New Year's letter

About the time I should be starting to work on a Christmas letter, we decided that we would be moving a week after Christmas. So, I decided to to write a New Year's letter.
This year started out with a trip to McCall's ice festival. On the last day we were there, Jeff kept getting phone calls from people he worked with saying they had just got laid off and wanted to say how much they had enjoyed working with him. He got so many calls we started feeling a little uncomfortable and come to find out, he lost his job as well. It wasn't long before we heard about a possible job opportunity in Sacramento. In March they flew us out to check it out, and we decided to take the leap.

At the end of March we went to the Oregon Coast with my family for a week before we all went our separate ways (us to CA and my brother's family was moving to OR) we had a blast. Jeff started his new job (a manager of a Chevron/Quiznos) in Auburn California in the middle of May. The kids and I waited until school was out and moved down in June. We LOVE it here! We've been to San Francisco twice, Santa Cruise, and of course Sacramento. It is beautiful, if only California wasn't so stinking expensive it would be perfect!
Evan is 8 and he started 3rd grade and is enjoying it. He is video game junkie. One of his favorite things right now is scouts. He misses his friends in Boise, but is making new ones and loves being closer to his cousins that live here.
Paxton is 5 and has started kindergarten. Kindergarten here is all day, and he loves every minute of it. He's starting to do a lot of reading and loves to tell me all about his day when he gets home. He took swimming lessons this summer, although he has always been a little fish, he is a much safer fish now.
Rilynn is now 3 and is a social butterfly, everyone is her best friend. She is girly, sweet, sassy, bossy, and tough all rolled into one little body. She started a little joy school just one day a week, but she wishes it were 5 days a week. I'm pretty sure she really one cares about the socializing part though.
Cooper is now a year and a half and is the biggest handful I've ever experienced. He climbs, breaks, dumps out, and destroys anything in sight. On the other hand is is my biggest cuddler I've ever had. He also has very cute dimples that save his life daily. He such a fun baby to have.
Jeff loves his new job. He's playing indoor soccer and basketball each once a week. He's such a fun dad and had alot of fun playing with the kids at the lake in our neighborhood this summer. He has made a lot of new friends and has many "man dates" with them. In August I was visiting Boise and Jeff called and told me he had booked a Mexican 6 night cruise for our 10 year anniversary and for my 30th birthday. We went in October and had an amazing time. Cabo San Lucas is beautiful and a cruise was such a relaxing yummy calorie filled way to spend our time. I can't wait to go on another.

I am staying busy with four kids, it's the best job I could ever hope for. I work in Evan's class once a week and as an art docent in Paxton's class. I am in the young women's presidency which has been so much fun. We miss our family and friends in Boise, but we are loving it here. I truly feel very blessed everyday.

I hope you all are doing well and this year brings you much happiness!

Santa is Rich

Jeff and I went Christmas shopping and when we got home Jeff unloaded "Santa's loot" while I went and got the boys from our friends house. It was pretty late when we got home, and we knew the kids were just going to go to bed, so Jeff just threw the presents on the bed (we had just gotten them one present each from Costco-so they weren't in any bags). Paxton went in our room and comes out and says, "I'm sorry, I just saw the presents"....O.H. S.N.A.P! We aren't giving them presents from us this year, so we couldn't use that to play it off...we were totally busted. I told Jeff to tell him Santa brought them early or something...ANYTHING, so Jeff takes Paxton downstairs and this is their conversation.
Jeff, "Paxton, I have to tell you a secret, but you can't tell anyone. We saw Santa tonight."
Paxton, "Santa? Where were you?"
Jeff, "We were at Costco and he asked us to do him a favor, to save him a trip. You can't tell anybody, but Santa doesn't always make all of the toys, he buys some of them."
Paxton, "I know, he's rich! Did everybody talk to Santa?"
Jeff, "Some people did, not everybody."
Paxton, "Did he talk to the bad people?"
Jeff, "No, he doesn't talk to bad people. So..., which present did you want?"
Paxton, "What were they again?"
That kid cracks me up! He also just had his school music program. Apparently they talked about enunciation because Paxton enunciated the heck out of those songs! His mouth was moving so big it looked like he was trying to bite into a triple cheeseburger. I couldn't stop laughing. I tried to get it on video, but the head of the chick in front of Paxton kept getting in the way and for some reason I can't get the little amount of video that I recorded to download.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

It snowed so much last night that the kids' school was cancelled, but apparently that doesn't mean sleep in to the kids. We were bundled up & playing at 7:45.

Safety first! Thank heavens Paxton thought to put those goggles on!

The view of the lake from our front porch.

Our crazy mountain of a driveway worked awesome as a sledding hill. Paxton wanted to stay out there all day!

We made a large snowman that Evan named Max.This last picture is Paxton rolling part of the snowman, but I thought the picture was funny because it looks like Copper was inserted into the photo (he so wasn't). It was such a fun day, I so love playing with these kids!

