House Tour Part 1

So these are messy but for those who really want to see what it looks like you can kind of get the idea. . . 

This is the living room/dining room which is hard to get a good picture of because it is a really long room. I am standing like right in front of the door to take this picture. I like that the room is open

 Kitchen obviously. we plan to update it and since we have a separate dining area we are going to put in a island or nook. 

 This is the sunroom/tv room where we have been hanging out for the last few days. It is nice to not have the TV in the living room.

 Current laundry room that is being converted to a 2nd main floor bathroom and the laundry is being moved downstairs.

 Current bathroom. You know that you love the carpet. This bathroom is also getting a face-lift in the near future.

 Boys room

 Emmerlyn's room

 Stairs to the basement that are so steep that it looks like a drop-off doesn't it. Our kids go down on their bums which is a good idea I think. We may try to lengthen them out just a bit to help with that in  the near future. 

Maybe I will get more pics up soon but you get the idea now. It isn't much but it has some potential and with a lot of elbow grease we will be happy here!

Christmas 2013

So I missed last week things were a little hectic with moving on Monday and Christmas and everything I don't think we even set up our computer until Friday but here it is in a nutshell. 

 Our pour little kids had a good Christmas but they were all sick with fevers and just general misery so we spent most of the time just lounging around and watching tv and taking lots of Tylenol and Motrin. Poor little kiddos but they are now good as new and running crazy :).

 William felt like Santa was getting too much junk food and so this year he wanted to just give Santa an orange and an apple but we felt like it would be better to compromise a little since historically Santa has seemed to really like cookies.

 The line up. We dosed them all since they had fevers over 101 degrees you can see their little flushed cheeks but they were excited.

 I think this was Emmerlyn's favorite toy. She instantly laid down in front of it and said "aw, it's a new baby Granite" My sister just has a baby a couple of months ago that we got to meet when we went home for Thanksgiving and they named him Grant. I think that Granite is what she remembered but she sure loves him!

 Charley and William got their very own tool sets so that they can 'help' with the house updates and they were SO excited!! they have wanted to hammer and saw EVERYTHING. 

 While William was inside still recovering these two went outside in the nice 35 degree weather to test our new backyard. They ended up just eating snow but at least the snow was clean and not off of the bottom of her shoes which is where Emmerlyn usually samples it.

 Charley had his final day of nursery on Sunday and next week he will be in primary I think he is a little excited and a little bummed but I think that he will do great once he adjusts. I am super excited because his new teacher is one that he already knows and loves which will help!

 William and Emmerlyn wanted to get pictures done too so here they are!

Basketball

So this week we are pretty much just counting the days until we get to move. We have been packing and organizing and hoping that things work out like they are supposed to and we can move in on Dec. 23. Why do we only move right before Christmas? Oh well it should be good we are SO excited and now my house looks like a disaster zone so I am really ready to move and get organized.

William in his "gear" he looks warm huh.

 William has also started doing a basketball clinic on Saturdays and he is having lots of fun, he is really trying to learn what they are teaching him.

 Funny kid picked the hoop where only girls were shooting. 

 Learning his moves. He is a little awkward but he is really trying and I think he is getting it.

 Emmerlyn and Charley enjoying the practice, they just wanted to play games on our phones but they did watch for a little while. 

In nursery they made snowflakes where they glued cotton balls on Popsicle sticks and Emmerlyn refused to let anyone help her but she did a great job, she had one of the best ones. Crazy girl

It's Tuesday???

That is seriously how I feel. When I was trying to figure out what I needed to do today and blogging was one of those things on that list it took me awhile to remember what we actually did this last week. I honestly couldn't remember. I don't think we did a lot. William had his first Saturday of basketball and he of course LOVED it as we knew he would. Other than that we have pretty much just been trying to stay warm. Glasgow had 112 hrs straight with temps that did not get above 0. I tell you what 3 degrees above 0 with the sun shining has never felt so comfortable. Saturday was the coldest at -33 (-50 with wind chill) we were the coldest place in the US and only 1 degree colder than Antarctica. Let me tell you that once you have been at -20 for a few days I don't think it felt too much colder but it is a little sad that we only drove about 20 miles total last week but we used half a tank of gas because we had to let the car warm up for so long before it would safely drive. We are grateful this week for heat! We also put up the Christmas tree and that is all the decorating we are doing this year because we are hopefully going to be able move before Christmas and I don't want to pull it all out just to have to put it away. We are still waiting to hear on the appraisal and have a specific move in date but we are hoping it will be next week. The kids are doing great and are finally over their colds so that has been nice. 

