Update on the house!!

On Friday we closed, earlier than expected on our townhouse! We are really excited. Although, we aren't going to be moving until like the 30th it is well worth the wait. That is because we are going to do all the painting before we move all of our things in and also we are getting hardwood done on the main level and tile in all of the bathrooms!!! We are so exited. I have this little picture in my head of how I want it to look! We have ALOT of painting to do! I am finally going to be able to decorate a nursery for Phoenix!! So, that is first on my list along with giving it 2 toned paint throughout which is going to be ALOT of work! Then we will paint the kitchen. I don't know what else yet. But, I have my work cut out for me. Anyone like to paint? I would enjoy the company!
I know some of you have asked to see pictures. I will post pictures once everything is moved in, decorated and settled. Which, I won't lie will be atleast a 2-3 weeks. But, I promise I will do it!

Finally!

Finally we have a closing date! The 22nd!! Its about time! This has been a long road and we are so ready to be settled. We will be painting and cleaning before we move and then after Christmas we'll be moving in! We will be praying that everything goes smoothly!
This is LONG overdue!

Lessons in life

There are some experiences in life that happen that make us stop and think, ponder our motives and actions day to day. This week we have had the unfortunate oppurtunity to learn a valuable lesson and to have something happen that will be in our hearts and minds forever Something that makes us want to be a better person day to day.

The day before Thanksgiving Richard discovered that one of his best friend from high school had passed on. This was a huge shock to both of us. He hadn't talked to his friend in quite a while. Life just got the best of the both of them and never found the time to get together. He recently had found out that his friend had gotten involved drugs. To Richard this just didn't seem like him and he didn't believe it. It wasn't until the next day that we actually found out what had happened. This newly found addiction had overpowered him and he couldn't get a handle on it. He was becoming a person that he didn't want to be. A person he never wanted to become. He had been in rehab for the last 2 months. He wasn't making any progress. He was kicked out and headed home. A home that would have loved to have had him but only wanted him if he was clean. So, as hard as it was his wife told him that he couldn't stay. That night he took his own life.

I wish that I would have gotten to know him better. I wish that there wasn't regret for not staying in touch or for not being there for him in his time of need. Why do things like this have to happen for us to realize how precious our lives actually are and to realize how lucky we are from day to day not to have the adversary tempting us as strongly as he did to his friend. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. You can't even be certain that the one you love will come home at night. What if something were to happen? Have you told them how much they mean to you? The last time you saw or talked to them did you tell them you loved them?

It doesn't matter if we don't have a place to live. It doesn't matter even if we don't have a home for Christmas. We are lucky to have family like my sister Erin willing and able to help us with a place to live while we are "homeless" and living out of a suitcase. I feel very lucky to be have my wonderful husband and a healthy beautiful son to share my life with everyday.

As for us, we still don't have a house to live in. The home that we put an offer on in Riverton was not accepted although we offered over asking price someone offered more. We are still on the hunt. I really wanted to be able to be in a home for Christmas since I wasn't able to put up my own tree or decorate for Christmas last year but, it doesn't look like thats happening. Erin bought a condo in daybreak (South Jordan) with 3 bedrooms so, she invited us to stay there until we found a house.

Phoenix is growing up so much!! He has 2 teeth coming in and hes crawling all over the place. Although, he'd rather crawl to something and pull straight up!! Poor little guys has bumps and bruises all over his head because he likes to get into EVERYTHING and will try and pull up on everything and then let go!! I'm sorry we don't have our actual computer so we haven't been able to upload any pictures! I just have my work computer for now. But, here are some recent pictures of Phoenix from my phone.

Going Private!!

I know there are more of you that read this blog...PLEASE leave your email or email me at kerradavis@gmail.com to let me know if you want to be invited to read our blog after it goes private. Even if its 2 email addresses you and spouse, thats fine to. Just let me know you read so that I can invite you!!

Soon life will be back to normal..............

