Christmas

Ready to open the Christmas Eve present

Yah!! Pajamas

Grandma Dianne helping Paityn

Paityn in her new jammies she didn't even make it to bed in them she pooped all over them

Look what Santa brought

We use Santa hats instead of stockings

This is how much Paityn cared about the festivities

The kids coming out to see what Santa brought

Carson checking out his yo yo he put himself right in the middle of the floor

Sierra looking at some of her stuff

Sierra

Carson & Briana

Wow they look so excited

Briana and the new skirt Grandma Dianne made

Sierra about to open her "BIG" present

Barbie Dress

Carson opening his "BIG" present

Carson and his cowboy

Briana opening her "BIG" present

Briana and her pretty pink Barbie dress with a train

The cowboy now has his hat on

Paityn and her teddy bear from Aunt Becca and Uncle Mark I think she likes it!!

Here are a lot of pictures from Christmas morning. The girls each got a barbie with a crocheted dress that my friend Val made for them. They turned out so pretty and they are on display in the girls room right now. Carson was not left out he got a cowboy outfit for a Ken doll. Val also made some Barbie furniture for them they love it. The kids got up just before 6:00 A.M. and we woke grandma up and the festivities started. We opened presents and had some breakfast and played some games and just hung out all day it was a nice relaxing day. Then we had a nice ham dinner in the evening.

Merry Christmas (Early)

We have been so blessed this year. Despite the fact that things haven't worked out quite as easily as we thought they should we know all things happen for a reason and when things are meant to be they tend to work out more easily. We have so enjoyed our time in the Hart's basement but will be very excited to have our own house again. You don't know how much you will miss something until you don't have it anymore.

This past weekend we went to Cedar City to look at houses since Steve needs to be there to start work on the 4th of Jan. We are so excited about his new job and we knew we needed to get the ball moving quickly in order to find a place to live. While down there we found a house that we really liked and wanted to make an offer on. We needed to get some paper work to the bank first to be sure we were good to make an offer so first thing on Monday morning we found the papers that we needed and Steve took them to the bank only to get there and find the man he was working with had just left to do a loan closing. He left the paperwork and headed home. We finished up some Christmas shopping and got home just before time to pick up the kids from school and Paityn was not a happy camper so I stayed home to settle her down and Steve went to pick up the kids and call the bank back. Finally at about 3:30 in the afternoon we were ready to make an offer on the house, so we called our agent and gave him the details and he said it would take him a couple of hours to get everything emailed to us to look over. It took a little longer and about 6:30 the papers were in the email. We started printing them off and getting dinner and I started reading them. By the time the kids were in bed FHE was over and the papers were read and signed it was almost 9:00. Steve ran the papers to Kinkos to fax them back so the agent could talk to the people at 9 in the morning. we were patiently waiting this morning thinking it shouldn't be too late that we would hear back if they people were meeting with the agent at 9 so we started refreshing the email waiting for a reply nothing came so finally around noon I called Steve and told him he better call me if our agent called him and he said dang it I was hoping he had called you and you were calling to tell me you had talked to him. At this point we started losing hope that things were going to work out but at about 1:30 Steve called me and said he talked to the agent and the people accepted our offer!!!!

We are so excited we are going to be the proud owners of a new house (for us) and some chickens by the 1st of February!!!! Kodie you will have to give me some pointers. They were really nice and asked if we had small kids and so they decided to leave their little swing set and trampoline as well. Their kids are all teenagers now. I think this is one of the best Christmas presents we could get. Hope you all have a great Christmas as well.

2 Months

Paityn is 9 weeks old today and we took her to the two month appointment today. She is 10lbs. 15oz. and 23 inches long she is growing like a weed. She is so cute I love it when she smiles and is so sweet. She had to get three different shots today and hence this afternoon has not been as pleasant as usual. She was screaming for like 15 minutes straight I think until the medicine kicked in. Thank goodness for the swing it is her best friend and mine right now. She loves to be in it and I love her to be in it when I need to get things done.

Our Ship has Come In!!!

Our ship has come in!!! We have been applying for jobs in Arizona since April of this year, with the economy as it is jobs have been hard to come by and there are so many people interviewing for them it has been a very long and unproductive process. A few weeks ago my mom sent us an email for a job at SUU in Cedar City. She has sent us other job openings at SUU but most of them the salary was just not worth even applying for, however this one was different, so Steve applied for the job. A couple weeks later he had an email from some company which I thought was SUU that said they had chosen some people so if you had been contacted then they would still be in contact with you otherwise you were out of the running. We hadn't heard anything so I thought it was a no go for the job. A few days later Steve calls and tells me he has an interview with SUU a couple days later and he told me it was a different company that had sent the letter.
Steve went to the interview and felt like it went well. It is for an Accountant that works with grants. He does the same sort of thing right now only on a smaller scale. We waited out the weekend and tried not to get our hopes up, on Monday Steve talked to one of his references that had been called but didn't hear anything back. Tuesday he talked to another reference that had been contacted that day and we thought for sure we would get a call back but five o'clock came and no phone call so we decided that either they hadn't decided or it wasn't meant to be.
Steve was doing the dishes after dinner and I thought I heard his phone ring, by the time I got his attention he had missed the call. He didn't recognize the number but he called them back. It was SUU with an unofficial job offer which meant that the president of the college still needed to sign the actual offer. We had been warned that the process could take a while but by the time the end of the week was arriving and we hadn't heard back we were getting a little worried that maybe they had changed their minds. We knew if they hadn't we needed to get a move on quickly looking for a house and such with the holidays coming and everything we wouldn't have much time before he would have to go to work if it worked out. Friday afternoon he finally heard back with the official offer. He signed and sent it back and we were on our way to Cedar City yesterday to look at some houses. We found one we really like and hope it works out for us. We are so excited for this new adventure in our life. What a great Christmas present for our family. The Lord really does answer our prayers just not always on our time schedule. We will miss all of our good friends here but know we will make more friends as well. When we get settled we hope some of you will stop by for a visit, we love company and your welcome to stay with us. We will keep you updated on our house search.

