We are moving!

Well it's official we will be moving to Odessa, Texas. After a little fighting with Jason's work we were finally able to get our transfer approved last Friday. It looks like Jason will go to Odessa to begin working the first part of January. The kids and I will stay behind to pack and to try to sell our house. We are hopeful that our house will sell by or before the middle of February but if it doesn't then we will look for good renters instead. In either case Jason will come back the last week of February to help me and the kids move to Odessa.

We aren't sure that we will get a chance to all go down there before we move but we have until the end of March to find a house because the company will be paying for us to stay in a hotel until then. I'm not thrilled about living in a hotel with three kids...I'm just staying hopeful that we will find a house quickly that we can move into once we are there.

I think we are all excited, nervous, anxious, and most of all relieved this all went through. I am really looking forward to purging stuff before we leave since it seems you begin to collect junk you don't need when you've been in the same house for 4 years. Not sure that I am looking forward to all the cleaning and boxing up of everything that is going to take place over the next month! I'm also happy that we are not moving that far away from family. My sister, Liana and her husband, are stationed in White Sands, NM which is only about a 5 hour drive from Odessa. Plus we have family in San Antonio and friends all around that area.

We are all looking forward to this next chapter in our lives. I know that it all worked out the way it should have and I'm grateful for the changes that are about to take place with Jason's job. This transfer means that Jason will be able to advance into bigger and better things within his company which is all we have ever wanted for him.

So for all that live here in/around Farmington we will miss you terribly!!!! We never thought we would be moving so this is a big step for us. I hope we get lots of visitors in Odessa!! I'll keep everyone posted through this blog over the next couple months! Wish us luck with this move...we will need it!!

Advent Calendar: Ice Hangings

Today's activity with the kids is one that I saw in Family Fun magazine. We took out all of our Christmas cookie cutters and placed them in a cake pan, strung a string through each cookie cutter, added some cold water and placed the pan in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they were frozen we ran the pan under a little hot water to break the ice free from the cookie cutters. Then I got a long stick, tied the ice hangings along the stick, and hung the stick on our back porch.

We put the stick in a place where the boys can see their ice hangings from our back door each day! This was a fun, simple activity that I plan to do again and again!!

(A FEW THINGS WE LEARNED: The simple cookie cutters were easiest to get the ice out of without cracking them...we accidental broke Rudolph's antlers off and his head was hanging separately from his body...oops. And it would have been neat to have a little color so I would add a few drops of food coloring next time.)

The Funny Things RYAN Says

After I picked Ryan up from preschool today we began our normal conversation..."How was your day?", "What did you do?", "What did you eat for lunch?". However today it went a little something like this...
Me: "Ryan, how was your day at school today?"
Ryan: "It was good. Mom when dad dropped me off at school today, I went into the cafeteria."
Me: "Oh, were you not supposed to go there?"
Ryan: "No it was okay actually it was GREAT. I walked in and stood next to the twin girls in my class. I kinda stood close to them and now they are in LOVE with me!"
Me: "What makes you think they are in love with you?"
Ryan: "They called me BooBoo all day today. They are so silly, they know my name is Ryan but because they are in LOVE they called me BooBoo."

Then at dinner tonight he informed me that he didn't want to tell dad what happened at school "because he thinks he might be in love with the twins just like they are in love with him. Daddy would just laugh at me for that."

Now yesterday's after school conversation was a interesting as well...
Me: "What did you do in school today, Ryan?"
Ryan: "Nothing."
Me: "What do you mean nothing?"
Ryan: "We did nothing."
Me: "So you didn't eat lunch, play, clean up, sing, write???"
Ryan: "Nope, we didn't do one single thing?"
Me: "Did you just sit in class all day?"
Ryan: "Yeah something like that."

Later he admitted to Jason that "they did do things in class but they weren't very interesting things so it felt like he did nothing but he still had fun and likes school."

Some of our JibJab creations!!

The boys love to help us download our pictures into funny songs, pictures, ect through JibJab. Here are a few of our creations...hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we do!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Advent Calendar: Luminarias

We made an advent calendar for the month of December with an activity on each day to celebrate winter/Christmas. Over the last week we have; made a snowman craft, sang Christmas carols, visited Santa at the mall, enjoyed family free night at the Festival of Trees, watched a Christmas movie, and drove through the Luminarias at San Juan College. Here are some pictures of the kids riding in the van through the display and pictures of the display. I'll update this next week after we have spent this week enjoying more activities!

