Birthday, Anniversary and other happenings..

Tyler turned 7 on the 14th. I can't believe he is getting so big! I think he had a great couple of days between his friend party on Saturday and family party on Sunday. Several of his friends were sick, so it was a smaller group (easy for me!) but he had a ton of fun with those that could make it. This first picture pretty much sums up how he felt. The next one is his spank line from the party in his class at school, the last is from his birthday party.

The Wednesday after his birthday, the school called and informed us that we needed to pick up Tyler asap. He looked like this:

We now know he is allergic to amoxicillen (sp?) an antibiotic he was on for strep throat. He missed the rest of the week of school, not because he was contagious, but because he looked so bad. It got a little worse after these pics were taken.

On the 21st Keven and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. We ditched the kids and went out to dinner the night before. It was great! I love him so much!!! I'm so blessed to have snagged such a great guy and even more so to keep him.

TTFN

Natasha

Another Milestone Reached

Katelyn and Kaden are officially potty trained! Whoo-hoo! We've graduated to the porcelain seat, but the potty chair pics are cuter! I can't believe it. And now that I look back on it, I can't believe how easy it was. Keven was the one who pushed to get it done. They were ready, too, but I have to admit, I was dreading it. I needed some stress-free weeks after the move and everything we went through prior to that. The thought of doing them both at the same time was terrible. So I decided to go with whoever was most interested.

Kaden surprised me. It was him. I would've bet money Katelyn would go first, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Two days later, after seeing her brother get praised and get treats every time he went, she decided she would get on board. It was like a switch was flipped, she was just ready.

They've done very well over the last few weeks. I just can't believe it. Something that I stressed over so much, ended up being fairly easy. Of course, now I have to deal with fighting over who gets to go first, who gets to wash hands first...lol.

I do have to admit, although it is nice not worrying about having diapers/wipes with me when I go somewhere and the extra $40-50 a month will be good too, it makes me sad to know we are another step away from having babies in the house. My sadness over that is definitely a complete opposite to Keven's joy that we are one step closer to having more independent children. Mars vs Venus? : )

Back to life

Week 3 at the new house and we're feeling like normal. I just noticed I've been terrible about taking pictures because I have nothing to post here, but I'm almost done with Amber's room, so I'll go around the house and take some pics to post for those of you who haven't been out yet.

The kids went back on track yesterday. It was their first time ever riding a bus to school. They were both nervous, but ended up enjoying it. Some kids from the ward were on it too, so they didn't feel like fish out of water. I'm getting more accomplished during the day with them gone. Half the amount of kids to entertain I guess!

I'll make a goal to post pics by the end of the week. Stay tuned...!

Finally moved in!

Today marks one week since we've been at our new house. I can't believe how fast it's gone by. I barely have half the boxes unpacked. I'm trying to declutter and organize as I go. I tried to do it as I packed, but I stopped doing that pretty early on in the packing. I figure we have all the essentials out, so we'll be fine for me to get the rest done at my own pace. (haha, hopefully Keven doesn't read my blog!)

We really love it here. I've always felt more at home out here since this is where we moved when we got married and started having our kids. We haven't met a ton of people yet, but the ones we have met seem to be really nice. Our ward just split, too, so we won't be the only ones feeling new. Our shutters aren't installed yet, so we're kind of living in a fishbowl, but I love all the natural light that I didn't have at our last place. I even started painting Amberlie's room today. It is lime green and VERY bright. It is so her- totally energetic and upbeat. I bought a new beadspread that is really cute and is kind of a tween style, so hopefully it will be a good transitional room. When I get to Katelyn's room it will definitely be pink- she's my baby, so I have to have a girlie room for her. I'll post pics when they're done.

Update on my family member for those of you who've asked: she had surgery and luckily, the cancer had not spread. They were able to remove all of it at that time. Such great news!!! We are still waiting to hear back if she will need to do radiation, but we're just so happy that it had not yet spread.

I'm sure this is long enough by now. For any of you still reading, I'll post some pics later in the week. TTFN

Breast Cancer Awareness

Somebody close to me recently got diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm scared. I cry when I think about it. I love her very much and can't imagine her not being in my life. Therefore, I refuse to believe that it will beat her. She is strong and I believe they caught it early enough that she can beat it. Take care of yourself and the people that love you. Be aware of this disease. Contribute to research. I have a button I've added to the blog. It's not the official site of breast cancer awareness, but a fun version of it. Check it out.

