An update!

Finally! Its been a long time coming- but without any further ado...

First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone who helped us with the move. My mom and sisters came on Monday and Tuesday (of the week we moved) and packed up my kitchen and books and lots of stuff, then my friend Angie came Thursday and Friday and was our main organizer! I couldnt have gotten through those 2 days without her- I was about to go nuts! Then Marcus Seiter came to haul stuff away with his truck Thursday night, then my brother in law Ken came late on Friday night was our push to just get it all done! His truck was a life saver taking away our last remnants of garbage and stuff we couldnt fit into the trailer. It seemed like whenever we needed help it came- so thank you everyone!

And I also wanted to say how much we are going to miss AZ. We have such good friends there- Madison ward friends, Keating ward friends, my MHS friends, my family- we are really going to miss seeing you on a frequent basis- thanks for taking care of us and including us in your circles! Maybe we'll end up in good ol Mesa again one day- we shall see. I'm glad that I've discovered blogs so that we can all keep in touch easier!

Let me tell you, as you all probably know- Moving is no fun! At risk of sounding like a complainer, I will tell you that I have never been so stressed out in my entire life. At first we thought we could only carry a 4'x8' trailer behind our car, therefore lots of our stuff wouldn't be able to go with us. I was sure we would have to ship a lot of our stuff, and I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to fit stuff together and decide which stuff to keep with us, what to get rid of and what to ship. But when Tyson got to the U-haul store- there was a 5' by 8' trailer available and he got it! We thought it might be too big for our little car, but in the end it was fine. We got all packed up and headed out at 11:30pm Friday night. Whew!
We drove all Friday night and got into Las Vegas at about 10am. We had to drive really slow as to not overheat the car- and it was doubly miserable because we were blasting the heat with the windows down in over 100 degree weather- even more precautionary steps to not over heat the car. Let me tell you- the drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas is one of the most dreary drives! There are some spots where the scenery is nice- but for the most part it is just yucky desert.

La Vegas was fun- we splurged a little for my birthday and stayed in Paris Las Vegas! That was a really nice hotel! And the lobby/ casino area wasn't very smoky- so I was very grateful for that. We slept for most of the day and then went out that night to find somewhere to eat and walk around the strip. After about 1/2 an hour of searching amidst rumbling tummies, we finally decided on the Mirage buffet. It was super yummy, but not quite worth the 25 dollars a person to eat there. I guess they just assume everyone visiting the strip is loaded...yeah right! Las Vegas was fun to see and I'm glad I can say that I've really been there now, but I dont think we'll be going back there any time soon. It is so fun to see all the different themed hotels, I just wish they didn't have to include all the garbage that goes along with it.

We took off from Las Vegas early on Sunday morning, but only made it to Mesquite, NV because we were still worried about our car overheating and it was super hot outside- so we ended up staying at another hotel on Sunday and left there early Monday morning. We drove all day Monday and finally made it here to IF at about 10:30 that night. Whew!

It was quite the adventure, and Jeffrey and Emily were awesome. I was amazed at how well they did on that long car trip! I'm so happy that we made it here sane, safe and sound :)

Here we are!

Well everyone, we are safely here in Idaho now. After a 3 day long adventure in the car, a stop in
Las Vegas, a crazy time packing and cleaning- we made it! I'll go into more detail later- right noe Emily is sitting on my lap and its hard to type one-handed!

Free Food!!!

We're not going to take any of our food with us when we go- the staples like flour and sugar and ketchup etc. So if you need anything, let me know! We need to get rid of it, and I really dont want to throw perfectly good food away.
So come unstock our cupboards!

Are we needed?

