A BiG step up

As most of you know, Chris works for Brand Imaging Group (formerly known as fastsigns, they's still affiliated with them though.) There are lots of things in the works to expand BiG and lots of changes that will be happening at his work in the next year or so. Chris comes home excitedly telling me about some of them(the ones he's allowed to ;).  But recently he told me some of the best news!

Chris's boss has turned in his 2 week notice and will be leaving BiG. They are promoting Chris to his position! It will mean more responsibility but also a nice pay increase and Chris will get his own office! (He's never had his own office before)

I am SO proud of Chris and grateful for all his hard work. This promotion couldn't come at a better time, with us buying a house and my health issues. It's a sign to me that Heavenly Father knows us, loves us and is watching out for us.

Congratulations Handsome! You deserve it!

Yard Sale

We've decided to have a yard sale... I believe the end of April. A friend from church is going to be doing it along with us (and anyone else who would like to... just let us know!)

One thing I've noticed while unpacking is that we have too much of everything. My girls clothes are a bit out of hand. With so much family and friends, we get a TON of hand me downs. We also have a bunch of people who like to shop for our girls. So we have ended up with so many clothes they won't fit in 2 dressers and a closet! 

I actually searched online to try and find out home many clothes my girls actually need. Here's what I've settled on, and this is a bit more than what others have suggested... But oh well. I don't like laundry and don't want to have to do it everyday!

7 short sleeve shirts

7 long sleeve shirts

5 shorts

3 skirts

5 jeans

3 other pants

2 sweatshirts/hoodies

2 Nice dresses

4 Casual Dresses

1 Winter Coat

2 Jackets

Shoes:

Sneakers

Crocs or swim shoes

Sandals

Black Dress Shoes

White Dress Shoes

Snow Boots

Rain Boots

Flip Flops

My girls love being girly and wearing skirts and dresses, and that's what people buy them most often, so we're keeping more of those than what I read about. The long sleeved shirts and atleast half the pants will be put away for winter, along with the coat and snow boots and such. With this breakdown of it all, we should be able to have only one drawer a piece for each girl along with the clothes that hang up. 

This does not include their school clothes though. I want to have about 10 outfits a piece for the girls for their school uniforms. We're a bit over that right now for Taylor, but next year, we should only have to get a few things since we've got a few size 4, 5, and 6 (This is hoping Madison gets into the Pre-K program that Taylor is in now.) 

Anyways - We're going to be cutting back on tons... My clothes, Toys, Linens, etc. Probably some craft stuff as well. Hopefully we can get some extra cash out of this yard sale to help with fun summer stuff... Or maybe we'll make enough to pay for our fence! That would rock. Either way, I'm more excited about the extra space than the extra money. I'm trying not to get too carried away and just get rid of everything! Cause at this point I don't want to clean it or unpack it or put it away.  It's a good mood to purge in though.

Can't catch a break,

But we can catch a bug!

Make that a few bugs. It seems like one of us has been sick since we moved into this house. I'm trying real hard not to hold it against the house... it's not her fault after all. But it's annoyed me.

The first week here I was out with Pneumonia. The Second week, Chris had the flu. We had a tiny break last week thank goodness, because it was Chris's birthday. But this week again, Taylor has the flu!

According to her teacher, half her class has it.

I'm going to go get tons of Lysol and soak this house in it.

Even our puppy Tubman has been sick today. He has the runs. I feel bad keeping the poor puppy put up, but I can't let him loose in the house. Not after all the poop I cleaned up this morning.

Anyways - I have yet to have my house spotless at any point since we moved in. It doesn't look like it's gonna happen today either. At some point it will be. And when it is I am taking photos and posting them 1. so that you can all see our home and 2. because it will probably never be spotless ever again.

If only we can all feel good at the same time.

Happy 30th Birthday Christopher!

In case you didn't know, my Handsome turned 30 today! 

We started the day with some breakfast in bed. French Toast with OJ and a yogurt smoothie.

Afterward Christopher got out of bed (He sleeped way in!) We all went and had lunch with Taylor.

Next it was time to go to the DMV (or County Clerk's office) for Chris to get a new drivers license. His expired cause he's so old now.

After he got a new license (including a new pic that doesn't look like a 15 year old boy) Christopher went to go see War Horse all by his lonesome. It kinda becoming a tradition of his.  He did the same thing last year.

