FAREWELL and HELLO

We are off on our adventure for the next 14 months! We will miss our Vicksburg family but are very excited on seeing our family in the West. Adan and Aaron are enjoying their drive out to Utah. They have seen many exciting things along the way. I will post pictures when I get the camera back. Mateo, Jacob and I fly off in the next couple of hours. We have a great flight schedule. Now that Jacob has had surgery for ear tubes, I expect that things will go smoothly. We will meet up this evening with Aaron and Adan. Then Aaron is off to Park City tomorrow for work. I will be enjoying my sister and her family!
I have sent out an email with our contact info. I hope to hear from you soon!

Haircuts, Painting, Standing and Goodbyes Oh My!!

Mommy and Mateo


The Kees and Byrd children


Jacob standing


the brown teepee walls. I want to add that I have been waiting almost 4 years for these particular walls to be painted

This week Mateo has been very hesitent about going to preschool. Mateo says he just wants to stay home with me. So on Tuesday I had Aaron take the boy's and that worked really well but I also had to tell Mateo that we would spend Mommy and Mateo time. He went for that and off to Preschool he went. We went and got a haircut and it went pretty well. He had a fun time and he got to see "magic". My hair dresser was so good with him and while she was waxing my eyebrows, she really involved Mateo. I am including a before picture of our hair and as soon as we take a current picture I will include that as well. We also painted our hall and entry way Brown Tepee on Wednesday evening. We have several people really help out this week and that has been great. Aaron has really needed it and you can see all the progress from him staying home and the help. Rob cam over on Wednesday to help paint. I was glad Aaron could stay home from Mutual since the other two YM leaders helped out. On Thursday I had someone from the ward come clean. This weekend the Bishop is going to go on the campout so Aaron can stay home. Rob is again coming to help out and I hope we can get a few more things done. Today I am having some more cleaning done and some babysitting so I can finish off the packing. The end is in sight I just need a little more time. I have been doing great to get a lot done all by myself, I am just glad Aaron is getting some help! I also wanted to share a picture of Jacob and the new thing he loves to do. He loves to stand. I cannot believe my almost 9 month is getting so big! We had a delicious dinner at a great friends house last night. We had a few mishaps but it all turned out great. The Kees' are leaving this weeekend so we will not see them before we leave. The reality of this move is all setting in with our having to say goodbyes. I am really going to miss the people here. We have made some really great friends.

FOR SALE BY OWNER

I forgot to mention that we put a FOR SALE BY OWNER sign on Friday. We had a couple of calls and two Real Estate agents come by to ask questions. One Real Estate agent came through the house to see it, because she may have a couple of clients that may want to come see it. Hence the reason for me having to get things cleaned up a bit.

SUCCESS

The tile in the entry way. I love the design Aaron came up with.


Last night for Family Home Evening we went to plant a rose bush for my neighbor. She wants to be able to have something so she can remember the boys while we are gone. This is the boy's walking off to work.



We had a fun, productive, successful weekend and Monday! On Friday when Aaron arrived home he was so great to get going on the floor. We stopped and took a break so we could go out to eat with friends. Then Aaron was back at it. He also helped me get the Yard Sale organized. We were up and going by 5:45 a.m. (for those of you who do not know, Aaron and I are not morning people.) We had our Yard Sale that was very successful. We mostly got rid of everything and then some. (Aaron sold things that I didn't know were for sale.) I was able to go to Women's Conference after all. A friend came by as the Yard Sale was dying down, so I was able to get a ride with her. When I came back home, we got all the items paked up and hauled off to The Rescue Mission. We feel lighter and got rid of many things! Sunday was good. Aaron had a meeting at our house for Young Men's and I was able to go Visiting Teaching. Monday was a very prductive day. The rest of the entry way tile got laid. Aaron took the day off to get some things done. One being the floor, the other was the mailbox that had been broken for several months. The boys and I planted flowers and we are starting to have a better curb side appeal. I hired one of our neighbors to edge the lawn so after I mowed early this morning things are looking great around here. My next task of the day is to get the house all cleaned. It is in desperate need of a good cleaning. The big boys are off at preschool and Aaron is off to work. Aaron will be home later this afternoon to grout the floor. I am excited at the the progress we have made over the weekend.

Having Fun

We have had an enjoyable week. I am glad Aaron will be home in a couple of hours, but I was pleasantly surprised at what a great week we had. Tuesday the boys started a summer preschool program they are offering through Adan's preschool. Normally, I probably wouldn't send them off for the summer so we could enjoy some activities together. However, under the current circumstances it has worked out well to send them to this summer program. It is two days a week for three hours. Since there aren't a whole lot of kids signed up to go, Mateo and Adan are in the same class. I was a little worried about this at first, but it has worked out very well. Mateo cried the first day for a little while (He tells me, "I only cried until we got in the gym.") Adan was also a little sad not to have Mrs. Beth for a teacher. On Thursday neither one wanted to go and Mateo cried and cried for about one minute. Having Adan in his class was great because he knows someone. They also have been playing together during their recess time and gym time. They are getting along. WOW! (The reason for me having to send them is because I couldn't get packing done wihtout them constantly fighting. They are excited that they only have a few more times to go before we leave to Utah. Wednesday we also had an enjoyable day. A friend offered to take Adan and Mateo while I packed and made preparations for our Yard Sale this Saturday. Adan also lucked out and was able to go to the Wallace's on Wednesday afternoon. This past week we have been able to enjoy walks, friends, and time together. We are looking forward to having Aaron home, but we are also geared up becasue we have a very busy weekend. The boy are prepared to work hard. They really enjoy all the projects we have been doing. They have also enjoyed earning money and looking forward to the Yard Sale tomorrow! I have been decluttering and realizing we have too many toys, I convinced them that some of the toys needed to go in the Yard Sale. They of course were not too excited about this plan. However, when I mentioned that they could get some of the money from the toys that were sold, they were very excited at this. They love earning money. Mateo is so cute about the whole money thing because when we go to the store, he will say,"I am saving my money for anything he sees." He was even telling Sheri this week and other people we saw,"I am saving my money for Diego cars." Adan does not know what he is saving his money for but he just says,"I am saving my money." I love it! I hope they stay like this for along time. Well I have much to do. I will post more this weekend. We plan on putting in more flooring this weekend!

We needed to get out and get some exercise!



First Day of Preschool

Wood Floors

For those of you who have been waiting to see our new oak wood floors. Here are the pictures. I love the flooring so much. I cannot believe it took us four years to replace the old dingy carpet! However, mopping is one of my cleaning weaknesses and with the new floors I have swept several times a day and mopped every other day. AAHHH! Otherwise the human vacuum Jacob comes through.