WE HAVE A DATE!!!

I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally have a date for the closing of our home. Of course there are still things that could postpone it again, but as for now, everything looks good. We will close Tuesday afternoon. They were going to close in October but since the interest rates dropped again they waited till the first of November so that we could get the lower interest rate. That was news that I didn't mind getting. And after they gave us the good news of a lower interest rate came some other great news. Because we are so far behind schedule for starting the build, they have decided to contract out the roofing. That means that we do not have to apply shingles on any of the houses. Something that I was NOT looking forward to, especially in the winter (I am terrified of heights.) It will also make the building process at least a month shorter. And to top it all off, the tools that we are required to buy (that they forgot to mention to us) were on sale so they bought one set of them for us. Now we only have to buy one more set and we can do that. We feel so blessed at this time. We should have pics of the ground breaking in the next few weeks.

School Pics

I can't believe how much they have grown. The years are going by way to fast. Everyone knows that my biggest complaint with the girls is that they are growing up too fast. I watched College Road Trip with them the other day. It was cute and I laughed. I totally empathized with the dad but when we got to the end and the dad had to let his "little girl" go, I completely lost it. I just pictured my girls in their place and I almost couldn't breathe. I had to remember that it was a movie and my girls were still at least 7 years from college age or else I would have been a basket case. I couldn't believe how emotional I was. The girls looked at me and asked why I was crying. They couldn't figure out if it was something in the movie or just me because I was crying so hard (and I was even holding back.) I feel bad for my girls. I don't know that I can ever let them go. I know I'm supposed to but I love them so much and they are so much fun that I don't want to. I am like the dad in the movie too because letting them go means that I can't keep them safe anymore. I have to let them fly in the world by themselves and it really scares me. I just have to remember what it was like for me. I wasn't scared, I was really excited. I made it through and I know the girls will too. But, at least for now, I am entitled to be an emotional mom when it comes to letting go. I just have to make the best of what time I have left. Anyway, here are their pics.


Dakota - 3rd Grade

Rebecca - 5th Grade

Elizabeth - 6th Grade

Looking Back

I love going back and looking at our photo albums. I would post every picture I have but that's not possible so every now and then I will post some of my favorites.

This picture was taken when Elizabeth was 4 and Rebecca was 3. I had just gotten a sample of lipstick from Avon that I loved. It was a great color and I was so happy. The girls had been quiet for a while so I didn't think too much of it. I found them in my bathroom. I asked them what they were doing. Elizabeth said that they weren't doing anything. Rebecca said that Elizabeth was making her pretty. I asked Elizabeth if she had been playing with my lipstick. She was very sure when she told me that Rebecca had been playing with the lipstick but she never touched it. Rebecca of course had a different story about who was the one actually putting on the lipstick. I asked Elizabeth if she was sure that she didn't put any lipstick on herself. She started yelling at me because I didn't believe her. I picked her up and let her look in the mirror. I didn't have to say anything because when she saw the lipstick on her face she put her head down in shame and then said that she was sorry. I was so sad that my perfect shade of lipstick was now gone but the look on their faces just made me laugh and I knew this was one of those moments I would want to remember forever.

My niece says I am a Great Aunt!

My niece Heather had her second child on September 29 (sorry Heather for the delay in the post.) This is her first little boy. She named him Killian Logan. He weighed 8lb. 6 oz. (the same as Elizabeth). He is soooo cute!! She was hospitalized and then put on bed rest for Preeclampsia and her symptoms were pretty bad. We are so grateful that they are both healthy and everything is going well. This makes me a Great Aunt for the second time. Congratulations Heather!!

