Long Overdue

Yes, I know. I am absolutely TERRIBLE at updating this thing. Let me tell you, my personal journal isn't much better. Sad, sad story people. Life is zinging by and I'm missing it because if I don't take the time to write it down, it disappears faster than I can relish it and soon I forget all the small things that make life right now what it is: wonderful.  SO... I'm going to take a second and give a quick update. Someday I will finish all my backtracking posts and get you totally updated on our life over the past 8 months, but that won't happen tonight.  NOTE:  None of the following posted pictures have been edited.  I know you don't care and probably don't notice, but I am absolutely cringing at the thought of posting unedited pictures on here.  C'est la vie!!


We moved into our beautiful home on June 25th and are absolutely in LOVE with it.  Clint took that first week we were moving in off from work so that we could get totally unpacked and settled as soon as possible since this is our forever home and we wanted to live HERE and not out of boxes.  Sorry, the pics are only of about 1/2 the house and unfortunately only one of them are of the outside {kinda, it's our family pic from the 4th of July.  It was taken in the courtyard out front}.  I'm still working on the rest!  It's on my "someday" list LOL

This house has felt like home since we moved in.  We are so excited, even with all the responsibility that has come with it.  We have almost an acre and a half with the house and Sandra {the woman we bought the house from} planted all kinds of yummy stuff.  This fall {ok, every fall from now on} will be a busy one trying to figure out when and how everything needs to be harvested, but it's a great challenge and SO rewarding!  Our garden was very generous, the grapes and figs were fab, apples are just starting to come off and in the next month our pecans, pistachios, walnuts and pomegranates will be ready also.  Crazy busy, bring it on!!  :O)


Next up, we went camping with my family on our beautiful mountain in mid July.  It was such a great weekend - although sorry to my BIL Troy who isn't quite simpatico with heights and had to drive up the cliff-side road with no guardrails... SORRY!!!!  We hiked and found a TON of lady bugs {note the difference between how many bugs are crawling on my girls vs my nephews... city boys!  LOL}.  It was just nice to get to share our mountain with my family.  My grandma had actually camped there as a little girl during the summers and until 2 years ago hadn't been back in almost 70 years!  CRAZINESS!!  Grandma, you don't look that old my dear!

Clint's Grandma GG came down from Oregon in April and stayed through July with Russell and Jonnet.  It was such a treat to have her here, the kiddos LOVE their Grandma GG and she will definitely be missed!

Ah, next comes the 24th of July.  Clint has somehow ended up in charge of our ward's float for the last X many years and this year a few days before he decided that we as a family needed to dress in pioneer garb and walk with the float to hand out all the candy.  Great idea except that we live in 2012 and don't have pioneer garb.  SO, I took a few old sheets and some extra fabric and sewed the girls and I bonnets and aprons.  Well, after working on them for 2 days my sewing machine evidently thought I needed a break cuz it bit me.  The needle went in exactly where the nail leaves the skin at the nail bed, I jerked my finger away from the machine with the needle still in my nail, tearing through the length of the nail all the way to where the nail leaves the skin underneath and turns white.  Yeeeeeeah.  Needless to say I cried like a baby, Clint took me to the doctor and all they did was give me a bandaid and a tetanus shot {which hurt worse than the original injury I came in for!  Hello?!?  Didn't they know I came IN with a needle injury?  I wasn't looking for another one!}.  I was so burnt about the bandaid that I made Clint take me to sonic.  :O)  See, I'm a little baby!

On August 8th, school started.  Madi took her first step as a big first grader {sob!} and Maelee began "Mommy School".  They are both doing great and loving it!  Madi loves her teacher, who is a great fit for us, and she has a lot of friends in her class.  Maelee has already learned to count to 13 {except that she keeps wanting to jump to 6... "1,2,6" "Try again, 1,2,3" "oh, ok!  1,2,3,6"... too funny!  Once she actually GETS to 6 she's perfect!} and most of her colors.  It's going to be a great year for both girlies!

Madi turned 6 in May and is still so sassy!  I mean that as spunky not as a turkey... actually... she's pretty good at both!  :O)  She tested into intermediate swim lessons this year {woot!} and enjoyed carrying Marcus around all summer.  Going back to school has been really good for her, she craves the routine.  She has mellowed out a lot in the last few weeks as far as stinker moments go and her sweet side is really starting to shine.  She's such a great helper and her most recent quirk is when she comforts Marcus, she tells him, "Sssssssh, it's ok."  Except she doesn't leave a space between the "sssh" and the "it".  So, honestly my 6 year old walks around telling my 8 month old "Sssssshit's ok!"!!!  And when he's really fussy, there aren't as many s's!!  Makes me smile.

