Weekend fun

I got home from the gym Saturday morning to find the posse downstairs playing.  What were they playing?  See if you can guess...

  Angry Birds!  I was pretty impressed with the creativity.

And this girl...all attitude, all weekend long!  Not sure if she has teeth coming in or if she was overtired or what, but we saw a lot of this look.  She picked the afternoon attire.  We are officially moving into that phase where she has opinions about what she wants to wear and I figured, why not?

California

We had a really great weekend in California.  The weather was perfect.  I completely understand why people want to live there.  Blue skies and 70 degrees in February gets no complaints from me. 

Iris was ready for her day at the beach.  We had to make a stop at Ross for some sandals for her.  She was obsessed with this Dora pair we found and threw fits when it was time to take them off.  They aren't too adventure friendly, but what 4 year old girl cares about that when she's got pink sparkle flowers on her feet?!

Miles working on his castle.  He was brave and actually held the sand crabs he kept digging up.

Happy day!

Thanks Aunt Meg and cousin Ally for the super cute bathing suit.  I wish dimply thighs were still considered cute when you're 38.

On the run with his seaweed.  He would have stayed at the beach the entire weekend if he had his way.  

The most important part of the visit was spending some time with Jeff's Grandma Margaret. I hope she wasn't too overwhelmed by my little maniacs running wild in her room.  I think it's great that they get the chance to spend time with her. Jeff's aunt Deanne also came down to hang out for the weekend.  

Jeff's cousin Jen and her husband Eric came down too, so all the mini cousins got some hang out time.  Miles, CeCe, Will and Iris.

I found Disneyland a little overwhelming (costs, crowd, lines, where was Mickey and the gang??), but Miles had a blast.  We waited 45 minutes in line to see the beautiful (and freakishly fake looking) Rapunzel from the movie Tangled.  Miles loves that movie and spent the whole time in line telling us all the things he was going to say to her.  When he actually saw her he was speechless, truly speechless, just staring at her.  She tried hard to have a little conversation with him, but finally just ended with the photo op.  Miles is in love!

Miles' favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster.  You ride around for 5 minutes seeing how many bad guys you can blast.  When you get off the ride you have the option to purchase a picture they snapped while you were on the ride.  We were cheap and simply took a picture of the screen with our own camera.  I laughed so hard when I saw this.  Seriously...look how focused Jeff is!  And Miles' technique was to just hold the gun over his head the entire ride.  So much fun!

A trip out of state wouldn't be complete without scratching a few bingo lotto cards.  A girl can dream, right?!

A trip to California also wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Donut Hut, which is not the best when you are counting Weight Watchers points, but man, they are so good.  Miles walked in, sniffed the air and hollered,"Everyone, smell the air.  It's the most delicious air!"

February Odds and Ends

I have been a blog slacker.  I'm not exactly sure where the time goes, or where half of this winter has gone for that matter.  We are getting settled and knocking a few more house projects off the list.  Our good friend Hector came to town for the weekend and it's nice to have a spare room for him to sleep in.  Jeff just had his first day back on a snowboard since surgery last year. I was nervous all morning until I heard he was headed home and feeling great.  We are off to California next weekend to see Jeff's grandma.  I get excited to see the ocean and I think we might even head to Disneyland with Miles for a day and see what that place is all about.  Am I the only 38 year old in America who has yet to check out Disneyland or Disneyworld?!

This has been a record low snow year for Salt Lake.  We finally got some last night, so Miles and I headed out to play.  He was not excited for just any old snowman, so we got crazy and made a snow dragon complete with salad scoop wings and sliced bread spikes!

Trying our hand at baking Valentines cookies.  I'm positive we ate more of the batter than we cooked but that's part of the fun, right?

Giving his sissy some love.  Future proof that they once got along quite well.

Miles helping make the eggs for breakfast.  He is really pretty good at it.  We just wish he would take it one step further and actually eat them.

One of these furry friends is not like the others :)

The good, the bad and the...stinky

What a weekend.  We got lots unpacked and spent most of the weekend getting settled in.  I woke up pretty blissed out yesterday morning over the state of things.  We made breakfast and got to use both sides of the dining table!  After years of us all lined up eating on just one side of it, I was very excited.  Most of the boxes have been unpacked, or are at least in places that I don't walk past several times a day.  We had friends over to check the place out and it was fun to have plenty of space for the kids to get crazy.  

Our first official dinner here.  I think Miles looks unhappy because he had to eat couscous.

Miles, Iris and Emma playing a speed version of Ring Around the Rosy.

