New House

Ok here goes....

Living Room: Looking in from the front door.

 

This was a FREE bookcase, and I love it!

From the living room looking to the stairs going upstairs, downstairs and into the kitchen.

Bad photo, sorry! This is the kitchen.

My bare wall in the kitchen, the shelves are all small (Can only fit the height of a small Triscuit box) So we are using other shelves to store things...we will fix this....later most likely by buying shelving with doors or putting a counter top in.

Backyard....oh we mowed on Saturday...13 bags of grass later and 4 boxes....ohhh this will be a challenge to keep up!

Living Room "Library"...seriously we could fill 3-4 bookshelves..but for now it will fill up the wrap around shelving in the room. (and no, the entertainment center isn't usually pushed into the room...just another side affect of trying to get the Internet to work)

Office area in the living room...Jeff trying to get Frontier to understand that our Internet connection really stinks and doesn't always work...in the end...they were not helpful at all. 

We'll try again to fix things today. It looks pretty cluttered, this is one area I am still organizing...too many books, and school stuff to keep track of.

Looking down the hall into the downstairs bathroom and the craft/laundry room

Upstairs Bath

Master Bedroom

Ehre's room (LOVE vinyl wall stickers!)

Ben's room

Door Decor for the kids rooms...they painted these by themselves, what good artists!

Well that's it, basically its a standard split level home, and for our first home we love it. The garage door currently doesn't open, and there isn't another access into it so we are kind of stuck there. Hopefully it will get repaired soon. Its a good thing we were trying to pull in when it broke, or our van would be stuck inside. :)

Front of the house:

This was our longest and fastest move (I think) We started packing 3 weeks early....oh our other house felt like a storage unit. When we finally moved on Friday, we had a ton of help (Thanks!) and 95% of all the unpacking and organizing was done by Monday evening. We even had friends over for dinner by Tuesday night! Not bad if you consider that we still took Sunday as our day of rest.  No more moving for a little while, we'll have a small move next summer for our internship, and our next move will be the following summer when we move to Jeff's job at CRANE. :)

Back in business

I know people have been trying to reach us on the new land number but our provider never actually hooked up our phone line... :)  But that is all fixed now,  :) So pictures will be coming soon of the new house ( I can't find the camera or camera plug yet... This was an extremely busy weekend, but 95% of all the boxes are unpacked and put away, I'll hand pictures today, and then come what may. We are so grateful for the help we got from ward members and all of Jeff's research lab (including Dr. Chappell!) This made the weekend go so smoothly, even if there were allot of boxes to move!

 

More to come soon!

Ann

"Dad Life"

My friend Marent posted this and I have to pass it on!

http://vimeo.com/12714406

Ha ha


This is dad life

It's how we live

24/7, 365

Check me



Gas station glasses

Don't care what the masses

Think about me wit my sweet goatee

I'm rockin' my Dockers

With a cuff and a crease

I got that St. John's Bay

And a clip for my piece



I look nice

I got dozens of dollars

And that's right

It goes straight to my daughters and my wife

I'm a miracle dad

Makin' magic with the checkbook is a talent I have



I roll hard in the yard

With a 60-inch cut

Zero turn radius

My neighbors say what?

They be drivin' by

Peepin' my landscape

Yo, these greens got nothin' on my manscape



Hydrangeas (what), Begonias (naw)

Crape Myrtle (tight), ornamental turtle!

Hold up

Is that a weed in my fescue?

Aw naw, Round Up to the rescue



It's the dad life, it's the dad life

Take my daughty to the potty, it's the dad life

(bringin' home the bacon)

It's the dad life, it's the dad life

Shootin' vids of the kids, it's the dad life



Roll up to the splash pad, 10 AM

My whole entourage

Hops out the minivan

We splishy splashy for an hour or two

Then it's back to the house

Preppin' for the barbeque



Brats, dogs, rack of ribs, whateva (tight)

Get me on the Weber

Man, nobody does it betta

Call me lord of the grill

I'm king of the coals

Nana's secret recipe, you know how I roll



1080p, 16x9

I'm rockin' man cave status

With a screen like mine

Keep your peanut butter hands

Off my 50-inch Vizio

Pop up the corn, roll the Disney video



{ "A whole new world…" }



We got Aladdin, Jasmine

Abu, the genie (hey)

With kids like mine, everybody wants to be me

Sing a nigh-night song and then it's off to bed

This is the dad life, no more to be said



It's the dad life, it's the dad life

Hit the mall, coaching ball, it's the dad life

(bringin' home the bacon)

It's the dad life, it's the dad life

Playing rough, fixing stuff, it's the dad life

(bringin' home the bacon)

It's the dad life, it's the dad life

Yeah, you know how we do it

It's the dad life

Early Morning Scripture Study

A blog I follow ( http://perfectsyzygy.blogspot.com/2010/07/spiritual-application-of-horoscopes.html  ) Posted this tonight, and I thought that it was really insightful, so I am passing it on. I am a morning scripture reader but mostly because I am too tired to read at night, and when I say I am a morning reader, I say that lightly. I don't read as often as I should but after reading this it motivates me to make a bigger effort into putting more time into my morning scripture study... and I'm going to have to if I am going to finish the Book of Mormon before this baby arrives. :)

.................................................................................................................................

