Oregon Coast DAY 1 & 2

We are at the Oregon Coast. We drove in the car for what seemed like FOREVER but we are here. Yesterday we drove all day to Redmond and we stayed the night at Aunt Diann's house. What a beautiful home she has. And Great Grandma Shorty lives with her now so we got to see her too. She was beside herself playing with the kids.

We took some pictures at Aunt Diann's house with her beautiful landscaping she has. What a wonderful place she has. And she is so kind to let us stay at her home. Not only did she let us stay at her home she took me all over town trying to find some eye drops. I forgot my medicated eye drops at home...I was too worried about everyone else and making sure we had everything that I forgot my own stuff. So I ordered some new ones at a walmart in Oregon well apparently I ordered them to the wrong walmart. We were in Redmond and I ordered them to Bend. Which is only about 20 minutes difference but still how stupid am I? Well Diann she is so wonderful she took me over to Bend and on the way there we had the best talk ever. And on the way home we took 10 minutes to ourselves and she drove me around Bend and showed me the town. It's really nice and lots of fun things to look at. Thanks Diann!

My family. The sun is shining just right that this picture is going to need some editing when we get home but here it is for now. I love my family!

We just keep driving and driving and to me it all looks the same. Here are a few of the phrases I heard WAY too much of "are we there yet mom" "ma! juice!" "I'm hungry" "he's touching me" "I have to pee mom" "I think I'm going to throw up" "Can we watch a different movie"

Let's just say that traveling with kids...you HAVE to have patience. For the first part of the trip I thought I had left my patience at home, but I have finally found them and we are all having a good time. :)

This is everyone at the top of the "dragon's house" at the McKenzie Pass Observatory. So our family is really into the show Merlin. For those of you who have seen it will understand when we call it the "dragon's house". It was so fun to be there and see the kids and their excitement.

While we were waiting for Anne (the pregnant lady) to go to the bathroom, we saw a couple feeding a chipmunk.

We stopped off and found a beautiful place to take a family picture. This was taken with a timer on a picnic bench. I am so happy with this picture. It turned out so well! Everyone is happy. Everyone is looking. Everything is just perfect....except the breaks on our car. It was a very much down-hill drive and Jeremy didn't want to listen to me and put it down a gear. Needless to say this trip might cost us a new set of breaks on the car. :) But so far well worth it.

And just a beautiful picture of the view we have from the lake house that Laurie rented for us....or should I say the replacement house we got. That's a story...let me tell you. We got here to Newport today and finally found the house she had rented. It was absolutely terrible. There was mold growing in the basement. There was a old yucky smell you could smell immediately when you walk in the house. It was a old run down place with no beach or ocean even, it was the bay. Laurie insisted that we NOT stay there. She was irrate to say the least, and so were the rest of us really. This place should never be rented out especially at the price she had paid. After lots of phone calls and Laurie being the wonderful, intelligent woman she is got us a replacement house. It is absolutely gorgeous!!!! This is the view we have.



She that is it for now. There are LOTS more pictures but everyone is watching a movie without me, so I am going to go. Stay tuned for more of our trip.

Let it ALL out!

Sorry, this post I have to just let it all out. I have to let it out somewhere. So this week just started out bad. Monday I just don't know what was wrong with me but I just needed my space. I was grouchy to everyone about everything...Sorry everyone!

Tueday my dad called me and didn't sound so good. I asked him if he was ok he said no and he needed me to come help him. He said he couldn't move and he needed an Asprin. I thought that sounded a little weird, and my mom would be home from work in about 30 minutes I thought he was just being "drama". I went to his house and ended up taking him to the emergency room, where my mom met us. At first sounded like he might have just over-worked (which is VERY likely for my dad...he's a VERY hard worker) outside in the hot sun. Well turns out...LONG story short. He had a minor heart attack and he is VERY lucky he went into the doctor. He ended up having another stent put into the same artery that already had 3 stents. There is also another "issue" but the doctor said he would cover that later. That worries me a little but since they aren't worried about it right now it must not be anything major...for now. So I spend a majority of the night at the hospital with my dad on Tuesday.

