::popcorn::

We were talking to one of the elders in our ward. He grew up in Arizona I think. He said he had never really understood the primary song "Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree" until he came out here for his mission.
And it's true. We had lots of blossoming trees in Kansas City, but out here is even a notch above that.
It almost makes the winter worth it to see all this spring beauty.











I COULD take an armful and make a treat. Yum.

::drawings::

Max doesn't really like to draw. Well he hasn't in the past anyway. And coloring is kind of like torture to him for some reason. He likes to write though, as you would know if you've been reading this blog for very long.
So, because of the drawing aversion, I was pretty excited when he came home from school the other day with this:

It's Kris playing football. I love it. It's honestly one of his very first drawings that's not scribbles or smiley faces (which I really like too of course).

Then he came home from church with this:

I think it's the best likeness of Sultan I've seen in forever. I knew who it was immediately.
But can you see what's down there in the grass? Yep, it's dog poop. So gross.
He's into the realist movement. What can I say.

::balloon fun::

Max got a balloon from the pet store the other day when we went to get Sultan's gross bone.
It was such fun to have a balloon. It was tied to Max's belt loop and followed him all day. It went to bed with him.
Here's some balloon fun, and a few shots of our new backyard.

This was one of the few sunny days we had last week. It's been raining lots and lots, which we'll hoping will be great for our little grass seeds.



Does anybody know what kind of tree this is?  It's big, looks kind of like a maple, and all the leaves are red.  Right now.  In the spring.  It's really weird and I can't figure out what kind of tree it is.



Yes, I would definitely suggest resting your balloon on the scary beast with all the sharp teeth. Good idea.

I had to throw the balloon away tonight. Don't tell Max. It was a shriveled little ball on the floor of his room.
We had to have a lot of talks about why those balloons can't be filled back up, and why it kept sinking lower and lower.
Everybody's got to learn the facts of life sometime, right?

::mom day::

Happy Mothers day to our moms, they're the best of the best and we're lucky to have them.
We love you Kristen & Kathy, thanks for EVERYTHING! We LOVE you.

If you were here I'd let you have a turn wearing my mothers day crown that Max made for me at school.

Isn't it amazing?


And I'd let you eat some of my german pancakes.

And squeeze these adorable boys.


Wish we could come and come give you a squeeze ourselves. This will have to do. :)

::signs pt 4::

I'm thinking I'd better post these before we hit the statute of limitations, since they're from our old house!!

I neglected to get a photo of the for sale sign that's on Max's little tykes car. I'm not sure why it's for sale, but it is. Actually I think he means it's more for rent, since he says anybody can use it that needs to.


Here is the elevator button array. I think it's my favorite sign of all.

I kept wondering what the people thought that came through for showings--there were so many signs all over the place!

Here's kind of a mysterious one. It's a paper towel roll that says do not enter. It was quite the process to hang it on the wall. I'm not sure what we're not supposed to enter. It was right next to our bedroom--sorry Max, we do go in there.


Another one I think I missed was the "no smoking" sign on the front door. It's really funny because he drew the cigarette and the smoke but neglected to draw the circle with the slash through it. So really it's a smoking sign. Not exactly what we're going for.

And here's the man himself, hard at work on more signs!

Oh, and in case anybody was worried, he did find a good candidate for an elevator here at the new house. I'm sure it'll all work out.

::creations::

I had to take a picture of a couple of Max's cool creations before we moved. They're school projects. They were much too delicate to make it through the move.

They really remind me of this fabulous bit from the muppet show.
The one on the left really reminds me of the little muppet. Something in the attitude I guess.

Cammon better be reading this--he and I used to reinact this in our room when we were little. It was awesome.

::moving dog::

If you're moving, and you need a moving buddy, don't choose Sultan. He's a bad mover.
As soon as we started packing stuff up he started freaking out.

He's already really sensitive and moody. For some reason he has a phobia of getting ditched. We can't really figure out why since we've never just driven off and left him on the side of the road.
We've left him at my parents house a few times, but he likes it there more than here I think! Same with the kennel. He gets really excited when we take him there.

We've had to put him in his kennel whenever we went someplace without him because otherwise he'd go around eating everything he could find--including halloween candy and gum and anything that even slightly resembled food.
He actually likes the kennel, I think it makes him feel a little more secure. BUT as soon as we started packing and moved the kennel a bit he was totally freaked out.

He could tell something was up. He was hyper and crazy the whole time we were packing loading and moving.
Then when we brought him to the new house he was freaking out of course, and escaped from the backyard to spend the afternoon in the back of my car.

It's getting better now that all our stuff is here and he believes we might stay and aren't just going to leave him here. He's settling in a bit and actually seems to enjoy the yard.
On saturday Max and Kris went to a pet store and got him a huge disgusting bone.
(don't look at the next photo if you're squeamish, it's gross)

He worked on that thing for hours. I think it helped to mellow him out a bit.

All I can say is, next time we move I think he's earned himself a one way ticket to my parents' house to wait it out! Good thing they like him as much as we do!!!

::incipient::

The next door neighbors whom we haven't yet met have a lilac bush in their backyard. Luckily it hangs over our fence. I'm excited. It looks like there will be some gorgeous lovely blossoms. I've never had any lilacs in my yard since I moved out of my parents house.
Anything on my side of the fence is fair game, right?

::we're in::

We're here, at the new house!
All our stuff is here--except one little box of odds and ends and some cleaning supplies. We got the old place almost all cleaned, with help from great friends (thanks Josh and Kristen!!).
We've spent the last two days unpacking and organizing. We're not anywhere near done now, but we're all sleeping in beds, and we've got a kitchen. Also, Kris got all of the extra bookshelves and boxes and junk out of the living room, so it's almost possible to relax in there now.

We've still got our work cut out for us here, it'll take us a while to get organized. And we've still got to totally finish up the old place. It'll be nice to have that done.
It's been a long week, but it feels great to have all that stuff behind us!
We're going to miss the east side, it was a really fun place to live. But there are going to be wonderful things about living here too, and we're excited.

(Max thought this picture of us was so hilarious he couldn't stop laughing for like 20 minutes after he saw it)

Goofball.
He's been really great the last couple of days. We've had a lot of fun.