Moving In and Birthday Time!

(*Pictures now added- July 22, 2010*)

OK SO WE PACKED OUR CAMERA CABLE... AND CAN'T FIND IT SO NO PICTURES! SORRY, I HAVE BEEN TAKING THEM AND I CAN'T EVEN POST THEM :( Oh well... as soon as we find it I will add the pictures.

Man, has the past week been full of stress and excitement... We moved all of our stuff from our apartment to our home these past couple of weeks. Man, we have a lot of stuff! Once again my wonderful father helped us move for the 7th time. We've been married 5 years and we have moved 7 times WOW! Hopefully it will be a while before we move again. ;) Since Scott works such long hours and consecutive days in a row we had to time our move in-between his scheduled work days. So it all started Tuesday May 18th. Scott had one of his buddies, Cameron, help us move almost all of our boxes (I thought... then came Thursday and Friday... think again!) on Tuesday. We loaded up his truck and trailer full and headed to the house to unload. We just put them all in the garage and headed back to the house to finish packing some more boxes.

Scott had to work on Wednesday, the 19th, and so I tried to do as much packing as possible with Paige trying to be right in the middle of it. It's a good thing that I didn't pack her in a box with as much as she got into :) My parents came up Wednesday night to come and help us move, they stayed until Sunday. It was wonderful to spend time with them. I swear, without them we wouldn't have been able to move! My mom watched Paige for us while we moved more boxes, furniture and cleaned our apartment which was a huge help! And my Dad helped carry box after box after box up and down a flight of stairs and cleaned most of our apartment with us. THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!!

Thursday, the 20th, we had a few of our friends help with the big stuff,

Thanks Cameron, Zach and Mike!

(Our kitchen packed to the hilt with boxes)

Then on Friday, the 21st, we cleaned the apartment and officially moved everything out. That night we went out to dinner with my Uncle Rusty and his wife and daughter and a few of his grand kids. They live about 15 minutes from us in Caldwell.

On Saturday, the 22nd, my parents took Scott and I out for our birthdays. My parents have a tradition of taking out each of their kids and their families out to dinner for their birthdays (and even the spouses on theirs). Where Scott and my birthdays are just a few days apart, Scott's being on May 28th and mine on the 31st, we get a joint birthday dinner! We went to this super yummy restaurant here in Boise called Tucanos. It's an all you can eat Brazilian Grill. YUMMY!!! My favorite place to eat. They even brought us out ice cream Sundays and sang to us in Portuguese. And of course with all the moving I forgot to take the camera for pictures. I didn't really get any of the past couple of weeks with all the business and just slipped my mind. Other things to think about I guess, huh? :)

And speaking of birthdays... I can't believe in just a few weeks my baby girl is going to be 1 year old!!!! Where did the time go?

Sunday, the 23rd, we went to church and I swear my parents always know someone wherever they go. They knew at least 3 people that were in our ward either through someone else or they had a previous relationship of some kind with them in Blackfoot or Snake River. I guess that's what happens when you live somewhere your whole life and so did your parents. Anyway, fun to see connections with people, it really is a small world. After church we had dinner and they left for Blackfoot. I always feel like anytime we visit with family or friends it is never long enough. :)

Since Scott had to work on his birthday... we weren't able to do a party or anything. Here's a pic of Scott on his birthday enjoying his birthday cake (he loves fruit, so we had a lemon pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream)!!

Here's a pic of Paige being so good walkin around in her walker while we unpacked!

And this past week all we have done is unpack, unpack, unpack. So far we have the kitchen completely done, Paige's bedroom, our bedroom and the living room unpacked... No decorations up anywhere yet, so even though those rooms are unpacked they still aren't done :( I have a feeling that it's going to be a while yet before we are completely settled. Anyway, and Scott is going on his 4th day of 10 hour shifts in a row, really it turns out to be more like 12 hour shifts, cause he leaves the house 30 minutes before his shift starts and then when he leaves the hospital he has to discharge his patients so he always goes about a half hour over and then 30 minutes until home again... tomorrow will be his last consecutive day in a row for the a few days. YAY!! These 5 days in a row are the hardest cause we barely see him. When he gets home he sleeps and is up for about an hour or so, eats, gets dressed and goes again. Anyway, we are excited to have a couple of days to spend with him until he goes back to work!

Today, Scott was able to go to part of church with us. He left after sacrament meeting and Paige was not her most pleasant self to deal with at church today, trying to crawl everywhere and screaming if she doesn't get her way... man, I am hoping that she grows out of this stage pretty soon. She does have her moments though, she has quite the personality!