Back Home

So I skipped posting last week because we were busy and I forgot. So this will be a quick highlight of the last 2 weeks. We went back to Idaho and had a blast. The kids did great on the drive down and we switched up our routine and left Glasgow at 1:30pm instead of am so that was a nice change to some degree. The roads were great which always helps. It was so good to see all of our family (sans Wilson who is on his mission) and to see our new little nephew Grant who screamed and cried every time I held him what's up with that pal? It's ok though I will get over it. The weather was pretty nice while we were there and the boys played outside a lot. Even Emmerlyn went out a little and got almost used to the cat (she is still a little tentative but that's ok because she might be allergic). Ben and I took a day and got all of our Christmas Shopping done so we had a super full car on the way home but it was nice to have that out of the way.

 The boys playing on the tractor. They loved being able to climb all over this thing

We spent a full week there but it sure didn't feel like it. We were busy the whole time and then at the end Emmerlyn got an awful cold so after 2 nights of only getting a couple hours of sleep we we decided to take off at 11 after the blessing of little Grant. The drive was long because Emmerlyn was miserable and we had to stop a lot but overall the kids did pretty well. Charley gets the award for the best traveler by far with William coming at second. (Surprising huh??) We made it home just in time because I woke up sick the next morning and now William has it. (we apologize to anyone we infected back home!) We are so glad that we were able to go and see all of our family but it is so nice to be home!

No Pictures

That's got to be about a record. We have just pretty much been living this last week. Doing the same old stuff. Emmerlyn and I had a big fight over what she was going to wear to church we ended up with a compromise that kind of worked. William has been working hard in school and Charley has been keeping busy around the house teasing everyone and sneaking computer time. We are getting excited to go back to Idaho for Thanksgiving we are leaving on Friday (hopefully!)

Have a great week!

A Side Note

I forgot to add this last night so here it is. The other day the boys were going to bed and after about 20 minutes William came up without any pants on with a guilty looking Charley coming behind him. I asked them what was going on and William said that Charley had dumped water all over him and his bed. I asked where Charley got the water and he said "from the bucket that he fills up every night before he goes to sleep!" At this point Charley was grinning from ear to ear and I went down to assess the situation and sure enough there was an empty bucket of water next to William soaked bed. I tell you what that boy sure keeps me on my toes. It is a good thing he is so dang cute.

It Snowed!

So we had a little dust of snow a couple weeks ago but this was the first snow that really stuck to the ground. The kids were SO excited to play in it yesterday, never mind that it was only like 17 degrees outside. It was cold Charley looks cold doesn't he? Emmerlyn didn't last long and the boys only lasted about another 15 minutes but they had fun and then came in for hot chocolate and pumpkin bread.

The kids have been busy this week running around and making messes but they seemed to have been playing really well together even Emmerlyn has been playing with the boys a little bit which is huge for her so it has been a nice change. The other day the boys had their shirts of and then they were wrestling and Emmerlyn came running to me pulling at her shirt saying "take dis off!! I do wrestling wif da boys!" I told her that girls leave their shirts on and she can wrestle with it on. That did NOT fly with her so she ended up topless wrestling with her brothers. Poor girl is there any hope for her coming after 2 brothers? Well maybe because she doesn't seem to mind having her hair fixed, she loves to pull out an amount of ponies and they expects me to fix her hair in a way that uses that amount. (sometimes I have to get REALLY creative) she also LOVES to have her fingernails and toenails painted. So we will she she might just be a very well rounded girl. 

Charley has been busy this week trying to sneak in as much computer time as he possibly can. He is always at the computer if he thinks he can get away with it. He can navigate to a word document, paint, or get on the internet and go to ABCya.com which is a sight that has educational games and activities for kids starting in kindergarten up through like 6th grade. He clicks on the kindergarten one and does great and has a lot of fun on there. His other favorite computer activity is rearranging the icons on our desktop. So much for a short-cut!

The best Charley story of this week though is from church. So he and Emmerlyn went happily to nursery and at the end of the block we picked them up. Well come to find out Charley had needed to use the restroom and so the teacher took him and he went in the boys bathroom and she waited outside the door. Well she waited, and waited, and waited, and then she could hear him talking but since church was in session and she was a girl she did not want to go in there to see what was up so she caught another member of our ward who is also our good friend and said hey can you go in there and check on him. Well he walked in to find Charley with his shirt rolled clear up to his armpits and totally naked from there down swinging his pants above his head (Charley said later he was trying to get the undies out cuz they were all rolled up from when he took them off.) So he helped Charley into his clothes and took him back to nursery and then immediately went into young mens to tell Ben what had happened. The Nursery teacher was laughing SO HARD when we picked the kids up. 

