Christmas 2012

Well my camera charger no longer works so I can't charge my real camera and have only my phone camera to take pictures with.  I don't feel like the pictures are as good but at least it will take some.  I've never been a good picture taker anyway so I don't have much to show for Christmas this year.  To begin we got a tree.  I have been so excited to have a pretty tree to go in front of our big windows.  Turns out no one really see it except our neighbor and if you happen to be walking home from the church at night.  Oh well.  I still loved it.  

We also attempted potty training during December but we all know how that failed.  He was so cute in his underwear.  Does he remind you of anybody with that pose?

The kids had christmas parties and activities through out the month.  Here they are with friends over and they are all eating off the same gingerbread cookie that Heidi made.  

We also had a Christmas slumber party while watching Christmas Story.  I slept on the couch with the Christmas tree lights on all night.  I love sleeping in front of the Christmas tree.  I would do it growing up and my dad would always turn the lights off after I had gone to sleep.  

Ben's family came up for Christmas.  Christmas Eve was spent doing some tax-free shopping and searching for red hots so that Peggy could make her cinnamon apples as requested by Ben.  Then Christmas night the kids went to bed, fell asleep, and woke up at 11:30 that night ready to open gifts.  We let them know it wasn't even Christmas yet and we still hadn't gone to bed but they ended up staying awake from 11:30 to 2:00am.  They were just too excited.  It seems that you never get a good night's sleep on Christmas Eve.  After opening gifts the kids took their loot upstairs and started eating all their candy. 

Everyone enjoyed their gifts.  I got some great home decor things from Becca, my Mom and Ben.  Becca made the wreath-she is really talented-and my mom found the candle holders at a yard sale.  I love yard sales.  

I really wanted a place to put our blankets in the family room so that it would feel more cozy out there and guests would feel completely welcome to grab one and snuggle up since that room can be a little chilly with all the windows.  So I bought the wood and Ben and Mikey built me a six foot long crate!!  I love it!!  That room is really big so a six foot long crate may sound too big but it turned out to be the perfect size.  It's not a very good picture of it but it is just what I wanted.  

Daisy's favorite gift was her Princess and the Popstar assemble.  She got the dress, purse and microphone.  All Christmas day we got to hear her sing along with the microphone.  Over and over and over.  She loved it though.  

Kaylee's big gift was  CD player of her very own.  We only play music off our computer so this was new to them all.  She plugged it in and has played her new Kelly Clarkson CD ever since.  Not the whole CD though.  Just one song.  Over and over and over.  I don't know the title but it says 'I forgive you, I forgive me' and honestly it has been good for me to hear because the song it constantly stuck in my head and whenever I get ticked off at Kaylee (that happens a lot) the words remind me just to forgive her.  They are playing with their princess castle in this picture.  I love that toy.  The princesses say things and sing their songs from the movies-all except Snow White who for some reason sings a totally different and lame song.  And Heidi's big gift that she held on to all Christmas day was her password journal.  It is voice activated so that Kaylee can no longer get into her journal.  She changed the password about 15 times that day.

And in this picture you can see signs of Blake's favorite toys.  A bubble blowing Mater and there is a poster on the wall of Cars that came from his new favorite book 'Meet the Cars'.  It has the picture, name and description of almost every car from the movie.  This is very handy since he insists on calling all his cars by their correct name.  He also got a Cars jacket that he loves.  Every time we put it on he says, "This is a good jacket."  And he is so cute when he shows you the front and back.  He is pretty proud of it.  The only problem is that he has already spilled a frosty, Costco ice cream, soda and hot dog on it so we have to wash it. 

After Christmas Uncle Mikey and Grandma stayed a few extra days that were filled with shopping (they each got $20 to spend from Great-Grandma), Just Dance, jumping on Uncle Mikey and watching Barbie movies they got from Christmas.  i just have to say that Peggy is a fun grandma.  She danced with those kids for hours.  Even though I know she doesn't want this recorded for life I told her the kids will love it when they are older and can see how much fun they had with their grandma.  It's not every grandma who will dance like that for their grandkids.  Thanks, Peggy.

Last night we sat down as a family and went over our goals for the new year.  I will post more about them later but as we read the scriptures that night it was about tithing and how if you pay it you will receive more than you have room enough to hold.  I asked the kids if that had happened to us then took time to point out all that we had received.  We moved from a 1300sqft apartment into a 2300sqft house.  You would think the house would be empty and bare, however, since moving in we have received the following all for FREE:

Couch

Rolltop desk

Dresser for the entryway

Door to hang on our wall

Large kitchen set for the kids

Paint for both girl rooms

Sewing machine

Headboard for mine and Ben's bed

New car bed for Blake

and a Piano.

