Luke's Birthday

As mentioned in the previous post, Luke had a great birthday. After Edward got home from work, Luke opened the presents from the family. He was so excited about it and kept asking me all day if it was time to open presents.

Very excited about this Spiderman costume

Transformer costume

It's an Army moving truck! Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. I found this awhile ago and knew he'd love it.

Very excited about his Batcopter from Aunt Erika, Uncle Jason, Mackenzie, Kaitlann, and Knox. It came with discs that shoot, and he's been shooting them all over the house.

Toy Story Army guy...thanks for sending one for each boy, Nana and Pop!

The talking Woody from Toy Story!!! Luke has been asking for this, and Nana and Pop have been on a mission to find it. The problem is now a second little boy, who shall remain nameless, wants it.

Shark lunchbox from Grandma and Grandpa-Luke opened this and said, "I can take this to my new school in North Carolina." He has to pack his lunch at his new preschool.

Woody after he was stolen :)

Try telling this face "No"

After his requested steak dinner at the house, we had a baseball birthday cake. I'm not creative, so this was definitely a challenge for me.

Thanks for the gifts, everyone. Yes, I know a couple haven't arrived, and I also know a couple are just "showing up" at the new house when we arrive :)

Happy 4th Birthday, Luke!

Today is Luke's 4th Birthday. He's had a great day. The day started with a new bike, bike ride to preschool, playing all afternoon, and is ending with presents and steak for dinner.

Luke was very surprised by his new bike waiting for him at the breakfast table.

He was delighted to ride it to preschool this morning.

For dinner, Luke wanted steak and a birthday cake, so I made him a baseball cake today. Yes, I'm not an artist by any means!

Luke had a wonderful birthday, with more pictures to come. Happy Birthday, Luke! We love you very much!!!

Alex's "Kitty"

Sunday evening, we were walking back to the house from the parade ground at the end of the street. As we were walking, Alex walked over to one of the neighbor's fences, and he quickly started yelling, "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." He just wouldn't stop. Alex loves cats, and we figured he saw a cat through the fence in someone's yard. Edward walked over to where Alex was yelling, and instead of a kitty, we discovered Alex had found a baby bunny. Talk about a needle in a haystack...Alex definitely found this baby bunny. He seemed injured, as his left front leg wasn't moving well/he wasn't hopping, and to be honest, what bunny lets an almost two-year-old near it? So, we didn't want the bunny to become coyote dinner, as it most certainly would have, so we brought him home. Our plan was to take him to the wildlife office on Monday morning.

Here he is. We couldn't tell if he was a Jackrabbit or a Desert Cottontail. He had long feet and ears, but most baby bunnies do.

Oh man, the kids loved taking care of him.

Alex was delighted and kept calling it a kitty. We even got out one of his books to show him a bunny, and he called it a kitty.

So, Monday morning, we called the wildlife office, and they said we could bring him in, but if he was too young, he wouldn't survive anyways without his mother's milk. Just as we were getting ready to take him in, he died. The kids were very upset, and we were able to explain that while he died, he was happy that some kids loved him so much while he was sick. The kids wanted to bury him, so we did, and Madison even found a rock for a headstone, which Edward wrote, Bunny."

An Afternoon at the Park for a Birthday Party

Saturday afternoon, we attended a birthday party in town. Caroline, Madison's friend, turned five, and she had a Cowgirl Party (Jessie from Toy Story). Caroline's family goes to church with us, and we've enjoyed their friendship very much. The girls are going to miss each other a lot.

Luke geared up for some football at the cowgirl party

My boys are never far when food is involved. They really enjoyed the pizza.

Waiting for cake

The cake was really good and made by a baker from our church. She also made all of my kids' cakes last year. She's extremely creative and did a good job on this Toy Story cake. Ironically, she made Luke a Toy Story cake (different design) last year.

Caroline, the birthday girl, with her mom, Sarah.

Let them eat cake.

So, while we were at the party, a wedding party showed up for pictures near us. Included was the dog in a tux...yeah.

Lots of rocks...gotta love the desert. Even a park in the desert cannot hide the desert.

Duck, Duck, Goose

A tired boy after pizza, cake, and a lot of running around.