Then Wednesday dad was moved to Meridian because they don't do stents or open heart surgery in Caldwell. Anyway, so I went to spend some time with dad and a child snuck outside when she found out I was leaving. So I ended up taking Daisha with me. Let me just say hospitals and children are not a good mix! "I'm hungry" "I have to go to the bathroom" "What is that thing?" "Who's that?" "What does that do?" "I'm thirsty" AAUUUGGGG!

And now for today...Dad is still in the hospital but is moved to a different room...less supervision. He is doing better.

Well we got the call that our fence was in that we ordered from Home Depot. So this weekend Jeremy and his dad were going to put that up. Jeremy went today to pick up all the supplies. While lifting a bag of cement his back gave out on him. He heard 3 pops in his back and lost it all...he said his body just gave out on him, almost like he passed out. The guy that was helping him load all the stuff up caught him and helped him get into the car where he called for help. His dad (Greg) went to pick him up with his brother (Jason). They took care of him while I was home...with no idea what was even happening. Finally I got a call...Jeremy doesn't have his wallet and we need his insurance card. I wasn't even dressed. Yes it was in the middle of the day but I was just in my "cleaning clothes". I had been cleaning house, catching up on laundry etc. So I throw on some decent looking clothes and head down there. Come to find out we have a decent size deductible before the insurance kicks in. WOW...totally NOT expected!

So we finally get in to see the doctor and he thinks it's just a muscle spasm. Really?! Well he is still under watch and we might have to take him back in for xrays if he isn't better in the morning. Right now he is OUT because of the pain pills and the muscle relaxer. But we will see how he is in the morning and make a decision from there.

OH, you thought that was all...it gets better. So my sister (Sheree) came home from work early to help me watch the kids so I could stay with Jeremy at the doctor's office. She stays for a while, and then decides she wants to go see dad. She asks me to go with her and Rob can stay with Jeremy and the kids. No problem. We end up taking Daisha, Jillian and Sheree's boy Zakary. On the way there Jillian pukes in the car. We have to stop on the freeway to clean her up. We think she just laughed so hard and gagged herself, because she wasn't sick after that and the kids were all laughing pretty hard before it happened. So she is without any clothes. We get one of Zak's onzies (size 18 months...she wears 3T) We just put it on her like a shirt and didn't button the bottom. And then I just wrapped a blanket that Sheree had in her car around her legs. Oh and she had a pull-up on. I started working on potty training with her today...well sort of. That is a whole nother post. Ok, so we get to the hospital the kids are out of control playing with the buttons on papa's bed, climbing in the chair then out of the chair, in my lap then down. After a while they were sitting by Sheree and she was occupying them when all of a sudden Sheree goes, "Gross" and picks up Zak and heads to the sink. I asked what was the matter. Jillian had peed through her pull-up and on the floor and Zak was playing in it. Really? I just wanted to sit there and cry. By this point I am done. I can't handle anything else. I know it just something so small but I am just exhausted. So with that being said. I am going to bed. Pray something big sells this weekend and that next week everyone is feeling better. (Physically and Emotionally)

OH MY!

OH MY! It's been so long since I have posted anything. I AM SO SORRY to everyone who actually reads this.

Right now is probably not a good time for me to be updating this either because I am not in the best mood. Jeremy is still going to school and he's been talking recently about how to get his Masters Degree and how long that's going to take. WOW...5 years. I didn't sign up for that! Knowing that I got a little frustrated. I was beginning to think "we are almost done" and with that information it feels like we are just starting. I asked him if he could teach while he gets his Masters. He said he could but it would be too hard to get a job right now. (In my translation of his tone that means he's not even going to try.) I volunteered to go get a job. He said we will see what happens. So we will keep that on the back burner for now. The E-bay business is still going good but ebay is such a rip off on all of their fees as so we are getting close to just breaking even with all the extra fees, instead of making any money. Well that is the hard part of our reality right now...but here is proof that we aren't just stressed all the time and we can have a good time. My kids are my joy!