I can honestly say that we don't have room enough to receive it!  We are out of room in our house.  Heavenly Father does keep his promises and I have a strong testimony of paying tithing.  We have always been taken care of and when we needed things they have been provided.  Even things we didn't need but just wanted have also found a way of falling into our laps.  We are truly blessed and are so grateful for all we've been given. This is Blake with his new bed.  When I first asked him if he wanted to sleep in it he said "No, I'm going to drive it!"  I love this little boy.  We have a really good life.

Giving Up

So this picture posted.  I randomly tried it and it worked.  Maybe it will let me post pictures again which is good because I figured if I couldn't post pictures I might just give up blogging all together.  I do wonder when I will stop.  I thought the time had come but I'm sitting here all alone.  The kids are in bed.  Ben is at church getting trained for his new calling as the financial clerk and the house is quiet.  

I'm ready to quit a lot of things in life today.  This may be a bit of a depressing post-maybe not-but it is one for me to work out my thoughts.  I find if I sit and type I can figure things out.  I guess that is why we are supposed to keep journals, so we can be inspired as we reflect on our situations.  

I want to give up potty training.  I've become worse with each kid.  Daisy was awful.  It took about a year for her to actually get it down.  I attributed that to her intelligence.  She isn't as bright as Heidi and Kaylee.  I thought that was the problem.  Blake is really smart.  He is actually smarter than Daisy already.  He is passed the 2 1/2 mark so he is plenty old enough to be potty trained but he just won't.  I don't know why.  I am willing to give my kids ANYTHING if they will just pee in the toilet.  I will give them candy, ice cream, toys, I tell them they are doing great, they are a big kid, they can do this...I don't care what it takes I just want them to go in the toilet but, no.  My kids are just stubborn.  They will hold it in as long as they have to just to avoid going.  I sat in the bathroom for two hours tonight.  Blake drank a ton of juice and was finally falling asleep on my leg and still would not go. And then I lose all my patience and put a diaper on and throw him in bed because I am so mad at him I don't even want to look at him.  He has started holding his poop in for three days just so I won't try to make him go.  And when he finally poops in his diaper it is a huge mess.  Poop gets everywhere because no diaper is equipped to handle a load of that magnitude.  So I put him in bed and went to my room crying.  Sobbing even.  I don't get it and I'm ready to quit.  I'm ready to just buy diapers until he walks into kindergarten and the kids make fun of him for wearing diapers and he decides on his own that he should man up.  

I'm ready to give up in the fight against the utility bill.  I try to keep the thermostat at 70 but I'm cold all day long.  I try to man up myself and get over it but I spend all day wanting to take a hot shower and shivering.  I don't want a huge bill but I don't know how much longer I can do this.  I'm about to lose to the elements.  

I'm ready to give up on Jane Eyre.  I never understood why people like the book so much but I've decided to give it another go.  I'm intently searching for reasons why she would fall in love with Mr. Rochester.  I'm to the part where she has fallen in love and to be honest I think the only reason she did fall in love is because he is the first male she has talked to after spending 8 years in an all girl school.  There is nothing about him that is appealing.  He's ugly.  He's grouchy.  He's rude to her and demanding.  He's guardian to a little girls that he is not even that fond of and pretty much tells her to leave him along any time she tries to play with him.  What a jerk.  However he does talk to Jane and for some reason that is enough for her to fall in love with him.  I guess it is a good book to read to understand why some girls fall for losers-it's the only guy around that will give them the time of day.  I'm still going to read it but I honestly do not understand how it became a love story of the ages that is referenced and respected by so many people.  

Well, I feel better.  Blogging does help with that.  I don't know what to do about the potty training.  I guess I should just wait a few more months.  I did get my house really cleaned yesterday and that was felt great.  I also found out where Heidi has been stashing her secret letters.  I plan to read them tomorrow.  That should be fun.  I'm one of those parents who believes in reading my kids' diaries.  Have a good night everyone-or I guess I should say Mom because I don't think that many people even read this anyway.  

What?

Well I was going to put some cute pictures up today.  Each year I take a picture of the kids and I in front of the Christmas tree.  We did that today and got a super cute picture in only two takes!!  Pretty impressive.  But here is the problem.  Blogger won't let me add any photos to my blog.  It says that I've used up all my storage space.  OK.  I guess I will just delete some older posts from 2007.  That was sad to do.  But I deleted over a hundred posts so I should easily be able to post another 100 posts with pictures.  NOPE!  It still said I was over my limit.  I don't get it.  Is this some new blogger thing to make money?  I like having a blog but I'm not paying for it.  Does anyone know what to do?  I would like to post my picture and if I can't post it here the only other option is facebook which I hate doing.  So let me know if you are having a similar problem or how to solve the problem.  Thanks!

