SOLD!

We just sold our old house. This is the house that we moved out of a year ago and have rented for the past year. We are now down to just the one house we live in (and our weekend home on our property). This year we really just wanted to get rid of it, so we listed it with Elizabeth Chappell for really cheap. It sold in a couple of weeks...she really does have good advertising and a good team.
We lived in this house for 2 years. It was our second house in the neighborhood. Before we bought it, we saw it go up for sale and then stay for sale for months and months. One day we decided to go inside and look. It was so cheap and it had some really nice upgrades as compared to what our first home was like: hardwood floors, open 2 story living room, silestone counters, an open kitchen, a nice banister, a 5 foot extension on the garage. We thought about it for a while and prayed about it and decided to go for it. The real estate market was still really high, and we got an awesome deal. Within a few months of moving into this house, we decided that we didn't love it. The floor plan was nice, but it turns out that it didn't work as well with small children. We missed the culdesac and our old huge backyard. We really preferred carpet in our living room. We stayed for two years, and I didn't mind it so much, but Joe really disliked it after a while.
Last year, when we were trying to sell it to get into this house, we couldn't get anyone to buy it. Finally we put it up for rent (there are very few rentals in our neighborhood, so they go pretty quickly) and it rented. We have had phenomenal renters who took great care of our house. Now we are selling it and closing a couple of days after the renters move out.
Overall, we didn't make any money on this house, and if you consider tax breaks, we didn't really lose money either...most importantly we don't have to show up to closing with cash. In this market that is all you can ask for. It was a lot of work to move twice and we put a lot of work into that house. We did learn a lot about what we want and don't want in a house, so that was good for us. We also learned that we probably shouldn't have a side business in flipping houses. I'm okay with that.
I'm just glad it sold.

Nate Helping Grandpa

Grandpa had a project he was working on in the laundry closet while we were visiting him. Nate was very interested. He got right up next to Grandpa and sat down next to him and watched what he was doing. I was sitting in the other room, but it was cute to watch them interact. Grandpa kept up a conversation with Nate and he watched attentively. When Grandpa had some screws that he cut the ends off, Nate found them for him and handed them to Grandpa. This boy sure loves his Grandpa!

Childrens Museum and Aquarium

When we were in Vegas, my sister had her baby, so my mom went down to Phoenix to help her out. That left me with the kids staying with my father, who still works. We had several free days, so we filled them up with visiting friends, going to the childrens museum and the shark aquarium at the Mandalay Bay hotel.

The children's museum was fun. They had a special exhibit called Grossology. I remember when it came through Houston, I had wanted to see it, but my kids were too young so I never went. I have to admit I personally was a little disappointed in the exhibit, because it was so small. The kids seemed to enjoy it though. This faucet was animated and talked to the kids. It also had a big snot drop that came out of its nose.
They got to do a silly art project.

They also got to do several physics experiments. When I was in high school (at least 15 years ago), I had spent maybe 40 hours volunteering at the children's museum. I was surprised to see that many of the exhibits were the same. There were several new ones, but there were quite a few that hadn't changed. Here's Adam and Michael learning about pulleys.

By the end of the museum experience, I was exhausted. Nate wanted to walk off by himself all of the time and I had to try to chase him and keep track of the other three. If I had gone with friends or been more comfortable with the neighborhood, I may have allowed some of that, but the museum is situated in a part of town that is consistently plagued with transients.


Another day, we went to the aquarium that is at the Mandalay Bay. It was a lot of fun. There were a few aquariums, and it ended with a huge aquarium with several views into it including parts that you could walk over and a tunnel you could walk under. This last aquarium had many sharks and turtles, it was cool. The whole exhibit was not huge, but we were in Vegas, and the last time there was a native fish there, there were also dinosaurs walking around....

Uncle Clell with the kids.

Stratton Cousins

Unfortunately, my siblings have been VERY slow about having children. (Well, they were slow about getting married too, but we won't go there). As a consequence, there are only 2 cousins for my kids to play with, and one is only 2 weeks old. The other is Juliana, and she is exactly one month older than Nate. Nate and Juliana had many oppurtunities to play when we were visiting my family. They played pretty well together, but they did tend to swap sippie cups and try to play with the same toy. They both were learning to walk while we were there, it was fun to have them at the same stage at the same time. They even engaged in a fun game of peek-a-boo around the couch one day!

More fun at the cabin

One of the things we enjoy most about visiting the cabin is that it is so much cooler than where we live. In the summer it is nice and cool: highs of about 75, lows in the 50s. In the winter it is cold enough to have generous amounts of snow. When we are there, we love to go outside to enjoy the outdoors. The kids can play in the dirt, go for "hikes," play in a fort Joe made them, play on the hammock or just goof around. This year I practically had to force the kids to go outside ("mom, do we have to?", "there's nothing to do outside," etc) but once they got outside they would have a great time and play for hours.
We even pulled Nate in a wagon and went for a few walks. It was fine except that the cabin is on a pretty steep mountain and when you were going downhill sometimes it was a little tricky to keep Nate from taking off.

Overall, it was great!

Natalie Bree

My sister had her baby, Natalie Bree on July 7th. She was 6 pounds 12 oz. I got to see her for a few minutes when I was in Phoenix. She is a very sweet baby who looks just like her daddy.

