Christmas 2012

We had a real great Christmas this year…minus the fact that all five of us were so stinking sick the whole Christmas break.  Literally.  It all started the last day of Easton’s school.  By the end of the day, both Easton and I were down for the count.  Easton had a fever and runny nose, and I had the worst sore throat of my life plus fever, chills etc.  It hit Ty the next day, and Ellie was right after him.  Poor Ace was last, but he still had to go to work (and finish the playroom for Christmas).  Yikes.  We were pretty helpless.

We are all on mend now…except for Ty.  He got an ear infection right after getting better from the last thing.  He’s on meds now.  One other problem though, the Dr. prescribed some ear drops to numb the pain, but after I used them, Ty hasn’t been able to hear well…. like, I have to yell…loud…in his face for him to hear me.  Aaaannnnd, it’s been five days, he still can’t hear me.  I called the doc, he says its normal and could last for a few weeks… What?!

So that’s great news.

So anyway, on to bigger and better things…

Leading up to Christmas.Easton lost his two front teeth on the same day.  Couldn’t have been better timing I don’t think.  (although he didn’t necessarily love it when I sang “All I want for Christmas…” every time I saw him)  Ellie is mastering standing on her own.  Her favorite time to practice is when I’m trying to do her hair.

We constructed a Home Depot Gingerbread house….There’s really nothing like pre-made orange frosting.

And then, of course, we headed to the Forgotten Carols.  This was supposed to be a great year, because it was Easton’s first time coming with us…Oh yeah then we got sick.  Easton started feeling bad right before the show.The poor boy.  Felt bad the whole time. He mostly slept on Ace’s lap, except for when he couldn’t handle not watching the play, he’d sit up for a few minutes until he felt bad enough he had to lay back down.  So sad.  Then, as soon as we got home was about when I started feeling sick. And it was all downhill from there.

Then we had about four days to finish the bonus room.  And when I say we, I mean Ace and his brothers.  I was pretty worthless the whole time.  We got the carpet in the week before Christmas.  Then had two days to paint and bring all the furniture and toys in.Carpet in. Mid painting.

The night before Christmas eve we brought everything in.  We had awesome help from Brad, Lauren, Jesse and Sami who came over late that night after the kids were in bed.  Oh man Thank you guys!  We finished at around 2:30 in the morning.  Whew! We made it!The little secret kid room all wrapped up for another surprise.

It looks a little boring right now, but I have big plans for this room…just no time before Christmas!

Christmas Eve we had dinner with my family and had a big slew of presents for everyone. 

By this time, Ellie was pretty stinking miserable.  She got what I had.  Fever and Sore throat.  She lost her voice, and just made the saddest sounds ever.We reenacted the nativity story…Uncle Jesse tried on a Trundle Bundle…Looking great JesseThis picture was our Christmas miracle.  Everyone is looking great and smiling… (I’m giving Ellie props for just looking at the camera)

When we came home, Santa had already been to our house!Santa brought Ellie binkies!Easton got a bow and arrow…yikesTy got a little crossbow…yikes. yikes.This was the first toy she attempted to play with all night.

And then it was off to surprise them with the playroom…they were pretty thrilled.We just sat up here late into the night playing with all the toys.  They loved it.

Ace took the pictures on his phone… I’ll have to post them later.

Christmas morning, we went to the Casper’s for breakfast and more presents!

Christmas was quite an adventure this year!  Thankfully, we are starting to feel better!  Seriously, thank you everyone who helped us get that room finished in time!  We couldn’t have done it without all your help! For real. Thanks!

And our Christmas card this year for all who I don’t have an address for…

Merry Christmas!

Home Sweet Home.

--Finally have internet!  Big huge post warning!--

We’re in! We closed on Friday, November 9, but our superintendent still had some last minute things to finish up, and we wanted to paint the family room and kitchen.  So we finally made the big move on Wednesday, November 14. 

And then, we painted….In our house, Safety comes first. 

Yes, that would be a paint can they are using to balance the ladder.  I was scared for Ryan’s life, and I’m not going to lie, terrified that the paint was going to explode all over my new house.

