About time

Joel has been bugging me to post something for many weeks now. I didn't post at all in February, so I am a major slacker in the blog department. I have just felt like there hasn't been much to say. I've also been frustrated that I have had no luck in uploading my 2009 blog book, so I have been less motivated to blog, because why blog when I can't even turn it into a book! Anyway...

We really haven't done a whole lot over the month of February. We had a fun and delicious Superbowl party at our friends' house. Jenna had her school concert; the theme was a beach party. It was a great concert, but made me really sick of the cold.

Jenna lost one tooth and Will lost two. In the space where two teeth left only one tooth is coming in, and it's taking up the entire space. I see trouble if two baby teeth get knocked out for every permanent tooth. He and Jenna are both, most definitely, going to need braces in the future. I can already see the $ those mouths are going to absorb.

That seriously about covers our entire month of February. Joel has been on a pretty nice schedule at work, consistently working Mon, Tues, Wed. This is his last week with that schedule, then it's going to be back to the unpredictable.

This weekend we get to go to Casper for the State Basketball tournament. Joel's little sister, Erin, is playing. We are excited to get to watch her play. The Sunday after that we are heading up to Lovell for part of Spring Break. Joel has to work the last part of spring break, so we only get to spend a few days in Lovell. But we are looking forward to it.

I wish I at least had some fun pictures to post or something, but I don't! It hasn't been a very impressive post, but at least it's something. :)

William

William lost his first tooth tonight! He is officially a big boy! :)

The strange thing is that it's not one of the front bottom teeth, like normal. It's on the side. Very strange! But it's been so loose for so long, it's about time it came out. He is excited for the Tooth Fairy to come and leave him some cash. :)

Another trip

Believe it or not, my family went to Lovell again last week! That makes three times this month. This time we all went. Joel's brother, Dane, was approved to finish the rest of his mission, so we went up to spend time with him and say goodbye. While we were there Lovell finally got some snow. I think it was making up for lost time because there was a LOT of snow. Joel and his brothers were disappointed because they weren't able to go out shooting, but instead we all went out and played in the snow! We were going to sled down the hill by Joel's Mom's house, but they plowed the street before we could get to the fresh snow. The kids played in the front yard for awhile, and Aunt Kynstyl helped them make a little hill of snow to sled down.

Will...

Gavin...

After awhile we went and found a place by the canal that had an okay hill for sledding. Jenna was the only kid that came, the others were a little too cold by then. Here she is with Uncle Dane...

Brothers...


Devin came down pretty fast once, in the process getting a lot of snow in his face. The snow in all of his hair made him look like an old man! It was hilarious!

After Dane hit the tree at the end he made himself comfortable in the snow. :)

Dane flew out of Billings Monday morning and headed straight for New Jersey, where he will be serving. It was hard to say goodbye to him again, and we will miss him so much, but we are also so proud of him and happy for him!

We came home on Sunday even though the roads were not all that great. We made it to Casper without any problems, but when we got to Casper we found out that part of the highway between Casper and Laramie was closed. We ended up going down the freeway to Cheyenne, then over to Laramie. The roads were fine that way, but there was some seriously strong wind that was actually scary at times. It was definitely the long way around, but we made it home safely!

p.s. Has anyone ordered a book from Blurb recently? I'm trying to order my 2009 book and still haven't been able to. Every time I try to upload the book to blurb it stops partway through and gives me the error of "Out of sequence chunk". I've contacted blurb support about it, and they basically say to just keep trying. They also say to try from a different Internet connection, even though I know nothing is wrong with my connection. From my online research it seems to be a very common problem they have. Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you deal with it? Any input would be helpful!

A few days away

Beginning last week Joel had a week off of work, so he decided to go up to Lovell to hang out for awhile since he didn't get to be there long over Christmas break. He took Adam with him, which was fun for everyone. Father and son had a great trip, and Mom had the opportunity to get some things done without a two year old.

