Jumping into June...

 My little man is crawling everywhere and standing

 The new paint job on the house

 T- ball for Aricin

 I love how they look like little bobble head dolls with the big helmet and their little bodies

 Bath time at the new apartment

 Grand Junction

 What?

 Playing at Uncle Rondo's

 The fam at Rondo's house...

 Aspen...

 Aspen has one of the coolest parks for kids right in the middle of downtown

 On the Continental Divide

 9 Months already

 8 stiches...

 Little Man's ... the best ice cream in Denver!

 Aricin at Tennis Practice

June came and went waaay to quickly. Maybe because we found ourselves moving twice within the span of a month. We are now totally moved into the apartment and it's pretty nice. It's enough space and I'm learning that a home doesn't have to be a house and what's more important is who you share it with. A week after we got all moved in we went over to Mesa. I love having family on the western slope. Palisade is one of the cutest towns ever! About an hour after we pulled in, we found ourselves hanging out in the garage behind my uncle's bike shop getting ready for a float down the river on paddle boards and kayaks. While we were in there, Aricin knocked over a big square piece of wood that had two brass ore holders on it. The whole thing fell on top of him and one of the brass pieces gouged his arm pretty good. He ended up having to get 8 stiches in his arm- Aaron took him with my uncle to the ER that my cousin works at- they got them in really quick which was great while I went to my other cousin's house in Palisade and waited with Tally and Oliver. Aricin took it pretty well and didn't complain about the wound all weekend. That night we watched a movie outside on a big screen on the back of my cousin, Hannah's house- it was so fun and the kids loved it! Did i mention family friends (Megan and Tony) just moved from Las Vegas into the house next door to my cousins. Needless to say i can't say enough good things about Palisade, it's colorado's wine country and surrounded by vineyards and peach orchards and fields of lavender. I love life there and love the family we have there- they always make us feel so loved and welcome.

On our drive back from Mesa we drove through Aspen and Aspen's freaking awesome! We only spent a couple hours walking around the downtown and letting the kids play but really I can't wait to go back. Talk about a fun place to people watch, with shops like Prada and Luis Vitton you don't get the normal ski bums you find in other mountain resort towns like Breckenridge and Vail. Aspen is way more high end and caters to way more international travelers. I can't wait to go back for a weekend. We also drove over the Continental Divide on Independence Pass which is over 12k high.

Since we've been back we've been enjoying the summer, we saw the movie Brave at the theatre and Aricin has been busy with t-ball and tennis. Next week we start swim lessons, VBS, and ballet too. Aaron and I celebrated our 8th anniversary with a special date night at a restaurant in Denver called Cuba Cuba- the food was Ah-mazing! and we both had a couple mojitos (My fav. was the pineapple mojito) after we went to Denver Beer Co. for a Gram Cracker Porter then on to Little Man's Ice Cream for some Toffee Coffee and Butterfinger Fudge Ice Cream. We went again last week and I get the Cream Fraische and Balsamic Strawberry Gelato. Mmmmmm! Oliver's been busy too! After a trip to the Apple store we learned that he fried both of the power cords to our Mac Laptops by sucking on the chargers... $130 later all is fixed- i joked with Aaron that a pacifier would have been soo much cheaper.

The kids keep us on our toes with their activities and their thoughts... yesterday at dinner we prayed and thanked God and then were talking about how in African there are kids that don't have any food. Aricin asked "Do kids in Africa still love Jesus even though he doesn't give them food?" Good Question... which rolled into a fun conversation about; if our love for Jesus is dependent on the gifts he gives us.

Things with the house have calmed down a bit... Aaron's working on finding a structural engineer to sign off on the foundation then we can move forward with the permits. Our neighbor called the zoning department for the county AGAIN a few days ago to complain. We are all in compliance with zoning and have nothing to worry about there but it still frustrates me to feel attacked. We still have yet to talk to them. As i get upset Aaron has done a great job of calming my spirit. He reminded me yesterday of a story we had heard at the Love and Respect Conference years ago... Dr. Emereson Eggerich told the story of 3 children that were out of control running up and back on a subway train disrupting the passengers. Everyone around them was upset and couldn't believe the father didn't do anything but just there. As it turns out their mother had just passed away and they had just left the hospital. When you hear that story you realize nothing has changed from your initial perceptions and yet everything has changed. Aaron reminded me that we need to have grace with our neighbors because who knows what's going on in their world that might be causing them to be angry and attack us. It's easy to want to respond in anger but what does that help?

Aaron leaves in a couple days for Scotland. I'm sooo sad to not be going with him but we can't afford it. My grandma is coming out to help me with the kids as we have a ton going on and I don't think i could manage it all by myself. We will keep you posted with how things go in July.

A Marvelous May and MORE CHANGE...

ready for the pool

Tally loves to talk on her phone and push her stroller

Dodger Game with their cousin, Lauren

Oliver at the pool

Aricin on the kick board

Tally taking the slide

snack time

tuckered out with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Bob

At the park,,,

Dodger Game... it rained the first 3 innings

 Tally's first braid

 Off to the Circus!

 COTTON CANDY !!!

