Piper...

I take far too many pictures of her but she is just too cute and my little buddy. How could I not?

She is not a fan of clothes. Almost alway down to a diaper but 10 am.

She does love shoes though.

MInor happenings...

This girl has a knack for getting dirty. Some how her face looks like this at the end of nearly everyday.

Dental checkups. Last fall we had lots of cavities to take care of. This time none. Laine makes me laugh. I think her butt must be clenched so tight in this picture. 

While we did the bulk of our moving and house projects Bode and Laine spent spring break up in Pinetop. They always have such fun up there.

Growing boy...

It's happening. He's growing up right before my eyes! Why must this be? Jer and I were reminiscing about his little 2 year old bow legs and now he is a bean pole will long legs and knobby knees.

He loves legos. Loves them. He is quite creative with them too. The other day I had he and Laine make lego creations as a chore. Laine came down with something I would have done. It was like a wall with a hole in it. She was pleased with it. Bode came down with huge ships and cars with attachments that do crazy things. He was pleased with them too.

Everytime he gets a hair cut he looks older. 

He wasn't quite 8 when the pinewood derby came around. Since he was turning 8 the next month they let him participate. He did really well. I nearly teared up watching him sit there with all the boys. We are entering a new phase of life. Things are getting busy but it is a nice change of pace for us.

Work and workn' it...

Before we actually moved into our house there was a lot of work to be done. Mainly cleaning, it was ewe dirty, painting and tackling the kitchen.  A coat of paint really goes a long way. Made an old house that had only seen renters feel new and ready for us to make it home.

I was really lucky to have Jeremiah. He was quite the handy man. He fixed things and painted the whole kitchen. It would have taken me weeks!

Piper was happy to just hand around with us and show off her cute curves.

Piper was also very impressed that Dad could put up a fan. She told him good job. We still have a never ending list of things to do but it nice to do what we want on our house.

Moving...

I hate moving. I don't know anyone who likes it though. I don't mind the whole change in scenery and new spaces to decorate in new houses but the whole packing, moving, and unpacking is so exhausting.  I will be happy to not do that for at least 5 years.

The kids on the other hand really loved moving. Bode had this idea in his head for weeks. He was just itching for the go ahead to start moving for weeks. He was not disappointed. He got his neighborhood friends to help him and they moved all of Bode's room and most of Laine's too.

This picture makes me sick. I have moving...

The zoo...

Every year since Bode was 3 we have gone to the zoo with preschool groups. This was Laine's last year before kinder. Its always a fun day. Laine would prefer to just run free with friends. Piper was very interested in the animals. When we saw the tigers she held out her and hand said "here kitty, kitty". When we came to the crocodile I said, "oh, thats creepy" she walked over to the glass and said, "hi creepy!".

Animals...

Animals are funny. They are furry creatures that we let live in our house. We feed them and train them and they make us happy. We like Harry and all the funny things he does. This particular day he was determined to get that pigeon on the roof. Sadly for him, he didn't get the bird.

This is Maggie. In December of last year my mom's labradoodle unexpectedly passed away. We were all sad. Boo was such a good dog. In February I was looking at an online swap shop and cam across this dog. I wanted her. I had every intention of keeping her. But we picked her up, fell in love and knew she needed to be in Pinetop with my mom and dad. I could go into the whole story that involved someone claiming she was a service dog, stalking, the police getting involved and more but in the end she got to stay with us and after 10 days with us she made her was home to my mom's house. She is a sweet and goofy dog. She has many good qualities and a few bad ones but she seems to be making her place up there.  

I always feel Harry is wishing he was an outside cat. He would be a good hunter. He is looking at the quail in the front yard.

9 years...

We have been married for 9 years. Between moving and other things we didn't do anything or go anywhere. I did however go on a ride along with him. It was good. I enjoy seeing him work. Somedays I feel like I know him in and out. Other days I look at him and feel like I've just cracked the surface and feel so lucky to call him mine. 

Gilbert Temple...

The Gilbert Temple had an open house before it was opened to church members. We wanted to take our kids. They loved it. Well Bode and Laine loved it, Piper had enough, she didn't want to be quiet, would have loved to touch everything and I ended up nearly running down the 3 flights of stairs because she was crying, Oh well, it was still beautiful and the others really enjoyed getting to see inside the temple.

We bought a house...

We've lived in Surprise for 6 years. We moved here 6 years ago thinking we'd be here until Jeremiah graduated the academy. Our house would sell, then we would move to Peoria. After our house didn't sell and we got into that whole mess we decided to just rent in Surprise for a year or two. So we rented our first house in Surprise.

After 2 years in that house we figured we would be in Surprise a little longer and need to a little bit bigger space with a yard to play in. We we found a new rental. It all worked out because our current landlords were trying to figure out how to get us out because they needed the house back for one of their kids. When I called and told her we wanted to leave she cried. She said it was an answer to her prayer. On to our next rental.

We lived in the second rental for about two more years. We like it there. Nice neighbors, good yard and more space for kids to play. We figured we would live there until we bought a house. After about 2 years out landlord called us and wanted to move into the house. Her husband was going to be living abroad in a place they didn't want to bring their children so they needed a house for about a year. At the same time friends of ours were getting ready to leave and asked us if we wanted to rent their house. So it worked out for our landlord to move back into her house and for us to move into our friend's house. On to the next rental.

We were in the last rental for just under 2 years. The market had changed a bit and we were able to buy. We put in an offer on a house in Peoria. Everything was going well until there was a snag in paperwork regarding our old house. We had to stop plans and push back buying a house until 10 months later. After waiting we decided to look again. We looked in Peoria and house prices were higher than we wanted to pay so we started looking in Surprise. We found our house and everything went pretty smooth and we closed on it in the early spring. Hopefully we will be here more than 2 years....