Jenna, Will and I had a fun time as well. A few things we did included a living room picnic, playing sequence dice, cleaning out toys (okay, that was only fun for me), having a talent show that the kids put together, and just spending time together. There is also a possibility that I spent a lot of time at my friend Sarah's house. :) I didn't get any pictures of all of these things, which I was bummed about. When it was time for Dad and Adam to come back the kids weren't as excited as I thought they would be. They both kept saying how nice it was that it was quiet because Adam wasn't screaming, and how it was nice that they could play without Adam messing up their stuff. However, as soon as Daddy and Adam walked in the door they were obviously excited to see them! Adam and Joel both got a lot of hugs, and the kids have enjoyed playing together again.

Joel and Adam also had a great time in Lovell. Adam was able to play quite a bit with his cousin, Gavin. They had a fun time together! Joel snapped a few pictures of them..


With Grandma...

Having a drink... :)

Climbing on the back of the couch and peeking over the wall...

Looking fierce!!! (Isn't Gaven's face awesome!)

I was very happy to get my boys back and have our family together again. It was nice for Joel and Adam to have a few days away, and I think it made us all appreciate each other a bit more. It's always good to be reminded of how much you love your family!

Hello, 2010!

Happy New Year, everyone! I know I'm a few days late, but better late than never.

We headed up to Lovell a few days after Christmas so we could spend time with family, and get out of town for a few days. We really didn't do anything too exciting in Lovell. However, Joel's Mom got a Wii for Christmas, as well as Wii Fit Plus. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time enjoying the games! Here are all of the grandkids on that side (yes, my children make up three of the four, but another will be added soon! Congrats, Devin and Kynstyl!)...
Devin was busy, he couldn't pose all pretty like his brothers. :)

Bowling...

Dane had a trick he liked to do every time...

It didn't always work out for him. :)

Brenda had great form!

Joel wasn't able to say in Lovell for very long because he had to work. He went home on New Years Eve day, so I had no one to kiss at midnight. :( I did go to Joel's Aunt Marianne's house for a Robertson New Years Eve. We played games and ate yummy food. It was a good night, and I actually went to bed earlier that night than I had the previous two nights!

We are back home now; kids are in school and life it back on schedule. I have to take Jenna to Cheyenne today to get a cavity filled, but luckily Joel didn't have to work last night so he gets to stay home with the boys. That definitely makes things easier!

We are looking forward to a great 2010!

p.s. I must have forgotten to mention this in previous posts, but Joel and I have decided to move to AZ. Joel will start grad school at A.T. Still University in June!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays to everyone! We've had a great could of days; a great week, in fact. The kids have been out of school and Joel hasn't had to work, so we've done a whole lot of nothing! Isn't that great! Actually, we've had to be productive here and there, but we've had our fair share of just hanging around and enjoying each other's company. It's been absolutely great.

A few weeks ago Jenna asked me if we could make a sponge cake (where that came from, I have no idea), so I told her we would make one for Christmas. She and Will were great helpers. They both read the recipe for me and helped me dump in ingredients. I realized that this was the first time I've ever made a sponge cake from scratch (I've done angel food, but not sponge), so I was pleased that everything turned out just fine.
Here we are with the before, and if I'd been thinking we would have done an after shot, as well. Oh well!

For Christmas Eve we drove around to look at Christmas lights. After we got home we read from Luke 2, then had root beer floats while watching Joy to the World. Here are the kids after getting home from looking at lights...

Jenna woke us up around 6:15 this morning. She very obviously couldn't wait to open presents, so we sent her upstairs to get the boys up! Boy was she excited! Her enthusiasm for any and all holidays always amazes me, and Christmas surpasses them all, by far!

We all had a great time going through our stockings and opening presents. The kids got a lot of books this year, which we think is great! Here they are with the books from Aunt Adrienne... (Jenna is wearing her hat that she got in her stocking, she wore it the entire time we opened presents :)

Will and Adam got matching "Cars" blankets from Grandma R. for their beds. They even have their names stitched on them! Could there be a better blanket for a little boy's bed? I think not.

