We were able to spend a couple of weeks in AZ over Christmas. It was a lot of fun. For some reason I can't find any pictures of while I was there. We were able to go caroling, which is one of my favorite memories from when I was young. On Sunday night we went over to my aunt and uncles house and did our Olson side Christmas get together. Normally we do that at my Grandma's house but she wasn't really feeling up to it this year. Then on Christmas Eve we went over to my Mom's and Dad's house. It is amazing how loud we can get with so many kids. It sure is fun, though!!!! I love it when we can all get together. It is so cute to watch all the cousins together, they are all such good friends. Christmas morning we gave the girls just a couple of present because we are going to do our real Christmas presents when we get home. We went over to my parents house, to Craig's parents house and to my aunt Carolyn's house.

Two days after Christmas we had a Olson Family reunion. It was kind of hectic planning it but I think it turned out to be a lot of fun. We went to the park and did some games there and then we went to the church and had lunch. Later that night we had dinner and a talent show. All the kids got up and did such cute things. We had a lot of fun!

HAPPY SWEET 16 MICHELLE!!!

Today is Michelle's Sweet 16!! I just wanted to tell her Happy Birthday!! I can't believe she is already 16. Before you know it she is going to be here blogging her pictures of her own kids. Hopefully not to soon, though :). You are such a sweet girl, Michelle ...Happy Birthday.

I also wanted to tell Happy Birthday to the other people in my family that had Birthday's this week..maybe not as exciting as a 16th birthday ...but they are still exciting.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad.
He turned 53 on the 15th.. Yes he is younger then my mom by 9 months:) I am very thankful to have a Dad that cares so much about his kids and so willing to help us out.

Happy Birthday to Sherri, Cindy, and my Father -in- Law!!!!
You guys are a wonderful family to be a part of....I would definitely have to say I am VERY lucky!!

I love you all so much a hope everybody had a wonderful Birthday.

OUR BIG BABY

A couple days after Kembri was born I was telling Ashlyn goodnight but I was looking down at Kembri as I said it. Alexa was watching me and thought I was telling Kembri goodnight instead of Ashlyn. So she said, "No mommy, not Kembri , our big baby is going to bed." It was funny. Now she always calls Ashlyn our big baby...Later Ashlyn dressed up like this and I thought it fit the story well :)

My visiting teacher came over today and she was talking and told me that our neighbors make these YUMMY popcorn balls. I guess they sell them all over. So after that I was craving one so Craig and Alexa went a cross the street and bought us a few! :)

Phoenix Zoo

While we were down in AZ Amber, Karyn and I took our kids to the zoo. We had a lot of fun. Almost every single child fell at one point or another, then we ended up getting rained out :)

This is all the kids trying to stand like the flamingos.

Jason and Jen's Visit

Jason's family was here in Utah visiting Jen's family for Thanksgiving and so they came and spent one evening with us, which I thought was very nice. I know how hard it is splitting time between families! The girls were so excited for them to come over. We had dinner and roasted marshmallows. (For some reason a lot of my pictures turned out blurry....Sorry.) But we had a lot of fun.

Today Ashlyn got her cast taken off. She was so good.. I would have been scared as they sawed it off! But she didn't seem to mind. After we tried to get her to hold our/her ear (because she loves holding ears and she couldn't while her cast was on) but she said "Owe" so I guess it will take a little time for her to be able to move it totally again. And it is funny to watch her because she still holds her arm in the position it was in. This afternoon we all signed her cast but the marker ran out. So at the doctors office we had the girls sign it. We didn't have a permanent marker and it hadn't really dried when the nurse was taking it off and the marker got all over her hands and our hands and Ashlyn's close..Oh well, at least her cast has her sisters names on it, right.

Happy Halloween

Craig and the girls carved our pumpkins. He decided to turn one of them into a sparky face. I thought it turned out really good!!

I got to go and help out at Lacie's Halloween Party. This was my first time to go help in her classroom. It was a lot of fun. One of our neighbors has a little chili dinner every Halloween that the whole neighborhood comes to before trick-or-treating so we went to that. Then we went trick-or-treating. Craig said this was the best trick-or-treating ever because we were doing it on the mountain (or at least the base of it). He is so funny he loves the mountains!! We had a lot of fun.

