The fun amidst the grey skies

As much as there haven't been happy situations arising in our home, we have still found time to be together and have fun. Some of this even happened before the storm, and I want to document it!!

We visit Jake's great-grandmother occasionally and just enjoy being in her yard chatting and playing.

Lydia got to celebrate her birthday with two different events on two different days. She turned one on the 16th, so we had a family party on the 14th and then on the 16th we went to the bank customer appreciation picnic and had fun together.

She is such a bright spot in our lives. She knows she's cute, she makes this cute little face that indicates she knows she's cute and she know you think so too...it's pretty funny. I'll have to get it on film soon. She is a delight. She talks, walks, sasses, chews out, and just plain ol' has fun!! She enjoys being outside and will be anyone's friend who will take her out.

Jake was invited to be the nurse on duty at the Melalueca Employee Picnic this year. It was a family event and therefore, we were invited to attend as well. I was amazed at how much money they put into this event and how much they spoiled their employees with their drawings!

JULY 11th

love this picture

great-great grandmother showing off her swing...I could never get her full swing-I guess I need to practice my photog. skills a little more

Bryant wanted a turn to try golfing...he actually did pretty good with some coaching-even if he did catch the grass a few times, grandmother was proud of him.

Sarah was retrieving the balls in the field

Kayelynn thought it was fun to gather all the balls possible in her arms, I have no idea what she is doing here, but it was cute to see her plopped in the middle of the yard.

I love this outfit...it was mine when I was little (my grandma brought it from Hawaii) and it's been fun to see all the girls have a chance to wear it.

JULY 14th

birthday cake...

birthday dinner...taco salad, jello, watermelon, DELICIOUS!!

Birthday girl in all her glory!!!

she was so shocked that we were actually honoring her!! at first she had no idea what to think or do! she was thrilled to have her own piece of cake to mash and mawl! She's not a fan of cold items...the icecream sandwich was a hoot!

don't mess with me...i'm eating the candle and you're going to have to deal with it!!

getting so much help with the gift opening

she was amazed at the size...so were the other kids

A SIT AND SPIN!!! with music!

the kids all got a dollar from great-great grandma

we're sure we'll see a picture like this when she's in college...i just hope she has the same innocence then as she does now :)

I think she still looks rather small when Jake holds her

she wants to be a big girl so badly

the kids went around the block with Anna-she was riding Bryant's razor...I think we know what to give Anna for Christmas!! :)

told ya she liked it!! so does lydia...told ya she wanted to be one of the big kids!

JULY 16th

enjoying the sweetness of summer

BIRTHDAY GIRL!! doesn't she look all grown up??

they were so excited!!! they could ride unlimited amounts of time! too bad everyone else could too, we only got to do it twice because the lines were so long, but we had fun anyway! Lydia wasn't sure at first, but when it stopped she was pretty upset that she was getting off...good thing there was some cotton candy waiting for her :)

JULY 18th-Melalueca Picnic

there were loads and loads of these types of toys...we didn't get to all of them...the kids had a BLAST!!

Lydia really enjoyed this...it was her first time and it was great!

Sarah was thrilled to ride the horses...again the lines were long, so we only got on once

love this picture.

JULY 25th

a happy day!

When it rains...it pours...

Now that I've had a few days to cool down my emotions I think I can share a little of the seriousness happening in our lives.

As you know we were asked back in January to move to Idaho Falls and help our current landlord with her house. We entered into a verbal contract and moved in the first part of February. With the economy as it is, things have been difficult on hers and our end; namely money. A few months into the rental she informed us that her mortgage payment had been raised significantly. At that time we informed her we were sorting things out to hopefully purchase the property within a year. We were all on equal and understanding terms, we thought.
On Wednesday she came over and informed us of her unhappiness with our progress on the house and that finances are too tight on her end for us to stay and and verbally terminated her end of our verbal agreement, informing us that we would need to move out at the end of the month-2 weeks notice!!

I have already started packing, but have since pretty much run out of boxes so my progress has stopped. We are now looking for a place to live, boxes to pack and hopefully not disappoint the ward that we both have big responsibilities in (anyone from the ward reading this, please DO NOT pass this on, we still have people to contact with this information)!!!

Back in 2004, a similar incident happened. We were managing our first set of apartments and had a large waiting list for the coming fall, when the new owner of 6 weeks called us and informed us that his daughter was getting married and would be managing the apartments in one month! I was to be at girls' camp the next morning and we had just found out we were expecting Kayelynn and had verbally commited to a year of managing!
The similarities are so striking! We are 10 weeks into a new pregnancy (of which our current landlord does not know, nor do we intend to tell her before we move)-I know there may be negative opinions about this, please let me remind you that it is between us and that any and all jokes or comments (now or ever) will not be taken lightly-as always this has been hard to disclose-if we could hide it, we would-I'm now off my soapbox, we had commited to staying until the market was good enough for her to sell or we could buy, whichever came first and we have begun to call it home! It's amazing to me how life can be so hard for people and when it is so hard that we forget there might be others suffering as much or more. I have always tried to remember this and although I am now technically homeless, I have a healthy family, insurance, and food to keep us from the homeless shelters. I can't imagine how life would be if we didn't have that added security!

