Do you ever feel like you are having an out of body experience!

I still have no camera :(. Hopefully though I will soon. I am getting one for Christmas with a lot of help from my mom but I have been waiting for Mike to have some free time to go with me to find one we will like. Hopefully I will get one either today or tomorrow. I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted a real post but here is my attempt to brief everyone on teh last two months!

1.) We went to Utah and saw all the family and had a blast.

2.) Trick or treating was a great success we finished just as the rain hit so we were pretty proud of our timing.

3.)We went to the Hogle Zoo and the Dinosaur museum and the girls had a blast.

4.)We had a get together with all Mikes Clogging friends and can I just say its a wonder that all those guys married so well. just kidding We laughed the whole night! (Thanks Michele)

5.)Mike has worked like crazy since he has been back. I have just been plain crazy.

6.)We had a babysitting swap with a friend of ours and Zoe hurt her arm while playing with their little boy. (Jumping off little kid chairs into ball pits on a cement floor has now become a big fat no thank you in our house)

7.)Four doctor visits via the ER, the base clinic, and the orthopedic clinc, 6 doctors, 8 x-rays, and six days later it was finally discovered that Zoe had a nursemaids elbow (dislocated elbow) and was reset. I don't know what we would have done without the help of our Bishop!!!

8.)Zoe has been in a slpint for 4 weeks and has had about ten more x-rays since but has become quite the pro of out patient care.

9.)If there is a family that needed a babysitter in minot lets just say that baysitter was me and it was sometime in the last two weeks.

10.)Isa turned one and cut 6 teeth within 2 months!!

11.)Isa stands on her own!

12.)Isa says momma, dadda, silly, this, ta da, bye and (while mimicking Zoe) I mad.

13.)We have put new meaning to the Griswald family Christmas ..... AGAIN!

14.)Some crazy person backed into Mikes car while it was parked in our driveway..... Oh wait that was me in the Mini van. (This should be on confessions of a taxi cab driver)

15.)We hosted Thanksgiving here with three other families and a single guy. (props go out to cameron for an excellent Turkey and stuffing)

16.)Our computer completely quit working for a few days until we could buy a new one.

17.)And last but certainly not least I have finally convinced a family member of mine (besides my awesome mom who comes when I need her most) to come visit. I came in the form of torture I think ..... just kidding Allee moved up here to stay with us for a while and it has been a blast for us I hope she can soon say the same!

So there you all have it the update on why I have not been blogging! My life is crazy and certainly blog worthy but sheesh with out a camera or a computer how do you blog! I will not torture you all with a long post with all the pics you have missed but I will put up a slide show of the pictures we have not been able to post! Now I can finally catch up on all of you! By the way I think quite a few of you went to private over the past few months if you did and I missed the opportunity to be included please leave a comment with your email so I can send mine on to you! Heather I got yours today but Jeff and Tenille I know for sure I missed! Thanks guys!

Help!!!!

So for the past few days there has been a new word in our house to be heard round the world...........Ayudame (I hope I spelt that right). Okay so here is the story. I will be going about my usual day when suddenly Zoe yells out "Ayudame, Ayudame mommy"! I can not stop laughing. So now that she knows how to ask for help in spanish does that make her bilingual?

Success At Last.......

Well at least for him who shall remain nameless. For months now Mike has been intentionally trying to ruin our computer so that he can have an excuse to buy a new one. For those of you who think I am exagerating I can assure you that this is no lie. Alas he has finally begun to see success. Our computer has completed malfunctioned in both of our USB ports and we cannot seem to fix it. The result no pictures to blog about. I know I know you can go ahead and cry with me. I will see if I can convince him that without blogging I will have nothing to live for! Wish me luck! Hopefully we will soon have pictures to update you on our three week excursion to Utah.

ODE To A New Roof!

Alright so maybe you all are at the edge of your seats waiting to see what a new post will bring or maybe you are thinking this woman can make the longest posts but seriously I haven't had a boring week in a year!

We called our insurance to come and assess our roof for hail damage and wouldn't you know it they are giving us money to replace it and it wont effect our monthly rate. SWEET! Mike being the handy man that he is decided to do it himself so we could pocket the extra money. Luckily we have some great friends and missionaries here willing to help! It looks awesome! These guys have worked so hard they deserve some serious treats!

This is our friend Justin who was visitng his girlfriend (Maddy's mom Ali) and even though he was on vacation he still helped. Check out the cute out fit he had to wear!It has actually been a year exactly since we moved in. We have done some serious work on this house:

stripped wall paper

painted (literally every wall and ceiling)

installed baseboards and crown molding in every room

installed chair rail in the master

removed track lights on walls in three rooms

re wired five rooms

installed 9 new light fixtures (this includes cutting holes in the ceiling for them)

installed 8 new doors and frames (what a pain can I just say)

installed 3 ceiling fans

replaced all the upstairs bathroom fixtures and hung a mirror

removed a cabinet hung over the bar and patched the ceiling

replaced the refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer

ripped out an outdated bathroom in the basement

cut out and installed an egress window

framed a storage room in the basement

replaced the old water heater for a much bigger and nicer one!

framed, sheetrocked, mudded, textured, wired, painted, carpeted and all those minor details a

brand new room in the basement!

Seriously I dont know how we were able to accomplish so much but some how we did! We couldn't have done it without great friends! Next stop probably the family room in the basement!

I will post the finished product of the roof in a bit!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow!

Alright ladies and gents, we officially had our 3 weeks of fall and winter is here! We woke up this morning to it snowing. I can't believe that winter is already here I feel like I missed all the goodness of fall. If you need me for the next 7 months I will be in hibernation!On a much lighter note Little Isa has been trying to accomplish the whole pulling up thing. She can almost do it on her own but not quite. Here is a pic of this little ones adventures!This is the face Isa makes literally the whole time every time we have the missionaries over and she makes sure that they see it!

Newest pics of girls!!!

Okay so I finally decided to try the whole upload thing of the girls pics and though I still can't get it to work in a post it worked great if I put it on the side bar and heading so be sure to check them out (as if you could resist)!

Falling For Fall

Its autumn time its autumn time the leaves are falling down! Okay so Mike was outside doing a "little" clean up on the yard before the winter hits which could be any minute now. Anyway he decided he would "trim" my lilac BUSHES. Apparently Mike was thinking they should be trees because that is what they now look like. My poor lilac bushes have been destroyed. Oh well good thing they will grow back.

The girls had so much fun playing in the leaves as we cleaned them up. It was funny to watch Isa's reaction to the great outdoors. I guess this is one way to get this baby on the move to sit still becasue she did not want to move.

After the cleanup Zoe and Mike decided to reward themselves by getting some apples from our apple tree. This usually just means Mike shakes it until some fall down. Zoe for some reason loves these apples even though they are really sour!

Isa had seen Zoe eat the apple so she decided to give it a go unsuccessfully though she was so funny holding these apples and trying to get a good bite!

I bought mini pumpkins for Zoe and Maddy to paint and they had so much fun doing it!

Mike thinks its hilarious when Isa goes to crawl from her sitting position because she inevitably always does a side split. It is quite entertaining to watch her.

Last but not least Ms Zoe got a hair cut. I much needed one I might add. I have trimmed it about three times before but this time we went for the gold and chopped it. She was a little nervous at first but she did surprisingly well. So here she is about six inches later!