Waiting and Wanting

I know, I know... it has been a long time. I just wanted to share an update.
We are still homeless and living in Burbank. We move into our house on Thursday!!!! I know it will all be worth it, but it feels like the last week of a pregnancy. I just want it to happen right now!

Hannah is in Ohio on her Mamo J vacation. We are trying to get her into school, but that has been a big pain. They laid off a bunch of teachers last year and now the school is full. They have 15 too many kindergarteners... Sounds like they almost have enough to have a whole new class. She might have to get bussed to a whole other school for a year. I don't like the idea of my 5 year old riding on a bus with older kids.

Gavin is excited for his trip to Ohio. He gets to go there all by himself after our trip to South Carolina. Yes, we move on Thursday and then leave for a week on Saturday.

Luke has 3 teeth and is crawling. He is such a happy little baby when I'm holding him. He's completely off schedule. I'm looking forward to sleep training him when we get into our new house.

There you have it... We are still alive.

House Selling & House Hunting

I have been consumed with selling my house. We put our house on the market a week and a half ago, within a few days we had some offers. We started escrow 6 days later.

House hunting with little kids is exhausting. Luckily, we have an awesome agent who my kids adore and will listen to.

As for now... It looks like we will be homeless by July 19!

X

It's official (meaning Kevin said I can tell everyone)

Kevin got a promotion!

This means we are moving... again... this will be our 10th move since we've been married. Yes TEN!!!!!

We are moving to Temecula this summer. We are hoping to be there for awhile, well with our track record... who knows?

Karalla Jones & Captain Steve

Kevin and I have been talking about getting a dog since we were dating and wanted to have a little girl named Hannah. Last Wednesday night we headed over to the animal shelter in Downey. We got there at 6:45 and it closed at 7:00, and we found a cute little dog. The kids and I went to adopt her the next day, we got her! We picked her up later that day with Kevin. She was so sedated because she was spayed right before we got her.
We have really enjoyed getting to know our new family member. She is a sweet playful dog. She likes to sleep on Hannah's bed. I love hearing Gavin talk to her.We took her on our trip to San Diego. I have to admit it was a lot of work. I think she had a good time. We stayed on Steve and Kaitlin's boat. Hannah and Gavin were excited to see Captain Steve.We went on a Valentine's evening harbor cruise. We enjoyed the sunset, the seals, ohh... and the giant dead whale...Our harbor cruise was cut short when the swells started getting bigger. We were prepared with life jackets for the kids...
and Karalla... she is too cute in her life jacket.
The boys went fishing before we went to dinner. Hannah and Gavin loved it.
Before our romantic dinner at Souplantation, we let the kids and the puppy get their wiggles out. They were running all over the place. They love their puppy.
Kevin surprised be with a boquet of PINK tulips (very important that they are pink) while I gorged on Souplantation's blueberry muffins with Kaitlin.

Sunday we went to Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo was hired by the Spanish in the 1500's to explore the coast of California.

The view was incredible from Point Loma.
Kevin loves his dog.
We always have so much fun with Steve and Kaitlin, they tollerate our kids so well too.
Hannah, Gavin, and Karalla liked the hike down to the tide pools.
The tidepools weren't that great. I guess we are spoiled with the Aquarium of the Pacific.
We met Michael (my brother) for dinner at the restaurant he works at. It was nice to get great service, a discount, free dessert, and someone to order our food for us. The messy sundae... was indeed messy. Hannah and Gavin loved it. I was grateful becuase Michael totally supervised Gavin and cleaned him up. He was a mess.We had a great weekend, but we are happy to be home in our own beds again.

Daddy Hockey Championship

Merry Christmas to me!!! I got a new camera! Thank you Kevin. Kevin and I never can wait until Christmas to give our presents to each other.
Last night was Daddy's Hockey Championship Game. The kids and I went. We watched them smoke the other team in the first period.
Then as usual, we all need a break, and go to the arcade for the second period.
We go back once the third period starts. Kevin is borrowing a jersey, he is #68 right now. It looks so weird to me because he has always been #22. I'll be happy when he gets his jersey. It's taking FOREVER!
Kevin played really well and scored some goals, but the best part is watching Hannah and Gavin get so excited to see him play.They are so proud of him. He is the coolest Dad! I'm proud of him too. I hope he keeps playing hockey.
Here is Kevin's team, the VIPERS!!! They are all trying to convince me to let Kevin go to Las Vegas on my birthday weekend for a tournament. We will see.
The season starts up again after the new year!

