Welcome to our new house!

Welcome! Here is a small tour of our new home. This is the front door which leads into our living room.
Just off the living room is Sarah, Carrie, and Nelson's room. They have a triple bunk bed.
The reading/kitchen corner.
OK, it looks a bit messy but we are still in the organizing stage (with all the toys).
Back out in the living room. (View from the kitchen door)
More living room. (Taken from the front door). Straight ahead is the kitchen, the door to the younger kids room is on the left just out of view.
Stepping into the kitchen. You can see the door to the laundry room which leads to Jess and Sam's room. Just out of view to the left of Nelson is the doorway to the bathroom and Deric and My bedroom.
Another view of the kitchen (from the laundry room door).
The laundry room which we also use for some storage.

Through the laundry room and into Jess and Sammy's room. "Can I come in sisters?!"
Hi girls.

This is the area just off the kitchen that leads to our bedroom. It is an over sized hallway that we turned into a desk area. We like to have the computer in a central place. (our door is pictured here on the right hand side.)
You can see the bathroom door (same area as above.) Notice the baby gate that keeps our cute Wally away from the computer! Everyone else in our family can open it with ease!
The front porch.
View from the end of the driveway.
Wally in the front yard.
Maggie enjoying the snow.
This picture is purely for my mom's benefit. If you look closely you can see the Maverick gas station down on the right (at the stop light). In the center of the photo is a read roofed building... that is the malt shop. I hope that gives you (mom) a good idea where we are.
Love and miss you all!

Reflections... "Together We Can"

The older children participated in the Reflections program again this year. They took pictures, created drawings, and wrote stories. I am so pleased with of all of their hard work. Jessica got first place for her story and went onto regionals. Here she is with the other first place winners.

Sarah and Sammy with their certificates! Great job girls, we are so proud of all of you.

Carrie's 5th Birthday

Our sweet and sassy Carrie (aka Bob) turned five at the end of January. We had a nice quiet day that ended with a few gifts from family. She couldn't wait though for the party scheduled for Valentines day. We had invited a few new friends to come and ex-change Valentines and celebrate Carrie's birthday. She had requested a heart cake.... because we have no oven right now(another story all together) I improvised with cupcakes that I had made earlier and froze until the night before her party.


You can't really tell from the picture but she has little hearts in her buns. She is also wearing the outfit that her meme sent to her. The skirt is fluffy and of all shades of pink!

This picture isn't great but it shows her new doll house!I am so grateful for Carrie and the spunk that she brings to our home. She plays so well with Nelson during the day, and is always looking out for Wally. Happy Birthday cute girl!!

Nelson's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday to you... Nelson turned THREE on the first of the year. We happened to be in California and were able to have a family party at Chuck E Cheese on the 30th of December with Noah (who turned 4 on the third of Jan.) The kids had a blast!
Nelson really enjoyed ski ball (he was a little less than good at it though!)
Yeah presents!!!
Sarah earning some tickets.

Carrie and Sam stuck together most of the time.
Jess helping Wally with his cupcake.
We are so grateful for Nelson and all of the fun he brings to our lives. He is curious and outgoing. He is thoughtful and kind. He is also energetic and loud! He sure does keep us on our toes and I am loving every minute of it! Happy birthday buddy!!

Holiday Treats!

As a family this year we made most of our Christmas gifts. It was a lot of fun. This post will show you some of the yummy things that we made...

Surprise Kiss Cookies
I found this recipe on the Hershey's kiss bag. The cookie is a yummy pecan shortbread. They were so easy to make. This is what the kids took to their class Christmas party.
Whatchamacalit
Our neighbors were also having a homemade Christmas and I offered to help the girls make a special treat for their dad who loves whatchamacalit bars (sorry if I am spelling that wrong) . I totaly made this recipe up. The base is a rice crispy treat that we spread with peanut butter and then caramel. Lastly we dipped them all in melted chocolate. They were sooo yummy!
Orange/Clove ornaments
This isn't a treat we ate but they sure smelt great. Each of the kids made their own. We decorated them with ribbon and hung them in the windows.

Carrie and Nelson helped me many times during the day when the other kids were in school. Here they are helping me make pie crust. Honestly I made the crust and they are just playing but they really enjoyed using the rolling pin and getting the practice.


We made peanut brittle this year (and cashew brittle too) to give as family gifts. We were inspired by the recipe in the family fun magazine. I looked for the same recipe on line and this one is very close. Jess was my helper for this one.

It was really pretty easy and tasted good too!

The next two recipes came from the our best bites website. I will caution you ahead, this site has so many yummy things to make, you might become addicted!

Homemade marshmallows by Jessica


Cinnamon bun popcorn....yummy!! (This was my project and I am sure I ate most of it!!)
This is our little Wally Golly, enjoying some of the yummy treats!
I some how didn't get a picture of Sarah in the kitchen baking so I decided to use this one instead. She is out in the snow making her own little "cake". More than likely she ate it when she was done. All of the kids have enjoyed eating a little snow here and there. Who needs any of these fancy deserts and treats when you can eat some snow!!

Jessica's Un-birthday!!

I am about to post MANY Birthday posts and thought I should start with this one (which is from before Christmas.) Jessica's birthday was indeed in September, but her new teacher said that she could pick a day to have an Un-birthday celebration at school. The kids all make cards and the parents can bring in a treat. We chose just before Christmas so that we could make the following really fun cupcakes that we found in the family fun magazine. It happened to be that they also had a biography fair on the same day. Jessica did her project on Clara Barton.


Aren't these soooo cute! They were really fun to make too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I am a day late but we wanted to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day. We love all of you so much. These pictures are from Sunday. The girls are wearing new hair "flowers" that I made for them as an early V-day gift. Sammy also made these at her birthday party on Friday (a soon to be posted post).


HI everyone!! We are so happy it is Valentines Day!!!

The smell of snow...

It has been a while I know. To say that life has been hectic would be a gross understatement. As crazy as it has been I have had to cut back on blogging (obviously). I am hoping that as I get settled I will have time to go backwards a little and share some of our holiday fun with you. Until then I will be blogging about the recent events in our life!!

First I want to share how much I have missed living in the snow and cold. Yes, my face freezes sometimes when I go outside, and yes the kids have to bundle up before they even open the door. But the sights and sounds and smells of winter are wonderful. I love the ice and snow on the trees after a winter storm, the sound of the snow crunching under foot, and the smell that is so distinct just before a storm hits.

That being said I would like to share some very unrelated pictures with you. The kids started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and are loving it! They are taught at the college and the best part is that all classes are taught at the same time. This means that I get to take a mommy and me class with Wally (something I haven't been able to do since Jess was a baby!) Deric came the other day and took some pictures for me. Enjoy... and I will try and post some holiday photos, birthday photos, moving photos etc... soon ( I hope)!

***Caution****
pictures may only be enjoyable if you are the grandparent of the children in the photos.... sorry!!!