Settling in

You know how I mentioned that one of my favorite things about NM was the lack of bugs??? That can no longer be said! Take a look at a member of our welcoming committee...he showed up and met his demise the first night in our new house. I'm just glad we got him before he got us...and I hope there are not anymore like him!

That is a nickel beside him, just for size reference. He looks to be some kind of wasp or hornet...yikes! In addition to him, Danny killed a giant cicada, downed several wasp nests from around the house, sprayed many an ant and just this morning offed a black widow. Welcome to the neighborhood! This house has been empty for some time, so we are thinking that it just needs to be rescued from the wild! There is a lot more foliage in this neighborhood and we are just 2 blocks from the river, so I attribute the abundance of insects to these two factors. There is a trade off wherever you go. So far, I will take the bugs. I love our new place.

I finally finished up cleaning the old house yesterday, so now I am able to focus on getting settled in to the new...it's been a little slower than I would like, but we will get there...eventually.

Yesterday we took a much needed break from the moving and settling to explore our "Backyard". There is a good trail along the river and it literally took us two minutes from our driveway to this:

We took a little walk along the banks of the Rio Grande, hunted for good skipping rocks and spent a little time skipping them. It was a nice break.

Last night we were invited to a new friends' house (from our new ward) for a BBQ and a little swimming. It was a lot of fun and we are feeling welcomed into our new ward and neighborhood.

I am hoping to get things situated here soon and will post some pics!

Just for fun, here's a pic of my little trooper that has been somewhat ignored throughout this whole moving process! Good thing for his new toy!

I wouldn't want to meet up with this in a dark alley!

Ooooooo! So intimidating!

Friends, Family and Fireworks...Oh my!

We had a fun trip to Utah. We started off the week staying with our good friends, the Widdisons. They were our neighbors in Provo when we were at BYU and we sure miss seeing them everyday. It was fun to see them and catch up. We both have added a new addition to the family since we left school and it was nice to get these two little ones together.
Here are some shots of James and sweet Ruby Belle (she's only 4 weeks older than James!)We got to start our 4th of July celebrations at the Provo Freedom Festival parade. Luckily it wasn't too hot because it was really long, but we had a great time. Here are our parade goers!
What's the 4th without fireworks?This is my favorite pose of the night!"He is the Dancing queen, young and sweet, only seven"...sorry it's just what comes to mind when I look at this picture!

Thanks Emily, Kyle, Isaac, Luke and Ruby for a fun time! We miss you already!Emily made me take this picture! Don't I look lovely! Love ya, Em!

While in the area, our other good friend, Lindsey Ramage had her 4th little girl, Madyson Michelle. She was supposed to come with us to the pool, but decided to go into labor instead...priorities, man!Congrats Ramages...she's beautiful (and Lindsey was way too beautiful after child birth!)
All these post-MBA babies! How much fun!

I also got to visit my dear friend Aubrey from my Simi days. It is always so good to visit with her and my kids had a blast with her kids...I'm a dummy and didn't get any pics, but we love you guys anyway!

Next on the agenda was seeing my sister, Jamie and her kids. She was bringing her oldest up to EFY, so we all stayed in a timeshare in Eden for a few days. You should all try to make it to Eden sometime, it was beautiful!We went to a dinosaur park in Ogden which was a lot of fun.We hit up Temple Square:
And played, swam and visited...we love our cousins and were so glad to be able to spend time with them.All in all a great trip...now I have to face The Move!!! Yikes!

Another birthday and another move!

Yep...Last week I had a birthday and I officially became closer in age to a 50 year old than a 20 year old...How did that happen? I'm sure it was just yesterday that I was 20 and now I am closer to 50...Yikes! Another year, another birthday, what can you say? Danny and the kids brought me breakfast in bed (yum) with a hand-crafted card of course. I went shopping a few days before the big day and bought some much needed new clothes and make up (Danny's not the best gift-giver, so I buy my own and I am okay with that!) Then on the weekend we went out for a yummy steak dinner without kids...yeah! It was a nice way to celebrate my 36 years.
Now on to the move. We were considering buying a house this year because we qualify for the $8000 tax credit in September. However, things are still a little on the shaky side at work, so we got cold feet and decided to continue renting for another year (can you believe that we have been here a year already? Time sure does fly when you have 4 crazy kids!) But, as a way to save some money and make a dent in our school debt, we have decided to downsize and move into a smaller, cheaper rental. I love downsizing! (that was not sarcastic!) I do not want a big house ever! We are going from almost 2300 sq ft (not so big to many of you, but way too much house for me!) to 1650 sq ft...more my size. I love it. I am not organized enough to have a big house, we accumulate too much junk that just keeps ending up all over the place...and it is just too much. Small, well laid out houses are the best.

Anyway, we will be moving at the end of July. While I am excited to move, I am not looking forward to the packing and moving part! Ugh...didn't we just do that? I am also sad to be leaving an awesome ward. We are only moving a few miles away, but it is a new ward and I won't have the convenience of members on my same street (BooHoo!) But, I will be getting a smaller house in an older neighborhood with trees! Yeah! I love trees. And we are just down the street from a cool park and within walking distance to the Rio Grande River and great walking trails (with more trees!) Oh and the owners are going to put in some grass in the backyard...can you imagine grass and trees! Here are s0me pics of our new place:Front of the house

Looking down the street (see those trees!)
The family room
The dining room that will serve as the office/music room
The kitchen

The backyard is really big and the owners are going to let me collaborate on the design of the landscaping (and I will call upon the experts-my family...for those of you that don't know, my family owns a landscaping company in CA...I was just the bookkeeper, so I don't have the design gene!)

I love older houses, they have so much more character. We are moving out of a new, generic, brown box. This house isn't the most beautiful, but I like it a whole lot more. I'm looking forward to it!

In other news...we are off to visit friends and family in Utah for a week and will post about our adventures when we return next week.

Happy 4th to all!