Thursday, August 19, 2010

24th of July

Zachy and Krista riding on the float with the Primary kids
(Zachy is on the right; waving and Krista is sort of in the middle wearing a red shirt and a blue bonnet)
Boop and Andrew, watching the parade Cody Joe and "T" waiting for the parade to start A very excited Squash and Dad waiting for the parade Boop and I are eating cotton candy for breakfast :0)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

"Movin' on up"! (well, over actually)

Apparently, there are several ways to say good-bye to the house that you have lived in for 12 years...
You can pack... You can do as Tia and Josh did and fall asleep wherever you "land" once you get to the new house...
Or, you can dance on the roof of the old house with your best friend (Gavin) as Cody Joe did, with a little help from Zachary...
Whichever way you choose to do it... we managed to move,
ALL the way over to... Mapleton! :0)
I actually took these pictures before we moved in, but it gives you a glimpse of what the house looks like...
HUGE yard, with a big basketball court...
This is an old picture from the county property tax website, but it's a better picture than I managed to get of the front of the house :0)
Most of the rest of the yard and the back of the house...
More backyard...
If I ever get the inside finished then I will post pictures of it as well. What I don't understand is, we moved into a house twice the size of the old one, it is now full of "stuff", yet the 3 car garage is still full of boxes... where did everything come from? and where did we put it before?

"Catch-Up" #2

MAY 27th 2010 ~ ANDREW'S 20th BIRTHDAY
Celebrating at Pirate Island with Stesha
The giant pizza called "The Kraken"
Cody Joe, Andrew, Zach, Hailey and Stesha at Pirate Island
Andrew is 20 YEARS old and Joshy is 20 MONTHS old (too funny)
Saying good-bye to Westside... Andrew started school there in 1998 when he was in the 3rd grade (and the school was in it's old building). It's weird that the rest of my kids won't be going to school there...
MAY 27th 2010 ~ CODY JOE'S 6TH GRADE GRADUATION
Cody Joe's very last Elementary School lunch, which Hailey is more than happy to help him finish :0)
"Con-Graduations!"
MAY 21, 2010 ~ KRISTA'S KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION
MOTHERS DAY 2010
(Me with the kids... oldest to youngest)
Andrew - 19 (almost 20)
Cody Joe - 12 1/2 Zachary - 9
Tia - 7 1/2
Krista - 6
Hailey - 3 1/2
Joshy - 19 months

"Catch-Up" #1

OK, I'm getting there... Time is moving a little too fast for me :0)
JOSHY'S FIRST HAIRCUT - MAY 2010
He looks like such a big boy, and SO stinkin' cute!
MAY 2010 - HAILEY'S FIRST DANCE RECITAL The recital theme was "Holidays"
(hence the Christmas trees and Snowgirls in May)
Such a very cute little snowgirl!
(FYI..don't panic, I paid for the copyright release for the professional photos :0)
APRIL 2010 - Zach's 9th Birthday Zach doesn't really like cake or ice cream, he always asks for a "doughnut tower" for his birthday
The boys! Zachy asked to have a "crab boil" for his birthday dinner. Yummy, If any of you have never had one, we highly recommend it. You boil corn on the cob, potatoes, big sausages, crab legs and shrimp all together then dump it on the table and "dig in"... It's fabulous!
EASTER 2010
I have no idea why I don't have any pictures of the boys on Easter Sunday... I honestly can't remember
(I really am getting old, Easter wasn't THAT long ago :0)
On Saturday, after our Easter egg hunt

Saturday, June 19, 2010

New York Pictures

Wow, when I said that it would take me some time to get the pictures organized I really didn't mean 2 whole months :0).
Trying to move has been crazy! I am waaay behind...

Our first day in NYC! Our hotel's courtyard had this giant watering can and these huge pillows to sit on, it was cool! We went to play in Central Park. After our overnight flight we were very tired, the boys are so cute napping on the bed. They had a nice long nap while I met with a journalist from New Yorker Magazine for an interview about adoption. She is not sure yet if she is going to do a feature article in the magazine or a book (I think I gave her WAY more information than she knew what to do with :0). The writer (Larissa) was so cool, if we ever moved to NYC (which I would love, but can't afford), we would totally be "buddies".

TIMES SQUARE

It was very warm in NY (they had to "de-ice" the plane here in Utah before we could take off). I checked the weather report and was prepared for the nice weather, the boys on the other hand did not believe me and packed long sleeves and sweaters. We did what any self respecting NYC tourists would do... we bought I love NY shirts from a street vendor :0) My kids walked around definitely looking like tourists, it was very funny. Whenever I go to NYC I ride the subway almost everywhere, I only grab a cab when I am to lazy to walk to the next subway station :0). The people at the agency in NY were so impressed that we rode the subway everywhere, I thought that was funny. I guess visitors usually take taxis everywhere, if you ever visit NY take the subway! It is cheap, simple, and goes almost everywhere (we rode it from the Upper East Side all the way to Brooklyn). It really isn't scary at all, the picture of the boys in front of the Alice in Wonderland tile mural is on one of the platforms... how scary can it be? :0)No trip to the big apple would not be complete without a hot dog from a street vendor, a trip to Bloomingdales, Dylan's Candy Bar and Serendipity 3 for the famous frozen hot chocolate... yummy! We went to the adoption agency for a visit with Josh's birth mom. The lady in the picture holding Josh is the social worker at Spence Chapin that placed both Hailey and Josh with us, we LOVE Gretchen! We took a ride on the Staten Island Ferry, best deal ever! You go right past the Statue of Liberty (which by the way is very cool, but if you don't like stairs, I would just ride by it on a boat :0). The Circle Line boats do tours but the Staten Island Ferry is FREE! You just go to Staten Island, get off, walk around to the other side, get back on and ride back. When the ferry boat drivers are not running the boats into the building :0) it is great fun! We went to Grand Central Station, FAO Schwarz, The Upper West side (my absolute favorite part of Manhattan!), Zabar's, Chinatown and Rockefeller Center. Cody Joe just HAD to go to the NBA store on 5th Ave. It is like his "mother ship" :0). This is the day that we went down to Brooklyn to visit Josh's birth mom, her sisters, and her mom. It was funny to walk through the area of Brooklyn that she lives, we were THE ONLY white people, I am not exaggerating! I was raised in a much more diverse environment so I actually have been the only white person in a room before :0) but I think that it was REALLY good for Andrew and Cody Joe to look around and see what it feels like to be the minority for once. It gave them a slight taste of what it must be like to live in Utah County and be black :0). When we got home, Krista and Hailey had to go through all of our suitcases to make sure that we brought back plenty of souveniers, we did. I had to buy a suitcase in New York to get everything home and this did not include the giant FedEx box that I sent home all of our dirty laundry in :0) We had a very fun trip!