Christmas time

December flew by and I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year 2014!
This Christmas season has been a nice and mellow one for the most part. I personally have been struggling with staying healthy... but I am feeling almost back to normal as of this evening. I feel a little cheated, we didn't travel on purpose so that we wouldn't get sick... but I got sick anyway. The boys got a little sick earlier in the month but seemed to bounce back pretty quickly. I'm going to blame my pregnancy for hanging onto it longer than everyone else.
We enjoyed a nice ward Christmas dinner/ social, a few service opportunities, sharing Christmas dinner with the new Elders in our ward & Bryce (Billy's old landlord)... and of course the company of Grandpa Wrenn & Uncle Nathan for the past 5 days :) We were supposed to go up to Ian & Stephanie's for Christmas eve, but I just didn't think I was healthy enough at that point to make the drive and have a late night away before Christmas day.

 

The boys were easy to please this Christmas. When asked what they thought they would like for Christmas, responses like "a pack of gum, please" and "my very own clay" made me smile. William, Zachary and Jameson were just so happy and kept it so simple. My favorite thing I watched this Christmas was the 3 boys, secretly making little drawings, notes and paper gifts for each other. They would sneak them out and stuff them into each others stockings when no one was looking. It was neat to watch the excitement of giving as well as the excitement to see the brother discover their gift on Christmas morning. It made my whole Christmas complete.

Billy and I celebrated 8 years of marriage yesterday! We had Grandpa Wrenn and Uncle Nathan to babysit for us, so we took advantage. We went mattress shopping and then out to a nice dinner. There is a new Sleep Number bed store in town and we gave it a shot. I think we spent at least an hour in there and this afternoon I took the plunge and we ordered a new bed. I'm looking forward to the delivery in a couple weeks! Billy made me a sweet card, as he always does. I finally finished (just about) the painting that I started for him last year for our anniversary! Whoops. Had to add another star for another year :) but I like the way it looks.

Looking forward to another great year this 2015.

The aftermath of "the big storm"

We are back up and running on line after what seemed like a long 6 days. I am not a big computer person, but there are certain things I do on line and on line only. William missed a few days of school (which he was not sad about at all), property management communication and trying to finish up the bills and spreadsheets was a no go, on line banking, email communication... anyway, we survived.

The storm racked havoc on our yard. The biggest surprise when we woke up was opening the front door to our pepper tree laying across the entire front yard! We all were pretty shocked that no one woke up when it fell. I think because the storm was so violent, windy and noisy, it took forever for us to fall asleep that night. Things kept hitting the side of the house and the trees were jerking so hard in the wind it was just a loud night in general.

Our fence was another sad sight to see. We had worked slowly all summer long getting the fence up and complete around the back yard. Luckly it's not too broken, just sagging, which can be fixed with a little extra digging and concrete around the posts.

It's been a slow clean up process. One of the ranch hands came with a tractor the next day to clear the drive way of the tree while Billy ran the chain saw and cut it up a bit. But now the drive way has remained a muddy mess and we still have to do a little more cutting to the tree to remove it completely off the grass.

We are just so blessed that the tree didn't fall on the house (or the cars)! We went to bed praying that the trees would stay in the ground, or at least not hit the house... our prayers were answered. The 60year old pepper tree missed the corner bedroom where all the boys were sound asleep by inches! We woke up saying prayers of thanks that we were all kept safe that night.

Moments that make me smile

Just a few photos from the last month of moments that made me smile.

                                                      Loving Brothers!

                      Jameson riding the razor scooter, he is always so happy!

Cousins in the golf cart, driving around the park in between photo sessions

              The boys enjoying the Santa Barbara annual Christmas parade :)

Thanksgiving in Utah

We got back last night from a short week in Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Mills family. It's a long drive, we don't do it often and when we make the trip, I remember why we don't do it often.
Our family arrived last Sunday afternoon after breaking the drive in half on the way there. We had a wonderful Sunday dinner with the family... I sure miss those Sunday dinners.
Monday we did a little shopping for the forgotten but needed items left at home :) Mostly a recoop day from the drive and ended the day with a double movie FHE/ birthday party. The kids were downstairs watching the Lego movie while the adults stayed upstairs and watched Malificent. Interesting movie. We then had all the kids build a lego creation and then come in the kitchen to eat cake and sing to cousin Gwen for a belated birthday party for her.
Tuesday we went on a Temple scavenger hunt. It was neat to go see the new Payson temple (not open yet) up close and walk around the grounds a little. (until we got in trouble and asked to leave!)
We also went to see the Provo city center temple, also under construction, and hear some facts about that one from Grandma.
Tuesday night Billy, Dan and I took the cousins bowling, Billy really wanted to do this. It was a fun time! I think I bowled my best game ever the first game, 139! Sierra bowled a 113! We had the 3 girls and Jameson on our lane, Billy and Dan had the 4 boys that came. William, Zachary, Asher and Grant. The second game, I was getting the hang of where to place the bowling ball slide for Jameson and he ended up bowling a turkey and scoring 145! We were all rolling with laughter that he got 3 strikes in a row and the highest score of the night. He just smiled and looked at me and said " I beat mommy". I guess it was worth the $87 we paid to bowl 2 games with 10 people! (I know, obnoxious right)
Wednesday My Dad and Billy spent the entire day framing my sisters basement! She was so excited about this :) They got a fair amount of work in down there and framed up quite a few walls. The girls and children took a trip out to Jordon and walked around a shopping center that had set up an Elf scavenger hunt. It was a cute place. The cousins all had a blast running around finding the elves and at the end were rewarded with a candy stick. We spent the rest of the day prepping food for the big Thanksgiving feast.

