Happy Birthday Kale!

Today was Kale's 3rd Birthday! It is hard to believe our "baby" is turning 3. I remember very well when he was born, and it has gone by so fast. I feel bad he has a birthday so close to Christmas, but he seems to not mind right now! Kale has always been a really fun kid. Even though he was, and still is not a great sleeper, he is a happy boy. Kale likes to run, and try to keep up with his older siblings. He likes to do everything independently, but is still a BIG momma's boy. Which is OK with me, since he is my last baby :) We had a fun day letting him choose everything we did, even down to what we ate for meals! We went bowling. which Kale loves, and had cake, and of course PRESENTS.

Blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. He loved doing it by himself.
Kale received a fun little car to scoot around in! He loves riding in it.

Kale at 5 months old. He was always sticking out his tounge. What a cutie!Kale when he was around 10 months old. He wanted to feed himself, with no help.

Kale when he was 18 months old. He really liked riding in the backpack, where he could see everything going on.

We are so glad Kale is in our family. We love him so much, and look forward to seeing his little personality grow and develop. He has a contagious giggle, and he is quite observant. Happy Birthday little man!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from Ohio! We had a great Christmas here, and Santa was able to find our house. We had a great Christmas with just our little family, and we really enjoyed it! We did miss our families, but had a great time together. We had a quiet Christmas Eve, in which we read the Christmas Story and other fun stories. We made cookies for Santa, and left him a note. Plus, we opened the annual pajamas. :) The next morning the kids woke up at 6:30am! We knew the battle was lost, and everyone arose to see what Santa had left. The kids really seemed to like what they received, and we had fun playing the games and with the toys all day. We hope your Christmas was fantastic, and you were able to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Our family is truely grateful for our Savior, and his birth and sacrifice.

P.S. Here is the recipe for the Buckeyes that some of you requested.

Buckeyes:

1 cup butter (softned)

1 pound peanut butter (your choice on creamy or crunchy)

5 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Chocolate to melt. ( your choice on type of chocolate)

Cream butter and peanut butter together. Add powdered sugar. Roll dough into small balls and place on either a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, or some other large container with wax paper. Place in freezer to harden. It does not need to freeze solid, only harden so they will not fall apart as you dip them in chocolate. Use toothpicks to pierce balls in the center, and slowly dip them in your melted chocolate, leaving a small circle on top with no chocolate covering it. Place on cookie sheet to cool, and gently rub the hole left by the toothpick closed. They are done. Have fun!

Ice Storms and Freezing Rain

Well, we experienced our first ice storm with freezing rain. If you don't know, freezing rain occurs when it rains then freezes as it hits the ground, coating everything in a layer of ice. Early Fri. morning it snowed a few inches and then the freezing rain started. They closed down school everywhere for the day. I guess they close down schools quite a bit here for weather related problems. They have six emergency weather days included in the school year. It is also quite common to delay school by a couple of hours until they can clear the roads better. That is different for us, since in Utah they NEVER close school for anything. Last year when we had 22 inches of snow in one day, school went on as normal. :) Anyway, we received about 1/2 in of freezing rain on top of the 2-3 inches of snow, so the roads and sidewalks were slippery. Salt is definately a hot item here. Here are some pictures of what freezing rain does.

Buckeyes

For those who do not know, I currently reside in Ohio, the Buckeye state. What is a Buckeye, you might ask? I CAN'T believe you don't know what it is!!! (just kidding) I was invited to make buckeyes this week, and I didn't know what they were. I did Google the term, and learned a few things in order to be prepared. First, a Buckeye is a rare species of chicken bred in Ohio, it also can be what you would call someone attending Ohio state university. I think the main reason though, is because of the Buckeye tree. It is a close relative of the Horse Chestnut tree. Although, the seeds of the Buckeye tree are not edible and can be poisionous to certain animals. There, now don't you feel more educated? The Buckeye treat is patterned to look like the nut from the Buckeye tree. It is actually very easy. You combine butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Next, you roll the dough in little balls, and freeze the balls. Finally, after they are hard, you dip them in chocolate. I would like to personally thank my new Ohio friends, Melissa, Tiffany, and Bethany for inviting me, and helping me with this new creation. We had a lot of fun, and stayed up WAY to late, but it was worth it! Here are a couple of pictures of my Buckeyes.

