CONGRATULATIONS!

After a DULL week and not much to post, we just got an EXCITING phone call. Stew & Kristine Van Buskirk just had their 4th child. After 3 girls they had a BOY. Congratulations. We can't wait to see some pictures.

And. . . We have a smile!

If you've been keeping up with our blog you will remember that we have NO pictures of McKenna smiling. She is the happiest most pleasant baby ever but she just won't smile for the camera. The other night she was going to eat rice cereal for the first time and Tim was going to capture it all on tape for me. He was lucky enough to capture these few pictures of her. (I won't mention that we took about 10 to get these.)

Aaaahhh! Apartment Life!

This week has gone by so fast, I don't know what we did. Since we have just recently moved I thought I would share our living conditions these days. (If you don't care, just wait until next week, I might have something a little more exciting.)

This is the dining room.

(Storage Room)

Here is our kitchen. Notice the only lower cupboard is under the sink.

This picture is for you mom. Notice all the "stuff" on my counters - and I'm still surviving.

Alexa found all of our fridge magnets and was kind enough to "decorate" for us.

Here is our office in between our dining room and family room. We are actually very grateful to be here with our own beds and furniture. It is just making the wait for our house that much easier to handle.

Moving AGAIN!

This week has been a busy week. I figured I wouldn't have time to post let alone have any pictures but we did it. Our corporate housing ended on Friday and so we had to be out of that apartment. Since our house isn't complete we had to move to another apartment. The movers came on Monday and brought about 1/2 our stuff to the apartment and then I took them over to put the rest of the stuff in a mini storage. We then had to pack up what we had in the coporate apt. and bring it over to the new apt. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal except we were living on the third floor and our movers were only 10, 6, & 4 years old. We got it done though and they were great helpers - no complaining either. It's the unpacking that's been tricky. We have to unpack to find the few things we need and then repack the stuff we don't. So this week's been pretty busy. We are loving that this apartment is bigger and the bedrooms are upstairs so we have a little more breathing room.

On Saturday a place called Sciworks was open for free for the day so we decided to reward the kids with a trip there. They had a great time and it was good for me to stop organizing and take a break and spend some time with the kids.

Here's Olivia in the "Air chair"

Here's McKenna (not smiling for the camera) waiting patiently for us to have our fun. She is so great. She is always so content with whatever we are doing.
Here are 3 little dentists cleaning and grinding teeth.
Would you want these ametuers working on your teeth?

Our House - Week ?

This is the dining room. We just went back today after church and they have it all painted. (This was taken yesterday.)
This is the kitchen/eating area/family room. Not much now but hopefully soon.
Master bedroom

HALLOWEEN 2007

Ok, so I know that Halloween is old news for all of you that blog but I have committed myself to only blogging once a week. So here's the old news of halloween. Here are the fab 4 as 50's girls.

I didn't think this was so note worthy but when a girl in my ward found out about their costumes she was so surprised so I thought I'd share. Their belts that they are wearing are actually a piece of pleather and the buckle is made of a picture frame . I took out the plastic cover and pulled apart the sides (since they were just glued together.) for the fabric to pull through. It was all because of me being so cheap. The belt buckles at Joann's Fabric were about $5 each and the picture frames were $1. The last I checked, I saved about $12. The girls thought it was great and I figure it's a good lesson for them to learn how to be as cheap as their mother. We also just used regular cotton balls on the poodle skirts instead of buying the pom poms at the fabric store. I know that you are so proud, aren't you, dad.

Here is McKenna again refusing to smile for the camera. I guarantee she was smiling right before this was taken. She enjoyed riding in her stroller although her mother wasn't as smart as she should have been. I thought I was being a genious with the whole cotton ball thing but come to find out McKenna thought they tasted really good. (A little scary moment on Halloween night.)

We went trick or treating in the neighborhood where our house is being built and Tim got some good "action" shots.

Here they are waiting for someone to open the door. Olivia was more interested in the camera than the candy.
I figure I would allow one picture of me on the blog. We have so few of McKenna that I wanted to document that she is actually at these events with us.

Here is McKenna without a smile, again. I think her cheecks must be just too heavy for her. After Trick or Treating we stopped and visited with a family in the ward that lives in the neighborhood. It was fun although we all mentioned how much we missed going to the Johnson's and seeing all their halloween decorations and watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." We love you, Johnson's and miss you tons.

Alexa's Birthday #10

I can't believe it. I have a 10 year old now. Boy, does that make me feel old. She is great. When we went to Aunt Maren and Uncle Andrew's for Conference they made a cake for our birthdays. Good thing we had a cake there because on Alexa's real birthday we had Trunk or Treat with our ward so we figured, no need for cake with all that candy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEXA!

Here she is in front of her bedroom door. We still had to keep up the tradition even in our little apartment. I think I'd be in big trouble if they didn't get to wake up to a decorated door.

Before the Trunk or Treat party Alexa got to open her gifts. Here she is dancing

around enjoying one of them.

House - Week 4

We are anxiously waiting for our house to complete and the girls are very excited.

Here is Livie standing in the neighbors driveway posing as Vanna White.

This is the brick we chose. We love it.