it's about time.....

Moving has begun!!! The last weekend we had that was nice weather, Alex and I decided to reorganize our storage unit. I have been sharing it with my sister for the past couple years and after adding, removing, moving home from college, and getting married we knew it was time. Let's just say it was a jumbled mess of stuff...
After our unit had been broken into, half my boxes were ripped open anyway and needed to be reboxed so we decided that in the process we would go through ALL of our stuff, get rid of what we didn't want to keep storing, make a list of everything that was in every box and tape it all back up with numbers on each box so we'd know which "box" it was. YIKES
I had warned Alex it would be an all day process and we weren't kiddin ourselves. We began Friday at 9:30 in the morning as soon as Alex got home from his morning meeting.
First we loaded up dad Martin's truck with everything from storage so we could bring it home.There was so much dust, even with our bandanas on it got everywhere. Who knew you could sneeze so much in one morning.
Bless my mom's heart, she's been helping us collect empty boxes for the move. This truck was entirely full of them.

We'd brought everything home, gone through it, spent the WHOLE morning/afternoon doing it and then had to pack it back to the storage unit. Alex was such a trooper. He knows how I don't like to leave anything unfinished and was just as determined to get this project out of the way. It was actually kind of fun going through stuff from my youth... oh the things we think are important then. :)

After we'd finished loading the truck BACK up once again, we headed off to storage to put it all back. On our way to the unit Alex and I drove past the duck pond... hahahaha it's already funny just remembering. We saw this goose flying in front of the truck and I said, "Alex there's a duck! Of course he'll move....." Then I quickly turned my head to the side and closed my eyes and BAM! "Alex did we hit something?" hmmm..... Sure enough Alex pulls over to the side of the road and looks back to see a goose get up off the ground and waddle away. WE HIT A GOOSE!
We weren't going that fast, but sure enough when we got back to the unit I checked the truck.
Notice the white feathers still stuck to the grill.

Oh and it broke the grill! I couldn't believe we hit it! They always move.... think again!
I felt so bad for the truck. We later found out that by hitting it the head lights had been knocked loose too. Luckily we could fix those but, oh my goodness. My family does not have good luck with birds, right Josh?
Good ol' GMC, I think it saved our lives

Although we were side tracked for a few minutes, we were not done with our job. Onto the unit.
We repacked everything, organizing everything at the same time. My sister's stuff is from the right side, across the back and up the left side a bit. The rest is ours, with more to come.
Here's the before pics...

I know, right? What were we thinking....

TA DA!! I had actually been waiting for this day for about a week and a half. Crazy it seems, I'm sure Alex thought I was but I LOVE to clean up and reorganize things it's like my meditation.

We still had three more drop offs after this. Martin's to pick up some dressers that dad Martin took such time to paint, even the knobs for us!! They look great! He also fed us dinner, we realized we needed to eat. Then to my parents to drop the dressers off, along with the chair and coffee table, then back to the Martin's to give back the truck. We finally got home about 10:30 and showered all the dirt off. Moving has just begun and honestly I'm excited to keep going next weekend where we'll actually begin putting everything else into storage and finally move the first weekend in June. Crazy how time flies.

IRONMAN
Ben came into town for Mother's day weekend and although he couldn't make it to see Iron Man II with us, (awesome by the way) we all met up after for dinner. Dad and Rachel never seem to be able to look at the camera just right... so we take what we can get.

Ben and his girls

I loved Alex's face in this one... he said he loved mine. I'm sure he'd say that no matter what though ;)

PorSha is crazy! She orders this "green burrito" every time. It's really a spinach tortilla wrap. But surprisingly she ate almost the whole thing. I SERIOUSLY love her face. She had the funniest way of pouring ranch over every bite.

Sorry this video is sideways, but listen closely to hear how much she loves ranch.... she's way too funny!

She even ate her two pieces of cantaloupe. Again, I LOVE HER!

Lexus and Elaina. We're not quite sure where Lexus learned her stare from, but we have suspicions about the Russian mafia..... ;)

Mother's Day
We spent mother's day with mom Taunya - what an amazing example of patience and love!!
To my own mom, I will never pretend to understand your struggles but I have learned how to deal with mine because of you, I love you both!

Mom's birthday was Sunday and although it was her 60th, we did not want to make a big deal about it - for her sake really or we would have swamped her ;) However Elaina and I decided to make a video of her life. We found classic pictures of her as a baby, a rare find and such a treasure. The movie was AWESOME My mom has seriously done some cool things and been AMAZING places. For all she's done, we wanted to celebrate her life, and we had so much fun surprising her with it. Priceless. LOVE YOU MOM!!

Heather!
Today was my cousin Heather's wedding. Alex and I were invited to her ceremony up in Bountiful on the rooftop of a building. This was a second marriage for her and so, had to be done civilly for now, but was still amazing. I forgot my camera at the ceremony, but remembered to bring it to the open house. She was gorgeous and so classic! My cousin and I have been very close and I was so privileged she invited me to share this day with her. Congrats cuz, I love you!
(Jenny - this is the green dress)
Grandma Helen - I LOVE YOUR FACE!

And my Aunt Tammy, I can't even say how much I love this woman! I miss her living in Chicago, but some day she will be back.

I wanted to get my dad too, but it had to be in the car - at least he tried to smile for the camera. Best to not have him look or his eyes would be closed while driving. Like I mentioned earlier, he can never seem to look at a camera and keep his eyes open.

And we couldn't leave Alex out. He was such a trooper today. I went to work before the wedding for a couple hours, then rushed home to shower and Alex helped me get ready so we could turn around and leave up to Bountiful. He hung out all day, patiently, dropped me back off at work, picked me back up a few hours later and then drove all the way back up to North Ogden for the reception..... Have I ever mentioned how much I love him!!!!!!

How could you not love this face!?!?! This was actually the first of MANY pictures I tried to surprise him with, when really he surprised me with every face he pulled.

As you can tell, life has been busy. I'm sure it will continue to be so and I'll continue to be catching up on my blogs after events have long passed, but really this is all about family and that's what we live for.