Finally Done...Now we can EAT!! :)

Kembri is finally awake...she slept through most of her first Halloween :).

WE HAVE INTERNET!!!!

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't put up a post for a very long time. It is because we haven't had internet at our home. It was going to cost about $100.00 to have it set up for the month we were in Vegas so we decided not to. And we have had some problems getting it set up her at our new house also. But we finally have it. So if I still have any readers still checking my blog :) I will be putting up a lot of post up in the next couple of days. So stay tuned and keep checking back :). I have been typing up a lot of my posts just in word...so sorry if it is confusing to read them. Since they are typed it present tense but it really happened a while ago. I usually type that way anyway then just change the post date so when I print them off they will have the accurate dates.

The First Snow Fall

Today we were driving home from Costco and it started to rain, well actually it was more frozen rain. Then the closer we got to our home it started to turn into snow. By the time we got home it was snowing pretty hard. This is our 4^th winter to live where it snows, but it is still very exciting every time it snows. Especially the first snow fall! I guess it has to do with living in AZ for 20+ years. We all went out and played in it. Poor Alexa just had her scandals on. She was freezing. She didn’t last long outside. Craig got out one of our sleds and they had fun sledding down the little hill in our backyard even though there wasn’t a whole lot of snow. Last year we lived just down the street about 2 miles but for some reason we got hardly any snow. Craig worked in Provo and they would get SO much more then us. So we were hoping now that we live on the base of the mountain we would get more and I think we will. We drove down where we use to live and they didn’t have as much as us, at all.

Skate Night

Lacie’s school had a family skate night tonight. The girls had so much fun. They were aloud to bring their own scooters. Alexa was so funny, she could not get a hang of the fact you were suppose to only go in one direction so you didn’t run into people. She would just go in every direction. They were so cute, running around with all of their friends. They are growing up so fast!

Ashlyn Broke Her Arm

On Sunday morning Ashlyn fell off the bed at the hotel. I was doing Lacie’s hair only 5 feet away from her and she had been sitting near the middle of the bed. Then all the sudden I heard a loud boom. I turned my head and she had fallen off. She cried pretty hard so I thought about taking her into urgent care. But after a few minutes she stopped and she was moving her arm fine. So we thought it was just a sprain. Well over the next couple of days every once in awhile she would complain about it. But then she was fine and acted like it wasn’t hurt at all. I was talking to someone that is a nurse so I asked her if she thought I should take her in and she said she thought she was probably fine. So I didn’t worry about it. But Thursday night I was getting her ready for bed and I put her shirt on and she said Owe. So I thought this is going on for a long time. So the next day I just called the Dr. and the nurse said to bring her in. They x-rayed it and sure enough it is broken. L I feel so bad. I just thought if it was broken she would be complaining a lot more and not be using it so much. Oh well, what do I know. So she now has a cast on for the next 3 weeks. And by the way, the scratches on her face are not from the fall. When we were moving in to our house she decided to ride down our driveway, and it is very steep. Well, she fell and bruised up her face. She is our little daredevil and usually never gets hurt.

Our House

We are finally in our house. We decided to get the one in Pleasant Grove. It is really nice. It is 3700 sq. feet, 6 bedrooms and 3 baths. The front and backyard are so pretty!!! The lady that lived her before loved gardening, so there are plants and flowers everywhere. She said this is the ugliest part of the year, but I still think it is gorgeous. We are really enjoying being in a home again! I don't have any pictures of it but this is taken in the backyard. The yard is pretty but I think the girl in in is even prettier :). The whole basement is finished which is really nice to have. They also added an extra room above the garage ...Craig's future pool table room :). I is just really nice to have room again!!

This is a cool picture with the mountains behind it!! I love living so close to them.

We Actually Got Paid!!!

