Loads of Photos

So I don't know what I did, but whatever I did worked and now iPhoto is back in business and so is the blog....

Lets start with August...

We went up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to visit my family and had a little family reunion, which even included an RV in my parents driveway so everyone could stay together...it was classy. While we were there Ava got to practice a little golf with grandpa and the cousins at the Country Club. Can I tell you how much I love this picture of her walking down the fairway and spilling clubs out of her bag and having no clue. I love it!

Then she ventured on to improve other athletic abilities and tried her hand at soccer. She liked it, sometimes. She liked that her best friend was on the same team. I don't know if she will play again next year, but it was fun to see her games.

We welcomed two new girls to the family...

Zoey and Cocoa joined us when they were 6 weeks old.

They WERE so cute...and then they grew up :)

Because of our new puppies, we had to buy all this wood and turn it into something that resembled a fence.

It was touch and go there for a while, but thanks to Ava and Viv we got through the giant rock that is our lawn and managed a fence.

Zoey didn't understand what was going on and why in the world we didn't trust her enough to not run away.It took a while, start to almost finish (we were short 8 boards and so still have to finish it :) Some of those days it was COLD....This is me...looking cold, and proving that I was there to help, kind of :) The further and further along I got in my pregnancy the less I did and by the end I was basically just leveling things and holding up boards. I was more of a moral support...

I was also designated camera girl...Here's my handsome hubby.

Who happened to dig up this small boulder while trying to place a post in the ground. It was fun
And towards the end of it all he was pretty happy it was done!
And while we are on the subject of my handsome hubby...or home improvement, here's Riley tilling up our sad excuse for a lawn.And installing a new electrical outlet so we could instal our above the range microwave.
Riley's done a lot of work around here and I love that he isn't afraid to just give something a try. There are bumps along the way, but it all gets done, somehow!

This little one turned 2!
And got her first real bike!
Ava made a trip to the pumpkin patch with her preschool class and Vivi and I tagged along.

Then a bunch of the cousins went to Jason and Teresa's house to Celebrate Halloween. They even had a cool fog machine going..

Riley and I were lookin good!

For Thanksgiving we got to spend time with 5 generations of family!
Great, Great Grandma Evelyn
Great Grandpa Steve
Grandma Heidi
Riley (the dad :)
And Ava and Viv.

All the handsome Crebs' boys

In the mean time the puppies were growing...

and growing...

And growing...

Ava really loves the dogs. I just wish they would stop eating and pooping, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Zoey likes to protect the girls, even at bath time.

Aunt Teresa got some Disney on Ice tickets from work and we partied it up downtown.

This child transformed from
Sweet and Innocent to...

Gormagon
(the serial killer who happens to also be a cannibal from Bones)

She has a biting problem, as of late, and Ava is the poor recipient of the damage. Here's the first one, right on the back of her arm. She's now sporting on that makes this one look like a little pinch. It is bruised and has scabbed over teeth marks....Poor Ava.

She still prefers chocolate to flesh, so there's hope.

We went to Thanksgiving Point for the corn maze and Ava got her face painted.

And went on a hay ride with Aunt Teresa and Uncle Jason

There were forts made, and movies watched...

And it even snowed once!

Then my baby grew up! She desperately wanted her ears pierced for her 5th birthday.

BEFORE:

AFTER:
She was thrilled!
Then she got to open some presents and she makes the best faces. I love it!
She got Prince Nicolas and Blair from Princess Charm School. She loved it! Her Preschool had a little Christmas program.
Here's Ava with her friends Dewie and Czarina.

And her preschool teacher Miss Dena. We love her!

We put up a tree....
And dressed up with sparkles and everything.
And we also fit in Zoo Lights in there somewhere too...And I'm officially caught up with Blogging...Few!
Now to start a New Year!

Rewind!

So because I was such a horrible blogger in 2011, I thought that I would do a little overview. This year has been so amazing, and we have learned SO MUCH! Ever since graduating in April, things have been crazy! I always thought that once we "settled down" and were out of school things would be so smooth...HA. I have a lot to learn about "real life."

So we bought our first house. It was a great deal, maybe too good of a deal :). It is about 15 minutes from any kind of town, and store, but we thought we would give the country a try. It hasn't been bad, except that since moving in, everything in this house has died! We have bought all new appliances, including a washer and dryer. Our TV died, our vacuum died...It was amazing. I didn't think everything could just quit on you all at once :) It was just one thing after another, so we haven't been able to save much money at all, besides Riley's 401K. We still have a lot of work to do on this house as well.

Things were feeling a bit more "stretched" than we liked. We were going into the holiday season hoping for a Christmas bonus to give us a little more "padding" especially with a new baby coming and having to buy a bigger car this spring. Well we got a bonus, just not a monetary one :)

On December 8th Riley called me from work, which was weird, normally he just texts me, so I knew it was something important. He told me they laid him off and he was coming home. I was in shock. This company who had recruited him so heavily this summer was now laying people off? I was sad, scared, mad for us and for the other engineers who were without jobs right before Christmas. They were paying him through the end of the month, but who hires during Christmas time? I thought we would be dead. Things were tight, and now this.

Riley didn't leave the computer for like 2 whole days. Contacting anyone and everyone he knew or who had contacted him about jobs. We put the house up for sale immediately. All his other job offers when we graduated were in Seattle, San Jose, Baltimore, Portland, etc. We thought we would have to prepare for a cross country move.

Then 2 days after losing his job, he had another offer that he could do from home. It wasn't what he really wanted to do, but it was a job at least until he found something permanent. They wanted him to start ASAP and were going to pay him what he was making before, and while it wasn't ideal, it was a great band aid.

Then the calls started coming. Miracles were happening all around us. There was still a bit of uncertainty, but we weren't scared. We knew things would work out. He ended up taking a job here in Utah that we think will be a good one (we thought that about the first one though :) We went from having no job to having to pick between jobs again. It was an amazing week, and made us think so much about the true meaning of Christmas and the miracles that happen daily.

Riley starts his new job today. So it's like we didn't miss a beat. He just got a nice, long, paid Christmas Vacation :) What a blessing to have time to be together. We really enjoyed being together and spending time with family.

The house is still on the market. There is supposedly an offer coming in this month after they save up a bit more money. We really have enjoyed our time out in the Cedar Valley, but we feel like moving closer to town and making wiser decisions about paying a bit more, but not having so much fixing up to do would be a better decision in the long run. So the house hunting has begun...again :)

We will see what happens, and have learned a lot from the decisions we have made this year. We made decisions that we thought were the best, and given the chance, we would have made them again. Life isn't always what you plan, but it is what you need.