Basketball Kaden

I have a confession. I do not put my kids into organized sports as soon as they turn three. (GASP) It's true, I don't see the need for it. Perhaps if they showed an amazing ability in said sport an were begging to play it would be a different story. But so far with my kids, they are perfectly content just being 3 and playing at home with the family and friends. Another confession... I don't believe in putting your kids in any sport they don't really want to play. There are many things that kids can be doing and while I do believe they should be involved in something, I think it is silly to insist they play a sport (or anything like it) that they don't really want to play. Besides, it is expensive, sheesh! 

Which brings me to my favorite little guy Kaden. When he was 5 he wanted to play soccer. He played for a season and decided it wasn't really something he liked. Last year he played baseball, he loved it and will be playing again this year. When the sign up paper came home this year for basketball he decided he wanted to give it a try. Chris was so excited. We had mentioned basketball in past years but he didn't have much interest at the time. This was it, the basketball playing dad would finally have a basketball playing son. Chris drove to the city rec center got him signed up and eagerly (probably more eagerly than Kaden) awaited the first practice Tuesday night. 

In case you are wondering if Kaden is a natural at basketball, no. Is Kaden very good at all in basketball? No. Much to his father's dismay he did not walk on the court and become the next Michael Jordan. He has A LOT to learn. He is also playing with a team full of boys who probably have moms who put them in basketball when they were three. It has been a frustrating learning process for him but he says he still is happy to be playing. He has had 4 practices and 2 games and he is getting a little better each time. I might have leaked a few tears when I saw him walk to the bench totally dejected and say  "I am terrible at this!". Sometimes I think it is harder to be the mom watching your child struggle than it is to be the child struggling. I am so proud of how he sticks to it though, never once has he asked to quit and every night he asks his dad what he can do to practice.  Most of the time when he is out on the court he is happy as can be and full of excitment. He is always yelling something, "I'm open!" or "Over here!" (even when he really isn't that open or ready for a shot). His coach (who is the sweetest lady ever!) commented on his determination and refusal to give up. It is such a great quality to have and it just might make a basketball player out of him yet.

One thing Kaden is fairly decent at is defense. His very first game, whenever the player he was guarding had the ball Kaden would get right up in his face and start swinging his arms and jumping up and down. It was comical to watch but effective. I think the other player was shocked and didn't know what to do with such a scene. We lovingly refer to this tactic as "monkey defense" because he looks just like an angry age who lost his banana. 

Whether basketball is in his future or not I am so proud to call this sweet happy boy mine.

On learning to read, and other educational matters

Every time I see a "look what my kids can do" video I cringe a little. Not because I don't love to watch what all my friends cute little kids can do, I do. I smile and giggle and congratulate along with all the rest. I cringe a little because I know somewhere there is a mommy watching that video who feels like she is not enough. Maybe she has a 3 year old who can't name a single letter and has no interest in learning them. Maybe she has noticed at the weekly play dates that her little 4 year old is not nearly as articulate as the other children. Maybe she has already seen two other "My 3 year old can read!!" posts and her 5 year old can't or perhaps no matter what the color her child always emphatically says "BROWN!".  Regardless of the reason, somewhere along the way she has decided it must be something she is doing wrong. Somehow she didn't teach enough, or maybe she isn't monitoring screen time closely enough. Perhaps she should have invested in some early learning materials and started the moment her baby could speak. Whatever the case, her child is different and it is her fault.

To you mommy I say, it's a lie. I have 4 kids, I have a daughter who was reading by 3 and another daughter who is currently 4 and has no interested in letters or words or the sounds that they make. Same mom, same learning environment, just different kids. That is the beauty of kids, they are different. They learn things differently and at different speeds. Not because you did 3 hours of preschool work a day with them from the age of 2 up, just because we are all divinely designed to be different, and that is ok. Actually, it's not just ok, it is wonderful! It is absolutely no indication of the quality of parent you are or your child's future potential. Did you know Thomas Edison  was pulled out of school as a young child because his teacher found him difficult? The precise word she used was "addled" (confused, or having lost the power of development). Yet I currently am typing on my electric powered computer with lights on in my house. Thanks Thomas.  These kids are just that, kids! They deserve time to play and learn at their own pace. I don't mean to say that parents shouldn't attempt to teach at all. As you can see from the video above we do lots of teaching and learning in our house but most of it comes through play. My perfect sweet little 4 year old who has no interest in sit down learning, usually quietly observes and I don't push it. I know when she is ready she will learn all the things she needs to know, in her own way, on her own time. In fact, there are many studies that suggest that pushing education so early is having negative long term effects. (GASP!) But that is another topic for another day.

