Happy Birthday Alissa!

Our baby just turned 1 on Tuesday. I can't believe it. That year went by sooooo fast. Alissa has been such a good baby from the day she was born. She is so content to just be here. One of her favorite toys is a cell phone. She likes real ones, but if no one will share she will use one of the toy ones. She usually finds Blake's old phone, then climbs in her chair and sits there talking on it. It is so cute.

On her birthday my sister called to tell her happy birthday. I put the phone on speaker and handed it to her. She put it up to her ear and when my sister started talking she got the biggest smile on her face and just looked at the phone. Even after my sister hung up she still held the phone smiling for like 10 minutes. It was so funny. I don't think I have ever let her "talk" on the phone before and she loved it.

Alissa isn't walking yet, but she'll take one or two steps sometimes. She can balance really well, but after a few steps she gets scared and sits down. She loves playing with Remi and Broden and tries to follow them everywhere. She is the first baby I have stopped nursing before they were one. So she had formula for a couple months and now just drinks water in her "ba ba" when she is going to bed. It is amazing how much easier it is to get her to sleep without having to worry about when to nurse, or where or for how long. I can just give her the bottle and lay her down. Her dentist isn't complaining about her sleeping with a bottle, so it must not be too bad. I think as long as it doesn't have formula it is ok.

Anyway we are so blessed to have Alissa as part of our family and even more blessed that she is such a good baby. We love you Lissa.

May camping trip

A little glimpse into our busy camping trip.


We caught fish-for pets. The raccoons loved the midnight snack we left out for them in the buckets, but the kids weren't too happy to find their "pets" missing in the morning.




















Catching frogs in the rain!!!


These were our other camping "pets"
They hid in the mud by our tent and we couldn't find them after that.









Blake was more afraid of the frogs than the kids were.











Remi and Broden love cooking and eating marshmallows.









Our camping trip was 2 nights and tons of fun. The first day was rainy, but we still went fishing. Then we went for a drive and saw tons of frogs jumping across the street. So we stopped and Blake and the kids caught frogs.

The next day we went for a bike ride, then fished for a while. Then we got into our swimming suits and went to the beach for a while. Alissa loved the water. She is definitely a little Remi when it comes to the water. That night Blake fished and the kids and I went to the playground. Then we built a fire and cooked smores.

The next morning we fished then loaded up and headed home. It was a fun trip and nice to stay 2 days so it wasn't all unpacking and packing.

The next morning we fished then loaded up and came home.

{Getting to know me, getting to know all about me}

{Getting to know me, getting to know all about me}

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Fun activities with family.

What is your greatest fear?

Losing someone i love.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

That I am shy around strangers or in big groups.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

No values, or not living up to what you say you are.

Which living person do you most admire?

The people who stand up for what they believe in.

 What is your greatest extravagance?

Gym membership.
 What is your current state of mind?

Frustrated

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? 

NONE
On what occasion do you lie?

When I might hurt someone and it isn't necessary.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My stretched out stretch marked stomach.
 Which living person do you most despise?

I don't think anyone.

 What is the quality you most like in a man?
When they are comfortable enough with themselves that they don't have to put others down.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Women who always think of ways to help others. Not even huge things, but phone calls or dropping by to say hi.

 Which words or phrases do you most overuse? 

Sorry.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My husband
 When and where were you happiest?

The last 2 weeks here at home.
 Which talent would you most like to have?

Being able to sing.
 If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Not care so much what other people think of me.
 What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being able to still learn while being a stay at home mom.
 Where would you most like to live? 

Near family.
What is your most treasured possession?

My husband and kids.
 What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Having to bury a child...losing someone really close to you.
 What is your favorite occupation?

A mom or nurse
 What is your most marked characteristic?

My smile I guess.
 What do you most value in your friends?

Knowing I can ask them for something when I need to. And being able to talk to them.
 Who are your favorite writers?

Don't have one.
 Who are your heroes in real life?

I have too many to name.
 What are your favorite names?

My kids names. :)
 What is it that you most dislike?

When someone is mad at me.

 What is your greatest regret?

I don't know if I have one really. I might have one, but it led to other great things, so I can't really say I regret it.
 How would you like to die?

In my sleep.

I don't really have one, but I like this one If you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for everything.

