New House

We finally moved into our very first house (that we own). It is a very nice feeling. Plus I really like it. Jennie, here is one picture. It is the only one I have. I promise to take some more and put them on. It took a week to get our stuff and we were sure glad to have it. We have a three bedroom. Katie gets her own room (although she was a little disappointed to no longer share with Johnny). The boys share the other one. We have an office off of our bedroom. The basement is finished and is the kids play room. Absolutely no toys in the bedrooms. I got tired of tripping over toys trying to get kids into bed. The kitchen is one of my favorite rooms. I love the island. It is one of the easiest rooms to decorate. Todd got his garage. It is all his as he requested. He was kind enough to let me put the camping stuff and the bikes in it. I love our back yard. It is fenced in and the kids love to go out and play (I like it when they go out and play too:) Katie started kindergarten and Billy started preschool. The great thing is that kindergarten is now all day at no cost at Katie's school. So the bus picks her up and drops her off every day. She loves school and has already learned so much. Billy wanted to go to school too so I got him in twice a week. He likes it but still seems shy and doesn't want to go some days. But he has great teachers. Miss Beth also goes to our ward so he loves getting to see here there. Johnny is Johnny. He would be more frustrating then he is if he wasn't so darn cute. He loves to wave to people and say hi and bye bye and is always smiling. He thinks he should get to be like his brother and sister. He refuses to sit in a high chair now and joins us at the big table. He doesn't like sippy cups at dinner either but I am not about to give him real cups yet as he loves to dump them upside down. We have been on many hikes since we move and I love the area. It is beautiful and has lots of outdoor stuff to do. I hope we get to stay here as long as possible.

Todd's Home

Todd finally came home in August:) We picked him up from the airport in Seattle. We were in Washington for Todd's family reunion and we were happy he was able to make half of it. I don't have all the family pics as they are on Todd's laptop but here are a few. The kids were so excited to pick him up. They followed him around for weeks after he got back. We are blessed to be back together as a family again. The reunion was a blast. I love Todd's family. It was the first time all of Todd's Bros and sis were together since our wedding in 2001. We camped along the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately I missed seeing Forks (but picking up Todd from the airport was more important) but we did get to drive through Port Angeles. If anyone is confused Forks is where The twilight books take place. The fourth one came out in August so finally got to read it. It took a couple of weeks but Todd had just got back so wanted to spend more time with him. He would have complained if I had my nose stuck in a book. Just after the reunion we were able to visit our friends Lesa and Doug. It was great to see them after a few years. After the reunion we drove down to Travis and Jen's house. We stopped at Smith Rock to climb and camp. We stayed a few days in California and then headed back home. We had a fun few weeks with Tabitha, Ty, and Todd's parents. It was sad when the movers came and we moved out. I had a wonderful year living by them and am counting down the days till we get to visit.

The Lake

We are having a great visit at Grandma Shirley's. Lat week we went to visit my uncle Dan and his wife Theresa. We went to the park and had a picnic dinner. It was great to see them and the kids had sun running around. The next day we spent the day with one of my best friends from high school Lisa. I haven't seen her in over four years so it was great to catch up. She has a little girl almost two and a two month old. The most eventful part of the day was when Johnny fell off the toys and cut the middle of his tongue. It bled for a bit and then we could see it was a big split. It has heeled ok though so I am grateful for that. The following day we went to dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Smith's. They are really great and we had a good visit. A little stressful for me trying to keep a good eye on Johnny as the porch didn't have a very good railing so didn't get much chance to visit. But anyone with little kids knows what that is like I am sure.
The last few days we have been relaxing and hanging out. I have been doing some homework. Today we went to the lake. The kids were excited to go. The weather was nice. A little windy but a great day to be out. Billy isn't much of a swimmer so he just hung out in the shallow part or on shore. Johnny loved wandering around the shallow part and Katie was more daring and went in up to her neck. We had a picnic lunch. Half the food was left at home but we made do. We had potato salad and watermelon. The watermelon was a huge hit for the boys. They love fruits. So we had a good time. Todd emailed me this morning and he is in Kuwait:) So he is almost home. We are counting down the days:)
I will add pics tomorrow. They weren't downloading.

