August Michigan trip

Surprise trip to Michigan! This was not a planned trip...I didn't think I would be able to visit so soon after moving. One day I was telling Dennis I wished I could go see Train and Maroon 5 in concert. He suggested going to Michigan to see them, and being able to visit everyone at the same time - he had a free ticket through Southwest. Originally he suggested me going by myself, and I thought that would be weird, going without the kids. The boys had just started school, so I decided to take Abby. (I couldn't go back without at least ONE of the grandkids!)

Abby waiting patiently for our flight to leave...

She did great on the plane, behaved so well. She would have done anything I asked, she was just so happy to be going to visit everyone!

At last...Grandma!

Visiting the Schriebers on our first day...

The girls had so much fun playing outside...

Our good friend Dan and his son Ben even drove in from Flint to see us at the Schriebers. Oh how I've missed our good friends!

There was a sad note to the weekend, however. Brayden was very bummed out that Jackson and Aidan couldn't come. He wasn't feeling well, and we attributed it to sadness. He ended up in the hospital the next day with extreme stomach pain. He was there for the rest of our visit, and they STILL didn't know what was wrong with him when we were leaving to come back home. It was so scary and sad...I was disappointed that I didn't get to spend much time with Amanda, but feeling guilty at the same time for even thinking that! We were all so worried about Brayden...he was a trouper though and finally got to go home a few days after we got back. I was still able to spend time with Amanda's girls while everyone was at the hospital, grateful for that and that I was able to help in some small way. That is one of the hardest things when a child is in the hospital, feeling so helpless. Amanda was amazing throughout the whole ordeal, she was so strong and positive. I admire her so much!

The next day we went to visit Teresa and Ava (Abby's best friend, born on the same day) Teresa didn't tell her we were coming, she was shocked speechless! It was very cute.

Our last day...we got to spend it with Brookie and Berlyn while everyone else was at the hospital with Brayden. We were blessed with beautiful weather, here the girls are enjoying it.

After Berlyn woke up from her nap, we headed over to my parent's, so we could spend some more time with them before we had to go....

The girls had a great time playing in the backyard. (even though there were no kid toys out there) They amaze me sometimes, they almost have MORE fun with nothing to play with...they make up their own games, and play classics like follow the leader...

They collected leaves...

Aren't they so precious?!

We were even able to squeeze in a quick dinner with Aunt Glo - she missed her Abby!

We had a great trip, and it was SO hard to go home. Especially when I felt like I was leaving home...I still didn't feel like Arizona was home. I am starting to feel more like it now...but I know the holidays are going to be extremely hard! All of our traditions with the Schriebers and the Shiners will be missed SO MUCH! It's going to feel very lonely this first year. I am just grateful my parents are here now, that makes it a little better. Can't wait for a visit from my Michigan family!!

Getting crafty!

Well, there is finally an end in sight for this short sale we have been trying to do here in Arizona. This process started back in February, the 1st to be exact, when we put an offer in on the house we are living in now. Kind of expected it to be done by the time we got here or soon after. The 1st mortgage approved it right away...the 2nd was a different story. The sellers needed to be in default, so we had to wait another 3 months after we got here to even try to get it approved. We just got word that the 2nd has FINALLY approved the short sale, and we should close at the end of September! It has been a bit hard feeling like this is home, without knowing for sure that this sale would even go through. I've unpacked (of course) but have left a lot of non-essentials in boxes. I haven't really hung any pictures. We have all our boxes broke down and stacked in the dining room. Can't bring myself to get rid of them (what if we have to move again?) BUT now that there is an end in sight, I have been bitten by the home decorating bug! I started in Abby's room...and wanted somewhere to keep all her bows and flowers and 'prettys' So then I get this idea in my head...maybe I could make a ribbon bow holder. But all my crafting stuff is still in boxes. So of course I had to drop what I was doing in Abby's room and start unpacking those boxes! This is what I came up with to store her prettys:

I used only what I had on hand...two corkboards, paper, and ribbons. It was actually not too time consuming and fun to do! Abby helped pick out the ribbon and loved watching me glue everything down. She really wanted to help but it was a hot glue gun, so I gave her some ribbon scraps and she was happy with that.

Here they are with all her stuff on it...

I actually like how it turned out! I really wanted to hang these in the downstairs bathroom (since that is where we always do her hair) but Dennis seems to think that it wouldn't look very good :( However the colors are PERFECT for her room and I can't wait to start hanging all her other pictures and getting started on the rest of the house!

Swimming, swimming, and more swimming!

We have had a great summer so far....lots of swimming has been involved! That has been pretty much our whole summer (except for a few visitors and short trips-posts coming soon!) It is definitely HOT here in the summer, so if you want to be outside, that is pretty much the only thing to do. The kids are loving it (me too). I am amazed at how fast they have learned to swim. We kept talking at the beginning of the summer how we would have to get them swimming lessons...never happened. They ended up not really needing them-they pretty much taught themselves by swimming almost every day!

Jackson learned the fastest, he already had the basics down...

And Aidan followed pretty quick (he is always desperate to be able to do everything Jackson does) He really looks up to his big brother!

And then Abby started wanting to take her water wings off - I am amazed at how well she is doing! She is even doing cannonballs into the water and loves for us to take her to the bottom of the pool so she can 'touch' it...

It's a great day when Daddy is able to get in the pool with us - he is the greatest at throwing them into the water! I have been told I am 'not very good at it'

We set up this 'waterslide' one evening and they of course loved it!

Even Abby got in on the action!

Here is one of our mini vacations - Dennis had to go to Tucson for work, so we tagged along. We just stayed one night, and hung out at the pool while Daddy was working. The next day we took the kids to a zoo in Tucson (post coming soon!)

Here we are at the Anthem Community Center. This is open to all residents of Anthem, and the cost is covered in your HOA dues (which is not very much!) It is huge, and has tons of sports fields, tennis courts, playgrounds, fishing pond, walking and riding paths, and the community center. There they have the pool (where we are in these photos) and a water park for the kids, with waterslides and lots of fun stuff. They also have a gym inside (no need to join a gym here, yay!) and rock climbing walls, basketball, raquetball etc.

The kids were pretty excited to jump off the high dive, although Jackson does look a little unsure here!

Big smile - he loved it!

Aidan just jumped, no hesitation at all!

And....another big smile, he loved it as well! Abby wanted to go too, but didn't know how to swim at the time...she should be able to go soon now.

We really don't know what we would do without a pool here in the summer, and we are so thankful we have one in our backyard. Feeling very blessed.