I want to tag Julie J, Julie L, and Amanda and anyone who happens to read this blog.

Cancun

So this is actually my sister's post from her blog. I copied it to ours until we get a chance to catch up on our blog. Thanks Julie!

As you can probably tell by the pictures...we had a blast in Cancun! We got to go with all of my brothers and sisters and my sisters' husbands and my mom and dad. (i.e. no little kids) But we all acted like a bunch of little kids anyway.

Eric, Nate, and Cindy decided to see how many pieces of bubble gum they could chew at once.

I stepped on a sea urchan (sp?) while snorkeling and couldn't walk that night. The natives there told us just to put vinegar on it and it would swell up, but be fine. We went to the doctor at our hotel and he said he would remove them for $70, but Jenny (my sister) and Nate decided they would remove them for free. So this is them cutting into me. Just so everyone knows you can't really just pull them out because it's more like ink and it just dissolves, so I let them work on me for about 15 minutes and made them stop. By the next day they felt fine. (It really didn't hurt that bad...I was just putting on an act for the camera.) This is a real shark that a kid caught on the beach.

Do you see the iguanas in the last two pictures. They were all over and didn't really care if we came close to them.

We are covered in sand in this picture because we were playing a serious game with frisbees. My brother, Eric, and brother-in-law, Blake, didn't let us rest too much. There was lots of frisbee, football, volleyball, tennis, etc.

So let's note this next picture...we stayed up late the night before and everyone else got to sleep in the car, but these are the drivers who didn't get to sleep until we got to the beach. (The guy sleeping on the left is my brother-in-law, Blake. You'll notice if he's not going, going, going then he crashes.) Okay...this picture is really funny. My brother, Eric, stayed up all night the night before we left, so this is him asleep at the airport. This gum on the side of his mouth isn't his, but is my sister's. We put it right on the edge then when he started to wake up, he moved it into his mouth and fell back asleep. We had everyone sitting near us laughing so hard. Eric didn't appreciate it very much. This is a picture of me and my daddy. We all did a lot of eating while we were there. This is us in a cenote, which is an underground cave with water. They were a nice cool change from the heat outside.

Hiking to the top of Coba

At the top of Coba

This is our rental car. I had to take a picture with Nate by it because it's quite a big difference than his HUGE truck he drives here.

On Sunday we got to go to church where Tyler served part of his mission. A family in the ward invited us over for dinner. They fed us a yummy true Mexican dinner and we taught them a fun American game. Although there were only about 4 people in this big crowd that could speak both English and Spanish, we all had such a great time! (Besides the family that fed us, the bishop and his family came over and the missionaries, which one of them Tyler trained.)

This is us mocking my mom (the photographer) when she tells us to get closer together.

We were all pretty proud of ourselves for hiking the Coba ruins.

Excited

I know I'm way behind on blogging everything, but I'll catch up later, maybe. We have been so busy. After our birthday's was our anniversary and I left to Arizona to visit my grand parents that day with Alissa. It was a fun relaxing vacation. I got home and then the next day we left for NYC which was a blast. Blake went back to school and since then we have been going on bike rides, camping, swimming, fishing and enjoying the summer in Ohio.

Tuesday we leave for Idaho and I am so excited!!! It is going to be so much fun. We will be busy there too. A vacation to Utah with the Jones', a baby blessing for Makenna, baby shower for Kristi, trip to Mexico with the Davis adults, Garrett's wedding and reception, 2 baptisms, family pictures and another wedding reception for Garrett. Are we going to be there until Christmas? Nope, we are doing all of this in only weeks. It is going to be so much fun! I do need to motivate myself to get ready to go. Our house needs to be ready to show since it is for sale. Right now it is in a continuous stage of chaos. Sewing stuff on the table. Ironing stuff on the kitchen counter, the couch is in front of the stairs as a baby gate, blankets on the floor and couch from Remi and Broden being cold in our 80+ degree house, dished in the sink, towels on the porch, laundry in the dryer, toys EVERYWHERE, dirty bathrooms and the list could go on and on.

Right now though, I am enjoying listening to Remi and Broden playing together. And watching Alissa play on the floor with toys instead of getting into the cupboards, or my sewing stuff, or the garbage, or the toilet paper, or climbing on the stairs or pulling on the computer cord. In a nutshell they are all being really good right now, so I'm sitting down enjoying watching instead of cleaning.

