He PASSED!!!!! CPA here we come!

We just got the results yesterday and John passed the 4th and final CPA exam. Hooray!!!! We are so excited and I am so very proud of him. He has been studying and praying so hard. Now it's onto the ethics exam and then apply through the state to become officially licensed. He is so amazing to have been able to pass all 4 exams on the first shot. Hooray Hooray Hooray!!!!!
Way to go Bebe!!!

House Hunting & Moving

We have been living with John's parents to save for a house for the last 2 years. They decided to sell their house and move to the IE. The house sold pretty fast, I think it was on the market for about 6 weeks or so. Anyways, since the house sold and we haven't purchased one yet, we had to find a new place to live. We moved in with my parents the last weekend of April. It's been an adjustment for all of us. But we are making in work. We are settling in, but trying not to get too settled.
John took his last CPA exam the middle of April, so we decided to start the house hunting process since he now has more time. We have amazing Realtors who are so fun to be with and are very knowledgeable. We have been out looking a few times and have found a few that we like, but just won't work for us. This process is a little frustrating right now because of the crazy market. And our budget it similar to thousands of other first time home buyers also looking for the perfect house. But we know that the Lord will bless us and we will find the perfect house for us in our price range. We have been pre-qualifed for a down payment assistance program with the county of Riverside, so we can get into a bigger house then we could on our own, but now the tricky part is finding a forecluse that meets all our requirements and the county's requirements as well. We know we will find something; it's just that the weeding out all the bad ones that is the hard part. It's kind of like dating, you have to date a lot of not so perfect guys until you find the ultimate prize. We are still searching for our ultimate prize, Wish us LUCK!!!!,

MS Walk

My friend Stacey was diagnosed with MS a little while ago, she has a sister Holly who passed away from MS in November, and their mother has been living with MS for at least 20 years. Stacey decided to get a team together for the MS walk in Murrieta this past weekend. When I heard that she was putting a team together I was so excited, I have been wanting to do something to help support her and am so glad I had the opportunity. I was able to raise some money to help find a cure. The walk was this past Saturday and really neat. Our team name is "Hairs 2 the Cure." Stacey is a hairdresser so the team name is perfect.

She has a client who is a graphic designer so she had shirts designed with our team name on it. I brought John and the kids with me. We thought the walk would be about 3 miles so John hung out at the park with Charles and I walked with Mad in the stroller. The walk ended up being no more the 1 1/2 miles, but it was so great to walk for a cause and show Stacey that she is important to me.
It's not too late to donate, so if you want to click here.

This is great!!!!

Thanks Janica, I love this video!

November 22---5 Years Later

We celebrated our 5 year Anniversary on Nov. 22nd. I can Not believe that we have been married that long. It seems like only yesterday we were dating and making wedding plans. Today we are raising children, saving for a home, and taking CPA exams. Boy does time fly and life change in the blink of an eye. (Oh, my goodness, I think I just made a little poem, that is so not like me.) I was reflecting on the past five years and thinking about all we have done or not done. Often times I get so caught up in what we are trying to accomplish that I forget to be grateful for what we have accomplished. We have been so blessed over the past five years. We have gotten ourselves out of unnecessary debt, have money to put down for a house, we both graduated from college, we have two beautiful, healthy, happy, and very active children, we have family close by that we see often, John has a great Job that he LOVES, he is in the process of taking the CPA exams, I am working on my photography and card businesses, we have been in two great wards, and have held some pretty substantial calling which have strengthened our testimonies and deepened our roots in the gospel, not to mention the fact that we have had the opportunity to serve others and the Lord while fulfilling our callings, we have a temple close by that we were able to help build and participate in all the festivities that went with the opening of that house of the Lord, including being inside the temple for the dedication. So when I sit back and look at how blessed we are I am truly grateful for a loving husband who honors his priesthood and who puts the Lord first as he guides our family toward Jesus Christ. We have so much to be thankful for and are so blessed. I think it is safe to say we have done well for ourselves so far. We may not have a house of our own or new cars, but we are doing things the Lords way and in time those things will come.

To celebrate our anniversary John brought home a dozen rose for me, they were beautiful and smelled wonderful. That night he took me to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Claim Jumper. It was very nice to sit down just the two of us and enjoy a yummy dinner. Afterward he surprised me and got a hotel for us for the night. Something we like to do several times a year, especially since we live with his parents. It was wonderful. The hot tub was perfect, the jets/bubbles weren't working so it couldn't get too hot, just the way I like it! Then we enjoyed some movies and shared a slice of the Mother Load cake from Claim Jumper. It was so nice to sleep in the next morning. Thanks Bebe for a wonderful celebration. I love you!

How do YOU turn the Light ON?

Charles is becoming my very good helper. Often times I will ask him to go get things for me or put things away. If the light is off in the room he is going in he always has to turn it on before doing what I asked him to. In his room their is a toy next to the light switch that he stands on to reach the light switch. He's been turning the light on in our bedroom for a while but I couldn't figure out how he was doing it. There was nothing nearby to stand on and reach the light switch. I asked him yesterday how he did it and this is what he showed me:

"Elmo Poops"

Charles came to me this afternoon laughing like crazy telling me that Elmo poops a lot a lot!! I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. So I asked him to show me. He brought be our Hokey Pokey dancing Elmo. Apparently on occasion when Elmo's done the Hokey Pokey really fast he'll say..."few that was fun! Elmo's Pooped." We have had that toy for over two years and this is the first time Charles noticed that he says the word Pooped. Maybe he's picked up on it because of all the potty talk now that he is using the toilet. Charles thinks that Elmo is saying he Pooped, as in that he just pooped. He thinks it quite hilarious as you can see in the small video clip below. I'm trying to explain to him that Elmo is just saying he is tired. But he still thinks it is so funny! Awh you gotta love kids and their innocent minds.