snow trekking

The day after Christmas we headed out to do a little snow trekking. Lorelai gets the easy ride, sitting in the sled while Gus pulls. Usually mom or dad are also harnessed to the contraption to keep Gus from running off with her and to help out on the steep inclines. It is quite the workout and tons of fun.

Santa and his reindeer getting suited up? Beaver lodgeLots of cool places to come back and visit after the thaw! The herons especially!

Christmas

What a great Christmas! This was our first solo Christmas ever, as a couple and as a little family. We totally missed Grandpa's cooking and getting to spend time with family, but it was nice to just have the day to follow whatever whim came along. Lorelai never sleeps in, except for Christmas morning. I should have just enjoyed the extra time, but I was too excited to get the show on the road and woke the little darling up. She was soo happy to see that Santa had come through the fireplace (she is very interested in how this works now that we have a fireplace) and brought her "presidents". She got a train table this year from Santa and he set it up in the playroom upstairs. To find it, she had to follow the clues left by Rudolph. It was so much fun! We got the grandparents on the webcam so they could watch her tear through the wrapping paper. Lorelai hugged and kissed each gift, but the toy dinosours emerged as the favorite. Santa brought me a new flip camcorder that I was fiddling with so unfortunately I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted. Maybe once I figure out the flip I can post the footage, until then here are some of the pics I managed to get.

Winter

Winter in New England has been wonderful, even with all the snow. The trees are so incredibly beautiful covered with snow and we love to see the animal tracks around the house. We are pretty sure there is a moose hanging out on the property, but have yet to get a glimpse of it. Tons of deer and other four footed furry creatures are out and about. There is an animal highway that runs the perimeter of the yard and then crosses over the drive. It is so fun to watch the tracks appear after each snowfall.

In the midst of all the painting and organizing, we did manage to get the Christmas stuff out for Lorelai. She is the perfect age for making Christmas wonderful. She was sooo excited about the tree and picked out these crazy animal ornaments to put on it. I don't think we went anywhere during the month of December without Lorelai wearing her "reindeer hat". It was hard not to catch her excitement. Here's some pictures of bug decorating the tree.

New Hampshire

Saying one last goodbye to Idaho

The view just outside the hotel

A day at the planetarium



Move in day - 10/22/09

Deerfield County Fair

Picture Post

On my last visit to NH, we took kiddo to North Beach. It was so beautiful to watch the fog roll in.
Hanging out in the Manchester Airport, waiting to go home.

She loved the big dinosaur in the Chicago Airport
Waiting some more...we had to get up a 3:30am to make our flight out of Boise. Bummer.

We brought her a pink Boston Red Sox's hat from NH. We've never been much into baseball, but apparently that is all going to change.

4th of July fireworks - she thought they were a little loud

The line up - would number two please step forward.

I left for just a few minutes to take a shower...Gus and the garage floor also got a paint job.

Swimming lessons!! She was brave enough this year to go down the big slide with her teacher.

No worries, I see going private was not a good idea and I promise not to try it again without some prior warning. Now for an update on the family - Nathan is in NH and loving his new job, Lorelai and I are still in Idaho getting things wrapped up. We are searching day and night for a house. I can not believe how crazy the market is there, don't they watch the news - we're supposed to be in a real estate slump!! We've put offers in on two houses so far, one of which ended in a bidding war with two other buyers, the other house was withdrawn from the market. We've attempted to put offers on at least three more, but in the time it took to pray about the decision they were already under contract. My head is spinning! Lorelai and I will be staying at mom's until we fly out for good on the 23rd. The new folks move into our house on the 26th. I am dreading living in a hotel for the next month (or more, if we don't find a house...), but at least Lorelai will have her own room and I won't have to clean up after anyone! Mom is doing better, we've made it a whole week without any trips to the ER, so that is progress. I am feeling less guilty about leaving the better she gets. Thanks so much to everyone who has been so helpful and supportive through out this whole process.

Thanks for the calls

This has been an extremely hectic week for our family. Mom has been in heart failure for several weeks and had an emergency room visit this past Tuesday followed by a heart valve repair on Friday. I appreciate all the phone calls and emails about our move and apologize for not being able to get back to everyone. Nathan is in Star Valley visiting his family while I am here to be with Mom. I promise once we are home long enough to catch our breath, Nathan and I will start working the phones. We love you all and appreciate your friendship. Thank you also for the calls and best wishes passed along for my mother. I appreciate the support, as does she.

Moving

After my last blogging binge, I took some time off and have been slacking for a while. Lorelai has of course done all sorts of adorable and amazing things in the meantime, and I plan to post them later. I did edit the playlist, so you can at least enjoy a different starting tune. I know we all love Queen, but it was time for a change and listening to Pat Green always lifts my spirits.

This morning I have some news to share, the bittersweet kind. After a lengthy courtship, Nathan has decided to accept a job offer with Anaren in New Hampshire. He has been approached by Anaren several times over the last year, but the timing has never felt right until now. The position could not be more perfectly suited for Nathan (thanks Bill!) and they promised to let me use the fancy microscopes whenever I want (again, thanks Bill). Nathan will be leaving in approximately 2 weeks and us girls will follow later in the summer. We apologize for not being able to let people know sooner, but with the current work environment at Micron we felt it best to keep things quiet until Nathan officially gave notice. This will be a huge change for our family and an amazing opportunity. We will miss the west and all of our family and friends terribly, but are excited for this new adventure.

I guess now I really will have to turn in my Arizona driver's license and get a legal one. Bummer. I was holding out hope we would return to the land of the sun before it expired in 2039. No such luck. Bring on the snow and ice storms!

