Little Miss Ariel

A little pre-Halloween preview for all of the anxious family/friends out there. :)

Emma got to dress up in her Halloween costume for her preschool Halloween party/program on Thursday. She was THRILLED. I'm not kidding when I say that this child jumped up and down ALL. MORNING. LONG. in preparation for the big event. It was really cute to see how excited she was for the day.

Here she is with her BFF's in the class, Whitney and Aliyah (or ballerina and witch). :)


Dad and Grant were there, as they invited the parents to attend the "program portion" of the day, when the kids recited really darling Halloween songs.

When Grant is in preschool, I doubt Greg and I will be so pumped for all the "little things" - but as Emma is our first, we still think these things are pretty cute. Poor second children. Grant thought all of the singing and actions were HYSTERICAL and was smiling and laughing the whole time.

God bless preschool teachers around the globe. I can not imagine dealing with mass chaos every day. I'm sure glad I can pay her to do it.

Greg thought of the spray painting red hair idea. Once I was finished and Emma saw the finished product, she just looked up at me and said, "I love you Mom!". That was enough for her.

Of course, after she had to stand under the shower for a LONG time to get everything out of her hair, I don't think her heart (or mine) was full of as much love.


And our little Ariel taking a bat to the pumpkin pinata.

Just because I had these pics to put SOMEWHERE on the blog, I'm throwing them in here.

This is the Tuesday before the party all ready for preschool. A friend of mine made these DARLING Halloween bows that I bought and could not wait to put in Emma's hair. So fun having a little girl who loves having her hair done!

And at play group the week before, all the kids got to ride horses on Sharron's property.

Idiot Mom Tammy wore a skirt to play group and could not exactly "straddle" the horse. So, kind Aunt Sharron offered to take Emma around. Emma was having fun, until Sharron decided to "trot" with the horse, when Emma immediately asked to get off to let "someone else have a turn".

Love this picture of two of my favorite girls in the ENTIRE WORLD.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN tomorrow!!

(more pictures coming of Ariel's side kick Sebastian)

Goodbye Tempe, Hello Gilbert!

The day after we arrived home from Kentucky, we closed on a NEW HOME!!!

We have been searching and searching for awhile. We wanted a nice, open, one-level floor plan and we finally found one in the very North West corner of Gilbert (McQueen and Guadalupe area).

I knew pictures were a MUST. These were the original pictures that were used by the selling realtor, so please understand that it looks larger in pics because they used a wide angle lens. :)

It's nothing fancy, but we are thrilled with the open feel and neighborhood.

Life has been BONKERS these last few weeks and I'll be grateful to finally move all of our large items over to the new home THIS THURSDAY!!

We are horribly sad to leave our ward and the City of Tempe in general, but it was time for us to "graduate" from our tiny town home into a larger home (with a garage!! YEAH!!). We will be renting out our town home soon, so if you know of anyone in the market, pass our information along.



We have since knocked down that little half wall that closes off the two room, and painted everything different colors. I'll have to post more pics, once we are settled.


This will be the toy room and guest room. COME AND VISIT*!!
* - Just take your chances that my children will want to play with their toys in the morning while you are trying to sleep. hee hee.


The back yard is not huge, but it faces a golf course, so it feels more open. And HECK, it's more than the NON-EXISTENT back yard that we have now.


Of course... my favorite part of the house.
LOVE the kitchen.


We feel so blessed! Thank you interest rates and dropping home prices for making this possible!

And to top it all off.

We most certainly had not CRAMMED in enough partying in Kentucky.

No indeed.

So the NIGHT of Laura's wedding, my most wonderful and amazing SIL Corinda hosted a baby shower for my most wonderful and amazing SIL Emily. It was super fun to gather together with just the girls for a night to celebrate Chuck and Emily's upcoming peanut.

Corinda had help from Emily's wonderful mother and sister... but still Corinda (pregnant herself) really out did herself with all of the planning and preparation. I was very impressed.


