Merry Christmas

It is that time again, time to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  We did actually send out cards this year, but not to everybody.  Partly because I have a ginormous family so I wasn't going to even attempt to get a card to every single cousin, and partly because I didn't have all the address I wanted and didn't get responses to my request for addresses.  So here is a Merry Christmas for everyone else.  We have had a pretty good year.  We went through potty training, sometimes it seems like we are still going through potty training.  We went through months of job searching which culminated in Brandon finding a new job.  So then we moved and we are finding ourselves settling in a new area.  We have been lucky, we are living in a great ward and we managed to move into a ward with a family that we already knew.  William is enjoying his new school.  It is a bit more challenging, they focus more on math than his last school did, and he really enjoyed the unit they did on bridges for their engineering section.  Crazy, right?  I knew nothing about engineering when I was in second grade.  Caitlyn is trying to get used to William being gone more, school is longer here, and she is a great helper around the house.  She is looking forward to school next year and enjoys Primary and making friends at church.  Britton is three and mostly successfully potty trained.  When she wants to be that is.  She wants so desperately to be big like William and Caitlyn.  She is looking forward to Primary next year, mainly because she wanted to participate in the Primary program when Caitlyn and William had their turns.  Bradley turned one and finally started walking at 15 months.  He just wasn't bothered about moving about on his own.  He has mastered the stairs, that was the big change for him when we moved, and he only rolled down them a couple of times.  Brandon is enjoying work, it is different and a challenge but he likes it.  He is pretty much on the same schedule as before, but he actually has to drive instead of riding his bike.  He was called to the Sunday School Presidency shortly after we got here, so he gets to visit all the different classes.  I am coming to grips with the fact that I am far away from my family.  Not all  my family granted, we aren't too far from Brent and Cami, but this is the farthest I have ever been from my parents.  I am also coming to terms with the fact that I am going to have to get a drivers license from a different state.  As I look back over the year I can see so many ways that we have been blessed.  I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas.

Another Birthday

Britton had another birthday.  Our sweet funny Britty. (We will loan her to any takers, I must warn you that we might not take her back.)

We made sure that she was up so William could watch her open her presents before he headed off to school.

She was very excited to open the things she got from everyone.

 In case you are wondering, that is an Angry Birds frisbee/disc thing.  The red side is a bird and the other side is a green pig.

 She wanted pizza for dinner so I made some dough, and she found the flour that I had left in a cup and decided to do some baking herself.

 We had a really heavy frost, not on her birthday but the next day, so I thought I would take a picture.  I took this picture of the tree in our back yard around 11 in the morning.  It didn't start melting until afternoon.

Britton was convinced that her birthday was all weekend because we saved cake and ice cream and some presents for Saturday so William could partake with us.  Britton had a great birthday, I still can't remember how old she is.  It is hard to believe that she will be a Sunbeam next year, but she is very excited to go to Primary.

Overview

I find that I have fallen so far behind that if I don't do an overview I won't catch up at all.  So her is a brief overview of our fall adventures. (Who am I kidding?  Have any of you known me to be brief?  But I will include pictures so bear with me)

October, might as well finish off that months right?  The kids chose a couple of templates for pumpkin carving.

 Brandon managed to switch his schedule around, work the day, so he could take the kids trick or treating on our street.

 We also went trunk or treating with our ward.  The kids ended up with a lot of candy.

 We went to a corn maze and the kids got to play in a giant corn box.

 We drove to see some "special agents."

 We stood in line with Brent and Cami for a really long time so we could get our pictures.

 Britton wanted her picture taken while driving.

 Bradley is obsessed with my sunglasses.  As soon as he sees me pull them out he wants them on.

Britton wanted to do Brandon's hair, and he let her with my assistance.

We headed out for a walk and I noticed this by our hedge

 The girls managed to get pretty close, you may have to make the picture bigger, but they were a little sad that they didn't catch it.

We are most definitely into November now.
Brandon got tickets to an Air Force game.  My very first college football game.

 So excited.

 Our view.

 We were able to get club access, which meant food and a warm place to go, and Caitlyn got to meet some cheerleaders.

We didn't stay for the whole game, but here is proof that there was an actual game.

 Thanksgiving, Brandon of course had to work but Brent and Cami were nice enough to come spend the holiday with us.   We are really glad that live close enough we can do that sort of stuff with them.

 Ellie walking around.

 Brent and Cami.

Bradley looking cute.  Don't let it fool you.
I cooked my first turkey and it actually turned out really well, and all the credit goes to Dad's instruction over the phone and by email.

So now I can feel like I have caught up a bit, I'm sure it won't be long before I am behind again.