House Pictures

Some people have asked us to post pictures of the house and I have been putting it off for a while because we did not have many decorations up on the walls and we have No Blinds. I got motivated to hang things on the wall just before my dad's family came over a few weeks ago so now I feel like I can post some photos. We still do NOT have blinds as you will notice, but we go to court on Monday to try and get the money to buy them. Wish us luck!
Enjoy the photos.....

Looking in from the front door...Living Room Dinning Room

Family Room

Kitchen and Breakfast Nook

Office/Craft room

Loft/Kids Play Room

Master Bedroom (Don't laugh at our window treatments we will be getting blinds soon)

Kids Bathroom

Madison's Room

Charles' room (the baby will join him boy or girl since he sleeps like a ROCK!)

Once we get our blinds I will post new photos to get the full effect of a house really feeling/looking like a home. Although I do love All the natural light!

Feel free to come on over and PLAY!! We'd love to have you!!!!!!

By Far the funniest thing ever

Tonight we went to my brother's mother-n-laws 50th birthday party. The kids were having a great time running around. Charles was playing with my camera and taking pictures. He decided to take a picture of John and I. Then Madison decided to join us in the picture. We squatted down and posed for the photo. Charles got ready to take the picture and as soon as he hit the button he tried to run around in front of the camera to get in the photo. All the while he turns the camera the opposite direction of where we are standing. Because he is trying to join us. It was SO FUNNY!! If someone had of caught it on tape we could win on America's Funniest home videos. My dad got to see it all and immediately started laughing he had to get up out of his chair he was laughing so hard. It was so cute yet so Hilarious at the same time. Gotta love kids and their thought processes.
Here is the photo he took as he tried to run into the photo.
And here is the photo grandpa took for us so that Charles could be in it also. Mad was more interested in her balloon.


I love my Hilarious totally CRAZY kids! I can't wait to see what this next one has in store for us.

Food & Friends

Last week we had our friends the Johnson's over for dinner. It's nice to finally have a place of our own to have friends come to. We had a great evening eating, letting the kids play, and chatting. After dinner John gave the kids some fun dips. Charles wanted nothing to do with it. (He's not much of a candy eater.) Madison and Emily (the Johnson's daughter) loved them!!!
Poor Emily got the green one and it turned her face and mouth green. But she loved it!
We had a great time and look forward to LOTS more dinners with great friends!


Charles took the Camera and was taking pictures.
Check them out!

There's Mike

And Charles' didn't want to miss out on having a picture, so he took one of himself.

11 weeks and counting

Baby #3 will be arriving around September 8th, 2010!!!!!!!!

I had my first Doctors visit and Ultra Sound today so I feel confident enough to tell all!!!
And there is only one in there. At least that we could see.
I kept thinking for some reason that there might be 2 but only 1.

FHE

A few months ago we started doing family home evening more consistently. Charles asks almost everyday if we can have family night. I think he likes the games and treats. Since we moved into our house my dad his been lonely at his place. My mom works on Monday nights and they are now officially empty nesters. My dad asked if he could join us on Monday nights for dinner and family night. We gladly said yes. Last night was his first night he was available to come over since we've settled in. He is the high priest group leader in his ward and has been busy the past few weeks. The kids always love it when grandpa comes to play. He makes funny voices with their stuffed animals and they think it is hilarious. They sat on the table in front of him just rolling with laughter as grandpa gave each animal a voice and made hats out of napkins. It was so cute!
Then we had family night. Mad does not sit so well but loves to sing the songs. Her favorite is Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. She calls it BEAM! Charles is doing much better at listening and remembering what the lessons are about. After family night we went to Wendy's to get a frosty. My mom gave the kids a coupon book that had 5 coupons for a Free Jr. Frosty. Since they expired yesterday I figured we might as well go get our free Frosty. It was perfect there were 5 of us and oh they were so yummy! Small!! But Yummy!

