I'm alive, I promise

This past month (over a month, really) have just flown by. I feel like I have no time for anything, let alone blogging. Even taking pictures has come to a dramatic halt and if you know me, you know that's a BIG deal. I am going to play a little catch up with this post as much as I can. I have two rather big pieces of news to share first though. First, Ed is officially deploying. He got his orders last week. We knew he was going to deploy but I always have a glimmer of hope that something will change up until the time he gets his orders. Well, he got them so now I have no hope left, he'll be out of here in a month, heading to Afghanistan for yet another year. I am so ready for deployment #3 to be over with. My second piece of news, we're moving! The lease to our house is up at the end of the month and we were planning on resigning it, until the owners decided they are moving back in. Just great. I just feel like it's bad timing for all of this to happen with Ed leaving so soon. We have SO much to do in such a little amount of time. Thankfully we found a house we love just as much, 700 square feet bigger, and it's only 3 houses down from where we live now. We have been slowly moving in but today Ed and our friend Brian are moving all the big furniture so we should be actually living in the new house by this weekend. Pictures of our new home to come!

Now for some events that have taken place over the past month.

In the beginning of April Ed had an RC race. Layla and I always go with him (well, not to tomorrow's race, I have a yard sale to attend) and cheer him on. I always say how stupid his hobby is, jokingly of course, but when he's the one out there racing I get so into it. Layla has lots of fun too and usually meets a friend or two to play with. This particular race Ed competed in two different events. I am probably going to mess this up but I believe they were electric and nitro. He did AMAZING! He was winning the nitro race by a ton but then something on his car broke that prevented him from racing anymore so he was disqualified. The poor guy was so upset. When it was time to compete in the electric race, he was neck and neck with another guy for first place. One wrong move would have put Ed into second place and what do you know, he crashed his car, putting him in second. He still did really well though, Layla and I were super proud! This next picture makes me smile. Margaux and I had a girl's night one night (Melting Pot, our FAVORITE) and we had Ed watch all 5 kids. When we came home Ed was sleeping on the couch with the 3 girls, it was so sweet. Ed's parents also came to visit! Ed took leave and told them to come up for the two weeks he was off so they could spend some time with Ed and Layla (I had to work the entire time, boo). We picked them up at the Denver airport and Layla was so excited to see them. It had been way too long. We did a lot of fun stuff together too, I just wish my stupid camera battery hadn't died on me while we were doing them. We went to the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings. I have always wanted to go, it sounded so neat and it was! These pictures really don't do it justice, it was beautiful and they had tons of cute little gift shops every where that we spent lots of time and money at. While I was at work one day, Ed, his parents, and Layla all went to the zoo. I really need to get season passes to this place. I have a feeling this summer we'll be there A LOT! It's so much fun and just a really good zoo, plus, who doesn't want to feed giraffes? So awesome! With Ed's parents here, that also meant date nights for Ed and I! We went out a couple of times and it was much needed, especially right before a deployment. It's so great to have adult time every now and then. And of course our great friends had to come along too! We had a blast! Ed bought a new car! Well not a new car, an old car he is going to fix up. He's already made a lot of progress on it, it's going to look amazing once it's all finished. Stayed tuned for lots of updates on it, well, once he returns from Afghanistan anyway. I can't forget to mention Easter and what a fun one it was! I had taken all kinds of adorable pictures of Layla painting her Easter eggs and playing in the snow (yes, it was snowing on Easter) but I accidentally deleted all of them. I was sick to my stomach after I made that mistake, ugh! The Easter bunny really loves Layla though, he can't seem to stop buying things for her basket! Layla loved searching around the house for all of her eggs but had even more fun finding her basket and tearing it apart. After Easter bunny activities were complete, Ed, Layla, and I headed to the movies to watch Rio. It was such a cute movie, we really enjoyed it. And later that night our friends the Achee's came over for some dinner and egg hunting. Not just your normal eggs, however, they were the ones filled with confetti. The kids collected as many as they could and then started chasing each other around the garage (remember, it was snowing outside) breaking them on each other and our heads. They had so much fun, it was fun watching them.

And... I think that's about it. I am sure I am missing a lot of small things to share but those are the main events! I am going to do my best to keep up with this darn blog more once we are settled in our new house. Until then, our heads are going to be spinning with stress so be patient. I hope everyone had a happy April and are starting off May just as good.