Our house

This post is for my Aunt Kathy. She asked for pictures of our house a while ago so here they are very late :)

 This is Cora's room. And I am very glad to say that she now sleeps all night in her own bed. For about 2 months she was waking up often in the night and either going in the living room on the couch or just waking up sad and insisting on us laying with her until she fell asleep. But she now is a great sleeper again. And I couldn't be happier.

There is another room downstairs but Lucy was sleeping in it at the time I was taking pictures there is also a bathroom downstairs but it is bare and not very exciting. So if you want to see those two room you will just have to come visit us :) Cortez is a great place and All of you should come visit :)

November 2012

We had a great November and again not many pictures to document all that we did but we had a great month. For Thanks giving we went to a couple, Deloy and Anna May Tanner's house. They are in our ward and Deloy works with Chad. It was a great day with a good dinner and great company. We took the traditional Cranberry Ice and Rolls.
The day after Thanks giving we went and got our tree at the grocery store. It is the first time for me to not go and cut one down... it was a bit simpler and a much more pretty tree :)
The next few days we decorated it and our house for Christmas. I love Christmas time and the decorations.

Cora putting the star on top. She loved it and brought it up often the following weeks how she put the star on top

Every night Chad read Christmas stories to Cora. She could have sat there for hours listening to all the great stories. She loves book and loved Christmas books even more.

After playing in the first snow of the year.

We made cinnamon/applesauce ornaments this year, it is now a tradition because I loved it so much. It smelled so good

 This picture cracks me up. This is Cora going to her first Birthday Party of a friend. It was her friend Hadley's Party and she was so excited to go we had a great time. They are great friends.

And I just couldn't leave this picture out. Cora likes to take pictures with the camera and this is just one that she snapped :) We sure do love this girl

The Polar Express

The December 1st we started our Christmas Celebration by going on The Polar Express in Durango, a town near by.
We had a great time, we got the book from the library a few days before and read it lots with Cora so that she would be more excited. And she loved it! Although the actual train ride was focused more on the movie than the book, which I guess is a good thing cause the book isn't really that long. :)

They did a reenactment of the boy getting on the train then we all got on the train and got hot chocolate as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars :) and really good chocolate chip cookies. And rode to the North Pole and saw the little boy get on Santa's sleigh to receive the first gift of Christmas.  With lots of lights and elves all over, Cora's favorite part was a huge snowman cause she isn't such a fan of Santa.

On the way back everyone in our car sang Christmas songs and Santa came by and gave everyone a silver bell. It was a magical night.

Chad and Cora as waiting for the train... we ended up over dressing for the event it wasn't as cold as we expected so we ended up carrying a few coats, hats, mittens, and blankets :)

The Polar Express... This was the best part when the train pulled up all the chefs and conductors were hanging out side waving as it past by.

The conductor even punched a letter out on each ticket. And let the punched out ticket fall all over our face

The delicious cookies. They had really pretty green and red sparkles all over them. It was like eating magic

After the train ride we went out to eat with our friends the Patrick's.
And just so you know the bell still rings for all of us.

First few weeks of October

The first part of October was spent in our new home, Cortez, CO.
We were excited to start a new part of our lives and see what it is like to live in a new place. Here is a quick recap of what happened the first 2 1/2 weeks of our October.
(Again a explanation of each picture left to right top to bottom)
-This is where we stayed for a little over 2 weeks, a studio apartment. Chad's boss was very kind in letting us stay here until we found a place to live. So the first two pictures are the whole place. It was shaped like an L, both pictures were taken in the same place just turned. We were quite excited to move into a bigger place but it is a good memory now :)
-Lucy Lu all bundled up.
-The best thing about the apartment was the land that it was on, it was beautiful with chickens, cows, horses, bunnies, dogs, and a playground. So our time luckily passed quickly. Cora loved to go for walks to see all the animals but really loved the horses. She also renamed all the animals, she thought of the names all by herself. The horses were Pupcake and Custard (both from Strawberry Shortcake), the bunnies were Max and Ruby, and her favorite dog was Strawberry.
-The Smith's also let us borrow this awesome bike that would move just by moving the steering wheel back and forth. It was fun and it wasn't even built for people my size :)
-This was a picture of Cora and her cousins right before we left Logan... kinda out of place but it was in October.
-During Lucy's nap when Cora wasn't sleeping I usually had to turn a show on for Cora so that she would be quite enough for Lucy to fall asleep... Cora didn't mind.
-She also started to really REALLY love books and would just look at books for ever.
-Probably 4 of the 5 week nights we would go to the rec center and go swimming. It is an awesome pool with a kid pool, duck slide, and a lazy river.
-A not so awesome part of the apartment is that we found a black widow INside the apartment... yeah it was gross and quickly disposed of. And also this little fella just outside our door. It was pretty nasty. At one point in my life I really wanted a tarantula but I really have no idea why that would very be.
-Lucy loving her toes, her favorite toy
-Playing outside.
-Cora really doesn't like showers so she got her own little bathtub aka kitchen sink. It was a perfect fit.