Isn't Jillian just adorable. Daisha put curlers in her hair. She loved it!


For some reason I can't get any of the kids to sleep in their own rooms or beds. They all want to sleep in Jillian's room or in the livingrooms. But the love they have for each other is priceless. I love catching them in moments like this.




Afternoon project. I found these bottles of paint at the thrift store one day. Jeremy couldn't understand why I wanted to buy them but when I pulled them out and let the kids work on projects they occupied themselves for hours while we could get some work done and they had a great time. No mess to clean up. I love these paints. Then when they were done they wanted to give them to people but they wanted to give the same one to more than one person so I scanned some of them and we emailed them. They were all SO excited to see their paintings on the computer. :)


Bradley Bean after his bath. He is just so cute!


So the night before the 4th the neighbors were setting off fireworks. The kids were all so excited. Jeremy and I were in bed watching a movie and all the kids came running in saying they heard fireworks so we let them open our blinds and watch the fireworks out our window. The neighbors stayed up pretty late and the kids got tired after a while. Jillian would lay down be almost asleep then they would light up another one. She would lift her head and say "Boom Boom Mom". It was so cute!


Wackie Jackie came to spend the day with us. She UNFORTUNATELY had to leave early. Thanks for coming Jackie. We missed you but we're glad we got to see you. Love you Jackie!


We went to Middleton this year for their parade and fireworks. It worked out perfect for us. My mother and father-in-law live right next to where the fireworks were lit off and right where the parade started. So we just hung out at their house all day. We played cards in between the parade and the fireworks. Jeremy and I beat Jason and Greg in Pinocle, only because they cheated..that makes us the winners. :) Either way it was fun!


Papa lit off some fireworks for the kids. Here they are doing the snakes.


And what is the 4th of July without Sparklers!






The whole family watching the fireworks together. I can't believe we finally got everyone together all at the same time, all day long. What a great day it was!


Bradley just sat in Jeremy's lap during the fireworks. He didn't ever cry or seem scared. He was good all day long, with the heat and all.


Maddilyn a little affraid of the sparklers.




Get me away from here!


Jillian says "I will get these sparklers open by myself, I want to do some more!"


Fireworks at the in-laws.


Daisha and Jillian watching the fireworks. What a GREAT big sister Daisha is!

Playin'

So it's been a while since I have had a chance to play with my camera or picture editing program. So tonight, even though it is late...here are a few




This one is for my sister Yvonne.


And with Father's Day comin' up I just couldn't leave this one out. It's not edited but in my opinion it needs no editing. The girls love their daddy so much, they left proof. (Look closely)


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! I LOVE YOU JEREMY!!

A little bit of this and that

This was one of the very first pictures taken in our new home. And isn't it just the best. Grandma Shorty came to visit and we are so glad we got to spend a little bit of time with her. I miss her so much. She has moved to Oregon with her daughter. I believe she's like 88 or 89 years old.


Daisha and Jillian are inseperable. Just enjoying a popcycle on a warm day and after lots of work.


Daisha and Jillian both have their own beds and their own bedrooms but they can't stand to be without each other so they end up together a lot of the time. I love my girls!


Spending the last day of school with Daisha. With all her friends around and she still wants to hang out with her baby sister. :)


Daisha and her 1st grade teacher Ms. Vanlom. Daisha loved her. She was a great teacher. Unfortunately with all the teacher cuts she may not have a job next year. She told me that she has applied for a 2nd grade position in the same school and if she gets it she would love to have Daisha in her class. That would be so awesome. I hope the best for her, whatever it may be.