All summer I was very skeptical that the company would actually pay us what we were suppose to make. I didn’t understand how people could make as much money (if not more!) in four months then people do in a whole year. But they did. They paid us J. We haven’t looked over it in detail but it looks like they paid us for everything. It is crazy to me that he can work VERY!! hard during the summer and not have to work at all during the year and still make more money then he did when he was working all year. We feel it is a huge blessing!!! I don’t know if Craig would have been able to go to school full time, work full time and had a full time family. I know he could have done it but it won’t have been fun. Don’t get me wrong it was not easy for any of us this summer, it was hard work. At times I thought it wasn’t even worth it. Craig would call me everyday completely exhausted, mentally and physically. IT WAS HARD!! But the first week having him home all day we both said to each other it was well worth it. It is wonderful, the kids LOVE it. Ashlyn has changed into a new little girl…total Daddy girl! And Alexa and Lacie absolutely love him being around. I never thought I would say this but I am actually looking somewhat forward to next summer (probably only because it is 7 months away). We did learn a few lessons though and one is to not ever extend. Craig was just too tired by September. The whole office was. Nobody was getting sells and the area was completely worked already. So next year we are ending in August. I just want to say a great big Thank you to APX!!! J We appreciated getting paid!!

Kembri Ella Conover

Craig getting ready to go and deliver our baby :)

Our sweet baby has arrived safe and beautiful!!:) She is 6 lbs. 8 oz. She looks so small. I ended up having another c-section. The doctor didn't want me to go past 39 weeks and I wasn't dilating at all so we decided to just have a c-section. We had to be at the hospital at5:00 am. I was scheduled to have it at 7:30. It went really well all the way up until they had me lie down on my back. When I am pregnant I CAN NOT lie on my back. I get really light headed and I can't breath. So they had just gotten done giving me the spinal block then they have me lay down. My legs were starting to go numb from the medicine, I couldn't breath and I kept trying to move my legs and I couldn't. I knew all of this was normal but I started to panic anyway. I kept trying to move my legs and couldn't. I was trying to breath and couldn't get enough air in (at least I felt like I couldn't). So I started to try to roll off so I could sit up. The anesthesiologist was right next to me already but the nurse ran over and told me I couldn't get up. They were trying to calm me down but it wasn't working. I don't know if any of you have ever been in a situation like that where you think you aren't going to be able to do it. I wasn't thinking clearly, that's for sure! I just kept thinking I can't breath, there is no way I can stay like this for 20 or more minutes. I was completly panicking!! (One of my worst fears now is to get in an accident and wake up with a breathing tube in and paralyzed!!!) The only thing I could think to do was pray. So I started to pray. I started trying to take deep breaths in and out. And it helped I was able to relax a little. In the mean time the anesthesiologist went out of the room to get me some medicine to help me relax. They had Craig waiting outside at that time so he talked with him for a second. Craig said the doctor said, " She really can't go on her back, can she?" Then he told Craig I was kind of freaking out :) After I calmed down I wanted to apologize to him but the had me on oxygen so I couldn't. You always feel REALLY dumb after something like that happens.
My Doctor came in and in a matter of a few minutes we had our new baby. This hospital was really weird. They didn't even let me hold her after she was born. They took her to weigh her and do all the stuff they do immediately. But they never brought her to me. They took me back to my room and I had to wait until they got her temperature up before they would let me hold her. They said with most babies that takes a couple hours. Craig was able to go see her but I wasn't. So I finally got to hold her a few hours after she was born. She is so sweet. We finally decided on the name Kembri but we couldn't decided on a middle name. Finally on Saturday before we left the hospital we decided on Ella. She is just like my all my other girls she doesn't like to be away from my side. I would try to put her in the bed there at the hospital and she would be crying within a few minutes but if I held her see would sleep great. Oh well, what do you do?!?! :)
Most of the time with a c-section you stay a min. of 3 days but usually 4. But I HATE hospitals. So I was pushing to get out as fast as possible (plus I really wanted to go to the Relief Society Broadcast Saturday night :)) My doctor knew this so she let me go Saturday morning. I was so happy.
It is so cute how much the girls LOVE Kembri. Every time Ashlyn would walk into the hospital she would start looking for the baby and once we got home, she would wake up in the morning and come running into our room saying, "Baby, Baby!" It is really cute. Then Lacie never wants anybody else to hold her. My parents came up to help with the kids so they only have a few days here and I keep telling Lacie she needs to give other people a chance to hold her. But it is very hard for her to give her up. And Alexa loves to hold her but only for a few minutes then she's on to something else :).We sure are excited to have another one of our Heavenly Father's sweet spirits in our home!!