Sick and Tired

It never fails, so why do I forget that it happens twice a year, every year? I ALWAYS get sick on the first day of the change of seasons. I get sick on the first day of really cold weather and the first day of warm weather. Saturday we went to see WALL-E since it finally came to the dollar theatre. It was so cold that night that it was snowing when we came out of the theatre. I was shivering so hard that I could hardly hold the steering wheel. It was also the first day that we had to use the heater at home. I didn't think much of it until I got up Sunday morning with a dry scratchy throat. I figured it was because it was the first night with the heater on and the air was dry. As the day wore on I quickly realized that it was not just dry air. I was getting sick! All that shivering had lowered my defenses and what ever germs were in my body were having a field day. I decided to go to bed early and try to get plenty of sleep to ward off as much of the illness as possible. It didn't work. I was miserable Monday morning. I didn't want to get out of bed at all. Unfortunately, when you have kids you don't get to call in sick, you just have to work through it. I only had one adult cold medicine on hand and I couldn't take it because it knocks me out. It would have been nice if I could have just laid down on the couch and kept and eye on Megan after the kids went to school but Dakota had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning so that was not possible. I took Megan with me to Dakota's appt. because I expected a quick cleaning and consultation and we would go. The dentist said that Dakota has a very crowded mouth and he wanted to pull two of her baby teeth so that the others had a better chance of coming in straight. Sure, no problem, I'll just make an appointment to come back and we'll have it done (then I can go home and go back to bed for a little time before Gavin comes.) He said that he would like to do it right now since she was already in the chair, he would be back after he took care of one other patient. Fine, I'll just go home and get Megan's binky (I didn't think I would be there long enough to need it and she was starting to get really fussy) since we don't live far from the dentist and be back before they would start with Dakota. Again, no such luck. Dakota was scared that I wouldn't be back in time. She thought that they would get done with her teeth and make her leave and if I wasn't there she would get lost, so she wouldn't let me go. It took a while because they had to wait for the Hygienist to numb her mouth, then the dentist took longer with the other patient than he thought he would. Dakota did fine but Megan was a big pill. Not that I blame her, she was tired, hungry, and confined to my arms, I would be upset too. I probably wouldn't have minded so much but I was not feeling well in the first place. I got home just in time to take Dakota back to school for the last 40 min. of class. As soon as I got back from taking Dakota to school Gavin was there (he came early.) Just my luck.
I did get a chance to get a small nap in after CJ got home. It was a really long day, but I made it through without yelling even once, even though I was miserable and the house was a wreck. I took my medicine right before bed and slept pretty good. I am feeling a little better today although I still don't feel like cleaning or cooking yet.
Thanks for letting me vent.

Tagged again.

I was tagged by Darla with a trivia tag. We are supposed to answer with a one word answer if possible. I talk a lot so I don't know that I will be able to follow that rule. Here goes.

1. Where is your cellphone? On the computer desk
2. Your significant other? In bed
3. Your hair? In a head band (I didn't feel like fixing it.)
4. Your mother? In Arizona
5. Your Father? Same
6. Your favorite thing? Talking with friends
7. Your dream last night? Waaay to weird to try to explain. (as usual)
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream goal? To go on many missions with my husband.
10. The room you’re in? The living room
11. Your hobby? Playing spider solitaire and blogging
12. Your fear? Not being prepared
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere as long as my family is there.
14. What you’re not? Perfect
15. Muffins? Chocolate chip
16. One of your wish list items? A Wii
17. Where you grew up? Utah and Colorado...we moved a lot
18. Last thing you did? Fed Gavin a snack
19. What are you wearing? Clothes I think...let me check...yup, clothes
20. Favorite gadget? It's a toss up between my dishwasher and my way cool washer/dryer
21. Your pets? 2 beta fish
22. Your computer? a PC
23. Your mood? Frustrated (it wasn't a good night at home.)
24. Missing someone? Yes, my parents
25. Your Car? Saturn, Chevy S10, Dodge Grand Caravan
26. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes (I don't wear them as much as possible)
27. Favorite store? The grocery store (I feel for those countries that don't have one)
28. Like someone? Just about everyone
29. Favorite color? Purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday...my dad sent some pretty funny emails
31. When was the last time you cried? Monday... I watched a video on YouTube about a baby who wasn't supposed to be born because of a defect. His dad was talking to him in letter form and I just lost it. I highly recommend it to everyone, but please make sure you have lots of tissues on hand...seriously, you will cry. The video is named "99 balloons".

So there it is. You're supposed to tag three people when you are done so I tag Nancy, Sarah, and Amy (Ty is already tagged.)

Have you had a lock-out?

My friend Kari asked this question on her blog and then told us about her frustrating lock-out experience. Since I'm sure that there are more lock-out sufferers out there (at least I'm hoping there are so that I don't feel so alone) I thought I would share my story and ask if there are any others out there willing to share their story as well. So consider this a TAG.

