Christmas 2010

We had a really fun Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, our friends, The Day's came over and we had homemade pizza. The kids all played downstairs while we played some card games and chatted, then we did a little Christmas program with the kids dressing up and singing songs. It was a lot of fun. Later that night, we were getting everyone ready for bed and the kids were very wound up and excited! We did our traditional Yarn Balls, which everyone really got into, we opened up new pj's, read The Night before Christmas, left out cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and had a new game dropped off by Santa that we played before the kids went to bed. It was a pretty late night for all of us and I was happy that everyone slept in until after 8 the next morning. Myra and Lexi were ecstatic. Noah just wanted breakfast. We opened presents. The kids were so excited about everything. The rest of the day was comprised of playing with our new toys, eating, sleeping and eating some more. It was a very fun and relaxing Christmas day.
The next day we went down to visit my parents and have "Christmas" with them. We opened gifts there, ate and visited. Of course, the kids were super excited to have another Christmas. That evening we went out to visit my Grandma Austin. It is so hard for me to see her living in the rest home that she's at now. She has to share a tiny, cramped room with another woman. The place is completely drab and about as unhomelike as you can get. It was a little depressing for me. We had a great visit though. The kids loved riding around in her lap and checking out all the things a nursing home has to offer. =)
On Monday, we did a marathon visit of the rest of our Grandparents. We started out with my Grandma Newman. We were lucky that my parents went with us to this visit so that we were able to spend a little more time with them too. The kids loved my Grandma's toy closet and were able to entertain themselves the entire time we were there. After that we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Keyser. Of course, they had to feed us our fill of Ice Cream and candy. We had a nice time visiting them. We then rushed back to my parents house and packed up the car, then were able to go with my parents and meet up with my sister and her family for dinner. It's always interesting going out to eat with all the kids, but we had a good time. Then we headed up to visit Grandmother and Grandad Rowland. The big box of blocks was pulled out and the kids (and dad) had a fun time playing with them.
I'm so glad that we were able to visit all of our Grandparents and take pictures with them and the kids. I'm sure they will be memories that we certainly cherish down the road.

Christmas Fun

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Winter Fun

We've done a few fun things this December. The kids have absolutely LOVED all the snow we've received and they want to play outside every chance they get. They love making snow angels and snow men and last Saturday we went sledding in our neighbors yard, scaring up several deer in the area. It was great. And with all the snow we keep getting, I'm sure there will be many more outside snow days!
We usually try to go out and cut down our own Christmas tree, but because of all the snow, we couldn't get into where we usually cut down the tree. So, this year, we had to settle for a store bought tree. We all had a lot of fun decorating the tree. The kids enjoyed looking through the ornaments and choosing which ones they got to hang up.
Unfortunately, a week later the tree was completely dead. We were so bummed. We had to un-decorate the tree, haul it back to the store, get a new one and re-decorate. Needless to say, it was a pain, but the new tree turned out just as beautiful and the kids got to decorate it twice!
Towards the beginning of the month, they have a free day at Hardware Ranch for Hyrum residents. We hesitated about going because the last time we went there when Myra was about 1, it was miserable. It was so cold and she cried the entire time. Finally, we decided to go. We started out with visiting Santa. Unfortunately, after this my camera batteries died and I don't have any other pictures. So, we headed down to wait in line for the sleigh-ride out to look at the Elk. The line took FOREVER!!!!! We contemplated leaving several times, even when we were almost to the end. Noah cried most of the time and so did Lexi for that matter. Myra was ok, running around, but we all were pretty cold by the end. We did enjoy looking at the elk, but I'm not sure if the miserable wait in line was really worth it. And no pictures! Oh well, overall, it was an enjoyable outing.

Our New Addition

Introducing....The Piano!

A couple of weeks ago, they announced in Elders quorum that there was a guy in the ward that was moving and didn't want to take his piano, so if anyone was interested in taking it, to contact him. Chad forgot about it for a few days, but finally called the guy. He said that there might be someone that was going to buy it from him, but if that didn't work out, he'd give us a call. The next morning, he called us to say that the piano was ours! For FREE! So, last Saturday, a few guys from the Elders quorum helped Chad to pick up and move the piano to our house. I can't hardly express how excited I am about this! It's a Shoninger (I'd never heard of the brand before), but looking it up online, it's a company originating out of Connecticut and they stopped making pianos in the mid 60's, so it's a few years old. But, it seems like it's in decent shape. It has a good sound to it, although it needs a little tuning because of the move. Needless to say, we (I) and so excited about our new piano!

To Sum up November

I know that December is now half over, but I have some major catching up to do! I only blogged 3 times in November and 2 of them were about things that happened in October. So, I am a month behind. Hopefully I can catch up!
November was one of the busiest, craziest months ever! We started out the month with our move to Hyrum on the first. We were lucky to have Grammy staying with us, so she was able to help out a ton with the kids! My mom also came up to help us move, which was a great help. And thanks to Dane and Brian for helping out, and especially Ben who was there forever that morning! We couldn't have done it without all the help! We were barely able to get the house settled in enough to sleep that night. The next day, we headed back to the condo to do some major cleaning. We ended up hiring a woman from Honduras to help out. Otherwise, I may still be there scrubbing out the oven. We finally were able to get everything cleaned up and ready to pass over the keys to our tenant. I certainly had mixed feelings leaving that last night, but the move was certainly for the best!
For the next few days, we attempted to make the house liveable, but I had a craft boutique coming up on the 12th, so most of our efforts were put into getting ready for that. We did take the following Saturday off to go up to Rexburg for Doug and Natalie's pinewood demolition derby. It was lots of fun!

