Van Natter - October 2014

Getting closer to being caught up!

General Conference is the perfect way to start the month. Addie's 1/2 birthday was on the Conference Saturday. During Priesthood, Heidi and I went over to Emily's and we had a celebration for Addie, with half a cake. She was thrilled to be able to say she was four and a HALF! Emily made ham and cheese sliders and we got Strawberry Frappes from Starbucks to really make it a celebration.

With the weather still good, and the colors finally showing up, John suggested we shoot the kids in the leaves. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Both John and Emily got some good shots. Addie was busy gathering rocks for her collection!

I spent a few days painting 25 Days of Christ ornaments - a set for Emily and one for me. Most of my crafty stuff is still in boxes <sigh> so I had to make do with what I could find or make-shift.

I started a <free> class on Laura Ingalls Wilder: Her Writings and Her Life, through Missouri State. It's fun to be involved in a literary class, though fortunately there are no papers and the tests are optional! I read "Little House in the Big Woods" for the first time in probably 5 decades!

I also started a digital scrapping class, "Me: The Abridged Version." I gifted it to Linda for her birthday, so we could do it together, but she was gone too much! I decided to do my pages on the Project Life app on my phone, and it was so easy and slick!! Here's the first page:

Heidi had stayed with us for a few weeks on and off as the end of her house-build drew near. What a thrill to sign the papers and call it hers! It was the first time I'd been inside, and I was impressed. Here is Addie performing on the "stage":

Now I will document something really stupid. I know from past experience that even when I have a Christmas planner, I don't use it. For some reason, I can't make any of them work for the way I deal with the holidays. The best one for me is a gift app I use on my phone. BUT for some reason, I lost my mind and bought a class to make a Christmas planner. And once I paid the money, I had to make it!!

It was really cute, and I finished the dumb thing, and then I never. opened. it. again. Ridiculous! Hopefully by documenting that, I won't forget. Anyone want a Christmas planner? Never used!

What fun to get to help celebrate Avery's 4th birthday! (Just a little late!) Most of my pictures are terrible, but you can at least see the Birthday Girl (and Grandma!) here!

For October Rudolph Day I made Prayer Blocks to give to our Sunday School kids for Christmas. I've never done much with mod podge before, so I learned as I went! They turned out pretty fun!

Did a lot of work for the girls' Teacher Approved business. Emily eased me into it over several months until I was doing all the Facebook promoting/scheduling, all emails with contributors, blog posts spotlighting the teachers for the month, etc. It worked well to schedule two hours a day to spend on it so it didn't take over my life! I really enjoy being involved, and the fact that they pay me is pretty sweet! (Until the Tax Man Cometh...)

John was out of town again - this time to SoCal, at the same time that Emily and her family went to Disneyland. Missed everyone!

Made fun 'family portraits' for our VT sisters. And one for us, of course! Aren't we cute?

So much fun to see Anna and Olaf on Halloween! He's dirty from crawling around the front porch as we tried to snap photos!

John and I then went to the movies and saw "Meet the Mormons" which was so good!
And THAT is the end of October!

Heidi's Goings On

Hey all!  I hope everyone is doing well.  Things are crazy around here.  My new house is almost done--yay!!  I'm getting so excited.  Hopefully I'll close next week, but things could be delayed because there have been some mix-ups.  For example, there's carpet in the wrong room, the wrong cabinets, and the front of the house was painted the wrong color.

The dark blue around the windows is the new color.  The other colors are not what I was supposed to have. Thankfully the builders have been excellent about getting things resolved so that I'll be happy. 

While I'm waiting for the house to finish, I am still living in my Provo townhouse, but now I have 3 new roommates.  They're roommates #26, #27, and #28!  Packing has been a huge ordeal.  Especially because I'm still trying to teach preschool.  Right now we're in Emily's house, so it will be really nice to be able to get settled, unpacked, and have access to everything I need.

Our Second Story Window business is going well and we started a new business, Teacher Approved, a few months ago.  Hopefully it takes off.  We're busy, busy, busy.  It's a lot easier to work together now that we're in the same state, and soon the same city. 

That's it for now!  I hope everyone is excited for a lovely fall!

Heidi

Stephensons

Where did the summer go? It's been a whirlwind since we got into our new house. We are still not completely unpacked and not decorated much at all. Our front yard is in and part of our back is done with leftover sod from the front. But our backyard is huge so there's still a lot without sod. We are still trying to decide if we want to put down more sod or seed it.

Addie loves preschool twice a week and wishes that it was every day. It's been a little funny having it at our house while we wait for Heidi's house to be done. It's gone really well but I think it's a strange experience for Addie. And it's tricky to keep Neil out of all the fun preschool stuff. 

Addie continues to do tumbling once a week. Her favorite activity is the trampoline but she loves it all. She recently started a really awesome music class called Let's Play Music that helps build a really sound base of music theory and prepares her for piano. I am totally impressed with the skills she is learning and it's done in such a fun way. She also started ballet. I found a teacher who does a really low-key and fun program which is perfect for her. She loves going to her classes and playing with friends there. We have a lot of little girls in our neighborhood so she loves to be outside playing any chance she can get. 

Neil gets a little more mobile and a little less grumpy every day. After months of doing a leap-frog crawl he is finally doing a proper crawl most of the time. He pulls up on furniture and stands for a long time. He's even started cruising a little. He has no interested in walking, even with help. We just keep working on it! He doesn't say any words yet but he jabbers all day long.

Heidi and I continue to be very busy with our business which is definitely a blessing. We had our best quarter yet this year during our busy Back to School season. We have a ton of new things in the works. I can't wait until Heidi lives 3 minutes away so that it's easier to do some of our work together! 

