GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE...SOLD!!!

That's right, folks, we FINALLY sold our house!!! We will be moving this week! My one stipulation when we were lookin' for a house to rent was that we could find one within our ward boundaries. And we did! We were so blessed that a family in our ward (who will be building) wanted us to rent their house. As you all know, the market has been horrible, and to my real-estate appraiser husband, it's been tough. We recently decided that our house, as much as we have loved it, is just too big for us. It's interesting how when things get tough, you quickly realize what you can do without, and we can definitely do without this big house! When we bought it, we had dreams of having lots of kids and growing into it. Well, since it took so long to get little miss Haylee, who knows how many more we may have, if any at all. In the meantime, I am soooo excited to not have stairs anymore!
Okay, another reason I am soooo grateful to the people renting us their house? They are gonna let us paint the inside!!! We'll just be doing neutral colors, since it is a rental, but it will warm it up quite a bit! So that's our other task this week! And just to throw this out there--ANYONE who wants to help us paint, C'MON OVER!!! I could use all the help I can get! And if anyone out there has paint supplies (tape, rollers, roller pads, etc), we could sure use 'em! THANK YOU!!! (And by the way, as the picture shows, yes, this IS how Cameron and I enjoy painting!)

RANDOM CUTENESS FOR THE GRANDPARENTS!!!

So Haylee LOVES mirrors these days! We catch her frequently checkin' herself out in this little mirror (thank you April and Kendall!) and laughing! It is soooo funny! One day she rolled onto her back holding it and just talked to herself for a few minutes. Sometimes you just need someone to listen to you, I guess!
Oops! Got caught checkin' myself out! How embarrassing!!! This is one of the big benefits of having Cameron work from home--she gets to hang out with Daddy while Mommy takes a shower! Or a quick power nap! Whichever is needed most!
This is by far our favorite recent picture! Buster is such a good dog and has always been great with kids, whether they're bangin' on his head or pullin' his tail....or flickin' his toenails! Haylee is ALWAYS using her little pointer finger to touch everything (sooo dainty!) and this time she happened to find Buster's toenails! Poor Buster is obviously giving Cameron this look that says,"Um, could you do something about this? I know I hafta be nice to her, but I am NOT comfortable with this!" They'll be best friends soon enough! Especially when Haylee starts throwing her food!:)

WE'LL MISS YOU, LARSENS!!!

Last night we had a "Farewell/Congratulations" party for our friends Spencer, Annie and Tyton (and little baby to come)! Spencer was drafted by the Denver Broncos last month and they will be moving to Denver soon. We are really gonna miss them! We've been doin' our monthly dinner parties with them and our friends Rick, Becky, Ashley, Joe and kiddos and they will definitely be missed! But, of course, we are soooo excited for them! I'm sure our monthly dinners will happen to fall on Monday nights when the Broncos are playin'! We'll be rootin' for ya, Spencer!
Here's a close-up of the cake I baked for the occasion! I had sooo much fun with this party--it definitley had a "Football theme"! We had football plates, cups, napkins--even blue and orange M&M's!!! I need a boy, I think!

OUR NEW TRICKS!!!!

Forget a relaxing swing ride!! Our little thrill-seeker loves to reach and reach until she gets a hold of one of the legs of the swing and stops herself! We can always tell when she does it cuz the swing gets really loud all of a sudden! It's soooo funny to watch her tiny little hands grip that pole and hang on for dear life! Everything is a new challenge to this little crazy girl!:)
And Buster is ALMOST human!!! He's soooo close! I love this little guy--he's always had way too much personality from day one! His new thing (that we haven't captured on film yet) is trying to play with Haylee! The other day she was rollin' around on the floor and he brought his football over and dropped it on her head and waited for her to throw it! I can already tell they are gonna be good buddies!

A SHOUT OUT TO THE MOMS! HOLLA!!!

With today being Mother's Day, I found it necessary to do a post about our moms. Lots of people say they have the BEST MOM, and while I believe that to the fullest about my own mom, I'd like to say it a little differently--I have the BEST MOM FOR ME. I admire my mom so much. She has always been the person I can go to who will be COMPLETELY honest with me about anything. She has taught me to be independent which has made a huge impact on my life as I've gotten older. She has always let me make my own decisions (some that kept her on the edge of her seat, I'm sure!) without butting in or trying to take over and make those decisions for me. One extremely important thing she drilled into my head from a young age was to be VERY picky about who I married. And I know that we are both very happy with who I chose!:) My mom has always been very close to the Spirit and has made many decisions based upon those little promptings we all get and that has taught me soooo much. I truly believe Haylee was a blessing from her decision that it was time to serve a mission with my dad. When I found out two weeks later that I was pregnant I know she wondered if maybe she should postpone the mission so she could be her for Haylee's birth, but she raised me to be strong and faithful enough to say that she should go serve now. I love my mom so much and can't wait for her to come home to see me being a mom to my own little girl, using all the tricks and lessons she taught me! (By the way, she's the taller one on the right!)
Words can't express how grateful I am for my mother-in-law. Not only am I grateful for the wonderful job she did in raising my sweet husband, but I am so amazed at her level of patience and forgiveness and her sweet temperment (something we all know I don't have!). She is an incredibly selfless person--willing to put her life on hold to help others almost daily. I have been so lucky to have her in my life, especially with my own mom so far away right now. When I was in labor and after I had Haylee, she was right there the entire time putting wet washcloths on my forehead, calming me when things got tense, teaching me "Mom things" I could never have known, giving me a much needed break to take a nap, and all the while assuring me that I was doing a wonderful job.:) When Cameron got the flu a month or so ago, she hopped in the car and came and stayed with us to help me with Haylee. Then when we went to Rocky Point, she was thrilled to come spend her weekend taking care of Haylee and Buster! There have been many times since we have been married that Penny has been able to be emotional right along with me as I went throug tough times, whether it be the struggle with infertility or having my mom gone. I have definitely been blessed to have such a great couple of women as moms to me who both teach me how to be a better person in so many different ways. We love you both! Happy Mother's Day!!!

ROCKY POINT AND A NEW GOAL!!!

So last weekend, this fine group you see here went to Rocky Point, Mexico!! From L to R: Kris, Kami, Eric, Bethany and Cameron. By the way, I have my arms inside my shirt so that they wouldn't burn any more than they already had! We went for the Las Palomas Triathlon they had on Saturday. Eric did the Olympic Triathlon (amazing!) and Cameron and Kris ran the 5k. It was such an amazing, motivating day to see all those people participating in the events. There were some special people that were recognized like a SEVEN MONTH PREGNANT WOMAN (I'm not joking!) who did the triathlon!! Also, there was a 73 yr old man and a man who had recently lost over 200 pounds! It was just such a neat day! So....my goal is to train this year to participate in the sprint triathlon next year! If any of you wanna do it, you totally should! It's soooo awesome!
This is me, Kami and Kris at the Las Palomas resort, which is BEAUTIFUL, I must say! These girls are soooo sweet and fun! We had a great time in Mexico! We even found churros (eventually!)--soooo yummy!!!
And this here is a great shot of our "ghetto-fied" motel room! Words will not do it justice...sleeping on the box spring, people outside our room being as loud as humanly possible at 3 am, the shower wall falling apart, etc! It was so great--I had lots of mission flashbacks while in Mexico and also realized my spanish is HORRIBLE!! I need to practice more!

***No, we obviously did not take Haylee with us to Mexico--she got to have her Grandma Penny come take care of her and Buster while we were gone! Thank you soooo much, Penny! We appreciate it a ton!!!