Sorry for the long time between posts! We have had so much going on with house projects there hasn’t been a lot of time to sit down and right. I can say quickly that I am working on a series of posts regarding the projects we have been working on and general updates to how things have been. Until then, please enjoy my new favorite comedian:

Jim Gaffigan (the man who has now ruined camping for me)

Today was Noah’s first day of kindergarten. It hardly seems possible that he is now going to school. From all accounts he had a good day and gave us several blow by blow descriptions of what happened. It was interesting because we don’t get that type of communication from Hailey.

When we dropped him off they had all the kids line up against the wall and when it was time to go in, the teacher asked each kid to hug their mom/dad before going to class. Noah was a little stinker because he just wanted to go into class. We had to drag him back to get a hug. He was like whatever. Without hesitation, he walked right through the doors and didn’t even look back. Too cool for mom and dad I guess.

Today is Hailey’s first day of 3rd grade. It doesn’t seem possible.

Good luck Hailey!

Wow, what a week! We had so many people come and visit us from Arizona. We got a call from Kevin and Vieng that they were coming up from Tucson so it was good to see them again. They came up for a wedding and stayed a few days with us. Fortunately we were able to find a babysitter and go out to eat with them. I have been working on Kevin and Vieng to come up and live here. I have been using the weather as a weapon every time I would call saying, “Yeah, it’s only like 72 degrees right now. How hot is it there?” When they finally come up, it is frikin 102! Sheesh.

Justin and Tia also came up for the second time in as many weeks. Poor Tia, she wasn’t even coming up for fun. She was coming up for paint. And if she says that is fun, something is seriously wrong with her because that was about as fun as pulling your own teeth out, for no good reason. Justin had a young men’s activity planned where they would be going to Temple Square and then on up to Wyoming to float the Snake river. That was happening on Friday and they invited us to go along. I offered to watch the kids and Juli went with Tia. When Juli got back she was just glowing. She had so much fun and said that it more than met her expectations. Something about fulfilling life long dreams and such. Hopefully she’s not hooked and lets me go next time.

So Tia came up and she painted and painted and painted. I tried to keep the Diet Dr. Pepper and Swedish Fish levels high but man can that girl swig a 52oz like nobody’s business. I think I paid more in soda than I did in paint! Just kidding Tia! You’re the bestest! The kitchen looks great even though it’s not a perfect finish. If you had stayed, I’m sure it would have been perfect but no, you had to leave me to finish it up. My fingers are still sore and raw from applying the glaze! We have more painting to do Tia so when you come up next week we can get started!

I also got the sprinkler system up and running for the front yard. I still have to do it manually but all the sprinkler heads are working now and we have water! The kids love it as evidence that they are constantly running through them. Speaking of which, because it’s manual for now, I had better get to it! I mean really it’s hot here today. Something like 86 degrees or some such nonsense!

You know what they say about fish and visitors don’t you? They stink after 3 days. Well we had family come for 4 days to visit. Enough said No actually, it was a great visit. The kids loved seeing Mombee and Uncle Joey and Stinky Tia and Uncle Justin. Everyone just left and the kids stayed up so late last night they didn’t get up to say goodbye.

Everyone got here at 1:30am Tues morning. I know cause I got a call saying, “Where exactly is your house again?” That was fine because I wasn’t really sleeping anyways. I was excited that everyone was coming. Unfortunately I had to get up the next morning and go to work. That morning, Juli made everyone (except me) a huge breakfast and they just lounged around while I was at work. Do you notice a theme here? I’m at work when I get a text saying they are coming into town. We decide to meet at the Joesph Smith Memorial Building for lunch. We ate at The Garden and then went over and Joey and Mom took a tour of the new Church History Library. I went back to work. After work we met up at the Family History Library where Joey was doing some family history research. He came up for that, not to see us. Jerk. How bout your family in the now Joey?! Just kidding, he is great about doing that and a good example for the rest of us. Once he wrapped up we walked over to the Conference Center and took a tour of that building. 1.4 million square feet if you didn’t know. Afterwards we went home to relax.

Wednesday, Joey and I got up early and went to work. He went to the Family History Library and I worked half a day until we met up for lunch again with Mom, Tia and Justin. I got them passes to the Church Office Building where we went down to the cafeteria to eat. Afterwards, we went to the 26th floor’s observation deck. Wow what a view! Tia post some pictures of that! After the tour we walked over and saw the Joesph Smith movie where Joey cried like an inconsolable baby. It was sad, Joey’s crying that is. The movie was sad and good but man Joey, pull it together. I can say all this now because he is gone and probably wont come back. By the time I see him again, he will have forgotten the sting of my comments.

