Bon Voyage

Before we ever started building our house, Rick and I made a plan to use our American Express as much as we could during constuction to rack up the points to use on a vacation as a reward for FINISHING the house. That plan finally came to fruition last week. We left out of San Diego on the 17th for a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riveria. I was SO worried about going on a cruise because if you know me, you know I get motion sickness riding in an elevator. Thankfully, the seas were pretty smooth and I didn't even get sick...until the last day. Even though I spent most of that day sleeping off my motion sickness drugs, we still loved the cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat. The food was AMAZING. The entertainment was FUN. The ship was BEAUTIFUL. The beaches were FANTASTIC. And the time that we were able to spend together relaxing was PRICELESS. We managed to take 114 pictures, but I did narrow it down to these ten. Today it is snowing in Woodland. BOO! I want to be on the beach.

In port in San Diego with our ship: the ms Oosterdam.

Our first stop: Mazatlan. Walking throuh Old Town.


I love how you can buy meat and fake sunglasses in the same market!


Rick showing me how to bodyboard.


Me not quite getting the timing of the waves.

Our second stop: Puerto Vallarta

We rented a jeep and went into the jungle. It was beautiful.

Our third stop: Cabo San Lucas

This is the marina where the rich and famous park their yachts. Seriously, there was one that was too big to park in the marina and had to be in the bay with the cruise ships. It even had a helipad and helicopter. Ah, that would be the life.

Lover's Beach at Cabo San Lucas.

The very tip of the Baja Pennisula.

Rick was one of the brave people to play in the waves. They were HUGE! Here he managed to get away, but he was not so fortunate a couple of times and was literally smashed into the sand. I kept myself busy laying out.

Formal night in the dining room.

We met up with a fun couple from Arizona and spent a lot of time with them, including the formal dinner where Rick talked us all into eating the escargo. It didn't taste to bad at the time, but was terrible later that evening when I threw it back up.

Easter, Conference, Luke's 8th Birthday...

Although it has been a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to post some pictures of the boys on Easter/Conference/Birthday weekend. Luke was born on conference weekend 8 years ago, and I love that every April conference we get to celebrate his birthday. The best years are those (like this year) where Easter is also on that same weekend. It makes the for the best celebrations. We had a good time decorating the eggs, with only one major spill...and it was ME who spilled the RED die on the table! I let the boys do whatever they wanted to their eggs (a difficult thing for me who wants them all to be "beautiful") and they totally loved it. If they liked to eat hard boiled eggs I would do dozens and dozens of eggs, but I am the only one who eats them and I can only eat so many in the weeks following Easter. Easter morning Rick and I woke up to the sound of cracking eggs and Elijah found the eggs the Easter Bunny left on the stairs and did his best to open them. Noah totally cracked me up with his candy. He is a VERY picky eater, and apparently that applies to candy as well. He found his basket and immediately started giving away the candy he didn't want. In the end he hardly had any. I guess the Easter Bunny needs to stick to plain M&Ms for him.

Luke had some friends over the weekend of his birthday for a pizza, How to Train Your Dragon, and sleepover party. I was aghast that the conversation in the car was about passing gas, but Rick just laughed and said, "Wait until they are Boy Scout age, they will be really obnoxious." Boys. I just don't get them. He had a great 8th birthday, and is SO excited to be baptized in a couple of weeks. I just can't believe that he is at that point in his life already!

Spring has finally stated to come to Woodland and the we have already started loving being outside more. Just one more month until summer break. We all can't wait.

Windows

I'm sure you have heard the saying, "Whenever God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window." (Okay, I should not have put that in quotes because I really have no idea what the actual saying is, but you get the idea). Lets just say that this ENTIRE house building process has seemed like one door closing after another. The loan process the same. Two weeks ago Rick's car died. I have also had to downgrade my car for mortgage reasons. SLAM! But just like always there is an open window. Ours came in the form of a new job.

I just found out that I got a job that I applied for a month ago. For most of my parenting life I have always said I would love a part-time job in my field. You get the benefits of being at home with your children most of the time, you use your education doing something that you love, and a few days a week you have to get out of your sweat pants. I am so excited! Two and a half days a week I will be working as a Health Educator for Summit County. It means working a few more hours a week then I do now, but being all lumped together will make it feel less hectic (I think). It seems perfect. I just hope it turns out that way!