Maelee is as always... our little coconut!  She turned 3 in June and still keeps us on our toes.  She has the funniest little personality and comes up with the silliest things.  She wants so badly to carry Marcus around and play with him, but typically it ends with him in wide-eyed tears, pleading with me to save him.  Give him another few months sweetie, then he'll be more ready to play!  She loves Mommy School and mimics everything Madi does.  She's also turning into quite the little pesty sister and LOVES to drive Madison crazy - poking, touching, kicking, looking at her... it's all fair game and Maelee eats it up.  Her biggest news is actually a total bummer: she has to have surgery next week.  :O(  She has had 7 UTI's in 10 months, her fever got up to 107.5 twice and it just gets worse with each infection.  We had a VCUG {awful, awful, awful experience for the poor girl} and it showed that she has stage 4 reflux which basically means her tubes which drain urine from the kidneys to the bladder didn't form right and so they don't stop the pee from going back up into the kidneys - which is a big no no.  In the surgery, they'll disconnect the tubes and reattach them properly.  Yuck.  BUT, to have the UTI's a thing of the past will be worth it.  SO not looking forward to recovery but hopefully she'll bounce back quickly!!!!!!

Marcus has grown by leaps and bounds!  We started him on cereal and baby food when we moved in, and now he's eating stage 3 baby food, cheerios and small bites of table food.  He hasn't mastered the pincer grip yet, but is quite proficient at the grab and shove method.  His first little tooth popped through 2 weeks ago and will hopefully be joined in the next week by a friend.  In the last week he has made the transition from crawling backwards to finally crawling forward, and has also discovered how to pull himself up onto his knees AND his feet.  Jeez kid!  I had to move his crib mattress all the down to the lowest setting today and he did NOT like it!  He was so mad at me for taking away his new found ability to look OVER his crib that he refused to go to sleep tonight for about an hour.  Poor kid was exhausted and still protesting!  Marcus has also discovered cause and effect.  When he waves his hand in front of the XBOX it beeps and flashes pretty green lights.  When he waves again it beeps more and the lights turn off - magic.  Or when he puts his hand in front of a night light it lights up.  ACK!  Baby proofing again?!?  :O)  He is the sweetest baby and we are all so smitten with him.  How can we not be?

That's the last 2 months in a nutshell.  A big nutshell.  Like a black walnut shell.  :O)

Relief

We FINALLY sold our house!!!!  Granted, in the real estate world having your house on the market for 3 1/2 months really isn't all that long - BUT - it's an eternity when you have the house you want to buy tauntingly close to being yours and all waiting on an offer that you have no control over.  We are so... Excited!  Nervous!  Scared!  In denial!  AAAAAAAACK!!  Now comes the scary part, turning it all into a reality.

We have contracts on both houses, and closing dates for both.  If all goes well, we will {hopefully} be in our new house by the end of the month!  Insane!!  The couple who is buying our house is {well, I've only actually met the girl and her mom but they were} stinkin' CUTE!  We are SO excited for them to buy our house.  It's been a GREAT starter home for us and we're so glad to be able to pass it on to them.  It's beyond wonderful to know how jazzed they are to call our house their home and to know that it will be loved after we say goodbye to it.  You could see how happy the girl was when she came by for the inspection and that made me so so glad we accepted their offer.  :O)

This house has been a lifesaver for us.  It's affordable, it's cozy, it's comfortable, it's safe.  Moving is definitely exciting, but it's also like going swimming without floaties for the first time.  You KNOW you can do it, but you're still petrified to let go of that safe ledge and take the plunge.  Once you swim without the comfort of those floaties, you can't really go back.  You've grown up and it's a little daunting to imagine yourself in such a large pool, trusting that the lifeguards will keep you safe as long as you do your best to keep on swimming.  {I just re-read that and it's a pretty darn good analogy!!}  LOL  We KNOW this is the right thing for us to do, and are DEFINITELY giddy for it... but now that it's becoming a reality it's just a little scary to realize what a HUGE change it will be.  We're leaving our comfort zone and trusting Heavenly Father to guide us when we let go of that ledge and take that plunge.  Scary is honestly the best word for it.

