Laverne House ~

I have not wanted to "jinx" our House Hunting, so I have not really been blogging about what is going on in this area. We have seen OVER 100 houses, and have put in about 10 offers. Last night we got AMAZING news... our offer was accepted. Actually they countered but the counter offer is in our favor.

This house is 2042 sq feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The kitchen is HUGE and there is a formal dinning room just off the kitchen and a regular dinning room in the kitchen. The first bedroom has built in cabinets PERFECT for an office or whatever you want. I would like to make it the play room personally. It also has a 3 car garage AND parking on the side for the boat or whatever else we want to get in the future. The backyard is PERFECT size ready for the kids to enjoy... it is located between Fowler and Armstrong and Bullard and Barstow, just south of Clovis High and Clovis Elementary. That means WALKING DISTANCE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! YES!!

This is the only picture I have of the house, but I will take more when we go and meet the inspectors. We are just praying that it passes the inspections and the appraisal goes well too. We feel like we have been looking FOREVER, and we have really tried to be patient. I have been holding out for a 4 bedroom with a big kitchen and Matt has been holding out for the access to the backyard. The only problem I have is that they put carpet in the master bathroom... REALLY? WHY carpet?? It just seams RETARDED to me! That will be the first thing we fix. It needs some updating in a bad way, but besides the old wall paper and linoleum floor in the kitchen I love it! It is in a PERFECT neighborhood! We have looked at houses before in this area and they were smaller and out of our price range so we are SO happy to catch this one. We went and saw it the first day it went on the market and we made an offer the next day. We have learned we just need to be first in line for when a screaming deal comes!!
I have to admit I am a little scared about owning a house again. We still own the condo, and I have anxiety about it all, but it is GOOD anxiety!! I hope things go well and we'll try to get more pictures up as soon as we KNOW it is ours...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!

30 ~ 30 ~ 30

My BIG sister Tiffany Andersen Ray is 30 today...

Tiffany is the oldest of the Andersen children. We are standing in birth order in this picture so she is the one in the white shirt. She lives in Meridian Idaho with her husband and 4 children. Her oldest and only girl is Kimberley and she is almost 12. Then she has 3 boys all under 5. Logan just turned 5, Owen will be 2 this month, and baby Evan who is almost 6 months old.

She LOVES to be crafty. She does cross-stitching and scrapbooks. She also loves to sew and my children are getting AMAZING chirstmas gifts this year with her recent sewing stuff!! I have also been lucky to recieve a few cross-stitches she has done. As teenagers you would have thought we were going to KILL eachother, but with time we have all become friends and enjoy each others company. She and her family visit about once a year to California and we were lucky this last visit we were ALL able to get together. She makes me laugh when we call to talk to eachother because we usually call for a quick question and we end up gabbing away for hours. Our poor children get neglected when we get on the phone! It is nice to have a big sister like her to call up and gab with anytime!! THANKS TIFFANY!!

Your favorite Fresno Family wishes you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and we hope ALL YOUR WILDEST DREAMS COME TRUE!!

MOVIE REVIEW~~

INCEPTION: The beginning of something, such as an undertaking; a commencement.

I had to look this one up because I had NO idea what this word meant. I however LOVED what the movie brought to me... the definition helps explain VERY little about the movie. I LOVED Leonardo DiCaprio in this movie. I am not a big fan of his, but he was AMAZING in it along with the other 8 big name cast members. I don't even think I can begin to explain why this movie was so great. I also don't want to ruin it for those of you who have not seen it, so I will say this... They do such a great job explaining everything that the movie was easy to follow yet CRAZY to watch! We went with the Bakers and took the kids. I need to watch it again without kids to fully get it, but it was AMAZING! Well worth the twilight matinee price $5.75!!

TOY STORY 3: The third movie in Disney's Toy Story Adventures.

SOOOOOO cute! LOVED IT! The kids sat for almost the whole movie. Landon my 18 month old watched it and only got up once or twice. Hailey my 3 year old walked all over the theater but watched the movie the whole time! It was nice to see the kids enjoy a movie they have not seen 5 million times at home. The excitement in their eyes made this movie SO worth it! New Toy characters come alive and Ken and Barbie play a big role (HB really enjoyed that)!! I hope your kids love it as much as my kids did too! And of course Matt and I thought it was great! I love that kids movies are adult friendly too!!

