Missouri

Here are just a few from my Missouri Trip

So Much To Say

There's so much to tell about right now and so much to be thankful for! When Justin and I think of all of our blessings as of late, we both feel overwhelmed. How can so many good things happen to one little family. Our children are the biggest blessing in our lives. They are so loving and kind-not to mention a ton of laughs constantly. We both enjoy going to our jobs and being in the "corporate world" during the day, but it is so refreshing to step into pre-school when we get home. We relish in the opportunity to get down on the floor and paint, play star wars toys or whatever they want to do. It really is a fun time. We both love the Fall and Halloween so do our kids! I even let the boys put up tombstones in the front yard for Halloween. We spent last night making dozens of pumpkin cookies to take to the new neighbors. Of all that is going for us, I feel especially lucky to have gained the love of such a wonderful man. He has spent countless hours as of late hanging curtains, replacing fixtures, unpacking and many other honey doos! I am fortunate to have such a handsome, kind and supportive hubby!
in sad news, I just returned from a week visit to Missouri. My great-grandmother was 95 and passed away last week. She was a wonderful woman who led an amazing life and I will forever be changed by her prescence! Abby and i had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family we had not seen in some time. I saw my father for the first time in 5 years and even cousins I had not seen in over 15 years! I will post a few pics.....Smiles & Hugs!

Family Dance

We ended family camp with a fun dance the last night, the kids LOVED IT!

Family Camp II

Just a few more of our fun family camp!

Summer Family Camp

We all had a blast at the Aspen Grove Summer Family Camp for Vision Bankcard a few weeks ago. It was like summer camp when you were a kid, only mom and dad get to come too! here are a few photos.

MOVING DAYS

We are currently in the process of relocating to our new, beautiful, spacious home! We are all sad to leave this one but need room to spread our wings...ALL OF US. When the boys saw our new master closent the other night they said, "Woa, mom whose room is this?" I told them that this is where my clothes, shoes, handbags and jewelry will live and now there's room for daddy to buy me more! Our numbers should remain the same and I will send out cards so that everyone has our new address. Let the unpacking begin...will take until Christmas at least. I am excited about all the "extras" this house has. There are even 2 drinking fountains (1 indoor and 1 outdoor) which the boys love!

As the Hill House Turns

We have had quite a few dramatic twists and turns with the sale of our home. Long story short, the people who had put an offer in on the house and was proceeding to buy lost their financing. This was a bit of a shock to us considering we had taken our home off the market for about 30 days during the high sale season. After this happend, we were convinved by our agent to go back to the other couple who had previously put an offer in on the home and see if they were still interested on buying the home. They put an offer in 10k less than their original offer and there began a week of tough negotiation! The end is that the house is sold (I think :) and we move in 13 days! We are excited event though we had to take a little less than what we had hoped. This new house will be a dream home for us! Got any boxes???

Off to Vegas!

Jus and I had a great week sharing the responsibilites as stay home parents. Our nanny took a much deserved sebatical over the past week. As Justin said Thursday, he and I both are reminded of what a wonderful job our Aubrey does and what an important role she fills in our family. It takes someone so special to not only care for your children but to bond to them. Let me tell you, she is cemented to these 3! We are taking a childless trip to Vegas this weekend to meet up with a good friend of ours from hs and college, Chris Othic and his wife. We have not been away from the kids at the same time in over 3 years! We're excited and will post pics when we return. As for the house, we had the inspection this week and our loan for our new home went through. Although stressful, the process is moving along pretty smoothly and quickly. I have started to throw my sadness (of leaving this beautiful but small home) into excitement of decorating the new home. We are scheduling contractors for granite, cabinets and paint as well as new furniture and appliances. Thank goodness we made 100k more that we paid for this house to make all these 'wishes' come true. I am having the kitchen painted yellow, black & white granite, white cabinets with black furniture and red accents! Sound good? Quite a change from the green 'everything' in our current home!

Orem Owlz & Sundance

Okay, this is my last post today. I haven't uploaded photos in awhile and have to keep Grandma in Missouri happy, so here are some of this past weekend. We had a fun time as a family going to the Orem Owlz baseball game and on an adventure to the river and Sundance.

Mario Boy!

The photos I get of Ethan are few and far between. He is the cutest boy ever, just a little camera shy. Here are a few we were able to get!

Tweeter!

Here are a few from our litle Tweeter Pie. She has been under the weather lately, although you can't tell it from that beautiful smile!

The MANY Faces of Isaac!

