This machine is awesome. It is so easy to use. We simply love it. Now I literally have no excuse to not to make snow cones all the time. 

I can't believe I am so behind on posting this one. But that's life, right?

When my cousin Alex and his fiancé were in town, my mom hosted another Sunday Puppy Pool Playdate. It seems like we are always splashing around with the crazy pups. 

So, in honor of school starting this week, I give you our last HOORAY in photo form:

Fun Fact: Abby HATES the pool. Poor girl. She does not appreciate the personal floatie we give her and the special attention. We even let her in the pool before opening the gate for Z. 

Because the 4th was on a Tuesday this year, the holiday weekend felt like it lasted FOREVER. 

Don't get me wrong. We had a really awesome weekend. It was busy. There was a lot of adulting happening. There was a fair amount a whining. There was a LOT of eating. 

Sounds confusing. But our town celebrated the 4th on the 1st this year. The town square (yes, we have one of those, and it is an actual square) party began in the afternoon. But we waited until after dinner to head down. 

What a spectacular week! 

We joined my husband's parents and his brother's family in the southwest for a 7-day Caravan tour of the Grand Canyon and other amazing spots. 

Thank you (again) to all of the men and women who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. We know freedom is not free. It comes at a steep cost. We do not take it for granted. 

We packed SO much fun and crazy into one weekend. It was a bit insane. Anyway, let's jump right in and recap these crazy four days. 

Reagan was going through withdrawal. She really needed her besties.

I can relate... I miss mine. But that's a whole other thing. 

So we invited her BFFs over for a sleepover. We took the girls to our (new) favorite pizza joint - Aunt Mary's. 

Well, I am so happy to report that our plants have sprouted! They have not died! Yay! 

Seriously, this is a major win for me. I literally have no idea what I am doing. 

If you missed our beginning, click here to read about how/why we started gardening. 

We will be moving our tomatoes into a bigger pot soon. Stu wants to do hanging tomato plants on the back porch. I'll let you know how that works out for us when we get it up. 

In case you were wondering, Rea's tomatoes were the first to sprout. They were followed a day or so later by the jalapeños and then the cilantro. 

Sometimes I think whoa, where did the time go? Sometimes it's holy crap, hurry up. Others I feel like I am never going to get all this done. 

You know what I am sayin'? 

Anyway, I explained my blog absence to you in the last post... It's a miracle we have all made it through that endeavor. No internet while trying to homeschool two kids is a nightmare. Good for you if you pull that off without drinking. 

Basically, April was the craziest month. I think it may have been the most insane one Stu and I have created together. My face broke out. I yelled (more than usual). I cried (in front of people). It was horrible. But all that stress was going to end... I knew it would.

My life felt like a big pot on the stove, to which I kept adding cups of stress. I kept stirring, hoping it wouldn't boil over. I have a few burns from the bubbles. But nothing major. 

All the stress was leading up to our week of closing. True, closing is stressful enough. But our week was unfortunately (for us) extra busy. Here's a quick recap:

• Easter Sunday was lovely. As you know, we spent it with my family and the pups. The StuMonsters always love it when they get to play with the dogs. 
• Monday was our walk-through. I spent the morning packing and prepping things at the frame shop. Although, I was so overwhelmed by this point, that I do not know how much help I was actually doing. 
• Tuesday morning, we closed on the house! I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around closing. It feels surreal. This place belongs to us. This is our home. We have no move-out date in sight. 
• Tuesday afternoon, I stayed at the house for a bit. I had packed up my car before closing, so I would have a load of stuff to drop off at the house. I used this time to pick up some essentials: water bottles to put in the fridge, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, trash bags. My mom brought the kids up to meet me. I thought it was important to let them open the house with the keys on the actual day we got it. 
• Wednesday was probably the most chill of the week. The kids and I spent the day at the house. They played, I cleaned. 

• Thursday was just nuts. The kids had school online in the morning. Immediately after that, Rea and I packed up. We stopped at the house (to drop more stuff off) and then continued on to Orlando. (more on this in the next post)
• While we were at Disney, Stu and my Dad were loading the truck at the shop. Quite a good amount of our stuff has been in storage for years there. 
• Friday began at the cheery hour of 3:30am. Yes, you read that correctly. Reagan, Meghan and I were off to run the Star Wars Dark Side 5K. (more on that in the next post) After racing and showering, Rea and I headed back south. Friday afternoon was packing and (lots of) chilling - Man, I was pooped. 
• Saturday was go time! Friends and family (only the best and greatest) came to the rescue. And we finished loading the truck and cars up. Since we are only about 35-40 minutes up the highway, it was not necessary to get every single belonging. Poor Mom... we left a lot of junk and a huge mess. (I'm sorry Mom.)

We moved into our new house about 2 weeks ago. Immediately after closing and getting the keys, we called to get all the usual utilities set up. This included a call to the cable and internet company. 

They told us for new construction, that had to come out and hook some things up. Ok. No worries.

They told us, because of the volume of new construction around us, it was going to be 2 weeks before they could get to us. Huh? Two weeks without internet? How are we supposed to live? 

Riley was crushed when I told him. It took the fun right out of the new house purchase (for him). And I think he probably contemplated asking if he could remain at Grammie's house for a few more weeks. 

Well, I am SO HAPPY to tell you that our time is up. We are back in the land of the living. Our zero-bars lifestyle is done! We survived! 

Truthfully, it was more of a major inconvenience than anything else. It seems our whole world requires a strong wifi signal. And our black days have probably cost us, I'm sure my cell phone data usage is outrageous. (Sorry hun... just remember you love me and the kids.) 

Huge news from our family... We bought a house!

What's up friends? I've got this cool thing to tell you about. 

Apparently there is an internet award given by bloggers to bloggers. You know, share the love, build the community kind of thing. I dig that. I love it when people support others in the same field... the world needs more builder-uppers and less selfish buttheads. 

Sorry, I was beginning to digress there. 

The award is known as The Liebster Award. And I am so happy to accept the nomination from Breeana (Momming with Grace).