Moving, Christmas, and our new "baby"

Sorry for the millions of pictures but we finally are getting settled and got our computer hooked up so it's time for catch up...We've been getting our house ready to sell so that meant lots of cleaning and packing. Then we decided it would be impossible to keep clean (and I knew Zach's surprise birthday present may pose a problem if it lived in a house that needed to be ready for show at any time) so we decided to just finish packing up and move into the "old" house. We are now living next door to my parents in their rental which is a house built in 1907 originally lived in by my great (great?) grandma, later by my family while we were building my parents house (two bedrooms and we had 7 people living in it!) and then an aunt and uncle, and also 4 out of 6 of my parents kids. It's definitely "charming." We are loving living so close to my parents, especially Caid! While we've been packing, Caidence has been finding all kinds of new places to play and hide to keep herself entertained.

We tore out a wall in the old house and discovered the original wallpaper.Watching "Finding Nemo" for one of about 30 times in the last week. She is constantly asking for Memo!Merry Christmas! Christmas was so much fun this year now that Caid kindof gets what is going on. She was so excited to find out that all those presents that had been sitting under the tree for the last few weeks actually had something inside! Opening Christmas eve jammies...

Santa brought her a kitchen and it's been a huge hit!

And finally for Zach's big birthday surprise!! Yes I know I'm crazy, moving into a new house, baby on the way, starting school again...but I did it anyways. The opportunity was too good to pass up and this is Zach's dream dog. He was shocked that I actually got him a great dane. Meet our new baby Franklin. He is only 7 months old and already 100 pounds. Gorgeous though! The first day home he had a few accidents in the house, but he's adjusted well and is such a great dog. Caidence doesn't mind him anymore and he loves her, all he has to do is follow her around and he gets food!

Hmmm, they are both on the floor and the dog gets the couch?

Taking a Breather

We have our first showing today so we've spent the last week packing and scrubbing every square inch of our house. We've since decided we will be officially moving everything out this weekend and start living in our new home because there is no way I am cleaning like this before every showing and you've got to be crazy to think I'm keeping a two year old in such a spotless house after all the help I've had from everyone this last week. Thanks again!! We're sad to leave all of our Foxboro neighbors but we're excited to move on to this next stage in our crazy lives!

New Beginnings

A lot has happened since Thanksgiving. The economy has hit the Rideout household. I've been working for my father in law for the past 2+ years as a secretary for Iggys. He owned 3 stores from the franchise. Unfortunately location/economy were not on our side. The weekend of Thanksgiving he decided it was time to close them. That next week Zachs two brothers that were living in Idaho running them moved back to Salt Lake. I am finishing up packing the office and finalizing paperwork this week. The first week was very emotional and stressful. But things are starting to look up. His brothers have job interviews that look very promising. His parents are still in the process of figuring out their situation. As for us, we are making all kinds of changes. We have decided to put our house up for sale, move into my parents rental, and finish school. Zach is so close but has been so busy, but now that we won't be paying a mortgage, its a good excuse to fit it in and hopefully finish in the next little bit. I've always wanted to go into nursing and now I can pursue that. I am going to try and get my CNA starting in January and get that out of the way before the baby comes in March, and then work maybe 2 nights a week. I've got my pharmacy tech license, my cosmetology license, why not add another to the list? Then I can do school at my own speed and still be home with my little girls...or so is the plan this week. We think this just may be the kick in the butt we need to pursue our dreams! And if anyone's looking to move to North Salt Lake, have we got the home for you! :)

Crossing our Fingers

I gave up on asking Caid if she wants to go on the big girl potty. Then one day she came in, took her pants off, tried ripping her diaper off, and asked if she could go potty. I'll sit her on it for a couple of minutes, then she'll grab toilet paper and say "all done." We do this everyday now. She still has yet to go on the potty but at least she enjoys the process!

Life

Its about time I update, but this week has been one of the most stressful, emotional, hectic, crazy weeks ever so until we can finally get our heads wrapped around it, I'll just leave you with a picture of the one little girl that can always make me smile. Yep, she's really enjoying that bowl of cereal.

Quick trip to the store?

