Am I being too picky????????

I don't have pictures for this post, they are too graphic...

Some of you have already heard my complaining, if so don't read on...

So, many of you know that I am in Washington, DC right now finding a house so when we relocate here mid-July, we have a house to go to instead of a hotel. My search is not going well, actually is really sucks. The first day I was here I looked at 2 houses with my Realtor. Not good. I spent the rest of the day looking for houses on my own (or with my

brother...he met me here to spend a couple of days with me). Seriously, I spent 10 hours that first day driving around and looking at houses. oh and most of that was actually in the car. For those of you who have never been here, the traffic is awful!!!!! This is my first time here. I am staying at the Navy Medical base in Bethesda, Maryland which is the right new to DC. Yesterday, it took me 1 1/2 hours to drive 12 miles. Today, I drove my brother to the airport and it took me 2 hours to go there and back. The airport is only 19 miles away...anyways, day 1 10 hours and day 2 10 hours and nothing.

Every house I look at in my price range is so dirty and ugly. And when I say dirty, I mean tear the house down and start over. So, no I have not found a house and I have even raised the amount we are willing to pay to get a better house and that has not helped.

For 2 brief seconds, I did find my dream house...the owners has been trying to sell it ans couldn't for several months so they were going back and forth about renting it. That's where I come in...fell in love...perfect house. Clean, cute, every wall was painted beautiful colors, the yard was kept up, the price was right, the size was right and then they changed their minds. Good for them...sucks for me.

Best part of the house was THE CLEANLINESS

Well, I feel better now that I have let out some steam.

1 more day here in DC. Who knows what's ahead for tomorrow. Tomorrow could be the day...stay tuned.

So, back to my questions...is it too much to ask for a nice and clean house?

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was wonderful. The kids and Joe made me breakfast in bed which was an egg, cheese and ham omelet, hash browns and OJ. Alex also cut up strawberries for me and Brady added two powered dounts to the plate. It was yummy. After church I started my day by laying on the couch all day. And I mean all day. I did nothing. Joe and the kids also made me dinner it was a great day.

The kids did these at church and I thought it was too cute to share.Brady says, I am 4 years oldAlex says, I am 40 years old.

When she asks me how old am I, I always say 29. I am sticking to that but she must have forgotten. I need to drill her just a few more times.

I am 29................

My baby is 6 years old

Alexandria turned 6 years old today. Times certainly flies by. Here's a few pictures of Alexandria over the past 6 years.

Starting with the most recent... Alexandria wanted a salon chair for her dolls.

And a horse shaped cake. I think I did a great job, especially for me because I am not too creative.

Alex blowing out her candles tonight.

5 years old

4 years old

3 years old

2 years old

And of course, 1 year old

1 year old again...she was such a chunk :)

Ant Farm

Brady's preschool has been studying bugs and such...so, today they searched outside for different kinds of bugs and insects. They have also talked about the life cycle of butterfly. Of which today it became a butterfly...I don't have a picture but the kids were excited to show their parents. Brady thought that was awesome, his words. But here is Brady's ant farm. He loves it. His teacher also gave them magnifying glasses to look at their ant farms. Pretty cool

They also made binoculars for searching for bugs. Brady painted his blue.

Farmers Market

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids to the Monterey Farmers Market with a friend of mine and her son. I have lived here almost 2 years and have never gone and just recently found out that it existed. It was a lot of fun but I did learn that next time to bring a stroller. My kids have kind of out grown them but Next time, I will bring the double jogger.

Anyways...Alex and Brady wanted their faces painted.
Alex wanted a butterfly on both cheeks.

Brady wanted spider man but that one was the entire face and I knew that would cause problems for me...I already had the small amount of paint on my shirt so, Brady got his spider of his face.

Easter

We dyed Easter eggs earlier in the week. The kids loved it as usual. What a mess...the dye was everywhere. Alex had Hello Kitty Dye and stickers.

Brady had transformer dye and stickers.

On Easter Sunday, we made a bunny cake. This has become a family tradition for Easter. We did it last year and what a cake. I let the kids go crazy and boy did they...sprinkles everywhere.

But this year, We thought we would actually make it look like a bunny and not a mountain of frosting and sprinkles. It was so cute.


We also did a family egg hunt. I did have 2 golden eggs, really one gold and one silver...same difference. this was the bigger prize inside...$5.00. They were excited.



We hope everyone had a great Easter day!!!

Happy Easter

Talent Night

Alex and her friend Adriann wanted to sing and dance for our wards talent show on Friday. Actually, Alex wanted to dance and Adriann wanted to sing so they did both together and it was so so so cute. Kim (Adriann's mom) and I didn't really think that they would actually do it but they did. We are so proud of them...I thought that everyone should see how cute it was.

Oh and Brady's talent was seeing how many cookies he could eat that night. Sorry, but I didn't get a picture of that. He's 3...use your imagination.

My Craft it Forward

I know I am a little bit behind on blogging...well, actually a lot behind. But I am ready to get back into this...

My friend Suzanne took these awesome pictures of my kids. I have posted too many but I could not decide which ones to post so, I thought I would put several. It's been a while since anyone has had to read my blog so, this will cover all that.

I love the brick wall in the background, especially with the orange shirt.

Brady is such a big boy now. I love the hat and Jacket...some of Suzanne's props.
This is probably my absolute favorite picture of Brady...I love his body language in this one.

So sweet!!!!

Just plain cute!!!!!!

Precious

even more precious!!!!!

I love the hat, gloves and hat. Alex had to have them from target...such a girl

The black rod iron gate is really pretty.

I love this picture of Alex. She looks so sweet.

