First Visit

On December 27th Nana, Papa, and Ashlee arrived after a three day journey due to bad weather. They were our first visitors to our "new house". They brought our car and Ashlee's car. Ashlee was on her way out to California where she'll spend the next few months interning with the Falling Whistles organization. We had pretty much finished unpacking and were hanging some pictures as they arrived!

On Monday afternoon we took them to have some Aggie Ice Cream, then we went driving out Logan Canyon and decided to drive on out to Bear Lake (about 40 min. away).

We had no idea how beautiful it would be and it is surrounded by mountains!

Yeah for camera timers again! (Elizabeth was in the car right beside us - it was way cold!)

Thank you Mama and Papaw for the tent! Papa thanks you too, he's in it with Madilynn and Elizabeth!

Nana and Elizabeth

Papa and Ashlee left out today headed for warm California. Nana and I leave tomorrow flying to Arkansas. I'm in a wedding there this weekend. That means Daddy will have the girls all to himself this weekend!!

Christmas in the Mountains

Christmas Eve morning we ate breakfast at the table! Then started unpacking more!

Elizabeth enjoying all the extra counter space!
Madilynn "hiding" in her corner with all of her stuff

Christmas Eve dinner

Madilynn and Elizabeth after Christmas Eve service at church. We went to a Baptist church that is less than a mile from our house where we sang some traditional Christmas songs and listened to the reading of scripture.

After the girls went to bed, I got to work and put up some minimal Christmas decorations...our stockings

and our little tree

Christmas morning Madilynn woke up and came into our room. Daddy said, "Madilynn I need your help", she said, "What", and Daddy said, "Can you help me find a Christmas tree?" and she immediately started looking in our room! So we followed her down the hall and into the living room and she said, "There it is!"

Daddy went and got Elizabeth up, she's still waking up!

Madilynn opening Elizabeth's present for her, she's watching closely...

I think she likes it! It's a photo album toy!

Madilynn opening her present...Memory game

Mommy and Elizabeth by the tree

the girls!

Yeah for camera timers! We were able to get a picture of the 4 of us with the tree (in one try!)

Then we got to cookin' breakfast, Biscuits & Gravy, bacon, eggs and sausage, yummy!!

Elizabeth thinks she wants a bite, she has started staring at our food when we eat!

Daddy and Madilynn playing a little game of Memory, while Mommy cooks a chocolate pie!

Looking out our kitchen window - see the buck

Daddy took us for a drive around Logan, and through Logan canyon...into the Cache National Forest

going east...

heading west back into Logan - see the mountains off in the distance

For Christmas dinner we had round steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits, and chocolate pie for dessert - yum yum!!

We worked in the downstairs playroom tonight and got all the toys organized. Elizabeth enjoyed her activity center for the first time!

Moving...Part 4

This morning waiting on the truck to arrive. We caught Madilynn playing dress-up in her closet.

Madilynn helping us clean
Madilynn and Elizabeth hanging out

The truck arrived at about 12:30pm. It took a little while for the truck to get into the right spot for unloading into the driveway. Several people from Michael's dept. at USU showed up to help unload along with some neighbor's who just showed up and started carrying in boxes. Everyone was so eager to help!

The boxes rolled in quickly and filled up all the open space! They were done unloading by about 3 and we checked inventory and signed off with the driver and they were gone by about 3:30pm.

Madilynn and Elizabeth staying entertained during the unloading process.

Living room filled with boxes.

Now for the fun part...unpacking!

First 2 Days in Logan

Our first day in Logan we spent the morning at the house getting started on cleaning and I made a quick trip to Wal-Mart for some essentials such as toilet paper and more cleaning supplies. When Madilynn looked in the refrigerator she said, "There's no cheese!" I guess she thought that was all we'd need! Ha! We worked until noon and then got out for lunch at Chili's and then we went to the University to meet everyone at the office and see Michael's office and classrooms. Madilynn enjoyed meeting everyone and she always had to have a chair to sit in too! After that we went to try Aggie Ice Cream which is on USU campus made by the Food Science department. It was so good! I got Cookie Dough, Michael had Chocolate English Toffee, and Madilynn got Chocolate Cookie such a fun treat! A place I'm sure we'll visit often!!

While we were cleaning here's what we spotted out our dining room window...a mule deer

Four of them to be exact! They're looking at us too!
We ended the day by ordering pizza and then giving the girls baths.
We all slept pretty good our first night in the house...here's Madilynn this morning enjoying her pop tart (a treat, we don't normally have around). She has to sit up on the bar ledge since we don't have chairs yet...this is what she tells me.

Elizabeth woke up happy this morning too...

Got some light snow today, here's Madilynn watching it out the window (so light you can't really see it in the picture!)

We went to Wal-Mart again today (twice - I told Michael we'd probably be going once a day until we get settled). This morning we went ahead and stocked up on some groceries, since all of our "stuff" will be here tomorrow. While we were there Madilynn asked for cookies so we bought some to bake (and a cookie sheet and spatula!)
yum! They were so good!

Then we spotted some mallard ducks out on the river

It has been fun camping out in the house and just getting everything set up.
Daddy and Elizabeth hanging out

And, here's what it's like camping out in our house. We'll take you on a little tour, lets play find Madilynn...

Elizabeth's room

bathroom

Madilynn's room

our room

We're having a great time! We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of the big truck we've been telling Madilynn about that is bringing all of our stuff and her toys to our house. It'll be here tomorrow and then we can really "move in". So more pics to come!