Our Stuff is HERE!!!

We got our household goods today... all 9,000 pounds of it!!! We have so much crap, I've already started a 'Give Away' pile!  So Dustin wanted the movers to unpack and take the boxes with them, and he said he would put all the furniture, etc together!  BAD IDEA!!! I told him, but ultimately let him make the decision... one that we will never make again!  It's so much easier to unpack ourselves and put it where we want, otherwise you get this:

Everything unpacked in the kitchen... drawers are filled to the brim with random junk that doesn't even belong in the kitchen!! GRRR!

Plates, dishes, everything basically shoved into the cabinets and piled on the shelves... the top cabinet I had already started to straighten out!

Computer room... not too bad, just a big pile of scrapbook paper and stamps that was marked computer paper so the box got put in this room and unpacked and put on the floor.

Clothes for some reason used as fillers for our electronic boxes, so now they decorate our couch.

DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED!!! GRANDMA'S, THIS MESSAGE IS FOR YOU! THEY DO NOT NEED ANY MORE TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!  I'm thinking a limit this year... two toys and two outfits per child! (seriously!)

Hmmm... the cleanest room in the house for once!  I did not want them touching my scrapbook stuff... ahhh...look at the pretty boxes all nice and neat against the wall....

Sierra's bedroom, Dustin had already put up the bed. Don't even think about looking in the closet, its piled about 4 feet high with clothes and linens.

The master bedroom... not much difference here tonight except that we were able to pile everything against the wall and put the bed together. It's SO VERY NICE to have my own bed back!

A box of bath stuff... so where does Dustin put it... in the bath!!! GRRR!!

Ruby and Karis' room... this is actually the best room now, the beds are put together (after about 3 hours and me telling the girls that this was a 'bad word zone' so stay out!) and everything else was moved out (P.S. don't open the closet)

So everyone has beds and I will work on the kitchen the next few days so we can eat and cook. Definitely have to find a butcher's block cabinet or something for all the extra appliances I have as we had WAY MORE cabinet space in Germany.  We decided that we will just take one room at a time (not counting closets) and hopefully have everything put together in a few weeks!  So nobody plan any visits until the middle of October, because I'm not giving up my bed again!

Happy Birthday Ruby!!

Ruby is officially 4!! Woohoo!!  We had a small get together with our friends and their kids on Sunday for pizza and ice cream cone cupcakes.  Enjoy the pics!

Here's one ice cream cone you can eat from the bottom!

Our new house

These pictures were taken on Wednesday when we moved in, so basically we had nothing in here.  Shortly after the beds and kitchen table were delivered and we've since had the computer and TV and the rest of our unaccompanied baggage delivered. And we bought couches and shoe racks and some other shower stuff.  But here are the pics:

From the kitchen into the dining area. Half wall on left towards back covers stairs that lead to the garage.

Turned around in the kitchen into the family room. Door on left leads to back yard.

From back door. Our yard is fenced and there is a gate on the right that leads to the park.

From hallway to stairs to the garage.  Bathroom on left, kitchen is on the other side of the wall on the right.

One car heated garage, above where I'm standing is a loft for storage.

If you turn around the in hallway, to the right is the living room. Stairs on the left lead to the basement.

From the hallway to the left is the family room (Also seen from the kitchen) Stairs lead upstairs (we have split stair cases).

From the half landing on the staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms.

The girls bathroom, now decorated in purple, blue and lime green fish and octupi!

Master bedroom. Master bath is on the left and walk-in closet on the right.

Master bath.

Walk-in closet... hey, I'm excited! Its been FOREVER since I've had a walk-in closet!

Ruby and Karis' room.

Sierra's room (and the new baby in about a year).

Basement - HUGE laundry room! This is the only room without drywalled in walls.

This will be my scraproom. There is a solid wall on the left that is shared with the playroom - its a nice sized room for my scrappy stuff!

This is the girls' playroom. Its about 10x14 feet.

And here is a sunset from the parking lot of the Lowes in Fairbanks. It was much prettier, but I made Dustin drive around the HUGE LOWES sign so it wouldn't be in my picture, and by the time we got the girls in the car and did that, the sun had set more :(  Oh well... I have three more years to get the perfect sunset shot :)

ALASKA!!

We got into Alaska just fine Tuesday night. By Wednesday night Dustin was quite upset he hadn't seen any wildlife. We were told it was Moose Hunting season, so they were probably hiding. So Thursday morning we were leaving the base to go house hunting and look what we saw on the side of the road - on base even!