Something fun she has been doing... she loves to climb stairs. We have a small step down from our kitchen into our family room and she loves to climb up and down them. She's got the up figured out but the down is face first. We are working on that one but it usually turns into a some type of summer-sault face plant thing. Doesn't even face her. She just keeps going and going. We have to sit right there if she is going down to slow her down and help her cause it is just "GO FAST and NO TURNING BACK" for her. She has started crawling a little bit on her hands and knees. She just needs a little more practice and I think she will be crawling like a pro in no time. She has gotten so good at her army crawl I never thought that she would even normal crawl. She pulls herself up on anything and everything that she possibly can and even walks around while holding onto an object. Paige loves being outside. We go for walks in our neighborhood a few times a week and go to the park. After our walk today we sat outside on our front lawn this afternoon while I was talking to my mom on the phone and she just crawled around picking up everything and showing it to me... didn't even try to eat anything which was great! She is starting to be more choosy about what she eats, if she doesn't want it right then she throws it on the floor, we are working with this one but OH is it frustrating! She is also pretty much weaning herself off milk, she just is not interested past a few sips of her bottle. The rest of the bottle is like pulling teeth. I'm sure it's because she eats more now and it doesn't taste as good as everything else. I bought her her first toothbrush (I've been using one of those finger brushes up until now) and she loves it, so cute!

Anyway, that's what's been going on with us lately... :)

We are officially Home Owners!

We closed on our house this past Thursday... Wow, what a feeling of excitement, total relief and fear all at the same time. I didn't think that I would be that scared at purchasing a home. Scott keeps telling me jokingly that there is nothing that we can do about it now, we bought it already. Scott's just excited. He's not stressed at all but what can I say, look who I married- he's not a stresser. Me on the other hand... think again!

And I know, I know, I AM very excited... it's just all the extra stuff that goes with owning your own home. The stress part... you know what if something breaks? We can't just call the landlords, WE ARE THE LANDLORDS!!! Is this the point that I can finally officially exclaim "I AM AN ADULT"? I am pretty sure that that came with being a parent, but in case I have forgotten and gotten too comfortable with that, now I am positive that I am an adult. :) The pros definitely outweigh the cons though.

Back to the we are very excited part! I am excited about learning how to garden and take care of the plants and flowers (that I will be planting very soon, yay! The yard definitely needs a little TLC), painting, decorating, the lawn, and the extra space!!! Wow, can I just say I am excited about the space! To be completely moved in somewhere finally. We have been in boxes the past 5 months, so it will be exciting to open them up and see what we have forgotten about that we don't really need since we forgot about it and everything. HaHa! :)

Right after we got the call on Thursday that everything was good to go and the house was ours we went right over. It was really fun to walk through OUR house and see dream about all the fun things that we can do to it. Paige loves all the extra space too. Every time we are over there to work on the house all she wants to do is crawl around. She sees all the room and just wants us to put her down. And I don't mean that in a subtle way, she is practically jumping out of our arms we can barely hold on to her. And she loves the grass! Didn't think she would care for it much cause we have never put her down on grass but it's just another new discovery for her and she loves to touch and feel it.

Here's a picture of Paige playing in her playpen while I have been busy with the house. She has been so good!

Friday we had the carpets cleaned in the new house. Scott worked on Friday so Paige and I headed over to the house to "work" on the flower bed out front. Can I just say I totally underestimated the amount of TLC it needed. It is so overgrown and I can't tell what are weeds and what are plants. So I called the most savvy gardener I know... my Dad and asked for some suggestions of what to do. His answer: "Ash, your just going to have to start over from scratch. Just tear everything out." Not the answer I was hoping for, so it looks like I have got some work to do. In addition I still need to paint all the base boards and a few rooms before we move in on Thursday. Fun projects coming my way!! :) I was able to weed the bed out by the driveway though... it is not overgrown so I will be keeping what is in there. YAY! Some good news!

Here's a couple of pics of the flower garden that I will be ripping out, this really doesn't do it justice... it is in way worse shape than this picture looks!

Saturday there was a huge garage sale here in Boise. It is called Idaho's Largest Garage Sale. It was at the Expo Center and there were hundreds of vendors there. Unfortunately we weren't able to find anything to promising. Just a few wrenches and a caulking gun. It was a fun morning though. That afternoon I went over to Sears to purchase a fridge. The previous owners took theirs with them. I got a sweet deal on a Maytag fridge that was being clearanced because it was a discontinued model, it was about $800 less than it's regular price. They will be delivering that to our house on Monday so that we have a cold fridge to move things into on Wednesday and Thursday. So excited!!!

