School Days: First to Last

Fall 2013

Lydia's first day of Kinder and Julia's first day of First Grade

Spring 2014

Lydia's Last day of Kindergarten and Julia's last day of 1st. Will they ever stop growing? 

First Day of School for 2013-2014

 My Lydia 

My Julia

I really can't believe how much my sweetie pies have changed and grown up this past school year. I keep telling them to slow down, and take their time in getting so huge. But they aren't listening. 

I think I will cry myself to sleep now. Nighty-night.

Our New Home

First of all- sorry about the banner and blog title not matching up. I plan to fix it. But, until then, I don't really want to talk about it. :/

So on to the real purpose of this post...

Here are a few pictures of our new house:

When we bought this house, it had no fireplace. I don't really know why they would build a home in North Dakota without one, so we decided to have one put in.  

Our new fireplace with it's new paint color. I hadn't finished cutting in yet when I took the pic, but I love the way the fireplace turned out. 

Beautiful fireplace with the itty bitty T.V.

 We put the bigger T.V. in our basement. This little T.V. actually doesn't seem so tiny when in use, but it does look hilariously little in this picture.

My brother in law reminded me of this episode when he was helping us mount our little telly.
---So. Funny.

Here is the semi-finished fireplace complete with Jen from the Little Couple.

 We plan to mount the cable box inconspicuously above television to make it look better, and make some room for stockings in a few months.

Outside of our new home before we moved in

I love our new front door. It has a springy flower wreath on it now. 

I love the craftsman style

This is how our upstairs living room looked pre-fireplace

Our kitchen. I love it. I just wish it had twice the cabinet space.

Our deck off the back

Our dining room

Another View of the kitchen

We will seed our back and front yard soon. Our back yard is actually huge...it just looks smallish here.

This our basement living area. I love that our basement still has regular sized windows.

There are two bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. Our girls have the downstairs rooms, and our room and the guest bedroom is upstairs. We have learned that the basement stays about 10 degrees cooler than the upstairs rooms, and we are trying to make adjustments accordingly. We will definitely be ordering heaters for their rooms before fall comes.

We are loving our new home. After things are all unpacked, I will try and get a few more pics added.

Thanks for checking in and putting up with me while I add boring posts while watching Psych at the same time.

Blessings, Amber

Happy (Belated) Birthday Saige!

On the 8th, Saige turned 2!!! We had a fun time celebrating her little life. 

These days, she is head over heels for Mickey and his Mousketools. So, we celebrated her day, Disney style.

Breakfast set up

Her favorite breakfast is the same thing we have most days: Cereal

Helping Mom make her Birthday Cake

Family and the cake pre-sprinkle

Saige and her sisters did an awesome job adding some sprinkles to her cake

Saige didn't sleep well on the eve of her birthday. I actually ended up giving her a bath at 12:30 a.m. the day of her birthday. She slept great after that!

Saige got to open presents from family and from us in the evening. Thanks to my parents and Dave's parents for the sweet gifts! Saige loved them all.

Two and a half years ago, I thought I wanted a little boy more than anything. I'm so glad God knew to give me my Saige instead. She is such a joy! She loves to spend her days pretending to be a puppy and has an amazing vocabulary. She is strong minded, smart and sassy. She stands up to her sisters with just as much spunk as they have, and tells it like it is. Just the other day, she told me, "Saigie is da boss." I didn't let her get away with that one, but she delivered the message with a smile, and it sure was cute. Maybe someday God will still bless us with a stinky little boy, but if not, my heart is already full!

My chickadees are the best. Love, Amber

Easter - Back-up Blogging

Hello Blog world! I have been without internet for the last 12 days, and I am glad to be back! I wanted to add some pictures from Easter, and also let you all know that although it is still chilly and windy, it also great living in North Dakota. We love our new house, and I plan to post pics on here soon.

Dickinson Community Easter Egg Craziness

Waiting for the craziness

What was collected

 Before the older girls got to go collect the eggs, they turned out the lights and turned on black lights. Then they let the kids loose. It was fun, but I'm glad Saige was at the hotel, napping.

Dyeing Easter Eggs at the hotel

Julia coloring her egg before we dunk it

Lydia being creative

 

Saige drawing/occasionally dropping the eggs

 

Even Dave and I color eggs

Our finished product

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

We tried out a Nazarene church for Easter and then ate at Applebee's with friends. It was a great day. It even got up to 70 that day. I thought then that that was kinda how the weather would stay. But, I was wrong. :)

Blessings, Amber

First Impressions

We've been in Dickinson a little over a week and a half. It feels like we've been here much longer than that though. 

Some pictures of our first two weeks:

Swimming in the Hotel Pool

Saige in goggles

 As I was walking to the grocery store the first day we got here, I met a couple who had just moved here the same day and that have 7 kids. The husband, James, also works at Conoco Phillips, so I asked Dave to look for him at training since Dave and James were starting on the same day. The guys found each other easily during orientation, and our family and theirs became fast friends. We had them over to our hotel to go swimming a few times, and even ate Easter Dinner with them. They have unfortunately gone to training in Colorado for 3 months, but we hope to have them over for dinner when they come back to North Dakota.

Letters to classmates and friends

Before the girls were back in school, we spent an afternoon writing letter to friends and classmates. Julia is such a perfectionist, that it took us a while to get a letter written to her class and a friend. But, we finally got it!

Sweet Sleepers

Sweet sleeping babe

Sleeping in a hotel gives Dave and I the opportunity to see our daughters sleep. It is so sweet! And, now we know that one of the girls grinds her teeth for a long time, the other girl grinds her teeth in short clicking like sounds, and the baby laughs and cries in her sleep. It's been an interesting experience.

But despite a slightly less amount of sleep, we have been able to go on some pretty wonderful adventures. Last weekend we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We had such a wonderful and exhausting day!

A Herd of Buffalos

We saw several herds of buffalo. We counted that we saw about 100 buffalo in the few short hours we were at the park last weekend. It was so invigorating!

Can you See the Baby?

Looking for the Baby Buffalo

It's a little windier in North Dakota...

Buffalo Right By the Van

Girls on the Hilltop

We let the girls get out, and we went on a short climb/hike.

This View from our Short Hike

Another View...See the Van?

It was unbelievably windy up there. But, it was so great! We can't wait to go back to the park and hike to the petrified forest!

Wild horses!

We also saw prairie dogs, turkeys, birds and cows that day. We look forward to going back to see more wildlife.

Theodore Roosevelt's Summer Cabin

The girls loved learning about Theodore Roosevelt and all the wildlife, and so did Dave and I. We plan to camp and horse back ride at the park in the summer. The small town near the park, Medora, also has a musical that runs for about a month in the summer, that we can't wait to see. 

We are loving life in North Dakota! So far, our first impressions of North Dakota have been great. We will see how we feel when next winter hits. :) 

Thanks for reading,

Amber