Snow days

I know I have not posted for over a month but would not like to bore anyone with details so I will try to give a short recap of our holidays and a few pictures and stuff, but if you want to see all of them look on Facebook (it is so much easier to upload pictures there than here).

We spent Thanksgiving in Farmington, NM at my Uncle Greg Kempton's house. I hadn't been there for about 5 years since my Granddad died and Barrett had never been there so it was a fun little trip. It was a beautiful week and only took about 5 hours to get there. We stayed at my uncle's house but visited my Granddad's house so I could show Barrett where so many memories from my childhood occured. My cousin Nathan is living there with his family right now. It was so fun to push Anna on the old tire swing and show them the apple orchard and the river and my Granddad's huge shop....anyway it was a fun time. We were so glad to be able to be with family for the holiday!

Barrett only had about two weeks of school left after Thanksgiving and it went by so fast! We got the first big snow storm of the winter during finals week, so Barrett was finished with school by the 9th of December. We couldn't believe how the university and the whole town shuts down when they have snowstorms! That never happens in Idaho!





As I mentioned in the last post we went to the 20 week ultrasound the day before we left for Idaho and everything looks great! We are excited to welcome a little boy into our family. Since we spent a month in Idaho I won't go into great detail on everything we did there. We mostly stayed with my family and had fun just spending time with them. Both of our whole families were able to be there for Christmas this year, so we did LOTS of family stuff and loved it. It was so fun to see Anna interact with her cousins. She sure loved being around so many people and getting so much attention! We ate out at all the local restaurants we've been missing and went bowling and to a movie and ice skating with family. It was really just a fun month of relaxing and focusing on what is important in life: our families! We are so blessed to have wonderful families who have taught us the gospel and so many other things.

Anna's cheeser smile

She loved the babies she got for Christmas

Cousins!

We were able to visit a few friends and old neighbors while we were in Rexburg as well. It is always good to see you guys! It was so nice to be able to go to the temple several times as well. We had plenty of babysitters! I miss having a temple so close. It was really neat to attend with family members as well. Also, we were able to go when my good friend Summer Mortenson and her husband Mark went through the temple. I'm so happy for them!!

We came back to Flagstaff on the 7th of January and have been trying to get back into the swing of things since then. Barrett is enjoying school and staying busy. We had huge snowstorms here last week though and got 54" of snow so Barrett was out of class most of the week. It was fun to spend time at home as a family! I also got lots of sewing done! I am making receiving blankets for the new baby and I also made a nice silky one for him and Anna since she has been sleeping with my 24 year old baby blanket! It was a challenge, but they look nice and I learned a lot!

I love that sweet face!

Lots and lots of snow!

Anna has grown up so much in the past month. She speaks in long sentences and sings full songs all day long. Her favorites are twinkle twinkle, I am a child of God, rock-a-bye baby, the alphabet, and the theme song from her favorite movie Milo and Otis. (She seriously watches that movie every day and never gets tired of it). I am just amazed at how quickly she learns things and speaks them. She is really good at saying "I want some more" and "Anna need a drink". She always talks in the third person and it cracks me up. It is so nice to be able to talk to her directly and ask her what she wants and needs and she can just tell us! She really is such a joy and I thank the Lord every day for the opportunity to be a mother.