The movie wiped him out, because after that he came home and napped for about 3 hours. Then he woke up to this:

 Me and the girls had  put together some fun little stuff to celebrate. I finally broke out my Cricut and made the cute banner and tags for the gifts. 

 We got Christopher some drinks and snacks to take to work. (I had originally planned on surprising him at work with all these awesome treats so everyone would be crazy jealous of his delicious treats and awesome wife.  But chris took the day off instead... so now all of you can be jealous of his delicious treats and awesome wife!) (Also, please excuse how crappy my handwriting is. If I had any idea where my printer was, I would have printed out cute labels instead of using my gosh awful handwriting. So ignore them and pretend they're some crazy obnoxious cute font.)

  Me and the girls counted out 30 double bubble gumballs (30 blows) and 30 dumdums (30 sucks.)

We also made this fantabulous card. the girls signed it themselves and decorated the inside. 

I made one of Chris's favorites for dinner: Sloppy Joes! With manwich of course. Though I forgot buns, but chris doesn't mind, he eats it all by itself! We also had mac and cheese (of course) and I made cream spinach just to add some veggies to our dinner. Chris's stomach was a bit upset from the jalapenos he had on his nachos when he went to the movies, so he couldn't enjoy dinner as much as he wanted, but that's what comes with old age! The inability to eat whatever you want without repercussions. I've had to stop using onions in everything because Chris's stomach just can't handle them. He's such an old poot.

To finish off our wonderful day, we went to Lowes and got Chris this beauty below:

We had to have a grill of course so that we'd be able to grill out for Chris's party on Saturday. He's pretty excited about it... even went so far as to say this was the best birthday present ever. I'm glad he likes it and I'm glad we were able to get it for him. I can't wait to grill some veggies on that thing! 

Happy Birthday Handsome. I adore you and I'm so glad your parents made you 30 years and 9 months ago. Thank you Pat and David!

More to come

I haven't really blogged much lately, especially with any pictures. Life has been nuts. The first week in our new home, I had pneumonia. The second week here, Chris had the flu. And my wonderful nieces have been here pretty much the whole time we have. We have unpacked enough to live in our house and not much more. Hopefully things will calm down soon and we'll be able to start getting a routine down in our new home.

Christopher turns 30 tomorrow and we have some surprises planned! Hopefully they all turn out well. We're also grilling out on Saturday for his b-day! A new grill is his birthday present and I'm letting him play with it for his birthday! How nice am I?

Last week we sent in our application for Madison to start Pre-K next year. Me and Chris both agree that she really needs this class. It has opened Taylor up so much! She has learned a ton and grown so much. Madison can definitely use the same. She likes to act all shy and baby-ish, but she's growing up too. I don't know if it's the fact that my baby will possibly be starting school, but I've started to get a tiny bit baby hungry. I don't honestly want one right now, but the idea of another baby is a pleasant thing again, most of the time. I tease Chris about it alot, but we know the time isn't right yet, and probably won't be for a while. But it's fun to talk and joke about it.

Next week we will register Taylor for Kindergarten. We're so excited. We're going to ask that Taylor and Lily be put in the same class, and hopefully Mrs. Sanders class. We'll see if they'll let us. It'll be weird next year to not have my babies at home, but it's exciting. Maybe my home will be clean and stay that way for once. We'll see.

Anyways, I'll update and post new pics soon. We just have to take some.  Til then...

Home, Sweet Home

We closed! Last Monday (the 27th) we were able to close on our house, which was a pleasant surprise because we didn't think it would happen until Tuesday or Wednesday. I was able to paint the living room and our bedroom during the week (thank you Krystin for your help!) And we slowly moved stuff over through out the week (Thank you Matt, John, Michael, and Steven). Last night we spent our first night in our new home. It was GREAT to be back in our own bed. The girls had to sleep on the couch because we couldn't find their bedding amid all the tons of boxes in the garage. At the moment I have unpacked all of my kitchen stuff and it is mostly set up. Chris is installing my under the counter radio/cd/ipod player as I type and then I'll put away the last few things and my kitchen will be all done... That is for the next couple weeks til we buy the paint for it and we start decorating it.