To start with, I have locked my keys in my car so many times I had to have an extra key in a magnetic box under the car at all times. I used it a lot until it got lost during a student car wash. I've locked my keys in the car with it running in the Arizona heat with the A/C on and worried it would overheat, at a campground in the mountains with no cell phone in sight, at the grocery store, at the library, even my friend I lent the car to locked her 18 mo. old son in the car and was nearly turning the car over trying to get the door unlocked (I'm not sure what she was thinking... shaking the car violently was doing nothing to unlock the door.)
The worst was last winter when I went to pick up a bag of shoes from a stranger's home in Pleasant Grove. I just had to pick up the bag off the porch and go...so I thought. My doors lock automatically when I drive and somehow the driver side door got locked when I got out of the car, but I didn't know it until I went to get back in 1 minute latter, so all the doors were locked. The worst part was that the car was running and 5 month old Megan was asleep in the back. I went to the lady who I got the shoes from (thank goodness she was home) and used her phone. The lady said I should call the police but after locking my keys in the car so many times in Arizona and being told by the police that they couldn't help me due to liability concerns I called CJ instead. 1 1/2 hours latter he still hadn't showed up! He had gotten lost. That was one of those days that made me so frustrated that we didn't have a cell phone. I was desperate to get Megan (who was still sleeping thankfully) so I went back to the lady and called the police fully expecting them to tell me there was nothing they could do. They were there and had the door open in 5 minutes! Just after the police opened the door CJ showed up. All of the frustration, worry, and wasted gas (remember, 1 1/2 hours of idling) could have been avoided if I had just called the police in the first place like the extremely understanding and non-judgemental woman had told me to do. My first worry was Megan and her safety but my second worry was how mad CJ was going to be at me for asking him to come to a place he was unfamiliar with, getting him lost by giving him bad directions, and then calling the police anyway. I had said many silent prayers while waiting that CJ would not be mad and that he would be at peace. I tell you that prayers work and miracle do happen. CJ was frustrated that he got lost but he was not mad at me at all. He felt sorry for me and all the worry that I had gone through. I am so grateful that everything turned out well that day. I haven't locked myself out since that day and I hope that I never do it again. But if I do, our new car insurance company has 24-hour road service built in to the policy and I have a cell phone in my pocket now.

It's your turn now. Has this ever happened to you?

Another Update

Nothing has happened in the area of our home. We are playing the waiting game (again) right now. The USDA's fiscal year just started on the 1st so they have to get their new budget in order. When they know exactly how much money they have then they will start calling the families to schedule a time to close the loans. They are hoping it will be within the 2nd or 3rd week of October. Once the loan is closed on at least 5 homes (by the way they added two homes to our group so now there are 8 homes to build before we can move) they will start digging and pouring the foundations on all of the homes. Once the foundations are ready then we will start the actual building process. That puts us 2 months behind when they hoped we could start which puts us into July or August of next year before we will be done. Our goal was to be done by June 30th but that is looking more and more unlikely. We could use all the prayers we can get.

On our current living situation, we really thought we were going to have to move this month. We received our new lease just 2 days before the end of our rental period. It was for a one year lease and the rent went up, both things we didn't want to have to be obligated to, so we had 2 days to decide whether we were going to move or commit to the new lease. Talk about pressure. I have been praying very hard for a long time to know what the right thing to do was. I went the very next day to Payson to look for an apartment. On the way down I realized that moving was not the right thing to do. I did not have a good feeling about it at all. I didn't see how we could really stay here either, but the Lord sees all and I have to put my faith in Him. CJ and I sat and talked for a long time about what it meant to sign the new lease. We wanted to be closer to the building site so that we could be there for as much time as possible but I guess that's not to be. In the end we both felt relieved that we did not have to move and agreed to the new terms. The kids are also very happy. Things are still very busy for me, but the pressure to pack and move (especially when you had no idea where you were supposed to move to) has been lifted and that makes a huge difference.

Changing her ways?

Megan is a very stubborn child. Like I said in the previous post, she is one who will do what she wants when she is good and ready to do it. She does not usually respond to her name or look at you when you try to get her attention hardly at all. She hates it when I ask her to look at mommy, try to put shoes on her, and especially does not like it when I try to put a ponytail in her hair. However, the same day that she let me put shoes on her I thought I would push the envelope and put a ponytail in her hair too. Normally she would fight me the instant I touch her head, let alone hold still long enough for a rubber band to go in her hair. I guess she's starting to change her ways though because she sat still for me while I put a rubber band AND a barrette in her hair. I couldn't believe it. Shoes and a ponytail! So, while she was still in this trans she must have been in I thought, lets push the envelope a little farther and try to get her to look at the camera and smile. Would she do it? It did take a few pictures before I got one where she looked at the camera and smiled, but I got it. I don't know if this will last or if it was just one magical day, but I am just glad I was able to get such a cute picture of our little angel doll.

