Our first boring day.

Today was the first boring day. I say boring but it really wasn't. We didn't have to go anywhere, it was so nice. We did school, baked some cookies and bread, did some yard work. Just moved construction stuff out of the yard. Broke up some melted ice. Did some stuff with the kids. Just a wonderful, boring day.
The living room is one of my favorite places because you can look out and see the mountains or the cows, whatever you prefer. Trying to figure out how to have the furniture is always a challenge, especially when it was bought for a different house.

The dining room/living room. The furniture makes the room seem smaller. This is just a huge table. I feel like a little kid sitting at it. Verda Malone is having us store it for her. A blessing for both of us.

Here is Bob's office or should I say study, maybe guest room? Not quite finished yet. He hasn't even started to get out his books.

This is the boys' room. We love to pray together as a family in this room because it has the plush carpet. All of us sigh when we kneel to pray. They have organized and reorganized and will probably continue to figure out how they want things.

Meleah's room. It is small enough that it is hard to get a picture of it. Perfect for her though. We moved all the school stuff to the kids' rooms since the house is smaller. They seem to like that for now. They sit at their desk and do their independent work.

Our latest addition to the house has been these two sturdy dishwashers. They aren't loaded with all the latest features and you sometimes have to go back and do a load over but the price was right. I can't seem to get a picture without goofy faces.

I realized I didn't have any pictures of Meleah so I snapped this one with my cell phone. They are growing up. I think now that I have a chance to catch my breath, I realize how much they have changed in seven months.

Snowboarding Lessons

These boys look very serious here. They were a little nervous the night before they were to head up to Powderhorn Ski Area. The Home School group offered reduced group rates for instruction and skiing or snowboarding. They both decided to try out snowboarding. After the day of instruction was done, Cody was ready to go again. Travis thinks he would like to try skiing, it looked easier. Last night they were complaining of how sore their muscles were so I can't wait to see how their day will go today.

Here is Cody. Looks like he has figured it out.

It almost looks impossible for that to be Travis out there. Bob went up there with them and spent his time skiing without falling once. He also met up with a bunch of Firemen he knew. It wasn't just home school students there. There were a bunch of the charter schools there as well. It was a large number of kids for the number of instructors that were available which made for some challenges. The boys are ready to go again next week. We will see what they say after the achy muscles of today.

Our little gymnast

Here is Meleah, she is the one looking at the camera. Even though she has never done gymnastics before she does have the coordination, strength, and balance that is necessary. She is very quick to pick up the new things they do. Meleah has wanted to do gymnastics for a very long time. She had to sit and watch her brothers play football and wanted to join their team and play also. She has always been very athletic. The kids don't have the gym class here like they did in Arizona so we want to make sure they have something physical that they can do. Grandma Caroline helped to fund gymnastics. We used Meleah's birthday money to help get her started. She absolutlely loves it. She loves her coach, Ms. Peggy. I love her too. She is firm yet you know that she is watching every one of the girls and wants them to have a good experience. Meleah is funny to hear talk about her class because she has something that is her own that she has to explain to all of us. It is good for her, she gets to do the teaching now.

This is her favorite right now. The parallel bars. She calls them something related to a cat but I don't understand what she means.

As I was sitting watching all the older girls do all of their exercises, I was thinking how much I like gymnastics because if nothing else it teaches you how to fall correctly to avoid getting hurt. I also like it because the kids have to listen to someone else's direction instead of my own. After the boys watched the first class they wanted to do it too until they saw the boys stretching and then they weren't so sure. They will start snowboarding this Friday so they will have their own activities to keep them busy.

Travis Turns Ten

Travis is no longer a single digit in age. He has been looking forward to his birthday for so long. Ten is a special age in our house. Maybe it is a conservative age for some of you Wild West families, knowing that many of your children younger than Travis have their own guns, but at ten the kids get a BB gun. Travis has been eagerly awaiting this day.

You can see his excitement. Meleah is studying the package closely and looking at the picture of the pink BB gun. He also got more Legos. Cody bought some more for him, most likely because he knows that his brother will share with him. Still a nice gift that was greatly appreciated.

Travis requested chocolate pie for his birthday. He had to light the candles by himself as well. We learned this year how to get those nice pieces of chocolate shavings. Warm up a large piece of chocolate in your hands, the bigger pieces work best. Then use a vegetable peeler to shave pieces onto the top of your pie. How easy!

He looks like his cousin, Noah, right here. Maybe a Travis version.

Here is the carpet that Travis has been praying for. It was installed on his birthday. Both rooms are shades of dirt. Yet neutral enough to match almost anything. We got them at a remnant sale and were able to get a higher quality carpet. It is very soft, thick carpet. It does make their rooms seem more inviting. It also makes it feel more like home.

Again it looks like their walls are peach colored but it is really just a tan color. The crazy light does weird things to paint.

The carpet is a great testimony for him and for our family. God takes care of even the smallest details when we bring them to Him.

Almost Ready...

Here is our beautiful oak floors. I thought we would have to move in without flooring but God has worked things out. As things have started to get stressful and hectic it has compelled me to be more prayerful. I make sure that I am praying over everything. I know that is why things have worked out better than I expected.
I spent yesterday underneath this floor finishing up the duct work in this part of the house. There is nothing like the satisfaction of insulated warm ducts. Haha. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I am very happy to know that I am almost done crawling around in a dark, spiderweb filled, dusty crawlspace where you crawl around and kneel on chunks of concrete or rock and who knows what else. By the end of the day we did have hot blowing air coming out of the vents in our living room.

Here is the kitchen. Today we should have the sinks installed and hopefully...running water. Perhaps hot water but that might be a stretch. We shall see.

