Christmas in the Nighttime Sky

The first week in December our town has a fantastic festival called Christmas in the Nighttime Sky. It has been going on for 20 years. Nevada may not allow you to have personal fireworks, but this town takes its fireworks seriously, so they not only have a great show in July but in December also. In addition to the fireworks they have chili and hot chocolate, a number of musical groups from the area sing. Bonfires are lit to keep people warm. It was cold this year, but not near the coldest on record -20 or some crazy number. The cost of admission is 1 unwrapped toy, which are then given to a number of local charities.

the line before the fireworks was crazy long, but afterward it was quite short so we let the kids take a chance to sit on santa's lap. Lily was facinated with his beard. She was very calm (not so much in 3 more weeks... those pictures are coming.)

Tree Cutting

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed out to a friend's ranch to cut a few trees. We loaded up in 2 vehicles and drove the suburban as far as we could. Then we piled into the truck to drive further back towards the mountain to find some trees.

The weather could not have been more perfect. Sunny, no snow on the ground. Cool enough to wear hats and gloves, but not miserable.

Yes, my kids are in the back of the truck. We were crawling along at less than 5 mph and there isn't even a driveway around for 10 miles. Plus 4 adults with them to make them behave.

Lily, Bri and Grandma hung out at the truck

An 8' Pinion Pine is what were were looking for, plus a few smaller ones. It took us a 1/2 or so hiking around to find this beauty. Pinions have a tendency to be misshaped on one side, but this one was gorgeous. Oh it smelled soooo ggod!

Cousins x3

The '08 bunch

Sledding

We have been sledding several times over the holiday, including Christmas Eve. Have to take advantage of all the snow we have had!


Mallory

We made it all the way to the road

Izzy and Courtney

Lily had a blast in her little sled. Each of the kids took a turn pulling her around.

I'm back

Holy Cow! It has been almost 6 weeks since I blogged. It is not that I haven't wanted to, or even if I'm honest haven't had time. I did get behind for good reasons, it is just that once I was, I have a really hard time not feeling overwhelmed. Ok, so... I'm going to start catching up. No guarantees that the posts will be in the order they actually occurred. I have no idea how long it will take me. expect to see lots of random posts over the next few days. If you don't... flog me! I hate it, but sometimes I need to be prodded into getting things done.

Unintended Haircut

George found a pair of scisors this afternoon. Mother of the year that I am I didn't even realize he had them until he came running into the living room with the broom saying "Ill Do it, I'll do it, I'll clean it up. it is my mess." Then I realized that it was hair. :(

Poor kid does NOT like to have his hair cut. He did a good job though of sitting relativly still, still enough for a buzz cut at least. :)

It is a little shorter than I would have liked, but even this short doesn't quite hide all of his new divot.

Random Pictures

I borrowed dad's camera yesterday for the thing at the library. Of course when I downloaded the pictures out came everything else on his card.

The first weekend we were here was scouting for food. Dad is the chairperson for the event so of course we were involved. Mallory hung out at one of the grocery stores collecting food (Yes, those are slot machines behind her. Welcome to Nevada!)

George helping unload onto one of the sorting tables.

I also found this great picture of the family ranch in eastern Idaho. The house with the red roof is Grandma and Grandpa's. The little white one to the right is the one my parents own. We lived there until I was 10.

Kevin ready for his first day at the new job!
I had wanted to get a picture of him, but was still in Boise. I'm glad someone else thought to get a shot.

Pioneers At The Library

Today there was a Pioneer presentation at the Library. The Oregon Trail Foundation brought a ton of interactive items . George was really happy to be picked to be one of the models during the discussion of clothing items.

Courtney of course had to get in on the action as soon as one of the other little girls was done with her turn.

"Milking the Cow"

Mallory's favorite part was the water buckets. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them on her.


I've never seen kids line up for hardtack like this before. Courtney and George both sucked on theirs for awhile then asked to spit it out.

All in all it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Coming up soon~Mallory

There is a creche festival Dec. 4-7 and the other thing is my birthday is coming soon on Dec 11. I am so, so excited.

On the road again.

Moving. A single word that strikes terror into the hearts of people everywhere.

The last few weeks have been a tornado, and the house often looked like one had come through. Kevin has accepted a new job. He has been waiting 3 long years to get back to patrol work and a door finally opened. His new job is in my hometown. It is strange to think of moving back here, but it was a great place to grow up, and it will be a great place to raise our own family.

At first we thought we would sell the house in Boise ourselves, and I would follow Kevin after that was all said and done. Of course the week that Kevin started his new job Micron announced major layoffs. The already slow housing market tanked. :( For weeks we sat with no showings and not even phone calls. Being apart is the pits, and we had a wedding to attend in Nevada this last weekend so we said to heck with it, hired a real estate agent and moved so that even if the house is going to sit for awhile we can be together.

We moved a load in Kevin's truck, 3 at various times in my dad's, rented the biggest truck uhaul has, rented anoher trailer to pull behind, borrowed another, and still have a load in the garage. When we moved from Alaska everything we owned fit in a 16'x8' trailer pulled behind the suburban. Ummmm we have acumulated some stuff. In our defense we thought we would be in that house forever so we acually had nice furniture to move, outdoor/lawn stuff, we all have bikes, etc, etc.

We got it here, and with the awsome helpers that came were able to stack the boxes 14 feet high in the storage unit and somehow find a place for everything. Unfortunatly I did not do a very good job lableing boxes that should come to the house. Most things made it but there are a few things..... Courtney only has her suitcase of clothes, she is not naked by any means, but of all the people to be missing clothes it is my little clothes horse. On the bright side, the box will seem all that more special when we unpack it. Lily is also not allowed to grow. Her next box of clothes did not make it to the house. Did I mention that the boxes are stacked 14 feet high?

So, we live in Nevada now. Life is good. Kevin likes his job, but really wants the FTO portion to be over. My photography was just starting to get off the ground in Boise, but I hope to be able to carry it over here. And I am telling myself that I have not moved back in with my parents, we are creating a multi-generational houshold, and actually it is pretty nice. :)