September

September was a great and busy month.
We spent a lot of time just chillin at home and in the sunshine. We found out that we were moving near the end of the month so also lots of time spent with family and friends.
Now a short description of all the pictures ( left to right, top to bottom)
- Cora and her cousin Issac playing the piano. Cora loves all of her cousins very much
- The worst part of the month was that for about two weeks we had very heavy equipment working right in front of our house. So we often had to park about a block away and the equipment was very loud. I would get pretty upset that they just kept digging up the road and then re-leveling it. The worst part about it was they had this seismic roller thing to push the dirt down but it would literately shake our entire house and was really loud.  Needless to say it got on my nerves a few times. :)
-Just playing in the sunshine with poppers
-Cora eats peanut butter oatmeal almost everyday for breakfast and the morning of this picture her dog teeny tiny was helping feed her. I thought it was pretty funny.
- Pretty Lucy in the sunshine
-Lucy loves her toes
-Again pretty Lucy
-Cora with pigtails even though you can't really see them she looks cute with them :)

And a few videos...
Cora and Lucy both love their daddy

 This was when we were leaving to Colorado... I asked Cora where we were going.

August

So yes I know it is very much past August but I never really documented it here is a quick recap.
-Awesome Bean Teepees with Grandma Phillips
-When riding in the car the sun would get in Cora's face and she really didn't like it so we kept a spare hat in the car for her to wear to block the sun. And so it often just covered her whole face.
-Falling asleep in the car after fun long days.
-Making lots and lots of jam.
-Pink's Snow Cones (they were some of the best snow cones ever!)
-More snow cones at Aggie football game. Cora's first USU football game, we only made it to halftime but it was fun none the less.
-Camping at the river then going to the lake the next day. I hadn't been since I was a little kid, great memories to share with my family.
-Lucy was a thumb sucker. (it is now November and she no longer sucks her thumb)
-Playing out side and in the tub both great places. In the tub one I was trying to get a good picture of Cora's curls... specifically the one curl right in the middle of her forehead.
-Picnics at the park.
-Sister love at Grandma Bischoff's house. We were able to live in her house in Smithfield for about 2 months. It was great.
-Cute Lucy
-And last picture is rainbow milk... one of Cora's favorite activities. 

And a few videos from the month

What is next for us?

 If you are wondering what that beautiful city is you see below is.... It is our new home. Cortez, Colorado.

As of yesterday afternoon we are going to be moving to Cortez in about two weeks. Chad has been offered a new title of Human Resource Manager for the Smith Group. And we accepted it!

The Smith Group owns about 35 different Aaron's stores all over the western United States and and continuing to grow and have asked Chad to come be their HR :)

You don't have to read this next part but I am going to put it on here for my memories sake.
Last Wednesday Chad had an interview with a guy named Mike here at the Aaron's store in Logan and on Thursday a lady, Patty called him and had another interview and asked if he and his family could come down for another interview.

So yesterday Wednesday September 12 Chad, Lucy, and I (we left Cora with my sister Emily) went to the Logan Airport to be picked up by the company jet to go down to Cortez, Colorado. It was a little plane with six seats and only took about an hour and a half to get there. We got there and just driving to the office we started to like the town.
Chad then had an interview for about 30 minutes with me outside the door trying to listen to what they were saying :) Then Chad and I took their car and explored the town for about an hour we then went back to the office and they told us about a town that was 10 miles out of town that we really pretty and pretty much told us to go look at it. I don't think they were done discussing the interview. So we took off about and went to Dolores, it was extremely pretty and cute little town. We talked for a bit then went back and they offered the job to Chad!
We then went for another short drive to the church building that was just up the road from the office and decided that we were going to except it. We went and told them and everyone cheered :)

The main boss offered a studio apartment on his property for us to stay in until we find a place to live so pretty much we are beyond excited for a new adventure in life.
We stopped by the bosses house and it was literally a dream house. It is on 109 acres of rolling hills, a small canyon with a pond, horses, cows, bunnies, dogs, and pretty much any recreation toy there is. :)
We feel so blessed to be able to live there for a short time until we can find a bigger place and to be working with great people.

We have loved our time here in Logan and will be really sad to move but we are excited to see what it is like to live out side of Franklin/Cache/Box Elder Counties.  Everyone we have talked to there have all said that their ward is the best and that it is a great place to live so we are excited to meet new people.

Chad starts October 2 and the rest is completely unknown :)
So if anyone knows someone in Cortez tell them we are coming :)

This is the company plane that we flew on.

And here is Business Man Chad :) I sure love him and am so proud of all the hard work he does for our family