Still Here!!

So sad that it has taken me THIS long to actually post something to the blog. Holy smokes. Valentine's Day was a lot of fun this year. We started the day off with some heart shaped pancakes. When each of the kids got home from school, Ethan's in the first grade now and Kiari started pre-school, they found a special note at the end of some yarn that said, "I love Ethan/Kiari because...." They had to follow the yarn, which had been strung throughout part of the house, to find a Valentine surprise. Along the way were paper hearts taped to the yarn that had various things written on them, different things that I loved about each of them. It was a lot of fun to watch them! Ethan lost his first tooth!! and he was thrilled. It's a good thing he knows that I'm his tooth fairy otherwise he may have been a little frustrated about having to wait a week to finally redeem his prize. FINALLY I drew up a simple little map and placed it under his pillow (not my original idea, I got it from a friend of mine). At the end of the map was his prize!! Trent and I had an early Valentine's Day date, dinner and a night at the symphony. It was a Broadway night and the symphony had invited two guest singers, both with a plethora of Broadway experience. It was a really enjoyable evening. Life has been moving steadily along. We love being back in Idaho and I'm obsessed with our house, I absolutely love it. I love where it is. I love how it feels inside. I love that there's still so much that I can do with it! We bought Ethan and Kiari each a goat last spring as way to teach them about responsibility and ultimately finances. We don't pay them for doing their chores so as the goats get old enough to have babies and milk the kids will be able to sell those things and basically have their own little business to run. Yep. We're officially country folk. Ethan is doing really well in school. If we hadn't left Idaho he would be would be in Kindergarten this year. With the way that he's been thriving in first grade I can't imagine him only being in Kindergarten this year. Kiari has been in preschool this year and LOVES it. Her teacher is fabulous and Kiari adores her. She's also made some great friends. Enoch is starting to communicate with more complete sentences and I can't get enough of his little voice. It's now March 20th, a few week since I actually started putting this post together and since then we found out that VanderBaby #4 will be joining us October 12th. WE'RE THRILLED. HOORAY FOR AN UPDATE!! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of this, eh??? And maybe I'll figure out how to format my posts better. Until then.....

Christmas 2011

2 days before Christmas I FINALLY found/bought our very first Christmas tree!!! We were super excited to get it up!! AND THEN I couldn't find regular Christmas lights for it!!! All I could find anywhere were net lights and icicle lights. no thanks. Then finally on Christmas Eve days I called my mother-in-law and was able to borrow a bunch of lights. Woo-hoo!!!! So Christmas Eve day, after my Cross Fit workout, we spent the afternoon decorating our very first family Christmas tree.

Needless to say there was an area with a large concentration of colored bulbs and another of candy canes and the bottom half was void of any decoration due to a very curious 13 month old. The kids were pretty proud of their tree.



The weekend before Christmas we were able to have a dinner get together with Trent's mom, step-day Wayne, and his siblings. Unfortunately my camera was on the spritzed and I have no pictures of that night but it was sure fun having everyone over again.

Christmas Eve we loaded up 32 members of the VanderVille clan into the family RV and headed out to deliver Christmas turkeys to friends around our spread out country neighborhood. Its been a family tradition for years and it's a lot of fun.
That night I was up late putting some finishing touches on gifts and then setting presents on the tree. It was about 3 am before I finally went to bed. I was grateful when my kids didn't wake up until nearly nine.





Enoch has quite the attachment to phones and anything resembling one. By the end of the day he had opened 4 of his very own!!!!



Kiari is all girl and LOVES ballerinas. She was pretty thrilled when she opened these tidbits up.



Ethan has been talking a lot about Pirates of the Caribbean that last while so I thought a new game was appropriate. He's pretty excited to play this one with Daddy!!!



Kiari loves Sleeping Beauty!



Thank you hugs!!!! We let the kids pick out a gift for each other and they were so excited to have each other open them up. Totally precious.

After church we headed over to Trent's mom's house for a bit then to his dad's where we dressed up all the little kids to act out the story of the birth of Christ, also a family tradition. After lunch we headed up to Rexburg to spend some time with my parents. It's always a whirlwind of a day but really great to see so much family.



While at my mom's a few weeks ago I found some of my old dresses. She thought it would be fun to give them to Kiari. She calls it her princess dress and loves it. Trent kept referring to her as "the little girl from the 19th century."




The Bat Cave!








We attempted to take a family picture before leaving my parents' house and none of them were fabulous. I did however crop this little beauty from one of them.



Since he was a kid, Trent has always wanted a remote control plane. This year my Dad picked out a helicopter for him and Trent thinks it's pretty darn cool. The kids all love to watch him fly it around the living room.