PJ Day ~

Most of the time I get the kids ready for the day after breakfast... I get them dressed, fix up hair, and I even get ready myself...

TODAY we are staying in our PJ's!!

And while we stay in our PJ's Hailey is getting REALLY good at puzzles. (man this picture makes me want to brush her hair SO Bad)

And Landon...

is getting REALLY good at wearing Mommy's shoes. He found my indoor soccer shoes and decided he needed to wear them today while going "shopping" around the house. (it is better than wearing mommy's heals... right?) And I too am in my PJ's but that picture would be INAPPROPRIATE in SO many ways! :) SO TODAY we declare PJ DAY... that is until we have to leave the house to go HOUSE HUNTING and take Hailey to Lil' Kickers... WISH US LUCK on that one! ~:)

Road Rash...

So Target was having a 75% off Sale with Kids Toys, so I decided I could get some Christmas Shopping done, and let the kids pick out a cheap toy for being good this week... I don't like taking the kids shopping alone because I feel like they tag team me. They run opposite ways while shopping and I have to choose which child to chase first. It is hard with two kids so close in age and SO fast... anyways...
We head to Target and I got some DEALS! YESSS! But this post is not about my deals, it is about my sweet little girl...
After we purchased our fun things we were headed to the car. I have my beautiful Coach Diaper bag on one arm (this sucker is like a baby to me, and it almost weighs as much as my baby too...) and Landon is in the other arm. Hailey was walking next to me to cross the road, but the second we go across the street to the parking slots she darted off for the car. I yelled to her "Hailey come and hold mommy's hand no running from mommy." She looks back at me and gives me the classic "Hailey SMUG look" and proceeds to run from me... not TWO steps after her SMUG look she trips... and she falls. It was one of those SLOW MOTION falls that you see coming, and she did not have time to get her hands under her so she face plants... on the pavement...
She gets herself up and just starts BAWLING. I hurry over to her, and I can see she is really hurt. I mentioned to her that this is why mommy did not want you to run off. Sometimes we get hurt when we don't listen to our mommies... So I proceed to pick her up with my arm that is currently holding the diaper bag (THANK YOU Jillian Michales 30 day shred for getting my arm muscles ready for this part of parenting) and we head to the car. All I have to clean it with is Wipes. The burned, poor little girl. They WHOLE ride home she kept saying " Mommy I Hurt!!"

THIS is what it looks like. I have been putting Neosporin on it constantly, that is why is it all shiny in the picture. I worry that all the people seeing her that do not know me think I beat her. My real friends just asked "What did Hailey do?" They know how crazy she can be. I think she learned to listen to mommy, luckily she let me make it better and we took a nap together after all the drama!!

This made me think of all the times I did not listen to "my parents" either earthly or heavenly. They have my best interest in mind, and they know the things I want to do are going to hurt me... why are kids SO stubborn and strong-willed?

I am thankful I am able to listen now. I am thankful I am an adult and understand there are consequences to my actions. I really never got that as a kid... maybe that is why my daughter does the things she does...

I hope this little booboo heals fast, and we can learn from it... BOTH of us! :)

Lil' Kickers TWO

We missed last week LIL' KICKERS but we LOVED going this week...

Hailey did not do any of the opening stretching or running but she LOVES everything else...

We were making our Soccer Ball Clown to kick into the goal.

Hailey kicked it and giggled! LOVE THIS GIRL! ~

Cleaning up the Clown mess, the kids are behaving SO Much better this week!

It was a GOOD time had by all. I think next week she MIGHT do the warm ups with the other kids! LOL!

FUN FUN FUN! ~

Andersen Family Photo's

It has been YEARS since all my siblings were together to get "Family Photo's" taken.

Since we were all together, my mom wanted to make sure we got some pictures done.

Here are the pictures we took... the ones taken by the photographer were SO Much better...

