Hello everyone!

Man, it's been a long time since I updated my blog. But, being the dedicated friend I am, I will forgo changing the stinky diaper Deyla just walked up to me with, in order to update everyone on what's up with us...my nose is in utter peril, so I will type quickly...

Thanks to Matt's brother in law for figuring out the wireless internet that is allowing me to sit in the kitchen, smell the poop and type at the same time. Priceless...

We are awesome! Jon and Matt have been building a ginormous green house and we're planting up a storm in order to provide local produce for the hordes. We are having so much fun! We have named the farm Hope Farms after Alison's mom who is suffering from breast cancer, but determined to beat it!!!! Goooooo Hope! We are working on a grrrreeeeaaatt contract to provide produce year round for a really fancy restaurant here. If all goes well, we could meagerly support both the Batchelder's and the Bohannon's from that one contract. Very exciting indeed;)!

I am working part time at a real estate company for a guy from church. It is an awesome job and I feel sooo blessed to have it!

Darion is partying with his friends all of the time. They're playing video games, camping, reading and running around like mountain boys. Dalton does everything in his power to keep up with them - including adopting some of their not-so-catchy phrases. We've had to wash his and Darion's mouths out with soap to remedy that. Boys will be boys, I know, but my boys will not have potty mouths if I have anything to %# $&* say about it!!!!:) Just kidding;)

Delyla is a joy - not sure what else to say about her. She is still the easiest, most adorable little lady. She talked all the way through sacrament meeting today and everyone thought it was adorable, even when I was getting a little frustrated. She has a ton of teeth and would eat us out of house and home if given the chance. Her little pudgy belly sticks out and she is quickly
growing out of every stitch of clothing we 've got. She's so different from the boys. Just loves being outside and constantly laughs.

Alison and Matt renewed their vows this weekend - after almost 14 years of marriage. It was soooooooo romantic and beautiful. I'd never been to any Catholic service before and it was so different, but neat at the same time. Alison's oldest brother is a priest and he performed the mass while Paxto and Stanton served as altar boys. It was neat to see them participate and be so reverent. There was a great reception afterwards and everyone toasted their friendship with the Batchelder's. Several shared stories of how they became friends with them. The common element was that everyone felt an immediate kinship with Matt and Alison because of their genuine generosity and caring nature. Jon and I feel blessed to have them as our best friends.

We finally rented the Crosby house and have renters moving in on July 1!! Hallelujah for that. What a relief!


I have a beautiful little branch I attend here. We have maybe 30 people in attendance. We roatate serving in primary, young womens and relief society. I love it! The meetings are super spiritual.

I wish I could upload pictures to show you guys, I'll have to work on that. Miss you all;) Wish me luck with this diaper!!!!

Quick note...

A quick note to let everyone know that we made it to Angel Fire and are unpacking and getting settled. The road trip was about 20 hours!!! The kids were angels since we were able to separate them into the 3 cars we caravaned up in.

I got up and looked out the window at the gorgeous mountains with billowing clouds rising behind them this morning and just felt a complete sense of home that I haven't felt in a few years. I could cry just thinking about it now. We've got alot of adjusting to do to get moved in and get to work, but I feel so peaceful and calm about it that I know this is where we are supposed to be;0) Darion decided to go to school with Paxton and Stanton for the last 20 days, so it is quiet. Jon is up in Taos playing golf. Matt and Alison are working. Delyla is sleeping. Dalton is playing monster trucks. Everyone just seems as content as I am to be here. I'll get out and start taking pictures for everyone soon;)

Lots of love and hugs to all of my Houston friends...missing you;)

Update!

We are so lucky to have Matt coming down on the 25th to help us get moved to Angel Fire! (Best bud ever for sure - he wins the prize, takes the cake, scores a big one, deserves a gold medal and the purple heart) Yup, I just said the 25th. That's what I'm talking about people. Angel Fire here we come!!!!! I'm not overly excited am I? Our little 4-6 weeks was cut in half.