My main point is this, yes, my two year old knows all the letters in and can recognize her name, but if your two (or three or four or five) year old can't. That's totally okay, he just might invent the worlds first flying car.

Christmas Card 2015

    Chris enjoyed his job at Afton Chemical in Virginia as a Sr. Research Engineer. He also enjoyed scrubbing the bathrooms on weekends and watching his Utes play football. He spent a glorious week in Hawaii with his beautiful wife and got to do some surfing for the first time. He enjoyed Hawaii so much he decided to take a job on the west coast so flying there wouldn’t have to be an all day affair. He has been working at PNNL in Washington for a month and has enjoyed the lack of spiders.  Jill continued running her craft boutique and driving her family batty with her unending picture taking.  She turned the big 30 and found herself slightly more wrinkled and saggy by doing so. She packed approximately 297 school lunches and continues to cook the most delicious broccoli.  Kaden is now in 3rd grade. He started his first year of baseball. He loved playing and found left field to be a place of quiet serenity. He was also baptized on June 13th and tore the knee open in his brand new suit while running in the gym. It was a very hole-y day indeed.  Taycee started 1st grade. She has approximately 17 boyfriends and is already turning her dad’s hair grey.  She loves any footwear that has a heel, lipstick, monkey bars, and pogo sticks. The only thing that matches the beauty of her face is the stench of her feet. She lost 4 teeth this year 2 of them being her front teeth, which has helped calm down the boyfriend situation.  Addison started her first year of preschool and got to take her first school bus ride.  She continues to be the loudest eater on the block. She loves Dora the explorer and it is quite possible she is more fluent in Spanish than English. Brielle spends her days at home playing in mom’s makeup and eating cheese. She mastered the toilet in October and rewards herself by changing her pants and underwear 8 times a day. She loves to sing songs, especially when her sister is telling her to be quiet.

We are loving our new home and neighborhood in Washington and feel so blessed to have each of you in our lives even from far away. It has been a year full of laughs mingled with tears, ripped pants and stinky feet. Sending our love to you and yours this year,

XOXO- The Claytons

Short years

The days are long but the years are short. Someone said that to me once, before I was a mom. I thought I understood it then, I didn't. As with most things in my life I didn't really grasp the full meaning of that phrase until I became a mother. It wasn't until my days were stretched out with dirty diapers, and tantrums, perpetual messes, and middle of the night visits that I understood how long the days could be and then my first little baby turned 8 and was baptized and I felt a little cheated at how short the years had been.

Life right now is so good, 2015 picked us up and whirled us around but it landed us right back on our feet and it is all just so good. Washington has quickly felt like home to us. More than once Chris and I have looked at each other and said "this was right" and after the painful process of debating and deciding and doing that brought us here I can't begin to say how good that feels.

I think that in 20 years from now I will look back at this time and say "That was the best time" because it truly feels like it is. This stage, the kids ages, it is the most golden of times.

