Easter Egg Scramble

 

 

 

 

Isn't that a great "Do you HAVE to take my picture?" look on Kenneth's face???

It's raining, it's pouring....

Caitlin's been singing this song all day. :) I think mother nature had to make up for the sunny day yesterday. It rained fairly heavily all morning. We moved our Easter Egg hunt indoors. Our church is at 1pm and by the time we got out at 4pm the rain had stopped and it was lovely. We went for a family drive, then came home for our Easter feast. We rounded out the evening by finishing the trampoline, and the kids got to jump briefly (after Steve dried it off) before bed.

Well, I've got a long night ahead of me...

PS - A big shout out CONGRATULATIONS to Julie's sister, Jennie, who had her third baby boy TODAY! Welcome baby Andrew!!!

Dad's home, Caitlin's got a cold, but it's NOT RAINING!!

Steve came home last night...much to everyone's enjoyment! We are all so happy to have DAD back again!! We worked hard before we got him last night to clean the kitchen. We got all the boxes out (that doesn't mean they're all empty - a couple I just moved into another room), and swept and cleaned the floor, and wiped off all the counters, etc. etc. I was especially impressed with Daniel. I told the boys to get paper towels and clean all the spots off of the floor. Kenneth cleaned off a few then got distracted. Daniel stayed with it for a LONG time. He cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and got EVERY spot off. What a trooper.

Caitlin's got a little bit of a cold. :( I have kept her bundled every time we've gone outside (hat included), but the change of weather was bound to get to someone. She's still cheerful for the most part, though, so hopefully it will pass quickly.

Well, I arrived here 9 days ago and today was the first day that it didn't rain...not even once. Most days it has rained multiple times - mostly lightly - but raining nonetheless. Today, none. It was sunny and beautiful. We ran lots of errands and Steve got the trampoline mostly put together (with the boys' help). We went to a community Easter Egg hunt this morning, and after dinner we dyed Easter Eggs. We're going to have another Easter Egg hunt in the morning in the back yard and have Egg/Ham/Muffins (otherwise known as Egg McMuffins) for breakfast. I've got all the stuff for our traditional Salmon Easter dinner tomorrow.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!

Every Day an Adventure

Kenneth has decided he likes taking the bus. The bus stop is at the entrance to our little section of the neighborhood. Luckily for all of us, the bus doesn't come until 8:45am. So....I loaded up Daniel & Caitlin in the stroller (complete with hats...it's COLD), and we all walked to the bus stop. We returned home and ran to the bank and the post office. We had to get money for the craigslist guy and wheat, and talk to the PO about why we haven't been getting our mail. We also took a little drive so I can continue exploring the surrounding area...I found Costco this morning, and another lake (there are lots of those around here). That out of the way, I bathed the 2 little ones and worked on unpacking. I didn't get too awfully far before it was lunch time. I told Caitlin and Daniel if they ate all their apples for lunch we'd leave early to pick up Kenneth from the bus and go looking for caterpillars. (They found a caterpillar the other day while we were planting rose bushes and it provided hours of enjoyment). So, eventually, when she figured out I was serious, Caitlin ate her apples and we headed out. We got about 4 houses away and it started to rain, then hail. I took the opportunity to teach the kids about hail and we continued on our walk. On the way to the bus stop, we found a park! It's really close and it has a pond with ducks. We picked up Kenneth and showed him the new park on our way home. I told the kids that we had to wait for the guy to bring me my washer & dryer and then we could go back to the park. So....last night on Craigslist I found a washer & dryer that are Kenmore and only 3 years old for $275 and the guy selling them said he would DELIVER them! Isn't that great? I was EXTATIC!!! No more laundromat for me. At long last (he got stuck in traffic), he showed up, installed the washer and dryer and left. I took the kids to the park for an hour (it rained on and off....I guess I have to get used to that), then we came home and ate a big snack. I sang to Caitlin for a while on the couch and she fell asleep. Then we loaded back into the car (it's 5pm) to head to the Canery for our church. Missy called me and told me to stock up on wheat...so stock up I did. I got 400 pounds of hard white wheat. On the way home we stopped at Safeway. I told each of the kids they could choose one thing for dinner (dad's out of town....mom didn't have a fancy dinner planned). Kenneth chose Green Bean Casserole. Daniel and Caitlin chose peaches and bananas. They each chose a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, too. So, after stopping at the grocery store, everyone was very hungry, so we came home and ate. After a LONG, ROUGH bedtime process, I sat down to work. Now it's 2:20am and I think it's time to hit the hay. 'Night.

