Out with the Old, in with the New!!

On June 14, 2012 we officially became home owners again! We were so excited to have been able to finally find a home that we love and were so excited to move into. It has felt like an extremely long process to find a new home. We have been looking for the better part of 4 years. We knew that Heavenly Father was aware of our family and we felt several "tender mercies" throughout the process of finally finding our home. In the end, we got all the things we wanted. We found a bigger home, in a subdivision we really wanted to stay in, in a ward we really wanted to remain, with a gameroom, and backyard, and 4 bedrooms, and all the essential things. We are feeling extremely blessed and very grateful for the house search chapter in our life to be over. Ragnar wanted to document our house moving process so I will post a few pictures of trying to pack our townhome up to move. We literally only moved about a street away, it was like 30 seconds in the car!

We began putting the boxes we had packed into Channings room.

Then eventually they moved to the garage and then the truck!

This was the last night in our home.....packing up all the frames. It was a wonderful townhome for us and we have great memories of it. We just simply outgrew it and wanted to feel settled in something of our own.

Here is Ragnar and I about an hour after we signed the papers and this became our home. Our realtor was kind enough to take this picture. She was amazing and the process went incredibly smooth which we felt was a testament that this was truly the home we had been waiting for! We love it! I will update you with pictures soon!

Sweet and Sassy Girls of Mine!

Last Saturday Ella was invited to her friend Audrey's birthday party. They went to a place in the Woodlands, TX called Sweet and Sassy. She had a lot of fun. She is a girly girl for sure and it was right up her alley! First they got their nails done!

Then came the makeup!

Then was the hair!

Doesn't she look beautiful! She had so much glitter in her hair!

Then they got to pose for the picture!

Last they did a fashion show and dance down the runway! It was followed of course by cake and icecream! She loved every minute of it....and I am horrified at how I am going to keep up with her as she gets older! I think she will be teaching me how to put on makeup at 8!

I can't do a post without the other cute girlie! Channing is moving EVERYWHERE! She is so not like my other children! People would say the things their kids did and I would be like...really? I was serious...Ella and Cavin were really good/easy children. Channing does most everything she is not supposed to and has a cute cheesy grin after! Even just this morning I went to her crib and her diaper was off and she was just smiling at me with her bare bum in the air...??? Oh I think I am in for it with her!

Here is her first attempt at a little pony tail! Isn't she adorable!

I have been lucky to have two cute and VERY different little girls!

Ella's 6th Birthday!

Starting her birthday right...with donuts and getting her nails painted

On May 5, 2012 Ella turned 6! I can't believe our not so little girl has only two weeks left of kindergarten. For her birthday, my parents and Natalie came over to celebrate. It just happened that her birthday fell on the first day for the pool to reopen for the year, so we went to the pool to celebrate, then had a bbq, a cookie cake at her request, and a pinata...because it was on Cinco de Mayo after all!

Here was her "favorite" present....a bunny from Oma and Opa. She has been asking me for a real bunny for a while now, thankfully we have been able so far to use the excuse that we are renting a home and can't have pets....now we will have to come up with a new one. For now, she loves "Carrot" and feeds her and has me take care of her when she is at school. She loves that she can hop and move!

Strawberry Shortcake house from Grandma and Grandpa Speers. She has been loving playing this with her brother....and yes I said her brother :)

Here she is after the pool and bath!

Pinata time!!! Aunt Natalie helped get it broken for us!

We were so glad that my parents and Natalie could come to celebrate Ella. Even better was the hula hoop entertainment from my dad :) Ella is such a smart, creative girl and still loves to dress up. She loves sports and is pretty coordinated, but she also cries during almost every movie! She has this new thing where she likes to do her own hair....it is definitely a work in progress....but go her for trying. I sure do love spending time with my little emotional princess!

Birthday Girl Channing!

 Cheesy Smile!
 Then her first donut!

 Her best friend, Aunt Natalie...she loves her!

  Her first cupcake

 Poor Ella...Channing is always sitting on her or combing her hair. She loves her big sis!

 

Channing turned one this week! I can't believe we have already had her for an entire year! She has been such a joy to our family! She has an adorable smile when her thumb comes out of her mouth and she is fairly easy to please. She loves baby dolls, combing everyone's hair, macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. She also is walking along everything and balancing well. She is very active, but not walking yet....but I am in no rush for that. With her personality I am afraid she will go straight to running! She loves her siblings and is always tackling them or waving at them to get their attention. She is a pretty good sleeper and rarely cries when she wakes up, so I am never quite sure when she wakes up from her naps. She has discovered the scowl and is always giving a grumpy face and then laughing afterward. She is our little firecracker at times, but we love her!

Our growing child!

Yesterday Cavin turned 4 years old! Man I swear time has flown by. He is such a big kid now. It is so sad to me. He is such a sweet kid and I just love his personality. He loves monster trucks, the ipad, mario cart wii, numbers, and he could color and play with playdo for hours! He always has the funniest things to say and very rarely is grumpy. He is just a happy boy and he really brightens my day and is such a wonderful son! He had a party in the morning with 5 of his friends and then he had a party at night with Grandma and Grandpa Speers and Aunt Natalie. Out of all the things he got, I asked him what his favorite thing was and he said "my number shirt from Grandma" Really?!? He just loves numbers. Happy 4th birthday Cavin!

Weekend Fun!

These past two weekends have been fun. We got to relax and spend one weekend at home watching General Conference and we love two days of pjs!

Here is our fort....and skyping our family in between sessions!

Cavin was having fun doing Ella and my hair. He loves to add lots of pretty things!

Doesn't it look great! :)

Don't worry he also did manly things too :)

Channing is always pointing at things and saying "what's that" It's cute!

She now has 8 teeth and they are cute little mater teeth! haha

She always looks at me like this!

The next weekend we got to spend Easter dying eggs and visiting family!


We had lots of fun colors!

We also got to dye eggs with these cuties!

Ragnar's cousin Laurie lives in Sugarland and we hung out on Saturday with her family and his Aunt Brigette. Here are the 6 kids...Benson, Matthew, Connor, Ella, Channing, and Cavin. We had a great bbq and visit. We really should see them more often! Our kids are all a month or so apart! We then went to spend the night at my parents and had Easter Sunday with them. We got to go to see the Hunger Games the night before and just relax. It was a nice weekend and we are so grateful to have some family close!