A Thank You to Robin!

As I said before, I was pretty excited in march to see lots of green leaves poking up through the dirt. I couldn't wait to see what came up. It was like Christmas. These beautiful daffodils came up all around the border of our huge flower bed on the west side of our front yard. There must've been over 100 of them. I thought about sending Robin, one of our home's previous owners a thank you card. I should have. I imagined all the time it took her to plant those and how she must have missed seeing them this year after all that work. I am grateful for the good care she and Ross took of our home and the beautiful additions, like all the bulbs and our huge raised garden that make our home such a wonderful place to live.



These daffodils just made me smile everytime I went outside. They are little sunshines on a stem. They even survived two surprise snow storms, I thought for sure the big April snow, being so wet and heavy, would kill them for sure. They had just blossomed the day before the snowstorm. But they are resilient little things and looked none the worse for it.

Guess What We Put Out?

When we told the girls last summer that we were moving to Utah, the first two questions they asked were, "Can we bring Twilight?" and "Can we bring the trampoline?" Those were their two main things they wanted if we were going to uproot them from everything they knew.


When we moved into the house last November, it wasn't the time to set it up. So the girls have waited anxiously for several months and finally were reunited with their beloved yard toy. If only we could have brought our awesome swingset too.

The Everyday

I don't remember how long ago we started "store" - it's been over a year. The girls get Disney bucks for good behavior and then they get to use their bucks at the mom "store". They still haven't gotten tired of buying little trinkets and always spend tons of time deciding on what they want.

Natalie still has a reputation for very colorful fashion sense. There are still some days when she comes downstairs that I have to blink a few times to get past all the colors and patterns going on!

This is a favorite hiding spot for Angela and Natalie - our winter gear box in the closet. The cat also enjoys hopping in here for naps when the closet is left open.

Angela is learning how to do her laundry now. She is getting so big!

Ms. Sarah

I love the creative things the girls come up with when they are playing. I found Sarah "teaching" her dolls one day when I came up to her room. She loves using her big whiteboard when she is "teaching".

I like how she gave each doll a pad of paper and pencil. And on top of that, she wrote their names at the top and assigned them each a number like her teacher this year did. What a cutie.

The Silly Dog Story

Once upon a time, I was doing the usual afternoon routine. Doing the dishes, encouraging the little persons in our home to do piano practice, homework, chores, etc. It was all very normal except for the never ending yapping noise coming from the front yard. Our neighborhood has a lot of dogs and some that like to bark, so at first I didn't think anything of it. But it didn't stop and it sounded closer than the usual barking noises. One of the girls finally looked outside and realized that the dog was indeed in our yard, on our sidewalk by the porch. I checked out the situation. It was a little dog, with no owner just yipping away and as I approached it, the yipping got more intense and very loud. Someone walked by on our sidewalk and the dog went crazy, like it was protecting our house or something. I apologized and explained it wasn't even our dog.

Now I have never had a dog. I don't know much about them. I think some dogs are cute, but I wouldn't say I'm a dog person. (Heck, I'm not even a cat person, but I have a cat.) Anyway, I wasn't really sure what to do. I tried to "shew" him/her away with no luck. "Oh well," I thought, "His or her owners will find it pretty easier if I just let it bark here for a while." I went back to my usual routine and mostly forgot about the dog. The barking kind of faded to the background. However, after about an hour and a half, I was starting to get annoyed. That little thing did not shut up that WHOLE time! I couldn't believe something could go on so consistently for so long.

I decided to head back out with a broom this time to scoot the little thing which had moved up to our porch. At one point, someone tried bringing something to our porch and just about got their hand bit off. It was getting ridiculous. That little thing would NOT budge. I had to push it's whole body weight. The poor little thing was so scared it peed on the porch - my feelings were annoyance and sympathy at the same time. I was at a loss so I called Bob* for ideas. He headed home and managed to get the thing off our porch, but it just went in our backyard and hid under the back stairs.

