The Year in Review: 2017

Well, that was a bit of a break. Since I last posted we have moved twice (to a rental home in Farmington, NM, and subsequently to a home that we purchased here in town); Adam finished all of his medical training (!!!) and bought into a practice here in town; we've added two more kids to the family (Corben and Declan); we now have kids in high school, middle school, and elementary school.  We are happy and well and the kids have said on multiple occasions that they wish I were still writing the blog because they love seeing the pictures and reading about our family. I will try to devote a post or two to each month for 2017 and start fresh on 2018.  If I get really ambitious, I may try to fill in the other years too, but I'm not making any promises yet. In the meantime, welcome back!

Hiking in the foothills and an anniversary!

Yesterday we went on a hike in the foothills near our home.  It was just warm enough, and blessedly overcast.  The only annoyances were the gnats that were flying around, but other than that we had a great time.  As it turned out, we finished just in time.  As we were hiking back to the car, a thunderstorm rolled over the mountain and it started raining.  Thankfully the lightning didn't start until we were IN the car!

I would be remiss if I painted the picture as being too rosy though.  In the first half of the hike there was enthusiasm and excitement.  Mid-way through the hike, the excitement began to wane a bit as fatigue set in.  Adam and I had to supress our laughter as one of our children, fed up with the gnats and large ants yelled, "get me off of this stinkin' mountain!"  I told Adam I felt like we were on the set of the original "Parent Trap" when Vicki yells something like, "get me out of this stinkin' fresh air!"

The other big news of the week is that Adam and I celebrated our ten year anniversary.  Since it was a busy day during the middle of the week, we decided to stay home and celebrate our family's "birthday" with a nice dinner and tasty dessert.  The kids loved being able to take part in the celebration.  We've had a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories in the last ten years, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

It appears we're back in business . . .

I'm not sure what the problem was with the last few posts not publishing very quickly, but I think it is fixed now.  I won't even try to go back and fill in the blanks in the family history, we'll just start fresh :)

We are now residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It's kind of an interesting mix of Arizona, Utah, with a little California thrown in.  We live right up against the Sandia mountains, and while it doesn't replace my love for the Michigan treescape, it is quite beautiful nonetheless. 

For the last two weeks Madelyn, Parker and Meredith have been in swimming lessons.  All three of them LOVED the lessons.  This was Meredith's first time in lessons and she could not have been more pleased to join the club.  Rhece and I hung out poolside while they explored their inner fish :)

Other than swimming, we have been unpacking and trying to do so quickly since before we know it, it will be time to pack it all back up again!

Stay tuned . . . . more to come!

Jennie

testing . . .

I've written a post or two, but it hasn't been publishing, so I'm just seeing if this thing is on :)

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Pops and Granna's visit

Pops and Granna came for Madelyn's baptism and we all enjoyed their visit. We took a hike at the Nature Center and loved seeing all the fall colors.


Pops packing Rhece.


This shot will not be featured on our Christmas cards this year :)



Parker insisted on having hiw walking stick.
While they were here there was a lot of reading (Granna brought lots of favorite books), and Adam and his dad installed a new kitchen faucet that looks great.

Happy Halloween!

I won't even offer an excuse as to why it's been FOUR months since I last posted here. But here are some cute Halloween pictures. It was a busy week and I think I can say that we celebrated Halloween thoroughly enough!


This was at our homeschool Halloween party on Thursday. The kids got dressed up, made a ghost, heard some cute Halloween stories and did some games. For lunch we had spider web pizza and candy corn pizza. With all the sugar the kids would be consuming in the next few days, Jessica was good enough to bring some veggies and Rachel made some bread sticks that were completely divine. Kendra made a darling Frankenstein pudding cup to top off the party. And, while we got pictures of the kids eating the food, we have no picture of the festive food before it was summarily ingested!


Here's the crew ready to trick-or-treat on Saturday night. Madelyn was Kirsten Larson the American Girl, Parker was a U of M football player and Meredith was his cheerleader. I made Madelyn and Meredith's costumes and borrowed Parker's, and I figured Rhece wouldn't care so he got a ghost sewed to a shirt. Maybe next year he'll get a real costume:)

We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night at the church. There were a lot of fun games and Parker in particular was a fan of the apple bobbing. Some of the other highlights included a cake walk (because the kids totally needed more sugar) and a game where you stuck your hand into a box and tried to guess, based on the texture/temperature, what was in the box. Parker was grossed out by the slime that stuck to his hand in the "brain" box.

Last night we hit up a town that was holding their trick-or-treat festivities Saturday instead of Sunday. Apparently the rest of western Michigan got the memo about that neighborhood too because we weren't the only ones there :) Adam kept waiting for someone to ask for some ID to prove we lived in the neighborhood before they handed over the candy. We met up with some other friends from our stake and took the kids around. The kids were pleased with the stash they amassed and went to sleep quickly once their heads hit the pillow.