Kids, Kids, Kids!

These are pictures from our weekend at my parents' house. We all enjoyed getting to relax and just spend time with Minima and Bitiba. The kids loved being able to go outside and dig in the dirt and get as dirty as the wanted. Chloe loved on all the animals, whether they wanted her to or not.



The kids all love Bitiba's go kart, including Chloe. She's "driving" Brady in this picture. She had to have her turn too. (Notice that Chloe has more teeth than Brady!!)


Chloe loved helping take care of the animals.


Chloe finally gave out. She wasn't feeling good, plus she had been going nonstop. She only wanted her Minima all weekend.


Avery and Brady helped Bitiba dig and make a path in the backyard. They were so dirty! The picture doesn't show all the dirt, if you can believe that!


Brady came to show me his muscles and how they had grown after all the work he had done.



This is right next to my parents' house. The boys thought it was great to play in the wheat field. When they squatted down, they completely disappeared.



Minima taught Avery how to play jacks. He loved it, especially when he got to play by her rules, instead of the actual rules!! I love that he had fun playing something so simple instead of sitting in front of the tv or computer.

Happy Birthday baby girl!!

Today is Chloe's second birthday. It's so hard to believe that she's already two. I can still remember telling the boys that they were going to have a little sister or brother. They didn't believe us at first. I can remember life without her, but it seems like so long ago. She is such a little girl! She sings songs, takes care of her babies, gets her feelings hurt easily, loves aggravating her brothers, is incredibly loud for someone her size, loves animals(that sometimes means she carries kittens around by their neck), gives amazing hugs and kisses, and makes me smile. I can't believe we thought (for a time) that our family was complete without her. I feel so blessed that God has given her to us. Thank you Chloe for making our family complete. Happy Birthday!

(I have some pictures of today, but I won't be able to add those until next week.)

Outside Fun Day

This is how Brady came home from school earlier this week. I said, "Brady, what did you do today?" He replied, "It was outside fun day." Oh, that explains it, somewhat. I don't know if you can tell just how dirty he is, but it was quite a sight. He was covered in dirt. I almost just threw his clothes away. He was immediately sent to the shower. The picture of him with his hair sticking up is funny because he just ran his hands through his hair once and it stayed up. Now I know all I need to do for crazy hair day next year is send him out to play in the dirt.

blogging slump

I still really love this whole blog thing, but for some reason I'm in a slump when it comes to posting. I'm not tired of it, but I feel like I don't have anything to write about. This is amusing to me because we have more going on right now then ever. Just in case you don't know what's happening with us, here's a summary. We have moved out of our house and are living with friends until the new house is finished. That should be around the end of July, hopefully. (I believe in thinking positive.) The boys are out of school tomorrow for the summer. They have trips to grandparents' houses, camp and our trip to Keith's graduation this July to keep them busy. Now all I have to do is keep up with it all. So, this post is basically to say don't give up on me this summer. I can't promise I'll be better about posting, but I'm going to try.

House Update

Here's the latest on the house. The roof is finished, and the plumbing is almost done. The house plan we chose has a sink in the bonus room, but we put it in our contract that we don't want that. Well, the plumbing is there for the sink, so they'll have to come back and fix that. You would think that they might actually read our contract so they wouldn't have to come back and fix things, but apparently they would rather waste their money doing things twice. I guess it's their money, but I feel like the house would be done sooner if they did it right the first time. Well, anyway I'm glad to see progress on the house. Chloe's favorite thing was going up the stairs, which makes me nervous because they're not exactly safe yet. Every time she hears us talk about the house, she starts talking about her stairs, her room, her garage, etc. Everything is hers, which really applies not only to the house, but everything in life. Anyway, the picture of her is in her room. She loves to go in there and show it off. The boys already love the trees in the backyard. I just love to watch them play back there. They really have fun on the big piles of dirt, which they would love to keep when we move in.

Officially homeless

Well, we're all moved out of the house. It's no longer ours. We closed yesterday, so now we're homeless!! It's such a strange feeling knowing that someone else is in our house and it's theirs now. It makes it even more strange because I'll still see the house often, especially while the boys are in school. It feels good to be done with that part of the move. Now we just watch as the new house goes up ever so slowly!

I just have to say thank you to everyone that helped us move or watched the kids. We couldn't have done it without you. Words can't express how much I appreciate all the help. Thanks also for all the prayers on our behalf. God has blessed us with the most amazing family and friends in the world!