My Grandma's

Hi again. I am slowly getting better at writing more often. It is nice to read all of your posts to hear how you are doing. We are finally at my Grandma's and Uncle Darrels. We left the day after the concert. Lelanya came and stayed with me for a few days. She is my best friend from college. We had a good time hanging out. She and I left the same time and had lunch at the Olive Garden, one of my favorite returaunts. Then we drove a few more hours and stayed at Aunt Paula's house. She is Todd's Aunt. It cut the trip down from 13 to 10 hours. So we stayed the night and headed out the next day. It was a long trip but we finally made it and I was very happy. The kids made a nice mess in the back seat throwing food and laughing but that was better then Johnny screaming because he wanted out of the seat. I haven't been to my Grandma's house for over 4 years so it felt good to be back.
We have just been hanging out and I have been relaxing. No big house progects to stress about so that is nice. I started knitting some wash cloths and am reading a couple of books. One is called, "A Long Way Gone" and it is about a boy who lived in Sierra Leone and lived trough a civil war and who had to fight at age 13. It is aweful what some people can do to each other. So kind of a depressing book. I am counting down the days till Todd comes home (about 2 weeks) and also till the new Twilight book comes out. Tabitha and I are going to go to one of the relase parties at Barnes and Noble while near Seattle. I am looking forward to it. Don't worry Todd, not as much as I am looking forward to seeing you:)
Grandma gave Katie her old camera and she has been taking pictures non stop so here are some of the good ones she took.

American Idol's Concert

Hi everyone. Last Monday night Lelanya, Typhena, Tabitha, Donna (Tabitha's mother in law), and Jesse went to see the American Idols concert in Salt Lake City. I have never been to a concert and was very excited to go. It was awesome! We were in row 18 on the floor which was about 30 feet from the stage. So we could see them really good. The music was great and I don't think I have screamed so much in my like. Of course I wanted to see Jason Castro and had to wait till after intermission. They sang in order of being eliminated. So Chekezee sang three songs and then so on. So we had to wait to see them all. They all sounded really good even the ones I didn't like as much. When David Archeleta came on the screams were deftening. He is from Murry Utah and has an amazing voice. David A sang four songs and David Cook (the winner) sang five songs. For both we got to stand up by the stage and listen. I had a blast. I recorded a few of the songs but was running out of battery so didn't take as many as I would have liked. I will have to post pictures later as I am out of the state right now and my pics are on my home computer. I have some cool pics. I took pictures and video for Katie to see cause she likes Jason singing so she was excited to see them. I hooked them up to the tv and played Jason singing Some Where Over the Rainbow and she new the words and sang with it. I made a cd and listen to it a lot so she knows most of the songs that I have. The kids favorite song is David Cook's I'm Alive. They like it turned all the way up. They are cute.

Billy's B-day

Billy is now three. Time sure flies by. We had a simple party with mostly family. I made a race car cake, ordered pizza and Billy opened presents. We lucked out this year in that we found great presents at a yard sale. I wanted to get him some more geo trax but didn't get them ordered in time. I found a whole box full at a yard sale for 5 bucks. Billy was so excited when he opened up the box that he didn't even eat his cake and ice cream. He wanted to play with the trains. He is a cute boy. He is my snuggler and I like that. His best friend is his cousin Lacie. This past week has been so cute to watch the two of them together. Yesterday Billy told Lacie that he liked her. And today he saved her a seat in nursery. I told him she might not be coming and he told me that she would be. Now if anything exciting is going on they tell each other animatedly and get so excited together. Like at the fire works. As soon as they started he explained that he had to go sit by Lacie and once next to her they began talking about the fireworks and how cool they were. It makes me alittle sad to know we are moving soon. They will see each other often though so hopefully they will stay good friends.
On the 3rd of July the kids were in the parade. They decorated their bikes and road them down main street waving to everyone. Of course Ty and I walked with them. Johnny got to ride with Grandma and Grandpa in their new roadster. Then next day we went down to the park to have fun at the festivities. Johnny won Little Mr. There is a contest for kids up to 3 years. You write some info about them and they walk on stage. Then they pick a boy and a girl (little miss) and the winner receive a 50$ savings bond. And Johnny won so that was exciting. Katie went on stage for the fashion show. Then they all did the races. We had a kids in the first 5 heats. They go by ages and we had a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old. So that was cool. At dusk we went and sat on temple hill to watch the fire works. Johnny was mesmerized and enjoyed them till the finale which was really loud. The last couple of days if there is anything loud he starts to cry. It must hurt his ears.
We have one week till we head to Washington to visit my Grandma Shirley. The night before we leave we are going to the American Idols concert. I am very excited! Then we will spend two weeks with my Grandma and the over to the coast for the Stull reunion and Daddy coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and I can't forget to add the release of Breaking Dawn the last book in the Twilight series. If you love to read and haven't read these books you have to! They are amazing. Up until a month ago Typehena had never finished a book (she doesn't like to read) but she finished reading Twilight and is now on the second. So read them if you get a chance. Love you all!