Saturday Surprise!

I love Saturdays.  Especially the ones where Ben doesn't have to work and is home to help out.  I spend all week planning the Saturday projects.  This week our jobs to tackle were to 1. touch up the paint in the family room, 2. hang that blasted door, and 3. borrow a truck to haul our yard debris to the dump (there is a lot of it).  Those were our objectives.  So at 8:00 after making breakfast I took what I thought was the right old paint color to get a match so I could touch up the paint.  Long story short it wasn't right and while looking for the right stuff I opened up a can of purple paint.  I don't know what it was bought for by the old owners but this whole time I've wanted to paint Heidi's room purple!!  So here was a free quart of purple paint-a cute purple even-that saved me not only money but also the stress I have over picking paint.  I second guess myself over and over about paint color.  But this was already bought so I didn't have to agonize over it.  I promptly started putting tape up while the rest of the family watched Home Alone.  Here is Heidi's weekend room makeover!!

BEFORE:

Love the bay window but it had no way to utilize it for storage.  And the closet doors are broken (that is still going to have to wait)

MIDDLE:

This was her set up when we got here.  I love her bed but wanted it to stand out instead of blend with the white.  Her comforter is new since I like purple and blue right now.  She kept the pillows from my old bed set specifically for her bay window-they don't match at all.  It just looks messy.

AFTER!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!  Can you believe that such a cute paint color was just sitting in our garage waiting to be used?!?!?!  I love it, love it, love it.  Not only was it the perfect color but it was magical.  It was like when Jesus fed the 5000 where not only did the food last but there was food to spare!  That was this paint.  It was just a quart and I did stripes because I didn't think I would have enough for a whole wall.  But then I decided to also do the bay window since there was a lot left.  And then there was still more so I did the closet wall.  I figured I would run out so it wouldn't be as nice but not only was I able to finish that but I also painted some shelves, a mirror and have more leftover!!  CRAZY!!

That wood shutter over her bed was a yard sale find.  $1.  I knew I wanted it for something but wasn't sure.  Last night I stained it and hung it up!  I love it.  I plan to have the quote "A good book is the best of friends" written on it.  I just have to see which of my sisters wants to be my favorite sister and do it for me.  I love that quote and it fits Heidi.  Should she one day grow out of the quote I will still use it elsewhere in my house.  With the dark wood it ties in the dark pillows from my old bed set.  We are planning to put dark hinges on the bay window too because we finally pried that thing opened!  I'm excited for the dark brown accent in her room.  

PS-I was working on this late last night.  The girls finally conked out around 11:00 but when I vacuumed at midnight Daisy plugged her ears in her sleep.  Cute.

I try to have a temple picture in each room.  In the past they have just been thumb tacked up.  However I had a friend who gave me a box of frames months ago when they moved in and didn't want them.  I happen to find this frame in the box that perfectly fit the odd size of a 25 cent temple picture from the distribution center.  This picture is right as you walk into her room and also ties in the dark wood.  Can you tell which temple it is?

This is the last thing to be done.  I painted the shelves with the miracle paint to bring in the purple.  They are holding Heidi's oddball stuff like weird glass figurines she got from the treasure box at school.  We tacked up the cheap articles of faith you can get from the church.  It needs a frame.  I'm going to try and find a cheap frame that will be nice and dark and tie the whole room together.  I would also like to find a cheap stand to go by her bed because she reads at night and has a lamp that needs somewhere to stand.  Once I find those things her room will be complete.  

It was so fun yesterday.  There are times when I feel so blessed.  I know painting a room is not some churchy thing but for me it does confirm my testimony that God knows us and loves us.  It was an answer to a prayer not yet asked because I felt like I shouldn't dare ask for even more in life than He has already blessed me with.  This is exactly how I wanted this room to come together and it happened without me even trying.  I wasn't going to get this done for months but Heavenly Father blessed me with a way to complete it at just the right time.  So to recap...we did not touch up the paint in the family room, didn't hang the door or find a truck to move our yard debris.  Instead it was a very productive day where Heidi's room looks better than I ever expected, my testimony grew a little more and we did get the front yard cleaned up.  Saturdays are a special day.

