Packers NL

I have lots to catch up on, so here are some highlights:

SEPTEMBER 

Rob took a new job at Vivint as their Director of Training. It was a scary move to make since we loved American Express so much, but it has been a great opportunity and he is really enjoying himself there. 

We took our annual Park City trip. We started off at the zoo and made our way to the hotel. The fall colors were amazing! The kids actually did really well sleeping in the same bed together. I think we wore them out sufficiently each day to help in the falling asleep process. The temperature was a little cool for swimming in their main pool (the high was about 70 degrees), but the hotel had half of their 6 hot tubs turned down so kids could play in them safely. It was heaven! Just like swimming in a warm bath tub!

Luke turned 5! He requested a Spiderman birthday cake. I don't get too excited about doing the big birthday cake thing, probably because I don't really like cake that much, but I relented and said I would do whatever he wanted. It paid off because he really loved it. But he takes after his mom and doesn't really have a sweet tooth, because after he blew out the candles and I asked him how big of a piece he wanted, he informed me that he didn't really want the cake for eating, just blowing out candles. Sigh. That huge cake sat pretty much uneaten in the fridge for a week before the whole thing just went in the trash, haha. At least Sophie had a blast helping me make it. She is the one with the huge sweet tooth!

OCTOBER

Rob and I attended Sunday morning Conference. It was wonderful. Luke's favorite part of conference is plastering the family room with all the scriptures pictures and the apostle photos. We have a slumber party on Friday night and then lounge around on the air mattresses the next two days while we eat cinnamon rolls and listen to conference. 

We took the kids to Cornbelly's which has tons of fall activities for the family. There is so much to do. We stayed for 3 hours and only covered half of what was there.

Luke had his big birthday party. For his cousin party he wanted a Pirate theme, which was a lot of fun. We served "gold nuggets" (chicken) for the main dish and we thought 2 huge platters would be more than enough. That's 400 nuggets. This is all that was left!!!!!!!!!! My nieces and nephews can pack it away!

We also had cupcakes, cannon balls, fish and chips and pina coladas. Luke wanted a pirate ship cake for this party. After the spiderman cake I said I didn't think I could do a pirate ship. Way to complicated for me!    The day before the party I broke it to him that I just couldn't do it. He was heartbroken and maybe shed a tear or two. So the night before I found one online that I could copy and busted this thing out until very early the next morning. At least I felt redeemed when he actually ate some!! 

We went to the pumpkin patch that we've gone to for the past several years because they have kid sized wheelbarrows. Luke loves them and Sophie was big enough to steer one around this year. Unfortunately she was in a state of sorrow for most of the time because she had her heart set on finding a PINK pumpkin and there were none to be found. Look at this depressed face! We made a deal that she could go home and paint one instead. Silly girl. She absolutely loves pink!

For Halloween, Luke went as Spiderman and Sophie went as an elephant. Avery came with us and she was a darling little ladybug! 

NOVEMBER

Sophie was just done with diapers one day and decided to potty train herself. It was such a different experience than with Luke because she just had such a desire to do it herself. In fact she was obsessed and spent hours in the bathroom pretending to go and then washing her hands and repeating this over and over. I have gone through so much soap!! Overall it was pretty painless and I'm glad to have that out of the way before the baby comes.

Luke helped me make applesauce one day. He was such a big help! His job was to put the cooked apples through the kitchen aid and smash it through the strainer. He did all of it! I can't believe how big he is getting and what a good helper he is.

The weather here has been so nice that we have spent a lot of time outside. The kids had a blast helping me rake up leaves. I made them get in the trash can to smash them all down, haha. They will get mad at me one day for that.

We spent Thanksgiving with the Packers this year. I was in charge of rolls and I made a pumpkin cheesecake. I spent a day making 9 dozen rolls. Sophie stood in a chair next to me for almost two hours and just played in the flour! She was telling everyone that she was making pink pie. We had a great dinner with the family, but we were sad to not see Grammy. 

We hope everyone has a great holiday month!!

