Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas! 

Oh my goodness, I could hardly sleep all night for fear our 'surprise' in the basement would wake up the kids!  Nathan and I had wrapped a box big enough for him to fit into and the plan was that when the kids got up, Nathan would go down and get him, put him in the box and bring it upstairs saying he found a present.  Well he had to take him outside and the kids were dying with anticipation because, CHRISTMAS!  They had no idea the surprise that awaited them...

And that's it.  I recorded the cutest video of them opening the box and all simultaneously jumping back because there was something ALIVE inside, but then they were all in disbelief.  It was priceless, seriously, I think it will live on as one of my most favorite memories ever.

Very soon after we welcomed our new puppy, he gave us the first gift of Christmas...

This is going to be awesome.

The kids all loved their gifts, but the other real highlight of Christmas was this gem...

As Bryson would say, "big time..."

The kids pretty much decided to name the puppy Sir Knight, I'm adding Rider to it, so his official name is Sir Knight Rider *grin*  We'll just call him Knight.  He came along with us to Perry and Sandy's for dinner Christmas night and naturally, everyone loved him- he's so so so sweet!  I'm sure I'll feel differently in the months to come as he learns to not give us his 'gifts' in the house...

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Our Christmas tree died last year.  We had nursed it along for a few seasons, but after last year (and with an impending move) we just tossed our old artificial tree.  We kinda meant to buy one at 1000% off after the season but then we had an offer on our house and it all just happened.

Obviously this season has been a little less than traditional what with finishing a house and moving in 17 days before Christmas and all... and we couldn't quite justify the cost of a new tree, especially since we have 25 acres of REAL trees.  We've never had a real tree, so this was the perfect year to start, right?!?

The first Sunday in our house, we hiked up the mountain to find us the perfect tree...

It was pretty cold, but the kids were excited!

Hailee, seeing an opportunity to use some tools, brought her own saw along...

The cold weather may have hampered my desire for the perfect tree... suddenly all of them looked perfect, let's just pick one and go back inside!

Hailee got right to work:

And oh my gosh, I can NOT believe that I don't have a picture of us in front of the decorated tree!  This is as good as it gets this year people!  The tree ended up being far from perfect.  Lopsided and bare in all the wrong places.  But add some lights and decoration and whalah, it was the most beautifulest tree ever... at least to the kids *grin* Then it fell over and broke most of my crystal ornaments.  Twice. *sob*

~~update April 2015~~

Pretty sure that stinking tree brought spiders in my house!  We had the house sprayed for all sorts of creepy crawlies twice while we were building, so there is no other explanation for the abundance of spiders we have... especially since they're focused in the family room.  Ew.

He's on His Way!

Our puppy was all the way in Seattle, and because Dayna is awesome and loves puppies and is so excited about us getting a puppy, they drove all the way to Seattle to pick him up for us!  They may or may not have already had a trip planned *grin*  Still, it was way out of their way and I owe them big time!

Here's some pic's she's sent me:

Isn't he adorable?!?  I'm just dying for the kids to meet him!

What we've been up to

We're in!!

 

We still have lots to do, but we are officially in, so who cares *wink*

 

We moved in without kitchen, family room or dining room flooring.  Since we were installing the floor ourselves and our movers were concerned about making it up the driveway with their moving truck if it was snowy, we moved in at the first opportunity.  Monday, Decemeber 8th!  It was awesome and crazy and busy.  Thank goodness we had movers- they were amazing!

 

It was convenient to be able to put the kids to bed and then stay up til the wee hours of the morning installing flooring without worrying about the kids at my parents.  It really was kinda fun once we got the hang of it, just killer on our knees and backs- lots of respect for sub contractors of all types after this process for sure!  If they weren't asleep, mostly the kids did a lot of this while we worked:

 

And then we got the TV installed and the floor was done enough that we could move the couches into the family room, so they did a lot of this:

 

So upon the course of installing the floor, we used all sorts of tools that Hailee would also "use"- she was all sorts of busy, generally finding things that mimicked our tools since our were obviously occupied.  We were using permanent markers to mark the planks where they needed to be cut... and so Hailee made some marks of her own...