Couldn't resist

I laid Paityn on the floor and she was just cooing away and I couldn't resist videoing her. What a doll, we just love her. It is so fun to see them coo and smile........it makes me smile too!!

Pictures

So after our ward Christmas Party this morning we came home to get ready for our family pictures. We actually managed to make it to our appointment on time, fully dressed, hair fixed, and with a spare change of clothes for the kids. Family pictures are exhausting to say the least........but we did get some decent pictures. Here is a little preview of what we got. They weren't the greatest with Paityn and she was really tired and cranky despite our best efforts to have her in a good mood. Then of course Carson kept making silly faces and Briana seemed to have her hands all over the place. Sierra's idea is for everyone to have twins of their kids so when one set gets tired of doing the pictures you can put the other twin in the picture!!! Kids are funny

Tip for the Day

My kids don't really have any certain chores they each have to do but two weekends ago I wanted Steve to mop the floor cause letting the kids do it usually creates a swimming pool but he left early to run an errand and so I was pretty sure it probably wouldn't get done if I didn't do it myself. My time was limited because it was Thanksgiving morning and Paityn was going to need to be fed soon and I needed a shower and I still had some things to get ready for lunch so I got up out of bed and got the floor swept and got the stuff ready to mop when I had what I think was a great idea. Our floor is tile so this made it a little easier than if it were lanoleum but the concept is still good. I decided since my time was short (side note I mop my floor with a rag on my hands and knees) I got four rags out and gave each kid a wet rag and we each took a three square line of tiles and were in charge of mopping that section of the floor. Needless to say the mopping went super quick when we all worked together and did our part. I think we will be trying this again this weekend since I don't think the floor has been mopped since that day and it desperately needs it again.

Been a While

Paityn in her new outfit

Miss Cutie Petutie

So my plan for the day was to stay home and clean the house while making some of the things I am in charge of for tomorrow. The day started out as planned I got up, fed Paityn, made a list of to do's, got the kids breakfast, did some dishes, got the kids cleaning their rooms, cleaned the bathroom, and folded some laundry. I also received two phone calls during this time one from my sister who wondered if I could pick up a couple of things from target which is closer to me than her and bring them to her tomorrow. The other call was from Steve, he thought since the kids were off school we should come down by his office and have lunch with him. I told him Paityn was going to be hungry and I hadn't showered but I would see what I could do. Paityn continued to sleep in the swing so I pumped some milk for her and took a shower. We got all done in time to meet Steve so we took off for lunch. I also had a list of places I needed to go after lunch while we were out. We got to lunch and the place was busy and a little slow but I was able to feed Paityn a bottle before the food came and then I put her back in the car seat while I ate. The whole time she kept squirming and crying. Finally when we were just about done I picked her up to hold her to see if I could get her to quit crying before I had to buckle her into the car seat. When I picked her up my hand got wet so I looked and sure enough pooooo all over her clothes on her leg, normally it wouldn't be a big deal but quickly I realize I have no extra clothes for her. Where have I been? Do you take a baby anywhere without an extra change of clothes? Guess it's beeen a while since I packed a diaper bag and a small baby!!! I take her to the bathroom strip her down, change her bum and wrap her in the semi dirty blanket. Then we go into the mall to JcPenney and buy her a new outfit so she doesn't have to go naked while I run my other errands. (She did get a cute outfit out of the deal) Lesson learned I will be adding to the diaper bag for any future trips out of the house. I tried to make sure that she was covered with the blanket but I felt like I was getting a few weird stares like who would take their one month old out without any clothes on??? Twas our adventure for the day I did get all the things done on my list except for the kitchen floor mopped but I will get Steve on that first thing in the morning!!! Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

10 ALREADY!!!

Birthday Cake

Sierra and her Cake

Sierra and her Cake

Sierra and her Jonas Brothers stuff

Briana, Asher, Ben, Carson, and Hannah

Emma, Christine, Paityn

Sister Vanleuven and Steve

Sierra and her Hannah Montana present a horse and a barbie

Sierra and her cake decorating stuff

Cake and candles

Make a Wish!!

It took her like five blows to get them all out

Yesterday was Sierra's Birthday. Happy 10th Birthday Sierra! She just wanted her cousins to come over at six in the morning and to stay till 7 at night. Unfortunately for her the parents had the final say and the cousins came over at noonish and left at 4. She had fun though playing. It worked out good though because they had a primary activity in the morning then came home and played and had pizza for lunch and then we had cake and ice cream and more playing and then she had chicken nuggets for dinner. I think she had a pretty good day she wanted to know why she had to talk on the phone all day long but enjoyed all the phone calls and presents she received. We can't believe we are parents of a ten year old where has the time gone. Sierra is a great helper and she is getting so big and she does a great job in school and is a good helper when she wants to be. Thanks for all you do Sierra!

FUNNY THING

A couple of nights ago we went out in the evening and I saw some christmas lights on and I said "ugh christmas lights". Nothing else was said until we were on our way back home and Sierra said out of the blue "I wonder if anyone had their Sierra lights on? Since it is almost my birthday" I got a good laugh out of this one.