Lots of Snow

We have had a ton of snow the past couple of weeks. I guess Pocatello gets the most snow in the month of December, but this year I have heard we have been getting an unusually large amount. One neighbor told me this is the most we have had in 3 years and another neighbor told me it was the most we have had in 14 years. It really started to fall right after Julia told me she missed the snow we had in Alaska and she prayed for it to snow a lot more that night :) It has been snowing since then every day for about two weeks now. The weather forecast says that we should have a break for the next couple of days at least. With all the snow the kids have been loving helping me shovel the driveway (they have a couple kid sized shovels), build a snow fort, have snowball fights, and sled down the ravine in our back yard. I think the snow has been a lot more fun knowing that it will probably be all melted in just a few weeks.

Christmas Eve Activities

Amidst the moving in we have been some of our favorite Christmas activities here and there, including the church Christmas dinner/party, a work Christmas party, looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music, reading a lot of Christmas books, picking out some gifts for each other, talking/skyping with family, and watching some Christmas movies.


Rebecca made all of these stockings over the years. She originally made five back in Oklahoma after Julia and Ethan were born. And then just this summer she used her mom's sewing machine to make four more. We only need seven of them now, but she wanted to get a couple extra ones in just in case.


This year we decided to start the kids on a gift exchange and I think it worked out pretty well. They all had a good time thinking of and shopping for a gift for the sibling whose name they drew and they all seemed pretty excited for their presents to be opened. I think it worked a lot better than trying to find 25 little gifts that they could give to each other and they have been more excited being able to focus on just one other person.

Christian wrapping his present for Agnes.

Julia working on a bow for her present for Christian.

This evening we did our annual Christmas pageant routine. This year we went from room to room, eating some food (fish, pita bread, cheese, grape juice, and figs), reading some scriptures, and singing some songs at each stop. I was the donkey again, Rebecca the narrator, Julia was Mary, Ethan was Joseph, Christian and Elliott were shepherds, and Agnes was an angel. We then watched The Nativity Story. We love that movie because it shows a lot the emotions that Mary and Joseph may have experienced at the time of Christ's birth. It seems pretty accurate too based on what we read in the scriptures even though it is not a church affiliated movie. After the kids went to bed Rebecca and I wrapped the final presents, filled the stockings, started preparing our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast, and are now watching It's a Wonderful Life.

All dressed up.

Making cinnamon rolls.

Stocking stuffers and It's a Wonderful Life in the background. We usually do not do cereal in our house and we never do the sweet cereal except for a few bags that we do as a family Christmas present every year. It's cheap, but the kids love it!

If any of the kids do sneak up early this giant Ironman is there to catch them. He has already spooked me a couple times when I was walking by with the lights off.

Jarom's Wedding

This last weekend we were able to go to my nephew Jarom's (Tianna's oldest child) wedding. Our plan was to pick the children up from school and head right out. It was an 8 hour drive and so if everything turned out right we would get there at around 10 pm.

Unfortunately things did not turn out as planned. A little before noon we stopped at Fred Meyer to get some snacks for the road and fill up on gas. Right after filling up on gas our back wheels locked up and would not move at all. Luckily there was a auto shop across the street. The tow truck still charged $65 to get over there and it cost $500 to get it all fixed. I had to jog the 5 miles home to get my mom's car to pick up the kids from school and Rebecca had to entertain Elliott and Agnes in Fred Meyer for a couple hours, but in the end it all worked out.

We left at 4 pm and the kids did really well on the drive again. After listening to a few books on tape (The Jungle Book, A Christmas Carol, and Stuart Little) they all fell asleep. The roads were pretty bad and snow was coming down for about 2/3 of the way, so we didn't end up getting in until 2 am.

The next morning we mainly hung around the house and helped a little bit with preparing for the wedding. It was a really nice ceremony and reception. You could tell a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into preparing everything. I always like to hear the advice that is given at weddings and the vows that are often shared. It reminds me of when Rebecca and I were married in the Seattle Temple 10 years ago. I can't believe it has already been 10 years! It was nice during the couple's dance during the reception when we got to stay in the dance for a little while at least because we were no longer one of the newer couples.

Waiting on the couch between the wedding and the reception.

The entry way to the reception. 

The place looked amazing with all of the decorations. For food there was a taco bar, chocolate fountain bar, hot chocolate bar, and candy bar. It was all delicious, especially the tacos.