Domino Creations and Braids!

 

 

Kenneth and Daniel have spent lots of time building domino creations - here's one of their finished products.

 

 

I know this will make Elise sick, but I braided Caitlin's hair this morning, and I just had to share.

Caitlin the mover

 

 

 

It's lucky we had such a good helper helping us unload the truck, don't you think?

We're live!

Our internet is hooked up - yeah!!

I feel like I've been so out of touch, lately!

Well, last time I wrote we were in Sacramento. It's hard to believe that was exactly a week ago. Last Thursday we left Elk Grove at 10:30am. After a long, hard day of driving (pulling a boat up and down through mountains is not my idea of stress-free driving), we arrived in Lakewood at 12:30am. We were all exhausted, but VERY HAPPY to see Steve! He helped me carry in children and luggage, then caught a few hours of sleep before he snuck out early to go back to work. When the kids woke up they wondered where Dad was? :)

Can I just interject here that the 2 "care packages" we received for the drive were SO MAJORLY HELPFUL I CAN'T THANK ERIN and GRANDMA & SARA ENOUGH!!!!!!! They SAVED MY SANITY!!!!!

We got to our new house at about 11am on Friday and we met our landlord. Steve came "home" for lunch and signed the lease. Our truck arrived at about 2:30pm. By then I was completely exhausted and I didn't know how I was going to handle everything I still had to do. Steve arrived - much to my surprise - at about 3pm and that made a HUGE difference. We were able to get the back of the truck unloaded before the movers arrived. The movers arrived and were MAJOR DUDS!! They were all tired (apparently they'd already had a long day of lifting things) and moved very slowly. We finally sent them away and unloaded the rest of the truck ourselves. We took our boat back to Lakewood Friday night and didn't get back until 12:30am - AGAIN! Too many late nights.........

So, Saturday we continued unloading the truck and getting beds put together. By Saturday at about 1pm we took off to get a bite to eat and hit Sears looking for a washer/dryer, trampoline, and TV. We ended up buying an air hockey table. Well, the washers/dryers were too expensive, the TV was too complicated, and the trampoline was round. The kids were excited about the air hockey table and we had just enough time to drop off the table and head back to Bellevue for dinner with the family that Steve stayed with. They were so incredibly nice and we really enjoyed visiting with them. After we left, we found the house my family lived in 18 years ago...still looks the same...amazing. We also found my middle school.

Sunday we continued unpacking and the landlord had people come work on the house because some of our lights were blowing circuits. Steve ended up staying home with the contractors and the kids and I went to church. I hate being the new kid on the block...need I say more? The scouts are really excited to have another scout and the pinewood derby is next Thursday. We DID find our crock pot and grab a few things Saturday night so we could have our traditional Sunday dinner together. It was nice to have something familiar...nothing like a good pot roast to make a house into a home, eh?

Monday I tried to get Kenneth enrolled in school, but I didn't have a copy of our lease agreement, so we came back home. There were more electricians coming, so I was unable to return to the school. Monday afternoon the kids and I went to a grocery store called CENTRAL MARKET. We bought some crab and some flower seeds and a variety of other things and headed home. We had a lovely dinner of crab, salad, olive bread, and maccaroni and cheese...with cake for dessert. :) Kenneth and Daniel both enjoyed the crab with me. Just as we cleaned up, Dad came home and we piled into the car to find the nearest Sam's Club. I bribed my kids and told them that when we moved to Seattle, we'd have a trampoline like Angela's. So....off we went. We found the Sam's, and bought the trampoline, but getting it into the car was an entirely different story. After much finegalling, we got it into the Tahoe (with both boys on the floor and Caitlin crying because she was the only one buckled up). We came home and unloaded it into the garage...to be put together this weekend, because yesterday, Dad left for California on a business trip. Oh the joys.

I did manage to get Kenneth enrolled in school yesterday and he has a boy, David, in his class, who is also in his class at church and happens to live right down the street. He is very happy about that. This week is early-out all week for parent/teacher conferences, and so yesterday afternoon we planted roses. 4 rose bushes. It took us 2 hours. Here's hoping they grow! Kenneth had scouts last night and he had a great time.

This morning the cable guy came...hence the post....but as soon as he left we bailed and went to the laundromat. We did 6 loads of laundry and made it back just in time to meet the bus.

