The Dynamic DeGraws

My wonderful Sister-in-law, Carol, took our family pictures last week. It was so generous of her to give us her time. She is so talented. I love how they turned out. Are these kids good looking--or what?

 

 I sure love this man.

Carol even managed to talk us into a smoochie-face picture. I honestly think it is the first one we have had since our wedding pictures 15 years ago.

Ooooo-laaaa-laaaa!

I am having a really hard time deciding which family picture I want to put on our wall. It is going to be a pretty big picture on a pretty big wall. There are things I love about each picture. I would LOVE your input in helping me decide. Which is your favorite? Feel free to click on the pictures for a closer look. Please help me!

Picture #1

Picture #2
 

Picture #3

Picture #4




 

Halloween 2012

Lately our lives have been so preoccupied with other things (that are a lot less fun than celebrating holidays) that Halloween got a bit overlooked at our house.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so it was sad to not have our home decorated like it usually is. We did mange to carve some pumpkins, and had a great time.

This is Creed doing his "model face".  It has been hard to get any pictures of him lately that dont have this cool guy face.

The children all seemed excited about their costumes. It was so warm, they didnt even have to wear sweats under them or anything. We went trick or treating down in our "new neighborhood".  It was so fun to see all of the children that will hopefully be our new neighbors before too long.

Cameron didnt want to dress up this year. I did bribe him, earlier in the week, to try on this costume that I had bought years ago. It was funny to see it on him. It looked like a little boy costume on a big boy. Needless to say, he did not wear it for Halloween. In hindsight, I do think that he regretted not dressing up-- but not in this costume.

Kyle was  a "shade". Don't ask me what that is, because I dont know. I guess it is a mythical creature that is kind of like "death". In my day, that guy was known as the Grimm Reaper???

Kailani was a midevil princess.

Karen had planned to be a witch. She was very worried about putting her costume on by herself at school. We decided to have her wear this easy monkey costume for school, and wear the cute witch costume at night.  However, the monkey costume was so warm and cozy that it beat out the witch costume in the end, and was worn all day (and night).

Creed as a bumble bee (and his model face)

Creed's stinger!

Wishing and Hoping and PRAYING (and fasting)!

We're moving... or at least we are hoping that we are! The last week of September, we got an offer on our home. The buyer wanted to close on the 31st of October, which sent us into a bit of a panic to find a home to move into.  We looked at a half a dozen homes, and it was so discouraging.  None of them were better than our home we were leaving behind. Finally, the realtor showed us a home on the other side of town, and we knew immediately that it was the right home for us.  It was $20,000 more than we wanted to spend, but we decided to put an offer on the home anyway-- knowing that it was a long shot.  We were shocked and excited when they accepted our offer.

Immediately, we began to pack. Then, our buyers started having one issue after another. They forgot about needing money for closing costs, then they didn't get their first loan, or their second. Obviously, we were starting to sweat.  We were all heartbroken at the thought of not moving into our lovely house that we had fallen in love with.

The day after we lost our first buyer, we had 4 or 5 people contact us about their interest in our home. It was a miracle! Every time the phone rang, I couldn't believe that it was another person calling about the house.  It was exactly what I needed that day-- a reminder that Heavenly Father is mindful of us, and will take care of us.  We had a contract signed with a new buyer the very next day. 

 

We are supposed to close in the next 2-3 weeks. It has been a crazy month at our home, full of extreme emotional highs and lows.  I hope we never have to buy/sell a home again. Ever!  I think that even though this past month has been stressful, it has been a very faith promoting experience.  There have been so many prayers said on our behalf (thank you!), and many special experiences that remind me just how much Heavenly Father cares for each of us.  I know that no matter what happens, it will be Heavenly Father's will, and what is "best" for my family and me.  So far, things have gone very smoothly with this new buyer. I am hopeful that things will continue to go well, and that by the end of the month, we will be enjoying our lovely new home. 

September and October 2012

Oh boy! Things have been CrAzY busy at our house lately! More to come on that in the future...
For now, I am trying to catch up on some of the fun things that we have been doing in the past couple of months.

September was filled with getting back into the groove of children in school. I sure do miss them when they are gone all day! We did find time one weekend to sneak up to Big Springs for a picnic and a little hiking. It was gorgeous weather, and the leaves were just starting to change... beautiful! 

Johnny Sachs cabin

Near the end of September, we had the ward reunion/"camp out". It was in a little park tucked between the nature park and the gravel pits. I promised the boys that I would take them (because it could count as a scout camp out). Anyone who knows me well, knows that I AM NOT A CAMPER! Perhaps you could even classify me as an anti-camper.  However, my boys needed me-- so I agreed to go.  I figured with the entire ward there, I would have help on hand if I needed some.  Unfortunately, things didn't quite turn out as I had planned. In the end, only one other family (a father and his 2 children) camped out. The night turned out to be a real adventure (and by adventure, I mean completely sleepless, scary, and miserable).  Honestly, just thinking about it gives me creepy anxiety-ridden flashbacks. The night was filled with Kyle sleep walking and trying to escape from the tent every 40 minutes, drunk party-goers dinkin' around at the nature park, me needing to go potty in the creepy pitch-black night (more than once), worrying we were going to be killed by the "creepy homeless guy" that the boys saw hanging around earlier in the evening, and dump trucks working at the gravel pit at 4 in the morning. As soon as my cell phone said 6:00 am, I woke the boys up, packed up the tent, and got outta there ASAP! It was great fun -- lie!

Cameron 'fake sleeping'-- after he had said "Lets just go to sleep and get this over with!" Amen kid!

October was all about Harvest Break. We were lucky enough to spend the entire week down in Bountiful with my parents.  It was so fun, and a much needed get-a-way. We went shopping, and went to see Madagascar 3 with the children. We rented games and movies. Ryan and I went on a date-- dinner at Outback and we saw the new Bourne movie. One of our favorite things was going to Temple Square and to the new City Creek mall to meet my Dad for lunch.  We toured the conference center and the church office building. The most fun was going to the federal building to visit where my Dad works. We had to go through some major security to get in there.

We also went to Gardener Village to see Witch-a-palooza and to  go for a pony ride.

It was a great vacation. We didn't want it to end-- especially because it meant returning to all the craziness going on at home.  Thanks for all you did for us Mom and Dad! We love you.