good heck!

i keep trying to catch up... and end up getting farther behind! so i'm going to post something current and then finish posting past events when time permits!

derek's been so busy studying for the bar exam. i'm really glad we live in st. george. i actually was not excited about living here for the summer... it's just stressful living with other people, no matter how fabulous your in-laws are!!! but i've been a single mother this summer and it's been nice to have other family and friends around for me and the kids to go play with while derek's trapped in the library all day!

last week i started feeling anxious that we hadn't found a place to live in kingman yet. we thought about buying, but decided renting would be better for awhile. we want to get to know the area and derek's job before we take on a mortgage! anyway, i decided to take a trip down to kingman and look at rentals and hope. all weekend i was online and on the phone with property management companies getting a list of houses to go look at. i conned my sister-in-law, jen, to come with me, and we went just for the day. i had picked 8 houses from a list online that a property management company had sent me. we went to that office and my list went from 8 to 1 in about 5 seconds because all of the houses i wanted to see had recently been rented. we were about to leave with the the key to one house when another lady walked in and said there was a house they hadn't listed yet. it was a little out of my price range, but i decided to go see it just for fun. this house was awesome. the cleanest place i had ever see. the owner has it cleaned every 2 weeks when it's empty to keep it dust free etc.! anyway, it had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, big closests and the family room and kitchen were huge. anyway, i really liked it. so jen and i went and looked at about 10 other houses... pretty much the only thing available in our price range and nothing was even close to the first house... and really, nothing else was even livable. it was just sad. there were a lot of nice rentals available, but they were too expensive. to i decided to make an offer on the first house for an amount that was in our price range... $2oo less than what the owner was asking, $100 under our rent limit. i took the offer/application into the office at 2:30pm and the lady who worked there told me she'd call me when she got the owner's answer. i was freaking out. it was our only option, but if the owner didn't accept the offer i didn't know where we were going to live. jen and i were starving so we went to eat and i kept asking her if we should just go home or drive around kingman and wait for her to call back. we went to a couple other management companies and kept seeing more and more crappy houses. i was dying waiting for the lady to call back, and kept wondering if we should just go home. at 4:40pm she finally called back and the owner had countered $100 more than my offer... which was in the limit of our rent amount!!!! and the owner usually doesn't let the house be held for longer than 5 days and he was willing to hold it until august for us. i was so excited! so they needed me to get a $50 money order for the background check etc... so we ran to walmart to get one. the other 2 times i've gone to kingman i've been too scared to go into walmart. i couldn't handle finding out the only place to shop in kingman was nasty. well, we had to go there so i walked in AND IT IS THE NICEST WALMART I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! ha ha ha ha ha seriously... my day couldn't have been better! i just feel so blessed that i was able to find a good place for us to live. i know i had help finding this place and i'm so thankful. i called my mom to tell her and she said, "things always turn out the way they are supposed to, but we acted surprised every time." it's so true! i'm just so happy, and i'm not dreading moving to kingman anymore... which is a fabulous feeling.

Derek & James

Everywhere we go people always comment on our 4 girls. Then they ask if we are going to try to get Derek a boy! My knee-jerk response is always, "HECK NO!" (In the past week or so I've started warming up to the idea... don't know why??? FREAK!) Anyway, the point of this story is we have a nephew, James, and he is Derek's surrogate son for now! Anyone who knows Derek's family always tells James he looks like his Uncle Derek. Katleyn and James have been best buddies since birth, and really, they could be twins. Anyway, James had a golf tourney and Derek went to cheer him on and be his scorekeeper. It was cute, they were matching and they didn't do it on purpose!

Happy Father's Day

It is getting silly how far behind I am on this dumb blog! Oh well, better late than never, right?!
Everyone came to The Oliversons for Father's Day. It was the same weekend as Katelyn's baptism, so I was lucky to have my mom and dad there that day too. It was beautiful weather, so we spent the evening outside visiting and playing musical chairs! Derek is the best dad. He is definitely a kid at heart, and the kids love playing with him. Everything's always more fun when Derek's involved!

Just a simple game of musical chairs...
Derek is a tad competive... and if you think he takes it easy on the kids you're kidding yourself!
In the end it was Derek and Taylor. EVERYONE was cheering for Taylor, and Derek was screaming like a girl everytime he ran around the chair. It was hilarious!
At the last second Derek, with his cat-like-reflexes, slipped between Taylor and the chair...
making Taylor fall to the ground and Derek won the game. All the kids rushed Derek and tackled him.