It's all good.  We're ready.  We're excited!  And I'm sure that once we get over the initial shock of how much our monthly payments are going to be we'll start the jumping up and down :O)

Ready

Not just ready, BEYOND ready.

We are so ready to sell our house.

It's been on the market for 3 months now and we've had 14 walk-thrus, one offer that was SUPER low {and when we countered it, they didn't respond to our counter.  Sigh.}, one almost offer, one couple want it if they can sell their house and another couple that we were really hoping would make us an offer but it's been a month since they walked-thru and so the hope on that one has run it's course.

Don't get me wrong, we're not discouraged.  We're not desperate.  We're just ready to move on.  I don't really even know what the right word is to describe how we're feeling right now, because we know that the right buyer will buy our house and that things will work out how they are supposed to.  We KNOW that so we're... comforted...?  But at the same time it's been 3 months and we're READY.

The biggest frustration for me is that there's nothing we can do.  If we were waiting on something we had to do that would be one thing but we've done all we can think of.  We are in limbo, waiting for that offer that will jump start that amazing chain of events and until it comes in... Aside from taking desperate measures {and like I said, we're not desperate} there really isn't anything else we can do at this point.  I know the buying season is starting, and I know the market has taken a turn and is starting to improve.  But is my house sold yet?  *Sigh*  Nope.

BUT - Like I said, we know Heavenly Father is in charge of this whole shin-dig so we're keeping it positive.  We're super excited about our new house and already have a laundry list of things we're looking forward to doing in the yard and painting and this and that.  It's fun to dream knowing that in a few months those things will be a reality.  It's also been nice to fix this house up a little bit more to get it ready to sell; to see it in a new light as we focus on all the pros for our future buyer...

It really is a great house and we've loved living here for the past 7 years.  BUT... we are READY TO MOVE ON!  Come on, buyer, let's do this!!!!!

I've updated our sales pitch LOL and so for anyone who might be interested, here it is again since our last post isn't on this main page anymore...

The house appraised two years ago for $130,000 and we are asking $126,999.  It sits on over half {.6} an acre with fruit {apricot and the most delicious peaches EVER!} and shade trees, established landscaping in front and a LOT of potential in back.  The back yard is fenced in, and the property continues beyond the back fence {this is where we have the fruit trees.  There is a valve which runs only to the fruit trees.  Each tree has its own water spicket which can be adjusted to control the flow of water to the individual tree.  There are also two additional water spickets already run and in place for future trees.  Behind the fence there is also a brick fire pit} and eventually meets with a grove of mesquite trees.  There is enough land for horses, RV's, a workshop, etc. behind the fence while still leaving the huge back yard {we have a large sandbox for our fort/swing set/playground, partial grass and a shed on a concrete foundation - and there is STILL a TON of yard left}.  We have installed multiple water spickets around the perimeter of the yard and have a fenced off area for our dog.

The house itself is 1,268 square feet with a split and spacious floor plan that makes it feel a LOT bigger than that.  It has 3 nice sized bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.  The two regular bed rooms have large custom closets with built-in organizers and sliding mirror doors.  The hall bathroom is bright and has cream cabinets with satin nickel hardware, a rain shower head and a curved shower curtain rod - which makes the bathtub/shower nice and spacious without invading the rest of the room.

The master bedroom is large and has a sliding glass door leading out to a small porch and a spacious walk-in closet {again with custom organizers to make the most of the space}.  The added crown molding gives the room a nice finishing touch and the illusion of a higher ceiling.  There is definitely more than enough room for a king size bed set in this bedroom. The master bathroom also has cream cabinets {with lots of storage} and satin nickel hardware including cup pulls on the many drawers.  The counter top is large, giving you lots of room to spread out when both of you are getting ready for the day.  :O)  It also has an oversize shower {which is SO nice!!} with a rain shower head.

The family room has a large window and is quite roomy - we have a couch, chaise-lounge, book case, entertainment center and hope chest in the room and it's still very open and clutter-free.

There are double ceiling fans and an arch leading into the hallway.  The family room is openly connected to the dining nook and kitchen, which gives these rooms a feel of being bigger than they are.  The dining nook has bay windows, allowing the perfect fit for the table and provides a beautiful view of the mountains.  The kitchen is VERY well thought out.  The storage space is maximized with 2 Lazy Suzans and 2 deep corner cabinets above, and beautiful custom cupboards that meet the ceiling.  The gas oven/range still looks brand new and the dishwasher is in great shape.

