The House and More

Here are a few pics from our week. We went and tried out the new spray park that is about 5 minutes from the house we are looking at buying. Bryce loved it. Mia wouldn't get in at all. It was over 100 degrees and she was so hot that I walked her out to splash some water on her and she screamed like I was hurting her! She likes to swim, but does not like water spraying at her. Bryce made a new friend with some random child and wanted to invite him over and to his birthday party. He said he got his phone number and it was 677. Okay :)

The other picture is him playing Spider Man. Then there are a couple of Mia playing with her dress up jewelry. She is all girl, already!

Our offer was accepted on the house and we signed the contract today so now we just have to wait for the financing. We have a closing date of August 25th, but the realtor thinks we might push it back to September since they often get delayed by about a week and we are going out of town Sept 3. So we will either move the weekend before or after Disney World assuming everything works out. We are starting to think going to Disney World right now might not have been the best idea with the move and needing new furniture, down payment, etc, but we already booked it and paid so we are going! It is just funny because we didn't plan to buy a house until after Christmas and didn't plan on going to Disney until spring and now we are doing both in the same month. Oh, well- it will work out. We may just have to have couple rooms empty for a month or so :) The new house just has a few extra rooms than we currently have furniture for!

Yesterday, Ryan and I celebrated out 8th anniversary. I can't believe it has been that long. We have been together for 10! Crazy.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Busy, Busy

We have a lot going on right now. We are taking the kids to Disney World in September. We are going to stay at a hotel at the airport on Bryce's birthday and then we fly out the next morning. We are all very excited to be going. We have booked meals with the characters, ordered
our maps and are ready to go! We are going to do Epcot and the other parks, as well. Bryce is most excited about visiting the China area of Epcot. He has decided he wants to move to China when he gets older. He asked if he could when he grew up and I said, sure, you can go anywhere you want. Then I told Ryan we may have to move to China :)

We also made an offer on a house last week. It is about 10 minutes east of where we are now and we are very excited. It would be big enough for our family even when we have our last child (or two!). Ryan says one more, but we'll see! The sellers have accepted the offer, but have not returned the contract, yet so it isn't definite, but looks like we will be moving the last week of August. We are looking forward to being settled in a house we won't have to move from for a while and can make improvements and changes to. Renting has been nice in that we aren't responsible for the repairs and upkeep, but we are ready to be in our own home, again. We went and looked at the house again and are discussing painting, new floors, furniture,.etc. We are also going to try to put a pool and deck in before next summer. We'll see how much we can get done before energy or resources run out :)

We Survived VBS

We had VBS at our church last week and had a really good time. I was surprised at how much they put into it. When I volunteered they asked what I wanted to do. Trying to be easy, I said whatever they needed . Big mistake :) I ended up leading preschool games. They rotated them through to me and I still had about 50 4 or 5 yr olds at a time! Outside in the heat! No, really it was a lot of fun and I kept Mia out with me. She doesn't really do the nursery (she lasted about 15 minutes in there this morning until our pager went off. Ryan went to check and she was very upset. Just because. She was fine once we took her out. Spoiled beyond belief, I tell you!). She made good friends with one of the youth group girls who helped me out with her. Mia loves older girls because they just followed her around doing whatever she wanted. Bryce had a great time making crafts, singing songs, playing games, jumping in the bounce house etc. He can't wait for next year. There is also a pic of him performing some of the songs he learned for us.

Sing Along

We went to a summer sing along that one of the moms from our playgroup was putting on with her music company. It was great. The kids got to try out all different types of instruments and then they had music and songs. Bryce was very impressed with the violin and now wants to take lessons. His face looked scared in the first pic I took of him playing it so I took a couple more. They all looked that way- I think he was just in awe. He looked at the pics and said "look at my face" :) I love that he is so interested in music and art- he definitely gets that talent from Ryan! Mia enjoyed the songs and cookies! We are going to take a class with this same group and I am looking forward to doing it with both kids.

More swimming

We have been swimming a lot this summer at my mom's house. Bryce is now swimming on his own! Although, I do make him wear a lifejacket when he is playing or I am not in the pool because I am crazy paranoid. I have a very irrational fear of one of my kids drowning. Water parks are a nightmare for me, but I take them anyway. Notice Mia's goggles :)

4th of July

We had a good 4th of July. We went swimming and cooked out at my mom's house with all of my siblings and the cousins and then watched the fireworks the city does. They were really good this year. The next day we went to my dad's cousin's house and had a good time with the extended family. The kids got to swim and play all day. They also did some sparklers and little tanks and frogs. We bought a box of chickens that were supposed to lay eggs, but none of them worked. That is my nephew in the pics.

Bryce's Garden

Bryce got to pick his first tomatoes from his garden and was very excited. He can't wait for the watermelon. He is going back to Mimi's again next week to check and see if anything else is ready. He spent the night with her a couple nights ago and had a great time.

Pedicure for Daddy

Mia decided that Ryan needed a pedicure! She loves having her toenails painted and will bring us the nail polish and say "toes". Surprisingly, Ryan is better at it than me and she brings it to him most of the time. She decided to paint his while he was asleep on the couch. Luckily, it was not real polish!

Swimming

We have been swimming a lot. Being in the water is about the only way to be outside in this heat. We went to the park once last week with our playgroup, but it was so hot the kids only played for about 45 minutes. Next week we are going to a spray park so they can being cooler and play together longer.

Bryce is doing really well in learning to swim. He is just very cautious so that holds him back some, but he is willing to try in the "low end" (shallow) and is getting better. Mia will finally get in the water and seems to like it. Maybe the heat finally got to her! We have been swimming as a family, just me and the kids, with cousins and with friends. It is pretty much what we have been doing every week. So, we have decided that in our new home search, we would really like our own pool or at least a community pool. We'll see what we can find, but that would be great for next summer.

And More Birthday Parties

We have been to a couple more birthday parties and the kids had a blast. Both kids went to one at The Little Gym and Bryce went to his friend's at a waterpark. He still won't try any slides, but he had a great time. Of course, both loved all the cake and goody bags from the parties:) Here are few pics from one of them.