Jillian is Daisha's little shadow. She does everything Daisha does. They both LOVE music and love to dance. Isn't that just adorable. Jeremy doesn't think so. He doesn't like them standing up on that...shh, don't tell him ;)


My baby Bradley. He's 3 1/2 months old now. I can't believe it. Time has gone by so quickly. I love his onzie. Before I had him Anne threw me a baby shower and had everyone decorate a onzie for him and this is the one my mom made for him. It says "What happens at grandma's stays at grandma's."


We had some visitors tonight. Jeremy's brother Jason and his wife Anne and their daughter Maddilyn came over tonight. (They just live on the next road over, but it's been a while since we've seen them) We attempted to watch a movie. Poor Jason got stuck in the kids' room making sure they weren't hurting each other so he didn't get to watch much of the movie but thanks Jas...we appreciated the little bit of quiet time :) Tonight was a great night. Thanks for coming Anne and Jas.


And I had to put a picture of my new favorite spot in our new house. Laurie found this on craigslist, and Jeremy bought it for me. Isn't it beautiful...and it's everything I've always wanted!


Sorry it has been a while since I have posted. But things are starting to feel a little bit more normal. It's starting to feel like this is really your home. We have already had a few issues and surprises but luckily we have a great family and we were able to get everything taken care of and fixed properly. Lots of people have helped but I just wanted to say a special Thanks to Uncle Bob. He is overseas right now and was just home for a week and he spent one full day helping us. I just wanted to make it known that we appreciate that SO much!!! Thanks again.

What's next?

So we have gotten everything moved to our new house. We are still living out of boxes, which I'm sure we will be for a while. I hate that feeling, and so I try to get everything done all in just a couple of days. That is not good on anyone. I work myself so hard that my body is now in shut down mode. Today was a pretty bad day. I got a lot accomplished but I think I might have hurt a few peoples' feelings. For that I am sorry. I think I am just trying to take on too much at once. Please forgive me!

So pretty much all we have done is pack and move and unpack and move and clean and pack and unpack and clean. It's a vicious cycle. But we have had help from our family, thank goodness! We also had a lot of family members pass away in the past couple of weeks and so in between funeral plans and funerals they have all been very helpful! Thank you to everyone who helped! I love you all!

THE DAY HAS COME!!!

We are signing papers tomorrow for our house, but we won't be able to move in until probably Friday, because it takes a day or two to fund. But still...we are almost done. YAY!!! I am so excited now. It's actually happening. The next week or so is going to be hard though, getting kids off to school, getting boxes moved over, getting big heavy things moved. It's just a lot of work....but WELL worth it.

Jeremy has been so tough through all of this. He has stayed right on top of everyone getting all the paperwork done. He has been nothing but possitive when I had all the doubts in the world. I thought it was never going to happen and he kept telling me yes it will work, just be patient. He kept telling me not to stress about it it will all work out. I'm not a very good listener...I was not patient and I stressed about everything, but finally it's all coming together. We are SO excited. Nobody understands how excited we are!!!!

FINALLY

I finally got rid of all the head lice!!! But then Bryton got sick. We spent all morning in the emergency room yesterday. We thought it might be his appendix but it turned out to just be a viral infection...so far. They told us to keep a close watch on him. He's been acting like he is feeling better, so I am ok with that.

We still haven't heard when our closing date on the house will be, but one good sign they told our insurance agent to start the home insurance for May 20th. So at least by Friday. (I hope)

Laurie took me to "Wicked". It was phenominal...well I'm not sure I spelled that right, but the show was GREAT! It was above all my expectations. But even before the play she took us out to dinner. We went to Bajos. Ok, my new favorite place. I had never been there before but it was so yummy. It kind of reminded me of New York Burrito or Taco del Mar. I am going to have to take Jeremy there on our next date night. Then we were on our way to the show and we saw a candy shop...we had to stop, after all we don't have girls' night very often. :) Laurie bought each of us something including all the family members who were home (the kids and the husbands). Then off to the show.

