Catch up time!

I am so sorry I haven't been posting regularly like I used to. I really mean to do so, but life has been so super busy with work, kids doing swim lessons and T-ball, and moving and painting and fixing, well, you get the idea...I have just been too busy to blog. I thought I would tell a couple of cute stories about the kids, since I haven't been able to post frequently, so here they go:
Lucas has been doing T-ball, which has always been entertaining- you never know what cute things the kids will do. I will admit, though, that these kids have all gotten much better at playing it, and there isn't that entertainment of the kid who just starts swinging as soon as he sees the ball, weather it is on the tee or not...but it is really great to see the kids getting better at the game.
A couple of weeks ago Lucas got to have his turn at catcher. They always let the whole bench bat, but keep track of the outs, it just doesn't matter if there are more than 3 outs. Well, when the last batter gets up, then all of the kids on the bases all run for home, so as catcher, the kid gets the ball and stands just in front of home plate to try to tag all of the kids out. Well, Lucas didn't sucessfully get the ball and get in front of the plate until the second to last kid was heading for home. Lucas got in the way and tagged him out- he was so excited about this that he turned and looked at me and shouted "I got him!!!" He totally missed the other kid running past him and safely touching home- but it was so cute to see!
Lucas's team has also began batting off of the coach's pitch. We have never practiced this with Lucas, he had never done it before and with his often slower reflexes, I worried that he wouldn't do it, but the first time the coach pitched it, he hit is sucessfully! He has done really well with this, there have now been a couple of times where after 4 throws, he has to use the t- but since his league is with kids not only in his grade, but also the grade above him, I am very impressed. I still have yet to catch it on video, though, and his last game is on Tuesday night...cross your fingers that I finally do catch it on video and I will post it here, if I do!
Abby has been working on new skills as well. She recently decided that she wanted to learn how to snap, which is actually a rather difficult skill for a kid her age- it requires strength in the fingers which most 4 year olds don't have, but she kept working on it and practicing and strengthening her fingers until now she can snap louder than me! She is super good at it- which goes to show that all you have to do is practice persistently to be good at something. She has decided that her new skill to conquer is whistling. She purses her lips and blows so hard that a very high pitched noise does come out, but she needs to work still on mastering and controling that noise, but she is already doing great!
There is one problem with her knowing how to snap. We were in church last Sunday and she got on the floor and tried to crawl under the bench- she is much too old for this behavior, so I put a stop to it and told her to get up on the bench. I started to count silently with my fingers and she suddenly snapped at me and said, "I don't like it when you count!" and even wagged her finger at me- Shawn had to look away so as not to laugh- fortunately, I didn't find it funny at the time and she was forced to sit right on the bench.
Abby has also been doing this thing lately where she hates to be punished- well, what kid doesn't- but the weird thing is, she will cry and scream and be upset, but the only thing that calms her down is a big hug- it's a lesson for me, I would be mad at the person punishing me, but all she seems to want is even more love and affection. I am not sure if this is a way to try to avoid the punishment, but if it is, it doesn't work, she still gets a time out, but she wants to snuggle in and stay there when she is free of her time out. I love it- she is super snuggly, which makes me glad that for now, I don't have another little one that she needs to compete for in order to get snuggles, I figure by the time we do have another one, she will have grown out of this, but for now, I love it!
For an update and me and Shawn, well, life is crazy with trying to move and set up the new house in addition to taking care of the current one and working, etc. Last saturday Shawn emptied out the storage shed- we borrowed my in-law's car and trailer and it was a rainy day- well, it sprinkled in the morning and rained in the afternoon. He was on his way to the new house with a full load- carboard boxes, etc. when both tires on one side of the trailer blew. He had to pull to the side of the road and call Triple A, who said that they wouldn't help him because they don't do trailers- so he had to call around to a bunch of tired places before he found one that would help him and wait for over an hour for a guy to come out from Les Schwab and change the tires there on the side of the road, which we had to pay the guy $100 an hour to come and do! Ridiculous! We are mad at Tripe A!!! On top of that, it sprinkled some and we were worried about our boxes.
While Shawn was going through this, I was working at Curves, but we had planned on Shawn picking me up when he was done taking up that load, so I was stuck walking home, which I didn't mind too much, but I had this sweet woman who I barely know or have visited with much who heard about my struggles (we chat on the circuit) and offered me a ride home. She gave me her number to call her when I was done with work, but I wasn't going to call- you know how pride can be...but she came by when I was closing, but still had to clean when she came back to offer me a ride- I told her I still had 20 minutes of cleaning to do, so she went to the grocery store and came back and gave me a ride! It was so sweet, I had to try to control my tears of gratitude! It was such a sweet and selfless gesture- especially how much she went out of her way to give me a ride- I just felt so pleased with the world in general at that time, while poor Shawn was probably feeling the opposite. Well, that is life, I guess.
This past weekend was really busy, I had to work at Curves for the last time that morning and Shawn went up to the new house to take a load and then went and bought paint with his Mom- Sherri is being awesome and buying the paint for our house- she is so excited about decorating it that she is doing this wonderful thing for us- also she is buying fabric to do curtains and stuff- we are very blessed to have her help! We painted most of the kitchen on Saturday- it is hard because I do not have a steady hand, but Sherri and Shawn do, so they are doing all of the trimming work, while Shawn's sister, Emma, and I did all of the rolling- and while the rolling covers most of the surface area, the "cutting in" is the most time involved, so there is just a bit of that left to do and we will be done with the kitchen. We still have Abby's room, Lucas's room, our bedroom, our bathroom, the kids bathroom, and the office upstaris to paint, but that is our order of priority and if we don't get some of the later rooms done, well, we will just have to do them later! It is making for a busy summer, though, we will not have a weekend off probably until October, I am thinking...*sigh*; but we are excited!
After the painting, we went to the rodeo in Lehi that night- which was a blast! We are again grateful to Cory and Sherri for helping us out- they are doing so much for us this summer...I hope we can repay them soon!
Love to you all- sorry this was really long, I don't blame you if no one reads it! I will post pictures of each room once it is done being painted so that you can see! Busy! Busy!!!