The laundry room also houses the hot water heater and has the same custom ceiling-high cabinets the kitchen sports.  There is room to store the vacuum, mop, etc. and has a door leading to the 2 car covered carport.  We have had fun painting and improving here and there over the years, and have upgraded the interior doors to 6 paneled ones, installed ceiling fans in every bedroom, 2-inch wood blinds in all the windows, built 3 flower beds and extended the front porch quite a bit and added a sidewalk down the side of the carport and across the front of the house. 

This house still has SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!  It's set up for an easy addition off the back, or a large back porch and the carport could easily be enclosed to a 2-car garage.  There is room for anything you could want to buy, build or bring to this property.

Beyond the greatness of the house itself, it also boasts a number of other perks:

It’s within a 5-minute walking distance of every local business; including restaurants, the post office, museum, the county utility company, police station, Town Hall, fire department, library, local schools and churches of multiple denominations.

It’s only a 10 to 15-minute drive to the stores and restaurants offered in the neighboring communities.

It is located in a nice, quiet neighborhood and the neighbors are welcoming and friendly.

The house is enough off the beaten path that you get the peace of a cul-de-sac, yet still in the heart of town so you don’t have to sacrifice the convenience of everything being within walking distance.

It offers the feel of a large, expensive home for a fraction of the price. 

It is well insulated and the huge elm tree in the front offers amazing shade which keeps the house cooler longer so you can wait a few extra hours to close the windows and turn on the AC in the spring and summer.  It also has a natural gas heater instead of electric to save money during those cold months.  Over the last 7 years, our combined utility bill has never been over $300.

Lovin' it?  :O)  Spread the word and I'll personally give $100 to whoever brings us a buyer!!  ;O)

We are MOVING!!!

Well... as soon as we sell our house that is!  :O)  SO... the point of this post is to brag all about our adorable abode so that word will spread like wildfire and hopefully help us find our buyer!

Let me start with the bragging {but quickly say that we're not leaving town, just buying a different house to call home.  More on that later!}.   Our house appraised a year and a half ago for $130,000 and we are asking $128,000.  It sits on over half an acre with fruit {apple, apricot and the most delicious peaches EVER!} and shade trees, established landscaping in front and a LOT of potential in back.  The back yard is fenced in, and the property continues beyond the back fence {this is where we have the fruit trees and a fire pit} quite a ways and eventually into a grove of mesquite trees.  There is enough land for horses, RV's, a workshop, etc. behind the fence while still leaving the huge back yard {we have a large sandbox for our fort/swing set/playground, partial grass and a shed on a concrete foundation - and there is STILL a TON of yard left}.  We have installed multiple water spickets around the parameter of the yard and have a fenced off area for our dog.

We bought the house {which was built in 2000} the day before our 1st wedding anniversary {7 years ago this June}, and have put a lot of heart and hard work into making it a beautiful home.  It's 1,268 square feet with a split and spacious floor plan that makes it feel a heck of a lot bigger than that.  It has 3 nice sized bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.  The kids' rooms have large custom closets with built-in organizers and sliding mirror doors.  Their bathroom {or the hall bathroom LOL} is bright and has cream cabinets with satin nickel hardware, a rain shower head and a curved shower curtain rod - which makes the bathtub/shower nice and spacious without invading the rest of the room.

The master bedroom has a sliding glass door leading out to a small porch and a spacious walk-in closet {again with custom organizers to make the most of the space}.  The added crown molding gives the room a nice finishing touch and gives the illusion of a higher ceiling.  The master bathroom also has cream cabinets {with lots of storage} and satin nickel hardware including cup pulls on the many drawers.  The counter top is large, giving you lots of room to spread out when both of you are getting ready for the day.  :O)  It also has an oversize shower {which is SO nice!!} with a rain shower head.

The family room has a large window and is quite roomy - we have a couch, chaise-lounge, book case, entertainment center and hope chest in the room and it's still very open and clutter-free.  There are double ceiling fans and an arch leading into the hallway.  The family room is openly connected to the dining nook and kitchen, which gives these rooms a feel of being bigger than they are.  The dining nook has bay windows, allowing the perfect fit for the table and provides a beautiful view of the mountains.  The kitchen is VERY well thought out.  The storage space is maximized with 2 Lazy Suzan's and 2 deep corner cabinets above, and beautiful custom cupboards that meet the ceiling.  The gas oven/range still looks brand new and the dishwasher is in great shape.