Too bad we have to make new friends to help us move in the new house!! :)

MOVING DAY!!

Well, ready or not it's here. Today is moving day. Wow. Please say a prayer that it all goes smoothly and no one gets hurt! Also say thank you to God that I'm feeling better. I can't say thank you enough for the prayers on our behalf. We love you!

House update

I know you are all going to get tired of seeing the house at different stages, but I just have to put a couple on here with the second story up. The first picture is from the backyard, in the middle of our trees. You can see where the sliding door is going to be, and the deck/patio will be right off of that. I'm already looking forward to hanging out in the shade of our trees. The second picture is taken in our side yard. I love that the porch is on that side and you can see my kitchen window too! I can't believe that they are almost done framing! I know that they have tons of work still to do, but to be able to see the house like this is awesome.

Ever have this kind of day?

I know everyone has crazy days, but I just have to vent for a moment.

get up at 5:30 -go to curves
come home and get myself and kids ready for the day
Brady wakes up not feeling good
remember that I have to send a note to all the parents in Avery's class about teacher appreciation week
get frustrated, wonder why I agreed to take care of that
Chloe wakes up with her eyes crusted almost shut
have to wake Avery up (next to impossible)
get breakfast, Brady doesn't want anything we have
get frustrated
eat breakfast, Brady upset
try to explain that I'm not a restaurant (decide that I'm going to start offering two choices for breakfast, take it or leave it)
get everyone dressed and off to school
come home and try to get something done
spend most of the morning on the phone with at least six different people
call the doctor's office to get some prescription drops for Chloe's eyes
go pick up Brady from school because he doesn't feel good
while picking up Brady, missed the call from the dr. office
get frustrated
get Brady settled on the couch and try to keep Chloe away from him (impossible)
finally talk to a nurse and get a prescription (natrually I was in the bathroom when they called!)
get Brady and Chloe lunch
get Chloe to bed for her nap
breathe and relax

This day has been so crazy, and most of this happened before eleven o'clock! It's just one of those days where it's one thing after another. It doesn't help that we're moving THIS WEEK, or that at least one person in the house has been sick for the past three weeks. We have a nasty virus, and I'm ready for it to go away. So, that's it. I'm done venting for now. No promises on tomorrow though!!

This day has just been too comical to not add the rest of it.

Avery comes home from school
we head to kroger to get eye drops
they don't have a prescription for Chloe
call the dr. office so they can call it in again
buy everyone fries and drinks while we wait in kroger parking lot
get prescription and head home
Avery shows me his class picture that he isn't in, I paid $13 for a picture of other people's kids
Chloe is being too quiet, so we try to locate her
she's in my room on the floor bathing in hand sanitizer (for the second time today)
I think Chloe is single handedly trying to get rid of whatever virus or crud we have going around in the house.

I'm sure there is more to come, the day isn't over yet!

House update

I just want to update everyone about the house. The builder is fixing the problem (see We have walls post), and they said it was free of charge! I would love to see them try to charge me for something that was their fault to begin with. Anyway, I'm thankful that it worked out like I thought it would with no drama. So far so good...

Baking question...

Does anyone know the difference in a light flour and regular flour? I used White Lily all purpose flour in my biscuits last week, and they didn't turn out very well. The consistency was off, and they were kinda flat. It says that it's a light flour, but I thought as long as it's all purpose that it would work fine. I've used White Lily self rising in a cake recipe and it works great. The biscuit recipe is one that I've made dozens of times, and it's never turned out like this. Anyway, it's got to be the flour, because it couldn't be my fault!! HaHa!

Red Robin

Tonight we went to eat at Red Robin. We heard that one opened recently in the area close to where we're building, so we just had to check it out. We had one in Anchorage that we went to often. It wasn't the same as going to the one in Alaska, but it was still fun. Keith and I both love the seasoning salt they use on their fries, and have talked about for the past five years. I think the only thing that could have made it better was if their air conditioner was working properly. It was a bit warm and humid, but the food was good. You know, it wasn't really the restaurant that we loved so much, but the memories that it brings back. It was neat to be able to connect to such a great time in our lives.

We have walls!!

