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."

Today

Isaac brought home his report card. All A's! He's had a rough year, but I'm glad it ended well with a great long term sub. Who just happens to be the mom of Caite's BFF. He's singing in the shower right now, and I'm trying not to laugh out loud.

Caite asked Halle to be her brides maid when she gets married. Halle wants a white, pink, and green princess dress. We'll see about that when the time comes.

Hayden played outside in the heat and humidity until his entire body was dripping with sweat. He came in red faced and looking like he had been standing in he shower with his clothes on. He went straight to the shower before dinner.

Halle asked for butter for breakfast...just butter. She settled on eggs about an hour later, but didn't eat them. Big surprise, she never eats her breakfast. She usually cries for icecream for the first hour she's awake. You would think she would learn that I don't serve ice cream for breakfast.

I packed.

Aaron worked and is still working until 1am and works every day and night for the next week. Lucky him.

List Makers

Aaron is a list maker. He has a list for every event and has a list of his lists. His dad is the same way. I love it because it's a rare day that they miss something and they usually think of every detail.

Last night Hayden came to our room with a piece of paper and pencil. He was making a list for something. Aaron was "well pleased" to say the least and said, "He belongs to Papa".

Today Hayden's list making continues. He and the neighbors are making a fort in his room and going to go "camping". Of course he needs a list of things to put in the fort. blankets, pillows, legos, stuffed dino, etc. The funny part is when Hayden told Logan (his friend) that they needed to make a list first, Logan turned to him and said, "what's a list?" Clearly, Logan is not a member of our family and Hayden is.

The Bee

I have really enjoyed my quilting bee. It has opened up a whole new world and has challenged me to learn new skills. I had to make my May block and June Block this week. I know that June will be crazy busy with the move and trip to Utah, so I got my June block done early.

This is the May block. Spiderweb. Can you see the web in the middle. Pretty cool. I think it will look amazing once Jen puts all 12 blocks together. Some of us 12 squarers (is that what we're called?) got together for a much needed sewing night. It was helpful in figuring this square out and sharing fabric. Thanks Ladies!

This is June's block. Bottled Rainbows for Becca. She let me choose my color. Red of course. I had fun making a "puzzle" with all my little scraps. This is a great project and one I want to do as a acquire more scraps.

Now all my fabric and sewing machines are packed away in a big box ready to find their new home. I'm excited to have a designated craft/sewing spot in our basement!

Cross Country Race

This past week the Elementary School had their annual Cross Country Day. Grades 1-5 get to race.
It was Caite's first year racing. She was nervous, but she did great! Came in 5th place out of the first grade girls. We are very proud...especially her daddy.Isaac started off with the lead, until about half way through, then a few boys were able to pass him. He ended up in 4th place. He was a bit disappointed. We were were still proud.
We have some good little runners at our house. Someday, I'll join the world of running...someday. maybe.

Celebrating SIX

Hayden was SO excited for his Birthday!

Boxes and cards arrived from Utah and he could hardly wait to open them.

There were 3 themes for his birthday.

Money. Legos. BYU

Our new house will have 4 bedrooms, which means we can finally separate the boys.

Hayden wanted a BYU room.

Thanks Nana and Papa for coming through with the decor.

Chuck E Cheese

Every kids loves the place. Every parent (at least these parents) hates the place.

Hayden won. We took the neighbors and spent the afternoon playing and eating pizza.

Just what every kid dreams of.

Six things we love about Hayden:

He smiles all the time

He is easy to please

He is the first to help out

He loves helping mom cook

He is very generous

He is so smart. (his teacher tells me all the time that he is the smartest and sweetest kid around)