Numa Numa

Don't listen to this song if you do not want to be singing it ALL the time.

Jake saw it on CNN and looked it up on YouTube. Now I find myself singing it, my kids are constantly singing it and Jake goes around singing it.

I gave you fair warning.

Posh?

What do you think?

STORYLINE:

When I saw Bonny post Victoria Beckham about a month ago, I fell in love with the haircut. I debated for weeks while Jake kept telling me just to get it cut. I finally took the plunge this weekend. I took a picture to my fabulous hair stylist and she copied it perfectly. We added a little brown in and toned down the blonde. It is so EASY to style. I didn't spend more than 5 minutes in the bathroom this morning. Although, the best part is for once in my life Jake absolutely LOVES my hair. He has told me this about 50 times in the last 48 hours. His exact words this evening were, "This is your best haircut ever. Will you keep it like this? At least for a year?" YAY!!!!

The back view.

A long wait.

Our new couch! We love IKEA!

(P.S. We had just gotten home from Utah and I had to go help Jake haul. Then we came back and set the couch up. Hence the reason the kitchen is very messy! It is now clean thanks to a loving husband.)

Suspense

We are in Utah today and we are finally picking up our new couch. It only took us a year to finally buy it but I am so excited. Also, I CHOPPED my hair. As Kirsten said running up the stairs....Come look at my mom's hair. It's funky!

Just when you are ready to lose it and threaten to take all the toys away because of all the teasing and arguing and anything else you can imagine you find this when you go downstairs to check on them before heading off to bed. One had crawled in with the other. They look like the perfect sisters and that they could never do anything bed....Ever.

Sometimes....

I feel like this says it all.

Kirsten turned five

Yesterday was a crazy and fun birthday. Kirsten wanted to go shopping and spend her gift cards and buy her a new dress. This took almost all afternoon as you can imagine and we didn't find the dress until today. Then we came home and she opened her presents when Jake got home from work. She loves PetShops (if you can't tell). That night we went to a place we discovered call Blast Off. It's actually really clean and not crowded whatsoever. They go every 2 hours and wipe down all the slides and tubes (impressed me). It looks sorta like a dump on the outside but really clean on the inside. I guess that is what counts. Here are some pictures of Kirsten's special day: (Jake will say something tomorrow morning when he notices that this will be a long post. I hadn't blogged for awhile and I am so far behind...can you be behind in blogging?)

Katanya and Kirsten below....

Jake was above. Parents were allowed to go in and play with their kids for free.

Blowing out her birthday cake. I like the fact that she has some extra help in the background.

Happy Birthday!

Kirsten turned five today! She starts kindergarten on Wednesday but has the attitude of a teenager! She is my very opinionated sweetheart and we are glad she is in our family We love you Kirsten!

(This picture was taken when she was one year old on a camping trip with the fam. I think Katanya looks just like her.)

Who LIKES????

Our last trip to Utah a couple weeks ago featured a couple trips to IKEA. I originally went to use my gift card but we got carried away. Then I forgot to even use it. Looks like another trip will be in the making. Here is what we did.... Jake LIKED....I wasn't sure but when I saw it I loved it. The yellow goes great with the red. (Yes Jake has an eye....sometimes :P) Sometimes you just need a new duvet cover and your whole room is new again.
Cruz LIKED. Once again I wasn't sure, but it matches and it looks pretty cool with the planets on the ceiling. His favorite color is green and he picked it out all by himself. His other duvet was denim on both sides and just too hot.
THE ROOSTER....I LIKED and fortuneately so does Cruz!

The most wonderful time of the year

I love the beginning of fall / late summer for the tasty fruits and veggies! I found a little truck roadside stand that sells the best sweetest corn we have had in a long time. Just to give you a few numbers on how well we like it. I bought 4 dozen ears yesterday. Last night we cooked 22 ears. Jake had 5, Kirsten had 5, Cruz only had 3 due to the fact that he ate an ENTIRE T-bone steak by himself. You can figure out how many I ate....(I'm not bragging about this. It was so yummy! To make up for it I ran an extra mile this morning on my run.)

The only other thing that can compare to sweet young corn is fresh juicy peaches which I will soon be indulging in. My mom's are on and when we go down to pick up McKay you can be sure I will bring plenty back! :)

Snags

My little snaggletooth. I haven't ever seen a situation like hers. She has her two bottom teeth in and the a top side tooth. Very unique.

A little belated....

After hours of the kids wanting Jake to blow out his candles on his cake he finally gave in at 10pm. As I mentioned before he had been very sick all day. He blew out 31 candles in about 6 breaths (not kidding). After words he said, "I have to sit down, I'm lightheaded. It's going to suck when I get old."

Happy Birthday once again

Jake turned 31 yesterday and celebrated this fabulous birthday by going all out. All out in being sick and down in bed. I felt so terrible for him. What a way to spend a birthday but for all it's worth, Happy Birthday! We love you and know you are a wonderful father and husband.

Jake says....

....That all girl truck drivers are fat and ugly....

