December part 1

Since I'm so far behind in blogging, I have to do it a month at a time. So for December.... we started off the Christmas season with our ward party. It was a fun night. We were asked to do a family musical number so we did the bells. It went pretty well. Then at the end of the night, of course, there was a visit from Santa. No tears this time, always a good moment. Caroline said she almost grabbed on his beard. That could have been a disaster.

We also took about 10 pictures before church one Sunday to try and get a family picture for the Christmas card. I think it worked out pretty good. Wouldn't know that I was yelling at all my kids to cooperate. They've learned how to fake the smile for a good picture. :) That way they know they're done sooner.

All the kids started fighting about which one was going to put the star on the tree so I devised a great plan. We had them all in our room watching a show and called one out at a time and told them it was a secret, but "they were the one to put the star on the tree". Then as soon as they got down, we took the star out and repeated. I thought we were so clever, but apparently Caroline said:  " did you put the star on the tree?" Liz: " yeah. " Caroline: "me too". So I guess we weren't so sneaky after all. But aside from a little, " well I did it first", it solved the drama.

I bought the tree off someone selling it and it was cheaper than a real tree. We went and looked at the real trees but there weren't that many out yet and I hate throwing down $50 + each year on a tree. I loved having the tree up and seeing the kids enjoying it so much too.

 

We also decorated gingerbread men for FHE one night. The kids enjoyed that and I had to solicit some help from Brian to get them all to look at the camera and smile. If you look in the window behind them, you'll see Brian's face. Funny.
 

That's the start to our December.

Almost forgot...

2 other things that happened in November......

 Caroline's school had the 2nd grade put on the most darling play about bugs. The costumes were so fun and the songs were adorable. She did a great job and was such a cute firefly.

Also, the last day in November we had Brian's work party. It was a nice party. They had good food, a comedian and a few fun in office games from minute to win it. They had all the doctors wives blind folded and they had to feel all doctors legs to try and figure out which one was their husband's. I knew which one was Brian, mostly because I heard him laugh when I rubbed up his leg, but they had me stop in front of Chuck because when I said I was done, I meant, I knew which one was his and wanted to stop feelings these guys legs. It was a little uncomfortable. But the night was fun and it was fun to get a little dressed up. Not many reasons to do that these days.

November

Well from my pictures, it appears as though not a whole lot happened in November. There were really a couple of things I felt worth documenting, or so it seems. For starters, Papa John and WeeMama came out for a weekend visit. It was nice to have some family come and visit us. We mostly just hung around and visited. We did go to the pool one day and that was fun.

Half way into the month Brian and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. Kind of crazy. 12 great and adventurous years. Definitely wouldn't have put myself in Colorado at this point I'm sure. Glad we're here though. It's been a great move. We got a babysitter and went out for dinner and to a movie. We had a little time to kill so we went to Nordstrom Rack and did a little hat trying on. Good times!

Then we went and ate at the Mediterranean at downtown Boulder. We walked a little down Pearl Street too before our movie. We went and saw the final Twilight Movie, Breaking Dawn part II. It was good and great to have the night to spend together. I sooooooo look forward to date nights. I married a great man!

We decided to head out to Utah for Thanksgiving and visit with the Porter fam. The kids had the whole week off of school and so staying home didn't seem like it'd be that much fun. I drove out with the kids because Brian had work, of course, but he later joined up with us and drove back with us. We did have a great time. We basically just hung out and played with the cousins, which was great fun for all of us. We went to this cute park:

Went to Gardner Village and did the elf search and ended with a yummy cookie. Kids had fun, so did we moms. ;)

Also got to go with Mom, Dad, the sisters, Jayde and Marc, to the Timpanogos temple to do Papa's (Cooper) family names. It was a neat experience and nice to be able to make it to the temple. This was our sunset on the way down.

For Thanksgiving we did something a little different. First, the night before Thanksgiving, we had a little get together at the church. We brought soup and treats and let the kids play around a bit, then we adults played around. We had a dodge ball tournament which was super fun. Oh childhood games are always fun!

For a few years now I've been wanting to do some sort of service on Christmas, but it hasn't worked out, so I thought maybe I'd give it a go on Thanksgiving. All the fam was in for it too, so we started out driving around to try and find someone who needed some leaves raked. Surprisingly there were hardly any leaves on the ground anywhere for the first little bit, but then there was one house on the street behind my parent's house, that had a bunch of leaves, so we all hopped out of our cars and got going. We moved pretty fast and got I think 17 big bags full of leaves. All the kids helped a little too, even one of the twins, who with the rake, cut open Jill's face. :( Just a little on her nose. Come to find out that the Dad at this house had been sick and also totally sprained his ankle earlier that day, so it was a great house to serve at.

