birthday girl

My sweet little Kate turned 1 yesterday! We had a birthday party for her on Monday, and I threw a little fiesta since she was born on Cinco de Mayo. It was a lot of fun! We had a nacho buffet, (Which reminds me of a joke...what do you call a buffet that's not yours??? Nacho buffet! Get it? Not yo' buffet) Anyway, My family, Michael's parents and my sister-in-law and her family came so we had a full house! I made a pinata for the kids, (which I'll do an entry about soon, they are SO easy to make! Not the messy paper mache kind.) And I made the cutest fiesta decorations out of tissue paper. thank you, Martha Stewart. Again...another entry about that later!

Kate is such a cute and spunky little kid, we just love her! She walks around now, like she owns the place. She still seems too small to be walking, maybe because she's still wearing 6-9 month clothes! But such a little package brings such big joy! She says a few words, "Da" which is "Dad", "bay-tee" which is "blankie", "uh-oh", and "ttttttt" which is "eat". I still haven't gotten her to say "Mom"...*sniff sniff* but, I know she loves me by the way she starts jumping in her crib first thing in the morning and the look in her eyes. She adores big brother and sister and think they are the funniest people in the world. Her favorite toys are my keys and my cell phone, and her favorite food is graham crackers. Ahhhhh, I love this little girl!!!

Sorry, I totally forgot that I was supposed to post a picture of Whitney's room! I should have taken the picture during the day...but it kept turning out funky because all you could see was the light blaring through the window. She picked the wall colors and everything and then we put up molding on the walls. I love the way it turned out! So, there you go!

Kate

Ah, the many faces of Kate. She's finally feeling better, but it's been a fun past week or so. (Go back and read that again with a hint of sarcasm.) She's teething and just got over a double ear infection and a sinus infection! Poor little baby, I think that would make ANYONE cranky! But, when she's not crying, she's the sweetest little goofy baby! I can't believe she's already 9 months old! Time goes by so fast, and we're so happy to have her in our family!

Updates!

Hello world!

I totally forgot that I was going to post some pictures of our house! The only pictures I have so far are of the kids' bedrooms and the kid bathroom...so here you go!


This is Kate's bedroom...didn't change much accept for painting the trim on the border brown. It was green. And I did pink and brown polka dots on the walls...I'm still working on finding matching valances for the window.
Here's Aaron's room...the top of the walls used to be tan, and the bottom was burgundy. He's wanted a Transformers room for a long time, and he's super excited to finally get his own "boy" room!
Here's Whitney's room..sorry, the picture isn't very good...but I think you get the basic idea. Turquoise and pink...I'm still not sure I like the colors...it'll probably change within the next year or so.

Here is our bathroom, and dangit, I wish we would have taken a "before" picture! We put in a new sink, a new faucet, new paint, and a new light fixture. It looks SOOOO much better! Oh, and in the corners by the sink were these massive corner oak cabinets. Mike took them down for me and it opened up the bathroom so much! I LOVE this bathroom!

Those are the pictures I have so far. The other rooms aren't quite ready yet...I'll save them for another post!

Other than that, things have been pretty busy. We've had a lot of sickness going around here. Kate had a double ear infection and a sinus infection, Aaron and Whitney both had coughs and colds, and both Mike and I were sick on Sunday. It's been fun! I think we're finally all better now.

Oh, and I've started making some new things for my Bella Bling shop...


These things are selling like hot cakes! I'm so excited about them! I should have some listed in my shop within the next few days!

Well, that's about all for now! I hope you are all doing well!

We're alive, I swear!

Wow, I have turned into the worst blogger in the world! I am so sorry! Time to catch up on the past few months, mine and yours! As for us, we are living with Michael's parents until we close on our house on the 15th. Bless their hearts for putting up with all 5 of us for the past few months. The kids seem to be dealing with the move pretty well. Whitney wakes up crying occasionally because she misses her friends. Poor girl. I know how she feels. The first few day were full of excitement, it felt more like our summer Colorado vacations. But, after a few days, the reality of it all hit me and I slipped into a pretty deep depression. It wasn't so fun anymore. And finding a house was impossible. For our price range, everything good had already been snatched up because of the tax rebate thing, and all that was left was junk. Well, there was one house I fell in love with...but it was really small and there was no room to grow into it. So, after much lamenting, our prayers were answered. A family friend called Michael to ask if he wanted to come see his house. It was about $20,000 our of our price range and I was just SO mad! How unfair! But, to make a really long story short, he gave it to us at our price range, and I feel so blessed. It's going to be a nice house. It's 4 bedrooms (Yaaaaay!) 2 bathrooms and is about 2,000 sq. ft. It has HUGE garage, helloooo food storage space! Here are some pictures...

