Moving, school...you name it!

I would love to put some pictures up on this, except I cannot find the cord to download the pictures. We have lots that we would love to share, so hopefully when I talk to Rikk today he will know where it is or else I will continue to still look...it's just having to go through SOO many boxes to find it that I am not looking forward to.

It is official, we are mortgage free!!! We closed on our house on the 9th and it was really a bitter sweet day. Rikk and I are both sad about selling the house, but such is the life of the military. Kyler asks repeatedly if he can "go home now" and it just breaks my heart. Hunter doesn't like to talk about the house because it makes him cry and he tries to fight back the tears. Walker missing playing outside there and cries for that. Hopefully they won't for much longer.

We have been in the new house for two weeks and it is nice. The kids are LOVING the stairs...Walker literally can fly down them. His favorite thing to do which we had to put a stop to is doing a somersault from the top. That kid is fearless. So far he has ridden the kiddie gate, extra shower curtain rod, pillows, blankets, you name it down the stairs and loves it. Kyler and Hunter are into them to, but not like Walker. My fear is that because Kyler is so top heavy he will tumble from the top all the way down. So far it's only been about mid flight!

Rikk left Sunday for Anchorage to go to the NCO Academy for the next 6 weeks. He got a new ribbon rack made and it looks amazing on his blues uniform. I am so proud of him and all of his accomplishments in his work. The boys and I are missing him already, but we will go and see him one weekend. We are going to go to Chuck E. Cheese for Hunter's birthday (and have a little party when Rikk gets back), hit the water park and the bounce place. Rikk didn't have any kind of moose hunting season here. With us moving, Hunter starting school and a few other things, he was unable to really get out there and hunt. I feel so bad for him, all he has EVER wanted was to kill an animal in Alaska. I guess we will just have to come and visit.

Rikk and I celebrated our 7th anniversary Sunday. We went out on Friday and had to laugh at what a horrible, but fun night we had. We spent an hour and a half trying to find a place to eat. We tried the Pump House, Pikes, Chena's Resort and finally ended up at The Cookie Jar...we had our very first date there. The food that night was AWFUL. The only good thing about it was we got a free cinnamon roll. We then went to the movies and watched the movie Babylon with Vin Diesel. Oh my gosh...what a weird movie and pointless. We both left going, "What the crap?"

Hunter loves school. He had to miss two days last week because he was sick and wasn't too happy about that. He has come to realize that he does need to go to bed on time or he will be really tired in the morning. We usually have to wake him up. Walker his been my little helper and loves it. He loves to write letters and color them. His personality just amazes me everyday. He is just such a sweet little boy. Kyler has been going around singing his ABC's and it is so cute. You can understand every letter. He also is starting to become more of a help. And Walker and Kyler are becoming such "best buddies" since they have a few hours alone everyday.

We still aren't pregnant yet, and yes I am bummed, but that's okay. I know that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing and that this isn't up to Rikk and I. We were blessed with getting our house sold so quickly, so I see it as one blessing at a time. Plus, maybe we are really supposed to just go to New Mexico in December instead of after a baby is born. It's in Heavenly Father's hands and I am just grateful for the three beautiful children that I have been blessed with already. We are still keeping it in our prayers and know that if and when it is supposed to happen it will.

Hunter's Night Out

We took Hunter to his school today to meet his teacher and for his kindergarten screening test. He says that he got everything right that she asked, except for the "practice" test that she asked first. He was soo proud of himself. He said that his teacher even called him a genius...which of course he is! His teacher's name is Mrs. Gillitzer and she seems really nice. She had the same concern about Hunter's speech as us, that it was nice that she picked up on that. She was also very impressed that he could tie his own shoes, that not many kindergartners know how to do that.

We took Hunter afterwards to go and get his school supplies and some clothes. Everywhere is out of glue sticks which is understandable when you wait until after school starts to get the supplies and you have had the supply list since the end of last school year! He was so excited to pick out his own shirts, pants and especially the shoes. He thought it was pretty cool that he got to get a pair of shoes just for gym and that he gets to keep them at the school. He even picked out his own blue folder to bring papers/homework home in. The only thing that we haven't found yet is a hard lunch box. We may end up having to look online.

Hunter was happy because he got a corn dog, a root beer plus a candy and that he didn't have to share it with anyone. When we were driving home we asked him if he had a good time and he actually said "Yes" and not one complaint. He usually never just says yes, it's always, "Yes, but..." so this time we know he really had a good time. He sure is growing up fast. I'll post pictures of his first day next week.

Mommy School

Walker has been a bit bummed that Hunter gets to go to Kindergarten and he doesn't. He just doesn't get WHY he can't go too. Then Hunter told him something that made his day. He said, "But Walker, you get to go to Mommy School and that's a lot of fun. That's where I used to go and you can go in you jammies!" Such a sweet big brother and Walker was excited after that. Last night I took just Walker with me to go grocery shopping and to get some Mommy School supplies. We had such a fun time picking out pencils, colored paper, writing paper, etc. He thought it was something really special and couldn't wait to get home to show Dad and his brothers. And they all were really good about making a big deal out of it and being really excited for him. Just don't dare touch any of his things or he'll bite your head off!

Family Pictures

So.....how freaking cute is our new family picture at the top of our blog?!!! This is the only one we have been able to preview, but we LOVE it! Leave a comment of what you think. Kim, you did such a wonderful job and we really appreciate your time and effort. We cannot wait to see more. Check out Kim's blogspot. www.portriatsbykimberlylowry.blogspot.com She does amazing work.

Going once, going twice and...

SOLD to the first family who put an offer on the house! That is right our house was on the market for 6-7 days and we have sold it. What a great weight has been lifted off of our shoulders now. It's a good thing that we sold it, because someone went all over North Pole and took all of our For Sale By Owner signs...how nice was that??? We couldn't believe it. There was $200 down the drain, but apparently someone needed them more than we did, or may need their house to sell more than us....who knows! Rikk's theory is that it was a crazy realtor that came to "interview" for selling our house. She called on Tuesday to get our answer and we didn't answer and that evening is when the signs went missing. He says she seems kinda like a crazy ex-girlfriend that you break up with and then go outside and your tires are flattened!!! But we have sold our house and are now looking at rentals. We have one to go and look at tomorrow and many more to call. It is really hard to find a month to month. It would be nice if we could stay in our house and pay rent until we leave, but the family that bought it is Army and the husband leaves in a couple weeks for Iraq and want to get his family in and settled before he leaves...and believe me, that is TOTALLY understandable. I would hate for him to worry more about his family than he has to while he is gone. The only "sucky" thing is that the could had a realtor, so things ended up being a little more than we really wanted them to be, but not more than we thought they would be (does that make sense). We feel that we are truly blessed with our house selling as quickly as it has. Thank you all for keeping us and our house in your prayers.

House For Sale

We have officially put our house on the market. The website is www.nphome4sale.blogspot.com
Feel free to check it out and to let those you know who are looking for a house in the area about it. If you are feeling really nice, please put it on your blog as sites to check out :) Oh, and we are doing FSBO...realtors are WAY too expensive!

Slide show trouble

We are trying to get a slide show going for our house selling blog (we will give out the site when we are done creating it...tomorrow hopefully) and are having trouble getting the pictures to show up. We got it loaded once and then Rikk went in and edited the post by adding a description below the slide show and that's when the pictures quite appearing. It looks like you are going to be watching a slide show and nothing happens...no matter how long you wait. If any of you have any experience with how to do this, please HELP!!! We were using photobucket to do the slide show if that helps any.