The spiritual application of horoscopes

Today at FHE, the person assigned to give the spiritual thought was stuck on a train and was unable to make it; so literally at the last minute, another member volunteered to do it. The thought was short and to the point, but as someone sitting next to me commented, it was probably the best FHE thought he had ever heard. I had to agree. And since it was quite a perfect syzygy of events and connections, I thought I'd share it here.

First, the speaker shared a scripture he had come across in his scripture reading the night before:

For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

-1 Nephi 10:19

Second, he recounted a discussion he had with his sister at the breakfast table this morning. Apparently she is big into horoscopes and had the paper out to read about how her day would go. The speaker admitted that he feels horoscopes are a 'load of stuff and nonsense' and said he told his sister as much. When she protested, he explained his opinion:

You read the horoscopes in the morning, so of course that's what you're going to think about during the day. You process everything that happens in reference to what you read, and so you MAKE your horoscope come true. One day try not reading your horoscope until the end of the day and then see how 'true' it is. I think you'll find that it's not really accurate at all.

And that, he said, is when the penny dropped.

So third, he remembered his scripture reading from the night before. (A miracle. For though he usually reads his scriptures at night, he often wakes up in the morning with the page still open where he began, having failed to internalize what he'd read.) He then applied his logic about the worth of horoscopes to the worth of daily scripture study:

If he were to read his scriptures in the morning, that's what he'd think about during the day. He'd process everything that happened to him in reference to what he had read, and thus he would stand a better chance of DOING what they commanded and MAKING the promises of kept covenants come true. By reading at night, there was still the possibility that some of his actions during the day might be reflected in the scriptures, but much of their power and value would be diminished.

----------





So what I got from his thought is this: As the scripture states, when we diligently seek for spiritual manifestations to strengthen our faith, answer our questions, and give us comfort, the Lord is fully prepared to bless us with what we need and even what we want.





This is the best argument I have ever heard in favor of morning reading, and as a night-reader myself, I've made a goal to switch the the morning and see if I can make myself a good horoscope or two (:

More storm pictures:

There are some more pics, its crazy but true. Telephone poles snapped in 1/2, fence posts (& the whole fence) flattened by the wind. Cinder block dugouts flat too! ....and to think Jeff missed all the action!

Last Nights Storm

Perfect weather, it was so nice we decided to go to the pool at 6.... heard a small amount of thunder no big deal pool was closed for it so we played in the sprinklers at our house with friends. Power went out at 7:15...didn't get it back till 2 am ( yes it was HORRIBLE trying to sleep in the house...I was so gratefull when the power came back on and we got our AC back!)  I didn't realize the damage of the storm till we went to church today, several families still don't have power (17+ hours) and tree's are down everywhere ...literally on some streets every house had trees damaged. Cumberland Elementary School (Ehre's school) had at least 50% of their trees broken in 1/2, one tree fell into the school damaging 3 classrooms. One of the baseball dugouts (cinder block type) looked like a giant just stepped on the whole thing.....ohh so much clean up to do!

 

Here are some pics, there is a lot of clean up to do. I went over to the new house and my heart started to race and I was really worried. As I pulled onto our street I saw the piles of limbs lining ready for pickup tomorrow, and lots of people cutting trees into firewood. But there was our little house, with the HUGE tree in the front yard, perfectly fine. There are some small branches and leaves all over the yard (we can rake them up tomorrow) but we were so lucky. I think we may be one of the only homes on the street without tree damage. :)

 

This is what the news report said,

 

"Winds reached up to 75 MPH and there was over two inches of rain in just under an hour. All of this meant lots of damage for Tippecanoe county residents.

Much of U.S. Highway 52 became hard to drive through as traffic lights were out and streets began to flood over the curb.

"We started to pull out on 52 when we saw literally the waves and the people trying to go through the intersection and so we decided to pull over and get away from it all," said Lisa Drayer.

Lafayette police department said there were three structure fires, as well as at least one case of a power line on fire.

"It wasn't too scary, We didn't realize how bad it was until we saw the smoke, so we got out of there pretty early which was good," said Marcel Garcia. Garcia's basement caught on fire.