Our next idea was to start asking neighbors and making phone calls. Bob* took a picture on his phone and walked around to all the neighbors houses. I made phone calls using the ward list and my limited knowledge on people in the ward who had dogs. We had a few leads that all piddled out. No one knew someone who was missing a dog after all. Luckily, the poor thing finally got tired and stopped barking. We decided we did everything we could. But then as we watched the news, we realized it was going to get pretty cold - in the 30's that night. That dog was sure annoying, but I didn't have the heart to let him freeze to death. So at 11:00 p.m. the two of us headed outside with a flashlight, a broom and a box. Thank heavens the little thing didn't put up a fight like he had before. We got him in the box pretty easily and took him to the garage where it was lots warmer. We put in an old shirt, some water and a little cat food and hoped he would stay quiet during the night.

This was him the next morning. He was good and didn't make a peep all night. He didn't even make any messes in the box. We still weren't sure what to do. I got a hold of a nice lady at the local shelter and I ended up taking him (or her?) over. It was kind of funny how sad I felt dropping him/her off - I felt so bad for the little thing and was grateful that he seemed to figure out we were trying to help him so he stopped being annoying. Angela and I decided to make some signs to put up around the neighborhood with the phone number to the shelter. Ang was a good little helper. (o:

The lady at the shelter was really sweet and grateful. She told us to Friend the shelter on Facebook so we could keep up on the little dog's status. (They can only keep the animals for so many days, so we were a little worried.) The next day we got great news that the family either saw our signs or just called the shelter and came to pick up their little dog. Hopefully they got a tag to put on him/her so that doesn't happen again. (O: We were so glad that this little dog's story was a happy ending. It would have devastated the girls. They really wanted to keep it. Thank heavens it didn't come to that!

Dinner Guests

For my brothers' birthdays this year, I decided to have them over for dinner for my present to them. After all, I know the way to their hearts is through food, so why bother with T-shirts, books or other things that will just sit on a shelf? It also makes for good memories with them. After we ate, Sammy had fun playing with the girls and my girls talked for days about how funny Sam is.

The big kids played Wii and Guitar Hero.

Nat, Ang and Sam played a game where I was the "scary lady" and every time I appeared in the hallway, they ran for their lives. Apparently, this was a super fun game because they did it about a hundred times (or so it seemed to me). I guess I make a pretty darn good "scary lady".

Decorating a Little at a Time

One thing we are always pretty slow at when we move into a new place is hanging up pictures. That's because hanging pictures is a commitment and commitment is hard for someone who has a hard time making decisions. (O: I loved my pictures hanging in the upstairs hall at our house in Hillsboro. It was my little tribute to my baby girls and their special blessing dress made by grandma P. I miss my vinyl lettering that said, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" - hopefully I'll get some later on. But for now - I have my favorite little picture montage upstairs again!

Hibernation

These shots were taken during a very cold end of January/beginning of February week. We did a lot of hibernating this winter. Above, Angela working on her 100 days of school homework. My girls got in their jammies early many a evening because jammies are just cozy.

Sarah taking a sick day. Just a fever for a couple days, nothing too exciting. I actually like these kind of days. I love having the kids home and hanging out with them. I slow down and enjoy the break from a busy schedule too. I am so grateful to have this luxury - to not have to stress about getting work off when the kids are sick.

Dress ups are always entertaining when one is stuck indoors. This was actually when Natalie was heading over to JT's house for a princess/knight party two houses down. She "rode" her horse there. And she even wore those ridiculous shoes walking over in the cold. No snow, luckily.

Triple Decker Sandwich Recipe

Ingredients: 3 kids - not too skinny, 3 bean bags - nice and fluffy
Begin with one bean bag, then layer one kid on top, repeat three times. Top off with a little dollop of a pillow if desired.

Special Dinner Guests

One of our favorite things to do now that we are back is to invite family over for dinners at our house! We had a Winco turkey left over from the Thanksgiving sales and decided to have grandma and grandpa come share it with us. The girls helped out and even decorated the chairs with little pictures. Angela's favorite part was eating the powdered doughnuts grandpa brought.