The day after Christmas I met up with some of the girls at Target to take advantage of their sales on Christmas decor. We all did a pretty good job of filling up our carts.







Christmas this year was wonderful but different.
We missed Brian.
It wasn't until a few days after Christmas that, while reading a sweet acquaintance's blog, I found a sweet poem. This beautifully mommy lost one of her children unexpectedly early on last year and a friend of hers shared this poem with her. So I've borrowed this from her blog. sunshinepromises.blogspot.com
It made me cry a little bit but more than anything it made me happy.
We love you Brian and we miss you.


MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM HEAVEN

I still hear the songs
I still see the lights
I still feel your love
on cold wintry nights.

I still share your hopes
and all your cares
I'll even remind you
to please say all your prayers.

I just want to tell you
you still make me proud
You stand head and shoulders
above all the crowd.

Keep trying each moment
to stay in His grace
I came here before you
to help set your place.

You don't have to be
perfect all the time
He forgives you the slip
if you continue to climb.

To my family and friends
please be thankful today
I'm still close beside you
in a new special way.

I love you all dearly
now don't shed a tear
cause I'm spending my
Christmas with Jesus this year.



I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas filled with lots of love, laughter, and family.
I also hope that your new year is off to great start!!

First Snow

The night before we went to pick up our rental truck for the move it snowed! It was absolutely beautiful the next morning! And Enoch's first snow!

Birthday Boy

Enoch turned 1 on November 7th and we had a last minute belated party about a week later. It was quite the gathering complete with my Dad's famous bbq ribs and a big pot of Trent's favorite baked beans.
Going from two kids to three kids couldn't have felt anymore natural, this little guy was such a perfect little addition to our family that he may as well have been with us since the time Ethan arrived. Enoch is so sweet and so loving. He absolutely adores his big sister and gets so excited when he sees his big brother. Just days before the party he was officially walking on his own. He still has no teeth.... well.... ONE has finally started to at least make a bit of an appearance.... but loves food. Anything that slightly resembles a phone is treated as such and real phones seems to be the reason for his existence. If you let him play with yours just be prepared for the devastation that follows when you take it away.
We love our Enoch the Peanut!!!!

Kiari turns 3!!!!

December 12th was Kiari's 3rd birthday!






Kiari and Trent's mom Kathy share the same birthday. Obviously I had a hard time getting her to smile for this picture.

Earlier in the day Kiari had said, "but I don't know how to blow out the candle!" and I told her that she could ask Ethan for help. These next two pictures are of the "how to blow out the candle" lesson that took place.



Grandma gave Kiari a super cute doll and we gave her a princess dress up trunk. Both were big hits.



I can't remember what they were talking about when I snapped this pic but I love the look on Ethan's face.

Over all it was a pretty low key day. After dinner we had a little party with just the 5 of us. Kiari seemed pretty excited to not be two anymore and everyday since then she has wanted to play dress up.
We absolutely love our Kiari Bel..... even during her Jekyl and Hyde moments. :o)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!
WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

On Thanksgiving my camera was being totally dumb and these are the only pictures I was able to took. And two of them were borrowed from my sister-in-law's blog. :o)

As is tradition for Trent's family, the day before Thanksgiving we made our way to the cabin in Island Park. No words to describe how much I love it up there.
A lot of family. A lot of noise. A lot of great food. It was really healing for a lot of people to be surrounds by so much family.




There are a lot of us.

Turkey cooking trio: Jason, Cheri, and Dad.



Another fun tradition is that Trent's dad will lead the boys on a snowmobile ride up through the mountains before dinner. But before they took off this year, the guys gave all the kids a ride. Trent took me for a ride and it was awesome!

Typically we'll have a second dinner at Trent's mom's house but this year I thought it would be fun to do it at our place. (again, dumb camera, not many pictures) I cooked my first turkey ever and it turned out great! It was so fun having everyone here and getting to play the hosts. Looking forward to our Christmas get together here this weekend.

Halloween in Idaho

Just a few short days after arriving in Idaho it was Halloween. My kids LOVE Halloween. This year we were able to take them trick-or-treating to the Melaleuca home office and let me tell you, the employees go ALL OUT decorating their individual areas of the office. We're talking themes, costumes, sound effects and music, the works.
That night, because we live in the country now AND because it was FREEZING cold outside, we loaded up the kids and drove them around to go trick-or-treating. In the past we've always just taken them to the Trunk or Treat at the church so this was their very first experience knocking doors. We hit a good handful before before heading home to get ready for bed. Enoch was pretty excited about his very piece of candy.
*the pictures are a little out of order but quite frankly I'm too tired to do anything about it. Enjoy.