Emily's sister Leah is on her left and her Mom is on her right. Such a cute family.

My cousins Annie and Rachel on the left, Jill Newell (who joined all the wedding festivities from DC because HECK YES she's part of the Krebs family) and Ashlee.

We decorated baby bibs. Another one of Corinda's amazing ideas.

Yeah for more Krebs cousins!!!

Wedded BLISS.

WE MADE IT!!!

We made it through all of that Kentucky fun and landed on the wedding day!!!

It was absolutely perfect in every way. The weather was great. Everyone arrived to the temple on time and the sealing went like clock work (touching and beautiful clockwork of course).

The luncheon was the Claudia Sanders Restaurant - which is a super HUGE piece of Kentucky history (you guessed it, wife of "the colonel Sanders") and in a gorgeous location. True blue Kentucky cookin' - and it was wonderful. At the luncheon the sibling groups all did tributes, the parents spoke for a bit, and the new Mr and Mrs Bay were on their way to their cruise to the Bahamas!









Love you Laura and Tom!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

The Raging Reception.

The wedding reception to celebrate the marriage of

TOM BAY to LAURA KREBS

was held the evening prior to the actual wedding.

And what a tremendous party it was!

The little girls LOVED getting all dolled up!

And when Laura walked into the room, it was as if they hadn't seen her in years (although they had just seen her an hour prior). And in her wedding dress, Laura suddenly took princess status with all of her nieces. It was so precious.

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots...

of family pictures ensued.

Here is the ENTIRE CLAN of adults in both families.

and the Krebs clan.
The Krebs original siblings.

The parents.
My two favorite boys in the whole wide world.

Sean and Amber Marcum family.

The Marcums with the Krebs clan.
(for those lost - Sean lived with our family as a teenager and is like a 6th brother to me.)

Jeff and Ashlee's Fam.
Matt and Corinda's Fam.

Me and the little lady. This would be what she calls her "Jasmine Face".

Don't ask. She thinks she looks beautiful with this face and who are we to question?

The love of my life. Such a handsome man, huh?


All bazillion grandkids.

The pretty princess nieces.

SISTERS!!!!
My favorite pic of the bunch.
A. You hardly EVER see Grant crying, so this is an excellent photo opp.
B. Emma faces is clearly stating, "get him away from me, NOW."


The reception was SUPER fun and I got to see lots of old friends from my Kentucky days. My Mom did a wonderful job on the food and the whole evenings was just crammed full of food, laughs, and really sore feet.

YIPPY for receptions!

A Thankful Thanksgiving.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. The last of our full blown holiday-a-days.

And with the wedding festivities ONE day away... we started to get lots and lots and lots and lots of family joining in on the fun!

The morning adventure was a bounce house, my Mom had kindly purchased discounted groupon tickets for the kids. It turned into a very rainy day in Lexington, so it was a PERFECT activity.

I LOVE this picture, because their little faces show PURE and TRUE joy.

Thank you Mr. Bounce House. I am grateful for you.





There are those forced Krebs eyes by Grant again.

He tries so hard to fit in.


We spent time writing on leaves what we were thankful for - and posted them around the back door. And spent most of the afternoon helping my Mom prepare our Thanksgiving meal.

We concluded with a HUGE legitimate Thanksgiving FEAST where the Krebs and Bay families got to reunite and enjoy celebrating the momentous occasion.

For those unaware, Tom's family lived in Kentucky for almost 5 years where my family got to know them quite well. Tom was serving his mission and attending college at the time, so he did not live in Kentucky, but it was the connection that sparked his interest in Laura.

LOVE. THIS. PICTURE. The youngest three Krebs grandboys, playing dominoes. We thought Grandma Hancock would be proud (she LOVED dominoes). She'll be even more proud when all three of them are serving missions at the same time.





It was also Jill's (Tom's Mother) Birthday - so we hung a sign up for her and made her a cake.

More festivities? Bring it on!!!