Things We Will Miss - Part 1 - Commerce

This is Part 1 of a 5 part series about things we will miss when we move. Feel free to skip it, it is mostly written for our own remembrances.


1. The local library. It is small enough that the librarians know our children each by name, and sometimes when we go we are the only ones there, but big enough to have any book you could ever want, a fantastic storytime storyteller and a children's floor fully loaded with all the Thomas tables, lego tables, puppets, etc. that you could ever want. We have loved going there at least weekly, more frequently in the winter.













2. The Dutch Oven Bakery, here in town. It is the kind of place where you hear things like, "we'll just put it on your tab", or if the debit card machine isn't working, "don't worry about it, you can just pay it next time." There are always a group of old men or women there on Saturday mornings when we go. The small town feel is only part of why we love it. The other part is the cream cheese Danishes. Yes. Oh my goodness, awesome. KC goes for the pudding filled Long Johns, the girls like the apple fritters and chocolate donuts.











3. The fast food joint, Culver's. I'm not really a hamburger kind of girl, but I do love this place. Especially the frozen custard. Butter burgers are pretty good too. I guess we'll have In-n-out, but we went there and I didn't really get the hullaballoo. Shocking, I know.




4. And lastly for today, we will miss the local movie theatre. It's $3.00 per person, new movie every week (not old movies), and always family friendly (most of their business is the youth). The scary story about someone hanging themself inside it was slightly intruiging, but mostly just creepy. The perfect recipe for a hometown theatre.

First haircut

Our baby boy had his 3 month pictures last week! In preparation, we cut his little hairs! His hair has grown in standing straight up, leaving a nice thick fuzz that everyone seems to want to touch. We just snipped out the long ones. He is very handsome, if I do say so myself.

The 4 minute tornado

We have a lot of tornadoes out here in the Midwest. In fact, everyday at our house. So, if you come to my house and it looks like this:


Just know that 4 minutes earlier it most likely looked like this:

Our Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo

We had a great little mini va-cay in Nauvoo last week. We have been there 5 times now since we moved here. We had to go just one more time before we are really far away. It was probably the best trip we have had there! Since we have already seen everything, it was so relaxed and we just let the kids dictate the days. We've stayed in several different places but the last time we went we found a fantastic place and we won't stay anywhere else now. It is the Nauvoo Log Cabins. Totally awesome.

KC got to play doctor. When the senior missionaries found out what KC was they rushed him over to look at one of their sick horses. Of course he knew exactly what to do.



The girls' had fun running around and chasing a cat up a tree.








In our cabin. It had a full kitchen, bunk beds for the kids and plenty of room for everyone.


At Carthage.


And the girls' very favorite, the senior missionaries show. We can't stop singing the songs!



Nauvoo is great. We will miss it.

House hunting UPDATE!

We tried so hard to love those houses. I think every one of them was my favorite at some point but there was always something buggin' about each one. So... we had resigned ourselves to rent for a while and take our time when we get there to find something. Which means moving TWICE. yuck. But then, we happened to notice an AMAZING house for an AMAZING price after KC got home... we called about it, it was still available and not a short sale! YES! Made an offer, they countered, we accepted and now we just have to wait! We are so excited. This home was foreclosed upon and is bank owned, resulting in the great price. We will need to remove some Christmas lights, buy some appliances and a few door knobs. I kinda feel sorry for the poor people who got evicted so we could have a great house. We are super excited though and we love the house! We'll have a great guest set-up too, so come visit us!!

Abs Diet Update

Okay, I promised an update so here it is.

The Abs Diet is awesome, I pretty much love it. I failed though. Yeah, I have a lot of excuses as to why and how to avoid future failures. I'm giving it another go, starting tomorrow. So that means June 1st I'll be smokin' hot and I'll be back to report about it. The first three weeks were actually fabulous - I felt great, it was pretty easy, and I was on my way to some mega - abs. So here are my excuses:

1) Easter happened. Too many temptations that lasted way too long. THIS TIME: Easter won't happen, or any other chocolatey holidays.
2)My husband was gone. That resulted in survival mode- too much cold cereal, nuggets, corn dogs and pbj's. THIS TIME: My husband will only be gone regular hours, or not gone at all! Yay!
3) Cold weather and no sleep. Who wants to go running in the rain, slush, mud and snow? Not me. THIS TIME: The weather seems to have made a change for the better lately. Lots of rain in the forecast still, but I'm just going to be tough this time, at least it won't be 3 degrees. I hope. Still won't be getting any sleep though. That won't be changing any time soon so I just need to get used to it.

My possible problem may come when we move. We'll be on the road for a couple weeks before we actually get where we are going. I will just have to plan extra carefully at that time to not fall off the wagon again.

So there. That is it. I won't fail this time! For reals.

House hunting

We are in the midst of choosing our new house. It is so exciting!!! KC is returning home from California today after a hard week of serious searching. There are two houses we LOVE. And two backup houses that are nice as well. Which one will it be??? We shall soon find out.



#1 Pros: Brand new (we'd pick upgrades), the best neighborhood, an AMAZING large lot with a beautiful view of the mountains
Cons: Perhaps not the perfect floor plan, but it is actually growing on me

#2 Pros: Perfect floor plan, super close to a really nice park for the kids, has ALL the upgrades
Cons: The yard is kinda small

#3 Pros: Enormous, very beautiful home at a great price
Cons: too enormous?, smallish yard, left in a sorry state (we'd need to replace all flooring)

#4 Pros: Close to the nice park, ALL the upgrades - my favorite kitchen, nicer yard
Cons: Weird floorplan w/ no loft or eat-in kitchen

Lessons learned

After a lovely Conference weekend one learns many things.* What sticks out in my mind is this:



YUMMY!!!






Eeeew. Yucky.



*The abs diet allows for 1 cheat meal a week.

Sleep sweet

The situation is this. Miss B has a toddler bed and Miss K has her crib, both in the same room together. In reality, Miss K sleeps in the toddler bed more often than not because if you know Miss K, you know she is louder and consequently gets what she wants. Last night, they fell asleep like this. When we move they will start sharing a queen size bed and baby boy will get to graduate from the bassinet. I love my kiddies. Aren't they so sweet?

Ah-Ha!

I had an ah-ha moment, or more like a duh moment when I realized why K always says she is a bunny when she colors on her face. I blame it on no sleep (I love to stay up late, the girls get me up early and the baby keeps me up all night). THIS is why she is a bunny. Of course!