There were multiple street closures, most due to fallen trees and tree limbs blocking the lanes of traffic. "

 

Weather blog link: http://blogs.wlfi.com/2010/07/18/july-17-2010-west-lafayettelafayette-microburst/

Quick Little Project

I have a super generous friend who gave us her couch and two Ikea chairs as they were moving to CA.  I decided that the chairs needed a. more color b. a darker cover to last longer with children.

So here is the before:

And the after:

I'm not an excellent seamstress but it works. The pictures don't do the fabric Justice, looking at it makes me happy and cheerful. Last step will be painting these chairs a different color....they will be in a room with lt colored and dk colored wood...so I am thinking of painting them a lt blue or green....just to add a little bit more color. :)

Blessing Jacket

I've never really tried making clothing other than hats, so I figured since I didn't know if this baby was a boy or girl I'd make a jacket. If it ended up a girl I could add a crochet lacy border, if it was a boy I'd add a simple border. Well...followed the pattern but in the end to me it still looked girly. So this is Version 1.0, if its a girl I will make a long white satin dress to go under it. I'll work on making a boy's  jacket (Version 2.0) in the next few weeks. Then all I'll need to add is a white onesie and white pants. I also have the beautiful white blanket from Kim and some booties that I am making to go with this...so in the end one way or another we'll have a blessing outfit. :)

Adorible Ties

Aren't these ties cute, if only I knew how to make them! Hopefully I'll win one, but if not maybe you will!
Ann

Baby Blanket

I finally finished this blanket last night, it has a cool pillow look on one side but the wrong side is flat. It was supposed to have a greet boarder, but I couldn't find a green that matched well enough. :( But thats ok, this turned out fine!

One blanket down, a few more to go.

Normal Pregnancy?

Good Morning (7 am here!)  I am putting out a blogging question. Whats normal, I'd ask my mom, but honestly as sweet as she is she's not normal when pregnant,  I'd call a sister in Bangkok but can't afford to, and its 5 am in UT  :) 

 

So, here is my question : Braxton Hicks, are theses painful? In my past pregnancies, I don't feel contractions till they are causing a problem, or in Ben's case I never really felt them, and when I did I had what the doctor termed "back labor". Last night I woke up 3 different times with a painful contraction....not normal for me. Talked to a nurse this morning, I'm sure she's  a nice lady and a good nurse, but she didn't help much saying call us back when they are 3-5 minutes apart for over an hour and drink lots of water.  So I'm putting my question out to my blogging mommies...is this normal for others? Can you leave me a comment or email me about whats normal?

 

Other than that I feel great, swim lessons are today and both kids are really excited. We had another round of severe weather last night, making it like the 3rd or 4th severe weather night in the past week. When we lived in UT everyone prayed for rain, out here I think that they pray for the lack of rain. The thunder and lightning (known as Funder and Exciting at our house) was amazing, and we even had some hail around 2 am. Hopefully all these storms will pass and we can have a sunny week.

 

That's it, hope you all have a great day!

Ann

Happy Fathers Day!

I am married to a fabulous fabulous man, and I was excited to surprise him with a cake. I've never done fondant before, but it turned out all right... starts cover all my imperfections wonderfully!

The kids were really excited to pick out a Fathers Day gift with me. We meant to hold off till tomorrow to give it to him, but a project tonight warranted an early gift giving. Jeff received his first tool from me a cordless drill, he was thrilled. Hopefully he gets good use of it, I love seeing him work on projects.

Being a parent doesn't truly come naturally to anyone,, there are constantly learning opportunities that come up that cause us to adjust our parenting styles and adapt to our children. Jeff has worked so hard to be a wonderful father, and adjusts well. The kids and I are both grateful for his loving care that he give to this family!

Thankyou gifts...

I made these for some primary friends, they are filled with Jolly Ranchers.

Emily's Graduation

I was able to make a dessert for my cousin Emily's graduation. No this idea wasn't mine, but even so they turned out well. The cake portion was made of White and Red Velvet cake representing her school colors. :)

...last ones.

Hiking in Kolob Canyon!

Amazing production of Aladdin!

...a few more...

Finally Ben stood in a picture with a smile!

It was a little cold at the beach but even so we had a great time.

Though, after this shot, Ben never went back in the water.

If you can't tell, my children are fully clothed (long story) ...they had a great time!

One of our favorite meals at the Cheese Factory.

More Pictures...

Riding Dumbo.

Ehre and Micky Mouse (Ben would have nothing to do with anyone in costume!)

Ben you are sooo strong!

Princess Ariel.

Belle...

Pics from Utah!

Eating carrots straigt from grandma and grandpa's garden.

