Happy December

Victoria and I made these little advent cups with what we had on hand.

I put a little strip of paper in each one of something for her to do each day.

So far she has told her Dad something that she loves about him and

helped her brother with his chores.

I think they turned out pretty cute.

I got the idea here .

We used wrapping paper instead of scrapbook paper.

I am actually surprised that I could find supplies.

We got rid of so much before the move.

So..........Happy December!

Word of the Day

Jared has way too much fun learning vocabulary words.

This book called Vocabulary Cartoons by Sam, Max and Bryan Burchers,

is a great way to learn vocabulary words.

Quick and easy because the pictures stick in your memory easier.

Jared comes to me frequently to show me a picture with the word. 

This one in particular said that it reminds him of Kaleb.

I had to agree.

This one reminded him of Sam when he ate the apple pie. 

He definately was the culprit.

O Come All Ye Wakeful

O Come All Ye Wakeful
sing to:  O Come All Ye Faithful

O come all ye wakeful
Find a nice location
A warm knee, a settee
Relax in the sun
Sleep on your sweater
Though your coat is better

Refrain:  O let us yawn and snore some
Keeping one eye open
O let us yawn and snore some
Ou-r reward

O come and be gracious
Your bed is so spacious
O choose well and snooze well
And don't make a fuss
Sofa and armchair
Cover them with shed hair

Refrain

O sleep where you're able
Bookshelf or a table
A good nap on broad lap
Will serve just as well
Life has such meaning
Paws in air and dreaming

Refrain

They look all cozy and cute with their little eyes tightly shut.

All cuddled together.

A Visit from the Darts

We had our first Phoenix visitors

The Dart Family.

It was so good to see them.  It felt surreal that they were in our new home and in our new town.

Rachelle and Jared took Victoria and Kaleb to the park.

While they were there they came upon this piece of ice in the shape of a heart.

Jared told me about it the next day.  Next thing I know he is standing in front of me, ears and nose reddened with freezing arms in a short sleeve t-shirt.

He had run over to the playground to retrieve it.

I am surprised that he found it. 

I felt it was quite appropriate that they discovered this heart.

It reflects our natural love for the Dart family.

We have a bond with them that will never be broken.

It was so thoughtful of them to drive up from Salt Lake City to see us.

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent our first Thanksgiving in our new home extremely grateful for our Lord's blessings on our family.

We also spent this special day with my cousins Kathy, Troy and Rich.

The last holiday that I spent with my cousins was when I was 3, Rich would have been 6 and Kathy would have been 7.  We had a great time.  They arrived Wed. night while there was still snow on the ground.

We promptly ran out of butter and flour, so Kathy and I made a mad dash with all the other shoppers to the market to pick up a few things.  It was so fun preparing for our Thanksgiving meal together.

Kathy had made the comment that it is kind of hard sometimes cooking in someone elses kitchen.

I said...... I know, this is someone elses kitchen for me too!

We had so much fun just hanging out with eachother reminescing about old times and making new memories.

Jared has a knack of being involved with something disasterous without intending for anything to happen.  Well, he picked up the bottle of sparkling cider on the counter and was going to pretend to drink out of the bottle when the top blew off, hit the ceiling and proceeded to spew a fountain of cider straight up in the air, all over the floor.  We all looked at him like, What Did You Do?

What he did was harmless but because it involved JARED, anything goes.  I have no idea how this happens but he is like an accident waiting to happen.  Anything that could break, pop, crack, or explode is at risk in his presence.  We all had a good laugh with some "voltage" as Kathy called it.  You know, the thing you do when you see your kid making a complete mess of your clean floor.  We all got over that pretty quick.  We decided that Jared was just makin' memories.

After we ate way too much we walked down the street and around the corner to see the movie "In Time".  It was very invigorating walking in the crisp air with snow still on the ground.  We had a major snow ball fight as we headed down the street.  There is always fun involved with anything that Rich is doing.  We all just have a blast messing around. 

To top off our Thanksgiving we stayed up until midnight to stand in line for Kolh's Black Friday sale.  Kathy, Rich, Kirk, Daphne and I had a pretty good time standing in line for almost two hours to pay.  We thought we were nuts but enjoyed each others company.  I loved every minute of it.