 Aricin and his best friend Keegan at the Circus

 Tally was nervous for the tight rope walkers

 She had a bit of a snafu with her skirt

 Covergirl Circa 1960

 playdate at the park

 I found Oliver one day fussing because he got stuck in a basket

 last day of 3 year olds pre school for Aricin

 Miss kelly was awesome

 she often wears sunglasses inside because she's just that cool

 I froze a bunch of toys in ice blocks and the kids had fun breaking them out with rocks

May really was marvelous as you can see we kept busy. From the Circus to several trips to the zoo, to Aricin's last days of 3 year olds pre-school. We also moved into the basement and adjusted to life in a small space. We had our first bunch of visitors (Aaron's step sister) Darlene, her hubby Randy, and their two girls. We had an awesome time with Darlene and Randy and the kids played so well together. We also enjoyed being able to visit with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Bob all for Aaron's birthday. While they were here we hit a handful of breweries, Coors and Denver Beer Co. being the highlights and a Rockies/Dodgers Game. All and all it was fun fun times. And then it happened...

On June 5th we were notified that our neighbor called Douglas County and told them we had two families living in our home and it wasn't zoned for that. (He was grumpy because our tenants one day parked on the street in front of their house- a public spot by the way). In addition he told the county that we had done an addition on our walk out basement and didn't get it permitted. Awesome! (Insert Sarcasm) Thank you Mr. Grumpy neighbor for ruining what was a fun adventure living in our basement.

As a result of Mr. Grumpy neighbor we talked to the head of zoning for Douglas county... as it turns out we can have up to 5 unrelated people living in our house renting from us however since we are already a family of 5 we were told that one of the families (either our new tenants upstairs in our main house or us) had to move out in 60 days. We found all this out and were bummed to say the least. It's funny we both were pretty calm about it but more than anything felt this huge sense of loss- loss because we were both really excited about this challenge and adventure that we were taking on and this news killed that. I think we both felt bummed at the choice the neighbor made. The zoning guy said lots of people rent out their homes in Highlands Ranch and it's not really a big deal unless a grumpy neighbor complains. Gracias Neighbor Gracias. And so we called our pastor who advised us to not stress but instead just pray and to ask our friends to pray that God would work things out... That was 3 days ago and a few decisions have been made since then. Today we met with a Financial Advisor and as a result of that meeting and some prayer... Beth and Bryan are staying upstairs and will continue to rent from us for the year. We also have a new tenant moving into the Basement starting July 1st that will be renting it from us. Don't worry this is all ok with the county's zoning guidelines. So the financial advisor basically encouraged us to rent out the main house and basement for a year or two as we save money to possibly buy another house. It breaks my heart that the house we've spent 4 years renovating and making our own is now a rental but I know financially it's a wise move and if we really want to we can always move back in after a year. That leaves us... So you might be wondering where are we going to go? That's a fantastic question.... We currently have a few weeks to figure that out and move. We are praying that God will provide something that will be a good fit and are going to look at a couple places tomorrow. It's funny Aaron has asked that I try to consider holding on to our house "losely" and I think that's been really hard for me. I like our big comfortable house, like feeling like it's mine and I'm starting to realize it's not mine and not everything. I'm a little nervous and a lot hopeful to see what sort of home God opens up for us to move into. And where as before I was set on the fact that a home had to be a house i think i'm now open to other things as i'm realizing even if it's a small space you can still very much make it a home.

The other bummer is the permits that we didn't pull. (sigh) so, there is a possibility that when the inspector comes out we might have to rip out a lot of the work we've done in the basement. (ugh) With that we just need to wait and see how bad it's going to be and how much we will have to pay in fines. Thank you grumpy neighbor :) But even with the inspector and fines to come, we kind of feel like it's out of our hands and there's nothing we can do about it now. God's in control.

I think the funniest thing about all of this is that in my last blog post i shared that one of the reasons i wanted to move down here was because when life's easy i have a tendency to become more self reliant and when life is uncomfortable and challenging i tend to seek God more. I mentioned that I looked forward to the challenge of living down in the basement because it wasn't going to be easy and through the challenges God would grow us in our faith... and now this. When it all happened a few days ago, I told Aaron that I kind of asked for this :) The amount of peace we've felt through all of this has been pretty amazing. The other funny thing is... about a week ago i told Aaron "we are all moved in and we can do this, we can really do this. I wonder what by living down here God's preparing us for next." Direct quote from me and now all this happens :) And so i guess I'm still left wondering how this short and yet rich experience of living in our basement is preparing us for something else. I love looking back on times, circumstances, and situations and seeing the finger prints of God- how or why he orchestrated or allowed certain things to happen to teach us or prepare us for bigger things. How much more fun for both parties when we're actually teachable and not disgruntled and resistant.

UPDATE:
We just (on 6/9) signed paperwork for a small townhouse. It's a brand new 2 bedroom with a patio and a garage you can get to through the kitchen. The total square footage is about 1000- size wise it's pretty comprable to what we're in now. The best part about it is we're 200 yards from Aaron's school so we can remain a one car family AND the preschool that Aricin and Talia will be at in the fall is about 400 yards away. Our favorite Rec Center is across the street and so is the shopping center where i do most of my shopping. So we're hoping to revert back to our UK Urban living ways and do a lot more walking. The complex also has a theatre room with 12 leather recliner chairs and flat screen where you can go and bring your own DVD's to watch or watch TV. They have an awesome playground, Children's arts and crafts room, workout room, pool, and jacuzzi's. Oh yeah and we can have Jeremiah. We are excited that God has provided once again. The current plan is to live here for a year and then re-evaluate things as we look to decided in the next year or two if we should move back into our house or buy another property.