This little blip is from William. It goes back to the wrestling day when the boys were not wearing shirts and they were showing each other their muscles. I was doing other things and not really paying attention until William called to me. So I came in the room and William was squeezing a chunk of his belly just above his bellybutton and asked me (his words!) "hey mom, am I getting one of my boobs?" I almost fell over. I said no, boys don't get boobs. And he said "well when will I get you know that pack of stuff, what are they called on my stomach?" Oh, I said you mean a 6 pack! "Yeah that!" Totally different, we had a little discussion which ended with him wondering why his dad didn't have a six pack. . . . 

Speaking of Ben, he finally got a chance to go hunting this weekend and he was gone for awhile and had a lot of fun. He didn't get anything but he did get hit in the face with the scope of his gun so he had a big gash above his eye which kind of surprised me. Then he went on to tell me that they had run off the road and lost a tire. Sounds like it was a very eventful trip and I am glad they came home when they did before things got worse. Maybe he will have better luck next time. Poor Guy.

I think that is all for the week. It was a good one. This post is late because this afternoon was busy just doing stuff around the house kind of getting organized so that hopefully we will be ready to pack and move when we get back from our trip to Idaho for thanksgiving.

William Flashback!

When we came up to Glasgow for the first time for Ben to interview for this job I stocked up at the dollar store with random toys and stuff for the kids to play with on the very long drive. One of the things that I got was a glow stick which William played with for awhile. We brought the random toys into the hotel room to entertain the kids in there too and all of the sudden William made a gagging noise and we looked over and his mouth was glowing, his hands were glowing, and the blanket on the bed was glowing. He had bitten the glow stick and it proceeded to spill everywhere. Thankfully we got it out of the blanket with some wipes and they were non-toxic. When he was playing with the glow sticks on Halloween he reminded us of that time and then he said "it was crazy I thought I had like a super power cuz I was glowing everywhere." Ben and I could not stop laughing. Crazy kid! 

Happy Halloween!!!!

But most importantly, Ben passed his last CPA test!!!!!!!!!! So all he has left is a 8 hour online ethics class and then he has to pass the open book test at the end of the test. We have almost made it with the worst behind us and we are so excited. 

The main highlight of the last week was of course Halloween. The kids had lots of fun trick-or-treating and the weather was actually pretty decent which was nice. After we got home we had pizza and watched a short movie which was kind of fun. I didn't get more pictures of the kids in their costumes because we got those last week but they did look super cute. At one house they were having their little boy who is Emmerlyn's age hand out the candy and he was loading Charley up. He would give Charley a handful and then go hug Emmerlyn a couple times and then give Charley another handful. He even kissed Emmerlyn (on the cheek unsolicited by anyone) and then Charley got TWO handfuls. I think Charley walked away with about a 1/4 of their candy but it was so cute :).

William said that since it was a holiday about pumpkins that we should have pumpkin pie to celebrate. I wholeheartedly agreed!

 Window stickers from Grandma and Grandpa Allen!

 The kids got glowsticks at one of the houses and they really wanted to keep them going so they got to keep them while they watched a movie.

We have had a pretty good and mostly uneventful week which was nice!!!!

Have a good week!

From the Mouth of Goobs

Today I told Charley that my Visiting Teachers were coming and he said to me "No mom, they are my visiting teachers. They are coming for me." With a kid like that how could I even wonder. He loves them because the one was his nursery teacher for awhile and he just really loves her and gets so excited to talk to her whenever he sees her.

Feelin' good again. . . Sort of

Thankfully we are all feeling better but William started sniffling yesterday and so he maybe bringing some other bug into our house. Oh well I guess it is flu season and so we are getting hit hard from the get-go. It is nice to be feeling better for the most part and back into our normal routine. On Wednesday we had the ward halloween party and truck-or-treat. The kids had a blast, Charley just took off and was bookin' it around to all the cars I could hardly keep track of him. (he was originally going to be a ghost but had a last minute change of heart and opted to go as a bulked out Spider-Man. Just before we were getting ready to go we lost the other foot to Emmerlyn's penguin costume. (I had told the kids not to touch their costumes before it was time because the pieces would get lost but of course they did not listen) so after much searching of the house I said if we don't find the foot we are not going. William was quick to suggest we say a prayer so we did and a couple minutes later we found it under a blanket on the couch. Emmerlyn loved telling everybody that she found her foot on the couch!

