The kids LOVE when Daddy comes home. Even Marius will freak out and come crawling fast. If he's in his high chair eating, he gets mad and wants to get out to see Daddy.

Little Marius is so grown up, these days. He says Dadda like a pro. He even started crying for "dadadadada" when he got hurt, just like Scarlet and Brighton. Everytime they get hurt and it's just me, they SCREAM for "Daddy!!!!" and this week Marius did it too! It was crazy! This week he finally said "mama!" And he's starting to wave and say "buh buh". Super cute. He is just so motivated. He signs all done and he signs milk for drink- though it's his own little way of doing it. He's just so physical! He can crawl up the stairs EASILY. I just tried to teach him to crawl down this week, though I don't know when it will click. Hopefully this week or next? That would make life easier. On OCCASION, the gate has been left open and he has crawled all the way up 2 flights of stairs before I realize what happened. He is starting to get quite vocal. He gets LOUD when he's upset. Not necessarily CRYING, but just an aggravated whine or frustration. He still is the easiest baby ever and I'm way too impatient with him when he decides not to be perfect.

Brighton has been growing by leaps and bounds the last few months. He's so much more vocal and it makes him so much older. He's starting to leave his terrible twos behind. When I tell him no, half the time he says, "Ok", instead of the immediate MELT DOWN. Life seems to be getting so much easier with him. I need to remember that. The last year, with him, has been SO difficult. So much pain for both of us, to be quite honest. I was so worried I'd scarred him for life, but everything seems to have melted away and when he's not sick, things are just so good and happy between us. He's so dang cute! He's at such a cute age, with his sweet little voice communicating everything. It's just sweet to hear his thoughts, and funny too. Just like Scarlet, he's ALWAYS telling us he loves us. Riding in the car, when he can tell I'm having a hard time- out of nowhere he says, "I love you Mommy" and it makes me feel soooo good.

Scarlet has also been so much older these days. This is her first friend Birthday Party! It was Theresa's. It was a princess and fairies party. So the girls came dressed up and they all looked so cute. This is Scarlet holding Momo's hand on a treasure hunt. So sweet.

They found little wooden boxes and painted them. She had a great time. I went with just her because "only girls were aloud" so the boys all stayed home and Scarlet just ran off with her friends and I had no kids to watch- it was so STRANGE!!!

Scarlet also started a ballet class a month ago. The first time we watched in the back together for 30 minutes. After a LOT of convincing she decided to try it, but wanted me to stay (the adults aren't aloud in the room, usually). 5 minutes later she tells me I can leave and she has loved it ever since! It's been so wonderful. She's always been so shy and just CLINGS to me when we're in groups. It's been very frustrating, trying to get involved in things when I just have to hold all three kids the entire time. But just the last month, everything seems to have changed and she's not shy anymore. Even when people come over, she and Brighton are so quick to warm to them, when it used to take MANY MANY playdates to get used to anyone new. Scarlet will just run onto the bouncy houses and just wrestle around with the kids, even when they're a little wild. Brighton is still pretty timid. If things look wild or it's a big group- he often will just hang back with me. It makes me wonder how Marius will be.

I've been getting into my Zumba and loving it. Already thinking about Zumba in the Philippines. I hope there's a class I can get to easily. It makes my life so much better! It makes it so much easier for me to exercise and that's really important for me, right now. It really helps my mind/mood. I've been going 3 times a week, but have been lazy about running on the off days, and I just found a bunch of zumba videos on youtube and made a few playlists and now I'll do THAT in between. I'm so excited about it.

We are LEAVING soon! It's strange. Really strange to be thinking about living in the Philippines. Everytime I go to the bathroom I wonder about the Philippines. Will we be able to flush the TP there? Will there be squat toilets, or real toilets? Will the sewage stink up any room with a drain or will it just smell like a bathroom? All these wonders. I think about getting stuck in traffic for hours and having the kids pee in their car seats and crying. I think about all the storms and power outages and wonder if we'll have a generator or sweat it out in the candle light, praying for the power to come back on. I wonder if we'll meet people we can be comfortable with and have real friends. I wonder about our ward- will it be with locals or internationals? Will it be an hour drive away? I really just wonder about it all.

I told the kids we'll buy umbrellas and squirt guns to give them something to look forward to when we arrive. I just hope we can adjust to the heat quickly. People often say that you just come to terms with always being wet. I mean- will we literally ALWAYS be wet? How wet? That sounds so gross to be wet all the time. I guess we'll find out.

