Here goes nothing!

It's been months since I updated. I got so far behind it was exhausting to think about catching up the blog. I will have to add as I go but here is the quick version of how our summer has gone. Steve parted ways with his job in June. We then headed to Oregon for a few weeks to spend some much needed time away from home and with Steve's wonderful family. We had such a great time it was hard to come home!!!

Us at the beach

Steve taking some R & R with Maci, Jacob and Abigail

Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come and stay. We had the best time ever!

Abigail's got talent!

The conversation while watching America's got talent last night went as follows

Abigail: I need to get down and dance Mommy!

5 minutes passes

Abigail: Mommy, I am going to get me a car, drive to that show, and dance for those people!

I thought that was pretty stinkin cute of her to want to do that. It does infact go along with the statement that she made last month when she told me she wanted to be a star when she grows up....." the kind that are on TV" she said.

p.s. the photo above is my new favorite. I took it last week at Grandma & Grandpa Forrey's house right before bedtime.

GIVEAWAY!

Hey all! This is a giveaway from a friend of a friend. She makes hair bows that are so cute! Enter to win 5 bows or your choice along with 2 headbands. It is worth it to zip over to her website and take a look. Good luck! It ends July 15th!

http://itsallaboutthebow.blogspot.com/

HELP!!!!I My neighbors are out of control!!!!

I have been more than kind and lenient toward my neighbors.  They are OUT OF CONTROL!  They leave beer cans in my yard, steal my stuff, play in my yard, stay up until 2 a.m. blasting loud music and are just flat out rude!  I have talked myself out of doing this post for nearly a month now.....it just keeps popping up and staring me in the face.  Tonight set me off because I came home around 10:30 from a softball game (rah, rah, Legacy Dental!!! we lost tonight by the way:) and Abigail's bike was in the street blocking the driveway!  I got out fuming mad and moved the bike, parked the car and came straight in to write the letter posted below to the neighbors!  I do have to admit that this letter is horribly written with bad grammer and everything, so you should get a good chuckle out of it!  I had to post it because I never delivered it....Steve wouldn't let me out the door :)  Otherwise I would have gone right up, rung the doorbell (YES...at 11:00 at night!) and handed them my letter.  I think they ought to know what they put people through.  I was nice and only wrote about the bike to them.  That kid of theirs pushed Abs off her bike the other day, took off on it, and then came back around, Abigail kindly asked for her bike back and he actually spit on her and took off on her bike again.  His mother did nothing as she sat there and watched the whole thing!  He is around 2 years old and is constantly outside without supervision on an incredibly busy street.  I fear that he is going to get hit by a car one of these days!  Anyway!  That is my vent and I will be calling social services in the morning!  I hope they do something about that household.  I sure would love to have neighbors that don't drink, smoke, blast loud music through all hours of the night, that STAY OUT OF MY YARD and don't steal my stuff and that are responsible enough to watch their kids!!!!!!  Good night and good riddance!  For those of you that don't know Beth, she used to be my neighbor.....BETH!!!!!!!!!!!  When are you moving back to Idaho?  Steve and I need some decent neighbors again, we miss you!

Dear Neighbors,

    Your son may not come into my yard anymore!  He has gone into my shed, gotten my daughters bike & taken it to ride.  I had to then come ask for my property back.  Tonight the bike was gone again & then left in my driveway so that I had to get out & move the bike to pull into my driveway.  PLEASE be more responsible about watching him to prevent this from happening again.  If it goes missing again, I will call the police.  Please be more respectful toward property that doesn't belong to you.

Thank you!

    Your neighbors @ 127

New Moon!

Okay so this trailer for New Moon has been floating around and I took a look a few days back.  It looks like it is going to be a great film!!!  I know I am excited....is anyone else?  Click on the official website link above or on the word trailer and take a look, you won't regret it!

Patient excitement!

A few months ago we decided to get Abigail signed up for preschool.  Since that day she has been talking non-stop about how she is going to go to school soon.  SHE CAN'T WAIT!  The school is only a few blocks away from our house, which is really nice.  She will be going 2 days a week and thinks that she has to get her backpack ready right now.  Last week was preschool roundup.  Just a fancy way of putting it that the fees are due and the kids get to meet the teacher and take a look around the school.  When the morning arrived that we were going, she couldn't talk about it enough.  Of course once we got to the school she wouldn't even step one foot inside :)  I had to actually pick her up and take her in.  She thought it was really the first day of school and that I was leaving her there.  Once she understood that she was just meeting her teacher, she ran off and proceeded to play with some of the other children.  I really think she will enjoy going to school and meeting new friends.  She definitely takes after her mother on the social side.  She also informed her teachers that she would prefer to be called by Abigail which was news to me.  We usually call her Abigail or Abby Kate, but most everyone else just calls her Abby.  She knows what she wants out of life already!  