Next we went to the Firehouse and delivered some doughnuts. It was supposed to just be a quick drop off, but they invited us in for a "quick" (45) tour. Not many people calling in for emergencies I guess. The kids loved it though. They got to see the truck and the best part at the end was they got to shoot the fire hose and try and knock down a cone. It was nice to be able to thank the firemen for the service. Smelled like they had a pretty good meal cookin' in there so I don't think they were too bad off.

We were running pretty short on time after that, so our last stop was to drop off some cookies at the hospital to the doctor and nurses that were there working. While we did that, some of the others (but not all. There were a few stinkers) quickly washed windows on the cars that were there and left a note that had a little treat on it. It said, "we wanted to give you a "fast break" by washing your windows. Hope you have a good Thanksgiving." We figured they were either there working or there for an emergency, so probably not wanting to be there either way. We did have a doctor come out and tell us how nice he thought it was that we were doing that. I think that maybe he was just checking on us making sure we weren't messing up his beamer. :) Either way, it all turned out pretty good and I think I'd like to make it a regular tradition. I think it's a great way to show you're truly thankful for your blessings.

 

After all the service we came home and finished preparations for dinner. I caught this picture and just found it so comical to have all these adults in the kitchen at the same time. The dinner was delicious, the company was great, and the games after were hilarious. Nothing like a good game of spoons.

The next day was the "biggest shopping day of the season" and we never really go out for that, but we did need socks and a few other items, so we hit one store towards the end of it's special hours. When we finished there, we got to meet up with our good friends the Travis and Bree Allred and their little cuties Brielle and Tayson. Love this family! We had lots of good times with them in Logan so ti was fun to see them and catch up.

Also during this trip, I was able to get together with some of my best and dearest friends from high school. Dave Sullivan and his wife heather and their 4 kids and Josh and Alisa Linton and their 3 boys. We sat and talked and then went to a park and had some pizza and played a little football. It was fun and crazy. Crazy that the four of us from high school, now 15 years later, have 13 kids. Seems too grown up. It was so fun to see them and hope we do it again before too long.

It was great to see Alisa. She was one of my best girl friends in HS and she's been through quite an ordeal over the last 4 years with cancer. She's a fighter and I've been amazed by her strength and her outlook on life. It's made me re-evaluate many things and see life a little differently.

We also wanted to have an adult night, where we weren't constantly interrupted by kids and their many needs, so we we out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and followed that with a few rounds of bowling. I love my family. So many good times together. November ended up being a pretty good month!

Halloween

I'm not sure how things got so out of control, but we had 3 nights that we had to get dressed up in our Halloween costumes this year and that is a lot when you're dealing with 5 kids! It was fun though. We had our ward party, school party and then the actual Halloween night. Earlier in the year Elizabeth and Caroline worked out everyone's costumes and it turned out, I think, super cute! It was a lot of fun to have our Wizard of Oz theme. This will probably be one of the most memorable Halloween's for me.

Beauty

We have the most gorgeous trees outside our back door and before a date night Brian and I snagged a quick picture. The fall colors are still going on here and it's so beautiful!

Coming together

We got some new furniture to help fill in our house. We put our couches downstairs and got a new set for upstairs and we really like it! The house is so bright and open and it's fun to get something nice and new to go in there. Haven't bought new furniture in 7 years, which doesn't seem too long I'm sure, but 7 years and 5 kids does show some wear. Here's a pic of the new stuff:

Charlotte turns 2!

Our sweet baby had her 2nd birthday and it was fun. Mostly because I made her a Super Why cake and she was so excited about it. She loves watching that show so I thought it was the perfect idea for her cake and I was happy with how it turned out. So was she. She kept saying "super why cake" over and over again. She, Cooper and Bella had fun playing (mostly eating) with the fondant too, so it wasn't as stressful to get it done because we were doing it together and enjoying it.

Funny thing was that when it came time to eat it, she didn't want to eat it. Matter of fact, it kind of freaked her out. Looking at it through her eyes, I think it may have been a little disturbing.

I tried to get some pictures of her and it took me like 2 weeks to finally get it. Life has been a little crazy getting the house put together and all, but it is coming together well, especially when Brian is home. He actually got through all the boxes we had left while we listened to conference. He's a workin machine! But anyway, sure love this girl and her spunky personality!

New Beginnings

So I never gave the run down on our whole decision to move to Colorado. It happened so fast and really out of no where. I was in Utah for my Grandpa's funeral and I get a call from Brian. I had to go outside so no one would hear me talking about it because I didn't want anyone over hearing and getting their hopes up or talking about it when I really had no idea what was going on.

So Brian got a call from some of our good friends from dental school, Chuck and Kendall Skinner. They (and another partner Brett Lopez) had been in discussions about bringing on another associate to one of their offices. They had done some interviewing and weren't finding the right fit when Brian's name popped in their heads, so they called him right then. They had purchased 2 practices and needed another associate to work in the office with Chuck. They ran down all the specifics and said they wanted he and I to go out and check it out. They wanted me to swing by on my way back home to PA, but I needed to get back to the kids and relieve those helping with our kids. I wasn't too anxious to go out there for several reasons.