I like how the color pops with the black background.

Again, the black door and the color of her dress just pop.

Thanks so much Suzanne. These pictures turned out great.

I'M BACK...

OK...I know its been a long time since I have updated my blog and I know that I have been so missed :). I was having issues with my blog so I had to get my good friend, Kim to help me out...THANKS SO MUCH KIM.


But I am back and ready to start blogging again. I was so very behind that I didn't even post Christmas pictures or even a video of the kids countdown to the new year, which was so cute. But life has been extremely busy and now you will all be updated on that, my crazy life. Stay tuned...

hi

Alexandria's first slumber party

Alexandria had her first slumber party on Friday night. Times have changed...my first slumber party was when I was 8 years old...I think. One of the girls turned 7 on Friday and wanted to have a few friends over to spend the night including Alex. I was very hesitate at first...she's only 5...but we thought it's only next door. They girls did their nails, ate pizza, watched movies and played games. So, needless to say she had a blast. She was very tired the next day but she loved every minute of being a total girly girl. I am sure this is the start of many future slumber parties.

Fun Christmas Activities

For Family Home Evening we did a gingerbread house. We manage to do this every year but they always seem to fall down. This year was the best because that did not happen. This kit came with a tray to hold it up. It worked! The kids loved decorating the house.

I think it looks pretty good.We also did jello jigglers with Christmas cookie cutters. Brady is holding a snowman and yes, he is wearing his Buzz Lightyear Halloween costume :) Alexandria is holding a Christmas tree. This was really cute. Such easy but fun activities for them to do.

Grandpa's Visit

I am a little behind in blogging because grandpa came to visit on Thanksgiving. I should have blogged this before the "leg lamp." ha ha ha But we had a great time with grandpa. We showed him around Monterey. The kids loved spending 4 days with grandpa. We took grandpa to see the sea lions but the gate was closed...no sea lions. but the ocean was beautiful!!!!!

We love you!

"The Soft Glow of Electric Sex Gleaming in the Window"

Merry Christmas...I can't believe it's already December

We like to start off our Christmas season with:So, Joe's family loves the movie, "A Christmas Story." They watched it every year at Christmas and we do to. So, last year for Christmas I bought Joe an exact replica of the leg lamp. If you have seen the movie then I am sure that you will remember the leg lamp. Anyways...it is up for viewing. If you are LUCKY enough to live nearby, please feel free to drive by our house and take a look. We have it light up every night at dark. We will be going out of town for Christmas so you'd better hurry and come by and look. We think it's funny, hopefully you will too!!!!

Brady's new bike

So, Brady got a new bike. He has been riding Alexandria's old red tricycle for so long so it was time for a new bike. It's a really nice bike and he loves it. Yes, my kids are in their PJ's. We just bought the bike Saturday night and it was already dark outside so we said Sunday morning he could try it out. He didn't even wait to change his clothes. But this bike is big so a helmet is a definite requirement to ride his bike.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

What a night, What a day and what a week...I am glad that the week is over but so happy that my kids had so much fun. Brady and Alex both had Halloween parties/carnivals. Brady's school party was on Wednesday-smart idea. I like having it spread out. Alexandria's school carnival was today. The teachers and PTA put so much time into planning it and it showed. All the kids got to play different games, trick-or-treat, eat lunch and get a pumpkin. It was a blast. I volunteered today at her party. Brady and I both did. It was so much fun!!!!

So, Brady was Buzz Lightyear and Alexandria was Genevieve from the 12 dancing princesses (basically a barbie for those of you who don't know)
We curled Alexandria's hair. It was in ringlets. It looked so cute. We also sprayed her hair pink. At her school today they weren't allowed to wear costumes instead it was crazy hair ans sock day. So we sprayed it pink. But Alex loved having her hair curled. We should definitely do it more...the curl not the color.
We also sprayed Brady's hair-he wanted it done after seeing Alex's. His was blue. But Brady's costume was so cute. I bought inflatable wings for Brady's costume. Very cute. It also came with gloves. He fell in love with Buzz Lightyear since watching Toy story about 4 months and even more since visiting Disneyland and meeting him in June.
Brady in full costume. I love it!!!!!!!

Alexandria in all pink...what other color is there!!!!

This is Alexandria with her friends Kya and Adriann. They are coloring Halloween pictures.

Here's Brady with his best buds. These boys are so cute when they are together. They chase one another and of course, do the boy thing. WRESTLE EACH OTHER!!!!

Brady and Tyson.

The kids with their crazy hair and Halloween shirts.

We hope you all had a spooky but safe Halloween...

Happy 36th

Today is Joe's 36th birthday. WOW 36. We celebrated with apple pie. Joe request this every year as his birthday cake. of course, it has to be homemade by me crust and all...I think I make really good apple pies. I don't want to brag but I will...

This picture is not so good but Brady was done for the day. He didn't want a picture taken at the moment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE

My Little Girl

I am way behind on blogging for the last couple of weeks. So, I thought I would just post all my pictures at once. I couldn't decide on just a few pictures, so you get them all. I tried not to write too much because I have so many.

On Friday Alexandria was 1 of 4 chosen in her class for "Student of the Quarter." We are very proud of her. There was an Assembly for the entire school so each of the kids were recognized. Each class chose about 4 kids. Alexandria loves school. I hope she always does...I know it's just kindergarten but we are so very proud of her and her accomplishments in Kindergarten.
These are the other 3 kids chosen. They received a certificate, pencil, bumper sticker and a Popsicle. Very cute....
This is Alexandria's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Tope. I am really happy that Alexandria is in her class. She is a great teacher and shows how much she enjoys teaching.