Happy Holidays!

Winter has hit us hard in Idaho and with it has come the feeling for Christmas. :) We've had a terrible "blizzard" as they called it. Spots in our yard have anywhere from 8-10 inches. Monday and Tuesday were horrible with white outs and awful roads. Tons of roads and highways were closed. We just stayed home and decorated for Christmas! :) The kids are super excited for Christmas and I'm super excited for black Friday deals. I know, I'm crazy...but there's something about the craziness that is fun for me.
My kids are more then ready for the snow!


I am in love with the windows in our sun room because of the view I get of the beautiful weather.

Getting ready for Christmas:




We've painted Mady and Noah's rooms, finally! Mady's is done! Noah's is painted but is a work-in-progress at this point. Still fun, and they both love their rooms since we let them pick the colors. Well out of a couple choices anyways. :)
Remember Mady's awful room before without carpet, with the dresser all ripped out and horrible paint....


Well now...we love it!



Noah's room before...

and after...still working on it.


Other then that...we are doing ok. Feeling the stress of life right now, but trying to have faith that there is always a plan. Mady is still in pre-school and doing amazing. Me and Adam talked the other night about how she used to be and we can't even believe the progress she's made. All the fears we had are not there anymore and we are loving what she's becoming. We feel very blessed about how things have worked out with her. Her and Noah still fight a lot, but I'm starting to feel like that will be my life forever. They play good too; it just depends on the day.

My kids have said the funiest things lately though... Mady the other day said..."Mom! My belly hurts." So I said, "oh yeah?" She said "yeah. I think I need chocolate to make it feel better." :) ha ha. She learns quickly. funny little girl.
Noah is doing great. Still the funniest little character. I can't believe the little things his mind can come up with. I just wish he would sleep in his bed at night. It never fails, we always wake up with him. Sometimes he doesn't come in until like 5 or so, but it's inevitable. And Adam is a sucker because Noah is RELENTLESS and he'll go to Adam's side and say, "Daddy. I just want to cuddle you" and in he goes! Breakfast is pretty much a fight every morning. Sometimes he is up for 2 hours before he eats because all he wants is candy, to which I say no and give him the list of things he CAN have...yogurt, banana, cereal..etc. I think he gets hungry enough that he finally picks something. However...he doesn't forget to ask for the candy later. He is so much like his dad. We joked about this the other night. I made a roast and potatoes in the crock pot. Mady doesn't like potatoes, she likes broccoli so I steamed some for her. Then she just wanted water to drink. So broccoli and water for her and meat, potatoes and pop for Noah. Just like his dad. silly kids. Some funny quotes from him lately:
-Every night he decides right before bed that he's STARVING! I caught him digging through the fridge and told him to stop and that he's not really hungry. he looked right at me and said, "But Mom! I'm just so sick with hungry!"
-And every time he wants something and I say no, he'll say with attitude, "But Mom! It's just for my want!" Well since it's for that he should just get whatever he wants right!?
-Then the other night after church we got talking about babies because he was very interested in one at church. Adam asked if he wanted a baby in the house (NOT announcing anything! NOT good timing. lol) Noah looks right at him and says, "No dad. I just want a puppy for me" We laughed so hard! Where does he come up with this stuff? Anyhow...he's a super fun little man.

Adam is doing good. His wrist is starting to feel a lot better and he should be wearing that brace more then he does. But then again...when has he really listened to the dr's or me? ha ha. We'll find out in a couple weeks how it's healed. Work is going ok for me. I'm keeping my eye out for another job. I don't want to leave...but I need something I can count on and we need better insurance. We'll keep praying and looking. Other then that...things are going well. We feel very blessed to have our house, our amazing neighbors (who, by the way, snow-blowed our drive way and sidewalk during all these storms) we have an awesome ward, healthy and happy kids. And of course each other. Not much more we could ask for. :) Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

! TRICK or TREAT !

So Halloween was tons of fun, with TONS of activities. The kids got to wear their costumes 3 times, which Mady thought was just great! Oh but first...

Adam had his surgery on Wednesday. He was pretty nervous but it went great. They did what you call a Bier block on his arm. His whole arm was numb so he was actually awake and got to watch Dr Lee put the pin in on a live x-ray. It was a good thing we did it though...the bone had completely separated again, after only 2 weeks without a cast. So it was inevitable. Anyhow, he's doing good now and on Wednesday they will take the temporary cast off and just put a brace on for about 4 weeks. Despite all the bills we are dreading, we are glad to see this come to an end.
We un-wrapped it and cleaned it up. Crazy how something so small causes so much pain.

Well Halloween started on Thursday for us. We took the kids to the Boo at the Zoo. We'd never gone before, and for anyone else who hasn't: It's awesome and the kids LOVED it. They go through so much work and the zoo looks amazing. It really got the kids in the trick-or-treating mood!
I really didn't like Mady's costume, but she's so cute that it turned out cute!



Then Friday, Adam's sister Katie had a Halloween party at her house. She did a ton of work and preparation for it and it was way fun. We seriously got our costumes together at the last minute, but it was kinda fun just throwing some D.I. stuff together. ha ha.

Mady won the doughnut eating game, although she did cheat a little, it was still cute! She shoved that doughnut down pretty dang fast!



I know...we're hot huh? :)

Then Saturday...well that was busy. We cleaned and cooked all day. Adam's mom and step dad came up from Twin (which it was great to have them here!) then at 5 we went to the trunk-or-treat, with Craig & Brigitte and the kiddos. The kids had lots of fun. Noah was a little crabby and hesitant at first but as soon as the candy started coming he was so in! Mady was ready that morning! lol.