We're taking it all a room at a time, and the living room is our main priority, since this is where we'll spend the most time as a family. Our living room is shaped a bit funny... actually it's just a rectangle, but the placement of doorways and the closet and the air vent created a problem when it came to furniture arrangement. But me being the crazy person I am spent a couple hours online looking at living room furniture placement til I figured out where all our furniture should go. I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out, because now that it's all in place, it seems like the room was made to be set up this way! We have just a couple other pieces of furniture to get before this room will be done. I want a little writing desk for the laptop and a bookshelf, and then a HUGE basket to keep our blankets in.  Oh, and some pillows for the couch! How could I forget the pillows? And eventually curtains for the window, but the blinds will suffice for now.

Then comes the kitchen and little bathroom. Then our room and bathroom. Then the girls room and bathroom... then the guest bedroom and finally the laundry room.

I am thrilled to finally be settled. After 9 moves in less than 8 years, I'm over it! I don't want to move again for another decade! And that's our plan for now. We'll probably stay in this home until the girls are ready for high school. We have plenty of space with room to grow (another kid or two ;) ) It's kinda funny because me and Chris have talked about moving into this neighborhood since we got married. And now we live here! It is a huge blessing to have found this house in the area we want.

We have also had a couple other changes in our lives. I am no longer working at all! I no longer am keeping anyone else's kids but my own. I am trying to get a job at the YMCA, but it may not be working out after all. I am excited though for all the time I will get to spend with Madison. I've never really had a chance to be alone with her and I can't wait to help her learn and just hang out with my favorite little Moo.

And the last big change in our lives will happen in the next few days. We are adopting two little puppies! They are beagles, a brother and sister. The boy is named Tubman and the girl is Harley. They will be fixed tomorrow and we'll bring them home 24/48 hours after that. And I can't wait. It does mean that I need to get pretty much everything unpacked before then though.  So I probably better get back to it.

Pictures will come soon, once all the boxes are gone and stuff is put away and clean, if that ever happens ;)

Our house

Oh-lo! (We've been watching Megamind WAY too much and I can't hardly say Hello the normal way anymore.)

It's been a while since I posted anything on our house, and that's been because it's been drama drama drama. The short sale process combined with our THDA loan means that every one and their mama has to approve of us buying this house or it's no deal. We've also had issues with our lending agent (Works for PrimeLending.  I'll never ever ever in my life use them again!) She does not communicate well at all. They tell me something different every time I call. It's been nerve wracking.

But, the good news is that it is nearly over. We will be closing on our house at the latest Wednesday, the 29th. I will be in my home next weekend!  I'm honestly not as excited about as I thought I'd be. Probably because I've been told countless times that we'd be closing and we have yet to! I'm about to the point where I'll believe it once I've got the keys in my hands. Til then... I'm trying just to not think about it.

If you've forgotten what our house looks like, here's the link again. I have to keep looking at it to remember what everything looks like. Again, it is bigger than it looks in the pictures. They've taken these pics at weird angles. OUR HOME


Along with this good news, we found out that our puppies will be getting fixed next week. That means we'll be bringing them home at the end of next week. They are getting big and I can't wait to be able to take pictures of them and be with them all day. I can't wait to paint our home and post pics. It's an exciting time right now for us!

Tubes

Madison got tubes today! She was such a trooper and charmed all the doctors and nurses. She was a little loopy after the surgery but has been her usual wild self this evening. My mom stopped by yesterday to give Madison a magic pig that would help her feel better after her surgery! She took it and the blanket she got for Christmas back with her.

 She is SO stinkin cute in the hospital pajamas. She loved them. The car behind her was how they took her back to the operating room. She got to go pick it out, then her and daddy got to run up and down the hallways in the hospital with it while we waited for everything to be ready to go. We went on and said our goodbyes and hugs before the car ride so when it was time, they could just take over the driving for daddy and wheel Moo right on back. She thought it was awesome!

I guess Maddie's magic pig worked cause she's been bouncing off the walls all evening. She's finally asleep now. Thanks for all the prayers. We appreciate it! Madison's totally "tube"ular now.

In Limbo

I feel like that's where we are right now - in limbo. If I had known it would take this much waiting to buy a house, we would have started looking much earlier. But if we'd done that, we'd never found this great house we've been waiting for (because it was out of our price range til we started looking.)

The reason for all the waiting is that the house is a short sale. That means the owner is selling the house before it is foreclosed on and I think because of this, it saves the bank some money since they don't have to foreclose on it.  They do have to take a loss on it though, but in all actuality, considering the money they've made in interest on the house, they're not losing anything. But still... The waiting game drives me crazy. It's all I can think about right now (that and maddie's tubes... more on that later.)

