We have not even gone trick or treating yet, and already, the kids have baskets full of candy! We went to 3, yes 3 Halloween parties on Saturday, and the kids could not have had more fun! (okay, I admit that I had fun too.) This year, Kennedy decided to be Esmerelda from Hunchback. My mom made her an amazing costume and Kennedy loves it. Liam, having second child syndrome, had not costume until I made his one out of his old clothes. I cut up and old shirt and pants, covered it in makeup and blood, and turned him into a zombie. I think it turned out pretty cute! The kids had a blast trunk or treating at the church parties. Liam did not really understand that you put the candy in the bucket. He wanted to eat each piece as it was given to him. Alas, he could not keep up and finally let people put the candy in his bucket. Kennedy is REALLY excited to to trick or treating tonight. The weather is perfect, fall weather, the houses are all decorated and it should be a good time for everyone. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Warning: If you don't want to read a venting post, stop here! I feel like I am going insane! What I clean, gets messy 5 minutes later. Laundry is never ending. Dishes are never ending. Bills are never ending. Screaming, fighting children echo throughout my house. I am not writing this to complain. Just to vent. It is one of those days...strike that...one of those weeks. I have cleaned, and cooked and tried to provide fun activities for my family, but things just seem overwhelming at the moment. RIght now, my 4 year old just screamed at me at the top of her lungs "I HAVE SNOT! WIPE IT!" Both kids have croup. It sounds and smells like a hospital in here. Liam just dumped a monopoly game all over the floor. I feel like I am coming down with something as well. I need a pedicure...and a massage before I rip every stand of hair from my head! People who say that being a stay at home mom is not work needs to be in my shoes right now!!! Anyone want to trade places for the day? Call me if you do, and I'm sure we can arrange something. If you see my children for sale on ebay later, please do not judge me!
For our family night tonight, we decided to get into the Halloween spirit! My mom brought over a ton of fun decorations for the front of our house and we made our house look really "spooky", as Kennedy put it. In fact, she said, "I LOVE this house. This will be the BEST Halloween ever!" It was so cute to see her get all excited about something, because she has seemed really sad and depressed lately. She is missing her friends and family in Utah a lot!
After we decorated, we carved our pumpkin (as the grim reaper) and ate Halloween cookies. The kids also got to Skype with their grandparents in California and in Utah! I love technology! Tomorrow, I will toast and salt the pumpkin seeds. That has always been one of my favorite treats of fall. We had such a great night together and Kennedy can not wait for Halloween. I love my little family! I am going to post a video below of some of our decorations. And just for your information, when I ask Kennedy what she is going to be for Halloween, she is saying "Esmerelda" from The Hunchback of Notre Dam. That is her new favorite movie and that is all she wanted to be.
* BE SURE TO PAUSE THE MUSIC BELOW BEFORE WATCHING. The house looks even cooler now with the orange and purple lights up!
I don't think that anyone will really care about what I have to write today, but it will make me feel better to write it all down, so here I go. Lately, life has been confusing/exciting/scary/unpredictable/sad and crazy! And although things have been improving day by day (Christian getting a job and our family growing closer), some things are still tough. I have been thinking a lot about the word "regret" lately. I think as human beings, it is easy to make a mistake and then say "I regret ever doing that". At least I think that sometimes. But, I am realizing as of late that I don't really regret anything because without all of my mistakes and life experiences, I would not learn from them and be the person that I am today. I know who I am and what I am capable of. I know that I am a daughter of God and that he loves me no matter what I do, just like I will love my daughter no matter what she does. Actions/mistakes do not define me. I was reading a book this morning called "Greater Things" by Jeffery R. Holland and I read this "God doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been as he does about where you are, and, with his help, where you are WILLING to go." That really touched me because he is saying that no matter what you have done in the past, you can fix it and continue down the right path.
I am not even going to apologize if I have been boring for anyone else, because I am writing this mostly for me. But, if I happen to help anyone else that happens to be reading this, that would be great as well. One more quote from this amazing book and then I will be done.
"In seeking true peace we need to improve what has to be improved, confess what needs to be confessed, forgive what needs to be forgiven, and forget what should be forgotten in order that serenity can come to us."
So, life has been getting better and better. Christian got a job as an IT tech at a company called Talisman Energy. He is really excited about the job and I am really excited that I can finally put Kennedy into school now! The kids love my parent's neighborhood because it has lakes, bridges, animals and tons of parks. We go there a few times a week for them to play. The weather has been fantastic, so today, we ventured out to the beach with Christian's family who came to visit this week. We all had a lot of fun playing in the water, catching clams and building sand castles. We need to go again before it gets cooler. (haha, cooler. nothing sounds cold to me coming from Utah).
We also visited some outlet malls, ate at Rainforest Cafe and drove the back roads to see the Texas longhorns and wild pigs. Yes, I am serious. Too bad we were driving and I did not get any pictures. There is something exciting happening as well that I can not reveal until it is finished. But, I can't wait to share it. Oh, and by the way, I finally joined the world of Pintrest...and I shouldn't have....BUT, I did, so you can all go see me there now. haha! That's all for now! Life is good!
