Time to Leave

With the selling of the house my wonderful family invited us to stay with them for a while. We moved in with mom, dad, and Tammy the last weekend in February. The boys and I share a room in the basement (but when I say room I really mean a room that is about 4 regular bedrooms in size) with a big closet and bathroom.  The boys were very excited to move in and be able to see grandpa, grandma and aunt Tammy all the time!  Selling a home is hard enough and getting it packed-although I've moved several times and have done pretty much ALL the packing myself, it's hard moving the furniture by yourself and finishing all the last minute things that need to be done like the many phone calls closing accounts, signing papers, getting inspections done, cleaning, repairs, etc. I had so many great family and friends that were always helping and I couldn't even imagine doing so much without them. I had friends come and help me clean, loan their trailer to haul my belongings to a storage unit, take items off my hands that I couldn't store, take loads to the dump for me for free and be there emotionally.  My brother Derek came over several nights in a row helping me take beds apart and moving furniture downstairs so when our ward helpers came things would be ready.  The boys and I invited a few of their friends over and Richie and Chanelle to have a little fun before we were officially out. We had a huge game of hide and seek in the house since there wasn't any furniture and turned off the lights. (We had glow sticks for a little light)

From this picture you can see some of the painting ( with chair rails) and beadboards that my mom and dad helped me put up in August before they left.

The boys playing a game of truth or dare with Chanelle before their mom picked them up.

Lisa watched the boys for me so I could finish cleaning the house before officially closing the door on that chapter in my life.  It was a very bittersweet experience for me to say the least. A lot of happy memories in that house but also a lot of unhappy ones as well. It was hard to say good bye one last time but thankfully the boys have been real troopers through it all. One day we will have a home again to call our own, but I know wherever we are together, it's home!

Cody turns 12!!

Cody went ahead and had another birthday. He turned 12 and received the priesthood. It was a really neat experience as family was there to support him. Cody is such a great young man. He's sweet, funny, kind and a great helper. He loves to laugh, be a friend, help others and be my right hand man. Happy birthday Cod-Noser!

                                         Cody wanted an ice cream cake this year-

February Fun

Besides the fun birthday in February it was quite busy as I sold my home.  February was filled with packing! LOTS of packing!  I also had midterms in February so it was just super crazy.  We did find time to take Cody with Aunt Desi, Uncle Nick, Uncle Derek and Haven to the Outback Steakhouse.  I also found time for a couple dates:)

Studying at the library with the boys one night as our internet wasn't working*

I had a couple of beautiful friends, April Catlett and Kim Davis, who brought me a super delicious Valentines Day Cookie-I have such great friends~

My brother was taking product pictures one afternoon before we went up to Bellevue to do some shopping so I had him take some goofy pics.  Fun story, so we got up to Bellevue and about an hour later I happened to check my phone and notice that Courtney was headed to my home to surprise me! Needless to say I made Derek cut our shopping trip short.

I got this beautiful emerald elephant from Courtney for Valentines Day~

(Yep I'm spoiled)

In January and February I also played on our Wards Relief Society basketball team. I had lots of fun and was surprised that I actually made some baskets. I got pretty banged up our last game but I had lots of fun playing with these ladies.
(We were missing a few ladies in this picture)

Courtney came up and taught me how to make homemade marshmallows- So yummy!

We also unfortunately had to say goodbye to Samson this month. The boys wanted to come over and help dig his grave.

Date Night

Courtney came up and we spent a fun weekend together. Had a fun game night at Desi and Nicks one of the nights. The Copelands came over and Derek was also there. Lots of laughter.  Ate at Buffalo Wild Wings too which was pretty fun.  Neither of us had been there before so it was fun trying the hot sauces-and believe me there were a couple HOT ones! We were giving the waitress a hard time about how they have sampler platters of beers and things so we suggested they have something like that with their lemonades since they had quite the variety. Well the next thing we know the waitress had a little something for us:)

January Happenings

The Bergs took us out for pizza at Mod one night for family home evening. We have made some really great friends and look forward to our outings together. The boys really like Ron and Dot. They have been such a blessing in our lives.

Grandma Stone and Aunt Tammy also gave talks in their ward this month so the boys and I got up early to make the drive to their building in Eatonville.  They both did a great job!  Afterwards the boys were playing with Richie and trying on his cool new hair:)

More "Firsts"

I took this picture on my way to my first mid singles adult dinner/fireside.  It was quite different but I actually made a couple of friends and found a few that had mutual friends from a couple of my old wards.  Interestingly enough I made a really good friend the next day that I met on LDSPlanet.  His name is Courtney-

He actually lives a couple hours away in Longview, WA and we finally got to go out towards the end of the month.  We went bowling at Bass ProShop in Tacoma.  He's a much better bowler than I am and ended up winning about 4 free games I believe. It was super fun.

December 2015

Derek and I decided to go on a date:)  We went up to Bellevue and went to the Botanical Gardens to see the lights and then drove by the temple. It was a really fun evening.