Kaden is still such a kind hearted kid full of so much joy. He is smart and witty and makes us laugh constantly. At the age of 8 he thinks he knows a whole lot about everything and to be honest, he kind of does. He will still talk to anyone and everyone and quickly made a classroom of friends the first week at school. He is always willing to help out and has finally come of age to be on trash duty. Chris is especially happy about that part. (and to be honest so am I, because Chris forgot about the garbages at least 65% of the time) He is always the first to rise at our house and we have had to set a 6:00am rule before he can come out of his bedroom in the morning. Sometimes I worry that he isn't getting enough sleep at night but he still has boundless energy through the day. When he started class here we quickly realized his VA class was quite a ways behind. He didn't seem to mind though and has quickly caught up without much effort at all. He is always up for a game of anything and still jumps up and down with pure glee over the smallest of things. He is the happy in every situation. (unless he is losing to dad at Skylanders)

Taycee is the best big sister anyone could ask for.  She is nurturing and so sweet with her sisters. She is also full of spunk and sass which is almost always directed at her brother and dad. Chris and Taycee are constantly teasing each other and it only occasionally ends in tears on her part. She is so smart, she picks up on anything within minutes. She starts her first gymnastics class next week and I am sure she will be a natural. She loves school, and learning. She has a new best friend Keyne who she makes sure to tell me is NOT a boyfriend just a friend that's a boy. She is so beautiful, inside and out. She is my best little friend, which I wasn't sure would ever happen when she was 3, but it did and I am ever so glad. We paint toes and put on face masks and watch dancing shows, and because she is 7 she thinks being with me is the greatest thing in the world. I am certain that won't always be true so I am trying to hold on to these long days that are making up such short years.

Addison melts my heart on the daily. There is something so pure and innocent about that little one. She is about half way through her first year of pre-school and I think it has been a good experience for her. She is starting to express herself more with words and carried on at least a 5 minute conversation last night at the dinner table all about Axel, and Victoria and the fun they have a school. I still question myself when it comes to her and what is best, but I also feel a peace and I am ever aware that Heavenly Father knows her best and will guide us in the decisions we make. She is sweet and gentle and has a smile that lights up her whole face. She loves to color and draw, we go through a lot of paper with all of her artwork. She has a few phrases that always make me laugh like whenever we are asking her to do something she doesn't like and she holds her palm out to us and says "calm down, calm down" It is impossible to hear her say the word "slippery" without smiling. Because is sounds more like "swip-der-lee" Chris puts footie jammies on her and tells her to run around the kitchen just so he can hear her say "woah it's slippery" over and over. Whenever she is relieved over something she wipes her hand over her forehead and says "oh FLEW, that was close". The other day after running and flapping her arms up and down she said in a most annoyed voice "I CAN'T FLY"

Brielle is equal parts adorable and exasperating. She rules my life, and she knows it. She has me laughing one moment and clenching my jaw the next. She is TWO in full force and she is taking the world by storm. We went to the library yesterday and between her fur boots, jean jacket, pink purse and green binoculars she has most everyone smiling. There is something so refreshing about little kids and their unabashed determination to be just exactly who they are. She has the BEST kissy lips and isn't afraid to lay a kiss (or 5) on your cheek, or lips, depending on her mood. She talks constantly and the majority of it is understandable. She LOVE to eat and sometimes clenches her fists and squeals in excitement when she sees food on the table. Her new favorite thing is to tell knock jokes, and not matter what the joke is she ends it with "don't cry it's just a joke." Usually it is something along the lines of knock knock...who's there... banana...banana who... don't cry it's just a joke! After which she fake laughs for a few seconds and then says "I'm funny" She is full of personality, and naughty, but she is quick to say "sorry mom" and she is pretty good at cleaning up her own messes. Actually a lot of times she comes to tell me she made a mess, and then cleans it up. I can live with that.

My days are still long, and the hours during which I sleep never seem to be quite long enough, but they are just so full of good. I wish I could bottle up the giggles in the morning and the kisses on the cheek, the nights playing games around the table and the "tricky" dancing in the living room, so that when I am 60 and my kids are gone I could pull them back out and relive these days. We have so much fun. Of course it is intermixed with tears, and tantrums and spilled cups of milk but the happy moments far outweigh the sad and they make my life so full.

The days are long but the years are short so I am doing my best to hold on and take it all in.

