Funny saying by Leah

Ashlyn, Leah and I were playing Phase 10 for kids this afternoon, and we were on the "octagon" round where you have to get three octagon cards to win the "phase". I asked Leah where we see octagons in the world around us and she said, "in the ocean". Ha. I guess to a three year old, octagon does sound like octopus.  

I think I'm big enough

Am I big enough for this toy???

Yes, I think I am....

Oops, maybe not...

I'll just push it from behind instead. Yeah, that works much better.

For Grammy and Pop Pop

This post is for Grammy and Pop Pop so they can see what a fantastic job they did on our backyard. 

Here's the story. Paul's parents were in town the week before we closed on our house. Paul's Dad, being the eager helper he is, was itching to get in our house and start working on it. Unfortunately, we had a realtor who was quite the stickler for the rules and he absolutely would not let us in before we closed (for liability reasons since the house wasn't in our names yet). So we did an early "final walk through" with our realtor where Paul's Dad, again, tried to talk our realtor into letting us get into the house early. But it was to no avail. So he got thinking....the backyard is a mess. There was NO grass, weeds were everywhere, trees were dead, the sidewalk along the house was almost completely overgrown, yada yada yada. You get the point. We didn't need keys to get to the backyard. So Paul's Dad and Mom set out to fix up our entire backyard (okay, I know it's not that big, but it was still a TON of work), in basically 2-3 days. So they rented a Uhaul (to carry supplies) and got to work  (in the rain I might add). They sawed and weeded, pruned and mulched, seeded and watered, fertilized and cleaned. And voila....it was done. And then they had to leave. And they didn't get to see the fruits of their labors (i.e. the grass grown in). So here you have it Grammy and Pop Pop. Our backyard. It's beautiful. The kids love it and so do we. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU....for all of your hard hard work. It would still be a mess if it wasn't for you. We REALLY appreciate it. 

Here's a before shot to give you a little bit of an idea of how much they had to do.

Here is the finished work. The grass is still growing in some places and we want to plant some more fruit trees and perhaps have a little garden, but this is about it.

Here's my pomegranete tree. It's started to bud little leaves. And if you come over in the Fall, I will give you some fruit (well, if there is any. I still have my fingers crossed).

A few house photos

I've been debating about whether to post pictures of the house because it's still not "done". But then I got to thinking, it might not be "done" for quite some time, and my family has been asking to see it. So here are a few pictures of the downstairs...so far. 

This is our "family/play" room. It's where the computer and all of our older furniture is. It's the only room (besides two of the bathrooms) that hasn't been painted because we need to fix some cracks around the windowsill first. And who knows when that will happen??? Hopefully by the end of the year.

This is our living/dining room. We got new couches and a new TV, which we are TOTALLY loving (especially Paul). But we are still shopping for a rug, and we haven't gotten any pictures up yet, so it looks kind of bare. 

Here are a few shots of the kitchen. It's mostly done except for the window shades. Oh, and the lighting (but you can't see that in the pictures). 

I'm here

I'm back in the blogging world. Finally.

We moved in to our new home last Saturday and just got our internet up and running yesterday, so I've been very behind in making a blog post. I just couldn't figure out how to post from my cell phone. I think I need a new application. Anyway, the move went great. We had tons of help. Thank you to all of my friends, whose husbands came and took time out of their precious Saturday schedule to help us move our big stuff over. It was GREATLY appreciated. And incase anyone is interested, a home across the street and a few houses down went on the market a couple of days ago. It's the same floor plan as ours. So if you want to come live by us....you can find it on Redfin.com.

So now back to real life. So much went on the past couple of months. I feel so behind. So I'll do a little update on the family.

Ashlyn is doing great in school and is really getting good at sounding out words and writing them. She starts Daisy scouts with some friends in our "old" ward in a couple of weeks and she just can't wait. She asks me everyday how long until it starts. I should make a countdown chain.

Leah turned three. We had a little family party and we played "hot and cold" to find her presents hidden around the house (Thanks Shay for the great idea. She loved it.) In some ways I can't believe Leah is three, and in other ways, I feel like she should be 4 or 5 by now. I guess that comes with being the second child. She really has grown up a lot faster than Ashlyn had at this age.

