Holiday's and Family....

It has been a long time so I wanted to post some new pics and write some updates on what's been going on the last year. Back in July we traveled to Utah for our family vacation and it was soo great seeing everyone. Brayden told us that he wanted to wait until we were in Utah to get baptized so we planned it and Dathan baptized Brayden on July 2, 2011 at my mom and dad's church up in Washington Terrace. It was so fun having our whole families there for his big day and he was grinning from ear to ear when he came up out of the water. I am so proud of him and his decision to be baptized into the church. My parents got him a brand new set of scriptures with his name engraved into them for his birthday/baptism and he thought that was the coolest thing ever. He takes extra special care of them and makes sure to bring them to church every Sunday. He is setting such a good example for Haylie and Kamryn and they just adore him.
While in Utah we had a few family get togethers planned and we were busy from the minute we set foot off the plane to the time we got back on the plane almost 2 weeks later. We loved our visit with family and we hope to go back again soon. Here are some pictures of our fun adventures with everyone:



In October my parents decided to surprise us with a visit so while they were here we decided to check out Salem, MA because it is supposed to be pretty cool and decked out with witches and goblins. We also went up to Joseph Smith's birthplace up in Sharon, VT and watched a movie about Joseph Smith. We hung out and watched scary movies. It was soo much fun having them here.
We had a freak snow storm on the night of our trunk or treat at church. The weather had been so great up until that point that we still had a ton of leaves still on the trees and the fall colors were blooming everywhere. Then when the storm hit the snow dropped so fast and so much that it stuck to the leaves and caused branches to snap off and trees to break in half. Everywhere in our area was out of power. Power lines were down from branches and trees and the power company was working around the clock to try and get our power restored. We were out of power for 5 days and boy was that an experience. We have a well for our water so our water is ran off of a pump so when the power goes out that means no water or power. 2 days into the outage we decided we needed to find a generator and fast because all the food in our fridge and deep freezer was going to start going bad. We called around to every Sams Club, Home Depot, Lowes and any other places we could think of in a 100 mile radius and no one had a generator anywhere. We were sitting bundled up in blankets around our kerosene heater and Dathan had an idea come to him that maybe Cabela's would have them since they sell different things like that. We called up to Scarborough Maine and they said they had some in stock. We were sooo excited, we loaded the kids in the car and went on our almost hour and a half car ride to get our generator.
When we got home we were able to plug in our fridge and our pellet stove on our fireplace into it. Heat and food again, we were soo excited. In those days we would go on car trips and charge up our cell phones and portable DVD players so the kids could watch a few movies. Our awesome friends would let us fill up our water jugs at their house so we could have water to cook and heat up on our coleman stove to allow us to bathe us and the kids. This was sure an experience for us so I have decided to make it my goal for this year to try and get my food storage stocked up better so if that were to ever happen again we will be ok.
In November we had a great Thanksgiving with Amanda and Craig and their cute family and we also invited our friends that didn't have any family around to be with us to so we had a full house and we loved it. Dathan fried the turkey in his turkey fryer and it turned out awesome of course, everything Dathan makes is always perfect. Dinner was awesome and dessert was fantastic. We had 6 different pies to pick from. All in all it was an awesome holiday.
December came and the countdown for Grandma and Grandpa to come began. Dathan's parents decided to come and spend Christmas in New England this year and we and the kids were sooooo excited. Every day I would here how many days until they come. So when the kids would open a day from their advent calendars I told them when they hit day 21 that would be the day that Grandma and Grandpa would be here. The day finally came and they were jumping up and down and soo excited. It was so great to have family stay with us. I think when I lived in Utah I took family for granted. Now that we are out here by ourselves family means so much more to us now. We hung out and shopped and watched movies and played. Christmas morning we all got up and got ready for church. Sacrament meeting was soooo great and the music was awesome. Afterwards we went home and had our tradition of breakfast burritos. Once breakfast was done we all headed into the front room to open presents. It was soo much fun and we were so glad we were able to spend and share it with Reynold and Vicki. We love you guys...

The day after Christmas they traveled up to Maine to visit with Amanda and Craig for the rest of their trip. A few days later we got a text from Amanda asking if we wanted to come up and spend New Years with them and their parents. We drove up and spent Friday and Saturday nights at their house. Sunday morning came and it was time to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. The kids were so sad to see them leave and everyone got a little teary eyed and emotional. I just want to say thanks again to Dathan's parents and Amanda and Craig for an awesome Christmas and New Years.

Now it is January and we are looking forward to all this year has to bring. Oh and by the way we are expecting another baby in July. Talk about a fun year ahead.

I will try to post more as stuff comes so it won't be so long next time... Happy New Year everyone and we are excited for what's to come....