The Packers

Van Natter November

And here we are in the Christmas Season!!
November flew by. Spent a lot of time prepping for guests. I had all my meals prepared and frozen for Mom's visit. When she wasn't able to come, I was able to use them for Emily and Jacob.

We finally got furniture for our new family room.  We got 2 couches and a love seat: 6 recliners in all! Plus a big screen TV for over the fireplace. That room got quite a lot of use while Em and Jacob were here. They watched movies up there, Jacob played X-Box with Ian. Addie enjoyed more room to run around and explore.

Thanksgiving with Moultons was so much fun, as always. But it felt weird not having Grammy there. We were just glad she was out of the hospital, hadn't needed surgery, and was on the mend. So grateful for all Linda and Mark's attentiveness to her.

Finally brought in the turquoise love seat from the garage once the living room painting was done. I love it. It's not too bright but pulls in the turquoise from the kitchen at the other end of the big open room now. I have a small glass table on each end with a red lamp on top of each, but haven't photographed that yet. The lamps turned out to be smaller than expected so I'm torn - they are the right size for the tables, the right height for the loveseat, but look too small in the room. What to do, what to do??

Jacob picked up my Expedit from Ikea while he was here. Still don't know how he fit those 4 big boxes in his car along with Addie in a carseat!! But he did it! Then he put it all together on Thanksgiving morning with the parade on in the background. I'm really excited to have it. For now I'm putting nativities in the cubbies (25 of those!) After the holidays we'll see what I end up doing! (The photo was taken with my iPod but you get the gist.)

 
I put together the Ikea trolley I bought last summer when I saw they had it in turquoise. I am loving it!!

Annette and I got together at her house to make our Advent Calendar boxes using her Silhouette cutter. It was so fun to fold boxes for a few hours. I haven't had a chance to finish mine off yet but I enjoy just seeing the fun paper drawers in each little opening. I used the new Basic Grey Aspen Frost line. I don't do any paper scrapping anymore, so it was kind of fun choose Christmas papers.

John is almost done with Tithing Settlement. Most everyone came during November so now every December Sunday isn't taken up. This was his 25th year of Tithing Settlements!!!!!

Ian's eyes have swollen nearly shut twice in the last couple of weeks. It's what happens when he has nuts but he hasn't eaten or even touched any, so now he has to figure out what is causing this allergic reaction. He's missed a couple of days of work due to it. Thank goodness he has sick days to use.

Hope everyone has a super fantastic Christmas season!
love, Kathi & John

Moulton November

Greetings!

I was outside in my t-shirt painting something and it's the end of November. Al Gore must've been right. The planet is frying! Shame shame shame! haha! We've had a busy couple of months and I've been remiss to write. Just a few highlights. We loved having Scott home briefly in August for our family get together. We 4-wheeled the first day.

The next day, most everyone went golfing. Oh, and Sally and Sam came up from Vegas to join us which was fun! I stayed home and mastered the art of grilling ribs! Oh my! I even passed the test with Jess' dad. He didn't believe I could do it. I showed him! Oh my! But they literally take forever so I've informed the fam, they get them once a year. Twice if they twist my arm! After the little ones went to bed, we watched, Hunger Games. which some had not seen! Fun flick! 

The next morning, the golfers took off for Heber where they golfed at one of the most beautiful, scenic courses around. They even saw deer and other wild animals checking out their mad golf skills. The rest of us met up with them later that morning at Deer Creek for a day of boating and riding wave runners, courtesy of Nic's folks. Jess' niece, Naomi and her husband, Tommy, came up to join us this day. 

Sunday was a favorite day because all the kids came to church with us. It was nice to take up a whole row for a change. We loved having everyone together.

In Sept, we celebrated Marianne and Nic's bday with Marianne's cherry pie, of course. Cottrell's came to town with Brent and Eileen for a BYU football game and we met up at Brick Oven for some delish pizza! Thanks again for dinner! So fun to finally meet Eileen! She's even cuter in person! Brent's buttons were popping! 