That's Christmas to me

Christmas came in a blur. I guess that happens when you spend most of November and December unpacking boxes and setting up house. Luckily I have kids who make sure the important things happen, like putting up a Christmas tree and carrying out all of our family Christmas traditions.
Christmas Eve started bright and early with our North Pole breakfast made by our little elf Jimmy. He made us delicious red and green apple french toast and the highly requested snowman milk. Kids at our house are early risers so Jimmy has to be up before the sun to have his breakfast ready. I'm guessing that leaves Jimmy fairly tired for the rest of the day. (Actually I am not guessing. It does. Very tired.)
Chris and I really try keep our family's focus on Christ through the Christmas season. When the kids wanted to throw Jesus a birthday party I was more than happy to oblige. The kids did all the planning. They made invitations and decorated a special birthday chair. We made and decorated birthday cupcakes and each wrote down our special gifts for the Savior this year then wrapped them. I spent a lot of time asking the kids what it would be like if the Savior was really coming to His party. What would they wear? What would they want to be doing, or saying? It let us all reflect on what we want our home to be. I came to the realization that if the Savior was going to walk into my home I would care a lot more about what it felt like than what it looked like. (Although the clean OCD side of me would take care of that as well I am sure)

After the birthday party we played our traditional Christmas Olympics. I think the kids like that part of Christmas Eve just as much as they like opening presents on Christmas day. We ended Christmas Eve with a special birthday dinner and made sure to set a place for the Savior. After opening new Christmas jammies and whipping up a batch of Santa cookies the kids were off to bed.

We told the kids they couldn't wake us up until 6:00am however at 5:00 they were all awake and walking around upstairs which meant we were up as well so Christmas morning also started bright and early. I was tired, like can't see straight tired, but I would do it all again (and I will in about 12 months). Watching these little people that I love burst with happiness at each new surprise makes my heart so happy.  These are the best years. I know it. So I'll take early mornings, late nights, and too tired to see days because they come with excited squeals, and beaming faces and so many happy memories.

Brielle playing our hang the ornament game. She has THE BEST kissy lips.

Clayton Christmas from Jill Clayton on Vimeo.

There's no place like home...

...beacuse wherever home is, so are these blue eyes.

In which life became overwhelming.

Once upon a time Chris applied for a job on the opposite side of the country, and then he got said job, we painstakingly weighed the pros and cons, accepted the job, listed our house, sold our house, bought a new house, moved across the country, stayed in a few temporary housing situations and then finally moved into our new home in Washington.

During this time life was a bit full, of good and bad, but FULL. There were so many things that demanded my time and attention, life was a little overwhelming and blogging fell off of my radar. Life is still in a constant state of crazy but before this year ends I was determined to at least briefly document the major events of the last few months.

AUGUST

• Chris and Jill head to Hawaii
• This was by far the biggest funnest thing that happened in August. Chris and I spend a week in Hawaii with all of this siblings and parents. It truly was paradise. The beauty of that place is astounding. We stayed in Oahu and spent most of our days hiking or on the beach. My mother was a saint and came to stay with our kids in Virginia while we were gone. She brought Hunter with her and the kids had just as much fun while we were gone as we did. Mom and Hunter... probably not so much. They were so good to have lots of fun things planned for the kids but I think they were more than ready to leave once we got back.
• 
• Accepting a job in Washington
• The day after we got home from Hawaii Chris signed the offer letter with PNNL in Washington state. That was such a hard decision for our family. We spent lots of time on our knees and even after the decision was made we weren't sure if it was the right one. I am so grateful for faith and prayers and the knowledge I have of our Heavenly Father and his watchful hand in our lives.