Our old neighbor Mary came over to see the place and have lunch.  We were excited to give her the tour, which went well until she stepped on sopping wet carpet in the basement.  Long story short, the upstairs toilet leaked and majorly flooded a section of the basement.  The roof looked like a giant water balloon and the light fixture, which we'd turned on, was completely full of water.  I was horrified.  It is terrible timing for something like this, especially after already knocking lots of expensive high priority projects off the to do list the first week we were here.  We called the plumber, who made the situation workable for the time being.  The old toilet has been ripped out and the nasty sub floor is now in the breezeway.  That previously mentioned blissed out feeling has dissipated a bit. I guess the positive is that we found it before the roof caved in and flooded the entire basement.

Jeff has been watching lots of HGTV so, stressful situation aside, I think he was secretly a little bit excited for the demolition of the soggy roof.

No bueno.  Remodeling this bathroom has shifted from long term goal to short term priority.
 
We just decided its time to head out to dinner...after Jeff washes his hands!

Moving Weekend

It's official!  We are now the proud residents of 8065 Oak Creek Drive.  (I can't really say owners for about 30 years, right?)  We spent last weekend moving.  It was super exciting and tiring and overwhelming and even quite sad.  I experienced more emotions in three days than I have in a long time. Saying goodbye to our first house...a house full of memories...was so much harder than I thought it would be.  I was doing OK until Miles decided we should tell Acer negundo (the big backyard tree) goodbye and thanks for all the shade it's given us, then it really hit me.  After a few days of sob fest I am finally getting it together and I'm so excited about the new house.  We've done a lot of unpacking, but still have boxes in every room.  The kids seem to be loving it.  They are sleeping well and we are too on our new king size bed!  That was a moving splurge and we both agree it was worth it.  Bella explored outside for the first time tonight and just returned scratching on the back door.  She was not happy about 5 days cooped up inside, so we let her out to wander. 

It's not so fun to have your house filled with this.

Jeff, the sold sign, the moving truck and only about half the contents of the shed.  It looked like an awesome yard sale!

The new kitchen on the first night.  We were overwhelmed by boxes stacked in every direction, so we tag teamed it and got the kitchen organized first thing.  We have so many cabinets that a lot of them are still empty even with everything put away.

The view from our closet window the first morning here.  Yep, I said closet window!

I am so thankful for all we have and so excited for all that is to come.  Here's hoping we have many happy years under this roof!   

Phoenix Weekend

I got spoiled this weekend.  I went to stay with Jen in Phoenix for a few days.  Adam was also heading down there to run a race with his friends, so I figured it would be a nice chance (or more likely, a once in a lifetime chance) to have some child free hang out time with siblings.  He didn't know I was going, so it was fun to surprise him at the airport!  It would not have been possible without Don and Martha watching the kids, so again...thank you, thank you for helping me make it happen!
We lounged, read books, ate out, saw a movie, got a massage and just relaxed.  It was the calm before the storm since we close on the house in 3 days and move next weekend.
Adam ran the Tough Mudder race down there with some of his friends.  Crazy for sure, but inspiring.  At the start I was sad I wasn't participating, but after just a few obstacles Jen and I were both pretty happy to hang on the sidelines with our cameras!  It was a great weekend!

 On our way in to my belated birthday dinner at Roys. 

My tasty birthday treat at dinner!

These days my Happy Hour is usually between 8 and 9 PM, when the kiddies are sleeping and I have a few minutes to myself before sleeping.  It was a treat to head out for an actual Happy Hour.

Jen is a great hostess, a great friend, a great sister...

Mid January Happenings

Well, we blasted right past New Years.  Happy 2012!  Then we blasted right past my birthday.  Happy 38th!  It feels a little strange to be getting so close to 40, but I really have no complaints about where I am in my life. 
We are slowly packing up the house.  Closing is scheduled for 9 days from now.  I am excited and sad at the same time.  The new place is great and I know it will be a good move for us, but part of me is a bit sad to be leaving Brookhill Drive and this space we've called home for 8 years.

Bella investigating a moving box.  She knows something big is on the horizon!

We finally had some snow, although you can see from the picture that it wasn't much.  It was still fun to get outside and play in it.  Miles was happy to make noises like an engine and pull Iris on laps around his "polar express".

The kids will miss Freddy, the neighbor cat.  He is so kind and patient even though he is always being chased and smothered with rough kid love. 

He has grown in a hefty winter coat and with all due respect to Bella, he is the most beautiful cat you'll ever see.

 Random shot of Miles and Bella and the Nook book.