"Ketchup"

Latest happenings since I last wrote:

Chase was baptized on January 19, 2013. My parents and sister came out from Utah to participate in Chase's baptism. My dad confirmed him after Craig performed the baptism, my mom gave a talk, and Lisa gave the closing prayer. Afterwards we had a nice meal for everyone. It was a nice turnout. Chase did have to be dunked twice though, because Craig didn't say the words exactly right the first time, but no big deal, Chase was pleased and so was I. Peyton started asking me how long until he would have his turn.

Note:still looking for SD card with baptism photos

At the end of May we drove to UT to attend a family reunion. I enjoy traveling and and thought it would be a nice way for the kids to see a lot of countryside and get to see some new states. It was all fine and good until I started hearing a cacophony of "Are we there yet?" and "How much longer do we have to sit in this car?" which got tiring very quickly. We woke up early and Craig drove over 1000 miles the first day. On the way we stopped to see some Church sites in Independence, MO. We spent the night in Topeka, KS and drove to Grand Junction, CO and ate in a real restaurant as opposed to fast food joints and spent the night. We were able to meet my parents and aunt Marva the next day for lunch at Chuck A Rama.

 

 

 

 I visited my friends Amy and Christine, hung out with my sisters, then my aunt Carol and uncle Bob showed up. The reunion was fun. It was a short trip and we were sad to leave, but we had to get to Florida for an A/V show that Craig was scheduled to be at. We drove to Denver to spend the night, then drove to Ft. Smith, AK for the next night, then spent a night at home and drove right to Orlando with our 5th wheel.

For Mother's Day in May, Peyton made me a 'mini Ginger'. He worked so hard (with Chase's help). Every time I walked by where he was working on his project he told me to close my eyes. Sunday morning I received a book from Chase-latest Wimpy Kid book, and Converse shoes from Craig.

This spring both boys played soccer with Alabaster city. Craig was the co-coach for both boys' teams. Chase was on team Holland and Peyton was on team D.C. United. Chase's team went undefeated and Peyton's only lost 1 game all season. Chase was playing with his 3rd team and Peyton played for the first time ever.

Snow More

We've been in our new house for close to 4 months now. We are resettling into our former life it seems. Everything is familiar yet is different too. my parents came and visited us for a week. They wanted to know when was a good time to come and I told them not to come in February because we usually get ice storms and snow. January is a much better month for weather, well Mother Nature had other plans, and so on January 16th, we got a snow storm and a bonus evening of power outages.

Everyone was off doing their own thing, but when the power went out, we all got together and hung out. It was fun. We dug out all of our candles and flashlights, then my parents, sister and I sat on the living room couch with blankets on us and I read Robinson Crusoe to them on my iPad. Craig was able to cook us a nice pork chop meal with green bean casserole on the grill and we ate by candlelight. What a great way to connect with each other again. Although we were thrilled when the lights and heat came back on after about 3 hours.

We ordered plantation shutters for our bare naked windows back in early Dec. and they finally arrived and were installed on the 29th of January. Here are a few pics of the house and snow and shutters. The next batch has been ordered.

Our new house. The pre-shutter living room is on the left.

The boys were thrilled to get snow. They even tried to sled, but there wasn't enough snow.

"Hamming" in the screened-in porch.

Chase and his giant snowball.

Our backyard.

Beautiful.

The trees in the backyard.

Post-shutter living room.

Living room.

Laundry room.

Kitchen.

Dining Room.

Family Room.

I chad a hard time getting the flash to go off, so in order to get pics that weren't superdark , I had to close most of them and make the house as dark as possible. We had plantation shutters in our Alabaster house and I would recommend them to any and everyone.