September

• Kids start school
• The first week of September the kids started school Kaden in 3rd Taycee in 1st and Addi in preschool. This was another big decision for me. I was set to homeschool them all this year but through a series of events decided not to. (which is an entire post in itself..maybe one day I will get to it) As I watched them at back to school night hug their new teachers and walk through the school with so much excitement and enthusiasm, my heart warmed and I felt at peace about where they were.  Addi started her first year of pre-school another thing which I was quite anxious about. I seem to always be extra protective of that little girl. She loved it, full heartedly loved it

• Our house in Virginia goes up for sale.
•  The week after school started our house went up on the market. We spent a couple of weeks power washing the outside and making it sparkle outside and in. I planted fake flowers in all the of the flower pots outside and it looked like springtime in September. We nervously awaited the first showing which came at 11 am the very first day. That was followed by 3 more showings that day. 8am the morning of the second day we had another showing and by 11 am that morning we had an offer in hand. I might have been slightly overwhelmed by how fast everything was going and had a full on panic attack. "They can't buy our house! I LOVE our house! What were we thinking!? Tell them no!" *tears, and breathing into a brown paper sack* Chris was very calm about it. ( Oh how I need that man) and I think he only called me crazy once.  We accepted the offer and just like that our very first home was sold. (or more specifically under contract) 
• 
• Jill goes to Washington to find a house
• Once our house was under contract I flew out to Washington for 4 days to try and find a new home for our family. This was quite a daunting task, that I will never do alone again. I met up with our realtor and saw 12 houses the first day and 4 houses the second. I wasn't in love with anything I saw and didn't think the trip was going to be very successful. On the third day I went back for a second showing on 2 homes and liked them both better my second time through. I left Washington without making an offer on any home (to my realtors dismay) .
• An important note. When I arrived at the airport at midnight, after flying for 8 hours the budget car rental agent decided a Mustang would best fit me (bwahahahaha) so I drove around that beauty for 4 days. Chris was quite jealous and told me multiple times I didn't appreciate the beauty or power of it. He was probably right. What I also didn't appreciate was the fact that I couldn't figure out how to pop the trunk at midnight to put my luggage in, or how to open the gas tank when I was filling up to return the car at 5 am in the morning. After pushing a series of buttons I got the trunk open, I did however have to google the gas tank problem on my phone. (Turns out you just push it in and it pops out!)

October

•  We make an offer on a home in Washington
•  After going home and talking with Chris about the 2 homes I saw a second time we decided to make a low offer on one of the homes and see what happened. The sellers countered back quite high and we gave one last final (still low) counteroffer. The sellers countered back again high and we told our agent we weren't interested in negotiating any higher than our last offer. We considered that house off the table and started looking into rental options. We originally wrote the offer on a Thursday night and our realtor gave the offer an expiration date of Monday just incase the sellers were out of town for the weekend. However by Friday night we had already gone through the above negotiations and considered it a dead deal. However, while I was making dinner the next Monday night Chris got a call from our realtor who said these words "Congratulations! You just bought a house."------------------------------------------------------ Shocked silence. Um, WHAT?! Apparently the sellers had thought it over and decided to take our second offer. Because the offer hadn't expired yet they were able to sign it and that was that. I was caught quite off guard as we had thought that home was no longer an option and had totally changed our frame of mind. I might have panicked again slightly and Chris once again spoke soothing words while petting my head. (ha, I joke... kind of) That was that, we had sold our house, and bought a new house and we were moving to Washington.
• Phone calls,  paper work, and emails OH MY!
• Buying a home while living 4,000 miles and 3 time zones away is tricky. The rest of October was filled with SO many emails and e-documents and phone calls. We had to coordinate the move of our home, temporary housing in VA and WA, rental cars, storage sheds, new schools, flights....the lists went on and on. Honestly October was a whirlwind of emotions, lots of stress and so many signatures. 
• Brielle insists on being potty trained.
• In the chaos of October the last thing I had on my list of things to do was potty train my 2 year old. But one day while she way laying on the floor having a nuclear melt down because I WOULDN'T let her go on the potty I realized I was making things harder by not potty training her.  So I set aside a weekend, did lots of laundry had a clorox bottle constantly on hand, and we got it done. 