Stockings are hung and tree is trimmed!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend decorating our house for Christmas!! The boys really enjoyed helping us decorate this year. They were so interested in every little decoration we put out, it defiantly made the entire experience a lot of fun for all of us!!

Now, we weren't too sure about putting out all of our decorations because we have recently made the decision to transfer with Jason's work. Work here is slow and it has become increasingly hard to make enough money to support our family. Originally we were looking at Dickinson, ND but we are now looking at Odessa, TX and Rock Springs, WY. We will defiantly be making a move in the very near future (probably the first of February)...we just aren't sure exactly where we will decide to transfer. Our Realtor came today to look at putting our house on the market as soon as possible, then if it doesn't sell in a couple of months we probably be renting our house through our Realtor.

The boys are excited and can't wait to move. I am excited, nervous, scared, happy, sad, and every other emotion in between. I think more than anything I am ready have some decisions set and get this all underway. Jason is excited but also being very cautious with this very big decision.

So stay tuned to learn more about this new chapter in our lives!!

Rebecca is 4 months old!!

The last four months have flown by since Rebecca was born. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family. I must admit that she is a great baby. This may make some jealous but she sleeps 8-9 hours at night in her own room, naps for 2 hours or more at a time several times a day, falls asleep on her own, only cries when she needs a diaper change or is hungry, loves to talk (especially to her lady bug bedding), and smiles all the time.

At her 4 month check up she weighed 13lbs and is 25in long. We have been able to take her completely off of her acid reflux medicine...she spits up from time to time and it will give her an upset tummy but it is so rare that there was no need to keep her on the medicine. She is developmentally excelling! Overall she is a healthy, happy baby!!

She did catch a little cold from Jason(he was sick over Thanksgiving) but it is nothing serious and she is already feeling much better only after 3 days. Here she is at 4 months old!

Who knew you could wear a bikini in 10degree weather?? ;-)

Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for including; family, friends, good health, our jobs, house, vehicles, food, and the list goes on and on!! We started Thanksgiving with cinnimon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast. We told the boys a little about Thanksgiving and then we went around the table saying what we are each thankful for the most. Ryan named all of his family members, including extended family, because "he loves all of his family". Dylan said a few family members names and then told us he was most thankful for "his bike because it goes faster and faster and it is lots of fun!!".

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Jason's family at Aunt June and Uncle Howard's house in Bloomfield. It was a beautiful day so the boys spent most of our time there playing in the back yard. Rebecca got a lot of attention from all of our family there! It was great to spend the day with them all.

After dinner and time with the family we headed home but stopped to each get a movie first. Once home we spent the remainder of the night enjoying a family movie night. With popcorn and each others company while watching movies, it was a wonderful end to a great day!!

A few of Rebecca's Firsts...

Rebecca (or Becca as we like to call her) is growing more and more each day! It is always incredible to watch a baby grow so quickly but it is also a little sad because you want to cherish each moment and keep them small forever. However since you can't keep them a newborn forever I thought I would share some of Rebecca's recent firsts along with a couple adorable pictures of her!

Here is she sleeping in her own room for the first time. She naps in her crib all the time and normally sleeps in the bassinet in our bedroom at night however recently she has begun sleeping for 8 hours at night so I decided it was time to put her in her own room.


She is sitting in her bumbo seat for the first time here! She loves to sit up and watch what is going on so this seat is perfect for her! She looks very serious here because she is watching Jason type on her computer which is another one of her favorite things!!


This is an adorable outfit Rebecca got from her Aunt Natasha and Uncle Larry! I think she looks so darn cute in this outfit so I had to take a few pictures!

Silly Boys!

While eating dinner a couple of nights ago Ryan decided he and Dylan should both eat one end of a noodle, need I say more......

1st Snow! In October?!?

Yep, that's right...we got our first snow in October this year. It was a good snow that gave us almost 6 inches. Didn't cancel school but I think that is because it caught everyone off gaurd. Here are some pictures of the boys playing in the snow. I know they are going to have a blast this winter with the snow!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy Halloween!