CRAIG IS DONE!!! Craig took Monday and Tuesday off because we were all
not feeling very well...ok we were basically just plain exhausted!
This summer has definitely been a killer for both of us. So on
Thursday he called his manager and told him he was going to just take
it easy over the next week. But come to find out he has been thinking
about just moving the whole office up to Laughlin (half of the office
has been up there for a couple weeks already). Obviously we can't go
because my doctors or here and Lacie's school. His manager said he
could keep working here if he wants to but he has pretty much decided
to be done. The only reason he kept pushing so hard to work is
because we are in corporate housing and we didn't want to have to
start paying for the whole thing. But they said we won't have to.
It is so wonderful having Craig home!!!!Just this one week of having
him here has almost made me forget how hard the summer was. Because it
feels like it was definitely worth the sacrifice. And it is amazing
how having him around has made such a difference to the girls.Lacie and
Ashlyn just hang on him and have turned in to complete Daddy girls!
Alexa is a funny one because she use to always want to go to Craig
over me but since he has been working so much she only wants me to do
stuff for her so I think it will take her a little bit of time for her
to realize he is actually around for a long time, then it will be
back to me being second best.:) It is amazing to me though how much
happier Ashlyn is when he is around a lot. I guess girls do need their
daddy's after all.

It looks like we are probably going to be having our baby on Wed. or
possibly Fri. And even though this is my 4th daughter I feel so
nervous. I feel like a first time mom.I feel like I haven't had a
newborn in so long even though it has only been 20 months. I am also
so excited. I think there is something so wonderful and fun about
having a new baby. Lacie is also getting so excited she can't wait to
be able to take her to church with us :) I am so happy Craig will have
lots of time home with us, too! There is nothing like having a new
baby AND your husband at home all at once. Can life get any better.

CRAIG IS DONE!!!

Craig took Monday and Tuesday off because we were all not feeling very well...ok we were basically just plain exhausted! This summer has definitely been a killer for both of us. So on Thursday he called his manager and told him he was going to just take it easy over the next week. But come to find out he has been thinking about just moving the whole office up to Laughlin (half of the office has been up there for a couple weeks already). Obviously we can't go because my doctors or here and Lacie's school. His manager said he could keep working here if he wants to but he has pretty much decided to be done. The only reason he kept pushing so hard to work is because we are in corporate housing and we didn't want to have to start paying for the whole thing. But they said we won't have to. It is so wonderful having Craig home!!!!Just this one week of having him here has almost made me forget how hard the summer was. Because it feels like it was definitely worth the sacrifice. And it is amazing how having him around has made such a difference to the girls. Lacie and Ashlyn just hang on him and have turned in to complete Daddy girls! Alexa is a funny one because she use to always want to go to Craig over me but since he has been working so much she only wants me to do stuff for her so I think it will take her a little bit of time for her to realize he is actually around for a long time, then it will be back to me being second best.:) It is amazing to me though how much happier Ashlyn is when he is around a lot. I guess girls do need their daddy's after all.

She is Coming Soon!

It looks like we are probably going to be having our baby on Wed. or
possibly Fri. And even though this is my 4th daughter I feel so
nervous. I feel like a first time mom.I feel like I haven't had a
newborn in so long even though it has only been 20 months. I am also
so excited. I think there is something so wonderful and fun about
having a new baby. Lacie is also getting so excited she can't wait to
be able to take her to church with us :) I am so happy Craig will have
lots of time home with us, too! There is nothing like having a new
baby AND your husband at home all at once. Can life get any better.

Lacie's Second First Day of School

Well last week we found out that the Salt Lake City office did end up extending. Craig was pretty mad because we really wanted to extend there but everybody told us they weren't extending. So we talked about it and decided to go ahead and head up there so we could get moved in before the baby comes. So we called the people we are planning on renting a house from ans asked if we could go ahead and move in now and just pay for the few weeks. Then in October we would pay for the whole year and the deposit. He said we could. So we called his work and made the arrangements to work up there, we started packing, reserved the U-haul, I told Lacie's teacher and she told all of her friends goodbye. It was Friday afternoon and we were planning on leaving Saturday morning so I thought I should tell the office at Lacie's school. I wanted to wait until we were actually in Utah to tell them but I thought we are for sure leaving so I might as well. Well Friday at probably around 4:30 the guy that we are renting the house called and said he felt uneasy about letting us move in without a deposit. So we thought about going up and staying in a hotel or something but we decided it was pointless. So we are going to just stay here in Las Vegas and have the baby. The worst part of it was I had to call the school this morning and re register her. Luckily they hadn't turned in the paperwork so they were able to just throw the paper away. Lacie says its her first day again. She said it was different then her first first day though because she knew everybody :).

