Birthdays and a Blessing

This beautiful girl was blessed the first weekend in February in Idaho. I previously neglected to mention that there was a new addition to this clan. Kinzlee Sutton Nulph was born November 28th. We headed to Idaho to see her blessing on Saturday morning.

While we were in Idaho we celebrated Jemma and Jacks birthdays!

Jemma turned 4!  My baby is growing up!  And is such a girl!  She wanted a tea party...an all girl party...a popstar party...an IJump party...so indecisive!

We ended up taking everyone to IJump to bounce to their hearts content.  Then we came back for some cake and presents.

This hansome dude turned 5.  Wait! 6!!!  I cannot believe it! Jacks is the kid who seems like he has been with me forever, yet I can't believe he's already 6.  He's my baby too! (Just don't tell him that.  He might be offended at being called a baby).
 

Just to toot my own horn for a moment.  I have to give myself a pat on the back. 

This cake was the first one I ever attempted to make myself.  I'm more of the buy it perfect type. 

I ordered the rectangle cake and then baked and frosted the skirt cake.

 Jemma finally decided she is destined to be a popstar, so I thought a popstar doll cake was just the thing for her.  I thought it turned out pretty nice.  Jemma thought so too, and that's all that matters.

Our First Night

We moved into our house on Friday, January 25th! This was the first night sleeping in the house. There is obviously some rearranging to do!

A Few House Pictures

We are getting close! Just a few pictures of how things are coming along.

 

The Number King

Bennett is apparently the Number King of the 1st grade!

The classes have been working on writing their numbers. Bennett reach 2000 first. He and another boy from a different class reach the milestone together. They were treated to a lunch and ice cream from McDonald's by their teachers.

Bennett is doing so well in school. Not only has he taken off in his reading and math, his teach is always commenting on what a great boy he is. He is nice, kind, and courteous to all his classmates. He often gets the citizenship reward in his class. We are pretty proud parent of such a great kid!

 

Bennett is also the proud loser of a tooth!
 

Dance

My mom bought me a new camera for Christmas. It is a small one that I can carry in my purse and take pictures wherever I go. I haven't remembered to pull it out, until I sat down to watch Jemma at dance class.  She is doing so well and she loves to dance!

Fireplace

Matt has been working hard on the fireplace.  He has been doing the stone work.  I love it!  He is doing such a great job.  I couldn't have asked for better.

It's not completely done yet.  We have our hearth seat on order and it should be done the end of January or the first part of February. (In the meantime I tried to dress it up by placing floor boards down as the hearth seat...creative, I know)

I can't wait to see it all done!

Christmas

Our Christmas season started off with a breakfast brought to us from our elf, Christmas Jingle. Christmas Jingle was such an exciting event he made the kids late for school. Oops!

 

Christmas Eve we opened our jammies and then spent the rest of the night trying to get a half way decent picture of ALL the kids.  Below is the best of the best (after a little threatening ).  I'll take it.  We got them into bed in 3 seconds flat.  A neighbor was outside the fence in the back yard with a red flashlight.  I might have suggested it was Rudolph scoping out who was asleep for Santa.  I honestly have never seen my kids run to bed before.  It was truly an amazing sight.

Christmas morning dawned early, but not as early as I imagined.  I think we made it to about 6:30 am or so before I heard the pattering of little feet.

Jemma was pretty happy that Santa brought her fuzzy slippers.  She also like the voice boombox since she has decided she wants to be a popstar when she grows up.  She is certain if she practices it will happen.

Jacks asked Santa for a telescope for Christmas.  The only disappointment was it was negative freezing outside and no one wanted to spend the time outside to find anything interesting to look at.  So Matt set the telescope in the front window and directed it to the neighbors house.  Hmm.

Bennett asked Santa for a million and one things and ended up getting a BB gun.  He was pretty happy with it, however he ended up with the same problem Jacks had.  It was just to darn cold to spend anytime outside, but come spring, watch out!

We spent the rest of Christmas day playing with the toys.  Matt and Grandpa Tom dressed the kids up and took them sledding on the skiff of snow we received the night before and I caught up on my Downton Abby episodes to prepare for season 3.

New Years Eve we spent at home. The plan was to eat a little dinner, pop some corn, and watch Advengers. I was the only one who made it past 9pm. The rest of the gang slumbered on as I brought in the New Year. During the summer the drought was so bad around here that the county issued a bann on fireworks for the 4th of July. They offered New Years Eve as a make up day. Starting at about 6pm there were fireworks here and there around town. At midnight the town exploded. Jemma woke up to step outside and witness the moment with me. It was a pretty amazing sight. Happy New Year! Here's to having a new home in 2013!

Cabinets

Our cabinets were installed and the appliances were delivered just before Christmas!
 

 

 

 

 

Kindergarten Concert

North Elementary hosted a Kindergarten Christmas Choir Concert.  The children were asked to dress their best, and Jacks took that to heart.  Jacks was so concerned that he didn't look "handsome" enough for the concert.  He had Bennett, Jemma, and I fawning all over him, each telling him how incredibly good looking he was.  He sure knows how to work it!

Thanksgiving

I have no pictures of our actual Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving plans were changed last minute as everyone descended upon the Washburn house to help with some major house construction.

 Everyone was suppose to head to Idaho, but when Matt and I cancelled our reservations at Casa de Grandma Julie plans were changed and the Hammonds and Grandma Julie headed to Wyoming!  We had a major house painting party and a wood flooring installation party.

It all turned out pretty well, however, there was so much to do we cooked our Thanksgiving dinner in record time, shoveled it into our mouths and were back at the house working.

 Next year I will defiantly have to show a bit more hospitality for the holiday.  I am so thankful that I have a great family who will give up our favorite holiday (food holiday) to work and help get us into our home.