Well, that's my week in a nutshell...if you made it to the end, you are a true friend. :)

In Sacramento

We had a long day on Monday, but we made it safely to Fremont via Fresno. Grandma Ackerman & Sara had a wonderful dinner of chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob waiting for us, and it was a wonderful break from snack food. We also shared a cake. We got to Fremont at about 12:30am and snuck in while everyone was sleeping. We had a great day yesterday playing with cousins and napping and eating Ming's for dinner (YUMMY CHINESE!). This morning we got up and hit the road about 10am for Elk Grove (outside Sacramento). We're enjoying more cousin time and looking forward to a big family dinner of Round Table pizza tonight. Tomorrow is another long day of driving and we're hoping to make it all the way to Lakewood, WA. Wish us luck!

Cutie Pie

Happy Easter...a little early!

New Address

 

 

We've been approved to rent this home in Washington. We're excited that we'll soon be together as a family, and when we arrive, we'll have a place to go. :) YEAH!

Girls

Well, I am sitting here, playing through in my mind all the things I need to get done in the next 48 hours and it's overwhelming to say the least. My truck IS, however, GONE GONE GONE. They came and got it today. The truck with everything we own is on its way to Seattle. Soon, I will be, too. But last night, I got to hang with the girls. We had such a great time, and I appreciate them being willing to get together one more time before I hit the road. I love to sit and chat, it's one of my true joys in life, and that's exactly what we did. I loved every minute of it. Thank you thank you thank you. I'm going to miss you dearly, my friends.

This afternoon I spent some precious time with another dear friend. She's so wise and we always have such great talks. I appreciate her kindness and friendship. I'm sad to leave my Las Vegas friends. I didn't want to move. I still don't want to move. What's happening? Who decided we should move? AHHHH!

Hopefully this move is a good thing. :) I'm surely leaving behind a lot of people I care about. Thanks, GIRLS!!!

Update

We are nearly packed up. Tomorrow I am working (still have lots of that to do before I can go), Tuesday I'll finish packing (I think I'm about 10-20 boxes out), Wednesday the container comes and the Happy Movers are loading it for me. I also have a 6:30pm app't with the Bishop on Wednesday. As of today, he is sweating bullets - still doesn't know who to replace me with. :) Steve was here for a family wedding on Friday and he helped us yesterday - all the beds are dismantled, and Kenneth's desk is dismantled, and the shelves in the garage are all ready to go. I've still got to pack/organize the rest of my office. I have 2 computers left to pack up, too. I will keep one computer and my laser printer with me for tax prep. The other computer will ship with the rest of our stuff. Steve has an app't to go through another house tomorrow up there. We signed a 2 year lease today for this home. They move in on Saturday. Things are moving very quickly at this point. A BIG HUGE thank you to Elise for coming - she did more than she'll ever understand....and to the Jones family...so amazingly wonderfully helpful. We had a great week. Steve is safely back in Seattle, and we're officially alone in our home. The kids have had a rough couple of weeks (acting out, very teary, etc.). They were much better while Steve was here...just more evidence that we need to be together as a family. We'll pull out next Monday (the 10th) - drive to Fresno to see Jan & Sara, then head on up to Sacramento. We'll stay with the Davis family for a couple of days, then continue up to Seattle. It'll be me, the kids, our gecko, dog, the redwood tree, and my computer...oh, yeah, we'll be towing the boat, too. :) What an adventure.

And so it begins.....

Steve just got to Bellevue, Washington. He will spend tomorrow going through several rental houses and then start work on Tuesday morning. A new chapter begins.....

He left Saturday, later than planned, but he finished the wood on the stairs down to the sunken living room before he left. He left about 4 hours before Elise arrived with Emily & Jacob. We had a lovely dinner and attended church today. We tried to keep the Sabbath Day holy, but we did break down and clean the kitchen tonight. (It was beyond bad). Tomorrow we'll start full bore packing/cleaning/painting, etc. I've got a friend from church coming over to help me paint at 10am. She and I are going to tackle the interior doors. I've got some white semi-gloss...I know it will make a HUGE difference. These doors are so cheap. Hopefully we can get that done in a couple of hours and I won't take up her entire day. Then Elise and I can resume packing. I have a MOUND of laundry to get done as well. And...before anything else happens I've got to trim the carpet downstairs into Grammie's room. 2 kids have cut their toes today on the carpet tack strip I laid down this morning, or last night. Maybe I'll go do that now.

Well, the plan is that as soon as I can get everything packed up and cleaned, we'll call the happy movers and ABF and get this show on the road. That means I'll be doing tax season in transit, but Angela will help me by checking my mail and forwarding everything important to me. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up on everything I need to get done. I anticipate getting released from my extensive church obligations before too long.