I think she is the only kid that we have had so far that has been smiling in the picture wearing the penguin costume. Cute kiddos.

 Emmerlyn came out and told me she just needed to put her shoes on and she was ready to go. As you can see we needed to make a few adjustments before she could leave the house (yep in case you are wondering she has both her legs in the one leg hole. I don't know what her deal is in thinking that pants are always optional!)

 We finally felt good enough to eat so we made homemade pizza and this bbq chicken and bacon pizza was PERFECT! We love homemade pizza because pizza here is really expensive and not as good as it should be for the price!

 The kids carved their pumpkins on Saturday night because Ben is out of town until late Wednesday and I did not want to tackle that on my own. William is the top then Emmerlyn then Charley. (they drew on their faces so we just cut them out) Their goal was to make scary pumpkins to scare away the deer so they don't eat the pumpkins like they ate Charley's last year. After the carving we made some roasted pumpkin seeds for Ben to take on his trip, they were yummy!!!!

 Crazy scissor girl. She loved cutting things up and is just starting to get the hang of it but we have to watch her close because she will cut anything in her reach. She grabbed all these while I was doing the dishes, she feels like she needs to be up on the counter whenever I am doing something.

Sick, Sick, Sick

That is our update for the week. I could end it here. The family has been sick with a cold followed directly by a stomach bug. Ben is just getting over it today. It has been a long, exhausting week.

 Emmerlyn's birthday present from Grandma Rydalch arrived, note that she is not super thrilled looking at that time because she had a fever of 101 but she does love those boots and they are excited for the days to get a little cooler so they can have some hot chocolate!

 Just relaxing. I am so tired from dealing with it all I wish I could take the next week off and just relax and watch TV :). Unfortunately Ben has started his out of town audits so he leaves at 6 and gets home between 7 and 8 so no tv break for me this week. 

Here's to a better week!!!!

A little busy

We were pretty steady last week so it was nice to have it get over. We decided to go last minute with Ben to Billings to take his test so we were gone until Friday evening. Then on Saturday Ben had to work for most of the day because today was a tax deadline but he did take a break and we were able to go to the baptism of our friend's little boy. It was nice to be there and I think the kids enjoyed it even though Emmerlyn and Charley and even William was a little bit naughty. We were able to take it easy on Sunday though so that was nice. Then on Sunday afternoon we finally celebrated little Emmerlyn's birthday and that was fun. On Monday Charley had a double header and I tell you what 2 games for preschool/kindergartners is too many. I was losing kids like crazy by the time we were done. Charley was upset with the whole thing because he isn't very fast and he wasn't getting into the group to kick the ball. By the end of the games he was in tears because no one would let him have a turn. He loves practicing but not the games so much because he doesn't get a lot of ball time. Poor kid. He'll get the hang of it eventually. William had his first soccer game on Tuesday and he has another one tonight, he is having lots of fun and is starting to get it. 

 Charley got her this frog because he has one just like it and she is ALWAYS getting it so he gave her one so he could have his back.

 Snuggling her new panda bear

 sitting to read her panda bear book.

Cake Time!

 She brought out her doll yesterday after I told the boys to get ready for soccer and she said she was ready for soccer. She did pretty good picking the outfit and the gear she just forgot the minor detail. . . of pants :)!

General Conference and Happy Birthday Emmerlyn!

Seriously how can you not love General Conference. It was so good and so nice to be able to just spend the weekend at home as a family. The kids did pretty good for the 2 Saturday sessions but they were little crazies on Sunday. On the Monday before we had our family night about King Benjamin's people and how they pitched their tents toward the Temple and to their king to hear his words. So on Saturday morning the kids built their tent and they were ready. Then they colored and had snacks while we watched.

During the afternoon session Emmerlyn napped (which was wonderful) and the boys napped for the first hour and then they snuggled and watched for the second. The family time was so nice.

This silly little girl turned 2 yesterday and I can't believe how she got so big so fast, these years have FLOWN. We are celebrating her birthday on Saturday because yesterday afternoon was super busy with soccer stuff and then Ben had to study for his test so we have the party slated for Saturday and she and the boys are pretty pumped. She likes to go out everyday when William goes out to watch for the bus and yell to him that she "lubs him to habe a good day!" It was a little chilly this morning so she felt like she needed a blanket!

The other tidbit of information for the week is that we closed on our house in Rigby so it is gone which is good but it is a little sad just because it was beautiful and I loved it and I don't think I will ever find anything like it here. . . But it is good to have it gone!