Exterior (I'm going to paint it a grayish brown in the spring, and the front door will be red) And, yes, that is a metal roof! Pretty common out here.

Here is part of the living/family room. There is another area off to the left. It has different carpet than what is shown, thank goodness.

Here is the kitchen, they left the bar stools for us, how nice!

The dining area off of the kitchen? (any suggestions for paint colors?)


The master bath...I love it! It has a jacuzzi tub with jets and all. I know that will get used a lot!


The back yard (sort of needs resurrected...)We have a whole acre!!! I'm excited to plant a great big garden this spring! I'd like to put a big fire pit back there somewhere, too!

So, that's our new home. I can't wait until the 15th...I keep going to Walmart (the only place to shop in a 2 hour radius) and drooling over paint colors. I'll have to do another blog about "The Beast" which would be our new fridge. I've never seen anything like it.

Besides the house thing...not much is going on. We had a nice Christmas break, and now are trying to get back in the school routine. Whitney is used to playing all day long and doesn't seem to want to work anymore. It will be nice when she gets back into the swing of things.

Well, that's probably enough to munch on for the day. I promise I'll write again soon with more updates!

This Years Christmas Card

Make a Smilebox greeting

Here's our Christmas card for this year. I know it's probably so tacky to just do it through email, blog and facebook...but this year this seems to be about all I can handle! How about if I just lie and say I decided to "go green" this year and save the trees? :) It still turned out pretty cute, though! Thanks to the once again AMAZING Mandy Lyon for the family picture, I love it! She was so patient with us, through Aaron's crankiness, all of us swatting at ferocious mosquitoes between and during shots, and all of the fun that goes with getting pictures taken. She still makes masterpieces!

Homeward Bound

What a month! I wasn't "allowed" to write about what's been going on, but now that things are finalized I have the green light. A few weeks ago, I took Aaron to the Ear Nose Throat doctor on a Tuesday and was told he needs his tonsils and adenoids out. So, I scheduled his surgery for that Friday. When I got home, Mike was there and said we needed to have a talk. He told me he had just gotten laid off. I had to cancel Aaron's surgery an hour after I scheduled it! We've been worrying about this happening and praying that it wouldn't. But, God has other plans for us and thought we needed a serious lesson in humility.

Fluor, the company Mike has been working for, has been struggling with the economy because power plants and oil refineries have been pulling out on contracts-they can't afford to get things made or fixed. So, next up on the money blood sucking food chain come the workers at Fluor. So far, about 2,600 employees have been laid off. They held on to Michael for as long as they could, though, which meant a lot.

I keep looking around at our house, knowing it's probably the nicest house I'll ever live in, and kicking myself for ever thinking I "deserved" more. And what are our landlords going to say when we tell them we have to terminate our lease 2 months early? We don't have money to pay the "early termination fee". And every time I drive through Sugar Land I think about what a nice place it really is, and how blessed we were to live here. I have made some of the most incredible and amazing friends in the world and it kills me to think of leaving them. How will I survive without my Mandy?

Michael's dad offered him a job back home at the machine shop doing quality control. I am so grateful for his offer. Part of me is so excited to move back home to be closer to family. I love the mountains and the smell of sagebrush when it rains. I love four wheeling and shooting and camping and sweaters and hot chocolate and green chili. I love the slower pace of life and Colorado summers. I love the small town parade during Stampede and making fun of the low rider and tractor "floats". I love the holidays at my parents house. And just think of all the free babysitting! Plus, my AWESOME sister-in-law, Kathy lives there, and she has kids that are the same ages as mine. Born to be best buddies! So, there are some of the reasons I'd love to be back in the San Luis Valley.

But..... then the other part of me dreads it. I'm so used to living in the city where everything is only a few miles away and anything and everything you could ever want is just down the street! The biggest and most exciting store in the valley is a Walmart. No Pei Wei...no Target...no Old Navy...no Hobby Lobby...oh, I'm tearing up already. I think the hardest part is that moving away from home made me feel like I grew up and made something of myself. I got a fresh start. And housing is a completely different thing. No HOA's to make sure the neighborhood stays well kept. You can have a really nice house next to a run down ghetto house, and many of the houses are over a hundred years old, so finding one that isn't falling apart will be fun. We'll live with Mike's parents for a while until we can either save up for a down payment to buy a house, or we find a decent house to rent until we can save up for a down payment. (There is only one apartment "complex" there, with about 20 units. And, at $250 a month, you get what you pay for...shady shady shady.)

Anywayyyyys, back to trying to be positive. We're moving by Thanksgiving so I've been busy trying to start getting things boxed up and set aside. God knows what he's doing and everything will work out!