Memorable trip, new house and a birthday!

After my last post from Salt Lake, Blaine came home from work and we finished the loading and left Salt Lake. Cayden, Kayla and I headed on a road trip stopping to see family along the way before getting to our new home. Blaine, Josh and Jared headed to Steve and Ann's house so Blaine could sleep and then they headed straight to our new house. I think I got the better end of the deal, I did not have to lift a finger to get the truck unloaded, it was completely done by the time I got there! Our first stop was St. George. We got there about 8 pm on Monday and stayed at Grandma Maggie's house. The next day we spent with AnnMarie. It was amazing to see how big Natalie has gotten! She is pretty much a mini me of AnnMarie. She has beautiful, big brown eyes.

Here is Kayla with a big smile. She had so much fun playing with Natalie. I think Natalie had fun teaching Kayla new tricks.

Here are the two of them playing on the floor. It is so fun to see them together. It is kind of bittersweet. I used to live so close to AnnMarie, these two little ones would have seen each other at least once a week. Now I live so far away, we are lucky to see them twice a year. I must admit, AnnMarie does come down this way much more often then up to Salt Lake.

That Tuesday night, we had Trey sleep over at Grandma Maggie's house so Trey and Cayden could spend more time together. They had so much fun! They watched a movie, slept in sleeping bags on the floor, and even ate all of their breakfast the next morning!

They were playing tag in the morning and blocks and watching more movies.

Kayla had fun watching the boys play. The boys were teasing Kayla and trying to jump over her. She just laughed at them, thinking they were pretty cool. It was fun to see the kids play together. They were just playing, not worrying about anything but the moment they were in. It was nice to escape to that world for just a short period.

After Jenny picked Trey up, we headed to lunch with Debbie, Becca, and Kelly. Brad showed up to say hi. I then went by the car wash to see Travis before we took Grandma Maggie home and headed to our new home. when we got there, the beds were set up, trucks were unloaded, and boxes strewn all over the house. I was so thankful to see all of that work finished. I have such an amazing husband that had all of this finished for me when I got to our new home! Over the next few days I got the rest of the house unpacked and we got settled in. In the meantime, Kayla started to crawl! she has been doing the army crawl, but this was real, true crawling! I took these photos while she was crawling to my purse.

She has already figured out that mom's purse has cool stuff in it.

She just could not reach it, she fell onto her stomach, and got mad because she could not reach it. She is such a funny little girl!

Well here are the asked for photos of our new home. It is unpacked and mostly decorated:

The living room and sitting area.

The family room

The Kitchen and dining room

The master bedroom

The master bathroom

I am totally loving this house. There are some things that I do not like, but over all. I love it. Is is so roomy and open, the floor plan really works for us. I am so very thankful that we were able to have such a wonder place to live during these trying times in our lives. i know that God has his hand in our journey.

This is Kayla's Easter dress. I was so excited to find it. It was on the clearance rack at Target and it was only $5!! I was thrilled. I was looking for something that did not make my little beauty look like a street corner worker, or was so frilly that you could not find her in the dress. I knew that we would be very short on money this Easter so I could not believe my eyes when I found this perfect dress!

Cayden had his fifth birthday on Sunday. I decided that I would take advantage of having so many family members in the area and invited them all to come over. I invited my aunt Nina in addition to all of my brothers and their families. AnnMarie was in town with her family so they too were able to come. My dad and a couple extra nieces were able to come as well. I was so thrilled that everyone came! We had a total of 26 people at our home! I loved having my family over for the party. I was not even stressed about cleaning it after they left (although John and Andrea did most of the cleaning before they left).

John, Andrea, and Joshua

Blaine, Jordan, Paul, Camille, Natalie, Kayla, Nina

Cayden blowing out his candles.

Cayden opening presents with the help of Jacob, Lexi, and Lauren.

Over all it has been a very busy past 2 weeks. I am very happy with my family and my home. I am still a bit worried about our job situation. I am sure that Gods hand is in our lives and is watching out for us during this journey. I just hope that we have the strength to endure what we must.

Moving Day and Memories

I woke up today after getting to sleep in until 8 (thank you Tammy and Lynn for watching the little ones), to find this:Jared, my wonderful little helper, had already showered and was cleaning the basement. He has been spending most of his time with his best friend this weekend, and he felt like he wanted to help and surprise us. What a wonderful boy. I was so pleased to see that he got up and did this himself. He is such a great helper (when he wants to be)!

This is Josh and Jared's room. It still has lots of work to be done before we leave. They needed to dao laundry at he last minute and this was the result.

Here is Josh. He was not as ambitious this morning. He has been helping all weekend to load and pack so he was taking it easy this morning. He also was not very happy to know that he was in the picture.

Here is my beautiful kitchen and dining room. I was sad to see it that empty yet this messy at the same time. It is just the last little things that need to be packed before leaving today.

This is the living room. It is normally that cleanest room in the house all of the time. These are the things left to load into the truck.

This is Cayden's room. I actually did this cool paint job. It was lots of fun to turn this room into outer space. It started out being sunshine yellow and that was too much for us to live with so this was the end result. I thought it was a really cool room.

