ciEnNa cLaiRe tUrNs oNe...

sWimMing & sWeEts...

Can you even believe it? My baby girl is one...I know I can't believe it. Well, we had a fun little shin-dig to celebrate...lots of fam and lots of swimming and lots of fun!! I don't think Papa Jeff has seen that many kids in the pool in a very long time. Cienna had a little dip and then she faced off with her cake...a "cupcake" cake that was about bigger than she was. She stared at that thing...& didn't know what to do with it. Then when she realized it was OK to dig in...she dug in...and loved it!! We had lots of bright cupcakes for everybody else...it was just a cupcake kinda day. We spent that night pushing Cici around in her new car and Ilie got to ride her new bike...isn't summer grand!

gRaDuaTioN tRip...

After four years of Canada, lots of amazing friends, two baby girls, amazing Canadian adventures, school, school & more school...we have made it through and Mark has officially graduated!! We had such an amazing trip going back to Halifax for graduation. It was so fun to go with Mark's parents and show them around our hometown and have them there to see Mark graduate. We were all more than proud. AND...it was sooo good to see all our friends again for one last Halifax horah!! I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of Mark. I really had to hold back the tears throughout all the graduation stuff, because I was just so dang proud of him. He has worked sooo hard and put in so many hours and done so well...& I know it was all for the benefit of our little family. It is such a great feeling knowing that we have BOTH made it through!! When you are staring those four years down from the starting line, these seem sooo long and the finish line seems sooo far away. And then, all of the sudden you are about to put your foot across the line and be done for GOOD, and it almost seems surreal and trying to pinch yourself to make sure it's not one of those wonderful dreams where you wake up and you're stomach drops because you realize that you're still three years away...ya know that kind!! But it is real and you are really proud...proud of all of us really...cause we did it together!! And all I can say is....YIPPEE, YAHOO, and YEHAW!! So nice job Markus...you kicked butt and I hope you know how grateful I am for all of your hardwork!! And now we're off to the next phase and I know you're going to kick butt again!

On our trip we also had the chance to see a lot of Halifax that we hadn't experienced over our last four years. Ya know, you kinda live a different life when you have two little kids. For some reason...you don't make it out late at night, you don't ever see the inside of a pub (for dang good pub food & awesome atmosphere) & you don't get to go to nice oceanside restaurants and get yummy seafood!! But this trip...we were kid-less, so we had many late nights, saw lots of awesome pubs (the Shoe Shop was oh, so my favorite) & had some dang good seafood sitting out on the waterfront. Can't ask for more than that. We also took a wonderful, and much needed trip to the temple...another thing we didn't get to do very often with kids. It was beautiful and the perfect thing to do when we had so much to be grateful for!! I honestly fell in love with Halifax in a way that I never could before!! Oh...and hello...it was the nicest weather i have ever seen in a Halifax May...absolutely perfect!! So here's some pics to sum up the trip....

rEpeNtaNce...& eVerYthiNg eLse...

OK...OK...pathetic I know. I haven't uPdAted oUr blOg in basically forever!! AND...so much has been happening since I last updated. So I have lots of catching up to do, so I'll try to do it as painlessly as possible and not bore ya (any of yous that still even check our blog...ha, ha) with too much craziness. OK...here's the quick to the point synopsis of our life for the last three months...READY, SET, GO:

•pack, pack, pack and then we packed some more

•sell, sell, sell and sell some more (we sold almost all of our furniture, crazy...but good)

•lived in a really empty house...sleeping on blow ups, boxes to hold the TV up...it was great

•lots of really sad goodbyes (miss you Halifax fam!!)

•pack a truck with what was left of our life

•for me and the kids...one last 12 hour plane ride back to Utah

•for Mark, one long 50 hour drive back to Utah...yuck

•now living with the parents...gotta love it baby...really, it's great and are parents are fabulous because they put up with us!! and hey, gotta love built in babysitters!

•we got cell phones (iPhones, that is)...can I get a YAHOO...after four years without it has been so fabulous...honestly these things are amazing and oh, so worth it!!

•looked at houses, then quickly gave up when we realized we had to be making $ to get a loan...ha, ha, imagine that...so that's on hold for awhile

•gave up on looking at cars...until we are actually making $...ha, ha...yes, we just have to laugh

•GRADUATION...we took an amazing trip to Halifax with Mark's parents for his graduation. It was so more than AWESOME, and we were pretty dang proud of that boy!!

•Mark has been setting up his associateships with Dr. Mark Mackley and Dr. Jim Jones

•insurance, insurance and more insurance to figure out

•trying to fit back in, in good ol' Utah land

•golfing...trying to get the swing back

•seeing lots of family

•Ilie got a bike...and loves it

•hangin' with the friends

•yummy Utah restaurants....oh, how I have missed you

•Cienna turned one...& we had one crazy fun swimming cupcake party (pics to come!!)

•Cici started full on walking...yeah, you go girlie!

•Ilie is making new friends (but so misses her Halifax buddies), is registered for Preschool and is going to start tumbling (I'm not use to all this big-kid stuff!)

•swimming in Papa's pool...and Ilie is finally getting daring

•NOW...Mark officially starts his first day at work tomorrow...crazy, eh? But oh, so exciting! & we're still getting settled into a new life with lots to do and lots to figure out...but it's all exciting, just add a little faith and pixie dust we'll be just fine...fingers crossed!!

OK...did you survive? I think that about covers it! I am going to post a few more blogs with pics from the graduation trip and Cici's birthday...so don't worry there will be more, cause I know you are just dying for it, right? Ha, ha...yep, I'm pretty funny. OK...I will spare you and stop now. But to the blogging buddies out there, hopefully this is the start of a new beginning and I WILL do better!!