The Rainbow House

We currently purchased our first home. Yay! But we have been working like dogs to get this house in livable condition. I took this video the day after we closed. Some may like the colors used and there's nothing wrong with that. I will still love you for your faults! :) These colors were picked out by someone who took care to put them up and probably really enjoyed them. We do not enjoy them. It's a matter of personal taste....and bleeding eyeballs. I seriously can't stand to look at these colors. There are different colors everywhere which is where the kids started calling the house "the rainbow house". Bryce cried when we started painting "the rainbow". I actually like rainbows, just not on my walls.

So here's the video. It's kind of grainy due to my little point and shoot camera I took it on but I think you'll get the general idea. Oh, and one more thing. I was kind of rushing this video because I was really freaked out that there would be bugs and spiders and scorpions at every turn. Sorry about that.

Untitled from Rachel Witbeck on Vimeo.

Love/Hate

I am LOVING living here in AZ....so far. I mean, how many times have you all had to read, or hear, about my extreme distaste for any type of cold weather? Seriously, I was not meant to be in cold weather country. So I was soooo happy to be able to go to the park and meet Erik for lunch at the park in the middle of December! Awesome!

Yes, short sleeves!

She didn't want short-sleeves. Oh well. I mean, it's not like it's super hot this time of year. (Sorry about the picture Erik!)


We even ate under this cute little tree where lovebirds inscribed their initials to show their undying love for one another. Erik wouldn't do it. Whatever.

But you know, not everything is copacetic around here. There has to be some downfall, right? It's to be expected. Maybe something, oh, like THIS!!!!

This little gem was hiding in some debris left behind by the previous owners. Do you know what it is? I had never seen one before this moment.

Okay, it's a freaking black widow! Ewwwww! I want to throw up just looking at the pictures! I HATE this!


Oh but don't worry. There was another one waiting in the debris so it wasn't lonely. The children are no longer allowed to play outside.

So I guess you can't have everything. Sunny with just a few days of rain, no snow EVER, and completely bug and poisonous spider free. We'll see if I start complaining about the heat in the summer!

Christmas '09

Well Christmas has come and gone. Presents were wrapped, new pajamas were distributed, cookies for Santa were made, presents unwrapped, pajamas worn all day, toys put together, toys taken apart, some pouted, and some did weird poses for the camera...and all while the sun shined outside! Here are the wad of pictures of our Christmas adventure this year.



I'm feeling very grateful for this past year. We have had plenty of trials and plenty of good times as well. Even though I kept forgetting it was Christmas time (due to the 70 degree weather!!!) I still felt the Spirit of this time of year. I am grateful for my family. The Lord has blessed me with a husband that I love more than anything and for some strange reason loves me back! He has also blessed me with 3 beautiful, strong-willed, loving children that I can't get enough of! I am grateful for Christ's birth and for the sacrifice he made for me and my family. I am grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am grateful for all my family and friends, wherever you may be, for all the support and love that we have been given over the years.

I hope you all have had a merry Christmas and hope you all have a great 2010!

Holy Crap!! It's Christmas Eve!!!!

I'm freaking out just a bit. Where did my time go? It doesn't even seem like Christmas this year and it all has to do with this little beauty....

We moved into our house not even a week ago and it's been nuts! We're so excited to be in but to move in right before Christmas is a wee bit overwhelming so we have this...


which is the current state of the garage. We just threw them all in there so we wouldn't have them out during Christmas. But no, not all of them are empty. And we also have this...


Just a couple of the paint projects we've been working on. The blue has to go. And the yellow hurt my eyes. Our house is a work in progress.


And this is all the kids have done while we've been working.


But the kids finally got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Although Makayla was too freaked out to sit on Santa's lap.

Preston asked for a Nintendo DS, a Wii, and video games. (yeah right)
Bryce asked for a toy story DS and a dinosaur mountain.


And we got the tree up.

We've been up to more but this will have to do for now. Merry Christmas!

About Thanksgiving

I don't really enjoy Thanksgiving day food. Seriously. So my idea was to go out to dinner for Thanksgiving. Maybe that's a little unorthodox but I thought why not celebrate pilgrims by not making dinner and having other people make it and bring it to our table? Wouldn't the pilgrims want us to enjoy the comforts that they weren't able to enjoy?

But I was vetoed. And we stayed in and had dinner. And everyone that was involved did an excellent job!

The decor.


Happy, mischievous, and ornery children.


We.


Kirsten.


Gone crazy from pie or something.

Naps taken.


Finally content with pie.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We Rock Family Night!

Untitled from Rachel Witbeck on Vimeo.

Don't you want to come over for family night now? Bring the refreshments, we'll provide the entertainment!