A Momma and Baby Moose. Dustin stopped and I snapped two pictures before the Baby (on the right) bolted and Momma started eyeing us. I didn't even use zoom on the pics, straight from the car window - LOL! And then we headed on our way because we weren't sure if the rental car had Moose Insurance :D

And when we left Friday morning for MORE house hunting, the same two Moose were in the same section of the road but on the left hand side of the road this time.

So we're still searching for a house. I think I've locked in on my favorite - but we haven't actually seen the inside yet (other than pictures). Dustin has his favorite, but it has no room for my scrappy stuff.... and I NEED! space for that! Pray for us that we find a house by the end of the week!

5 New Holes!!!

Well, between all three of the girls, we have five new holes!  Ruby and Karis got their ears pierced on Wednesday (Sierra chickened out!)

We walked into Claire's because the girls have been asking for a few months about getting their ears pierced.  Ruby and Sierra both said no way, but Karis said, I want Ear Pretties!!!  We couldn't convince Sierra or Ruby otherwise, so we left.

We got about 2 stores down from the Claire's in the mall and Karis grabbed Daddy's hand, and said, I want Ear Pretties!! I told her she had to convince one of her sisters to do it too.... so she turned to them and said Pease Sissies!!!  Awww.... she kept pointing to the piercing chair and saying, I want Ear Pretties!

So Ruby said if she could sit on Daddy's lap while they were doing it she would get them done. And they both went through with it (with a bit of crying and comforting) and had HUGE smiles and love their new earrings!

Ruby has pink flowers:

and Karis has white flowers:

And even though Sierra didn't get ever get her ears pierced (she said maybe when she's 12 or 13 - lol) she did lose another tooth last night!!! And boy was she lucky, the Tooth Fairy and Grandma's house pays way better than at Mommy and Daddy's - LOL!

SURPRISE!!!!

Well, we are officially in Arizona! The plane ride was so rough! But the girls were awesome and barely even fussed!

And we have a surprise for everyone! We have Baby #4 on the way!!!! EEK! Dustin had a vasectomy but the last three months the girls have been asking for a baby brother. Dustin and I told them that Mommy and Daddy were done having babies so if they really wanted a baby brother they would have to pray to Jesus. And they have been!!! Never underestimate the power of prayer!!!! LOL! I am due the end of March 2009!

We're Off!!

We totally moved out of our house on Monday, the cleaning ladies are getting their money's worth today!!! We are in a 2 bedroom temporary apartment until Friday and then the fun begins!!!! We leave for the airport at 9:30am German time, and will arrive in Phoenix 9:30pm... factor in the time change and the drive to Gold Canyon, and that puts us at about 23 hours of traveling!!!! OH JOY!!!! (that was a SARCASTIC 'Oh Joy!' in case you didn't notice)

I am at the library right now using the internet, going to try to get on one more time on Thursday to check my email before we leave. And then I will rejoin my online community on Saturday - LOL!

Please keep us in your prayers during our travels!

Happy Birthday Kare - Kare!!!

So my baby is two... sniff sniff!! She thinks she is three though <eye roll> EVERY TIME! you ask her how old she is, she says "FREE" (3) and then when you tell her two, sometimes she'll say, okay, two, and sometimes she says, NO, I FREE!!!! lol

blowing out the candles... I threatened Sierra and Ruby NOT to blow... and what does Sierra do on Karis' third try... she blows out the candle!! GRRR!

We took Karis to the local toy store to pick out some things last weekend. She wanted a baby - because the 15 I have at home don't cut it for her! And then we let her pick out some farm animal duplos from Grandma Patty and My Little Pony books from Aunt Amy (thanks for the checks! the rest will go into her savings :D)

We kept having to tell the girls that it was Karis' birthday and they had to wait for their birthday to get gifts. But we said tomorrow Karis has to share her new toys.

Already reading her baby one of her new books! She's definitely her Momma's child... she was more interested in the books than the toys - hehehe.

The 15 Euro Ice Cream Cone

So the first night in Italy we stopped for some Gelato (of course!) It was 50 euro for our whole family! YIKES!!

Mine was the most elaborate. I THOUGHT I had ordered a two scoop cone... this is what came!

Just for a frame of reference, 15 euro is about $22!!!!!