For Aunt Dixies reading enjoyment....and everyone elses...

This is one of my best Kara stories although it happend a few months ago I wanted to share it with you all.

Whenever we go to Costco, Kara always looks forward to the end where she gets to hold the receipt and get a smiley face when we get it marked going out the door. So this day Kara was talking about it all through check out. "momma its going to be soooooo silly" She said that about 6 times. As we are walking up I see that it is the one guy who never makes smileys for the kids he always just marks them and gives them back. So I am praying that he is going to make this silly face that Kara is looking forward too. We get up there and he just marks it with the line and hands it back. So I know that he didn't do it. So I start pushing the basket as fast as I can to prevent everyone form hearing the scream that I am sure to come. Kara flips over the receipt looks at it and looks at it...... "Momma" I am holding my breath "yeah" I say. "Momma he made me a magic wand!"

I love her!

Spur of the moment vacation.

Tim and I have been saying that we want to go on vacation....But we haven't planned one, didn't have the time or the money ready. But somehow Tim text me on Sunday while he was at work and said let get away tommorrow. 6 flags or the coast. Both sounded good to me, and I just happened to have Monday tuesday and wednesday off it worked out. Monday we went to six flags discovery kingdom. Where if you buy your tickets right now they are $29.99 but for $39.99 you can get a season pass for six visits. So we went for that and plan on going back once a month until January.
Then from there we weren't ready to go home so we drove to peataluma and spent the night. In the morning we debated where to go and ended up going north on our way to Eureka. We saw the turn off for Fort Bragg and said why not, and went that way. Stopping in mendicino and then for lunch and Ocean playing in fort bragg. The kids loved it. The water was cold but the sand was warm. So we would get out feet wet then bury them in the sand to warm them up. And I was able to get a Family picture! It seams like the first good one since Jason was born! After the ocean we headed up toward Eureka stopping in Leggett to pick blackberries, yum! Through the avenue of giants, and made it to Eureka where all the rooms were booked and we got the very last one. At, a hefty price:(....(well we probablly could have gotten a roach motel). In the morning we hit the mall for a little bit then made our way towards home. We stopped at the trinity river and let the kids wade in it for a while. And then in Weaverville for a late lunch. What a relaxing trip, with no intinary no rules and no reservations. We decided that we need to do it more often. Along the way we read The five people you meet in heaven. I read aloud to Tim as we were driving, and we finished it about 45 minutes before we got home. What a great book. It definetly puts your mind to thinking about where you fit in Gods plan and the people in your life and why they are there. Even someone who you may have only meet once or not even at all. You should all read it.

Sunday picnic.....

Well you were all there, well not everyone in the world but all my family...so there is no need to tell you about the picnic or who was there because you all saw so I am just posting some pictures...
Anna and Jason

The older girls spining..

Jason giving Grandma kisses

Granny and Anna

The Great Grand kids and the Great Grandparents

Granny and Grandpa

Me and Jes

Me and Tim

And Kara doing what she always does, some thing her own way....down the slide upside down...

And then Jason was one!

My baby boy is one! Last weekend we had a fun birthday party for him. We had people come over and swim and have enchiladas and cupcakes. I made Jason his own little football cake, then Tim went and got a little giants guy figurine and we put that on the cake too. When I was making the cake I was tryin to figure out how I was going to make brown frosting, I was like what colors do you mix to get brown, then I thought duh, chocolate. So he got a chocolate frosted cake. And he ate the whole thing. He even tried to lick the plate! I was just going to turn the hose one him and the high chair, but everyone thought that was mean so we took him out and hosed him off:). Here is a picture of why we invite my dad to these events, to free the toys from the packages!
The next day on his official birthday, We were going to go to Leatherbys, but they were closed. What ice cream place closes at 5pm in summer in redding? so we went to perkos for dinner and after dinner we ordered a huge ice cream called the pot of gold to all share. Yum!

Two months in....

Well we are two months in to the new house and we love it! Things have been repainted and fixed and most boxes unpacked. If I could just get the time and motivation to finish. I have one room left to paint too. The kids love the backyard, with the kiddie pool and I just got a canopy so that we have shade out there. My grapes are growing and pretty soon I will have millions for everyone. Although it has been hot, our cooler has been keeping up well and I think there was only one day that I was ready to go buy central air.

In other news my baby boy will be one in just 2 day! How fast this last year has gone by! I can't belive it. He is walking pretty good and only crawls when he is trying to catch Kara. Who is smarter and funner than ever. She remebers everything, she always notices when we are driving by a place she has been before like my work, she will yell "Momma there's your work", whenever we are on Hilltop.

Today we went to Need 2 Speed with my work it was a reward for working a night we had for charity where we donated all of our tips. Need 2 speed was so fun! I can't wait to take Tim and my dad and Adam back they will love it! The second time we were racing I had a kart that seamed to have balder tires and I kept sliding around the courners. (or maybe I was going faster and braver). I spun out one time and then like 3 laps later someone hit me from behind and we crashed. It was so fun. So go do it!

You'll be seeing less of me...

Well, back in march I decided that I was going to be dedicated to losing weight this year. I signed up for myfitnesspal.com which I love (and its free) and going to the gym 4-5 days a week. I started feeling better and began losing weight now. I am down 20 pounds and it feels awesome.... My goal is to lose 40 more before my 30th birthday! Which is 10 months away....

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

And now for a Gurley update....

Well there are lots of things going on over here in the Gurley house, we have boxes everywhere, and hopefully will be moving them all by the end of next week...We have been supposed to get our house for like the last 3 weeks, but we keep getting stalled up, the appraiser, the loan people, grr.....but we should be good this week... We plan on taking a few days to paint and pull up the carpet to check out the hardwood floors. From what we have seen the floors are beautiful and wont requrie refinishing, but we dont know for sure. I can't wait to get it!
As for Jason, he just had his nine month appointment, he is 17lbs 3 oz and 27 1/2 inches, the doctor said he is a little short and light, but proportined nicely.
He loves, Momma:), playing in his sisters room, and just Kara in general. He loves to walk and gets mad when you stop holding his hands and helping him. He is getting more and more brave and is trying standing with out holding on.
Kara, wow shes going to be 3 in just 3 weeks... and she is so smart, she can count, in english and spanish (thanks Dora), and loves jt as much as he loves her. She will walk him around all day, bring him toys, binkies, and always shake his bottle. She loves coloring and is starting to get it more inside the lines. She also loves playing baseball. She can hit really well (thanks Jed) so I think that a t-ball set is in store for her birthday. Nap time is becoming more of a fight, here she is asleep, after like one minute of screaming that she didn't want to take a nap.
As for me I have taken up running, and currently try to do 2 miles a day. I am trying to train for the 6 mile turkey trot by then, so if you want to do it too let me know. Its fun, and I love the challenge. Well I got to go pack more boxes... See ya'll later, next post will hopefully be from the new place....