Happy New Year!

All of us on the stairs...tired, sad, and ready for a shower.

Our backyard with the shed that David worked in...which looks just like the house.

The girls looking out from their secret cubby that connected to their huge closet.

The beautiful arches in the girls upstairs playroom and bedroom

The tile work in the girl's bedroom of our house.

The front of our house

The sunset from our home. We loved watching the sun set while we ate on the patio or roasted marshmallows in our firepit.

Our fireplace mantle

Our country kitchen

The last two loads of our stuff to go to storage.

I had all these plans of posting exciting things for December, such as taking the girls to see Santa, celebrating our anniversary, celebrating both the girl's birthdays and fun pictures of Christmas. Little did I know that most of the month would be filled with packing boxes, feelings of pure exhaustion, and showers only when REALLY needed. Here we are, now January 2nd, fully moved out of our beautiful home and into my parents house. Our stuff is all packed away in three storage units and we are living out of suitcases and boxes. Why, you may ask? Well, at the beginning of December, we finally found out that our offer (that we made back in August) was finally accepted on our first home. It is a short sale, so we were prepared to not hear for a while, but we were not prepared to hear the month of December. It is such a busy and fun time for our family, so we knew throwing a move in there would be a real challenge. But, like I said at the beginning of this long BLOG post, we are not in our new home, we are at my parents. The house we are moving into needs TONS of work and it is not possible to live there and work on it at the same time. We also need to save money this month. So, while we wait for escrow to close (January 15th we hope....we know it's risky....but feel this is the right thing to do) and while we fix up the house, we will be staying down the street at my parent's. We are hoping it will not take too long, but you never know.
I had no idea the amount of emotions this move would cause for me, David, the girls, and even Tyler. We LOVE the home we have lived in for the past two years. Even though we did not own it, we have loved living there. It wasn't just a house, with four walls and a rental payment...it truly was our home and leaving has been really hard. Our landlord, next door neighbor, fellow ward member, and builder of the home, Alan, was sad to see us go. He built this home for his family. They had four of their seven children there and moved next door to their very big home once it was done. We have loved living there. We have made so many memories there and when we turned in our keys December 31st, it was very sad. We are excited to move on and finally buy our first home....but we know the challenges with that are lurking right around the corner. We will miss our little French cottage and so I thought I would post some pictures of our last day there.

Our Trip To Kona:

The girls loved walking out an seeing the smaller airplane that took us to Kona
Shaved Ice is always a must when in Hawaii

Jenna and Tyler on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with my parent's friends overlooking Captain Cook's island. (Yes that is the ocean in the background)

My parents at Thanksgiving with Victoria and my niece, Ela

Eating at Bubba Gump's

The girls learned the hula

David and I did baptisms for the dead at the Kona temple. It is really small, but very beautiful

Every beach had such different sand. This beach was not sand at all, just pure shells. It was amazing.

Victoria getting ready to snorkel. She snorkeled with David every day. She would put her hand around his neck and he would swim her all over the ocean.

Jocelyn chillin in the pool.

Waikaloa Beach! The shoreline was breathtaking!

I finally found malasadas. It is the best little Hawaiian dounut filled with cream I've ever had! This made my trip.

Walking through an underground lava tube. It was made from lava a long time ago.

Checking out the volcano

Rainbow Falls

My brother Todd, Lauren and Ela

My brother Cory, with the girls

Our family after church, My mom made the matching outfits for the kids

Tyler eating sand

The girls were so excited to finally get to Hawaii

The view of the ocean (that we kayaked across)from Captain Cook's monument

Tyler passed out in the kayak. He is soaking wet and

The girls loved riding in the kayaks

Just finishing kayaking in the Pacific Ocean

David and I went with our kids and my family to Kona, Hawaii for the week of Thanksgiving. Hence why I haven't written in so long. It takes forever to pack for everyone and then recover when you get back, plus I was really sick before we left. We went with my parents, my brother Todd and his wife Lauren and their daughter, my brother Cory, and my sister Jenna. Hawaii is a very different place. There is so much contrast between the black lava rock and lush green landscapse. It is very dramatic to look at. The beaches all have different sand and the views are amazing. We had such a wonderful time, and are all trying to adjust to life back home in Vista! Traveling with three kids wasn't easy, but I know we made memories that the girls will remember for a long time. Victoria overcame her fears and became an avid snorkeler with her dad. Jocelyn learned to be strong even when the waves knocked her down. Tyler learned that eating sand does in fact make you constipated (soo sick!) and I learned that I can relax even with three kids!

