One Word Tag

My cute (so crafty!) friend Sara tagged me on this fun one-word tag...so here goes!

1. Where is your cell phone?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Downstairs

2. Your significant other? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buns

3. Your hair color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brown

4. Your mother? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . Loving

5. Your father? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Concerts

6. Your favorite thing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Family

7. Your dream last night? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . None

8. Your favorite drink? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Water

9. Your dream/goal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Satisfied

10. The room you're in? . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . Bedroom

11. Your hobby? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Projects

12. Your fear? . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Death

13. Where do you want to be in six years? . . . . . . Utah

14. Where were you last night? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rynearsons

15. What you're not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tall (copied you Sara! ;o)

16. Muffins? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . Blueberry

17. One of your wish list items? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Disneyland

18. Where you grew up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Farmington

19. The last thing you did? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ice Cream (no lies there!)

20. What are you wearing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Clothes

21. Your tv? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broken

22. Your pets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kids

23. Your computer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Full

24. Your life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Busy

25. Your mood? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tired

26. Missing someone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes

27. Your car? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vacuum!!

28. Something your not wearing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jewelry

29. Favorite store? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Target

30. Your summer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . HUMID!

31. Like someone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Family

32. Your favorite color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Red

33. When was the last time you laughed?. . . . . . . . Pool

34. Last time you cried? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Today

35. Who will do this? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friends

Sheesh...that IS harder than it looks! Thanks for the tag Sara! I tag Katie (yes...both of you!), the Kanigans, and Jenny. Get on it now y'all! And NO cheating...ONE WORD ONLY!

That Darn "Sippin' Corner"

Ok, so to the naked eye, that might not look like much of a 'corner'. Let me explain. Let's start at the beginning. When we were pregnant with Caitlin, and poor (oh wait...still poor!) I picked out a cute, yet cheap unisex crib bedding set. If I would have known that a few years down the road, Abby would be totally and completely attached to the crib quilt from that set..I would have picked out something cuter...and more girlish!

Abby became attached to that blanket as a baby. I would lay her on it in her crib for naps, and she would grab the corner and roll herself up in the blanket. She then became attached to all of the corners in general by the time she was about 12 or 18 months. I would put her down for naps and I would have to give her all 4 corners to hold. Well, she apparently sometime became attached to one corner in particular. She then labeled this corner her 'sippin corner'...and we have NO IDEA where she came up with that! Anyways, if she walks by her blanket...she has to 'sip it' as she says. She'll rub that sippin corner in between her fingers. A little interesting, but whatever.

After we had Emma, Abby reverted back to wanting to lug the huge, hot, ratted, ugly blanket to church and everywhere else. So finally FINALLY (hallelujah) we convinced Abby that Arizona is going to be much to hot for a huge blanket, so today she let me cut the 'sippin corner' part off into a smaller blanket. So far she thinks it's pretty rad (pardon my 80's french)...so hopefully it'll last!

Before the surgery.

After the surgery.

Sweet deal!

And maybe (if we're lucky) by the time she goes to high school she'll be able to leave her 'sippin corner' at home.

Sorry...

K...so I'm trying to figure out this cutesy-blogging-thing that so many of you have down to an art! (And yes I'm jealous of each and every one of your cute blogs...) I'm trying my hand at making my blog my own, and making it the way I want it to look. So I've been changing and trying new things, and it honestly will probably look worse before it looks better. Be patient with me, ite? Just workin' on it in all my free time... ;o)

Random Pics

Cute little Emma JoShe makes the term 'bad hair day' look so cute!!!

We are going to miss the green of Missouri!

Abby just being..well..cute as usual!

Not much to say...(and not much time to say anything)...but I wanted to post a few pics.

Whirlwind Week!

First of all....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET ABBY JADE!!!!!

Abby is such a sweet wonderful fun spirit in our family! I can't believe she's already 3!!! No fun to celebrate your birthday with pneumonia...but I'll cover that later in the 'whirlwind week' coverage. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABS!!!

Abby chose this cute little set as her gift from Grandma Debbie. How could I say no?

She was so excited when she saw it was The Little Mermaid movie in her present!

Emma and I made a week trip to Arizona to find a house to rent when we move at the end of July. We flew with Katie and Liberty Wilkins, (Katie is from Mesa), and we stayed at Katie's parents house for the first few days of the trip. During this trip we as a family were helped out by SO many people...so here go the heartfelt thanks....

First of all, THANK YOU Katie for the hours of driving me around with screaming kids to help me get to know the areas better, and find a house. Thank you for the tips about schools, areas, neighborhoods, rent, etc... Thank you for putting up with my countless texts, phone calls, emails, chats, etc.. over the past few months, and all of your help to get us to find the best place we could in Arizona. You have been so selfless of your time and resources to help us out. You are such a great friend...THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!