I guess I'll leave you with one cute story. The other morning I heard Caitlin downstairs saying "I'm Caitlin Joy Layton, YOU Tasha Joy Layton." :) (tasha is our dog)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day showing everyone around you how much you care!

So much

Well, as you can imagine, there's no dull moments here right now. We're busilly trying to prepare for the move. We had the first garage sale of our marriage yesterday...and it went OK. We still have a couple of big items to sell before we leave, but we got rid of a bunch of little stuff. The Webbs sold some stuff, too, so overall it was successful.

We had a guy come lay tile in the lower bathroom/laundry room/walkway. So - that's been pretty torn up and I still need to replace the baseboards and get bigger bolts to put the toilet back. I jerked the toilet all by myself...are you impressed? (Aparently that's what you call it when you remove a toilet...who knew?) We had an issue with a leaky valve so we've had the water to our house shut off since Thursday. You don't realize how critical water is to everything you do until you have to live without it! Thanks to Darrel's brilliance, we've got it back on today...happy day!

Steve flew to Fresno right after the garage sale and spent yesterday afternoon-tonight (he's not back yet) with his mom and sister celebrating his new title "Master". They've had a wonderful time and I'm glad he got to go.

The kids & I went to Johnathan and Alex's basketball games yesterday. We had a great time! It was fun to see them play. Johnathan's team is comical to watch and Alex's team is quite good. Alex did a couple of really cool gymnastics rolls, too, right during the game. Daniel and Caitlin both fell asleep during Alex's game - Angela took pictures. Daniel fell asleep on the floor and Caitlin slept on my lap. We had a great afternoon. It was 68 degrees so between the games we grabbed some food and went to a park to play! Sometimes Vegas is GREAT!!!

The choir sang today in church, and since there was no Daddy to hold her, Caitlin came up with the choir. I tried to keep her still, but I'm afraid she was quite distracting (sorry, Ang). When we finished singing she said in no quiet voice, "That was COOL!". It was very funny.

Kenneth & Johnathan have been spending a lot of time singing/playing the piano together. It is really priceless to listen to them. Kenneth plays and Johnathan sings in his sweet voice. I love to listen to it. They wanted to sing in primary today, so I got the music for them. Angela and I and Caitlin went in to listen to them...they performed "I'll Follow Him in Faith". They did a great job and when they finished, Caitlin said, again NOT softly, "That was AWESOME!" Then, she kept saying "Awesome, awesome, awesome." It's funny to hear her use words like that.

Sometimes we are reminded just exactly where we live....like this morning....during our first church meeting (called Sacrament meeting), someone broke into at least 2 vehicles in our parking lot - braking the passenger window and stealing a purse/cell phone/wallet. How sad is that? When we first moved here, the men used to take turns patrolling the parking lot...I guess we'll have to go back to that. Bummer.

The past 48 hours we've spent entirely with the Webb family. Since our water was turned off I was worried about Sunday baths/showers and they invited us to sleep over last night. Then, after church, we just came back there and hung out/cleaned/rested there this afternoon/evening. I got the kids home about an hour ago and they were all entirely worn out. They are really really REALLY REALLY going to miss their cousins. And I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY going to miss Angela and Darrel. I've enjoyed so immensely living so close. We get along so well, and it's so easy to be with them. Angela has forced me into more "girls nights out" than I've ever had in my life...and it's FUN! I think our talents compliment each other and we work well together in all aspects of our lives. It's a good thing we can talk for free on our cell phones!!!

Tonight before I put the kids to bed I briefed them on what's happening this next week. Steve will leave Saturday morning for Seattle. Our lives will change forever. We'll ache for him until we're reunited, I'm sure. My prayer is that the kids can feel our love through all the chaos and change.

Weekend update

Since I did a terrible job of taking ANY pictures this weekend...please see Angela's blog for an update. Click Here

Hinckley Challenge

I cannot phrase it as eloquently as the author...but it's really cool.

http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/

Check it out. It's a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days to honor President Hinckley and his 97 years. Last night when I looked nearly 3500 people had signed up. Tonight I was number 7886 or something close to that.

Join in ...... everybody's doin' it.

Closing a chapter

Well, the best thing about the end of a chapter is the next one, right? I guess so.

Yesterday morning Steve accepted a job with Emulex in Bothell, Washington. While our family is excited for the adventures ahead, we are so saddened to close this Las Vegas chapter of our lives.
This has been a special time in our lives as we've been so close to the Webb family. Angela and I have been virtually inseparable for the last year and a half. We both knew it wouldn't last forever, but we both hoped it would last longer....