Our cabinets don't match. They are temporary, we hope. It is what we need to move in so we are making it work. The kitchen sink base and the stove were blessings that we were able to find and were very affordable. Our light fixtures are just bare bulbs. It was quick, easy and fit the budget.

As I have said before, the kids had been praying for snow and have been asked to stop. Travis has changed his prayers to having carpet in his room before we move in. I didn't think we could even afford flooring anywhere so I was trying to prepare him that it might not happen. Well, after looking at our finances and checking around at carpet stores, we can get carpet. In fact, we don't even have to get the cheapest stuff. I went to one place that sold flooring, we had gotten tile for our bathroom through them and they seem like a good company. We went back yesterday and they were having remnant sales. Enough for the two rooms we needed it for and some of it was better quality than I thought we would be able to get. It will be installed Monday, Travis' birthday.

I think I want to ask Travis to start praying for a new refrigerator. That is somewhat selfish. There is one that was left with the house. I did bleach it forever but when you find animal hair inside...it is just hard to get over that. It is clean now and we don't have to buy a new one. Maybe next month?

Hopefully by next week everything will be ready for final inspection and we will be able to move the following week. Yeah!

Bob has been released to Full Duty! He had to do a physical test, I think the one they do in the application process, in order to get back on Full Duty. That was on Thursday and he did it without a problem. He still has to do a test in Salt Lake City, UT just to make sure it wasn't a condition he had that was causing the problem. That will be Feb. 12. He gets to ride on the Fire Truck today. He is greatly relieved and needed to bring Cinnamon Rolls to work today to celebrate.

Meleah started her gymnastics and is loving it but our camera battery died when I went to take pictures and so did my phone. Next week I should have pictures to share.

Love you all.

Liza

Christmas

I just thought I would share some of the happy Christmas pictures. These pajamas have been getting plenty of use. The kids love them and even make sure that they are clean. Cody will start a load of laundry just to make sure he has nice jammies to wear.

Laura brought me a Women's Retreat Calendar. How adorable all those babies are. My only problem, it could have had way more pictures. I never tire of looking at baby pictures.

Meleah's big gift was gymnastic stuff. She starts today and the first thing she did was to put on her stuff. (Leotard?) The nice fireplace is from the church's Christmas program. Jeanie gave it to the kids for their fort but they thought they should hang stockings on it or something. It looks somewhat real.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is taking the kids to shop for each other. They use their own money and many times are very giving. This was Travis' gift to Cody. Perfect as you can see Cody's face. When Meleah was picking something out she kept saying, "Travis is going to give me the biggest hug when he opens this." Then she kept telling the boys, "You are going to love what I got you." She had just picked out stuff from the stocking stuffer isle but she was right. They loved it.

Travis has discovered Erector sets and loved this gift. He misplaced the wrench and for a whole day was stomping around and upset. Finally, he said to me that he was so mad because this gift was so special to him and he didn't want to lose any of it.

Karen and Russell Bell have enjoyed having the kids around and decided that they needed a special Christmas gift. Maybe because Russell has a lot of copper pipe at his house that the kids find and make into guns. Maybe it was to keep the copper from walking off but either way they had a blast with these things. There are big warnings on the package. Do NOT shoot into mouth! Do Not Eat after shooting! Do Not Shoot Into the Eye.


Marshmellow guns. Small ammo kind.

We now have "ammo" all around our house. It quickly became an outdoor activity and I am just thankful we won't be here at this rental house when all the snow melts and there are sticky, marshmellows everywhere.

This rental house has glitter walls. They sparkle nice in the picture. I wouldn't suggest using it. In the daytime you see all the dirt and dust on them. Plus they are rough and a flat finish so you can't really clean them without taking it all off. But it is pretty at night.

I am sad that Bob took the pictures. We didn't get any of him. We did enjoy our time with family and most of Christ's birth and His love for us.

Thankfulness

As we were preparing for Christmas this year, I was just filled with thankfulness for the many blessings that God has given us. There have been many trying and stressful things that have happened throughout the last year but those bitter trials have made God's blessings even sweeter. I am overwhelmed by God's blessing, protection and His care over our family and I want to thank Him for His goodness!

Without Him, we wouldn't be here. God knows the plans He has for us, even when we cannot see. He uses those trials for good.

These laughs, smiles and love are something that gives me such great joy! (Thanks to Grandma for providing these warm pajamas that feel like you are "wearing a blanket".) Our health, a roof over our heads and food to eat. God has provided.

Friendship and people that God places in your life to help lift you up and encourage you in the right way. Somehow God uses them to share those words and love when you need it most.

Thank you God for all the blessings that we see and the ones we cannot!

Do You Miss These Faces?

All of these faces were taken on Christmas Eve. They were just a little excited. It is so hard to know how they are feeling.

Our BEST Christmas Present!

We managed to surprise the kids with this unexpected gift. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with someone so dear to our hearts.

Snowing again...

It is so hard to get a picture of it snowing. Then again, I am taking the pictures so it could just be operator error.
The Hedrick Snow Family
I think Bob is the one with the moustache.

This is more Bob style.

The night before it had snowed about an inch or so. At 7:00 pm, I surprised the kids by suggesting we go out and play in the snow while it was snowing. We shoveled the driveway and found this snowman. It is amazing what snow can do. We had the best time just making this guy. Bob came home the next morning and loved it. He had to try his AZ captain helmet out on him.

Unfortunately, Snowman Bob has passed out of this life. But I am sure that his spirit will go on in future snow falls.

I am assured by the natives that Colorado gets the most snow in January and February. All the snow up to this point makes us hopeful for many SnowBobs to come.