This is Kristie. Texas is so cold!!!! The high was 34 today.  It's really fun, because it feels like Idaho, but we were hoping for warmer weather for our week off!  We were planning on jacket weather tomorrow so we could go to Six Flags.  We might have to find something fun to do indoors:)  

Most of these pictures are of Maddie. A few weeks ago,  I took her on an overnight shopping trip about 45 minutes away at an amazing mall.  We had a great time.  She was so excited to go, that when she saw me pull up to the school to pick her up…she started running and fell on a ledge.  Twisted her ankle hard!!  It made the whole trip an adventure!  We stopped at Target for a wrap and some frozen peas to ice it and headed out!  She was swollen and hurting pretty bad, we barely made it up to the hotel room.  So we found crutches at a CVS and used those for a night. We went to a dine in theatre and saw "Gravity"

 The crutches and luggage rack worked great for the movie night, but shopping just wasn't going to happen…crutches are hard!  So we looked it up and sure enough, the mall had free wheelchairs.  Maddie has NEVER lasted that long shopping.  We had so much fun!!!!  This picture above is my favorite.  She got to spend as much time as she wanted in a book store.  It was the larger portion of the day!

 New coat and scarf!  And a hands on tutorial with a curling iron!

 She is a "Who-vian" through and through.  This window display is all Doctor Who stuff.  She was insanely excited!

 This is a picture of our land. The sale was final a few weeks ago and we're finalizing house plans now.  We're excited! Our property ends at those trees.  There's a field behind it with cows which we're super excited about.  Also, we can see the church from our backyard!  yay!

                                    The brothers relaxing after school in our breakfast nook with a couch:)

 Just a "little" snake skin Isaac discovered in our front yard bushes.  It was still soft….. and Clara found a smaller snake

Now it's dark when we go to piano lessons, but our park has lots of floodlights so as long as someone else is there playing (because I'm chicken) we stop and play anyway!  

 Nori and her friend at the 1st grade Thanksgiving Feast!

My cute little sister who is pregnant with a baby girl:)  She came with her husband for 2 nights while he interviewed at Baylor Dental school in Dallas.  I loved spending time with her

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We are so sad to miss out on the Clarkston Feast.  I just found the picture of all the girls in aprons in Aleisa's kitchen from the last one spent there..7 years ago! It was so much fun!  Love you all!

Lately in Clarkston....

        I am happy to announce that things have been pretty quiet around here lately! It is a very nice change from the ups and downs of unemployment! Last Thursday I borrowed a sledge hammer from Caleb and took after our bathtub. I can now say that I know first hand just how hard a 400 lb cast iron tub is to break! I have never sweat so hard from anything but running. It was shaking the house and the girls were downstairs sewing and were worried about it falling on them. I did break a hole in the thing and cracked it up pretty good. On all the YouTube video's it looked pretty easy once you get it broken but I was too tired to keep going from that point and it was bedtime. Joel was a showoff and it only took him about a half an hour to finish it up the next day. We scrapped it and got a whopping $28.00! It was better than putting it in the trash though I guess. So, we were able to cut a hole for the bathroom door in the hallway like a normal house and were able to push our table into the corner making MUCH more room in the kitchen! When Joel left for work he told Millie to watch me and make sure that all the walls that are standing right now be there when he gets back. He knows I am just itching to tear out the closet so we can put the table where it is going to go for good. Did I mention that he has a job? That is pretty fun too!
        Friday my little sister sent me a picture of the most beautiful dresser that was on sale in IF. So Saturday we took the kids to Con and Fernae's so they didn't have to ride in the car all day and went to go get it. Well, it was just a little too small for the area it would have to fill so we walked around all the lovely store's there that share a parking lot conveniently. I found a little hutch for the living room that was the perfect size, a good price AND on sale at Real Deals so we got that and called our shopping trip a success. PLUS, I got to give Mama kisses and hugs since she met us there!
        Last week it snowed and we made the first (hopefully not last) snowman of the year! It was basically a blowing blizzard by the time we got done so we got a picture and of course he melted the next day.

