Trip to Idaho

Last weekend, we took a trip to Idaho. Our friends were having a BBQ for us! The girls all wanted to see some of their friends as well, so we invited them to come. Everyone had a great time and the weather was perfect!

Michaela misses her friends the most I think, but she is very good about it. These girls were hardly heard from all afternoon, they were off chatting by themselves!

Ava was SO EXCITED to see Riley, she couldn't wait! They had a blast together. I am kind of paranoid in park situations, especially when there are other people around. I worry that someone is going to make off with a kid, so I watch really closely. It was even harder with 3 others that weren't mine to look after! I had my neck craned all over the place making sure they were all there!

Jason and I were so excited to spend an afternoon with our friends. These are all friends we have been close to since high school, it was hard to move away from them. Good thing we only live 2 hours away; not to long to drive for a night with some good people!


I am surprised I didn't take more pictures than I did. Guess I was having to much fun chatting. We had dinner, and I made a dutch oven chocolate pudding cake. YUM. You know me, its not a party without sweets!
We stayed and chatted until it got dark, then we went back to the Merrell's to play games and talk some more. Then we hung out with my mom most of the day Sunday. It was a nice weekend! We also made a trip over to our house to pick something up, and were able to see what the renters have done with the inside. It is so weird to see your house with other people and their stuff inside. Definitely makes it not yours anymore! But I am also so surprised at how easy we have adjusted here. It was so easy. It is sometimes weird to me to look around this rented house we are living in and feel at home. The saying "Home is where the heart is" must be true.

We usually take a family pic or two at this BBQ, which is turning into an annual thing. I hope we keep doing it, the BBQ and the pics!

Family Pictures

We went down to the pond by our house on Sunday and took some pictures. It was windy, but I think that worked in our favor, it looks kinda good that way. I am going to print these out in black and white for our house.




Grandma and the girls


We had to have one of these!


All because two people fell in love.....




Our angels


Payden


Michaela


Ava


Corrine

Corrine's 2 year old pictures

We went up to Ross Park to get pictures of Corrine when she turned two. I had ideas of a fun, relaxed afternoon spent taking pictures of my smiling Ninny. The only problem is that Corrine really doesn't like getting her picture taken. I took TONS of pictures, and these 4 are the best. It ended up being pretty frustrating. Good thing she's cute!

Corrine's 2nd Birthday

Corrine turned two on June 20th, one day after Payden turned 10. We celebrated their birthdays along with Marlene's on the same day. We sure love this little girlie. She is a handful, but we find so much joy with her. Her smile is contagious and we will all do backbends just to see it!

Here she is in one of the cute little outfits her Uncle Paul and Aunt Jackie got her. She loved the pockets!

Here she is saying I'm two. She can't quite get how to hold up only two fingers with one hand, so I showed her how to do it this way! Her birthday fell on a Sunday, and I was subbing as the primary chorister that day, so I had Payden run and get her from nursery and I had the Sr. Primary sing Happy Birthday to her. It was very sweet.




She got some fun gifts for her birthday!



She is such a cutie! I can't believe she is already two. Where has the time gone? I really can't call her a baby anymore. So sad. But it is also so neat getting to see who she is growing up to be. I love this age, where they can communicate with you, but there is still so much for them to discover. Happy Birthday, Ninny!

Our new digs, the "after" pics

Here is the pictures of after everything is unpacked! We really like this house, and even though we have quite a bit less sq. footage (you should see the garage!) we are managing ok. I love the layout, and there are so many windows that I don't even turn the lights on during the day. It gets really hot though, because it is two stories, and power is expensive here, so it is often quite warm in our house! (When I got the bill for 10 days of usage, and it was $145, I turned the air off right then. Only $10 was connection fees!)


Here is the family room, right off the kitchen, like our house in Idaho. It has a nice gas fireplace here though. We can't wait to use it when the weather gets cool. You can't see it in this pic, but our tv is in a recess right across from the couch.


Here is the kitchen. The kitchen is very nice, but everything is smaller than I am used to . The pantry is tiny, the sink is small and shallow (dishes pile up way to quick!) the fridge is smaller and so is the dishwasher. The cabinets are smaller as well, there are some things that didn't make the cut for this kitchen and are out in the garage. But the layout is nice, and I actually really like the corian counter tops. I don't worry about water on them like I did my granite!


There is a half bath off the kitchen, which I love.

The laundry room it TINY! This is also the only place we could think to put the cat box, so it is less than pleasant. I actually wish I had a closet laudry room rather than this, I have to shimmy sideways to get in and out.


Here is Ava and Corrine's room. You can kind of see that they have a walk in closet, which helps with storage since they are sharing the room.

Here is Michaela's room, it turned out cute. I couldn't take a picture of Paydens, it was too much of a mess! Michaela loves her room for the vaulted ceiling.

Here is the bathroom the girls share.


Here is our walk in closet. Good thing its big because Corrine naps in there! Since the little girls are sharing a room, they couldn't be in the same room for nap time. So she naps in our closet! It actually works really good, she sleeps like the dead in there.

Here is our bathroom, it is huge. We really like it!





The toilet is off to the right in the picture, directly across from the shower. It has its own room.

I didn't take a picture of our room, it still isn't quite put together. But we like it. It has a nice bay window and is large.

Here is the view from the top of the stairs.


The entryway.


The stairs.


This is my favorite room of the house, the formal living room up front. I love having a place for our leather furniture and the piano.


There is a downstairs, and that is where the owner of the home lives. He is a nice guy and doesn't seem to mind our noisy kids! I will have to take a picture of the outside later, I forgot about that. The yard isn't fenced, so Kylo is on a chain and I can't let Ninny out to play, which is tough. I tried, but she would not stay in the back, she kept running out to the front and we live on a street that people drive kind of fast on. But we really like living here. We can't wait to buy though, and are keeping faith that everything will work out and we will be able to soon.

Payden's 10th birthday

Payden turned 10 on June 19th, but with our computer out and with moving, I am just now getting around to blogging it! She had a fun birthday. For her friends birthday party, we had a scavenger hunt at the zoo. I made up notes that had clues, and ran around just ahead of them to leave little gifts. It was pretty crazy, but fun! After that, we had cupcakes and ice cream at the park. There might have been some silly string involved.



One of the little gifts they got was little poppers, here they are setting them off.



It was unfortunately rainy that day, and for some of the part in the zoo we got wet. Then it got really bad when we still had more than a 1/2 hour before the girls parents were supposed to come get them. We piled in the van, and watched a movie!

Here is a picture I took of myself. I had been running around, up and down all over the zoo trying to stay ahead of the girls, all in the rain. Good times!

I made a cupcake butterfly, but the girls kept saying it looked like a bat.

We also had a party at home for her, Marlene and Corrine. She was excited to get a hymn book.

All three birthday girls blowing out their candles!



I made balloon cakes, one for each person. Each kind was a different kind of cake.

The morning of her birthday, we were having a yard sale. But we still made her birthday breakfast request, crepes!

We love you Payden, you are so much fun!