Still not too tired to climb more

Party favors-Cowboy hats!

Thanks for having us! We had a great time.

The "Pouting Spot"

Alex has started this new thing in the laundry room. Whenever he is mad at you, he decides to pout in the laundry baskets. That's where he likes to sit and get over his pouting. It's really funny. He has started to haul his favorite things to his pouting spot. Items making repeat appearances include his sippy cup, three favorite blankets, and Fur Real Kitty. Recently, I caught him on camera at the pouting spot when I was folding laundry.

You can see the top of his Fur Real kitty behind him in the basket.

He seems to have gotten over whatever he was pouting about.

Vanilla

One thing I will miss about living so close to Mexico is the pure Mexican vanilla! It's very inexpensive too. We've never been the ones to actually buy it here, but we're told it's about $3 for a liter. Our friend, Al, goes to Mexico a lot to visit his mom. We asked him to pick some up for us before we move East. Our family has become jealous of our vanilla stash, so we wanted some for them. Well, Al hooked us up with a case, 12 bottles, of vanilla! He refused to take any money for it, but he did request some of my chocolate chip cookies. That's NOT a problem, and I think we'll get him something else to repay the favor. So, now the task begins of deciding who is on our vanilla list :)

Spring Ahead!

Just a reminder that while all of you Spring Ahead tonight, Arizona doesn't honor daylight savings. So, we are now THREE HOURS BEHIND EST!!! That will hold true until we move and make the 2500 mile trek across the country through different time zones.

So, yes, we are back on PST for now.

For Kellie, my neighbor, now when you go to the mall in El Centro, it will actually be the same time it is here in AZ. Recently, she left here at 9 to go to the mall, arrived at what she thought was just after 10, only to remember that technically CA was an hour behind, and it was still just after 9. Haha, I won't forget that!

A Trip to the East

I traveled to North Carolina last Friday to finally see the house we are buying. Neither Edward nor I had seen it in person, and I'm happy to say that I love it as much as I thought I would!


Here it is, and as long as everything continues to go well, as the inspection already has, it will be ours in a couple of months.

Here it is! That's our realtor's car in the driveway.

Front porch, nice and wide

Backyard, and as you can see, it needs a little TLC from me. I'd say from both of us, but Edward will be deployed right away, so yeah, from me. We're going to have a patio poured, which we are very excited about. I also enjoy putting in gardens, so there will be some around the house, along with some trees, as builders in Fayetteville are known for taking out all the trees!

Back porch, again nice and wide

My favorite part of the house, the kitchen! It's huge!!!! It just needs a fridge, and I bought that on the trip to be delivered later. Thanks, Lowes, for your appliance sale just at the right time (as well as thanks for the military discount and that great tax giftcard deal you're running now-major savings!).

The door to the back is the door into the laundry room.

Eat-in area

As we have been searching for a house, we asked the kids what they wanted. Madison and Luke kept telling us over and over they wanted a mailbox. That may seem strange, BUT here at YPG, we don't have mailboxes. Everything is done via PO Box. Ahh, Army kids...they don't even know most of the country has a mailbox! They also told us they wanted stairs (none here either), and we were able to get that for them too. Madison wanted a pool, so no luck. Luke said his favorite room from the pictures was the playroom and the backyard, but he was upset they didn't have any toys in them. I told him that the rooms were empty now, as they were getting the house ready for us to move our toys in. I reassurred him that the movers would get his toys to North Carolina. When they saw the pictures, the kids yelled, "The house has grass!" Again, Army desert kids...they don't even know.

We really like the house. All of the rooms are huge, and it will be a great place for our family. I was also able to visit Madison's brand new elementary school (beautiful) and tour the boys' preschool. Yes, they got into their preschool, what a praise! I was very happy with the kids' schools, and I especially like they are close to the house.

Ready for Rain

After almost three years in the desert, my kids are ready for rain. With an annual rainfall of about two inches, we haven't seen much rain. With our move to NC coming up, the kids begged me to get them rain boots, so here they are. The boys just got matching lobster ones from LL Bean. Madison's were muddy (from wearing them through the water hose on in the backyard), so she didn't pose with hers.