for the benefit of family... living far away.

a photo journal of hannah's first day of kindergarten.

Our Celebrate the School year dinner.

complete with a cake.

and a fashion show of this little lady's "first day" outfit.

her clothes laid out before bed.

ready to head out.

walking to school, and I quote: "mom, my backpack is very heavy. it's giving me lazy legs."

this dear is only the beginning.

outside the kindergarten playground

happy girl.

not so happy brother.

said "hello" to her teacher, miss hann.

she is very pretty and sweet.

thank goodness.

no crotchety old kindergarten teachers here, no sir.

one. last. hug.

lining up.

so tiny.

hannah doing her, "i'm focused" face.

"i'm nervous/embarrassed" face.

calm.

focused.

sad.

here comes miss hann!

this kid threw one massive fit when we left, i had to drag him off the premises.

sad sad.

but then we went to the park.

and he decided it might not be so bad to stay home with mom.

except for saying, "hannah, bye bye." ethan was oblivious.

the pick-up. this little chicky had fun at school.

this brother was happy to see her.

so was her mom.

kindergarten rocks!

tuesday evening dialogue.

Last night we were in Hannah's room trying to read scriptures and the boys were being rowdy. Ethan was doing his hop run whilst screaming gleefully, and Carter was pretending to be a lion. I looked at Carter, who was wrestling in Craig's restraining arms and said in my very serious mom voice:

"Carter, how do three-year-olds act during scriptures?"

He threw up his claws, scrunched up his nose and growled,

"Naughty!"

Well, yeah.

We laughed all night at that one...

PS.I'm writing this with Carter standing precariously balanced on my shoulders. Why are all boys monkeys?

cinnamon toast.

I'm eating cinnamon toast right now, because it's 9:30 at night and I feel like a snack and nothing really sounds good. And when your hungry and nothing sounds good, cinnamon toast is always a good bet.

My family is all asleep. The kids tucked in their beds with sweaty heads, and Craig has fallen asleep on the floor of the family room. That man can sleep anywhere, I wish I were that lucky. When everyone goes to sleep before me, I start thinking.

Hannah got five shots today. Five. For some reason it's easier to watch your baby get shots than your five year old, who is now old enough to understand exactly how terrifying the experience is, and then be traumatized by it for a few hours after. Babies forget the second you stick a binky in their mouth. Well, not Hannah. She never did. I was thinking about the first time she got vaccine shots five years ago (has it really been that long?) She screamed for a good 30 minutes afterward, even though I'm pretty sure they didn't hurt anymore. She's always been the kind of kid who holds on to stuff. She did so well as the creepy male nurse proceeded to stick five different needles in her little miniature arms, but she talked about her shots for the rest of the day, which makes me think she was being extra brave for the benefit of mom. And when they were done the man-RN handed me her immunization card and said, "She's done. No more shots till 12." Twelve. That's a long time away. Check that milestone off.

When we were done I drove over to the Elementary school with her newly completed card to finish up registering her for kindergarten. I acted as much like an adult as I could as I spoke to the lady at the front desk but I felt like an impostor. Those attendance ladies still intimidate the crap out of me. I feel like just got a tardy or something. So Hannah is registered for Kindergarten now. Another milestone, slightly painful.

After I went home, I felt a little weird. Too many big things in one day. And I tried not too think about how they do all day kindergarten down here. 8-3 everyday. Holy cow. Seven hours is a long time for a 5 year old to be away from mom. And I know how much Carter is going to miss playing with his sister. It makes me sad.

This evening, we looked over our upcoming schedule for the next few months. Craig is finishing up the last of his to-do's before he starts his MBA this fall, he's also slammed at work, Hannah starts all day kindergarten next Monday, and I'm going back to school (part-time, at night) at the end of the month. Oh yeah, and we're building a home.

Life is about to get crazy. Really really crazy. It's the calm before the storm. And there really isn't anything to do right now, but think about the craziness and plan a way to navigate it.

That, and eat cinnamon toast.

let me tell you why...

I love this man:

(Craig riding a horse is seriously one of my favorite things to watch him do... think "Man from Snowy River.")

We went and picked out our appliances today (so fun, even with the kids!). I am the kind of person who likes to get everything on Sale. I don't buy ANYTHING full price. So you know what I would have done, gone with whatever came with the house.



