We are now professional....

...movers. Yep, it's official, we are now home owners. We bought this little home just a few blocks down the road from where we are now. This will be the third place (fourth if you count Che's house for a month) that we have lived since we have been married. Crazy! Good thing we plan on staying here for a while, probably about three years. Our "new" house was actually built in 1943. My favorite part is the back yard, which is quite large. There is a garden and a big cherry tree as well as a basketball hoop and little pavilion. The inside needs a little TLC as it has not been updated for some time. The kitchen floor, for example, has a nice orange and yellow pattern. We are excited nonetheless!

Anyone who wants to come to visit, we would sure love to have you!

Relay for Life

Well, the Relay has come and gone for this year. We had a blast and it was such a worthy cause, I think we will be participating every year from here on out. We got there Friday afternoon after everyone had set up all the tents and everything. Our camp was extra awesome, I must say. Jennifer and I with Eva and Sadie. We were super energized at this point. I wish we could say that we were that full of energy all night, but we sure weren't!Our brother Mike, his roommate Schwab, and Hallie. All I can say is good thing they were on our team since they did far more than the majority of the walking. If you don't know how the Relay works, it is held at a track and someone on your team is on the track all night long. Cancer never sleeps, so neither did we (for one night!). Mike and Schwab (I don't even know his real name, thats just what they call him) walked 80 laps, which is 20 miles! Whoooo!!! I walked maybe 20 laps. ha ha!Check out our awesome shirts. Classic picture of Chris. He used to say "Thanks for Noticing Me"- the quote on the bottom in an Eyore voice.Guess who else showed up!?!? If you went to high school with me, you will most definitely recognize SUPER FAN!! He is famous in IF for going to ALL the games, dressed up and decked out in Tiger gear. I am so glad to know that he is also a Braves fan and supports cancer research. My opinion of him just went up a few notches!Here we are getting ready to start our team walk around the track. YAY TEAM!!
View from the top of the bleachers of all the camp sites and fun stuff going on.Each team was able to sell things. All our proceeds went to the American Cancer Society as well. We raised over $500 in things that we sold. Look how awesome all that stuff is. I wish I could say that I made some if it, but I made NONE of it. Devin and I decided that we better contribute something next year! Doesn't Devin look pretty behind the booth? :)At one point, there is a Luminaria Ceremony to honor those who have lost their lives to cancer. These bags are dedicated to those people and each is decorated in honor of a family member or friend who lost their lives to cancer. We had a bag for Chris of course and Jack, my step-brother, made a bag for his mom Gina who passed away from cancer last August. The lit bags line the track and there is a small speech and bags are lit in the bleachers that spell HOPE. It is awesome and I am glad we were there, particularly that part. It was very touching.Ok, it's getting later now and we are getting a little more hyper and a little more crazy. Chris' sisters Becky, Stephanie, and me. Chris' sisters are just amazing. They do fun things all the time and invite me along. Jennifer is lucky to have such awesome in-laws!We also busted out Ticket to Ride of course. Middle of the night games are the best, especially when Steph and Cheilah are on a team and it takes them 20 minutes per move! Seriously, they were sooooooooo slooooooooooooooooooooow. Just kidding ladies! Good thing we had Mike and Schwab to man the track so we could just play. Early morning walking. By this time, we were all beat and it was FREEZING!! It is amazing how fast the weather went from blasted hot to pretty much below zero (ok, thats what it felt like at least!).

And, most of you will probably not enjoy this video, but at least my family will. We sang kareoke in the middle of the night- never a good idea! Please, please refrain from suggesting that we try out for American Idol. I know we are good, but perhaps we aren't quite ready for that yet.

I am so glad Jennifer arranged for us to do this. It was an awesome way to remember Chris and to help the fight against cancer. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who donated. I appreciate it more than you will know. We, as a team, raised almost $4000 and our goal was $2000. How is that for awesome? We raised the 2nd most out of 60 teams in Idaho Falls. Next year we will go for the gold!

For more pictures, you can click on this link to see my sister's blog!

Flashback

When I was little, I had a pen-pal named Nada, who is from Slovakia. She danced with a folk dance team from her country. Each summer, the team came to the Folk Dance Festival in Rexburg, which my parents were always involved in. We always housed dancers during the week that they were there. Our family formed some lifelong friendships with the dancers from Slovakia. I was so excited the summer that Nada got to come! She and Eva, another dancer, stayed at our house. We introduced them to barbies, cereal, and ice cream. I recently got back in touch with Nada after lots of years. She gave me these pictures from their visit that I have never seen before. Somewhere in Yellowstone I am imagining. Me, my dad, Nada, my mom (love the hair!), Eva, and Jennifer. Aren't we looking awesome?! Gotta love the side ponytail!

Jennifer (cute shirt!), Eva, pony, Nada, me, and Clark.

Oh...the nostalgia...so fun.

8 Months!

Our little diva is now 8 months old (as of tomorrow...). She is hilarious and makes us laugh all the time. Here are some recent things about her:

*She loves walking with our help. She also loves to run. She dies laughing every time. We will have to get a video of it, it is funny. I think she is bull-legged.

*Her favorite place is in front of the mirror. We have a fireplace in our front room and the front is a mirror and when she has free reign on the floor, she will inevitably roll over there and check herself out.

*She has such an attitude sometimes! Like today, she woke up from a nap and wanted some milk, though of course she can't tell me that. I gave her cheerios, crackers, and water, all of which she chucked on the ground as hard as possible all the while screaming her head off. She is certainly into getting her way.

*She is not crawling yet, though it should be soon. She gets one leg stuck behind her and then falls flat. Soon, although I am not sure if I should look forward to it or dread it.

*She knows how to give kisses now. Hers are very wet and for some reason when we say "Give me a kiss", she comes close and sticks out her tongue.

*She claps all the time and I have tried to teach her lately the word to associate with it. So about half the time, she will clap on command now. I love it when I come home from work and she claps and smiles when she sees me. She must like me.

*She likes to hang upside down. When you put her on your lap, she will bend backwards so that she is upside down. I can't imagine that being all that comfortable.

*She is a MASTER spitter. Don't ask me where she learned that. She spits just to spit, but also randomly she will decide to spit out a whole mouth full of food. The other day I came home from work to Devin covered in oatmeal after she had spit bite after bite back at him. It's not that she doesn't like it, she just thinks she's funny!

Here are some pictures of the missy as well.



Hals and Sadie, check out the matching pajamas! Cute, eh?

Hallie prefers books and paper any day over regular toys. Oh, she also loves cell phones and remotes. She regularly takes them over as if she owns them all.



Hallie had her friend Ally over today. Try keeping that straight for a while. I could not for the life of me get Ally to smile, but she sure did cuddle much more than Hallie ever has in her whole life! They were cute together though. Don't ask me what Hallie is doing with her face. She has the most awkward sleeping positions sometimes. Her legs are down the slats in this picture. I think I get the paranoid mom of the year award since I think that when her legs are stuck in there for long periods of time (like over night) that the circulation will be cut off and we will have to amputate them or something. Yes, just another of my irrational fears.




Hals has started making some really funny noises. Of course, she doesn't do it as much when the camera is out because she is just so fascinated with it, but she is still funny.

We just love our girl and are so grateful for her every day! I tell Devin that all of our kids better be this outspoken and full of attitude, otherwise Hallie will totally overshadow the poor things. I guess we will worry about that when the day comes.