November!

I got this great idea from a friend's blog and decided it would be a fun thing to participate in. So, here goes:

It's that time of year again (can you believe that it is November already?). Time for pumpkins and gloves and long-sleeves and the November Attitude of Gratitude Challenge. For those of you who have not played before, the challenge is outlined below.

Here's how it works:
Each day during the month of November I will post three things I am grateful for. You should, too.
Definition of "things"- the term "things" is used here to encompass a myriad of stuff including, but not limited to:

• a certain set of circumstances
• an event
• an inanimate object distinguished from a living being
• possessions or effects
• a deed or act
• a product of work or activity
• an idea or notion
• a piece of news or information
• a personal memory
• anything that makes you smile

* The challenge is to come up with three ORIGINAL "things" each day. Try not to repeat entries.

WARNING OF POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS!!
Please note that challenge participation may result in any or all of the following:
- you will be surprised at all the Lord has done for you
- angels will attend
- you will feel help and comfort
- you will find yourself "singing as the days go by"
- your doubts will fly
(see LDS Hymn #241 for the above references)

Ok, so I already missed a day, but why not start today?

1 - I'm grateful that I finished making the boys' Halloween costumes in time. I have to admit they looked so cute, but then again, my kids would look cute in pretty much anything.

2 - I'm grateful that we made it through Sacrament meeting yesterday without having to take either of the kids out. An incredible accomplishment if you know my kids. I was actually able to pay attention to a few of the testimonies. When you have little ones, spiritual edification can be hard to come by in Sacrament Meeting.

3 - Noah's smile. He is the one person who looks absolutely elated to see me every time I see him. He is my angel baby.

Ha!

You might think this is dumb, but I can't get enough of this kind of stuff. Yes, Hans is playing two roles. Our family isn't quite big enough yet. Marissa, I thought of including you, but I didn't think you would appreciate being the wolfman.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Around the house

There's nothing special to report, just some good times around the house. While trying to get some stuff done around the house the other day, I happened to look out my front window in the morning and noticed this beautiful view. I wish I could capture the colors better because it was absolutely beautiful. This picture was taken right outside my front door.

Then the very next evening, I glanced out my back window and saw this. Noah, James and I all huddled under the umbrella while we captured a few pictures from the backyard.

James disappeared down the hall the other day and came back a few minutes later looking like this. Yes, that's my makeup. Whatever wasn't on his face turned out to be on my bathroom floor.

James wouldn't pose for a picture so this is the best I got in his Home Depot apron. Apparently, on the first Saturday of every month, The Home Depot has a Kids Club. This month, it happened to be about fire safety. They had a fireman there to talk to the kids and then they got to build these cool banks that looked like fire stations. It was totally free and you don't have to register or sign up for anything. James absolutely loved it, so for everyone out there with little ones, definitely check it out.

Just one of the many we've been finding around the house these days. Yuck!

I often walk into this in the mornings or after naptime.

Hans calls Noah an aggressive eater. Here's proof!

I hope I win!!

Free groceries for a year? That would be the life! Go here to enter.

http://www.itpaystoeatpasta.com/ip.cfm?u=204FB816-7256-4A91-98A1-5A81D5CED781

Panties!

James has been wearing panties for about an hour and a half. Excuse me. Apparently with boys, you're supposed to call them underwear. Anyway, the Lightning McQueen on his bum better get ready for a good soaking! I know it's coming . . . any moment now.

Love it!

My computer cycles through my photos and posts them as the wallpaper on my desktop. Today, this one popped up. I don't know why, but it completely cracked me up so I felt the need to share. I think Hans is looking pretty good and James looks like he is posing for a mug shot with sunglasses and a life jacket. LOVE IT!

Settled

We are finally settled in our new house and couldn't be happier. Here are just a few pictures of the house. We are loving our new ward and James LOVES nursery. The house is exactly what we need. It fits us perfectly. Give us a few years and we'll have it looking great.

This is our backyard with some new fruit trees we planted last week. They're so tiny. And yes, the lawn needs help. We're working on it.

Just a little side note. Noah is 7 months old and not only is he crawling all over the place, he is pulling himself up on everything. I guess I have 2 busybodies on my hands.

Arachnophobia!

I will be the first to admit, that in the last few years, I have developed a not so mild case of arachnophobia. I'm not psycho about it, but when I see a spider in my house, I tend to have a hard time. I can handle spiders outside where they belong, but they DO NOT belong in my house. Apparently several of them disagree as I have found many who seem to prefer the inside to the outside. I have a problem with that.

