December Random

well, aside from christmas and lynlee and trav's birthdays, there wasn't much else going on for december!  not that i'd want any more than that anyway, 2 birthdays plus christmas in a 5 day period is enough excitement for me Lol!!!!

here's shira, as enthused as always to be being held by anyone, but we laughed that she looked like such a fat hog and she needed to lay off the kibble a little bit Lol!!!  fat dang grouchy cat anyway!!!!

i think the one thing i was most excited for after we started getting moved in was that i could put our big christmas tree up again!!!!  we haven't been able to put it up for the last 5 years because it wouldn't fit in our tiny house!  so we decided to to put up the big christmas tree in the living room, and the small christmas tree in the family room . . i was soooo excited!!!!  we've never put up 2 christmas trees before!  i don't think i love anything as much as the ambient light of the christmas tree at night.  i looooove to plug in the lights and come sit by it at night when it's quiet.  it's one of the most peaceful, and one of my most favorite things in the world!!!!

shira would NOT stay out of either of them though, i wanted to kill her!!!!  she was actually sleeping in this one, freaking dingus cat!!!! 

she's so feral! Lol!!!!:)

we were laughing so hard when we were trying to put it up this night, she seriously would not stay the heck out of it Lol!!!!  over the course of the next few weeks that it was up, the idiot would tip it over like 3 times, one of which it would smack colton in the head and he would come bawling to us that the cat had knocked over the christmas tree again but this time it landed on him . . . oh the joys of being a parent!!! . . and owning a FREAKING CAT!!!!

i love this one!!!!  you can just see her excitement Lol!!!

we can totally see you shira . . . Lol!!!!:)

 

 i'm pretty sure this is the kids' favorite part about living out here now Lol, they have already spent hours upon hours playing on this dirt pile!!!!  we might have to have a pile hauled in whenever this one gets worn down, they love it soooo much!!!!

tractor time with daddy!!!  this boy looooves his daddy soooo much!!!!  and riding in tractors is pretty cool too!!!!

oh my gosh, this is probably my all time favorite picture of colton!!!! LLLOOOLLL!!!!  the kids were all playing with these big googly eyes out at gr. ruby's and they started putting them over their own eyes and it was soooo funny!!!!  they looked hilarious!!!!

sometimes a girl's just gotta have a nail day!!!!

lynlee got an easy bake oven for her birthday and her and sadie had to try it out!  they made pretzels that were actually soooo yummy!!!!  lynlee loved getting to spend time with sadie and it was so sweet to see them having such a good time together:)

this was aiden helping colton put together his new gravitrax marble game from gr. ruby, it was cool! 

and that was it for december!  phew!!  december is always fun but feels like such a rat race, it's always a relief when everyone's birthdays and holidays turn out good and then we can rest for a few days!  the one thing we've loved about having trav work for the site is that they get curtailment off work so it's usually like, 10-12 days that he gets to be home and it's AWESOME!!!  sometimes we go somewhere and sometimes we just hang out and rest . . . this year, with all the moving and trying to get settled into our new house . . . we opted to just stay home!  it wasn't so much restful as productive, but we got a TON of stuff moved in and a lot of work done in the container so . . . it was much needed and helped so much to get us more settled!  it all felt a little crazy moving in at the end of november, but i wouldn't trade getting to spend the holidays in our new house for anything!  it's just such a blessing to be here and i'll never forget our first christmas in our new house and the joy i felt sitting in the light of the christmas trees all those peaceful nights.  it was perfect.

Christmas 2020 🎄 ⛄

christmas was a little different this year because of coronavirus, there were still a lot of social distancing guidelines in place so we weren't able to see too many people, but we still had a wonderful christmas and got to see gr. ruby, and grandpa randy and grandma vauna came over to see us for a little bit too.  it was so fun to see them all and i'm so glad we were able to even if we were still in the middle of a worldwide pandemic!

Merry Christmas my loves!  i'm so grateful for this wonderful little family of mine, they are the absolute BEST!!!  we had a fun christmas morning and the kids all got some fun things!  they even spoiled their mama (thanks to their wonderful daddy who ran them all around to stores and helped them!;) i wasn't even expecting anything, loooove you guys so much for doing that for me!!!

all the kids thought it was pretty much the best thing in the world that colton could fit in lynlee's barbie car box . . . it was hilarious!

grandma ruby came over on christmas eve to bring her presents for everyone, she spoiled us soooo much!  it was so fun to have her come over, we love you grandma ruby!!!!

this was a marble set that she got for colton, it was so cute and he and aiden spent the whole morning putting it together and running their marbles around on it, it was cool!