Nonstop Work

I love living in a house that is my own.  It's a new experience for us after ten years of renting.  The biggest change is that it is SO MUCH WORK!!  I can't believe the nonstop list that I've been working on and then adding more to.  For every one thing I get done four more get added to the list.  Everyone tells me it doesn't change however if they knew me they would know I want to have everything done and completed!  I don't like the feeling of having things that need to be done.  So I have been working nonstop.  If the weather is nice I go outside.  If not I tackle projects inside.  And then I always throw in unnecessary things like having everyone over for Halloween, my family coming for Thanksgiving and Ben's family for Christmas.  It adds more stress but I love having people over.  

Halloween definitely took a back seat this year to the rest of my life.  No costumes made.  No thought in to what they were going to wear.  Just a nagging thought each day and then I would push it aside as I worked on the house.  In the end We had a Taylor Swift, a Merida, a Lightning McQueen suit and Silvermist from Secret of the Wings.

I tried to make cute pumpkins like on pintrest but they came out ugly.  Oh well.  At least I didn't have to gut them.

Ben has been gone this weekend.  He would have had to work this weekend anyway but while he was away I made a new bunny hutch!!  It's totally ghetto.  But it will now allow Hershey to A. be outside.  B. have three times the amount of space.  C. Live in a more natural setting like a real bunny that can dig and run in the grass.  I think it's great.  We will see how she does.  Who knows...now we may have enough room to get her a playmate!

Another, and really my final thing, to get finished is this door.  My friend gave it to me and I put some scrapbook paper on it and it will eventually hang on my wall.  I have a huge wall with a vaulted cieling and it needs something big.  This is it.  I'm pretty excited about it really.  I think it will tie everything in so nicely.  Plus I just happen to have that scrapbook paper available so this craft cost me all of about nothing!  I am little worried about it in the event of an earthquake.  It is heavy and could do some real damage is anyone is under it when the shaking starts.  My only consolation is that I don't we have earthquakes up here. 

The other wall opposite.  I plan to put a wide dresser underneath it.  I thought of a table but I'm finding that a dresser is much more practical because it gives you storage space.  

Added this today.  I love it and am so glad I bought it.  $12 at Target.  So worth it.  

This is right by the front door.  When we bought the house there was landscaping throughout.  Or so we thought.  Turns out there are a few nice plants and the rest are a bunch of over grown weeds/bushes.  I've been digging them out all week.  And even the nice bushes needed a good trim.  Now there are branches strewn all over my yard.  Guess that will be next week's project. 

My mom keeps asking for pictures.  I finally took some with my phone.  It's nighttime though so you can't really see anything.  Funny, huh, Mom?  It does remind me of something my Kaylee would do though.  Maybe that's where she gets it.  I ripped the bushes out of this planter as well.  I left on the maple tree and the dead tree with vines (that's going next).

Here is the pool gate as it wanders down to the fence.  He put this fence in.  Switch it around a new way.  Then redid the new way to make it look nicer.  We are finally done and the pool is finally fenced off.  It looks nice.  We also cut off part of the lawn and are planning the extra behind the fence will be our garden area in the future.  I love that idea!  

So we are super busy all the time.  It's nice but I'm exhausted.  I just want a nap.  I miss those days of laying down with Daisy and sleeping.  I didn't finish my whole list today but I did get the bunny hutch done, fixed the moulding that had been ripped out for the fridge, and got the anchors to hang the door.  I'm getting there.  It should all be finished by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.  I'm excited for my family to see what we spent so much time trying to get. 

Our house so far

Baby #5 finally made it's arrival into our lives after HOURS of labor.  With Kaylee I was in labor for 40 hours, start to finish and I remember thinking "this is the worst day of my life...I am miserable".  Well the labor for this one felt just as bad.  I think it has taken the place as worst day of my life.    Thursday morning the contractions started and I began all the preparations-cleaned the house, packed the bags, arranged for the babysitters and meals, etc.  We told the girls they were finally getting the a new baby sister that day and they were so excited!!  But when we went to the hospital they checked it all out and determined I wasn't dilated enough.  They were sending me away.  I cried a lot.  Told the kids they weren't getting a new baby sister that day and we weren't even sure if it would be the next day.  All the next day I waited.  The contractions became worse and worse.  I went to the doctor again feeling exactly as I did when I was having Kaylee "If they tell me no again I will seriously break down".  They said I still hadn't dilated passed a 2 but they would send me let me go to the hospital and start the epidural to move the labor along.  We had a cut off though.  4:00 in the afternoon.  If it didn't happen by then we would have to wait through the weekend.  You can image my prayers and the desperation I felt.  It wasn't until Friday afternoon at 3:45 that we finally delivered the baby!!!!  And here she is!!  A whopping 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with a swimming pool!!  She still doesn't have an official name but her address is Poppie Circle.  So cute!

