The World is SO Big!

Hello to anyone who still reads this thing!   I should probably NOT be surprised that I can't remember how to run a blog.  So I won't make any attempts to catch up other than to start where we are this year!
I will always be an Idaho girl, but I have to say I have fallen completely in love with Colorado over the last 6 years!  And we think we are here to stay.  We moved from Fruita to Grand Junction over Labor Day weekend.  It feels like a dream. Many many miracles occurred over the last several years for us to realize this enormous blessing.  It has been a journey for us to come to this place, and humbling to feel so surely that this is the very spot God has been preparing for my little family to come to for a very long time. We are loving every moment of it!  My TV is never on and my kids play outside every spare minute they can.  I think we moved to heaven :) Here are a few pictures of our little corner of the world:

Rebekah calls this technique her "belly swing".  This girl will always love swings I think :)

She wrote a story this week called, "Big Push, Big Push How Does She Do It?"  It is all about swinging as high as the treetops.

Begging to take a picture of me . . .

 . . . Getting her way (as usual).

My camera is so inadequate to capture this place.  I was trying to get the first rays of morning sun hitting on the Colorado National Monument (we are looking to the west here).

Hee hee, our evil plan is already in progress!

Rebekah has named this spot "the sacred grove".  So cute and sweet that she would think of that.

Our house . . . Just kidding.  But it was SOMEONE's house a very long time ago.  Burke wants to make it watertight and turn it into a little shop/shed

My new bunny friend

The future home of a BIG garden I hope!

I didn't take any pictures of the house except this one!  We love our little "grandma house" too!  I will take pictures when we are a bit more settled inside.    This is the driveway down our little hill out to the road.

And looking up the driveway!

More swinging on this amazingly huge cottonwood tree.  I think it needs some trimming!  This tree was thought to be about 180 years old by the previous owner.  He grew up on this spot of land and can remember this being a huge tree when he was a five year old boy.

More huge trees out by the road.

Same trees looking out across the sod farms toward the Monument.  So exciting to see sunsets again! 

PS  If you want to see more you better come visit because my track record on this blog is pretty bad ;)

Playing Catch Up: December 2012

December is always a fun, full month! Here we are doing some decorating:

 Instead of gingerbread houses, this year we made a manger scene.  So cute!

 This year we had SNOW in December!  It made me so happy to have all of that beautiful snow!

 Preston just before he went to his Christmas Program.  Burke and I got hit with the stomach flu just hours before the show-- so we missed it.  I was SO disappointed. You can almost see his missing teeth in this picture-- he has been rolling around "toothless" for a while!

 Every night Daddy read us a story out of the "Green Book" one of our advent activities.

I can't find any pictures, I was sure I took some, but maybe not-- but my Mom and Dad came to see us in the middle of December.  It was SO fun.  I kept the kids out of school and we played pretty hard.  We hadn't done Dinosaur Hill or the Monument with them, so we went to check those out, we did a little shopping and went to lunch, visited Burke and generally just enjoyed the few days we were together.  I have missed them so much, I was so grateful to get to spend some time with them!  Thanks so much for coming to see us :)

 Our kids are finally old enough to play a variety of games.  Here we are playing Ticket to Ride on a Saturday morning just before Christmas :)

 Preston is pretending to be asleep here-- he loves it when we read stories to him!

 And MORE SNOW!!  It was so fabulous to be happy and not stressed about the snow.  I loved being home for Christmas this year!

 Snack Time!

 After Santa Came our stockings were stuffed and we had more presents than we knew what to do with!  We were spoiled for Christmas this year!

 Playing Pictionary Jr. sometime on Christmas Eve

 "The Children were nestled all snug in their beds . . ."

 Christmas morning dawned EARLY for Rebekah-- 5:45 to be exact.  She slyly came into my room to tell me, "I didn't go look, but I can see A LOT more presents and something in my stocking.  Can we go see?"  I told her it was too early, but I didn't have the heart to send her back to her bed.  We snuggled for about 1/2 hour and then I knew there was no hope of her falling back to sleep so I got up with her.  She had a bath and sang some songs and read some stories.  Finally at 7 we woke up Preston!  She was more patient and pleasant than I thought she would be in that L-O-N-G wait! 

Here is the Christmas morning Photo Dump:

 We had a beautiful Christmas day and even went out to the park for a while.  We threw snowballs, made snow angels and enjoyed the sunshine!  It might have been my favorite Christmas we have ever had.  It was a nice, relaxing, cozy day.  Everyone was thrilled with their gifts and we thoroughly enjoyed each others company.