Birthdays 1-2-3

Well I have gotten way way way behind on my blogging. Life got the best of me so I am doing my best to catch up! Busting out all three birthdays in one post!

Scott had the big 30 this year on November 30th! The kids and I surprised him by giving him a gift every hour on the 30min mark! We were quite creative with the gifts because of course we didn't have a lot of money to spend. The kids had fun coloring pictures and Collin even wrote dad a letter now that he can write his letters all really well! They were probably more excited than Scott was to give him presents all day! It worked out great because it was on a Saturday and Scott was up in our room studying all day so he got a little interruption every hour! Happy Birthday Scott! You are a wonderful Husband and Dad! So grateful for all your hard work!

(Heidi why oh why can I not still live by you????) Cake #1 My sad attempt to make a golf cake

Then we celebrated Joshua's birthday next on Dec. 17th! We had the chance to go home to Utah for Christmas so we had family there to help us celebrate Josh's 3rd birthday! He has gotten so so big! I can't believe he is already three! He has such a cute little personality and so much to say! He wants to be just like his big brother and seems to think he can do and say everything that Collin does. He has gotten quite the imagination lately. It is so fun to sit outside the room and listen to what he comes up with when it is just him playing. He is pretty good at entertaining himself but I think he is going to be pretty lonely without Collin around next school year. He loves to trace things with his fingers or trace with a pencil or markers. He loves to do puzzles and asks to do school work every day! He is our defiant one so there is no persuading him to do anything unless Collin says so then he will pretty much do anything Collin says! Brothers they are best friends or worst enemies! Love it!

Cake #2 my sad attempt at a monster!!

showing 3 fingers!

Last we celebrated Collin's Birthday on January 27th! Collin turned 5 years old and oh what a day it was. I had the worst day I have had in a long time. ok maybe the worst 3 hours I have had in a long time! I attempted to make homemade pizza. It was going great until I tried to cook it. The first pizza was greasy and doughy not salvageable then the second pizza was burnt black on the bottom once again not salvageable. Needless to say Scott ran and got pizza hut! So by the time we had done all that it was about 7pm and I was trying to get the cake frosted. Well we didn't have cocoa powder to make chocolate frosting so while they were eating pizza I ran to the store. I get it frosted and go to put the candles on and oh we don't have any candles...that would have been great to check before I went to the store. So Scott came to the rescue again and made candles out of tooth picks and paper towels! Then it gets better I go to take pictures after all this and I take one picture and the battery dies. Awesome! What a great night it was for me. I am so glad that Collin is only 5 and thought it was the best birthday ever!! A big thanks to all the fam who gave him presents. In all the craziness I don't think I ever had him say thanks to all of you! He said it as he opened them when we said who they were from but that's about it. Sorry Thanks!

Cake #3 sad attempt at making a dragon cake! This was the one picture I got!

Collin is such a great kid! He is sooooo excited to being going to kindergarten next year. It can't come fast enough for him! He is a pretty smart kid in my opinion. He can write all his letters, write his name (working on the last name), starting to read pretty well, and he has found a new love...Math! He thinks it's pretty cool to add up different things he sees throughout the day. He also loves to count to 100 (still needs a little help when he gets to 30, 40, 50 etc..) It has been so fun to see his learning grow over the last year! Some other things Collin really likes to do is play with Joshua. He never wants him to take a nap because they are having too much fun. He gets really bored without josh around. He has taken a huge liking to the sister missionaries we have right now. He loves to tell them all the scripture stories he knows about. He is great at entertaining them while I finish cooking and getting stuff ready! He Loves to play any video game, which drives me CRAZY so we are working on breaking that but I think he will love them for life sadly. He has started spring Soccer and he is really enjoying it. He wants to go every day and gets really sad if one of the two days he has practice gets cancelled. He has his first game this Saturday! Hopefully he will continue to build the skills because it sure doesn't come natural for him. That's Collin's happenings right now! He is such a bright kid! We love him so much!

First Time Soccer

 I am so excited that Collin has reached the age to start Soccer! He isn't quite big enough to be on a real team but he got to go to a Pee Wee Soccer training for a few weeks. He loved it! He did really well and especially loved the juice and fruit snacks given after each practice! 

 It was beautiful weather for almost all the days except for the last one or two. It got really windy and cold but he stuck it out and enjoyed every second!

