finally home

holy cow it's been a LONG time since i have been able to keep in touch with all my friends and family via blog. i am so happy to have my internet up and to be able to share with you some of our adventures this past months. so here we go...

we left utah....sooooooooooooo sad....and stayed at marriott's timberlodge resort in lake tahoe. all i have to say is WOW! it is so amazingly beautiful here. i just love tahoe. it's much prettier than park city. anyway...we basically swim, eat out, swim, watch the disney channel, and swim some more. the kids LOVE the pool. we got m and f some arm floaties and they love just floating around in the pool. m has learned to do the cannonball, twist, spread eagle, and belly flop off the side of the pool. a and k have always loved the water and so now i have my very own 'school' of fish. love it.

on our way out of town i was reading the last book in the harry potter series. while we were getting gas in some small town i got to a section where my mind recalled something i'd read and normally i would have gone back in search for a particular section but i couldn't cause b was done filling up my car...so i immediately called angie fox. it was nice to ask her about that part...and just chat. thanks ang. loved the book byw!

we have seen some sights while we've been here. we went to swim in lake tahoe, rode the gondola, drove to the 'top of the world' as b calls it, and looked out over emerald bay and lake tahoe.

august 17th was a very important day in the disney world and to young viewers all over the world. it was the premier to high school musical 2! kennidy went back to utah for a premier party with her friends and had a BLAST! while the 3 younger ones and i had our own little bash. the girls wore their high school musical shirts and we pigged out on pizza, chips, cookies, candy, and soda. it was a good time. but the best part was that in the villa we got 2 disney channels...which meant that we could watch the premier TWICE! then twice the next night and twice the night after that. m's favorite song is 'bet on it' sung by the hottie zac efron. he plays troy...for all you none HSM watchers. he's so cute. anyway we had a great time.

b has been going back and forth from park city to tahoe and we don't see him a lot. it will be nice when budgets are over! park city has just hired someone to take his place so by the end of october we should have a dad and husband again. oh the joys of moving. gotta love it.

our house is coming along nicely. i have to say that from the outside our house is quite plain...ugly even.

but on the inside it's ten times better. we have a ton of painting to do and i can't wait for that. i love to paint. we tore out the cream carpet in the great room and the vinyl floor in the kitchen to put in wood.

and it looks so nice. i love our granite countertops in the kitchen and our new black faucet to match. my craft room is about a 3rd of the size it use to be so we had to get rid of my drafting table. we have a massive master bedroom where all the kids come to watch movies and hang out.

this much space should have been put somewhere else in the house to be of better use for the entire family. it's way to big for b and i. our backyard has lots of potential.

and you all know what that means...WHEN and WHAT do i do with it? luckily our neigbor has the same exact house plan as us and same backyard. she's given me the name of her landscaper. but that will have to wait for now. here's a pic of the kids bath. almost done in here.

the kids are all in school and love it. they all love their teachers and have met some new friends. that makes me happy. k will be tested for the gifted and talented program this next week. it is very sad to go from a phenominal school to an okay school. the kids were pushed and challenged so they would excell and they just don't have the same aspirations for learning here. don't get me wrong...the kids will be learning but there is no excitement in pushing kids to do their greatest.

i have been keeping busy with unpacking boxes, cleaning grimey faucets, doing loads and loads of laundry, picking up after kids, helping with homework, changing addresses, setting up insurances, and the only thing getting me through all this and more is my morning walks and scripture reading at night. why do we keep doing this to ourselves. just when we think we have settled down...

we miss all of you...in fact on sunday as we were raising our hands to sustain members in various callings i thought...it's official. we are part of this ward now. we are here. it good to have a place to call home and make new memories but it's always been a very hard thing for me to start new and make new friends. i am grateful for all of you...my friends.