We got there at about 6:00. Laurie thought the show started at 7. They made us wait to go into the auditorium. It was like 6:45 and we were like how come they aren't letting us in. Yeah, it didn't start until 7:30. But we had a great time waiting. We were all laughing and having a good time. Until the dreaded phone call. Laurie got a call and come to find out she lost a very important person in her life. She had a hard time dealing with it, but I thought she held it together very well, considering.

Laurie, I just want you to know how important you are to me and Jeremy, and our family. You are so helpful no matter what you have going on in your own life you make us priority. I know you would drop anything for us at any time. I love you for that! I love the fact that you have always treating me like your own daughter, not the daughter-in-law that I am. It makes me feel special. Thank you for letting me have your son. Jeremy is a wonderful person, just like you. He's a lot like you in many ways. Thank you for teaching him the way you did. You're a wonderful mom! I love you Laurie!

Good week or bad week?

Well this week is either going to be a good week or a bad week. We are suppose to sign the papers on Wednesday for our house. It will be a good week if come Wednesday things are ready to go. And then we will be moving in the rest of the week. Which is a good thing, but a lot of work.

Today we spent the day at my mom's house. We kind of did our mother's day thing with her today. I'm not sure if she was too happy about that idea. We made a lot of extra work for her. We opened the swimming pool so it could be getting warm faster and I made her cook. I love my mom's fried chicken, so I told her I would bring everything over if she would cook it...and she went for it. YUM! Then we let her relax and just snuggle on her grandbabies. And tomorrow we will be with Jeremy's mom.

For my mother's day my mother-in-law is taking me and my sister-in-laws to see Wicked. At first I wasn't too excited about it but then I looked it up online to see what it was and I think I'm going to like it. It is about the witches in The Wizard of Oz. That is on Tuesday this week, so I'll let you know how it is. :)

So Monday Jeremy will be working all day on his final paper for this semester. Then Tuesday I will go to Wicked and then HOPEFULLY Wednesday we will sign the papers and Thursday clean the new house and Friday start moving in. Hope everything goes as planned.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

I just wanted to take a minute and tell Jeremy that I love him. Today hits our 8 year anniversary. We were talking about anniversarys the other day with some family and someone said about only the big numbers like 10-15-20 are the years you really celebrate. Not for me. With having a big family and LOTS of little ones Jeremy and I struggle a lot and so any excuse we have to get out on our own we take it. So tonight we will celebrate by going to dinner together and then probably go grocery shopping. I know it probably sounds dumb, but it's time together just the two of us. We need that once in a while.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JEREMY! I LOVE YOU!!

ABSOLUTELY WORST DAY EVER

So, I thought today was going to be a great day because I was going to spend the day with my sister and she was having her baby blessed today. Boy was I wrong...

Let's start at the beginning. I woke up really early, to make sure everyone got showered and dressed and we could get there on time. Well, Jeremy had no pants to wear because the suit I bought him didn't fit right. Well I don't sew. So we took it to my sister in law. She was my hero. She got it fixed enough for today. Then the gas light comes on in the car. REALLY?! We get gas and head to my sister's house. We get there and I try to take some pictures and my camera settings some how got changed. The first at least 10 pictures were all blurry. UGG! Not today. I wanted some cute pictures of me new little neice. Finally I figured out what had gotten changed and fixed it. Thank goodness. But then the baby was crying and didn't want any more pictures taken.

Finally we go to church. It was great. Nothing bad happened at church...imagine that. :)

We hung out at my sister's house for a while. I took the kids to play at the park and I tried to jump on the merry-go-round and hit my knee on the metal bar. I couldn't hardly walk. It's all bruised up and hurts like it's a deep bruise.
Then later at the park Tucker fell off the merry-go-round. Banged up his knee and bumped his head pretty bad.

Family time was great, just visiting with everyone. But everything must come to an end and so we headed home (well we were actually going to stop by the in-laws house). On the way home we were at a dead stop on the freeway. A car had caught fire. With a day like today I would have figured it was our car. But thank heavens it wasn't us. Those poor people probably think today was the worst day ever too.

