Atlanta

Jared treated me to a special weekend, joining him at the Four Seasons for his Medgate Conference.  Don't worry I didn't attend anything at the conference accept for the delicious meals!  Jared was usually tied up for the day, and I spend a glorious week exploring Atlanta, GA.  What a GORGEOUS city.  I seriously loved it.  Humid, warm, green, history, amazing architecture and some seriously nice people.  We contemplated moving there each night as we took an after dinner walk around the neighborhoods with out jackets.  Glorious.

 The hotel

 A view from the Piedmont Park onto the city.

 A yummy seafood dinner at the amazing Atlantic City Fish Market.

Okay, so we forgot to take pictures pretty much the whole time so that is all we got.  During the days I got to see the Carter Museum with a special exhibit on George Washington Carver.  I knew next to nothing about Pres. Jimmy Carter and the museum was outstanding.  I learned so much.  I also got to visit the Georgia Aquarium.  Wow.  Biggest one in the world or states or something like that.  The dolphin show was not something to be missed.  While clearly for children the dolphins were so cool.  That was my first time having such close contact.  Now I am dieing to go on one of those cruises were one can swim with them, like Emily did.  They had a pool where you could pet baby sharks, a 4-D moving theater that was hilarious, and some increadible exhibits where fish, sharks, and other sea life were swimming above, below, and besides us.  Definitely a must if you visit.  But I wish I would have had Isla with me.  She really would have loved it.

Leah and Geoff kindly took care of Isla for us with help from their three little ones.  Here are a few shots from her stay.  I think she had a good time being the goofy little one she always is.  Thank you Leah and Geoff!

 

Couldn't  find your Binky Isla?

She is plenty comfortable at the Wrights I think.

New Home

A few shots of the empty clean new home before we got our painting on.  If not a bright color, the walls that appear white are actually a shade of rose pink; yes the whole house, pink.

Ready for your tour?

The front room

 Heading into the kitchen

 The dinning room with the porch leading to the back yard (family room down and to the right).

 Looking down into the family room.

 The laundry room/hallway and guest bathroom.

 To the right you enter my office.

 Upstairs hallway

 1st upstairs room that we are turning into Isla's room.

 2nd upstairs empty bedroom.

 Isla's upstairs bathroom.

I guess we forgot to take a picture of our bedroom and mini bathroom.  Just know it is another empty room with peachy orange walls.  Nice I know.

The basement is unfinished as well as the garage.  We hope to finish it this fall or maybe next year.  We'll see.

Found a home!

The first day back out (after a grueling week in November not finding any homes) we found a home in Sandy, UT!  We close at the end of January, which has launched furniture shopping.  This now consumes every weekend when Jared is home and some week days when he's not.  We have found some great stuff!

Some dinning room furniture?

And we are still deciding on which bed to get.  Isla clearly has her favorite.  What do you think? 

Full on 700 lb tree post bed or water bed.... or both?  Now there's an idea!

And something for the front room.

And finally a winner.

This has become a favorite toy and end table of ours.

Midvale Apartment

A few clips from the our time in the Midvale Apartment.  It was a great little spot for us to be (despite the midnight walkings from drunk arguing neighbors).  Really all and all, we were lucky to have the place for as long as we needed.  Thank you Barrick!

Nothing like some bed time reading in the nude on a comfy ball of yarn.

A favorite activity of Isla's in the apartment is climbing the toilets to get to the sink.  She is a total pro now, but this video is of her first time trying, which was too funny not to capture.

Christmas Parties

We had a wonderful time celebrating (for the last time) in Winnemucca at the Ward Christmas Party.  Isla had a particularly great time in the lime light leading the ward in a few celebration hymns.  The next few days we headed out with the moving trucks to Utah.  We stopped in Logan for a week to celebrate Christmas, where Isla decided when meeting Santa in that she prefers it to be on her own terms.  After Christmas we headed to Mapleton to party with the Wrights for New Years and then up to Midvale to start our temporary stay in some Midvale apartments until we found our home in Sandy, UT.
Here is a few clips from the Christmas parties and some darling pictures Leah took in Mapleton.

Thanksgiving

We spent a wonderful thanksgiving with the Watts in Logan this year.  We feel we have so much to be grateful for.  The most obvious and greatest blessing is of having two increadible ever growing families plus our own sweet little family.  We also just found out (blessing in disguise) that Jared has been asked to take a remarkable move in Barrick over to their head regional offices in SLC, UT managing the health (Industrial Hygiene) of not one, but of all the mines in North America.  These mines stretch from Canada down to the Dominican Republic.  Though we are so brokenhearted to leave our dear friends in Winnemucca, we are sure this move will be much better for our family in the long run.  This is a huge unexpected change for us, but we are welcoming it with open arms despite all the unknowns.   We are grateful for the time Barrick has given us in Winnemucca though. 

There was lots of creating involved this Thanksgiving.  

Like these sweet little edible turkeys we made with the kids.  Who doesn't love Reece's and Oreo's?

Lindsey also whipped out her amazing talent and gave little Isla her first haircut.  Though this has been a tradition for my mother to do, I think Lindsey did a great job filling in for my mother who is serving the Fijians with all her heart.  I was totally impressed with Lindsey's ability to not only cut, but cut well, the hair of a child who was busy trying to do anything but get her hair cut.

 I'll get your hair ready to be cut next Grammy.

And finally we worked on creating some cozy knit pieces.  I had a hat I was working on for my brother and Sadie was knitting up her very first infinity scarf.  Since being introduced to knitting by my aunt Jackie years ago and then being reintroduced by two dear friends Adriane and Amber, I have really taken a liking to this knew form of creating.  It started last year when I decided after looking for years to replace a favorite beanie Jared lost while we were dating, I decided I would just have to learn to knit myself and make the hat if I couldn't find it.  Thanks to the support of Adriane and Amber many a night calling them late and having them talk me through problems and stitches over the phone or letting me drop by for a personal lesson, I finally finished his hat.  Now, a year later, I am getting a little addicted.  Though I haven't spent a ton of time on projects I have loved the results of what has come out so far.  I will have to show pictures of finished projects later, when I snaps some.

 Concentrating...

 Got it!

Organizing

My mother tells stories of my obsession with organizing from a very young age.  Isla looks so much and acts so much like Jared that I start to wonder sometimes if she is my child at all (j/k).  These pictures will prove, according to my mother, Isla is, in fact, my child too.

*Please not the following pictures contain some bum:

Nothing like a little sorting in the buff...

I'll get that pan for you mom

What's that?  Baking powder?  Sure let me grab that for you.

 Jared and I were cleaning house and walked into the dinning room to find this...