Lately...

Football is in full swing around here. It started mid July and goes until Nov. So every Tues., Thurs., Fri., and Sat. we will be at the ball field. At least both boys have practice at the same time and same place. They are having so much fun playing! Can't wait until the first game in a few weeks.
Owen and Avery are Caite's good friends from Maumelle. They were both in her preK class and Owen has been in Caite's class ever since. His mom tells us he has a major crush on Caite...can you blame him? Anyway, they have family in Indy and made a special trip over to see us for the day. We spent the day at Kings Island. We had A LOT of fun even if it was the hottest day of the year.We are getting familiar with our new area. It has a FABULOUS parks and rec program. One of the parks has an annual Crazy Cardboard Regatta. Hilarius!! the rules... make a boat only using cardboard, tape, glue and paint. Paddle around the cones on the lake, the boat with the best time wins. There were about 35 entries this year and they were split up in several heats. It was so fun to watch the boats slowly (or sometimes rather quickly) sink as they paddled. To my surprise a few made it to the finish line. We had a great time cheering them on.

This poor swamp thing (below), sunk just before reaching the finish line.

We have made lots of new friends. With Wilsons invited us over to swim for the afternoon. Swimming is good these days, it's been hot (for Cincinnati) the past few weeks. But we're glad we're not in Little Rock with their record breaking highs of 115 (or there abouts). Isaac being silly! He has, however, perfected his back flip of the diving board. Something to be proud of.

Monica and Caite We have TONS of parks around us. We found this one that has a skate park in it. Isaac's dream come true. I'll have to take a pic of him actually at the skate park next time.

It also has a splash pad and play ground for the little kids. So everyone was happy and had something to do.

The best part (in my opinion) of this day was that as we were getting ready to pack up and head home for lunch, a group of teens came with cooler and offered free lunch to every kid at the park. Apparently there's some type of program the city has established that offers lunches at different parks and churches. I think it's supposed to be for under privileged kids, so when they asked I said "No thanks", but they insisted it was for everyone. Yay for free lunch. And I have to admit we have gone back a few times.

We are getting used to our new place. Our house feels and smells like home. People from church and the neighborhood have been overly nice and friendly. We have been invited to birthday parties, playdates, outings, and other fun activities. We feel pretty settled. Now I just need to find me a new craft/sewing buddy.

Family Pics 2011

Utah 2011

4 days after moving to Ohio, Vicki (my mother in law: bless her brave and generous heart!) and I loaded up the van and DROVE to Utah. Aaron had to go back to Little Rock to finish up some responsibilities and then met us there. So the road trip...It took us about 30 hours! Way too long, but the kids did as well as can be expected and we all survived. We spent the first week with my family in Fairview. It was great to see Mom and Dad. Susie and Maddie cam down for most of the week and we had a great time. The sad part, with all the unpacking and repacking, I forgot the camera! So we don't have any pictures of us with my family. Very Sad! Thanks to Susie's in-laws, we had fabulous Girls Night Out and got tickets to "Mamma Mia". We hiked up Maple Canyon, we rode 4 wheelers, we played at parks, saw the Mormon Miracle Pageant. It was so good to spend time with everyone!

The second week we were able to participate in the Annual Gardner Family Park City Trip. It's something the Gardner's do every year, but because we live so far away we have only been able to go 2 other times. It was a nice treat for our family. The kids love being with their cousins. We packed our days with fun kid friendly activities. There was always something to do.

The Condos at "The Canyons"

Hours of entertainment was spent at the indoor-outdoor pool

Fishing: the guys took the older kids fishing. Only one fish and one craw fish was caught, but lots of fun was had. Papa's friend even met them with his boat and they all took a ride.

Olympic Park: We spend some time watching skiers practice jumping and landing in a pool. We also took the lift to the top where the big jumps are.

The guys put in a few hikes. My boys (Aaron especially) were right in their element. We miss the mountains!!

Geo Cashing: Nana brought several hand held gps's. She taught us how to enter in the coordinates to some near by treasures. And off we went. The first was was unsuccessful, but after some time we found the second buried treasure. The older kids were really good and following the gps and could tell which way we needed to go and how close we were getting.

All of us at the treasure

Lunch at Flippin' Burgers

Nana doing Bubble tricks while we waited to go into the theater to see Cars 2.

Most of the kids dressed up for family pictures. We are missing Travis's girls.

Family Pictures: this is the snap shot Papa took not the real pic, but it's not bad.

Papa and Nana with all the Grandkids

We had a wonderful trip. We treasure the time we get to spend with both of our families. It usually only happens once a year, so it's a special occasion. And as we always say, there's no place like home...and for us Utah will always be home. Hopefully some day we will get back, and our kids will be able to call it home also.

The House...I know...It's about time! (I just had to find time)

Saying goodbye to our Maumelle house.

It was much harder on all of us than we thought

Our new house in Liberty Township. It's perfect for our family! Now on to the tour.

Looking into the Office/den from the entry way.Our yucky old love seat washed up nicely and found a great home in the den.
(I just deleted the picture by accident and I don't want to down load it out of order again! But you can see the arm of it. It looks good, trust me)
The Kitchen with a laundry room off the side. Yes a laundry ROOM, not a closet! That makes my heart sing!Living Room off the kitchen

The Basement/kid zone. The best part about the house. Sometimes when the kids are down playing or watching movies, it's so quiet I forget they're around. It's heaven sent! We got a call from the owners the day we packed up and said they couldn't get the sectional out of the basement and wanted to know if we wanted it. Not pretty and stylish, but very kid friendly and fuctional.The Holy of Holy's...my sewing area. I don't have a room, but I have a great corner that's perfect for me. It even has built in shelving! What more could a girl want?...don't answer that.

On to the Up Stairs

our BedroomHayden's room. This cute little guy wanted a BYU room.

Isaac's room was already painted and decaled as a Dallas Cowboy's room. It worked great.

We just need to get some Cowboy's posters for the walls.The Girls room. Sweet, but not too sweet. The green was already painted. They had green, pink and white stripes on the bottom that I had to cover up with hot pink. Not our first choice, but the other colors weren't dark enough to cover the stripes. It work, and the room turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.We are loving all the extra space. The down fall is the 4 bathrooms that need cleaning. The neighbors have been fabulous! We are getting to know the everyone at Church and enjoying them. Change is hard, but it's good. It keeps us growing and developing in ways we other wise would not.

As Annie said, "I think I'm gonna like it here."