We have a HOME

We finally moved into our new house. It is perfect!!!!
I (with the help of family either working beside me, for me, or watching my kids) spent the first week of 2010 cleaning and painting our new house. This house was DIRTY! The people that lived here before us only lived here for about 2 years, they bought it brand new. And I don't think they ever cleaned. So that was my job. But we would not have electricity and water until Tuesday. So the 1st day I could only work until it got dark. I cleaned and cleaned. And then painted a LOT! We had 3 days to clean and paint the house in time for the carpets to be cleaned on Thursday so we could move in on Friday since I was photographing a wedding on Saturday. It sounded like a good idea until Tuesday came along and I was nowhere near being done. John suggested we hire some painters to come in and paint the common areas. (keep in mind our house is over 2700 square feet) so paining that much house with just a few people is nearly impossible without a professional. We had a painter come out on Tuesday and gave us a reasonable quote and he said he could do it all in one day. Sweet!!! He was hired! And he did a great job!!!! (If you need a painter let me know I will gladly refer him.) He also have me some painting tips as I was painting the upstairs bedrooms while he was doing the common areas. The tips worked wonderful! The rooms look amazing!!! By Thursday morning the upstairs was done and the common areas were completed! It looks great!!! I LOVE all the colors we have chosen. While the carpet cleaner cleaned up stairs I painted the office downstairs. And then let him finish while I cleaned the kitchen. The house was transforming already!!!
Friday we moved in and tried to unpack as much as we could. By this time I was TOTALLY STRESSED!!!! I did not feel anywhere near ready for my wedding. I said a lot of prayers went to be early and tried to relax.

Saturday we (John and I) did the wedding and had a great time. It went very well and the bride looked Beautiful! While we were gone our family took turns watching our kids at the house all the while doing some more cleaning. My brother-n-laws spent the whole day installing overhead lighting upstairs for us. It looks great!!!! They did an amazing job!
I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE IN OUR HOUSE!!!!!
(I'll post pictures soon, we are still trying to unpack a few boxes and then hang pictures.)

Eventful WEEK

We had a very eventful week after Christmas...

Sunday night we had a family dinner with John's extended family. His aunt's Lori and Vicki were in town with their families from Utah and his Aunt Karen and Uncle Wendall came to town from Vegas so that we could all be together. It was lots of fun. We have not all been together in a very long time.

Then on Monday night we went to Chuck E Cheese for family home evening. A few months back we had a problem with Charles peeing in the house. Yes you read that right. He would pee in the middle of the floor or outside. I was getting so frustrated nothing worked to get him to stop. Finally I decided to do positive reinforcement instead of taking things away for the bad behavior. So we made a Chuck E Cheese jar and every time he went potty in the toilet he got to put a marble in the jar, but if he peed any where other then the toilet he he had to take 5 out. It only took about a week or so for him to correct the behavior. And once he filled the jar we was able to go to Chuck E Cheese. It worked great!!!! He had a blast at Chuck E Cheese. We invited grandma and grandpa to come along. It was a nice evening out!

For the past week or two Madison has been very whiny and clinging and not sleeping very well at night. At first I figured to she was cutting teeth. Which is was. But she never got better. A few times this week she woke up with a high fever. So I would give her Tylenol or Motrin through out the day to help her feel better. She would start to act a little better but was not acting normal. Finally on new years eve I decided it was time to take her to urgent care. (On January 1st our insurance would be changing to Kaiser and I didn't have all the information yet, so I figured this was my last chance.) We picked John up from work and headed to Fullerton. Of course when we got there there was a long wait. But the kids did great waiting. We went to target to get a gift for our nephew and pick up some more Tylenol. Then when we went back to urgent care to wait some more Madison was doing SO GOOD!! She was acting like herself again. I questioned weather or not I should be there, but decided to at least let the doctor's tell me nothing was wrong. We finally got called in and the doctor ruled out all the normal issues, No ear infection, No strep throat. But possibly a urinary tract infection. Yikes! But how do we test for that? She says we need a urine sample. Urine sample from a 2 year old are you kidding!!! She said well if she's not potty trained then we can bag her. I was very puzzled by this suggestion. But said well let's just do it. So they but a bag over her private area that was to capture the urine. Then we just waited... and waited... I gave her as much water as she would drink... waited some more...then finally after 20 minutes she PEEd! I was very excited. The did some tests and concluded that she did in fact have a Urinary Tract infection. She gave me a prescription and sent us on our way. Being new years eve many pharmacies closed early. We found one close to home and made it in time to get our prescription filled with just minutes to spare before the closes. (And this was a 24 hour pharmacy, but since it was a holiday they were closing.) So we made it just in time to have our current insurance cover it. Within a few days Madison was back to her old self. Boy did I miss that little girl.
On Friday we decided to activate our Disneyland passes. (Not such a good idea with our little lady still not feeling well.) She was not a happy camper. She did NOT want to sit in a stroller and screamed when the ride ended. It was not such a happy time. But we were able to get on a few rides and then we finished the night with Jamba Juice and Wetzel's pretzels for dinner. (Charles NEW FAVORITE dinner!)
On December 30th we found out that the 2nd loan had approved the short sale and on the 31st we CLOSED ESCROW. HOORAH!!!
Now comes the huge task of preparing to clean, paint, move, and get all utilities activated!
But we are NOW HOMEOWNERS!!!!!