Prayer

The other night during prayer Alex, completely unprompted, prayed that Baby Abby would, "Grow up healthy and strong.".
I think those kind of prayers go straight up to heaven!!
So sweet!

Monkeys

Travel Blog Finished (I think)

My cute husband started his day in Philadelphia at a client's. He drove up to NYC in the afternoon and had a meeting.
Now he is in JFK airport waiting for his flight to take off for London.
Poor guy has been bored in the airport but it has given him ample time to finish writing up our Hawaii blog.
HERE is the finished product if you want to torture yourself by reading it. You can also use this website to print off your travel blog and have it bound in a book. I'm thinking about it! Kind of as a supplement to our regular blog that I have printed off at the end of each year.
Oh, that reminds me, I need to finish 2009.

Glub, glub

Andy bought an underwater case for our little camera so he could take pictures of the kids in the water. It was also super handy at the beach to protect our camera from tiny little grains of sand!
I thought this was a cute picture. When Alex is in the water he has a perma-grin on his face. If you've ever been at the pool with him you know what I'm talking about.
He's a little fish!!

My new niece!!!

Here is Abby Kate Hall!! She ALMOST waited until I was home from Hawaii to be born, but she got a bit anxious. As soon as I got home from the airport I showered and headed straight for the hospital. Kami and Abby are doing great and Cameron and Spencer are so proud of their new baby sister. I think she is a doll!!
Love you Abby!

Big Day for a Little Girl in Hawaii

Travel Blog

I just got off of the phone with my sister and she asked what we did on Tuesday (that was just two days ago you know).
My response: "Uhhhhhh, ummmmm, mmmmm, Iiiiiiiii can't remember."
I am HORRIBLE at remembering what we did on vacation (even when we are STILL on that particular vacation).
So, my dear, sweet husband has done his best to document our vacation on this wicked cool website.
HERE is the link.
Enjoy being jealous!!!!!!!!
We are having a blast!!
Never want to leave.
Ever.
Already picked out a neighborhood to live in.

Heartbreaker

Alex just came downstairs where I was doing Samantha's hair and said,
"Hey ladies, you're looking good today!".

I love that kid!

Little diddies

Spring is in the air!!!
Yesterday while at my sister's house Alex got humped by the neighbor's dog!!!
We laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
Probably should have helped him, but this was much funnier!

Samantha arrived at school yesterday and yelled out her friend's name.
Her friend ran to meet her at the gate and they hugged a huge hug!
It was really adorable.
And made me feel guilty for not setting up a playdate.

Samantha's bottom tooth is loose!!!!
Her new tooth has already started popping through BEHIND the baby tooth, which isn't the best thing in the world!!
I keep trying to wiggle it but she cries like a baby!
One of these days I'm just going to yank it out!!!

Another peek

Photo taken from the entry way looking into the family room and dining room - the kitchen is on the left of the wood burning fireplace.

Sneak Preview.....

My new kitchen!!!!

House

I've been reluctant to post because I just haven't been able to believe it, but we got a house!!!
We never even looked in Provo, but it turns out that is where we bought a house!
It is RIGHT on the border of Provo and Orem in the Grandview area.
It is a very nice neighborhood and the church and elementary school are only about a block and a half away.
The house is near the end of a cul-de-sac, which is always fantastic!
It is a bit older - built in 1999 and is VERY unique!
The kitchen is totally gourmet.
Double ovens.
Viking Range.
Sub zero Fridge and Freezer
Wood Fireplace with Pizza oven and indoor grill.
The kitchen, dining room and family room are large and they flow together to create a nice open space.
The kids will be in the basement and they will each have their own bedroom, bathroom, and playroom.
Lucky us for only having 2 kids!!!
We are going to see it again today and taking a lot of my family, so I am excited to go through it again. We've contacted our bank and locked in a great rate - 5% - and we will be having an inspector come in later this week.
Assuming the inspection goes well and nothing horrific happens with our financing, we should be in the house in the next 30-60 days......hopefully 30!
We have had such drama with this whole buying-a-new-house thing and it feels good just to have a place locked down!
We are praying and crossing our fingers that all goes well!!!
Yippee for us!!!

I will post pictures of the house soon!!

