My Angel Friend

This is my AMAZING friend, Cherise.

This is my amazing friend, Cherise, cleaning the cupboards in our new house - and, yes, she even smiled through it all. She also helped unpack several boxes to get our kitchen functioning. She is the reason I stayed sane through our recent move from Mesa to Maricopa.

She stayed at our new house and watched our kids while Paul and I finished cleaning out our old house. We were gone for most of the day but she didn't complain once.

She even cooked us a yummy dinner that night. It was so good to sit down in our new home and enjoy a home cooked meal, even when Paul and I were too exhausted to cook it.

She helped us get through our bed time routine and read us all a Christmas story. This was a special treat since I LOVE reading Christmas stories to my kids during the holidays, but had lost my voice from being sick during the move. It was nice to have some level of normalcy and routine during such a stressful time.

What these pictures don't show is how Cherise was there to support me from beginning to end - from the time that Paul and I decided to buy a home until the time that we were completely moved in. She was there with a listening ear when we lost several of the homes we had bid on. She was there to congratulate me and be excited with me when we finally got the home that we wanted. She and her husband were our only friends that were available to help us load our moving truck. She drove with us to Maricopa to watch our kids while we unloaded our moving truck. She came back and stayed at our home that weekend to offer whatever support or help we needed - including cleaning, unpacking, cooking, and watching our kids - as the pictures show.

I just cannot say enough about how special Cherise is to me and how much she has blessed my life. As much as I appreciate all of the physical labor, time and service she offered my family, I appreciate even more that I had a friend there to share the experience with.

Halloween

Last night (10-30-09) we attended our community's Halloween party - "Boo Bash". They had trunk or treating, bounce houses, booths with games and prizes, a haunted house, food, etc. It was a lot of fun, especially because my Mom and sisters joined us.

Abby wore her pirate costume, the same as last year. It was a little big for her last year but perfect this year. Holly refused to wear a costume to the Boo Bash. She cried and cried for her "Giselle" dress, which is just a regular white dress that she has decided looks like Giselle. She practically lives in the dress because she loves it so much. It didn't look much like a costume but it made her happy.

Abby and Holly both had their face painted. When Abby was asked what she would like to have painted on her face she answered, "Ummmm....a blankie." I helped her change her mind to a pumpkin. I just wasn't sure how a blankie would work out, and a pumpkin is more festive. She liked it. Holly had a pink flower painted on her cheek.

They had a few booths with games for kids to play. This is Holly "fishing" for candy.

Abby and Holly had a blast in the bounce house. They had several set up but this small one was perfect for the girls. They had it all to themselves for the better part of 30 minutes. We just let them jump to their little hearts content. They loved it!


Halloween Night....

A picture of my awesome family on Halloween night.
Abby and Holly were pirates. Paul and I didn't dress up but at least we wore festive colors, right? We'll dress up next year for sure. It's more fun that way!



We went to Paul's parent's church party. It was a lot of fun! I helped the girls walk in the kid's costume parade. They were the most adorable, in my very biased opinion. :-)

They had lots of games for the kids to play to win candy. This is a picture of Abby and Holly doing the cake walk.

Grandma Whiting enjoyed having her grandchildren join the party. I thought this picture was so cute of Grandma Whiting walking Holly around at the Trunk or Treat. The girls scored so much candy!

Playing in the Dirt

I just had to post these pictures of the girls playing in the dirt the other day. They were being so quiet playing on our back porch that I should have known they were up to something. :-) They completely emptied out a couple of Paul's planting boxes and threw dirt in each other's hair. Needless to say, a bath was needed afterward....

Holly was so grumpy afterward. She refused to smile until we got her all cleaned up. Maybe she'll learn that playing in the dirt isn't all it's cracked up to be...

It was pretty tough for me not to laugh at her cute dirty pouty face.

Halloween Cookies

Abby missed a play date with her good friend, Ethan. So we decided to make him some Halloween cookies to make them both feel better. Abby cheered up and forgot all about the missed play date, and had fun making some cookies instead.

Abby decided to make a black cat for Ethan.

Holly frosted a yellow moon for her friend, Daphne (Ethan's sister), but took a bite of it before I could stop her. So I let her eat the rest of the cookie. All she ended up doing, though, was licking the frosting off the cookie and then she ran off to play with some toys.

The best part of making cookies - tasting them!

Abby loved getting creative and decorating the cookies. You can see below the black and pink jackolantern that she frosted for Lillie (even though Lillie lives in Kansas), and the black and pink cat that Abby frosted for Daphne. It was a fun afternoon!

