Spring Pictures

Wow! Since we've moved we have taken a lot of pictures, but for some reason, I haven't posted them. So here's a recap of our spring:

We've had lots of "weather". Can't complain, the yard looks great, and it is so nice to have plenty of water for the garden, etc. The hail was as big as I've ever seen!



Kittens (yes, and they are all gone now!)


Baseball

Unfortunately, it is not letting me post more pictures right now. More to come...

To dispel your belief that if your child is vaccinated they won't get sick, Stephen, Samuel and Lucy all have chicken pox now. Pox party anyone? Luckily, it is mild, and hopefully it will be resolved in a few days!
In other good news we got an offer on our home in Amarillo yesterday. What a relief! Looks like it will be all wrapped up by the middle of June! It's always nice to see your prayers answered, and to find out that the Lord's time isn't too off from your own!

No pictures this week!

We have all been sick, mostly with colds, then I got mastitis on Saturday night and Eric broke out with shingles on Sunday afternoon. Not really things we want to post pictures of. It is always good to have your kids get sicker than you are to quickly stop feeling bad, and take care of them. Even though the last couple days have been tiring, I am so thankful for many things. For Eric, especially, for being such a trooper, even though he has been in a lot of pain. He is so cute, and has such a great attitude. He has also found a new love, Oatmeal Baths!
I'm thankful for the rain that we got on Monday causing all baseball games to be postponed until the end of the week. Eric can't even sit, let alone run around the field, but would have been very sad at not being able to go.
I'm thankful for the chicken pox vaccine that allows all my other kids to be safe from this virus. Lucy we have to be careful with, but everyone else is immune. Eric got the chicken pox when he was about 9 months old, and that is how he was able to get them this second time.
I'm thankful that we live just one mile from Brad's work and that he can easily do all the drop offs, and pick ups from school when I can't. Not to mention run to the pharmacy, and other errands that I couldn't do this week.
I'm thankful for my sisters and nephews for calling and entertaining Eric with songs about Calamine Lotion. He is still giggling about them!
Finally, I am thankful for our amazing bodies that we have been given that can go through so much and come out healthy and strong again. And the reminders of just how lucky we are to have our bodies and be here on this earth having this amazing experience! Life is good.

Catching Up

Time flies when you are having fun! We have been enjoying our new home and getting settled so much that I haven't had time to update. I get on to do so, and it is just too much.
Brad is recovering well from surgery and it seems to have helped a lot.

The kids are busy with baseball. We signed up the 4 oldest this year and luckily we only have 3 teams to follow. Eric is in T-ball, Audrey is in coach pitch and Ben and Jacob are in Machine Pitch. They are having a lot of fun with it, and I learning to love the small town we live in. I love that we are just minutes from everywhere, and there are no sports played on Sundays or Wednesdays! All the games are scheduled on Mondays and Tuesdays and you can watch both games going at the same time if needed.

Also, the other thing I love about our small town is that the grocery store has great sales every week, and they put the groceries in the car while I load up the kids! I haven't been missing Walmart, which I am so happy about, because it has been love/hate relationship.

I will try to be more regular about posting, but that is the story of my life. I do the best I can, and sometimes that's not very good, but occasionally it's really awesome!

Fun Spring Break!

This year we decided to take everyone to Amarillo for Spring Break and stay at my mother-in-laws for a few days, so that Brad could have back surgery. He had a microdiscectomy (you can see a similar one done on Youtube) Yeah, lots of fun, eh?
Well, Brad seems to be recovering well and apart from the fact that he can't drive, bend, twist or lift, he is still pretty helpful. The recovery is supposed to take 2-3 weeks. So, we'll just enjoy having him around. He'll probably take this week off for sure and then maybe work half days next week.
Unfortunately, he has already been back to work. The surgery was on Wednesday, and right about the time he went under his work started calling. Problems that only Brad could fix. So, just minutes after they let me see him he was trying to fix problems via phone, and then the next morning too. By the time we got back home, he decided that he'd better go in for an hour, so I loaded everyone up and drove him in. I hope they appreciated it, and that they don't call for a few days! I'm definitely grateful that Brad is indispensable to them, nothing like good job security these days!
Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Schools back in today. I wish the kids only had to go 3 days a week, or maybe every other week. I love having them home.