1- I didn't think it would actually go anywhere. I thought it was just another opportunity and that Brian wouldn't want to leave PA.

2- I wasn't ready to do another move, and although where we lived wasn't my favorite, it was a good spot and I loved being close to all the Chudleigh family. It had been a great time and the kids loved being with their cousins and I loved all their company as well.

3- It may have seemed like a great opportunity, but from past experiences, they usually aren't as good as the person tries to make it out to be.

So, I told Brian to go ahead and go out and look and if he was serious about it, then I would go out after him together and look for housing. After a couple weeks of praying and talking it over and over, our Bishop called me and told me I needed to go out with Brian to help in making the decision. I have had a hardtime with receiving real solid answers to my prayers. My experience has usually been, "they're both good decisions, I'll let you choose which one you'd like". I kind of felt nothing in this experience. I could logically reason out both places, but I didn't get a feeling as to what decision was the "right" one. That has been frustrating for me, but also for Brian. He wanted both of us to feel like it was the right decision and I just never felt anything about it really. If Brian's family wasn't there, it would have been a no brainer because there wasn't a whole lot I loved about it. There were possibilities of it being great, like being close to so many places like New York, the beach, DC, things like that, but for our life now, those weren't things we did. It wasn't the best fit day to day for us. But those same reasons were also reasons I thought would be great to stay. Someday our kids will be old enough to do those things, but in Colorado, we're kind of trapped with no where to go without it being at least a days drive or more, and I didn't like the thought of that either. I was finally getting somewhere with photography and I think it could have continued to be good there, but that wasn't a reason to stay. Basically any reason positive for one place I could even out  for the other and same with con's. So I feel like it really came down to a choice of where we wanted to go. Brian felt very strongly that it was the best decision for our family and for his career, which for his career, I know that is probably true. He loves the Skinners, he has the potential to buy in and buying in with people you know and trust is huge. Plus they've had some great experience that will be beneficial as well, as has Brian, so.... after many many hours of talking it out and taking a trip out to Colorado, we decided to go forward with it which gave us 6 weeks to wrap everything up, pack and move out. Not even a full year since our last move. Blah! At least this time I had Brian around to help. That was huge.

I was really sad to leave, but excited for our new adventure. We found a house online to rent, didn't even look at it. We had Brett Lopez look at it and he seemed to think it would be good. We couldn't find a house that we wanted to buy, plus, with our experience, buying right away hasn't been a good idea, so waiting would be safer I guess. The homes moved so fast though and finding a house with enough room and a good backyard was not easy. Or, one without carpet in the dining area! Hello!!! Finally, after much looking and stress, about 2 weeks before the move we nailed down the place.

The move went well. Brian drove the truck and I drove the car. He usually had 2 kids and I had the other 3, but the last day I think I had all 5 all day and they did really well. And I did really well surprisingly! Staying awake while driving is not something I'm good at, but I was blessed and made it.

We spent the first 2 nights at Chuck and Lindsay's house until ours was available to move in. We started the kids before we even got into the house. Everything went well for all of them. Their teachers all seemed nice and there were no tears. A great start. The ward was very accepting and kind too. Several brought food and treats and the Sunday school class gave us a round of applause when Brian said we had 5 kids. Too funny.

All in all I think everything went really well. The kid like school, they have some friends and are enjoying all the many parks we've been able to go to with this beautiful weather! I think we might like it here!

Final festivities

So our move to Colorado is on the count down, but we had 2 fun things left. The first one was more fun for the kids than me and Bri. I had promised I'd let them have one more bake sale. They had their last hoorah sleepover and the next morning we had the bake sale. I made the treats the night before so they'd be ready to go. Unfortunately for Brian I had a photo shoot that got switched to that morning so he got stuck on bake sale duty. The kids had a blast and in the hour and a half they did it they made over $40. I was thinking this could be a great job. I'd make the stuff and pay the kids $5 to sit there and I'd made profits on the rest. Just kidding.

As soon as the bake sale was over we headed up to the farm to MaryBeth and Eric's house for their annual apple cider party. There were tons of apples and everyone just took a turn doing the various job to get the delicious cider. There were some real dark rain clouds that eventually did pour down for a little bit. Some stuck it out, others waited in the garage for it to clear, which it did. It was a fun final party with everyone.

Rain to a child

Everyone loves a good ol' rainstorm, especially children. I remember running out in the summer rain and just jumping in puddles and listening to the thunder. My kids are no exception to the excitement. Glad we got in a few good summer rain storms. The older kids were in school, but Bella and Charlotte had a good time. Charlotte lasted a lot longer than Bella which is why there are more pictures of her. Love all the huge smiles.