This was Miss Kayla's room. I bought the quote in light pink and cut the flowers and butterflies out with my cricut. It was a fast fun way to make her room a little girly instead of just white. there was a beautiful picture of me holding her where the gap on the border is. It too has been packed away for our journey.

This was an amazing view from our front porch. It had been sunny all week and a storm was coming in. It was so beautiful, I really wanted to capture this moment. I wanted to remember the beauty of the Salt Lake valley. It really was not all bad, just the snow.

This is Miss Kayla's nine month picture in her car seat. I have not gotten one since she was six months. She has gotten so much bigger I am sad that she is growing so fast but happy at the same time that she is healthy (finally) and able to grow.

I love this hat. I bought it a long time ago and never wore it. I put it on on Cayden and he loved it too. He keeps telling me it is his fishing hat and he needs to go fishing.

Mr. Cayden posing for the camera. I found this outfit on clearance for $7. He loves the Broncos so I got it for him. He has been so cute with the stress of the move. He tells me when we have to leave to go anywhere that we can not leave yet because his toys are not packed to go to the new house yet. He is so cute. I just love the things he comes up with to say.

Here is a better picture of Kayla's ponytail. This one she left in until nap time. She thinks the bows taste good.

Example of a yummy bow. This was the first time I put her hair in a ponytail. It lasted less then an hour. She is so cute, it really is hard to be mad at her!

This will be the last post in Salt Lake City. It is a bittersweet moment. Many memories, tears and laughs have happened here. I will really miss all of the friends I have made. here we come Phoenix!

You know you are a grown up when...

I was at the morning safety meeting this morning right before my shift and saw the Redbook magazine turned to this page that says "You know you are a grown up when..." and then listed the thing below it. One of the things made me laugh so hard everyone one asked what I was reading. I thought it was a cute thing to share. It reads "you know you are a grown up when... you retire those sweatpants that have 'flirt', 'princess' or anything written across the butt." now you might not find it as funny as I did, but I just bought some of those last year! I thought they were so cute although mine say "phi beta pink" on the bum! Anyway, I guess that means I am not yet a grown up.

My Honey

I am kinda copying this idea from a friend, but I though it was about time that I talked about how great my husband is. I love him so much, he is my best friend. We knew that we would not be able to celebrate Valentines Day on the day everyone else was celebrating it because I was working and he had to work the night before and the night after. So, we decided to go out on Wednesday night. We went to Tepenyaki (I really am not a good speller by the way). It was so fun to watch they chef cook our food on the table right in front of us. After he was done cooking our food, he flipped shimp into Blaine's mouth. Out of 4 pieces Blaine caught 2. It was so fun. Then we went to a movie and he let me pick it out. We went to "He is Just Not That Into You". It was such a funny movie, we laughed and I cried. It was a really great way to spend the evening. We have not really had a chance to spend time with just each other for a while. We work opposite schedules and share the child raising. It is pretty busy. Getting to spend time with each other alone is so rare, I cherish it. I had the best time just talking and laughing with my best friend.
I fell in love with my best friend after just a short time of dating him. He is usually thinking of everyone else but him. He is constantly telling me to just relax and he will take care of things. he decided to work the night shift after Kayla was born because he knew I really did not want to, and we did not want Kayla to go to daycare. He never even asked me to go to the night shift , he just did it.
He bought me flowers and taped them around the house with cute little notes taped to the flower on Valentines morning. He got home at 3:30 am and I got up at 5 am for work. He even got all of the kids cute little things for Valentines day. I am usually the one that remembers those things, I totally forgot them this year. I did remember to get my honey a card. The funny thing was he got me the exact same card. I guess great minds do really think alike.
He is the best thing that happened to me. He is my perfect partner. He is the best husband and father that I could ever asked for. I know my Heavenly Father had a hand in getting us together. He knew how perfect we would compliment each other. I can not believe that I get to soend eternity with such a special man!

A jazz Game, New Clothes and A Ponytail

The Jazz occasionally have a family fun night where it is $90 for 6 tickets and 6 hot dogs. Blaine thought that we should do this at least one time before we leave, so at the spur of the moment we did. Monday Feb 2 we went to the Jazz game. We invited Lynn and Tammy to come with us because Josh had bad grades we did not let him go. While we were there they had jerseys for some of the players on clearance. Of course i thought how could we go to the game and not get a jersey! I bought each of the kids one. Kayla's is a onsie and is pink. I thought it was so cute!

Here is Cayden and Jared posing with their jerseys on. Josh got one too, he was just sleeping by the time we got home.

Aren't they the cutest kids ever!!!

Here is Miss Kayla and her tiny ponytail. Hard to see I know but it is there. there was just enough hair to put an elastic around it and then put the bow on. What a cute face, I just love it!

How do you spell S-T-R-E-S-S!