It wasn't until after the Riverwoods show, which went pretty good, despite me getting sick the first day and Chad having to fill in for me, that we were finally able to start unpacking a little. We still have a lot of unpacked boxes, but the house mostly looks moved-into. After the Riverwoods show, we geared up for the big one, Novemberfest. We had my mom and dad up for Thanksgiving dinner, which I forgot to take any pictures of. Then they took the kids down to their home for a few days so that Chad and I could sell at the show. It was the first time I've ever been away from Noah overnight. Of course, he did just fine! The show ended up doing really well and I was glad that Chad was there with me for most of it. I figured once Novemberfest was over, I would be able to relax, but my Etsy shop took off like crazy and up until 2 days ago, it's been go, go, go... I just put my shops on vacation and am looking forward to enjoying the holidays without work hanging over me. I've been so busy for the past couple of months though, that I'm not completely sure what to do with myself now. I'm sure that feeling won't last for long though, I have a ton of things I've been putting off.
Anyway, that was about all we did during November. Unfortunately, I have hardly any pictures for the month! Bummer!

Halloween

We started out our Halloween celebration this year by carving pumpkins. I just took pictures, carried Noah around and picked up pumpkin seeds off the floor. Chad and the girls really dug in though. Ok, Myra really dug in. Lexi really took some coaxing to get her to touch the pumpkin guts. Noah was just upset that he didn't get to play more of a part. I'm sure he would have loved to get his little hands dirty!

Our last day of preschool before Halloween, Lexi and Maddie dressed up in their costumes and posed for some cute pictures. On the Friday before Halloween, Myra's school had their halloween celebration which included a spook alley (Myra said it was pretty scary) and the traditional costume parade. I went over with Noah and Lexi. As soon as the "scary" halloween music started, Lexi completely freaked out. She was absolutely terrified of the music, which included such menacing numbers as the Monster Mash and Ghostbusters. I had to hold her the entire time and she was bawling and shaking the entire time as well. We got to see Myra walk past like 3 times. She was so cute in her over-sized Cowboy boots! She was lovin' it!

On Saturday, we did our traditional trick-or-treating and Stew in a Pumpkin Dinner with the Days, our 4th year! We started out with pictures of the kids.
The boys were not cooperating!
Our cute kindergartners. They've grown-up so much these past few years!
They both had a huge chunks of candy in there mouths. Can you tell?They are all looking! Yay!
They all looked so cute in their costumes! The weather was a little ominous as we started out trick-or-treating and as the time passed, it kept getting colder and then it started to rain. We hurried back at that point. We definitely didn't make it to as many houses as normal, but the kids still ended up with a good stash. Dinner was a blast, chatting with The Days and the Jensen's and Chad's mom was in town, so she came with us as well. We had a really nice time and the kids, of course, had a great time playing with each other. It was a fun holiday. On Sunday, the actual day of Halloween, we did nothing but go to church (our last time at the Willow Valley ward) and then we packed. But that's another story...

American Heritage Center

I have some serious catching up to do with the blog! I think I'll start out with our trip to the American West Heritage Center. If you remember, we took a couple of trips there last year. The first trip was not much fun, the second was much better! Now, whenever we drive by there, Myra always has to point out that that is where dad threw her off the hay jump and she broke her arm. Poor Chad! Anyway, we decided to go there again and see if this year would be a bit more fun. We had a great time riding the ponies and the train. The kids also enjoyed feeding the goats and looking at the horses.Noah really liked the Chickens!
The weather was a little questionable, so we kind of hurried over to the hay jump and the maze. Myra had vehemently declared that she wouldn't be doing the hay jump this year, but guess what she had the most fun on? That's right, the hay jump. They had changed it quite a bit this year, including an added pad to land on. She climbed up and jumped over and over again. Lexi even went with Dad's help. Noah just liked playing around in the hay. There was also a slide that the kids had fun going down. We then headed over into the maze. By this time, the weather started getting pretty cold and a few icy droplets were coming down. We got about half way through when we decided we really needed to hurry. We had fun, rushing through the maze and made it out and back to the car just in time to get only a little rained on. Overall, it was a fun experience! Much better than last year!

Good-Bye Ellis, Hello Lincoln

I have SOOOOO many things to blog about. Halloween/Fall activities, the move, etc. We are loving the house a lot, but have barely made a dent in getting things organized. It's crazy! I'll have to post some more pictures once we get a few more rooms cleaned up. Anyway, today was Myra's last day at Ellis Elementary. When we decided to move, we were really hoping to find a house to move to that was close enough that I could continue driving Myra to school every day. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot to choose from and Hyrum is just too far away to drive her to every day. So, we made the decision to switch her to the school out here. I think I'm having a harder time with that move than she is, for sure. If you ask her how she feels about it, she says she's sad, but the next second is back up and running. But today, I was completely emotional about it. I feel pretty bad about it, but I'm sure she'll do just fine. She's such a friendly kid, I know she'll make a lot of friends quickly. I think she'll end up missing her teacher, Mrs. Simmons, the most. Today, I went in to her class and took some pictures of her and her classmates. They were so cute. She's had such a great experience at Ellis, I hope her next experience at Lincoln Elementary will be just as good!
To go along with this, I had a pretty funny conversation with Myra today. This is how it went:
Myra: Corey the Boy asked me to marry him today.
Me: What did you tell him?
Myra: I told him that maybe if I got a revorce from Cody, I'd think about it.
I noticed when I went to her class today that Corey the Boy (she's called him this since the first day of school), hung around her quite a bit. I had no idea that he liked her that much though. =)