Christmas Time

We started out this month by celebrating two birthdays, one for our oldest who turned 16 and received his driver's license and the other was for our 8 year old boy who was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We then celebrated a promotion at work for Mr. Jewels, got our Christmas tree and had dinner at Cafe Zuppas. We then put up the Christmas tree and finished the final decorations on the home. This year's tree consisted only of lights and the star and new-to-us vintage tree stand. Sam was the only one who complained about not having any ornaments and I told him next year we will put every ornament we have on the tree. There were many days of baking and cooking, many days of knitting, many days of wrapping, many days of shoveling, and many days spent at home and enjoying our blessings. These photos are a few of my favorite little things around the house at ChristmasTime.

The mighty tidy

Just a little over two years ago we decided that we couldn't afford to live in our home anymore, after a long unemployment and running out of student loan money, it just wasn't looking good. We wanted so dearly to keep our home, we love it so much.
We came up with two options, the first was that we would find another home to rent that was significantly cheaper than our mortgage payment and rent out our home at the price we needed in order to keep our home. The second option was an idea given to us by a friend and that was that we would also move out of our home into a place much cheaper and make our home a vacation rental.

We went with option two. It was actually really fun turning our home into a vacation rental and thinking what would make people want to come stay in our home while visiting our great little town. Only one problem came with this scenario, we looked everywhere we could to find a place for us to live and every single rental fell through, it was frustrating.  We decided we would still put our home up as a vacation rental, we packed up everything we didn't possibly need or want and stored it in the garage and what was left we would just pack up into the van when we had guests staying in our home. We were able to stay at a neighbors house while they were out of town, we stayed at my parents home for another weekend, we went up to Lava Hot springs and stayed in a very cheap motel room for another weekend and we squatted in an empty house for another weekend.  It worked out just fine for the most part. I was just extremely tired from all the packing and cleaning, I think being unknowingly pregnant had a little something to do with that too.

It was so exciting when we finally received a job where we could come back home, we took our home off the listing and moved our stuff back in. I was still a little mentally and physically exhausted and taking care of our little newborn and didn't feel like putting my house quite in the order I wanted it to be.

I read that popular book, the one about tidying, with others I have talked to it gave them a great rush and they got right to it, with me it just gave me anxiety and I didn't do anything but read it. It just made me feel like I needed to get the house ready to move again and I did not want to do that. Just recently have I felt some permanence with being here at home. I finally put what I read to use. I have done to my closet what works best for me and it will stay this way until I feel like I need it to change. I love opening the doors to see it all organized. I have kept it tidy for a whole two weeks now. So happy with myself.

Up in the Uintas

This summer we took a little weekend trip up to a cabin in the Uintas, it has been quite awhile since we have taken a family trip and with a new little one in tow we have been pretty homebound. This trip was like taking a little dip to test the waters. We stayed in a neighbors cabin and invited up some friends and had an enjoyable time. We saw deer and sheep and birds and squirrels. We visited Mirror Lake to go fishing and the following day we drove to this beautiful lake, Lilly Lake. The road was extremely bumpy, but the lake was totally worth it. I'm always forgetting to take pictures so it's nice to invite friends who love taking pictures and are good at it. 

(Picture taken by Talia Photography)

Mr. Rabbit

I have been knitting little stuffed toys lately, mostly farm animals, and this little guy, although clad in a sweater might just fit right in.  I wish I would have put his ears up a little higher on his head, but my laziness prevents me from moving them and anyway with them down low, he sorta looks distinguished.

Old Shoes

I can't recall how many years I have worn these shoes that I purchased from a friend and neighbor. They have seen many a times out in the garden, up in the mountains, in the water, on shopping excursions, park play dates, school events and several houses being cleaned. Although I have worn them on good days and bad, they are no longer comfortable to wear.  My feet must remember how hot and sweaty they would get time and time again and they are saying "please, no more, wear something else".  Speaking honestly I can't stand the sight of them, they remind me of all the hot and miserable times I wore them cleaning houses in the summertime, so we must part ways. May their next journey be simply amazing.

Warm Vest Knit

This beautiful book with enough yarn to knit 3 of the patterns were a gift from Mr. Jewels at Christmas. There are so many wonderful and beautiful patterns in this book it was really hard to choose what to get started on first.

I picked the Warm Vest pattern and it did knit up really fast once I was able to figure out some of the stitches.  My brain struggled for awhile trying to get it. I thought for sure I was going to go ask for some help, but after fiddling around with it for awhile I finally got it.

It was knit in two pieces very similar to each other the only difference was the neck on the front.  After they were finished I learned how to do the mattress stitch to get it all put together, found the perfect little button and there you have it, warm vest in a beautiful yarn on a cute baby.

This pattern does call for sleeves for the girl version of the pattern, but since I was using a color changing yarn, I just felt it wasn't doable. I love how it turned out and my model is especially adorable.