We had Ben's family come last weekend and help move us in.  Peggy was the MVP of the Taylor group.  She helped me move in all the furniture!!  Just her and I hauling in couches and mattresses, building beds and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  We still had a lot to do though.  On Monday as I was trying to get as muich done as possible and realizing I was never going to get through it all quick enough for me I called my sister, Becca, and her husband, Kyle.  I asked her to come up that night and she threw her dirty laundry in the car and came!!  They were awesome.  They did everything I asked, didn't complain, and with their help we finished all my projects that I thought would take months to do.  Becca was MVP for the Hancock family.  I still don't have a lot of pictures but here are a few until I find my real camera.

 The dining room

BEFORE

AFTER:

You know I yard sale so I have to point out all the stuff I got because they look so cute yet you wouldn't think it when you see them at the yard sale.  Mirror on the left-got from the dumpster, painted and stained.  Kitchen table and four blue chairs-yard sale for $40, painted.  Yellow chair at the head-yard sale $2, painted.  I love that the chairs are different colors and I love the yellow accent one!  Book case in the back-yard sale $20 and I only had to rip a bit of lace off that was glued on two shelves.  It already came that cute color!  Picture frame on the right wall-yard sale $1, painted.  I love how it all came together.  Oh yes, and the piano bench that we use until we can find a different bench was only $6 at a yard sale and I love it.

The Family Room is huge.  It was a big selling point for me in buying the house.  I've always wanted a house with lots of windows and this room is my favorite!!  It even has a gas stove that reminds me of the Taylor's home so I like that too.  The previous owners painted it brown.  ALL BROWN.  Brown ceiling, brown walls, brown floor.  I did not want it to stay that way.  This was the first change I wanted to make to my house and thanks to Checka I got it done.  She and Kyle painted it for me as my Christmas present.  

Look at this huge, ugly, brown wall.  Awful.  It had to go.  

AFTER:

We painted it a pretty light blue, white trim and added the board and batten.  I love how it turned out!  It is just happy and bright in there now.  Months ago, before we even had an offer in on the house, we bought this couch at a furniture store that was going out of business.  It's so big and comfy.  I love it.  We bought it specifically for this room.  We finally all sat down and watched a movie together as a family tonight.  I still have to paint another coat of white on the board and batten but once that is finished this room is done! Well, and then my mom wants to get a rug for it-then it will be done.  Becca and I talked about how at Christmas it will look so pretty with a tree decorated in blue and silver.  It will be a winter wonderland! That is a fun gift to receive.

And why did I want to rush and get my room painted the first week in our new house??  Because Sheri was coming to visit!!  Sheri is one of my great friends from Memphis who I am trying to convince to move out here.  Her husband had a job interview out here and I wanted my house to be cute for it.  She came in Thursday and we hung out all friday morning.  It was great.  I love getting together with friends and you have so much fun.  It felt as if no time had passed between my last night in Memphis when I gave her my washer and dryer to friday when we shared our stories of trial and triumph from the past year together. Ben didn't get to see Berkley until church but it was just fun having them here for the short time it was.  I'm really hoping he picks a job here in Medford.  And for all my other Memphis friends I encourage you to also start job hunting out here!    

I forgot to mention that after lunch with Sheri on friday my parents showed up that night.  My dad got there at 5:30 and by the time I got home from Heidi's soccer practice he had already cleared out a chunk of the berry bushes taking over my yard.  He is a hard worker and I completely trust him with my yard. He got so much cleared out that we even gained more yard for the kids to play in.  There is a walking path behind the pool that we had no idea about because it was so overgrown.  It was funny how he would give me different ideas to do and say "you should buy blah, blah, blah" and I would have to say "That will be great but I'm not going to buy that yet.  Maybe next year."  He would try to explain that it wasn't that much money and I had to explain, again, that it would just have to wait.  All in all it was an exhausting week but so nice.  The kids love being in the house.  Blake loves having his toys back.  The girls love walking to school.  They have been awesome while I've been working.  The only problem with our house is that is it much bigger than any other one I've had before so it is a lot more work.  I still have so much to do.  Next I need to convince Kaylee to come down and help me :)

No news is AWESOME news!!