        As I sit here typing this I heard a whack, Millie screaming, and Tommy running up the stairs saying "Sorry Millie" and sitting promptly in time out. I asked him what he did and said he whacked Millie on the noggin with a toy. I swear I don't know what to do with this little guy!
       Well on a positive note, we had a interesting experience happen today. We were sitting here eating dinner when there was a knock on the door. It was a man from the ward and Joel went to talk to him. I heard Joel say "Thank you" and then he shut the door and said "You get to figure out what to do with this" and dropped a 100 dollar bill next to my plate. He said that the man said someone he knew gave it to him to give to a family in the ward with small kids anonymously. Well, I think he must not have heard that Joel got a job or thought maybe we needed a little money to get us back on our feet after the month of no work, which we would have, had it not been for the severance and bonus payout. It was a very nice gesture, but we couldn't in good conscience take it after Joel had spent a few thousand on a mt. bike and I had bought a hutch in the last week. So we got to be the middle man of a kind deed and service. Then we had the job of finding a family with small children that needed it. I called Aleisa and we talked about a couple of families. I couldn't decide so I called my friend Katie (who knows everyone) and she suggested the exact same two families. Neither or which would ever ask for help. So we felt pretty good about the choices. It was pretty fun to get to be part of it especially at Christmas time!

Tommy brought his fleet of trucks up while I was folding laundry. I didn't realize why until he started loading them with socks to take up and put away! Cute little helper!

Millie and Tommy wanted to go out and play but it was just muddy and not snowy anymore so she pulled him around the house in the sled.

But it's THANKSgiving :)

Well, Ryder and I are the only ones who haven't gotten strep throat.  Tyler had taken 1/2 the day off school on Wednesday to have some dental work done and woke up that morning with a sore throat.  He ended up taking the rest of the day off so he could go to the doctor.  His strep test came back positive, so now he's on antibiotics as well. It's been rainy and cold-ish here in Havasu the past few days which has been a nice change of pace, but it still doesn't make me miss driving in the snow!  It's been cold enough to turn the heater on at night and wear a sweatshirt in the morning :)  Ryder is learning so fast lately!  He's getting pretty good at pulling himself up to furniture and his walker and also using his finger and thumb to pick up little pieces of cereal to eat- so cute!  We finally planned out our Thanksgiving Menu yesterday and went shopping for everything on the list.  We couldn't come to an agreement on which "salads" and pies to make, so we're making 4 salads and 3 pies! Haha!  We're all excited for Thanksgiving even though we won't get to be with any of our extended family this year :(   We are so grateful to have such a wonderful and fun family and we hope you all have an enjoyable day wherever you may be as we all get to reflect on our blessings and eat some yummy Thanksgiving food!

I know it's kind of blurry, but here's Ryder standing by his walker :)

The Last Two Weeks

So, last Sunday I didn't get a chance to write on the blog..... Bridget called two weeks ago and asked if I wanted to ride with the Dursts to visit her family.  I had Friday off, and it was a quick switch to trade with someone for Monday.  Two long days of riding in a car, but it gave us two fun days of hanging out with Bridget, Scott and family!  Of course, it always goes by so fast.....

I don't know if I'm ready for December at the Caramel Tree.  We have already been busy with lots of orders, Bonneville Craft show, and the Festival Of Trees.  Ughh!!!  It will be good to have a nice break for Thanksgiving. I'm excited for those of us who are nearby to go to the Arnold's for Thanksgiving.  Sherlene won't be able to go, but she has convinced me that she will have a good day with friends.

Today I went to Stori's primary program.....  it was pretty cute!  After Sacrament Meeting, I came back to my ward for nursery!  Oh boy were the kids wild and crazy today.....I even came home with a fat lip!  I'm hoping it doesn't turn in to a cold sore..... that is usually what happens.

I hope everyone posts today.... it has been way too long for some of you!   :)

Love you all!

A quick post...

For those of you who don't have facebook: here's our latest family pictures that Meg took for us. I am quite pleased with how very cool we all look in the middle one (I just told Ken to smile, haha!)! Even Zeus (you know Zeus, he wants to do anything we are doing. We were going to lock him in the garage for the shoot but decided to let him stay. haha! I'm glad we did!). Meg Retro-ed it a bit for us.

