Eat, Shop, Repeat...

My scale and my wallet tells me that we did a girls trip (with no chidlren) the right way! For a late 30th birthday present (my own fault it was so late) my wonderful sister, Kim took me on a trip to Cali with her and my mom (we missed Shelbie and Cara). We stayed at Grandma Marilynn and Grandpa Jerry's (my mom's parents) who I adore. I love the smell when you walk through the door and the feelings I get when I am in their home with them. I will try not to use too many words, but pictures to tell the story of our perfect girls trip. Man, I love these people...

Day One: The eating starts in the airport, then continues once we are picked up and head to Wahoo's and Cold Stone.

Day Two: We start with great intentions and actually take a great walk up the hills of Laguna. We stop by my cousin Summer's, then we walk and walk some more around the outlets in Carlsbad. No rest for the girls because Grandpa Jerry is ready to go as soon as we get home. Here we are at Wind and Sea in Dana Point where we enjoyed a great meal by the ocean, then headed to Laguna Beach to see my mom's brother Dana and Aunt Beth.Don't worry, we stopped at Thrifty's on the way home to pick up a carton of Chocolate malted crunch ice cream (the best ever, and you can only get it in Cali and maybe a few states around).

Then we painted our toes (I know, exciting)...

Day Three: No walking today, but it's for a good reason - the Newport Beach temple. We were able to do some work there and have a nice quiet break from shopping.

Since we were in Newport Beach, we HAD to try out Sprinkles cupcakes that we hear so much about. Yes, they were delicious...Then we headed to Laguna Beach to shop some more (surprise!)

We came home to a common sight - Grandpa sitting in front of the tv. Him and President Monson have something in common - they are show-a-holics. He is always recording or watching a musical, and we get to watch little clips of them with his narration! G and G also love puzzles...Grandma invited all the cousins over for lunch/dinner and it was so great to see everyone. Here she is getting ready for the party...Then we ended the day with more shopping in Laguna!Kim, Janice and Cami...(she came earlier than the rest, so we couldn't get a picture of all of us)

Mom (Judy), Summer, Cam, Kim, Katie and Grandma...Day Four: Walking around the Orange County Swap Meet counts for excercise, right? We got great deals and had a great time! And bought a lot...The end of a long couple of days...

For our last night in Cali, we headed out to one of G and G's favorite date spots. We grabbed a pizza and went to back to Dana Point. They love to watch the surfers here. I have never seen someone so in love as my Grandpa Jerry, but who wouldn't be with Grandma Marilyn by their side?

Along with shopping and eating, there was also a lot of giggling...Just so our husbands wouldn't yell at us, we figured we better get our feet wet...Day Five: It started early - 5:15am we left to catch a plane. Although we sat in the fog for an hour and a half after we boarded.

I guess we wore mom out...

Thank you thank you to Kim for a perfect trip. We left saying that we had no shopping regrets, and ditto for everything else about the trip. It was great!

Also, a HUGE thank you to Grandma Jennis for coming to Colorado and staying with my boys. I don't think they even thought about me the whole time!

Meet the Neigh-bors

I mentioned before that our house is in a dead end with just one other home. There is an empty lot right next to us (not large enough for a home to be built) that the boys call "the dump". Today I learned that they throw trash in "the dump". There is a large fenced area next to "the dump" that is just an empty field. But, today there were three horses there. Of course, we had to go feed them carrots and apples. It was the highlight of the day. Here are pictures of our neigh-bors (Sorry, I couldn't help but use the dump pun!)

Meet Crazy JuJu...

My kids are lucky enough to have two very fun grandmas. This is my mom (although she looks nothing like her normal beautiful self) and her Grandkid Halloween Party. The moms left for the party, so here are pictures of the beginning and end. Two Zorros, Captain Hook and Tinkerbell (My sister Kim's kids Austin and Addie) The babies weren't quite old enough. Check out Kim's blog for more party pictures.
A very cute mummy pinata made by crazy JuJu...

