Baby Update

Momma and babies were able to come home yesterday. Nikki's is still hurting a little but not as much. She was able to come home to welcome home signs, a wonderfully clean home and everything set up and ready to go for the babies. the kids are excited to have their mom and new brothers home. In fact things really calmed down after she got home. The two youngest boys happily played outside while the two oldest watched TV or just did their own thing. Nikki and the babies have been resting most of the time, worn out by all that has been going on. We are excited to have them safely back at their house.We're also ready to start a new adventure with our cute brand new little nephews.

Bundles of Joy

This weekend has been a hustle and bustle of excitement, confusion, planning and organizing. We got a call at 3:00AM from Nikki and Justin telling us the babies are on their way. For those of you who don't know me, I am not a morning person and people have a hard time waking me up. Well all i remember is James waking me up and saying goodbye, I didn't know why, and since it was only about 2 hours since I fell asleep I didn't really care...till I woke up. Once I figured out what was going on I showered and after waiting for my clothes to dry int he dryer, was out the door to Nikki and Justin's house to help out. I found out that Nikki and Justin got to the hospital around 3:40AM Baby A was sitting to high up so they got Nikki prepped and ready for a c-section. On May 22 at 6:55AM Parker John Wardell was born 6lbs 11oz , then at 7:00AM Andrew Joesph Wardell was born weighing 6lbs 9oz. The oz may be wrong, but I think that's what was said. Momma and babies are doing great. Nikki says she prefers actually giving birth than having a c-section. Sunday night we took Gavin with us, Ethan and Abby went with Mom A. while Nathan stayed with his dad. We did that so Justin could go see Nikki at the hospital or get some stuff done while the little ones where away and the older ones were at school. I was exhausted Monday and feeling kinda sick from the fatigue, so I took Monday off to rest and help out where I could. It has been fun being able to help and I predict it'll be even more fun when Nikki and the babies are home and we can help with the feeding and the changing and stuff. We are super excited to have these little boys here. Oh and yes they are identical. here are some pictures of the sweet new little ones. Parker John

Andrew JoesphI love this picture. so cute!

CONGRATULATIONS Again to the Wardell Family!!!! :)

Andy Andrews - Hernando Cortez & Burn the Boats

Love this!

Life is about to get interesting...

Last Fall Semester, James and I had a survey of art history class together that was phenomenal. We really loved it. Close to the end of the semester, the professor told the class to follow our dreams and never settle. He said don't let security keep you from your dreams. Well this really stuck with us. For the past few month James has REALLY been struggling with his job and he's had an itch that he couldn't quite put a finger on. Our friend gave us Andy Andrews CD to listen to. In this CD, he told the story of Hernando Cortez and everything that he did to go get this Aztec treasure. He said that Cortez gathered all his men around and the men thought this was his last big motivational speak before they go to war to get this treasure. He said that Cortex leaned in and told them to burn the boats. He said if we're going home, we're going to go home on their boats. That plus what Professor Gough said kinda came together. We've been pondering these two things and talking about them for awhile. James cant get his bachelors working a full time job and going to school part time. There's to many classes that are to demanding. He's getting his pre-med done so he can go to school to become a PA (physicians assistant). All these things has been something that we have thought about, talked about, prayed about and such. Well James officially put in his letter of resignation. We are a little scared he's been looking for jobs for about a month now and hasn't gotten anything and it's going to be hard to live off my part time paycheck. but we feel very confident in our decision. We are excited to see James graduate with his Associate in medical assisting next April and continue with his pre-med at Weber. He is currently going to both Weber State University and LDS Business College. We are still looking for a part time job for James. We feel like now is the time to do this. We don't have any kids, and no real other responsibility really than our home. So James is doing it, he's living his dream and going to school full time. :) I am proud of him and know he can do it. To all my Friends and Family in Salt Lake, this also means that we wont be able to drive down to Salt Lake as much as we have been and I apologize for that. Also it means back to public transportation for me. :) which I actually really like, cause I can sleep on the way in, do my homework, or just relax and read a book. :) Well here we go into the unknown and running head first. Wish us luck.

Graduation and Annie

This past weekend I decided to take some time off so a short "vacation". So I took Friday and Monday off. On Friday my niece Lexi graduated from the University of Utah with 2 bachelor degrees. We went over to my sisters house for a celebration. All my siblings and most of their family were there with exception to my brother who's in the Philippines. It was so good to visit with everyone and to celebration Lexi's big accomplishment with her. She's an inspiration to me! I now have hope that school does eventually end. :p The rest of the weekend was just nice and relaxing, which was a nice change from the business that is our life usually. Monday we had tickets to go to my niece Abby's play Annie. She played Tessa (or Tessie...I cant remember), one of the orphan girls. She did such a great job. She really looked like she was in her element. During the song "Fully Dressed" when the orphan's sing it, she had a small solo where she started out the rest of the girls singing. This was actually one of the funnest moments of the play, because as soon as she started to sing I heard quite a few exclamation around me. People couldn't believe that such a strong voice came out of such a little body. I admit I kinda swelled with pride inside and thought "Yeah, she's my niece." :) If your looking for a fun date/family night. Annie plays at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse till June 4. It's a fun , affordable way to see a really great play and have a nice night out.

What We've Been Up To

*******WARNING!*********

This post contains A LOT of pictures!

For a long time, James and I have kinda tolerated our house. It just didn't feel like home to us or like it was ours. It just felt like a place where we lived...like an apartment. Couple year's back I painted the living room which helped for awhile. But because of the dark red color I choose it soon started to feel more like a dark cave then pretty colorful walls. The carpet was put in the house when it was built...in the 80's. So as you can imagine it's gross. :) James and I have been talking and planning on if we ever had the money, how would we change it and what we would want to do with it. We did try a couple times but never had the money to finish. On the south wall of our living room lay beautiful hardwood floors, but only covered about a foot of our floor. loose pieces of extra kitchen tile we found in our basement covered the entry way where we no longer had carpet. It stayed like this for a good 2 years or more. Last year James and I both started school and with that we thought we would get a good couple hundred dollars out of tax's or at least wouldn't have to pay the close to $1000 that we had to last year. Well when we went to our tax lady, we got to see how much it pays to go to school. We got a large chunk of money back from our tax's, I'm not going to tell you how much. But lets just say it was enough to pay off a debt and then some. After we payed off the debt we tossed around a few ideas. But the biggest idea that kept coming back to us was the house. So we took it and ran with it. :) so for the past couple months, every weekend and some weekdays has been devoted to working on our house. We aren't done yet, we are still working on finishing the basement. But we've been so excited about our "new" house that I wanted to share. It's so nice to come home and feel like we're home and to have this fresh, clean, sunny, happy feeling in the home now. :) We even had enough to make a few splurges. We would love to invite you all to come and see the new look, but till then here are some pictures. :) I forgot to take a picture of the house before we started moving stuff out. So these are old pictures to kinda give ya an idea of how things looked before. CarpetFor some reason this picture was flipped funny.One of our splurges so we could get rid of that big, bulky armorer.My new craft room/office. :)

Picture of finished downstairs...at 6:45 in the morning. :p. I took it right before I went to work. Well that's it. Hopefully in the next month I'll be able to post our basement. :)