This is the beginning of our latest adventure over the past week. Meet BIG MAC....He is the latest addition to our online purchasing. I started calling this truck Big Mac as I thought it looked a lot like the colors of McD's. Back to the story....As we are well known for our "computer" vehicle buying, Jake bought a dumptruck in Montreal a couple weeks ago. It was on a open unreserved auction and we got it for a steal! (Just to compare, we would pay almost double for what we bought it for.) On the downside, another road trip was on the way.

We flew to Burlington, Vermont on Thursday (Katanya didn't have a passport so we couldn't fly into Canada.) Friday morning we took a taxi across the border into Quebec. Canada is a very pretty place, although Quebec is a lot different than the rest of Canada. My favorite so far is Ontario. I also like kilometers a lot better than miles for the fact they they feel like they go by twice as fast as miles do. Anyway we picked up the vehicle and we were on our way........We only had to cross this HUGE bridge across the St. Lawrence river 3 times to finally get "unlost". Pete said it best when he told Jake, "....let me get this right. You go into another country and know you are picking up a truck (that could have problems) to drive back and you didn't bring a map or tools?...." Pete was a life saver this trip! Jake owes you : ) Katanya came with (still attached). We had a custom seat built in the middle and bolted to the floor. This allowed her car seat to be buckled in and for her to enjoy a 2700 bouncy ride home. (it wasn't suppose to be as bouncy but this is another long story not for this post. Jake can explain if he wants to.) She was an angel. We have taught our kids well.Jake's new fashion. (Until we found his somewhere in the truck. Not a lot of room when you have 2 duffle bags, a babyseat and misc. bags we picked up from the trip.
We finally crossed back into the states in Sarnia, Michigan. We had to cross a toll bridge back into the US for $9.00. (for a mile long) We also forgot cash this trip so the cashier got paid in quarters and dimes. This trip added 2 new states for me plus the first time being out of the US.

We learned a few things this trip.....most importantly....always bring your family (wife and kids) into a place when trying to get something cheaper or faster. IE: We had a few hangups at Customs and the guard basically told us to "pray" that we got across. We had called ahead and thought we had everything we needed evidently we weren't even close. When we went in to see a different officer, he must have felt sorry or didn't want to hear a crying baby all day (she was hungry) and helped us out without any further delays. It was something rather simple but could have been a real problem.

After we got home, I added up the mileage of our road trips this year. Between March and July and a trip to NYC, one to Mesquite / Moab, one to South Padres, and the latest to Montreal, with 4 trips down to SLC we have drove a total of a little over 15,300 miles. That is not including any local driving around Idaho. I think we win the award for the Most Miles Driven for 2007. (It's not even over yet). This leads me back to this picture....

One other fun thing was about 2 days into the trip (while we were going thru Iowa) I got bored and Jake was tired. I took over in driving and it was actually pretty fun. It was hard getting used to the gears and not using the clutch while shifting but it made the trip for me not as long. It also helped Sunday when we couldn't get a hotel in Wyoming and drove all night. (not something I recommend often) Now learning how to drive, Jake has taken advantage of it and while we are swamped the next couple weeks he has me running the new truck with Cruz and Katanya while he is running his old truck with Kirsten. Twice the loads and twice the pay plus we don't have to lose any customers (it's only part of the day that I drive). He now has to eat his words about what he said earlier about girls!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Jake wanted to bic his head Sunday morning. Last minute he decided to go with a number one (I am thankful for this.)Kirsten: (while shaving) Don't worry dad, it will grow back. (continues shaving)Kirsten: When dad has no hair he looks like a cat with ears. (how she got it was his hairline)

LATER THAT NIGHT....

Kirsten: Dad is my fuzzy wuzzy.

Added to the wall

Jake says that we need to have a "wall" and get a picture of the people that have visited us. I'm not so sure about the idea but we can always pretend.

Sean and Keli have been added! They came up Saturday afternoon and stayed with us for a night while on their way up to Yellowstone. We enjoyed their company and hope they didn't find us wierd.

Knock knock.

Emma and Kirsten (The kids played so great together! They went til midnight and still could have gone all night.)

Our new kitties

McKay is visiting her other dad for a month and a couple days ago we picked up a couple kitties since from when we went on the trip one went missing. She asked me to put a picture up for her. This one is for you babe!

The black one is Genevieve and the one with white and black is Fiona. Our other two Phillipe and Jack.

One important thing unmentioned....

We celebrated Katanya's birthday at the beach. We have enjoyed watching her grow and develop her own special personality. It sure is amazing how fast a year flies by. One year ago this is the situation we were in.... (Katanya three days old)Now she is blabbering and already wanting to involved with her brother and sisters. We love her and are glad she is a part of our family.

Katanya's cake and unsure of everybody singing.
Finally trying just a crumb. She never really ate it, just nibbled at the frosting.
The infamous "present" shot.

It isn't official until it's documented....

Katanya ate her ENTIRE "baby" bowl of spaghetti today willingly and with an open mouth. I didn't have to pin her down and force it into her mouth over and over again just to give up. I STILL HAVE HOPE!

Finally....NUMBER ONE

FIRST CAME THIS.... THEN CAME THIS....
AND FINALLY THIS IS WHAT CAME TO BE.
P.S. Jake gave me his permission to post this.