Last night we needed to run to the store to grab some mouse killer before we picked Zach up from work. We had only been home from work for about an hour so I couldn't believe I'd already lost the keys. I searched everywhere, and finally found them, tucked back in the corner, in the ignition of Caid's toys.

Once I finally had the keys in hand, I tried to put a coat on my stubborn little girl. The coat she'd been wearing all day wasn't good enough, and she refused to put it on. So I finally let her pick which one she wanted, which she of course had to accesorize with a hat and princess slippers. Yes, I took her out in public looking just like this.

EEEEWWWWW!!!!

This little guy has been hanging around our house lately. Every time I see him I end up screaming and jumping up on the counter. We've put out decon, but he's eaten it all and still alive and kicking (don't try and tell me we have multiple, which could be the case, but I don't even want to think about that!) Any ideas on how to get rid of my little pest?

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

That's right, we were there opening night! We decided if we were going to be crazy enough to stay up til 4 am for a movie, then we were going to dress for it so we all wore our "Team Edward/Team Jacob" shirts. :) But since we couldn't pick a side, we decided on just regular New Moon shirts to show our support.We went to dinner before. Pretty sure everyone thought we were drinking. We were laughing so hard we were crying, that late nothing makes sense so everything is funny. When they finally kicked us out for closing time, we headed to the mayhem of hundreds of screaming girls (and surprisingly quite a few men got roped into going.)

(Melissa, Angie, Lindsay, Kalee, Me)

I really did enjoy the movie, of course not as good as the book, but still had a great night!

Creme Brulee French Toast

1/2 C. butter or margarine
1 C. packed brown sugar
2 Tbps. corn syrup
5 large eggs
1 1/2 C. half and half
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Bread, to cover the butter mixture ( I used 6 slices)

In a saucepan, melt butter, brown sugar & corn syrup. Pour into a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Arrange bread pieces on top. Beat together eggs, half & half, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour egg mixture over the top of the bread. Cover and chill overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning, bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

I got this recipe from a friend and decided to try it this weekend. We were up at the cabin with a bunch of friends so I made them be my guinea pigs. It turned out delicious and was so easy!

Back to normal

Caid has been sick for a week. Just ended up being a cold but it completely wiped her out. Like cuddling in the rocking chair for 5 hours at a time. But she was extremely whiny and ornery as well. She's finally feeling better today. In the hour she's been up from her nap, she's been to time out twice (for throwing food), stole my Dr. Pepper and finished it off, and found a huge knife to cut her waisens (raisens) in half, which followed with another tantrum when I took it away. Sure is nice to have my baby back to normal.

October Overload

I love Fall. I love Halloween and all the parties that go along with it. We had our fair share of fun and I decided to wait til I had all my pictures at once so here it is in one big bang...

Carving Pumpkins

It's amazing the things I can convince Zach to do now that I have back up. Caid is very convincing. Although she didn't want to touch the gross pumpkin guts, she had fun watching. And apparently she can't pull a normal face when getting her picture taken. Quite the cheeser!

Pumpkin Patch and Haunted Woods

Picking out her pumpkinShe loved all the monsters, can't you tell?!

Caid and Grandma

Crazy sisters

Eldredge Party

My parents had their annual Halloween party, dinner, costumes, games, and the Haunted Forest. Lots of fun!!Alex wouldn't dress up so Kalee had to model his costume, Swine FluThen she put on her real costume. Brielle screamed, Caid wouldn't go near her, but once she started talking and Caid could hear that it was her, she loved it. Dr, nurse, and patient

Hannah Montana dance party, even Grandma was doing the ho-down.She was dancing right along with everyone else, until she saw me with the camera and had to stop to cheese it up

Annual Halloween Parade

I haven't missed the elementary Halloween parade since I started Kindergarten! I love it! After I was out of school, I went to my sisters, then moved on to my nieces and nephews. My Halloweeen isn't complete until I've been to the parade, which, yes, is basically the same every year. Caid dressed up as Tinkerbell and loved her "soft pretty" as she called it. Brielle as Snow White

And my nephews who were "overly excited" to have to walk around for pictures from their embarassing aunt, grandparents, and mom

Payton as Wolfman and Strider as a ninja? That's why I have girls. I'm sure this isn't just any ninja but I'm not up on all the superheroes.