Home improvements!

Over the last couple of weeks we had some home improvements done with some money that Paul inherited. We added landscaping to the front yard and continued the hard wood floors into the kitchen and breakfast nook. :)

Before landscaping (the weeds were ridiculous and I was pulling them every week):



and after:


The floors before:




and after:

Marisah is SIX!!!

My sweet girl turned SIX on 11/11. I can't believe how fast these last 6 years have gone by.

Marisah is such a loving, cheerful, spunky and smart girl. Paul and I are both extremely proud of the wonderful person she is and continues to blossom into.

We started a new thing this year for celebrating birthdays in our family. In addition to having a party with friends we have started going on family trips to celebrate. Family time is very important to us and is a top priority.

Our most recent trip was to Glen Rose, TX. It's just an hour from our house, but almost seemed like we were back in Utah. It was gorgeous. I had no idea that only an hour from our house there were so many giant hills. I have too many pics to post here, so I'll attach a link :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goonielinz/

Mmm... bird vomit.

Rissa and I were looking through my new cookbook tonight, trying to see what new recipes we'd like to try. We turned to this page and Rissa says "It looks good, except that [the sauce] looks like bird throw up". I guess that recipe won't go over well.

Ashley's new favorite word *sigh*

Band-aids make everything better

Ashley has a teeny tiny scratch above her lip. It's almost gone, but she insisted on putting a band-aid on it. I told her no. A few minutes later I turn around and see this:

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens

We took a quick visit to the Botanic Gardens this morning & saw some gorgeous flowers & some cool animals and insects. Here are a few pics :)

Hello again

I suppose that my blogging hiatus has been long enough. I have had two reminders today that I should get going on this again. So here it goes...

The last 3 months have been a little insane. After our trip to Arkansas I had some medical issues that took near 3 months to figure out. The finding was that I have 2 bulging discs in my lower back. Not horribly bulging, but enough to cause a tremendous amount of pain, leg weakness... etc. I'm doing physical therapy and started back at the gym this week too. Things are looking up.

Also, Rissa has started kindergarten. We are so proud of her. She is doing fantastic and picking everything up SO quickly. There were many rough weeks of battling her about going to school though. She does not like to be away from Mom & Dad and she made that very obvious every morning. She is doing much better in the morning now, thank goodness! I love when I pick her up from school and she tells me about her day, about the things that she learned, and about her friends.

Ashley started preschool again during this time. She loves it. She has the biggest smile every morning when I take her and is giddy when I pick her up. She sings the songs that she learned in school in the car on the way home and I LOVE it. She is, as always, as sweet and cute as can be.

Unfortunately during this time Paul's Grandma passed away. She was such a fantastic mother, grandmother and great grandmother. We miss her very much and have nothing but fond memories of her.

2010 has been a rough year for us, I'm looking forward to 2011 :)