I'm SO excited to have SUCH a short flight! I mean in all seriousness- that it's only like 24 hours! That is SOOOO much better than 34. We can get the whole thing done in one day! None of this staying up for two days business. That's just not the way to do things. I like this 24 hour business. I can totally handle that. Only one major stop- in JAPAN. A totally clean, first world country. Yeah, I can really handle that. No more Turkey, Germany, and then all the cities across the US till we finally reach Oregon. The only thing that's hard right now- and it is HARD . . . is Marius. Oh man. He's at that AGE. He's too little for tv, too little for playing with a toy for too long and he can't sit STILL. And he's too big and strong to keep him in my lap with that stupid little infant seatbelt. They just rip it off in a flash! There's no way to stop them. Oh man. THAT is what's going to be hard on the trip to the states and then to the Philippines. With Brighton, he was still nursing- so he was just CONSTANTLY on my boob. It won't be that way with Marius. But, I guess he likes the pacifier, which Brighton didn't. ANYWAY. It is what it is and I don't want to think about it. Not to mention the luggage. Now we have an extra kid to carry around. We want have like 10 bags/carseats to lug around, plus 3 kids and a stroller. How's THAT gonna work? We have to get it all in Europe when we go through customs. Blah. Don't want to think about it. It's going to be difficult.

We are getting really excited to go to the states. Oh man, we watched a movie last night and just to SEE AMERICA, oh man. It's such a beautiful place. It just makes sense to me. There's something to be said about stuff that makes sense. I don't think you can really understand until you go to a place and you constantly think to yourself, "What are you people DOING? None of you make sense!" And it boggles your mind and it's nearly everyday. Sigh. I just wonder what it will be like in the Philippines. Will it all be the same- not making sense, but just in a different way? Will everything break and be crappily made? I'm guessing people won't stare at me and the kids because it seems like one of those places where little kids are running around. The whole family crammed on a motor bike- you know what I'm talking about. I feel like I'll see that there- but I guess I really don't know that.

I hope it's great. And I hope we make good friends. I hope we settle quickly and love it there. I'm sort of afraid we won't, because honestly- I have never felt like I fit here. I have hardly made good friends. It's been the biggest challenge I've ever faced. It's been a really different life here- one I didn't see coming. But I learned as we went. I feel like I learned the most right here at the end. Like now that we have 2 months left, I finally figured out how to be happy here. There were so many things I just FOUGHT against. And then after 2 stinkin' years I finally realized "THIS ISN'T WORKING!!!! I just have to give in, and do things the way everyone else does them." So now we go to playdates at 3:30-5:30. Oh yes, I'm very serious. This is when people get together. Their 2-4 yr olds are all in school from 8:30-3 and we all meet up at a park and leave at 5:30. Crazy.

I finally got a full time driver. It helps that he speaks english and I'm getting an INSANE deal with him. But none the less- I'm realizing just how CRAPPY our last driver was and how ridiculously much he took advantage of us. It leaves me a bit bitter, to be honest- but I need to let it go. I think I will when we leave this place. I can just let go of all the crap that I'm frustrated about, because hopefully I won't have to deal with it again. At least not in this place.

Learning to accept that 99% of moms here work, and 90% of the nonworking moms still have full time nannies- and I just need to not be judgmental about it. Because THAT'S the way it is here and feeling weird and being judgy hasn't gotten me a lot of friends.

The social circle has been SO DIFFERENT here. I pretty much avoid group playdates. Whenever I'm in groups, everyone's talking- but nothing is said- and it's so boring. Everyone just talks about work. No one has hobbies. No one has interests. We talk about where we've lived, what we do for work, the great help that we have, the things we can't STAND about the culture here, where we get THIS product, where we get THAT. It is SO NOT PERSONAL, so not connecting, so not INTERESTING. And I'm just so ready to move on. All of THIS has been the biggest challenge for me. It's hard to to have friends. It makes life harder.

The few friends I HAVE made- they end up moving, because that's just the life we all lead. Or we all go on month long vacations at different times, so literally MONTHS go without seeing each other- along with the usual "my kid has a fever, we can't come over today" kind of thing- except people are sick here WAY MORE OFTEN. So it's been really hard to stay connected even to the people I get along with. Blah, like I said- I hope this part of life is better in the Philippines.

Greg has lost 25 lbs in the last 6 months. He's been very diligent about working out. He mostly rides the bike in the morning, while watching Jimmy Fallon. It's been great. It's been slow and steady so I think it's gonna stay off for good. He is SWIMMING in his clothes. He even took them all in awhile back and they're STILL so huge on him. He needs a completely new wardrobe when we get back to the states. I need one too. My body has been growing and shrinking with pregnancy the last 5 years! I'm finally where I want to be and will hopefully just stay here now! A lot more motivating to go shopping!

I THINK I mentioned I read a book about minimalism and it was AWESOME and I've gotten rid of SO MUCH STUFF and have such a better grasp on when to buy and when to say no and not bringing so much CRAP into the house!

Since we're moving, we're selling a lot of food that we didn't use up- cans of beans, pastas, etc. We had so much I thought we'd have a big loss- but I sent out a mass email of our goods and I think we'll sell 90% of it! So that's good. If only I didn't accidentally buy TWO 50 lb bags of oat groats, because that accidental purchase is still sitting in our basement unopened. Oh well.

We're still waiting on our housing assignment. We are so anxious. I want to know where we'll live to I can start checking out our neighborhood and planning places to go when we arrive. I want to be prepared and ready to go! Not like this time.

Well, it's late. I'm gonna go!