MIA

So we have been MIA for a while now....we have A LOT going on that has kept me from really wanting to blog...BUT updates are coming soon.

On the Move again.....

So.....we are leaving Tucson this weekend.....and I must say I am REALLY excited about it! We are going to the Maryland office to sell because it just makes our lives easier. The office we are selling in right now is moving to New Mexico and everyone will be done in September and our plan is to sell through Oct or Nov. We always planned on locating to MD after the summer anyways...so instead of potentially three moves....we will have just one.....which makes it MUCH better for us. Let me tell you Two cars...a dog and a baby plus all our stuff makes for a BIG move so it will be nice to be able to stay put for 6 months or more. I think we are leaving tomorrow or sunday. I am NOT really looking forward to the 34 hour drive....but I AM looking forward to being on the east coast and out of this INSANE heat. And not to mention trips to the Beach.......my favorite!!!

Oh and we also got to make a little weekend trip to Grand Canyon last week.....and it was AMAZING....when you are there it doesn't even seem real! It was breath-taking....Totally worth the 5 hour drive it took us to get there! We decided that NEXT time though, we are going to come with older kids and go camping and do the whole shebang! There's not a lot to stay and do with a baby. But It was really nice to get to spend some time with our WHOLE family for a couple days after Brandon had been gone for over a week packing up our stuff! .....and I STILL don't have a camera so there are no pics......so we had to be ghetto and use a disposable camera to document our trip! I know......lame.....but if I find a way to get them on the computer...I will post them! I better get packing.....

Its official!!

So tomorrow its official that we are No longer residents of Rexburg, Idaho! I NEVER thought I would feel this way but I am REALLY sad about it. I have grown to LOVE Rexburg so much. I am one of the few people who looked FORWARD to the never-ending snow. I LOVED my house.....it really was my HOME in every sense of the word. I know in my mind that we needed to move on and start the next chapter in our lives.....but my heart is sad that we couldn't stay. I am really trying to be positive about the future and be excited about whats to come.....but right now its hard. I think what makes it difficult is not really knowing where we are going next. We are looking for a job pretty much anywhere. The areas we are really open to are Maryland, Washington, Denver, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. It's hard to go from having a HOME to feeling transient and not having a CLUE whats next. I have to say though, that I am grateful we sold our house so quickly and that we actually get to MAKE some money.....more than most can say.....and this IS what I wanted.......I just don't think I knew how hard it would be. So this week is going to be hard......its all feeling bitter-sweet. So, I will take a few days to cry about it.....and then I will GET OVER IT and be happy for what our future will bring!!

Fun to be ONE!!!

Our Tessa Messa Bessa is ONE! I cannot believe it! She is getting TOO big! She is walking now, and is ALWAYS on the go! You can tell she feels like a really big girl. When she first started walking she would stop after a few steps, get a HUGE smile on her face and start clapping! We are really proud too! Once she started walking it felt like we went from having a baby to having a toddler! They get BIG so fast! Her Birthday was on the 14th. My mom was able to fly in from Seattle for her birthday, which was really nice since we don't live around ANY family right now, and we are just starting to get to know the people in the office here. I had ALL KINDS of plans for her special day........but Camden(our dog) ran away right as we were leaving to start the festivities. SO we searched for a while and then decided that since we had a micro-chip placed in his back, someone would turn him in and we would get notified. (Some of you already know that camden ran away a few days before that on MOTHERS DAY! and because of that we skipped all our plans to search for him) We decided that we weren't going to let that happen again and ruin Tessa's first Birthday! We went to Lunch, and were headed off to a splash park/toddler pool when we got a call that Camden WAS turned in and that we could come pick him up. BY THE TIME we got him and went through all the stupid steps to get him OUT of there it was 4. SO much to my dismay we TURNED right back around and headed home. We decided to open some of her presents and then we went to the pool at our apartment Complex. Which she still LOVED and we had a great time too.

After the Pool we sang to her and let her enjoy her cake! SHE LOVED IT. She seriously ate more than half of it! Brandon took it away from her because he thought she was going to get sick. She would have kept going if she had the chance! Once she was all WASHED up from that mess, she opened the rest of her presents. She was pretty overwhelmed by all the new toys......but after a few days of playing with them has decided she can handle it! Here are some pictures from her special day!