• We move out of our home
• On October 26th 5 ladies showed up at my front porch at 8am and a special kind of torture began. I don't consider myself a high strung person. I do like order and maybe I'm a tad bit fond of control. However, having these strangers in my house putting my things in boxes about did me in. I had to sit in my room and practice my deep breathing. I really really didn't like it and if/when we move again I will be doing all the boxing myself. 
• They shipped our car with our household items so we needed to pick up a rental car. Unfortunately there was a little mixup on the time and when we went to pick up our car the rental office was closed. This mostly presented a problem because I needed to be at the house the next morning at 8 to meet the movers and the office didn't open until 9. I ended up dropping Chris off in the freezing morning air to sit outside the office for an hour while I went ahead to the house to meet the movers. It wasn't a great solution but it was the only one we had. 
• The 27th the moving truck showed up and 8 hours later our house was empty and there was a semi truck headed to WA with 98% of our belongings. 
• 
• Hotel Life 
•  Our house was empty but we didn't fly to WA until Sunday, which let us in a hotel for a few nights. We had booked the Jr Suite at Fairfield Inn. And we walked in tired and hungry (and all a bit cranky) Monday night this was the lovely Suite awaiting us. (minus all the junk) I laughed, to keep from crying and we made this tiny little room home for the next few days. Kaden found a sliver of floor amongst our 7 suitcases all 3 girls piled into 1 queen bed and we tried not to breathe too deeply as we had all had chili for dinner the night before. -- They did provide a delicious hot breakfast each morning which Kaden appreciated thoroughly. 

• A final trip to DC
• We are so lucky to have family in the DC area. The kids went to their last day of school Thursday and Friday morning we packed up waved goodbye to the hotel and headed to DC for one final sight seeing trip, before heading to my cousin Mckell's house for some Halloween festivities. 

Halloween

• We (or at least I) debated skipping Halloween this year. I wasn't sure how to fit costumes along with everything else that needed to be packed for the next month into suitcases manageable to take on the plane. But if I am a sucker for anything it is this, parties, holidays, and my kids. Halloween pretty much encompasses all of those so it could not be skipped. Mckell and Devin were awesome and let us join in on their parties. The kids trick-or treated we had dinner in a pumpkin and lit the ghost eyes. It was perfect.

November

• The Claytons take on Washington
• Unfortunately that had to be by way of a couple of airports. Our flight left at 6 am out of Dulles airport, which thankfully was only about 15 minutes from Mckell's house. We were up bright and early... actually we slept in an hour, Chris set his alarm for 3pm instead of am, BUT it was daylight savings so thankfully we woke up on time. We loaded into the rental car with 6 backpacks 6 suitcases/bags 4 car seats 2 carry on's and a dog carrier. Chris dropped me off at the airport doors with all the suitcases the dog and the two older kids. He went to return the rental and then shuttled back with the 2 babies and their car seats. I would pay good money to have video of our progression through the airport. I am sure it was quite comical... if you were not the one living through it. I somehow manages to haul all of our suitcases (with the assistance of a luggage cart and the kids) to the baggage kiosk to be tagged and checked. Chris made his way back with the (so heavy) carseats slung over his shoulders and the babies wandering behind. We made it through security (barley) and to the gate with 15 minutes to spare before boarding began. We received over 20 comments along the way. "Wow you have 4 kids AND a dog?" .... you know... the usual. Really though, the kids were angels. It was a little stressful by nature but man it could have been so much worse. Chris and I looked at each other several times and said "They are being fantastic!" It was a blessing straight from Heavenly Father. I am sure of it.  Addison loved the plane rides. She said over and over "do you LOVE bwast off daddy? I LOVE bwast off!" We actually had a childrens author sit close to us on the plane and as he de-boarded he handed us his card with his email and said he wanted to send us a book because our kids were so great. The dog even did well. Blessings.

• Apartment life
• Our house didn't close for 17 more days so we lived on the 2nd floor of an apartment in Richland for that time. It was furnished with everything we needed and had 3 bedrooms 2 baths and a kitchen. It wasn't large but it felt like a mansion compared to the hotel we had just been staying in. The only down side was we were on the second floor and the lady below us was use to no one living above her so the pitter patter of little feet at 3 am (daylight savings +3 time zones remember) was a most unwelcome event. She let us know the third day we were there, something about high heals and marching bands, it was all a bit dramatic.  We tried our very best to sound like we didn't live there and I am sure she thought some mean thoughts a time or two but we all lived through it.  The kids all got to have their second first day of school and because our cars hadn't arrived yet I did A LOT of driving. Between dropping the Chris off at work on one end of the cities getting the kids to school on the other, going back to let Brielle nap getting Addi to preschool and then picking them all up I spent half of my day in the car. I became extra grateful gas is relatively cheap right now.  There were a few hiccups in the paperwork on the house, Brielle gave herself a hair cut, Kaden broke 2 cups, Taycee broke a bowl and I thought a few times I might lose my sanity but I didn't so that's something.