Then, we moved. And my new house got messy anyway.  (but a messy that’s way better than a paint explosion)

Our first night in our houseThe boys got to sleep in their bunk bed for the first time.  They can’t seem to agree on who gets what bunk, so they decided to switch off every night.

Setting up our TV, one of our speakers was making a funny rattling sound, Ace tipped it over and out came Ty’s hoarding stash of toys that he apparently had been shoving inside one by one before the move.I was so happy when they finally got rid of the giant mound of dirt in our backyard.  Everyday we came back from looking at our house, the boys were filthy.  And then, about 4 days after we moved in, they brought new dirt right next door.  Perfect.  Just Perfect.Easton had his new first day of school.  Originally, we had planned on me driving him up to Lehi until our house was done, but when we moved to Orem, they hadn’t even started on our house yet, and didn’t even have a start/finish date for us; we weren’t sure how long we would end up being there…so we decided to have him go to Hillcrest until we moved.  I talked to him about the fact he would get to go to a new school soon a lot, and he was excited. 

He was so excited…right up until we walked inside his new school.  Suddenly he became this shy, quiet kid.  He looked terrified.  The principal introduced himself to Easton, and took us on a tour of the school.  Easton didn’t say a word the whole time (which is unheard of for him).  I felt so terrible. 

Then we walked into his classroom, and all of his classmates knew he was coming.  They came running to greet him, and tell him where his backpack goes, and where his new desk is.  He immediately looked a little better, still quiet, but better. 

He has made some new friends that love to play soccer, and his favorite thing about this new school is that the second recess is longer than it was at his old school…because, really, what else matters?

Our new ward has been so nice and welcoming.  The only problem I’ve got is that church starts at 8:30am.  Anyone who knows us, knows this is a problem.  We have yet to be on time to church.  My kids are so tired they don’t want to eat breakfast before church, so we’ve ended up having brunch after church.  Look how tired we all look!

Here is a little progression of our house starting from the beginning:August 24, 2012: Day 1 started digging.

On the inside:

But we aren’t done…up that staircase is a “bonus room” that, to save a little money, we got unfinished…That is going to be the kids’ playroom and we are trying to get it done for Christmas…

Right now, it looks like this…

Ace and his brothers and my brother did the electrical work.  Poor Jesse was the only one small enough to climb through this itty bitty hole to run the electrical wires…Tortured by the insulation.

Ace framed in a closet.  And…that whole in the wall… (which was made after poor Jesse climbed through the itty bitty hole…sorry Jess)He framed that too.  It’s a surprise for the boys.  In the model home of our floor plan, they had this little cave room, and every time we went to the model (a lot) the boys went straight to this room.  They loved it.  They were so excited when we said we were buying the house, but mostly excited about the “kid room”. We asked the home builder how much extra it was to add it and they told us it was a $4000 upgrade because they had to change the structure of the home.

Nope.  Sorry boys.  Not Happening.

We had to brake the news to them that even though our house would look the same,  it wasn’t going to have the “kid room”.

But then during the framing, Ace thought there would be enough space to do it himself.  And that is just what he did….after a bit of coaxing from me. (apparently framing and dry-walling a small, slanted room is not so fun.)

The boys haven’t seen it and don’t know it’s coming.  We are hoping to surprise them on Christmas… if we can get it done (I say “we” mostly meaning Ace, with me mostly cheering him on from the sidelines…and handing him a hammer every now and then)

We are so, so, so happy to finally be in our house!  And I want to say a big HUGE Thank you to everyone who has helped us the last couple of weeks…

Ryan, Brad, James, Raylene, and Larry for helping with basically everything: painting, framing, cleaning,  moving etc…Jesse, Johnny, Nate, and Steven all helped move us in. Mandy, and Cindy and Natalie and my mom all helped with watching my kids.  Thank you to Rebecca and Lauren and Mandy letting their husbands be away on so many nights and Saturdays.  And everyone one else who has helped us!  Seriously.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!