You know what Craig did? He upgraded. He wants me to have a fantastic kitchen. Moms spend alot of time in there. He got the bigger dishwasher that you don't have to scrub the dishes first to use, the built-in microwave, and the tripped out five burner gas stove/oven with convection heating and a glass front control panel. I honestly can't wait to cook with it.



I picked out black... stainless steel is a no-no for little toddler fingers that like to leave little sticky peanut-butter prints everywhere. And I can't wait to see our new goods at work...



Saturday is our meeting with the designer... flooring, counter-tops, cabinets... I am in heaven.

My husband is so good to me... he is my hero.

ps. We hired a babysitter, it will make it much. more. fun.

love-hate.

When I was a kid, my sister Tashi and I HATED eachother. It used to make my mom cry how much we would fight. We both have strong personalities, and the immaturity that comes with childhood didn't exactly help them mesh together very harmoniously. In fact we clashed, alot. Especially when mom and dad were gone and Tashi was babysitting us and I was not all about getting bossed around by my older sister. I was a bit of a wretch, and I guess if you asked my husband he would tell you I still am.

Luckily, we both grew up, and somehow growing up seems to change things. Our personalities are more mature, if not different than they were back then, and now the differences between us seem to make it easier to love my sister.

Thank goodness.

Because I do love my sister. I love the relationship I have with her. I love that she gives me advice and listens to all the little inconsequential goings on in my life, and gets a kick out of the stuff I tell her about my kids. And I love that when she calls to give me good news about her life my throat kind of swells up in excitement for her, and I almost do a toe-touch.

I'm proud of her. She is an amazing woman. You wouldn't believe it when you look at her, because she's gorgeous and looks like a Barbie doll, but that chickie spends all day everyday, teaching special needs kids. She wrestles them, helps them go to the bathroom, plays games with them, teaches them how to take on a world that sometimes isn't kind to them. She is so good at what she does. (And she often does it in heels, I might add-- that is awesome). Yesterday, she had another victory in her career. Way to go sis, your hard work is paying off.

What an awesome thing it is to be family. To be able to cheer for one another in our successes, and mourn with eachother in our failures. I'm so glad I've been blessed with the family I've got. And I love my big sister. She's one of my best friends.

I'm still cheering for you, Tash, toe-touch and all.

enough.

Question: What do you do when you've spent 4 1/2 months looking for a house, 2 1/2 of those waiting for a short sale, and then when it finally comes through, you get the inspection done and there are a TON of issues?

Answer: You say enough is enough and you build your own house.

Which is exactly what we are doing. And yes, we are crazy. And very excited. And have another four months to wait before we will be in a house.

But when we are it is going to be fantastic and new, and (hopefully) without drama. And a steal, I might add... Which is why we finally decided to go with a builder. We're done with the foreclosure/short sale nonsense. So now I get to document the building of our new home. I'll post pictures every week of the progress.

This is what our house will look like when it is done (except a different color)

This is what it looks like right now.

Use your imagination...

hilarious.

This is hilarious. Watch it, you will cry laughing.

good news.

yesterday we had some news. some very good news. like over the moon, jump up and down news. do you want to know what it was? i'll give you a little clue, courtesy of a friends episode:


Chandler: Hey Joe! We've got a couple of things we've got to check out at the new house. You want to come with us?

Joey: No, thank you.

Monica: All right. I know you're not happy about us moving, but you're the only one who hasn't seen the house.

Chandler: Yeah, come with us. You'll see how close it is to the city.

Joey: But no, it's not close. You said it was in escrow? I couldn't even find it on the map!


Ah, I love friends.

Did you figure it out?

tuesday morning dialogue.

Ethan (screaming bloody murder and pointing at Carter's toy): "Mine!"

Carter: "Ethan, I'll make you a fair offer."

Ethan: "No."

Where do my kids come up with this stuff?

Would you like to know why....

I've been such a terrible blogger lately?

I've been finishing this little project.

Which proved to be much more time consuming than I originally thought. Behold my fabulous garage sale find. Which needed only a little vision...

and a little, no scratch that, alot of paint (10 coats of white to be exact-- never cover navy blue with white)...

vintage scrapbooking paper and modpodge...

And you have a completely new kitchen, totally personalized for a little girl's bedroom. Well worth the effort in the end.

For this little chickie's 5th Birthday.

Details on that festive milestone to follow soon...