I'd Like to Thank the Academy....

Melissa, you shouldn't have.....I have been nominated for this beautiful award and now it is time to nominate some of my friends.

1.Tara Fisher---You are one of my best friends! You always know just what to say to make me feel better and stop stressing, OCD-ing, or feeling down; that is a rare talent. I love your sense of style and the way that even when life sucks, it never gets you down.

2.Tanya--You are my fellow cleaner, organizer, obsesser and I love you for it. I also love the way that you tell the truth. I am so glad that you are finally home.

3.Melissa--Thank you for nominating me. I am so glad that you were the YW Pres. that I got to serve under in KBP ward! You are amazing and I relate to you so well! You are an inspiration to me and I hope that you know how special you are.

4. Michelle Shirley--The other YW Pres. that I know and love. You also are an inspiration to me and I love everything that you are. You are beautiful and a wonderful example of being the best that you can be.

5. Brooke Romney--I want to be you, it's as simple as that. You are a great wife and mom and through it all, look like you just walked out of a fashion magazine. You are a great spiritual example to me and I wish I was more like you in that area too.

6. Laura Tannery--I absolutely love reading your blog. You are the most fabulously funny blogger and person! I dig it, and kudos to you!

7. My two beautiful sisters-in-law Manda and Anna--You are both so important to me. I love being a part of this family when I get to have you both in it. You are such wonderful examples of what I strive to be like. I love you both.

Rules of award:

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate 7 other people for this award and add links to their blog.

4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

It's Poop, Cat!

So I am changing Sarah's diaper just now because she is stinky. Catherine was asking me about dressing up for her Primary Activity this Saturday. We were discussing her dress and she didn't know what I was talking about and asked, " What is that Mom?", and Sarah answered her, "It's poop, Cat!" Sarah thought Cat had been asking what was in her diaper. The things that toddlers say.

It's never ending!!!

Painting-never ending
cleaning-never ending
children-never ending

I had been having kind of a rough day with Sarah and hit the end of my rope and she got put into time out in the powder room. She screamed and yelled and slowly I grew accustomed to the sound and tuned it out. I came to realize that I hadn't heard her in a while and went to see what she was up to and found an empty powder room. I then found all of her clothes and her diaper in the formal living room, then I found the lady of the hour sitting in the formal dining room, ripping up packing peanuts and feeding them to herself and the kittens, stark naked!! Naughty, just naughty! Then, I have Cat guarding the door of my bedroom so that the kittens can't get in the paint and of course they still got in and I found little blue kittie prints on my carpet. Not happy... Summers are difficult for kids. We can't go outside so they are stuck inside all of the time, which turns them into little monsters and they manage to find all sorts of mischief to get into. We are plugging away and making it work. The blinds go in on Saturday and hopefully, our bedroom will be done by then as well. Saturday Cat has a Primary Activity for Pioneer Day and gets to dress up like one. I will take pictures. The other day, we were at family dinner and Sarah came running in and said, " Whooy Whooy Whooy, one, one, one, it's going to wain." Translation: "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Run, Run , Run, it's going to rain!" There was a monsoon and she was very worried and convinced we needed to take cover. When we all just sat at the table, her little brow furrowed and the look of consternation was priceless! She was not happy that we fools were just sitting around and not heeding her advice. Poor little girl gets no respect. Wish me luck continuing on my painting, parenting adventure; until next time....

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!!!