Farmland and Funnies...

This past weekend, Lee went a photographed some farmland around where we live. Remember we are in winter time here now, so it is not as green as we are told it will be. Lee wanted some pictures so he could start painting some landscapes in his spare time before school starts is Jan. These are few of just a dozen or so that he took. Hopefully this gives all of you a general idea of what it looks like here. We obviously live in the more populated area, but this is just outside of town.We actually saw a sunset! Usually the sun doesn't shine that much this time of year, but the other night it was gorgeous.We also drove up to Michigan. It is only 1 hour away. While we were there, we ate at a place called Buffalo Wild Wings. I had to take a picture of the napkin they had there, it made us laugh.
We had a fun weekend. The ward here had a Christmas sing- in at one of the members's houses last night. It was fun to sing christmas songs and eat food, and get to know more friends. Santa visited our house the other night to make sure we were not traveling this Christmas. He wanted to know where to leave their presents. The kids were excited that he would think of that. :)

Finally Employed

I have finally officially been hired to work in Ohio as a nurse. I was offered the position today after nearly a month of jumping through all sorts of hoops. It was the job I REALLY wanted. I will be working for a healthcare system called Promedica. They own quite a few hospitals around the Ohio area. I will be working in the Toledo Children's Hospital in their internal agency. What this means is I will be obligated to float to 2 areas within the hospital ( I chose NICU, and Peds), I will only have to do those 2 areas. All their shifts you sign up for on-line, up to 6 weeks in advance. They have 6,8, and 12 hour shifts available. One of the best parts is they DO NOT require that I work weekends, or holidays unless I want to. So I will work weekends if I need to, and when I want to work a holiday I will still make my good wage plus the time and a half. It is a per diem position. My new boss showed me the shifts available on-line just in the NICU and it went on for 3 pages.
The NICU is a level III nursery, with 60 beds. It is very big. What they do different is that most rooms are private, instead of pods. I have not yet personally seen it, but it sounds interesting. My wage is great. I will have a base wage plus they pay premiums for most shifts that I will be picking up. So most shifts I will be making $35-$40 per hour. I had to take 5 competecy exams to get this job. They were timed tests, and to tell the truth they were horrible. I had to pass with an 85%. I did not enjoy them at all, but I passed and they are done. YEAH!
I am excited to start, and look forward to working with the babies that I love. I love knowing that I can work when it is convient for me day or night. Anyway just wanted to let you all know.

Fun times in Ohio

Yesterday we went to the Nativity Celebration for our Stake. They had over 500 nativity sets. It was really neat to see so many unique sets, and ways to remember our Savior's birth. They also had a children's corner, and we were able to dress up. This is our family reinacting the stable scene. (Lee is awesome with the big beard, don't you think?)
This is an actual snowflake that Lee took a picture of that landed on our car. Lee thinks it is because we are at a lower altitude the snowflakes have longer to form. This one was about 1/4 inch across. It was pretty neat.

Recap of our Road Trip

We left last Fri, and drove all the way to a place called Ogallala Nebraska. It was not bad except for a little snow we encountered near Cheyenne, WY. I was driving the Land Cruiser and Lee drove the big truck and car trailer towed behind it. We always had one child riding with Lee to ensure they did not drive their mother insane during the long drive. The next day we finished driving through Nebraska and then ended up in Iowa City, IA. The last 100 miles were bad since it was snowing and blowing, but we made it. The third day we drove through the rest of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, and finally arriving in Ohio. We drove over the Missouri River, and also the Mississippi River. We couldn't see much because it was raining or snowing the whole way that day which made for great driving. (ha ha) We stayed in a hotel that night in town, and unloaded the truck the next day. I am including pictures of the truck and our new house. So far everything is going well, and we are slowly unpacking and getting things organized.

Greetings from Ohio

After 1600 miles, we have reached our destination. We actually arrived Sun. night but we finally got internet service this afternoon. This is going to be brief, but I will post some pictures and give you all the grand play by play of our trip across 6 states. It is very cold here and the wind has been blowing a lot. We have had some snow or sleet everyday so far. The kids started school today and so far they like it. The average class has 15 students. I need to go but I will post more later.