My Little Mary and Joseph

This has been a fun "game" for the kids lately! They love running around with their blankets like this and so we started calling them Mary and Joseph.

Halloween

We were Pirates again this year because Hey we are in a new place and no one saw our costumes last year. Kiya did join us as a pirate this year however. We had a good time and Ryan's employee didn't recognize him when we ran into her!!! And yes I did get braces, that is  not "fun" pirate costumery on my teeth.

So excited!

My friend just launched her first craft DVD. I know it will be great and I am so excited for her. If you are into crafting, especially scrapbooking check her out at mypinkstamper.com  she has some awesome giveaways this week to celebrate the launch of her dvd.

I learned how to make a "movie"!

I learned how to make a movie this week! It was actually super easy on my mac. Yeah! Now I can combine all of my little short videos of our family and adventures into a movie! So excited! Then I can send a copy to the grandparents and great grandparents! 

This is some clips from when I for to go to the Canary Island of Tenerife with just my mom. We had a great relaxing couple of days! Excuse the swim suit.

Finally a few pics!

Our main computer with all of our pictures is kinda freaking out so I can't put any pics on from there but thanks to my BFF who is great at taking pictures I can post a few that she took. Thanks!

Kiya at the zoo was roaring like a gorilla!
The Last Lunch (before I moved). Thanks for the great lunch ladies!

My BFF thru me a great surprise farewell get together. It was a great ladies night!
She also had a Memorial Day get together at her house that was super fun, but guess where my little man was most of the time. Brekken kept getting the drinks our of the ice!

Hopefully I can get some more up soon.  We have been busy figuring out business things, and working and unpacking (yes still). My mom is here now and the kids love having her and she has been helping me a lot! Aren't mom's the best?? I know mine is! This week we might actually eat dinner at home everynight! I am very excited about this because our lives have been so hectic lately that we don't always get to eat at home:( It is sure nice to have an extra set of hands!

He Never said it would be easy.... Only Worth it

Well we survived Graduation and the big move as well as it taking a month for the internet to get set up (we only had one choice for a provider and so got stuck waiting for them) anyway. Our lives have been extremely crazy and I feel like we are on a rollercoaster that never stops. All was perhaps too easy with the way things fell in to place for us to make the big move/step that perhaps I should have been expecting all to go crazy when we got here. With all of the many things and the extreme exhaustion I am feeling right now compounded by an emotional blow from out of the dark I CAN'T SLEEP. I really should be but hey isn't how that works?? When you really want to be you can't. For the last couple of hours I have just been reminding myself that the Lord never said that it would be easy he only said that it would be worth it. This is probably really bad but I am having a hard time waiting for the worth it. I know that the reference was really about our entire life but I think that it applies a lot in our life. I do like my new place, and our new ward and my jobs are even good. I am excited about Ryan being out of school and being able to work. There is just a lot on the plate and it is different getting used to it and figuring out who can give you the support that you need when you need it. I miss many many things about Oklahoma, but most of all I miss the shoulders that I knew I could cry on. And for those of you who know me well you know that I have a hard time asking for help. I miss that I had such good friends in Oklahoma that I couldn't get away with that no matter how hard I tried. Thanks to all of you for being in my life. On lighter notes Ryan is really enjoying being out and practicing and things are going well with that now that we finally got his license after sitting on some guys desk for two weeks. (That is a whole nother drama) Kiya is in Tball and liking it. You should see ryan though, he wants Kiya to be a super star, funny daddy but I think it would be totally different if baseball wasn't his favorite sport. I am sure I would want her to be a super star if it was my sports too. We are well and climbing a mountain of to do's but we are walking one foot in front of the other and hopefully soon we can start having some fun.

The beginning of the final HOORAH!

Just a quick update to everyone so that you all know that we did not fall off the face of the earth. We have been super busy finishing up school and moving again. I so could live without the moving process. Anyaway we just got back from the Senior Graduation Dinner. We had an wonderful time and we were able to go with some dear friends of ours. Thanks for supporting us all these years. I can't believe that the end is finally here. I have been trying not to think about it because I did't want to get emotional but wow it is an amazing feeling to be done. My friend was so awesome and took lots of pictures at the dinner so when I get thoes I will post them! I will also post pictures from graduation after we get settled in our new pad.