We finally made it!!  We are in the house.  It's a little weird to think that we live here.  For so long I've wanted to live here.  Then for so long we tried to live here.  And then for so long we waited to live here.  And now we are here!  We have been working nonstop.  I have so many people to thank for getting our house together.  First is Katie is repainted all almost all my furniture for me and it looks great.  I love it.  I love the kitchen table that is black and white with blue and yellow chairs.  You might think that doesn't sound cute but believe me, it is!  Then my in-laws were amazing.  They came and worked.  The guys did the water heater and pool fence while Peggy and I moved all the furniture and assembled all the beds and unpacked all the clothes, etc.  She was pretty awesome that day.  And then my next set of helpers showed up Monday night.  I was going over the list of things I had to get done and just knew it was going to take me days since Ben was back at work.  So monday afternoon I called my sister and asked her to come up right then and help me.  She did!  She and her husband threw their dirty clothes in the car and drove up right then.  With Becca and Kyle here we got so much done.  Much more than I had even planned!  There is still a lot to do and at some point I will plug my camera battery in to recharge so I can take pictures but for now just know I LOVE my new house and I an busy, busy, busy get it all put together!

Baby #5

No.  I am not pregnant.  Not at all.  Don't even get confused about that fact.  But I feel like I've put all the work, effort, patience and weight gain to equal having a baby.  What am I talking about?  Well tonight is the night we finally, FINALLY, sign the papers on our house.  And it has taken about as long as a baby.  I first saw the house at the first of March.  I knew I wanted that house and knew it was made for me.  Ben even loved it though he showed less excitement than I.  So, count out the months.
March, April, May-The first trimester of watching the house sit on the market.  Each month it dropped in price and I had a mini-panic that someone would snatch it up.
June, July, August-the second trimester when we actually put in an offer!!  We got everything in order, put in an offer and they accepted it!!  I was so excited.  Ben still was not because he said it was ours until we actually moved in so there was no reason to get excited just yet.  These months were frustrating as bumps and complications came up that we had to deal with.  We were supposed to close August 10th and move out of our apartment by the 25th.
Enter the third trimester.  The awful, horrible third trimester where you are tired of being pregnant, you just want to be done and at the end you cry after every doctor's appointment because you still are not dilated!!!!  That was September and October.  We move out of the apartment and have been bumming off friends ever since.  We've had to switch lenders after THREE MONTHS with the other guy.  We had to resubmit it to underwriting and pray that it was approved.  We've thought "Hopefully this week" every single week and I have cried every single week when we found out it wasn't ready yet.  Just yesterday I cried again because they said we would be signing papers thursday but instead it was postponed another day, and will go into the weekend, and we won't be in by the tenth but instead maybe the day after that.  Seriously.  So.  Frustrating.  And every night I go to bed thinking "I just want to be in our house".  This has been the longest process.  I feel like it's my fifth baby.  I've worked as harder to get this house than I have to have a baby.  I've even wanted to have a baby but I think we have to finish with this house before we take on another baby.  But tonight is the night!  We will be signing.  After the weekend it will go through all the other people that have to sign it and review it and then we should be in...hopefully this week :)

Boys are Disgusting

 

We took the kids to the play place in the mall and Blake came running over with his hand out saying 'Here!  Here!  Take this.'  We handed me a huge booger!!  So gross!  And just now he picked his nose again and was going to wipe it on my shoulder since it was handy.  We got a Kleenex before he ruined my new dress.  Sick.  He is fun though.  Today in the car he went to the very back seat to jump over his car seat head first into his car seat.  He can't just climb in the normal way.  He has to make it a dramatic event where he or someone else ends up face-planting. Today we found a case full of cars for him to play with while here at the Grants.  Today was the first day that he has asked to go back to the Grants after church.  He is easy to please.

Still waiting around

When we first arrived at the Grants the wife found a caterpillar out in the milk weed and brought it in.  It takes about two weeks for a caterpillar to become a butterfly...a process I had never watched before.  Her husband said it would be so exciting because we would get to see the whole process.  I hoped we wouldn't only because we were hoping to be in our house within two weeks.  Guess what.  The monarch butterfly hatched yesterday.  It was pretty cool.  Living at the Grants is a bit magical. 

Yesterday was Ben's birthday.  He had to work.  Sad.  But the girls had soccer games and they were great!!  Last week Ben and I watched the games and decided we needed to do more than just sign them up for soccer and leave it their coaches.  We needed to work with them at home on it.  All the other players have a few years of experience under them and it shows.  So I took the girls out and started on basics just to build their confidence.  Heidi couldn't even do the grapevine!  And you can only imagine how fun it was to work with Kaylee.  But it all paid off!!  They were so good yesterday!  Kaylee scored a goal (she says...I didn't see it happen but I will let her think that if it encourages her).  Heidi ALMOST scored a goal.  It was so close and so exciting to watch.  She was so much more aggressive.  The next thing to work on is running while dribbling the ball.  She would get the ball and then hesitate and then someone would be on her to get the ball.  So that is this week's activity.  After work Ben came home to a nice pool party/BBQ with our friends, one of which has the same birthday as Ben.  Fun! 