Infant no more. : (

It's official. Megan is now a toddler. We had so much fun watching her learn how to walk. It took a while but she is walking everywhere now. She hated it at first but found out that it is so much fun and now prefers to walk. When she first got the hang of walking more than a few steps she would put her arms in the air (similar to a referee signaling a touchdown) and laugh as she walked. It was like she was celebrating that she was now walking. She looks so much older in this picture.
If you know Megan, you know that she has had an aversion to wearing shoes. When she was a baby her feet were too fat and short to fit any shoes so I figured there was no point in putting any shoes on her. As she got closer to walking I thought she should probably get used to wearing shoes so while we were in the store I went to the baby shoe section to try a pair of shoes on her. She HATED it! She got so upset with me that she would not stop crying for the rest of the shopping trip. I think it traumatized her. Since then I would occasionally have her try on a pair of shoes to see if she was over the traumatization but found such no luck. I wondered if she was ever going to wear shoes at all. So imagine my surprise when I put this pair of sandals on her for the picture and she didn't fight at all. In fact, when one of the shoes fell off she tried to put it back on herself. She kept them on for about 3 hours before she wanted them off as fast as we could get them off. She's just going to be one of those stubborn girls who will do what she wants when she's good and ready to do it. That's going to make for some very interesting teen-age years.

Playmate for Peter

Well, CJ thought that Peter needed a friend. I would think that a beta fish would be happy with another small fish in his tank or something like that but CJ had something else in mind. He wanted to get another beta for Peter to "play" with (even though they can't be in the same tank.) He took the girls this time and they came back with a yellowish-white beta. They did of course get another tank for the new fish but the new guy sits right next to Peter. The girls had a name picked out for him before they even got home. Because he is nearly see-through with a yellowish flame color they named him Ghost Rider (staying with the comic hero theme of course.) There is a separator between the tanks so that the fish can't see each other but when CJ thinks the fish need some exercise or something he removes the separator and the fish play for a few minutes with each other then it's back to being separated.
Now we have two family pets.

Peter

We wanted to blog about our new fish. CJ couldn't stand to see the empty fish tank any longer (it had been empty all of one week) so a few weeks ago he went looking for a new fish. He searched the internet, Pet Smart, and PETCO. He wanted to make sure he got just the right fish. There were a few that he liked here and there but nothing seemed to really jump out at him. On a last minute decision to look at the Animal Ark (our local mom and pop pet store) he was in luck. The store had just received a shipment of beta fish. He had lots to choose from...almost too many. After a good 30 minutes he found the one he wanted. He asked me if that one would be okay (like I had a choice) and we bought the fish and took him home. We bought him while the girls were in school so they had no idea there was a new fish in the tank. We wanted to see how long it would take them to notice. I was amazed at how quickly the fish was discovered. About 30 minutes after the kids got home from school Elizabeth noticed the new fish. They were very excited. Now came the task of picking a new name for the fish. It took a few days, a few family votes, but in the end we named the fish Peter. Okay, so you're wondering why the name Peter right? (I know you're not, just humor me please. lol) The new fish had similar colors to Hero, red and blue, but he also has some black. We named him after Peter Parker, because Spiderman was of course red and blue, but there was a black Spiderman as well. The name seems to fit and so in his official debut, here is our new Peter.

What a cute little fish.

This pic doesn't show his body very well but it does show his beautiful tail. I love when he fans his tale.

P.S. This is what happens when you aren't allowed to have a dog. You get super excited over a fish. But hey, he's our family pet and we love him. : )

Just checking in

I know I haven't posted for a while. We have been busy with those meetings for the house. I'll be so glad when they're over. We also might be getting a new lease agreement from our new landlords soon so I have been trying to make the house sparkle for the official walk-thru with the new owners of our duplex. We will know about that any day now, they were supposed to close on the duplex yesterday. I also ran out of batteries for my camera so I haven't posted on the few things that I really want to post on with pics. Hopefully I will have batteries today and I can post with pics again. Other than that things are pretty much the same.
Rebecca is still wearing her splint but she is not crazy about the fact that it STINKS. I want to wash it but she won't let me because she doesn't want the names written on it to wash off. Oh well, it's her choice. The girls are doing good in school, we are already into the homework battle. The girls don't mind getting homework they just don't want to have to do it. Megan is getting better at walking every day. She walks around in circles. She doesn't want to sit down but if she stops moving she falls so she just keeps walking in circles and laughing as she does it. CJ is still busy at Mity Lite building tables. He is supposed to be working four 10-hour shifts with every other Friday off but he has had very few Fridays off. He will look for a job closer to our new home once we move so he just keeps saying to himself "not much longer" every time he gets frustrated with work. I am still babysitting the little boy from 2-11pm. I did finally give my notice at Build-A-Bear. I was only working there one Saturday a month but with our new building schedule with Saturdays being mandatory I decided it would be better to let that job go.
We may be looking for an apartment closer to Payson so that we don't have to drive so far everyday but we'll see how that goes. I don't want to go anywhere right now because I don't want to take Elizabeth out of student council. We'll see what the future brings.

