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!!