Fingers crossed that soon everything in our lives will be back to normal. What exactly this so called normal is I have no idea because it has been a long time since we have seen it! I want to say we haven't actually seen normal since July of 2007......O well, soon enough things will be back to normal and we will stay put for atleast a couple of years. Thats because, we are buying a house in Riverton that we are pretty excited about. We don't have a closing date yet but, it will be hopefully the beginning of December. I know those of you that have helped us move this past year 4 times will be happy for this final more permanent move! :) But until then we are living out of suitcases and we have everything we own besides our clothes in storage! We even have our computer in storage the only computer we have to use is our work computers. I have recent pictures but, I can't upload them because of the lack of computer and we can't do it on the work computers. However, last month i did upload a couple pictures of Phoenix on to the internet that I will post. But, other than that we don't have anything else. Thats really all thats going on with us, we are just trying to get back to a normal life!! Phoenix is getting so big!! He will turn 7 months old on the 19th. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! Recently we had his 6 month appointment. He weighs 22 pounds and is 28 1/2 inches long! He is in the 97th percentile for those of you who knows what that means. Who knows where he got his size from because it wasn't from me!! He seems to grow more and more every day!!













He is bigger now than he was in this picture. He is also about to start crawling. (We think our life is crazy now....I know it will get even better when he starts crawling!!) Phoenix gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth but he just can't figure it out!! Poor little guy gets so frustrated with himself because he can't seem to get it down!! He is so close, as soon as he figures it out I know he will be all over the place and it won't be long after that he will start walking. He is a strong little boy and he has already been pulling himself up. He also stands up for a while with us only holding only one hand!!

As for Halloween, Richard and I were Audrey Raines and Jack Bauer from the show 24 and Phoenix was a little Tiger. Luckily I uploaded a picture of Richard and I onto the internet....





Phoenix was a Tiger (I didn't upload a picture of him in his costume so, I will steal a picture of him from a friends blog. Hope thats ok :) ) This is Phoenix and his little bat friend!
Thanks for reading, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Soon things will get back to normal!! We have decided to take our blog private. Please leave a comment with your email address if you would like to still read this blog. Sorry for those of you that don't like this idea but, it is something I have been thinking about for a while. If you don't want to leave a comment just send me an email kerradavis@gmail.com and let me know you would like to be invited to read. Anyone is welcome to read the blog. Just let me know.

Happy Birthday Pop.

On Thursday we silently celebrated what would have been Pop's 81st Birthday. Maybe not many of you know that Pop (My Grandpa that has lived with my family almost the whole time we have lived in Utah) passed away this summer on July 7th. I have been wanting to post about this for a while but, haven't gotten up the courage to actually do it. So, I figured what better time to do it than on his 81st birthday. I have very fond memories of my dear grandpa. For those of you that knew him know that he was one of the kindest, sweetest caring person you knew. I am so grateful for the time that I lived at my parents because of the time I was able to spend with him. Many days of my pregnancy Pop and I were there just us two. We ate lunch together, talked, watched TV, did the laundry and even started dinner for the family together. In some ways I think that it was meant to be for us to live there the time that we did only because of that. Any other way I would not have been able to spend as much time with him as I did. Every Christmas my mom and Erin and I always do alot of baking. This year we also did a Gingerbread house. I asked Pop if he would help me decorate it. Little did I know that it would be the last time we spent Christmas together. As I entered my 9th month of pregnancy he went into the ER with what we all thought was routine. For the last little bit of his life his heart was only operating at a little over 10% and every couple months would go into the hospital because he wasn't getting enough oxygen. He was diagnosed with Pnemonia and was admitted to the ICU. The beginning of April while Richard and I rushed to the hospital with what I thought was my water breaking my parents also did the same only to be by pop's side as he took a turn for the worse. The last couple months of his precious life were spent what some might call in a "vegetable" state. Thats not what I call it though because, sometimes he was there with us and other times I like to think he was on the other side teaching Phoenix. I am sad that they never met in this life but, I know they did on the other side. I miss him so much but, I know that one day we will be together again and that will be such a wonderful occasion. I will strive to live my life in a way so that will be possible. However, until then I know that he is by my side every day. Happy Birthday Pop, I love you.

And for the 4th time in one year.........

