Our Greatest Blessings

The kids were kind enough to put up with a little photo shoot

in the backyard this last weekend.

(Okay.... I admit, I bribed them with ice cream!)
I was so happy with how the pictures turned out!

We are so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy children.

They are certainly a challenge some days, but I am glad they are my challenge because they are also my greatest joy, there is no doubt about that.

I am so glad that Bryan has a good job that enables me to be at home with them.

I get to hear all the funny things they say, see their cute smiles, even see the fits they throw because they don't want to eat their dinner.

I'm glad I don't have to miss a minute of it.

I think I'll go kiss them one more time....

Missing you....

You know, it's funny how even when I really like it here and we are meeting wonderful people and Bryan loves his job and I think the house is wonderful.....I still get lonely.

Now I am not at all trying to complain, just some days I still miss being close to family. I wondered if maybe it would get easier after a while, but it's been over three years since we first moved away from family and sometimes it is still really hard! I guess it never gets easy. :)

Here are some of the people and things I am missing today:

It's easy to see why I miss them, huh?

We love you all and can't wait to see you again soon!!

XOXOXOX :)

A few things we LOVE about having a house!!

Just wanted to share some of our favorite things about our new place:

We have a fenced yard!!

Complete with a TON of sticks, courtesy of our big ol' tree.

The kids will play out there for quite awhile and not even touch the toys.

I guess toys are kind of limiting, but a stick can be anything!

In this case, I think it's a sword. :)

Our back door has a Doggie Door :)

Now, some of you may think that for a family who has no dog,

this feature would be rather useless.

My kids, however, have found it to come in handy quite often

when they can't get the door open!

Yes, they both can fit through it -

crazy kiddos! :)

We have a driveway to play in!!

We finally have space for drawing with sidewalk chalk, playing,

and riding bikes....or at least scooters

since technically we don't own any bikes...yet.

Ahhh the joys!

The one downfall is the kids constantly argue over who gets to push the button to open the garage, but I suppose I can live with that, considering all the positives! :)

Come with me on a photo tour :)

So, as you may have noticed, we've been absent from the blogging world for a while.

Where have we been, you ask? Well....

In the past two months, we have been EVERYWHERE!!

At least it seems like it to me! :)

At the very end of June my mom flew down and drove with the kids and I to San Diego where we met up with my family for a little vacation, leaving Bryan with some peace and quite to study for the Bar Exam.

While in San Diego, we went to Disneyland!....

(Joshua did NOT want to be in this picture with the princess - can you tell?!?)

....to the Beach!....

(it was COLD!)

....Golfing - just a par three course -

trying to take it easy on us first timers!......

The next Tiger Woods, maybe? :)

.....to a Padres Game....

....to Seaport Village....

(these are four of the five great grand kids on my Henke side of the family. The other one is too small to climb around!)

...and to the Zoo!

(Uncle Todd and Aunt Elaine were very nice to put up with me and my kids. As you can imagine, by this point they had had ENOUGH! The kids may look happy in the pictures, but don't be deceived...)

Then we drove up to Utah to relax from our vacation! :)

While there we celebrated lots of fun things.

We started with the Fourth of July!

Then that evening we drove to Jake and Katie's to meet our new cousin/niece Lydia!

We were able to attend her baby blessing the next day.

Cute, isn't she?!

Then we drove back to Logan and a couple of days later drove down to...somewhere that I don't remember now, all the driving just melts together....to see more cousins and watch Lindsay play softball. The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and grandparents!

Then it was back up to Logan where we celebrated my Grandpa Larsen's 83rd birthday!

The kids love that Grandpa always seems to "need" their help blowing out candles and unwrapping presents! ;)

And the final celebration was my Dad's 50th Birthday!!

Check out this picture:

Yep... that's smoke from all of the candles! I love it.

I have a great dad, and we were happy to be able to help him celebrate...

even if he didn't want to celebrate being 50!! :)

Phew...
So then my mom drove back home with us where we thought we might really relax, but alas, we got there just in time to close on the new house, remove wallpaper, paint, go back to the appartment and pack, take the Bar, move back to the new house and 2 days later head off to a family reunion in Yellowstone (and YES, we drove...again)!

All of those things are going to have to be another post....

I'm EXHAUSTED!