Vacation at Hilton Head Island!

Mom and Dakota relaxing after a long day!

TC putting the umbrella up!

Jaxon found someone's flip flop.

View of the beach from our house!

Our beach house!

We just had a week full of fun at Hilton Head Island! The flight was pretty painful, to and from and we had a rough go the first day! I think we were so tired from the trip, it made us all a little cranky. The rest of the week was awesome. We stayed at the lovely "yellowdogbythesea.com" beach house. It was so nice to have the ocean front property and just be able to watch the tide roll in at all times of the day. We spent our time on the beach obviously, but had a swimming pool at the house, also. It was so nice to go swimming when you didn't feel like getting sandy! We walked everywhere because there were so many shops close to where we were. I also spent Wednesday with Darcey, Libby, Dawn, and Pat at the spa. It was so nice to have some relaxing time away from the kids. Steve and his dad and brother spent Thursday at the golf course, while I took the kids to the shops with my sister-n-law. Friday night we all got a night out without the kids. Ms. Betty came and babysat all 6 kids so we could go out to dinner. We loved it so much, we all want to go back and do it again and again.
I actually thought that I would be finished with my book by the time I got home but taking 4 kids to the beach doesn't allow for much reading time. Someone got me stinkin' hooked on the Twilight Saga! I read the first 3 books the week before I left for the beach and I hope to be finished with the 4th by tonight. I will then be able to focus on being a mom again. How horrible is that? All of you who kept ranting and raving about the Twilight books - THANKS!

Beautiful!

Garry, A.J., Pat, Dakota, Jaxon, Steve, and T.C.
I wish it had been a clear day over Mt. Princeton!

Can you see the chapel in the background?

So beautiful! The Collegiate Peaks! Mt. Princeton is the one in the middle!

Just thought I would update everyone on our craziness! Yes, we moved fast! I suppose with the economy the way that it is and not having a real income for 18 months (actually 4 1/2 years) really made us want to get here to start as soon as we could.

Steve is actually going to be in the commercial excavating end of construction rather than residential plumbing. I know he continues to ask himself why he went back to school if it was going to be this hard to get a teaching job. We just keep in mind that it is still worth it to have his degree. I think he knows that deep down inside. We just know that the money is not in teaching.

Anyway, what have I been doing with my time......

Keeping the Excedrin Migraine medicine away from Jaxon and Dakota and I enjoyed a little bit of hiking during our short stay in Buena Vista. I loved all the gorgeous views. I hope to hike Mt. Princeton before the summer is officially over. Over 14,000 feet, I may need to be hooked up to an oxygen tank half way there but I think that I have had plenty of time to get used to the altitude. We shall see!

Some of these gorgeous homes were plumbed by the one and only G&S West Plumbing (aka Steve and Garry) They are so huge! The pictures don't do them justice! Maybe they seem so big because they are so close together but they still look really fun! When I asked Steve how big they were, he told me about 5,000 feet without the basement. I thought they were bigger than that.

We have gotten settled into our new home, which we love. The kids have a huge back yard and even though we don't have all the space we ever dreamed of, there is plenty of room for our family. I think this is the biggest kitchen, I have ever had. That makes me excited. I still don't have everything unpacked but can you really blame me. Four kids and so much to do! I hope to be done by the end of the year!

Surprise!

Well, I have been super, super busy these last few days packing, being excited and crying. We will be moving to Colorado this weekend. We have only known for about a week so don't think you are the only one with your head spinning. It has been so crazy and I had to force myself to sit down and blog. Steve will be working with a company in Colorado Springs. Maybe, by the time I die, I will have lived in every part of Colorado. All joking aside, we are very excited for Steve to finally have a job. Even with his plumbing business here, it still wasn't quite enough. We feel really blessed that this has come along in a time where jobs are so few. We are both very sad to be leaving so much of our family behind. We are so grateful for the experiences we have had with them these last 18 months. We have had some good times. We also look forward to the good times we will have in Colorado and hope that TC, and AJ will make the transition well. We feel that this is an answer to our prayers and we know that no matter where we go, Steve and I will have each other. So, to all of my friends and family, here in the Chattanooga area, I will miss you and I will look forward to our next vacation to Tennessee. To all of my friends and family in Colorado, we are excited to see all of you and look forward to some good times. To all of my friends and family in other parts of the country, I guess it doesn't change much for you but we still wanted you to be aware of the changes in our lives. Thanks to everyone.

