Shout out....

I would like to give a shout out to my house, Yes, my house. You never realize how beautiful your home is until you have to leave it. We went back last night to get rid of the staging and to take one last peek while it still feels like it's our house. It was harder than I anticipated. I have been looking forward to moving back in to Mesa for such a long time that I didn't think it would be a big deal. But it really hurt my feelings to give it the final walk through before it becomes tainted. So in memorial of the house it will never be again I would like to post some pictures to remember our first little home. It grew to fit our family so perfectly

The Heart of the House

My Empty Bedroom with the ugliest curtains you have ever seen! I could never figure those things out and would lie in bed staring at them wondering WHY!?!?

Vanessa's darling little room. This room had such a transformation as we lived there. It went from Brad's stuff room, to a guest bedroom, then to brad's stuff-guest bedroom (some how all of his stuff migrated back) and finally to my baby girls room.

Briggs little Baseball room empty. His Aunt Rhonda surprised us with the room being all painted up when we got back from the hospital. It was the first room with paint and character. Our little 5 LB NB Brigg looked so tiny when we first brought him to see the room. By the time we moved he had wall to wall toys and it didn't seem like he had enough space.

Finally my bathrooms. I bet you can't tell which is the master bathroom. This made sharing a little tiny counter no fun so brad actually took one bathroom and I took the other. Our next house I am holding out for a double sink vanity and not care if that means that I have to clean two sinks. A couple who flosses together makes funny smiling faces together! But I did love how the turned out decorating wise. I got the paint color off of my cousin Sammy's wedding announcement and I couldn't have loved it more.


As I whimper and wine about not wanting to give this house up and how much I grew to love it Brad says, "we can move back". But I think I want to move forward so to bigger and hopefully better things.

So I think my mother is trying to KILL me....

So it has been so great living in Mesa again. It's like coming home again......well part of that is because we are living with mom and dad. I hope for every one's sake that this 30 weeks of schooling for Brad passes quickly. But I hope that mostly for me because my mother has it out for me! She has me wake up at 5AM and then tortures me for an hour or more sometimes. My Aunt Rhonda is in on it every MWF too. My arms, stomach, back, and legs hurt and I have blisters to top it all off. Don't be decieved by her smiling face above, she keeps saying that it's exercise she is putting me through but some how it feels like she is trying to kill me!!

SOOOOO Happy there isn't a picture for this!

So as posted below we are in the middle of a move. As far as moves go it's been so far so good, well..... except for this one part. Brad wanted to check with the neighbor to see if it was okay for him to park our vehicle infront of their house. Mind you this is a man we talk to on occasion and has been quite pleasant. He is vietnamese and seemed pretty straight laced. Because of the language barrier we don't ever say to much but he has been a pleasant neighbor. Well when Brad went over and knocked on the door he got a little more then he was expecting. The man was standing there in nothing but his tighty-whitey's!!! Brad said the guy didn't even flinch and told him everything would be okay. Needless to say I am so glad it was Brad who went and talked to him about the car and not me. It makes me wonder about if we ever know who we are really living next to. People are so wierd sometimes!!

The Move is ON

Well the time has come so quick for us to move. No we didn't sell our house although I really wish that were true. We are looking for renters currently if anyone knows of someone.... It seems a little crazy that we are moving out of our home and don't know what to do with it, but we feel that it's oh so right. Brad just received his acceptance letter to ASU to get his Bachelors in Real Estate Development. This will teach him how to do real estate with the big boys. As you can imagine he is so excited! So we are moving into my parents house and helping them finish the upstairs apartment. And if all goes to plan we will quickly move up there until we aren't poor students again. I am so excited to be centrally located and close to old friends but I am afraid I will miss the Laveen Ward terribly. I think I will post pics of the house a little later when there aren't boxes all over. If anyone is looking to do some service then Thursday is when we are moving and no do gooder will be turned away. Well here goes another big change for our little family. We seem to just keep stepping into the darkness and waiting for the light. Back to packing!

Best Buddy

This is Brigg's best friend in the entire world other than his daddy and sister of course. They talk about each other, pray for each other, and a even fight for the same toy together. A few weeks ago at church we were standing around after sacrament meeting and I couldn't find Brigg. It turns out his buddy came and took him by the hand and they walked to nursery together. One of their favorite past times at my house is to stand on there cars, throw a block and then yell as they leap off of the toy car and tumble onto the ground. The picture above is Blake showing Brigg how to put olives on your fingers and eat them off. The picture below is the two boys being oh so cool with there cars. These best buddies are so great.

