Yes, I realize that most of you were under the impression that our entire family entered the witness protection program a year and a half ago.  And yes, I realize that nobody reads this blog, but, here we are, nevertheless, giving the blogosphere another attempt.  And while we were not forced to change our identities, we did have an eventful year and for those of you interested, here is a very abbreviated update . . . the rest of you have our permission to give us a 10 second scan and get back to Christmas with your families.

Shortly after our last post the kids and I moved to Idaho just in time for the school year to start while Brent stayed behind in Salt Lake to finish his last semester of real classes at the U. This involved ALOT of driving back and forth for Brent and we were really glad when the semester was over.  After that Brent joined us in Idaho to finish up his thesis project working for the City of Idaho Falls doing some analysis in preparation for some massive changes to downtown.  All this time we were living with Ashley's parents and applying for HUNDREDS of jobs and wondering where we were going to end up when Brent graduated.

In May Brent graduated from the U with a Masters in City and Metropolitan Planning.  He did great and we are really proud of him!

The other big event of the spring was the addition of a new family member - nope not a new baby for us - just Shepherd (Shep) the golden retriever puppy who BTW potty-trained faster than any of our human children.
And clocking in at a solid 90 lbs now he looks like this most of the time.

You wouldn't know that he isn't even a year yet since he has the energy level of most geriatric dogs of 14 or 15, but he is great with the kids and lets them climb/lay all over  him and his favorite thing is to drop them off at school where he gets lots of loves from all the kids.

The summer included a trip to Minnesota to visit family and several trips to Yellowstone, since we were so close, and a trip to the state fair.

Lots and Lots of Buffalo

Siri loves hot pots

kids with their cousins in minnesota

yellowstone

kaise caught a big one

stopping for lunch on the gallatin river

the lake Brent's parents live on

Kaise and Siri at the fair with their faces painted

at the fair with the biggest cow on earth  - maybe

Brent is now managing the Construction Department of a restoration company here in IF and the very best part of this year was buying our house the day before Thanksgiving.  We have been settling in the last month and getting ready for Christmas.  Unfortunately we have been too busy unpacking to take pictures of the house yet so you have to make due with the realtor listing pic.

our new pad

The boys both contributed to Christmas by simultaneously losing all their front teeth and singing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" all month.

Kaise has been working hard at her riding and is now up to a good solid canter and getting ready for jumps.

Brigham turned eight this month and is loving cub scouts and is getting ready to be baptized in January and have his first pine wood derby.

Owen is loving Kindergarten and trying hard (or not so hard) to get along with his little sister.

Siri is three and making up for all her earlier lack of talking.  She also is truly obsessed with Diet Coke (please leave all parenting/nutrition/crazy comments below).

That is us in a nutshell. We are very grateful for all that we have been blessed with this year and we hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season.

We're Alive!!!

After a FIVE month hiatus from blogging here we are again. (I'm sure you are all sick of opening our blog page only to find that it's still the same old post about the cat). The winter semester was crazy for all of us so blogging, unfortunately, was way at the bottom of the priority list and then I guess it's taken us since May to just recover and get back on track. So here's the big update . . .

We survived another semester. Sometime late in April we had some pictures taken by a friend in our ward. (Check out Keala's photography site here). She did a great job and here they are for your viewing pleasure - better late than never.

The kids are glad to be out of school for the summer. The week after school got out we headed up to Idaho to spend time with family - the first time all of Ashley's family has been together in a few years. (Pictures to come). That trip included a baby shower for Sara and Jonathan who are expecting their first in September.

Brent is loving his new job the last few months. He has been managing the renovation of several neat homes mostly close by here in the Yalecrest neighborhood.

I am just trying to keep up with laundry - that's it - and when I do I feel pretty good about my day.

We had a fun 4th of July party with friends and family here at our church pavilion, which included HUGE hot dogs, root beer floats, and fireworks. And there you have it. Five months in a nutshell. I will try to post more pictures from this summer soon.

Missing Hattie

We are definitely animal people and every once in a while you just need to snuggle something fuzzy. On those days we really miss our cat, Hattie. She is the best cat and for a little while, until we are done living in our student apartment, she has been living with Grandma and Grandpa Tolman and Aunt Andrea and Alex. She is having a great time there bonding with Jem and Mandy (the dogs) and having the full run of the yard and house, but we still miss her a lot. Tonight we even went to the pet store pretending we were interested in buying something just so we could pet the dogs and cats. The kids are eagerly counting down the days until we can move back into a house and have Hattie back and maybe get a dog . . . until then I guess we'll go snuggle a guinea pig . . . which is pretty good too.

Sweet Valentines Day Gift

This is not what I am giving Brent for Valentines so it is safe to post. I just saw this on Esty. It is from Bear Graphics. You send them the coordinates of your special place. . . where you met, got engaged or married, or where you were born, etc. and they make it into a custom art letterpress print for you. Here is the link if you are looking for something for your hubby.

Sleigh Ride

Before we came up to Idaho for Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Tolman had met an older gentleman who lives just South of Rexburg who owns several draft horses, and he was nice enough to offer to take us all on a sleigh ride the day before Christmas Eve. He has a lovely farm on a fork of the Henry's River and he drove us all out along the river. We even saw some swans and a bald eagle. The two horses that drove us were ones he had brought home from Nauvoo after he and his wife served a mission there. We had a really great time and were so grateful to Mr. Olafson and his grandsons for taking us.

Christmas '10

I know Christmas was like two weeks ago, but we thought we'd share a few pics anyway. This year we went to Grandma and Grandpa Tolman's in Idaho Falls. We ended up staying a few days longer than planned because of the weather, but we all had a great time. The kids were lucky enough to get a quick visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve. Aunt Andrea made an awesome seafood stew for dinner. The kids read the nativity story with Grandma and opened their traditional Christmas Eve PJ's, then loaded up with toys and candy on Christmas morning. We all had a great Christmas.