We've got people lined up to come look at the house Wednesday when we officially open it up for rent. We've painted every room except the laundry room. We've repaired all the siding outside and planted flowers too;) Our last project is to put down new flooring in the kitchen. We got really pretty oak laminate flooring for only 78 cents per square foot. Don't tell me if you've bought it cheaper...I don't want to know! We went to 4 different places plus looked at a ton online - I hate shopping. We had a contractor come over last night to bid the job of putting the flooring down. He wanted $2 per square foot. CRAZY! I told Jon we were going to do it ourselves! I can't wait to put it down. It is going to look so pretty!


Tomorrow is my last Sunday in the Pine Trails Ward. I have made some amazing friends here. I know there was a purpose for us being here, although Jon and I haven't quite figured out what that ultimate purpose was. Maybe we just needed to learn a few things. Well, we have learned alot about what we don't want. I'm not sure how I'll live without Sweet Mama K. She was my lifesaver in Crosby for sure!!!!! I am going to miss you a ton girl!

We're going down to spend our last Sunday with mom and dad at Surfside beach next weekend for Dalton's big #4 birthday and the beach! Bitter sweet! Then, we'll be packing up and moving out! Wish us luck. Hopefully my next blog will be full of pictures from Angel Fire! Yippee!!

The Countdown has begun...

Well, one of our last projects on the house was completed today! We've got to do a little more painting and then we'll be ready to put the house up for rent/sale;) Angel Fire here we come!

Something really struck me as funny today: Why are we making our house so nice for someone else to live in it? Why do we do that? It's been good enough for us to live in the last 3 years!!! It seems so idiotic, but I guess that's what you've gotta do. Jon patched up a "jagged" corner where we knocked out a wall a couple of years ago. It took 10 minutes! Why didn't we do that a long time ago? So strange how we can live with things in our home halfway done. Maybe we'll complete projects in our next house. Maybe not! We planted flowers that someone else will get to enjoy! The house is gonna look so good - for someone else;0) Well, that's fine by me as long as we find that person sooner rather than later!!


We're going to sell a ton of our stuff in the community wide garage sale on the 19th. Come on over and buy my crap please!!! We're wanting to downsize our belongings to make the move easier. We keep moving boxes of stuff that we never even use! We're going to sell the dining table/chairs, our cool red couches, and a bunch of other stuff. How else are we going to fund this move???


Well, wish us luck and I'll try to keep everyone posted on our actual move date. Right now, we're looking at 4-6 weeks. Probably closer to 4! Yippee!!!

Playing catch up

Man, we've been so busy I haven't had time to blog at all. Here's what's up:


The insurance man totalled (sp?) the truck! Yippee
Jon bought a 2001 Toyota Tundra
I packed a bunch of boxes preparing for our move to Angel Fire - hopefully sooner than later
I painted the bedroom - looks great
I withdrew Darion from school - homeschool is fun so far!
Jon traded our jet ski for a dirt bike - now the guy is wanting out of the trade because he doesn't know how to make the ski work - he's a jerk......
I spoke at church today - only cried through half of it - pretty good for emotional Gala
Gammy (Jon's mom) is here for the next few days to play
The boys are going to Gammy's to play for a few days after that
I'm worn out, old and crabby and counted a gazillion gray hairs this morning...

That about sums it up - I'm going to take a nap....................

Cox Radioand the park

We had sooooo much fun on Monday! Don't you just love having a day off of school and actually having a plan? The Scouts had planned to go on a tour of Cox radio. It is a local company that houses 3 different stations in the same floor of a gorgeous hi-rise type building in a fancy schmancy part of Houston. Super Fun. After the tour, The Mullens and The Bohannons went to a great park in the Heights. Of course the pictures loaded backwards from the way I intended, so the park pics show before the radio tour pics. Someday I'll get the hang of it!



Here's David Mullens at the park. If you check behind him, there's a tail growing and although he wouldn't confess it in public, I'm pretty sure he was developing a huge craving for bananas. Here's another monkey - Darion's fellow scout, Jacob.

Here are the partners in crime - Darion and Quentin. Don't you just know that they are up to something? - watch out because it is probably no good...

Dalton is trying to channel Spider Man.