Well, today is a fun day. We had yesterday off for furlough and today I took off for my dermatologist check (all clear! :) ). It's making me really miss staying at home during the day! Right now I'm putting up my entry way tree. I have my villages up and my shopping (except for some little things, Jen- winkwink!) done so all I have left for after Thanksgiving is one more tree, nativities, and enjoying the season!
I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving here again. I wish everyone could come! This year it will be a small group including the only two families who couldn't come last time because of impending babies! :) Well, I better run. I just really felt guilty reading everyone's updates knowing I hadn't contributed for some time! Love you all!

It's been a great week except for....

Dan had 2 clients tell him on Friday that they are moving to Montana in 2 weeks. Also on Friday, he had another client "graduate" from PSR. So within a week he lost 3 clients, putting him at only 20 hours instead of 40. But hopefully he will get some more clients really soon! Luckily mom offered to take us in if we get to that point! :) I think mom just needs to build a little community out in the "forrest" so we can all live there during the summer! Fun huh?! :)
Dan's high light of the week was probably going paint balling with the Elders Quorum. They were gone for about 5 hours and he has about 6 welts! Doesn't even sound a little bit fun to me! :)
For FHE we went with the Foresters to go see Despicable Me 2! It FINALLY made it to the cheap theatre, and the kids all loved it! Sylvie stayed awake the whole time glued to the big screen! After the movie was over, Lila and Stori went to the front of the theatre and danced until all the credits were done! It was a great success!
Sylvie turned 3 months old on thursday! I can't believe it! I took many many many pictures of her and couldn't believe that she was able to sit in the little rocking chair! It felt like just yesterday she couldn't even hold up her head!
Stori's vocabulary is getting better every day. I think her longest sentence this week went like this,
      "Hey Sylvie June Bug, you wanna watch me go poo poo? It makes me feel so much better to do poo poo. Hey mom, her said Ya! "
haha I think Sylvie was very excited to watch her go potty! :) That is what most of our days consist of---going potty.
I started running regularly after the 1st dam run and it feels great! I go with Alicia after the kids are asleep. I would like to go with Dan, but we don't have a double jogging stroller (besides our bike trailer, but Sylvie is too little still) so he goes in the morning before work. We went together once while pushing our huge stroller and it felt like we ran a marathon! So now we go separate.
Sylvie got sick 2 weeks ago and went through a patch of waking up every 2 hours to eat at night! I was getting so exausted---never ever have I had to do that with either of my kids. The worst part was that the whole week before she got sick, she was sleeping about 11-12 hours straight! So now we are slowly getting back to normal. She is going about 5 hours at night between feedings. which I guess I can't complain about.
Well, that's enough of my boring life! only 1 more week of writing before THANKSGIVING!!!

Strep-a-Rama!

Tyler took Taylor and Levi to the Doc Tuesday night to get throat swabs done.  Jon started getting fever-ish Thursday night and woke up Friday morning with a sore throat.  Doc called Friday afternoon (yes, it took THAT long to get them back!!!) with positive Strep results for Taylor and Levi and went ahead and prescribed antibiotics all around including Max because he had a fever and a rash on Saturday that was probably strep too! So they are all staying home from Church today so we don't spread our illness to anyone else!  Fun times!  

Friday night was the Purple and Gold wrestling meet where it's just our guys wrestling each other.  Tyler said it went well- he was the announcer :)

Yesterday I had a Paparazzi booth at a Women's Expo.  It was pretty slow, but I sold enough to cover my booth fee plus a little, so that was good.  Lots of people were buying Christmas Gifts for friends and family and it was cute to watch them as they tried to decide what to choose :)

Both of my Primary counselors (including the one that was supposed to do sharing time today) called/texted within the last 1/2 hour saying that they won't be at church today!  Fun! I'm glad that we already had a little activity planned that I can have the kids do during Sharing Time today.

Well- that's about it for us this week.  I've got to go get ready for a crazy Sunday in Primary, but we hope everyone's doing well and had a great week!

Radford week

I have our family pictures, our halloween pictures, and a scary story about a spider up on my blog if you care to look at any of those.
This week we actually had pretty good weather! It's almost the middle of November and it was 60 degrees today! Josh's family, Sherlene, and us all went out to moms house for dinner today. I made potato casserole for the first time today! Go 28 year old me! I'm slowly learning the basics of being a mormon wife and mom! :) We all had such a great time out there! Stori and Sylvie got some great cousin time and I got to finish my elf shoes! thanks so Mom, sherlene, and dan for helping me decide.

