Disney Princesses on Ice

Samantha and I went with Richele, Greg, Nicole and Grampy to Disney Barf Me on Ice. Oh....I mean, Disney Princess on Ice.
Samantha had a lovely time and was so excited about all of it. Nicole, on the other hand, was so confused by all of it! She had never been to anything like this before and she had no idea what to make of it. She had this look of, "What the hell is going on here??" the whole time. In fact, that was the same look Grampy and Greg had too!!!
Samantha and I had a great time together and Alex and Andy went to a movie and to lunch together, so it was a grand day overall!!

National Geographic

Totally not what you expect.

October in review - not in order....cuz I'm lazy

My 2 kids at a corn maze for a field trip....accompanied by 2 random children who wouldn't move.

Not sure which is more frightening...the kids faces or the pumpkins?

Proud Alex.

Weenie roast at the Cook pumpkin patch.

The crew at the pumpkin patch.

Checkin' out the buffalo that belong to the crazy, old, rich dude.

The last picture of us as a family in our old house!! I love this photo!

Another random update

So, let's see....where to begin....Ahhhhh, yes, sickness! Samantha and Alex have been sick for like 2 weeks and we have all just about had it!! Samantha still has the annoying, lingering cough, but is feeling much better overall. Alex still had a fever this morning (his 3rd day of fever) but is napping right now and I'm fairly confident that he'll wake up feeling better. If he still has a fever tomorrow morning I am going to take him into the doctor. They are sweet little troopers though!

The house hunting is still in full swing. We have offers out on 5 homes, all of which are short sales. Of course, we haven't heard back on any of them yet, but it is comforting just to know we have some options out there trying to do something!! We are going to see 3 more homes today and the kids are dreading it!! I think they will be super excited when we finally get locked on a home. For now though we are doing well at Grandma and Grandpa's. The kids are enjoying the space and it really feels like home for now.

I just discovered that I need to take my midterm for my Independent Study course in a testing center and that angers me! It means the test is closed book and I will really have to study! What's up with that??? I am also really wanting to expand my cookie business and really go for it, but honestly, I don't have the time right now! I'm not sure why I think it's a good idea, but the "project" part of it sounds like a lot of fun! I will probably do a little here and there but not fully go for it until we are settled in the new house. Whenever that may be!!!

I'm pretty sure Andy is still basking in the wonderfulness of being out of school!! I sure love it! He is keeping busy finding homes for us to look at and playing video games when he can. And dreaming of a family vacation next year. Good luck to that!!!

That's about all I can think of right now. I am looking forward to the next week when we find out if Kami is having a boy or a girl. We keep calling the baby "she" in the hopes that if it is a boy, the penis will drop off. Not that we don't love boys, because we do, but another girl would rock! Kami needs to share in the joy of the female hormones just like me and Richele!!

I love this picture of all of the kiddos at the pumpkin patch. Plus one extra - Corbin who is Nicole's 2nd cousin. (is that right, second cousin??)

Halloween - Mario Brothers Style!

Samantha as Luigi, Nicole as Snow White

Mario and Wario - making peace for just one night of candy

Mario and Luigi from behind.

Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi

I actually have quite a few older pictures that I need to post, but I'm still in the Halloween mood and thought I'd post these pictures now.

Helping those who help us!

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to a couple of people and their businesses who have helped us lately.......

Our realtor Chad Holmes has been fantastic so far!! He even offered to sell his body to get us into a house we wanted!! Okay, maybe I told him to do that, but he'll go just about that far! He is quick to respond, helpful, kind, knowledgeable, and easy-going! We are quite confident that he will help us find a great home at a great price! Here is a link to his site.

Also, we had the carpets cleaned in our townhome before we moved out and they looked great! The owner, Kyle Quist, even worked extra hard to get out a couple of stains FOR FREE!! One stain involving a certain sleeping husband and 2 children and a tub of vaseline! You can reach Kyle at Roswell Carpet Cleaning at 801-362-1653.

The new temporary home

Well, I just got the kids settled into their new beds for the next few months!!  Neither was too happy about it and both have claimed so far to be scared.  I know it is tough to get used to sleeping in a new bed and a new house, but I am sure after a couple of nights they will be just fine.  It has been a rough and tumble couple of days of moving and packing and packing and moving and a fun night at Grammy and Grampys, but hopefully we can get back in the groove soon!!  Samantha sounded quite pleased that she is going to school tomorrow. I think the norm will feel good to her.  The kids really are doing as well as can be expected.  And I am too I think!  We are still on a mad hunt to find a new house and have a few homes lined up to see this week and offers in on 3 homes.  We hope something sticks soon!!  And I'm sure my in-laws do as well!!!  And a big THANK YOU to the best in-laws in the world for letting us use their house!  Love you guys!

Last Night!

