LOCKERS!!!

Moving has made me think a lot about using space wisely. I have this pet peeve (which some of you moms out there might share with me). These little people come home at 3:15 and my once clean floors are all of the sudden littered with shoes, socks, coats, papers, more papers, open backpacks, and lunchboxes. Even though we have a specific place in the house for those bags, once opened, it's like they throw up all over the room. Oh, and what is up with the shoes/socks deal? Did I not make it easy enough by placing a basket right in front of you to place your shoes? Is it really that hard to put your socks in the hamper? To my embarrassment, there were socks found even when moving furniture out of our house....you know....the ones *shoved* behind so mom won't see.

Well, knowing that we were moving to less space, I knew I had to come up with a solution before the backpacks and shoes took over the house. I have always wanted some kid lockers but have never really had a place to put them and have never had the $250+ to spend on them either. I looked at some DIY websites and found this locker project. SUPER easy. It's 48 inches square and 18 inches deep. Home Depot sells 48"x 18" pieces of wood! Ha! So, buy six of those, cut a 48" square piece of plywood for the back, nail together, and you're ready to paint. The one I saw on the DIY website had cute little legs on the bottom and shelves on the top for baskets, but I'm not that fancy and the easier the better. This allows me to solve my problems. The kids shoes go in the basket before they even enter the house, and the backpack has a home :) They love having their own place to put things! Maybe you are not as excited as I am, but this is making life a lot easier.

The Raingutter Regatta

Tyson has LOVED being in scouts. Last night was his last time with his troop before he starts next week with the nes ward troop. In place of the Pinewood Derby, they did the Raingutter Regatta (I sound like I know what I'm talking about but I really just found out that this event exists). Tyson wanted a TRON boat. Mike was excited to help Ty with the boat. He wanted Orange and Black colors and Mike helped him paint it. Last night was a blast. Glad we were all able to go support Ty.

Tyson and his best friend, Travis.

Anna and her best friend, Riley.

Everyone standing around with their boats.

The Wolves did a skit. Tyson has refused to participate in all of the practices so we were all nervous for him. He got right up and didn't show one sign of being afraid. He said his lines perfectly. I think having Travis there makes a big difference.

Tyson with his TRON boat. He did three races and won them all. Way to go kiddo!

Movin' Blues

I thought I'd post pictures of our last days at the house. Packing is always a beast, but I honestly like going through everything, getting rid of "stuff", and cleaning it all. It took two weeks to sort through all of it. Some went to storage, some went to donation, some was sold, some was thrown away, and the rest came with us. Honestly, to go from a 2000 square foot home to a roughly 1450 square foot home took a lot of creativity. When we moved all the boxes into the new house, the boxes took up so much space I just couldn't imagine we would actually be able to live here with all of our stuff, but it all fits and so do we. We went on a walk this evening and the neighborhood is beautiful and the people are so nice. We are very optimistic. Here are some pre-moving pics.

The last night in their bedrooms :(

Kid Creations

I've always posted the kids drawings and school projects on our pantry door. We had to take everything down to move so I took pictures before I threw them away :( Not sure where I'm going to put the pictures now but I'll find a place. They are so precious to me.

Tyson's Piano Recital

This was Tyson's first piano recital! We were running late and didn't know how packed it would be. We got there with just minutes to spare. I looked at the program and Tyson was SECOND!! His tie wasn't even on! Mike got his tie on and he ran up. His wonderful teacher introduced him and then Tyson was so cute and said his name as well. He played "Let's Waltz". He did so well. We are proud of Tyson. He has done so well with piano and he likes it a lot. He has even written some of his own songs. Good job Ty!

It's done

We now live right behind Mike's school. The house is MUCH better than I thought it would be and the neighborhood and ward are FANTASTIC. We are unpacked and I even have most of the decorations up. The cat took it the hardest. I thought she was going to shrivel up and die. Poor thing. We had some amazing friends help us load, unload, and even unpack. Mike's dad came over the day before and helped build shelves in the garage and stayed to help load the trucks. A co-worker (and friend) watched our boys. Anna went with Grandma Winslow because she had a temp of 103. She slept a lot of the morning. We took the boys to Grandma later and Matthew stuck around and helped Mike get the stubborn dishwasher connected. It all went pretty well. The cost has been a LOT more than expected. The fridge is 1/2 an inch too wide so we had to buy a new one. A lot of our "stuff" had worn out at the other house so we needed to replace things like rugs and linens. The kids are missing their friends and driving us a little insane, but with school starting up again tomorrow I think things will be good. Come over anytime. I won't post my address here, but I will e-mail you my address if you request it.

