Signed, Sealed, Delivered (SOLD!!)

July has been an AWESOME month and things have been pretty exciting around here.
Yesterday we signed, sealed, and sent off some of the best papers ever-today those papers were delivered, in Texas, and it is now official; our house is SOLD!!
It has been a long 2 years but we cannot deny God's hand in all of this. The whole experience has only reaffirmed our faith in the law of tithing and how much we truly are led, guided, and directed. We are where we are supposed to be, no matter the length of time. Things always work out. Everything has its season.
Now, the fun part- looking for some acres to build a house! Fortunately, we can take our time, find exactly what we're looking for and, in the mean time, save, save, save for a nice down payment. WAHOOO!

Maybe a Do-Over

The Date:

Yesterday, Sandy and I celebrated an entire decade of marriage. I'm still trying to convince myself it's been that long!

I'm also hating the fact that I can look at that picture and think, "Oh man, we look young!". As far as the day itself goes, we didn't do anything extraordinary. Sandy sent me flowers (awww!) and we went to Chili's for dinner. I have always loved Chili's. Last night's dinner, however, has turned me off of them for a while. It was a Wednesday night at 6:30 and I'm amazed that we had to wait so long for a table! No biggie. But then...the waitress. From waiting for our drinks for 15 minutes (the girl's drinks took more like 25, and yes they went with us, new town, no sitter) to her dumping our chips and salsa on the floor, to another 45 minutes for our actual dinner and waiting, in excess, for drink refills... we should have just left, honestly. They overcooked Sandy's steak and my salad (a salad took that long? really?! ARGH!) was, well, horrible. Oh well, moving on. We didn't waste our time on dessert there and opted, instead, for Coldstone. All in all that was a good choice, although, much to Sandy's dismay, they didn't have banana flavored ice cream. Got home, got the girls to bed (which, of course, took longer than usual, so no movie for us, either, haha!) and opened our gift. We also discussed the dire need of a do-over date night!

The Gift:

We have been talking for a couple of years now about going on a cruise to celebrate the 10 year mark. Last month I took action on that dream when I found a "Kids Sail Free" deal with Disney. DONE! We're going in February and can't wait! But for an immediate satisfaction gift we brainstormed a while back for what we could get each other and came up with P90X and Insanity (because we couldn't decide on one and figured when we get bored or finish with one we can switch to the other). Exercise programs. Really? OH YEAH! And I haven't been this excited about an exercise routine since my kickboxing class in Utah! We'll be doing the programs together so it's a dual purpose gift-get in shape and spend time together. I think we're off to a good start on the next decade.

Always My Baby

This is Olivia at one day old. My sweet little newborn baby, her hands are clasped together so cute!















I had Sandy take this picture last night. We were watching a movie; Livi was snuggled up with me on the couch laughing one minute and sound asleep the next. What I love is how she's holding her hands-always my baby.

The COBALT

No, it's not a Chevy, nor is it a shade of blue, or even the metal cobalt element I'm referring to...

Around here you can hear me asking what everyone wants for dinner probably more often than you would hear, "Mom, what's for dinner?". Lately, Eli has been requesting COBALTS. So, I thought I'd share a (Sandy) Lilya Family favorite-the COBALT. Basically, it's nothing but a glorified BLT, sometimes known as the California BLT due to the avocado content. Here you have it:

C-cheese
O-onion
B-bacon
A-avocado
L-lettuce
T-tomato

plus whatever bread/dressing you prefer. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the result:

It's a good thing I just ate-that sucker looks YUMM-O!!

Mondays Aren't that Bad

The girls and I have had a real treat the last 5 days; Sandy hasn't had to work AT ALL! We did "absolutely nothing" for a bit of it-that was so enjoyable-and we celebrated our Nation's Independence Day, taking advantage of Eli's hunger for learning and teaching her all about it and how it's not just about the fireworks. My parents, Sandy's brother and his friend came to see us Saturday and we got to enjoy some oh-so-good chicken, rice, baked beans, homemade salsa, pork and seeds, and some fruit pizza (I guess you could say we were celebrating all the different cultures that make up our great land). Today, Monday, was the last of those 5 days and we decided to take a drive out to Hagerman and Sandy showed us where his job site is. We let Eli explore the area a bit and we found a Killdeer nest with four eggs that she just loved to look at (Livi didn't make it the whole drive and was passed out in the truck-it's been a long weekend!). Once we got home we were invited to a formal ball. This was probably one of the highlights of the last few days and a good way to end as well. Eliana had this all planned out for our FHE. We all were supposed to wear our fanciest of formal wear, the girls with makeup and fancy hair-do's, and everyone was to be outside at 7 o'clock. What a fun time! I wish I had pictures of all of us to post but I guess I was having so much fun in the moment I didn't want to step out of it for snapshots. The four of us danced in the back yard; the girls ultimately ended up just running around, going down the slide and playing. LOVED IT! Weekends are great and Mondays aren't that bad!

Just When, Exactly, is the Fourth of July?

Just when, exactly, is the fourth of July? The answer to this question seems to be missing this year. I always thought it was obvious.

The following is the definition of Independence Day as found on Merriam-Webster.com:

"a civil holiday for the celebration of the anniversary of the beginnings of national independence; specifically : July 4 observed as a legal holiday in the United States in commemoration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776."

I would encourage everyone to brush up a bit on our Nation's history by reading the article found at the link I've provided. http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/history.html

So just when should the Fourth of July be celebrated? I guess what it comes down to is it's a personal choice for everyone, just like everything else. And how lucky we are to have that FREEDOM!! For me and my family, we will be celebrating the Fourth of July on the Fourth of July, just as we would be celebrating Christmas Day on Christmas Day, or New Years Eve on New Years Eve, if those were to fall on a Sunday. Understandably, one could argue semantics when it comes to the Sabbath Day and Christmas verses the Fourth of July. I, for one, am grateful for the opportunity afforded me to have the freedom to practice the religion I choose. It can be humbling to remember that without one we may not have the other. So, of course, it is cause for celebration!

*Updated* Thought I'd add a few of our pictures we took while celebrating.

The girls with Grandpa & Grandma Moser-
watching a few of the noisy fireworks.

One of the tanks "shot" Sandy so the girls
were making sure he was okay.

Livi with a sparkler-she has the potential to be
quite the little pyro.

While patiently waiting for it to get dark to watch the bigger stuff
Livi unexpectedly fell asleep for the rest of the night! Guess she
had her fill of excitement.

Eli and Sandy watching a fountain

More sparklers. Sandy found some that were something like 3 ft long-
pretty cool!

Sandy showing us how to work the sparklers, hahaha!