Soooo Long!

I realize that the title of this could be interpreted as a farewell..."So Long!", but really I am just noting the fact that it has been SO LONG since I've posted. I apologize for the break. We have had a wonderful and busy December as we moved into our new house and had a ton of Christmas festivities. I am feeling a bit more settled in and things have settled down for a minute, so I thought I'd jump on here and post something. I want to start by saying that I am currently posting this with our brand new computer using our very own high speed internet. It's a wonderful thing! Most of my other posts have either been at my parent's house or using a laptop and a wireless connection that wasn't ours. :) I'm quite a fan of having my own internet connection. I highly recommend it. Of course, I'm sure most, if not all, of you have this already. What can I say...we're cheap.

So, the last day of November we moved into our house and it has been wonderful. Main highlights....
- my kids can cry and scream (as kids do) and I don't have to worry that I'm bugging everyone that lives by us
- When we want to go outside and play, we just walk out the door and we're in our own wonderful backyard...equipped with swingset and trampoline, which are just an added bonus
Here's Kendall and Luke playing in the freezing cold snow in the backyard.


- We have our own room. Sam has his own room. Luke has his own room.
- We sit now on a wooden chairs and a matching wooden table to eat our meals. No more camping chairs pulled up to a fold up table like we had for 3 months at the apartment.
- When 5 of my siblings and their spouses and children all came up to visit last night...we had room enough that they could all stay. SO FUN!
- It's ours. (well, I guess it's "ours" as much as it can be when the bank paid for 90% of it) Full of our stuff. Our own little piece of the earth. What a cool thing!
This is our new kitchen.

Here are the boys standing at the back door watching the snow coming down.

And here they are eating a snack at the bar.


We love the house and the neighbors are great. We have had so many people come over with goodies to introduce themselves and offer their help with this or that. It's been really great and makes me think that I need to remember to be that kind of neighbor back.


Christmas went great. Sam was so fun this year because he finally grasped the idea of it all. He was excited for Santa and helped me make cookies for him to put out on Christmas Eve. If you asked him what he wanted, he would tell you a "bike and big gum". "Big gum" just means a lot of gum. Anyway, Santa delivered- he's the man. Here's Sam on his new bike.

Luke was hilarious on Christmas morning, because he got some M&M's and juice boxes in his stocking and he was a happy camper the whole rest of the time. He wasn't really into opening anything else. He just wandered around looking at everything happening and being unwrapped, but just kept coming back to me for another sip of juice or M&M ( yeah, I know it was 6:30 in the morning...but it was Christmas, come on:) ). More of Christmas morning...



We went down to Orem for a few days after Christmas. My entire family was there which is so fun and crazy! 16 kids under 8 and 12 adults can messy up a house and down a lot of food really fast. Then, a bunch of them came up to our house last night and we stayed up until almost 2 AM playing Charades. It was so hilarous! I have to say that Abby definitely wins the prize for the most captivating performance...even if we never had a clue what she was acting out. :) Here's Betsy's turn at bat. What a fun game!

And here's some of the group trying to guess...


My big brothers, Ben and Joe, making us all some delicious sub sanwiches for lunch.



It has been a great month and a great year and we are feeling extremely blessed. Kendall has a great job, we have two healthy little boys, great extended family, a warm house, food in our tummies and clothes on our backs. We thank Heavenly Father everyday for this wonderful life we have been given. We feel His hand in our lives constantly and give thanks for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who was born and lived and died for us all. I owe Him so much, and yet he continues to give and give. I hope that I can do a little more this next year to show Him my appreciation.