Moving My Family

Doug and I have been helping my parents move into their new house.  They're still not quite there.  I think maybe in another 2 or 3 or 4 weeks, they'll be mostly moved.  Yesterday, we started moving Chris's desk into the computer area in the new house.  Chris is in the same room that I was when I last lived at home.  He has the same desk that I had too.  In between Chris and I, Kate lived in the same room with the same desk as well.

It's been 10 years since I moved into that room so the desk basically hadn't been moved since then because (1) it is so heavy and (2) the room is too small for any other furniture arrangement.  When we moved it yesterday, look what we found!

Taking a closer look, you'll see some truly interesting finds...

This one was hard for me.  Yes that is an actual check for $96.84 written to me 

from BYU back in 2003.  I don't remember losing a check this big, so hopefully 

I didn't just lose that money.  Do you think I can still cash it?

Yes, that is a bag of hair.  Probably not Chris's

A trumpet brush... not mine or Kate's, we were both woodwind players.

A band pass for Kate from 2003.

Someone's homework.

Gum, anyone want a piece?

Moving has truly been an adventure with my family!

MAKE YOUR OWN... Slip and Slide

I was just going through my camera and found these movies...  Sooo Liza got this idea over Memorial Day weekend and Chris (moneybags) was nice enough to finance it.  Slip and slides are too small for "big kids" so they decided to make their own.

What you need:
-100 ft of Construction Plastic (I think about $50 at Home Depot, but reusable)
-3-4 bottles Baby Oil or Suave Hair Conditioner (about $1 each)
-Access to a waterhose

We started in the backyard on flat ground, but decided after a little while to take it out front and use the neighbor's yard who doesn't live there anymore.  (Yay for us!)  It turned out great!  We ran out of baby oil after a while and the slide was getting kind of rough, so we went inside and got an old bottle of cheap conditioner to put on the plastic.  I think it actually worked a little better than the baby oil.

In this movie you will see, Johnny, Shelly, Liza, and Chris all go down the slip and slide one after another. (Ross, Liza's boyfriend, is holding the tarp for them.)

Unfortunately, Doug and I didn't have our suits, so we did not participate... next time.

Family Festivities

I had been looking for a job this summer to keep myself busy, but Doug and I decided that I should just forget about the job thing and help my family out this summer.

As usual my family is crazy busy and need all of the help that they can get.  They closed on their new house this week and have yet to really start moving anything over to the new house.  I guess there isn't too much of a rush because the old house is still ours.  I think the missionaries are moving into the old house at the start of August, so I guess they'll be out by midnight on July 31st.

Oh yes, my little brother, Chris, got his mission call from our church about a month ago!  He's going to the Mexico, Mexico City North Mission.  He reports to the MTC in September.  I can't believe how fast he has grown up.  He is going to make an EXCELLENT missionary.  I have never met such an obedient young man.  I don't know what my parents are going to do without him.

My sister, Kierstan, who lives in Utah with her husband and two step-daughters on and off got her paperwork through so that she could be sealed to her husband Court in the Washington DC Temple.

Kier and Court set a date of July 9, 2010 and we arranged it so that Chris could go through the temple the same day so he would be able to attend their sealing.  My grandparents flew in from Utah, my sister Heather drove up from Virginia Beach with her family, and we had a couple packed houses.  (Unfortunately my parents had not closed on their new house yet so we could not stay in it!)  It was a very special day and a fun week full of family time.

I don't make it a habit of putting small children in my dryer, but Heather yelled for me while she was ironing Friday morning in the laundry room and I took these pictures...  David, her youngest decided that a dryer would be a fun place to hang out.

My parents have this big blowup water park thingy that they set up whenever the grandkids come over.  The kids had a blast!  Uncle Johnny and Aunt Shelly had their hands full!

You may be wondering about the Graffiti on the back of the shed. Shelly and some of her friends put that on there as a title for a movie they were filming at the house WITHOUT asking mom or dad.  I guess things don't change... anything still goes at the H House.

 We had some built in babysitters at home, so all of the adults were able to go out to eat at some Mexican place.  We decided that we would get Chris used to eating rice and beans a little early!

Starting at left and going around: Heather, James, Mom, Chris, Liza, Doug, Dad, Court, Kier, Ross (Liza's BF), Grandpa, Grandma

I finally got to sleep in the next day, but woke up to my camera taking what I thought was a picture of me sleeping.  It turns out Darwin must have fell asleep while cleaning himself. HA! HA!  He got very nervous with all of the smaller visitors in the house and stayed in our room most of the time.

Last, but not least, Doug celebrated his 26th birthday.  Everyone was there and he thoroughly enjoyed his funfetti cake. I lit his birthday candles in binary because 26 candles would be too many.  He's so old!