Pictures Finally

So I know that I have been a huge slacker on updating and especially about putting pictures up. So here are some from the January and February. I actually don't have any pictures from March:( I guess that is what you get for moving. I will have some great ones from my surprise visit to my mom. I surprised her at the beginning of April and we went on a very fun girls vacation. I will tell more about that when I get all the pictures together.

What better to do than blog!

So it has been a bit since I last updated! I have been being lazy and eating bon bons at the spa! No not really only in my dreams. I have been crazy busy!!! We sold our house in 2 weeks! Amazing I know! Do I feel so blessed? You bet! Do I question answers to prayers? NO WAY! With how all of our decisions have been falling into place I would be an idiot not to think that our prayers have been answered.
We are getting so excited to have Ryan be done with school! The only headache has been where we are going to practice when he gets out. We have done a lot of looking and have a place that we feel good about so we will see if it continues to work out! There is a lot to do when looking at practices so that has kept us very busy, plus we have been busy finding temporary housing (we did not think that we would sell the house so quickly). We went and looked more in depth at a practice over spring break and as much as I would like to call it a vacation it was a week long whirlwind trip. I don't know how we did it but I am so thankful to all the help we got from some wonderful people that we stayed with. (On a positive note- besides getting a LOT of checks on my check list- I made a new friend in the midst of this crazyness). We have been busy packing up the house and this week I have been trying to move the house over in stages during the day. What a chore taking a house back down into an apartment!!! Hard to part with thing, hard to know what will fit, and hard to know what you will need. There is lots going on in my head which is why I am up at this crazy hour of night. I swear that I tried to go to bed. I was so exhausted that I just knew that I would be out like a light. Well I was wrong and I could not shut my head up. I tried all the tricks I knew. I finally gave up and started to try to pack some things. That didn't last long because I almost lost my life. Okay I am being a little dramatic. Ry heard me rustling around and thought I was an intruder. OOPS! I moved on to balancing the check book, checking my email, reading up on everyones blogs and then I finally decided to change my background and do a little blogging myself. I might laugh at this one in the morning. I have been really bad about taking pictures of the kids this past little bit. I am sure I will kick myself for that one down the road so I am making a goal to get some picture and post some as well. I need to make sure to take some of the house before we move out. It is kinda sad seeing all the bare walls again. Can't talk about moving too much or I will start to cry.
I am so excited for the upcoming General Conference this year. I feel that it is going to be a really good one. I just hope that I will be able to pay attention. It is hard with litte ones, and we won't have it on tv this time because having cable in the apartment. We could go to the church but just going to church with a 1 year old is bad enough. We will end up streaming it on the internet and catching some words hear and there but oh well that is what makes this time of life so fun. Life is unpredictable and kids are so fun and so I am just trying to enjoy them as much as I can!!!
I am still soo not tired but I am starting to ramble. So I think I will find another quiet task. I hope to not have such a big break in postings this time.

Super Busy

Wow have we been BUSY! I will share the highlights and hopfully I can get some pictures up soon.
* Tried to stay up for New Years, but fell asleep
* Ryan had oral surgery and had a bone graft- he does not do pain well
* Celebrated Ryan's Birthday- his mouth was still sore so we didn't do much
* Ryan started back to school and did an externship at the local VA
* Kiya had a dentist appointment at the rocket dentist (she actually likes the dentist- Yeah!!)
* Karlee has kept busy doing projects for New Beginnings- (yeah like that is the only thing that keeps me busy)
* We celebrated Kiya's Birthday twice- 1 with us and a party with friends
* Celebrated Karlee's magic birthday!! I got a great present! 27 roses from my husband and an ice storm that closed everything down. It was great ryan and kiya both had school canceled and our appointment that day got canceled so we just were able to hang out.
* We worked on getting the house ready to sell
* Put the house up for sell
* Had a nice Valentines Day. I got my hair done and a super cute skinny outfit.
*Reached lifetime member at weight watchers which is really just cool because I am the weight that I want to be and I have kept it off for almost 2 months now.
* Celebrated Brekken's 1st Birthday!
* Had a double dr's appointment for the kid's well child check up and apparently I spaced the kids out just right so that I had the two worst well child checks that there could be. Thank goodness that ryan was able to come with me. Both kids had to get shots (6 for Brekken, 4 for Kiya) we had to have hearing tests for both, urine tests for both (that was easy for Kiya but we had to put a bag on Brekken and if any of you have had experience with that you know that they don't work very well), and oh yeah had to get blood work on both. WOW! The kids are good though. Healthy and strong.

