our december staycation at grandma and grandpa's house

Because of our floor refinishing fiasco, we ended up staying with Grandma and Grandpa throughout most of the month of December (we always pick the best times to remodel).  Here's a few pictures of our adventures, yummy Sunday dinners (notice the girls name tags on the place settings, that's a regular at our house.  The girls have decided that whoever sets the table gets to decide who sits where!)  We helped decorate Grandma's house for Christmas, had fun making Christmas rolls, and made our traditional gingerbread houses.  I also spent lots of days in December down at our house trying to clean up a few of the inches of dust that had accumulated in every nook and cranny.  You know you have a mess on your hands when you vacuum and a cloud of dust billows up around you as you go.  

Thank goodness we have Grandma and Grandpa right down the road!  They saved the day!

(Can't forget all the fun the kids have with all of grandma's dress up clothes!)

our last little addition

We are just now wrapping up our last (really!) addition on our home.  We've tossed around lots of ideas for expanding our family area and possibly adding bedrooms for a while now, but never quite arrived at what seemed like the right plan.  Finally, we decided that we were going to forget adding a bedroom in favor of the girls sharing (sorry girls- think of all the lessons you are learning. . .sharing, patience. . .you'll thank us later?!!!)  But while mowing the lawn this summer I was moved upon by the spirit with an idea to expand the dining room a mere 6-7 feet to give us more family space, but not have to tear up our beloved patio.  After a little persuasion, Courtney also saw the light and we decided it was the right plan.  

Court has been wanting to tear out the (non-working) chimney for a few years now and put in a wood burning stove so we decided it was the perfect time.  We finally decided to purchase an antique wood burning cook stove from Rhode Island that we'd been eyeing up for a few years.  Even though it's nearly 100 years old, I think it was made for my house :).   

We spent most of December living with my parents while we installed/refinished the wood floors.  And even though we still haven't finished trim and painting we are loving the space.  It really is amazing what 7 more feet can do to a room!  

Oh!  And as an added benefit, our stove is perfect for making indoor s'mores!  I knew it was a good idea!

amazing kids

I saw this tally on the blackboard one day after one of the girls had been babysitting.  It made me smile.  Looks like they got points for good behavior.  My favorite part was the note written at the bottom,

"Amazing kids".

I think so.

black friday tree shopping

We headed out west Thanksgiving weekend for our annual Black Friday Christmas Tree Shopping Event.  Court had to stay behind to install the wood floor in our little addition and so I ventured out with the kids without him.  As usual, we had a grand time.  The girls were having too much fun with their cousins to be of much help- but if I must say so myself (and I must), I picked a good 'un this year.  One of my favorites to date.

(We didn't get our tree up until the week before Christmas because of the remodel, but when we did it was beeeeeautiful!)

thanksgiving 2013

We spent turkey day with the Croney cousins this year.  Abigail and Sam are becoming quite the buddies. Sam was into funny faces that day, and was making me laugh at the faces he pulled every time I tried to take a picture.

Lots to be thankful for. . .

no grandbabies in my future?

I wish I had some pictures to go with this little tale, because my bet is that they would be classic.

A few weekends ago, the girls spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's to help with lambing.  One of our lambs ended up having a baby, so it was exciting.  The girls have worked with their grandparents quite a bit, vaccinating, sorting lambs, and routine chores and such, but this was something new.

As the older two were getting ready to go, Emmy decided she'd like to help too.  Kate did her best to talk her out of it.  "No Emmy.  Trust me.  You haven't had "the talk" yet and believe me, Grandpa tells you everything."  Despite Kate's best efforts to horrify her, Emmy still chose to go- assuring us all that she would just stand by to help "hand people stuff".



Well.  When it was all said and done, here was the report:

1.  "Oh my heck, mom.  Grandma stuck her arm inside the lamb all the way up to here."

2.  "Did you know the mom's eat that disgusting pouch that comes out when the lamb is born?  Sick."

(and the kicker. . .)

3.  "I am NEVER having kids.  Seriously."



All in all, a successful experience.

the weekend

This past weekend was a good one.  Nothing fancy- but those weekends are usually the best kind.  We had a house full of kids Friday night, bouncing off the walls while Courtney and I sat on the couch in our pajamas and read books.  (I told him we're getting really old.)  It was awesome.

Saturday was our Stake baptism day, which always makes for a great morning.  I arrived home to my Kate doing her best to tidy up (her dad had promised her something for her efforts, which always helps).  Ryenne and Emmy were off to Aunt Kelsey's to babysit little Gray.  Claire and Sam still in their pj's, which is the way a Saturday should be.  I should have gotten lots done, but I didn't. Instead I finished my book and took a nap.  Again, awesome.

To top it off, Court and I went on a hot date with Shawn and Kelsey that night.  We went to a movie (20 minutes late because that's how we roll- don't worry we waited til the next movie started so we could catch what we missed) and a nice little Italian place for a late dinner (with a heavy metal band rockin' out in the basement.  Our chairs vibrated through the whole meal.  For reals.)  And we laughed a lot.  It was a good time for sure.  We had to stop at the store one the way home to buy sour patch watermelons to take home because we are not above bribing our children to be sort-of-nice and not kill each other while we are way.

Sunday morning we woke everyone up and for five minutes or so the whole lot of them sat on our bed and we laughed about nothing in particular.  That doesn't happen very often.  You know, everyone happy at the same time for a  five consecutive minutes. . .so I wanted to make sure I remember that it happened this weekend!  I smiled as I watched us piled together.  Every now and again the stars align.

To top it off, Courtney got to watch Payton Manning lose the Superbowl last night.  He got smoked actually. You could say my husbands not a big fan of the guy.  I mentioned last night that I think he enjoyed watching Payton lose as much as he would have enjoyed watching his Patriots win.  He grinned.



I would say that weekends like this don't happen all that often.  I'm starting to think that sometimes the days that are the most forgettable are the ones I want to remember the most.  Just us, doing our thing. I mean, for the sake of being real here, I'm not going to say we didn't have our "Stop it, right now!!!!" moments. . .but all in all, this was a good one.

Hallelujah, amen.