Seattle here we come!

Today we fly to Seattle to start our new life. . . I'm not sure we wanted a new life, our life is great. But for some reason we're supposed to do this, so we will. And luckily we've found a great home in a beautiful neighborhood. We're excited to live closer to the Thompson bunch. And we're looking forward to all our new family adventures!

One day when I'm really missing Utah, I'll make a long sad post of all the things in Utah that I loved. . .there are a lot! If I did that tonight (I'm actually early posting this 5/23), I'd just cry...and my kids need me to be tough, and I need to get threw the next 7 to 14 days.

ramen paul

Paul loves top ramen

maybe I'll cut it for him next time...or maybe not

shy Anna

so Anna had her preschool graduation program the other day. Sadly, she decided to be "shy" and not really participate. I know she knows all the songs, I hear her singing them around the house. She told me she didn't want to sing because "everyone was looking at me". Since we brought the camera all the way there, we still took pictures, they turned out pretty cute too.

gotta love the lips

oh wait, she did actually play with the dino during the dino song.
seriously sad!yep, she'll smile for cookies! Happy it's all over!

Everett's Early Birthday Party

We thought we'd throw Everett an early Birthday party with all his friends...before we move. It turned out really great! My friend Laura helped me make the cake (really she did it all!), which turned out awesome, 7 year old boys love sports! Then my other friend Lanyce let me borrow her blow up obstacle course, 7 year old boys love obstacle courses!

Here's some picts from our day:

Paul helping blow up the balloons
waiting for their turn to be timed on the course.
little sisters are the best!
and little brothers too!

we really did it this time!

So now we're more official, we actually hired a "real" agent this time. Man, we've learned a lot threw this whole process. We tried "for sale by owner" for a few weeks, and actually had a lot of calls and showings. Then we tried our dud dude - not a single call for 21 days (LAME) And we prepaid him. Here's the lesson with that. . . don't prepay someone for something that may or may not actually happen.
Now we've hired a great real estate agent, who I'm confident will be able to sell our house. He sold a house in our neighborhood this month in just 2 weeks at full price! I'm sure ours will take longer, but we've got our fingers crossed. He got our listing up, and you can tell he's actually a professional. Here's the new link: http://www.utahrealestate.com/800767 .

fathers and sons

On Mother's Day (which was really nice) Everett said how excited he was for Fathers and Son's Day (he thought he'd get flowers too, or at least some cake). He loves to celebrate!

I thought I'd dig up pictures of all the years Chris & Everett went on the fathers and sons camp out. I can't believe how much Everett has grown. Chris looks a little younger with the braces and all :). I'm so glad I married a guy that loves to camp, although my dad didn't take me camping too often (does house boating count?), I've always loved the outdoors.

Here's the evolution of the Father and Son: 2005
2006
2007
2008 (does anyone else notice the cheeks slowly getting smaller?)
Everett caught this fish all by himself, pretty impressive eh.

staying at the Hilton

So the boys had their annual Father's and Sons camp out this weekend. Every year I send them off with all their fun camping outdoor stuff and Anna & I stay at home and do girly things (like painting nails and stuff). Well, this year we were lucky to have an even funner (is that a word) girls night. My friend Laura invited us up to her family's cabin (they're the Hiltons). It was so much fun! I didn't realize how much I needed a vacation, but I did! It was great to just get away from all the moving stuff - boxes, tape, endless phone calls from realtors and mortgage guys. It was like all that stuff was put on hold, for about 20 hours. We had a blast. We made strawberry rhubarb pie, yummy chicken pasta dinner, buttermilk pancakes w/buttermilk syrup (in the morning), and of course ate treats while playing games and just talking. I love late night talks with friends, it's like free therapy!

Here's Laura with her baby Logan, that kid is so dang cute!
Emma & Anna were collecting rocks from our "nature walk"
Anna wanted to start out the "girls night" by putting on every necklace she owns. (Mrs. T)

This was this morning, tired after a long night. (ok, they're pretending)

Thanks Hiltons!

Anna swings

Our House

...in the middle of the street. (or cul-de-sac)
Here is our new home! We're closing on the 30th. . .and flying up there the 31st. We're so excited to show the kids their new rooms and yard. And the fun driveway! We're really going to miss it here, but we're excited for what's to come (and not just the big house payment!)



I'll probably be painting the door. . .any color suggestions. . .I still have black paint from here...
I love the benches on the deck. . .just picture Paul pushing his cars on those...fun!
One of the coolest things about this house is how immaculate it is. The people that owned it are in their 50's and have no kids. So basically it's like buying a brand new 1997 house. We'll eventually update counter tops, but she just had the interior all painted, and really it's just super clean!

Sunday Walk

Yesterday was soooo nice out! We went to stake conference (very good!) and then pretty much were outside the rest of the day. We decided to take the kids on a walk over by Lagoon.

We're going to sign him up for the circus!

These were some of the only flowers out, there just happened to be a log right behind them, lucky!
the boys with their butterly nets. . .I love little boys in white shirts!
Everett found this piece of grass and said, "cowboys chew on these"

Everett was blowing the dandilions and Anna was catching the seeds

soccer star

Everett likes to play soccer. . .but he loves to trash talk the other team!

That's Everett kicking. . .
(they were both green, it was really wierd yelling "go light green!") Everett playing goalie (say cheese, no wait turn around, the balls coming!!!)

Does this happen to any other moms out there? Anna is quietly listinging to the iPod on my lap when Paul decides he wants mommie too. We seriously need like 5 arms and 2 laps!

1st grade spelling

Tonight Everett told me that renting Mario Kart instead of Mario Galaxy would be "dumb".

He pronounced the "b". (try saying it out loud, it's pretty fun)

It's funny when kids that can read learn to spell. They become more aware of all the letters in the correct spelling of the word. . .I can't wait to hear when he figures out to spell all of our dum English words!