Land Rich

This week was full of fun negotiating and big checks. You've guest it we bought some land in Ammon Idaho. When we moved to Idaho we wanted to be closer to Nolan's family and let our kids get to know there cousins better. We took that to a whole new level by buying property right across the street from Shanna, Nolan's sister. We are excited for the opportunity to live in another fun neighborhood when the time comes for us to build. Hopefully sooner rather than later.  

We are enjoying living at Grammy and grandpa's house. We've been trying to do updates on the house and are currently working on one of the bathrooms. Its taken a long time but i think it will look so nice when its done. Not to mention having a bathroom that is bigger than a shoe box would be wonderful. Going from double sinks, shower, tub & separate toilet room to one sink, toilet and a shower/tub with about a 2 x 2 foot extra space to stand in its pretty squishy! Ill show some before and after pictures when its completed. Hopefully by next Sunday:) 

Reese and Ethan are adjusting OK to the change. I think Reese is still getting use to the idea of living here and sharing a room. She says that Ethan is loud at night. That he talks a lot! Nolan seems to be getting the hang of being his own boss although I think he misses having an office full of fun people to work and visit with. I am feeling good about living here except for the fact that every time i go outside i have at least 2-3 mosquito bits added to my already covered body:-( And there are so many bugs everywhere. I promise I am not a wimp but always dealing with bugs gets a little old. I'm pretty sure I'll survive. 

Potato Adventure

We've started a new adventure in Rexburg Idaho. We know, you all think we're crazy for moving somewhere colder than Utah and more windy. But Idaho is a beautiful place and has a lot of fun things to offer. We hope we can figure out what they are!

Here is how the adventure began. We were driving home from Rexburg after a fun weekend with the Hill clan. Nolan mentioned that he felt the only way for him to get his own businesses going would be for us to move to Rexburg and live with his parents. I thought he had been abducted by aliens. I couldn't believe my ears. We had just started doing some upgrades on our current home of beautiful wood floors, white ceilings, painted walls and white columns in our living room. I said we could think about it, but I honestly thought it was just a passing thought and would fizzle out.

About a week later Nolan was out of town for business.  I told him that I thought we should consider moving to Rexburg. He was shocked and said lets talk about it when he got home. So we did, and prayed about it and went to the temple about it. The answers we got to all was Move. Yikes, what did we do!!!! Moving to rexburg was the last thing I thought we would be doing this year. We decided that if we got the right amount of money from our house then we could move forward. So we listed our house and within 24 hours we had our full asking price. HOLY CRAP that was fast!

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Our neighbors the Moons ended up buying our house and we moved out the middle of June. Its been a crazy couple of weeks living in Rexburg. We've remodeled to bedrooms and are currently remodeling a bathroom in Nolan's parents home. We have enjoyed living with Grammy and Grandpa Hill! Ethan loves his grandpa and loves going for four-wheeler rides. Reese has loved playing with all her cousins and seeing her Grammy every day.

As a family we know that this will be hard at times but we're also looking forward to being together and growing together.

Easter Sunday

So its been way to long since I've posted anything and I decided this would be a good way to keep a family journal. Here is what has been going on since my last post. Reese turned 2 which has been so much fun. She is such a sweet little girl and brings so much joy to our family. She was potty trained a month after she turned 2 but it only lasted for 2 weeks. Poor me! But it was a good decision for all of us. The drama of going to the bathroom on the toilet was more than we all could handle. Especially Reese!

Nolan and I took a cruise for our 4 year anniversary to the Eastern Caribbean with Brian and Monica. I was 5 months pregnant but that didn't slow us down. The water was beautiful and we enjoyed the beaches in Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk and the shopping in Nassau. We snorkeled in Grand Turk and got chased by a VERY scary barracuda. If you've never seen a barracuda they are very ugly and scary. And from what I understand very mean. So even though it was playing follow the leader with us, we didn't play back. On Half Moon Cay the water was so clear you could see the bottom of the beach. The sand was so white and the sting rays, star fish, barracudas and all the other fish were the same color as the sand. Which was a little crazy cause they were right under you and you didn't know it. We did get to hold a Star fish, that was fun! Then we took a nap in a hammock right on the beach. The food was good but the thing that I enjoyed the most was just relaxing with my best friend and having fun with Monica and Brian.

So Reese just had her 1st birthday... okay really it was over a month ago.
But I thought i would post some pictures of her eating her cake. And of course, we thought that she would love eating her cake and getting all messy. So we stripped her down to her diaper and put the cake in front of her... And that's about how it ended as well. She literally picked at the cake with two fingers and ate maybe 2 bites total. Apparently, she has picked up on my need to be a clean freak.

Yikes... poor thing:O)

Movie Here

The Lost Elephant

It was a traumatic day on Saturday. Maybe more for me than for Reese, but still traumatic. We were out shopping and running errands when we stopped at Costco. Which is a great place by the way:) So anyways, Jeri (Nolan's Mom) asked if I wanted Reese to bring in her elephant. I said yes, because she has done it before, no problem.

We do our shopping and browsing, checkout, drive home and BAM!!!!

The elephant is gone. No where to be seen in the car or in the house. Small tears come out of my eyes... Okay maybe not tears, but I was kind of in a panic.

For those of you who don't know, this is Reese's buddy. She LOVES this elephant, also known as Ellie. If she is grumpy, you can give her, her elephant and she'll be happy. If she is not wanting to sleep, give her Ellie and she is rubbing her face with it's tail or trunk and puts herself to sleep. It's so cute to watch.

So anyways, back to my story, I am in a panic. Jeri even has to tell me to calm down cause I am pacing and quite frustrated. So I call Alta View Hospital cause that is where I thought Cheree bought it for her. But the girl tells me "I don't think we have elephants". Hello can't she check...gosh, incompetent people drive me crazy!

So I get online, hoping that i can find one and buy it. And in the mean time, hope that we can find something else for Reese to "love". So I do the search "Pink Elephant Beanie Baby". And guess how many new ones are available, 1, that's right just one. And the price is.... $40 bucks!!! HOLY CRAP

It's a retired beanie baby, go figure right. I actually contemplated buying it for $40 bucks, but dang that's a lot of money.

After much deliberation and pacing, I finally decide to just get a gray and pink elephant that is just like her other one, but gray.

And Reese does just fine without the elephant. I think I was missing it more than she was. But let me explain, I wanted to keep it, so when she got older I could give it to her and explain that it was her lovey.

She did have a "replacement duck", but she didn't love it the same. So today the elephant from eBay arrived in the mail. I ripped it open and gave it to Reese. (I'm pretty sure I was more excited than she was).

Her face lite up. Like it was Christmas. She was so excited to get the elephant and she went straight for sucking on the truck. Her little arms just squeezed it and she hugged it. So adorable. My little heart was just smiling.

I think the gray elephant will work just fine. Thank goodness for eBay:)

Trying to Get back in shape!

So Nolan and I have decided its time for us to get back in shape. As most of you know, before we got married we hired a trainer to kick us in the butt. So our plan is that we will use the same workouts and diet to get us back in the same shape as before.

Good Luck to both of us huh!

Here are my pictures of the first time I did this diet, as I have had a couple of people ask to see them. Beware... the before picture is pretty scary.

Reese Laughing

Nolan loves to kiss Reese on her checks and she seems to love it too! You'll notice Nolan does have a little bit of a scruffy face so she starts to get mad. Enjoy!