Family Times

It has nice being closer to family.  The kids have been able to spend lots more time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  There was an Aston family Christmas trip to San Diego (though they left without me because I had to stay here until school was out!), their first Christmas trip to Temple Square, a sleigh ride (ok, more of a mud ride -- the weather was strange for a Utah winter!), and lots more time getting to play more with everyone.  Rather than attempt to truly update it all, I'll just throw some pictures in and call it good...

Anya, Grace, and Grant ready for Safari Adventure

The girls deciding where to go next...

Bat Cousins at the San Diego Zoo Safari

Anya and Gracie competing for Uncle Stephen's attention (I believe a "wild ride" may have followed...)

Anya, Cael, Beck, and Uncle Sean ready for the sleigh ride!

That was fun!  When can we do it again?

Our House Was a Very, Very, Very Fine House...

Our Arlington House (as we left it)

Dining Room

Living Room

Half the Bonus/Playroom

Half my beautiful Master Bath

(Somehow we neglected to get pictures of all the rooms, but I had repainted everything.  The dark green in the master bedroom looked FABULOUS with the white trim and scarf valances.  Ian's room was an amazing blue.  Anya's purple was perfect.  The office was a gorgeous, warm, rich earthy tone.  The kitchen and breakfast nook were painted in the same shade as the dining room and living room and I'd made new valances.  The kids bathroom and the main bathroom also looked pretty good... We wondered about the "rainbow" effect but we, personally, loved the personality it gave our home!)

While we miss the Arlington house (and feel sad to have left it behind so empty and lonely), we are enjoying our new home here in Vernal.  It's not as big, it doesn't "belong" to us, but we're making it ours.  When we moved in, we had lots of help from David and Dylan getting things put together, shelves put up, furniture moved around, etc.  Then Teri came and with her traditional gusto helped us put up the things that made the house feel like home (curtains, pictures, etc.).  and we have felt "at home" ever since.  The kids have bigger bedrooms by far than they did in Arlington.  Anya even has a closet that rivals the second "bedroom" we had in our Pittsburgh apartment.  (In fact, this is where she plans to hang her disco ball from Uncle Riley so her Barbies can "party" in there.)  I really like our kitchen and, though they're smaller, we still have a separate living room and family/play room.  It's all on one level, which makes it far easier for Ian and his increasingly faltering steps to navigate.  It's in an area where both kids can go to the same school and ride the same bus.  We feel blessed to have it and are really enjoying it.

School Daze

So, the month of May is finally over! WOW! It's always killer! School parties and trips and programs and and and...

Anya with her friends at the Kindergarten zoo field trip

Anya had a relatively successful year. She learned much in the way of self-control and self-discipline -- she wasn't allowed to talk in class (if you can imagine)! She was actually afraid to even raise her hand to ask her teacher a question for fear she'd have to "move her clip", so she actually resorted to writing notes to her teacher because she knew the acceptable protocol for that. Somehow my little chatterbox did it and it didn't break her spirit. Just to illustrate, several weeks ago she couldn't find her brand new package of crayons that should have been in her cubby. She had used up her yellow and had been borrowing one from her neighbor for several days when she mentioned this to me.  I encouraged her to talk to her teacher, but she was terrified.  We finally agreed that she could write her teacher a note and she could leave it in the box where important papers go in the morning -- at least there was a procedure for that...