We're in... not yet settled

I have felt like I have been on vacation for the past couple weeks. I think mostly because I don't have any responsibilities apart from my own family, and I see my family so much more!
I love my new house and I can't believe we had Brad commute for so long. I love having him home in the morning, at lunch, and home for an early dinner. It is so nice! I feel like I have been given 3 extra hours a day.
The kids are loving school and only have occasional moments of missing old friends, school, etc. Luckily, we aren't too far away and can see most of them when we want.
We are enjoying our new church experience. We are now in a Branch instead of a ward. So everything is a little smaller, and we have to drive 30 minutes to church, but we already love it. The branch is growing and they were thrilled to have us move in and increase their numbers by more than 10% with just our family. The great thing is, that the church is true wherever you go, and it is just great to be a part of it.
I have promised to post pictures of the house, so here are a few that we've taken. Unfortunately, we didn't get all new furniture with our new house, but that's just not the way we roll!

Front of House (with Samuel)

Audrey's Room (loved how they did this room. It is perfect for Audrey!)

Backyard (this was the picture I stole from the realty site. Of course it is still winter here.)

Kitchen (I admit--this was the room that sold the house. It's huge and I love it! We will eventually get some stools to put around the table/bar. It is so nice to be in the kitchen with all the kids and not feel like we are on top of each other! I am also venturing in to the world of convection ovens. If anyone has any tips, let me know. Luckily, the ovens also work conventionally, so I haven't burned too many things!)

Dining Room (okay, so we did get new chairs for the dining room table. For those of you who have ever visited me in my married life you know that we have never had anything but folding chairs to go around our table. This was my house warming gift to myself, and I love them!)

Living Room (right after we had the carpet cleaned--I didn't want to move the furniture in, and I really want to buy a carpet rake!)

Storm Shelter (We traded our basement for this cutie in the back yard. The kids like to play in and on it!)

Catching Up!

Here we are, almost to the end of January and I haven't posted anything since the 1st. Well, the beginning of the year is always busy, but this year we have decided to make ourselves a little bit busier. For the past 3 1/2 years Brad has been commuting 1 hour to work each day. We have toyed with the idea of moving closer to his work, but until now, it just didn't feel like the right thing. We've also looked into working closer to where we live, and that didn't seem to be the right thing either.

Two years ago we looked at a home in the town where Brad works. We liked it okay, but the price was a little high for the small town market. Well, a couple weeks before Christmas I went down to see Brad at work and he said, "Ya know, that house is still for sale" I thought that was a little crazy, but we decided to look at it again. Turns out that it had gone into foreclosure and the new investor/owners of the property knocked off $60,000 from when we looked at it before. Then, the day that we scheduled to look at it they had just dropped it another $20,000. Now we were feeling that it was a pretty sweet deal even in the small town market. So, of course, we offered them $20,000 less than that and they met us in the middle.

It is a beautiful brick house on a half-acre lot, with lots of trees, and best of all... it is only 1.1 miles from Brad's work. (I'll post some pics when we move in.) So, this month has meant packing, last minute home remodel jobs, and tying up loose ends here. We should be in our new home by Valentines Day, and then hopefully our current home will sell faster if we aren't in it. We closed, and got the keys last week, so Brad has been taking loads every day. Hopefully this way at the end we'll only have the big stuff. I like moving only an hour away as opposed to 14. It seems a little less stressful!

New Year Baby!

The best New Year's I ever had was the day Eric was born. At 10:30pm we were the first to show up at Payson Hospital to have a baby that day. It was oh, so exciting to be recognized around Utah County as the Payson New Year baby and mom since we made the front page of most of the small town papers. Best of all, it was the first day of my life as a stay at home mom. Best job in the world!

Eric has always been my baby, and even though he is the definitive middle child now I can't help but cuddle him regularly. Since about July, Eric has been planning his birthday. Mostly, he wanted it to be a "google head" birthday. I wasn't sure what we were going to do for this, but with so many months to prepare, we came up with a couple lame ideas that fit the bill.
First, squiggly candles on muffins for breakfast...

Then, Redi-whip, swirled on Pancakes for lunch (and in Eric's mouth)...

Then, the big effort, the cake...

We made all the swirls out of white almond bark and sprinkles. They were pretty easy to make, and the kids were crazy about them.

Then, the hats...

We lamed out on this a bit. I had intended to spend more time on this, but pipe cleaner and stocking caps worked out just fine. And they stayed on good even through the dance session, requested by Eric, that followed cake. Our latest family favorite song is "Electric Car" by They Might Be Giants.

I love how happy my kids are with the silly little things we do. We love just being together. And yes, Eric's favorite meal of the day is Breakfast, so we had breakfast, then another breakfast, and then a lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup with alphabet noodles in it)What a great way to start the New Year! Can't wait for next year!