Last Saturday Sylvie, me, Meg, Maizy, and Joel all ran the 1st Dam Run! It was beautiful weather and so much fun! Hopefully Dan get's into a Utah law school so we can do it next year. We also want to sign up for the TOU half marathon again!  OH, and we want to maybe go to Disneyland again next year, so if any of you have extra Tax Return money you should all join us!!! How fun huh?!

Sylvie will be 3 months old on Thursday!!! Isn't that crazy?! She is just the best little baby!

One day she was crying in the swing while I was making stori some lunch, and I looked over to see stori doing this...

She went and got her bunny book from her room and was reading it to her. She said, "Ohhh poor punkin, let's read book together!" She is such a good big sister. "It's spring and the bunnies jump puddles. What flowers you see? Orange flowers?" her little voice is so cute!

I can't think of much else we did this week (besides the spider episode) so I'll just end here! Love you all! Yay for thanksgiving in a couple weeks!!

A quick hello!

I could almost say ditto to my posts every single week.......yes, my life is that boring!  I did want to share a couple of things with all of you.  First, I got a thank you card from the Randalls.....

Dear Christensen Family,
Thank you so very much for the beautiful flowers you gave our family!  I'm so grateful I got to grow up spending so much time with your wonderful family.  We appreciate all of your kindness and love.
                                                       love.
                                                           The Randalls

I have a special place in my memories and my heart for all of your "growing up" friends, and Becky is a big part of that.  So difficult to watch those you care about go through such heartache.

Also, for you fans of Downton Abbey.....  I have started watching the new season.....season four.  If you want to watch now, instead of waiting until January.  This is the link.

http://www.simplyjune.org/p/downton-abbey.html

And, if you have already started watching.....shame on you for not sharing with me!   ;)

Also, Dr. Vance shared this site for exercising when you don't have time.  Tabota Training.org    It is four minutes of exercise that is supposed to be equal to one hour.  ( he doesn't allow any excuses for not exercising....:)  )  He and his family do it, and they think it is actually equal to one half hour...  :)   So now none of you have an excuse either.

I also want to remind everyone as you are getting your cute family pictures to have one made up for my frames.  I have received a few school pictures....  don't forget to send those as well!

Love to all, and have a wonderful Week!  XOXOXO

One Year Older and Wiser Too....

Jon turned 11 this week.  He requested Fancy Spaghetti for dinner and Oreo Pie for dessert.  Jon is definitely our carb lover.  He loves bread, chips, pasta, chewy cookies, and crunchy granola bars.  He completed his Arrow of Light award in Webelos and is now starting in the 11 yr. old boy scout program.  They went on a campout this past weekend and had a lot of fun even though he ended up not feeling well while they were there.  Taylor went on the campout too.  They had BB Guns, Firebuilding, and a bunch of other activities that the boys were super excited about.

 

 

 

Saturday there was a Stake Leadership Training Meeting.  I am so glad that I went!  The Stake Primary President gave an awesome presentation and I am feeling good about this upcoming year in Primary.  The things she shared seemed like they were just for me.

 

Speaking of Primary.....our Primary Program was today!  Everyone did a fantastic job and it actually turned out a lot better than I was anticipating :)  I was very proud of all the kids and their hard work on their parts and the songs.  It was so neat to see so many children- even a Sunbeam- that had their parts memorized.  As I was sitting up on the stand singing along with one of the songs, I looked out at the audience and saw Taylor.  He was singing along with the song too and I realized that this was the first year he wasn't part of the Program.  It made me sad.  Where has the time gone?! 

 

And this didn't help either- 

JC Penney's was having a really awesome sale on suits last week so we got both Taylor and Jon a suit- only $13 each!!  What a deal!!  They look so grown up in them- like little missionaries :) 

 

We've had some sickness (fever, rash, sore throat, etc.) making its way through our family.  It started out with Levi a few days ago and then Max got it yesterday, so he (and Tyler) missed the Program today :(  Hopefully no-one else gets it. 