Abby: "this week I would prefer to be called Abigail, I will grow up to be a doctor and a dancer.  I want to be a star!  The kind that go on TV....like Pinnochio!"

She is a very talented little child and we are so blessed to have her in our family!  Mom and Dad love you Abigail!  Here are a few pictures of our doll in front of the school she will be attending in the fall.

The "skinny" on Evelyn!

Here are the stats on Evelyn.....what a healthy little girl!  She was Emily's smallest baby so far and is a SKINNY little thing!  Welcome Evelyn!!!!

Don't you just LOVE THAT HAIR!!!!  I still didn't get a shot of the dimple.

Here is the new princess with Nana & Papa Grant

with cousin Abigail & sister Isabel

Isabel is pretty proud of her new sister.  Abby in the background having a hard time being patient for her turn to hold Evelyn.

Vaughn held his sister so softly and gave her lots of kisses.

ISN'T SHE SWEET?!!!

TINY sweet taste!!!

Yesterday was a really long day!  Emily went in around 12:00 in the afternoon and came out in the evening with this cute thing!!!  Stay tuned for better photos today!

Binki-lovin' chimney sweep!

I preparations for Emily having her baby, we have been getting out all of the baby stuff to go through.  When all the masses of things get taken out there is bound to be a new found toy for a 2 year old.  Abigail has discovered the bags of bottles and binki's and thinks she HAS to have them.  When she was a baby, we forced a binki on her and she didn't want anything to do with it!  She loves to give it to her baby doll and play mommy with the bottles.  I figure I will let her run with it for a few more days to give the fetish a good amount of time to pass.  She looks so stinkin cute with her puppy dog eyes in the picture, I just had to share it.

After a fun filled day with swimming and park time this was the face of my angel!  We had played in the water at Emily's house for several hours and she had sunscreen on her face.  After the water time, we headed to Uncle Charlie's softball game at the park.  Abigail and Vaughn baked dirt cakes for Emily and I and this was the result.  Sunscreen mixed with dirt made her look like a chimney sweep.  This picture doesn't do her justice, but you can kinda see all of the dirt caked onto her face and all over her hair.  Thank goodness for bathtubs!  Steve and I just love her little imagination...even if there are messes that sometimes accompany her!

What in the world!!!

What is this?  I haven't looked it up online yet, but will.  Abby and I were digging in the garden this morning and found it.  Funny thing is that she totally screamed when she had a teenie tiny little ant on her finger and when she saw this....... Well, she wanted to hold it!!! Crazy kiddo!

Here are a few of us friends that met at the park today.  My sister Emily is in the green shirt and will be having her baby ANY MINUTE!!!  Our friend Valerie (next to Emily) and her 3 girls, and our friend Brittnie (far left) and her son.  Funny enough, Emily and I used to babysit Brittnie when she was a little tyke!

Vaughn peeping though the bars at me!

Isabel swinging super high!

Abby getting ready to go down the slide!

I told Abby to turn around and look at me & say cheese....this is what I got instead.  I will take it, she is a doll!

We had a very fun, much needed day at the park.  It has been so windy here that we haven't had too many chances to get outside!

A long time coming!!!

I shouldn't have posted this picture because Steve wouldn't approve with him in his skivies!  I had to post though because we have been detouring Abigail's naughty words with SOAP!!!  Steve said a not so nice word the other day and Abigail immediately went to the bathroom, got the soap and shoved it in his face.  IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!!  

Abby: Daddy, we don't say naughty words! 

I am glad she is learning something and teaching others too!

A new baby coming!

My sister Emily is going to have a baby girl any day now.  On Friday May 1st, I had a diaper and wipes shower for her.  Here she is getting ready for all the fun to being.  As an activity for the shower I decided to do what my sisters did for me.  They made Abigail a wonderful book of nursery rhymes.  They are made from magazines and scrapbook cutouts.  It is one of her very favorites to look at daily.  So pictured here are the guesting making their pages for Evelyn's book.  Steve got me a cricut expressions for Christmas last year we went crazy cutting everything for our pages with that.  We had a really fun time with yummy treats, delicious punch and good conversation.

