Hello Again.

Just in case some of you were wondering...we are here...somewhere. Things have been so crazy busy these past few weeks. We drove all the way from Texas to our home in Washington. It was a LONG, but well-worth it trip to be at home in our own bed.

How did our Summer go? Let's just say that it was a great experience. We loved being able to visit fun places like Coco Beach and Disney World in Florida, and Sea World and San Antonio, in Texas. We loved being able to see different parts of the country. One day I just need to sit down and blog all about our summer activities. We loved the weather, at first...then really disliked it. We enjoyed seeing the sun and feeling the warmth, but after about 60+ days of it reaching at least 100 degrees, we were ready to be back in Washington with some cooler weather. I really don't know how I lived in Yuma, AZ for 3 years without complaining. I think it was because I was a kid and I didn't really care that much. We spent a lot of days cooling off at the pool or just staying indoors with the AC. Jerrod, on the other hand, worked hard out in the heat. I don't know how he did it.

We made some great friends and grew closer to the friends that we already had. We loved spending time with them. It was very difficult to say goodbye to some of them. I cherish some of my memories and the good times that I had with them. Some were HUGE supports and helped me with my kids when I really needed it. I thank them for that. (They know who they are!)

We packed up our little apartment and left on August 22, 2009. We decided to spend a fewdays in Tulsa, OK with Jerrod's family. It is always good to spend time with family. I have photos to blog from our trip there, but I will post that after I finish this post.

After visiting Tulsa, we stayed one night with Jerrod's sister in Wichita, KS. It was fun to stay with Jaela and Curtis and to see their home. The next day we went to a zoo type place called Tangynica. It was very cool and we were able to get up very close to some animals. Again, that post will come.

We left Kansas to continue our trip home. It was a long few days, but we were so excited to get back home. Kaden hated being in the car. He fussed and cried a lot. He would fall asleep just about 15 minutes before we would stop to get gas and then he would wake up again. That part was not fun.

We stopped in Tri-Cities, WA on Friday night and stayed with my Grandma for the night. It was so good to see her and to be able to spend some time with her. On Saturday, we drove the last leg home. We, of course, stopped in Ellensburg to see my family quickly, and then continued on home. We were so anxious just to be home again.

Finally, we pulled into Puyallup, and it just felt right. Kennedi was excited to be home to see all of her toys. It was fun like Christmas all over again. She loved seeing a bunch of "new" toys that she hadn't seen in a while.

Jerrod didn't have to be at work until Friday, so he was able to stay home with us to get situated.

Needless to say, I love being home. I love being in my own home with my own furniture and ALL of my kitchen stuff. I love the cooler weather, and the familiarity of our own town. Most of all, I love being in our home church ward again. It was so great to go to church and to be re-welcomed with open arms. We have developed many great friendships in our ward, so it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces. We really missed our friends while we were gone. I just sat there during Sacrament Meeting with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for our ward and friends. It is an amazing feeling to have that feeling that we are home and it feels right. I am probably going on and on about that too much, but it really is how we feel.

While home from work, Jerrod decided that he wanted to be Mr. Tim Taylor and start projects in our house. We are going to be here a bit longer than we anticipated, so we just decided to really start turning our home into something that we really loved and were proud of. His first project was tiling the bathrooms. I must say that my husband is a much better home improvement guy that Tim was. Jerrod had never tiled before and he just decided one day that he could do it. He went to Home Depot and asked someone what he needed and how to do it. Over the next few days he re-tiled both bathrooms upstairs. He did a FABULOUS job! It has really made a huge difference. It looks so great.

We also decided to get new granite counter tops in the kitchen and both bathrooms. Those will be done on October 5th! We are so excited about that!

Next we decided that we needed a little bit of color. Let's just say that we have a REALLY hard time when it comes to choosing paint colors. We go back and forth and it takes us forever to decide, but we did it. We decorated the kids' bathroom with a safari animal theme, so we chose a light green color. That wasn't an extremely hard decision, and right away we were happy with the choice.

Our bathroom on the other hand wasn't so easy. We couldn't decide for a long time what color we wanted and I kept trying to think that I could go bold and just do some color that I never thought I would do. So, we chose a light blue and tried to be brave. We didn't really know how we felt after it was done. I kept thinking that maybe it would get better over time, but it really didn't. It just bothered me more and more. It kind of looked like our kids smeared a bright blue toothpaste all over our walls. We just couldn't live with it anymore. We got a third opinion on a new paint color (Thanks Megan!) and went with it. Now, it is a really pretty dark olive green color. We love it! I am so glad that we decided to change it.

We also decided to paint an accent wall in our living room. We have a vaulted ceiling, so we have a really tall wall in our living room. It has just been white and we have been wanting to paint it for a long time, but didn't know what to do. So, again, thanks to Megan, we made a final decision the color and just did it! And, again, we love it! That color is a light brown with golden undertones. It really has "warmed" up our home.

Photos of all of these projects to come when we get our new countertops! YAY!

So, I think after we get our new countertops, I will feel like things will be back to normal. We have been trying to get situated while doing all of these projects so I feel like life has not returned to "normal" yet. That is why I am so behind on my blogging. Well, that is my excuse at least. I have lots of things to blog, so hopefully I can get caught up. Here goes....