My cute girls

Ok I put the pictures in the opposite order that I wanted to oops. sorry. Oh well you still will get the idea. Here are my cute girls now and here are pics of them when they were younger. Liz and I were looking at pictures of family on their blogs and we saw a pic of her and a cousin when they were babies so she wanted to see more baby pics so then we saw these and I had to put them up here of how cute and little these 3 rascals were.
Elizabeth at 7 months old. She used to wear this robe(which was actually Megan's when she was a baby) and Scott would have her arms punching like Rocky and calling her the "Fighting Tornado"(he used to do that with the other girls as well and it just became tradition.)
I love the chunky cheeks. This picture described her....happy and huge smiles all the time.
We were headed on a family trip to Utah but our transmission went out so our trip to Utah started with a week stay at the Carpenter household(that was going to be the end of our vacation but we decided to do things backwards that time). The girls weren't used to the heat after living away from Utah for a couple summers. They were roasting outside. But I saw this picture and just loved the face Kaylee was making. Look how little they were.
Ok Melissa this picture of Kaylee looks just like your pictures when you were a little girl. I had to put this on here for you to see.

I love my girls and can't believe they are getting so big. Megan will be 7 in 4 months. I am not old enough to have a 7 year old.....am I? Sometimes I still feel like a kid myself. To all you who we went to school together, it's 10 years this June. CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!! I love you girls and all your silliness. Last night we were eating dinner late because the girls had just gotten home from dance and I had just finished piano lessons. They were so goofy and crazy and poor mommy was exhausted and not feeling good but they were so cute trying to cheer me up!!!!! Thanks girls!!!!

Girl's school pics

This is my crazy/sweet Liz and her silly personality coming out in this picture. There are lots of pics and there is a post at the end of the pics.














Ok I know it's been forever since I posted, life has been crazy and I'm just not the best at this. Anyway Megan started 1st grade and is loving it. She has her first loose tooth and is excited to tell everyone about it.
Kaylee started Kindergarten and is just soooooo excited she can't believe she actually started school. She has morning kindergarten and when I get her off the bus she runs home as fast as possible runs to the kitchen counter, sits down, opens her backpack and does homework right away(not that she really has any but she loves to pretend most days).
Elizabeth and I have fun being home together, she is definitely turning into the terrible 3s and can throw such enormous tantrums that I just can't believe they are coming from her. Then on the other hand she is sooo stinkin' cute and sweet and lovable that when they tantrums come you are completely in shock.

We have been in our new house since the beginning/middle of July. We are loving it so much. There is a ton more stuff to do but for now I think we are taking a break from doing fix it work right now. We need to do a little touch up paint and eventually change the flooring in one bathroom, maybe change the counter tops and cupboards sometime but for now we are just relaxing and enjoying the house.

I got to go to my sister's this summer when she had her 3rd little girl and stay with her family for 2 weeks. Scott was so wonderful and let me go see her. I can't repay him or thank him enough for that chance. I haven't seem Amy for quite a while. I was gone over my birthday which also happens to be Amy's little 2 year old Sofia's birthday. It was so fun, busy because Amy had a lot of complications from the C-section but I was so glad that I could go and see her family and be there to help when she needed it most. By the way she just outside of D.C. so I did get to do some sightseeing. I will have to do another post and put pics up from my trip there.

Enjoy the pics of the girls and eventually I will get pics of the house taken and posted.

What Happened to TIME????

Ok so I was just looking on here and realizing how looooooong it has been since I lasted posted anything. Megan's B-Day, yikes that's horrible. So much has happened in the last little while and none of it has been mentioned. Well to Start off with, Kaylee had her very much anticipated B-Day and it was so wonderful. She is now 5 yrs old and is counting down the months to kindergarten next year.

I told her that I would miss her and asked if she would stay home with me instead of going to school. She thought about it for a few minutes then said, "well mom I really want to go to school very badly but, umm, well I'll stay home with you and take care of you." Well a couple days later we were all in the car driving around town and I overhear a conversation of Megan and Kaylee's.
M: Kaylee you can go to Kindergarten all day and have lunch and play at recess and it's sooo much fun.
K: I know but megan I have to stay and take care of Mom because she will miss me too much. I really want to go but I can't leave her because she will be too sad.
M: Oh yeah, well you would still love to go, it would be fun.
K: I know well(talking to me now) Mom could I just go to Kindergarten one day, would you be ok?