FREE Snapfish Photobook

Normally during the day, I really don't have enough time to sit down and watch a full t.v. show, but sometimes catch a few minutes here and there while I am feeding the baby. Yesterday, I turned on Oprah for the first 15 minutes and loved it because it was all about organizing your home and getting rid of clutter. They were suggesting that you take digital pictures of your kids artwork and put them in photobooks, like on Snapfish. I got really excited because this is what I already do each year, but the cool thing is that they are offering a free Snapfish photobook (one per address) until tomorrow night. So if you already have some digital pictures uploaded and have time to make a book, it's a great value, saving over 30 dollars:

http://www.snapfish.com/info18

Time To Be Strong

I just finished reading the article on LAtime.com about the protest at the Los Angeles Temple yesterday. I couldn't believe how many people (over 5000) turned up to protest the passing of proposition 8. On the page of the article, click on the photos in the middle of the page to see the hate that surrounded Santa Monica Blvd and the horrible signs that were posted....many against Mormons. I guess the Mormon religion is the main target for the protests, because the church raised the most money for the support of Proposition 8 and it's members make up 2% of California's population.

Click here to read about the protest at the temple and see the pictures from the protest.

Click here to read the statement from the LDS church about the protest.

It's really sad we've come to this. This is a time to be strong.

I Got Tagged

Sorry Trina this took me so long. This is a cool tag. You need to post the 4th picture in your 4th folder on your computer. This picture (like Melissa's) comes from 2004. We were celebrating 4th of July at Bringle Terrace Park in Vista. There was live music and a lot of David's family was there. We got to lay down and watch the fireworks go off right over our heads. It really was cool to be that close. I miss those days when my girls were that small because they weren't as sassy. ...I remember taking this picture like it was yesterday.

I tag: Tracy Badger, Allison Weening, Jessica Johnson, Jessica Hansen, and Brit Papa

Happy Halloween!

Victoria as Dorothy
Tyler as the scarecrow

Jocelyn as the witch

My Wizard of Oz gang

David with his parents and Tyler at our Trunck-or-Treat

David and I (we really need some good costume ideas)

My sister-in-law, Lauren and I

Our family

David's sister Colleen and Tyler

So, for Halloween our ward did a trunk-or-treat which was great. There was an awesome turnout and the girls got plenty of candy. Afterwards, Victoria and Jocelyn still wanted to knock on someones door, so David and I took them to Shadowridge to David's sister's neighborhood and they had a blast with their cousins. They got so much candy...it was crazy. Victoria has already had two pulpotomies (baby root canals) so David and I really don't let candy, fruit snacks, soda, and other junk food stay for long in our house...so we knew we needed to do something about all the candy from Halloween. So, for the second year, the Candy Fairy came to our home. The girls got to pick out 15 pieces and put in a bag with their name on it. They left out all their other candy. In the morning they were so excited to see no HUGE bags of candy, just wrappers left from the fairy (and no we didn't eat it all...I actually just took the girls wrappers out of the trash) the new Tinkerbell movie to share and each girl got a plastic dinosaur....weird I know, but they really like those plastic animals. So, it was a great Halloween...and we are excited for Thanksgiving (which we will be celebrating in Kona Hawaii this year......can't wait)

Family Home Evening

If we move, I will miss this mantle. It has so much personality and is so fun to decorate.

My Mom with Victoria and Jocelyn on our front porch after they carved their pumpkins.

Jocelyn with her pumpkin (which does have a heart shaped nose) and her "Indian" mask she made.
My sister Jenna and I. She is 15 and a freshman in High School. Do we look alike? I'm trying to figure that out.

The girls and I after our pumpkins are all carved and it's time for bed.

Tyler is sitting up! Scary thought since he will be five months on the 30th.

David and Tori carving a pumpkin for Tyler.

My Mom and sister with the girls.

I love this baby.....

My kids....Cute, Crazy, Constant, Colorful and Creative.

Last night, I had my parents and sister over for dinner. They have really helped me out with the kids a lot lately, so I wanted to make a nice dinner and carve our pumpkins. I made THIS health yummy dinner from one of my favorite websites with a salad and really good salsa from Frazier Farms and then we frosted sugar cookies and carved pumpkins. I love the fall time, just wish it wasn't so HOT here.