When Will Life Slow Down?!

Holy cow.  I feel like I have been running non-stop for the last six weeks!  I haven't blogged in forever and have so much to catch up on.  Here are some highlights for now:

-Lucy turned five years old.

-We bought a new home!

-Nick turned the big 3-0.

-Nick graduates from Nursing school on Friday!

Things are going great!  We are moved into the new house and LOVE it.  If you are ever in the area . . . come visit!

Adventures

A couple weekends ago we up and headed to Boise for the State Girls Basketball Tournament. Rigby played and it was fun to watch them, they didn't do as well as we'd hoped, but we enjoyed the tournament. On the way back to Twin from Boise we decided to take the "scenic route". And boy was it scenic! I tried to follow little roads on the GPS and we soon found ourselves on a dirt road that we followed along the Snake River Canyon for about 20 miles. It was so neat. Here's some pictures with my phone (not the greatest) . . .

Hilarious.

*This is the email Lucy had me type for her, to send to Uncle Brian, who is serving a mission in Denmark.  This is word for word from her mouth.*

Dear Uncle Brian,

I love you. You're my uncle. And you're my favorite, Brian. From, Lucy. To, Brian. My Dad is almost done with school! It's almost my birthday, and you're gonna miss it. We gotta get a new dog. And a new kitty. My Dad's all done with his other part of his school. And it's almost Kate's birthday too, and you're gonna miss it. My Mom got some beads for Me and Kate. I still know my numbers. I don't know if I'll know you on Mother's Day. After Mother's Day is Father's Day. Janelle's already on her mission. I'm still four. I love you. You love me. I love everyone that I know. I love all of the colors. My Grandpa got me a new pony purse at the horse show. My Mom doesn't like pink houses. I wrote this to you, Brian. What have you been doing on your mission? I went to the store. And I played at home. I lost my glasses, but then I found them. Sammy died. I can count to 100. I'm learning to read your BOB books. And I have a wallet, lots of purses. We had fun when we were at Grandma Great's and we went to Jenna's too. I got a couple Leapfrog reading books from Grandma and Grandpa at the Oregon. I might kind of forget Janelle on Mother's Day too. I know a little bit of French words. Kate can do her ABC's. We're still in Twin Falls, in Idaho. Sometimes we lose our remote, but then we find it. And I'll ask you what kind of basketball and football you like. My Dad's almost done with his tootsie roll jar. I got lots of fun things from Christmas. Our house is pretty old at Lewisville. It's almost my birthday. My Dad still loves pop. I can sound out words. The puppies already opened their eyes. I know Heavenly Father. I want you to hug me when you come back.

Love,

Lucy

*I love how totally random she is.  Makes me laugh, hard.  Here is a pic from the park this week.*

96 DAYS

Yup.  96 days til . . . guess what?  Nick graduates!  Woohoo.  We are so excited.  Nick's Mom made this cute tootsie-roll jar for the girls (and Nick) to keep track of the days until Nick finishes his Nursing degree.  
This is the poem on the jar:

It's the last year of school-
Not much longer for studies.
Here's something that's cool
To keep count with your buddies.

Share one Tootsie each day
Of this last year of fun.
Won't be long til your stay
In Twin Falls will be done!

The girls never miss a day!  Here is a picture of them in August when Nick started back up (notice the full jar!).

Here is a picture now, with 96 tootsie-rolls left!  Go Daddy, go!

Missionaries X 2

My sweet sister, Janelle, headed out on her mission yesterday.  She'll be amazing!  We are so excited for her (and Brian).  She is in the Brazil Sao Paulo East mission.  Now her, Nathan, and Nick can speak Portuguese to each other.  Janelle was brave and went and chopped her hair off the day before she left, it turned out SO CUTE!

 

Our Christmas Tree Adventure

We had quite the fun adventure finding a Christmas tree this year. Every year we like to go cut our own tree, which sometimes can be frustrating, because you can never find the perfect tree. But it's the fun memories you make, that make it all worth it! This year we headed out with some of Nick's family and made the big loop from our house to Dubois to Island Park and then back home! It was so fun and a beautiful drive, but we somehow made it home without a tree. Everyone else (except Haley & Nick) and us found their trees. But Nick was too picky. Here's some pictures of our first hunt . . .

The girls with cousin, Kalli!

Lisa & Leland with their cute family and TREE!
Couldn't leave without making a snow angel!

And now, onto our next attempt.

The next day we decided to try again. It was a lovely drive . . . a cliff on one side of the narrow road and a raging, Snake river on the other! But really, it was beautiful. We saw lots of this- And this . . .
And these . . .
Some more of this . . .

And instead of beautiful pine trees, we saw lots of cedar trees and SAGEBRUSH!

So we did more of this. . .

We had no idea how far, or where this road went. But we kept going and going . . . until we started seeing "No trespassing, Private Property" signs, and decided we'd better turn around! At that point, we had already gone about 15-20 miles on this little dirt road! So we headed back. We found a place to pull off the road . . .
And we sent Nick off up the mountain. I told him not to come back without a tree in hand. Meanwhile, the girls and I took some pictures-

My sweet sister, Janelle, brought the girls these adorable sweaters from Peru this last summer. Don't they look so cute?!

Lucy had fun, playing in the snow . . . Kate got cold, and sat in the car . . . We waited . . . and waited . . . Then we heard something . . .
It was Nick . . . and he had a TREE! We were so excited.
That pretty much sums it up! We did have fun, even though we almost ended up with a sagebrush Christmas tree. Now we can't wait to head back to Lewisville, once Nick finishes up finals today, (Yes! That's one more semester down!) so we can enjoy our hard earned Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving in Oregon!

We had a great time in Klamath for Thanksgiving. It's always fun to go home. We missed Nathan, Alisa, Janelle, and Brian terribly though. It was weird without them there. The only other time that has happened was the two years Nathan was on his mission. I guess this is what happens when you grow up. Poor Janelle tried to hard to get home (from BYU) and even braved a few hours of driving in a snowstorm, just to turn back. Thankfully we have lots of wonderful family in Utah, so she was well taken care of. And Brian had his Thanksgiving "sack dinner" at the MTC. He has now arrived in Denmark, we are so excited for him and can't wait to be able to talk to him at Christmas. *Watch for a blog coming soon on Brian's experiences in Denmark* The girls had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, they love to go to "the Oregon." We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Mark & Alissa & their family too. Nick, Dad, and I braved the black friday crowds and shopped with the crazies, it was great. We also went ice skating, because that's what you do on the day after Thanksgiving! This is all Lucy was concerned about. She's talked about it for months. My Dad willingly drug her around the ice rink for two hours, by the end she was almost doing it on her own! Here are some pictures of our fun time.

Nick you're supposed to smile, this is fun!