House

Our new dog, Scout

The office

This tree was on the wall when we bought the house.  It's in the girls' room and I love it.

The living room

Bathroom

Dining room 

NEW

Wow, it's been a crazy few months.  Before I start trying to catch up, I have to cry a little that we have no pictures of anything.  Alyssa lost our camera at school and we have a new one but I haven't gotten around to using it much yet.  Anyway, on to the update.
November was good--I think.  I can't remember.  A good Thanksgiving at the church with family again.  December was a whirlwind of getting into our NEW house!!!!!  We have been so blessed to find a great house in a great neighborhood in our price range.  It was a stressful few weeks trying to get everything figured out.  We'd put the offer in July and were waiting.  When things got approved it went really quickly after that.  But the timing worked out perfectly and we signed papers on the 18th of December and moved in December 22nd.  The next day we took off for Phoenix for Grandma Thompson's funeral with the 3 older kids.  It was a good trip.  It was nice to take a break from house stuff and get some sunshine and celebrate a great lady.  The awesome part was they put in brand new carpet while we were gone, so we came home and it looked amazing!  Rushed back for Christmas Eve with both families where the kids got totally spoiled, as usual, and then on to our home for Christmas.  We have spent a lot of time fixing things up and cleaning (it was a short sale), but we love it here.  The ward is big with a lot of kids, a lot of youth and the school is really close and the kids like their teachers.  I will post pics as soon as I can. 
We also got a NEW dog.  Our friends moved to another state and wanted to take their dog but couldn't find a rental that would allow a big dog, so they offered him to us.  He is a great dog.  That being said, Scott and I have never had a dog and so it's been an interesting experience.  But it has been a really good one.  He is already part of the family, hair all over the house and all.
I also got a NEW job.  The kids brought home a newsletter from school saying they were hiring crossing guards, which I did forever ago when Alyssa was one, so I applied.  Now I get to go stand on the corner 3 times a day and freeze to death.  It'll be great when the weather warms up, though. 
NEW callings: I'm the girls camp director, Scott is the High Priest group secretary, Alyssa is the Beehive secretary. 
For Scott's birthday he and I got to escape everything for a weekend and spent some much-needed time alone.  We went to the temple and out for dinner then went swimming and hot-tubbing (mostly that) at the hotel and had a huge breakfast buffet. 
Now we're just trying to get into a routine and settle things down a bit.  We are so blessed and so grateful for all the NEW things in our lives.

Cornbellys!

We've wanted to Cornbellys for a couple years, but it's pretty expensive.  This year we finally decided to try it out anyway.  It was another perfect fall day and we had a great time playing Cornball, going through the iguana (watching Christian crawl away in terror from the clown was worth the price of admission all by itself), doing the corn and hay maze and just being together.

 

 My little princesses.

 

 Bouncing pillows!

 

 These kids are crazy.

 

 This was my favorite.  Scott was a cheater and pulled my bag back when we were racing.

 

 Scary scarecrow.

 

Scott holding Soran (who we lost for a few minutes and by the time we found her she was hysterical) and looking at the jack-o-lanter tower.

Autumn and the hot springs

Lyssa is taking a photo class this year and so she took most of the pics.  We went on this hike to the hot springs a couple years ago and it was one of the most beautiful I had ever been on.  So we made sure to do it this year.  And my family said that counted for our fall excursion, so no drive up the canyon this year.  It was a perfect autumn day.  And the scenery--well, it speaks for itself. 

 

 There are several small pools and they are different temperatures based on how much stream water is mixing with the hot water from the springs.  This one was about perfect.
 

 Soran is usually my crazy one.  But there was a lot of black slippery moss on the rocks and she was scared cause she couldn't walk very well.

 

 Living the dream.

 

 Lyssa and Christian lounging in the water.

 

Me eating lunch.  It's a pretty tough hike.  5 miles with a lot of hills.  But the kids did awesome.  We only had to carry a couple of them when we almost reached the end.  Way better than last time where Scott had to carry Soran both ways and I carried Livi all the way back.  I love having older kids.

Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

 Christian was most excited about the gnomes (one pictured below behind the pickaxe) they told him about on a field trip.  He kept pointing them out to us all through the museum.

 

 Gnomes

 

 Bones!  This was a huge dinosaur.

 

 Creating erosion.

 

 Aaah!  Swim fast!

 

 A mammoth.  With skeleton people trying to kill it.  Kind of morbid.

 

Amber putting together a skeleton.

First day of school!

 Amber's in 3rd this year and Christian's in 5th.  I can't believe it!  Scott took Amber shopping this year and she got a smelly t-shirt.  Why you'd want to wear something that makes people want to sniff you is beyond me. 

 

 Alyssa's a high schooler!  Well, technically she's in 7th grade but she got into the PUPs program and is attending the high school this year.  She had a rough first day (she forgot her schedule and got lost a couple times.  Plus, they do an A/B schedule and she couldn't figure out which class she was supposed to be going to), but I think she really likes it now.  She has gotten so tall and is a lovely young woman.

 

 She bought her own first day of school clothes.  I love baby-sitting!

 

 Livi with her teacher--Grandma!

 

 So cute on her first day of kindergarten.  My mom spoils her so rotten I'm tempted to pull her out and put her somewhere she won't think she's the center of the universe.

 

 Soran's first day of preschool with her best friend, Aurora. 

 

She came up with this pose all by herself.  Doesn't she look like a sweetie?  Ha!



Summer 2012

We had a great summer.  Although as the kids get older I realize I have to entertain more.  They're less inclined to go outside and just play.  I was driving a lot more this year and trying to come up with things for them to do.  Amber and Christian were able to go to a day camp--Christian's was focused on science and Amber's on sports.  They went swimming every other day and had other activities.  Lyssa took tennis lessons and really enjoyed it.  I think we'll try it again next year.  Livi and Amber both attended a Vocal Motion summer camp and had a performance at the end of the week that was just so cute.  They liked it so much it's what we've put them into this fall, also.  They get to sing and dance.  And Amber loves to perform.  We went to 7 Peaks quite a bit with our passes, lunch at the school, Jordanelle with the Massengales, fishing in the boat, looked at a lot of houses and generally just enjoyed the weather.  I love summer.