New Hobby, not that I need it!

For enrichment a few months ago we made the beaded-bracelet watches everyone has probably seen. I liked mine so much I couldn't stop there. I made one for my mom and one for Amberlie. I also have more beads to make a second band to swap out on my watch. My mom's is the one in gold and Amberlie's is the bottom picture. Her bracelet is made mostly out of clear crystals and the kind that are neutral, but pick up the color that is around it. It's fun because it will go with everything.

Sadly, it doesn't stop there. I had leftover beads and found out how easy it is to make earrings. Now we have matching earrings too. So sad... I need to find some self control. The only thing that has stopped me from doing more is lack of time. I guess that's a good thing!

New Year, New Goals...

NOT! I am not one of those people who make resolutions, because it's just one more thing to stress about not getting done. I even posted on Facebook looking for ideas and didn't get many replies. Maybe I'm not the only not doing a New Year's resolution...

I decided to blog today instead of looking at my huge to-do list. I've been too busy and to stressed to focus on blogging or networking, and I feel like I've missed out on what my friends and family have been up to.

Just an update for anyone who may not already know- we're moving! In March it will be 4 years since we moved back to our hometown. Quick recap for those who don't know the story: when Kev's dad died, he really wanted the house to stay in the family. His mom felt like it was too big for her to stay in and maintain (the yard is way-big) and at the time we were the only ones who were interested in buying it. We moved here, did a major reno (taking down walls, moving stairs, etc.) lived here while we did it (I would NOT recommend doing that!) and had the twins. Needless to say, it was a very stressful and crazy couple of years. However, we did meet some really great people and were able to be in closer proximity to my family in the process.

Michelle now has problems with her knees and needs to be in a place where she doesn't need to navigate up and down stairs to get around. She is currently living in the home next to us and the thought of leaving the property she has lived all of her life is very hard for her. We did some looking around when we found out they (she lives with her daugher & son in law) had made the decision to move. We looked at the neighborhood where we had wanted to move before coming here and found the exact house we were planning on building in the exact lot. It seemed almost too good to be true. It was a hard decision to leave the neighborhood we have come to love (and to leave being within 3-4 minutes of my parents,) but we felt like this was a win-win situation for everyone.

We should have been moved in early December, but it has been one little thing after another preventing it from happening. Papers filed incorrectly, appraisal paperwork messed up... things just kept popping up. I finally clued in (I don't know why I didn't notice it before- I was stressed getting packed up, etc.) and did some digging, found out the lender we were working with had been dishonest and not doing things that he should have been. As soon as I found out about that we switched and things seem to be running smoothly now. Hopefully we'll be able to close next week, but with everything that has happened I won't hold my breath. lol

Since we're traditional school schedule here, and moving to a year-round school, I was told by several school officials it would be best to start them at school at the break after Christmas and start of a new track. So, we've been driving out to the new school this week. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until we're there. Kev has had his "I told you so" face on all week. He thought I should wait until we actually moved to switch schools (which many of you might agree with,) but I think it made for a better transition to do it they we did. I'm stubborn I guess...

The kids love their school. The playground with a rock wall is quite a hit. The other kids have been very welcoming of them and they've made friends easily. They will miss the friends they've made here, but we're only about 10-15 minutes away, so I've promised we can have future playdates.

Anyhoo- we've kind of been in a bubble of getting through all this stress with the crappy lender we were working with, sick kids and boxes everywhere. I figure it'll all be worth it. I have all my Christmas cards ready to go, they just need stamps! I saw someone else mention on their blog that they didn't get their cards out either and might send them for Valentine's Day instead. What a great idea! If you don't get ours this month, keep an eye out in February!

Sledding

Across the street at the school there is enough of a "hill" that the kids can go over and sled. I'm sure they are getting old enough (Amber and Tyler at least) that they'll think it's not steep enough soon, but for now we're able to enjoy it.

This was the twinners first time out sledding. They loved it! Amber and Tyler were great with them and took them down over and over again. It was a pretty day and great family time.