Here's the Princess of course enjoying herself at a new place. She has learned to ask for the pacifier now. She'll say "Binky". If you don't respond in a satisfactory amount of time, she will say it louder and louder until you present the pacifier to her. I think it's about time to let that little crutch go, but it is hard knowing that she's my last one...I want her to be a baby a little longer.

Here's Darion presenting his "I will not embarrass you mom" face. He succeeded. He actually asked a good question during the tour. He asked how you can get a job at a radio station...? The tour guide, a blonde, pony-tailed dude responded - to a room full of boyscouts and their siblings - that you really just needed to finish high school. Then, if you just hang around a radio station long enough, they will eventually give you a job... Thanks pony-tail dude.

Thank heavens this guy said he had a degree in communications. Or else, he has kids of his own and understands that we want our children to hear that nothing comes easy and you need to go to college....

The amount of technology was really amazing. They had studios for each of the radio stations. Everything was computerized. One of the radio stations ran almost the entire day without a person in the studio. Everything was pre-programed and pre-recorded. Did you know that when you listen to Paul Harvey on whatever radio station in whatever town, that Paul is actually broadcasting to 100 radio stations from the comfort of his in home studio? Talk about livin' the high life.

Although there were records hanging on the walls, all of the music was stored on MP4's. No more disc jockeys slinging vinyl or even CD's. Everything's computerized and most of the employees were there based on their computer knowledge rather than a love for music/radio etc. Very suprising to me!

All of the studios had amazing views of the Houston sky-line. Not a bad place to work if you ask me.

Here's a nice shot that includes pony-tail boy that was our guide. He's in the doorway on the left with glasses.

Kareena and I were joking that the only time we've ever really seen a radio station or anything like it was from watching WKRP in Cincinatti. We were dissappointed that there wasn't a cloud of smoke to walk through. We were sad that there weren't any neurotic, mal-adjusted, offensive, smelly DJ's with hang-overs to weave our way through on the tour.

We made it through the tour without our children embarrassing us. Although one of the leaders (whose name I will not disclose out of pity...) son's asked the tour guide when the tour was going to move on at one point when he must have been born. Hee Hee... It wasn't my kid being a cranky smarty pants!!!!!!!

We had a super fun day and I am so glad that we actually went and didn't blow the tour off. It was interesting and informative. It will give our children something to fall back on in the future. Hey, if college doesn't work out honey, you can go work at Cox radio!

On a side note, the insurance adjuster totaled the truck. YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Saturday with Mema and Poppy

Mema and Poppy tore themselves away from the beach Saturday and came to visit! It was so fun! They brought me a big box of books, which always makes me happy. The boys got funny new t-shirts. We visited and played video games and ate valentines cake. Dalton and Darion rode bikes with Poppy and we all played some vicious crazy 8. Of course we played Mario Kart too... What's a grandparents day without the wii? What did we do before it came along?


Delyla is modeling her riding technique in the adorable dress that Aunt Roxanne got her for Christmas. She can climb up onto the horse and says "Yee Haw". It is absolutely awesome. She melted Mema and Poppy's hearts by saying their names too. What a sweetie pie!

Here's me and Dad with Delyla. We kept trying to catch a picture where she was kissing on Poppy, but the camera was never fast enough!

Here's the Mario Kart Party! Look at that focus...major competition going on here.

Dalton is modeling his new Kung Fu Panda shirt with a tiny Mario on his shoulder. Darion got a really funny shirt that says something about the monkeys stealing his sister, but returning her because she talks too much... He wouldn't model it for the camera though;(

Mema was teaching Delyla proper phone etiquette here.

We had a really nice visit and we were all- especially Darion - sad to see them go after dinner. We need to get together more often! Grandparents are great!!!!

On a lovey note, I hope everyone had a sweet valentine's day. Jon redeemed himself from the sinking truck incident by taking me out to dinner Friday night (thanksfor babysitting Megan!!!) and bringing me home a beautiful box of chocolates and the most thoughtful card ever - he did more than just sign it too. He wrote me a note inside that was heartfelt and sweet and I am even more in love today than I was when I was 16. Hello Mr. Bohannon!