Now that I'm officially graduated with My Associates Degree (Prestigious, I know!), I have been saving up money for the fall semester by working for Kim's Dad. We've been fixing up a duplex for a lady who is moving from a really nice house in Ahwatukee to a duplex in chandler. We've also been doing a few thigs on the really nice house.
Her Mom lives in the other half of the duplex.
When I say that she is moving from a really nice house, I mean a REALLY nice house. Like, $800,000 nice.
The duplex is much nicer now that we've been fixing it up. It has new carpet and tile, new appliances, new cabinets, new paint, new front door, even new door stoppers. But, it is an old house.
Anyways, this is not why I am writing...
While working on the really nice house in Ahwatukee, I was puzzled... I think that this lady is in her forty's, the house that she lived in was georgous, but I think that she lived alone. To the best of my knowledge, she doesn't have any kids, and is not married. That big ol house seemed so lonely. I just think that it would suck to not have a family to come home to.
So, one day while I was working at the big ol house, thinking about how lonely the big beautiful expensive house would be if you lived all by yourself, even with all the nice artwork, and the pool, and the Hi-Def flat pannel TV, and a cat... I noticd a book that this lady owned. The title of the book was...
Are Men Really Needed?

What do you all think?

It's official

Most of you probably already know, but for those who dont-
we are officially moving to Idaho in June- around the 13th. I have such mixed feeling about going.
On one hand...the weather there will be awesome this summer and we'll miss the AZ heat!
On the other hand...it will be miserably cold and dark the other 9 months out of the year.
On one hand...we'll be close to Tysons family and they'll get to know the kiddos
On the other hand...my family is here! And they wont get to be close to the kiddos.
On one hand...it will be such an adventure to go somewhere new (for me) and experience living somewhere else.
On the other hand...I love Arizona! I love all my friends here, I love my calling, etc.
At times I'm just like "come on! Let's get going and just do it!" And then theres other times where I just want these next 3 weeks to go by so slowly. Then I think, Oh my heck, I only have 3 weeks to go through all our stuff and figure out which of our stuff we can fit into a little 4ft x 8ft trailer, and what stuff has to go byebye.
On that note- I have been going through some of the boxes that were at my parents' house, so I've been looking through all sorts of old pictures and all my old yearbooks- even the ones from elementary school! All I have to say is, I was such a dork! Band geek to a T! One of the things that was at my moms house was my old clarinet- so now I have to figure out what to do with that. Lol. I had so much fun as a kid- its awesome to go back and remember all the friends I had and all the crazy stuff we did. Stake dances, dressing up for spirit days, going TPing, crushes on 10 different boys at the same time, obssessing over *NSYNC...good times.
I'll bet Tyson would love it if I would just throw out my old yearbooks and pictures- so my question is, who still has their elementary/middle school yearbooks etc? Is it worth keeping? I always have this image in my head of looking through it with my kids when they're that age- does that ever actually happen?
One thing is for sure- I am so glad I never have to go through middle school again!

Cake Recipe

Thanks to everyone who came to Tyson's party on Saturday! We had a blast, and he was really surprised. I told some of you I would put up the recipe for that yummy cake, so here you go:
"Grandma's Sinful Chocolate Cake"
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup oil
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup bakers cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup hot water

1. Mix first 5 ingredients
2. then add egss
3. add flour and buttermilk, alternating
4. mix cocoa/baking soda/water seperately, then add to mixture
5. bake at 350 for 40 minutes
6. be sure to butter/flour the pan!

We actually cooked it a little less than 40 minutes- that might have contributed to the moistness, as well as covering it up to transport it! Thats the first time it was that moist.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 cube butter
4oz cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbs milk
dash of salt

Mix everything together!

Is any one else excited?!

I cant wait for the Twilight movie! Only...7 1/2 more months to go... :(
I dont know what I'm going to do until then. I guess I'll just have to fill up my time with The Host (May 6th), Breaking Dawn (Aug. 2nd) and you know, being a mommy ;)
P.S.- There's a teaser trailer out! I cant figure out how to post it here...but if you go to www.thetwilightsaga.com you can see it! All I can say is Oh. My. Gosh. It looks so good!