 Start with some stretching

 Learning to dribble around cones

  Dribbling with both left and right foot

  For the last two practices they split them up in teams. It was pretty funny to watch them all run to get the ball or just run because everyone else was. 

 Collin was a champ! He scored 5 goals in the last game!

It was so fun to take him each week and now he is looking forward to the next time when he can actually be on a real team!

Free Fun

We have managed to find some fun free things to do here in this little town. I haven't taken pictures of some things but I thought I would share the ones I have taken! Some fun things we have done are Going to the Library, 2 parades, bike rides, lot of different parks, play areas at the restaurants, friends houses, the Sternberg Museum, and a bunch of other things I am sure that I can't think of!

The Library here is Awesome! They do story time everyday and just the kids area itself is so fun! They have tons of fun areas for the kids to play. Their favorites are the little couch to sit and look through books, blocks, and the castle with a big giant stuffed dog and cheetah, and the Movie section for them to rent! They also do some fun activities there through out the months so we decided to join in on the Pete the Cat fun. They had author Eric Litwin of the children's books Pete the Cat come do a fun presentation for the kids. They had a blast listening to him sing his stories to them. Thanks to a friend giving us her tickets when she left we won a signed book. The kids love it! They read it every day or I guess I should say they sing it! They had it memorized just from hearing it the first time from the author. It's super cute to hear them! 

This is cheap fun entertainment! There are rabbits all over the place here. The kids like to chase them. They hope to one day catch one and keep it for a pet. They have had picnics on our back deck and they will throw their carrots out to see if they can get it to come closer. I think Collin mostly does it so he doesn't have to eat his carrots but Josh on the other hand that is a big sacrifice to give up one of his yummy carrots ha ha!

The Sternberg Museum is just down the street from us. We have wanted to check it out sense we moved in but hadn't found the right time go but they did a free day so we took advantage! It is Awesome! Collin was super excited to meet a real paleontologist! He hopes to be that when he grows up! He loved everything about the museum! It has three floors so there is lots to see! Josh was a little nervous about it all. The lighting is a little darker and it had some sounds playing in the background that he thought were a little to scary. 

The dinosaur area was awesome! Josh hated it though. We walked past and stopped to look at the life size T-Rex. Josh was on Scott's shoulders and the unexpected happened. It started moving its head and jaws with load sounds. Josh scram like a little girl and Collin ran and grabbed onto me for his life. It startled me also! You can see in the pic of me with the kids that they were very nervous. Josh wasn't about to take his eyes off of it and Collin had a pretty tight grip on my arm. We couldn't help but laugh a little. Collin warmed up to the idea and went to stand by it for a pic by himself but it didn't turn out because of the lighting. He was very disappointed though when he found out that it wasn't real. He knew it wasn't alive but he still thought it was real. Not a robot. We had to explain that only the bones are found not the entire dinosaur.

This was josh right after he scram

Collin wanted a picture by them all. This one was munching on a leaf

Paleontologists at work! They loved finding the bones!

Scott even got in on the action.

They have a kids area for them to explore. They loved climbing on the whale skull and giant spider

We are thinking about getting a year family pass because we all had a lot of fun. We were there for 2 hours and the kids didn't get to do half of what they wanted. They could have been digging for bones for at least an hour and the kids area for 2 hours by itself. Anyway we are finding lots to do in this fun little town of Hays Kansas!

Short or Long??

Josh has always had the best hair so i decided to give it a try at being longer. I thought he looked adorable....when it was done anyway. It only looked good for about 30 min after I would do it and then the rest of the time not so much! Needless to say I gave in a cut it. Before I cut it we were going somewhere in the car and he put his hands behind his head and said "Momma I love my soft fluffy bunny hair so don't cut it" He has so many funny things to say these days! He's my cutie pie!

Still the same cute little Josh short hair and all!