The laundry room also houses the hot water heater and has the same custom ceiling-high cabinets the kitchen sports.  There is room to store the vacuum, mop, etc. and has a door leading to the 2 car covered carport.

I have had fun painting and improving here and there over the years, and have upgraded the interior doors to 6 paneled ones, installed ceiling fans in every bedroom {ok, Clint did those LOL}, 2-inch wood blinds in all the windows and we extended the front porch quite a bit and added a sidewalk down the side of the carport and across the front of the house.  This house still has SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!  It's set up for an easy addition off the back or a large back porch and the carport could easily be enclosed into a 2-car garage.

As much as we've enjoyed this house, we've known for a few years that this isn't our "forever home".  There's this gorgeous house around the corner and down the street from us that we've been drooling over and dreaming about for YEARS {when we drive past it we always make jokes about "when we live there" or "there's our future home!" or "someday..."}.  Well, last January at Enrichment {or whatever it's called these days} I swallowed my nerves and told the woman who owns it that if she ever decided to sell her home that Clint and I wanted to buy it.  Her response totally shocked me, "Really?  When do you want it?"  Um... Yesterday!  :O)  Turns out her family all live in Utah and she has been debating staying here or moving there for years.  So we talked with her about it all last year and we always felt really really good about it, SUPER excited about it actually {even though until a few weeks ago we had never even seen the inside!  I know, we're total nerds!!}.  When she called us a few weeks back to say that she had made up her mind and was moving we were a jumble of emotions: ecstatic, scared, excited, nervous, thankful, freaking out, hoping it would work out and humbled that we have been given the opportunity to own our dream home so soon.

After walking through it, we knew for sure that we want to buy it so now comes the scary part: making the grown-up decision to sell our home and buy hers.  Things have been so crazy these last few months and so thank heavens for the calming power of prayer to keep us grounded and help us figure out what direction to go with all of this.  At first we wanted to sell ours privately, but after researching online for ideas and tips we decided that we actually were pretty clueless and called the relator who sold us this house in the first place.  :O)  We are officially on the market and almost finished with the last minute projects to get our house ready to sell.  CRAZINESS!!!  Every time I see the for sale sign out front I get this anxiety/excitement attack.  Getting our house ready to sell has made me see it in a whole new way, as a beautiful, fresh home with so much potential {instead of the same old same old we've lived in for almost 7 years}.  I'm so excited to pass this house we've made into a home on to someone new.  I know that someone will love it as much as we have and will make it even more beautiful, and we're ready to do the same with our dream house.

Anyone interested or if you have any questions email me at tippy2by4{at}yahoo{dot}com.  Wish us luck and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help us sell our house!!!  :O)

Big Changes!

Spring has sprung 'round our house and as it does every year, it's made us itch for some changes.  Closets get cleaned out, things get re-organized and there's some pretty satisfying deep cleaning.  I LOVE SPRING!!

This spring is also bringing a look at our family - where we are now, and where we would like to be in a year or so.  Yeah, you guessed it - I'm talking about adoption.  We're starting to get that itch again, and we're excited to be part of another miracle.

BUT, our house isn't huge, and our car is TINY.  Luckily, tax returns are amazing things that can help in situations like this!  :O)  For over a year, we've been thinking of ways that we can comfortably fit another child {or 2, I keep dreaming about twins... we'll see on that one, eh?  LOL} in our home.  We've come up with a few ideas {aside from serious purging!}.  So, on that note, we went from this:

To THIS!

And this!

The girls are so stinkin' funny with their new bed.  They go up and down the ladder constantly, bouncing around and laughing hysterically.  They even came up with this game: one lays on the bottom bunk and sucks on a doll pacifier while the other one says, "Goodnight baby!  I'll see you in a bit!" and climbs the ladder.  Once the "Mom" is "upstairs", the "baby" starts crying, bringing the "Mom" back down to check on her, "Oh, baby!  Don't cry!  Mama's here!  It's ok!"  Then it repeats itself a few times, and they switch roles.  Too cute!  Maelee isn't sleeping on the bottom bunk quite yet, she's too light a sleeper still.  Since she still hasn't figured out that she could probably climb out of the crib {she climbs everything else!  SO surprised that she hasn't attempted that one yet, but yet she manages to get up on the counter!}, we're still letting her sleep there for now.  I'm giving myself until school starts in August to make the full transition.  At least it's ready for when we'll need to have both girls in there, and probably with more than enough time for them to totally adjust to sleeping in the same room again.  {FINGERS CROSSED!!!}

I loved my car {note the "d"!!}. 

