Snow......Again?

It snowed again last Saturday. We got about 4 inches! The kids got to really get their hands in it this time with a snowball fight and a snow angel or two. Then they came in and warmed up by the fire while I made some hot chocolate. A perfect cold Utah night!

Helping Dad

Henry saw daddy putting our new bed together, so he went to his room and got his tools. It didn't take him long to realize that his toy drill wasn't quite doing the trick, so dad let him have a go with the real drill. We love the new bed!

Only in Utah...

This morning on the way to pick Elliot up from school, I was listening to the radio and the announcer said, "No one likes a frowny face, change it for a smile. Make the world a better place by setting Jack on your radio dial." Only in Utah!

You Can't Beat the View!

These are the views from our front door and back deck. This is something you would never see in Phoenix! When I eat my breakfast in the morning, I like to sit in the chair at the kitchen table closest to the back window and look at the snow-covered mountains. Nathan has admitted that he does the same thing!

Don't Try This at Home

One of the many home improvement projects needed for the house was installing a microwave. You don't realize how much you depend on a microwave until you're without one for a week and a half! This turned out to be a little bit of work. Nathan had to rip out the upper cabinets and build a small shelf. It took the two of us three tries to lift up that heavy thing and get it into the brackets and lined up with the bolts on top at the same time. I think one of the requirements for the next house we purchase is a microwave that's already installed!

New Carpet Please!

The carpet in the master bedroom turned out to be pretty disgusting. We didn't notice this until after we moved in. It was an ugly beige color, complete with stains - we couldn't figure out what one of the big stains was from! Eeewww! We had the carpet replaced ASAP. Now it's a nice multi-toned brown shag. I love it! It will go nicely with the new furniture that we're in the process of putting together.

Messes

Sights like this make me cringe! Just looking at it makes me crazy. This was during the kitchen un-packing process. The kitchen has turned out to be a disappointment. The cabinets are shallow and there aren't enough of them. Not to mention, they're white. The pantry is like 10% the size of my last one. There are six boxes of kitchen stuff that I can't unpack. We're thinking about getting a pantry cabinet from IKEA (which is 5 minutes from our house!) Hopefully that will help.

A New School

The kids started their new school just two days after arriving in Utah. They were a little apprehensive, but we promised them they would make new friends soon. And they have! Samantha already has a new "group" of friends. Gillian has had a couple of playdates, a birthday party invitation and one little girl who comes over every day to see her. She was also in a fourth grade musical production on her fourth day of school. She learned all the songs and dances in three days! Elliot takes a little longer to make friends, but just yesterday he said that he has two friends. He loves his teacher, Mrs. Littleford. When I picked him up from school yesterday, she told me that "he is one smart cookie!" That all-day Kindergarten in Arizona got him way ahead of the class. Today she told me he is a sweetheart. He is!

Snow!

We got our first snowfall the first day we were here. The kids were so excited! They kept looking out the window to see if it was deep enough to scoop up and eat. They don't know yet that the people here refrain from eating the snow due to all of the pollution. But they did get up the next morning before Nathan and I were awake - they went outside and scooped snow into cups and poured orange juice over it and had snow cones for breakfast. Crazy kids!

We've moved!

Wow! I haven't posted anything since we moved to Utah. It's been crazy busy! The move went fairly smoothly. We stopped in Las Vegas on the way and stayed in the Circus Circus Hotel. This was the first time my kids have seen Las Vegas and they didn't see much! We didn't arrive until 5 am, so they were asleep and missed all the city lights. Also, Circus Circus is on the end of the strip, so we didn't even get a glimpse of the other cool hotels. It just occurred to me that I stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel the first time I can remember Las Vegas. Cool! I have a fond memory of winning a stuffed animal at the arcade in the casino. I still had it until a couple of years ago - I had to get rid of the old tattered thing! Anyway, we drove from Las Vegas, though St. George, and up to Sandy the next day. We had some trouble with our credit card along the way. Every other time we tried to use it, it was denied. Of course, it only happened at the gas station. We spent about 40 minutes at every gas station on the phone with the credit card company trying to fix the problem. Since they kept seeing activity on the card in so many different cities, they thought we had stolen the card and were on the run! The whole thing was totally frustrating. We arrived at our new house at 10:30 pm (Feb. 29). Our neighbor across the street heared us pull up and came out to say hi. He offered to let us sleep at his house for the night. We didn't object. An already-made warm bed sounded so nice! The next morning, I walked across the street to our house to find about 15 men unloading the moving truck. Throughout the rest of the weekend, we had a constant flow of neighbors stopping by to introduce themselves or to bring cookies or meals. It was nice. I still have sisters in the ward stop by to see if they can take my kids for a few hours. What a great ward!