The Happiest Man Around!!

Today Craig got his reward for his hard work this summer. He go his new hand held. During the summer he said that is what he thought about all day...No he is not obsessed at all!! He hasn't seen ALL the reviews on this hand held. The funniest I think is he actually got so excited to watch the unwrapping of it. Some other hand held freaks actually record themselves opening these then look at EVERY single button on this thing, then post it on the internet. Then even freakier people, yes my husband be one of them, actually watch it. So after Craig got his I asked if we should record him opening his. Instead we took a picture :).

The Las Vegas Strip

Craig didn't have to work today so we decided to go she Vegas. We had a lot of fun, but wow it is not what I remember. I guess when you are bringing your own kids and since I am older, I notice everything. Everywhere we went I felt like we were having to hide our girls eyes. But we still had fun. We went and saw the white tiger. We went to Circus Circus had watched the circus act. And we went to the Bellagio and saw the fountains. That was my first time and I thought they were really cool. We had to walk a long way to get to them and the girls were so hot but they were really neat. I wish they would have gone for longer though. We had a lot of fun. Lacie kept asking the whole time about why people gamble if we aren't suppose to. Then Alexa walks into one of the casinos and sees all the slot machines and says, "Cool", with her eyes really big and excited. She just saw all the lights and heard the Dinging.

We also went to the Adventuredome. We watched one of the clown acts. I wasn't that impressed with it, but the girls got to go up on stage and so the limbo...and so did Craig. The clown pulled him out of the audience to get him to limbo, but it was to low for him.

WELCOME TO VEGAS, CRAIG

Craig was planning on not coming to Las Vegas until Monday. But there where no tech working in the afternoon on Saturday so he changed his flight and was able to come tonight. We are so excited. The girls made him a cute welcome home sign. Ashlyn didn't recognize him or something at first it took her a long time to not cry when he would hold her :). I think she will get use to him again...sometime. No, it is crazy though how fast they get unfamiliar with people though.

Kidsongs

Amber came with me to Las Vegas for the week since Craig won’t be here. The kids are having a lot of fun. The window in Amber’s room faces the east so Bradley gets woken up very early and my girls just wake up early, so they all end up waking up around 6:00 or 6:30. They all enjoy Kidsongs (it’s a DVD) so they watch it every morning while Amber and I try to get a little more sleep.

Lacie's First Day of Kindergarten at Bonner Elementary

I can’t believe my little baby is started school!! She is so excited. She had so much fun. We had to start her a couple of days late because we had a hard time getting her birth certificate. I ordered her birth certificate..oh..6 or 7 months ago because I knew I would need it for kindergarten but then I went and left it in our storage room in Utah. So I ordered another one a couple of weeks ago and had it sent to my mom’s house but we never got it. So on Thursday I when I was in AZ I went down to get in. But all I have is a temporary drivers license (my real one was also suppose to be sent to my parents house but we never got that either. We finally found out the mailman was sending all my mail sent to my parent’s house back to the sender.) So the birth certificate people wouldn’t give me a birth certificate, so my mom had to come down on Friday to get it for me. Then on Saturday night she got REALLY sick. She didn’t get better until Monday afternoon. I went to register her on Monday but she was missing some shots. But the Doctors didn’t want her to get them until she had not been sick for a little while. So I called the school and they said if I get a note from the DR. saying that and that I had an appointment made they would let her start. Las Vegas is VERY strict! So she had to stat a day late, but she started.

Amber and all of her kids and all of my kids where able to walk her up to her class room and drop her off. She looked so big sitting in line. Bradley started crying “Lacie, Lacie” when we had to leave her. He knew that was not a fun place J He didn’t want to leave poor Lacie there. I had a DR. appointment while she was at school and it took a lot longer to get there then I had thought so I ended up rescheduling but then I got stuck in traffic and I still ended up being 10 minutes late picking her up. Poor girl first day of school and her mom is late. I felt SOO bad!! She had so much fun. She called Craig and told him all about it. He is very sad he had to miss her first day. I am so glad she enjoyed it because I had a lot of anxiety about having to send her off into the big bad world of school, where I am not there to protect her!

