Family Pictures

I can't believe it has been a whole month since my last post. How boring am I?? I find myself often thinking, "I should post about (whatever it is I am doing at the moment) on my blog", however I just have not got around to it.

We had our family pictures taken last month and I want to share some of them. I think they turned out pretty good considering that we have a 22 month old that will not stop for anything. We had to do lots and lots of coaxing. For example, "Jason if you smile really big for Sheri we will get you a sucker when we are done." It worked pretty well and we did hold up our end of the bargain. In the end, Jason got his sucker and I got some really cute family pictures. Here they are:

As for other news, we are in the process of buying yet another home. We have been very confused with what to do with ourselves and a place to live. We have thrown around several ideas and none really panned out. After looking at about 14 homes and trying to find a decent place to rent, I finally gave up and convinced myself that we would just have to tough it out in my parents basement until they move out of their home. However, last Tuesday a very cute home in Shelley came on the market!! We love the location (ironically it is on the same street our last house was), the back yard is beautiful and it is an older home that needs some work (Kim and I LOVE remodeling...crazy I know). We made an offer and they accepted. So needless to say, the fun has begun.

Kim started school on Monday and he is carrying 18 credits. He has some pretty "heavy" classes so it is probably not the time to be buying a home and wanting to do lots of updates... but what can I say? Leave it to me to add more stress into our lives!! Unfortunately, I am pretty good at it!!

Kim and I plan on taking before and after pictures of the house and I will post them so everybody can see the progress (and hopefully there will be some) as we go.

Jason is napping and I am off to finish reading my book. Have a good week!!

Howells "Mini" Reunion

This past week we had a little Howells family reunion. Kim's brother Kody and his wife Marlania (who just moved back to Idaho from Snowflake, AZ because Kody received a job at Shelley High as an Ag teacher), along with Kim's sister Shellie and her three girls Serria, McKayla, and Becca (who live in Brigham City, Ut) were in town on Monday and Tuesday. The three siblings have not been together for over two years. Monday night we had a BBQ. It was fun to be with everyone and to see Shellie and her girls. Even though we didn't get to sit and talk as much as we would have liked, it was fun for the kids to play together. Jason loved all the attenion he got from his cute cousins. Jason would follow Becca almost everywhere she went. He also would torment her by trying to pull her glasses off. He kept trying to give Becca hugs and Becca wasn't sure what to think of it. Here are a few pictures of our get together.




On Tuesday morning, we went to the Idaho Falls zoo. We had a fun time and Jason loved seeing all the animals. He also loved running up and down the inclined walk ways. It was quite a job keeping him close by but, I had lots of help thanks to his cousins.

Jason is a complete fish!! He loves the water and doesn't care how cold the water is or how wet he gets. Grandma Howells bought this Elmo sprinkler at a garage sale and it is a total hit!!

Jason is talking more and more each day. He loves to say hi and bye to almost everything that he sees. A day doesn't go by that he doesn't make me laugh and smile at the new words he has come up with. Here is a list of his new vocabulary.

• Hi


• Goodbye


• Cool car


• Wow


• Sheri


• Mooo


• Duck


• Dog


• Bird (not so clear)


• Honk


• Car


• Take


• Push


• Purse


• Nmote (remote)


• Keys


• Elbow


• Light


• TV
• Water


• Boat


• Cottage Cheese (acutally comes out Cot eeess)


• Ko Ko (Kody)


• Tal Tal (Tallie)


• Banana


• I don't know

Jason is getting old enough that he knows where Grandma Howells lives, where Aunt Lori and Uncle Kody works, that dad operates a Bobcat and Backhoe for work, where Grandma Schmitt works, etc. Anytime we are in the car and going past one of the above areas and we don't turn in, he freaks out. Yesterday we took my dad's boat to get worked on and as we came back to Shelley, we came up the off-ramp of the freeway, turned and went over the bridge. As I turned down the highway to head into Shelley, Jason started crying and when I asked him what was wrong he said, "Ori...Ori" (which means Lori). Aunt Lori's office is close to the freeway where we turned and Jason was mad that we didn't go see her. It amazes me how observent children are and how quickly they learn!!

Back in Idaho

I am having technical difficutlites with this post, so bare with me. My story log is a little backwards.

Last weekend we went to Bear Lake with my family. We had a GREAT time!! Bear Lake is probably my favorite lake in Idaho/Utah. It is SO beautiful. I love the green/blue water. I love the endless beach. I love the tan I get everytime I go. And I love how it feels like no one is around you on the lake even though there are thousands of people. I have so many great memories of our family vacations to Bear Lake. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

I am sorry I have not posted for several weeks. Things have been crazy for us. We moved back to Idaho about two weeks ago and we are enjoying the cooler weather. The ride home was crazy and I hope I do not have to do anything like that again. My parents flew in late Friday night and I picked them up at the airport around 10:30. We went back to my apartment, load a couple last minute items and we got in the car and truck and headed for Idaho. We drove through the night and all of Saturday. We arrived in Shelley about 6:30pm on Saturday. We were exhausted!! We chose to drive through the night so Jason could sleep and so that the drive would not be so hard on him. Even though I do think it was best to do it this way, it was so hard! All of us were so tired!! We slept in until about 11:00am on Sunday morning and I think it took us a couple days to catch up on our rest. I am so thankful for my parents and their willingness to help us move! If it were not for them, we would not have been able to make the drive over night.

The first week we were back, we played hard every day. Kim has not taken a break since last September (winter semester ended on Thursday April 10th, we moved to Phoenix and Kim started his job for Keiwit on Monday April 14th) so he took the week "off" and we did most everything that was on our list To Do list. We had a great time hanging out with friends and family. In one week we managed to go horse back riding, to the zoo, to some good garage sales, we attended to a Chuckars game (a little bit different than a MLB game...but still it was baseball), Kim went fishing almost everyday, we went on endless 4-wheeler rides, we played in the sprinkler, we ate delicious dutch oven food (compliments to my in-laws), etc. Here are some pictures from our week.

Jason loves the cooler weather and the freedom of running in the yard and playing in the water everyday. He also loves seeing his grandparents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. Kim loves being back as well. He is such a country boy! The big city life is not for him...which makes me wonder how in the world we got married!! I love the city life. However, I must say that I would take raising a family in the country over being in the city. There are things about the country that the city just does not offer. On the other hand, there are pleanty of things about the city that you can't get in the country. So to sum it all up, I guess it comes down to what you want most. For Kim and I, it is to raise a family in a safe and caring community.

Well you are all probably wondering where we are living. We are currently living in my parent basement and we are not sure what we are going to be doing!! Our plan was to move to Rexburg and live in the BYU-I family housing because it is so cheap...$585/month and that includes all utilites!! We put our name on a waiting list in Feburary fully expecting to get in however, we did not get in. I called and was informed that we are still on the waiting list and that we would not be able to rent from them this coming semester. LOVELY!! So we turned to plan B, live in my parents basement until Kim finishes next July. Well, we found out on Tuesday that my parents recieved an offer on their home!! See my parents house has been for sale for about a year and they took it off the market in June because they had zero bites on it (and I think they wanted to provide a place for Kim and I to stay so that we would not be on the streets). Long and behold, a family that looked at it back in April now wants to buy it. Which is great for my parents, but a little stressful for Kim and I. We are not sure what we are going to do or where we are going, but I guess time will tell.