• We move into our house
• Our scheduled moving day was fast approaching and because of the paperwork problems and appraisers delay and other things we weren't going to be closing on time. We started to scramble for a solution as we had the truck arriving with all of our things and Chris's parents flying in to help us move into a house that we didn't have. We found out the family who owned the home use to be in our new ward and their son was still living with the bishop. After contacting them and explaining the situation we worked out a rental agreement to let us rent the house for 3 days until we could close. I got in that day and started painting the yellow walls and 2 days later the boxes arrived. 

• Grandpa and Grandma suprise
• The weekend after we moved in was Taycee's birthday. Kelly and Claudia were planning on coming up to help us move in but we kept it a secret from the kids for Taycee's birthday. The night we picked them up we drove to the airport and told them we were picking up a package for the house. We asked them to look out the window for a box that had our names on it. They were quite confused but complied. When they saw grandma and grandpa they were pretty excited. 

• Taycee's brithday
• Taycee turned 7 on the 22nd. I was feeling guilty that once again her birthday fell amidst the chaos of moving. It was just 2 years ago we were in the exact situation but in Virginia. She is a sweetheart though and didn't mind at all that there was no fancy party or special home made cake. She got to go on a shopping trip with grandma and pick out her cake at the Wal-mart bakery and she was happy as can be. The best part of her birthday was that dad and grandpa spent an entire day out in the freezing cold building her her very own set of monkey bars. They are her favorite playground toy and she was so excited to have her own set. As per the norm building didn't go as quickly as hoped for so the monkey bars weren't quite finished when she saw them the next day, but that didn't seem to subdue her excitement in the least. I also came down with a horrible cold that weekend, I think all the stresses of the past month had finally caught up with me. On the day of her actual birthday I spent the entire day in bed with a spinning head and a barking cough. Mom of year goes to me, for sure. 

• Thanksgiving
• We had 5 days to work on unboxing and then it was time to take our first trip home to Utah for Thanksgiving. The weather was predicted to be pretty bad on Wednesday so we left Tuesday morning. We were unsure what an 8 hour drive with our kiddos would be like but again they were fantastic. We made it to Boise in just over 4 hours ate some dinner and made it to Brigham in 4 more. Doorstep to doorstep it was exactly 9 hours. It was so fun to be home again for Thanksgiving and we soaked up all the family time. Thanksgiving day was full of yummy food, family and games. We spent 4 full days and then drove home Sunday after church. 

December

• We have spent most of December settling into our new home. Most of the boxes are finally unpacked. Decorations are hung on the walls and we are starting to add the little touches that really make this house feel like our home. We really loved our home in Virginia so adjusting to a new home has been a little hard, but if I have learned anything in the past two years it is that the people who surround you are far more important than any of the things. We have loved our ward so far, the kids like their schools and the neighborhood is full of friends to play with. It felt like a long shaky process to get here but we are so happy with where it all ended. 

Other happenings in the last three months

• Addison got a haircut, afterwards she looked in the mirror and said " It's Dora!" She referred to her hair as the Dora haircut for weeks after.

• Taycee lost a few teeth

• The girls had their 2 and 4 year check ups where they were determined to be 1 lb and 1 in apart from each other in size. Brielle landing above the 99th and Addison in the 35th. Is it any wonder I get asked if they are twins every time we are out?

• Addison got to start riding the school bus and LOVED it. She asks every day "what time is it?" and if my answer isn't "It's time to get on the bus" she is quite bummed.