This week is the big week for us I think. This week decides so much of our near future. Here's why... The bank has already approved of our offer on the house. Because the price was lower than the amount the owner owed, mortgage insurance had to approve of the offer as well, since they will paying the bank back some of it's losses. Anyways, that happened on Wednesday of last week though we didn't hear about it til Friday. There is one heck of a grapevine the news has to travel through to reach us! At the moment, we are waiting on the actual lenders to approve of our offer. Makes no sense to me, but the bank we were negotiating with before is just that... negotiators. Another bank is the actual lender and has to approve of the offer.  I heard from our realty agent today that we should hear from them by Friday. Our agent has told us that he would like a good 3 weeks to close on the house. And that is why this week is so important. If we hear from the lenders by Wednesday, We can probably close on the 27th, which means we would move directly into our house. If we don't hear from them until Friday, Our close date will more than likely be the first week in February.

It wouldn't really be a big deal, except that as everything stands now, we have to be out of our apartment on the 27th. Which is a Friday. We will be slightly "homeless" for a couple to a few weeks. Don't worry though. We have a place to go. Chris's mom and dad are wonderful and will let us stay in their empty bedroom upstairs until everything works out. As grateful as I am to have that safety net there, I'd really rather not use it. So I'm praying... HARD! And hoping that I get a call in the next 2 days saying everyone and their mom has approved of our offer and we're ready to start the closing process. If not... Then we'll be moving twice in less than a month. For now... It's Limbo.

New Years Resolution

My New Years Resolution for 2012 is to RUN!

I'm going to run run run run run all year long.

My actual goal is to run at least one 5k (or farther run) a month (12 in all, in case I can't quite get 1 in every month, I may have to do 2 in one month)

At the end of the year, when I have 12 t-shirts from all of these runs, I'm going to make me an awesome t-shirt quilt.

I'm trying to talk Chris into doing this with me. He's a bit hesitant, and not sure he'll be ready for our January run (not sure when it is yet... hopefully towards the end of the month) but we're making it a rule that if one of us needs to go exercise or run, the other one should let them (within reason). So if he starts this week, I'm sure he'll do fine. 

I'm excited though. And I think I can actually keep this resolution. It's easy and tangible I guess. Not like "grow more spiritually" or "become a better person."

It's something I can do, I can schedule, and I can run. 

I'm way excited and can't wait til the end of the year to be able to make my quilt and show it off. Anyone else have any resolutions?

short and sweet

Christmas rocked. The flu didn't. Pics to come when I feel better.

The Nashville Nutcracker

Taylor and I were able to go see the Nutcracker on Saturday. We had a great time, though I did have my share of freakout moments. We showed up at about 12:45 though the show didn't start til 2. We were able to walk right up to will call to pick up our tickets so that was nice. Then we shopped for a little bit and picked out three dolls... an angel, the nutcracker, and Clara. We also got us some drinks and a snack before the show started. We walked around, were able to go with our group to have some cookies and drinks downstairs before the show, and listened to a story time about the unique parts of the Nashville Nutcracker. It was a blast. Then right as they open the doors and start letting everyone to their seats, we had our first nearly nervous breakdown. I stopped to get in my purse to pull out our tickets... and they were gone. AH! I almost started crying. I looked and looked but nope... weren't there. So we walked up to a lady who had been talking on the loud speaker and I told her I couldn't find me tickets and where our seats were located. She had them on the stand in front of her. Then it was all I could do to not start crying.  Anyways, we went to our seats and found out we were sitting by one of Taylor's friends from her dance class. Her mom was the one who told me about the deal on tickets. 

The show was awesome. Taylor started to fall asleep during part of it, but thanks to mama's dr. pepper she didn't miss much. We then went back stage after the show and were able to meet a few of the dancers and take some photos. It was so cool. We got to see all sorts of props and the stage sets and such. The details that go into it all were so beautiful. They're pretty from far away, but up close... WOW. Anyways, here's the pics of the show!

 waiting to go in

 during intermission, the dancing bear

 the only pic of the two of us together... can you tell I'm sick?

 Taylor was showing her the sparkles on her own dress. ;) It was sweet.

 taylor and clara

 this next one was taylor's favorite costume because of the flower crown she had on.

 taylor was WAY too shy to take a picture with the nutcracker. I think she may have a slight crush on him.