 

Tyler made it through the first week of wrestling and says it's going great.  He is glad to have 2 volunteer coaches that were both All-American Wrestlers to help him out.  Their first meet is this Friday, so they're gearing up for that.     

 

We are all excited for a day off tomorrow and are extremely grateful to all of the veterans past and present who have served and are serving our country and allow us to have the freedoms that we enjoy.   

Peterson's Fall

 As everyone has heard, Joel got a job! The day after his interview they requested references. We didn't hear anything the next morning and had almost though we would have to wait all weekend. Joel was out chopping wood and I had just finished working so I checked his e-mail and there was an offer letter! He was being offered more than he had been making and better benefits for MUCH cheaper and a monthly bonus! Wahoo! He starts tomorrow and we are pretty excited! Now if gold prices could just stay up! I have a long boring version on my blog with all the details if anyone gets bored and wants to read it.

Well, besides the worrying we have had so much fun together! We have had lots of adventures in the mountains cutting wood, working on projects, chopping wood, taking walks to the post office, and doing fun October things like sugar cookies, the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and making costumes.

This.is.Hall.o.ween.Every.body.Make.a.Scream.ah.ah.ah.ah.ah!

Primary was in charge of our ward Chili Dinner & Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween.  Not sure if anyone else's ward has implemented this, but in our ward we were counseled not to send around sign-up sheets for food anymore.  This made planning an activity for over 300 people a NIGHTMARE!!  Anyway- we made it through and everything turned out great, but I am soooooo glad it's over! Now on to Wrestling Practice starting tomorrow and the Primary Program which is next Sunday!  Tyler is a little nervous about wrestling, but he said he's just going to do the best he can do and go with that!  I like his attitude. I need to learn from him and not worry so much about everything I'm in charge of!

  

I wanted to get a photo of all of us together, but we forgot at the

Trunk-or-Treat and by the time we got home

everyone was done with costumes and ready for bed! 

Friday night Taylor went to Las Vegas for a Scout camp-out to celebrate 100 years of Scouting in the Church. He had a great time except for when one of the leaders- we call her the scout Natzi- woke him up in the middle of the night to look at the North Star to "pass off a requirement."  He wasn't too happy about that. I took Taylor and Jon to the 100 years of scouting broadcast on Tuesday night and it was really neat.  I think we all learned a lot about the scouting program and about President Monson.  A portion of the presentation was about him and it was pretty cool.  Jon had a football game Saturday morning and he did really well! Taylor brought home paperwork for Basketball sign-ups, so I think he's going to try out in a couple weeks. That will be fun if he makes the team!

Well- we hope everyone is doing well and getting excited for Thanksgiving! 

Durst Happenings

Hello Everyone! It's Molly again. According to my mom and Grandma, I'm now in charge of posting for our family. On Monday we went to the Nelsons soccer game and ended up at target. That's when we found the Halloween masks. For Halloween, Tate was a swamp monster, Lucy was a corpse bride, and I was a homemade version of Wendy from Peter Pan. My crazy parents and their crazy friends dress up every Halloween and go out to eat and that's what they came up with this year. Tate went trick-or-treating with his friend and when he came back, he had two bags full of candy and was very very sweaty. Grace also had her last race at districts a couple weeks ago. Tate and Lucy also had their second to last soccer game on Saturday. One more thing from a couple weeks ago, Cole had his last football game and they won 47:21.

Trying on masks

Tate and Lucy

Molly (and my costume)

Tate and his candy

My mom and dad

The guys (plus Heidi who dressed as a guy)

The girls (plus Lee who dressed up as a girl)

Trick-or-treat candy

Grace before her race

Chloe and Lucy after their game.

Cole after his game

That's what's been going on with the Durst's lately. We miss you all!!

First Dam Run Weekend

Hello everyone!   It  was a fun weekend in Clarkston and Logan this weekend.  Melanie and Dan invited me to tag along, so I went.  Megan ran the 10k, Melanie, Sylvie,  Maizy and Joel ran the 5k.  We did another fun craft..... a variation on the witches boots .... elf boots, or in Megan's case, jack frost boots.   We woke up to a dusting of snow in Clarkston.  It is November after all..... 

Nothing else to report, other than a plea for school pictures!   I have received two.  Hoping to get a lot more!!!!

Love to all of you