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.

 

 

 

Construction: Drywall, Texture, Trim

Michelle and Rob came from Utah to help us around the house.

They got here late Thursday night and proceeded to try and terrorize the family.

  Rob had a skeleton from his work Halloween party. He tried to scare me with it, but when that didn't work he placed it in bed with Bennett to wake up to. 6:30 am rolled around with commotion coming from the boys' room. I walked down to see how terrified they were. Bennett said he was a little scared and almost screamed, but by the end of the day he claimed he had not been scared at all. I think that is a challenge. We are now on a mission to see what really would scare Bennett...

On to construction... Sheetrock was hung last week and then the first coat of tape was applied. On Wednesday the drywaller came back and was done with texture by Friday afternoon. Matt and Rob started Friday night hanging the doors. Saturday, we found a babysitter and the adults went to work. Matt and Rob finished hanging doors and started on the trim around the doors. Michelle and I were in charge of running errands for the men (of course) and then set to work on cleaning up the big mess in the back yard that the men had made (of course...just like at home).

The office

 



Looking from the front entrance to the family room

 



Looking from the end of the hall to the front door

 





Looking from the dining area into the kitchen

Looking from the mudroom into the guest bathroom

Looking from the guest bathroom, through the mudroom into the family room

Construction Pictures: Texture and Doors

 Family room

 

 Looking from the landing towards the kitchen

 

 Jemma's room

 

 Master bedroom

 

 Master bathroom and closet

 

Gigantic wood pile (mess) in the backyard that took 5 trips to the dump and a massive bonfire to remove and clean up... Thanks men.

Construction

We have a roof! The house is now roofed and everything is dried in. The rough-in electrical is almost complete and I'm getting pretty excited to get some drywall up.

Looking through the mudroom into the guest bathroom

 



Looking from the mudroom, through the dining area into the family room

 



Jemma's room

Looking from the kitchen into the family room

Looking from the dining area into the kitchen

 



Looking from the master bedroom through the bathroom, into the closet

Looking from the landing into the kitchen

Halloween

We had quite the group of characters for Halloween this year.

Jemma was a popstar.

  Jacks main goal was to be scary, I think he accomplished that.

Bennett didn't truly care what costume he wore this year...he just wanted candy, and lots of it. Mission accomplished.

After school we headed to to Main Street to do a little trick or treating.

We lasted an hour before everyone agreed it was time to go.

I drove to Pizza Hut to pick up dinner and in the process received 2 sleeping children. Jacks and Jemma were wiped out. Once we got home and had our dinner we headed to the ward trunk or treat, which Jacks and Jemma didn't want to attend. They were too tired and said they were going to stay in the car...until we got there, and then of course they hopped out and did their rounds of collecting candy. We got home at 7pm and Bennett decided he had not had enough so Matt took them trick or treating down the street. Matt said Jemma and Jacks were dragging and definitely ready to head home when he suggested it.

Two thirds of the kids were in bed and asleep by 8pm. The other third was bouncing off the walls. I had to bribe him with a piece of candy in his lunch box the following day to get him into bed. I'm sure he had sweet dreams.

Pumpkin Patch

Invasion

I chased this thing out of my garage, under Matt's car, through the grass onto the road, and then far, far away from my house...with a broom and sheer disgust.

On to some animals I do like: