Sunday, November 2, 2008

We have arrived!

Hooray we have arrived!
I had to post a bunch of catch up things before I did this one, but yes, we are here in Utah finally. We arrived on Monday October 27th at about 2:30am after a crazy trip. It took much longer than we thought because the highway we were planning on taking got closed down due to an oil spill so we had to find another way, but we did it and it all worked out. Josh had to drive his company vehicle up so we drove seperate which was a brand new experience for me because I have NEVER driven on any trip before. So I am happy to say I did good on my first time ever and drove straight through. The perk to driving seperate was that we were able to split the boys up so neither one of us had to listen to teasing, fighting, or screaming from them :) It was nice :)


The boys in front of our rental home. They really like the house (especially because it has stairs and a basement) :) LOL A few days after being there, Tyler said to me "Mom, we need to get a new house" I asked why and he replied "because this one has cracks, that's why we need a new one" LOL He then pointed one crack out near the light fixture in the kitchen :) LOL I don't know how he does it, but ever since he was just a tiny toddler he would find the tiniest thing broken or out of place and be concerned about it. It's so funny. I would have probably never noticed that crack :) LOL
We have 2 extra master bedrooms in the basement and a set of bunkbeds in the playroom that we don't use, so if anyone wants a place to stay while you visit up here, let us know. As you can see our backyard is the base of a mountain and we are really close to ski resorts, so that's pretty fun :) We should have lots of fun snow here soon :) I won't put a whole lot of details as to where exactly we are at because this is a public blog, but if you want to visit or anything, just contact me and we'd love to have you.
We are loving the pretty colors on the trees right now :)This isn't the best picture, but it shows some pretty colors.
I took this while driving and just did the best I could :).

Tyler and Nathan love the breezeway at the house. At first it scared me, but they are so careful it doesn't bother me anymore :) It's a fun place to get pictures like this :)

We are having a great time here. Luckily this past week has been unusually warm for this time of year and we have been able to spend a lot of time playing at parks and enjoying the rec center. Tyler only occasionally says how much he misses everyone in AZ, but Nathan is having a bit of a harder time with being away. The other day I said something about going home and I was surprised when Nathan was happy about it. When we pulled up to the house He got upset and said "not this house again! No my want to go to Utah, my want to go home!" It was pretty sad. He continues to ask when we're out and about if we will be going home and I always have to clarify it's our Utah house and he always says "no!" :( Poor kid :( He does a little better each day.

Saying Goodbyes

Friday November 24th was Tyler's last day of Preschool before we left for Utah, so he had to say goodbye to his wonderful teachers who he absalutely adores.
Miss Sherrie
Miss Heidi

They have been such fantastic teachers and Tyler has learned so much from them. Everyday he practices his letters and sounds. He has learned to love it and can pretty much tell you what any word begins with. He will say "b b b ball, ball begins with B!" He says that all day long for anything he sees or think about. It is a great deal because of his wonderful teachers.
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We had family breakfast at the Van Vleet's house the day before we left for Utah and it was a lot of fun. Josh went with his brother to go shoot rotten pumkins :) while the kids and I played at the house. We found a dead butterfly in the yard and Tyler had to burry it, so he dug a hole for it and after covering it up Nathan had to mark it with a tissue :) It was a cute little ceremony for them :). They had fun playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


We thought it would be funny to get a picture with Grandpa while he was napping :)

Saying goodbye to Uncle Barron. Nathan kept saying he was going to miss Uncle Barron, and as I was posting this picture Nathan saw it and started to laugh, then he said "Uncle Barron's so funny" :) LOL

The boys saying goodbye to Uncle Bradley. They really love Uncle Brad, and liked that he came over and would hang out at our house and join us for family prayer sometimes :)
It was comforting to know when we were saying goodbyes that it was only going to be a few months and that we would get to see everyone over the holidays. It was not nearly as hard as I thought and I was very grateful for that.

Naughty Nathan :)

If Nathan wasn't so darn cute He'd get into way more trouble :)
While Mommy was busy packing one day she put Nathan at the table to color and instead of coloring on the paper he promised to color on, he found coloring himself was much more fun :). I would ask from the other room "are you coloring on the paper?" he would say "yep" then when he was all done, he came to show me :) Luckily those markers were washable and he stayed at the table :)
Showing off his "artwork"



Nathan and Mommy being silly for the camera



Nathan saying goodbye to his cousin Monique before they moved


Saying goodbye to his buddy and Cousin Brookie before we left AZ

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween party at the Whitfield's

On October 19th We had our recently new family tradition of a Halloween party family dinner. We had Chili & cornbread, costumes, bobbing for apples, crafts, and treats......... it was a blast.
Costumes!

Nathan the Vampire!

Tyler as Harry Potter :)


The family gathering to watch all the action


Tyler didn't like the feel of it, but stuck it out until he got one :)


Brookie got one, Navie was thinking through her strategy, and Nathan was wondering why we all kept plunging our heads into cold water just for apples :)


Wes taking the dive and Brookie interested


Martha :) she did awesome!


Nikki got one! The little ones were pretty fasinated with her victory :)


Crafts!


Me with my cute little new born nephew. I love Him!


Adorable baby Lincoln


He was quite the main attraction at the party. We just couldn't get enough of his sweetness.

Sun Devils

We had family dinner at Josh's parents house and Nick, Bethany, and Ty showed up wearing Sun Devil clothes (came from a party). I had to get pictures cause they were so cute! Especially little Ty dressed as Sparky himself! Ty is into grabbing his Mommy's face and smiling really big. He is so adorable and we love our little Sparky!


Because I knew they love Sparky and ASU so much, I created this lovely Sparky jack O lantern for them :) LOL pretty cool huh? :)

Canning

I meant to blog this a while ago, but I got carried away in other things :(


So my friend and I discovered our Stake had a canner that they loan out for people to use at home, so she and I went on a food storage kick and decided to rent it together and take turns. While Josh was out of town again, Mom came over and helped me can some dry Milk, popcorn kernels, Beans, Flour, ect. We did about 42 cans in under 2 hours :) not bad for a first try huh? We had a lot of fun too.


Tyler helped us by writing on the cans for us :) We thought it was so cute and would be fun to see years down the road when we go to use it. How do you like our wilk? :) LOL

Nathan decided he wanted to "write" too and so now we have illustrations on our cans too :).


So, if any of you have contemplated canning at home... do,... it's way easier than I ever thought and kinda fun.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Kayla, yearbooked

Okay, okay, after yearbooking Josh.....I couldn't help myself. :) LOL

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1950 ~ 1952

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1958 ~ 1960

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1962 ~ 1964

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1966 ~ 1968

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1970 ~ 1972

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1974 ~ 1980

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1984 ~ 1990

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1996 ~ 2000

So what do you think? LOL :) let me know your favorite :)
If any of you would like to yearbook yourself go to http://www.yearbookyourself.com/ (It's pretty fun, and really easy once you get the hang of it).