Tonight is our last night in this house!! I have mixed emotions......I'm sad because this was our first REAL family home and my kids were still very little when we moved here......but I'm also excited to see what the future holds for us! It feels right to move now, it feels like it's time. We don't have a new home yet (we are searching like crazy!!) so we will be staying at Andy's parents Orem home for now. Thank you to them for letting us stay there! Andy will be closer to work but I will be driving back and forth A LOT from Orem to Pleasant Grove in order to keep the kids in their same schools. Which, I think, is worth it. Samantha and Alex love their teachers and schools and Alex has a couple of great speech teachers that we want to keep going to.
I am trying to bribe the kids into taking a nap today so we can stay up late, eat ice cream and watch a movie for the last night in our home! We'll see if they do it or not!!!
My family is coming over tomorrow to help move the big stuff to the storage unit then we will be staying at my parents Saturday night (which the kids are over the moon about!). Sunday afternoon we'll be getting settled in the Orem home and life will resume as normal as possible on Monday!! We've been married 7 years and moved 4 times! I hope this next move will be the last for a while. Though I'm not really counting on it!! ;-)

I WANT THIS PUPPY!!!!!

Ridiculous Engineering Skills

I'm sure most of you will be shocked when I confess to being a total geek. Go ahead - take a minute to recover.

Back now? Ok. You have to watch this, at least the first minute or so. Even if you never played with Legos as a kid, you'll have to admit this is amazing.

N to the J

View off my balcony in Jersey City......that's the Statue of Liberty way in the back.

Random picture of me on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum.

I can't believe I've been back in Utah for 3 years!! I am missing New Jersey tonight. I miss it quite often actually. Living there was a pain!! Nothing was easy....not the driving, the roads, the stores, getting to work, NOTHING!! But it sure did have a lot of character. And I miss some friends and neighbors from both Jersey City and Woodbridge. I miss my view of NYC. When I got on the airplane at midnight with my 2 kids and my parents to fly to Utah - I sobbed and sobbed. I don't miss flying in and out of JFK (what a rotten airport). I miss flying in and out of Newark (what a ghetto fabulous airport!). I am grateful to be back living near family. I especially love being near my niece and nephews. They are my favorite part of Utah! And I can't wait for another one to join us in 2010!! Abby? TB? We'll have to wait and see!

Monsters vs. Prophets

I wanted to jot this down before I forgot it, because it was funny!!!
The other night before bed Alex was praying and he blessed President Monster. Not President Monson, but Monster. There seems to never be a night where the kids pray that Andy and I don't end up cracking up and having to keep the laughing under control! I love it!

We have seen a lot of houses lately!! In fact, today is the only day in the past maybe 2 weeks that we don't have an appointment to go in a house or a plan to drive by some houses. The kids are excited!! Instead, we get to pack! Lucky us. The kids have been really good and patient with all of it though and whenever we meet a realtor at a house they don't even hesitate to say, "Hi, I'm Alex, I'm 4 years-old. Hi, I'm Samantha, I'm 5 years-old.". You can tell which questions they get asked every time!! Right now, as far as the house hunt goes, we are leaning towards having a home built for us in Lehi. We like the homes and the area and we feel good about it. We are going to their design center tomorrow to see if we can actually afford the house we want with the upgrades we'll want. I'm crossing my fingers! We'll keep you updated and I need to post pictures from our pumpkin picking as well. Sigh....too much to do!!

Some amusement for your day

From the "Way Too Much Time On Their Hands" file.

Stress comin' at ya!

Wow, I'm stressed these days! We sold the house and are in full packing mode. The house is a wreck with boxes stacked everywhere which, because I'm a bit OCD, causes me major stress. The kids are starting to show signs of stress as well as their lives are being rearranged and THAT causes ME a ton of stress. I still have my bloody Independent Study course to finish by January that is a thorn in my side. We are trying so hard to find a new home and it just isn't coming quite as easily as I had hoped. We are so lucky to have a great home to move into while we look for a new place, but it is always difficult to live in a home that isn't your own. I am going to be so paranoid about the kids ruining things and sleeping in the same room. I doubt they'll get a whole lot of sleep at first which is going to make life SO fun. I will be taking the kids to their current schools so I don't have to uproot them from that part of their life which is going to mean A LOT of back and forth travel for me!! It will be worth it to have them in their same schools, but wow, we're going to go through a lot of gas!!

My body has a terrific way of handling stress that I just love. Of course the zits pop out in generous numbers, but I can handle that. The worst part is that I get cankers in my mouth by the dozens!!! A couple of weeks before my wedding I had a canker in my mouth that was so enormous I couldn't eat or talk. It was excruciating. I ended up going to the doctor for it and he gave me some anti-viral pills and some cream. I still use the cream every time I get a canker and, thankfully, it works wonders. If only it could stop the cankers from forming....

I'm not really trying to complain or get any sympathy (we did do this to ourselves, by the way), but I just want to have the memories of the stress so I can look back when we are settled into our new, beautiful home and say, "We did it! We made it, and it wasn't as bad as I remember! And best of all....it was worth it!!". Oh boy I hope I say those words!!!