We got home at 3 a.m. to catch a couple winks before heading to the mall this morning at 6:30.  Kathy and I were the only crazy ones in the bunch to make it back out  in the morning.

We all enjoyed being together.  I kept looking at us all feeling like I needed to pinch myself.

Are we really here?

Yep! We are and lovin' every minute!

 

Crazy Snow

We had the greatest snow storm all day yesterday.

We kept expecting it to stop but it snowed for 12 hours! 

It looks like a Winter Wonderland.

 We were lovin' every  minute of it.

So there were a few things that we discovered that
we needed to equipt ourselves in this type of weather.

We have been told that Logan gets "crazy snow".
I think we need to prepare ourselves.

First, almost all of us have boots and gloves. 
So that is first on the list to fulfill when the budget allows.

Second, we need to replace and add to our snow shovel that was left behind
by the previous tenant.

I think it would go faster if we had more than
one shovel and maybe they should be a little stronger.

This one is pretty flimsy. The neighbor across the street just broke one of his this morning. 
So supposedly they don't last very long.  I guess it depends on the kind you have.

The third thing we did was visit Discount Tire in town and asked them to fix us up with some decent snow tires for the van.  Remember, we've heard Logan gets

"CRAZY SNOW".

We've been seeing this new snow tread on various trucks around town.  They didn't cost much more than your basic snow tire.  I think these will work out just fine!

We will definately not be getting stuck in the snow this winter!

Our First Snow!

We set out Friday for Ogden, just an hour away.

Kirk had a resume for some freelance that he wanted to give an architectural firm.

We only made it a mile from our destination when the van completely quit.

Somehow we made it to the shoulder......an extremely narrow one, and called our insurance company for a tow.  I had to laugh when the young man on the other end asked if I had any passengers with me.

Yes, there are 6 of us ..........and.........two dogs!

The guy said Oookaayyy, I might need to call you a taxi as well.

Well, the tow truck was just big enough for us and the two dogs to cram into the cab.  We were all practically sitting on top of eachother.

In the mean time I had called my dear ol' Dad for a diagnosis. 

My hands were a little trembly due to the spot that we were stopped at.  There were huge trucks whizzing past us shaking the van.  I was really nervous but didn't want the kids to pick up on it.

Really, I just wanted to burst into tears but decided to just "suck it up" instead.

So when I heard my Dad's voice I nearly lost it.  I was a little choked but managed to keept it together.

Everything ended up being fine.  We were towed to "Kirk's Auto Care".  Can't beat a name like that.

It was a dirty air flow sensor from the ding dong at Jiffy Lube who didn't seat the air filter properly in Sept!

These were honest guys with a family fun business.

What a relief!

On the way back over the hill from Ogden to Logan, it poured rain.

Then it completely switched.  It was a more silent rain and Victoria said it looked like we were on Space Mountain at Disneyland.  In pitch black we were driving into a snow flurry.  The way the flakes were coming at us, and the way the headlights hit the flakes, it was like we were in a tunnel of lights.

It was really cool but was making me car sick!  Uugh!

Right about then my cousin Kathy called to say it was snowing at her house in Malad.

I had to tell her that we weren't home and that we were driving thru the pass and that it was snowing!

We are loving the weather.

We woke to 2 inches of snow this morning and the boys and Victoria have been outside for the past 3 hours playing in it with the young girl next door, Emily.  They seem to be having a blast and haven't called it quits yet even though I am sure they will come in drenched.

The dogs were estatic when they saw the snow.

They loved ice cubes when we lived in Phoenix.

I think they saw each flake of snow as an ice cube. They spent all their time eating snow this morning. It was pretty funny to watch. 

I just heard that Victoria found a piece of cardboard and is trying to slide on the front lawn.

We are definately from Arizona.

I wonder if it is obvious?

Victoria was out before the sun was shining through.

 They used up all the snow in our yard so they continued their snow ball fight with Emily next door, who is 12, in her yard.  Last I saw they were busy in the front yards and

Victoria was in the back of Kirk's truck getting handfulls to throw. 

She may be 7 but can hold her own with the older kids.

It makes me so happy that they are able to safely spend so much time outside just playing with a neighbor.

Things are different here, and I am so thankful that we followed the Spirit with this move.