ummm...

So, I'm nursing Kami and Max asked, "Mom, when I was little did I eat out of your humps?" Before I could answer Ally says, "Max, they are called nibbles."

Malia dancing

Dec.

Decorating the tree. We did Christmas the day after Thanksgiving this year because we knew the day after Christmas it would be coming down. We wanted to enjoy it as long as we could.

We love having Gramsy with us. She sure has been a life-savor, literally, as we were packing and looking at a zillion houses. I think I would of lost my mind a while ago if not for her.

Sooo, it seems that most of the fun that goes on happens when we put the kids to bed and shut their doors. Like Max for instance. One morning after we got up we discovered that Max had some art practice after we put him to bed the night before. Found a pen and the rest is history. He has a self portrait on his arm and many other stories that accompany his drawings. You can't see it very well but he has it on both cheeks, his chin, and neck. We had the pleasure of looking at the drawings for a week until it was scrubbed/wore off.

Making gingerbread houses. The kids were excited. "You mean we can eat the houses?" I think every inch of their plates were covered with candy, because that meant it was theirs.

Doesn't really show here, but she loves her bath!

Jammy time!

The REAL Santa came to Max's preschool, Malia wouldn't have anything to do with him.

My cuties in their Christmas getup.

We found "Santa" out on the street the Sunday before Christmas. We invited him in and he had treats for all the kids. It took the kids about two min. before they whispered to us, "That's Bro. Gifford!" (Our backyard neighbors) It probably would have helped if he didn't keep scratching his head, moving the hat half way off his head! Malia would have nothing to do with him. We had tons of fun anyway. We love them and will miss having them so close.

Lining up to go down for Christmas morning.

Pixos- just what she wanted!

A stick horse never goes out of style.

Kami isn't sure about all of this.

A highlight that Santa brought was the basketball arcade game. One just like it was delivered to our house a couple weeks before- for Kyrk's friend Andrew of course. The pictures were on the outside of the box and there was weeping and wailing when Max found out we couldn't open it. Good thing Santa is so on the ball and got us one too!

A new rocking chair for Malia. And of course candy.

A new table and chairs has become the highlight and has seen many tea parties already.

Up to Travis and Hilary's for Christmas dinner.

Catching up- Nov.

Okay, so I know I am really far behind, but I refuse to feel guilty because of all that has been going on. I can't remember the last time I actually did my hair in something other than a ponytail, I still have not put sheets on the kid's beds, they sleep on blankets, fast food has become the norm, and I have been trying my hardest so that my children actually remember what I look like. The blog had to take a back seat. But it is getting much better now and so here we go...

Watching Aunt Abby's BYU flag football team. We were bundled.

WE were bundled but all the girls were running around in tee shirts and shorts- CRAZY!

We found Malia singing Twinkle, Twinkle to Kami.

She is a strange child. She has found a great holding place for her apple.

She has cheeks that you just want to squeeze, or kiss, or something.

Kambria's blessing. We had lots of family come into town. CRAZY and so fun at the same time. We appreciated those who traveled so far.

Gramsy embroidered her beautiful dress.

Our little family is not so little anymore.

Moving

Well, a lot of you got our Christmas card and said "What? You're moving?" Moved. It has been a whirlwind for these last few months. I am writing this story down for journaling sake so don't feel obligated.....
When Kambria was 1 week old, Kyrk, who was not supposed to be looking at houses, did and found a house he was really interested in. We went to go look at it and I really didn't like it. The house was maybe okay but it was kinda dirty and had ugly carpet and cupboards and I am holding my one week old baby thinking there was no WAY I was going to bring her into that house. I told Kyrk I didn't WANT a house like that (sounds very spoiled and I WILL blame it on the baby emotions). I got on line and found this AMAZING, beautiful, new, foreclosed house for an incredible deal. I said that I wanted a house like THAT. So we went to look at the house we refer to as the "dream house" and it was. Oh, it was..... the ending to that story is obvious since we are now renting....
Back to the story, we wanted to put in an offer on the house, but to put an offer we had to have our house on the market(online). I said that I would NOT put a sign in the yard because if this fell through we were taking the house off the market and no one would be the wiser. Long story short, we got 3 offers in 4 days. We lost the bid on the house- yes, many, many tears. We thought we would cancel everything and wait till spring but we had many people tell us we were CRAZY! And so here we were without anywhere to go, my baby was 2 weeks old and we were moving out of our house soon. Wait...did we just talk about crazy?
It is actually at these times that I really can see the hand of Heavenly Father in our lives. We felt really good about the third offer that came through, it was above our asking price and we ended up not having to move out till after Christmas. I was telling the mother of the boy I tutor that we were moving and she flipped out and told me her brother had just bought the house down the street and they aren't moving in till the summer so we could stay there. I could hear the choirs of heavenly angels singing around me. We could rent a house in our same neighborhood and Ally could stay in the same school without me having to take her there and pick her up everyday. She is actually closer to her bus stop now. Wow. Everything just kinda worked out perfectly, except the part where we haven't found a house that is. Okay, so maybe my sanity has taken a hit, but I am starting to feel whole again. I didn't mention this but in between all of this we had Thanksgiving, family for 10 days (which I loved, don't get me wrong!), Kambria's blessing, everything that goes along with Christmas, and to top it off- the day we moved was a big snow storm. The day after we finished cleaning the old house I got strep throat, then the next week, the flu. But I am feeling good now, I feel like I am looking at the world with new eyes, taking deep breaths (before my nose hairs freeze), and enjoying life for the moment- even if my house is filled with boxes!