Volunteering for Art Club

This school year with babe in tow I have been helping out with the various art clubs that are held after school. Do my older kids attend art club? No. So, why do you ask do I go and help out? I have no idea. I do find it fun and interesting to see all the little artists and how they each perceive and make art. Some are very free spirited and can just come up with a masterpiece at the drop of a hat, others have to constantly look at an example to get it right and others have to trace the original to get it just right and don't want to get messy at all. One afternoon the kids all brought cameras and we walked around outside in the schoolyard and took photos.  Here are mine taken with my camera on my phone.

o what a year (part 4-final installment)

o what a year...we had moved back into our house in April, had lots of help unpacking and some great meals brought in from friends and we settled back into a reality that we hadn't experienced for awhile. It was great and I felt extremely blessed and fulfilled, feeling like our family, through all of it's trials were feeling at peace and everything was right with the world again. I could finally get into expectant baby mode, which means trying to come to terms that a baby was on it's way.  I was still shocked and unprepared, I felt old and out of touch with new, young mothers, but in a way I felt like it would all come rushing back to me, I knew in my heart that I would enjoy having a baby again.  She came a little early, waters broke while I was cleaning the toilet (how convenient) contractions hadn't started so i drove myself to the hospital. Then just a few hours later, right after receiving my pain relief and helping Mr. Jewels to not faint (he's not a fan of needles) she was born.  It was an experience I had never felt before with my others, not that I didn't enjoy birthing my others, but this one, because maybe she was unexpected, truly felt like a gift from God.  She is. If babies all came the way she did, were as cute as she is and so so perfect as she is I would have 20 more. I never wanted her to leave my side, I waited anxiously for the nurses to return her to me every time they took her for a test or what not. I didn't mind being dead tired or that my hair, as greasy and gross as it may be was sticking to my face and out of place, I didn't want to miss a single moment with this little one. I still feel this way. I do get in a shower every once in awhile and I do love sleep and get a few more hours in every night than when she was first born.  Every day is filled with snuggles and smiles and laughter, feedings and diaper changes and playing and learning, and the best part is that the older kids love her just as much as I do.

o what a year, part 3 (almost done)

o what a year part 3...at the end of March 2014 Mr. Jewels, after he came home from work, took me aside out of the hearing distance from the kids and told me he got a job. I of course was like, what? I know you have a job, what are you talking about? The company he had worked for before, the same one that he was laid off from offered him a job.  We were moving, again, back home. I was pretty excited. It was fun telling the kids as we scrunched ourselves around our tiny dinner table.  They couldn't believe it either.  We would be moving in the next couple of weeks. It really is an amazing story which will be written in it's entirety in a journal someday.

Twice weekly, sometimes three times walks around the neighborhood with church ladies was something I began to enjoy.  We would see these little bunnies a lot in the hills.  I would definitely miss our conversations and the beautiful scenery. I would not miss the steep hills that we climbed.

 I bought this desk at a thrift store in Santa Cruz before Mr. Jewels spilled the beans about his new job.  He didn't tell me anything about anything until everything was final and in writing. He even let me buy this thing knowing full well we didn't need it.  I spent the next Monday cleaning it and painting it with leftover paint that I found in the garage.  That night he told me that he got a job back home. Well that was a day that was completed wasted on a project. But we are using that desk now, so I'm glad I spent that day painting it.

 The ducks enjoyed the pool more often than we did. We did get in the pool on the last day we were there. The last of our things were packed away in the truck, our car had been put on another moving truck, the house was cleaned and we had some time to spare before we had to be to the hotel and wait for our flight the next day.

This was written into the concrete next to the pool. We looked him up and sure enough he is a real person.  He is a boxer living in Gilroy. Still not sure what 8603 means.

I had even planted some spinach and lettuce that had not fully matured before we got to enjoy it.

We said our goodbyes to our new friends and neighbors and set off on a plane back home to Ogden.  We surprised everyone at church when we showed up and told them we had moved back, it was a great day.

We received some unexpected snow in April. We thought we had skipped all of winter, think again.

Another pregnancy picture, I believe this is 38 weeks.

o what a year, part 2

As we were exploring our new area in which we were living we came across Emeline Ave in Santa Cruz, we just had to stop and take a picture.

 This is the home we rented on a month to month lease at $2400.00 per month! 3 Bed 2 Bath, it did have a swimming pool in the backyard, a nice one too and a bonus room off the kitchen. The yard work was very minimal, Jonathan didn't mind at all when we asked him to mow the lawn. The cost of living really is ridiculous I even found the thrift stores overpriced.  The locals would always say "you pay for the great weather".

 Limited space in the bedrooms meant we had to take full advantage of any wall space there was so we made this little hanging hamper for Emeline to use.

 The windiest road I have ever been on, Hecker Pass. We take this road to get over to the ocean. Lots and lots of trees and vineyards along the route. It was all very pretty and frightening at the same time.

 I finally came to terms with our surprise baby on the way so I started to do some knitting for the wee little one.

 This is the elementary school that Emeline and Sam attended. We showed up on this day wondering if we were late since we didn't see any of the kids lining up outside.  We realized later that the rain prevents them from being outside.  They all have to go to the cafeteria when the weather is bad outside. It had been raining earlier that morning but by the time we left for school it had long since stopped. We found this to be so funny, scared of a little rain.

 This is what it normally looks like before school. Not a drop in the sky today.  This is the area for just the fifth graders. This school was very much packed to the brim and then some.

 Another pregnancy picture. I found a really great doctor and nurse. There really aren't a whole lot of women having babies in California and if they do they usually stop after having one or two. I really received a lot of surprised looks when I would mention that this is number 4.

The kids had a whole week off for spring break so I drove us all to Utah and back so we could visit family and friends. My feet were so swollen when we got back home I didn't do anything but put them up, well I knit too. This is our pit stop at the Salt Flats. Way too bright.

 Sam discovered the joy of playing minecraft. I don't know if the blanket helped him play better or what.

 San Jose State University is a really pretty campus. We came here one Saturday to watch one of Mr. Jewels' coworkers play wheelchair basketball.

 Mister Incognito. It's amazing how he got his hair to do that style.

still to be continued