Well that's about it for the Taylors.  This week will be eventful as we are hoping to move.  Or at least to know whether or not the house is going to work.  If not then we will be moving into a rental.  If so then hopefully we can get all the papers signed quickly and move in soon.  Then I will find my camera and Sammy won't have to endure any more posts without pictures.

Lessons Learned

My friend was saying that if God knows when a sparrow falls then He knows that the Taylors are homeless and there is something to it.  I think she is completely right.  And though I would have loved to be in my house by now hanging out on my couch and looking out at the kids playing in the back yard I think it is good for us to instead be in a basement living area of a member of our ward.  I have learned a lot this last month with buying our house and especially in the last week of staying with the Grants.  First off, they are pretty amazing people.  I have never talked to her before coming here even though we've been in the same ward for a year.  I have been missing out.  I've learned so much about how to live the gospel, how to live healthy and how to be a better parent.  All in one week!  Second, I've learned to be patient.  I'm not at all patient but in our current situation I just have to be.  I have no other choice.  Third, I've learned that having faith means you keeping holding on no matter how long it takes.  Just because you pray for something to happen does not mean it will happen quickly.  You just have to keep hoping and praying it will happen at some point and God always answers prayers it is just on His timeline.  Whether the prayer is for your house, for a baby, for a family member to come back to church, for a job, for marriage, for loved ones who have already passed on, for healing, for friendship, for relief, for anything you stand in need it will come we just don't know when.  That is the hard part.  When we had a place of our own I had a quote that hung in the kitchen.  I can't remember the exact words however I just realized it is on the sidebar of my blog!  Yea! 

Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.

I love that quote.  I love the promise it gives and the hope you feel when you know that blessings will come.  We don't know when but we know they will come.  So keep praying because at some point your faith-while it may not move a mountain-it may lead to some even more miraculous.

School Started

 

The girls finally had their first day of school.  As you can see they had no back packs.  I had thought we would be in our house by now so I packed them away in the storage unit.  I didn't think about it until yesterday when Heidi told me how embarrassing it was going to be to show up at school WITHOUT a back pack!!  I told them I would find them and it would only be one day without backpacks.  And I did!  I went through every stinking box in that stoarge unit until I found them.  I also found the box of shoes since I had only left out flip flops.  Oh it will be so nice to be in a house again.  Until then we are staying at a ward member's basement.  They have a beautiful house with a beautiful pool that Blake loves to jump into.  Hopefully we can get in the house soon.  Until then Kaylee will love wearing her knit hat and cowboy boots.  She was really cute about wearing that hat.  She thinks that she looks like Mary Margaret on Once Upon a Time. 

Oh yeah.  We haven't been getting our mail because we don't have a home.  I finally picked it up today and found a letter from Heidi's teacher with an over sized name tag to color and bring in on the first day of school.  When I gave it to her she knew exactly what it was for because everyone else in the class had one but her.  Whoops.  Just another drawback to being homeless. 

Packed Up

My camera is packed.  Along with everything else we own.  It's all in a storage unit.  And we are currently bumming off friends and family until our house closes.  It was supposed to be done on Aug 10th but it has hit quite a few bumps and we had to move out of the apartment even though the house was not ready to go.  Poor planning.  I know.  Now we are frantically trying to get things to work out with the house (although each passing day it seems to bring a new huge problem) and we are in California freeloading off my parents for the weekend.  Nice.

I keep trying to figure out how we ended up in this predicament.  There are steps along the way where we should have done things differently but it's too late now.  Now we just have to hope everything works out.  The good news is that I have great friends that have helped out.  They've all come to our aid in one way or another and we are really grateful to them.  I think the low point was when we had just taken our car into the shop.  All six of us were crammed into the loaner Mercury Sable driving back to our friend's house, the gas light turns on, I have to pee, and the blinker in the car breaks.  And then a John Mayer song comes on the radio.  I hate John Mayer.  That was when I thought things can only get better, right?  We had no home.  No car.  And John Mayer was talking about my body being a wonderland-yuck.  That was our life.  All I could do was laugh.