Friday, I decided to take the day off. We had some house stuff to take care of so my Mom and Joey went back downtown and we were going to meet them around 12:00pm to go to a session in the Salt Lake Temple. We all met up and got a bite to eat, went to the temple and it was closed! Joey knew it was closed but we didn’t listen to him. So Joey went back to the Family History Center and Juli, my Mom and myself went and did a session at the Jordan River Temple. We all met back up and just hung out at the house. It was a lot of fun to have everyone here. Hopefully the basement didn’t freeze you guys out so that you will want to come back.

This is a picture of either Tia not wanted to leave, or realizing that Joslin pee’d on her in the night.

I was browsing through some of my iPhone pictures and saw this one. When we were moving last week, Juli, Hailey, Noah and Joslin went back to the old house to clean up a bit. As time wore on, Joslin got tired. This is where we found her. It just happened to be in the spot where her crib used to be. Pretty sad but very funny.

The kids have started to make the adjustment. They now have stopped asking to ‘go home’ so that’s a good thing.

Went out to the house today to meet the inspector. According to him there is nothing major to be concerned about with the home. There are some things that need to be fixed or replaced but other than that, it looks good. Here are the pictures promised.

As you can see Tia and Hanny and Mindy. There will be some painting of cabinets to do. Get your paint brushes out girls!

Sorry about the long time between meaningful posts. Life has been crazy for us lately and is only about to get crazier. We were informed a little over a week ago that the house we are renting had an offer on it and that the person making the offer wanted to close on the 29th of June. Yikes! We had been actively looking for a home and found a few but everything was falling through. Now it was go time. We had to find something and find it soon. and it had to be right for our family. We knew that there was the possibility that the house would be sold but when it finally happened, well it was scary. We were just about to go to a family reunion when we found out so that compressed our time frame down even more.

Well that night, I got on my knees and in my discouragement I pleaded in prayer that we might be provided a direction to go. I had no idea. All our best efforts had been in vain and it was discouraging. So many factors we were looking for such as house size, yard size, a good school for Hailey (top priority!) and many more. In our efforts however there was a house that Shane took us to look at that was one of his former rental properties. Well, I liked the house well enough. It had a good sized yard, was very private, custom home so that it didn’t look like every other house on the street, quiet well kept neighborhood, etc. Juli however didn’t like it. To her it was not her dream home. The layout was wrong, the lawn not green and beautiful, and many other things. Well the thought came to me, “Take Juli and go see that house again.” We had been offered to rent the house as well as buy but the terms weren’t what we were looking for. We want to buy while the market is good for buyers and not lock ourselves into a lease agreement so I didn’t know exactly why we should go and see this house again.

So I said ok and went to bed.

The next morning I proposed to Juli that we go look at the house. I told her of my experience and right away I knew I was in for a fight. Keep in mind I only know what I was told to do. Nothing more. Well I got the third degree about how this was not the house, we didn’t want to lock into a lease, etc. I explained that we just needed to go look at the house again. After some cajoling, she finally agreed and we made arrangements with Shane to meet him at noon to walk through the house again.

At noon we pulled up to the house, and started looking around again. As we walked though each room and the front yard and the back yard and well all over, I had that peaceful feeling that it was where we needed to be. I was keeping my thoughts to myself though because I didn’t know how Juli was feeling. Comments I made were very non-committal and general. It wasn’t till the end however when were were alone and standing in the kitchen/dining room area that I could sense a change. I asked her how she felt about the house and she teared up. I told her not to because well….

We both knew that this is where we were supposed to be. We talked to Shane about it and agreed to a price. Because it is his home he has agreed to let us move in before the 29th and before we officially close on the home. With the reunion the following day and his family going on vacation for a week after that, we just didn’t have time to start the process. So, we are moving into the home on the 24th and will finalize the sale after that.

I will post some pictures of the home later today. We have a home inspector coming out this afternoon to make sure everything is ok.

In other news, we are doing really good! Everyone is healthy and happy. Noah starts Kindergarten at the end of summer and Hailey finished 2nd grade. She did really good socially but is lagging a little in academics. We have put her on a new medication that has really helped her with her mood and aggression. She no longer beats up her brother and sister all the time. Joslin is doing good as you could tell from the video. She is my little princess and that is a dangerous thing for me. I have a feeling she is going to be really expensive when she gets older.

I took this picture a few days ago. She is the only one still willing to pose for the camera!

Other than that, not much else going on. We are frantically scrambling to get packed up, making plans for things we want to change in the house, and trying to get ready for the upcoming school year for Noah and Hailey.

When it comes to Joslin, I am a pushover. Plain and simple, she is a daddy’s girl and can get anything she wants from me. I decided to memorialize this with a video Hope you enjoy…

Pushover from Brandon Beecroft on Vimeo.

Seriously!? Who could say No to that face? I can’t!