We will be moving. I guess its no excuse to not post on our blog but, we have been working diligently to try and find a place to move. We have to be out of the place we are currently in by October 31st. The beginning of the month while Richard was at work I got a knock at the door. There was a couple there that said, hi we are ____ we are the new owners of this home. Much to our suprise because we had signed a year lease and our landlord hadn't told us that he was selling the house. Basically to make a long story short, they told us that we needed to move. We have had nothing but problems from this house, and it just keeps getting better. Luckily we have the oppurtunity to buy. We are thinking about a townhouse at Daybreak but, nothing is confirmed yet. We will see....Since I last posted we have had alot of things happen that are....worthy of posting. O well, I need someone to bug me when I don't update in a while so I will actually do it!!
On Sept 23rd Richard and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary. I can't believe it has already been 3 years. Time goes by so quickly. We went to the cheescake factory. O man is that place good!!! I got a new cell phone and Richard decided he wanted to not get a gift in order to save up and get a really big one for Christmas. Richard also brought these flowers home. Does any one recognize them? They are the same ones that we had in our wedding.

I think it has been about 2 months since I posted anything about Phoenix. He has started eating big boy food and loves it. In fact, he would love if he could just eat our food instead of his own. He will turn 6 months old on Sunday and is almost the size of a toddler. We haven't had his 6 month yet but, he is almost 22 pounds.
He loves it when I take off his clothes and let him feed himself.
We were a Costco a few weeks ago and Richard decided this rug for his bedroom would be cute since we are doing an animal theme. Phoenix seems to like it.
Last month we had stake temple day in our new stake. Erin and I decided that it would be fun to go do baptisms on her day off because she had never been to the Salt Lake Temple. We got in so quickly, they weren't even busy at all. She took this picture and a few days later we saw one for sale that was the exact same for like $300!!On Saturday and Sunday we celebrated Erin's 20th Birthday!!! She decided she wanted to go to Teppanyaki. Great choice!!! I also let her decide what type of dessert she wanted me to make. I made this delicious Chocolate Chip Bundt cake with cream cheese frosting. It replicates one that Nothing Bundt Cakes has in their store in Sandy except I did the frosting a little different.

Doesn't that make you just salivate!! MMMMM YUMMY. Don't worry he didn't eat to much paper!!

And on a finale note, here is Phoenix right after he has woken up from a nap! Bed head and all!

Sorry its been so long. I hope I didn't bore you with to many pictures!!

Thoughts that make you ponder

Ever since we moved into this new house I have yet to actually be able to finish unpacking or do all the stuff I would like to in order to get the house in a condition that is pleasing to me. I don't know, somehow being a mother seems to take all of the time you ever used to have for yourself and in between those times you somehow have to manage getting dressed, brushing your hair and eating. Which most of the time doesn't happen until 11am. Either way, my house is still not unpacked and in my opinion a constant mess. Thats ok though because the only thing that matters right now is spending this precious time with my son. I will always be able to clean my house later or unpack those darn boxes later but I will never have Phoenix as a little baby again for the rest of his life. He is already growing up way to fast. Someone else explained this a little better than I did.
In M Russell Ballard's conference talk in April 2008 he quoted
"Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).
I hope I can remember to always cherish this time with not only Richard and Phoenix but also my future children. Often it seems that time goes by so slowly when you are a child but once you become an adult all that time just flies right by. I really love the talk given by President Ballard and I hope that along with a song by Trace Adkins that I love will help me remember to live in the moment.

Where has the time gone?

I hope to always love, cherish, teach, listen to and have patience with my precious little baby and future children so one day they will look back on their childhood with great memories.

Everything else can be done later.

Growing, Growing, Growing!!!

So, Phoenix had his 4 month appointment yesterday!!! I can't believe out little baby is already 4 months old!! However, he is not so little! He is in the 99th percentile for weight and 97th for his height. For those of you that don't know what that means, (and someone correct me if i'm wrong) I believe this means that he weighs more than 99% of all other babies and is taller than 97% of all other babies!! Don't ask me where he gets his height from......Neither Richard or I are very tall.

Has he passed Brynlee yet Felisha?!

