Back to the Real World

Summer is over, as is our amazing life in Hawaii. Its nice to be home, but we find ourselves wishing we could go back far too often. What a great experience it was. We were very blessed for the opportunity to live there all summer. Things are finally back to normal and we are enjoying having all of our things back. Its also nice to be back with our families and friends. Because of the high living cost in Hawaii we weren't able to bring home much extra money, but it was definitely worth it.

Me and Dextin came home three weeks before Justin so that we could be at Stefani’s wedding on August 11. It turned out to be so much fun and beautiful. I am so happy for Stefani and Andrew.

Before Justin came home I decided to surprise him with a few projects for our house. We had a bedroom that was full of junk mostly that I cleared out. It also had a big sectional couch that our landlords are storing. I decided to recover the couch so that we could use the extra room as an actual bedroom. There was finally space for Dextin to have his own room which I had fun decorating. The room that I cleared out had a brick wall with a fireplace that was a terrible orange color. I was able to get it painted before Justin got home, though I could have never done it without the help of all his younger siblings. It was a big project and they helped out a ton. Jodi also helped with a lot of the decorating and my mom and my aunt Lyn helped with the couch.

Couch Before:

Couch After:

(I also made a bunch of pillows for it)

Here is the wall in the middle of being painted. You can see the original color on the bottom.

Here are a few of the decorations I did.

I modge podged the pictures onto pieces of wood. I did the ones from Hawaii for our little den area and a bunch for Dextin’s room. I also made him some curtains and some book shelves from rain gutters. Justin loved it and was definitely surprised at how much I was able to get done in three weeks.

On September 10 we got to celebrate Dextin’s first birthday. It was so much fun. For his birthday he got a ball pit, a frog chair, and a fun push around toy. We had a big jungle party later that night. It turned out so fun. I spent most of the day on his cake and we spent way too much money on decorations. It was a blast though and he got a lot of great gifts. We just love our little guy!

Here are a few of Dextin’s one year photos taken by my mom.

On September 21 we said goodbye to my one and only brother Kylan. He is currently a missionary in the San Bernardino California mission. He is doing great so far and I know he will be one fantastic missionary. We miss you Kylan!

Halloween weekend we last minute decided to throw a Halloween party for Justin’s side of the family. It wasn’t as planned out as we normally like, but it turned out fun. Justin spent quite a bit of time on a game he created called pin the organ on the zombie, which everyone seemed to enjoy. I spent my time making yummy Halloween treats. This year me and Justin dressed as bananas and Dextin was a monkey. We went to my moms Halloween night for a small party. While we were there we did a little bit of trick-or-treating. Dextin enjoyed carrying the candy around in his bag, but he enjoyed eating the candy even more.

After five years of off and on schooling I have finally been accepted into the Nursing program. I will start in January and graduate in August of 2013. I am very excited to get my RN and finally be done. I have definitely taken my time getting here, but because of that I will only have to take the Nursing courses as I go because I have everything else already finished. Hopefully that will lighten my load as I continue to work and be a mom and wife. It sure is nice to finally have the end in sight.

Justin got a new job after returning from Hawaii. He is now working for Hearts for Hospice as a driver. He seems to like it alright, but I doubt it will be long term. He also is doing a few installs for Point here and there. He works hard and is staying busy.

That is pretty much what we’ve been up to the past three months. Things are mostly back to normal after our long summer vacation, though we would go back in a heart beat if we could. We are staying busy, but also trying to throw in some fun here and there. Mostly we spend our days chasing around our busy little guy, which is how we like it.