Catching up

Boy does this blog need some work!! I've got lots of posts to catch up on and I need to update this background. It's a new year and time for a new start!! Part of my resolution is to be a better blogger. Let's see how long that lasts! Be back soon...or later, depending on how long it takes me to figure out this background. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!!

Thanks

And a special thanks to my awesome smart friend Melissa for helping me fix my blog. Now it's only Christmas instead of Christmas and Owls!

Home for the Holidays

Ok, so before I start this post let me just say, I AM so thankful that we were fortunate enough to sell our house. AND I am also so thankful that we had a place to stay so that we aren't driving anyone crazy and we didn't have to rush into buying a house that we didn't really love. And I also know that there are people right now that have so many bigger things to worry about than this. That being said, I am SO READY to find a house that we can call our home. We've been here for about two months now and while it's a 'house', it isn't 'home'. I miss home. I miss having all my stuff in one place- including our dog, I miss knowing where said stuff is, and most of all right now I miss decorating for Christmas! We do have a tree, but that's about it. I was sure that we'd have a home before Christmas but that's looking less and less likely.

House hunting is extremely stressful. I think we've looked at about 20 houses so far and just haven't felt a love for any of them. People, including our realtor, ask us all the time what we're looking for, or what we haven't liked about anything we've looked at and that is a very hard question to answer. All we can say is that we will know when we find it and we just haven't felt that yet. I know that God has a plan and place for us. I know that because I KNOW that, and we wouldn't have sold our house in the first place if that wasn't the case. And I know it's all in His time, but boy I'm ready for that time to be now :-).

So, I just had to vent that to the internets and my friends. Thanks for listening.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I have. We really have had a great day with family. Now we're getting ready to do a little shopping. Well, I am anyway. Chris and the kids will all be snoozing. Just wanted to list a few things that I'm thankful for.
-My Savior
-My husband and my sweet boys
-Our family
-Our health
-My kids' teachers and preschool
-My awesome friends who put up with me :-)
-That we sold our house and have a place to stay while we look for a new one
-Our realtor (seriously people)
-The fact that we weren't hurt in our little "accident" last week (which is a whole post itself)
-Sleep
-Our church family
-prayer
-Weight watchers ice cream bars
-Dr. Pepper Ten
-My job that lets me work from home and be with my kiddos
-My husband (I know I already mentioned him) who works super hard to allow me to have the job that lets me stay at home with my kiddos
So many other things that I know I'm forgetting right now.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween Fun

We had a pretty fun Halloween weekend this year. Halloween was on Monday this year and we started our festivities with their first ever school party on Thursday. I even got to go and 'help' in their classrooms. It was so fun seeing Sam and Owen in a classroom!

On Friday, Chris and I went with the boys on their first field trip. We went to the Pumpkin Patch at Shadow Lake. It was really, really yucky weather but they still had fun. They had story time and made a class pumpkin painting. Then they each got to pick a pumpkin to bring home.

On Friday evening the big boys and I went to a Halloween party at their friend Mason's house. Mason's mommy had the whole place decorated. She had a place for the kids to color, yummy food, and games. The boys loved it. It was so cute! I wish I was half as creative as Melissa is!

Sunday night was Trunk or Treat at church and for the first time Chris and I had a "trunk". And we had the cutest little decoration!! Sawyer was originally supposed to be a chicken but once he saw the big boys train costumes he had to have one too.

And finally the big day! Monday night we did our annual Westwind trick or treating and finished that off by visiting a friends house. It's so much fun to see the boys getting into all of this stuff. I am loving every minute of it.

Disney Part II

Still unsure of the giant characters

Hula hooping outside of the Crystal Palace

Everything was decorated for Halloween.

Exhausted at Epcot. We made them get up really early for Chef Mickey's.

Happy Halloween from Disney World!

We just sold our house and we're going to Disney World!

Disney is almost as much fun when you're an adult as when you're a kid. I say almost because it's a lot more work when you're the adult and you have the kids. But the boys loved it and so did we. It was also Chris' first trip to Disney World and Universal Studios. We spent nine days there and there were still things we didn't do. We went to the Magic Kingdom (which I could probably spend every day in), Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the two Universal parks. Let me just say, if you are taking kids, you can probably bypass half of Epcot and Universal Studios. Universal's Islands of Adventure had some things for the kids to do but otherwise they were pretty bored. Epcot wasn't a lot of fun this time. It was super crowded and the kids were exhausted that day.