Taylor and the russian nesting doll. Her and the garden fairy are members of the church from the franklin stake I think. That's where we got the tickets from. 

 And last, taylor walking out of the set. I love this picture. She was so excited!

Photo Card

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Black Friday: Crazy or Not?

Lots of people were making fun of me last week because I love Black Friday Deals. If I can get something for free, heck yeah, I'm there... sometimes even if I don't need it or can't use it (example: dog food... I'll get it free with coupons and pass it along to family and friends.)  But checking out these Cyber Monday Deals made me realize... I saved a BUTT LOAD last week. And I can't resist but to add up my deals. I'm using Amazon.com to price my stuff.  Here I go... I'm actually excited about this. I'm such a nerd.

Malibu Barbie Dream House

I paid $99 for this on ToysRUs.com last week.

You can purchase it for $199 from Amazon.com... or $157 new from a seller

LeapFrog Leapster 2 (Pink)

I paid $24.99 for this on ToysRUs.com last week.

You can purchase it for $42.99 from Amazon.com... was $69.99

Disney Princess Royal Castle

I paid $20 for this last week at Toys R Us. I had to sit in the store for 2 1/2 hours... because I got there at 2 and it didn't go on sale til 5, but if I hadn't, I could have purchased it today for $69.95 on Amazon.com

Disney Princess Favorite Moments 4 Pack

I paid $10 for this at Kmart.  

You can now get it on Amazon.com for only $24.28 or from a seller for $23.99

Madden 12

$28 at Walmart

$39.99 at Amazon.com (which is cheap... it was $59.99)

Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe

$17.49 at Toys R Us

$43.99 at Amazon.com or $35.99 from a seller

Call of Duty 2

$5 at Toys R Us because I bought Kinect Sports Season 2

On sale for $19.99 at Amazon.com... was $39.99

Call of Duty 3

$15 at Target

On sale for $51.99 at Amazon.com... was $59.99

Call of Duty World at War

$7 at Best Buy

On sale for $19.20 at Amazon.com... was $29.99

Once Upon a Monster

$28 at Best Buy

On Sale for $29.99 at Amazon.com... was $49.99

Buckaroo

$5 at Toys R Us

$11.10 at Amazon.com... was $21.99

Let's go fishin

$5 at Target 

$11.71 at Amazon.com... was $15.99

Totals...

What I spent on Black Friday...........................................$263.49

Total I would have spent on Amazon.com today................$564.18

Total I would have spent if it wasn't Cyber Monday...........$685.14

I think I'll stick to my Black Friday Shopping. 

(Yes I do know that I could find better deals by scouring the web, but that wouldn't help make my point, so I'm not doing that. )

The MAX

Baby Max's blessing day...

Michael gave a gorgeous blessing... It really was awesome.

 After Max was blessed we all went to Michael and LeeAnn's place for some refreshments... they were SO good.  I couldn't stop eating, as always.

 Some closeups of the main man!

 I love this next one. He's absolutely beautiful!

 And so is this little girl!

 The happy little family

 Mamie and papa and 1/2 their grandkids!

 The kiddos

 The girls absolutely adore max. They're so excited to have a little cousin to play with (on mama's side.)

 I love these pictures of Max sleeping. he's such a little angel.

 I was able to catch a little grin... LOVE IT

 Then Taylor took over my camera... Some of these pics are out of order, but this one of my dad was one of T-bones shots.

 Then Taylor got to hold baby Max.

 Then more by taylor...

 Then almost all the Taylor clan...

 The taylor parents.

 The GRAND parents

 The Hassler Parents

 see... out of order... Why did that happen?

 Madison was SO proud to be holding Max, and after insisting on a baby sister pretty much since she could talk, she's finally said she'd like a baby brother as well... we'll see what happens Moo.

 here's another photo by Taylor... not bad...

 and more... Mom, this should be your FB profile pic... no one would mess with you... ever!

 These are still taylor's pics, but this next one is a painting of Jesus that my mama did... it's a huge gorgeous painting. We all love it. My mom used a Dan Fogelberg cd cover as her inspiration

 more by taylor...

 more by taylor

 and last... baby Max and his mama! 

We're so excited to finally have a nephew in our family. And he is a sweetheart! We all adore him. 

Yay Max!