Happy 4th!

I just love how Dakota wants to be so pretty even by the pool!

Really?

For the first 7 years of our marriage, I have always given Steve such a hard time about going to the 4th of July parades. We haven't been in 2 years and I am actually missing them. We did have a great 4th of July. Steve took the boys to go see Ice Age in 3D and I took Dakota and Jaxon shopping. I realize that I actually got the better end of that deal but don't tell Steve. Okay, I'm kidding. How can you possibly enjoy shopping with kids. Not possible! We did, however, enjoy spending time with our family at Dennis and Celeste's house. They are always so wonderful to allow us to come and enjoy being together. We did cut out early and started down the mountain at 8:30. All four of our kids were asleep by the time we got home. We did get to see a few fireworks on our drive home from Signal Mountain. We hope everyone had a wonderful day, also!

Today, I took Steve to the airport. He is off to Colorado again, to work with his dad for the week. I so wish that I could have gone with him. We wouldn't be staying long enough to drive there and back and flying, well, we would be paying for 5 tickets now. That is enough said. I do miss our family in Colorado and hope we will see you all soon. We shall see how bad I look by next Tuesday! Bags under my eyes, grey hair, itchy stress rashes, a few extra pounds. Lovely! Oh, how I miss my baby!

Could this really be happening to me? Our couch broke today! I just noticed it this afternoon and I really don't know what happened. Then Dakota just broke my brand new sunglasses and then when I took the kids upstairs to go to bed, AJ jumped on his bed and it broke. The wood just split right down the middle. Is this some kind of sign. Does it end? What a day? I am ready for bed now!

Dakota's happenings!

Well, I am getting very excited that Dakota's hair is getting long enough to put into pig tails!~ You probably didn't notice the pictures of her feet but I have to tell what I have been stressing about for the past month. I think I have posted about Dakota's obsession with feet and shoes. I know it is aweful but she loves to wear other peoples shoes. Most of the time I can control it but sometimes she will just take anyone's shoes and put them on. Since family is who we are with, most of the time, I haven't been too concerned but when these blisters showed up I freaked out. Why does my baby girl have blisters like this on her feet? She had between 20-25 blisters per foot. When I took her to the Emergency Room they thought it might be Impetigo or MRSA. That can't be good. Very contagious and is caused from a bacteria. They put her on antibiotics and had me washing her feet with hibaclens 3 times a day. When I took her in to the doctor for a check up he took cultures of the fluid in the blisters and it came back negative for anything bacterial (staph or strep). The next thought was Hand, foot, and mouth disease. Still contagious but is a virus not a bacteria. This only means that there isn't a medicine that she could take that would get rid of it. Well, after about a week, the blisters went away. About a week later they came back. I started back washing her feet and keeping socks and shoes on her feet. Well, last Saturday it was really bad again. The doctor has said that it is more than likely an allergic reaction that she is having to something in the grass. How aweful. She only gets it when she is wearing flip flops outside or if she takes her socks and shoes off while outside. So I think we have it narrowed down to that much information. She may even be allergic to the dew in the grass. How strange? I'm glad it isn't all of those contagious things that they thought it might be but I'm still sad that she has such sensitive skin. I guess she can just be mad for having to wear socks and tennis shoes anytime she wants to play outside.

Happy Birthday, Jaxon!

Here are the pictures that I have been promising to post of Jaxon's Birthday! We had yummy pancakes for breakfast and a lovely Mexican Fiesta for dinner. Jaxon was also sporting his lovely new bat cape/outfit that he got from Aunt Robin and Uncle Devon. I think he looked pretty happy!