Grandma Flake's House

We have been super busy. That seems to be just the way life is lately!

We aren't completely moved out of our house yet. The buyers asked us to move the closing date back a week...and we agreed to it....but if it doesn't close, they will pay us back for what we will have paid for rent. We have just a few more things to move out of the house.

We've been staying here in our rental house since Monday night. It's kindda fun living in town again. I love the green grass and trees we have here at this house. Kaitlyn loves that she can sit and read in the grass out back and hear the fountain at the Bed and Breakfast.

I imagine that Grandma Flake would be happy to see her grandson and four of her great-grand children living in her old house. :)

Brandon and I felt the baby moving around in my belly for the first time yesterday morning. That's always fun. I haven't really sat still long enough to feel the baby again. Even when I am laying down to sleep, I can't stay still. I my legs and hips ache from laying on my sides so I move around trying to get comfy all night. The lack of sleep is getting me ready for a newborn!

So....this is our last week in this house. I have been packing....but there's still a lot to do. My parents are coming up this weekend and staying through Monday. This is wonderful! My mom and I pack well together. We both like things to be organized so that it is easy to find things once we start to unpack.

Brandon has a professional resume writer re-write his resume. He hasn't had many chances to apply for jobs this past week because he had to take a quick trip to Canada. We're hopeful that the new and improved resume will help with the job hunt.

The kids are all doing great.

Weston turned 5 yesterday. We celebrated the day before by going to Brandon's mom's house and riding horses. Weston invited Trey, Trevin and Travis (aka "Choncy") to come ride horses with him. We had pizza and a pinata, opened presents and ate cake and ice cream. Then yesterday, Weston opened the rest of his presents. He loved being sang to in Primary. He also loved not having to do any chores and getting to choose who'd to them for him. I asked his this morning how it felt to be 5. He told me, "You should know. You were 5 before." (true enough)

It is your

REACTION

to adversity

NOT

the adversity itself,

that determines how

YOUR LIFE'S STORY

will develop.

~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I am just thrilled that I can use blogger again! Not that I have much to say or very much time to say it...it's just BUGGED me that blogger wouldn't work!

I found a place to rent in Snowflake! What a relief to know we have someplace to live in 4 weeks! It is actually Brandon's grandma Flake's old house. It has been remodeled and redecorated. It is rented out by the Bed and Breakfast (which is the house my FIL grew up in) as a vacation rental. They are willing to rent to us month to month. I wonder if we can work out a deal to include breakfasts too.??? (j/k) Jo Anne and her husband are very nice. They donated two nights at the B+B for the fundraiser auction we had for my dad last year. ANYHOW. Back to Brandon's grandmas's house. It is fully furnished. I haven't been inside yet but I have looked at pictures online and it is super cute! Very welcoming. I will have to child proof things a bit though. But, since it is fully furnished, we can put all our stuff in storage and just take some clothes and books and things! The back yard is fenced in...PLUS...it is right across the street from our favorite Mexican food restaurant! I am sort of excited to move again now!

I don't know what the deal is with my computer and blogger. This is the first time I have been able to post since my last post ONLY because blogger hasn't let me! BUT...it is what it is.

The summer is over! Can you believe that!? It was a busy one!


Like I said in my last post, we started out our summer the week before school got out by spending the week in California! We stayed in a condo across the street from Disneyland and spent 3 days going to Disneyland and CA Adventure! We had SO MUCH fun and can't wait to go again! I have actually dreaded taking the kids to Disneyland. I don't even like to take them to Wal-Mart! But, this trip was ALL about them. Brandon and I had tons of fun too. We also got to meet up with Kayla and her girls, My Auntie Bev, Uncle Larry and cousin Kristian to go to Cabrillo Beach which has a little museum and touch pool where you can touch all the tide pool creatures. If the tide is low, you can go out on the rocks and visit the tide pools. We used to go to Cabrillo Beach when I was little and LOVED the tide pools. The tide was high when we were there, so we couldn't go out on the rocks...but we had fun anyways. The kids played in the water....but I think my girls favorite part was using the bathroom showers! They were surprisingly clean and had warm water! It was fun to go to Cabrillo Beach with my aunt and uncle again! We also met up with Eric, Kim and Cooper and all of us went to an Angels game. It was fun. Mostly we ate snacks...because that's what you do at ball games right? We got to visit my grandparents too. That's always interesting. They live in a retirement community. Their house is a bit small for 4 children...plus it's full of expensive antiques, so it's hard to relax. We managed to stay an hour without any casualties! I always love to visit my Grandma and Grandpa. They make me feel like I am so loved!