It has been another crazy week. We are still in the process of packing everything, my house is not organized, it is boxed. That is a bit difficult for me to handle. I am kinda a clean, organizing freak. I know that is such a surprise to many of you, anyway, I am really stressed out about it not being perfect. Not to mention, people want to show the house at the most inconvenient times. You know dinner time, nap time, husband worked all night and is sleeping still time. I am really struggling with it all.

We were so excited that Blaine was getting this great job in Phoenix, we were going to move and he would finally be making enough money to support our lifestyle. Well, news flash, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! He has been trying to get a hold of the guy that hired him to plan a start date and definite salary amount and the guy said, "Well, the company is still not doing as great as we had hoped so I am going to have to put you off for a bit longer." Blaine, the forever optimist, says it was meant to be and he will find something soon for sure. I am stress out! This was the whole reason for moving in the first place. I am really afraid that we are going to go from bad to worse. We have a house there, we are selling our house here, but do we have jobs yet??? Of course not. Why not just live spontaneously and moving first find work later? Because we are grown ups. We have a family of 6, bills and other responsibilities.

Now you did not think I was done did you?? Of course not! Kayla has had diarrhea for the past 3 weeks. I thought we had tried everything. I took her in for her monthly RSV shot and found she had only gained 7 ounces this month. (That is half of what she normally gains.) I took her into the doctor and they had me get some stool samples (yuck, even for a nurse). I waited for the results only to find out I had labeled the containers wrong and they were thrown away. UGGG! Went to get more containers, got a second opinion (who told me just try her on milk and soy again, she can not get any worse.) , I promptly got a third opinion. Come to find out one of the little snacky crackers I had bought her were made with whey in them (that is milk by the way). So my precious little daughter was sick for so long because of me! I felt like the worst mother in the world. I read all of the labels but I did not look close enough and missed it on this one thing. My poor baby, she had a sick belly and a red bum because I was in a hurry at the store. I do not think I will ever forgive myself for that. I am just so thankful for the little prompting that I had to recheck the ingredients of everything she was eating. Now that she has not had any of those snacks for 5 days the diarrhea has finally stopped.

Jared, my pain in the butt, has decided that he no longer has asthma so he does not need to take any medicine. Well, he is wrong. He too went to the doctor because he could not figure out why he could not breathe well. Come to find out, he still has asthma! I know shocker, but and 11 year old is always right and you are always wrong. The doctor told him he picked a really dumb time to quit his medicine because our air quality has bee so poor for the past 3 weeks. Fortunately he does not have to do a round of oral steroids this time, but he does have to double his inhaled steroids for 3 weeks to get over this. It really is too bad that my smartest kid has no common sense!

I think that we deserve a break after the stuff we have had to deal with this past week. Blaine is taking a day off for his birthday, the following day I am going to use my spa day that Blaine got me for Christmas. I hope these moments of relaxation will help us to get through the next whatever we need to get through.

This week

Cayden loves to take pictures. We even got him a cute kid digital camera for Christmas. Will he use it, no, he wants to take pictures with Mommy's camera. Here is the one he took of me this week. I was looking at it and decided that although he did great as an amature photographer, I really am starting to show my age and weight. So consider this my before picture. i have started exercising and eating better and there is no way i am going to post anything other then my face so anyone can see the real before picture, so this will have to do. I had the flu over the weekend so I did not join in the daily exercise video with everyone. Jared is off track. This means that he does not have school, until February 23. he has decided that he needs to gain weight since he will be 12 this year and still does not weigh 80 pounds (I wish I had that problem!). So Blaine and I now have "buddies" to work out with because Cayden has to do everything Jared does. It is great to get them in the habit early of working out. Each morning when Jared wakes up he says, "What workout are we going to do today Mom?" He is great at motivating me to get my bum in gear!

Since we are packing to move, we have come across somethings that we need to throw away, need to get rid of, thought we had lost, and just things. Cayden found these Spiderman stickers and decided he did not want them to get lost again, so he used them. He put them all over his face! He is so silly. I was giving Kayla a bath at the time and he said, "Mom look at me!" when I looked all I could do was laugh. He is such a funny boy!

Kayla is just a cute as can be and getting cuter everyday! She is now eating Cheerios. She was cute by trying to get them in her mouth. She would get part of it in her mouth, spit it out and then try again. The second try usually ended up with it stuck to her face. When I said, "Kayla, what are you doing silly." , she would just smile.

While I was getting her bath ready the other night, Cayden was taking photos of her. He would get so close that part of her head was cut off. Her is one of the better ones. He sould not quite catch her smiling, but then again, I rarely am able to get get that on film either.

I was so excited that Kayla finally has a few tiny long hairs on the top of her head! Just enough for a clip to make it look like a ponytail. There is no way I could get an elastic around those tiny things but a clip stayed in just long enough for a cute picture! She is sitting up so much better now that she really does not like to just lay on the floor. She is starting to get on her hands and kness and rock back and forth! :( I am so sad that my baby is getting so big. not in size, just in milestones. I took her to the doctor the other day and at eight months she weighs 13 pounds 10 ounces.

Hope you all have a great week. Do not get too upset with the lack of posts in the next coming month. We are trying to move and time is limited. Be patient and I will fill in the details as I can.