We made it....finally!

We actually arrived very late on Saturday, but time has passed by so quickly since then. Moving reminded me why I don't like to move. Lee had to start his job about 3 weeks before we moved, so he really wasn't around to enjoy all the packing that was involved, but he helped TONS when we arrived.:) He returned home on Thursday morning, and took his last final! Yay! Then we packed, and sorted,etc....Friday we picked up the moving truck, and started loading it up with the wonderful help from fellow ward members.

Friday night was Lee's graduation(which I plan to post about later). We woke up very early on Saturday, and the BIG move began. We had lots of help from the EQ, and the sister missionaries were kind enough to come and help as well. THANK YOU! Once the loading was complete,(we had to give away so much stuff), we cleaned up the house. We realized we were going to have to leave some stuff in the garage, and come back for it later.(Which Lee did yesterday). We gathered the cats, which took some time, and then loaded up. Unfortunately, and truck wouldn't start. How anti-climatic!

We called the moving company and they sent a repair man to fix it. It was bitterly cold in Ohio, and the diesel engine did not like it at all! That put us behind a good 2 hours, so we didn't get to Morgantown until about 9pm. We unloaded until we reached our mattresses, and then crashed about midnight.

After church the next day, the wonderful ward members in our new ward stopped by and helped us unload the truck. So helpful! We ate dinner at one of their houses, since I still hadn't found dishes.:)

Now we have been trying to organize the house, and unpack. Which I have decided it is as bad as packing. Especially the week before Christmas. Luckily Lee's job let him have more days off then we were expecting, and he didn't have to return to work until tonight. That is right he has to work nights! Blah! Those days off were great, and he helped so much getting things put together for our family. Lee will have to work Christmas eve, and Christmas but we expected that being the new guy and all. His boss will try to work him close to home so he can come home between shifts, but this rig is almost 2 hours away. To far to come home between shifts, so we will drive up there on Christmas to spend some time with him. We miss him already!

The townhouse is great. The fridge/freezer wasn't working, but that is now fixed, and the hot water is working now as well.(Nothing like a cold shower):)


I hope your Christmas is grand, and I will try to post some pictures and update some more later! Merry Christmas.

What Shall We Give?

Mara's special Day!

Mara was baptized on November 27th. We had 20 people here for Thanksgiving this year, so we opted to do the baptism at the same time. It was so beautiful. Mara sang a duet with her Dad, and it turned out so amazing. She loved her princess dress, and thanks to her Aunt Shannon, her hair was gorgeous as well.

She loves being pampered, and she loved her special day. She was so excited to be baptized. She has been waiting for this day for awhile.:)

We had to get a fun picture with all the cousins that came. As you can see, the girls were slightly outnumbered. Mara is so beautiful. I think I will have to look all the doors, and buy a shotgun when she is older.
I love this picture with her brothers. I might be biased, but I think I have really good looking children.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

It is official! We are moving to Morgantown, WV. We have know about Lee's new job for quite awhile, but finally had the location this week! Lee will be working for Horizon Well Logging, LLC. He will be graduating December 17th, and we leave Dec. 18th. (Hopefully):) I am so glad that Lee will be done with school. Yay! We are very excited for this new adventure, and we hope that all goes well with the move. We are still trying to figure out housing, but we are confident that will happen soon. We welcome any visitors, as usual. Don't worry, I still won't be converted to country music. :)

Happy Birthday Mara!

Mara had a great birthday weekend! First, her fun birthday party on Saturday. She invited friends, and we decided to buck the traditional party, and went rock climbing instead! It was great. BGSU has a fantastic climbing wall that is open for parties as well. She loved having her friends share in her special day. Carson came and tried the climbing as well. ( I was really proud of him, since he is a little scared of height) He did great.

Kale of course could not be left out. I was amazed how good he was for only being 4 years old!

Carson already harnessed up and ready to go!

Look how cute he is in his little harness. :)

Mara was fantastic at this. She has never been before, and as we know she has no fear.:) She is very talented in this, and was able to climb to the top several times. I think she is going to want to keep doing this. She loved it!

She really wanted to try all the most difficult routes. She is definitely an adventurer.

Monday morning was her actual birthday, and finally was able to open her presents from Mom and Dad, and her Grandparents. She was over the moon excited with everything she was given.

She was happy to get her own guitar. Now she won't have to borrow the big ones.:) Of course we had to get her a pink and purple one. Those are her favorite colors!

I took treats into her classroom, and she was excited to share them with her class. This is her teacher, Mrs. Lincoln (on the right), and the student teacher Ms. Garchar.

We are so blessed to have Mara in our family. She turned 8 on the 8th! She will be baptised in a couple of weeks, so she is very excited about that as well.

Eight things that I love about Mara:

--She loves to sing, even first thing in the morning

--She is a fantastic artist

--She is willing to try so many new things

--She is a great friend, and very friendly

--She has great curly hair

--She has beautiful blue eyes

--She actually likes to play with her brothers

--She is a great student, and loves to read

We love you Mara!

Halloween 2010

We had the missionaries over for Halloween. We tried to make a Halloween dinner, and I think it turned out pretty good. We made soup and put in in hollowed out pumpkins. (We cooked the pumpkins as well.) We had orange rolls, and pumpkin cheesecake. Yummy! It was fun to have them over.

