Christmas 2012

First off, my family changed the date of their Christmas party so we could come. The inspector for our house came on Christmas Eve so they had our party on the 23rd. The inspector said we could move in and so we did. We did not move everything at once so the kids slept in sleeping bags on pads and we slept on a full size bed (squishy compared to the king we slept on before, but it made us grateful for our queen). We were super excited to celebrate Christmas Morning in our house.
The kids were excited to have the storage unit emptied because being out of a bed for a few days gets old. We moved our stuff over before the end of the year and then had to go through it so we could use the space well. We are so happy to be in our own home with all of our own stuff. We feel so blessed we could be in Travis and Bree's basement while we were working on the house. They are great neighbors! We are so blessed to live where Kevin works and we are grateful Kevin's parents made this happen for us!
Now we have to completely settle in and get the rest of the boxes emptied! Samantha enjoyed teasing her friends about how she was moving and then they'd ask where and she would say next door. It is nice to move next door and not have to change schools, addresses, etc again!

Finishing the House!

 Preparing the floor for tile. Kevin put crack suppression on the cement.

 Tile!

 Working on the shower.

 Carpet!

 Tub

 Tub

Sink back splash

 Kevin put the cabinets in

 The granite guys came!

December Activities

The kids were involved in the school Christmas program and it was so great! The songs were done so well and my parents were able to come and enjoy it too.

 Samantha had her first band concert and they did good for only learning how to play their instruments for about 3 months. One song was a little much and got skipped but we got to hear their best song again. We are proud of her!

 

 KayDee lost her first tooth! Her other tooth was already growing in behind it so we encouraged the wiggle into twisting and she was surprised to see her tooth in her hand instead of her mouth. 

Derrick drove the tractor while helping Uncle Travis feed the horses. This is him driving it back to the shop all by himself at a very low speed!

70th wedding Anniversary!

Although these pictures were taken with my phone and are blurry, they are so much fun! We went to my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary party and were happy to celebrate with all of our extended family. We saw cousins we hadn't seen in a long time and enjoyed the food, memories and dancing. We are so blessed to be part of our family. We are happy for the examples my grandparents have been and we are so glad they are part of our lives.

Derrick is 9!

 Derrick has turned 9 and we just don't know where the time has gone! Each of our kids have made sacrifices this year while we have been in transition moving to the farm. They have not had birthday parties or played sports or done other activities since Kevin and I have been busy working to complete our house. They have done a great job being patient and doing the best with our situation!

Talking about each child for their birthday is now one of my favorite things. It is hard to think back and notice the things each child has done but I enjoy the opportunity that I get to do that because I want to remember what I love about each of our children and the things they are learning and the skills they are building.

Derrick has had a good year. He has been especially tolerant and has found a lot of joy despite living in a crammed space. He absolutely adores playing with his 3 year old cousin Dani and enjoys doing things outside like flying kites, building thing out of scraps and riding bikes. He is still inventing things. We have seen him make a submarine out of cardboard, a () and several things out of legos. At home, he does well keeping his room clean and cleans the tub each Saturday. He also sweeps, wipes off the table and does dishes when it is his turn. Derrick is building his basketball skills and really enjoys scouts. He looks forward to baseball season since he missed out last year. He has started a trading store at school where he makes things out of paper or has pencils and erasers so the other kids can trade for things they like. He is still playing the piano and still loves to read. His favorite books are the Hank the Cowdog series and he has also enjoyed the 39 Clues. Derrick is very diligent about bringing his scriptures to church and has been learning how to bear testimony of things he knows are true.  His prayers are very thoughtful and he has been able to fast on fast Sundays, especially when he has a purpose.
We love that Derrick is in our home and appreciate his efforts as part of our family to keep our home a happy place. We love how he tries hard to choose the right and make others happy. He makes us happy!

Halloween!

We had so much fun for Halloween this year! We went to a family party at Uncle DJ and Aunt Whitney's house a couple weeks before Halloween. We went trick or treating on Halloween night with Uncle Travis and Aunt Bree and their girls. This was the first year that it was just fun to walk with all the kids and the weather was really nice. We didn't want to stop!
The kids dressed up as: Samantha and Derrick were genies and KayDee was a princess.

House Progress: Painting!

We decided to paint the interior of our house ourselves. We rented a paint sprayer which was free because we bought over 10 gallons of paint at Jones Paint and Glass. I think Kevin's parents gave us these blue coveralls and they worked perfectly. We wore face masks and Kevin started spraying! When we finished with one color we taped off the ceiling and sprayed the walls another color. The taping took FOREVER!!! We would probably do it differently if we paint again. It did turn out great and we like it a lot!

2012 Family Picture

 We like silly pictures too!

 Kevin is definitely the tallest! (For now) The kids are catching up to me!

 We had a hard time getting the kids to smile correctly. Lots of pictures were deleted because of a silly face!

This is my favorite.

Derrick Earned his Wolf!

Derrick earned his Wolf in Cub Scouts and also earned his religious knot. He is also accumulating belt loops in music, BB gun, Marbles, Basketball, and a few others. He really enjoys scouts!

Dehydrating

Kevin and I picked 3 bushels of apples from a neighbor and we dehydrated most of them. They were crisp red delicious! We did not have any fruit this year since we moved and just planted fruit trees so we were grateful to have some to add to our snacks!

KayDee's Ears

KayDee announced that she wanted to get her ears pierced several weeks ago. She had claimed she did not want to do it when Sam and I did it. I told her that she never had to but to tell me if she ever did want to. She told me she was ready and knew what she had to do to take care of them. We went to Walmart and picked out the ruby butterflies that came with a necklace and she was super brave! She cleans them by herself and loves having them. She told us that she is never going to take them out even when she can. We'll see how long that lasts!

Scouts

 KayDee was our photographer for this pack meeting. Derrick helped the other scouts make dessert. Now you know how Samantha and her friends look at pack meetings. :)

The scouts had two highway patrol officers come out and teach them about safety and did a bike rodeo for them. They even got timed!

Derrick's Busy Month

 The third grade did the water olympics for their last day at the city pool. Derrick signed up for diving (not sure why he interprets that as a canon ball but he was very pleased with himself).

 Carrying the flag for the closing ceremony.

 He actually got first place for noodle spitting. Yes, he is talented. He can spit water the furthest with a water noodle!

Aunt Bree had Derrick model for one of her cute hats she makes. She has a fun blog and fb book page for String With Style.  His reward was he could keep it and he has found many opportunities to wear it since.

 I had the chance to go on the 3rd grade field trip. They went to the dairy that is near our house and then up Cedar Breaks. It was snowing, obviously!

 They learned that cows give about 10 gal of milk every day and they drink 35 gallons of water every day! The dairy has new calves born every day and we were able to pet them.

 This is after our 2.5 mile hike. It was wonderful to walk through the snow and we didn't get cold since the snow kept us insulated while we walked. The bus took us to some look out points but we could only see about 20 feet away so the kids had no idea we were next to a 300 ft cliff!