So we finally get to the in-laws house and we eat dinner. Then we are all in the livingroom just visiting and Daisha comes up to me and says "I itch". My mother-in-law checked her and she has head lice. REALLY?! How in the world did she get that? My first thoughts: "Why right now? I have so much going on in my life right now. I can't handle this."

We immediately leave and I go to my mom's house, she has all the shampoos and stuff for lice from when my neices had it. Well she didn't have enough so I had to go to the store and get some more. Really on Sunday? Sorry everyone I am not a very good example. Had to have it though. We have to get rid of this. Luckily so far Daisha is the only one that has it. Ok, so I get back with more shampoo and then begins the combing...LONG process! I ended up trimming Daisha's hair. Poor girl! She gave me permission to though. So she's not upset about it. And it doesn't look terrible...:( Anyways, then we come home and I try to boil the hair brushes and combs that we have to kill the bugs. I forgot about them. They all burned up and burned up my pan and the house stinks like burnt plastic and yeah. Lots of smoke and the smoke detectors didn't even go off. That scares me just a little. We would all die if we had a fire in this house.

So now it's the end of a terrible day and I've cried my eyes out and I can't go to sleep. Too much on my mind. That's why I am writing this...got to get some of it out. Good night everyone. Pray tomorrow is better than today!

Jeremy sharing his thoughts.

Stacy is good at sharing our families thoughts and lives so I thought I would put my own out there for once:)

Lately I have done a lot of reflecting on life per an assignment I am doing in college. I have always been a ponderer and deep thinker. I have looked back at my life since being married to analyze it. Coming into my marriage Stacy and I had many naysayers and negatism. One thing her and I learned quickly and I am very grateful for this is the power of prayer. Her and I decided while we were dating that wouldn’t let outside people change our minds and that we would consult the Lord on everything and follow his counsel. This is something I have been taught to do my whole life and I really have seen the fruits from it. James 1:5 really put that into perspective for me. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. The best counsel ever. Stacy and I while dating and under heavy fire prayed as a couple and both of us knew by the gifts of the spirit we were meant to be together. We have proved many people wrong as we are coming up on 8 years of marriage, it hasn’t always been easy but the good things in life never are. We have grown through all our trials together and feel more connected and more in love then the moment we met again. Stacy and I then prayed about buying our first home and once we found it we had critics again but we knew it was meant to be our first home. Two years later an even bigger choice came on our plate. We were in eastern Idaho with my parents who had just got jobs up there visiting. We wanted to see where they would be living. When we came home from that trip we both had an impression to pray as we both felt that is where we should be heading as well. Sure enough we sold our home after being on the market for only a week to a family in our ward who had been praying for something to become available in the ward. What a great blessing for us and them. We bought for 78 and sold for 96 in a two year period…wow. Then we were criticized for moving to eastern Idaho but still we followed the Lords counsel and it was a miracle. Tucker was born dead and because we followed the Lord he blessed us by having on hand that day the top Children’s specialist in the state. His life was saved and he is a true blessing to our family. Stacy and I then prayed again to move back to western Idaho and had the prompting to move to Payette. There we met some amazing people and have had great bonds from it. Jackie is one of those people who Stacy has that bond with. A year later Stacy and I decided it was time to upgrade our vehicle. At the time gas prices were very high but we both new that it wouldn’t last. As we prayed and began shopping we found a vehicle we really liked and fully upgraded Denali that seats 8. At the time we only had three kids so we weren’t sure why we had such an impression to buy that car but followed those promptings. Once again we had critics but we got a phenomenol price and even had offers from dealers and people to buy it for more then we paid but turned them down. We ended up added two more amazing kids to our family and the vehicle has been top notch for us and we have had many friends and family use it because of how useful it is for hauling as well. Recently Stacy and I prayed about whether or not we should buy before graduating from college. In the past we decided renting was a better option and I am glad because we were blessed. The housing market crashed and prices our CHEAP right now. We followed the promptings of the spirit once again and through patience and many many trials we found an amazing home at an amazing price like our vehicle and house before that. Follow the Lords counsel and pray often about everything he is there to help you as long as your willing to listen.


