Finally!!!

We're closing on our new house tomorrow, moving in on Saturday morning. YAY! It has been quite the process purchasing a foreclosure from Fannie Mae. I don't think I will ever do it again. Fannie Mae is awful! We just got the word for sure yesterday afternoon. So it is going to be a lot of fast packing the next day or so. We are excited to have my mom fly in tonight to help with the fun. What a sport to jump on a plane at a moment's notice! I've been extemely blessed to have help from my RS sisters with packing, bringing meals, watching kids. I haven't had to ask anyone, they call me and show up. It is such a blessing to belong to this church and wonderful, inspired, women's organization. My heart is full. I feel so blessed and loved by the Lord.

The snake!

We went for a nice Sunday stroll in the beautiful weather and came upon a little snake! The kids were going crazy. It was quite the attraction!

Last of the garden

Isn't this a funny looking watermelon?! I think it looks like a bowling pin!

The tomatoes are just coming on again now that the heat is starting to fade. It was in the 60's today!!! YAY!!! I love the fall!!

Jakey single handedly picked the strawberries clean

The kids found a grasshopper on our cucumbers and had a fun time chasing it around the yard.

Yoda loves the extra attention, now that it is actually nice to be outside, even though Jake throws his food all over the patio. Thank goodness the big kids are sweet enough to collect the mess and put it back in his food bowl.

We're trying to enjoy the last of our garden before we move into our new house. We've been delayed, yet again- the beauty of purchasing a foreclosure from Fannie Mae, and in the meantime are harvesting what we can.

2010 General Relief Society Broadcast

My spirit was greatly fed last night as I attended the RS Broadcast at my local Stake Center. Before the broadcast from SLC, our Stake held a dinner for the sisters and then a slide show of service of many of our RS sisters giving service throughout the year, set to the soundtrack "Women of Destiny." If you haven't heard that music, I would highly recommend getting it. It has beautiful words about the special roles we play as women and the music is very touching. Afterwards our Stake RS Pres gave a wonderful talk about how we need to be Christ's hands in serving each other. Following her our Stake Pres spoke about spirirtual promptings and acting on them immediately when we receive them. He also talked about deciding to be happy. It was so wonderful. Then we went into the chapel and got to hear the broadcast from Salt Lake from our RS General Presidency and our prophet, President Monson. I could go on and on about all powerful things said in the talks, but will just touch briefly on President Monson's. He spoke about having charity and not judging other people on appearance or actions, since we probably don't have the whole story. He told a great story about a lady who was critical of her neighbor across the street. As she sad in her house eating breakfast, she would watch her neighbor hang her wash out to dry and comment about how the lady never cleaned her laundry properly. This went on for sometime. Then one morning as she and her husband were sitting and eating she noticed the neighbor's wash was clean. She wondered out loud how she had finally learned how to clean her clothes properly when her husband said he could shed some light on the subject. He said he'd gotten up early in the morning and washed the windows. I hope I can remember to worry about my windows instead of my neighbors wash. It was a great lesson. I can't wait to hear the rest of General Conference next weekend!

My Handy Manny

This toilet has been having issues for months. It's been fix after fix. Finally Warren had had it and took the whole thing apart. He was a little nervous it wouldn't go back together right, but now it works like a charm. He did a great job. I was especially impressed because he did this while I was at the RS Broadcast last night. He also fed the kids, did the dishes, cleaned up toys and scrubbed my crockpot. I am so spoiled! I was so surprised when I got home. He puts me to shame.

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Cass is in pure heaven!

For Activity Days this week we did a Daddy Daughter Date. It was called "Messy Fun Night". We had over 40 dads and girls show up, almost our whole group. I was so impressed these dad's made such an effort on a Friday night. We had a sloppy joe dinner with a potluck of different side dishes. Then there was an egg toss, shaving the dads with popsicle sticks, girls' attempts at tying their dad's ties, a dad/daughter survey version of the newly wed game, dad's fixing the girl's hair (and we took before and after photos), and then a game called "Pick Your Nose," where the dad's stuck their noses through holes in a sheet and the girls had to pick which was their dad. That last one was hilarious! It was such a fun night. I think everyone there had a great time.

Respect Award

Cade received the Respect Award at his school on Friday. They honored him at the morning assembly. His teacher emailed us early in the week so we would know to be at the school. It was such a surprise to Cade to get the award and then to see us all sitting in the back of the cafeteria. It was priceless footage on our video camera. We are so proud of Cade. He's been such a sweet boy in his class. His principal even went to Cade's class earlier this week and pulled him aside to thank him for helping some of the other kids who are having a hard time. It was a great week for Cade.

Jakey's in the Big Boy Bed!!

Look how happy he is!