Ehre and Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Millett.

We never get tired of visiting tgrandma and grandpa's beautiful property!

Kids riding on the back of grandpa's golf cart.

Hormonal update...

I re-read yesterdays post, I should have waited to blog until today. Yesterday counts as one of my hormonally tearful days, over something that really doesn't matter. So to all the followers out there, please pardon a hormonoally messed up mommy, who really is excited to have this baby, and even more excited that s/he is healthy....Now  please note, since we have double insurance on this kid,  and they both technically should cover one ultrasound each...maybe I can talk my doctor into finding a reason to letting us have another one in a month or so. (Preferably before we move!)

 

 

Ann

Baby's Ultrasound

And its a ..... stubborn baby. Legs are crossed, walked around for a while, legs still crossed.... I guess this will be a suprise baby. :( This so doesn't work with my plan ahead and be fully prepared motto. As disapointed as I am not knowing what we are having, I am grateful for a healthy baby! I am 19 weeks 5 days and the baby measures at 19 weeks and 3 days, so we are right on track!  Here are a few photos from our appointment, it was really cool to see a 3D image!

Utah Trip

Wow this was quite the trip, we felt like we were hopping all over the place! Here's how it all worked....

May 12: Left IN
May 15: Spencer's Farewell Party with all the cousins.
May 16: Spencer's Farewell, Ehre, Christy, Spencer and I sang "I'll go where you want me to go."
May 17: Spencer and I got to go to do temple work together.
May 18: Spencer was called as a full time missionary.
May 19: We said good by to Spencer for 2 years and he entered the MTC.
May 20: Jeff sent me my first bouquet of flowers, so beautiful. Amy and I turned 27, and I picked Jeff up at the airport. I also got a stupid parking ticket...
May 21: Left at 5 am for California, arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Millet's just in time to attend their Church "Over 80" Celebration.
May 22: Had a blast hanging out at the grands house. The 3 acres were an amazing playground for the kids.
May 23: Attended church and then drove to LA. Saw the Disneyland Firework show.
May 24: Disneyland, only had to stand in a line for 1.5 hours to see 3 Disney princesses but Ehre loved it. Rode on Nemo's submarine, drove in Autotopia, raced down Matterhorn mountain and many other rides. Then at the end of the day when the kids were exhausted, we saw the Disneyland parade and then headed to the hotel to sleep.
May 25: Jeff's conference, Ehre, Ben and I had a blast at the pool and in the hospitality suite...
May 26: Same as the 25
May 27: Same as the 26, but then we went to the beach...was cold but the waves were awesome!
May 28: California Adventure land, saw the amazing Aladdin show, Playhouse Disney, Spoke with Crush the turtle, Rode a huge Feriswheel and played in Bug world.......spent 3.5 hours on the freeways of LA, only went 5 miles, apparently a gas truck literally blew up the freeway, and traffic just stood still, 5 lanes going nowhere.....after a 12 hour journey we finally made it to St. George at 4 in the morning.
May 29: Spent a wonderful morning with an Aunt and Uncle, then went hiking in Kolob Canyon.
May 30: Went to Church with the Maas', enjoyed the time with family and looked at stars in Grandpa M's telescope.
May 31: Memorial Day celebrations with the Maas', the kids loved playing in the sprinklers and eating great food.
June 1: Met with high school friends at Fudruckers, had a wonderful time catching up with all the new babies.
June 2: Went to temple square, and enjoyed showing the kids various sites with Aunt C's family.
June 3: Flew back home to UT
June 4: Dr's appointment, heard a great heartbeat and packed up for MI to attend Emily's graduation party. We even got to camp out in their backyard!
June 5: Helped put up a swing set, and watched Emily graduate from HS. Drove home to IN.
June 6: Today, we are home, and resting up from the last few busy weeks. 

I'll now include some posts of pics from the various points of our trip. Now we are headed on to swimming lessons, finalizing a home to move into, packing, Dr. visits, ultrasounds,preparing baby things, camping, BBQ's etc...

Ann
PS. Next post will most likely not be until we notify you of the gender of our 18 week old baby !

Holiday Plans

We've started making our holiday plans (yes a little bit early, I know). But we have only got 25 more weeks and then we're going to be way too busy. So if you want to Halloween, Thanksgiving or even Christmas this year with us, please let us know. We are planning on having a special blessing around Christmas Break for the newest member, and would love anyone who would like to be there to join us for it!

Are you confused yet?
Due Date: Nov 4
Gender to be determined in June.
Current Status: 15 weeks and counting!

PS. We have a new blog that we created for our kids. We've been going through the different weeks, you are welcome to follow it. 2daystospare.blogspot.com