Fun at the old Snow Fort

Logan and Ashton got to have a camping trip (sleep over) at Grandma Lu and Grandpa Chris's house on Friday night. They were really excited to try out their new sleeping bags and flashlights that they got for Christmas.

In the morning they made (Chris made) an awsome Snow Fort in the back yard. Logan was a little nervous that it would cave in, but Ashton was fearless. They all had a really good time until boring mom came and picked them up. I am so thankful for wonderful grandparents who will play in the really cold snow so I don't have to!

Merry Merry Christmas

Once again the highlight of my year was Christmas. There is just something about the glow of the lights on the tree and the anticipation of gifts to make you feel like a kid again.

And once again we were abundatly blessed with many gifts under the tree and many excited faces. Logan was excited about the Nerf gun Wii game that he received. Ashton wasn't sure about the Gorilla Mountain animal set that he got, but since then he and Maren have spend a lot of time playing with it. Ashton has also enjoyed the Dora Wii game that he got.

Maren must have wished for a cleaner house since she received a toy broom, mop and vacuum. You can find her busy around the house trying to carry them all in her arms.

After our family Christmas we headed off to my parents (all of next door) for breakfast and more presents. The boys were more than excited to open Ninendo DS game systems (but I must admit that I have been playing them too). Maren received a Little Mermaid ride on that she really enjoys.

Ryan and I also enjoyed opening our gifts of towels and rugs, video games, gift certificates to restuarants for dates (something we really need after all the stress of the house), calendar, and books.

The best gift, I think, was the Japanese outfits that my parents brought back for the kids from their trip. My uncle had brought back me a Japanese outfit from his mission when I was much younger, and so it reminded me of that. The kids were so cute.

After all the festivities, we went home for a long winter's nap. The only down side was that Ryan had to go to work that night. But we are extremely grateful for his job, especially at this time, so we won't complain too much.

The kids never have enough time to play with their toys on Christmas, so they have enjoyed the Christmas break. It has been fun playing their games, watching their shows, and playing with the toys they got for Christmas.

Wells Family Christmas

Due to crazy schedules, we usually have Christmas with Ryan's family before Christmas. This year we had it on the evening of the 23rd. We had it at our house since there is more room. We had a nice dinner that Lu prepared and then we exchanged gifts. I am always amazed at the thoughtfulness of Ryan's family in coming up with gifts for our children. Logan got a chess board. Logan has taken up chess this past year and will play anybody who will play with him repeatedly until they tell him they can't play anymore. Ashton received a scooter. He had one that was too small, so now he will be able to keep up with Logan as they zoom around the block. Maren really liked the fish book that she received. She makes us read it to her often. I am greatly blessed to be part of such a great family.
Logan also received a fishing pole from his grandparents. This is his dance of joy after getting it.

Unexpected visitor

We had a very unexpected visitor come today. Santa Claus came bursting through our door about 8:00 p.m. He had reindeer antlers and blinking red noses for the children to put on. Then we all sang "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer." Maren was so excited and Ashton was a little star struck. Logan thought he looked ridiculous but didn't want to offend Santa.

After singing, we each got a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him our last minute wishes for Christmas. Ashton told him that he didn't need anything else but me for Christmas. How sweet! Logan went on about getting another Wii (we already have one) and some Bakugan stuff. Santa said that he would have to see about that.

I wished for a clean house or something like that and Ryan wished for tools (he actually didn't get any tools for Christmas, he must have been bad this year). Maren didn't wish for anything, but got a candy cane and that was the best gift he could have given her.

We all had a great time and when Santa had to leave we all watched out the back door to see if we could see his sleigh and reindeer fly off. We must have missed him, but hopefully we will catch him next year.

Logan's Baptism

We had an amazing day today. Logan decided to be baptized a member of the Church. We were so proud of his decision and were excited for this event in his life.
What we didn't expect was the overwhelming showing of support that we were shown. Not only did Logan have many family members there, he had many of his friends there.



Logan took the pre-baptism lessons from the Hooten's in our ward and Bishop Brock did his interview. His birthday is in September, but we waited until now because my parents were out of town on their cruise and because Colby and Emily were in town for Thanksgiving.

Before his baptism my dad (Grandpa Zobell) gave a great talk about baptism. After him, Grandma Lu gave a very personal talk about the Holy Ghost. She compared it to the light of the camping fires that we light when we go camping with them.

Next, Ryan performed the baptism. Logan was a little scared of the water, but he did great. Ryan also confirmed Logan and gave him the Holy Ghost. It was a very sacred day and one full of the spirit (at least when Maren wasn't screaming).

After the baptism we had everybody over to our new house for a little luncheon. Since we had only moved in a week before, not everything was put away, but enough to have the party. It was a great day and one we will remember forever!

Fun with Leaves

I just couldn't resist taking pictures of my kids (and their friend) playing in the last leaves of the season.

We're So Close

This has been an exciting week. Our first final inspection was Monday and our second final inspection was Thursday. The inspector found one plug he didn't like but passed us anyway with the understanding that we would fix the plug (which we did). So YEAH!!!!! NO MORE INSPECTIONS!!!!!

We did have a little set back though. Our master vanity countertop was all scratched up, so we asked the company to come back and buff out the scratches. They told us that it doesn't really buff out. So we were back to having problems with the vanity, so we decided just to get our money back. The company, Whitewater, will leave the vanity countertop in until we get our new one, so we will have something there, but we won't have our bathroom finished for another couple of weeks. Sigh! We had put a lot of our furniture in a POD to store it while we moved out. We had the POD delivered on Friday, and we unloaded it on Saturday. We also made several trips from the storage unit to move it into the house. I can't believe or remember that we had that much junk, I mean valuable possessions.