A quick update

Alex:
Alex is....well.....Alex! He's such a DUDE! Honestly, if you know him, that's about the only way to describe him....DUDE! He is working very hard on his speech and is doing wonderful. He hardly stutters and his clarity is really getting better. My dad hasn't seen him for probably about a month and last night at dinner commented on how well he thought Alex is speaking. I am so proud of him! He likes preschool pretty well and enjoys going to both of his speech teachers. He is a hilarious kid who loves to play rough and encourages you to throw pillows at his face and tickle him until his face turns red! He is a lot of fun!

Samantha:
Today Samantha was doing addition! I didn't know they were working on that in school but she came home with some homework and was adding up groups of kids.......3 kids and 3 kids is 6 kids. I was a bit impressed! She is also working pretty hard on reading and writing. She ADORES art and loves to sit and draw. Her pictures are getting more detailed and colorful and beautiful. Lately she has been drawing a lot of houses (can you tell she's ready for a house of her own??). Samantha has a ton of friends at school and just loves to go to school everyday. When she is sick and can't go she cries and exclaims how much her friends will miss her!! I think it's probably true!

Kristi:
I finally finished my first independent study course through BYU and ended up with a final grade of a B!! I was quite happy seeing as how some assignments I got D's....and I completely flunked the midterm. And I quite literally mean FLUNKED!!! As in an E!!! It was a proud, proud moment! I am busy running kids back and forth from school and speech all while trying to find a new house. I have driven past more homes than I can count! It's getting ridiculous. We have an offer in on a house right now and the owner countered, then we countered, and now we are waiting to see if he will accept our final offer. In case he doesn't we have 4 homes lined up to see tomorrow. I am ready to have a home again.

Andy:
Andy works. He hasn't traveled much lately which has been nice for house hunting. I'm sure he'll have a few places he'll have to visit in the near future, but hopefully not until we are moved and settled. OH, and he's wicked excited for our Hawaii trip in 2 weeks! All of us are, but I think Andy the most. Hmmmmmm, that's about all with Andy I think. He's kind of boring now that he's done with school. We like it!

So, all in all, life is good. We are happy, healthy, and get along. We are loving teaching the kids about the Olympics and spending time together watching all the events. Good times!

Day 23

I'm grateful for Presidents! And the day off that we get to "celebrate". (Actually, Andy believes the holiday was invented so rich kids could have a ski holiday. I think he's right!)

Monday was supposed to be a lovely day with sunshine and warm temperatures.
It rained. And was a bit cold.
But that didn't stop the Highams!!!
We took the kids to the zoo, brunch, then up to Park City to shop for summer clothes for Hawaii!
All of our summer clothes are in the depths of the storage unit so we have to buy new.
Oh darn!
It turned out to be a really fun day even though we were a bit wet and chilled.

My raincoat didn't have a hood so I had to buy this lovely umbrella. Seriously, it IS as ugly as it seems.Alex on the carousel.

Samantha on the carousel.3 monkeys.
Samantha wrote a recipe of her own one day and her sweet daddy thought it would be a good idea to try it out. Ice cream, berries, apples, grapes and chocolate sauce. Andy convinced her to leave out the chocolate sauce (thank you) and it actually was quite tasty!

Never want to do that again!

We went to the mall today to buy something exciting!! SOCKS!! (totally not part of the story, I just wanted to show you how pathetic we are.)
As we walked into the mall we saw a little boy running around crying looking like he lost his family.
So we stopped him and tried to help. He couldn't find his mom and wasn't listening to me very well and kept running off. I stuck with him and tried to take him to the information desk, but finally he spotted his family and ran off.
PHEW!
I thought it would be a good opportunity to sit down with the kids and talk to them about what to do if they ever get lost at the mall.
We sat down in the food court and told them to find a mall worker and tell them that they lost their family and not to panic and run around like that little boy was.
We then practiced memorizing mommy's telephone number so they could tell the information desk the number to call.

Then, something ridiculous and scary happened.
We lost Samantha!!!!
We took the kids to the treehouse to play which is right next to Payless Shoes. Andy and I went into Payless and after about 2 minutes I asked Andy to go check on the kids. He did, he saw them both and chatted with them and then came back to the store. About 2 minutes later I asked Andy to get Alex so I could try some shoes on him. Alex came running and I proceeded to attempt fitting shoes on him (NOT the easiest thing to do!). I noticed Andy pacing back and forth by the treehouse with a worried look. He came into the store and told me he couldn't see Samantha. I left him to pay for the shoes and I went into the women's restroom to check for her. Nothing. We went into a couple of stores. Nothing. Searched all over the treehouse again. No Samantha.
So, we started to freak out a bit.
Andy ran down to the last store we had been at and called me to say she wasn't in there. Then he saw her - sitting on the counter at the information desk. No tears, just sitting calmly.