Aren't they sweet? I love my girls.

Well the other exciting news........ We are buying our FIRST HOME!!!!!!!!

Very scary and nerve wracking. It is taking longer than we would have hoped for but it is such a blessing how everything is working out. We never thought we would be able to afford anything in this area that wasn't completely run down, big enough for our family and within our price range. Well Scott applied out of state for a couple positions and when we found out he didn't get them. We called our agent on a Saturday and said next Sat let's meet and go over all the homes available. ( We have seriously been constantly watching every home on the market here for the last 4 yrs.) Sunday we got home from church and there was a message on the machine. It was Scott's co-worker who's wife happens to be our Agent. He said that they found a house that just hit the market and would be perfect for us. So we called them and they said we needed to see it now before somebody else snatched it up. So we went out super fast and met her and looked at 3 houses. The first one was dooable but not really what we wanted. The second one we were so amazed at it. The third one was like somebody had pot smoking parties in it with psychadelic glass windows.

Well we wrote up an offer that night for the 2nd house we saw and turned it in. The bank counter offered the next day, we got preapproved right away and it has just been moving right a long. We did inspections and turned in our requests for what we wanted the bank to take care of on the house. The House is a bank repo and was priced about $70,000 lower than what it sold for not too long ago because the siding needs to be fixed. Anyway our contractor drew up bids and our agent asked him to throw in some extra things just for fun, thinking that the bank probably wouldn't agree but why not try it? Well the bank asked for a second set of bids. So we got that in and waited for over a week. Finally last Wednesday we heard a tenative answer back as they would fix some things. Then Thursday our agent called and said I have approvals back, here's the list. She went through the list and the bank has approved EVERYTHING we asked for. Did I say that already??? EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is absolutely amazing because everything is about $10000 worth of repairs/fixup stuff and somethings are really just thrown in type of things we asked for but they are doing it.

We are really excited, the house was built in 1992, 3 bedrooms/2 baths. We will need to carpet the bedrooms and repaint the inside. A few other little cosmetic things we will need to fix but nothing big. The siding was the old LP siding(particle board cheap stuff) So the bank is replacing the siding/painting it(the neighbors next door have basically the same house and paid about $45,000 more than us and didn't get anything fixed on it. They bought it about 2 1/2 yrs ago. They are doing heating service, carpenter ant treatment, pest control treatment, new dishwasher and disposal(high end), tearing out the back deck because of dry rot and completely rebuilding it, removing a dead bug infested hot tub, new trim, new water heater(or fixing the other one). There are a few other things they are doing but that's basically it. Once we move into the house it will practically be brand new. The flooring in the great room and kitchen/dining rooms are practically brand new. Really nice laminate flooring and new tile. We're excited. It's a little bit smaller than the house we are in right now so we will have to down size but we get a huge kitchen, a huge dining room, our own HUGE bedroom and our own Master Bath. Our bedroom is actually pretty small right now so we are super stoked for this.

Plus it will be closer to Scott's work. Although I hate to move away from how close we are to the river. I love being able to just walk downtown or to the riverwalk or see it from my front windows. We won't have a view at all. Oh well huh???

We feel so blessed with how everything has worked out for us we feel that the Lord has watched over us a prepared a way for us to stay here and be in a home.

We hope everyone is doing good. Sorry for the super long narrative with no pics.

Now the question is, do we want to transport the girls back to this school district or move them to Scott's school district which is the one we will live in. But we love Megan's school and all the teachers and Principal. So we will have to decide. Plus they have full day Kindergarten and we really think Kaylee would benefit from that. Megan has learned and grown (mentally) wonders from being in full day. I guess we will see when we get the house. We should be able to sign and close and paint and carpet and move in all hopefully by the first of July. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY MEGAN

Here is the Big Birthday Girl on her 6th Birthday. She was so excited and couldn't wait until today. She kept begging all day long to let her open her cards and presents. It was a very hard and long wait until 6 pm at night to open presents.

