My 'Back up' Vacuum

Although I will miss my central vac in our home, I'm going to miss my back up vacuum. It's our neighbors chihuahua, Bentley. He has helped me numerous times to clean up my kitchen. Today while Julia ate her roman noodles, she allowed Bentley to help too. 

We'll miss you Bentley! ... even though Todd will never admit to  it!

Two Week Notice

Usually that phrase is used to give your boss when you're sick of your job or it's just time for you leave for one reason or another. I'm bummed to give this two week notice because it means that's when we will be leaving La Verkin. I guess I never thought I'd be sad about leaving LaVerkin. It's not the most glamorous places to live but it's been our home for the past three years and I'm going to MISS IT! Silly, I know. I'm actually getting teary typing this.

I thought I would try and post one thing each day for the next two weeks that I'm going to miss about this place, but they are not necessarily in any particular order.

So, here's one thing:

Our house

I have to say house because we can't take it with us like we can our 'home'...if that makes sense. You all know that home is where the heart is and I plan on taking my 'home' with me wherever we end up. I will really miss this house. It's been perfect for our family. Not too much to keep clean but plenty of room to have 'too much crap'. I was prego with Julia when we built it. I remember when we first bought the lot a year and a half before we built anything on it, I would always want to dive past it--but of course it was a little out of the way unless we were on our way to Zion or Kolob. I even talked Todd into getting a Little Caesar's pizza one night and taking our camping chairs to go eat on the lot. Sounds silly now, but it's a good memory. 

Todd worked is butt off to build me a nice house and he did an awesome job. He's done such a good job in fact, it's made it really hard to love any of the houses I've been through while we're house shopping, trying to find something else to call our house.

It's our first house. Of course I will miss it. Of course we will find something else. Of course I'll never forget it...I hope.

We had some trade when building it so we thought we'd have enough sweat equity to actually make a little profit on it. We thought the market would turn around in a few years so we could sell it and use the money to buy something in St. George. We thought it would be easy to leave La Verkin after a couple years and never look back.

We thought wrong.

Anything the Boys Can Do...

Julia can do better...

She's way ahead of the boys on being able to ride a two wheeler with no training wheels. She will turn THREE next month. She is AMAZING! But seriously, is it any surprise? She's so much like her mother!

We bought this bike at a yard sale for $1 in hopes that the training wheels from Emmie's bike (Julia's cousin) would fit. FAIL! Then we borrowed Emmie's bike for a couple days and Julia LOVED riding it! Tonight, we tried riding the $1 bike just for kicks and the rest is history.

I'm a proud momma!

Giver her a minute. She gets a little better.

 

 She's so giggly. I love it!

I love how her brothers will rally around to help her get started. They were as excited as she was...almost

Sunday Preview

 Jess is over two months old and it's high time we did something about blessing this girl. We were going to do it at our family reunion last month, but Todd got called out on a fire a few days before the reunion. We're planning on blessing her this Sunday and this is what she'll be wearing... with a couple of changes.

 I didn't really have anything great to put on her head (and she only has fuzz on top) so I was going to borrow this from my neighbor, Jen.

But then I decided I could use her sister's creation and try and make my own. Don't look at it too closely. It's not perfect.

I didn't really like the look of this flower after scrutinizing it closer. I just looked too fake...if that's possible?

so I took it off and made this to take its place. It's a little larger than the one that goes on her head.

 

 Don't let Jess fool you. She totally loves the headband and can't wait for her special day!

My Family Hero

Payton had to do a report in his class about his family hero. He chose his dad to do the report on. Payton had to write a letter to someone asking them to tell him about his hero, had to brainstorm for his written report, write a rough draft, a final draft and then present it to the class. They were even supposed to dress up like their hero. He did a great job. The only thing I was bummed about was that he read his report. He had it all memorized so he could look up at the class but all the other students in front of him read their reports too. I'm blaming it on that. I love that he chose his dad!
Disclaimer: Our digital camera is pretty old school so excuse the noises of the camera trying to adjust to stay focused.

Good job, Payton!!
 

2 Months Old

 Picture Time!

 I Love My Neighbors!
Jen McClemore, who lives across the street from me, listened to me whine about not taking Jess to get pictures because I'm too cheap. She has a nice camera. She offered to take her pictures. I took her up on it!

My other neighbor, Kendra Johnson, can sew ANYTHING! She made the cute lacy outfit Jess wore in a couple shots. What will I do when we move?

Sometimes I Wish

I had a really good camera...
and a good eye for how to take pictures...

Until then...