As most of you know, our Isaac loves to pose! Ethan sees a camera and runs away. Isaac had a friend over the other night to watch "Gremlins" and this is how he reacted to the scary parts. Living with him , is like living with a little comedian!

Family

We recently got together with some of Justin's family for Sophie's baptism, it was great to see everyone and the cousins loved playing together!

"The Magic of Life"

My awesome friend who lives in New York (or Philly-Rebecca, where are you right now) got me started on blogging and everything else in life that is cool. She is the most talented and full of love person you could ever meet. She emailed me today after looking at my past few entries and said that, "I live in the magic of life." Well, anyone who knows about my past, knows that I have been blessed in ways immeasurable. This statement is from a woman who has a 12 month old daughter and a 2month old son who spent his first 7 weeks of life in the NICU. If anyone has and lives in "the magic of life," it is her. She has taught me so much! I am grateful for the opportunity that the Lord contiunally has given me throughout my life to be surrounded by greatness. Her little baby has help build faith in my little children as we would pray every night for Baby Talmage. Her friendship has given me so much love and her talents give me boundless hope that I can grow up to be like her someday! Rebecca, thanks for giving me "the magic!"

The Latest

Well, it's final our beautiful home that's loaded with some of the best years of my life is SOLD. I should be happy considering it is so much bigger, newer and closer to work than our current home but I am sad. Justin and I bought this house before we even got married and rented it until we were ready to settle here. It's been wonderful and hard to think of leaving. We will close at the end of September and will rent back from them for a few weeks. We are buying our new home from Justin's parents and that will give them time to move as well. The owner of the company I work for will be our neighbor so it will feel like family. I'm still struggling though. In other news, the kids have been having a blast at swim lessons, even Abby is doing a class with our nanny. They all love the water! The boys start pre-school in a few weeks and look forward to seeing Mrs. Gina again. We are excited to be joined by our good friend from KC Brad who now lives in Palm Springs this weekend. Jus and I will be travelling to Vegas next weekend to hang with his best friend Chris and his wife Mary. It will be the first time we have left the kids overnight in a couple of years with the exceptions of our buisness trips. Anyway, that's the latest we'll post more pics soon and maybe actually figure out how to upload video one of these days. You would think with a husband in the tech industry we would have gotten it down by now but we've been BUSY!

Some more fun ones!

Well, while I am going back in time I thought it would be fun to include some fun old photos of the kids!

Oldies But GOODIES!

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic lately probably because I have gotten in touch with so many friends from fun times in the past and because of moving from our home of nearly 9 years. While organizing and packing I came across some cute and funny old pics of Justin and I. This is proof to all my college friends who thought I was crazy when I came home from a random trip to Utah and told everyone I was getting married. Many of you didn't even know him at the time. These pictures show you that we did know eachother pre-Kansas City! In the first one I am 15! The second one is of my freshman year of college when Jus and I coached T-Ball together. Who would have thought that more than 10 years later we would be married with 3 beautiful babies? The last few are of our Maui wedding. Enjoy!

House is SOL D...but to whom?

We now have 2 buyers for the home, I guess that is good...we should find out tomorrow which one of them will end up getting it. Looks like moving day will be in mid-Septemeber. When I moved here in 1999 after we were married, it took a 24 foot U-Haul from Missouri (that's as big as they come). This move is sure to be nothing short of 2 semi-trucks. This has been so stressful that I don't care if we ever move again...unless it is to Missouri. Just kidding Jus! But after looking at real estate prices there it is compelling. My friend Emily from high school just bought a beautiful dream home in Liberty. Hey Rebecca, hope New York is great, thanks for telling me about Chandilier Accesories.

Another House Update

Well, we are still waiting to see what happens with our house...We now have two offers and our negotiating with both buyers. One would be more immediate the other we would have to wait for them to sell their home. We are anxious to move, mainly because of the space of our new home. This process has definitly been a big learning experience for us both. We are so grateful for the opportunity to move to a new home and for me to be about 3 min. from work. The kids are enoying a fun summer. It is nice to have cousins here as Derrin and Nicole have moved back from L.A. last year. Their favorite thing is to go to their house and ride four wheelers and just PLAY. They have enjoyed swimming lessons and are looking forward to starting Preschool with Mrs. Gina in the fall. Isaac is excited to give soccer a try also. We continue to love our nanny...she's a life saver and we owe so much of our success as a family to her. Jus and I are both doing well and look forward to so much in the future with our little family.