The other boys are excited, too

We hit a big milestone this week. Jakey joined the big boy bed. I was really nervous about it, since Luke was such a nightmare to keep in bed at this age. But he has been absolutely miserable in his crib tent. Ending up in our bed every night around 3am. So I prayed about it and thought about it a lot. I thought I'd try one night in the big bed to see how it went. He was SO excited. He loved being in the room when I read to the big boys before sleep and can't get enough of being included in what they are doing. Anytime he gets squirrelly, I just give him a 2 minute time out in the crib tent- or even the threat of it- and he lays lickety split on his pillow (He must really hate that tent!). Every morning he wakes up so happy. I'm so glad we made the switch.

Other Jakey-isms this week:

After I put the kids in bed, I heard Jakey crying for a drink of water. I'd given him 2 cups already, so told him to be quiet and go to sleep. A couple minutes later I heard some banging around in the kids' bathroom and went to see what was happening. He had a cup in his hand and was just about to dip it in the toilet for a little swig to quench his thirst. I swiftly threw that cup in the dishwasher, gave him a drink from the sink, and didn't hear another word from him all night. I guess he really was thirsty and not making excuses for staying awake!

We've had some crazy thunderstorms the past couple weeks with the hurricanes than have been coming through. One evening as I was making dinner, Jake ran into the kitchen out of breath and nervous, "The lightning BITE me!" I just had to laugh because he always says something "bites" him when he is scared. I love hearing the things he says as he learns how to speak.

Another night about 1am I heard quite the racket coming from the boys' room. Yoda sleeps in the boys room normally, and I thought maybe he needed to go to the bathroom or something. So I went in there to find he had woken up Jake and they were playing fetch. Running around the room, throwing the ball, with Cade and Luke snoozing away in the bed right next to them. That was the end of Yoda in the house for the night. Luckly, as soon as I removed the dog, Jake hopped back in bed without another peep. I couldn't believe he went back to sleep so quick. He is quite the character.

Whipping this place back into shape

After a rough week of morning sickeness, I had a reprieve this weekend, starting Friday. So it was catch up on the cleaning day. Jakey grabbed the mop and floor spray and was whipping the place back into shape. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little helper!

Darling Bows

We have been lucky to have Cassidy's friend staying with us for a week while her parents are on a trip. Cass has loved having another girl around the house. So this morning before church, I had 2 darling girls to do up for church. We decided to use some of our new bows. The one on the left is one we made with the girls for our hygiene activity days last month. It's just a silk flower with a gem in the center glued to a clip. The girls had a great time learning about keeping themselves clean and then we taught the girls to do all kinds of different hairstyles, some which included using a straightener and a curling iron. It was a hit!

The bow on the right was a darling gift from my sister in law. She and my other sister in law make these cute bows and sell them. Their made out of fabric and look so cute! I'm so glad they will gift them to us when we are in town! Thank you so much! We love them!!!

New Closing Date- Sept 23rd

We're hopeful this date will stick. We've had some set backs with the HVAC not working, so we are doing all we can to get the sellers to hurry up and fix it. The paperwork alone is amazingly slow. Hopefully they can get moving. We were originally supposed to close tomorrow. As long as we are in the house by the 30th, when we have to be out of this place, I am just fine. Though, it would be nice to be in there sooner than later. Keep you posted.

clean clean clean

play play play

Soccer Games

It was a sweaty Saturday at the soccer fields. Humidity was about 100% and it was almost 90 degrees. Brutal! I thought I had a pic of Cass, too, but will have to add it after this weeks' game. Cass played her first game ever and had some great passes that resulted in her team scoring. We were so proud of her. Cade is really getting into it this year and actually runs after the ball and even makes contact sometimes, which is a huge improvement on last season! It will be fun to see how the season plays out for both kiddos.

Luke's 1st day of Preschool

Because of sickness and purchasing a new home, I just didn't have it in me to do the preschool co-op. We found this darling preschool out in the country for Luke. (It's actually a pretty short drive and we have great friends to carpool with.) He LOVES it! Every day he comes home and tells me everything he did and how much he loves his school. It is so fun! Here he is with one of his teachers and his good buddy, Ellie.

another doo

We ended up switching out the flower for a smaller one just before church- to avoid Cass looking too much like a can- can dancer. :) I loved the side twists though. Looked great in the morning when she took the twists out.

Jake turns 2!

This boy has grown up so fast. He just acts like he is so big. He tries things much earlier than the other kids did. He wants to do everything the big kids do. He is becoming a great little talker. We love hearing all the funny things that come out of his mouth. His favorite things right now are sports and Mickey Mouse. He loves to climb on anything and copies anything the boys do, especially the crazy things. He is thrilled to have gotten his own potty for his birthday and frequently sits on it fully clothed. We've had a huge battle with the crib tent this past week, so tonight is the first night we've put him in the big boy bed with Cade and Luke. So far so good. Hopefully the threat of going back in the tent will keep him at bay and out of MY bed at 3am!! We sure love having Jake as part of our family. I don't know what we would do if that little boy wasn't in our lives. He brings us all so much joy.

Playdough Snake

This is the longest playdough snake I've ever seen. The boys were having so much fun creating. It was sad when we had to clean up for dinner.