We are moving

We have been looking at homes and though we did not get the one we wanted, we did get one in a perfect location, a beautiful neighborhood, and the best part is that Mike will be walking to work everyday :) We were in SLC visiting family and attending Alex's baptism (which was so awesome) when we were called and told that we got this house. We have been packing/sorting/trashing/donating ever since. I just hope our stuff fits into this house. It's a lot smaller- like 500 square feet smaller. We are losing a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, half of a laundry room, and a use able backyard :( I am sad about all of that. We will be gaining a lot of savings though, and that's the whole point. We have a 2 yr. plan and we hope that God will give us a break on the health issues and surgeries while we are trying to meet our goals. So, when's the big day? Friday.....as in THIS Friday. Are we ready? No. Am I excited. Not sure. How are the kids? I'll wait until next week to answer that question. How will our psycho cat do with this? I will catch it on film for all of you to see. Hee hee. IF you happen to be in St. George on Friday, say 9 am, feel free to stop by. We're having a party. You might be asked to lift a few boxes while here, but it's sure to be a BLAST!

I forgot to mention.....

We had another wedding anniversary on March 15th......while we were in CA. It was our Legoland day. Not too romantic, but it marked our 9th year of putting up with each other :) In some ways I can't believe that it's been 9 years but for the most part, it sure feels like it's been 9 years (not for negative reasons BTW). We've had so much happen, there are three kids living with us, we look old, and Mike has finally gained a little weight. That's what 9 yrs. does. Oh yeah, and did I mention that we still love each other? Well, we do....even more now and that's the best part. I get uglier every year and Mike still loves me. How sweet :) I felt like the luckiest girl alive when I married him and now I know I am the luckiest. He works harder than anyone I know to take care of us. He loves me, he loves the kids, and even though we have felt the strain of many problems in our marriage from finances to health, we have held on to the one thing that matters in all of it......and that's our marriage and our kids. It doesn't matter what you lose, how tired you are, how much you have to work, at the end of the day you go home to those you love. It doesn't matter if you live in a hole or a house as long as they are still there. I think that's the biggest lesson from this year of marriage. What is to come? Hopefully more good than hardship. I love you Mike and I always will.

The House Situation

We came back home and back to reality. We have been talking/thinking about moving for a long time. I think maybe 1 1/2 years now. You all know our situation so I won't bore you with the story again. We know our time is running out in this house and we will need to be out of here soon. We have looked at houses, but not seriously. As soon as we came home, I started looking for places. We paid a lot each month for this place- way more than it's worth, so if we can get into a relatively cheap place, still live on the same budget that we've been on but save a lot. It means we will have to move into something much smaller. Our goal is to save enough between our monthly savings and our extra jobs to purchase another home in 2 years. It's very do-able, but it means a lot of sacrifice. We have looked at a couple homes and we don't love any of them, but oh well. We applied for a house and are hoping to get it. It's a condo that has a pool included in the HOA (so it's the kids pick as well). I am still looking around. If you know about any rentals in the Desert Hills/Bloomington Hills/Little Valley areas with 3 beds and 2 baths, let me know. I'm sick of looking! It's also hitting me that we are leaving. I sort of get attached to homes and I love this house a lot. I wanted to stay here forever. I'm kinda over that part and I'm trying to be good about it, but I know I'll shed a few tears. I'm still kinda bitter but I also realize there's no sense in being that way. There's nothing that can change the situation. There are a lot of positives in moving. We'll be by our schools and the kids school, we'll save hundreds in gas, and we'll be able to plan for a house (as we are hoping to build). We will miss our friends over here and I worry a lot about Tyson leaving his best friend. I am expecting some really hard weeks. Oh, and I HATE moving! Half of our stuff is going into storage and the other half is coming with us. I have to organize that and if our applications our accepted, we will be into a new home in 3 weeks. I'm not sure If I can mentally handle all of it. I guess if I can have seizures nearly everyday, still hold down a job, take care of three kids, and complete SUPAF all at once I can do this too. I need a cheer leading section though. Any takers?

Titus Family Reunion Trip

My parents have wanted to have all of us kids together for a long time. They decided we should all go to my Mom's favorite place- Disneyland. Wow was it a fun FILLED week! We were all there....Us, Mandi and her family, Beth and her family, and Aaron and his family. 10 adults and 11 kids in all. We went to Disneyland for 5 days, we all went on a Whale/Dolphin/Sea Lion cruise, and then we all spent a day on our own (for us it was at Legoland). I have over 200 photo's, but this is a good sample of our time in So. CA. It was lovely weather and we stayed at a very nice hotel. It was great seeing my big brother and his family that live in New York. I had never net 2 of his 5 kids. The only sad part is that Nathan and Mallory were not able to join us. Nathan is, however, very close to being released. Mallory still has a long way to go and we are hoping things will turn around with her.

