Visit from Grandma Ricks and Aunt Christine

We were so excited to have my mom and sister come for a visit! It was so fun to be together. When Nate was away at work, we took advantage of some much needed girl time. We got pedicures together, went to lunch a few times, and spent an entire day shopping. Taylor and Kennedy we troopers and didn't complain too much about being taken along for the ride. With all that extra attention they got they would have done anything! On Nate's day off, we drove down to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and spent the day with the animals. With everything we did together, our time at the zoo are the only pictures we got. Even then we didn't get very many with everyone :( We had a great time at the zoo and loved the unique set up. The giraffe exhibit was a favorite. There were so many of them and so close. They even sold giraffe crackers to feed them. Another cool exhibit was the grizzly bear. There was a "natural" river with fish in it for the bears to fish. One bear was right by the glass swimming and giving us all a show. It was very cool. I have been wanting to take the girls to this zoo for a while but we never got around to going. It's good to have company come and help us to see fun new things. Thanks Mom and Christine for the fun weekend!

Off we go...

This is our official blog announcement. We are moving to England! (This is for all you readers out there that don't know this yet.) I realize I should have made this announcement much sooner. But if you have ever been in the position of making an international move then you know how much there is to do and how busy you are. We will be packing up our home and family and headed to jolly ol' England in time for Nate to start work on May 18th. We are very excited and anxious for this new experience. Wish us luck!

DIY

We have been hard at work to improve some areas of our house that we have been wanting to improve for years. If you know us then you are aware that Nate and I are not the DIY kind. We definitely lack the know how and patience. Most of the time I would rather pay someone to get it done faster and lets be honest probably better! Nate came home one night after helping a friend with some home improvements and had grand plans for our master bath. We have had carpet in all of our bathrooms since moving into the house which has been such an eye sore. After discussing it we decided that not only would we tile the master bath, but we would tile our two other bathrooms and our utility room. As we started planning out what to do with the floors, we thought that if we tile the floors we should get new counter tops as well. By Changing the counter tops we entered a whole new dimension to our project. New counter tops led to new sinks, faucets, hardware, paint, and mirrors. I think it is referred to as the "we might as well" factor when it comes to home improvements. And as all home improvements go, things took a lot longer than originally anticipated. There were a lot of things that we didn't consider, or better yet we didn't realize we needed to do. So with those delays and the normal construction set backs, including one broken sink that needed to be reordered, our week long project turned into a good 2 1/2 weeks. Alas, we are done and everything looks so good!! Midway through the project we realized that we didn't have any pictures of the before so just imagine really ugly Formica counter tops and carpet and then look at these after pictures...

Main floor 1/2 bathroom

Master bath

The girls bathroom

Utility room

Taylor turns 4 years old

We can't believe it but our little baby just turned 4! She has grown up so much in the last year. She is our little sweet heart and we are so thankful to have her in our family. The morning of her birthday she got birthday pancakes in bed. She thought this was the best thing that could ever happen to her. It really made her feel special! Then she got to go to school were she got to wear the birthday crown. She also took the cupcakes she helped me make for all her friends. Then after school we met Nate at Red Robin for hamburgers and balloons for lunch. It was a full day of fun. The next day was her circus party. All her friends were there and we played pin the nose on the clown, the kids walked the tight rope and they jumped through the ring of fire. All the kids seemed to have a good time and Taylor had so much fun she cried as her friends had to leave. Hey, it was her party...so she can cry if she wants to right? The tears were only proof that she had a great birthday!

(Thanks to my sweet friends Jami, Laura and Kelly (not pictured), and of course Nate for all their help during the party, I couldn't have pulled it off with out you!)

Sister love

While a friend was visiting Denver for the first time we made a trip to Red Rocks. The girls had a blast hanging out on the floor of the visitor center. I normally wouldn't allow this behavior in public but we had had a long drive prior to stopping and they needed to release some energy. I decided to let kids be kids and enjoyed watching them have fun together. Thankfully we were pretty much the only patrons there at the time. Taylor and Kennedy are becoming almost inseparable these days. It is so fun to watch their relationship grow.

Prima Ballerina

Taylor started her first ballet class this week. She absolutely loved learning how to be a real ballerina! She did really well for her first time and only occasionally got distracted by how cute she looked with so many mirrors around her.

To go or not to go...that is the question

As many, if not all, of you know by now we are contemplating on moving to England, specifically just outside of London. This transition has been in the works for a long time and now we are in the final stages. The company that wants to hire Nate flew us out for a pre-decision trip over the weekend. I must say England is a nice country...nice people, pretty country side, easy to get around (if you aren't the one having to drive on the wrong side of the road), large variety of gummy candies and chocolates among other things. However visiting a country as a tourist is much different then visiting a country as a future resident. There is so much to think about, schools, social networking, getting used to crossing the street and looking the right way for on coming traffic!, medical and most importantly dental care for the girls (I understand now why the British have such bad teeth...no dental care for children, crazy). On our trip we had to ask ourselves "do we really want to live here??" and honestly after three days we were pretty much stumped. Yes it will be an adventure. Yes we will be able to see Europe. Yes our kids are the perfect age to pick up and go. Yes it will be good for Nate's career. So what's the hold up?? The main hold up for me is the big question of...will we be happy living so far from everything and everyone that has made our life so wonderful up until now?? So it is still to go or not to go....as promised we'll keep you posted.