It got GREAT gas mileage {hybrid, gotta love it!}, was pretty comfy and has been awesome to have for the past 2 years.  BUT, it was TEENY-TINY.  If one of Madi's friends rode with us somewhere, they could BARELY fit between the car seat and booster - so there was NO WAY we could squeeze another car seat in that backseat.  Not without some serious plastic bending and possible damage to the vehicle doors...  So for over a year now we have been looking at a possible upgrade.  We... ok, I have researched virtually every SUV of every size - put waaaay too much time into this whole thing.  BUT, it has all been for a good cause because a few weeks ago we bought THIS!!!:

Oh, my laws.  We LOVE our Sequoia!  When we were driving home the first time in it, Madi would point at every car we passed and say, "Ha ha!  Bet you wish YOU had a Sequoia Tuh-oy-ya!  Our Sequoia is faster than YOU little blue car!  And we're faster than YOU little red truck!"  We were dying laughing!  We scored BIG TIME with it: it's an '04, 84k miles, leather interior, moon roof {Madison was adamant that we bought one with a moon roof because the first one we test drove had one and she thought it was the coolest thing ever!}, tow package and is the EXACT color we wanted.  I love that it's not brand new so we're not overly paranoid about the girls climbing all over inside, ya know?  I love that it's not a huge, full-size SUV.  I love that it seats 8 people!  I love that the backseat is comfortable.  I love that even with the 3rd row seat up, there is a TON of cargo room.  I love the 6 CD disc changer.  I love that it has a storage thing for my sunglasses.  I love that it has 10 over-sized cup holders.  And I love that we found exactly what we wanted, within the mileage we wanted, within the year range we wanted, with the upgrades we wanted for the price we wanted to pay.  AND, I'm so excited to finally have the car that we're going to "raise" our family in.  To not have to worry about what we're going to do about our tiny car if our next adoption happens as quickly as Maelee's went.  We absolutely LOVE this SUV!  We can't wait to take it camping this summer.  Literally.  In fact, we're taking it camping this weekend to test it out... anyone up for a camp out?!?

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

Yay for tax returns!  Ours was WAAAAAAAY late this year thanks to the wonderful workings of A: the state govt and B: the clarity of the county govt.  Long story short, we couldn't file our taxes until we had a SSN for Maelee, which we couldn't get without her birth cert, which we were told would be mailed to us 2-3 months after the finalization hearing in January.  4 months later I did some calling that finally {nixing the part that makes me want to curse here} got things taken care of and we finally were able to file our taxes and thus receive our return.  It's nice in a way, because ours came so much later in the year so we still have it to cushion ourselves for the summer.  But anyhoo... we paid off Clint's truck {yay!!} and bought a new TV and entertainment center.  Yeehaw!!  We are pretty stoked, and any of you who know my husband can understand why I'm so excited.  LOL  He's so good about only spending money of practical purchases that it took a lot of sweet talking {and finally his friend Brian talking} to convince him that this could be justified as a "practical purchase".  {I'm just lucky he plays Halo and realized just how small and blurry our old TV really was!  Thank you Bungee!!} 

So here's the before...

...and here's the after!  We're actually going to mount the TV on the wall, we just haven't gotten that far yet.  Isn't it pretty?

It's amazing how much it opens up the room, too.  Plus it's nice to have all our movies out of sight.  SO much less clutter!  I'll post a pic when we've got it completely finished... I know you're all waiting on the edge of your seats, huh?  :O)

Too much to catch up on so moving forward...

However, I will just say quickly that we cut back most of the branches on our tree

Before...

After

and after the leaves have had time to grow and all the poor branches are SO overloaded that they look rather sad and limp!

And that my birthday was loads of fun and I was spoiled by friends, family and my darling husband. Thanks to all!

I have to also inform you that princesses eat hot dogs,

Clint took Madison on a Daddy Daughter campout just out of town with Andy and his girls,

and we had a blast at our family reunion with Clint's Mom's family.