Breakfast of Champions

Clay's choice of food (hot dogs and cheese), even for breakfast. If it's not a bottle and not a sucker, then go for it. Pick your battles, right?

Hello to our new home

We will be renting for a little while before we are ready to buy a home. There are a lot of things that I love and don't love about the home we are renting (you may or may not care, but I think this stuff is interesting):

*I love that it is big, and we fill it perfectly. I knew we were getting cramped in our old home, but now I really see how small it was.

*I love our large master bedroom and good size master bathroom

*I don't like that the shower is tiny and that there is no door into the bathroom from the bedroom.

*I love having a living room and a family room.

*I love having an open floor plan where it doesn't seem like everything is so far away from eachother.

*I HATE the industrial railing up the stairway and dividing the dining and family rooms.

*I love having my laundry on the main level.

*I love having an extra bathroom on the main level.

*I don't like that there is only one shower in the whole house. What? We didn't realize this for a few days, but there are three bathrooms and only one shower. Strange!

*I love having a garage that is big enough for two cars AND stuff. Side note - We are now a one car family since we sold Brandon's car before we left. The car he got brand new when he got off his mission in 1996! Sad!

*I don't like that the yard is kind of crummy (for now). But, Brandon counted that we could fit around 13 cars between all the patio and driveway that we have in the back, side and front.

*I love that we are in a dead end with only one other house whose side faces us. And who allow my children to play on their swing set or trampoline whenever they want.

*I love having a whole downstairs dedicated to playing and guest area.

*I LOVE having a pantry and a food storage room.

Okay, that's enough for now. Sorry if that bored you, but you didn't have to read it! Here are a few pictures of our main living areas. I will explain them for those who are like me and want to envision the layout.
Taken from the upstairs (where our three bedrooms are and two bathrooms) looking into the front living room. The front door is just to the left of the clock...

Taken again from the upstairs, but looking to the right obviously at the kitchen/dining area...The kitchen again, but looking from the family room (down a few stairs). The front living room is seen a bit on the left...The family room looking from the dining area. That door goes to the backyard and to the right (not seen) is laundry, bathroom, downstairs door and garage door... One of my favorite parts of the house... Looking from my kitchen window into our backyard and right at our church...This is the back of our ward list. It is a map of our neighborhood, that happens to be the whole ward...

Farewell to our home

What a strange day it was to have a moving truck in front of our house, everything in boxes, then eventually a totally empty house. We bought this house new eight years ago, after being married for two years. We lived in it alone for two years before we finally started having children. This is the only home they have known and were a little sad to leave it. We call it our practice house and have learned a lot both inside and out. We have taken the best care of it that we can and hope that someone who will love it as much as we have will come along and find it - soon! Farewell to Greeley and to our first home.

The truck never looked big enough to fit everything I owned it it (even after getting rid of a lot if stuff)...

Some clever packers putting together a very hard puzzle...

Tight squeeze in the end, here we had to make a priority list and leave some stuff behind (to come later)... Thanks to all the hard workers and their muscles for so much help!

My old stomping grounds

Here I am again back in good ol' Orem. I did most of my growing up here (since I was 12). I love it. I don't think I ever realized how great it is to be so close to the mountains. But, living in Greeley for the last 8 years has helped me see the beauty of my surroundings here. And, what's that smell? Oh, nothing! No cow smell! I will not miss that! You may think it is weird, but I live probably two miles from the house I used to live in, but stakes away, of course. My parents currently live two blocks from us and I love it. I feel like a new person with a new husband. We are loving our life right now. Not that we didn't before, we were very happy. But, this is just right and we know it and we are happy to be here. We will see if things still feel this way when all the bills start piling up from two houses! The boys are happy as can be too. Koby had a very sad night when we first got here, but since going to school and LOVING it, that has all gone away. I will get pictures up as soon as I can...