Trunk-or-treat!

We went to the trunk-or-treat last night and it was tons of fun. Our ward had a chili cook-off and so we got to try all sorts of chili and then they had a spook house and a cake walk and then trunk-or-treat outside. I found Maeli a costume at goodwill for $5 and it was the cutest thing ever! It was a little duck costume. She was so adorable waddling around with the big duck butt! It took some time to get used to but after a while she was loving the costume. When we took her out to trunk or treat it didnt take her long to catch on to the fact that everyone was giving her candy! So she was just walking up to people holding out her hands and asking for more. She was so super cute and i loved her costume this year!

Sweet memories

Our little girl is growing up too fast! It is so crazy how much she is starting to understand! She has been learning how to fold her arms for prayer and it is so cute! We havent really taught her but she has just picked up on it from watching us do it. So the other day she gets up to the table and stands on a chair. She put her sippy cup down on the table and folded her arms and started mumbling away! Then said "Amen" and took a drink from her sippy! It was the cutest thing ever and one of those moments where you are so glad that she picked up on a good habit of yours instead of a bad one :) lol!! I was so proud of her though! I truly am blessed with such a beautiful and special daughter of God. She brings so much happiness to our family and we feel overwhelmed by God's love for our family! there is nothing better than when she wraps her little arms around my neck and gives me a big sloppy kiss! Or when she runs to me with her arms stretched out calling me momma and wanting me to hold her. Being a mother is the most amazing job in the world!

Maeli also loves the water! We have been going swimming a lot at the Nampa Rec center! She is such a hoot in the water! She tries to run and swim and then almost drowns! But she giggles and splashes and it so much fun!


We also got a chance to go to Linder Farms in Meridian. It is a corn maize and a bunch of other things. It was so much fun! I know it has been a while since i have posted pics so here they are!!!

Our big girl is now sitting at the table with mike and I. We took her trey off her high chair and moved her to the table! She loves it there too!

Maeli loves her kitty! she carries her around everywhere and is always petting her and kissing her. We also have a boy kitty that is white but he doesnt let Maeli carry him around like a rag doll like the girl does. They are so funny to watch though!!

Just another Rankin life update

Not a whole lot has been going on. What can i say... we have a busy but boring life. Since my last post in July we have had our 2nd anniversary. We went camping at strawberry again with my family and have just been enjoying life. We recently got a membership to the nampa rec center so we have been going there on our free nights. We have lots of fun playing there with Maeli and just working out together. We also were given a little kid bike seat to go on the back of our bikes so we have been going on bike rides at night too. We got a minivan which has been in the shop since like the first day that we got it! lol. And we have been doing yard work. We got three trees to go in our back yard which i absolutely love!! It feels so nice back there now there is some privacy.

Maeli is growing up so fast. She is a little hoot and she is a wild thing. She gets into everything but always does it with a cute little grin that I just cant seem to get mad at. She is getting in her molars so she will have a total of 12 teeth!! Crazy! She is also a climber and so we often have to get her off the of the dining room table and out of the laundry hamper and a number of other places that she climbs into or onto and cant get down. She is sweet as ever though and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Since the obam health care thing that passed, mike has had to do a lot of extra work to get ready for this friday when it all takes effect. He will no longer be able to take more than one patient at a time so he will have to work longer days and get fewer patients taken care of. This means that he cant do home health anymore which we were enjoying the extra money from that. But it will all be okay because he will have to work longer hours so it will kinda make up a little of that extra we were taking in. We were hoping to do lots of home health to get all our debt paid off but it will just take a little longer now. Mike is doing his last class to get his bachelors degree too so he keeps plenty busy between work and school. Oh yeah... and he has season tickets to boise state games so he is always watching thier games of checking up on the other teams they will play blah blah blah..... I am getting a little sick of football and the season just started!

As for myself.... i have just been enjoying life. I have spent lots of time crafting in my craft room and have been making lot of cakes too. I have started teaching maeli scripture stories with the living scripture dvd's. We usually watch them and color a page that goes along with the story. She loved it too! She has been so into the movies and she loves to color. I am also teaching myself american sign language through library resources and online websites. I think its just so fascinating!! I also got to spend some time with Emiley and my mom and sister for the Time Out For Women thing they did her in Boise. It was SO much fun!! We got a hotel room and spent the night away from kids and our hubbys. It was a nice break and we have a lot of memories that we made from that weekend.


Well that is pretty much our lives in a nutshell. We really dont have a lot going on these days. But for some reason we always are super busy. We are still settling into our house and into our ward and neighborhood. We really do love it here in Nampa. We love that we are so close to everyone and everything and that we get to visit family so often. It is all starting to feel more like home.

P.S. Sorry i dont have many pictures lately. We first lost our camera in the move and then when i fould it i couldnt find the charger. So we finally found the charger and then we realized we didnt have the battery for the camera. But FINALLY we have all of the pieces and have been taking pics that i will get posted sometime. :)

I wrote this a little while ago and just found it. Thought i would publish it :)

Mike and I just had our second anniversary! It seems like we have been married forever! Maybe its just like that because we dated for two years before we got married so we have been together forever! Anyways... since Brittany and Adam were married on the same day 5 years before us, we had a double date to the Melting pot. They are closing in a week so we thought that we should get in before they are gone. It was a great night and we had a lot of fun. I would probably never go back there because it is so expensive for like no food but it was really a great time. Dessert was the best though! I would go back just for the dessert!