everyone selfie!!!

on first glance, you would think this was just a picture of some wrapping paper and lynlee's hat . . but NOPE Lol!!!  shira crawled underneath the wrapping paper and went to sleep!!!  we all laughed so hard!  what's with cats and paper?!  or plastic bags?!  if anyone ever leaves anything like that laying around,  she'll be over laying on it (or under it;) before you can even blink!  cats are so weird!!! Lol!

grandpa dick and grandma helen sent colton their cute christmas train, the kids helped him set it up and it was really cute!  shira was kind of freaked out by it and watched it go around and around, it was so funny!

our moreland 6th ward did a primary christmas program video since we weren't able to go to church yet that colton and lynns had a little part in, so we set them up in front of the christmas tree in their christmas program best!  i thought they were adorable so i snapped a couple pics too:)

all in all, we had a wonderful christmas!  it was a special christmas too since it was our first in our new house!  it was so much fun to have both christmas trees set up and having the lights lit up at night in our new house was so beautiful and peaceful.  there were many evenings where i would just go sit in the living room or the family room and just be overwhelmed by how blessed we are to be here and how grateful i am!  so grateful for our family and our friends and extended family, so grateful to be out here on our land, so grateful for our house and having more room for everyone to relax . . there's just so much to be grateful for!  and of course i always love the christmas season and the time to focus on the savior and what christmas is REALLY about.  we try hard to not let it get stressful and hectic, i so much prefer to keep it simple and peaceful and to keep the focus where it should be.  

love you so much my little family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

The Big 4-0

Happy birthday to our favorite daddy and the best husband in the WHOOOOLE world!!!!  we love him soooo much!  this was a big year for our favorite guy, the big 4-0!!!!  starting a new decade of life!!!!  i hope our 40's are the best yet, even if i can't believe that this is where we are in life sometimes . . . i don't feel like we can be this old, Lol!!!!;)  but as they say, age is just a number right?! . . . it doesn't tell the whole story!  i hope the whole story is a lot of fun, exploring, happiness, and a little downtime to rest every now and then!  cuz our old bones are gonna need it . . . Lol!!! 

love you so much trav!  thanks for all you do for us and for the wonderful person that you are!  thanks for always taking care of us and being our protector and our fearless leader!  we love you!!!!

and funny enough, i've been looking for the birthday pics that i KNOW we took on your birthday because i swear i remember taking them!  we had cake, and ice cream and presents . . . everything, but i've looked for the pics of it everywhere and i can't find them!!!!  i don't know what happened!  so instead, i found a few of my faves from this last year.  we did some fun stuff!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO  OUR FAVORITE!!!!!

It's Great to be 8!!!!

Ok, all i can say is that this girl is getting soooo big!!!!  i can't believe she's 8!!!!  she has grown so much this year and is definitely not a teeny little girl anymore!!!  she's our responsible, thoughtful, motivated, amazing BIG girl now!!!!  we actually had to celebrate her birthday on the 21st because she got some kind of nasty tonsillitis and was so sick on her b-day!  poor baby!  i thought she might be ok to still celebrate on her actual birthday so i got her cake made, presents wrapped, and everything ready and the poor girl went to bed at like, 6:30 because she was just whooped!  but the next day she felt much better so we were able to celebrate and still have a great day:)

she got a reeeeeallly nice barbie from grandpa dick and grandma helen that totally stole the show, it was her favorite by far!!!!

although she did love her sparkly cowgirl boots from us, and i did too . . . they were soooo cute!!!!

this was her little pink piggy also from grandpa dick and grandma helen, it was her "get well pig" that she got to help her get feeling better!  she loved it and carried it everywhere with her the days while she wasn't feeling good, i think it really did help her get feeling better!  Lol!!!

she insisted that her piggy was in all her b-day pics, Lol!!!;)  it was too cute!  the only picture i didn't get was of her present from grandma ruby, she was able to open that one on her actual birthday because grandma ruby came and saw her early in the day when she wasn't doing too bad!  she got a really cool art set from gr. ruby with drawing pads and a "how to draw cute animals" book, it was adorable and she loooooved it so much!!!  she also got a gel nail kit, nail wraps, a spirograph set, and some books which she was adorable about getting and she kept saying "that is exceedingly appreciated" after each thing, it was so funny!  she is one smart little girl, and so motivated, she just amazes us!  i know she will do amazing things with her life!  we're so proud of you lynners!  i hope you always know how much we love you and that we're so proud of you!  thank you for being our little ray of sunshine and for always being so thoughtful of your family and friends, we're all so lucky to have you and everything you do is "exceedingly appreciated" by your mama, Lol!!!!  you perfect, precious little girl, please know that nothing could ever replace you in our lives and we love you soooo much!!!  now stop getting so big would ya?!