Why I really don't like to shop at Walmart

'Nuff said

www.peopleofwalmart.com

Just your random update

I know that I've mentioned it on my Facebook page, but I don't think I mentioned it on the blog yet......we sold our house!! We were able to do it without the help of our realtor so he released us from our contract and now we don't have to pay commission! Yeah for us! We got a pretty decent price out of it and are still left with a good amount of equity to put towards our new home. We think we are probably going to close the end of October and move out shortly thereafter. Andy's parents have been kind enough to offer their house for us to live in while we search for a new home. Which, by the way, there are a TON of great homes out there for a great price! We have a huge list to drive by, check out the neighborhood and decide if we want to see the inside. There is one in particular right now that we fancy in Orem. It is so close to Andy's work he could WALK to work everyday!!! It's a big older (built in 1991) but the landscaping is beautiful, the neighborhood is great and the kitchen is all remodeled and lovely. We should be going to see the inside hopefully on Saturday.

Kids are doing great in school. Samantha's writing is improving and so are her pictures. She loves her teacher and has made some good friends. Alex is such a boy and just sort of shrugs his shoulders about school. He could take it or leave it. But as far as I know, he is doing well.

Andy works. And flies on airplanes.

My cookie business has decided to suddenly take off!!! Which is so terrific and great, but horrible timing! I am supposed to start packing but instead I'm always baking! (Don't let that fact deter you from making an order though, my friends!!) I really appreciate everyone who has helped support me and placed an order. It's the best way for me to perfect my recipes and get a process in place. I have so many cookies to make on Monday that I have recruited my mom to come and entertain Alex so I can spend the whole morning baking!! Bless your heart mom! I'll pay ya!

I got to spend some time with my sweet nephew Caleb today. He made my day beautiful!
And here are the crazy kids after their last soccer game when they received their medals. So adorable!

Hewwo???

I've decided that everyone has stopped reading my blog since NO ONE commented on my previous post and how dern cute my kids are!! If you aren't going to comment on that, you must not be there! Good thing this blog serves mostly as a journal for my family so I'll keep posting whether anyone else is reading or not! It's all good!

Birthday photo shoot

Every year I have the kids birthday pictures taken in August - right between their birthdays. So, this is Samantha's 5 year pictures and Alex's 4 year pictures. My sister Richele took these pictures in Santaquin and I am very happy with how they turned out! I think I have the cutest kids in the world!!! Thanks Richele for all your hard work with these pictures. You are getting very good at this!!!

Saving the world

Samantha told me today, "Mom, I'm glad that we recycle.". How cute is that?? It really has cut our trash in HALF by recycling newspaper, cans, plastic, and bottles. We have a recycling dumpster right in our cul-de-sac which makes it so easy to help save the world!! And since my husband is a tree hugger from California, he feels much better now that we can recycle. It has been weighing on his mind since we stopped recycling in Jersey City.

I just got an order for 6 dozen cookies for tomorrow! AND, 3 dozen for next week to ship to New York City! My house is going to smell cookielicious.

Happy Birthday Alex!

You turn 4 years old today Alex!!! It is really hard for me to believe! I feels like yesterday we moved back to Utah, you had just turned 1 and loved exploring our new house. The stairs were all new and after one tumble down them you quickly learned to go down backwards instead of stepping straight down. Now we are close to selling this home and it makes me sad to think that our "first home" will belong to someone else. To me, this is the home that you really grew up in. You were a tiny baby in New Jersey, but you became a toddler, and now a preschooler, in this home. I will always love this home for those memories.

Four years ago we were staying at Grammy and Grampy's house waiting for the phone call that you were born. I answered the telephone and heard you crying in the background!! What a glorious sound that was! It also made me want to throw up a little bit (bad memories of your sister as a newborn!). I was so excited to have a little boy and I felt like your mother from the moment I laid eyes on you! It took a little while to feel like Samantha's mommy since being a mom and adoption were so new to me, but having been through it once I instantly felt like YOUR mom when I saw you. You also kind of startled me!! For some reason I thought you were going to be the darkest of the bunch. I expected dark brown hair and brown eyes. Instead, this heavenly little face with blue eyes and blonde hair stared up at me!! WHAT??? Over the years your hair has gotten darker, but your eyes are still as blue and, truth be told, they MELT me! There is something special about the mommy/son relationship and ours is no exception. I know without a doubt that you adore me and I am quite certain you know how much I adore you! We are best friends! I always ask you if you are going to love me and be my best friend even when you are older and you always reply YES with a big hug around my neck! I pray that is true!

You are also a pretty stubborn little stink sometimes! You like to be dramatic (shocker, I know) and throw yourself on the ground when you don't get what you want, but once you've settled down and ask me to sit on the couch with you, I forget all about the tantrum as you snuggle into my arm and I kiss the top of your head. I like to call you Dennis the Menace sometimes because you just CAN NOT resist touching things you shouldn't and tearing things apart!! Just this morning I spent about 30 minutes putting together your Hot Wheels Shark Park toy only to have you tear it all apart after about an hour. I'm hoping that your fascination with tearing things apart will lead you to wondering how they get put back together and you have a successful, great career as an engineer or something!!! A mother's dream I suppose! I think you are such a smart little fella and I know that you will do well in whatever interests you. You are not a quitter and that will take you a long way in this life!!!

I just love you to pieces, Alex!!! I am so proud of you and so happy that we are blessed to be your parents! You have challenged us in so many ways and yet brought us so much happiness. Happy Birthday Baby!