So my sweet baby is already not cooperating! What are the odds that she would, right!?!?! :) I went to the doctor on Thursday and the ultrasound report came back from the ultrasound on Tuesday and the cord is wrapped around her neck. Which isn't a big deal a lot of babies are born that way but my doctor said that it might be a good idea to consider doing a repeat c-section. So now there is another reason for them to try and talk me into it. I REALLY don't want another c-section, but doctors seem to want to do them for some reason. And then Amber reminded me that we think Alexa's cord was wrapped around her neck and they said that could have been the cause of her heart rate decreases, which is why they took her a month early. So when I get to my doctor in Las Vegas we will see what he thinks about still trying for a vbac!!

Las Vegas Here We Come

So it looks like we will be extending the summer in Las Vegas. We were hoping to be able to extend in Salt Lake or Phoenix but it doesn't look like either of those offices will be extending:( . At least Las Vegas is only a few hours away from both. So the girls and I will be leaving Nashville in 2 weeks. We are planning a stop in AZ for a couple days then off to get Lacie in school. Yes, I am continuing on the family tradition of going to school in Las Vegas for a month. I figure it didn't damage me to much. There is a chance I may even end up having this baby there too then leaving to Utah, but we are hoping she will wait until we get to Utah. So that is our plan. Lacie will be going to her first month of kindergarten at Bonner Elementary in Las Vegas. We will be in Las Vegas till Sept. 30. We will then move into our house. Then have a baby a week later on October 7 (in between conference sessions :)). If only having a baby could be that predictable! Then we will be able to enjoy a few months of stress free and carefree life!!!

This is what happens when husbands try to do dishes :)....No actually Ashlyn got into our dish soup and poured it all in to the dishwasher and I didn't have time to clean it out right then. So I just cleaned up the floor and shut the dishwasher. Well Craig woke up the next morning and decided to help me out and he just wiped it out then did a load of dishes. Well he didn't clean it out well enough and bubbles came out everywhere. I had to work so hard to get that out. Thanks for the Help Craig :)

My Take on Motherhood

I was looking through all of our pictures and it just made me start thinking about think of how much I love my family. So I just wanted to let everybody know how much I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! I think they are just the best thing in the whole world! I don't know about all of you but I think being a mom is the best thing in the world. I know it is challenging at times but wow, all the other wonderful times sure make up for those times. Now that I am having my 4th girl (actually 5th, but strangers don't know that) I get a lot of people asking if I am overwhelmed or the famous question "So are you going to keep trying for a boy?". And the honest answer is, yes there are times when I am completely exhausted, but I absolutely love AND enjoy raising these wonderful girls. And no we aren't going to 'keep trying for a boy' we are going to keep trying for more wonderful kids:). I will be absolutely happy having 15 girls or 15 boys and girls :) I was talking with a realtor the other day and I said something about having 3 kids and 1 on the way and she said, "Oh you will be so happy in a few years." Craig was talking with a lady that only had 2 kids and now they are all grown up and she said she wishes she would have had more. Every time we have a new little girl my mental picture of my family just gets bigger and bigger because I realize how much I love having these sweet spirits in our home. I think the secrets to staying sane as a mother are
-Your attitude. If you think you are happy you are happy. If you think things are hard then they will be hard!! And never allow yourself to think about how your life could be easier if you didn't have kids because all that does is have you dwelling on the hard things with parenting not the good fun things!!
-For 1st time parents realize it is work and if you are prepared for that it will be easier. I know with Lacie I was prepared for it to be SOO HARD when she finally did come it was easier then I had anticipated. Then people would tell me either the 2nd or 3rd child was the hardest so I was ready for it to be really hard again and it wasn't that bad. So prepare for the worst (without getting to scared) then it will be easy :)
-They grow up SOO fast. Treasure these years!!! Someone once told me these are the happiest years of our lives. And I hope that's not true because I hope my life will always just get happier and happier. But I do try to make a great effort to ENJOY these times not just endure through them (although I definitely have my days I can't help but endure through!)
-Realize that things aren't going to be perfectly in order all the time, the house will get dirty, things may not happen on the time schedule you have planned and that is OK! We all try, but we are Mom's not Superwomen.
This post took a totally different turn them I had met to do but anyway those are my words of wisdom, since I have so much wisdom :).

