Picture sharing

Happy Birthday Makayla. She is so excited to be 7! In our family, when you are 7 you don't have to take naps anymore and she will get to be baptized next year. She can't wait!

We went to the beach today. These are our new beach pictures. Can you guess what Chelsea and Makayla are laying next to on the beach? They helped Charlie and I sculpt it.

These are my cubbies. From left to right it goes: Will Allen, Alex Farley, Merrit and Tylor Pirk. Doesn't Tylor look thrilled to be there? He can be a little whiny sometimes. This is the kid Merrit invited from school. Our May pack meeting was this passed Wednesday. The boys did an outdoor flag ceremony as part of a color guard. This is them in their color guard. Then we planted a tree. It was fun!

These are the cupcakes we made for Makayla to take in to her class for her birthday yesterday. We also did Chelsea's for her class too. Because she has a summer birthday she doesn't get to take cupcakes on her birthday, so I figured yesterday was as good as any other day and actually better for me since I was already making them for Makayla. Chelsea and Makayla both helped me put the marshmellows in the colored sprinkles and then on their cupcakes. They thought it was so fun and it really helped me get them put together quickly. I like doing things like this for and with my kids. I sure love them!

Happy Memorial Day

We went to the lake today and let the kids swim. First swim of the season. We thought they would jump in and then jump right back out again because the water is still so cold. But they played for a good 45 minutes before we made them get out because we had other things we had to do today. They had lots of fun and actually stayed in the water a lot longer than we thought. We were impressed. Meg even got to come and went swimming with us. She had just as much fun as (maybe even more than) the kids did. The water is about 50 degrees right now, still too cold for me. I just sat and watched and took pictures. We will definately miss being so close to the lake. We haven't even really got to enjoy it to the fullest extent. We're going to try to go as often as we can before we move. We'll probably never live this close to a lake again. :(

Then we had a BBQ with some friends we've made through Chelsea's friend at school. All in all we had a very enjoyable Memorial Day. I hope all of you did too.

Some updates

Our friends, the Stamps, have said that we could live in their house in Flint. So we will stay there and try to help them sell it while looking for something more permanent for ourselves. And the house we were looking to buy and fix up was sold yesterday. We are a little disappointed, but we know that there are so many houses for sale that we shouldn't have a problem finding something different. There is actually another house we have our eyes on already. It was on the market in early April and before we could look at it was pending sale. Then today we saw it listed again. We checked with our realtor and she said she double checked and it is definately back on the market and that the sale must have fell threw for some reason. We want to see it and hopefully find out why the sale fell threw. It's 6 bedrooms, 2 baths on 4.3 acres in Flushing for $89,900. Can you believe that my kids could each have their own rooms? It would be so nice. Anyway, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, the market changes so fast that it might not be around too long.

Les posted more pics of Audrey and the boys on our page. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Audrey has arrived!!!!!!!!!

Check out my blog to see pics of our beautiful new daughter!!!!!!!!!!

We are moving

We've decided to move at the end of June. That's about all we know for sure right now. We've been praying for several months for guidance and direction on this matter and we feel that we are suppose to move back to Michigan. We don't really know why. Charlie felt prompted to turn in his letter of resignation about a week ago. Even though he doesn't yet have a job, or has even had an interview, he feels very strongly that we are suppose to be in Michigan no matter what. With knowing that, we decided that it makes no sense for us to stay here until he has a job. We will just have to keep paying rent and he will have to go back to Michigan every time an interview comes up. That could get really expensive. So our plan right now is to see if we can stay at some friends of ours. They moved to North Caroline just after spring break and haven't sold their house yet in Michigan. We are going to see if they will let us stay there until we find something more permenant.

