Our house has been warmed!

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to throw a housewarming/Jesse Graduation party with family and friends and it was a great success. Thank you to everyone who came and all the great loot you gave us. Plus it was nice to feel all that love in our house! Here are some pics from the party. I'll try to get up just some general pictures soon. I know I am moving slow!

I'm running?

Yeah, you may have to do a triple take, but I, Tressa, have signed up to run a 5k. I know it sounds crazy. It is quite possible that no one hates running more than I, but I have the regristration to prove it. Craziest of all, it is soon, June 12th. I have signed up to do the Beach to Chowder run in Long Beach and have even convinced some others to do it with me.

Still not sure why I am putting myself through this torture, but I do know that it is helping me to get moving some and at least it is short enough that I know I can finish it, though I am sure I will have to walk some. Honestly, selfishly, the biggest reason I am doing this is because it is something that is just about me, not me being a mom. It seemed to be the easiest thing I could find to do like that. Not a whole lot of volleyball tourneys in the area.

I'll let you know my embarrassing results as well as the fun I have at the hotel and before and after the race! Wish me fast thoughts!

Take a knee...

I know it has been a super long time since I have blogged, but the move and lack of computer has crazed things up. I don't have time for huge updates but thought I would throw out these couple cute things.

Jesse has really been working with Peyton on his prayers and they kind of always end them by saying "help me to wake up happy in the morning." Well the other morning as I was changing his diaper he said, "I wake up happy." So, I replied, " well that's good." "Yeah," he said, "because of my prayers." How sweet right?

In other knee news, Brady is crawling and has been for a few months, but I never posted a six month update so I just wanted to make sure that ya'll knew where he was. He is super fast and loves to follow people, especially Peyton, everywhere but he kind of does this Gallom crawl where he doesn't put one knee down. Occassionally, he'll stand alone and I would love him to walk so going outside would be easier. Sorry that's all for now.

Rach, got the keys...

Monica- " I asked, 'Rach, got the keys?'"

Rachel- "No, you said 'Rach, got the keys.'"

Chandler- "Do either of you actually have the keys?"

Well, we do. Thats right. Both of us have officially closed on our houses and have our keys. Actually, we've been home owners for a while, but I have been to busy to post it. This past weekend we painted the whole place and have since been moving in bit by bit and it is all leading up to the big weekend. Both the Millers and us will be moving in this Saturday and calling these places our homes. Hopefully after things get settled I can write more and post some before and after pics. Plus, knowing me, I love to throw a party so I am sure there is a housewarming bash in our future. Thanks to everyone who has helped us out with prayers and well wishes. We are almost done.

A Howlin Good Time!

With all the craziness of the house I had almost completely forgot I had planned a mini vacation for Jesse, Peyton, and I at the Great Wolf Lodge. Jesse and I had been before and it seems like P has been getting the short end of the parental stick lately so I thought he could use some two on one time. As soon as we got there, he was overwhelmed by all the animals an he loved to point out every one, over and over again. We already knew his love of hotel rooms from Seaside, and this proved to be true again. He probably could have stayed in the room all night, playing in the drapes, eating licorice, and talking on the phone. Eventually we coaxed, or, err, forced him into his swim clothes and headed towards the the water park.

Upon entering, like expected, he was not digging it. Too many people, too loud, too new, who knows? He didn't want to leave Jesse's arms, so we just walked all over to get him accommodated. After about 30 mins or so he finally started to warm up to the idea and before too long he was loving it. I would say the wave pool and slides were his favorite. In the wave pool he would stand where two waves would meet so he would get knocked over and he loved it. We kind of felt like the bad parents because we never did put a life jacket on him (he hates them), but we let him go up to the slides all by himself, though we never let him out of our sight. And he would always look for us before he went down. Sometimes he would even make a friend at the top of the little kid slide and say to them, " 1, 2, 3, ready, set, go" and then let them go first. The poor kid always felt tricked. Even though I still didn't feel good enough to do anything I had a blast just watching Peyton having so much fun. The poor kid does need to get more fat on him, he was freezing in no time.

Umm...did we just buy a house?