Anyway, we stayed at one of Disney's resorts and we did the dining plan. I highly recommend both. It was so nice to not have to carry extra money around for meals. And we had a TON of food. By the end of the week we were all running around getting extra snacks to take back with us so we could get our money's worth.

Sam and Owen weren't all that in to meeting the characters so we bypasses a lot of crowds. We had two character meals and this little meet and greet with Mickey. As you can see they were a little unsure of seeing a lifesize Mickey in person. Sawyer LOVED it though. He was a little trooper. He rode everything he was able to and never got scared.

"Red Car" and Mater

Big Changes

Well, we have had quite a couple of months. We have been wanting to sell our house for years, with twins we outgrew the 2 bedrooms. We made it a 3 bedroom and quickly outgrew that when Sawyer came along. We listed it (for the second time) in April. In mid September we finally got an offer! Yay! BUT, they wanted to close at the end of the month and us be out 2 days later. Well, of course we accepted it! But since then life has not slowed down. We closed on the 27th and were out on the 29th. And no, we did not have another house to go to. So, we are renting while we are searching. And can I just tell you, house hunting is WAY more difficult than I imagined it would be.

Adding to the stress was packing up a house while also packing for 9 days in Orlando. We were scheduled to leave for Disney World on the 30th. We did it. And when we got back we lived out of those suitcases for a couple weeks.

Disney World was awesome. The kids loved it. And Chris and I were sad to come back to the real world where no one makes our beds for us or cleans the bathrooms. I'll be back with a better post on Disney later.

So many stories...

I'm back! I've been away for a while, sorry. I have lots to post about but it's going to take some organizing. Since my last post, we have closed on our house and moved into a rental, we've all been sick and we've been to Disney World. I have lots of pics to share and lots of stories to tell but I need to get my thoughts together. I'll be back with a post soon!

First Day of Preschool

 About to head in!

 Sam at his table

 Owen at his table

Oh where, oh where has my card reader gone?

I want to share pics of the kids' first week of school and Sawyer's party but I can't right now. Somehow I have lost my card reader. So it looks like I'm headed to Walmart at some point. Oh fun.
Anyway, we survived the first week of preschool! The boys got smiley faces every day which is great. They made some new friends. They learned how to spell 'red'. And no one cried! I'm really hoping that this week goes as smoothly. They seem excited about it and that makes me happy. And Sawyer is loving his alone time to play with their toys. I'll be back soon with some pictures!

Sawyer's 1st Birthday

Sawyer turned ONE on Tuesday. And on Saturday we had his first birthday party. (I'll get some pictures up as soon as I figure that one out). It was a Mickey Mouse themed party. He loves Mickey Mouse almost as much as he loves to "atch" or play ball. I think he had a great party. Almost everyone came and I think everyone had a good time. We had a little issue because all three boys had been running a fever all week. But I warned everyone beforehand and I don't think anyone has gotten sick. He got lots of great gifts and all the kids had fun. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Saw's birthday! I can't believe my baby is already 1!! Now that little man's party is over it's time to start planning the big boys' party in a couple of weeks!

A New Era

Today is August 1. August is a busy month for our family, and this particular August is no exception. We have Sawyer's 1st birthday, Sam and Owen's 4th birthdays, and my birthday. In addition to that, this month is my parents' 30th anniversary, my father in law's birthday...and on top of ALL of that, my big boys start preschool in 2 weeks! Ugh, I can't believe this day is here. Having my baby turn one and my big boys start school within a week is just unbelievable. It's going to be a big change for them. And for me. I'm so used to having the kids here and just doing what we want to do pretty much when we want to do it, it's going to take some adjusting. So far the kids seem excited, even though they are going to have different teachers. I don't think they quite understand what that means yet! Tomorrow night we have open house, eek! I'll let you know how that goes!

One more time..

Ok, we're going to try this blogging thing one more time. I've now figured out (I think) how to make this thing private because I'm overly paranoid. So, once I get a little more time I'm going to be back at it with some updates!!