We surprised(or tried to) her by going to her classroom and taking Little Debbie cakes for her and her classmates after lunch. We sang happy birthday to her and then she got home and was so worn out because she woke up at 6:00 am that she fell fast asleep on the couch for 2 hours. We made a salad and awaited our dinner. Megan told us that she wanted Pizza for her dinner and cake. She also wanted to invite Brother and Sister Sefren (or other wise known as Grandma and Grandpa Sefren) over for dinner. The Sefrens are an older couple in our ward whom the girls love and they love the girls, the have been designated as our surrogate grandparents. We love them!!!!
When I called to invite her she asked if they could bring the pizza so we had pizza provided by the Sefrens from Costco for dinner, salad and then enjoy carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. YUM!!!!
Megan blowing out the candles. I didn't do anything spectacular this year for her cake. Last year I made a huge castle cake and the year before that a cookie monster cake and the year before that another cookie monster cake. The year before that we bought a cookie monster cake.
This is Megan and Kaylee snuggled up next to Grandma and Grandpa Sefren. Marion was great and did not want a picture taken because she thought her hair hadn't been done. She told me not to show anybody at church her picture. So if anybody from the ward is looking at this please to comment to Marion. I don't think anyone from church has my blog except maybe one or two so if you do-you never saw this picture. :)
Megan opening her gifts. We bought her a ballerina card game. Her and Kaylee were having a lot of fun with it.
Ballerina Magnetic wooden doll from the Sefrens.
My parents sent Megan this Adorable dress. It is soooo pretty!!! Thanks Mom and Dad, Megan loves it. She can't wait to wear it to school tomorrow. She also loved the box of chocolates you sent to her. She shared all of them but 2. She ate one, Kaylee had one, Elizabeth had one and the Sefrens each had one. She is saving the other one for tomorrow after school. They were a big hit. Thanks!!!
Scott's Mom had a lot of fun sewing this dress for Megan. It is so pretty. It's hard to see the details in the picture but there are little jewels all over the skirt and sleeves. Megan loves it, It looks like a beautiful Homecoming Dress. Thanks Carol for all your hard work. It's awesome. She also made a matching dress for Megan's baby doll. I didn't get a picture of her in them yet but I will and I will post it later. She tried it on but Elizabeth was going crazy and I didn't think about taking a picture of her in it until after she was asleep.
Megan with her card from Great Grandpa Calvin. Of course with her Money in it. She tried to count it but couldn't quite figure it out. She knew she had a $10, a $5 and a $1. I asked her how much they make together and she stopped and thought about it.
"Mom, I have $100 dollars!!!!" It was very cute.

I love you Megan. I can't believe that you are now 6 years old. You completely changed my life knowing when I was pregnant to you and the day that you were born!!!!! Thank you for the joy, the craziness, all the new experiences you bring into our lives. I love you, thank you sooooo much!!!!! You are truly a gift from Heavenly Father.

Anniversary date a success

Blindside was awesome, for all of you who want to see it, GO!!! It was so good, Sandra Bullock was awesome. It was such a good feel good movie and it makes you want to be so much better and be a better influence to all those around you.

Dinner was soooo delicious. It was a new restaurant and was soooo cool with the decorations. I love it. Scott had a huge ribeye steak and I had a chicken Mediera with fresh dungeness crab added in. It was soooooooo good. Definitely more than I would normally spend for dinner but we decided it only happens once a year so why not enjoy it. Right?

The girls had a blast and the adopted grandparents loved them and wanted them to come back. That always makes it really nice. Did I mention that they are in their late 70's and 80's????? I think that they will be ready for bed early tonight(the grandparents.) Kaylee fell asleep within seconds of being in the van. Megan is in bed fast asleep as soon as we got home and Elizabeth will join them shortly.

Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!

Today is the big 7th Anniversary Day!!!!! Although if you count the years, we've already been married 7 years and this is our 8th year. Maybe I'm just being weird. Anyway, who knows about my mind these days. I have honestly not been home most days because we have had constant activities and different things we've had to run here and there for. So my mind feels like it has checked out and disappeared for a while. I'm glad to have Christmas break and hopefully find it before everyone starts everything back up again!!!!

