Snow Day

We had our first SNOW DAY here in Denver and we were so excited, we made it the best one ever. Caden was thrilled to not have to go to school and I was excited to have Daddy home to share in the fun. We had a ball sledding, snowboarding, and making jumps for the entire neighborhood. After Avery had had enough she and I came home and made cinnamon rolls for the troops. They stayed out forever and came in for a rest before heading back out until it was too dark and cold to go any longer. On the way home Caden said, "I hope tomorrow is another snow day!" We all need days like this sometimes.

A Day Out

Over the break we were able to get out and go to the Museum and a little cupcake shop with some friends. It was fun to be together again. There is still nothing quite like the Children's Museum in Indy...but we saw lots of fun stuff and it's always nice to have a day out.

I love that Kamrie takes such good care of Avery.

BUGS!

The Gingerbread Tradition

We have tried to carry on a tradition that I have always loved...GINGERBREAD! I am getting better at letting the kids do it their way. It turned out cute...

...but didn't last long. They really wanted to eat it, so I let them.They LOVED it!

Christmas Morning

Just a few shots of Christmas morning. We had such a great holiday this year. The kids are so much fun!!!

Finally a Wii. Look at the smile!

One of the Many Reasons We Love Grandma's House

SNOW!!!!!!!SNOW!!!!!!SNOW!!!!!SNOW!!!!! SNOW!!!!!SNOW!!!!!SNOW!!!!!SNOW!!!!!SNOW!!!!!
After a long Fall with absolutely no snow in Denver it was nice to have some to get us in the spirit at Gradnma's house. The kids couldn't get enough.

Our little poser!Little angles!

Love the snow ball fights...

A Night with the Man in Red

We missed our Ward Christmas Party this year because of a trip to Grandma's house but luckily we were able to catch theirs the day we arrived. After a long drive, the kids were ready for some fun with Santa. This is the first year that we have been tear free. Kamrie informed me she is big now so she isn't scared anymore, her face suggests otherwise but at least her eyes were dry.

I know you are all thinking, I didn't know she had four kids! This one isn't mine but we would sure take him if we could. My sisters little man Wyatt. Kamrie even got up on stage and sang with their primary. Gotta love this girl, any chance to shine.

The Performance of the Year

Kamrie had a Christmas program this year and she was so excited. If you know Kamrie, you know she is quite the performer. She was directly in the front and center of her class, I think they may have done this on purpose because there are some kids who are still pretty timid at this age. Not Kam...She had no problem with the actions and she put on quite the show. I was there myself with the other kids so I wasn't able to video it but I have had others tell me they will give me a copy of theirs because she was so fun to watch.

This is the picture I took before we left the house. She chose the pose herself.Kamrie and one of her besties, Lainey after the show.
I love that these girlies are such great friends. Lainey, Leena, and Kamrie.

Decking the Halls

We have always had a real tree but had a tough time finding a tree farm last year like the one we grew to love in Indy. We finally got one at a lot but the experience just wasn't as fun...So this year we were checking out some garage sales in the summer and found a perfect artificial tree, it was a tough switch for me but we decided to try it for now.

The boys took the tough job of setting it up

And we all had a ball decorating(except Kamrie, I think she was taking a really long time finishing dinner-she did do some later but I forgot the pics.)I've always heard artificial trees are so nice but we spent so much time bending and shaping the crazy branches, it may be easier to cut one down in the forest.

Tough Times...But we are optimistic

I feel a little dramatic as I sit down to write this post...it all seems more okay now but I want to remember how we got wherever we are going...

This is a hard post to write and will be even harder to read over and over as we continue on this journey of where we are supposed to end up, but we are making history, our very own little family history, and all the feelings we feel will be forgotten if they aren't recorded.
So I will start from the beginning to try to make as much sense of all the craziness as possible. Just before we left for Idaho on Dec. 17th, Brady got an interesting call from a guy he had met when he came to Denver looking for job prospects before he graduated. This fellow Doc. told him of a great opportunity within the company and asked if he was interested. Brady quickly told me of the new job opening not wanting it to slip away and after much conversation and scenario building we agreed that it would be a good move for our family. The new job would be with the same company, in Denver, just on the other side of town. This came at an interesting time as we had almost completed all the final decisions on the house we would be building in Broomfield. After making this new decision we wondered if we should still go through with the house as the commute to the new office would be much longer than Brady had expected...but we had also already put money down and gotten pretty attached to our beautiful home. Just two days(if my memory serves me well) after the call about the new job, Brady was headed to the builder's office to sign some of the final paperwork before they started building, when he got a call from them. They informed him that they were going to have to switch the house to the mirror image of what we had originally planned because of some water lines and we would have to sign off to approve the changes. Brady called me and we discussed how this changed everything and we were really unsettled with it all. We hated the thought of letting the house go, but I didn't really want it the way it had to be now either. It seems small but it ended up changing which way our driveway would face so it would effect the melting snow and ice, our view, instead of open space would now be another home, etc. The builder was really understanding and told us to think about it and get back to them before we went out of town the next day, they also informed us that since they had made the changes we could cancel our contract and get a complete refund of all we had paid. We worried about it all night as we packed and contacted out realtor with the news. We also noticed on the new plot plan they gave us the grade of the lot had not been flattened as they said it would be, this was a huge concern as well since we bought a big lot to have a nice back yard not a sledding hill, the contract was also contingent on the leveling of the plot. To make a very long story short our realtor bought us time so we didn't feel like we were making a hasty decision and we were able to enjoy our Holiday. After returning home and enjoying a nice Christmas and New Year, we started searching for homes again to see if there was anything that compared so that we could cancel with peace of mind if that is what it came to after our meeting with the builder. We looked at tons of houses and found nothing perfect but saw that there were options out there. Last week we met with the builder and canceled what in the beginning was our dream home. I hated every second of it but I wouldn't have wanted to go through with it the way it had to be now. Through it all I have been blessed to see the Lord's hand guiding us. I know that things are working on His timeline and not ours and he has our best interests in mind. Brady wouldn't have been happy driving so far to work forever, and it would have been so much harder to let go of the perfect house and lose money if we had decided to go somewhere else on our own. I feel so blessed to know that we are being watched over and that our lives matter. As I think about problems others face I am grateful these are my problems, although they aren't easy, we are all healthy, we have a steady income, and we are happy.
We still aren't sure where we will end up. Brady starts work at the new practice tomorrow and we will see what happens as we search.