I do have to note here that Mohna is in this photo WITHOUT FOOD!  It has been a running joke in our family that somehow she always gets caught on camera eating.  It is pretty funny how that works.  I managed to get a non-eating shot of her!  LOVE you Mohna :)

I made my traditional diaper cake.  This time I decided to decorate it with a adorable little dress on top and ribbons around the layers that match the dress.  That way Emily can make some bows of her choice to go with the dress with that ribbon.

Everyone having a good time working on their pages.

Peanut butter cookie tarts filled with chocolate and sugar cookie tarts filled with cream cheese, cool whip and powdered sugar mix with a fresh strawberry slice on top.  MMM-MMM-GOOD!

Great Grandfather David Smith

Last month I had the chance to take part in a huge event.  Our ward had it's 90th Birthday party on April 20, 2009.  It just so happens that My Great Grandfather David Smith was the 1st bishop of the Idaho Falls, Idaho 2nd ward.  He went on to become the 1st Temple president of the Idaho Falls, Idaho LDS Temple.  The committee that was putting the event together asked if I would gather some information on Grandfather and put together a display about him.  I was a little overwhelmed at first because I only had about 2 weeks and wasn't sure where to begin.  He has a few children that are still living.  One of his daughters Rayola is pictured here.  She is 84 years old and is an amazing person.  I was able to visit with her and her daughter Cecily about what life was like when she was young.  I also got to visit with her younger sister Laprele.  It is amazing with the age difference in the children, how differently they remember things....or how different their lives were because of placement in the family.  My maternal grandmother Esther Stosich was David's oldest daughter.  She is not living but used to say that she remembered  she was always taking care of the children (there were 11 total :)  Laprele said that they lived like kings and queens (which was right across the street from where Steve and I currently reside).  Always having guests over (mostly apostles) and having extravagant parties, with lovely china and delicious foods.  She also vividly remembers all of the dishes afterwards!  She said that her mother Emily would have them put all the dishes in huge tubs down in the basement to soak.  There were so many of them that they had to do them in rounds!  Sounds exhausting to me.  Rayola said that Grandfather David was an amazing musician.  He sang incredibly and played the violin even better.  He was asked several times by  prestigious orchestras to join and continually turned them down.  He knew it was no life for his family.  I will have to post the article eventually for verification but if I remember correctly, While David was bishop, there were problems with the original 2nd ward building.  There was supposed to be some sort of grant given from the prophet for repairs.  This was all as WWII was in the beginnings.  The church pulled the funds because of it.  David traveled to SLC to speak face to face with the prophet to tell him that they needed those funds for the building.  The prophet still said NO!  He was quite distraught about it and ended up writing a letter to the prophet while still in SLC.  He went back and presented the letter to him and said that he would expect an answer to be waiting for him when he returned to Idaho Falls.  It was there when he returned and the prophet finally granted the funds because of his persistence.  I know that David was an amazing man because of what I have learned from his children.  I get excited to think about one day being able to fiddle around on the piano and singing with him, I know we would both enjoy ourselves.  My grandmother Esther and several of her brothers and sisters had a love and passion for music.  It flows through their veins.  I always wondered where it came so strongly from.  Now I know that Emily and David gave them that gift and passed it right along to several others of their posterity!  These are some of the jumbled thoughts that I had and needed to begin to record them and add to them.  I am not a good writer so I hope your lenient readers!  I love my family and am thankful for the opportunities that I was given as a child to spread my wings!  SO thank you to my Mother and Father and siblings for helping me along the way.

This photo is of My maternal Grandparents Esther Stosich and Vaughn Stosich, on their 50th wedding anniversary.  She was David Smith's oldest daughter.  She was a wonderful Grandmother and I wish that I was one of the older grandchildren so that I could have known her better.  She had a voice from heaven, and I love her dearly!

