December 2021

Deep in boxes. Blake and I had felt unsettled in our location for a while. We had looked at a lot of houses and land but didn't feel "that feeling" that it was the right place. I was looking around online and there seemed to be a flashing arrow in this one area. I was looking for the house we were imagining but only came across a house I had seen previously online and thought the deck was so ugly. But the realtor and I went over. and when I walked in, I knew it was the house. I just felt it. I told the family and they were frustrated with me because we have moved so many times. They came over to humor me and the first thing they said was "This feels like Iowa." They were running all over the yard and imagining living there. We had to sell our house within a month so we could buy this house. I cleaned and organized and got it ready in a week. Everyone helped with paint touch-ups and packing. We were a well-oiled machine. Happily, we got an offer in a month and were able to use our equity for our new house. Such a blessing considering our short sale and our year of two house payments. I feel like The Lord made up for all our faith moves.

Gingerbread houses plus Christmas devotional. Always a hit.

Spencer's contribution generally has something to do with war and bringing William along for the battle. William happily joins him. Gummy bear soldiers to the rescue.

Brooke's and Haileys are very artistic!

Blake and I went out to celebrate our house signing at Mojos the best breakfast place ever! Lemon pancakes, ah,

Cold weather knuckles

Wet bum from ?? This is why I should stay caught up on all this.

Hailey ran out of gas so we came to the rescue.

Moving lots of loads with help from the kids. They are excited to run free and see trees! It's also so hard to move them again. I hate that we have to but our family is a team. We are grateful for the kids and for The Lord for guiding us through. 20 years ago, I wrote in a journal, that we wanted land. It came to be through all the trials.

Celebration dessert! It smelled pretty strange when we moved in. It didn't smell like that when we walked through! So, we added charcoal bags and helped remove the "old house" smell! We had some wonderful friends help us move our things and even our chickens! Then there were new wonderful friends on this side who helped us move our stuff in. Our garage is full and it's a lot of moving without a helper company and animals but we did it!

Putting Christmas together while moving is no joke! But the first thing we did was put up the Christmas tree. It made it feel more like home. I love that our tree can be seen from the window, all sparkly and pretty.

Before and after of the shelves. I covered them with shelf paper. It had to be done! Someday we'll trade the shelves out for something else but for now, this works!

Found some plants trying to grow outside. They were half frozen so I tried to revive them. They died eventually but it was a good effort.

Blake got right to work covering the old yellow outlets with new white ones. It involved a lot of the power being turned off and being shocked and frustrated with the house's wiring. But it looks a lot better! His helpers were great too!

Using any kind of creative way to move things to the new house.

There we are! Hopefully to never move again until we go on a mission or die!

Cozy by the tree and with the yearly ornaments! One of the favorite traditions.

I am going to miss the freshness of a new house! But I will not miss being crowded in with neighbors!

Magical first snow.

Cutest chicken feet ever!

Spencer went to mutual at the new ward and came home with this fantastic hat. He said he fought for it!

Blake helping William with some school work. Always love seeing him as a dad.

New friends brought us some Christmas treats. So nice!

The chickens didn't have their own space so they were often found wondering and looking through our windows. The eggs were everywhere! They love their freedom!

Burning alllll the boxes! It's cool that we can burn what we need, when we need to.

Spencer found a ton of chicken eggs under the tree.

As I was going through things, I found a letter from Jon to Blake while he was in the military. That was really timely and special.

This is just to remember the amount of stuff we sold/gave away during all this. You think you don't have that much stuff, then you move and you recognize that you do!! Hopefully, we'll keep decreasing the stuff we have to take care of.

Found these great little curtains for a great deal! I love the "French country cottage boho timeless" look. Now that I have named It, I know what I am looking for. Now to decide what color to paint the door!

Chris Harlow made the most amazing cornflake wreath treats so we recreated them. Yum

Running up and down the irrigation ditch and exploring has been so fun!

Making Christmas treats

Love this of the kids watching a youtube video together. Seriously, their friendship makes me so happy!

William in his funny mood.

Blake fixing the insulation in the door downstairs. It is bad!!

Careers is a family classic!

Love this picture. Merry Christmas Eve! We made it through this crazy time of moving and Christmas and I am so proud of our family.

Scentsy lights!

Lighting a Christmas Eve fire. It was a little smoky so we have to figure that out.

Taking out the overgrown bushes. Bring on the power saw!

Went Christmas caroling with the Harlows. Nobody wanted to go then we had a good time!

Funny little hill in the front yard.

William's snowman's head melted off

Love having the space to play!

Hailey made this lovely board. Shes's so good!

We had a Christmas Eve party at our house and had the Adamsons and Neggi's over. I can't believe we did it in the midst of all this but it was so nice to have friends for Christmas Eve.

Love these people so much.

Spencer's favorite gift ever maybe? A sabre to take on the bad guys. It was the best when he stuck it in the waistband of his pj pants.

Man with his favorite color

Legos for the win!

Spencer wanted a war table. Those are $700 so I made him one that I thought would be a good substitute. He was nice about it but I don't think it made the mark. Lucky, he had the sabre to comfort him.

All Hailey wants is comfy plaid pjs. She chose these while we were shopping. Having older kids at Christmas makes things a little easier in some ways

Brooke has always wanted birds. We were lucky to find these birds last minute! Her response was so cute. She named them Mountain Dew and Skylar.

Our family gift was bunnies. They are so soft and sweet and Spencer isn't allergic to them! They are named Bunbun (yes, I made up a song for her) and Smores. It was an animal Christmas for our new land.

The joy of Christmas legos is real.

The best man ever.

His old-fashioned painting option. very dapper

Seriously, her face says it all.

Bunny and sabre. Happy man!

The kids put this chicken in our bed to scare me. It worked.

Blakes' friend gave Spencer this crossbow. It has been a lot of fun with the target.

Everyone is involved in the bow and arrow.

Waking up to this outside our window makes me so happy!

It was Liam's birthday and he invited William and Spencer to the fun. Such a cute picture with the little sisters too.

Hailey is painting her ceiling. I think this house is going to be one big art project.

Blake got covid over Christmas. It was rough and exhausting. Thankful for medical help!

Blake was able to get out for a bit after a week or so of sleeping with Covid and was so excited to use the snowblower. Yes, I am grateful that we kept it and didn't sell it when we moved here!