Date with the Grandparents

One of our favorite things to do is spend time at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house. On our way back from visiting my family, we decided to break up the trip and surprise Grandma and Grandpa. When we arrived, guess what they were doing... No, they weren't napping in their chairs... next guess... Grandpa was reading the newspaper in "his" big leather chair. Grandma was in the kitchen trying out a new cookie recipe. Impeccable timing if you ask me... We walked in the house, Hannah and Gavin ran to Grandpa and hit his newspaper. I'm happy he didn't have a heart attack from the surprise. He was so happy to see Hannah and Gavin. I wish I had a picture of his face. Grandma came from the kitchen and gave each kid a big squeeze.
Grandma wanted to take us out to dinner. Since we don't fit in one car, Grandma has to drive too.

We went to Porto's Bakery. They have such good food. Mostly soups, sandwiches, salads, and lots of amazing pastries. Kevin ordered the food with Grandma.

Hannah and I waited with Grandpa.

We love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Hannah and Gavin are sad when we don't make our weekly trip to Burbank.

The Making of a Pyro

We spent Fourth of July with my family. My dad bought a bunch of fireworks, for those of you who know my dad... I know... I couldn't believe he did that either!

Gavin loved the sparklers! His eyes got so big... Kind of ironic that he is wearing his firetruck PJs and playing with fire. Here is Gavin being "supervised" by my brother Justin. Justin broke his ankle in March. He was playing tag in the dark, stepped in a hole and fell. Cracked both bones in half, a spiral fracture for you educated people!

Hannah was a fan of the fireworks. She loves the fireworks at Disneyland so she was so excited to see the fireworks at Mamo's (my mom) house. Her face is dirty from her fudgsicle.

My sister made this crazy shirt with her friends. Notice that her right hand is over her heart... pretty cool!!!

Grayson invited his unofficial "girlfriend" over for the festivities. Kelsey fit into our family well. They are soooo cute.

Hannah and Gavin LOVED Kelsey. See Kelsey "supervising" Gavin???

My sister Lauren came over for dinner and decided to join us after her CD burning binge... Hope you have some awesome CDs Lauren.

The best part of the Fourth of July was being with my husband.

I finally found a common ground for my husband and father... they like to blow things up. Kevin had about 5 sparklers going and my dad was trying to light a sparkler off of Kevin's... Kevin lost a little arm hair in the incident. It was a good laugh... Poor Kevin, this wasn't the first incident that involved fire and hair loss for us.

See, more supervision of the 20 month old playing with fire.

By the end of the night I figured Gavin was a pro at this whole firework thing and let him go... His fire truck PJs were good luck.

Hannah was a true mini pyro.

Just Keep Swimming...

My kids love to swim. They can swim up to three times in one day. Eat, swim, eat, sleep, eat, swim, eat, sleep, eat, swim.... Hannah has had her "backpack" since last summer. The strap on the bottom gave her an atomic wedgie. She would always say, "Mommy, my backpack's in my tooshie!" I found a new one at Target and bought it. She was so excited to try it out. She said, "It not in my tooshie anymore." I love that little girl...

Naturally, Gavin got the "old" backpack. He did pretty well his first try. You can really tell he feels like a big boy now. I still have to heavily supervise him, but it's nice not to have him climbing all over me.

It was a treat to swim with Daddy. Hannah and Daddy had a fun time jumping off the waterfall together. Kevin took her to the top of the waterfall, held her and jumped. Hannah wanted to do it again, and again, and again.

My sister snorkling... she's such a dork!

Gavin loves to play catch...

We love swimming, and I love the fabulous quality of a nap the kids take after they swim. It's really a win win situation.

Bottomless Pit

Gavin has been eating a TON!!! He has been eating so much food that it credits his very own blog. He ate a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, two eggs, a piece of toast, and a banana. That was only for breakfast. I kept waiting for him to sign, "all done" but he kept doing, "more." In this picture he just ate dinner two hours ago and this was his bedtime snack. He ate a whole peanut butter and jam sandwich, a banana, and some raisins. I gave him a cookie too. He is such a growing boy.

Uncle Aaron & Aunt Rachel

Hannah and Gavin love their Uncle Aaron and Aunt Rachel. Aaron wanted to buy Hannah a toy at Disneyland. He took her into the Princess Store in Fantasyland. Hannah was so overwhelmed by all the Princess stuff. She finally decided on the spinning light flash light. I don't really know what it's called, but she loves it!

We went to the block with Aaron and Rachel. Hannah had fun with her Uncle riding the "funny bikes."