Some of my family (my mom and brother Brett's family)are coming for Christmas, so we went ahead and got a Christmas tree; otherwise, we may not have since we are moving a week later (to a different rental in the same neighborhood). I am so glad we did, all the kids (including Cooper) were sooo into it!!


We read "The Tale of Three Trees." Cooper kept holding the ornaments up to the tree like he was hanging them and then they would fall to the floor. This picture is his pile of ornaments that he "hung." And we had hot chocolate. Mmmmmm

And finally my attempts at a cute kid pose picture.

A little fall fun

We've had such a fun fall so far. This is the most gorgeous place to be in the fall...the leaves changing on the trees with the lake and the pine trees in the background! I love it! It's been busy. We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends. They had cute rocking horses, a jump pit, and a petting zoo- Paxton's favorite were the baby goats of course.

We made a (much too)quick trip to Boise and were there for Halloween. The kids were all Star Wars characters this year. Ev-a storm trooper, Pax-Obi Wan Kan obi, Ri-Leia, Coop-Darth Vader.
We went ice skating for Hannah's birthday. The kids loved it so much that both boys want to do go for the birthday's. My little Evan is usually one to give up on something if he doesn't get it right away, but he stuck with it and got it down pretty good. Paxton had fun throwing snowballs and pushing the training buckets. Rilynn was dead weight and she made for a good work out! They had cute little sleighs to strap the babies in.

Evan lost another tooth.
And last, we just had Jeff's birthday. This is him with his dirt cake (the only cake he loves).
Here's wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mexican Cruise

Our cruise started a little scary because of hurricane Rick. They were possibly going to re-route us to L.A. and Catalina Islands instead of Cabo San Lucas....blah! Luckily the storm got weaker quicker than expected and went away from Cabo....Thank Goodness!!!
Our first stop was Ensanada. We went to "La Buffadora" (the buffalo snort). It shot water up in the air about 120 feet. Jeff got drenched!
When we go to Cabo we rented jet skis and played. It was so fun, but the salt water burned my eyes so bad I couldn't drive very long...luckily Jeff and I shared a jet ski. The water was the perfect temperature, and oh so pretty.

There were so many things to do on the ship it was crazy! Jeff and Jay got silver medals (they say they are "platinum," which is of course better than gold) in their 3 on 3 basketball tournament and in 3 on 3 volley ball. We also played in a 3 on 3 soccer (I was the only girl). We learned to NEVER heckle a comedian (thankfully not from our experience, but ask me about it).

We played a lot of games. Lisa and I won most of them :) and we ATE AND ATE AND ATE AND ATE some more! I'm sure I gained 20 pounds!

They had these amazing pool tables that balanced themselves out. You could actually see them move, so when the ship is moving, your balls don't roll anywhere.

We rock climbed which was fun. People cheer all around you when you get to the top and ring the bell.

It was soooo much fun! I am glad we came, glad our friends came, and so glad my sister in law was sweet enough to watch our kids! I miss my kids and I am excited to see them! (I'm in the airport waiting right now.)

He's off

I'm slow to post this only because Cooper is a horrible show off. He's been walking for a few weeks, but as soon as I get out the camera to record it, he lays on the ground, rolls around, and acts as is if the camera is causing him actual pain....he's such a stinker!

I'm excited for him, he seems happier w/his new mobility. Good thing he is sooo cute at toddling...I watch him and smile instead of being sad that he's done w/yet another baby stage.

I'm OLD

The thought of thirty hadn't really bothered me until about a month ago I heard someone else's age of 34, and I thought to myself, "Oh, he's quite a bit older!" Only to realize a moment later, that's not much older than me, and soon I'll say I'm 30 and other people will think...oh, she's older! :( Since then I've been a little sad, but now it's come and gone and I'm ok w/ being 30 (aka older).
My birthday presents started in August when Jeff called me (I was in Boise and him in CA) and said, "I just need the final word...we are going on a cruise for your birthday, and I need to know if you want a cabin room or an ocean view." What?! Pretty sweet right?! BUT, I am a tight wad and don't like to remove money from our savings, so I was actually really mad, but I got over the madness and now I'm really excited. We leave for Mexico in 2 weeks!
The night before my birthday I went to enrichment and when I got home the house was spotless (what a great present for a mom!) and the kids picked out and hid my favorite candies (Dove and licorice) and made brownies that said happy birthday. My new friends took me out for surprise breakfast on my birthday. There were 9 of us and I had YUMMY lemon yogurt pancakes. Some of my friends went together a got me a really nice new swim suit for my cruise (yeah I don't have to swim naked)! My sister in law took me to Costa Vida for lunch, and at Young Women's my friend made me a birthday cake w/30 candles. Plus Jeff wrote me a letter- sooo not his style, but oh sooo sweet!
Here is a pic of the new bedding set my mom got me for my bday, is that not super cute!? Rilynn saw it and said, "Ohhhh, that's so nice!"
So all in all...I don't feel old, I might sound old (to those in their 20's and younger), but it was a great day, and I'm happy just where I am!
P.S. Cooper is finally walking! He started really trying about two weeks ago and is such a cute little toddler!