We have been settling in great here in Nampa. We love it here and we love our ward and mike loves his job. We havent been doing much but have been super busy. Dont know how that works but that just how it feels. We got a second car finally! A mini van. Not my first choice but it is practical for our family. Its in the shop right now because it broke down on us on our way back from a camping trip. LOL!!

Maeli is getting big and has learned how to open the front door. She is starting to talk a lot more although we still cant understand what she is saying. But she knows exactly what she is telling you! She is growing fast and getting a lot of hair. She is so sweet though and we just love having her around. She keeps us on our toes and entertains us well.

Right now we are taking care of a foster dog which is a lot of fun. She is a great dane and her name is Maggie. I wanted to have a chance to have a pet but mike didnt want one so we agreed to have foster pets that we can take in for a little bit and not have to pay anything for food/vet/ adoption fees and then when we start to get sick of them we just find them a new home. Its been great having her around and she is such a good dog. And Maeli loves her to death!!

We are finally feeling like we are living in our house now. We have most boxes unpacked. Feels like it is taking forever to make this house our home. But i have things up on the walls now and i feel like we are settling in just fine. We love it here but have noticed how hard and expensive it is to be a home owner. We have had many things go wrong and we have had to fix ourselves!! Its a harsh reality but we are grateful that we are blessed with such a wonderful house and friends here.

Mike is doing great at his job. I went to visit some of his patient there and they all said great things about mike. He even calls some of them his grandparents so it makes me happy that they love him so much. Mike got season tickets to Boise State games this year so he is super excited about that. He saved up and dreamed about it for a long time and its nice to have a job that he can make a little extra when he wants to pay for things like that. He deserves to have something fun like that too!

I am just loving being at home. Maeli and I get to play lots and go wander around town. I have also been making cakes here and there for people and that is a lot of fun. It gives me something to do when i want a break from house chores which seem to never end. I mean seriously... I have never had to clean a house this size and it hardly is ever clean because of that. It is a lot of work that i have a hard time keeping up with :) LOL!

So things are going good and we are adjusting to a new life here! We miss a lot of our friends from Pocatello and wish that we could still be close to them but we are starting to make friends here and we love being so close to both our families.

Im so proud!

Mike took his PTA licensing test a week ago and I was so proud of him! He passed with flying colors and is now an official licensed Physical Therapists Assistant. He amazes me with how smart he is! He graduated top of his class and has only one more class to finish his bachelors degree as well.

I could not be happier with the job that he found ( mostly because he loves it and loves working for that company)! He has so much joy and excitement going to work every day and i love to see him so happy! And it has good insurance so that is a plus too! So the good news is that we can keep our house... and our baby... and our car... and Mike gets to keep his happy wife :) LOL! I feel so blessed right now to have an income that can support our family. I am so glad that we are able to start paying back those school loans too!

Fathers Day and remodeling

We were so happy to have Heather and Justin here for the weekend helping us to do a little remodel of our home. Justin is very talented and super knowledgeable about building and so we asked them to come help put up a wall. Well we got the wall up downstairs to finish off that back bedroom and we also got the sub floors laid so that we could redo the flooring. I was so glad to have them here to help out and get this huge project done. And i was so happy to have my Heather here too! It started to pour rain one night and they were huge drops, like a flash flood, so heather and justin went out and washed thier car in the rain. It was pretty funny!!
Although we still have to lay the floors and also tape and texture the wall... i am still impressed with how much we were able to get done. And the rest i feel confident doing myself.

Since yesterday was fathers day, and I knew that we would have house guests and be super busy with the wall... i decided to give mike his fathers day gift early. Maeli and I came up with 100 reasons why we love him and we filled 100 balloons each with one of the reasons. It sure did take a long time to fill each one of those balloons... but Maeli had so much fun running around in them once we were done. She was laying down on them and rolling around. It was so funny!!! We also got him a new tool box cuz his was falling apart and a drill since we seriously needed one. I was glad that we did it early so that he could use it for helping with the wall.


So today I am left here at the house that looks more like a wood shop, trying to get some floors laid and still keep an eye on Maeli. Its a task but Im sure that we can do it!!! We are hoping to have everything done so that we can have a great weekend at my family reunion this next weekend. The best part of this whole living room remodel is that I now have a CRAFT ROOM!!! YAY!! That is what we are doing with the extra bedroom downstairs. So excited to get to work on my scrapbooking because i am way way way behind!

So here are some before, during and after pics of the wall going up. Still lots more to do but Im excited with the progress!

life in Nampa ID

it has been quite a whilr since i have given any update so i figured it was about time. we finally got into our house two weeks ago and it was sure a pain!! there were mistakes that were made that pushed it back a long time and it was hard to wait even one more day. but we made it through the last three months of waiting and finally are in our home.
it has been a headache trying to get all moved it, but slowly we are getting it all done. this next week we have a wall going up and also some floors going in so a lot of work to do. on top of that we have had a very busy schedule. we have had some of my siblings over for half a week and also have had things going on every night. mike just finished two more classes and has one left on top of taking his license test. so things have been crazy! but mike got a fun toy that makes things a little more fun. he found a great deal on a projector screen for our bonus room and we tured it into a theater room. it is so so so much fun!!
we are going to a new ward which is amazing! we love our new ward so much. there is such a great mix of younger and older family. tons of kids maelis age so she will have lots of friends. mike and i had to give a talk today in church. one lady came up to me later and said that she has had a friend investigating the church and that he really felt the spirit while we were talking. i was glad to hear that we were able to speak with the spirit. we have already made lots of friends and cant wait to get to know everyone.
we are so glad to be so close to all our family! its been great seeing them so often. and its also nice to have our own space and also start this new part of our lives!

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