Seven years ago in San Diego, CA Today in Houston, TXI do not count this as breaking my "tech free" weekend, as I am simply journaling certain events in my life and then posting them. Excuses, excuses! I just had a few words to write. Yesterday, Christian and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We went out to an amazingly delicious dinner and dessert, and hung out with some great friends as well. Here are a few things that I have learned from 7 years of marriage. 1. You don't always get what you want...but somehow, it works its way out. 2. Two is better than one when it comes to raising children. Especially OUR children. We were joking the other day that if we were ever to get divorced, no one would ever love our children the way we do because they are SO HARD to handle sometimes. 3. Late night massages can make all things seem better. 4. Life is hard...like, REALLY hard. And sometimes it seems like there is no way that marriage will last. BUT, there is always hope if you choose to have it. And things CAN get better. 5. It's nice to always have a date when you need one. I HATED that part of being single! 6. I have a husband that would do ANYTHING for me. If I am thirsty at 3 am (like I was last night) he will get up and get me a drink. If my neck has a pinched nerve (like I had last night), he will massage it until I tell him to stop. If the kids wake up in the middle of the night, he always goes to comfort them so that I can sleep more. And, he is trying hard to improve things every day. Just like every marriage, we have had our share of problems. I won't act like everything has been perfect, because it has been far from that. Sometimes we fight. We don't agree on things a lot of the time. Sometimes we do or say things that we shouldn't. And I have not been the best of wives lately either. That being said, we have been through so much together. We have been through 6 moves in 7 years, sick children, hospital visits, illnesses, vacations, times of prosperity, and times of hardship. We have seen each other at our very best and our very worst. But, we are still together and are still learning from past mistakes and problems. These past 7 years have not been perfect, but we have had many moments of great joy like when our children were born. And there is no one else that I can ever share those moments with.
Happy Anniversary Christian! Our good friends, Tressie and Jon. Thanks for treating us to cheesecake! My beautiful and equally delicious dinner!
Back in August, we had our big family vacation. I already posted about our vegas and Lake Powell leg of the trip, but I never posted about the grand canyon. So, here it is. After we left the house boat at Lake Powell, we drove over to the grand canyon. I had not been there since I was a kid, and I was able to enjoy it and appreciate it much more this time around. No, we did not camp (for those of you who know me, I pretty much hate camping) but we stayed at a hotel in a Tusayan on the south rim. It was such a cute little town with lots of restaurants and shops.
I thought this nightgown would look SUPER hot on me. Don't you agree?
The first day, we saw the grand canyon IMAX movie. After lunch, we went for a little hike down the canyon. I let the kids sleep in the car with my mom, for fear that they would fall over the edge. It was so beautiful and amazing to see! It does not even look good in the pictures that I took. You have to see it for yourself to get the true effect. That night, we went on a horse/hay ride down to a fire pit. There, we cooked hot dogs and s'mores and had a great time.
The next day, we went to the town of Williams. I am really into route 66 towns. In fact, one of my dreams is to take the old route 66 road all the way from Chicago to California. Maybe someday! Williams was such a cute town and reminded me of the movie, Cars. There were old cars getting lined up for the car show, people sitting out on the porches of the shops and cute little diners. I loved it and wish that we could have stayed longer. Too bad I enjoyed it more than everyone else and was outvoted to leave early. As for the kids, their favorite part was swimming at the hotel. We had to do that every night we were there. Kennedy is getting pretty good at swimming on her own, and Liam has no fear of the water either. On the last night we were there, we went to a really good Steakhouse that served rattle snake. I wanted to order it, but they were all out as luck would have it! So, I got the ribs and some sarsaparilla. The only "sad" time at the grand canyon was when Liam got his toe hit by the hotel room door. It split his toe and about ripped the toenail off. His little foot was so sore and he did not want to wear shoes. To make it worse, the EXACT same thing happened the next night and split it open again. We had to go buy liquid bandages to close it up because there were no clinics around. Now, it's time for picture OVERLOAD!
Never mind...I have WAY too many pictures to load. I gave up!
Yes, it's true. I have decided that I now officially suck at blogging! I remember back in the day, I would post every single day! And then, once or twice a week...and now...hardly ever! And I make promises to make posts about this and that and some super exciting thing that has happened. And then, I never do! So, I have decided to try my best to do better. Not so that anyone else can read it (cause let's face it, who really wants to read all about my life?) But for myself, so that I can look back and read this. Kind of like a very public journal of sorts! I also have decided that to catch up all at once would be extremely hard for me, and very boring for all of you. Instead, here is a list of what has been going on in our family, followed by a few pictures. Or maybe even a hundred pictures. It's my blog and I'll ruin it the way that I want to! :)
1. We freaking drove cross country and MOVED to Houston TX!
2. Liam turned 2 yesterday! He still did not care for presents or a party, but he sure had fun at Chuck E. Cheese with my family!
3. Life has been so crazy and unpredictable and not the happiest. BUT, I plan to try and fix that.
4. Unpacking is not my favorite chore...in fact, it has been 2 weeks now and the house is still full of boxes
5. No one follows me on Twitter, and I am fine with that. haha
6. People in Texas are SO nice! Strangers always say things like "Hello, beautiful children you have" and "God bless you". It's pretty fun. Liam always says hi back!
7. I have made so many wrong moves lately, but learning from mistakes makes a person stronger...right??
8. Christian is at a job interview as I write this.
9. I am so excited for fall. Although Fall here is not what it is in Utah, it still gets cooler (like 80 degrees instead of 100) and I have fond memories of Halloween here. Plus fall is football. This is a great song and video about football. Listen if you would like! (be sure to push pause on my other music first)
10. I am looking forward to new things, new friends and new traditions. Although I will miss Utah, and the great people there, I think I will love it here too. Plus, NO SNOW!!!
Stopping in Spanish Fork to say goodbye to Grandma K Driving through beautiful Moab My favorite spot in the whole house! A few pics from the mall on Friday My birthday boy!
We are the Webb family! We were married in 2004, and have 2 children named Kennedy and Liam. We like to eat, watch TONS of movies, act silly and get outdoors whenever we can!