Blog help

Growing up my mother would get the itch of needing something to change. So my poor siblings and I would end up pulling down wallper that had only been put up several months before or even worse switching bedrooms. The bedroom switch wouldn't have been so bad had it not been for all of the food storage boxes under the beds that had to be moved. More of my dislike would lie in having to help my brothers get rid of their clutter. Of course the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree and I have inherited this trait. Mine is of course different since wall paper is out. I instead sell my furniture or paint something. My husband recently put his foot down to any painting seeing as we are moving so my creative efforts have to go else where. So I am attacking my blog and am wondering if anyone knows how to do a banner/header. I created the one at the top of the page which I am not happy with. It needs to be bigger and redone. I just can't figure out how to do it. I have been using www.scrapblog.com and it's been great. I am making a new banner to match whatever background I finally decide upon but I would love any help or suggestions on the banner I can get. Thanks

Some times I just can't help but be totally stupid!

So tonight I decided to be a little thrifty with my gas and drive to Fawn's house and then go with her the rest of the way to play bunco. Fawn needed to go to a wedding reception before hand which myself, Karalyn (fawn's friend), and Fawn's sister all agreed to go with her to. KaraLyn and I didn't know the bride nor the groom but the appeal of free cake never stopped me before (kidding). So we stayed a few minutes and mingled and then had to hurry off to Bunco. Well Fawn got separated from KaraLyn and I just before we left, and then I had the silly idea of signing the sign-in photo despite not knowing any of the wedding party. I told Karalyn we should sign it really big because they didn't know who we were and what a funny joke that would be. Well after we went to the car and waited for Fawn who soon came out of the door with her sister cracking up. I thought she had looked at the sign-in table and was laughing at that. It turns out Fawn went to go say goodbye to the bride and she asked her if she knew me. To which the bride replied yes she did. Then continued to tell Fawn how in 11th grade I had hit her car and the bumper fell off. I had totally forgotten all about the incident because it went over smoothly with my putting her bumper on her hood of the car and leaving a note and then matters were hashed out from there. My only thoughts are now is that she remembered me for being the girl that hit her car and she now has a lovely large autograph from me on her sign-in photo that will probably hang in her home for a very long time.

Trip to Big Lake

So the fam took a camping trip to Big Lake. I love this country and from the picture above need I say more. I do have to admit I really could do without camping in a tent. Let me just say that I really like my comfort and tent camping isn't my cup of tea. This trip was no exception as Brigg threw-up in the tent and it rained a good part of the time. A few of the highlights were we saw the old cabin that I think my grandpa built. My brother brought his crawdad traps and I think they caught up to 100 of the little things. They ate them the next day and my niece kept saying "tastes like chicken". I didn't dare eat any regardless if they taste like chicken or not. My sister introduced my to the "Twilight" series, we were ablt to see my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Kyle and of course this rainbow after the storm. It went full circle and I got to see where it touched the earth. Brigg loved being outside and in the dirt even being sick. Glad I went but I will say that I am happier that I probably wont have to go camping for another year.

4th of July Weekend, Update on Vanessa

This picture was unfortunately one of the only pictures taken this weekend but it pretty much sums it all up! It was taken on the fourth around 10AM. We hadn't any sooner put her down on the floor from coming home from the ward pancake breakfast and she was out. The ward party was fabulous other than my husband and many others being unexpectedly doused in water by Jeff. Brad wrestled him to the ground for doing so but I can't say that he came out a victor seeing as he had sand all over him until he could grab a shower a few hours later. After waking Vanessa we went to my moms house and swam and then the real work began. I have to say that I HATE HATE HATE food storage right now. We decided to start organizing my moms food storage pantry for her. Lets just say if a disaster happens I know right where 50tons of wheat is. Great weekend and must say I do love this country.

Oh and one more thing to update on an old post. My Vanessa began crawling today!! I was so worried about her not putting pressure on her legs and I thought that she might have something wrong again (her holes in her heart being the first). But I finally think that the lord is teaching me patience through this little girl.