We have a house in mind that we'd like to try to buy. It is in the Flint ward. Yes, we are returning there, but we won't be living in the city. It is a foreclosure and needs major work. We would basically gut the whole inside and start over. It sounds like a lot of work, but it will actually be easier to do it that way than to try to save what is there now. It's a four bedroom, 2 bath house on 2.79 acres and is listed at $18,900. We think we could probably get it cheaper though. We want to smack a reconstruction loan on top of our mortgage and use that to fix it up. We are working with a realtor from the Howell ward and she is very knowledgable with the housing market and loans, etc... She is really helping us out and we appreciate it.

We started telling people at church on Sunday that we'd be leaving. We feel like they need to have some time to find people to take over our callings before we leave. I'm sad to be moving again. Although I don't really feel like I have many good friends in this ward, I do have a few that I will miss very much. This ward was very kind to us and the people here are very good. I want to come back a visit as often as we can. I hope to stay in touch with them too.

So, we don't know what is in store for us. We are just trying to do what we feel the Lord wants us to do. This is new territory for me. I usually have some idea of what the Lord wants. Now, I don't really know. It's kind of interesting operating in the dark and having everyone look at you like you are insane. I feel a little insane, but I'd much rather be insane than to go against the will of God. He will provide for us in some way. It just might not be the way I am expecting. Sometimes I wish I could see from His perspective.

Hawaii

Having fun at the PCC, me, Kristen, Victoria, and Jamie.

My mission companion Kaala, I had a great time with her and her little family.

I had such a wondeful time in Hawaii. I did get a bit burned even though I put on sunscreen but it was all worth it. We kept busy and visited many of the sights. A few of the activities that we did was visiting the Dole Plantation, the Polynesian Culture Center, Pearl Harbor, and snorkeling. To be completly honest I wanted to stay in Hawaii, I was even offered a place to stay, but here I am back in Utah. I even got an invite to visit Tonga with my mission companion and her husband who is Tongan, all I would have to pay for is the plane ticket. Anyway, Hawaii was the best.

Doctor Appointment

Today I had a Dr. appointment and they did an ultrasound to estimate baby weight. They estimate that she is about 7lbs 15 ozs right now. Of course, I still have 2 1/2 weeks left so, we shall see how big she actually is when she is born. Luckily, he is going to induce me a week early (I was hoping for 2 weeks, but oh well). So, if I do not have the baby before then I will be induced on the 22nd. I am 3 1/2 centimeters dialated compared to the 2 1/2 last week.

Mother's Day Wish

Happy Mother's Day to all who are mothers and all who have mothers. I hope you had a wonderful day. I sure did! My kids are great. I'm so thankful they love me so much, despite my faults. I love them dearly. Charlie is also a wonderful husband who helped feel like a very special mom today. I love him dearly too.

Some share time

The kids and I made some homemade clay. Then we shaped it, baked it and painted it. They loved it. I thought I'd share it with you. The link below is where I got the recipe, if you're interested.

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/claytyperecipes/l/blovclay1.htm

Today I got my hair cut. I really like it. Thought you might like to see what it looks like.

Bradyn's Birthday!!!!

Bradyn's Birthday was last week and we had a party for him on Saturday. He was able to invite a few friends and we went to a local pizza place. He had a great time. You can check out more pictures on my personal blog.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I know we don't really celebrate this holiday, but it's still fun to wish everyone a happy day.

Thought I'd change things up a bit. What do you think?

We made it!

So our TV fast challenge is now over. We actually did pretty well with it too. When we went back to Michigan to pull parts off of our wrecked van we let the kids watch TV that weekend. Then this passed Saturday we let them watch a movie with the babysitter while we went on a date. Other than that, we stuck to the challenge. I even stuck to it although I was tempted several times to play a little game of Text Twist here or there or put on a movie while I folded laundry. I resisted though. I'm actually glad it's over. It will be nice to let the kids watch TV every now and then and let them play the computer and video games again. That may sound bad, but they are good time fillers when the kids are complaining about being bored or when I have something I want to get finished without interruptions. Yes, it may make me a bad mom, but I let the TV babysit my kids sometimes.