Ta-Da!

Get Ready! Here is the big reveal.

(okay, just parts of the big reveal, but hopefully enough to keep you happy.)

Here is a view of the front.

I can't wait to take a picture in the spring when the grass is green and the trees are in bloom. (more about the wonderful tress when they are in bloom and we can really see "popcorn" out of the window.)

Welcome! Coming in the front door.

(Don't mind the blue painter's tape. We'll get to that someday.)

Master bathroom. Ahhhh, I love to have my own sink. AND my own closet there at the end.


Our own indoor hottub!
(The boys quite like it too.)

The beautiful master shower.
My dad did the tile in the showers and it looks amazing. Thanks so much dad.

The great room.
(Rick was on a ladder on the scaffolding to get to the top!)

A look into the kitchen from the eating area. I love it so much. It turned out so beautiful.

The lonley loft.

Futre home of a beautiful custom desk and window seat with flanking bookcases.

(Current home on one lone chair and a single bookcase that doesn't even fit half of our books.)

A look to the entryway from the loft.
(Is that painter's plastic still attatched to the top of the window? Yep.)

Looking out from the loft.

(The railing is two-toned for a reason. That reason being that we haven't finished stiaining it yet.)

The boys bathroom.

A closer look at my dad's wonderful tiling job.

Well there you have it. Eleven pictures of the house. I hope that everyone has had their fill for a while because I can't imagine that I will get the rest "picture ready" for quite some time. I'm much too busy LOVING my new place.

Alive and well

I know, I know. I have been VERY delinquent on keeping up with my blog. I would like to cite ONE THOUSAND things that I have been doing instead, but I don't want this post to sound like a whine session. I have been feeling overwhelmed by the thought of catching up on all of the things that I have missed blogging about, so I have decided not to even try. The holidays were fabulous, and best of all we were able to spend Christmas in our new house. It was truly the best Christmas present I have ever received. We have been in the house for a little over a month and are finally settled in. Most of our stuff has found a place and it is really feeling like a home instead of just a house.

I know that everyone is anxious to get some pictures of the new house, but there are still a number of little project we need to finish, and some cleaning and decorating to be done, before I feel like having the big reveal. Maybe I can take it one room at a time. We'll just have to see. For now you will have to be satisfied with a picture of the boys on Christmas Eve. Ah, blogging world. It's nice to see you again. Let's stay in touch a little better.

Severe Weather Warining

The National Weather Service has issued a severe weather warning for Woodland, Utah. The storm is small, but powerful. It has tornado like gusts of activity that can leave your house totally destroyed in a matter of minutes. Do not sit idle thinking the storm won't hit, because it will. It always does. Do NOT try to clean in another room, do NOT try to make a phone call, and by all means do NOT hide in the bathroom (even to use it!). Hurricane Elijah is currently a category 4 storm, but gains power everyday. It is assumed that the storm will quickly become a category 5 and leave a wake of destruction in it's trail. TAKE ALL NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS!

Ninja, Super, and Bat....oh, my!

I love Halloween. For me is perfectly starts the holiday season. We had quite a few activities in the days that lead up to Halloween, which just added to the CRAZY life we are leading. Oh well, the effort is always worth it when it comes to making your kids happy. I am always quite frantic when I am trying to get things done, but end up being so thankful for the time and memories I have with the boys.

Here is the short list of our weeks activities

Preschool Halloween party

2nd grade class party

Sugar cookie decorating GALORE

Luke's breakdancing solo at the "Spooktacular"

Pumpkin carving

Trunk-or-treating

Trick-or-treating

(we wouldn't think of missing out on our Aunts, Uncles, and Grandpa)

Scary Movies

(Mostly Ghostly: 4 times!)

CANDY, CANDY, CANDY

Decorating cookies at the preschool Halloween party.
Noah got a little carried away with the black sprinkles and ended up with black teeth and lips.

Trying to carve his very own.

The frozen, defrosted, mushy pumpkin.

Elijah knows what Halloween is all about!

The cutest bat. EVER!

Dash showing off his muscles.

Nothing but speed.

Ninja Luke

I tried to get a good picture of all of the boys together, but Elijah was having none of it!

This is the best I was able to get.