We finally have some family by us!!

I know that I always do this - I don't post for awhile and then I post a ton. So please forgive all of the pictures - I know there's a lot! But since I last posted I have had my cousin Meridith and her cute family move down here to San Antonio too! She just had her third child and they are adorable children. Olivia loves to have her cousins over to play:)

Lexi, Olivia, Phoenix, Romney and Paige

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!!!

Today is my dad's Birthday and I thought it would be fun to start a new tradition of posting some fun pictures of him! Here are the top 5 reasons why we love our dad and papa so much!! 1. He is so fun to play with (thanks for the input Livvy) 2. He's a great listener, full of great advice 3. He is very caring and Christ-like 4. He is extremely intelligent 5. He's so young at heart. We could go on forever, but these were our favorite! Happy Birthday dad!!

I love Bath Time!!

I don't know about any of you other moms, but I love bath time. Maybe it's my OCD about cleanliness, or maybe it's just that I love the smell of clean baby!! Really....is there anything cuter?

Swine Flu Update

So here we are still at home this week. Is anyone else ready for this swine fly to be over? Church was canceled on Sunday and school was canceled until May 11!! Needless to say we are really going crazy this week. We have been trying to find as many fun things to do at home as we can, but we're starting to run out of ideas. I never thought that I would be excited for Olivia to go back to school - but she's definitely ready too:) At least we have been somewhat successful in keeping them busy enough so that they're tired enough for bedtime (or maybe just Lexi)!

AWESOME VOICE!!!!

OK, if you want to hear something amazing scroll down on my blog to my friends list and click on Kyle and Julie and listen to her you tube video. Julie is one of my friends from high school (in San Diego) and we used to sing together a lot - but as you can see on her blog she surpassed my singing voice a long time ago! I could listen to her all day! Watch for her CD because I'm sure she'll make it big sometime soon:)

Fiesta (Continued)

The girls dressed up for the parade!

Fiesta

Last weekend our ward primary had their own Fiesta party! (Fiesta is kind of like Mardi Gras in San Antonio) The kids played carnival games, hit pinatas, danced around in the cake walk, walked in the parade, had their faces painted, and did I mention they had a ton of SUGAR (candy, cupcakes and snow cones)! I took my girls and Adyson, one of Olivia's friends from the ward. The bigger girls had a great time while Lexi slept in her car seat for most of it!

Swine Flu - Yikes!

OK, so I am sure by now you have all heard about the swine flu outbreak in the US, but did you know that our school district was where the first cases were confirmed? Last week we had been receiving calls from our superintendent and from the county health department about the swine flu that infected some of the high school students and so we would be closing the high school. Then the next day they decided to close the whole district. So we have been asked to stay at home as much as possible this week and not take our children out. A lot of public places that host large gatherings (like Olivia's tumbling class) have been closed, including all of the parks. It is now Thursday and Olivia is already deciding that a week off of school wasn't as fun as she thought it would be - especially since she can't really go anywhere or do anything (and mom's starting to go a little stir crazy too!) Thank goodness for fun close friends!

The Zoo

Olivia had only been at school for 2 days and then she had her first field trip with all of the kindergartners to the zoo! Lexi and I joined her there and we had so much fun. My favorite was the jaguar and Livvy's favorite was the Grizzly Bear in the water. It was a wonderful day until we came home that night and Livvy got sick. She ended up with strep throat too!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a little different for us this year because it was just us! We're not used to being without family on a holiday so it was really weird, but a good weird. The Easter bunny brought lots of candy and I made Livvy a little box for her rock collection (yes, I made it myself). The lovely Easter dresses were brought by grandma Mimi! The people in the ward called them the Neapolitan girls!

April

After the Gines Family left, the Romney family came. My parents came the second week we were here and they helped us finish the unpacking. They ended up saving the day because while I was down and out with strep throat, my mom took care of the girls while also doing all of the cleaning and cooking! My dad also helped entertain Olivia - he sure loves to play with his grandkids! My parents got to see the Alamo and Riverwalk and we also visited the Temple and my dad and Livvy went to the underground caves too! Thank goodness for parents! What would we do without them?
On conference weekend our ward had a Easter breakfast that included an Easter egg hunt that Mimi and Papa were also able to attend.

We're finally Texans!

We successfully made it to Texas (San Antonio) on March 25th! A huge thank you go's to Jed's parents and brother who made the LONG drive with us and all of our stuff! Not to mention the fact that they helped us move everything in and they fixed a lot of things too! Thank you so much Gines family - we couldn't have done it without ya'll!! While the family was here we had a little bit of time to tour the Alamo and the Riverwalk - it was loads of fun!

I also want to send a huge thank you to all of our wonderful friends in Oakley who helped us move and clean!! We owe ya'll big time!

I Miss my Young Women

Another hard goodbye was to my awesome young women!! Before I left they had a going away party for me and it was so much fun. Oh, how I miss all of them. I really loved getting to know all of them and the other women that I served with - they will all never know how much I truly learned and gained from knowing them! I love you!!

March

This was a very hard and sad month. We found out at the very end of February that we would be moving on March 23 - so we had 3 weeks to pack and find a place to live in Texas! It was really hard to say goodbye to all of our amazingly wonderful family and friends, but the hardest goodbyes were definitely to the grandparents!