Double Baptism

Yesterday was a great day! Both Worf and Tasha were able to get baptized yesterday morning. It was a long wait for Tasha and a lot of hard work on her part (her mother was totally against it for years), but it happened! They were both SO excited.

We had quite a few hiccups:

1. my sister found out that her tire needed to be replaced right before their 2 hour drive out here 
2. my parents had to drive an hour out to pick up my cousin and wound up later than my sister
3. and poor Tasha had to get dunked 4 times! She was a good sport about it though. She said it was just practice for when she does proxy baptisms and has to get dunked 10-15 times.

But, all in all, it turned out great. They had a lot of wonderful friends and family that were able to share in their special day.

Even Tasha's mother and Worf's father came. The kids were pretty happy about that!

Afterwards, the boys got together with Riker, Uncle K and Grandpa to build a rocket. They took it to the park down the street to light it off. They had a blast (pun intended hee hee) and apparently gathered quite the fringe crowd of neighborhood boys to watch.

One rocket flew over the fence and it was a race to see who could get it!

Family Day Trip

After 4 and 1/2 years, several jobs and lots of plans falling through, we finally manged to take a day trip as a whole family! (I know, shocking right? Don't worry, it wasn't THAT earth shattering as Riker was still working for most of the drive there). Even better, we were able to include my parents, my grandma, and my sister and her family.

We went out to the Bay Area to a place called Tilden Park. We were really behind in getting out there so we were only able to go to the farm and the playground. The botanical garden closed right as we got to it :(

The kids had so much fun feeding the animals and watching Geordi mimic the animals was absolutely priceless.

This was my favorite picture of the day. Geordi sure likes Cousin A :)

At one point, we even found a few turkeys wandering around. Grandpa started stalking them through the trees. It was pretty funny. I wish I had a picture of that!

Our Move

That would be my awesome Geordi helping unload the u-haul

So much has gone on in our little family over the past few months that I feel like I am completely behind in EVERY area. The biggest issue has been the fact that we moved in April. Now, we didn't just decide to find a place, pack up and move. Nope. We were told that our landlord was moving back in, get out. Our lease had been up for a while, so we knew that it was always a possibility. To be honest, though, we were really hoping to stay for a while so we could rebuild our credit from the disaster of 2 divorces and a VERY expensive and drawn out custody case.

Now starts the house hunting. There was practically nothing available in our area that met our criteria, so we decided to start looking closer to Riker's work. There were several that I found that fit all of our criteria (and then some), but we were either turned down for our credit (which is bad, but not THAT bad geez), or the agents would never get back to us. We were both very despondent and starting to get worried. We were going to be without a house at this rate! Oh, and keep in mind, This is all Feb/Mar so the kids are all still in school...

Finally Riker decides to look closer to "home" again. There is a "gated community" in our area that used to be Air Force officer housing before they shut down the local AF base about 15 years ago. They had been bought up by a company and rented out as rental houses. I was NOT happy (and I emphasize NOT) about this idea. I was excited to moving to an even nicer area with a minimal commute. I have to admit that I let my pride get in the way a bit and was looking forward to "moving up." These houses are SMALL (we're talking half the size I was looking at) and OLD (circa 1950 and they look it) and were military housing, so not a lot of amenities (ie NO amenities). But, I went along and looked anyway since I wanted to help Riker not feel so stressed out.

After our walk-through of the ONE house available that would even begin to fit our family (and it's the biggest floor plan... oh man), Riker says "I have a good feeling about this place. I think we should very seriously consider this option." (are you kidding me?!?). We got home and made a deal, if I could find another place in the next 2 days before they cash our deposit check, we won't move there. By George, did I search my heart out! I found another place in the same area, price and size range. Plus it had been fully renovated AND came with lawn care. I booked an appointment immediately. However, I kept having this nagging feeling and I decided that I needed to pray about it. The answer was a resounding NO. So, I prayed about the one Riker had put a deposit on and it was a resounding YES. I seriously flipped out. I actually said, out lout, in the middle of the night, (I was praying after Riker had gone to sleep) "SERIOUSLY?!? WHY??" (yeah, that woke him up lol). It was the SAME price, size, ward, EVERYTHING as this nicer house. Why can't I have the nicer house??

I still haven't figured out why.

But, I followed what I was told, and my husband's promptings, and moved into this tiny little crap-tastic place that I TOTALLY did not want to move to.

I Am Still Here!

I have been seriously neglecting my blog. Ugh. I have had so much going on over the last few months that I'm surprised I even know where my computer is to blog! I keep meaning to get back into it, but I don't. I'm lazy like that. However, I have quite a few things in the works for my family over the next few months (not the least of which is unpacking from our move last month!) so I am hoping to have a bit more time to myself to get back in tough with my blog.

In the meantime, while you patiently await my return, go check out a giveaway at Our Whiskey Lullaby for a gift card to an amazing store: MIKAROSE. Seriously. I found this store a couple of months ago and have been drooling ever since. I finally caved when the dress I had been oogling went on sale right before Mother's Day. (It was a sign!)

 I got it in the mail this week and am so excited to wear it to church tomorrow! (little girls get new Easter dresses, I get Mother's Day dresses. Totally the best idea I've ever had, well, except marrying Riker of course!) The giveaway will be going for a couple of weeks, so you have plenty of time to head over and enter! Maybe one of these days I will have a giveaway...

**UPDATE** Here is a photo of me in my dress. I LOVE it!

Modest Apparel Giveaways

My friend Julia started a modest clothing business a while back called Whimsey Lane Apparel. She makes dresses, accessories and the cutest swimsuits ever!

Now, she is doing a giveaway at Happily Domestic for her Ava Dress, in Black Midnight. The dress comes in teal, lipstick red, black midnight and snow white and are on sale for $59 if you want a different color.

The giveaway ends at midnight on March 21st, so hurry over! And while you're at it, you can catch the tail end of Happily Domestic's Mikarose giftcard giveaway. I discovered Mikarose from this giveaway and I have definitely been missing out. Their dresses are AMAZING! Even if you don't enter the giveaway, you should definitely check out their website.