Adventures in Home Buying...

So, on Tuesday, June 9th, we closed on our new house! Yes, we are excited about it, but it has been extremely stressful getting this done! We found out on May 20th, that we needed 5% rather than the 3% we had and were planning on for a down payment becuase the zip code we were purchasing a house in was changed to a "restricted market". At that point in time we were planning on closing on June 1, so we had 10 days to come up with $4000. We, thankfully, got an extension on our closing date without penalty of extra fees, and were barely able to make that 5%- thanks to the blessings of bonus's from both of our jobs. We also had to borrow $3000 from Cory and Sherri just for the purpose of making it look like we had more money in our account than we really would have after closing. Well, we didn't expect that we would have to actally USE some of that money...but as it turns out, we did.
You know, it would have been nice if someone would have told us that we would have to pay $1000 in HOA fee's and another $1000 extra in taxes that we had to bring to closing... I am not as ticked about the taxes- but it would have been nice if someone had told us that...but the HOA fees- MAN! I am so mad- we have two HOA's, one for Traverse Mountain, which is a fee of like $35 a month, and we had to pay $200 for a stupid fee to set up our account- DUMB...but even worse is the HOA for our particular neighborhood- it is $45 a month and we had to pay an outrageous amount of $500 to set up our account. All I have to say is that they BETTER be doing some awesome stuff for us with that money that they are taking. As a result of these ridiculous fees, we have had to cut our food budget in half and ALL extras are gone until we are in the clear again.
Needless to say, I am a bit stressed about it. You know it is sad when you have a coupon for a free box of Capri Sun that you are excited to get as a treat for your kids, and when you can't find said coupon, and therefore, cannot get your kids a $2.50 box of Capri Sun and you wind up crying in the parking lot...well, you get the idea...
At any rate, we are now homeowners. We need to do a lot of things before we can actually move in- basic things like painting and setting up stuff, but also we need to do some important repairs (holes in the ductwork in the attic, and the master shower won't turn off all of the way and a large brake in the backyard fence that I don't want the dog going through- I think the HOA should fix it!) But also, they didn't give us keys to the locks that they had taken off the doors or a key to the mailbox- so, there are some additional things that we get to deal with that will cost us more money that we dont have. Why are we buying this house again? Oh, yeah, Shawn fell in love with it...
Well, I just wanted to let you know what is going on...don't worry, I don't expect very many people to read it all, mostly it is for my own sake to remember what happened. This is going to be a busy summer, with two houses to take care of and moving to be done- not to mention the usual responsibilities of work, child care, etc. So much fun to look forward to!!!

The Princess Festival!!!

So, on June 13 Abby and her cousin Ella went to the Princess Festival in Lindon. Apparently this is done every year, it is a non-profit organization called "In our Own Quiet Way" that donates money to children and families in Kenya, so the cost of our wonderful experience went to a good cause as well and gave the kids something really fun to do!
This place was private property owned by some guy who built a castle in his backyard for his grandkids- can you believe it?! Also, there was a cottage there and a huge lawn and a huge, enclosed playground! The only problem was that it was rainy when we got there so we had to keep the actual princess adventure inside and it was meant to be outside, but the girls didn't mind (we took most of these photos after it was over)!

They had a station there that was only $2 to get your hair done like a princess, but we go there too late, so I did her hair myself in 10 mintues, I think I did rather well...

This was when we first got there- before I did her hair...

All in all, the girls had a pretty fun time- they might have been a bit young to get what was going on with the adventure and Abby didn't want to leave my side, but I am definitely going to do this again next year- it was so beautiful!!!

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano Cello - by Jon Schmidt

This is just plain beautiful!!!