Another thing I have been pondering is jobs and money. Some people think that is what life is all about. I have never been that way. Don’t get me wrong I love the greatest and newest technology, haha…but those things are not important compared to your children and being a family. I have been truly blessed. I have parents who taught me to be a person who could work in many fields and not ever be tied to one thing. I didn’t understand it when I was young but I do now. I can if needed work any many different fields. I have had jobs making 25-30 dollars and hour and walked away because they stopped me from being a good father and husband. Working heavy hours away from your family is not good for a young family. I could never take a job where I was gone and only could see my family on the weekend. I would rather be poor and see them every day. I never want my kids to say to me that they wished I was around more when they were young. Recently I got offered a job again in the sales world working for a company that targets the HR departments of big companies. I was offered around 20 dollars an hour to go to that job. Immediately I turned it down because I knew that the Lord already has a plan in motion for me. He is blessing Stacy and mine personal business to provide for our family until I graduate.

This brings me to the final thing I was pondering. How amazing my wife is and how great of a team we are. When we first met we were both kind of over board on certain things. Her she was over conservative and me I always looked for the best deals but was very compulsive and spent a lot. We taught each other great lessons. She taught me how to budget better and save and I taught her that life is short and it is okay to splurge and enjoy life within your budget. Since they we have both became very good and researching, praying and being patient when it has came to buying things for our family. I have truly been blessed in life and I am grateful to the Lord for that and for following his counsel. It hasn’t always been easy and we had a lot of challenges and critics along the way but by turning a cheek to those things and doing what is right we have made a good life for ourselves. I am just striving to be a better father and husband. I love my family with all my heart and I want to cherish every moment of my kids childhood even if it means living on a tight budget and being so called poor. It is worth it, anyone can live on any amount of money if the budget and stay within there means. Even if it is 1500 a month it is possible.

I also want to thank my parents who have taught me so much. They are two of a very small group of people who have been very supportive to Stacy and I and never negative about anything and always willing to jump in and help with us and the kids. They are great grandparents as well. I love you both more then you can know. I also am grateful for my siblings, who are both amazing people who I love as well. My brother and I have always had a special bond. I just hope he stays around to see our kids grow together through high school and help each other with there sporting events and life activities. Other then Jason no one truly knows our special bonds or will the understand it. I pray each day that things will work well for him here so he doest follow a five year plan and move away. I think my family would lose out on many blessings from not having him around as he is a great uncle and one of my best friends.

Finally I want to say how grateful I am for having such a great wife. Stacy I love you and you’re an amazing wife and mother. She has the best motor I have ever seen. I am biased but I got the best of Don and Sue’s children. See is so caring, unselfish, loving and hardworking. She loves a lot of the same things in life that I do. Not many women enjoy sports but she is one and I am grateful for that. I love her with all my heart and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how lucky I am. I also love my kids. They are amazing and we have been blessed with truly great children. I only hope I can teach them the correct things and be that example to them that I need to be all the time with out being to preachy or to easy but finding that balance. In closing I want to leave with all that read this my testimony. I KNOW the Savior lives and loves us all and that he literally bled from each poor in his body so that our sins could be forgiven and that if we follow him and his teachings from the scriptures that we will be blessed and one day return to him and live with him in our Father’s mansions above and spend eternity with our loved ones. What an amazing blessing that is. I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Sorry for the huge rant but I wanted to share my life reflections with everyone.

Repairs underway

This morning we got some good news. The repairs for the house we are buying are being ordered. And the appraisal has been ordered. Those are 2 big steps. I am hoping all the repairs will go smoothly. I was begininng to worry that we were going to be homeless come May 31st, which negatively thinking could still happen but I am going to try to be possitive. We are still pushing for the closing date of May 11th. But we'll see how long it takes for the repairs to be finished. We'll keep you posted.