Easter was fun, we put out a carrot and some water for the Easter Bunny and when we woke up the carrot was eaten, water drank, and eggs ALL OVER the house!!! Madi was a hoot finding all the eggs, screaming and jumping and laughing. It's so fun now that she understands holidays! We didn't get a picture of her in her Easter dress because we were already running late. Maybe in a few weeks when she wears it again!

Clint was watching Madison the other night and when I got home, he was grinning and would only say, "look at the pictures!" so here they are for your enjoyment also!

Yes, those are pretzels inbetween my daughter's toes. And yes, she did eat them.



Madison also learned how to paint this week. Mommy and Daddy got in on the fun too, and now it's a daily activity at our house.

Ok, that's a wrap. Whew!

A New Year… Bring It On!

We started off the New Year with a gray house and have since upgraded to tan! Yes, we FINALLY painted our house! Our neighbor is the sweetest little old man who paints houses for a living. He said that if we bought all the stuff and taped it off, he’d paint it for free. Cool! Then he started bringing over leftover primer from jobs he had done and we thought, cool! Then when we had enough primer, he told us that he and his son had decided that since we were putting our extra money aside for adoption, they were going to pay for our finishing paint as their contribution! COOL! It was a 4-day process that at one point found me (Tiffany, not Clint) up on the roof, hanging on for dear life, leaning over to paint the trim on the peaks… we only have one story but still! Our other neighbor asked us what color we were doing and I told him tan with light brown trim. "Dang it!" he says, "That’s what we wanted to do! I guess we’ll have to paint ours pink!" Guess what color our primer ended up being… you guessed it – PINK!! We had some good laughs over that one. I said we should just leave it and paint hearts all along the trim, call it the "Love Shack"! When Clint got home that day he shook his head and said, "I go to work for ONE day and you paint the house PINK!" We had someone come over and I totally played it like that was the color and you should have seen him try so hard to be polite! Even after I told him it was just the primer he was still saying how nice it looked. Too funny!
So anyway, if you’re looking for the gray stucco house at the end of the road, you won’t find it! Ha ha! Yay for paint! We LOVE it!
There are also some pictures of our car (which is officially ours, YEEHAW!). When I was at the MVD, Madison looked over at this guy sitting next to us. He was kind of scruffy looking, you know, beard, mustache, hair down to his shoulders… I said hi and sat down but Madison wouldn’t stop looking at him. Finally she says, "Hi! Are you Jesus?" He laughed and told her no but it sparked a great conversation with this guy who I probably wouldn’t have talked to otherwise (that makes me sound SO bad!). When he left, Madi yells, "Bye, Jesus! Mom, Jesus just left!" What a testimony to me how innocent and pure little children are and why we have been counseled to be more like them.

Madison started her big girl dance class with Beckie and Brittlee last Wednesday. She was SO excited for it all day, she even wanted to wear her tights and a skirt instead of pants and socks because "I’m going to dance class today!" She was so sweet in her little outfit, and I felt really bad that I had to wake her up from her nap to take her, because she was kind of cranky. She actually burst into tears when I tried to take a picture of her and Brittlee, I think a mixture of being tired and excited… she went in fine, she was just balling! We asked her what she learned and all she would say was "That Ise Madison". There is another Maddie in her class so she has to be Madison at dance class. At least she learned something, eh?!
Her dance instructor Ashley made the girls little tutus that are adorable! Madison wouldn’t take hers off all night! What fun my little princess is! That night she and I made cookies in our matching aprons that I made us for Christmas, and she insisted on keeping her tutu on so it poofed out the back and almost made her look like a chicken! Man alive I love being a mom!

Halloween, New Furniture, and other fun stories…

I know I know I know! I’ll try to be better at posting!!

That said, now I can get on with catching up!! :) Every year on the Sunday before Halloween, we go to Russell and Jonnet’s house and carve pumpkins. EVERY YEAR I mess mine up and it is SO frustrating! This year I chose my pattern VERY carefully and FINALLY broke the mold! Mine is the owl and he looked AWESOME!! Clint’s is the melting face (his name was Pat E. Melt) and Madison’s was the flag with the stars. Next year I’ll learn and just have one pumpkin for Maddie and I to share because I’m always the last one at the table carving!

So we took the pumpkins outside to light them and Madison yells, “Cool pumpkins Mom!” and her echo yelled back. She paused… and looked around… and said, “Mom! There are friends out here!” Then she started yelling all kinds of things to her “friend”. When she was ready to come inside she yelled to her “friend” that she was going home. Of course, her friend yelled back the same thing and Maddie turned to me and said, “Mom, my friend is going home too!” She was SO funny!