Here is a photo book of our Halloween adventures. Jason was out of town so we spent Saturday at the monster trucks with my parents and littlest brother. I did dress up on Friday for Ryan's class party and our MOMS Club party however we forgot to get pictures. We always do a theme family costume and this year we chose Scooby Doo. Jason was supposed to be Fred, I was Daphnie, Ryan was Shaggy, Dylan was Scooby, and Rebecca was Velma. It was a great weekend!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Rebecca's 1st Laugh

Jason has managed to be the first person to make each of our kids laugh despite my best efforts! He does this weird hiccup and giggle and they find it so funny. This is a video of Rebecca laughing at Jason. She was laughing more before I got the camera out (isn't that what always happens?). Of course you can hear the boys laughing and talking in this video as well. First laughs are just as fun as making them laugh every day as they grow but a little sweeter! ;-)

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

The kids and I went with Ryan's preschool class to Sutherland Farms in Aztec today. We all had so much fun! Everyone was so worn out from all the running, exploring, and playing we did that we all took good long naps when we got home! Now we can't wait to take the whole family out to Sutherland Farms this weekend!! Check out this smilebox to see all the fun pictures we took!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The Great Pumpkin Patch Express

What a fun day we just had! We went on the Great Peanut Pumpkin Express! We left Durango and road the train for about 30 minutes then it let us off at a "pumpkin patch" where we had a day full of fun activities. The kids got to enjoy a "bobbing" for apples and ducks game, a bean bag toss, tattoos, pictures with Peanuts Gang (including Snooby, Charlie Brown, & Lucy), got some balloon animals, went through a hay maze, got a pumpkin, played on a bounce train, took a tractor hay ride, and ate lunch! Then we road the train back to the depot. At the station they found the Great Pumpkin which was the perfect end to our wonderful day!

We can't wait to go again next year! Maybe we'll make it a family tradition!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Catching Up....

Sorry everyone I got a little behind on blogging...I have spent the night catching up! I'll try to begin posting something once a week just to help keep you all updated on our busy lives! =) I hope you have fun reading what we've been up to lately and looking at all the fun pictures!

Becca: 2 Months Old

While we were in White Sands, NM Rebecca turned 2 months old so when we returned home we took her for her 2 month check up. She now weighs 10lbs and is 22inches long! I can't believe how much she has already grown just in this very short two months. She still doesn't compare to the boys' sizes at this age. ;-)

She has begun to coo at us plus she is very interested in looking and studying the world around her. She also smiles at us now!! She is a wonderful baby...sleeps 5 to 6 hours at a time during the night and 3 to 4 during the day. Only cries when she is hungry, needs her diaper changed, or the on the occasional time she gets to much love from her brothers. She makes a million different faces and waves her hands around when she is "talking" to us, just like me. We all call her "Becca" which is what is easiest for Dylan to say.

I have had several people say how much she resembles me so I pulled a picture of myself as a baby and was pleasantly surprised at how much she really does resemble me. Both boys look a lot like Jason and only have a couple of my characteristics. Here is a picture of me, you be the judge....

Quick Vacation!

Jason had a weeks paid vacation that we had to use before the end of the year so we decided to have him take the week off that both my brother and sister would be in town for my brothers wedding. On Thursday we drove down to White Sands with Liana to visit her and Jeremy for the remainder of Jason's vacation. We took the kids to a movie, the park, and to a little amusement park while we were there. It was a great trip that we hope to do every couple of months!!

Here are some pictures that I took at the amusement park!

This is what Rebecca did while we were there at the park.

Liana and Jeremy

The boys driving a boat!

This is Liana and Jeremy's dog, Roxy, she took a short ride with us and decided the best place to sit would be in the extra booster seat! It was too cute!!

Larry & Natasha's Wedding

While Larry was visiting he and Natasha had their wedding. It was a great wedding that lasted late into the night! We all had fun, even with Ryan feeling under the weather from a cold he caught just a couple days before.


My parents with their grandkids.

Rebecca with her Yaya and Papa.

Larry, my parents, and our kids.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Welcome Home Larry!

I am excited to say that Larry is back from his term in Afganistan! He came to visit us in New Mexico a couple weeks after his return to the states. He was in town for a week.

These pictures are the boys hugging Larry...they hadn't seen him in seven months and were thrilled he was here to visit!


This is a picture of Larry holding Rebecca for the first time!

5th Generation Picture

I visited Arizona for a MOMS Club board workshop...ofcourse Rebecca went with me. So at 8 weeks old she took her first plane ride! While we were there we visited some family before catching our plane home. This picture has my Great Grandma and Grandpa Frost, Grandma Susie, Aunt Ronda, Me and Rebecca. It's not every day you get a five generation picture so I feel very blessed.