And here are Adam and Will, eating some popcorn that Santa brought and watching Monsters vs. Aliens.

After we opened presents I was doing a puzzle that I got as a gift. (in fact I basically begged for a puzzle. I really enjoy doing them, but Joel doesn't. This year I made it very clear that I wanted a puzzle!) Anyway, Joel also got me a mat to do the puzzle on. You know, the kind you can roll up so you can put the puzzle away, then get it back out later. Well, the mat was a little bumpy from being folded up in a box. Joel suggested I iron it, which I did. The felt did flatten out a bit, which was nice. I then turned the iron off and went about other activities.

A bit later Joel noticed that the iron was still plugged in, so he wisely unplugged it, thinking it could be dangerous to leave it plugged in. As it turns out, it was dangerous to have it out at all. While Joel was in the shower, and I was upstairs with Jenna, Adam plugged the iron back in, pushed the button to turn it on, and apparently proceeded to iron the kitchen table.

I was very dismayed to find my table looking like this...

However, after further inspection Joel figured out there was about 4-5 spots on the table that had had some serious iron time. Meaning Adam didn't just turn it on and walk away, he was playing with the hot iron. I cared a little less about my melted table top then, and was just extremely grateful that Adam hadn't burned himself at all! (I'm still a little bugged about my table though. What was I thinking, not putting the iron away? Lesson learned.)

We had a great Christmas today, truly. We all got things we wanted/needed, and the best part of all was being together with a spirit of giving. I know that we all think about how blessed we are at this time of year, and I just want to add my little bit to the pot. I am so thankful for my family. I am grateful to know that I can be with my family forever; there isn't one single thing more comforting than that in the world. And that is truly the greatest gift we've ever been given.

So Much!

I feel like there is so much to cover, and I can't decide how much detail to go into.

Joel and I were lucky enough to go to Mesa, AZ this weekend so Joel could interview at A.T. Still University. Our friends watched our kids for us here in Laramie, and we pretty much owe them our souls for it! We couldn't have done it without you, Bades! Thank you so much! My kids were so excited to go have a sleep-over at their house, they weren't even sad to see us go.

We were lucky to go at all, because all of the roads out of Laramie were closed on Wednesday! We were supposed to fly out of Denver Thursday morning, but we were wondering if we were going to get there. Thankfully the roads opened up at just the right time, and Joel and I made a break for it!

We were able to get to Denver safely and stay the night at a hotel that night. We made it to Phoenix with no problems, except for Joel losing his drivers licence in Denver after we went through security. That was no good!

We had a great time in Mesa! We went to a Madrigal Feast that my niece was in on Thursday night. While Joel interviewed Friday I did some shopping and hung out with my sisters. Friday night Joel and I went to a movie together, maximizing our childlessness.

On Saturday my sisters and I did a cinnamon roll bake-off. We wanted to figure out which great cinnamon roll recipe/frosting recipe was the best. It was extremely scientific and delicious! You would think I'd be sick of cinnamon rolls after eating so many yesterday, but I could honestly go for a few more!

I had grand plans to take a lot of pictures while I was there, but I was lame and only got one picture, and it wasn't even in Mesa! This is Joel and I in the airport in Denver, waiting for our flight...
Joel felt like the interview went really well. They said they would let us know in four to six weeks. That's a long time! Well, it turns out that we didn't have to wait that long because they called Joel tonight and offered him a spot in the PA program! Yay! We couldn't believe they called so soon. The guy said they were very impressed with his application and interview. We are so happy and relieved to hear that confirmation. Because Utah turned Joel down, we will be deciding between Billings and Mesa. There is a lot to consider!

We were really happy to pick up our kids today, but they were definitely not eager to come home. The boys were the happiest to see us, but Jenna wanted to stay and play. I was happy that they had a fun time. She cheered up a bit after we got home, I'm happy to say. Now it's back to reality, school, work, etc.