Easter...LOTS of pictures!

BEWARE...I took over 800 pictures this weekend.



I am going to start out with the good news...

For the past 8 years Jeremy and I have spent every Easter up in the mountains at his grandparents' house and motel. So we had to keep the tradition alive.





We spent Easter weekend in Pine. With the whole house buying process and everything we've been going through it was nice to just forget about everything and get some "fresh air". We both needed the break. I am so glad Grandma Trish and "Papa Pine" always welcome us up there. It's so beautiful. And it's nice to catch up with family. We all had a great time! While we were up there I really did forget about everything going on here at home. I just had a good time with the kids and family.

On Saturday we did our family egg hunt. Grandma puts candy and money in her eggs. The kids love it. They each came out with about $10. They loved it! And it was so relaxed. Thank goodness for Grandma Trish!!!



Krehl (Jeremy's sister's boy) finding eggs.

Zakary (My sister's boy) finding eggs.





Counting the fortunes



We went to scope out where the community egg hunt would be, which was at the local golf course. Inside the lodge there are a bunch of stuffed elk, birds, etc. So we let the kids look around and took some pictures.





Then we decided to drive around and just see what's been being built in the area and what things are looking like these days. Wow! I can't believe how big some of those homes are up there. Mansions to me. After our drive we went back to the motel and played some games. We ended the night with the hot tub. I tried to skip that part but the kids wouldn't let me.

Easter morning the kids woke up and were so excited about the Easter bunny coming. They each got a basket full of candy and found a bunch of eggs. For breakfast of course we had candy. :) It only happens once a year. You gotta live a little. :)









Once we got everything cleaned up and the cars packed to head home we found a beautiful spot to take some pictures. We wanted to surprise my mother in law with a nice picture of all of her grandkids. They weren't able to make it up this year so I thought it would be nice to make her a nice picture of all of her grandkids, since they were all together. It was going to be a surprise but I guess not everyone knew that...so I will just post them on here and Laurie we'll get you your picture. Don't go getting any of them printed.



All the Kiester kids together at last.















We got some good ones of my family too. I love nature. :) Helps make beautiful pictures.







By the time we were done taking pictures it was almost time to go to the community egg hunt. So we headed to the golf course to see what was happening. Every year they have, as part of the hunt, golden eggs. There are yellow eggs that have a dollar sign on them. The kids that get those eggs get one dollar per egg. Daisha was a little worried, because she was in a little older age group, that she wouldn't get any golden eggs. She put on her "Kiester competitive" face and she ended up with 6 golden eggs. JACKPOT!!!



So now as a mom I have to brag just a little. I am so proud of Daisha. She got 6 golden eggs and her little sister Jillian and 2 of her cousins didn't get any golden eggs and without being told or even mentioning it to her she immediately went and gave a golden egg to both her cousins and her baby sister. What a good girl she is! That is exactly what Jesus would have done. I explained that to her and told her about 50 times how proud of her I was. That move right there made all the hard times worth it!



After the community egg hunt we went back to grandma's house and had a nice dinner. Shortly after dinner we had to head home. Back to reality. Get your head out of the mountains. :) Usually by the end of the weekend I am just ready to come home. This time NOT AT ALL. I wanted to stay longer. I knew what my house looked like and I didn't want to come home to that. Not to mention the kids were all being good while we were in the mountains. I didn't want it to end.

Now for the bad news...
Today we got a call from our lender and found out that we are going to have to come up with another thousand dollars to be able to make the house deal work out. Something about in the offer we only asked for a certain amount of closing costs to be paid and they are going to be more than what we asked them to pay. GRR! So to the grinde we go. Let's make some money! Hopefully we can make it work. Everyone please keep us in your prayers. We are going to do our part and leave the rest up to the Lord. What a test of faith. I hope everyone had a good Easter.