Alyssa's 8th B-Day

This year Alyssa decided that she wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese instead of having a friend party. The kids loved it and so did grandma Tricia and grandpa Gary. Grandpa Ron, Grandma Vicki and aunt Kristi were in Utah on her birthday so we were able to have a celebration with them as well. (Our camera died so I have no pictures of any of this. Just imagine lots of presents, and game playing and cheap prizes won with huge amounts of tickets).

She also had a party in Logan with Anthony and Shanel's family. She is a little spoiled, but we love this Girl!

Update

So I missed a few important things in 2010. Just Alyssa's 7th B-day, Easter, Lake Powell, Landen's 4th birthday and Christmas (I am sure there are a bunch more things too). After debating whether to go back and cover it all or to just start from now, my lazy side won and I have decided to start fresh...again! (at least all of these things will be in their scrapbooks....wait I have to do those too!)

No promises

I am going to try to catch up and be better at blogging, but after the amount of time it took me to do this last post I am making no promises. It may easily be a year again before you get another post so I hope that you enjoy this one!

Our New House

We moved into my parents house 2 years ago. We had our property and plans to build our house. The property needed to be leveled and developed. Between Pat's new business, scouts, remodelling the Joe's Valley cabin, and everything else in life, it did not happen as quickly as we hoped. I told Pat that if it wasn't started by the summer, I was looking for a house to buy. Summer came and nothing happened so I began my search. We wanted a house that was inexpensive and needed work so that we could fix it up and make some money in 3-5 years. (That is the new deadline for building) After looking at many, many, many houses that didn't quite work I found this one. I made Pat come and see it and even he liked it. It didn't look like much from the outside, but after going through it and seeing the potential, we decided it was the one we wanted. We put in an offer, and it was accepted.

Here is our new house!

We had to reshingle it replace the window in Landen's room, and fix a few other things before we could get the loan. It was kind of bad timing since it all had to be done while Pat's mom was in town from Illinois. But thanks to Gary, Jim, Brock, and Sue, we got everything done in a few days.

We officially owned the home in September and moved in the first part of November.

Everything needs to be redone, but the kids' rooms and the downstairs bathroom were in the worst shape. We did those first then we will do the kitchen, family room and laundry room. The master bedroom is not so bad, but the bathroom needs to be remodeled. It will be the last thing we do.

We used the recess in the wall to build a desk and book shelves for all of Alyssa's books and other knick knacks.

We took off the closet doors and put up curtains. Much easier the access the closet.

The old renters left behind a lot of crap. We cleaned out tons of stuff.

At first we were really nervous about how bright the pink was, but it turned out amazing.

I love the big window in Alyssa's room. She loves having a space that is all her own.

Landen's room is a little smaller, but it is perfect for him.

Landen wanted all of the superheroes in his room.

Landen loves his new room. He loved it even before it was redone. He was just so excited to have a space of his own.

This great cowboy wallpaper was underneath the amazing paneling! Lots of surprises when you rip stuff apart.

I love how Landen's room turned out!

We completely gutted the bathroom.

As much as I loved the glass blocks around the window, we decided to replace them with a new, slightly smaller window.

We knocked out the wall around the tub and moved it to put in a bigger one.

I love our house! We still have a lot of work to do, but it has been great to have our own place. As soon as we finish the remodel I will post more before and afters.

So I finally updated (Yay!!) I really have been working on it, but for some reason the videos seriously took from morning to night to "process" and then upload. I don't know why, but this did incite a little complaining from me (o.k. maybe a lot of loud complaining) which led to the "don't be such a woman, mom" comment from Landen. It is now the favorite saying to anyone complaining in our household.

Snowboarding

We took the kids snowboarding up Huntington Canyon. They surprised us with how well they did. I thought there would be lots of crashing, whining, and tears, but they were amazing!

Pat and I had a chance to go down the hill a couple of times, but mostly the kids did the riding.

Alyssa learned that walking up the hill really makes you tired!

She went about 10 times and then had enough.

Landen didn't have to worry about walking back up. It was much easier to carry him with his board and all than trying to get him strapped in over and over. I think he about 50 times. It is much easier when everyone else is doing the work for you. Poor Pat, he did most of it!

These videos were taken the next weekend in Joe's Valley, at the Cabin. Pat and Grandpa took Landen up and made him a hill. He can't get enough.

Landen had a pretty good face plant on this one. It didn't stop him at all!

He gets really mad when he doesn't make it all the way to the end as you can see in this next video. He decides to take it out on the snow.

This one is of Alyssa up Huntington Canyon. Just tilt your head to watch. For some reason I can't get the video to stay flipped when I upload it, and ignore the excited mom commentary. I really was not expecting them to do so well, so I was really excited when she made it down the hill.

Gymnastics Competition Feb. 27, 2010

This was Alyssa's First tumbling pass. She did so well, straight legs, pointed toes, cute smile. She is such a performer. I have never seen her do it this well. When we try to practice she gets really mad at me, but when it comes time to perform she is great!

Her second pass was just as good. I am so proud of her.

Cheyanne took first, Alyssa took second, and Maya took third. All from flips -N- Tricks gym. We are so proud of them!

Alyssa (2nd) and Cheyanne (1st) with their medals. It is so much fun for Alyssa to have a cousin to do all of this with. They both did great.