Pageant

Hi Everyone, so I am slow at keeping in touch but will try to do better. We are having a great summer. Maybe a little too busy but at least it makes the time go by faster. We had two California trips. One with the kids, Tabitha, Typhena and her girls, and Grandma and Grandpa. We took the kids to Disneyland and the Zoo. They loved Disneyland. Katie's favorite princess in Cinderella and Billy loves Mickey Mouse. I don't think I will ever forget Billy meeting Mickey. He was in a daze. He kept smiling at him and waving. He even went up to him to give him a hug (now if you know Billy you know he is more reserved with people or characters, he wouldn't even go say hi to Pluto). But Mickey was different. He didn't want to leave and had a smile for the rest of the day. Definitely a priceless moment. It was a great help with all the extra family. A couple weeks after Typhena, Tabitha, and I went back to California for our sisters trip. Unfortunately all the other sisters couldn't come so we will have to have another trip with all of them. Jen, Trudy, and Brittney couldn't come and My sister Jennie either (we adopted her into our sisters group as she doesn't have any sisters on Mike's side). We had a blast! We went to six flags and road all the roller coasters until we couldn't ride them anymore. Then we went to the beach (not good weather) and Hollywood. It was a great trip and especially nice to get away from the kids for a few days. A special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching my kids. It was a lot of stress and work for them! Oh and we did fun shopping. Who doesn't love shopping?
Right now we are doing pageant. I thought the kids would enjoy being in it before we move (except Johnny. He is home every night asleep:) It has been alot of work and a little stressful with all the practices and late performances but very worth it. We are in the Harvest scene where Katie is a ribbon dancer and Billy and are are families that sit around them. We are Nephites during Captain Moroni's time. Then we go on to do Christ in America scene (my favorite). In the middle of the scene is the big three day storm when Christ is Crucified and Billy loves the fire that comes from he rocks. It is pretty cool. Then Christ appears at the temple and that is my favorite part. He calls twelve disciples, heals the sick and then all the kids go up. Billy even goes up. Of course I don't think Billy understands that it isn't really Jesus so it is cute to watch him and here him get excited that he gets to see Jesus tonight at the temple by the pyramid (the temple looks like a pyramid to him). Very spiritual! Then we are pioneers. The costumes are fun. I like the pioneer costume. So it is a good experience. Performances start at 9:30 pm and we get home about midnight so a little tiring but definitely worth it.
So that is what we are up too. Also this last week Johnny and I traveled to look for another house in Colorado Springs as the one we put an offer on still hasn't been excepted by the sellers banks. After waiting 2 and a half months it gets a little ridiculous! So those of you buying houses steer away from short sales (that is when the sellers are having to sell because they can't keep up their payments before going to for closure. The term short doesn't mean short. They should change the name. There is an extra step where the sellers banks has to approve the sell cause they will be loosing money. Well they had two mortgages out on the house and the second bank is taking forever. So we went to see if there was anything else and we had a few good ones to look at. So we put an offer on another house (not a short sale) and will see what happens.
We hope everyone is well. About a month and a half till Todd is home :) Katie keeps asking how much longer. She understands that it is soon. Love you all!