The evening entertainment was watching Angela eat a powdered doughnut while laughing her head off. (o:

December 16

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Just a relaxing night, working on Christmas cards for friends . . .

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and goofing off with the cat . . .

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Eventually Twilight gives in and lets Natalie snuggle. (o: I've got to hand it to Natalie, she's persistent!

Santa Makes House Calls?

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One of my favorite new friends, Lara, told me that Santa was coming to our neighborhood and gave me a heads up to watch for him. He actually came to our house for a visit! We felt so special. He was in a particularly funny mood and had us laughing quite a bit. The girls were pretty surprised and wondered how we were so lucky.

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What an awesome treat! Thanks Santa!!

Thanksgiving at Home!

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Now I know what you are thinking, "How cute - she is praying on Thanksgiving". Yes, she is, but it's not a prayer for what you might think. She is really saying, "Please pick me, please pick me. . ." I don't know how it happened, it probably has something to do with the fact that Kelly was in charge of the games - but the kids ended up playing Murder in the Dark after our Thanksgiving feast. Not your typical Thanksgiving tradition. But the kids LOVED it! Most of them peeked when the murderer was being chosen, but that just added to the entertainment for the adults as we watched.

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I don't know what this game is called. Pile on uncle Kelly, perhaps. It was a huge hit too.

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Awww - Gracie is so cute, I could eat her up.

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I brought a little turkey hat craft for the kids. It made for some very cute pics.

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Cute Corbin. (o:

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The cousins! What a rare treat that I hope we don't take for granted! Our kids are starting to develop friendships and memories with their cousins. This is the first Thanksgiving we've spent with family in years. It's such a hard time to travel, but not when the drive is 15 minutes!

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Cameron is such a sweetie. Ever the loyal BYU fan, he wrote BYU on every single one of his feathers. Poor Cam got sick just minutes after I took this picture. We must've played one round of "murderer" too many. (o;

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Snuggle time with aunt Em. We love our families.

We also got to enjoy a fun visit with my family, but apparently I didn't take any pictures. I think we mostly sat around and munched on leftovers and talked about the day.

It was a good, good day.

November . . .

From NovDecFavorites

As the boxes got unpacked and we began learning where to find things, we started settling into our new life and felt very grateful for everything that brought us to this point. It really is miraculous. I think it was so appropriate that all the feelings, changes and events of the last few months come to an end during a season of gratitude.

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Now does this look like "home" to you or what? Nat got all "cozy" one Sunday morning as we watched a little MoTab.

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Our yard has 16 rose bushes. Our last house had about 12, which I thought was too many. We will probably be replacing some of them, but until I decided which ones, I had to do some major pruning for winter. I got extra motivated just before a big snowstorm hit - I was out pruning in 25 mph winds all bundled up. I was happy to get it done - I think it took a good 3-4 hours that day. Phew!

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Angela and our white backyard!

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I couldn't resist getting a shot of my Eskimos before heading to school one morning! I don't remember why Sarah is wearing pajamas. Must have been a party. This was before our real Lands End snow boots arrived, so my poor girls had a couple days of tromping in the snow in their galoshes! Poor things!

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Angela wore this pilgrim hat she made at school for several days, including Thanksgiving. Here she is eating a "crabby patty" treat. I don't think the pilgrims ever tried one of these.

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Hank got to dive right in to his church calling in Young Men by heading up the youth talent night. We came to watch and support. It was fun to get a glimpse at our new ward's youth. They are great kids and I was amazed at the talent! The boy above did the cutest song from a Broadway show about an older man looking through his yearbook and singing about how he never got picked first for any teams, but he got picked by his wife to be with her and that's all that mattered. Such a cute song and he really did a good job.

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This is a familiar sight. I have similar pictures of the girls doing this at one of my YW activities in Hillsboro. (o: Some things never change.

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Lots of musical talents were shared - what a fun group of kids!! We have tons of youth in our ward which will be so fun for the girls as they grow up here.

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A new job to get used to!