To my Wonderful Husband who is to me the most amazing man, I LOVE YOU!!!!! You have always been so willing to help with whatever task I set my mind to, no matter how crazy or not. Thank you for always supporting me with all of our decisions we have made together. Thank you for our 3 beautiful daughters who absolutely adore and love you. I couldn't have asked for a better Husband or Father.

Even though our meeting was super fast and getting to know each other wasn't quite the normal way to most people. Even our engagement and getting married as soon as we did was not quite what we thought would happen, you have been so much more and better than I could have ever hoped for or imagined for myself. Thank you so much!!!!!!!

Last year for our Anniversary Scott surprised me several months beforehand with buying me tickets to go see "Wicked" in Portland. It was awesome!!!!! My parents came and watched the girls and we spent the night in Portland. This year we are just keeping it low key. There is an older couple in our ward whom Elizabeth has designated as Grandma and Grandpa. (I think she misses having hers around so she takes what she can get.) The girls love them, their names are Marion and John Sefren. They usually sit behind us in Sacrament Meeting and bring stickers and cards for the girls so they can keep busy and happy. We like to have lunch dates with them sometimes at their home and play games. We've made homemade freezer jam that the girls picked the berries and made with them. They came last Friday night to the girls dance recital and then took us all out to ice cream. They have just been so wonderful to get to know and great to have around when you aren't super close to family. We call them our adopted Grandparents and they love it.

The Sefrens will be watching the girls for us(Marion is so excited she can't wait.) We are going to go to a matinee of The Blindside and then go to a new restaurant in town called "The Supper Club". I'm excited because the guy who owns the restaurant has another one in town, The Urban Cafe that I really like and so it will be fun to try this one.

That is our fun stuff for our anniversary. Scott just took the girls to go shopping by himself. Brave man. While I have piano students and Visiting TEachers this morning. Thanks BABE!!!!!!

I'm looking forward to Eternity with you. Love ya tons!!!!!!

Success!!!!!!!

Ok, it's finally over. I'm actually really sad. It's been building up to that one moment for weeks and weeks and the nervousness had been building and building and I thought that I was going to go crazy. Then the week before I come down with a horrid cold. Drat!!!! This cannot be happening to me. The one time I get the nerves and then I have a horrible cold start. AHHHHHH!!! For those of you who don't know or remember what I am talking about, it was our Choir Concert the 12th and 13th of December and I was singing a solo. Well it's over now. The whole week leading up to it was crazy. I had a horrible cold saturday night that just came out of nowhere. It started with a scratchy throat and a stuffed up nose and it escalated super fast. I was dying sunday and monday. Scott was so sweet and stayed home from school monday and I got to rest the whole day. He's just the best and always so thoughtful of helping me.

Tuesday night we had our normal practice and I had a little bit of a voice but I just couldn't project it. Thursday night it was back a little bit better but my ears were completely plugged and my nose was so stuffy. Luckily one of my friends there told me to use the saline nasal spray and another friend gave me a pack of super strong menthol gum that clears out those sinuses. WOW!!!! Anyway so I used all of those and Saturday night came.

My song wasn't until the 2nd half and the third song. The first half flew by and there was a pretty good crowd. Intermission. I was singing my solo over and over again to make sure I could get it. Then 2nd half started. Before I knew it the 2nd song was ending. Oh my goodness I thought I would have a million butterflies but I didn't. I just walked down to the microphone, took a deep breath and smiled. The choir started and it was my turn to sing. Deep breath, and out came the song. It was so easy. That gave me a lot of confidence and I just keep going. It was great. I was nervous for my last entrance because finding the note when the choir is holding their note was hard during rehearsal. I don't know why because it wasn't that wierd of a note but anyway, I got it and just sang it out. It was great.

Then Sunday night, I don't know why but I was not nervous one bit up until about the last half of the song right before my solo. Then BAM!! I was hit with a ton of butterflies and the shakes. Oh my word it was crazy. But the solo was fine, I don't think as good as the first night but it was still good.

If you were able to make it thanks for coming and if not, I am going to get a copy of the music that maybe I can figure out how to put it on here.

I still don't know if I want to do another solo though. It's very nerve wracking!!!!!!!