Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Sweet Surprise

From Blog Favorites August/September

Monica, me, Arianne, Shalyce and Heather

Whose dumb idea was it to take the shot from this angle? Uh, that would be me. And you guys think I'm a good photographer? It looked so much better in my mind. But despite the glare, I think it's a cute picture and want to post it anyway. (O:

When Arianne heard I was moving she wanted to do a little get together at a park before school started. I assumed it would be just us an maybe a couple other preschool group moms, but then a couple other good friends showed up! When Angie, Heather and Shalyce came, at first I thought it was just a coincidence! Arianne had sent a message out to several friends inviting them to come for an impromptu farewell for me. She is such a sweetheart and made yummy cookies to share and brought an autograph notebook for friends to sign. She even got mini autograph books for the girls! She is so thoughtful! I was so touched that she did that for me. What a kind friend. I really appreciated the break from our busy day interviewing real estate agents and the kids needed something fun to do. What a nice treat!

From Blog Favorites August/September
Although it looks like a hot summer day looking at the way my girls are playing in the water - it wasn't!

From Blog Favorites August/September
Look how empty the fountains were! This place is usually packed on warm or hot days. Guess whose kids didn't care that it was probably only 70 degrees?

From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September
Arianne, my sweet and thoughtful friend. (o:

From Blog Favorites August/September
Arianne and Rylan!

End of Summer Party!

From Blog Favorites August/September

Thursday, August 24th was a party all day long! In the morning Chuck* and I finally got to talk with our relocation specialist to get the ball rolling with our move, then the girls and I headed out to Mrs. B.'s house for a couple hours, then we drove straight to Lauren's house for an end of summer party. That night Natalie and I went on a special friend date with her best buddy Emma. More on that later . . . Needless to say, we were feeling very loved and happy that day!

My good friend Elizabeth hosted an end of summer party at her new beautiful home. She always has the best parties and makes it so fun for the kids. I just love her so much and think she is so amazing. She makes the girls feel so special. We had a wonderful time - as usual!!

From Blog Favorites August/September
I always bring my nicer camera to Elizabeth's parties because she goes all out and makes everything look so cute. (o:

From Blog Favorites August/September
Playing the game of getting the hula hoop around Gus a big, blue stuffed ape.

From Blog Favorites August/September
This picture captures what I LOVE about Lauren. She has such enthusiasm and zest for life. Ever since she was a baby she has done everything with so much gusto! Even the scrapes on her face show you what kind of girl she is. She was running around and looking at something else and crashed right into one of her friends! She probably saw something that was really cool, but didn't want to stop running while she admired it! (o: She always says the sweetest exclamations. Elizabeth was telling me that earlier in the week they had a clogged toilet. She told Lauren not to use that bathroom until she got it fixed. The next morning Elizabeth told Lauren that mommy fixed the potty so she could use it again. Lauren told her "Good job mommy! That's so great!" Like she had just won a trip to Disneyland. (O: What a sweetheart.

From Blog Favorites August/September
Lauren doing the jumproping contest!

From Blog Favorites August/September
Sarah loves Lauren's parties!

From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September
Look at Sarah in the background while Natalie swings! Does she have some trust issues?

From Blog Favorites August/September
Bobbing for apples!

From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September
Jensen got one! It was really hard to do! I think she was one of the only ones who actually did it!

From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September
Sarah got a piece of an apple rather than the whole thing!

From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September


From Blog Favorites August/September
A group shot of the cute kiddos!

From Blog Favorites August/September
I just love and adore these two ladies. How did I get so lucky to have such amazing and talented and fun and loving friends? I am so grateful for them and I am always happy when we are together. Good friends bring out the best in you and that exactly the kind of friends Elizabeth and Angie are to me. Love you gals!

From Blog Favorites August/September
Natalie enjoying her "spoils" from the pinata!

From Blog Favorites August/September
We love Lauren and Elizabeth's new house! Thanks for the fun afternoon!

Bruised, Blistered and Totally Exhausted...

The last two weeks have been complete insanity. I have lost track of the days and feel like I am just getting off an amusement park ride - one of those rides that jerks you around, has unexpected twists and turns and has the kind of G forces that stretch and flap your facial skin to the back of your skull. (Do you know what I'm talking about? (o: Ever been on one of those?) And I'm taking a break from the ride today, but I know we are back in line to go again. The "fun" is not over yet! Thank goodness for Sundays - a day of rest.

In the last two weeks, I have photographed a wedding (at the time I committed I had NO idea that a move was on the horizon!), taken the girls to the dentist and doctor, taken Twilight to the vet, threw a birthday party, attended as many gatherings with friends as possible - park outings, a relief society meeting, a surprise party for a dear friend, shopped for school clothes . . . at the same time in between all this Ned* and I have: sanded/stained the deck, painted our downstairs ceiling, painted the downstairs bathroom, fixed the flooring in our attic that the Barrier guy stepped through during a routine visit, pruned, mowed, planted flowers, met with 2 realtors, packed about 1/3 of our belongings, moved several huge pieces of furniture including 4 bookcases (We have four bookcases??), a treadmill, a desk and a futon, completely organized and streamlined every closet and drawer in the house, filled a 3 cubic yard dumpster (the best investment ever!), made 3 huge trips with donations to Deseret Industries and the Salvation Army, made a trip to IKEA for a small table and a few smaller trips to Home Depot, Target and Michael's for little finishing touches on the house, cleaned all the windows inside and out and moved our piano and dining set. I'm sure there are many things I am forgetting in that long list, but that gives you an idea of what we've been up to lately. Especially to our family members who wondered what in the world happened to us as the phone calls from Oregon almost completely ceased during this insane ride.