I am that hero!

This afternoon I spent some quiet time reading a book on my bed while Lorelai napped. When she woke up, she came in and crawled up on the bed with me. She quickly decided she couldn't snuggle without her blanket, so she got down to retrieve it. Before she ran out of the room she very seriously turned to me and said, "Mom, don't be scared. I'll be back very soon to save you. I'm a superhero, you know." She then ran into her bedroom yelling, "I am that hero!" Nice to see the Larryboy phase is still in full swing.

Communist China

FYI, I just talked to Nathan and he is unable to look at this blog or anything on YouTube. The websites just come up as unavailable. Scary how much control the Chinese gov't has...

one week down

Tomorrow is Friday, which means one week down and one more to go before Nathan gets back. Its been a crazy week and I missing having a significant other to help out. I don't know how I used to do this when Nathan would go for months at a time. My immense respect and prayers go out to all single parents.

Lorelai and I spent the remainder of Monday night and a good portion of Tuesday morning in the emergency room trying to get her 104 fever under control. Murphy's law - ped's office closed, urgent care closed, settled in for the night, that's when the fever spikes with no response to tylenol or motrin. Poor kid. All the tests came back negative for anything out of the ordinary, thank goodness. She was so sweet about the whole thing. She completely charmed everyone, telling them all about the dragon her daddy was going to bring her from China. There is nothing cuter than a snugly little blond hair, blue eyed baby with rosy cheeks. She's had me wrapped around her little finger all week. She continued to run a low grade fever even with the tylenol up until today, but no other symptoms ever developed. The pediatrician has no definite answers (spider bite?? I sure hope not) but whatever the cause I am glad we seem to be over it. I am exhausted from laying on the floor next to Lorelai's bed all night, trying to convince her she will feel better if she sleeps. Now I can get back to slumbering in my own bed and Lorelai can get back to playing with her toys at all hours of the night. When I went to check on her this evening, she had all of her thomas trains in bed with her. It was her princess dolls during nap time earlier.

Xian, China

Nathan has officially landed in Xian and successfully passed the medical check to be able to enter the country. Lorelai and I talked with him this morning and were much relieved to hear that he was safe, tired and weary, but safe. We miss him!! I don't think Lorelai really understands that Dad is going to be gone for a while. I was asking her last night where he was and she kept saying he was in the bedroom sleeping or out working in the garage. Lorelai was to little to remember all the times Nathan has traveled before, so this will be new for her. I think this in Nathan's fourth or maybe fifth time to China, but the first time to Xian. Hopefully he will have time to visit the terracotta army while he is there. The pictures look amazing.

To keep busy I worked on the trim in the bathroom last night and mowed the lawns this morning. Doing the yard work is nothing new, but it was the first time I used the saw and nail gun all by myself. I'm feeling quite grown up and capable!

Weekend in McCall

We tried to take a camping trip this last weekend up to McCall. Nathan took Friday off and we planned on taking the tent up to Ponderosa State Park to see what kind of trouble we could get into. Nathan ended up working 6hrs from home on Friday morning, so the trip already started out a little rocky. Needless to say everyone was frustrated by the time we got into the car at noon, so we decided to bag the tent and just check into a hotel in McCall. Excellent decision, it was so much more relaxing. I love camping, but for a short overnighter not having to deal with setting up and breaking camp was wonderful. So was getting an hour by myself while Nathan took Lorelai down to the pool - total relaxation! The park was beautiful and there was hardly anyone there. Kiddo had a great time and keeps asking when we are going on our next "expedition".

Can you find the snake in this picture?

Nathan crawled around in the bushes to catch the snake for Lorelai. She was most impressed and very sad when we had to let the snake go.

Here she is showing us the way to "Africa" on the map.

She has been watching Cinderella lately and thought this stick made a good magic wand.

Family Home Evening

For family home evening we had a picnic with Dan, Kortney, Bria and Bailey. We went to Settlers park in Meridian. It is such a great place for the kids with awesome play structures, tons of swings, a splash pad, percussion station, and tons of space to run. Lorelai had so much fun playing with Bria and Bailey. It was so great to get to hang out with good friends. We miss these guys so much since they moved to get away from the crazy neighbors :)

I think its true, blonds do have more fun. These three blondies sure look like they are having a good time.

Bailey was so adorable. When Lorelai wandered off, Bailey would go bring her back for us.

Darn sun. This was so sweet, I thought I'd post the pic anyways.

Playdate

Lorelai loves having playdates. She usually plays with Preston and Carter or Levi, so it is a special treat when she gets to have a girl come over to play. I especially love it when Avery comes. I think if it weren't for her, Lorelai's princess dress up clothes would never get used. Bryce even asked me why Lorelai had so many "boy" toys. What can I say, Lorelai is my little tomboy in pink crocs.

Oh the rice table...it seemed like such a great idea when I saw one at my neighbors house. Now that the rice is constantly spread all over my floor, not such a good idea. The kids do love it so I guess it will stay - for a while at least.

We love the wings. Lorelai will do the bug themed costumes just fine, but I need Avery to persuade her a little more with the princess stuff.

So cute!

Lorelai taught Carter how to quickly pull the petals off my tulips. Little trouble makers! This is the second year Lorelai has done this.

Here is the after picture. Tired little kiddo.

Special time with Dad

I was spying on my two favorite people the other day and caught them having some special time together. In between playing with the bug binoculars, they were taking turns whispering secrets in each other's ears . I love my husband for many reasons, this is one of them.