We then took the kids to Fat Cats where they had some businesses there doing trick-or-treating for the kids. I don't know if I'd do that again though. Way too crowded.

We went home and I decided to let the kids go down our road and do the old fashioned door-to-door. I think they had the most fun doing that. However...most of my neighbors got there door bells rang 3 times at least as the kids fought over it. ha ha. We only did half the road and then decided I'd had enough. LOL.


Our House


Everyone came over that night and we ate lots of good food, played some guitar hero, cards and ate some more.


Kru just decided he would take the whole bucket home. :)

It was lots of fun to get all the trick-or-treaters at our door. We've never had that. Some times we would even race to the door! LOL! we got tons of cute kids! I was partial to Kaleigh and Kenzie though! (ha ha! Heidi and Brit-They were so dang cute!!) Anyhow.... it was a way fun night. It did end with a lot of crying and extremely tired kids but I think we all had fun!!

Our Week of Festivites

We've had quite the busy week. It's been a lot of fun though. Last Monday we had Jeff and Terri over for dinner for her birthday. It was really yummy and fun to just hang out and talk. Thanks for coming guys!


The rest of the week was pretty un-eventful with our kids fighting and doing things they know they shouldn't. :) Noah dug his entire tub of Eucerin cream out and bathed himself. If you aren't aware...that stuff is so greasy. It was disgusting.
Naughty little man

He definitely needed a bath!

Mady got over a nasty case of strep throat, but is all better and back to picking on Noah. Last weekend was a lot of fun though. Adam has some people over to watch the UFC fight and no...that was not the fun part of my weekend. but we did have yummy food and JaLayn and her kiddos decorated Halloween cookies with us. It was nice to have them over and let the kids just play.




Then last night we carved our pumpkins. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Mady would not touch the "gooey guts" though. She was funny. And Noah just got bored. ha ha. Adam and Josh were just joking around and Josh opened his mouth and Adam pretended to throw the pumpkin guts at him...well he did! a whole handful went clear to the back of his throat. LOL. sick! Anyhow...here's a cool pumpkins!



Adam's, Mine & Josh's

Mady's & Noah's

Other then that we have a busy week ahead. Adam is having surgery on his wrist tomorrow. After getting his SECOND cast off they decided it still wasn't quite healed. so yeah...one more cast and we should be done. I work thurs then we have all kinds of fun things for the weekend! Looking forward to seeing everyone!

End of summer/House update

Wow. I feel like things are finally starting to slow down now. Our house is starting to feel more like "home", and overall I think we are happy with the way things are going lately. Everyone is doing good. Adam still has his cast on. He had it x-rayed 2 weeks ago and it wasn't healed so he gave Adam 1 more month and then we will see. If it isn't all the way healed this time...surgery it is. wish us luck. :)
So Noah is doing great too. He is such a fun little guy. Adam called him a ham tonight and I thought that described him perfectly. He just has so much personality and is all boy. Last night we roasted marshmallows and all he could say was, "That was a pretty awesome fire huh Dad?" he didn't really like the marshmallows but he was great at roasting them. :)



I don't know if this is funny to everyone but we laughed, and then gave Noah the..."We don't say that and Heavenly Father doesn't like it when we say those words..." talk. But the other night he kept playing in the cat food and Adam told him to stop because he'd already fed the cats. He turned to Adam and said, "Are you serious Dad?" and Adam said..."yes Noah, I'm serious. Leave it alone." Noah turned around and was so serious, stomped his foot and said, "Well I'm pissed off!" ha ha. Holy cow. I don't know where this kid comes up with this stuff. I guess it shocks me even more how appropriate he uses his phrases. He hasn't used any more naughty words lately so we're making progress. :)

This is my naughty little man...:) hee hee. He's like a monkey. He "just wanted candy mom!"


Just a day at the fair; Noah loved his turkey leg :)



Mady is doing good. She's started dance and she loves it! I can't believe how much better she's caught on this year. She just "gets it", and I think it's so much more fun for her. Her teacher is awesome too. She's great with these little girls. Mady also started pre-school which she was very excited about. Her entire day seems to go better when she's in school. She really seems to thrive with the structure. I can't believe that she will be 5 next summer and could start school. crazy. I don't think we will start her until the following year, but I just can't believe how fast time goes.
After a night at the Rexburg fair :) she was very excited to get her face painted.

The state fair

so sweet..


As for me, I have been busy working and getting our house together. We finally got most of the upstairs painted. We're doing Mady's room this week. But we've emptied out the garage and organized the storage room. It's nice to feel like we can really make this HOME and feel some permanence. So I'll finish this off with some before and after pictures:
This was the sun room. If you can see it was really red, almost pinkish with bad texturing.


So we re-textured and painted; that's also with the new carpet. Like it much better.

This was the kitchen. Every wall was this yellow...like mustard. You can also see where we ripped out a section of cupboards. it opens it up so much more. Adam needs to fix that for me still :)


So we did the bead board tan and the top a deep red...Love it.


This was the main bathroom, very plain.

So much better!!!


This room is our front living room/sitting room, whatever. very plain...and it was a DISASTER. That's where every thing sat as we found spots for it.

Finally cleaned up and some paint.

Then finally some decorations. :) Somehow putting your stuff on the wall makes a WORLD of difference when it comes to making it feel like home.


Anyhow...sorry long post with lots of pics. Since it took a couple days to finish this post...Mady and I went to the dentist yesterday. It was her 1st time so I was nervous, but she got her picture taken and put on the board of "kids with NO cavities". She was so good and excited. :)

with her bag of goodies

So there you have it, my goal is to keep up better then this! :)