This post is not intended for anyone to feel sorry for us. It is simply to inform our family and friends of our current situation, however serious or nonserious it may seem to you, it is something that we have tried to prepare for, but when you get kicked while you're already down it feels like there isn't much you can do. There may be some of you thinking how you might help, at this point it's prayers, some boxes, prayers, even more boxes, prayers, a listening ear for a home to fit 7 people, and did I say prayers?
There are some silver linings I have discovered since, and hope to keep them in the forefront of my mind when negative and unhappy thoughts enter my mind.
1. Bryant will not be attending the school that I so much dislike!
2. We are all healthy (no pregnancy weirdness this time-yeah) and have insurance (previously mentioned).
3. We have experienced this before and we made it through...sorta
4. We will experience a new adventure unlike any others we've experienced-lol.

Thank you to all that have called or emailed with concern since my last post. We appreciate your concern and love on our behalf. It's not so fun to announce the seeming failures of a family, but I have determined that it just may be our lot in life to be poor and move every 6-18 months for the rest of our lives. I just hope our kids don't think they are "army brats" when their dad isn't even in the army!! We will keep you informed on our situation as time and optimism allows.

The time has come...

We are going private on the blog. We have some serious issues that have arisen in our family and I do NOT want to let those blog stalkers to be able to get info and pass it around or misinterpret what is said. I am doing this quickly. I will be changing over Friday night. There are many things I want to share, but won't until I know who is reading this. Please leave your email in a comment and I'll add you to the list. Thanks for understanding.

It just keeps on going...

...and going...and going...

I spent the better part of my afternoon downloading pictures and then waiting 5 hours to see if I could get a stinkin video to upload...couldn't figure it out! So anyway, take your peek at the next 4-6 posts, at this point I don't remember how many I did, but I think it's better than one long one, that seems to deter the few readers I have :) Have fun reading about our week last week-it was busy and fun-filled!! I hope to be better at doing one post at a time, we'll see!

Fourth of July

We had a great, fun filled fourth of July. We headed to our old town for the parade and then home for the rest of the day/night. We are usually stressed and angry with each other by the time we get to the parade, but this year there wasn't any frustration with each other the entire day!! It was great to feel the patriotic spirit the entire day and actually reflect on the meaning of our celebrations-I am so grateful we live in this free country and have the rights we do! Thank you to all that have made this the country it is!!

PARADE:

they were so excited, they were mezmerized (this was before candy) :D

Tinkerbell loved being a part of the group

old firetruck...Price Charming was impressed

thought this was clever

dancing their hearts out!!

I got goose bumps when I saw this! the "princesses" (a.k.a. Junior Miss Royalty) were walking and Mermaid was just in awe and waving at them, this "princess" bent down and just gave her the biggest hug...Mermaid was in shock that she got to touch a princess and Cinderella was a bit jealous she didn't get in on the action sooner. There was another princess that gave them both a hug at the same time, it was too precious. Probably the most memorable moment for the girls

the car wash guys! they are classic, dancing to the car wash song and throwing in fun moves...they were missed last year, glad they were back this year.

Price Charming was so excited he about got ran over by this monstrosity!! he was in tractor heaven, he was most impressed with the ginormous wheels and tires (his first word was tractor and he can tell you the names of almost every single tractor made) I think this was his favorite part of the parade.

the four famous planes that fly over every year, we actually got a good shot this year

and then, to finish it off, there was bumble bee!! This was Prince Charmings close 2nd to his favorite part of the parade!!

AFTERNOON FUN:

I have been wanting a clothes line in my back yard and we finally got it in! but not without finding some golphers first...

golpher #1

golpher #2

finished product, can you even see it??

Shrek admiring his work, thanks dear!!

FIREWORKS (finally):

after baths they set up their chairs on the driveway ready and waiting...surprisingly Tinkerbell couldn't keep her eyes open another minute and slept through the whole show!! She doesn't know what she missed, but if she did, she would be very upset!

We could see the big show going on downtown from our front door, it was pretty cool!

I cannot figure out how to download a video from my camera, but we enjoyed a great night watching the neighbors for almost two hours display a big, fun show!! They joked that next year they might have to get a permit, since they get more and more every year!! We had a great patriotic day!