Here are some of Leah's favorite things.

*She loves to play dress up. She would wear her Ariel dress all the time if I let her.

*She loves to watch me put my makeup on. And she loves it when I put a little bit on her.

*She loves to be outside and now that we have a yard, she often takes her lunch out back and eats it.

*She loves gymnastics and goes to a daycamp once a week where she gets to play hard for three straight hours.

*She loves to watch cartoons. Too many I'm afraid. I need to be better at restricting her.

*She loves to help and she's a good helper too.

*And let's not forget....she loves to whine. Yes, you heard me right. As much as I would like to leave this out, I can't. Because she does a lot of it. But we love her and are so glad she is a part of our family. Happy late Birthday my Leah!

Brandon is as cute as ever. He's so close to being able to walk. Although, now that I say that, he won't be walking for a couple of months probably. He's happy just about all of the time. He's sleeping way better these days, although he does still wake up around 4-5 to eat(he tricked me for a few nights and slept straight through). Ugh....oh well. He's working on cutting his 5th tooth and he LOVES to gnaw on things (including people). HA HA....we're working on that. He loves to smile and has a great hearty boy laugh. He also loves to point at people. It gets him a lot of attention. Especially from strangers who will then come up to him and do the "E.T. phone home" line. Very funny!

The house is still a work in progress. We have gotten a lot done, but there is still more to do. Probably always will be. But we painted just about every room, except for the family room where we still need to do some drywall patching to fix previous water damage at the windowsill. The grass in the backyard already needs to be cut, and if the birds would stop eating our grass seeds, it wouldn't look so patchy. Maybe I should get a bird feeder to divert them. We have ordered shutters and blinds for the whole house, but they won't be in for a while still. But the kitchen is done and the half bath is done, except for the towel rack and painting the baseboard. Overall, we're doing really well and actually have just spent most of this week relaxing and trying to recuperate from being so busy in February.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. The camera cord is still packed away, so I only have pictures that were already uploaded to the computer before we moved. I'll post more later, with some pictures of our new home included.

Blah blah blah

I need something to blog about. But whenever I sit down to the computer, I can't think of anything going on in my life but paint. Cuz that's all I'm doing right now....painting. The funny thing is, we aren't even painting the majority of the house. We hired someone to do that. We're just painting the rooms. So far we've painted the kids rooms, extra room, kitchen cupboards and kitchen, and now we're starting on the master bedroom. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is....because painting is hard. Well not really, but it's time consuming and there is a lot of prep work. Especially since we are painting the ceiling and closets too. And I'm sure I'm boring everyone to tears. But we are almost done. I can see the light. The house is starting to take shape and in just 9 short days we'll be in it. For permanent.

So I'm just putting it out there....incase you are feeling the need to serve (cuz I'm not too proud to ask). We need help moving, and if you are available and willing, we would love it if you would make your way over to our place (or rather, send your husbands over to our place) next Saturday, Feb. 28th, to help us move. It will mostly just be the big stuff. The beds, the furniture, stuff like that. I'm sure a few boxes too. But a lot of stuff is already over at the new house. And that's exciting.

As a final note, I'm putting a shout out to my wonderful wonderful friends (no names mentioned. You know who you are), who have offered and called and taken my kids so that I can get stuff done. Cuz even with my mom here, it's been a lot of work. I REALLY REALLY have appreciated it. You have no idea. So THANK YOU! I'll be back after the move.

Nothing says I love you....

like a basket full of FRUIT??? Hm... I don't think so. 

This is what I ordered for Paul for Valentines Day to be delivered to his work yesterday.

This is what he got.

And the poor sweet guy...didn't even complain or question the fact that he got fruit and nuts and a bottle of water for Valentines Day from me. He just said thanks for the basket and all the great stuff. "Stuff" I said. "What stuff? Didn't you get chocolate covered strawberries?" 

NOPE....Well, he will. On Tuesday. Oops. I guess in the meantime we got a big basket of fruit for free. Good thing it wasn't our first Valentines Day together. He might of thought I was pretty darn strange.