The Last of 2008

Grandma and Grandpa (oops Santa) gave this to Brekken. He really likes it and can make it move on his own.

We has so much fun playing in the Snow. We don't see much so we had to make do on our equipment but we had a blast.

Brekken even enjoyed exploring this crazy cold white stuff.

He liked it so much he tried to crawl in it. It was quite difficult for him and after a couple of face plants we were done. But still, we had fun.

Christmas 2008

We had such a great Christmas. We received some wonderful presents but most importantly we were with family. Brekken was a little unsure of what to do, this being his first Christmas and all. Kiya was an old pro and thoroughly enjoyed opening presents. Thanks to all for the wonderful thoughtfulness. Kiya got a cheetah from her uncle. He chose a cheetah because they are fast and fierce, just like Kiya.

Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas Eve was kind of crazy and fun for us. We were at Ryan's parents house and all but one sibling and his family were able to come. It was a full house. I was able to me my new sister in law. (Only 9 months after she joined the family) She is super nice and sweet. It was fun getting to know her. We daughter in laws got a lot of bonding time on the 24th. (We sure missed you Ashlee) Ryan's mom had to work and Ryan's dad, all the boys and Danielle went lion hunting. The were gone all day, but they did get Danielle a lion. It was huge. Oh but I digress. So it was us three ladies and four kids. We had lots of fun. Cooking dinner was especially fun (LOL). We got the kids fed and to bed early. Well sort of. They were in bed but were having trouble falling asleep. Go figure?!!
Before bed the kids all "wrote" notes to Santa. They were really enjoying this, I think Santa got 25 notes or so. Anyway they had fun doing it. Then we read the christmas story and sang some christmas songs. We also put Hot Chocolate and Cookies out for Santa to eat.

Update: Early December 2008

Poppy had to fly back to Germany. We were so sad to have him go. We had so much fun with him.

We were able to go to Temple Square and see all the lights. Kiya was so bummed that we didn't put any lights on the house so I hope that seeing all the lights at Temple Square made up for that. There were a lot of ohhs and aws!

It was pretty cold that night, but we were bundled up so we could enjoy the fun. That is one thing that I miss. I loved seeing all of the lights. Temple Square was so beautiful.

We also got to have a very fun day with some close friends of ours. We have kids the same age and we took them to Classic Skating. It is so nice having great friends and the kids play so good with each other. I also love that they seem to remember each other even though we live so far apart. We sure miss them. A special thanks to them for being such awesome friends.

Update for November 2008

Only on babies can snot like this be so cute! I mean really!
My dad was in town for a couple of days in November. It was so fun to have him here. He had never been to our house. We had so much fun showing him some of our favorite places and things to do. We had lots of good things to eat. We also visited the OKC Memorial and of course we had to take him to the Bass Pro Shop. Thanks for all the fun Dad!!!
The kids and I were also able to go and visit family in Utah for Thanksgiving! I got great prices on non-stop flights for Kiya and I. Brekken was free which was nice. I don't think I would have gone had I had to fly by myself with the kids and make a connection. The kids did great on the flights. I am so bummed because I didn't get a picture of Brekken on his first flight. Oh well, I didn't have enough arms. While in Utah we were also able to spend time with my grandparents who flew in from Oregon. We had a blast, went to lots of stores I don't get to go to here, had fun with family and had good food!

"We Are Here, We Are Here, We are Here"

Wow it has been a little bit since I last posted. Okay who am I kidding it has been a long bit! We just watched Horton hears a who, thus the title but I think it fits. I have been sooooo busy and I have lots of pictures. Don't worry I am not going to post them all but I have to take some time to go thru them and select just a few which will be the hard part. So hopefully I will get some updating done soon.