This and That

So it has been awhile since I have been on here to update. I find most of my free time on the computer has been spent trying to find just the right present online and how to get free shipping. It is a lot harder doing Christmas from across the country. I am finally getting into the Christmas spirit however, which is very nice. I am so excited about Christmas for the girls. This is the first year either of them is really going to get into I think. Ella is just wild and Kayt finally understands what is going on. That being said, the sneaky factor is much harder than before. We actually had to move all of the presents out into the trunk of Scott's car because we caught Kayt trying to sneak a peak. (We have several boxes that have been shipped from grandparents already.)

It is fun though. We got a surprise call the other week from Scott's parents telling us they wanted to come for Thanksgiving. I almost started doing backflips right there. FAMILY!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! It will be so nice to connect to something from home.

Our friend Tiffany Linford has been getting us out of the house this past bit. She let us come to the stable where she rides horses to see, pet and feed the animals. All we had to do in exchange was watch her adorable little girl Kylee. It was a so much fun. Kayt loves horses. She could have stayed all day.

She also got us out to go and see a place called Great Falls. It is a set of waterfalls on the Potomac river. I was very impressed. It was a beautiful day and getting out into nature was fantastic as always. There were a few people there but for the most part it felt very open and fresh. A nice little repreive from the crazziness that never ends here.

It is our turn to plan something now. There is just so much to choose from it is hard to know where to start. I think we may head Tiff's way and check out old town Alexandria. It is supposed to be really decorated for Christmas! Woohoo.

All in all we are doing great. We have managed to keep ourselves out of trouble which has been nice. Scott is getting some great experience at work and really getting to know some people there. He is starting to feel more like a person instead of a cubicle number.

Kayt is loving preschool and has made some really sweet little friends there. Ella continues to make us smile always with the funny things she does. She is mover and shaker, it is hard to keep up. We are happy and excited for the holidays.

You have to try and get into it twice for it to work. Sorry!

Happy Halloween

Halloween was great his year. All went according to plan except Ella's last minute refusal to be a lady bug. Good thing we had last years witch costumes on stand by. Kayt was so excited. She got to have a preview at preschool for the Halloween party there. She was given the most lovely princess award! She also got to make mummy fingers. Ohhh Spooky!
We celebrated our Halloween on Friday because it was the ward Trunk or Treat. Scott was a real sport and let me dress him up. It was fun getting everything together for a real costume! He turned out pretty good!
I was my old standby, a witch but it was fun. I still can't make myself feel 100% comfortable showing up in fishnet tights and blackboots at a ward function, but it was a costume party right?
On Saturday, actual Halloween, we headed out of the city and went hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a lot of fun and the difficulty of the hike made us respect the Appalacians a bit more. We were not expecting it!
That night we had a fun spooky dinner of eyeballs, mummy fingers and baked brain. Kayt was concerned about the blood on the brain at firts. It was pretty funny. We also went to a friends house and watched a great Halloween film, "wait until dark". All in all, a great time!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This is how God shows his love...

How to start this post, I usually don't blog about all things religious, for better or worse,. However Kayt came in to the bathroom to tell me she had a new favorite song she wanted to sing me. She proceded to sing right on key and very clearly

God gave us families to help us become what he wants us to be.

This is how he shows his love, For the family is of God.

I just had to smile. It was such a simple song but bore such a powerful testimony to me. I have felt the love of my family this week and the love I have for my own little family. As I was enjoying one of the rare moments where Ella will fall asleep in my arms while rocking her, I ran Kayt's song through my head. This is how he shows his love, while my week started less than stellar, it was impossible to be upset for long with Kayt and Ella around. I love being a mom. I love being their mom. They are so special.

I also got a phone call from my Dad, my brother Jared, my sister Emily, and web cammed with my fam all bymyself for about an hour. Family is so key. I know this, God new they were the only way we could truely be happy. I am so blessed for the family that I have and for the strong testimony of my four year old to remind me.

Now, here are a few reasons, I love Kayt and Ella

Make a Smilebox photobook

You have to click it twice for some reason.

