Devin's Birthday!

I know it's been a long time since I've written anything on my blog, so I thought it was about time. Yes, we've moved into our awesome new house! We're getting settled in, but between the 4th of July and a big birthday party for Devin, I've been a little overwhelmed. Devin's Birthday was fun! We had mostly family over, including John's Mom all the way from Ireland! We had a Barbecue and Devin was in Spider man heaven with all the Spider man toys. I can't believe he's 3 already! How time flies! I think Devin's Baby time has flown by the fastest because he was such an easy baby! Happy Birthday Devin. We love you, my sweet boy.

My Spider Man!

Other things we've been up to: Packing up in the apartment, and playing in the boxes all day everyday!

Swimming at the apartment pool before we moved.

Erin finished Kindergarten and had an end of the year program.

We moved into our new house! Yea!

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Delta, where we watched the parade, played at the park, watched the fireworks, and Went up Oak Creek Canyon for a picnic!

Ryan's Home!

Just over a week ago, my brother Ryan came home from Iraq! We are so excited to have him home, but also proud of him. He and his troop worked 12 hour days 6-7 days a week guarding prisoners of war in a prison in Iraq. They were gone from their families for about a year. Ryan and Jocelyn have not even been married for 2 years, so she's glad to have him back. We are proud that he served, but very happy to have him back! Way to go Ryan!

More Pictures of the House!

Well, I've had a few requests for more pictures of the house, so here they are. It's a 2 story, 4 bedroom house with 2 1/2 bathrooms a 4 car garage, and an unfinished basement. We are so excited to move in that it hurts! Our closing date is set for June 25th and we are moving in on Saturday the 28th. I've already started packing! It won't be long now!

Our Gorgeous Kitchen

Family Room/Stairs

The view from upstairs

Our Master Bedroom

Ode to our apartment

We have been extremely blessed to find this apartment. It has been kind of like living in a condo. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and more space than we had in our prevoius house. Plus we have an attatched garage! Yes it's attatched. Just outside our windows (between our building and another) there is a swing set which our kids have really enjoyed.


The windows right behind John are our windows.




Also between the buildings is this great big Driveway area: A "circle" for the lack of a better word. We have spent countless hours out there riding bikes and playing with friends and talking to neighbors that we've made great friends with. If you have to live in an apartment then we picked the very best one!


Our awesome place to play!


It has been a great place for us. We've swam in the pool when the weather's been great! We've not shoveled a single walk or drive way in the feet and feet of snow we've had this winter. And John has made great use of the Gym. We've enjoyed it.



Just look at that view!




That being said, I can't wait til we get out of this money pit and get into our own beautiful house! :-)!!!!!!

Other things going on in our lives.

Besides the house, there's been a lot of stuff going on around here. Colin, turned 8 months old last week (the 15th). He is eating me out of house and home! He eats 3 huge meals every day. Each meal includes a huge bowl of fruits or veggies mixed with rice or oatmeal cereal, several handfuls of finger foods (cheerios, diced carrots, peas, etc.), and half a sippy cup of water or juice. On top of that, he nurses 4-5 times a day. It isn't enough! I think he's ready for a snack in the afternoon! He eats a ton and yet he's so skinny! I don't get it. He is sleeping through the night on a regular basis now, which I love! :) What I don't' love though is that he's a Mamma's boy. I can't put him down! He won't go to anyone else either if I'm in the room, and that includes Daddy sometimes. If I want him to go to John, I sometimes have to leave the room. We're trying to break him of that though. He is a cutie!

Devin is a sweet boy who is growing up so fast suddenly. He looks like he's 4, but talked like he was 18months old until just recently. He's been getting speech therapy from the school district and all of a sudden he's picking it up lately. We think he's right about where he's supposed to be now (2 soon to be 3). He's finally interested in potty training and moved up to big boy underwear this week! What a big boy. He's very good at it when he wants to be!

Erin is a great helper! She is getting ready to graduate from Kindergarten at the end of June, and reading on a level that's half way through 1st grade! What a smart cookie! She loves to ready and often brings out a whole stack of books from her book shelf to read to me. He loves to hold and play with Colin. She is a great entertainer. She also loves to play with Devin. They play a game they like to call little Devin where she basically takes care of him like she's his mother. I've often found her dressing him up, or doing his hair, or reading him a story before his pretend nap. They have really bonded!

As for us, John is finally settling into his job a bit more, I think. He is so excited about our house and the best part for him about it is that he won't have to be constantly fixing it up! I don't blame him.

I have been very busy doing the mom thing. I've kind of taken to reading a bit lately and have read a few books for my family book group. I also just finished the twilight series. This has been a love-hate relationship for me with these books, because I love them so much I can't put them down. However, I also hate it because I don't get anything done while I'm reading them. Some people don't really like these books, and I can understand why. The main character is not my favorite. She's obsessive, stubborn, and a little annoying, but her counter part is good. He's hot, very sophisticated and totally devoted to her. I guess He's what every woman wants. Not me though cause I already have the perfect man!

We did it!

Well it finally happened! We got our dream house! We put the offer in on Valentines day and here we are more that 3 months later with the acceptance from the sellers! Why did it take so long you ask?! Well it was a short sale: The buyers are selling it for less than they owe, so the bank loses money. The bank took forever getting appraisals and broker estimates and the like, and when they numbers didn't match up to what they were being offered, they put the house up for auction. Then when it didn't sell at auction, they finally settled on our offer and we got our dream house! Long story! It was painstakingly slow, but it was well worth the wait we are set to close and move in mid-June. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Florida Baby!

John and I went to South Beach Florida! John had a work convention to go to there and He wanted me to go along. So, we dropped the kids off in Delta with my parents (Thanks again, Mom and Dad) and took Colin with us. (He's still dependent on Mommy.) While John was in his classes, I went to the beach, went shopping and just relaxed. We did get to see some of the sights though after his classes. Our favorite was when we went to the Everglades. It's this huge swamp land where alligators, turtles, fish and other wildlife roam free and tourists like us can take a flat-bottom boat out on the shallow water to see them up front. Yes I said Alligators! They came within a yard of us in the boat and out of the boat too! We watched an alligator demonstration and then John and I held a real one with our bare hands! Wow! Miami is Beautiful! The climate reminded me of Hawaii: Warm and Humid. I don't know if I'd go there in August or September!

We rode in a boat like these with a giant fan on the back.

That log out there is actually an alligator! Very close!

This guy's crazy!

I think I'm crazy!

A dangerous weapon!

Too close for comfort.

What a cutie!

It was a nice break away from the kids, but we missed them a lot and called them every night. When we called on the second night we were there, we found out that my Grandma died! It was really sad. She was getting very feeble though and I'm sure she's feeling much better now. Unfortunately we missed the funeral. I feel awful about that because we moved back to Utah so that we wouldn't miss those big important occasions! Well, now not only were my Mom and Dad watching the kids, but they were also in Richfield helping with the funeral arrangements. What a week to go away! Anyway, when we got back into town we went straight to Richfield and we were able to see family and pay respects to Grandma at the cemetery.