Thank you to Katie's family who gave us first-class treatment for an economy price. Oh wait...who am I kidding? For free! Katie's family let Emma and I stay at their house, they fed us, they had a carseat base, bouncer, bassinet, and pack'n'play all waiting for us at their house. They put up with Emma's night fussiness, and gave me so much advice about where to live...and they are such sweet people. Thank you Dale & Jan! (And Katie's sisters and Mindy!)

Thank you to Pauline and Tasha who watched the girls for us when Nate's mom wasn't here. Nate's 'board study time' is so precious and few...that really helped out so that he could stay on-track and not fall behind.

THANK YOU ONE MILLION TIMES to Nate's Mom (Mom-diggity-dawg) for coming out for a week and stepping in as mom for Caitlin and Abby!!!!! She took a week off of work (missed Joseph's graduation), to fly out here and help so I could find a place, and Nate could still study. She dealt with an emotional Abby the whole time...and was such a sweet help to my girls. She took them swimming, played games, made them meals, and even took Nate his lunch to school every day. Thank you just doesn't cover it for what you've done for us this past week...but THANK YOU SO MUCH!

And last, BUT NOT LEAST....thank you to my mom...who last minute decided to make the trip to AZ to help me out. It was definitely a blessing and I wouldn't have made it without her help! Emma LOVED her so much, and was all smiles around Grandma Debbie. Mom was so good to drive around and stop anytime Emma needed to eat. She even had to eat lunch by herself for the most part at the Cheesecake Factory...as Emma decided to be super-high-maintenance in the restaurant. She never complained with my wishy-washy decision making, and she was such a good sport even when Emma was 'less than perfect'. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM for you help and love and support in AZ. It was so wonderful that you ended up coming, I really truly appreciate it.

Emma's 1st plane ride (on the way to AZ)...she did wonderful!

Emma with Grandma Debs
Emma lovin' 100% attention from Grandma!
Big girl on the hotel bed.
This is the house we decided to rent. If you are familiar with Mesa/Gilbert...it's in Val Vista Lakes...La Jolla (something or other) neighborhood. It has a 3 car garage, and the owner is putting in all new flooring, among other finishing touches. Nate is so darn thrilled to have that 3rd spot in the garage for a little makeshift shop!The front of the house is around that side path...
Ignore the mess (the owner hasn't moved all their stuff out yet)...just imagine Nate workin' away in the 3rd spot...

This is the view from the street driving in...but that's the front door of the house (yes, it's on the side).

The park right down the street-the girls are gonna love it! Smart to cover the playground...why don't they do that at all parks?

Here's the kicker...the clubhouse area includes a lap pool, hot tubs, this man-made beach in the picture (like a pool only with sand on the shallow end), racquetball courts, tennis courts, a gym...and I'm sure there's more. The girls are pretty darn excited about this cool beach too! It's about 1/4 mile from 'our' house.

Another view of the 'beach' with a playground too!

Lap pool, hot tubs...

Whew! It was a week that flew by trying to find a house. The first day of looking was pretty discouraging, but I'm so grateful that Katie emailed friends and someone led us to our house. I had a hard time being away from Caitlin & Abby so long. The last few days of the trip Abby had a really hard time, and cried a lot. I thought it was just from missing me...but we found out the day after I got back (yesterday) that she has pneumonia! No wonder she was so sad. I feel so bad that I was gone when she was sick, but I'm glad that Nate's mom was there to take care of her. She's feeling ok now though, just on the mend.

A week or two BEFORE I headed to AZ we had a BBQ with some friends. It was so much fun, yet so sad to think that in 2 months we'll all go our separate ways. I'm going to miss the sweet friends I've made during the past 2 years in Kirksville. I've learned so much from them, and grown so close to all of them.

This is Caitlin & her friend Ellie horkin' the chips!

The guys. (I'm sure right now they all look a little more stressed than in this picture!) Oh...and I love Cade's pose...what a ham!

The gals...I love you all!

The ambulance district here has an open house every year. This year they had a blow up slide, bounce house, and pony rides, among other fun things. The girls loved it, and it was such a great day to get outside!

I don't know if I'd trust these two to save my life in the life flight helicopter!

Caitlin on the pony ride. Abby wouldn't get NEAR those ponies!

Once again...cute...but I wouldn't trust her to save my life! ;o)

Well, that about sums it up for THE LONGEST POST of my life! If you've stuck around for this whole post...sweet diggities! Hope you enjoyed!