Hello my friends!!!!!!
I can't even apologize enough to you for the MEGA delay in posting over the last month. It has been pure crazy around these parts.
But the good kind of crazy that means lots of change, blessings, good sleep at night-from pure exhaustion :), the occasional meltdown (who doesn't love a good cry?!), and some good practice breathing like a normal person.
So, here's what you've missed over the last month-you know, for those of you who don't live within the walls of my home, or within my cell phone directory....
My cutie little bro came home from serving a two year, Spanish speaking mission in Spokane, Washington for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Our whole family was able to be together waiting for him at the airport when he walked through those doors. It felt SO amazing to be all together again after 3 years of being apart (my little sis left before he did on a mission as well).
Since we were all-together it was a great time to get family pictures done-especially since we have, are you ready for this....NEVER have had a family picture taken. What?! I know, so it was time. :)
Left-my sister and her fam, Middle-my sister, parents, other sister and bro, Right-MY fam (yup, I'm the oldest of 5)!
My parents and us crazy kids...all growed up. So wierd. I still see all my siblings in my mind as the same ages that they were when I left home for college. Does anybody else do that?!
And since we were gettin' pics done, I figured I might as well snag a few of my little fam since the hubby gives me ONE family picture time a year. He absolutely detests getting family pictures. DETESTS. Ha ha :)
And just because I have THE most gorgeous sisters on the planet...I'm so lucky to have ALL 3 of my sisters be just as gorgeous on the inside as they are on the out. Love them!
One boy, with all these sisters...he's going to make one AMAZING husband-trust me. We've been training him for awhile ;).
I was down in sunny St. George for almost 2 weeks with the fam, and the week we got back I was right back to real life and was in full Relief Society mode. I threw together this fun look in about 3 days. Gag-let's NOT procrastinate that much next time! I'm pretty sure I still haven't caught up on all that lost sleep-but soooo worth it. :)
We created the night around your basic 'Happy Birthday' theme and spent the evening celebrating the specific sisters in our ward...
(Happy Birthday printable from Eighteen 25)
...and what makes them 'EXTRA'ordinary. (our party favors-pack of Extra gum)
The main centerpieces on the tables-Faux ice-cream sundaes. I used this tutorial-Super cute! I wish I would have thought/had time to take pictures of these at home and staged them all cute and whatever so you could see them better, but oh well these cell phone pics will have to work! :) The "whip cream" is white tulle, the "cherry" is a red lindor truffle, bendy straw from Walmart, "ice-cream" is snickers glued around a styrofoam ball, "ice-cream in the sundae glass" is white tissue paper, sundae glasses $2 from Walmart. Each Sundae used about 1 and half bags of snickers. The stand they're sitting on you might recognize from this party! :)
See I'm still crafting...just not blogging. :)
Before I could even turn around from that fun adventure :), my husband accepted a JOB OFFER in the Salt Lake City area!!!
We are thrilled, excited, nervous, thankful, anxious, sad (to be moving from a great area), happy (to be employed :) ), and are still trying to wrap our brains around all the changes that will be coming with this new change in May.
So getting a job means that the Mr. will be GRADUATING on May 5th! It means that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and we have finally reached the end of this particular tunnel. It has been a loooooooooong road full of trials, happiness, frustrations, laughter, challenges and HARD work to get to this point.
I'm so proud of my man and all that we have overcome to get to where we are. We feel so fortunate to have found a job while still in the last semester of school, and are looking forward to being "real" adults. :)
But what may be the most exciting news ever (okay that's a slight exaggeration cause I'm pretty sure having a job is the best news ever, but this is a serious close second!) we're headed to DISNEYLAND!!
We've been planning on doing this as a graduation present to ourselves for the past several years and I can't believe it's less than a month away now! I haven't been in over 5 years (and last time I went I was super sick so I don't really count that) and my kids have never been. They are 5 and 3 years old, so I'm hoping this will be a great time for them to go-as in they might actually have some memories from it and be old enough to really enjoy it :). Super stoked. Like every time I think about it I get goosebumps. Eeeeek! (I would LOOVE any tips/suggestions you might have if you've been with small kids before since it's a first for us!)
More news????? Okay.
We are soooo close to being the proud owners of this....
Okay not that one exactly since that's a google picture :), but yeppers I'm about to break into the world of the minivan moms and I am stoked! Two months ago I swore I would never, ever, no matter how much money you paid me, would rather walk, NEVER drive a minivan. I've had a few experiences over the past month that have completely changed my mind and I am seriously excited to be driving one! I can't wait to have more space!!!! We've been sharing one car-our little bitty, but awesome :), ford focus for 4 years and we needed an additional car like...years ago. :)
We've been looking pretty much since the day we found out we were going to be moving and it would be almost impossible, and more than un-econmical (ya I know that's probably not a word) with his commute to share one car. Fingers crossed I'll have one to call my baby by next week!
And last but not least...
Being a first time home buyer...sometime!
Not quite yet though. There are only so many things we can do at once, and after a several breakdowns in a 2 day period being SO overwhelmed with all the changes happening at once, we decided to put the idea of- trying to buy a house in 4 weeks-in the trash.
After being in rentals for EIGHT years, I'm just ready to call somewhere home. At first, I wanted to just jump in head first and buy something for that reason. After some crazy days I realized that if home is what I'm looking for I need to give it some time and not rush into, soooo we think we'll probably just rent for a little while in the Salt Lake area until we can get to know the areas, schools, communities, etc. (In the mean time if you have ANY thoughts, opinions, info you want to share about anything in the south salt lake area I would love to hear them!!)
Okay. I think that's everything. Do you forgive me for being absent??
We still have a lot of things to work through, decisions to make, plans to be seen through, and fun to be had, so I know that the next month or two is going to be just as crazy as the past one has been; so for that reason I'm going to sign off the blog for awhile. I just want to devote my full attention to all the things our family has going on right now and just enjoy this next step and time in our lives! I'll try to check in a few times, but just know I'm alive and busy busy if you don't hear from me for awhile.
Thanks for all your support, kind emails and comments-I always LOVE hearing from you! Getting that little 'bing' on my phone telling me I have new email just makes me day!! I would love to hear if anything new/exciting is going in your lives so tell me how YOU are doing mmmkay?!
Thanks for reading!