Slackers of the Blog....What we've been up to.

Well once again it's been too long since we've updated our blog so here
it goes.


We had our good friends Adam and Andrea and their little cutie
pie Amelia up for a weekend just before Thanksgiving. We went
to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Anthem Outlets.
They had a concert with Dueling Pianos, Choo Choo Soul (Grace's Favorite)
and a new, amazing singer Savannah Outen. It was a great weekend
with the Jardon's and we can't wait til we have another one.


For Thanksgiving Tyler's whole family came out and spent the week
at our place. Spencer and Carly came up and Grandma Sally even made
the trip with Ty's parents. We had so much fun and of course ate way
too much food. We played lots of games, watched alot of movies and
just enjoyed hanging out with everyone. And we'll excuse Kristy and Brett
since he had business to take care of putting the Utes in their place that
Saturday.

After Thanksgiving we went and found this beauty of a Christmas tree
at a local lot. We brought it home and got it all decorated, kids under 2
provide unbelievably good help puttingup ornaments. It finally brought
the Christmas spirit to our home in snowless Arizona. We also put lights
up on our house and have really enjoyed that. Our neighborhood has
more houses decorated than any neighborhood we've ever lived in. It
must be the warmer weather that gets everyone out and willing to put
lights up. It has really made this season fun driving home at night with
the kids and slowly winding through Anthem looking at all of the lights.


http://allijphotography.com/blog/?p=84

Last we went and had our family Christmas pictures taken so we can
send out our Christmas cards this year. Alli does such an amazing job.
so that's what we've been up to. Next week I head out to Wyoming to
spend two weeks with my family for Christmas. Ty will fly out the
following week to join us. Grace has loved Christmas this year and is
hooked on Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Santa Clause is coming
to town. It has been so much fun seeing her excitement and we can't
wait til Christmas morning when she gets to see what Santa brought her.

A Little Update

Well it's been awhile since we've posted anything so here is a
quick update on what we've been up to. We're still doing little
projects around the house but we've settled in. We have great
neighbors and love our neighborhood. This weekend my sister
and I had a girls weekend with both of our youngest kids, Crew
and Lor's baby girl Bella. Tyler took Grace to Albuquerque, NM
with his brother Spencer to have a weekend with his family and
watch the BYU UNM game. About a week ago Tyler and I started
our biggest project, antiquing our kitchen cabinets. Lor and I
worked all weekend trying to get things finished. We didn't quite
make it but we are VERY close. Thanks for ALL your hard work
Lor, you are AWESOME! Anyway here are some pics from the weekend.


The cabinets before we started. We'll post pics when were done.

Gracie and grandpa watching the game.

Gracie loved watching the cheerleaders and all the action from right up front.

Grace, dad, and Cosmo the cougar. And yes Tyler has a

moustache. He's doing the Movember thing and growing

a moustache to raise awareness about men's prostate

and testicular cancer. I guess it's some big thing, if you

haven't heard about it check out http://www.movember.com/.

Goodthing it's for a good cause!!

Finally Moved In.

Well we are finally in our house, we've been here for a week now and loving our new place. Even though we went through a nightmare of a lender things worked out in the end and we are just grateful to have our own home. Thanks to all of our good friends who helped us move (Tyler S., Kyle, Troy, Kevin) couldn't have done it without you. And a HUGE thanks to Tyler's mom Debbie, sorry your visit was such a laborious trip but we seriously appreciate everything you did to help. Our first weekend here was spent unpacking boxes, getting organized and landscaping. Tyler had to go to town on the front yard because everything was overgrown. Above is the before and after pictures. And don't worry the pretty red flower bush (bogainvillea) it will be back shortly. I know my mom will be shocked we cut "that pretty thing" down. Anyway, things are going good and we are still working on little projects here and there and will have more pictures soon. Bye for now.

Recent photos of my favorites :) I love my kiddos :)

Here a few pics of the kids... Dont mind the mess in all the pics. We have been in the process of moving now for the past..... I dont know month ;) Anyway Enjoy our kids they are the best!!!

Pack your stuff your mov...you're mo... you're... not going anywhere!

Well this weekend we were supposed to be moving into our brand new house. Exciting times right? Not so much, not in the circus land we live in. Here's the events of the last week and why we are not moving into our lovely little casa bonita this weekend as planned. After being conditionally approved for our loan a week and a half ago, we turned in all of the final conditional paperwork the bank required for final approval and closing. We were told once that was done we would be off to sign final documents, close the loan, get our keys and move into our house early the next week. So we finish that Friday and are told everything good to go and start our planning that weekend for next week's move. Monday I get a phone call saying the bank is 3 to 4 days behind and won't get to us until Thursday or Friday. Great, awesome, couldn't be better. So after waiting all week Thursday rolls around and I get a phone call saying the bank won't accept our most recent bank statments that show we have the money to close this loan. Supposedly we printed them online. Little do they know I went into Wells Fargo had them printed out and faxed directly to my mortgage broker. So now I'm told I have to get these same statements printed out again but this time notarized by the bank. SERIOUSLY? Since you can't argue withe the bank lending you your money I go and get a notarized printout of the exact same account snapshot and fax it over to my broker. All this with two kids while my wife is at work, not a good task for dads to try, very easy for a mother, I know. Good thing for banks and their jar of freaking dum dum suckers. So the bank faxes over the new "notarrized" statements, I call our broker, she says she got em and everything should be done tomorrow, this was the only thing the bank needed. So today rolls around and were hopeful that we will be able to sign. What fools we are. I get a call about 11:30am from my realtor this time. He is saying that the bank now wants us to sign a new contract dated 5 days later than the original contract. Realtor sends us new contracts, we both sign those, send them back. They say they will send them to the seller have him sign them and send them to our broker who will send them to the bank and then "we are good to go." it's 9:21pm right now and after two unreturned, unasnswered calls to my realtor 3 unanswered, unreturned calls to our mortgage broker we don't have a clue what is going on or where things stand with the bank and our house. I swear buying a house is fun and worth the effort, really I do???????????????????????? If something doesn't happen next week you might be reading about alot more than two angry "hoping to be" homeowners. So there you go, my happy little update for the week!

