On the Road Again

So, I was pleasantly surprised to sign on here today and see that I'm only a little over 2 months behind on posts...I'm digging myself out!

The last week of July, I took the kids up to Reno for my dad's cancer surgery. Mike had to work, so it was me with the kids. I swear that my dad is a cat with 9 lives. First, he beats late-stage prostate cancer and then 7 years later he beats ureter cancer. We stayed up there for almost a week to help out and to be there for him. Then my sister, Heather, and I drove from Reno to Portland to meet up with Mike for our beach vacation to visit his family. Heather needed to get up there for a a job interview (which she got and is now living and working in Portland) and she wanted some help driving. The only way that I'd agree to drive to Portland, with 3 kids, was if we could stop in Grants Pass to visit all the O'Leary family. Reagan got to meet her 99 year old Great Grandma, her Great Aunt, and Mike's cousin + son(2nd cousin? I forget.). The kids had a blast playing with everyone and is was wonderful to see all the family. We stopped for the night there and then headed to Portland the next day to meet Grandma/pa O'Leary, Aunt Becky and cousins Everett & Natalie, and Mike at the zoo.

We're Moving On Up!!

So, back in February we decided to start looking for a house with more space. With 3 kids and only a 3 room house with only one living area, we are busting at the seams. Yes, we are still planning to move out of Vegas and still have our land up in Reno. But, since the market dove and Mike gets a lot of extra perks at work over the next couple of years, it just made more sense to delay our plans a little. We figured that Mike could take advantage of all the perks at work and let the market have some time to come around before we pack up and start over in a new town where Mike would have to find a new job and he only wants to work part-time when we move out of Vegas. Also, wit ha bigger house, Mike could work from home here. And, hopefully, by the time we move out of Vegas, Medco will let you live anywhere and work from home. So we he wouldn't have to find a new job - another bonus of staying here a little longer. So, we started house hunting. We didn't find any great deals. All the cheap buys were houses that were fully stripped. no exaggeration- one house was missing every doorknob, every heating vent cover, every bathtub, and every sink and there was no kitchen. Where the kitchen use to be, was a bunch of holes in the tiles where you could see where the cabinets and island use to be and every tile on the wall was gone=nothing. So, we started looking at resales a few weeks ago, now that the price decline in the Vegas market is starting to flatten. We found the same thing-homes that needed a lot of work. For the same money with lots of incentives since the builders are have to compete, we found a brand new home that we love! It is 3,900 sq feet with 6 bedrooms, 4 baths,a loft and an office. The best part is that the property is right next to a HUGE park. So, all we see from our back windows is green, trees, the city, and the mountains and the view can never be blocked because of the park. now, we're busy picking out all the things we want in it. Things like granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances are already included, so it has a lot of upgrades already. Construction starts on 7/20 and it takes about 4 months. so, we should be in by early December, IF all goes as planned. And, I will, once again, live in Las Vegas (no more Henderson address).

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three O'Learys in a Tub

Not much to say here, just thought the kids were playing so well together and looked so cute in the bathtub that I had to get some pics.

, Reagan "Playing House", Literally

Reagan loves to play with the dollhouse, smacking the furniture on the floors and playing with the dolls. Today she got "more into it". She kept climbing into the second shelf and lying down. She almost fell asleep in there. She laughs so hard. Devin, of course, saw that mommy was amused by this so, he started doing it too.