Thursday, turkey day, was all about the kitchen. I got out on a run in the morning and Billy went shooting with the guys. Other than that, we cooked and cleaned and cooked and cleaned until it was time to eat. We had 35 people over for dinner, it was a grand dinner with lots of variety. I contributed a kale salad and squash gratin. There was 2 turkeys and 3 pans of stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole to die for, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce and jello jigglers. Two types of home made rolls and gravy's to cover it all. We ended the night with 4 types of pie; apple, pumpkin, pear cheddar and chocolate haupia. I enjoyed sitting next to my Grandma and hearing stories she remembered from when she was a little girl, it was a precious moment for me. It was the only day I got to spend with her out of the week, which made me a little sad, but my uncle Rod and family were staying with her and I didn't want to overwhelm her.

Friday was family picture day! Everyone met at the Mapelton city park. It was the perfect place to do it, a playground and plenty of grass for the kids to entertain themselves when they weren't posing. The park has a couple old pioneer homes and an old wagon too. We used them and we love the way the pictures came out! All the kids were great and the colors and outfits that were picked out matched together beautifully.

It was a wonderful week of family. The cousins really enjoyed playing with each other everyday and were so good for the most part. It just went by so fast!
I'm thankful for a wonderful and loving family and I'm thankful for our safe journey there and back in our great car.

CAVA field trip to Rincon tide pools

The boys and I met up with Williams online teacher and a few other teachers and families at Rincon beach on Tuesday. We thought the field trip to the tide pools sounded fun and educational :) It was a perfect day to be at the beach for low tide exploring.  High cloud cover and 70 degrees, just beautiful. William, Zachary and Jameson had a great time running, digging and collecting all afternoon. We were the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave by hours, it was so peaceful I didn't care to get home anytime fast.
Zachary left with two pocketful's of shells and rocks. William found everything on his search list from his teacher and Jameson was happy, wet and very sandy. It was a wonderful afternoon.

It's a GIRL!

It has now been nine days for me to process the news in my head. We are having a girl in the Wrenn family! I think it's safe to say that EVERYONE is pretty darn excited about this news :) Our ward is already planning a huge party, haha.

I have kept the first dress that my Dad bought for me when I was born and finally get to take it out and use it on something other than my cabbage patch kid doll.  All the boys have been so cute to put their heads on my tummy each night before bed and say goodnight to baby sister.

The ultrasound appointment with Dr. Soffici was a neat experience this time. Mostly because Grandma Southerland (Wrenn) was here visiting and got to be in the room with us. We opened the window to the outdoor patio area where Grandpa Wrenn and the boys were playing so they could be part of it as well. Grandma had never seen anything like the ultrasound I had and Dr. Soffici was very nice and happy to explain it all to her. She was super amazed when he turned on the 3D effects and we saw a great peek of her hiding face. What a special day. First girl to be born into the Wrenn family in a couple generations!

Yahooooooo.

Our first Spooky Halloween dinner

My sister, Kristy, has had this fun tradition for the past many years of making a fun Halloween theme dinner for her family. I have always thought that it was such a fun thing to do for the kids and I finally decided to give it a shot this year.
Here is our meal that we also shared with Grandma Krone and our "neighbors" Jay, Rosie and Alice.
Mummy pizza

Monster smiles

Spider eggs

Worms

and Green slime!

All was enjoyed until it was all gone :) It was a little bit of work (especially those worms!) but I think it was worth it and will plan on doing it again next Halloween.

Our Halloween

I know, I'm behind. Life has been busy and my daily lists have been long. Better late than never, right.
We took a few more pictures at our second visit to the pumpkin patch.

These were the pumpkins we carved (weeks before Halloween)

The boys in their costumes for Halloween trick or treating at the calle real shopping center and trunk or treat.

We had Grandma Krone in town visiting and I was still watching Lucas for half of our evening. Stephanie and Emmett also came down for the day to join us on Halloween too!

It was a low key holiday overall. No family costumes this year.... it made me a little sad, but it didn't stress me out at all :)

Emmett's half birthday

Last Sunday we went straight from church and drove up to SLO for little Emmett's 1/2 birthday :) Yep, not spoiled at all. haha. A good excuse as any for a get together!
The boys enjoyed the park, playing in the sand, on the playground and throwing some disc golf with uncle Ian.
It was a nice afternoon with family and some friends.