We had a fun time while we were there. In addition to the wedding it was nice to be able to just spend time with family members. This is something we always missed out on when we lived in Alaska because it was always too hard and expensive to travel to these things.

We ended up leaving a day early though because a lot of snow was expected for the day we originally planned. The drive home went pretty smoothly and although there was a little snow on some parts, we kept our 80 mph speed for most of it (I love how Montana and Idaho have 80 mph speed limits on the freeways). On the way back we listened to The Book of Virtues, some of Winnie the Pooh, and then got 3/4 of the way through Where the Red Fern Grows.

We are looking forward to a lot more traveling to see family now that we live so close to everyone.

First Nights in Pocatello

Playing catch-up a little here. Before Thanksgiving the builders told us the house would be done by December 4th. When I came back from the break they said we could move in on December 7th. Then on the 6th, they told us the 8th. We decided to just have Rebecca and the children come on the 8th no matter what so they couldn't keep postponing on us and because the children needed to start school. Rebecca's mom drove along to help out, and Rebecca said that they drive went really smoothly. They listened to the first Percy Jackson book on the way and that kept their attention the whole way. When they got to Pocatello though the house still wasn't ready. We talked to the builders and they offered to put us up in a hotel for three nights just so they could finish everything up to get all the inspections in and get the certificate of occupancy. We were fine with that - at least we were all together!

Sleeping in the hotel room.

Even though her siblings were all on the floor, Agnes thought she deserved a bed all to herself.

The hotels weren't all that bad. We were pretty crowded and some of the children were always sleeping on the floor, but there was a swimming pool and a hot tub in both places which the kids loved, and the place we stayed in for the second two nights had warm cookies at night and free breakfast in the morning. It reminded me of when I first moved to Washington with my family growing up. We stayed in a hotel for a few weeks before we could finally move in to our home.

We have been in our house for a week and a half now and have been loving it. They are still working on small things and it seems like someone comes in almost every day to finish up a job, but it is getting there. We also don't have furniture yet, but we are working on it. Pretty soon it will really start feeling like home.

First Day at School

Julia, Ethan, and Christian had their first day of school here in Pocatello today!

When we first called to register them for school, they said that the school that they were assigned to for the home we live in was overcrowded for kindergarten and second grade and so we would have to go to a different school. In fact, the two schools that were next closest to us, were also filled and so they would have to go to a school that was about twice as far away. The distance isn't too bad, but we just didn't like that they wouldn't be able to go to school with any of the kids in our neighborhood, that they would have to change schools again next year or the year after whenever a spot opened up for them, and the new school that they were placed in had the worst performance scores in the district and it looked like a prison from the outside. Luckily, just two days before they arrived a family that included a second grader and a kindergartener moved out of our home school and they allowed us to get in after all.

All three of them said that they had a great day at school today. We were glad about that because they seemed pretty nervous in the morning and the day before. They just had lots of questions about where to line up and what time to be there, and what if they couldn't find their class. But, at the end of the day they told about the fun things that they did at recess, some of the new friends that they met, some of the things their teachers said to them, and some of the projects that they got to work on. Christian goes to school full day on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Monday so he is off for the rest of the week. But Julia and Ethan are excited to go back tomorrow.

One More Day

Rebecca and the children are finally coming to Pocatello tomorrow. When I got back from Washington I walked through the house with the builders and they said that the interior will all be done by Monday and we can move in then as long as we don't mind them still working on the interior. There was a lot left to do and I was skeptical, but they kept on telling me that it would all be done. Last I talked to them was on Friday and they were still saying it would be done on Monday so we are moving forward with our plans for Rebecca and the children to come.

There is still a lot left to do though and I don't think there is anyway they will be able to get to it all tomorrow. Whether they finish or not, we are going to have to move in tomorrow night. Rebecca and the children are leaving early in the morning to start the drive so there is no going back on that mid-day tomorrow if they tell us it won't be ready after all. Before I went to Washington they told us December 1st. I told the people I am staying with December 4th just to be safe. They had already put up with 4 months of me in there home and I didn't want to ask for any more time there, so I moved into my office yesterday for the next couple of nights. Since I don't think all 8 of us (me, Rebecca, the kids, and Rebecca's mom) can fit in my office, we have no choice but to start living in our home.