The kids always have fun deciding on a costume. This year Daddy helped them with costumes. Carson was a robot. He really had fun making it out of a cardboard box, and one trip to Home Depot to get the arms, and he was set. Mara love being pretty, so she chose to be a fairy this year. She loved her wings. Kale was able to a a scary ghost, and liked having his face painted. Lee was a middle-aged man past his prime. :)

We went up to Haskins to Trick 0r Treat, since they were doing it on Saturday. Our town was having it on Sunday, and we really didn't want to do that. It worked out great!

This is Mara decorating her pumpkin this year.

Kale and Carson getting into the fun. They really don't like getting the pumpkin guts out, but they still endured to have a great pumpkin.

Preschool Fall Program

Kale had his Fall program last week. They all did a great job! It was fun to see all the cute costumes, and listen to their songs. Kale was a dinosaur for the program. He really wanted to be a ghost, but they didn't want the kids to dress up like anything "scary". He was OK with it. He knew he would be able to be the ghost for everything else that week.:) They all had to look at Mrs. K for the songs :)

They did a great job, and had so much fun.

Corn Maze

We visited the local corn maze this past weekend, and had a great time! First we had to get pictures of our "butterflies":) Next, after given instructions, and our punch cards we were off! We really didn't think we would do the entire thing, but the kids loved it, and we were pretty good at finding our way. It was 7 miles long on 16 acres. This is at the beginning.

Lee and I trying to take a picture while keeping up with the children.

We had to find 24 signs, and punch our cards. Each punch hole was a different shape.

One of the lookouts that we could use, if needed, to keep our bearings. Our great seekers! We finished, and because we found all the signs, we could enter in a free Christmas tree give-away. I know not much of a prize, but we had so much fun together, that really was the prize :)

The sky was gorgeous. I don't think the picture does it justice.

The sunset was incredible. One nice thing living where it is flat, you can see the sunset better.

Our new addition!

This is our new kitten, Lucy Furr. :) She has joined our family as of yesterday! She is very cute, and feisty. She is completely black, and very fuzzy. So far she and our other cat, Naomi, are trying to be friends. They have had some disagreements, but are trying work it out. Carson has really wanted a cat of his own, and we felt like he was ready and willing to try. Welcome Lucy!

Preschool!

Kale started preschool last week, and I am now finally bloggging about it!:) He loves school, and is so excited to be like his older brother and sister. He told me the only thing he doesn't like about school, is that he can't go everyday! I myself find it quiet around the house for 2 1/2 hours, but I do like getting so much done! I actually get to go to the grocery store alone, and I can go meet friends for breakfast and such. Wow! First time in 9 years by myself, it is hard to think how quick the time goes. He will always be my baby! I love this adorable face.:)

NTP & Birthday

Most of you probably didn't know that we lived in the town where the National Tractor Pull is held.:) Every August for about 3 days our little town about triples in size. We have people come from all over the United States, Canada, and even Europe. I decided that this year we were going to attend. It also was to celebrate Lee's birthday. It was actually really fun! I never knew they had such a thing. It was very cool to watch and hear these massive tractors go down the track. I was impressed with all the rules, and all the work these owners go to. The kids liked how much smoke they would blow out, and how very, very loud they were.

We highly recommend this experience if you ever get the chance to attend.

Lee turned another year older last week. Besides going to the tractor pull, Lee started back to his LAST semester of graduate school. Yay! He wanted some peach custer pie for his birthday so I obliged.

I also suprised him with the game cornhole. (Yet another thing I have only encountered in Ohio.) It consists of throwing bean bags into wooden boards, and trying to get it through the hole. Harder than it looks., but really fun. Happy Birthday Lee!

New School Year

The new school year has begun! Carson and Mara were very excited to start school this year. (So was Mom.:) They loved shopping for new school clothes and school supplies. Is it me, or does the list of supplies get longer, and more expensive? They seem to like their teachers, and of course playing with all their friends!


Carson is in 4th grade this year. Wow! I can't believe how grown up he is getting. He is a great student and a very good big brother, and great friend.
Mara started 2nd grade this year. She loves her teacher, and was excited to see some of her same friends from 1st grade. She likes school very much, just not homework. I don't blame her at all. I don't like homework either.

They still ride the bus, which they like and so do I. The year has started great!

Utah Trip

We spent 2 weeks traveling to Utah, visiting with family, and coming home. We couldn't do everything we wanted, and some things were done that shouldn't have happened, but in all it was a good trip. Lee's grandma died while we were visiting, so we had the chance to go to the funeral.



We had a great time riding the 4 wheelers up at Monte Cristo. The kids had a blast!
We had to visit The Dinosaur park with the cousins while we were there.

Throwing sticks and rocks in the river up at the cabin is always a favorites with all kids and cousins. They could spend hours there.

We had an awesome experience pulling a handcart while we stopped in Nauvoo for a few days. It was actually a very difficult trail, and our kids did a super job. Carson pulled the handcart the whole way, and never complained. We were very dirty and muddy, but glad for the adventure.

We had to walk down and visit the Mississippi River.

The kids LOVED dressing up as pioneers. They had so much fun playing games children used to.

The Nauvoo temple was so beautiful. We loved the outside and the inside. (Lee and I were able to go inside).

They tried to keep the outside an exact replica of how they originally built it.

I love to see the temple. It is so peaceful, and such a great comfort to me.

P.S. Thanks for reading my blog even though it is private now!:)