Moving Day is Finally Here!!!!

the most exciting part of november was that WE FINALLY CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!  WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!  it was literally the best day of our lives and the reason for all the emotions i mentioned we felt this month in the last post . . . it was a rollercoaster for sure, and wasn't about to happen easily!  it felt like it took forever for things to get ironed out, took multiple trips to the title company and had to be rescheduled multiple because the bank messed up on stuff and the title company had scheduling problems, plus i feel like those things are always sooooo stressful in general even when it all goes smoothly and it certainly didn't . . . but it finally happened despite all the craziness!!!!!  BEST.  FREAKING.  DAY.  EVER!!!!!!!!  moving was tedious and also felt like we had a million things to move, and then cleaning the old house, and cleaning the new house because our builders took so long that everything was super dirty and dusty . . . it felt so overwhelming at times, but so worth it too, and we were soooo happy to finally be able to move out to our land!!!!!  it took us 4 years, so much doubt, so many prayers,  and so much work . . . and there were times we legitimately didn't know if it would happen.  so needless to say, it was so amazing to finally see it all come together and be able to FINALLY move into our new house out on our land! 

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!  and i'm sooooo proud of us!!!!!!

i thought shira sitting in this box was the funniest thing ever because she was sitting like such a weirdo Lol!!!:)

and she totally looks like she's taking a dump in this drawer . . . LOL!!!!  good thing she actually wasn't, that would have been awful!!!!!

me and  my baby girl packing up some boxes!!!!  love you lynners!!!  our kids helped so much with the  moving process and were such little troopers!  they packed up boxes and helped a lot, thanks cute kiddos!!!

getting moved into our new house was so exciting, but if i'm being honest . . . i think moving is soooo hard and it feels like you always have 10x more stuff than you ever even imagined possible so it was definitely a process!!!

this was definitely a moving highlight . . . we found like, 35 nerf balls under the washer when we moved it out LOL!!!!  the cat's ball stash!!!!:) we knew there had to be a bunch of them somewhere but we couldn't figure out where she could possibly be stashing them!!!  and we had no idea that there would be 35 of them!!!!!  it was soooo funny!!!!!  crazy as cuss cat!!!  Lol!!!

one thing we noticed right from the get-go out here was the sunrises and sunsets.  they are AMAZING!!!!  this was a morning that trav and i just happened to be standing at the front window when the sun was rising, and we just kind of took a minute in the quiet morning and took it all in, it was so pretty and peaceful!!! 

little dinguses playing under our bed Lol!:)

the goofy cat thought it was her duty to check out every single cupboard that was ever left open Lol!  if you ever opened a cupboard, you could rest assured that she would come running and be inside it before you even had a chance to shut it!  crazy cat!!!

aiden had soooo many boxes to move into his room!  our little trinket collector, Lol!!! (not junk collector, because that offends him!;)

colty and lynns couldn't wait to share a room together!  they're our best little buds!!

and of course sadie couldn't WAIT for her own room!!!! she was soooo excited!!!!

and of course we can't forget trav and me!  we were excited for our new room too, Lol!!!!;)

and last but not least, our "moving in family selfie" Lol!!!  right in the middle of it all, with boxes everywhere and everything a total crazy mess!