Sad to say after that day we discovered that things could get worse.  We've had nothing but bad news regarding our house.  We are wondering if we are ever going to get into the house.  Who knows!  All I know is this house business has not been fun.  I keep thinking I should be crying or something over it but instead I just eat ice cream.  So I'm getting fat on top of it all.  I have had an epiphany regarding people, trials and choices they make.  Sometimes the stress of life makes us make dumb decisions.  But when you are going through a hard time it is ok to let little things go (like my diet) while I work on something else.  I can't put my whole effort into every aspect of my life all the time.  I need to pick the most important things to focus on and let the other things go.  And so do other people.  When there are other people going through a hard time and they let some things go because it just is too overwhelming I should not judge them for that.  You can handle all things but not always all the time.  Sometimes you can let things wait.  That doesn't mean it is an excuse to give up and not do what is right but you can lighten up a bit in areas that don't really matter when another aspect of life is hard.  Hopefully the next time I blog it will be from my own computer in my own house.  Maybe there will be a picture or two because my camera will be unpacked.  Although my pictures are never interesting anyway so maybe not.

Ka-Chow!!

There are so many things I love about this picture.  He's wearing his Lightning McQueen shirt and proudly sporting the matching underwear.  He's pointing to his underwear.  He's got a fairy water bottle.  He's thighs are still chubby.  His facial expression which isn't even a real expression, he has juice in his mouth.  He's almost 2 1/2 and is only willing to try the potty training because we found some Cars stickers at walmart and he really wants them.  He peed his pants about 3 mins after I took this picture and is back in his diaper again because after Daisy I am not going to try and potty train any earlier than when they can do all by themselves.  I love having Blake.  He pretty much gets everything he wants...something my friends constantly tease me about but I keep right on doing it.  

These are my shoes I got for my birthday.  When I met my friend and she said she made her own shoes I thought, well this friendship isn't going to go anywhere.  However we have had a lot of fun together and are pretty close friends.  We yard sale together almost every week.  Anyway, long story short, she made me some shoes in exchange for something else and I really do love them!  They are really comfy like slippers but don't get too hot like slippers.  She wears her all around town but I want to keep mine as just house shoes so that when we move into our new house I have shoes I can wear inside without dirtying the carpet.  I've never wanted to be someone who had people take their shoes off when you came in their house-for some reason it made me feel silly when I was younger-but after years of wearing my shoes in and out of the house I've seen how dirty they make the carpet.  I also can't stand to be barefoot.  I like wearing shoes at all times.  So, when we get our house we will not be sticklers to the no-shoes rule but I will have my own "house shoes" to wear inside.  

I love my kids

My Talk on Friends

by Heidi Taylor

When you get a friend you can't think you can choose anyone you want.

You need to think about what they do.

As an example on a bad friend...

"Hey come to my house."  And you can't. "No."  "Oh come on.  It's not a bad thing."  "NO!"  And you get so annoyed you go.  And at dinner you get in trouble.

An example of a good friend...

"Do you want to come over?"  "No I can't.  I'm packing to go on vacation."  And your friend says "OK.  Can I help?"

That's how good and bad friends act.

But you should still pray for enemies.  And good friends.  No matter what you should always be nice to friends and enemies.

In the name of

Jesus Christ

Amen.

I love having kids.  I love that she wrote this herself.  I love seeing my kids grow and become these individuals who make their own choices, have their own way of doing things, and pick out their own outfits.  Today is my last day as a 30 year old.  I've spent it cleaning the house, getting the kids ready for church and getting myself ready in my new church outfit.  It's been a good way to end this year.  I love my life and it seems as the years go by it just gets better and better.

Water Olympics!!!

I love this picture.  This is my friend's house. Katie Bell.  You may know her from her role in Harry Potter as Gryffindor's Quidditch Chaser.  We live in an apartment right now so we love going over to the Bell's house.  They have a cute house an a lot of land full complete with gardens, front porch swing, chickens and ducks.  My kids love it.  And don't you just love that flag!!  And look at all those girls!  We all have a lot of girls in our families.

Last week her kids wanted to do water balloons with mine and that sparked our amazing idea for water olympics!!  We held them on friday to kick off the olympics.  We had an obstacle course, water balloon toss, chicken run, track and field 400M dash and a podium for the closing ceremonies.

Blake likes to wear his rock lobster swim pants and lightning mcqueen hat.  Ben helped him through the obstacle course.  Blake is a pretty big joiner.  If anyone is doing anything he will jump in and join them.  It's pretty cute. 

I took some quick shots of the kids during their dash around the house. 

Katie has everything at her house so when I suggested platforms for the winner's stand she had them and a back drop, and a table for dinner, and room for the inflatable water slide, and the list goes on.

It's snapshots like these that make think, "is that what I look like all the time?  Does my face always look odd and I just don't notice because whenever I look in the mirror I am actually looking and trying to look nice?"  These are not flattering pictures but oh well.

I love Adeline's smile in this picture.  She really is happy to standing on the podium.

It was a fun night.  Sometimes the best ideas are those that happen spur of the moment.  For some reason they just come together better.