Quote of the day...

I really like this quote and I'm going to keep it in mind...
"Fear is a deadly enemy of progress." -Thomas S. Monson

Gulf Coast

Last week we visited the Gulf Coast for our first time. We got lost on our way and ended up in gator ville pretty much (not exactly where we would want to layout). Anyway, we finally made it to some little beach. It wasn't the prettiest beach, but we had a lot of fun and the kids were in heaven. The sand was so white and pretty! It was weird to not have waves, but kind of nice because it was so calm and quiet.

(above) Here are some really unattractive pictures of us at the beach:).

Here is our sweet little Julien having a blast. When I asked him what he was making (with those sticks), he answered, "this is my family; Daddy, Mommy, Julien, and Jonah." Too cute!

Cutie Boys!

These pictures were taken on our first day in Florida. Aren't they sweet!

Some pictures from our drive to Florida...

Oklahoma
Jonah watching a movie...we are grateful for portable dvd players!! Julien, watching a movie...he was sooo good in the car!
Memphis, Tennessee!
gorgeous Mississippi (sorry about the dirty windsheild).

So green!!!! (still Mississippi)

We loved Mississippi. It was so breathtaking!

This last picture is also Mississippi, but Alabama and Florida look a lot like this too. I love seeing green everywhere! It's a big change from the desert.

How I did it...

Like I said, we moved to Florida and will be here until the end of August (maybe a little longer). I managed to pack everything we could fit for the next several months (for 4 people!) into a little 2 door Honda Civic. It was mainly all in the trunk too because we had 2 car-seats that take up all the space in the back. How did I do it? Space saver bags! You know those things that you zip up and vaccum the air out of. Looks like this...This was how it looked after we got everything in...not too bad, huh!? (below).I must say, I have to be sure to keep up on laundry and dishes constantly because we only have so much...maybe that's a good thing. I do wish I brought more clothes though.

Moving on...Moving out...

Well, as some of you know, we packed up and moved to Florida. We will be here for 4-5 months for a job. It all happened fast and it was hard to pack up everything and leave the place that we called home for the past 2 years. We loved this house and will miss it. Here are some pics of some of the rooms we personalized through painting and things.

Master Bedroom with Faux painting (may be hard to see here).

Made the frame for the mirror in guest bathroom, painted cabnits and walls.

Paint/ wood floors

Painted the walls, cabnits, new floors in kitchen.

So, we packed up our whole house in 2 days! I can thank my sister in law, Kari, for that, because without her help with our kids, we wouldn't have gotten that done! We also had help from some good men in the ward to move all of our stuff to storage! Thank you to those who helped out!!! I brought the boys over to the house after it was empty to let them say goodbye and hopefully somewhat understand what was happening...here are some pictures from that......

Jonah walked around, pretty confused, saying, "eh go?? eh go??" Julien was pretty amazed to see everything was gone, and we walked from room to room saying, "good bye, kitchen, playroom, ect." Then Julien said, "Don't worry, House, someone else is coming for you." I loved this picture of him hugging the walls, saying goodbye. We love this house.

Just a fun one....so long house!!!

Our Idaho Trip!

About 2 weeks ago, we drove up to Idaho to visit Rich's dad and step mom. We hadn't been anywhere away from home in so long, so it was great to get away and visit with them. So much has happened since, so I am regretting not doing this post sooner, but I didn't want to leave it out. Thanks for a wonderful time, Jerry and Michelle! Can't wait to see you guys again!!! Here are some pictures of Idaho, and our way home...

The second day that we were in Idaho, Rich's step mom, Michelle, was talking about how she wanted to do something different to her guest bathroom. It's a big bathroom! I recently redid my guest bathroom at home, so I showed her a picture of it from my computer and she fell in love with the colors and said, "we're doing it!" So that day we went to Home Depot and bought paint, supplies, and all new outlet plates, light fixture, and other fixtures for the bathroom. I spent the next few days painting. FUN! I love doing stuff like that. The only bummer was that we ran out of time to finish everything, and I hate not finishing something. I had a vision and I didn't get to complete it, but Jerry and Michelle said they would finish it. So here are the before and after pictures.