 but in the end . . . like, WOW!!!  getting ourselves out here has been a long time coming, and so much hard work, blood, sweat, and tears . . . but i can't put into words how grateful and blessed we feel to finally be here.  there were days that we honestly didn't know if it would happen, and it almost didn't.  there were days when we didn't know if we wanted to keep our land and start from scratch like planned, find a house nearby that was already built, or scrap it all and move away altogether.  in the end, our decision to stay took a lot of prayers . . . a lot of soul-searching . . . and a talk by Elder Holland.  betcha didn't see that last one comin' did ya?!  Lol!!!!  yep.  you read it right though!  i'll never forget the day i found that talk either!  it was called "cast not away therefore your confidence" and was given at byu in 1999.  the day i came across it, it hit me hard and i will forever know that it was an answer to our prayers.  we were at our tiny house in our room, and trav was at his desk on his work laptop and i was on our bed on our regular laptop.  i don't remember if i was looking up conference talks specifically, or if i was looking up quotes or something for the blog maybe . . . i have no idea.  but i stumbled upon a sentence that caught my attention. it said, "Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now."  it stopped me in my tracks.  it was exactly what i needed to hear because at that time, we were retreating.  we were so confused and had no idea what we wanted in life anymore.  it's crazy how you can be so sure about something one day, and then completely lost in the woods the next.  when we moved here in 2016, we knew we wanted some land and some room to live, and we had been looking for a long time before that, but that perfect little piece of heaven never materialized.  we looked for what seemed like forever.  even when we still lived in utah, we were always looking online and then we'd check out places here and there whenever we came to visit.  then when we moved here, we looked constantly!  everywhere and anywhere, from swan valley to mcammon to mackay or challis . . . anywhere within up to a 75 minute drive from the INL where we knew trav would be working, was fine with us!  we looked EVERYWHERE and we just never found anything we liked!  and then we found this little piece of land, and it was like it all came together.  we thought about it, prayed about it, and felt like it was the perfect fit for us.  we had no idea what we were going to do with it yet because it was just a chunk of bare land, we just knew that we had finally found the piece of land that we loved.  so we took a leap of faith and bought it, and then a month later we found our tiny house and it felt like everything was finally falling into place!  we had a lot of work to do, and it was slow going and we knew some of it would be difficult and take a long time, but it was ok . . . we had a plan and we were sooo excited!  we knew we could make it happen!  we made progress and worked  on things as we could for a year or so, and then disaster struck.  we went through some hard things and we were so lost and so broken, we had no idea what we were going to do and what we even wanted in life anymore.  it was all we could do to just make it through one day at a time, but what we wanted to do more than anything at that time was to move somewhere far, far away and find a way to start again.  but we were also afraid of making hasty decisions and regretting it if we left, so we decided to wait a year.  let the dust settle, and see how we felt about things when we weren't hurting so much.  the problem was, when that year mark hit, we still had no idea what we wanted to do.  so we started looking at different jobs, different places to live . . . we explored all options and left no stone unturned.  we weren't afraid to leave.  i think we were more afraid to stay.  but again, nothing materialized and we just felt like we were floundering.  which was hard, because we felt like we had given ourselves time to think, time to heal, and we felt like we should at least have some direction.  only we didn't.  we were just as lost and confused as ever.  until the day i found Elder Holland's talk, and the quote that changed everything. because when we found our land and our little house, it WAS a good thing!  and we HAD prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it . . . but we were retreating.  we were so scared and we kind of just wanted to run.  there are so many parts of this talk that i love and that spoke to my soul that first time i read it, and every time since.  he talks about how before great moments in our lives, there will be opposition and adversity.  and this paragraph, which was where the title of the talk comes from, as well as the snippet i found that first caught my attention was exactly what i needed to hear . . .

"With any major decision there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don’t give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. “Cast not away therefore your confidence.” Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you."

my other favorite part was this . . . which i'm totally going to have up in our house someday and still  makes me smile and tear up every time i read it . . .

"Therefore, let not your hearts faint. … Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land.”  What goodly land? Well, your goodly land. Your promised land. Your new Jerusalem. Your own little acre flowing with milk and honey. Your future. Your dreams. Your destiny."

i will never in my whole entire life, forget how i felt the first time i read that.  i couldn't even believe that out of all the text in the world, out of everything i could have read that day or any other day, that this was what i stumbled upon.  OUR goodly land?!  OUR own little acre flowing with milk and honey?!  OUR future, dreams, and destiny?! i felt like he was speaking straight to us!  it made my heart so happy!  i read it to trav and we both laughed for the first time in a long time about any of it, and it wasn't too long after that we started to feel like we were finding a little more direction.

after finding these quotes that i loved so much, and thinking about this talk over the next days and weeks, i felt like we needed to keep hanging on.  we didn't have to give up our dreams and we didn't have to run!  we could do everything we ever wanted, and we could still find joy and happiness despite all we had been through.  i look back at it now and i know it was a turning point.  not long after, we found a modular home contractor and decided that was what we wanted to do. we would put it on a foundation, it would be beautiful and look just like a regular house, it would appraise almost exactly the same as if we had built, it would just be quicker and less expensive which all sounded like a win-win to us!  we would find out along the way that it would not be that simple, and i will always know that there were dark forces at work trying to keep us from coming here.  it was so hard, so much harder than it ever should have been, and it felt like every single step along the way that should have been easy, was a stumbling block that never should have been there but somehow was.  it took 4 months longer than it was supposed to, and felt like a million times harder, but we finally made it!  it feels like such an accomplishment and we're soooo grateful to finally be here!!!!  we looooove our little house out on our land, where there are owls and coyotes, where the stars are so bright and the nights are so clear,  where we have room to roam and it's quiet.  it feels like our own little piece of heaven!  we fought hard for it, but we feel so blessed and grateful to be able to call it home now!!!!