Floor pics

Here are a few pics of the flooring(before and after pics) we had installed..I'm happy with our choices. The house looks so much better now! We put in handscraped hardwoods in the entry, formal dining and halls. We also replaced all of the carpet. We also put in travertine versailles patterned tile in the master bathroom.

Before pics(with their furniture before we bought home) Entry was tile as well as the hallways. Old skool.

The formal dining was carpet(what the?)

Master bath was carpeted halfway(what the whatty?) and the remainder was tile.

Here are a few after pics(this is before we cleaned and moved our stuff in, looks even better now) And I know these aren't the best comparative pics. Joey took these while the guys were kinda in the middle of stuff and not completely done. I'll take better pics soon and post pics of the whole house once we get more settled in. But for now, these will have to do :)

If you look at the pic right before this one and then look at the pic below, you can see the difference in carpet. The one below was taken a couple of days later after carpet installation. Its so so soft!



Moved In!

No pics to post but we are officially out of that dang blasted apartment and in our new place! We moved in last Tuesday, the 17th. The floors were finally finished and look amazing-yea! And we are so thankful we hired people this time around to move us...so worth the money. It was a much easier move and so much less stress than the move to the apartment. So we are in, unpacking like mad, Joey has been putting beds together, furniture together, moving things, spraying wasps nests, building play structures. I've been kinda helping... :) Not much longer until baby comes so this is hard on me and my achy body but I'm trying! We love it here already and have had many neighbors come over to welcome us. One family even brought us dinner(And brownies! They know the way to my heart...) This summer has been crazy but I know all of this work will be worth it in the end. So we are moved in..now we just gotta go have a baby in like 3 weeks:)

Owen Family Reunion

We were able to attend the 1st ever Owen Family Reunion(this is Joey's mom's side of the family) in Tulsa, Oklahoma one weekend in July. It was fun to see the other side of the family and meet people we have never met before. And we even got reunion t-shirts(I've never had that before, so that excited me:)We had lots of great food and the kids were able to enjoy the nearby park and splash pad. And as you can see from the sweaty red-faced pics, thank goodness there was a splash pad nearby. It was soooo hot! The water was very very refreshing after being in the heat. I even played in it :) Thanks to those that coordinated this reunion and fed us all!

12 years with my very best friend

On July 6th, Joey and I celebrated 12 years of marriage. They have truly been 12 wonderful years. I love this man more than I can ever say. He is a better person than me and I don't feel like I deserve him most of the time..I'm a mess sometimes! Okay, most women are, right, right? :) I am very blessed to have found him thirteen years ago. He is seriously the bestest friend I've ever had and takes care of me in a way that every woman deserves to be taken care of. I'm so lucky. I've been thinking about the past "dozen" years..its crazy how much life has changed in those years. We started off just the two of us and we are now totally outnumbered:) I still can't believe we are about to be the parents of FIVE. Crazy! We love these kids more than life itself and we love each other. Its a good life. I'm not claiming a perfect marriage, there are of course ups and downs but we work at it and I think we are a great team that can do anything together. We have so many wonderful memories and so many fun times to look back on over the past twelve years. And this year is a big year of changes: a new home and a new little one. So exciting! This past year has been trying in certain ways but its brought us all together too. There is no one I'd rather face lifes challenges and enjoy the sweetest moments in life with than my Joey. I'm looking forward to more wonderful memories with my man and my fam. Happy Anniversary Joey. I luv u!!!!!!!

Ok, I'm lame. We didn't get a picture of us together on our anniversary. But I do have a picture of me on our date:) We went to our city's cute little downtown and enjoyed an Italian meal at Sauce on the Square and dessert at this little cafe called Spoons. We hadn't had dinner on the square together or anywhere downtown together before so we decided before we made the move to a new city to finally go. It was a fun evening together, just him and I. And check out that chicken parmesan. It was ginormous! Like bigger than my head.

July 4th!

We had a fun 4th of July with family and friends! My aunt Cindy came and spent the day with us. We took the girls to see Brave(cute movie!) and made a special 4th of July cake. The outside of the cake doesn't look spectacular(I'm no cake decorator thats for sure!) but the inside was pretty dang rad. I swirled three different colors of cake batter and the kids thought it was neat to have a red, white and blue cake. We also headed out to our city's firework show with a group of friends and had a great time hanging out and watching the show. I almost died walking to and from the car, but I survived :) It was a long walk and really hot outside for this 8 month pregnant chick. I'm surprised I didn't go into labor! Hahaha, I'm such a wimp.

I love this holiday and the opportunity we have to celebrate living in the best nation in the world. We are so blessed to be American! Now to replace this president.... ;) Romney 2012!! Sorry, had to throw that out there, hehe.

Its ours!