I am not going to give a day-by-day rundown but rather I will use the pictures to tell some stories. It was a great vacation and I enjoyed spending time with my family. This was day 2. We forgot the camera on day 1. This was at Cali. Adventure. We had lunch on the Pier. I LOVE the soup w/bread bowls. The kids fed most of their lunch to the birds. Tyson was determined to get the sword out. I had to break it to him that he was not King Arthur. Sad moment.

Goofy guys. Good place to be Goofy I guess :)

The ever so informative Jungle Cruise. The kids love it.

Dang, I am white. LEGO LAND! Guess who wanted to go here? This was before we entered the park. There is a full size family getting out of the car ready to head into the park. The mom is on the other side of the vehicle. The kids thought it was awesome. So did I.

There is a place called Miniland inside the park. We spent at least an hour just looking at all the cities. AMAZING! Tyson's dream job! They are building a Star Wars Land. It will be done in the summer. We were pretty sad that we came too early for it. We took tons of pictures of the different places but I didn't want to put all of them on. Here's the White House and New York!

Just thought this one was cute. We went on lots of fun rides. It's not Disneyland, but it sure is a LOT less crowded! Thank heavens! AND people wear clothes at this park. Another bonus! We let the kids buy toys at the end. I was REALLY mad at myself over that one. I had purchased 3, $50 gift cards.....one for each child.....and left them at the hotel! We had promised the kids they could buy something, so we still let them, but now I have $150 in gift cards to Legoland. POINTLESS!

Brayden with his toy......he fell asleep fast!

We went to a Character Breakfast. If you have never been to one.....GO! They are so fun and it is nearly impossible to see the characters in the park given the long lines! The kids had a blast meeting so many characters, eating a very calorie filled meal, and playing with each other!

What can I say? He's just dang cute!

In Bug's Life Land, there is a water area for the kids. They were pretty soacked by the end of this. In fact, Bray didn't wear pants the rest of the day. We ran out of regular diapers so he had to wear a swim diaper. When we got to the tram that took us back to the car, I was holding Bray and he peed through the swim diaper onto me, my jacket, and Mike's jacket. He felt so bad. Mike ended up doing a run to the Laundry Mat.

The was the cruise. We didn't see any whales, but we saw plenty of dolphins and sea lions. It was a lot of fun. We were on a boat with a school group. That was slightly annoying, but not too bad. The kids enjoyed running up the ladder to the top deck. We didn't see Anna, Ty, and Alex most of the trip. We had to keep a close eye on Darek and Brayden. They were all over the place (until Bray fell asleep).

After the Cruise, we ate lunch on a pier. I must say, not the most enjoyable lunch of my life. It was really windy which made it cold, there were no tables inside, so we had to eat outside with all the fisherman. It smelled a lot like gutted fish. Blah. But, it was fun being with everyone.

We swore we wouldn't let the kids in the sand. The picture above shows how well that plan went. They didn't get in the water though. I was not about to have freezing cold kids covered in sand. There was a funny moment though. We told Ty not to go near the water. He doesn't listen....never has (I really don't know why I keep trying). Anyway, there was this sort of joke- when we asked Tyson to do something people would start counting down to when he would do the opposite thing that we asked. Usually by the time the countdown was over he finally obeyed. This time, we asked him not to go near the water and Chad and Beth started the countdown. Man, that kid just kept going. I thought we were all going to pee our pants. Right when Chad was ending the countdown, Ty went over this little hill and it totally looked like he went right into the water. Later we discovered he didn't get wet, but man it was funny.

Ty found a crab instead. Lucky for us we found another boy to "keep it safe" when we left.

Kids are cute.....especially when they are all best friends. Ty and Alex were joined at the hip every time our families were together. When they weren't together, Tyson was in a bad mood.

Beth, her baby (Gryn), and Mandi. My little sisters :)

Cute Darek and Brayden sliding together. They are adorable together. They would wait for each other at the top of the slide and go down together. Keeping up with those two is a challenge. They just kept moving. Luckily we had strollers or they would still be in Disneyland.

Anna begged the whole time to go on the Monorail. One of our last rides was on this beauty. It was fun and relaxing!

I didn't get pictures of the last event, but we all watched the fireworks from a restaurant. It was amazing!!!! We watched Tinkerbell fly across the sky and fireworks popped up from everywhere. Thanks to Mom and Dad for a very memorable trip. We loved spending time with you and everyone else! Brayden won't stop talking about it. I guess we'll have to go again :)