So, as we prepare for this move ahead, I want Angela to know how much I will miss her every minute of every day! Thanks for all the good times.

Congratulations, babe.

Way to go, Steve. We're so proud of you.

Happy Birthday to ME

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a GREAT weekend. I left Friday afternoon and went to St. George, UT for a weekend of scrapbooking. I know, I know, I haven't scrapped anything for over 3 years, but I still have all the stuff and all the photos.....a girl in Las Vegas organized the whole thing. 80 ladies went. I met my jr. high/ high school best friend there (she came down from Sandy, UT) and we spent the weekend together. I got 33 pages done (16 1/2 12X12 spreads). I don't think I've scrapped that much in my entire life! Shari took me to dinner for my birthday and we had fun hanging out and talking and catching up. I got back in time to catch the last 1/2 hour of church and go to choir. Then, when I got home, Steve made me a DELICIOUS dinner of been strogenoff (of course) and grilled squash with warm bread. YUMMY!!! He went to Fried's (sp?) Bakery (WAY WAY WAY GOOD) and got the best chocolate cake ever! No diamonds this year, but I got a weekend away and 2 stock pots and 2 blouses and $100 to spend while I was gone. YEAH!!! I think my wish list is pretty much empty now. :) Thank you to everyone for thinking of me.

Caucus, Schmocus

Well, this morning was the Nevada Caucus. We had a LATE soccer game last night (we got killed-it wasn't pretty)...a BIG THANK YOU goes out to Erin & Kevin for watching our kids. We got home about 12:40am and to bed around 2 or so. Steve got up at 5 and went to work (crazy man). I got all the kids up and made pancakes and we were all ready and Steve came home and we went to the caucus. We got there at 9:15am. The parking lot wasn't nearly as full as I thought it would be. We parked and walked up to the building (it was at a local high school) and some lady asked us if we were there for the caucus. We said we were and she said, "You're too late. They closed the doors at 9. You can't go in now." We were so bummed. I was excited about doing my civic duty and going to a caucus! How disappointing. I had to WAKE UP ALL 3 of my kids! I thought 9:15am was pretty good considering our late night. Yeesh. Well, so our votes didn't go toward the primary election in Nevada. Shoot.

Shout out

This post is a shout out to Steve. He is the best person in the world for me. I've screwed a lot of things up lately, and I'm sorry. I appreciate him being so patient with me. I appreciate him supporting me with all my church work (even if he does LIE to Caitlin at 5:30am and tell her I'm at a "meeting" instead of telling her I'm out running), and letting me get away every so often. I've had a few girl's nights out in the last few months, and they've been so fun and he hasn't grumbled much at all. :) Tonight he and Darrel (Ang & the boys are in Idaho) are at a movie, and I'm so glad. It's good to get out every so often with a friend...to whom you are not married. Anyway - thanks for being so great! I love you, handsome.

We're still here

Busy season is quickly picking up for me...along with having to do 40 hours of CPE...ah the joys. Anyway, everyone is doing well and we are just plugging away at life. We had a great FHE with the Webbs tonight....trampoline jumping, soccer playing, basketball playing, laser pointer chasing, prime rib & baked potatoes (pizza for the kids)...does it get any better than that? We LOVE being OFF TRACK!!! We love having the Webbs so close. We're making so many wonderful memories this month...we'll miss the Webbs as they're leaving for Idaho tomorrow. I know they'll have a wonderful time seeing old friends. We'll be watching for their safe return next Monday.

One note for any of you who've been here and seen the house between the Webbs & Laytons has been vacant since last June. A couple with 4 BOYS (ages 10,6,5,3) closed today and will be moving in by the end of the month. YEAH!

Last one

 

I love that you can read her t-shirt in this shot.

 

I really like this photo of Steve & me.

More more more

 

 

 

 

More photos

 

 

 

 

We got our photos from our friend, Nancy, who is a fantastic photographer and was kind enough to take our picture while we were in Texas. Aren't they great?

More Christmas

 

 

 

We came home to lots of presents under the tree from Grandmas and Grandpas and Heidi. We had a great time opening our "2nd Christmas" gifts.

Photo Op

We had a photo shoot with Nancy. We got some great new family pictures, but I haven't been through those yet. These are some shots Steve took during the shoot.

Post - Christmas fun

The Buckleys came out to the ranch.
I met some of my E&Y friends for lunch and a play date.

We got TEXAS shirts!

 

We had a great Christmas!