As Alex and I made our way down to them I got on the floor with her and asked her what happened. I guess we forgot to mention to her that we were just in the shoe store close by and when she couldn't see us or Alex, she figured she was lost! Like a good little girl she found a mom and told her she was lost. The mom helped take her to the information desk where Andy found her a minute later.
Ummmmm, SCARY!!!

It was awful but she did SO great and did exactly what we told her to do, so I was proud. She wanted me to carry her around the rest of the time which I was just fine with!! My sweet princess!
Then we went for pizza and ice cream.
All was fine after that.

Day 22

I love that Alex asked to wash dishes the other day.

I'm not going to say no......I'm not stupid!!
And he did a pretty decent job too!

Day 21

I am grateful today for the church magazine, The Friend.
You see, we didn't get the house that we've wanted and waited for for 4 months!!
Not the end of the world, I know. We just sort of got our hearts set on it and we were under the impression that the bank had signed a contract with us......so we thought we were set.
Those damn short sales.
Those damn banks.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about prayers and how prayers are answered.
Sometimes they aren't answered how we want.
But I KNOW they are answered.
Sometimes not in our time frame.
But the Lord's time frame.
This one is definitely going on the Lord's time frame. I was hoping to be in a home by now.
I was hoping to be in "OUR" home by now.
I love my "stuff". It is comforting to me to be surrounded by the things that I love that we have collected throughout the years.
It's been a bit hard on me not to have those things around me.
Honestly though, we are SOOOOO blessed to have this beautiful home to live in while we look for our home. Andy's parents are angels!!

There was an article in The Friend with some thoughts by Richard G. Scott. I particularly liked this one:
"Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before the answer comes. Your character will grow; your faith will increase."
I just LOVE that!!
And I'm feeling it!! I will continue to pray for guidance as we look for a new home for our family. And, in the meanwhile, I will be grateful for the wonderful circumstances that we are in right now and how comfortable we are.

I was talking to my sister, Richele, yesterday and she was saying that someday I will look back on this time and I will be settled and happy in a home and I will be grateful my prayers weren't answered and we didn't get the home we wanted at first.
She and Greg thought their life was over when their attempts at in-vitro didn't work. They were so disappointed that their prayers weren't answered.
But guess what??
If their prayers had been answered the way THEY wanted, then we probably wouldn't have sweet Nicole-Baby in our family!!!! Ohhhhh......and how much do we LOVE her!!!!

I have faith. Things will work out like they are supposed to. Heavenly Father will help us find the right home, in the right neighborhood, where the kids can have wonderful friends and grow up right!
I just need to be more patient.
Lessons learned!!

Day 20

I'm grateful for Girls Night Out!!
Samantha and I went to the salon on Saturday for haircuts and then to dinner!


We were goofing off in the car while the car was drinking gas.

Getting her hair washed!!

She sat SO still and was quite serious the whole time. What an angel!

The finished product! I think she looks so much older with her hair blown straight......which is why I plan on keeping it curly most of the time!!

She chose Arctic Circle for dinner. High end, I know!!!
We had a fun night together while the boys were at home having their own fun. I think Andy took pictures of their night, so I'll have to post those another time.
Love you baby girl! Thanks for the fun date!

Day 19

My 3 little ragamuffins playing Uno on a Saturday morning......almost Saturday afternoon.
In their PJs.
Isn't that what awful-weather Saturdays are for?

I also think Saturday mornings are for watching Michael Jackson's This is It.
Which we did this morning.
And Alex exclaimed, "Is Michael Jackson a boy or a girl?".
Perceptive little guy.

Oh, and the kids ROCKED out to MJ. Samantha was pulling some serious moves.
Hilarious and adorable.

Day 18

Alex firmly believes these days that he is a rock star. And for some reason he has a bit of an obsession with Michael Jackson. Not that it's a bad thing - he was the King of Pop, after all!
We have been listening to the Glee soundtracks in the car lately and the kids
are memorizing every song and Alex's favorite lately - though
I sort of hate to admit it, is the Barbara Streisand song Rain on my Parade.
What 4 year old likes a Barbara Streisand song??
Scary, I know.

This was Alex in the car yesterday playing his guitar. I think he needs lessons

By the way, I was at a very LONG stop light, and as soon as it turned green I turned off the camera. Safety first!