I will be setting up house for the next couple of weeks before we actually move in. Thanks to all of those who helped move us and helped clean the house so that we could move our stuff in. We have received so much love and support from our families.

Just plain wrong

I know that it is November, but don't you think that snow so early is just wrong.

Getting closer, I think

We had our first final inspection on Monday. Yeah!! I thought that it would never come. There were a few things (mostly things we knew about) that they wanted us to finish or change, but not too bad. They call it the final inspection, but you keep having final inspections until you pass. We will be having our second final inspection on Thursday.

I haven't had a lot of time to blog, but we did get our new carpet. My cousin Brad, who works for a carpet company and who sold us the carpet, was a life saver. He found us some carpet and had it shipped from Georgia. We got it installed on Friday and Saturday. It looks beautiful. There is just something about carpet to make a house a home.

We also got our shower door for our master bathroom. The rest of the bathroom stuff that we had to work through will be there on Thursday.

Our backsplash for our kitchen just got finished too. I can't wait to use my new kitchen. Most of the appliances are in and installed. We even have ice in the ice maker. It turned out really nice.


But with all good progress there have been a few set backs. The guy installing all of the door knobs was just working away when I realized that they were the wrong color. You can only image that he wasn't very happy. They had installed a couple of door knobs a couple of weeks ago (so we could use the restrooms) and they were right, but the new ones they sent were darker. So he had to take all the wrong ones off, repackage them, and then install the right ones. It has taken him 3 days.

Also, I was cleaning my new ovens and following the "do this before you use" instructions, when I found out that one of my ovens isn't convection. I thought both of them were, so I called the company and I guess my salesperson was new and didn't know. So they are going to ship me out a new one. Of course for a higher price. So this is a picture of the ovens that won't be in my house.

I almost forgot that we also got our handrails. They really give the house personality. I like them. The deck is coming. Slowly but surely. They have until tomorrow to finish. So we will keep our fingers crossed.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year.
First we went to the elementary for the Halloween parade. My mother-in-law, Lu, came with me. It was so much fun to see everyone in their costumes.


Next, Lu watched Maren while I volunteered in Ashton's kindergarten class for his Halloween party. They had root beer with dry ice. All of the kids thought it was so cool.

Later, we had my family over for pizza (a long time family tradition). We took pictures of the cousins in their costumes.

Then our neighborhood had a Trunk-or-treat at the church, where kids could go from car to car getting candy. I stayed at the van and gave out over 300 pieces of candy and there were still more kids that I had to turn away. Crazy huh. Ryan and Lu took the kids around and filled their bags.

Logan and Ashton are pretty good about rationing their candy, but Maren could eat her candy all day long.

It was good to have a fun day in the midst of all the chaos in our lives.

Maren's Birthday

We were planning on having Maren's birthday party at our new house. But since we had problems getting our carpet in, we had it at my parent's house.

It was a nice party and we are thankful for so many family members that came to support us.

Abundantly Stressed

These last couple of weeks have been very stressful.

Our bathroom countertops came in the wrong color and since their printer they use to create the countertops is broken, there is nothing that they can do about it. We have been fighting with them on what they can do for us. I have had to talk to 5 different people and finally the manager had to come out.

Next we got our carpet. Exciting huh. Well when they tried to make seams, they found out that the color was not consistant and the seams stuck out badly. So they had to stop. All three rolls of carpet were bad. I had really had it by this time that I had to sit down and cry.

Next our cabinet panels, which we had ordered for the third time, came in. I was so excited to have the cabinets finally done after working with these people for a month and a half. Well, when the panels came in, they were the wrong color again. So they have had to order them again for the 4th time. I just had to laugh by this point.

Next, we needed a deck before our final inspection. The bids that we got for decks were much higher than we wanted (after waiting 3 weeks for a bid). So we decided that Ryan would build our deck. After 3 days of slow progress and wanting to get in as soon as we can, we opted to have some other guys finish the deck.

Finally, I called Qwest so that they could put in my phone line and they told me that I needed to dig a trench so that they could put in the phone line. They told me that I needed to contact my contractor because they should know this. Well, since I am the contractor, and I didn't know this, I will have to figure out something.


This was on top of railing people, alarm, heating and air-conditioning people, and my ever trusted Rick that has been doing electicity, tile, painting, and plumbing.

By the way, DON'T EVER BUILD YOUR OWN HOUSE. I'm sure I'll feel differently later, but it is a lot of stress!!!!

Abundantly Blessed

This week I have been extremely blessed. Last weekend we were able to watch conference. Usually my kids won't let me really watch, but this time they did. In fact Maren watched most of it with me. What wonderful messages of hope and faith were given to help us in these trying times.

We were also blessed with an addition to our family. Kristy Wells, Ryan's step sister, had her baby, Wesley Glen Wells, on Sunday October 5th. He was 8 lbs and 8 oz and 21 inches long. He is a beautiful baby and a welcome new member of the family.


Our house made so much progress this week as well. We had the concrete poured including our front steps. YEAH!!! I have been jumping up to our porch for 7 months now and I'm so excited for real steps.



We also got in our bathroom sinks and window seals. They look great! We also got toilets in on Friday. Yeah again!! Tuesday they will come fix a few things in the bathrooms and then after that, my bathrooms will be all finished. No more port-a-potty!

They also finished the tile in the basement kitchen and finished up the built in hutch. Everything turned out so nice. We also got the hanging bar stools put installed. They turned out really well.



I did manage to have a little fun this week when I got to visit my friend Tammy who just moved back. It was fun taking our kids to the park and just talk. Tam, I'm so glad your so close.

Last but not least, I gave my first Relief Society lesson today since I got the calling. Everything went so well. It was poignant that so there were many talks during conference about trials and that was what my lesson was on. I am grateful for my opportunity to teach.