Jacob and I teach primary right now. Neil is too loud and distracting so we trade off with him. We have sharing time first and Jacob will go with the class for that. I teach the class every week. And we have Sacrament meeting last so we just take turns shuffling Neil! He is the worst at church and it's at the most awful time (1-4).

That's what's going on with the Stephensons!

The Beginning of Fall

Isaac loves to bake but I think he loves to lick the bowl at the end even more.

Sometimes you just can’t beat the view from our backyard.

Adam is playing flag football again and is enjoying having other boys from the ward on his team.

We took the kiddos to visit the Winter Quarters Cemetery on a Sunday afternoon after Stake Conference. Did you know that the cemetery was included as part of the temple's dedicatory prayer?

Isaac and Sarah may have been more interested in the acorns and chestnuts from the trees.

I love this father son moment, studying the plots.

Sarah and I have started a tradition of going out to eat before the Women’s Conference. She love going to Texas Roadhouse for steak.

Cute kids before the primary program.

Sarah and her new glasses. She was so cute the first day amazed on how clearly she could she. She kept saying, “Wow, I can see clearly now.”

There’s a cute pumpkin patch here in Omaha and it’s free to go there!!! The word is getting out about the patch so all the carving pumpkins were gone. But I got all these gourds, pie pumpkins, and milo for less then $5. The milk and cream buckets and crate came from the the Cottrell Family Farm in Wyoming from the “tank.”

Van Natter - SEPTEMBER

(Written 27 January 2015)The weather started turning cooler early in September - no complaints! Addie started back to Aunt Heidi's Yellow Kite Learning Center. Until her house was done in October they held it at Emily's.

We heard that the colors were changing early so John and I took a drive up to Snow Basin. Turned out the reports weren't very accurate. There was some color but not a lot.

John started painting the computer room. This meant emptying it entirely except for the computer, which he would cover with plastic when he needed to. The painting project took forevvvver! John is a perfectionist and was never happy with his work so he'd just keep repainting! It was after Thanksgiving before he was fed up enough to say it was done!!

I had this desk for most of our marriage (37+ years) and it was Dad's for as long as I can remember before that, but it was time to say goodbye. I'll be getting a new one. Lots of memories attached to this one. I kind of miss it, but I'm more excited about getting something new...soon!

Ian left for his 3 week European adventure on the 9th. He posted a bunch of photos here on the blog to illustrate all the amazing places he visited and sights he saw. He traveled with 2 girls, so he saw things that he might not have had he alone planned the trip! He sent this photo wearing a hat he bought in Sienna, Italy.

Linda and Mark made a visit to Utah, and I was invited to come to Annette's and sew for a couple of days. We made clothes for Zoey and had the best fun!

Annette fed us like Queens - she is amazing in the kitchen. We raved over every meal!

While there we went to the Hale to see Beau Jeste, which was delightful! And I went home with this adorable outfit for Zoey, as well as a Halloween witch costume, and a hiking outfit. We ran out of time to make Zoey! So Linda made her and sent her to us! So kind!

September 21st was the Ogden Temple re-dedication, which we attended in our Stake Center. It was really meaningful to John since he was at the first dedication in 1972. Looking at the new temple, it's hard to believe it's the same place! As soon as it was over, John had to leave for the airport and fly to St. Paul. While he was gone I emptied my pantry and corner pantry and reorganized both. The pantry will probably never be easy to use since I let them redo it during the remodel, but I put some large lazy susans in the back corners and things are more accessible now.

On the first day of Fall I pulled out my bear - I bought her in Galena, IL on a trip more than a decade ago. For some reason she really speaks FALL to me!

I picked Ian up at the airport and he wanted to stop at Emily's to give gifts to the little ones. Addie adores UncaIan.

He had this nativity shipped home from Austria for me!!

 

On the last Sunday of the month, John and I went looking for Fall colors again, with little luck. We even drove up to Park City where we saw a little orange at the higher altitudes, then over Guardsman Pass where we finally saw some golden Aspens.

Happy Fall ya'll!!

Ian - Europe 2014 (picture heavy)

Sept 9th & 10th - SLC - Paris - Switzerland

We left SLC at 5:00 on the 9th and landed in Paris on the 10th at around 11:00 am. We then boarded a train and headed straight to Bern, Switzerland for the night. A long train ride (6.5 hour or so). Luckily our train passes let us use the first class seats, which are great and come with a waiter so you don't have to walk the 200 feet to the restaurant car.
We made it through a few train changes and arrived in the Bern station. We pulled up the hotel on Google maps and had our first experience with how terrible it works in Europe. After wandering in circles we finally made it to our hotel. Google Maps really sucks in Europe.

Random photo from around Strasbourg

Weird chair in the hotel in Bern. It was highly uncomfortable

Strasbourg Station

View from the hotel in Bern

Sept 11th - Bern, Switzerland to Florence, Italy

Went to the temple first thing. Ran into a family from Idaho who were on our flight from SLC. The dad was Swiss and we talked in German for a long time before we both realised we spoke English. We then headed back to Bern and grabbed a train to Florence, Italy, which is a very dirty city.

View from the balcony of the hotel in Florence

View from the balcony of the hotel in Florence

View from the balcony of the hotel in Florence

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

 

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Swiss Countryside

Swiss Countryside

Italian Countryside (near Switzerland)

September 12th - Sienna, Italy

Headed to Sienna from Florence for a day trip.  I ended up buying a flat cap from a shop that makes the hats in the back room.