On the inside they still have to finish laying the carpet (they only put the pads in so far), do the shower tile in the master bathroom, do the back-splash tile in all the bathrooms, put the stone on the fireplace, touch-up all the paint spots, put the door on the cold storage room, put the counter-top and sinks in for the downstairs bathroom, add a hanging rod in the laundry room, add towel rods and hooks in all the bathrooms, trim out the hard wood floor areas, add the tile by the back door, add the stair rails, and fix up the other minor mistakes here and there (they didn't put in a frosted window in our bathroom and one other window in the laundry room is missing its decorative lines in the glass, they mounted the bathroom vanity lights upside down, etc.). Sounds like about 1 day's work, right?

Here are some of the most recent pictures:

A closer picture of the stone. I am really impressed with the people who do the stone. It seems like a really complicated form of tetris. Each stone piece is a different size and color and they have to get it lined up all right so it looks varied, but fits together perfectly.

The entry way. You can see the front door still needs stained


The office.


A view of the stairs side of the great room


The fireplace side. They need to put the same stone from the outside around the fireplace below the mantel and paint the rest of the mantel white.

The kitchen and dining room. I think all that is needed here is too hook up the stove and maybe the dishwasher.

The laundry room is pretty much done. I think they were just going to add an extra hanging rod above the washer and dryer. We ended up going with a steam washer and dryer. I hadn't heard of these before, but apparently they can get your clothes a lot hotter which means it gets the dirt out more and there are less wrinkles. Which is good because I can't remember the last time I ironed something. My siblings probably think that is funny because when I was a teenager I used to iron everything.

Upstairs hallway to the bedrooms. They just have to give the baseboards one more coat of paint and then they can lower the vents.

The main bathroom. I think everything is done on it except for our broken mirror and they have to put in the back-splash over the sink (they put the wrong one in at first and had to tear it out. This may be our only functioning bathroom for a little bit until they get everything else done in the other two.

Closer of the main bathroom. The paint color matches the paint in Agnes' room below.

Just needs some carpet and then the chandilier can be lowered to hang at the right height.

Julia's room.

The sinks are all done in the master bathroom, but they still need to add grout to the tile, put in the back-splash, and do the tile in the shower and around the tub.

The plumber did put in the water heaters so we should have hot water for our one working bathroom at least. The builders convinced us to put in two water heaters so if you come to visit we can guarantee you some hot water at least.

Seattle Christmas Trip

Growing up, Rebecca and her family often made a trip to Seattle during the Christmas Season for all of the fun activities that they have going on there. Luckily we got to squeeze the trip in while I was there visiting.

We started off by trying to find a parking spot by the Seattle Center. There was some even going on and all of the street spots were taken by set-up trucks for the event. We checked the garage for the Seattle Center, but it was completely full too. After following a line of cars through the garage and checking a couple floors twice we were about to give up. But as we were leaving a car started to back out right in front of us. We had two cars for our group so as we were talking about who would take that spot a second car right across from the first one started backing out. I thought we were pretty lucky - parking is always something I dread when I visit Seattle.

First stop was the model train set up in the food court at the Seattle Center.

Then we caught the monorail to Westlake Center. The kids loved the monorail. They got the very front seat so they could look straight out the window and for them it was like a roller-coaster (you can see Christian's hands up in the air in one of the pictures below). Although the monorail is fun to ride, it just kind of bothers me that it is the only train/subway transportation system for Seattle. I think cities like DC and Boston are so easy to visit because the subways can take you wherever you want to go. But there is so much congestion and parking issues in Seattle because they don't have anything like that. On the trip back the children got to sit in the front of the monorail again, but Elliott didn't get to the front seat fast enough. When the driver noticed it he let Elliott stand by him, honk the horn, and give him directions which way to turn it as we followed down the tracks.

Right outside the Westlake Center we played on the toys for a little bit and looked at the tree and the other lights some.

Then we stopped at the Sees store for free samples and everyone got to pick out one piece to buy.

From there we walked over to the gingerbread house display at the Sheraton. This year they did a Star Wars theme and had one display per movie, plus a few extra characters. The displays were amazing and probably the best possible theme for our children right now.

After that we walked over to Pacific Place Mall for their fake snow. I am not sure exactly what their fake snow was - it seemed like tiny soap bubbles, but it wasn't slimy or slick like soap. I read online that the formula for the snow that they use in this mall is a secret and it was created by a magician. I didn't taste it, but one newspaper did say that it does taste a little like soap. Which leads me to my next question - why do we stick out our tongues to catch snow in our mouths? It seems like it is almost an instinctual thing that everyone does.

Then we just walked around the downtown area for a little bit and the kids enjoyed looking at all of the lights and tall buildings.