SO....that about sums up our CA trip. ( I am sure I missed a lot of things....)

After school was out, Brandon and I geared up and headed out to be a Ma and Pa for our Stake Pioneer Trek. We had SO much fun. (I don't know what was better, DL with our real kids....or trekking with our trek family!) We really loved every minute of it...blisters and all! Brandon and I grew to love each of those kids and hope to keep in touch with them. I love running into them around town and getting a big hug! :)

A few days after getting home from the trek....I got a familiar suspicious feeling that lead me to take a pregnancy test....which turned out to be positive. We were glad to have gone to Disneyland and had our family vacation already because up until the past two weeks....I have felt sick pretty much all day and night.Now the sickness comes and goes in little waves. If past experience proves correct, I will be feeling all the way better in another week or two!  I have made a trip to Show Low every week since the beginning of June to get a Progesterone shot. I just had my last one this past week! (woohoo!) I am about 15 weeks pregnant. My ultrasound is set for Oct. 2nd!

The girls started school Aug. 9th. Kaitlyn is in 4th grade and Adelin is in 1st. Weston is also going to Busy Bee Preschool twice a week. They all are loving school and doing well. Adelin has gotten 100% on all of her spelling tests so far! Kaitlyn has Mr. Boone for a teacher. This is her first time with a male teacher. It's a little different for her, but she seems to enjoy his class. She, of course, is doing well in school. I wish learning new things came as naturally to me as it does to her! School starts at 7:50 a.m. this year. I was dreading that...but, it's turned out fine. I had told the girls that they'd have to take the bus this year....but.....I haven't made them. Mostly because we are doing good at getting to school on time....plus, the bus comes at 7:15 a.m.....way too early!

In other news. We found out that the Paper Mill that Brandon works for will be shutting down. Brandon has a job there through January.....but we have already sold our house...(the one we are living in). It closes on September 27th. SO....we get to pack things up and moving. We just don't know where we are moving to! We are praying that Brandon will get a new job and we can just move to wherever that new job is. Otherwise, we will have to make a temporary move to someplace here in Snowflake until January (or a new job is found)...and then move again. FUN TIMES!!! We know that this is something Heavenly Father wants us to go through and learn from and that He will "open the windows of heaven" and pour out a blessing upon us. It is comforting to know that we are doing our best to live worthy of those blessings.

That's all I have time to blog about!

a trip to CA...and back in time...

We've been having lots of adventures around here! I am working on our family Disneyland/California trip (a week of family fun!) post.  Next up will be our Pioneer Trek post (3 days and 22 miles with 12 amazing youth as our kids!) 

This is us...when we got home from the Trek. Do we look like we're from 1856?

 We smelled like it!

Stay tuned.......

Here's a GOOD SONG to listen to while you wait...(from the Nashville Tribute Band)

Okay. Blogger has switched things up in me. I guess some people just can't leave a good thing alone. :) But, change is good right? I noticed that Picasa (a photo editing program I like) changed things up a bit too and I love the new editing features.

I haven't been doing too much photography the past year or so. I have been either too busy or way too busy. I don't feel too bad...I get plenty of little snap shots here and there of the kids...and if a neice or nephew gets married or graduates from High School...I am there with camera in tow. I do feel some guilt about not doing a photo shoot of the kids since Connor was about 4 months old. I really want to get them all dressed up and take them over by the Temple. I know a good place. One where you can get the whole Temple in the background (not easy to do with our Temple.) My kids LOVE the Temple. We drive past it at least 6 times a day now and EVERY time we do, you'd think it was the very first time Connor had seen it! "Mommy! A Temple! Look mom! A Temple! MOM! Temple!" And then he asks, "Mom, drive pass Temple? See waterfall?" So. At least once a day we drive up around the Temple. We stop at the bottom waterfall and I roll down my window so that the kids can hear the water. Then we drive up to the waterfall near the entrance and stop to listen to it. We've gotten out once and walked around the Temple. But I am usually in pajama's or slippers or I don't have my hair done...so we just drive by...and talk about how shiny Angel Moroni is and how we will all go be in the Temple together someday. This happens EVERY day. I don't think I will ever get sick of it. I hope my kids don't.