Grandpa Frost and Uncle Jonathan

When we were in Phoenix, we got to spend a little time visiting Grandpa Frost and seeing Uncle Jonathan (Joe's half brother) who just got home from a mission a few days before. The kids really enjoyed seeing their grandpa and meeting Uncle Jonathan. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Aunt Koni, Emma and Lily were at Grandpas house so we got to see them too!

(left) Emma, Ellie, Michael, Grandpa, Nate, Lily, Adam Being silly, they wanted to do this as soon as we started taking pictures, I think that Emma and Lily probably see A LOT of pictures so they know how to make it fun.

With Uncle Jonathan

Tomatoes

Nate loves tomatoes! I was sitting at the counter one day holding Nate and there was a large basket of home grown tomatoes sitting on the counter. He was reaching for one and I told him he wouldn't like it, but gave it to him anyway (it was a grape tomato) and sure enough he ate it and really liked it. Next thing I know he was reaching for a softball size tomato. I let him have it. He ate the whole thing! Every time he sees a tomato now he tries to get his hands on it to eat it! I can't believe it.

Panguitch Lake

One of the main attractions at the cabin is the lake. Panguitch Lake is a small natural lake that is good for fishing, but too small to do any speed boating, jet skiing or the likes on. We usually go out on Grandpa's pontoon boat and fish a few times while we are there. This is Joe's favorite activity at the cabin.
Nate got to come out once. He wasn't too happy about the life jacket, but he did really well. After a couple of hours though he was very tired and the life jacket was not very conducive to sleep.

Joe was the only one catching fish on this trip.

I just go along for the peaceful ride. Sometimes I could get reading in, but of course not if Nate was there...he was too high maintenance.

Juliana came too, she did better than Nate, but by the end she was really tired too. We kept passing boats and the people on them would stare at us sympathetically, wondering why we were out on the lake with two screaming babies.

Final score: Frost family team: 5 trout, Stratton family team: 0 trout

Road trip Out West

We just got home last night from our road trip out west to Panguitch Lake, UT, Las Vegas and Phoenix. We try to go visit my family every summer and until last year, we would fly out. Then we had Nate and it is SOOOO expensive to fly everyone out and rent a minivan to drive around in for 3 weeks. So, we drive. My mom was nice enough to fly in and drive out there with me. On the way back, my mom was staying with my sister (who had a baby while I was out there) so I did the drive myself. Total miles put on the car during this trip: 3630!


On the way out, we went through Dallas and northern New Mexico and the Navajo Nation in order to end up in southern Utah at my parents cabin near Panguitch Lake. On the way back, we went from Las Vegas to Phoenix, spent about 4 hours in Phoenix visiting Grandpa Frost and Aunt Tammy, then we came home through El Paso and San Antonio- all in two days.
The kids were wonderful on the trip. We jimmey-rigged our little portable DVD player to hang between the front seats so all the kids could watch it, and they watched videos almost the entire time. (My car is not nice enough to have a built in one). We even were able to use a tape converter to run the sound through the stereo so the kids could hear (and I could put the sound to the back and NOT hear). If Nate got restless, we would put a Baby Einstein video on and he would watch. Periodically I would give the kids a "present" that I had wrapped up (usually a new DVD) and they would get the thrill of opening it. The boys love videos and watch like zombies, which makes them great passengers. Ellie does fine most of the time, but then she'll get bored and start asking for things...."I'm hungry can I have a snack..", "I'm thirsty, can I have a drink...", when do we open presents again...", "I need to pee really bad and I can't hold it." She found she got the most mileage out of the last one, so she said that whenever she was bored. One time she asked and Nate had just fallen asleep so I didn't want to stop. I was able to put her off. Two hours later we stopped, and she peed then!
Anyway, the drive is long, full of desert and boring. El Paso is about half way. Between El Paso and San Antonio, the speed limit is 80, and no one speeds. When you get to San Antonio, the speed limit is 70, but everyone goes 80...go figure.

Anyway, its nice to be home...although I am pretty sure it was cooler in Vegas, if it had been this hot when Joe interned here, I'm not sure we would have come back. I will be posting all the exciting things we did in the next few days.

4-wheeling at the cabin

Every year, we go to my parent's cabin in the mountains of Utah at Lake Panguitch. It is a great vacation because the weather is cool with highs near the mid 70's and the mountains are just beautiful...especially coming from Houston where there are NO mountains. My parents have built a nice cabin with 4 bedrooms and several living areas so it is easy to stay there and not be in each other's hair all of the time. They also have all the fun "toys"- 4-wheelers, pontoon boat, and in the winter snowmobiles.
One of our favorite things to do is go on 4-wheeler rides. The cabin is in a subdivision that borders national forest that is full of trails. There are a variety of trails to ride on the ATVs and we often see deer and elk. A couple of years ago, Grandpa got a "razor" so that he could take the younger kids with him and that works well with Ellie.
Uncle Clell came to, and loved to take the boys on trips.

Uncle Clell with Adam

Daddy with Michael

The first ride we went on, I had Michael with me half of the time and Adam with me half of the time. When Michael rides with you, he talks along the way and once in a while might say, "whoa mom that was scary..." (a few minutes after you do something tricky). When Adam rides with you you have a constant monologue of "Slow down, whoa, aren't we going too fast, sloooow....etc." I took Ellie on the Razor once and I'm not exactly sure all that she said but it would be safe to call her jabberjaws....she was talking non-stop the whole time...just loving the personalized attention.

Nate Walks (Finally)

It happened sometime while we were at my parent's cabin. Now he barely crawls.

I have to admit, I like them walking better than crawling!