4th of July

We went to see Kit Kittredge, American Girl, on Friday with Grandma, Auntie Deborah, Auntie Karson, Emily Layton, Auntie Sarah and Aunt Anna, plus Emma and Abby. Auntie Deborah's friends joined us as well. We had lots of fun and there were lots of dollies there. We brought Mommy's special Samantha and Cat brought Felicity. We all had so much fun eating popcorn, and watching the movie. After we went swimming and had a huge BBQ that Spencer and Karson hosted, we were supposed to go watch fireworks, but we were so tired that we went home. The girls and I fell asleep in the car. Brady tried to wake us up to see some fireworks out by our house, but we all missed them. We feel so lucky to live in a free country and to be able to choose what we believe and what we will do. The 4th of July is such a great holiday!

Our little drama kittens

These are our kittens, Greta Garbo (the calico) and Rudolph Valentino the 2nd (the orange tabby). They are so adorable and my kids have played non-stop with them. It is so cute to watch Sarah carrying around a kitten. They get played with so much that they sleep all night long. They try to sleep during the day, but it never is for very long before one of the kids finds them. They were so tuckered the day we brought them home that I banned the kids from taking them out of the laundry room if they were sleeping in there. We are excited to have our super cute Hollywood kitties.

Newness...is that a word?

Everything is new; the house, the car, the kittens. Yes, we got kittens! Hooray! They are so adorable! It is just difficult to relax because I want everything to stay looking new. When it was already used it wasn't such a big deal. I tried putting pads on the bottom of the chairs so they wouldn't scratch the floor, but they have all fallen off and now are making little sticky marks on the floor...grrr! While I was loading the Brady's car during the move, I told him I had loaded it and he said, "You didn't scratch the leather did you?" I was sorely tempted to tell him I had loaded it with screw-laden shelves and other various pokie items, but alas I had only filled it with blankets and I cannot tell a lie. Keeping the kittens in one piece since yesterday has been a greater task than I anticipated as well. My darling little two year old has turned into the human scratching post because she refuses to learn that even kitties have personal boundaries. She has literally played with them non-stop since we got them yesterday afternoon. The girls have carried them around, chased them, played fishy toys with them, fed them, helped them discover every square inch of our house, and attempted to help potty train them. Both the kittens and the girls fell into a quick and deep sleep and I got to sleep in until 7:00am this morning. I've been needing these kittens in my life so that I can get more sleep. Who knew? I am off to do more unpacking and rearranging of things to find that perfect fit.

We are done...Finally!!

We are finally completely moved into our new house. We loaded up the U-Haul on Friday and moved everything out to "the QC". We are so excited. Thank you to Rick, Spencer and Kyle for helping us move, yet again. Luckily, now we shouldn't have to have anyone move us for a while. Carolyn took the kids over night on Friday so I got up early Saturday and started unpacking. Everything is done, but my crafts and Brady has to organize his computer stuff. We FINALLY got our gas turned on so we have hot water!!! Hooray!! It was hot enough that the water in the pipes was relatively warm, but the first step in was a killer. We also couldn't use our gas oven or stove top which made cooking really interesting. Today, everyone has come out to turn things on, Direct TV has been here for like 4 hours after being 8 hours late, the gas guy came at 7:45am and then the poor Qwest guy came during nap time and had to be quiet, we have rules in our house. We killed our first tail-less whip scorpion today, for those of you who watched the Las Vegas Fear Factor, the poor people had to eat them off of the card table. They are technically not scorpions because they don't have tails with stingers, they don't have a tail at all, nor do they have pincher claws. They also only have 6 legs and the ugliest feelers you have ever seen. They are about the same size as a scorpion and are very gross. It was dead under a box, thank you Blue Sky pest control, but still extremely nasty looking and kind of scary for my kids. I will take ugly over dangerous any day. They finished all of our maintenance from our walk through today after switching supervisors and they will regrade our backyard tomorrow. The landscaping company dropped off the first load of rock for the front yard and should start tomorrow or the next day. I get to go clean the old house tomorrow with my friends who were generous enough to help me and hopefully we will crank it out pretty quickly. I am anxious to be done having two houses that I am responsible for. I am so thankful for all the help that we have been given and for the ease with which we have bought, signed and moved into the house. Hopefully all will go well at the walk through at the old house on Friday. Our rental company was a huge pain in the rear end and I hope they don't try any punk action at the last minute. Wish me luck...