Craig's Coming Home

Apparently Chattanooga wasn't as good as they had hoped for so Craig's manager decided to bring half of the team back to Nashville. So of course Craig jumped all over that!!! We are so excited. I can't believe they changed their minds that fast. I guess my prayers were answered!

The Top of the Hill

Everyday when Craig would leave the girls would go to “the top of the hill” and say goodbye to all the guys leaving. They would stand on this platform and jump up and down and wave, it was really cute. Some of the guys said that was the best part of their day. This picture is taken when Craig is leaving to Chattanooga so they made signs to say goodbye.

The First Day of the WORST Two Weeks of My Life!

Yesterday Craig's manager called him and said they were all going up to Chattanooga to sell for the next couple of weeks. It is about 2 hours away so they would just be staying in hotels. He said the company isn't reimbursing him for the hotels so our family could come but we would have to pay for our own hotel. He also said if Craig and another guy wanted to stay they could stay here and continue to sell in Nashville. So were trying to decide what to do and Andy his manager called. So Craig told him we probably wanted to go but we were still going to pray about it. And we would let him know in the morning. Well we prayed about it and we felt that we should stay together. So he called Andy and told him we decided to stay here and he said things changed and they didn't have enough installers to leave one here so he had to go. So I was upset!! We got on priceline and try to find a reasonably priced hotel (but not a really run down one either) and we couldn't find anything that was cheap enough that we could justifying going with him. So now Craig is in Chattanooga for the week. He will be back on Saturday around 11:00. Then leave again Monday morning. When he told the girls of course Lacie was balling. She has had a VERY hard time with him working so much. And Alexa said, "So we aren't going to have a Daddy anymore?" It was so sad. I did have them come and install a security system before they all left so at least I will feel a little safer! I haven't ever been gone from Craig for this long and all by myself. But we will just take it one day at a time and if it gets to hard we will just go down there and get a hotel. So if anyone is dieing to come and visit Nashville now is the time, I am up for visitors :).

Craig Hit the Big 100!!

Today Craig hit 100 sales!!!! GOOD JOB CRAIG! Him and another guy both reached it today and there is only 2 other people on his team that have already reached 100. And both of those guys have been doing this for a couple years already. Actually most of his team have been doing this anywhere from 3-6 years. So my point is Craig is doing a great job, especially for it being his 1st year out. Our minimum goal when we came out was 100 and he still has 7 weeks left. Our BIG unrealistic, it would be so cool if we could hit it goal was 175 and he actually looks like there is a really good chance he could hit it. I have been very sceptically if they will really pay us what they are suppose to but I talked to 2 of the wives out here yesterday and asked them if they really do pay what they are suppose to and they said yes. And their husbands have been doing this for awhile. They said they are really good at paying their people. So we will see!

Pink Hair

For my Birthday Craig bought a can of silly string. He thought it would be fun to spray it on me when I walked out of our bedroom door. When he got home he realized it wasn’t silly string it was pink hair spray. We just found it and we thought we would let the girls have some fun with it.

We had a really fun 4th of July. The girls were tired from the night before and Lacie wasn't feeling very good but it was still a lot of fun. Craig's work had a bar-b-que. They had steak, lobster, really good beans, macaroni salad, chips, peach cobbler and ice cream and a really cute flag cake. It was nice not having to worry about making anything! They also had a slip and slide. The girls loved it. The guys , well the sales reps, got off around 5:30 so we didn't start till about 6:30. But they hadn't even started the coals on the bar-b-que so that took awhile so we didn't eat until about 8:00. Then some of the guys were letting off fireworks so we watched that. Because of the hill we live on we could look out over the city and see tons of fireworks going off. It was really cool!! Then we went to downtown and we got there just in time for the fireworks there. They were SO COOL!!! They are rated 3rd in the country and they were definitely very good. As we were driving to see them Alexa kept asking did we miss it. And I would say no they haven't started letting them off yet. Then she would ask us again and again. I finally heard Lacie saying Alexa when they say letting them off that means they are starting it's just a fancy way of saying it. It was so funny. Apparently to kids letting off fireworks is confusing. Are they on or are they off?? :) It was a lot of fun. I sure missed celebrating with the family but this was a lot of fun too.