Baby's 1st Birthday

I can't believe that it has been a year since we were blessed with Megan in our lives. It has been so much fun, so I guess that's why the time flew by so fast. Can someone please tell me how to slow time down because she is growing too quickly!!

Her sisters still think that we had Megan just for their enjoyment. She is like their little doll. They want to help with her so much that I wouldn't have to lift a finger if I didn't want to. But I really do want to! I have waited so long for my little bundle of joy that I don't want to miss a single moment with her. I have had to learn to share my baby so that everyone else in the family gets a chance to bond with her as well. And bond with her they have. She has Daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger twice, and her sisters do everything in their power to keep her from crying because it breaks their hearts to think that she is sad or upset for even a moment. Amazingly, she is not spoiled at all. Just totally loved.

How can you resist a smile like that?! She is never in trouble because all she has to do is flash that little smile at me and I melt like butter. She didn't start out very social at all. She wouldn't look at anybody. I am so glad that she has decided to not only look at us but smile at us too. It would break my heart if I had to miss out on such a sweet little smile. She is starting to laugh as well. It's not a big belly laugh, it's more of a fake little laugh, but I'll take it. It makes me laugh everytime she does it.

Her first birthday came faster than I was ready for. We decided to have a quiet little family birthday party for her. She wasn't too thrilled about all the attention she had gotten that day. We took her to the mall to show her off to all my friends at Build-A-Bear. I put her in the display window for a picture and it came out so cute. She looks so tiny next to all the animals. I made her wear her party hat so that everyone would know that it was her birthday. She didn't mind in the beginning but you can see how thrilled she was by the time we got to the cake.

Daddy didn't mind that I made him wear the hat so much, he just hated that it was pink.

She is the first one of our babies to actually eat real food and like it, so when she got a big piece of cake infront of her she didn't hesitate to jump right in. I can't believe how fast she ate that cake! There was hardly anything left on the plate when she was done. If I had chosen chocolate cake (hind sight is always 20/20) you would see only a small mess on her. Most of it was me trying to make her look messy before she ate all the cake.

All in all, it was a great birthday. We had so much fun, and I think for the most part, so did she. I know that her second year will fly by even faster and it is killng me. I hope that I won't get so busy with life that I miss it. Keep an eye out for updates on what she is up to now that she is officially a 1 year old.

Update on the Homefront

I got a call yesterday afternoon from the lady handling our housing project. She wanted to know if she had told me that we had a meeting on Tuesday night. I'm like...NO!, could you have called a little sooner? She said that she couldn't remember who she had called and who she hadn't. I'm glad that she did at least give me one day's notice. She said that we have a meeting on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Tuesday of next week, all from 5:30-7:00 and they are mandatory. She then asks me if that is going to be okay...like I have a choice. I hope that it's not going to be this unorganized and last minute all the time. Anyway, the meeting was good, it mainly told us that we are going to have to buy about $300 in tools before we can start working (I have no idea how we're going to pull that off), and then reminded us about the 35 hours/wk we are required to put in. I got to meet 4 of the other couples building in our group. They seem like good people who are as eager to get the homes finished as fast as we are. We also got something real exciting and a little more concrete in realizing that we really are going to have our own home, our new address. It was so fun to see it for the first time. The address is:

987 West 1600 South
Payson, UT 84651

Oh yeah, they also told us that this project is either going to make or break our marriage. It is a long and hard process and we have to be really committed if its going to work. Generally the couples come out stronger in the end but they have had 3 couples get divorced as a result of doing this program. Doesn't that strike confidence in weather or not you really want to go through with this.

I know we will be fine, we have the Lord on our side. It will be hard but it will be soooooo worth it. Anyway, we'll keep you updated on anything important we learn in the other meetings. They did say that if all goes well we will close on the loan and start digging before the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed. : )