Packing, Moving and Other Monstrosities

Sarah took advantage of Mommy packing upstairs to get into the fridge and eat most of the probiotics I had in there. She also had managed to dump whatever she didn't get in her mouth on the floor. My poor house is a disaster and gross anyway, but now the floor is sticky over there. Yuck! I cannot stand living in filth and moving breeds nastiness. On a positive note the house has been leased so I don't have to show it anymore. The couple that got it were really nice people and had really cute little kids. I am happy for them. This has been a really good house for us. We are so excited to be done moving for a while and stay in our new house for more than a year, which is the longest we have lived anywhere since we got married. Hooray!! Only two more sleeps here and then we get to sleep in our new house. On a more somber note, for those of you who have been asking me about my sister-in-law, she had to have her leg amputated and has been in the hospital. We are hoping that this will take care of the infection that was running rampant through her body and that the chemo will take care of everything else. Keep saying prayers please. I will post some pics of the big move this weekend.

Shreveport, LA or Bossier City if you want to get specific

The B-52 or "BUFF" as it is called...(I learned what this stands for and I can't post it ), an alias is Big Ugly Fat "Fella".

The Gators at the Bass Pro Shop. Aren't they cute?

Cat and Kate, two cute little cousins

The girls, Sarah, Cat and Kate and their matching church dresses Auntie Manda got them

Playing in Auntie Manda's wheat buckets

Blowing bubbles on the back porch

I could not get this picture to post the right way! This is Luke and he is so cute!

The girls posing and hamming it up for the camera.

We had such a good time in Louisiana playing with our cousins. Auntie Manda and I had a good time too. It was so much fun playing and swimming and shopping and eating. I am so excited for them to come to the family reunion at Christmas and stay with us and the Nickerls too. Hopefully my house will be put together by then. I am definitely looking forward to having our kids get to play together again. It is so nice for Catherine to have someone her age to hang out with and play dress up and dollies and crafts with. Cat and Kate truly were like two little peas in a pod. Uncle Randy gets home from Guam today and hopefully he will like all of the work that Amanda has done on their new house. She has been sewing and painting and cleaning and doing so much! She looks beautiful and I know how much she is excited to have her husband back. We love you guys!!!

It's Official!!!

It's official, we own a house!!!! I am so excited!!! Now I just have to pack up everything we own and move it. I just keep telling myself, it is the last time for many years. I am really sick of moving. I picked up the keys this morning and tried them all out and had mail in my mailbox already. It was very exciting. We had to go up to Scottsdale yesterday to the title company which remarkably only took about an hour. Our U-Haul is set for Friday and then I just have to clean this house from top to bottom and I am done! Woohoo!!!

Louisiana Allergies

I literally got off of the plane in Dallas and was fine. The minute we crossed the LA border, I started sneezing and snotting and coughing and my nose is all stuffed up...seriously! Manda has been so good to me and has let me sleep in and take naps, when I am supposed to be here to help her. I hope that Randy will let me come back. We have been having so much fun and it is so nice here. I truly thought I would die from the humidity, but it is a lot cooler than Phoenix and hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would. I have been loving spending time with Manda and her two adorable kids! It reminds me of when we were in high school and would stay up all night talking and giggling, we just didn't have kids then. We even got in trouble during church today for talking and giggling in Young Women's. Manda is the YW President, but wasn't teaching, and for the record we were actually talking about the lesson, so.... whatever. I am excited to go to the boardwalk and shop tomorrow and go and see the gators. I love gators!! I am so excited to see them! We might have already gone shopping once, but the kids got tired and we came home. He he he... then it is home on tuesday and back to reality and responsibility. I am excited to move into our house though, I do admit! Hooray! Hopefully, we will see the Todd's at our house sooner rather than later.

Pictures for the last little while

Dress Rehearsal
How Much is that Doggie in the Window
The Cutest Little Feet
Auntie Mira and Cat

We Pledge Allegiance

So long

Okay, so it has been forever so I am going to do a couple of different posts for the different pictures that accompany things that have happened. We did go to the cemetery and put flags on graves. The girls tried to be reverent, but there were flowers to smell and touch and sometimes pick everywhere. They did a great job putting all of their flags on graves that had military listings. Then, Miranda came and visited from San Francisco for almost a week and we had so much fun loving on her and being loved by her. The girls ask for her constantly. Then a day after she left, my sister Laurie and her family came to stay overnight before continuing on their way to California. It was nice to see my nephews, they are getting so big! Then, Auntie Suzi came for Cat's ballet recital which was absolutely adorable! Catherine did such a great job! She got flowers, which I will post pictures of later, they are on my computer at home...which leads me into the fact that we are in Louisiana right now visiting my sister-in-law, Amanda, and her two adorable kids. Kate and Cat are having so much fun playing! Luke has been a little bit sick and I have been too. Sarah is happy playing with whoever or nobody at all so that is nice. I will try to post pictures when I get home, but I only have a couple of days before we sign on our house and then plenty of packing, moving and cleaning to keep me occupied. We are well...