Seriously?!?  The house isn't even finished and we've already got graphiti...  She's never done anything like that before, so I figured it was a one time occurrance.

 

Nope.

 

A week later she struck again!

And with a lot more vengance.  Luckily I had just found my large supply of magic erasers.

 

Hailee grew impatient waiting for me to unpack her room, so, naturally:



Ugh.

 

 

Merry Christmas!

An impromptu Santa picture- as evidenced by the utter lack of coordination amongst my kids *wink*

I really wanted to have just the kids in the picture with Santa, but Jace was having none of it.

I was pretty surprised that Hailee sat on his lap...

Little Builders

Hailee and Jace getting some solid lessons from Darrel-

He explained all about what he was doing and they were a very captive audience *grin*

 

We're moving in very very soon- like next-week soon!!

Shhhhh!

Don't tell the kids, but I have an amazing surprise for them for Christmas!

It's an Airedale Terrier and he'll be ready the week of Christmas!

November in Review

Every once in a while, I get carried away and straighten her hair...

She just doesn't even look the same!

Hailee as a clone trooper:

Eli's friend had a birthday party we all crashed...

Bryson is playing on a Y team with some kids from school...

So far they haven't won a single game, (not even close...) but they keep super good attitudes and have fun!

I saw this displayed in the hallway at school...

"I want to accomPlish goals this year.  Hear are 2 classroom goals.  I don't want to get a minor infractions.  And Learn Multiplication.  My to home goals.  Do Jobs without bieng asked.  And no fighting with brother or siter!  I hope I will accomplish these goals!"

Way to set your sights high buddy!

Finishing Up!

Wow, it's all happening very fast now, it's incredibly exhausting!

My parents are just amazing.  Seriously.  Since once upon a time they owned and operated a professional painting business, they did the bulk of paining inside and out...

First, priming of course...

The boys were very excited to get to help paint their clothes and shoes.  I figured the laundry room would be a perfect place for them to "learn" *wink*

And then trim work and cabinets and granite!

We'll be in soon!!

Change

Apparently being Captain America for Halloween fulfilled her.  Because almost immediately after Halloween it was Goodbye Captain America, Hello Cowboy!  She makes sure to clarify that she is a cow BOY, not a cow girl... *wigh*  She now can frequently be seen sporting her cow print belt, cowboy hat and my boots- she rocks it!

Halloween Festivities!

I r.e.a.l.l.y didn't take the time that I usually put into Halloween this year... too much other real life stuff that was demanding my attention.  Sadly enough, I'm pretty sure the kids didn't notice, at least I hope *wince*

I managed to pull off some amazing mummy dogs HA!

We carved pumpkins... (Bryson was the photographer...)

And the kids recycled costumes from years past... Bryson was a Clone Trooper, Dallin was Ironman, Eli was a soccer player, Hailee was Captain America (her dream come true) and Jace was a two year old refusing to be a cowboy ;)

Nathan was working at the house, so I braved the trunk or treat with the kids by myself- fortunately, Hailee was super content to sit in the back of the car with me and hand out candy.  She may have eaten a little a lot in the process.

Nevermind all the construction paraphernalia in the back of my car =)

Random October

Picking out tile and counters and flooring is seriously overwhelming.  I am not good at envisioning how it's all going to come together.  I *think* this is going to be in my bathroom.  I really can't remember for sure though.

My parents got a bunch of apples that we dried and canned.  We threw the cores and peels out in the yard for the deer- they came in droves!  I think at one point we counted 10 deer in their yard, my kids loved to sit and watch them...

Freeman had a 'hoe down' that we went to- Hailee was all too excited to don her cowboy hat and vest *grin*

Apparently, I didn't pour enough trix to Jaces liking... so he took matters into his own hands: