Our Crazy Lives

December

What a busy and fun month.

On December 5th Spencer turned 14. We had a combined Birthday celebration for Spencer, Derrick (Dec 3rd) and Dad whose birthday was on December 7th.

A week later Ryan ordained Spencer to the office of a teacher.

It's so great to have two very supportive and wonderful examples for Grandpas.

Spencer is a great kid and we're so happy we have him.

For the next few weeks we spent much of our time making neighbor gifts, buying cousins and sibling gifts and attending many performances.

Clogging Performance

Spencer's Choir Performance

Zack and Milly's school Christmas Program.

A few weeks later Amy and Scott and the kids came to town. We had so much fun playing and enjoying their company.

On Christmas Eve Mom hosted a huge Wood/Dalebout party. We enjoyed a lot of great food and especially company. We had the traditional talent program and most importantly the Nativity.

I love having Christmas on Sunday. The next morning after Santa Claus had arrive, we woke up early and opened presents and then headed over to the Church for a Christmas Sacrament meeting Program. The program was so neat and it felt like we really focused on the Savior instead of just presents that morning.

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve in their traditional Christmas Eve jammies.

Christmas Morning. We allowed Lyla to sleep in:)

Milly got a Nintendo DS.

Ali got a Kindle--Surprise surprise--now we see her even less then we did before.

Spencer and Zack got a PS3 and a couple of games.

And Lyla got a bing bag, some books and an orange.

Later that day we spent time with the Kimballs and Mom and Dad eating food and playing lots of fun games.

We partied for the rest of the week--ice skating, playing on a ropes course, attending basketball games, going to the movies, playing games, and eating lots and lots of yummy food. We also got to celebrate Ashlynn's Birthday at Brick Oven.

Ryan and I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary amongst all the fun by going to the dinner and to a movie. Still the best decision I have ever made:)

We were so pleased to have Grandpa Dalebout with us during the week after christmas as well.

 

After the Kimballs left, all the Wood boys were able to attend the Jazz Game and the Wood girls went to the movies.

On New Year's Eve Day we attended the Roger's Family Christmas Party. The following Monday we had a delicious 2nd Thanksgiving dinner made by Geri. All the food was good, but the sweet potatoe "dessert"  was to die for.

One of the neatest parts of the month was when we were able to take Aaltje Dalebout Hanse and Maarten Hanse and their ten children's names to the temple and have them sealed. Aaltje is my Grandpa Dalebout's Aunt, and the Grandmother of Ton Hanse. It has been an incredible experience working with Ton to make this happen and it was a very neat experience.

It was so neat to have Mom and Dad home from their mission, Scott and Amy here from Kansas and especially Grandpa Dalebout who has worked so hard to try to bring his family from the Netherlands to the Gospel. What a special day.

On New Years Eve we enjoyed spendiing time with our great friends from Springville, the Hyers. They are like our family!

What a great month. Happy New Year.

We moved out just in time... Welcome Home Mom and Dad

Six days before Mom and Dad came home from their mission, we moved out of their house and into our new house in American Fork. Hallelujuah!

Two big and very exciting things. 

First the house, here are some pictures...

Isn't it cute? I wish you could see the darling red door. Ryan jokes that if the whole house burned down but my red door stayed standing, I would still be happy:)

Excuse the mess, but besides the red door, this is one of my favorite parts--a cubby for each child to put their coats, jackets, backpack and shoes.

This is the kitchen/great room.

The loft.

And the family room downstairs.

We got moved it and Mom and Dad's house cleaned just in time for them to arrive home. We have missed them tremendously and are so happy they are home. We spent the day at their homecoming and afterwards at their house with family and friends.

It's been a great couple of weeks!

Fall

I love fall: Birthdays, Hiking, Halloween, soccer and football! We've enjoyed it all this year.

Ryan showing Travis some birthday affection--he loves it, can't you tell? Happy 40th Travis and Happy 37th Ryan.

I cannot remember a more beautiful fall in Utah--ever! 

This is up Rock Canyon.

We hiked Stewart Falls with our good friends the Mortensens and then had a barbeque back in the good old Springville neighborhood.

BYU Football! What is fall without BYU football?

One of the highlights for me was taking the family up to Logan to see Grandpa Dalebout. We got to have lunch with him where he lives and then we took him to the Pumpkin Walk--Aunt Dedee is in charge of this event in Logan and she does an amazing job. 

These were some of the kid's favorite displays. Of course, Aunt Dedee's was the very best though...

 

Her display was on the movie, A Christmas Story. These pictures don't do it justice! It was awesome. The kids informed her that they had never seen the movie, so that night before bed, she sat down and watched it with us. The kids had a much greater appreciation for her display after watching:)

And of course, our annual Halloween party at Grandma Geri's house. Spencer was the big ugly gorilla in the back, Zack was Frodo the hobbit, Ali was Aunt Amy in the 80's (she kept wanting to skype Aunt Amy and show her), Milly was Minnie Mouse and Lyla was a cute little duckie!

 And finally we celebrated the "Bean's" first birthday--so cute!

Fall is great.

1 Year Later

Time goes so quickly. It's hard for me to believe that it has been one year since little Lyla was born and since I nearly lost my life. It's emotional for me as I contemplate it all and relive some of it in my mind. The weather changing, Halloween, the smells--it all seems to bring it back for me. Such a difficult time, yet such a sweet time. Having Lyla come into the world beautiful and perfect! Yet not being able to enjoy it like I should.

I think back to all the miracles, all of the angels in my life and I am again overwhelmed with gratitude that I am here, that Lyla is here and that unless you knew otherwise you would never know what it took to get her here! I walk around in near perfect health and remember what it felt like to be on bed rest, to be in so much pain, to pray that I would be able to be the one to raise my beautiful kids, to not be able to care for myself or my kids and I can hardly believe how well we are doing.

There is rarely a day that goes by, that I don't hold Lyla in my arms and marvel that she is here, so happy and healthy and again I am grateful. 

It's too bad that that level of gratitude doesn't come easily, but that for me it required such a big trial!

What a Journey.

Happy First Birthday Lyla!

Adjusting

I have to give the award for "the most adaptable children" to my children! They've seen the world change and turn upside down in the last year and they have handled it remarkably well. 

We are all starting to adjust to our new circumstances which will be changing again in the next 3 weeks.

I'm officially a taxi driver--as I drive to and from American Fork at least twice a day, coordinate youth night, Scouts, piano lessons, school events, clogging, sports and church all while sleeping in Provo.

The house is scheduled to be done in the next few weeks and we are very anxious to settle into American Fork.

The adjustment hasn't been completely smooth sailing. Spencer and Ali had to start Junior High knowing only a small handfull of people. Spencer's comment after the first day was that it was very lonely and Ali went days at a time eating lunch by herself. At first I felt sorry for them, and then I decided to take a different approach. I told the kids that they needed to find someone who needed a friend to eat lunch with, or I would come and eat lunch with because I couldn't bare the thought of them eating alone. They quickly made friends to avoid the embarrassment.

A few weeks ago after youth night, Ali told me on the way home that she actually felt like she was starting to fit in! Music to my ears. There have been many prayers offered in behalf of those kids by Ryan and I.

Zack and Milly aren't even phased by the change. Daily Zack comes home and gives us the tally on the the new friends he made that day. They seem to be happy and excited about everything that is going on.

On the first day of school I dropped the kids off. Ali hesitantly allowed me to take her picture, Spencer was totally embarrassed that I would want to take his picture--he's in 8th grade afterall and Zack and Milly happily posed for the camera, just happy to be there.

JUST A FEW MORE WEEKS and then we are counting on our lives settling down, Finally!

Haircut

I cut Lyla's bangs last night because her hair is so crazy! She looked so cute afterwards that I had to take her picture. Isn't she a doll? 

This little girl lights up our lives!

 

One Neat Lady

We are so grateful for Grandma Geri in so many ways I don't even know where to start.

She selflessly give and loves and serves and serves and serves and serves all while making you feel like you are doing her a favor for allowing her to serve you.

Her Birthday was overshadowed this year by our move. Sadly, she hosted her own Birthday party--on the flip side however, she had most of her grandchildren there to celebrate!

Happy Happy Birthday back in July to an amazing lady!

Alison Ruth Wood, Age 12

On August 12, 2011 Ali turned 12 years old. What pure joy it is to be her Mom.

Ali spent 2 weeks prior to her birthday in Idaho at a Folk Festival where she met people from many different countries. They had an amazing and uplifting experience. I wish I could have shared in her experience, and if I had I would have taken pictures of this neat event. Ali made friends with kids from China, Romania, Russia and more. It was so refreshing to have her involved in something non-competitive with no one there to judge her in anyway. The experience was great and I hope she gets to continue to be involved in that.

We missed Ali and when she returned we jumped into Birthday celebrations.

 

Of course we had to have a Harry Potter Birthday Party where the girls had to make Quidditch sticks, wands and head bands and then run around the block casting spells on whatever moved!

Ali was so pleased to finally have someone to share her Birthday celebration with--her cousin Audrey who turned 1.

Ali was such a good sport, her first Sunday in Young Women's was in a strange new ward. The first Sunday she ever attended the ward, she was presented her Faith in God Award and presented as a new YW. She was beautiful and positive!

My favorite part was being able to take Ali to the temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. It was a beautiful day outside and we took advantage of walking around the temple grounds afterwards.

At the end of the 6th grade school year I received a call from a lady at Springville City saying that Ali had been nominated by her 6th grade school teacher to receive a Mayoral Award for great citizenship and outstanding academics. We couldn't arrange a time that worked for her to receive it until last week. Here she is...

Ali along with 2 other recipients from different schools.

We love you Ali!

Harry Potter Party

It was so much fun to have Scott and Shelley here and their kids, Amy and her kids and our kids together right when the final Harry Potter movie was coming out. I was able to pre-order tickets for our whole group.

We met together first to celebrate Scott D.'s birthday with a delicious brunch and then we headed to the Harry Potter finale. Ali, Spencer, Zack and Ryan love Harry Potter. We can't count the number of times those books have been read in our house. Ali is the queen of Harry Potter trivia with Spencer and Ryan close behind. It was such a treat for my kids to have cousins who loved the books just as much or more (if that's possible) then them.

With the kids decked out in Harry Potter gear, we went to the movie! IT WAS AWESOME.

Scout Camp

Spencer was fortunate enough to get his Dad and his cousin Andrew along with him at Scout Camp.

The group headed down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where they had a blast. They enjoyed hiking (in flip-flops), fishing and white water rafting. They also enjoyed being spiritually fed and Spencer's cousin Andrew remarked how respectful the boys were during the devotionals.

This is a great group of Young Men and leaders and parents. It was a nice way for Spencer to say goodbye to a group he's been with for 9 years.

 

Ryan was plum worn out but the boys were ready to keep on partying:)