Anyway, I love being a mom. Some days are overwhelming, but I still wouldn't change anything. I'm trying to be better at laughing at what the kids are doing instead of crying about what I'm not getting done. It has been working for a couple days. I just need to keep the perspective that it won't matter in 10 years how clean my house was, but I do want to remember how much fun my kids had playing and how much fun I had with them.

Ok, I'm going to go clean now.

Birthdays, Anniversary and Mother's Day

Blake's cake. The kids put the candles in all by themselves.













Blake looking a little green on his birthday.

The kids helping open presents.

My peppermint patty cake.

May is our big celebration month. May 10th was Blake's birthday and Mother's Day. Blake and Remi made me breakfast in bed, and Remi and Broden joined me and we all ate in bed. Then Alissa woke up and she also got breakfast in bed. For Blake's birthday we let him open his presents before church. He got 4 new ties. He already opened his other birthday and anniversary present. He got a new camera. One of the really nice ones that you can use different lenses with. He has been wanting one of these since we got married. Thank you air force for helping us out with this one. Then after church we just hung out and we were going to make a nice steak dinner, but Blake was feeling sick all afternoon, so steak wasn't really what he wanted. Remi and I did make a birthday cake for him though. We sang to him and he blew out the candles, but didn't eat any. The kids and I enjoyed it though. Poor Blake just didn't have a very good birthday. The kids did go to bed early though and we got to watch Twilight together. That was relaxing. Blake got me 2 hanging pots of flowers that are beautiful. I wanted something I could take with me if we move this summer.

The 13th was my birthday. I have been trying to eat healthy, so I didn't want a cake. But with kids you can't not sing Happy Birthday and blow out a candle, so Blake got creative. He got me a York Peppermint patty and put a candle in it. We all shared it after I blew out my candle. I also got some spatula's, bungee cords and flashlights. Then in the afternoon he took me shopping for some clothes and a new swimming suit. It was fun! I have and amazing husband. I also got to go to Arizona for my birthday. I left on the 15th(which is our anniversary). Thank you to those of you who gave me this gift. I had such a fun time down there.

When I got home our anniversary present was in the garage. New bikes, helmets and everything we needed to go for family bike rides. We have been wanting to do this for 3 years, and we can finally do it financially. I'm so glad we got these while we live here. There are so many places to see and you can see so much more when riding a bike than you can on foot.

We have been married for five wonderful years. Sometimes it feels like it has been forever. Not in a bad way though. It just seems like I have always had Blake by my side. I don't really remember life without him. He is such a good husband and an amazing father. I am so grateful he holds the priesthood and honors it. He can always make me smile. We have so much fun together and I look forward to having forever with him!

Home for Sale

In between all our travels and birthdays we got our home all ready to put on the market. FINALLY! We were scheduled to sign the papers on Monday, May 11th. We were supposed to fix the attic ladder, paint the garage, get patio furniture, plant flowers, paint both front porch and back deck and have it all clean for pictures. Well it rained from the time Blake got out of school until Saturday night. So Monday morning for some reason the kids got up at 5:45 am. This is not normal for them! But we got an early start on our chores. We painted both decks and got everything else done that was on our chore list all by 1:00 pm, when the Realtor came to sign papers and take pictures. Finally we are done! Now we just have to keep it clean and ready to show. We have had 3 showings since we listed and hopefully it will sell fast. We would love to rent a bigger home for the rest of our time here. 2 bedrooms is only fun for so long!

These are the before pictures. I don't have a before pic of the half bath. It was pink and blue flowery wall paper and a blue floor. You can imagine, right?



Kitchen- notice the wall where the fridge and stove are on the right. It's gone.

More kitchen
Dining room
Living room. Check out the huge, heavy old curtains.
From front door looking into living room.
Stairway.
Upstairs bathroom.
More upstairs bathroom. You can't see it, but the tile is falling off around the tub.
Remi's room.
More Remi's room.
Our room.

More our room.The front then.

And the front now!

Front porch.

Our room.

More our room.

Remi and Broden's Room.














Living room.













More living room.













Kitchen.













Back yard.