Right now.....

......Darin is watching TV in the playroom, the kids are playing in the basement, and I am all alone in the nice quiet living room.

I neglected my blog for some time now, so I sat down to put a bunch of pics on and do a few entries.

Well, my laptop is having issues. I think I have a virus and I'm not sure what to do. There are a zillion windows that pop up saying various things about my hard drive. It's quite frustrating. I can access the internet, and but I cannot even get pictures off my memory card in my laptop. I may try to get some off picassa web albums, but they aren't the ones I wanted to put up....

Ah well. So I will do a quick run down, on life. I wanted to do some catch up, but I am going to just start where we are and then fill in as I go.

We have been in our house since Nov. 3rd. The move was awesome-the movers were soooo great. I highly recommend hiring movers if you ever have to move!!!

I pinch myself on a daily basis. 

Seriously....

I LOVE OUR HOUSE

Sometimes I just sit and look around and an in awe that we even live here. Really, I can go on, but I'll just TRY to give my top ten.

10. All the floors are awesome....tile, wood, marble, Love them. 

9. Custom blinds in every window-most of  'em are the kid you can put down from the top. Love that.

8, Love the sunshine early in the morning in our living room windows. 

7. A pink room for Jordan and a blue room with a Spider man decal for the boys. Really, I would have chosen every color of paint in this house.

6. Cabinets...cannot tell you how much I love that they pull out. And the trash is built into the cabinets. 

5. My counters are fabulous. They are granite, which was not a must for me, but I LOVE them.

4. Space. Lots of room, lots of space. Like right now-we are all spread all over the house. 

3. My office. It is a wreck right now, but I have visions of what it an become. 

2. And amazing yard. Seriously awesome.

1. Two car garage. Pulling in the garage with groceries in the rain...enough said. 

So we are super happy in the house. We did have one issue with some plumbing leakage during the first few weeks, but thank goodness for a home warranty to cover the cost of the repair.

We are still learning all the light switches, but after talking to the previous owner, who we have a great relationship with and have seen at neighborhood holiday parties, there are some switches that they never really did figure out.

We are in a new ward, which has proven quite a challenge. Having to drive 20 minutes was a big adjustment. It was pretty sad to move from across the street from the stake center to 10 miles away from our chapel. I used to drop Jordan off at activity days and I could either ask one of the many ward members there to bring her home, or I could go home get the boys ready for bed then go back for her; or I could run some errands, or hang out with good friends while she was busy....

not anymore.

There is nothing near our chapel. It is in a beautiful area-very picturesque, nice for good weather, but no running errands or visiting friends because I haven't really made many yet. 

Which brings up the next part that has been hard-meeting people and making new friends. Although there are super nice people and good members in the ward, it does not give off very welcoming vibes. The only people who talked to us the first few weeks were people who knew we were moving there, or ones we know from the other ward before it was changed in the last stake realignment. 

It has gotten better, but it has been hard for me to go from knowing everyone in the ward, knowing the names of every kid in primary, to not knowing many people and being totally out of the loop. I went to a birthday dinner for a friend in the ward I have known for a few years and had a nice time, but felt like I wasn't really part of the group...hard to explain. I have been meeting more sisters, though and now have a visiting teaching list and was told I have visiting teachers, so that's good. I keep getting told it will take time, so I guess I really need to be patient. 

We had a nice Christmas. I felt like I didn't really do as much holiday stuff as I wanted, but we fit in our favorite things-a trip to the Temple, National tree, National Harbor, yummy food, parties, and a great concert-Natalie McMasters.  I did get our decorations out, which was fun to figure out where to put everything this year. We now have a mantle for the stockings, so it was fun to get them up. We found some nice stocking holders we liked and I think it turned out pretty nice. I do have a pic of that I'll have to put up.

There were lots of little things I wanted to get to, but we have many more years in this house so I let myself off the hook for this year. I didn't even do teacher gifts for Jordan and Spencer's teachers. I did Landon's just because I had a little time one morning, plus they put up with him!!

So here we are at the New Year. We are trying two new things. One of which was what I wanted to put pics for. I decided that since Darin doesn't leave for work until nearly 7:30, I wanted to have family prayer before he leaves each day. So I go in and start getting the kids up around 7:10 ish and get them into the living room. We have done ok this week...I end up carrying the boys in and they fall back asleep on the couch. Landon has got up on his own the last two days, though. I really enjoy it. I like that Darin gives us all a hug and kiss before he goes to school. We have a chat about the day and we can pray for what ever blessing we are in need of that day.

We have been working on scriptures again as well. The primary gave us a schedule to finish in the year-specific verses to read each night so we will finish by Dec 31st. I'm excited because I feel like it is doable. It isn't a huge amount each night. Now if we can get the kids to sit still and pay attention, we would be doing well. It is a bit of a struggle each nigh, but we have done it.

So remember how it was quiet and peaceful when I started this, well, the kids found and Landon is now making a fort with the pillows on my nice "new" couches.....Until Darin just yelled that Wipout is on:)

So, I've been hiding out for a while so I better get back to the organizing I started, but I had to mention one last thing...Last but not least.....

We're going to Europe this fall!!

Woo Hoo!!! Darin booked us a cruise for our 10th Anniversary. We will leave out of Venice, have a stop in Italy, a couple stops in Greece, and one stop in Croatia!! 

Can you say excited? Another thing causing me to pinch myself. Am I really living this life? 

Yes, I am, and it's pretty dang great!!