Lookin' like a Model

So I posted about us packing up the house and getting the house ready to sell.

I had a friend of mine call and offer to help a few days before the realtor was scheduled to meet with us and this is how she left the house.



This is the entry(we've put our shoes away since this picture)


Our living room. I love the high ceilings in this room! not to mention the shutters- we are going to miss those the most!


Another picture in the living room and of the kids sitting on the coffee table, something I never let them do but I have a picture of them doing it-go figure!


Here's the kitchen which flows right into the living room. Again love the shutters!


Clutter free and clean kitchen- Love it!


I think this was a night shot of the master bedroom. I really like how this turned out.



I hadn't put up the picture over the bed when I took this picture but it still looks nice.



This is the girls room. I need to take more of their room- this one doesn't do it justice. It's a hard room to get it all in one picture.

Yes there are a few things out of place that need to be put away which we have done. We've gotten into a routine of cleaning up immediately and before walking out the door I make sure the house looks like the model homes- or at least I do my best to keep it that way. With four kids it's really tough! We really hope it sells quickly so we can move into a house that has more room for the kids to play inside and out. I'd personally love to leave out my sewing machine so I can improve my skills there! I still have a quilt to finish that I started about 18 months ago!

Boxes

So......life is always super busy with four young kids, Josh teething & walking= not sleeping at nights(therefore neither is mom), having a busy calling (YWP), and Spencer working about 70 hours a week. Anyways on top of that we decided its time to move so we've been working really hard on the house to get it ready to sell. This included packing, and a lot of it! I packed everything in the house that we don't use on a daily basis or weekly basis. Its so nice to have nothing to clean up!! I packed 80% of the kids toys and all our fall/winter clothes. Too bad its still cold here! Here are some pictures of what we've been doing for the past few weeks:

boxes and lots of stuff- Spencer took about three truckloads

Avery and Spencer carrying a box upstairs- we're using an empty bedroom at my in-laws.

See our "storage room" just a little at a time.

Jake loves to get down and dirty with dad and the mulch


And there's Emily right in there with the boys. She unfortunately got hit with a small shovel twice. Once above her right eye then on her left eyebrow about an hour later. Poor baby!

Avery's Baptism

Avery had the most beautiful and wonderful day Saturday January 9th. She made the decision to be baptized and asked her dad to baptize her and Grandpa Wayne to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She made all the decisions on the program too. She asked me to give the talk on baptism and Grandma Christie to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. She chose the songs and Lexie for the opening prayer and Laura for the closing prayer. It was amazing!


A quick family photo before the baptism started. It had been an insane week with Satan working so hard to get us fighting and throwing all kinds of obstacles in our way to delay this wonderful day. We discussed it late one night with a meltdown in progress and Avery really understood why things were pretty tough. We decided to fight back with love and stick together. It worked and we made it. She was super excited to be baptized, as were we all.



I went with a white dress theme and had Avery's blessing dress displayed by the programs. I had a lot of fun doing all this. This was the hardest because I didn't know what to do really. I had sick kids, a sick husband, Josh's first birthday(we plan on celebrating this in a few days! But need to get him feeling better first!) and my birthday. We had dr. visits involving shots and after a ER visit my car died in the parking lot attempting to pick up meds for Josh. It was a computer issue with the car which is usually pretty costly but it only cost an arm. Ha! Ha! It all worked out in the end and like I mentioned earlier Satan worked really hard on us!


This is the table with a Baptism Book I put together for Avery that I found on sugardoodle and the dress cookies I had so much fun making.


A close up of the cookies. I made almost 60 cookies and they didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them to but wasn't about to start all over again.


I wanted Avery to have a cookie bouquet of her own so I put 8 of them in a vase just for her.

Loving the family so much. I'm so proud of the example Avery is to her brothers and sister. Emily talks about getting baptized a lot now. She gets it and although she's a fireball she still has her heart in the right place and prays to get baptized like Avery. She's so sweet! I love my girls!

Had to get a shot with my favorite big girl! Such a happy day!

I love this picture of Spencer with Avery! I have to get this framed! What an angel!

I actually took this before she changed into her white baptism dress. She was so excited and nervous! We all were so happy!

I was elated when we were getting there and our very best friends arrived when we did. Avery and Emma met about five years ago and were inseparable! It devastated us when they moved two hours away three years ago. Of course Elena and I just hugged and cried! I miss her so much! Avery and Emma on the other hand had that awkward shyness. Although they don't see each other as often as we'd like they are still best friends. They have the best friend necklaces; Avery has "Best" and Emma has"Friends". I love seeing these girls together!


This is a cute picture of Spencer and Josh. He'd been sick for about three weeks and was on a second round of antibiotics for an ear infection from the runny nose and stuffiness he'd had for a while after his high fever. He's finally doing better!


This is an unimportant work in progress picture of my cookies. It was fun but I'd definitely use a different frosting.

Bath Time

So I'm still playing around with taking lots of pictures of my kids and these are some of my favorites. Who doesn't love bath pictures? Well, ok some bath pictures aren't so cute....but these are really cute!

Happy Josh! He's so little. At 10 months he weighs 16 pounds; he's not even on the charts when we go to the dr.


Love this picture of him playing in the water! Big 'ol cheesy smile!


Splash! Splash! Splash!
Lovin' the water!


This picture's cool with the water in mid splash. We must have gotten back from the dr at Jake's 6 year visit, Josh got his 2nd flu shot you can see the band aid on his thigh still.

This was my favorite and is currently the background on our computer. When the kids see it they say "Awww, look at Josh! He's so cute!" This is one spoiled boy! Maybe spoiled with love from us all- and there's never too much love right? (cheese cheese cheese.....)

Halloween 2009

This was the day before Halloween as I tried Josh's costume on him to see how well he'd stay in his costume and to see how well it fit. He's the cutest Yoda I've ever seen!



Yoda strapped in his car seat and ready to go to the Halloween Party and Trunk or Treat!

Here are my Trick or treaters- pretty cute! Emily wanted to be a dancer. Jake was Flash, which I can't believe I found that costume- he loves Flash! Avery was my Princess Tinkerbell.

My girls get so excited to get make-up put on them they look forward to Halloween because of the candy and make-up! I'm not sure what's going on with that shirt. I don't want to discourage her from being modest but the costume would have looked a lot better if it fit her better and she didn't have a shirt underneath. She's beautiful either way!

None of them were ready for this picture but whatever. Look at Flash's expression: are you done taking pictures so we can go to the party?

Flower Power

OK so a little history behind this Gerber Daisy: a precious friend gave me this potted Gerber Daisy for Valentine's Day and I decided to see how long it would last if I planted it. Well I'm happy to say it's been nearly four years since I planted that little flower in our front yard. I'm so glad I did too because every time it blooms I always think about Elena and what a sweet friend she has been to me over the years!


This was last year, the first time it was the talk of the house. Spencer took a picture of it because it was hard for us to describe and we wanted to remember it. I was pregnant with Josh when this flower bloomed and we were both convinced it was twins. This flower was definitely dividing and it was on one stem- which we thought was so cool!

Well, this year it's in the shape of a heart. This is a close up of the middle, yea I don't know my flower parts. But I am familiar with my shapes and that is a heart!

This is another shot of our heart flower. Isn't that the coolest? The kids love to look at it. I was honestly amazed at it and was excited to show it to them. I show it to everyone who comes over- look at our flower I'd say. Yes, it's the little things that excite me!

Who couldn't use a little flower power?