In the next couple of days after we get his high chair we will be starting to feed him some rice cereal and then soon after that some fruits and veges!! Its so exciting. I don't know how will handle it but it will be fun to see! I will be for sure to take some pictures and post!!


We took a small walk around the neighborhood on Sunday night. Here are a few pictures from that

Our first Sunday in our new ward!!

All of you know how much courage it takes after you move to go to a new ward. Well, yesterday we took our first oppurtunity to attend our ward for the first time since we have moved to Holladay. I normally work on Sunday from 5am until 11am. Well yesterday I was able to get someone to pick up my shift for a couple hours so we were on time for church at 9am. I can't remember the last time we walked into church on time but, for some reason yesterday we managed to get ourselves and Phoenix ready in time. As we walked into the building at 8:58am we headed towards to the Chapel, only to notice everyone in the chapel is standing. As we walk in and try and find a seat we look up on the stand only to see our dear Prophet President Thomas S Monson. Otherwise known as "Tom" to the other ward members. We were told that President Monson lived 5 doors down from us and we see his security cars drive by our house all day everyday but we never expected he would show up to our ward our first Sunday there. Needless to say I was happy we were on time. Its actually quite a small ward and it wasn't to unusual for everyone there that he had shown up. He does live in the house and hasn't moved downtown as many may think. Normally when he comes to the ward he shows up a little late and sits in the back and then leaves right after the meeting. Well this time the ward was given a treat because he was on the stand and would be the concluding speaker. It was so amazing to be able to see a prophet just a few rows away from you and in such a small setting. Afterwards we headed off to Sunday school. Well not to long after we sat down in Sunday school Phoenix started fussing because he was tired. So, I took him out to try and get him to sleep. Well it was my lucky day because President Monson was just walking up and down the halls talking to the straglers that hadn't gone to class yet. He passed by me 3 or 4 times just making small talk and asking why it was that mothers were able to get their babies to sleep so easily and it was so difficult for the fathers. And that God only knows why that is. He is such a sweet man, he has so much on his shoulders and just walked up and down those halls like he had all the time in the world. Talking to 3 little girls and sang a song to one of them about the color of her shirt being tangerine. The bishop walked by and started talking to him saying oh i'm just flirting with the ladies here. Did you know there was a song about the color of her shirt called tangerine?
Anyway, none of this really matters. It just shows how cool it was to be able to see President Monson on that level just as a normal person. What a unique oppurtunity to not only be able to meet him but to be in his home ward. The ward that he attends when he has no where else to attend on Sundays. The people in this ward are so nice. People just came up to us and introduced themselves. I have never been in a ward that people just do that. By Relief Society everyone the woman conducting knew my name before I even stood up. There was also a little ward social last night that we decided to go to for about 20 minutes and so many people that we have never met already knew our names. I have never been to such a wonderful ward. I am excited to meet some new people and know the people living around me so that I feel comfortable at nights or during the day when I am by myself with Phoenix. (as if President Monson's security cars driving around the block every hour didn't already do that.)
Anyway, that was our day yesterday. Hope this wasn't to long for you all to enjoy. Hope you all have a great week!!

We need some advice.

We need some advice or ideas of what we should do.

So we got moved into our new place on Friday and are so happy to be in our own place. Except now we find ourselves experiencing a new kind of dilemma... Mold... Has anyone had any experience with mold in their homes? We have a utility closet in the basement that has a clogged drain with a pool surrounding the drain and mold growing in the pool. Our landlord is telling me that all homes have mold in them but mold like this? I can understand mold from your bathroom like mildew or something similar or even the mold on the bread in your kitchen. But mold growing in your basement? We decided that we'd get a mold detection kit and see what the results were. Here is a picture of the peetree dish. The results of the mold test. Any ideas of what we should do?

Richard had an idea!

It happens alot! Take a look at his newest thoughts and ideas on the new blog!

Lets Celebrate!!!!

After 10 very long awaited months we are finally moving!! For those of you that knew, since October we have been living with my parents. It helped us alot since I wasn't able to work much while I was pregnant .We are finally moving on Friday night and Saturday. We are moving to a house in Holladay not far from Richard's grandparents.