Our house... covered in plants and trees!

Well its official we are buying this house :) It's perfect for our little family! We cant wait to move in and have a little a space! There will be more pictures to come.......sorry the pics are blocked, we know the front of the house needs a little yard work!!!

Random picture updates!

Here are some really out of order and random updated pictures! Crew is almost 6 months old and growing like a weed... Grace is 2 and hilarious she always keeps us guessing! Tyler and I made a temple trip saturday night... it was so nice to go and have a date night with out the kids! Thats pretty much all the excitement we have had these days! Enjoy the pics :)

Crew... Grace... Tank... Ralphie

I layed Crew on a sheet on the floor and when I turned around a few minutes later this is what I found.... funny little guy! Grace wanted in on some of the camera action so that was her little bit and as for the dogs I figured I couldn't leave them out either!

Utah, Wyoming and Back Home

So a couple weeks ago we headed out to Utah to attend my sisters baby blessing and have a good weekend with the fam. We had a great time hangin out, loving the cool weather, taking Grace to her first rodeo (can't believe we don't have a picture), heading out on the lake, and being there for little Bella's blessing. It was a great weekend but just the first leg of my trip, Tyler headed back home for work and I headed up to Star Valley, Wyoming to spend the next week with my family. We went horseback riding, boating again, riding four wheelers, up to Jackson Hole, and more time just hanging out. It was so fun being home during the summer and enjoying all that their is to do.

More Swim Action!

Our little fish!

Swimming Lessons

This was the last day of swimming lessons and it was a blast to watch her get better everyday! It started with all out kicking and screaming and ended like this! I was going to video her the first day but you would just see a whole bunch of torture and screaming! (Not fun).... The second day was worse than the first it included all the screaming plus a nice dose of throw up down the teachers suit! (Sorry Kati) Grace did so good though, Kati (the swim teacher) said that it was pretty normal to hate swimming lessons for the first little while!

For the last few days I was so happy to come and see this! She LOVED it! She was so excited to go underwater.... and dive for the rings! I recommend everyone do this with their kids!

PS- Sorry there is so much video.... Im just a proud momma! :)

Potty Training = No More Diapers = HAPPY MOMMY!!

So a few days ago when Gracelyn got up I decided to put her pony undies on, not with the full intent of potty training, but maybe to see what could happen! Well as the day continued so did the potty training and it was completely successful!! Long story short and only once accident later (my fault) she is doing awesome! She wakes up dry from naps and woke up dry this morning :) Needless to say I'm a happy momma! Its funny the things that excites you when your a mom!! Seriously everytime she goes I do a little dance and get so excited :) WAHOO GRACE!

Crew... 3 months already!!

Well its been a short and fast three months! I can't believe it! Crew is such a good baby! We feel so lucky and blessed to have a healthy and happy little guy! He is so so so smiley! We love you Crew!

Pictures

We recently went down to Gilbert and had Crew's pictures taken, along with a few of the whole family. We just got them back and are really excited about how well our photographer did. Her name is Allison Johnson, you can visit her at allijphotography.com. She does awesome work. Here is the link to our pics. Thanks Alli for doing such a good job.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifehappensnow/sets/72157618171930018/

This is Hilarious!

I had to share this with everyone! I died laughing the first time I saw it. I love YouTube.

Falling out of the stroller = OUCH!

Saturday night we went to Kierland to let grace play on the splash pad... Well it was about time to go and she wanted in the stroller which had crews car seat on it so we let her in it while we talked to some friends she turned around in the stroller and leaned on it just right..... and over she went! Head first! Needless to say she has a pretty awesome shiner! Poor girl we felt so bad!

Here are just a few more of the little man!! What a handsome little hunk... We love having him around he is such a sweet baby!!

Our two little monkeys are growing way too fast. It seems like
just the other day it was just the 3 of us and we were anxiously
awaiting Crew's arrival. Now he's more than a month old and
changing everyday. Grace is being the best big sister possible,
she is always looking out for her little bro and worries about him
everytime he cries. We're starting to realize that Grace isn't our
little baby anymore. She is getting so big, especially since bringing
Crew home. She is so funny and learning so fast. We couldn't
have a sweeter little girl. We are so happy to have both of them
with us and feel so blessed. We spend most of our free time
relaxing and putting our apartment back together so we haven't
gotten our here very much. But we will try and do better.
Until next time....

Toady in Grandpa & Grandmas Gear!!!

Sorry we have been so slow with our blogging but here is a little glimpse of what Toad was up to while " Ma" and "papa" Sharpe were in town! She couldn't get enough of "Ma's" glasses... It was hilarious she walked a little goofy with them on and looked funny too because of the prescription ;) Then it was on to "papa's" helmet... can we say top heavy! She really had to be careful not to fall over and knock her head into everything! She is so full of life and energy.... we are constantly laughing and wondering where she comes up with some of the things she says and does! We love this little one!