Today we went to our new ward. Scott had to work so he was going to leave right after sacrament meeting. While Paige and I went to the rest of the meetings. Well, Paige had other plans, or should I say Paige's digestive system had other plans... She blew out all over her dress and mine so we went home early with Scott and got her all bathed and cleaned up. Wow, I really look up to all you multiple children moms. I don't know how you do it! I am sure that when I get there I will be more of a pro. But today one was all that I could handle. :) LOVE HER THOUGH!

Anyway, Paige is learning more and more everyday. She pulls herself up on things now. Her favorite toy at the moment is a little toy piano that she can pull herself up to standing and play it. She loves to turn the "music pages" back and forth. Too cute!

Here's a couple pics:

Check this one out! She tries so hard to stay standing. Her little legs just slide out from under her and pretty soon she is standing like this. Funny huh?!?

She has become such a good eater. She will eat anything. She especially loves to eat anything that she can pick up with her fingers. Her favorites are pineapple, kiwi, grapes, cheese, goldfish crackers, and avocado. And she just had Lasagna for the first time today and she loved it! Each day is so much fun and I am loving every new stage, just wish it would go by a little slower!

My plan tomorrow is to go over to the house and paint the base boards and trim and hopefully a few of the rooms... wish me luck! :)

EXCITED!!

YAY!!! Tomorrow is "The Day"... can't wait :)

Fun Stories and Mother's Day!

Last week Paige and I were driving to the store and I had the primary songs playing in the car. The song "If You're Happy and You Know It" came on and I could hear her clapping in the back seat. Then I realized that she was clapping because it was saying: "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands..." Wow, little did I know that she was paying such close attention to what was going on! Now every time I play it or even sing the song she gets really excited and starts clapping with the music. So fun!!!

I forgot to share another fun story... a few weeks ago on Easter Sunday, Some of our friends, Mike and Barb, invited Paige and I over for dinner because Scott was working. We had Easter lunch with Daddy and dinner with the Hermies! Anyway, Barb had made some yummy steamed veggies and I gave Paige some of the veggies to see if she would like any of them. She loved the cauliflower! Or so I thought :) She just kept shoveling it in. So I just kept giving her more and more. Much to my surprise, I went to give her a bite of something else and out poured a bunch of small pieces of cauliflower. Little girl hadn't swallowed any of it! She was just storing it in there like a chipmunk! :) I put my finger in her mouth to empty out the load of cauliflower and out came about half a dozen little pieces. Then while we were cleaning up I put her on the floor and saw a peek into her mouth, and there were even more she still had in there!!! All in all there were about a dozen pieces that I emptied out.... mmmm... doesn't this mean I am on road to all sorts of "funny" kid stories!

Here's some cute pictures that I have taken of Paige lately:

Paige was being so funny in this picture. She had just gotten done with her bath and I was getting her ready for bed and she was being so silly! She was just laughing like crazy.

She is into everything!!! Some of my exercise equipment that she loves to play with.

Anyway, on to the events of the past week. This last week Paige and I worked on the gifts that we were making for Scott's mom and my Mom for Mother's Day. I was able to get Scott's Mom's gift in the mail just in time for it to arrive there on Friday. And we decided that we would deliver my Mother's in person since they live within 4 hours of us. So, down we drove to Blackfoot to surprise my Mom for Mother's Day. We had so much fun!! It was so wonderful to see my Mom and celebrate the wonderful woman she truly is! I hope that someday I can be as good of a mother to my kids as she was to her children. Saturday night my Dad picked up take-out Chinese so that my mom and I wouldn't have to cook on Mother's Day. It was so nice to be able to relax and not have to make dinner. We were only able to stay overnight. We left on Saturday morning and came back late on Sunday night. It was a quick trip but a fun one! On Saturday, before we left Boise to go to Blackfoot, Scott and I went to this discount LDS store and bought a book on CD that we could listen to on the way down. Usually I read while he drives but we had (and still have) both been pretty under the weather and I didn't want to over strain my voice and make it worse. We bought the next book in the series that we have been reading The Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, we have really enjoyed them! I also saw some large beautiful clocks with a quote about family that were 50% off and so Scott got me one for my first Mother's Day. He also wrote me a very sweet letter that he hid in the glove compartment for me to read on the way home on Sunday night :)

We signed our closing paperwork for our house today. Which totally freaked me out. Are we really mature enough to own our own home? It's incredible the amount of things that you never think about. On a good note though, we get to close on our house a day earlier than we thought!!! We are so excited. We thought we could stay away from driving past the house until we closed. Think again! We are just too excited. It was kind of a surreal experience when we drove past our house today. They were moving out and the garage was completely empty! Wow, is it really going to be ours in 3 days?!? 3 days, and I haven't even started packing yet. Good thing we have our apartment until the 21st. Anyway, lots of fun things happening here. I will definitely post some pictures of our house when we get moved in. Here is a picture of the outside...