Attack of the manly colors to our blog.

For the time being, Richard has chosen the colors on our blog. He says they were to girly. We will let him get his way, this time.

In the Summer time!!!

There has been alot going on this summer with our family I just thought I would make one big post of lots of pictures and let you all know whats going on. Even though everyone knows I suck at updating this I will still apologize. I need someone to remind me!! Anyway, here goes. (BTW this blog was put together by both Richard and Kerra. I'm sure you can all figure out which ones I wrote and which ones Richard put in)


In the summer time when the weather is high you can stretch right up and touch the sky, when the weather's right you got swimmin you got swimmin on your mind. Have a drink have a drive go out and see what you can find...

When I was probably around 8 years old or so my second dad Dale built this go cart for us it was lots of fun, until a year later he crashed it for us. Don't worry though Jon has fixed it and has now got it doing faster than ever at 45mph in the neighborhood.


Richard has been having some fun learning how to drive this motorcycle around the neighborhood. This isn't his, but he would love to buy one! Too bad his wife isn't to thrilled about the idea.

Motorcycles are too much fun... Too much because they make me want to go into debt to get one...

Dale with Phoenix.



One night a little over a month ago we bundled up little Phoenix and Richard and I went outside and watched Just like Heaven on the trampoline!! I remember the days that we used to sleep outside on the tramp during the summer. For some reason though I don't think if I did it again it would be as fun as it used to be. Either way, it was fun to just get a ton of blankets and watch a movie under the stars.






During the second week in June we took a trip to Florida and Georgia. It was quite the adventure. Since I work for Jetblue and fly for free we like to go to the airports that Jetblue flies to. So, in order to get to Destin, FL we had to fly into New Orleans (via New York and Las Vegas) and drive 5 hours to Destin. We stayed there from Thursday till Sunday and had lots of fun going to the beach and the pool. Then on Sunday we headed out to Georgia. Which was supposed to be 3 hours away but took 7. Who knows why?!?! We spent from Sunday until Friday there visited friends and showed Richard where i grew up. I'm pretty sure we all probably gained 10 pounds from all of the greasy southern food we ate! It was really fun and I'm glad Richard was able to see everything that I always talk to him about. I think we will make it a yearly trip to go down there. Waffle House

While we were there we took some cute family pictures (which I haven't gotten back yet), we went to this huge Water park called White Water that we used to get Season passes to when I was little. Richard's brother has recently moved to Atlanta and he took us out late one night (ok it was only ten but thats late to me now) downtown to eat and see the city. All in all it was really fun. Then when we headed home we had to drive 3 1/2 hours to Charlotte to catch a Jetblue flight to JFK. When the flight was pretty close to sold out from JFK to Salt Lake we ended up going from New York to San Diego and then home. Needless to say it was a LOOOOONG day! But, Phoenix was such a good little baby. I can't believe how well behaved he was on all those plane and car rides.
So thats pretty much our summer so far. Before its over we plan on moving, have another family reunion and going on another vacation to see Chelsie and Jared one weekend in Miami.

As for Phoenix, he is getting so big. I'm sure you can see from the pictures. Its amazing how you can love someone so much thats so little and our love for him seems to grow more and more everyday. We are so blessed to have such a good baby that is in my opinion one of the cutest babies I have ever seen, but I know I am biased.
I think this picture speaks for itself. Phoenix is already in size 2 diapers and has been 3-6 month clothes for a few weeks.

Our happy family.

A couple weeks ago we took Phoenix to church for the first time.
Phoenix will be 7 weeks old on Saturday and is getting big so fast. He has quite the personality. In the past week he has started smiling so much. I know I am biased but I think he is one of the best looking babies I have ever see. We will be having Phoenix' blessing on June 28th at 6pm. We have decided to make it more special and sacred we would have it outside of sacrament and share it with only people that we knew. It will either be in Holladay at Richard's grandparents house or at their ward building. Anyone that is interested in coming is more than welcome, just let us know.
