Keith took the kids to see the house today, and this is what they saw. They were so excited that they hung around for quite a while on the adjoining lot just watching the house being built! The boys loved getting to watch them build the house, and Chloe enjoyed throwing rocks into puddles. (Now we have actually seen people working on the house!) I was at a ladies' retreat, so I was unable to go with them, but when I got home, we decided to go back out there!! ( I know I said we wouldn't, but we did!) It was really fun to see it and get to walk around in the house since the workers weren't there anymore. I think it's a really good thing that we did go back because we noticed a problem. Well, not a problem, but something was different than what we were expecting. In the house just like this one that we've walked through, the living room is open to the breakfast area and there's a cut out in the kitchen wall with a little bar. It makes the area very open, and it allows whoever is in the kitchen (me) to not be isolated from the living room. It's one of our favorite things about the house. Well, in our house it isn't like that at all. There isn't a cut out and it's more closed off. I don't know if that makes any sense. Anyway, I'm hoping we'll hear something back from the builder on Monday. (I love having a realtor to take care of all this stuff!) I'm not going to get upset about it yet, because I think it's pretty easily fixed at this point. I'm going to be positive, and assume that they'll take care of it. I guess stuff like this is just part of building a house.

Ridiculous...

I just read this story on yahoo that made me so mad. A judge in Washington D.C. is suing a dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants. I'm sure it's frustrating to lose your pants, but he's suing for 65 million dollars! The cleaners found his pants a week after misplacing them, but the judge is just being a jerk. I think he doesn't deserve to be a judge anymore, and I hope he not only loses the case, but has to pay the couple who own the cleaners. He's totally taking advantage of his position and knowledge of the law to literally ruin someone else's life. I just had to share this story with you all. You can read the whole story here.

Hooray!!

We finally have a foundation!! I'm so excited just to see the foundation that I can't imagine how exicted I'll be when they finish the house! I know the picture isn't too interesting, but it gives you a picture of how the house sits on the lot. The trees are right behind the house and I'm so excited about that. The second picture is what I will see from my kitchen window. I almost didn't get it because I thought I would be looking into the side of the neighbors' house, but the way the house sits is awesome. I'll be looking out onto the biggest part of our yard. This is actually the side, but it's the largest area. Our yard goes to the black construction fence or even a little beyond. Wow, it's really happening! Keith goes out to the site a couple of times a week to check on the progress, and takes pictures for the rest of us to see. I would probably go out there every day if I was only nine miles away! As many times as he's been out there, he has never seen anyone working on our house. I guess he goes while they're at lunch, but I still think it's funny.

3 favorite places...

This is Seward, Alaska. It is one of my absolute favorite places. It is my favorite of all the places we went in Alaska. It's really small and I love everything about it. The drive from Anchorage to Seward was amazing. We went there our very first weekend in Alaska with a couple from church. We saw tons of different animals there. I could go on and on, but you just might stop reading!!



This is Denali National Park (Mt. McKinley). We rode on a bus just like the one in the picture for eight hours total just to see it. (It was four hours each way.) There was a longer tour, but with a one and a three year old, it just wasn't possible. We had a great time, but it was cloudy, so we couldn't see Mt. McKinley. On our way home to Anchorage, the weather was great, and we were finally able to see it!


I have this one last, but it is really most dear to my heart. (I'm too tired to move things around!) This is a picture of a war memorial in Sewanee, Tn. You can see this cross from the valley down below. It's part of my childhood, and one of my oldest memories. I've always loved going up the mountain and just driving around and looking at all the amazing things there are to see. I tried to download a picture of the natural bridge, but it didn't work. I might try again later, but I really want to get this post on here so Kelli doesn't give up on me!! :) Just kidding!

So, that's my three favorites. It was really hard for me to decide, but I just kept coming back to these. I definitely choose mountains over the beach any day, (although I enjoy the beach too).

at home climbing the walls...literally

Avery is home today not feeling well. Can you tell? He feels pretty good as you can see, but he has a low grade fever that won't go away. Anyway, he's always loved climbing, and frequently climbs the door frames, usually to show off. He told me the other day that he can now climb the walls in the hall, but I hadn't seen it until today. Chloe actually just started doing this while watching tv, before I let Avery show me what he could do. She thought it was hilarious, and would look at Avery for approval every time she tried it. I just thought it was funny how similar they looked. She thought it was fun to walk under Avery, but it made me a bit nervous.