Easter

Here are the only picture I have of Easter :(  I haven't gotten a picture of Abigail in her Easter dress yet and by now, it's kinda too late.  I bought a dress on sale at Kmart (I will never do that again!!!)  It was not great quality and has ripped several times.  I should have gone with my instincts and made one.  There's always next year!  This first one is Abigail opening the fabulous gifts that Grandma and Grandpa Forrey sent us.  We loved the little jellybean pouches that Grandma made!!!   The next 2 are of Grandpa Richard and Grandma Susan Bringing Abby her Easter loot.  She loved blowing bubbles all day long and everyday thereafter until they were gone :)  The last one is of Abby arriving very late to an Easter egg hunt.  Mommy drove to the wrong place..oops!  There were only a few eggs left when we arrived and there wasn't a good chance she was going to be able to run fast enough to get them.  Luckily Vaughn shared with her and come to find out, it didn't matter how many eggs you had anyway because they were all empty!  You went up to turn them in for the candy that they had portioned into ziploc baggies.  They gave all the kids the same amount so she was all set.

A cold day at the park

Here is one of Abby swinging from the bar at the top of the slide.  This kid wants to swing from EVERYTHING!  She is always asking if she can play monkey.  What a character! The bottom shot is of My sister Emily's kids with Abby.  Vaughn, Isabel and Abby all decided they were going to go down at the same time while holding hands.  Isabel's arms didn't quite stretch long enough to make that a possibility so Vaughn toppled over...you can see the beginnings of him going awry in the photo.

A really, really sad goodbye.....

TO CHESTER

Chester had been a part of Katie's life for nearly 10 years.  Steve had the honor to drive him for the last 5 years.  To put it shortly....he died during the winter!  He went to a good cause a few months ago.  We donated him to Kars 4 Kids!  He will be missed!  We are all enjoying the new VOLVO and are glad it is now part of the family!

A LONG time coming!

Here are the picture that I promised months ago now of my adorable nephew Andrew.  He is My oldest brother Jonathan's son.  Andrew is always fun to have around!

WOW!!! What a day of scramble!!!

Today we woke up and had a pretty typical morning which included eating breakfast, getting ready for the day, sending Steve off to work and running the errands that needed to get done.  Abs and I were out for several hours and lunch time was creeping up on us.  We decided to stop at Wendy's for a burger.  The new rule for the Volvo, is that there is to be no food in the car, so we dined in the store.  On one side of the booth there was a Mother with her young son (I am guessing around age 8-9).  He was deaf and his mother was giving him a lesson on contractions (the shortening of a word or phrase e.g.. "God be with you" would be shortened to "goodbye").  On the other side of us, there were 3 women, from the conversation that I heard, the mother was 94 and  her 2 daughters were in their late 50's and early 60's.  Confused?  I am getting there just explaining this :)  Anyway, the 3 ladies were planning the mother's funeral.  The mother wanted to make sure it wasn't an ordinary funeral, she wanted a mexican spread instead of the typical meat and potato stuff.  FUNNY!  We finished our lunch, headed out to take Steve his lunch, and gave him a good surprise upon our arrival.  We headed home from seeing Steve, Abby took a short nap, and we were off again to go to the park.  Emily had called to invite us to meet at this park that we had been to several times.  I must not have been paying very good attention the last time that I drove to the park because I couldn't find it :) I drove around for about 40 minutes looking for this stinkin park!  I ended up going back to Emily's house, starting over and drove right to it.  I don't know what went wrong the first time.....FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!  We played for about an hour with the cousins, packed up and headed home.  We arrived about 15 minutes before Steve came home from work.  He asked me to meet him at the driveway so he could transfer stuff from the Jeep to the Volvo. While standing there waiting for him I noticed there was a NAIL in the tire of the Volvo.  Steve said it looked like it had been there for longer than we had even owned the car!!!!! How do you even tell something like that? We headed right over to Big 0 and luckily, it was covered under the warranty so they gave us a new tire free and clear.  We were thankful we didn't have to fork out $150 for 1 new tire today.  

We will see what tomorrow brings.  We are expecting my little nephew Andrew at 7:30 a.m. while his mother goes to the cannery.  This kid is a big ball of fun and energy and just wait until you see his cute smile!  I am sure tomorrow will be just as fun and interesting as today!!!  Stay tuned for pictures!

And the winner is?????

ME!!!!!

Last week we were fortunate enough to find this sweet little thing!  The best part about it is that it fits pretty well into our budget, which is hard to find these days.  Here are the stats....It is a 2001 Volvo S80 T6, and is a beautiful light beigey color.  We are thankful for Stephen who works so hard to provide nice things for us to enjoy!!!  Thank you Stephen for the fabulous VOLVO!!!!