tows, tickets and taxes

Aren't those lovely words. Three words I have had personal experience with in the last 4 days. You read that right. I have always considered myself a law abiding citizen, done what I can to follow the most important rules, recognizing that some can be bent a bit. I am here to tell you rules don't bend in Virginia and there is a rule, multiple rules to everything. I am breaking rules I don't even know exist. The consequences are not small either we are talking to the tune of a $150 tow bill, TWICE!!! Now I know by posting this I am admitting to years of sheltered living, riding on the good name of my father and getting away with way too many stupids things in Rexburg but I am here to tell you Virginia is rediculous.
Since moving to the wonderful state of Virginia, which they claim was settled by Jamestown, so I am living in the oldest state in America, in case you were wondering; (i am not sure the punctuation on that sentence. A little help Chels?) I have had my car towed twice, sat at the DMV for 4+ hours and still have to go back, had a parking ticket in my own parking spot, replaced a muffler, been told my car was too noisy to pass a saftey inspection, my bank statement to a local bank with my address on it couldn't count as proof of residency, and on and on all so that I can pay a tax to drive my car in this wonderful state.
By moving to Virginia I have had to give up every outward appearance of Idahoness I have, my licsence, my plates, the title to my car, you name it. Of course all of this comes with a significant price tage attatched. I think I am just having a hard time being forced to pay money to become a resident of a state I don't care to be a resident of just yet. But I must or my car gets towed....
Allow me to explain, today I was having a great day. Getting the last boxes put away, fixing the stroller, cleaning out the car. I was checkin' off the list. At about 4 pm the girls and I headed to the gas station to vacumn out the car. On our way home I noticed a yellow/orange envelope under my windsheild. "That is not a ticket? How could I have a ticket? I have been in the house all day." Sure enough ticket for not having plates on my car and parking in unauthorized off street parking. This was in my complex parking lot!!! Apparently, the state was just kidding when it said you had 30 days to register your car in VA. To their credit the temporary registration we had expired on Friday. I was planning on putting our new plates (that took us three tries to get) on our cars tonight. Apparently I was too late.
After spotting my ticket I immediately looked around for Scott's car. It was gone!!! No where to be found. The car that still had a valid permit was towed because it didn't have the proper parking sticker in the window, because the 4 times we had attempted to get the temporary one, during office hours, the manager was not in the office. We couldn't get an acutal permit beacuse we have to have proof we paid the property tax on our car which we can't get until our cars were registered which we couldn't do because, both of us had to be there (1st attempt - no community property in VA) and we didn't have proper proof of residency (2nd attempt-see above) What do you about that. So, the first day, Scott doesn't have his car at work, it is gone.
Scott is in Chicago mind you, I have Kayt and Ella and know nobody within 20 minutes to help me out. Thank goodness, the tow company was only two miles away and I have a stroller.
I am so tired of all of the hoops you have to jump through out here. My only beef is this, if you are going to have a billion laws, make it possible to follow them!!!
I am at the laughing phase now because you can't be mad about it. It gets you no where and you have no way to stick it to them. You just have to take it up the tale pipe. It is a very helpless feeling to say the least.
Anyway, that was a sufficient rant. Stay tuned for mores tales of hard knocks by the country bumpkins. Until then love to all!

We miss the Lowary's

These are just a few pics of our good friends from OSU. They now live in Sacramento and we live in D.C. but I came across these and it made me miss them. Our only regret with the Lowary is that we didn't hang out with them more.

They were ones who came to Kayt's birthday last minute because she wanted friends there, the ones we tricked the missionaries with multiple times, the ones we got addicted to Spirano's pizza with, the ones we stressed about school and CPA exams with, our secret high school musical buddies, Katie was my craft buddy and everything else buddy and on and on.

We miss the Lowary's!!

Settling In

Scott started work yesterday!!! How crazy, for the first time he is working for someone other than family. It is going to be interesing. He is very excited about it thought and is looking forward to really getting started. The commute is a little longer than we were expecting but still very managable, especially for D.C. There are people who commute a few hours each way. CRAZY!!! It was pretty easy to learn the traffic patterns as well. If you want to get anywhere in a decent time frame your have to be on the road after 9:30 and off before 4. That is your window. The metro is about the same way. The place runs like clockwork. We learned that to avoid massive amounts of people on the metro you have to be off by 2:30. 3 is when the early commuters start commuting. If you follow those basic guidelines it is not so bad. So far anyway?!

Tuesday before Scott started work we went to the D.C. Zoo. It was such a great time. However, Ella decided that for the first time in her life she should puke. As we were wheeling her off the metro, like the stroller doesn't draw enough attention, she throws up all over herself. I felt so bad for her. We were certainly a spectacle. I have decided however that most places we go out here we will be that way so I am getting used to it.

Our apartment is feeling more and more like home. We have things on the walls and everything is put away and it still feels roomy. We really like it. And those third floor stairs are going to be my new work out!!

Kayt and Ella are settling in as well. We have a little playground on the other side of the complex and they love it. We go there once a day at least. It is the perfect size and usually isn't crowded. Kayt has spent the last three days pretending to be the queen of Eypyt with Baby Moses. I am not sure where the fascination came from but there are worse things to pretend I guess. Ella's latest love is Elmo. I never thought I would have a child that loved the red furry guy but she does. She says it so cute, it comes out more as melmo which makes it that much better. Today while at the best thrift store in the world!!! she spotted a giant one on a shelf. She started yelling "melmo, melmo!" I let her play with it while we shopped, big mistake. We left the store with a "melmo" doll that is as big as Ella is. She has been dragging it around all afternoon.

We are alive and well and happy. We miss family a lot but have plenty to try and distract us.

Love to all. More pictures are to come!

We made it!!

So this is my turning over a new blogging leaf. It is time to get started again. Although this won't even begin to skin the surface of futher makeup posts, it is a post!

After our five day cross country journey, we have landed in Virginia! We are living about 20 minutes outside of D.C. in Fairfax, VA. We spent 6 hours moving our stuff into our third floor apartment yesterday. Needless to say we were alittle too tired to do much of anything else last night. Scott and I even took the couch up all by ourselves. I wish I would have had a camera and a means of taking a pictures because I am sure it was pretty funny to watch my face get smashed between the wall and the couch as we were rounding the corner. It was an adventure but we did it.

Today, we start unpacking boxes. With each move it seems that we just want to get ride of more and more. After yesterday we have decided an IKEA home each time we move is the way to go. I am sure we will change our minds but not for awhile!.

Anyway we are settling in a bit. We give each other random updates on what we are thinking about this adventure throughout the day. They have gone from "what were we thinking?" to "we don't really belong here?" to "okay we got on the road outside the complex maybe we can do this?", "alright it is starting to feel a little better." And that's about as afar as we have gotten.

No, really we are excited just realy intimidated and really far from home. We will keep you posted.

In the mean time, love to you all.