October was gorgeous with the colors on the mountains behind us. Jess and I went with Bryce, Amy (Bryce's new friend) and her daughter, Avery, to the pumpkin patch. We took a hayride and ate fresh apple cider donuts and drank fresh cider too. Oh yum! Fun times! Afterward, we came back home, met up with Packer's and ate Navajo tacos, per/Bryce's request! Bryce wanted to build a bonfire in the back so we roasted marshmallows and ate s'mores to our heart's content! (Did anyone notice how often we are eating? Maybe that's the problem!!!)

November brought Jess' bday and Nic's departure to his beloved Texas. He has a new job and left on Jess' bday but we met the night before for dinner and of course, Jess' apple pie. What's up with these people and their pies??????? Doesn't anyone like cake anymore? 

All their stuff got packed up, thanks to a moving company, and then Marianne moved home right before Tgiving. Nic flew home and we had a lovely Tgiving with Van Natter's again this year.We all really noticed the absence of Grammy and hope she's feeling better. It was a great day. How could it not be with 8 pies for 12 adults. Never too much pie! Marianne just flew to Texas to join Nic tho' they will be home for Cmas. They're hoping to find a home soon. 

Scott ending up driving to Omaha when his best friend's dad and brother were involved in a plane crash near Fresno. So sad but we're glad he could be of some comfort to his friend. 

Bryce is doing well in school and even got an A- in accounting: not a fun class, he says. He and Amy continue to date.

I don't think we've shared the newest member of the family. This is Sebastian, Scott's bulldog. Check out the Nebraska logo! Go Huskers! He's an old man who likes to lay around and only gets excited at the prospect of string cheese. Sebastian that is, not Scott. 

Sad to have mom miss her trip to Utah but we're glad she's on the mend. 

Hope everyone is ready for the Christmas season. We decorated last weekend and the days are quickly disappearing so I hope we don't run out of time! 

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Jess and Annette

November from Mark and Linda

Hi everyone,
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Looking back, November was an interesting month...full of highs and lows.

Here's a recap:

Lows:
I hurt my back on Halloween night and was in bad shape for a week.

I went from the jubilant high of attending the rally for Paul Ryan to feeling the anguish of Romney's loss the next day. On my birthday! Being home alone was horrible. Still dealing with it.

Mom went to the hospital with diverticulitis. So awful to watch her suffer.....

Highs:
Toni surprised me for my 60th birthday! When i opened the door at 8 on Sunday evening i couldn't have been more shocked. I bawled! She had all sorts of things planned for the next day:
manicures
lunch at Miss Spensers Tea Room way out in the country
the Paul Ryan rally
take out from PF Changs- eating it in our jammies in front of the TV
lots of talking
breakfast on my bday morning at Panera...hot chocolate of course and a pastry

 Mom treated me to lunch at Mimi's for my birthday:

Mark came home with flowers. For my birthday present: He forgave my debt!!! I bawled.

I got a new calling: Primary Presidency Counselor. This was my last day with my sweet little CTR 4 class:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Grandma Cottrell would be proud of me: She always said that when i got married i couldn't boil water. And now i am cooking for 20 people and it all tasted great.

Highlights included:
Claire and Calvin here
Eileen's mom Yolanda here
Mom able to come after getting out of the hospital
lots of crockpotted food which really helped!: potatoes, sweet potatoes, all the veggies, ham etc

We took the kids to see Santa

Julie announced that they are having baby #3 next June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FINALLYYYYYY got my etsy shop up and running. I am just starting out with 7 Bible flannel board stories. This has been hanging over my head all year...so YAY!!!!  Here's the link for my store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LindyJDesign

All of my patterns are free to the family. Just email me and tell me if you would like any:
Linda@Cottinjohn.com

This is our November...over and out.

Christmas Card Addresses

We're going to try to get the addresses posted for the kids who have moved since last Christmas.