Slack

The tooth fairy was very slack this time around. The first night it was Preston's fault for not putting his tooth under his pillow. But the second night.....there was no sign of the tooth fairy, meaning the tooth was still there. Preston and Bryce were both equally upset and the tooth fairy. Why didn't she come? Why oh why didn't she come????

Well, I'm pretty sure that the tooth fairy stayed up fairly late watching New Moon with her husband and totally forgot about that tooth. Baaaaad tooth fairy!!!

Or, the tooth fairy got very confused (because we moved) and didn't realize we are in Arizona now. Preston seemed to accept this explanation and decided we needed to write her a letter to tell her about our location.

It worked! And he got a REAL candy bar so the tooth fairy could redeem herself and all was forgiven. And now the tooth fairy knows where we live! ;)

Update

Here's what's going on with us lately:

-We're in Arizona.
-We're sleeping on the floor. Well, not really but we do blow up the bed every night.
-We're in a 2 bedroom place with 6 people.
-Kirsten (Erik's sister) is a saint for putting up with us!
-We're waiting for "our" house to become our house.
-I keep thinking it's summer so to think about Thanksgiving or Christmas blows my mind.
-Preston started school and it's full day now. (eeeek!)
-Makayla has become a very difficult, demanding child who still melts my heart.
-Bryce is being, well, Bryce. (pushing limits, giving hugs, running around, yelling)
-When 65 degrees is cold, it's heaven!
-I miss the rain. (don't get me wrong, I don't miss the cold but I do miss the rain.)
-It feels like Utah here.
-We're together.
-It's all good.

-Oh, and I took off the privacy settings just to see how it feels. I'm living on the edge!

T-W-O!

While we had everyone there for Halloween, and it is her birthday, we decided to have Makayla's birthday party. I feel really grateful for my parents and all they did for her birthday. I don't know how I would've got through it without them. My dad had to come up to Portland to get me after spending the morning cleaning up our place and I had been stressing about what to do for Makayla's birthday. I hadn't had any time to get a cake or get food or buy her a present. My mom went out and bought all the food and even made cupcakes. Then my mom and sister-in-law decorated the cupcakes. Makayla had a great birthday because of all the details my parents did and the family who came to help us celebrate. Even the family who couldn't be there made it a great day. Thank you everyone!

Cute cupcakes.

That's Makayla's "please" sign.


Our dancer and her tutu that she has to wear every morning now. So cute!


Her Dora backpack but she actually only cares about Boots.


Her new baby. She LOVES babies. She points them out everywhere and says, "ahhh cute baby!" every time. Although I have to keep this baby away from the boys because the eyes open and shut so they tell me the baby's dead. I try to tell them that the baby is sleeping but they insist the baby is dead. So we just put the baby up when Makayla isn't playing with it.


Her with all her birthday loot. Doesn't she look so big?! I can't get over it.

So here's some little facts about Makayla:

1.) She is so hard headed sometimes. She will want something but won't take it from my hands. You have to put it down, walk away, and don't make eye contact. Then, and only then, will she take whatever it is.

2.) Where did she learn about princesses and dancing? She is all about being a princess and a princess always has to dance when music is on and if there is no music she will sing, like a true princess. Although I don't know if princesses actually sing the Star Wars theme song but we'll just say they do.

3.) She really doesn't have much of an opinion about what she wears but she cares about shoes. "Cute shoes" to be exact.

4.) She should teach a class on how to use crocodile tears and a pouty lip. They work on her dad real good.

5.) She loves her brothers. She will do anything they are doing and smile the whole time. But don't think she's a push over. She fights back if she thinks she is wronged in any way.

6.) Makayla really does have a lot of empathy for people. If someone is crying or sad she hugs them and tries to make them feel better and will sometimes cry with them.

We love you so much Makayla! You are such a sweet, beautiful little girl and we are so blessed to have you as part of our family! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Halloween

Halloween this year was a lot of fun for the kids. Since we were transitioning from Portland to Mesa, the kids and I were staying with my parents so we had a big crowd with the cousins joining in the trick-or-treating festivities.

Makayla was a butterfly princess. Really we were lucky Erk's mom got her the costume because I didn't know what to do for her and she loved it!


This was as good as I was going to get with Preston. I know he was Superman last year but the costume still fits and it was already there, so why not? He didn't care so I didn't care.


I don't know how many kids this Buzz Lightyear costume has gone through but I think it's quite a few. Again, we had it in a bin and decided to recycle it for one more year. Bryce loved it!


Makayla trying to steal some candy before we leave.


I thought this picture was kinda cool. Very spoooooky!


The little miss wouldn't go to any doors without someone holding her hand and at some times holding her. She also had to have the candy put in her hand so she could put it in the bag. It was like she didn't really believe the candy was there unless she did it.




Hope you all had a great Halloween!