Opening Presents:

Having FUN in the Pool with Daddy(her favorite person):



Having her Cake, and eating it too;)

The DAMAGE:

Clean UP

I decorated Her Corner where her highchair is and had a lot of fun doing it! I loved all the hot pink and I wanted her to feel like a princess while she ate her cake. She also, to my delight, kept her Birthday hat on for presents and cake! She cooperated nicely....which made me really happy!



We had a GREAT day all in all, and although things didn't go EXACTLY like I planned, she had fun........and thats what REALLY matters!!!!

SOLD

We put our house up for Sale in April.....and it SOLD!!! We close on June 5th! Everything is going Smooth so far! We are SOOO BLESSED! Now we are ready for our Next Adventure.....whatever and wherever that might be;)

Trip to Minnes"O"ta

In April I went to visit Jenn, My BFF since 13 in Minnesota where her and her cute little family live now. We had a GREAT week, we did LOTS and LOTS of shopping. Which in my book.........is a PERFECT week. I hadn't seen Jenn in over a year, and she hadn't met Tessa yet. SO I thought it would be TONS of fun to make a surprise visit. The surprise went pretty smoothly. Her Husband Adam kept our secret for OVER a month. She didn't have a clue until the night before. Adam told her to have the house clean the next day.....that got the wheels turning in her head and she decided she MUST be getting a VISITOR....but thought it would be her mom. SO at LEAST she was surpised that it was not her mom, but ME and TESSA!!! It was a really fun week, we TALKED and TALKED, ate out, hung out with our girls, and SHOPPED until we DROPPED! It was a blast....I LOVE that girl...and fell in love with her little Sadie that week too! I missed Jenn So much......she is one of the few people on this earth that REALLY know me! So it was really nice to spend some time with her. Thanks Jenn for letting us drop in for a week, and Thanks Adam for putting up with us, and keeping our secret!!!! Here are some pics!!

Trip to Minnesota

Waiting....

So we are back from our 2 week adventure of Visiting Maryland and surprising my BFF Jennifer in Minnesota. But Like I said, we had no camera. BUT the good news is she got one and we were able to take pictures in Minnesota. SO when the cd she sent me with the pictures arrive I will FINALLY be posting something fun! Sorry I've been so lame. But I would say having no pictures to post is a pretty good excuse. So hopefully soon, I will update my blog!

We're OFF!

We are headng off to Maryland today to see Brandon's family! It is ALWAYS so fun to go back east. We love that part of the country, and we are really excited to see some REAL trees for a few days. Tucson is beautiful, but we are really starting to feel a little dehydrated being in the desert surrounded by a bunch of cactus and dirt! I don't think I have SEEN grass YET! Anyways I probably wont have any pictures from our trip because the other day Tessa and I went to the pool and I brought the camera over to the side of the pool and sat it next to the towel because I knew I wanted to take some pictures of Tessa playing in the water. Well I got an important phone call about our house(its for sale), and while I was trying to talk, Tessa kept trying to drown herself by dipping her face in the water over and over. I took her out of her floatie and put her in my lap and before I could do anything about it she pulled the towel in the pool and the camera went with it! Needless to say, I am little upset about it, this is our third camera we have gone through since we have been married(yep..thats about one a year) so I don't know if we are going to get one soon! We are obviously a little irresponsible about cameras. BUT I am going to try and work my magic on Brandon to get one soon! Tessa's birthday is coming up in ONE month.......so its kind of a neccesity!
Man that was quite the ramble......MY POINT is that we will be having fun in Maryland and we won't have any pictures to put on our blog to prove it! Sad day:( OH well! See ya'll in a week;)

Tessa's first Easter!

(warning: long post and there are a lot of pictures)

We had a great Easter! Tessa had a pretty fun day! I might have had more fun than her, but I think she would say she enjoyed it too! She woke up to a Basket that was filled with the stuff she likes! It took her a while to find it! I wanted her to find it on her own so we just let her take her time until she noticed it!