It all happened so Fast

As Scott was finishing his bachelor's degree from Weber State he chose to apply straight to 5 year PhD programs instead of doing Masters first then PhD. He had applied to 6 schools so we were waiting to hear back. We waited and waited slowly answers came but not the answer we wanted to hear. No one told him that it is next to impossible to skip the masters program until after the applications were in so are hopes were pretty low on getting in. We decided to move in with his parents for the summer to save money while he found a job so we could apply for Masters programs next year. While all of this was happening he had gone to a research conference in Denver to present the research he had been working on. He wasn't planing on going but felt he needed to. A lady from Fort Hays University in Kansas had listened to him present. After talking to him for a little bit she handed him her card and said she wanted him to apply for the program at her school. He thought nothing of it because Kansas wasn't even an option we had looked at. Scott's mom had told me that she was at work and got a strong impression that she needed to pray for Scott. Well that was the exact time that Scott was presenting his research in Denver. I think you know where this is heading. The Lord had a plan in store for us. We got the final no which was the hardest one to take. He was one person away from getting into the PhD program at Utah State. So in the moving process Scott found the ladies card from Kansas. He talk to his professors from Weber and made the final decision to see if there was still a spot open for him at Fort Hays University. It was about a month before school was starting so we knew it was super late to be applying but he sent the email just to see if there might be a spot. Within 24 hours she had emailed him back saying Yes we want you here! So to make the story short he applied and was accepted! But not only was he accepted he got an internship to teach 2 stats classes which means in state tuition, some of his credits paid for, and getting paid for teaching! It was as if Heavenly Father laid it all out for us. I know with all my heart that this is where we are supposed to be! What a wonderful blessing in our lives. When we went to find a place to live in Hays we were able to go to church. The bishop practically came running off the stand to great us. We told him a little about our story and he simply said "We have been praying for couples to come!" With the faith a prayers of many we have truly been blessed! We have a wonderful ward and even though we are far away from home and family we feel a comfort of home through the people here. We are excited for this 2 year journey! We have been here for almost 2 months now and it has flown by. It is going to be a fast two years so I am trying to enjoy every moment. Here are some pics of our move and the new town home we are living in.   

I didn't realize how much stuff we have. We had most of our stuff packed in a storage unit so it was nice to have most of the packing done. We almost fit everything in but had to leave a few things behind.

Scott drove the U-Haul with his car towed behind and the boys and I drove in the other car. It was a Long drive. We went 12 hours in the first day. I couldn't have asked the boys to be any better. I was shocked and grateful at how well they did in the car for that long. We continued the next day and went 4 more hours till we final reached Hays, Kansas our new home!

The boys Love to go to Wal-mart so they can see the big water tower with Hays on it! Josh says "Momma look the big thing. It says Hays, Kansas where we live now!" They have adapted very well to the new place. They still talk about Utah and how much they really want to just go for a minute and see all our friends and family there though!

Our Town Home

Walking in the front door

Up the stairs there is a closet then Scott and I bedroom

The upstairs bathroom

The boys room

The bedrooms are really big! It is way nice to have lots of space. As you can see in the pics we have our food storage and stuff in the boys room and there is still tons of room for them to play!

Then we head back down stairs

In the hall way....Yay for having my own washer and dryer! A first for our married life!

The little tiny half bath or what I call my tornado shelter! It is in the very middle of the place so there are support beams surrounding it. Don't have a basement so it will have to do. They do tests for the sirens every Monday at noon. The kids are funny. They go screaming running around the house yelling "Tornado" and then run into this bathroom and shut the door! Funny but good practice I guess.

The kitchen. No room for 2 cooking that's for sure. This is on the other side from the hall that has the washer and the tiny bathroom. The kids run circles around it. If the fridge is open you can't get through so sometimes I like to open it to slow them down!! ha ha kinda funny

Living room/ Dinning room/ where we managed to fit everything room! (computer desk and filing cabinet, TV, cedar chest, piano, lamp, couch that has two recliners and a hide-a-bed, chest freezer, and table for six) We are nice and cozy!

So grateful for my moms old couch because it's comfy but it sure does take up a ton of space! Makes having guest over for dinner kind of tricky.  The boys barley fit on each side of the table from end to end so we have to pull the table out in front of the couch for others to join us. Then we have to go get 2 more chairs that we keep out in storage! Oh well it works.

My favorite thing in the house! I had to post this because I am loving it up on my wall! The story.....Forever ago my sister Heidi decided to use the windows from our old house and make a beautiful shadow box for her girls room. I loved it so I asked her to make me one so I could put flowers that Scott gave me while we were dating. (I think these are the only flowers I have gotten from him so I will treasure them forever!) Well it was one of those things that I never really had a place for and we didn't know how to get glass put in the front because it had broken out so Heidi stored it all this time unfinished. Before we moved we did a yard sale so Heidi pulled it out while she was cleaning. I decided it was time to finish it! Scott had the great idea to put chicken wire instead of glass. It gave it the perfect touch! I LOVE it!

Out our back door we have a little deck

Well that is our story! Super long post but I always want to remember this wonderful time in our lives!