Some Advice From Ella

This morning at the grocery store I grabbed a bag of straws, it is a cheap and easy kid pleaser at my house. Ella wanted another pack to ensure the good colors as long as possible. I was just past the straws with people behind me so I pointed and told her to grab another bag. For the life of her she couldn't figure out where I was pointing so I stepped over and showed her. Just as we were getting to the cart Cameron had opened the other bag and they spilled all over the floor. As I am cleaning them up, Ella says "Mom you should have just only had two kids. Then there would only be me and Natalie and not Cameron. Cameron is always doing naughty things." This older guy was standing right there and chuckles a bit. I say "That isn't very nice to say, Cameron is only 2 and he is still learning, but we still want him in our family." So the great advice from my 4 year old.

Ella's First Day

This girl was SO excited to start Preschool. She wanted to start the day we signed her up. She had a great first day and had no problems going. Well, almost no problems. She did think, very strongly think, she needed a Hannah Montana backpack. "I need to have one Mom! This one is making me sick!" Her perfectly good, almost new Ariel backpack was somehow making her sick. Strange thing. I reassured her that is was a great backpack for preschool and when she was in 1st grade she could get a new backpack. Yeah no way I am spending $20 to bring home finger paint projects and toilet paper roll binoculars. She did recover quickly from her sickness and has had no side effects. sporting her new short haircut

wearing her favorite "all sorts of flowers" dress and gross flip flops that will soon be finding their way in to the trash

one with Cameron

In less than 5 minutes....

....Cameron covered himself with Crisco. I ran upstairs to change for work and as I am coming down the stairs Eric walks in the front door. We walk in the kitchen and both stop in shock at what we see. Cameron is sitting up on the counter with Crisco lathered up like sunscreen. I have to head out the door to work and leave Eric with the clean up. My parting words, "If you have to shave his head, shave his head." Well it didn't resort to that, but it did take numerous shampoos. Cameron's response "I have a faux hawk!" You see my sisters like to make his hair in to an oh so stylish faux hawk and it seems that he now thinks any semi-solid white substance is hair cream (he has also done this with foot lotion). I remember the days when I thought it was cute that he climbed into the sink. Not so much anymore!

"When upon lifes billows you are tempest tossed....

....when you are discouraged thinking all is lost
count your many blessings name them one by one
and it will suprise you what the Lord has done."

The outcome has sunk in and life is moving on. I have been able to realize the blessings in this whole mess.

I am grateful that we had savings to use first to minimize the debt.
I am grateful for my husbands talents. He was able to do almost all the work himself which saved us a TON of money.
I am grateful for my Dad, brothers, neighbors and friends who helped to work on the house.
For Eric's diligence to make sure that all the damage was gone.
For my mother in-law for making us lunch.
For my mom and sisters for watching the kids so we could work.
For our patient and kind lawyer!
For my parents letting us live with them until we could move in.
And for the TPing partys enthusiasm! :)

We have been blessed.

What Could Have Been....

It is done. Finished. The end. After owning our beloved house for over a little over a year, our legal battle has come to an end. Unfortunately it was an end I didn't think was possible. We were not victorious in our fight and I feel broken because of that. For this past year I feel that I was able to endure, look on the bright side, get by living in most of my house, sacrifice time as a family, watch my money disappear and debt grow all because I believed, I mean really believed, that things would be made right. I believed that all of the awful things this house hid would be made right, our nightmare summer would be worth it and all the unbelievable things we went through would be over. Alas, that is not how it played out and so we need to pick up the pieces and move forward. This is a lot harder than I thought, mostly because I didn't think this is how it would end. I thought right would win and wrong would lose. I believed that honesty would be rewarded and dishonesty punished. I have to let go of what could have been with this house and that is hard. Who knows when I will have a master bedroom and even longer until I have a master bathroom, if I ever have a master bathroom, when my kids will have their playroom, when I will have blinds not made of paper, when I can look at my house and not just wish it would burn down. I know I need to get back to looking on the bright side, counting my blessings and being grateful for what I have, and I will get there, but for now I am heartbroken.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

I can't believe that she is 7! It is amazing to me how fast the time has gone. I wish I could have gotten pictures of her when she was younger but that was before my digital days and the scanner isn't cooperating. I remember being so excited and SO ready for her to get here 7 years ago. My due date came and went with contractions happening like crazy. Finally a week later my doctor let me go to the hospital only to be sent home later that night with an Ambien so I could sleep. Shortly after getting home the contractions kicked into high gear so there was no sleeping. With not wanting the emotional roller coaster of getting sent home again, it took Eric until after 5 in the morning to convince me we needed to go back. Natalie was born VERY quickly after making it back to the hospital. She was the most beautiful, perfect thing I had ever seen.

Natalie has been full of life and personality since the day she was born. She loves her family, drawing, coloring, anything art related, swimming, dance, gymnastics and singing. Natalie has always been very social and can win anyone over with her charm and smile.

We love you Natalie and are so happy you are part of our family! Happy Birthday!

My Besties

My besties. One of them started using this term and I rather like it. These two are my best friends. One since as long as I can ever remember and one since she moved to Oregon in Junior High. We have gone through a lot together, had our ups and downs, cried, laughed, fought and everything in between. Though it all we have stayed the best of friends and without them my life would not be the same. About every other year we have managed to have a girls trip. With one of us always seeming to be pregnant or have a little baby we have yet to go on some fabulous trip (but we are planning it!) but we do have the best time. This time the destination was Utah for a week of kidless (except beautiful baby Marley) fun! We had some great plans but staying up until 4 am talking sort of got in the way. We talked, ate like we were 16, acted like we were 16 or maybe 13(sitting on a display couch in Target and laughing so hard we were crying as people walked by and stared like we were crazy), cried, laughed, shopped, went canoeing, walked around the beautiful lake in Chiara's neighborhood (which FYI is now closed after dark, but then again we were always a bit rebellious) and had an absolutely memorable time. We also got to celebrate Chiara turning 30 with her husband and mom putting together a surprise party! Tiffany and I in the canoe.

We wanted to kayak but apparently there is another new rule that guests need to be in the same boat as residents. I wonder if we had showered, put make-up on and had not been in our pjs if maybe we could have worked the system. ;)

Chiara and I

The Besties

We hardly took any pictures the whole time so in a last minute attempt Tiff's camera on auto caught this beauty. Looks like Chiara is trying to strangle her.