When she noticed it, she had a pretty good time seeing everything the Easter Bunny left her! She got some new board books, a baby einstein video, PJ's, but i think her MOST favorite was her Peeps, and Her BUNNY! She is starting to LOVE stuffed animals. She drags them around hanging out of her mouth as she crawls around the house! Its pretty cute! SO we knew it would be a hit!( I mean the "easter bunny" knew;))

She pretty much devoured the peeps, and carried the chocolate bunny in her mouth as she crawled around the house! It was funny!

I though it would be fun to color eggs so we attempted it....but silly me forgot to get vinegar, so only a few turned out! While we were doing that we put Tessa on the table so she could "participate" but she opted for just continuing to eat her peeps! Is that really all it takes to make her quiet and happy???.....I will be buying a stash of those for moments when I need them! And all you mom's know what i am talking about:)

We went to or new ward today, and she made it very difficult to pay ANY attention today, she was bouncing of the walls........MY fault, I know! I guess her perfect behavior when she was eating the sugar-filled peeps was just the lul before the storm;) Even though she was naughty She still looked so cute with daddy after church, so I just HAD to take a picture of them.
I though she looked adorable in her dress so we took some pics of her so we can all "ooh" and "aww" over her cuteness! or maybe just so I can!

Brandon got me these Irises, which are my fav, and I guess Tessa's too. So much so, that she decided she should eat them....mmmmm tasty!

Later we went to the park and put Tessa on the swings! She really loved it! Its so much fun to be able to see your kids experience things for the first time! Oh....to be an innocent little child again! It really is so sweet to see them enjoy the simple things in life!

We ended our Easter with a ham dinner and of course funeral potatoes. And finished it off with strawberry shortcake(my FAVORITE summer dessert)! We had a great Easter Sunday, the only thing missing was our extended family! Maybe next year!

we have ARRIVED!

We have made it to Tucson, and I LOVE it! It is so beautiful! We love our apartment, and LOVE LOVE LOVE our location! We are surrounded by EVERYTHING i could ever hope for! Super-Walmart is a 1 minute drive, and if you know me well, you know that brings a HUGE smile to my face! I don't know why, but I LOVE that store! Maybe there is a little white-trash in me, but isn't there in everyone? AND the other thing that I am loving is that we have a big dog-run in our complex! Which is SO nice because Camden gets really hyper, especially in an apartment, and it gives a GREAT place to get him tired! I can let him off his leash and let him go at it! Anyways, we are almost all settled in with our stuff, so I should be able to take some pics of what we are up to and post them soon!

Our Green Dinner!!

I LOVE holidays! ALL holidays! I think they are so fun and make life a little sweeter! Brandon always jokes that I am always coming up with ANOTHER tradition for our family, and that sometimes I take it a little overboard. But You know what?? I don't care, I love them, and I am going to keep doing them. I think our children will LOVE it and I LOVE doing it, so its a win-win situation! So this year I started a new tradition of having an ALL Green dinner in celebration of St. Patricks day! We had the Hoopers over as well as the Lainharts to join in the festivities! We ate Green Chicken Alfredo and Garlic Bread with Green butter, Green 7-up, and we ate it on Green plates and drank from Green cups! Karlee made an ALL Green cake in the shape of a shamrock, and we served it with Mint Chocolate-Chip ice cream and Becca made mint chocolate chip cookies! It was so much FUN! We were all in Green (except Kent....lame) and Tess got to wear Green beads all day(she loved that, she's ALL girl). Thank you Becca for the Salad and Cookies, and thanks Karlee for the delicious cake! It was a blast, and made St. Patricks day a lot of fun! Food, Friends, and a Fun Holiday...Does it get any better than that?? I submit that it does NOT! Thanks guys for such a fun night, and helping me start another NEW tradition!!

Little Miss PIGGY

Tessa has SO much hair and I am so excited because i can put her hair in PIGGIES! I love Pig-tales. They make Tess look like such a little girl and I, of course, think she just looks so stinkn' cute, so I thought I would share a few pics of her new do!