Pumpkin Carvin'

For Family Home Evening on Monday night we carved a pumpkin with Abby and Holly.

At first Abby refused to put her hand in the pumpkin to help us clean out the seeds and pulp. She thought it was too slimy. She eventually joined in on the fun but made a funny face every time she would reach in - she was so grossed out!

Holly wasn't as hesitant about putting her hands in. She seemed to think it was fun to reach in, but would only pull out one seed at a time. I think she was trying to keep her hands from getting too messy.

In the end, we had a less than awesome looking pumpkin, but that's okay because we had an awesome time together!

Halloween Craft

Last year I bought these little puppet crafts for $.10 at the after Halloween sales. I'm so glad I did because it was a perfect afternoon activity for them today.

Abby called the puppet her "Halloween Guy", and was so proud that she made him entirely by herself. She did a pretty good job!

Holly called the puppet her "Scary Guy", and needed a little more help than Abby did. But since the pieces were peal and stick, she was able to do a lot of it by herself. Oh, and you may notice that she is wearing a dress over her clothes. That is her "Giselle" dress, like from the movie Enchanted. She wore it all day and kept asking me to dance with her.

She refused to show the camera when she was done - She just sat there staring at it. lol I guess she thought he was a little too spooky. But she had fun, just the same.

Holly's Birthday Party

I know I already posted some pictures from Holly's birthday but here are some pictures from her birthday party. We invited some family over for a small party (she doesn't like large groups of people) the Sunday after her birthday. We had dinner together, opened presents and then ate some cake.

This dress was a little too big for her but she loved it just the same - she thought it made her look like Cinderella, aka "Rella".

Holly was so excited about everything she got - even the cards! She just kept gasping and excitedly showing everyone in the room what she had just opened. As you can see from their outfits, Holly got some new dress up clothes. She loves to wear different shoes and dresses every day, and to walk around with purses and jewelry.

It took Holly quite a few tries but she finally blew out the candle - with a little help from Daddy.

Our week of painting...

We spent several days last week painting all of our walls white to prepare to move out in a few weeks. We live in family student housing on ASU east campus, so we have to get everything painted and cleaned up so we can pass "inspection" when we move out. We are trying to get a little packing and cleaning done each day so it won't be as stressful in November.

Here are some pictures of the girls helping me paint Abby's purple room white.



Holly loved playing in the paint and making messes. Thankfully I put a drop cloth down to catch all of the spills and splatters. Holly just kept slabbing paint on the wall and then yelling, "Clouds!" It was pretty cute!

Abby loved having an entire wall for her canvas. She just kept painting a little here or a little there. She hardly made any mess at all, and was a great helper.

Abby painted flowers, plants and butterflies. And she also painted our old house and our new house. She is pretty excited to move!

Holly's 2nd Birthday

Story Time with Grandma & Aunt Mandie

We had a fun visit with my Mom and sister last week. I feel so blessed to live close enough that they can make day trips to visit with us. The girls just love to have special visitors come to spoil them!

They spent part of the afternoon reading books. Holly got to cuddle with Grandma and Abby was entertained by her Aunt Mandie.

Pictures of our New House

By request...

Here is a link to some pictures of our new house. I already have some affordable projects in mind to make the house have more of our personality and taste - especially the kitchen. :-)

NEW HOUSE PICTURES

Thirsty Holly

Stolen Appliances

We were excited to purchase a home that came with some decent appliances, which is almost unheard of for HUD homes and most foreclosed homes in general. We even bid slightly higher on the home because we thought we could afford to, since we wouldn't need to buy appliances (our mistake - lesson learned on that one). But when we went to visit the house after we had won the bid and started the paperwork, this is what we found...

Where the washer and dryer used to be...

The oven, as it looked on the day we bid on the house.

Where the oven used to be - what we found when we went back to visit the house.

We contacted HUD who told us that they wouldn't do anything about the stolen appliances and that we could take or leave the house. Of course we still want the house - so there is not much more we can do at this point. It is apparently a common problem. People know that these HUD homes and other foreclosed homes are sitting vacant, so they come and steal whatever they can take. We just hope that nothing else happens to our home while it sits vacant. We aren't allowed to change the locks or secure the home in any way until we close on the house on November 13th.

The good news is that our realtor was mistaken about how much we would have to pay down, so we will be able to afford to buy new appliances. It will be fun to choose our own, so the story has a happy ending.