!

That's right, we're headed back to England. This was a BIG shocker. Those "crack deals" made in the middle of the night were phone calls made to double check that there was absolutely nothing available in England. Sure enough there was something that was available in RAF Mildenhall. If you can remember, our original location was RAF Lakenheath, this is just a few minutes down the road from RAF Mildenhall. So much to do so little time to do it in. We look forward to our new adventure and are grateful that we were able to have the opportunity to go Europe like we have been trying to do for years.

We look forward to all the friends and family that want to come and visit.  So dust off the passports, make sure they are still valid.  If you are one of those people who still doesn't have one, what are you waiting for?  Get cracking!

OPAH!!!!

For over a year, I have been pestering my friend Jennifer for her recipe for Halva, or "Greek pastry".  She finally gave it to me a couple of weeks ago.  Today I made it for the first time, unsupervised all by myself.  I was thrilled when it came out just the way it was supposed to.  It is has a rich creamy yummy flavor and is addictive!  So here we go...

You'll need:

1c sugar                            1 1/2 sticks butter

2c hot water                      1c cream of wheat

On one burner mix one cup of sugar with 2 cups of hot water, bringing to a boil.  Simmer until ready to use.

Then, Melt butter in large pot, then add cream of wheat.  Stir over medium heat; making sure it doesn't burn.  Stir in syrup.  When pleasant aroma is emitted, and it starts to thicken, pour into a form and wait until cool to serve!*

When it has cooled a bit and is set, turn out of form and sprinkle with some cinnamon.  Then ENJOY!!!

sorry, all my pretty serving dishes are in storage, so you get a sheet pan :)

*now, if you don't have a form of some kind, use what you have.  an 8X8 pan, cupcake pan, even just a ceramic bowl.  However, if you are looking for one, Target has some way cute ones in different sizes and designs.  That is where I got mine.

Saying goodbye (for now)

Recently Grandma and Grandpa Pressgrove decided to move.  While they were in Utah this summer, they up and bought a house.  Here is a photo of the boys with their grnadparents a couple of days before they moved to Utah. 

Dressing the part.

Some of our best activites are watching Ethan play at dress up.  This is something he has started doing the last 8-10mos or so.  Here are some of his creative outfits I have been able to capture

Day at the Zoo.

One morning I went outside and it was kinda cool. I thought it would be a great morning to go to the Zoo.  So I loaded up the boys and we got there just as it was opening.  By the time we got there the cool breeze that I had felt less than two hours prior was all but gone and the temperature had soared and it was HOT!  Needless today we did not last too long, but here is some of the fun we had.  As you can tell from the pictures, one of our favorite things when going to the Zoo is refilling our bucket of popcorn and drink cups.   I just noticed my Zoo pass expired today, so sad.

More Summer Fun

While downloading some pictures I came across a few more pictures of some the fun that went on while we were in Utah.

Gracie got her wisdon teeth pulled.  This is her fresh from the Dr. Jared's, still a little happy from the drugs:

Fred got a pedicure from the Gregson girls:

Pressgrove cousins:

McKay Seth Sutton Blayne Ethan

The triplets.  Seth and Sutton were born on the same day as Blayne

approx 20hrs appart and 2500 miles away

Aunt Michael's house.

The 1st place we stayed was at a Aunt Michael Joan's house. We went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and played in her fun backyard. Oh what fun we had.

I think this was one of the highlights of the zoo, the gorrila not only picking,

 

and eating his boogies...

 

 

Play time.

While in Utah we spent most of the time at Aunt Nancy and Uncle Robert's house.  This is where we always stayed when we went to Utah as children.  Well, here and at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They were so happy they had an actually yard to play in and to be able to run around and much as they could.  Here are some highlights of their favorite things.

Everytime Blayne went outside this was where he headed.  It didn't matter if no one would take him for a ride, he could read a book or play with a toy.  He loved the wagon.

Ethan became a pro at his tricycle and these wiggle carts (you use your wiggle power to make them move and steer them). and would take off at the 1st chance he got.

Hiking the Y

For almost a week, my sister would call and say "we are hiking the Y do you want to come?"  I would politly say no, my boys won't make it.  I can see major disaster and meltdowns 1/2 way up.  My cousin convinced me go do it, they have it paved now.  ME: well, if it's paved that will make it easy and it could be do-able.  So  I called Mandy and said sure we will give it a try.  We get there, and guess what? The parking lott is paved, and that's about it.  But we were there and there were older kids to help out with Ethan and a sturdy jogging stroller for Blayne.  Heck if Mandy and Syd are doing this with Heath and Creed on their backs, I could certainly do this with a stroller.  The out come: FAIL! MAJOR FAIL!

That is one steep trail, with 10 different turns, we (me and the boys) made it to turn two.  Keep in mind that they are the two longest turns of the trail.

 I decided to wait at turn two while the other's hiked to the end.  we waited about 45 min before pooey diapers and meltdowns began to set in.  My next challange was how to figure out how to get a tired two year old and a cranky 1 year old down the side of the mountian on my own.  We got back down to turn one and started down to the base, and Ethan was DONE.  big time.  He plopped himself down and would not get up.  Fortunatly a young man named Austin, stopped on his way back down and asked if he could help (forgot to get his pic).  Thank goodness for answered prayers.  By the time we got back down Blayne was a sleep.  So while we cooled down we watched a movie and had a drink and waited another 20 min for the others to come down,  Congrats on the ones whi made it.

View of BYU Stadium

The Y.  This is the view from turn two.  not a good angle but that was the destination