For Halloween Madison decided she wanted to be Jasmine. She is going through this major Jasmine phase right now (intermingled with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty), and we just happened to have a Jasmine costume from my sister Yvette that her daughter Braquel wore when she was 3 (she just turned 13)! We got SO many compliments on it and Maddie was the only Jasmine we saw. She loved her costume and had a blast at the Trunk-or-Treat and the Football game that night.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Madison went to her best friend Brittlee’s 3rd birthday party a few weeks ago and the whole thing was Princess themed. It was SO DANG CUTE! I stayed to help Michele and it was so much fun for those little princesses! They decorated foam crowns, learned how to dance like princesses, opened presents and had a piece of a castle cake, complete with Cinderella on the steps! Michele made it and I thought it turned out pretty darn cool!

Madison got a dollhouse from Jonnet and has amazed me at how mature her level of play is with it. She set up all the furniture so it formed a wall and sat all the dolls in chairs and faced them to different things, like the Dad was petting the dog and the daughter was watching TV and the Mom was in the bathtub and the baby was standing on a step stool looking at herself in the mirror while Maddie said, “Can you see yourself? You’re so pretty!” She is so smart it amazes me everyday… These random pictures are Clint showing his Rough Rider Pride, the cool moon we had the other night, and Madison chillin’ in Mom and Dad’s bed watching Lion King!

Now for the REALLY fun stuff! This last weekend we went to visit my family and to watch our local high school state football game (we lost, it was a really sad game). My sister Yvette and her husband Troy called us earlier in the week and gave us some pretty drop-your-jaw kind of news: they decided to give us a couch and chaise lounge set! These are NICE NICE NICE!! They are SO comfortable and so pretty and still look brand new – they’re the micro fiber or durapella fabric that lasts like a million years and still looks perfect. We are SO excited cuz the furniture we’ve had since we got married were hand-me-downs (a white pleather couch that my parents bought when I was in first grade and a pink chair my uncle gave us that was probably from the 70’s) that I had re-covered and were starting to look pretty shabby. And the chaise has been sat in more by Clint than by anyone in their family, so he’s super excited to have that here! Here are the pics of our NEW furniture!! WE LOVE THEM!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

While we were visiting, Yvette and Tawnya’s community had an HOA sponsored Fall Festival at one of their parks. Everything was free and everything was SO MUCH FUN! They had a Sponge Bob blow-up jumping/ball castle that Madison spent an hour playing in, a blow-up obstacle course that Clint totally cheated and beat me in (in the video, right after I fall – SO embarrassing by the way! – I turn around and tell the poor girl behind me “There’s some crazy lady on this thing! Look out!”), and a contest thing that is hard to describe, so just watch the video! It was so much fun! On the second try in that thing, Clint and I both hurt our heads, you can see us both reach up to rub them! But I beat him that round!! Then Madison got to ride a Shetland Pony named Charm. She thought she was SO big!

That night my poor sister Tawnya let slip a surprise 2 years in the making… My brother Ryan loves to give a "WOW!!" Christmas present every year, and this year he is giving us his car for Christmas! It’s a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid… I know!! This car gets like 40 mpg and is SO pretty! I had NO IDEA and she accidently let it slip. I feel bad for her, and SO BAD for Ryan that his freakin’ AWESOME surprise got ruined. He was going to wrap up the key and give it to me when we go down the weekend before Christmas for our family party, and when I opened it and had that, “What the heck?” look on my face, he was going to tell me to look outside and have a big red bow on the car! How COOL would that have been? He said that when he bought the car he got it with the intent to give it to me when he moved back here from California. I’m really sad the cat’s out of the bag, but I’m super excited for my new car! His actual original plan was to give our car to my nephew Brad (who is turning 16) and have him open up our car keys, and when I was like “Hey! Aren’t those MY car keys?” then he’d give me the box. But our car is having problems, we just had to put $700 into it a few weeks ago. So Ryan didn’t want to give Brad a car that would cost more in repairs than it’s worth. Plus my dad just gave him a beater truck that he loves so now he doesn’t need the Malibu. SO, we’re going to sell the Malibu and use the money for Christmas or Clint’s truck or Adoption or whatever! We are SO EXCITED and I CANNOT wait for Christmas just that much more!!

I seriously have the most awesome family on the planet, don’t you agree?!