The Outside of Our House

I think we may have. Not to get to far ahead. We haven't closed yet, but our offers have been accepted, most of the papers are in, and the inspections went great. All of this has happened very quickly and our soon to be neighbors have even had a little freakout beacause of its quick approach, but we calmed them down. Now comes the stress of closing and moving. Unfortunately, I am really sick from switching medicines and standing has become a bit of an issue but hopefully that gets better soon so we can move. They really want to close by the 26th of Feb and it will probably happen right around then. We hope to move in shortly after, we'll probably paint first. The houses are located just off the freeway by the Adna exit (yes, that puts us in the Adna ward), but I can't wait to live back in a pseudo city. It is all so nerve racking, but exciting and I can't wait to decorate. I only have a few photos that Erica took one night of some weird areas of the house. I will try to get more up soon. Wish us more luck.

This is how close our house is to Erica and Nate's

Our living room

Looking towards the dining room and living room from the kitchen

The Master Bathroom

That's not candy!

How many times do you tell your kids that. I have recently struggled with the concept that cough drops aren't candy even though you unwrap them. Usually I try to keep him away from these non-candies, but last night when he thought a beef bouillon cube was candy and preceded to throw a fit when I didn't give him one, I decided to let him know I was telling the truth. He became super eager as I grabbed one solitary cube from the container and unwrapped it carefully to ensure I caught all the crumblies. It then passed from my hand to his and then straight into his mouth. About 3 chomps and 2 seconds later he got the face. You know, the one where it seems your child's face is shrinking and then suddenly the tongue comes out, along with whatever was in his mouth. Yep, that is exactly what he did, followed by minutes of him making the "gross taste in my mouth" noise. Too bad there are no photos, it was all very spur of the moment. Hopefully, this will teach him a lesson. If I tell you it's not candy, I mean it!

How did THAT happen!

One day you are just living with your parents, the next you are moving next door and renting a duplex, and about 4 days later you are putting in an offer on a house. Yea, crazy. Both us and Nate and Erica have put in offers on matching houses right next to each other in Chehalis. A little silly, and totally unexpected. They are just simple 1,700 sq ft, 3 bed 2 bath homes, but we could get them at a steal. The chances of us getting them are very slim because they are short sales, but it all happened so quick and before I knew it we were getting pre-approved and signing the paperwork. Of course, now we are all jazzed about it and will probably be crushed if we don't get them. We even went out Friday night after we put in the offers to celebrate by watching Avatar in IMAX 3D (which I totally recommend even if you have already seen it.) Keep your fingers crossed.

Yay for the OTHER Peyton!

All week I had been nervous about this weekends Colts game because I wanted them to win so badly. If you don't have a team you are really rooting for, the playoffs and the Superbowl just aren't that exciting. But luckily, Peyton had an outstanding showing yesterday and they cruised to a victory. The Mormon, Austin Collie, even scored the first touchdown. Most of you probably aren't big football fans and don't really care but I am happy. Only one more game to win and then its back to the Super Bowl. The last time they went was when I was prego with Peyton. We had to wait and see if they won to finalize our decision to name our son Peyton. Manning came through and became the MVP, sealing Peyton's name fate. Go Colts!

Nate is so OLD!

Maddy helping the birthday boy pretend to blow out candles.

This week we celebrated Nate's 25th birthday the only way you can really celebrate being a quarter century old...by going to Chuck E. Cheese. If you are feeling old, then going to the place where a kid can be kid is perfect. We did start the evening by going to the very adult Red Robin. Man, their new garlic parm fries are so delish! They did sing happy birthday to him, but somehow Jesse ended up eating his sundae. By the time we got to the Chuck, we were all very stuffed but the boys quickly got over it and started playing away. I mean the kids were there somewhere, ok not really we played with them also. The last couple times we went Peyton has stayed in his booth, just sitting and watching. But this time he finally warmed up and started having a ball. His favorite is to carry around the tickets and steal people's skee balls. Melia is trying to save up tickets for a Polly Pocket, and with a few jackpots we managed to get her over 1000 tickets for the night, only 4000 to go. Enjoy the pics, all of them.

Peyton didn't eat a single fry all night, he mostly just stood on the chair looking around, swinging his necklace.
Yep, that's Jesse eating Nate's b-day sundae!
Nate during the singing, because he was holding Parker they didn't make him stand up.
One of Melia's jackpots as modeled by Peyton.

Peyton and Madison helping their daddys race.


Even Mom got into the basketball, we all did that a lot. Poor Jesse just couldn't beat me no matter how hard he tried. Isabell is trying to imitate Peyton smashing his face against the glass.