The Matthew D. Bird Family (grandma made the capes)

Oh how I love my Hubby!!

Uncle Preston with my little man Landon...

Hailey being her usual cooperative self with taking pictures...

Logan, Hailey and Owen hitting the tree with it's own branches... Isn't it Ironic??

Matt throwing Superbaby in the air...

Matt throwing SuperBIGgirl in the air...

LOVE my BOYS!

SO sweet!

Tiffany Ray, Melissa Bird, Nicole Richardson, Crystal Andersen Seamons, Sharon Andersen and Preston Andersen

SIBLINGS! ~

THE END...

YES my little brother is wearing the BATGIRL cape... gotta LOVE HIM! ~

Hot Date 2010

Last week when Matt and I were in Stockton, we got to see our cousin Kyle Bird. We got to talking with him and while we were talking one of my girlfriends Megan Cluff called on the phone.  Matt asked me who was on the phone after I got off and I told him Megan... like TWO seconds later Matt looked at me and said "KYLE and MEGAN should date..."
It was like a HUGE light bulb started blinking above the both of us and I got ALL giddy and we both said "They would SO hit it off!! We should set them up!"
Long story short... we went on a double date with them last night and had a BLAST!!

First we went to eat at Panda Express...

Would you believe Kyle and Megan ordered the SAME thing... not even trying... some people would call that a coincidence... I call it FATE...

Then we headed to the Grizzlies Game. The grizzlies are Fresno's Minor League Baseball Team...

We got the Wednesday Night Special... Two game tickets, Two John's Incredible Pizza Kids Meals Coupons, Two Maxx Putt Indoor Glow Ball tickets, Two Storyland Kids Tickets ALL for $20.00... Talk about a GREAT date... Megan and Kyle laughing...

There were MANY opportunities for us to laugh. There was a grandfather with his two grandsons sitting in front of us... they moved for some reason... maybe because we were yelling at the players... or maybe because our conversations had NO filter... FATE! ~

Neither Kyle or Megan could be appropriate for the many pictures we took... FATE!

Needless to say they hit it off pretty well... (In defence of the above picture Kyle likes to get the "Captain Morgan pictures while he is with us, and for some reason Megan felt the need to bend over like that... haha SOOOO not planned out right.) FATE!~

The End... haha.

They are going on a HOT lunch date today... Too bad I am not there to take any photo's.

Needless to say we had a great time!

Now when are we going to use the Maxx Putt tickets??

(A special SHOUT OUT to the Bakers for watching our kids... THANK YOU! ~)

COUSINS ~

Grandma Andersen made dresses for the little girls... ALL we wanted to do was get a good picture with the girls wearing them... Katelyn was NOT happy about it ...

The dresses are just TOO cute... and the sad little girls make them cuter!

Because we were having a tough time the day before with the girls and the dresses we tried the next day...

We went in the backyard and TRIED to pose them, but we ended up just getting pictures of them running ALL over... here they are hugging the tree...

Hailey was giving grandma a hug for the dresses, but this picture looks like she is pushing Grandma away... Whats up with that Hailey??

And we got them matching shirts at The Children's Place... we put them on Sunday for Grandpa...

They say Grandpa's Rule . . .

And YES my daughter has a pen in her mouth... she was drawing on the board like a dog... don't ask me why... she takes after her father...

Sacramento Trip...

So as many of you know... I was on "vacation" this last week and a half...

after going with friends to Stockton for some boating fun I headed to Sacramento to watch my younger siblings and get a break from the house. Matt had to work, so it was tough but we made it through...

Here is Hailey at Grandma's enjoying some cheese... YES she is eating chunks from that HUNK of cheese...

Brian and Nicole Richardson came to visit with their kids Katelyn and Johnathon...

Hailey is giving Katelyn a hug here... (they are about 10 months apart)

My younger sister Nicole is holding Johnathon in the background.

The kids decided they wanted to jump on the trampoline...

Auntie Crystal was happy to play with them.

What a bunch of silly little kids...

I think we might have TROUBLE with these two...

Cousins are the BEST!