On Wednesday we are heading to Fort Walton Beach Florida. It is in the pan handle on the Gulf of Mexico. I am so excited to take a vacation and go to the beach. Last year we went to Orlando and we were so busy every day with parks that we didn't have much time to just relax. We just decided last week that we are going, it will be fun to take Phoenix to the beach.
Growing up in Georgia we went to Florida alot and I really miss it. Last year was Richard's first time in the south, I think he secretly really loves it and wants to move there. I would really love to live in the south again. I am very much still a southern girl so I am glad I have the opportunity to go back. We will report when we get back!! We love all of you, thank you for being our friends even though with Phoenix here we probably really suck as friends. I hope you can forgive us, slowly things are getting back to normal and we are getting used to being parents so hopefully we can start being sociable again.

He has eyes!!!!!!

So the past few days we have discovered that our little boy indeed does have eyes, we were told it would happen and.......it did!!! I swear the kid is going through a growth spurt as he is eating every 2 1/2-3 hours!!
So, last week I was not feeling very good so, I went to bed early. I woke up at 3am to thisRichard had Phoenix last Thursday night while we were watching our weekly thursday shows and he had fallen asleep on him like normal. Well on a typical night when we are ready to go to bed I will get Phoenix ready for bed and change his diaper and by that time he is normally hungry. On this night I went to bed pretty early and then woke up at 3 am and looked in Phoenix's bassinet to find.......no baby there. I look over on the couch to see this. So I wake them up and asked Richard why he was sleeping on the couch and he told me that he knew I didn't feel good so he just didn't move and slowly layed down on the couch trying to keep Phoenix from waking up so that I could sleep. What a good daddy!!
A couple days later Richard got him dressed for the day.
Today Phoenix discovered he likes to be held and nothing else while he is awake. Today he was awake from 7:30 am until about noon and didn't have any interest in being in his bouncer or playing with his toys on the floor. He only wanted me to be right by him while he was playing or holding him. I never knew it would be so hard to actually put some clothes on or take a 5 minute shower. Finally I got in the shower and ate for the first time today at 12:30 but not after I acomplished this.......That said, I love being a mother and can't imagine our lives without him.

Never too early...

So I am a firm believer that you are never too young to start certain things. Potty training for example... will begin in four months. No I'm not getting ahead of myself, I just think that starting little Phoenix in some of these life altering events will be good for him. Which is why Kerra and I took him golfing on Saturday with his auntie Erin and golf extraordinaire Trevor! No he didn't golf, but he and mommy enjoyed the sporadic bursts of sunshine on Utah's finest $7 Par 3 course!
Yeah, you can't really see his face, but he's loving life out on the green's. Coincidentally it was Erin's first time golfing too! I probably wasn't the best teacher but by the last hole she made it to the green before I did so good job Erin!
In fact I think she birdied this hole... no wait, this is the one where her "expert" coach told her to aim just to the right of the hole to compensate for the break... I was way off but others might claim that I was trying to make her miss to improve my own score... I deny such accusations...
And here's Kerra and Phoenix chillin in the cart. I think Kerra would have had more fun if the golf cart went faster, was a convertible and had speakers so she could listen to music. Should I put this on your wish list babe?

Next first for baby? I'm thinking a shooting trip out to the west desert... want in?

Whatcha talkin bout Willis.

Oh the things you learn about while you are home all day with a sleeping baby. Y0u would think that the only thing to watch at 2 in the afternoon is soaps right? Oh no, divorce court comes on at 2pm. Yesterday and today on Divorce court they aired parts 1 and 2 of Gary Coleman vs Shannon Price. Gary and Shannon met on the set of Church ball and started dating. They have been married for 7 months and are now on divorce court to try and resolve their differences. There is a 28 year difference between Gary and Shannon.

How old do you think Barbara Walters is? Late 60's early 70's right? Oh no, I found out today that Barbara Walters will be 80 years old next year!!! That is nuts!! This morning on The View they showed some really young pictures of her, she is really pretty. I can't find the ones they showed but, I did find something that will work. She has aged very well. I wonder really how much work she has had done?!??!
Who knew you could find out so many interesting things with free time.