We have a few bruises, sore feet, paint under our nails and blisters from the crazy ride, but I am happy to say that we are now ready to list the house. It is officially going up on RMLS Tuesday. We met our realtor Friday, August 24th and 6 days later with several visits from Patty in between to coach us on staging the house - the virtual tour guy and photographer were ready to do their thing. Patty was amazed at the amount of work we did in such a short time. Her last client took 3 weeks to do what we did in 5 days (taking Sunday off in the middle). By the amount of work we did, you'd think that my house must have been a disaster. It wasn't! Maybe a little cluttered, but as Patty says - "beauty sells" and we need to sell!

So here are a few pictures I took Friday before taking the kids on a much deserved outing to the zoo. (Now we are trying to stay out of the house so it will STAY clean!)

From Blog Favorites August/September

I LOVE our kitchen. The cupboards are huge and we practically live at the bar.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Does anyone remember the color of this downstairs bathroom before? (o: It was kind of a teal that I always meant to repaint. Amazing what a move will motivate you to do. This tan is much more neutral and calming.

From Blog Favorites August/September

Our dining table looks so great in the dining room. (o:


From Blog Favorites August/September

I've always loved our entryway. It was a huge selling point for us when we bought the house.

From Blog Favorites August/September

And here's where we put all our extra stuff. This goes to show what a good size garage we have. We can still fit one car in between all the packed boxes and furniture on one side and our huge food storage shelves on the other. I love our house and will be sad to leave it. I hope someone else will come to love it (buy it) soon!

Adventure at Mrs. B.'s!

In the last post I talked all about all the hard work we've been doing the last two weeks, but we did do several fun things in between to help keep us sane and to give us some good quality time with friends before we go.

(Just a side note: My apologies for messing up the html code on this entry. My comments below don't match up with the pictures so it's a bit messy. I'll try to fix it later!)

From Blog Favorites August/September

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sarah and Natalie's teacher from school - Mrs. B.'s house. She has been a good friend of ours for the past two years. JoAnn was Sarah's 2nd grade teacher and Natalie's 1st grade teacher. We looked forward to Angela having her next year for 1st grade and JoAnn insisted we needed to have more children so she could have them in her classes down the road. (O: JoAnn lives in the country - out in Cornelius about a half hour west of us. She has told me so many times about her place and it sounded so wonderful and peaceful. I was so excited that we were able to plan a time for a visit this summer! Mrs. Elliott had also extended an invitation to come visit her place as well when school ended. Sharon (Mrs. Elliott) was Sarah's 3rd grade teacher last year. After talking/e-mailing to JoAnn and Sharon we decided to simplify things - and meet all together at Mrs. B.'s. Sharon is a good friend of JoAnn's and lives about 15 minutes away. It worked out to be a fabulous time!

Mrs. B.'s house and land are beautiful. It was so peaceful and amazing to see all the work she and Mr. B. have put into the place. (Mr. B. was Sarah's P.E. teacher over at Jackson elementary!) Their home was built prior to the 1940's and they have done some updates and made it such a beautiful place. The gardens and beautifully pruned trees and places to explore were the best! The kids could have stayed all day long exploring. It is such a peaceful and magical place!

From Blog Favorites August/September


We invited Jensen to come along for our adventures. She was Sarah's favorite friend in Mrs. Elliott's class and her mom helped me get a special gift for Mrs. Elliott that we took to her that day - a stamp of her signature to save her time signing all the students' Gotcha's. Side note: Jensen's aunt is the one we chose to be our real estate agent!
From Blog Favorites August/September











There were several cool, old buildings like this one on the property. Isn't it charming? I felt like we stepped back in time. So much fun!

A tour of the garden!

Walking out to the creek...



The kids had fun and got soaked. They had fun playing with Lucy, one of the neighbor's dogs who wanted to see what was going on.

Shortly after this picture Angela fell in. Poor thing. Luckily, I had the foresight to pack an extra pair of clothes for each of the girls!





Mrs. B. and Mrs. Elliott spoiled the girls. They had ice cream cake and cookies and JoAnn bought the girls cute crafts to do on our travels to Utah. How could we ever be so lucky to have such wonderful teachers for the girls?? They took such a personal interest in my girls and our family and became our friends. I am going to miss them so much. I am so grateful for the impact they have had on my girls and for the genuine love they showed them. We will never forget Mrs. B. and Mrs. Elliott and hope to come back and visit!




We got to take home some of these gorgeous squash! I was so happy since my zucchini plant didn't make it this year.

JoAnn told us about the flood in '96 during our visit. It completely flooded their basement and they had to get to their house on a boat!


The girls laugh at me, but I am taking pictures constantly during our drives around here. It is so incredibly beautiful here and I will miss all this gorgeous green so much.

This is the exit from highway 26 to get to our house. I know I've said it a million times, but it is just beautiful.
From Blog Favorites August/September