Dancing in the Rain

With rain being such a scarce comodity here in Arizona the kids tend to take advantage of it when it comes. This is Emily's first time out to play in the rain. She loved it, even though she was only out two minutes. The other girls were soaked to the bone when I finally got them back inside. This is Mary, Abby, Katelynn and Julianna hamming it up for the camera. I think they had fun, What do you think?

A Nice Sunday

Sunday was a good day. Nothing special just good. We had a great dinner, pork roast and red potatoes, and then dessert that Missy brought, cupcakes that almost didn't make it, and we finished the evening watching Emily color and then a few hands of Nerts. It was a great day. I love Sundays like that. Friends, family, good food and games. What more do we need?

Girls Night at the Ballpark

So this was a great Girls Night Out. We had alot of fun. It didn't hurt that the D-Backs won. It was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend. More weekends should be like this.

MY BIRTHDAY !!!!

We had a great weekend. Friday Burt and I went out to dinner with my sister Missy and her husband Curtis. We had a lot of fun. Saturday was GIRLS NIGHT !! The plan was to go to Dave and Busters (chucky cheese for adults) eat dinner and just play around. We all met at Missy's at 6pm. To my surprize my mom came down. We had a blast!! The food was delicious and the games were addicting !! On Sunday Missy's family and Dartell came to dinner. Ummm Roast chicken.... we even had cake and ice cream. Monday was another girls night. We went to the Diamondbacks game. That was so fun. I will post pics of that later. This was a great birthday weekend !! Thanks guys !!!

All about Emily

So Emily has been trying to walk for quite some time. Here she finally has it.. She is still wobbly but does a great job. The other pics are of Emily looking through a window. She was trying to give Burt a kiss. We just thought it was cute!!!

Burt Is My Hero........

A little over a month ago we bought Burt a new bike to ride to and from work(save gas). At first we went to Walmart and spent about $200. I thought we got a good deal. After less than a week it was broken. Upon taking it to a pro bike shop to fix it, we learned it was made wrong and had parts that were out of date. We took the bike back to Walmart and returned to the proshop to purchase a second bike for Burt. All is good with this bike, except that since Burt has had it he has also had an inkling to try a triathelon. Burt is a runner and has been since High School. Burt is also now a biker. He logs about 50 miles a week, give or take. Burt is NOT a swimmer. He doesn't like the deep end, doesn't like to be splashed, and on more than one occasion has told me that we will never own a boat. Here comes the Hero part. He completed his first Triathelon this weekend. It was, to say the least, exhausting. He had to swim 420 yards (think 4 football fields), bike 12 miles, then run a 5k. All one right after the other. Here are some pics I took during the race.

Moving....

So, for those of you that don't know, Burt and I have been trying to save our home from the F- word. Foreclosure. We lost yesterday. Our home went to auction at 1pm and started at $209,000. There were no bidders, so our home now belongs to the bank. As far as I can tell we don't have alot of time to move. We have prepared our kids for a possible move from the start, even though we really wanted to work something out with the mortgage company. All along they have been less than helpfull. In all this time they gave us no option except reinstatement (which is to pay all past due plus late and legal fees in one payment). Don't they think, if we had it, we wouldn't have been late in the first place? This s000- sucks.

But at the same time it is a blessing. We bought our house at the end of the boom, so we paid alot for it. Houses in our area today are being sold for $100,000 less than we paid. We never would have been able to refinance or even sell it. It is hard because this is my dream house. We have plenty of room for all our kids and we finally got a dog. I love the layout and my huge closet. We have a dining room that is big enough that we all can sit and eat at the same time. That in itself is great. We love the neighborhood and our ward is fabulous. They have been such a help in difficult times.

My mom told me that "it is just a roof over your head" and that "you can just get another one". On one hand she is absolutely right, but on the other....this is my home. I have made it mine. I painted a wall red in my living room. I have always wanted a red wall, but never thought that I could pull it off. I have bought and sold furniture on craigslist so I could "upgrade" within my budget. I finally decided on an american flag theme for the living room. It goes great with the red wall.

It's just a house I can get another one and start all over again. It just sucks.