I have found several in the past few days, but just today I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life (apart from zoos and museums). Noah woke up from his nap so I started to walk down the hall to go get him. I was suddenly stopped in my tracks when I saw a giant spider hanging out in the middle of the hallway. What nerve! I immediately knew what I had to do, but didn't want to face the truth. I called Hans for some moral support, but, of course, all he could do was laugh and make fun of me. I'm sure all the guys at work are having a good laugh about it as I type this. After getting off the phone, I grabbed a nearby Anatomy book and inched as close as I dared. By this point, I'm practically shaking and my heart is going a mile a minute. Noah is in the his room screaming his head off, wondering why I'm not there yet. So, I drop the book and, just my luck, the spider, giant as he is, happens to be fast. I have a hard enough time when it stays in one place, but when it moves, I kind of freak out. I don't really remember, but I think I might have screamed and I know I jumped.

Now the spider is up against a wall so I know I can't try the book trick again. I had an idea. I found some old glue traps that we had used for mice in our old house. I put it up against the wall about a foot away from the spider (that's as close I dared get my hand to it) and then I threw things at it until it went right into my trap. I watched it for a moment to be sure it was stuck. Feeling pretty good about myself, I went and got Noah up from his nap and when I came out, it was still there. I walked away for about a minute and came to back to find the spider gone!!! I kind of freaked and called Hans again. I should have known better. He sure got a kick out of that. I put on shoes and went on a hunt with a long stick. No luck!

So here I am, wearing thick-soled shoes and blogging on a computer far away from the original sighting. I spotted a fly a minute ago and jumped about 3 feet in the air. Noah is bugged with me because I won't put him down on the floor. James is still sleeping and you better believe that when he wakes up, we're going out for the rest of the day.

Quick Post

We currently don't have the internet at our house, so I'm putting up a quick post while at at my parents'. We are officially in our new house and loving it. It's so much work, but totally worth it. Thanks for all those who gave us a hand the other day. We're anxious to get our house in order so we can have you all over for some food and fun.

I must be an idiot!

I don't know what my problem is, but I'm having serious issues getting pictures uploaded onto my blog post. I've been trying to post for weeks, but since I'm apparently an idiot, I'll just post without pictures.

The last few weeks has been exciting. Events of the last little while have included a high seas rescue, an MIA home seller, a giant tonsil, and a 104 degree swimming pool. Don't worry, I won't elaborate on all the craziness.

We took a short weekend trip to Bear Lake with my family. It was tons of fun, we spent a windy day on the beach soaking up the sun. Hans thought he was pretty cool because when the boat broke down he got to go rescue them on the ranger boat. When the weather was bad the next day, we took the kids on a cave tour up in Idaho. It was very cool, but there were so many more stairs than I remember from when I was younger. Not an easy thing while carrying a whining 2-year-old.

This last week, we were expecting to move into our house, but come closing time, the seller was MIA. It's a long story, but apparently the seller was out of town and couldn't close. So here we are, still in my parent's basement.If everything goes according to plan, we should close no later than Tuesday. Hopefully!

House!! For real this time!

Remember how I posted forever ago about how we were buying a house. Well, now it's for real. But, here's the kicker. It's not even the same house. We waited and waited on that short sale and Hans decided that we needed to look around. I felt no need to look at any other houses because as far as I was concerned, I had found my house. I finally gave in just to make Hans happy. Our realtor sent us a bunch of listings and Hans picked out a few he wanted to see. On Tuesday night, we looked at one in Pleasant Grove and fell in love right away. It's on nearly half an acre and the house is huge with a partially unfinished basement. Perfect for us.

While we were looking around we found out that there were already three other offers and the owner would be signing one in half an hour. Our realtor is amazing! She immediately drove us to her house in Cedar Hills, we wrote up an offer and delivered it to the realtor back at the house. We actually waited out in front of the house while the realtor met with the owner inside. He came out about 15 minutes later and said Congratulations! It was absolutely crazy! It wasn't until the next morning that I actually felt like we made a good decision. It just happened so fast.

We are so excited to finally move on with our lives and get out of this strange limbo we've been in. We're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.

Montana Pictures

I wanted to post a few pictures from our Montana vacation. We spent a rainy day driving through Glacier National Park and into Canada and a few days playing on the lake in the boat and we even celebrated James' 2nd birthday. What a blast! I had high hopes for that last picture, but James clearly was not in the mood for pictures.