We officially closed on our new home Friday, June 30th! We are having to be patient though...we decided to have the floors redone before move in. And with the type of floors we are having put in(the handscraped hardwoods take forever to install!) we are having to wait about two weeks to move in. Its killin me! But I know it will be easier this way, just gotta have patience. I figure I've been patient this long, I can handle two more weeks! We did a lease back for the sellers so they had that weekend to move out..so we actually went to the house for the first time Sunday night as "our house" just to walk around, let the kids play in the backyard, etc. It was so fun! And so exciting. While the house was right out nasty(What is wrong with people? I don't see how people can live in such filth. Judgmental, yes, sorry I'm being mean..but geesh! At least make the house a little bit liveable before move out...) anyways, off that rant...it was still so exciting. We can't wait to make it our own and fix it up. And the kids just had so much fun running around, playing on their new playset, bumping their volleyballs back and forth. Ammon kicked a ball around the yard and played on his little car. These were things we could never do in our old yard. The yard alone on this house was something that really drew us in. A whole acre. Its fantastic! There was a moment while the kids were so happy and playing that Joey and I just looked at each other and smiled and felt like, this is home. We are so blessed and so grateful to have found this home. We plan on staying here, well, forever. Here are pics from that wonderful evening...Joey carrying a pregnant lady across the threshold(a tradition:)..the girls excited for their new rooms(and yes some painting is in order..and as you can see Aubrey is very excited to have her very own room finally)..and some backyard fun...

Summer camps

This summer, because of two moves and me being whalishly pregnant, oh and the fact that we did Disneyworld in the winter, we kept things lowkey. No big trips or big fun things. We've mainly been packing & unpacking. We've swam at the apartment pool and luckily have friends that invite us to their pool or to splash pads/parks/over for playdates or lunch with them which saved us. I don't know what I would've done without those invites that got us out of this little apartment(so thank you to these wonderful galpals that helped me survive!!!). And honestly, even the cute little park across from our apartments that we thought would be nice to have so close became a place to avoid after the incident with Cali. I just have bad vibes from that place so much that every time we drive up to the apartment and I look over there, I get flashes of the accident happening all over again and it makes me sick :( So fun. Can't wait to get out of here.

So, anyways, back to the topic:) I decided to let Aubrey & Ella each pick out a sport camp(Cali did swim lessons). So Ella did a basketball camp one week and then a couple of weeks later Aubrey did a volleyball camp. I felt good I was able to get them out and doing something fun, while getting lots of exercise too. And they had lots of fun! Ella's coach, who is the head varsity coach for the girls basketball team in the area we are buying our new home told me she was the best, a good little player that has really great form in shooting. Yea Ella:) While the other kids just chuck it, she takes her time and makes beauitful shots. I thought that was a pretty awesome compliment coming from her. And then Aubrey won player of the day one of the four days she was there(out of lots of kids!!!). And during a scrimmage type of game she hit her first spike over the net in game play ever. And I was there and saw it. So proud! Everyone was impressed. She was smiling so big! Me too:) I was so proud of them both.

Farewell my Activity Days girls :(

I've had the calling as an Activity Days leader in my ward for the past three years. It has been my all time favorite calling, especially with such a wonderful group of girls(they were seriously awesome) and getting to share in the experience with my older daughters. Its been so fun! The last activity we had was a pool party at my partner, Chrissy's, home(she has a beautiful salt water pool!). When I arrived with Aubrey & Ella, I saw that Chrissy had bought cupcakes and written "We'll miss you Duenas family" on them, so she turned it into a little farewell for us which was so sweet. It was a fun bittersweet activity. Lots of the girls gave me hugs, even some gave me sweet thoughtful gifts. It was the perfect way to end things. I left feeling sad, but happy for the opportunity I had over the past three years to teach them and share in many fun memories with them. I'll love you girls and never forget you!

We love this guy

I married a fantastic guy, its no secret:) These kids have the best dang daddy in the world. We did lots of things on Father's Day to let him know how awesome he is. We woke up early and made crepes for breakfast(thats his fave), completely with all the "healthy" toppings like nutella, whip cream, chocolate syrup and strawberry syrup. Oh, and of course fruit: bananas, strawberries and blackberries. They were yum! All the kids helped in some way. The kids decorated the apartment in their usual amazing signage methods. Its always so fun to wake up to that. And we bought him a new nerf gun(he got to shop and get himself something real too:) For dinner, I made one of his favorite meals-Zuppa Toscana(potato sausage soup) with hiney rolls(thats what we've been calling them for fun:) But our more appropriate name for them is chef hats. We love you and think the world of you Joey. Thanks for being such a wonderful caring sweet father to our children. They are so blessed to have you in their life. You spend every extra minute you can with them and do so many memory making activities with them. They adore you. I couldn't have picked a better guy. I'll love you forever and ever and ever! Thanks for everything you do for us. xoxoxoXOXOXO



CC visit: part 2

We had a great time at Nana & Tata's house! We were welcomed with a delicious Chamorro style meal: ribs, rice and pancit, yummm! Baby liked...:) We also did some fun things with not only them but Joey's sisters family too. We went to funtrackers where the kids rode go-carts(Cali's first time!), a mini roller coaster and also did bumper boats. We also had lunch there and icees which of course the kids are nuts about. We also visited the beach where I got to watch my man surf(I love that I married a surfer..so sexy:) and watch the kids jump over waves, build sandcastles, bury themselves and do all of those traditional fun beachy things with their cousins. Cali and Shelby have really bonded and I love watching them together. They were always holding hands-two peas in a pod. Thanks everyone for a wonderful time and great memories! We miss you!