June 19th -- Katelyn's Baptism Day!

Katelyn and her cousin, Allysah were baptised on the same day. Allysah was supposed to be baptised the first weekend in June, but when we decided to move earlier Allysah decided to wait so they could be baptised together. It was a great day!It was amazing watching Derek baptize Katelyn! She was so happy!! In her journal she wrote that she was so happy and hyper!!

I can't believe this is my family!! I'm one lucky woman!!

Justin, Allysah, Derek, and Katelyn right before the meeting started!

This is right after the baptism was over. This is Katelyn's good friend Jaxon. It was his idea to bring her flowers. How Sweet!! It looks like a wedding picture, and I pointed that out to Katelyn and she couldn't stop laughing!

My great friend, and Jaxon's mom, Jessica!

Katelyn Grace modeling her dress!!

Katelyn and cousin, Taylor! (katelyn is taylor's mini-me)

Grandma & Grandpa Sully traveled from Kentucky. Look closely at Katelyn's face... she was still very hyper!! ha ha

I was trying to get Katie to smile NORMAL so I told her to say "I'm perfect now!" and this is the pose she struck while saying that!!

Jeff, Nina, L and Katie

My girls are starting to look so old! When did this happen?!?!

Katelyn and Allysah in their pretty dresses.

Derek told them to stike a pose.

Then he was acting like it was a photo shoot and said, "give me a tiger!"

fter the baptism we went into the cultural hall and had treats. (Thank you Shanna for getting that organized and making it so nice!) Alexis was chowing on a rice krispy treat. She still can't roll over, but she can put the food away!! ha ha

Grandma & Grandpa Sully again! (looks like a cruise pic!)

Samantha was definately enjoying the treats!

Katelyn and Jordyn

I meant to get pictures with all the kids and Grandma & Grandpa O. It was just a little crazy. If anyone has more pics of that night please pass them on!!

Annie & Alexis (june 11th... crack of dawn)

Annie LOVES Alexis. (sometimes a little too helpful with her!) Annie loves to get her out of bed, and out of her highchair. She loves to hold her and play with her. Annie's really good at finding Lexis's "banky" too. (binky!!)

Our 2 beautiful blued eyed girls!!

Katelyn Turned 8 on June 8th

Derek had a lunch date with his new boss on June 8th, and we wanted some time to "get to know" Kingman. We went down June 7th, spent the night and then spent the day in Kingman until the afternoon. Then we booked it back to St. George for Katelyn's birthday party. This is the rockin' awesome bridge that is being build over the canyon by the Hoover Dam. When it's done it will be a 4 lane highway that bypasses the dam... instead of a 2 lane road that is so packed with dam traffic that it takes an hour just to drive over it. I seriously can't wait for it to be finished. I won't be the first to drive over it though!!!
My sweet Katelyn Grace. 8 YEARS OLD!!! Her cousin, Taylor, curled her hair all cute. Katie also went out to lunch and clothes shopping with her Grandma O. And her Aunt Jen took her and a bunch of kids to see the movie "UP". Then we had her birthday party at a splash park with family. We ate Lil' Ceasars pizza and Costco cupcakes!! This was a year of me being basically absent for all my kids' birthdays. Thanks to Derek's family for making Katie's day a great one!

Katelyn's cousin, Jordyn, made her this candy bouquet. (it's july 1st and i'm still cleaning up jolly rancher wrappers!)

Katelyn really, really, really wanted a game called "Apples to Apples" for her birthday. Her Grandma Sully got it for her and she was super excited!

Katie got the traditional 8 year old gift of scriptures with her name engraved on them.

Her Aunt Shanna got her a pretty white flower to wear in her hair on her baptism day (and some other flower clips).

Derek and I also got Katelyn a really pretty white dress to wear at her baptism. This was when she saw it for the first time. (You can see the dress in an upcoming post!)

Katelyn was being a chicken and not wanting to get wet. So I threw her over my shoulder and ran her through the fountains!!! It was prety hot, so it felt good to get wet!!

Katie was still eating her cupcake, so...

When I picked her up to take her in the water again she shoved it in my face!! I had frosting EVERYWHERE!

Katelyn... I love you! I can't believe how grown up you are!!