Emily & Jacob Stephenson
5839 E. Dakota Ave
Fresno CA 93727 

Jacob & Amanda Baker

988 N. 1750 W.

Pleasant Grove, UT

84062

Kelli & Emmanuel Castro

115 W. Fordice Rd.

Lebanon, IN

46052

Holly Baker

117 High St.

Vermillion, SD

57069

Scott Moulton

15500 Cutten Road

Apt 1203

Houston, TX 77070

Colin Baker

9051 S 1075 W

B301

West Jordan, UT

84088

ABC Family & Hallmark Christmas Movies

Thinking ahead - if you like to plan for some fun Christmas movies ABC Family has their 25 days of Christmas listed here:
25 Days of Christmas- ABC Family

Hallmark Channel has already started theirs. So for some sappy Christmas fun:
Hallmark Channel Christmas movies

I'm kind of partial to the Mrs. Miracle movies. Cheesy yet sweet!

Here are the Hallmark Channel's 12 Original Movies of Christmas
Hallmark's 12 Original Movies of Christmas

Stephensons Sept-Oct

In September Jacob started back on a "wards" rotation at the hospital which is a very hard rotation. He gets every other weekend off so for his 6 week rotation he had 6 days off total. A couple days a week he had evening call where he didn't get home until 9-12 PM, just depending on the day. Occasionally he'd get done around 5 but most days 7 is average. He was very sleep deprived! We hoped when he started wards at the VA it would be easier but that hasn't been true. It's been less stressful but the hours have generally been as bad and he's got evening call more often. This residency business is no joke.

In September we had to turn Addie's crib into a toddler bed because she kept climbing out. She's been capable of doing it for a year or more but never did it until now, which I guess is a blessing. Since then her sleep has been a rollercoaster. It took her awhile to get used to her new surroundings, then she started sleeping well again. Then suddenly at the beginning of October started waking up multiple times a night, or waking up for the day at 5:00 AM! I was dying. This week we finally just cut out the nap, even though she happily takes a 2-3 hour one, because I couldn't keep getting up with her that much at night (sometimes 5 times a night!) It seems to be better now that she doesn't nap, but sometimes she still wakes up. At this point I'm just doing the best I can to get us back to a schedule.

Now that she isn't napping it's really hard to find time to work on our business, which thankfully is still doing really well. What a crazy few months it's been for us, but we are so happy with the way things have worked out for us. I've been working on a 1st grade morning work book for months and it's still not done.

I've been having some problems with a back spasm for about a year that I finally went to Urgentcare for. The pain meds helped a lot and it's been a few weeks since I've had any problems. Crossing my fingers it's better now. Addie and I both got a stomach bug that wiped us out for a week.

We went up to the Sequoias and Kings Canyon one Sunday. It's about 45 minutes from our house. The yearly pass was only $10 more than a day pass so we have the annual pass now. Jacob already went back up with Addie once (when I was sick.) I'm sure we'll be back more. Though I must admit that Addie isn't all that impressed with the giant trees. 

In late October we went down to LA to visit with my college roommates. Emily still lives there and Lori was in town for a wedding. We almost didn't go because I had been sick that week but I started feeling better Saturday morning we decided to just go for it. It was a little bit crazy but worth it. Jacob booked our hotel online and didn't notice that the hotel he chose, which was listed as being in the area we wanted to be in, was actually 30 minutes away from there! Oops!

For Halloween Addie was Little Red Riding Hood, only she refused to wear the hood! So she was basically a little girl in a cute outfit. We tried to go to the kids trick or treating at the mall but by the time Jacob got home from work and we got there they were out of candy. She was not impressed with the whole thing anyway. We went to the pumpkin patch after that and picked out a pumpkin, since we hadn't had time to any other day. She was much more interested in pulling around the little wagons than in actually picking a pumpkin. We practiced trick or treating at home a couple times then went to a few neighbors houses. She hated it. Totally froze when we got to the door and after two houses asked to go home. She much preferred answering the door at home for trick or treaters, though she still hung back quietly. But she was very happy about the whole candy thing. She only had a few pieces but she was bouncing off the walls!