BEFORE (top) & AFTER (bottom)

So the unfinished lists consists of: On the bottom of the cabnits (near the floor), is not painted because I was asked not to do that part because they are replacing the old floor with tile and will do it later; there will be a mirror over each sink with gorgeous thick black frames; there will also be towel racks on a different wall and some decor. So all in all, I like it, but like I said, it drives me nuts to not finish it. I also wanted to antique the cabnits a bit by sanding parts of it, but they wanted to keep it like that. I had fun doing that and can't wait until they send me pictures of the finished project!

Rich cutting his dad's hair/Michelle taking pictures of her new bathroom. (unfortunately the only shots I got of them)!

On our home from Idaho, we stopped in Salt Lake City and spent about 2 hours there. We wanted to stay there longer because there is so much to do at temple square and we love it there, but we needed to get back on the road. So here are some pictures...

Temple square is AMAZING! The spirit is so strong there and everything is so beautiful!

Wow, how 'bout that, a family picture...(thanks to a sweet sister missionary)!

We have a birthday....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHIE!

To my sweet husband.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

You are a the best daddy and husband!

Thank you for everything you do for us!!

You are so loved!!We love you! Love, Vanessa, Julien, and Jonah

Bad Luck?

They say we create our own "luck." Hum, well, apparently Rich and I have attracted this:....Last week we had some really "bad luck" at Rich's work (won't get into that one though). I picked him up from work one day because we had some "bad luck" with his car that day (won't get into that story either). After we pulled into our driveway that day, I put the car in park took my foot off the brake and we rolled down the drive way. He gave me the look like, "oh girl, you just did that wrong." So I pulled up again and did things according to his instructions and we rolled down the driveway again. HA! It wasn't me! Yes, the parking brake broke. (By the way, our emergencey brake is hardly working anymore too). We just laughed because it was one more thing that went wrong that week...what the heck! Anyway, we haven't fixed the parking brake yet, and only Rich is strong enough to minipulate it back into place (so I can't drive it) and when we take my car somewhere now, we travel with these big stones to keep it from rolling when we park. I think it's pretty embarrassing...what do you think?

Yesterday, we were leaving to go somewhere (in Rich's car that is), and I noticed someone had hit my car! When did that happen!? Oh goody, one more thing we need to fix. They dented the top corner, broke the light, and broke the bumper. Cha, I love honest people.......(we still have no idea who did it).Close up...

Bummers! So then we got home last night, went on a nice walk, and came home and realized we locked ourselves out of the house. So needless to say we weren't thrilled to have to call a locksmith and pay $50 to get into our house.....ugh!!! Although, we did have fun running in circles around our culdesac chasing Jonah, and kicking a softball around until he got there!

Easter Sunday 2008

If this slide show isn't working, "X" it out and it will start again.

Easter (Saturday)

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We sure did. We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was perfect!! Saturday we met a bunch of our family (Rich's side) at a park right by my house. It's my favorite park and the views are breathtaking! We had so much fun. I took about 3 million pictures this weekend and I love so many of them, so here are a ton of them….

Here are Julien and Jonah on the way to the park. As you can see Julien is thrilled and can't wait! Jonah on the other hand, desperatly needed a nap and was trying to rip his Easter basket apart the whole way there!

(Above) This is one of the views from the park, overlooking the community that we live in.

More gorgeous views.... from the park!

(above) My favorite shot of the day!!! I love the colors in this picture and those cute kids!!
Another cute one!

You'll notice Jonah hanging from the bar in these next pictures. The reason we love these pictures is because Jonah loves to hang like this and hold his feet up in a "L" position. He is always doing this at home, hanging from our kitchen table. He also does this at resturants that have lines and these types of bars (like fast food or buffets). He is really strong. -He is constantly climbing and hanging on things, so it's no wonder! Isn't he CUTE!!

Jackson and Jonah eating

(above) enjoying the view...Rich's grandpa, aunt, and grandma!

Bubbles!!!

Easter Egg Hunt!....

We ended the day flying kites. It got pretty windy by then, so it was perfect! Julien loved it and I love these pictures of him and Daddy....

Okay, so this is it! I'll get Sunday's pictures up later today or within a couple of days. Bye for now:)!