Shanna & Jason Alldredge

Dallas' oldest sister Shanna got married!  It was a really sweet day to see the union of Shanna and Jason and their two families.  Jason has two little kids, Logan and Madeline, and Shanna has Thomas.  It made us all so happy to see them become a family together.  Madeline couldn't be there because she lives out of state with her mother.  We are looking forward to meeting her over Christmas!

They were married in Evanston by Jason's bishop on November 14th.  They were married by Jason's bishop and had a lot of family support.  All of Dallas' siblings were able to attend except for one- considering how spread out we are and how many of us there are, this was a small miracle in itself!  We always love getting together, especially for such a happy occasion.

 Don't I have the most gorgeous sister's in law?!  They are all so beautiful and I am so blessed to have them as sisters.  I don't know what I would do without each one!

One other special thing was that Annie was able to be Shanna's flower girl!  Annie was so excited to have such an important job.  We loved picking out dresses to match for the little girls, and making sure Annie felt beautiful on this special day.  I love that little girl of mine!

Week 11

Great progress! 5 houses are standing, and we were able to pull off a huge truss day as we put trusses on 2 homes this week- Seawright's (lot 10) and Robinson's (lot 7). We were all feeling excited after our big day, and grateful for perfect weather so we could get a lot done.

Our house is still lonely without any lumber, but we did get our driveway and patio poured! We even got to leave our mark. 

Week 10

This past week was a lot: Work, Young Women's, school parties, Halloween, visitors, baptism, HOUSE. By the end of it Dallas and I would have welcomed a coma. We survived and everything went beautifully. 

Dallas was busy framing walls, and I finished the stair case from the-place-that-will-not-be-named. There was a small set of stairs, then a landing, then a step down, then another landing, then another short set of stairs.... I bet I pulled out a million nails! Phew! Glad it's over

It was a good week building and we saw some great progress. The weather on Saturday was pretty ugly and we were unable to put trusses on the Robinson's house. Now we are 2 weeks behind on trusses-- shoot! Hopefully it won't affect the move in date.

Leaving our mark!

Will's Baptism Day

What a special day this was for our family.  November 1, 2014- Will's baptism day!  He was nervous and excited for the big day, and Dallas and I were so proud of him.  The room was full to the brim with family and friends- they kept having to bring in more chairs.  There was so much love and support for Will, and we were so thankful.  Dallas both baptized and confirmed Will.  How grateful I am to have such a worthy priesthood holder as a husband and father.

Will's favorite cousin, James Robinson, prepared a talk for baptism.  I could see him as a future missionary!  James is a great example to Will, so it meant a lot that he was willing to speak.   

 

Will shared his special day with his best buddy, Beckham.  He has the greatest group of friends here!  His other buddies Julian, Tobin and Luke were there to support them.  These boys!  They know what is right, they are fearless leaders, and they choose the right together.  Pictured below are Will, Beckham Carter, and Julian and Tobin Thomas.

We all felt the spirit through testimonies and music.  When we sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" at the close of the meeting, Dallas, Will and I were all crying.  We talk all the time about how the thing we want more than anything is to be a family forever.  Will took the first step yesterday as he chose to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, into the waters of baptism.  We are so proud, and feel so blessed as a family.

My Little Haunts!

Halloween this year was so much fun.  End of term for the kids landed on Halloween, so they didn't have to go to school!  I cooked a pancake breakfast while we watched the old Disney cartoon "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  The kids had never heard of the Headless Horseman, so it was fun to introduce them.

We had our usual monster feast with Mummy Dogs, festive fruit, and our veggie skeleton, then we headed to Grandma's to trick-or-treat with our cousins!  Since Will's baptism is the next day, we had lots of family in town and it was an extra treat to share the holiday with them.

We hit up Valley Hills, the Ivory Homes neighborhood in our ward, and finished the night trick-or-treating in Timp Meadows.  The dads were party poopers and headed home with Will and James before we got to the last neighborhood.  There was one house at the end of our treat collecting that had what we though was a dummy sitting by the trees.  We even snuck up to it, grabbed it's arm, and I spooked Jenn thinking it was all pretend... until we turned our backs!  He jumped up and scared the daylights out of us!  It was the highlight of our Halloween and we laughed about it all night.

Week 9- Two steps forward, one step back.

Frustration. Disappointment. Exhaustion.

That pretty much sums up our week as we ripped out lots of the work we had completed in the weeks before. All of the doorways in 2 houses had to be rebuilt. Trusses are off. We ended up behind and didn't get trusses on the second house this past Saturday because we had to fix too many mistakes. 

The stair cases that we have been working on have all been installed incorrectly. The top stair being 1 inch shorter than the rest, and therefore against code. Do you know how hard it is to rip out an entire staircase? How about 3? And expensive! I'm hoping that our supervisor comes up with a better solution, and that this next week we see more steps forward and less steps backward. 

There's always an up side. These sunsets!

Abby's Temple Day

I traveled to Logan with the kids so that I could be there as Abby received her endowments in the Logan temple.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and being in the temple with family was truly a slice of Heaven.  So much goodness is found in the temple; when I'm there, all I feel is peace.  Abby is really getting close to leaving on her mission!  It's hard to believe we have under two months left to spend time with her before she goes to Santiago.

Just be "normal!"

Will is getting baptized at the beginning of November, and he is lucky enough to get baptized with his very best friend, Beckham Carter.  These two boys are a riot!  Trying to get them to be "normal" during the baptism photo shoot was nearly impossible.  When all was said and done, it's the real life silly pictures that are our favorites!  After all, this is more "normal" than what we were aiming for.

Week 8

This was the third full week of building and I am still so impressed with the progress our group is making!  The 5 houses that have lumber are all completed to subfloor, one house has all exterior walls up and is nearly done being framed on the inside, and one house is trussed and ready to be roofed!!!

We finished our first task on all of the houses this week (floor joists), and were trained to do top plate, Dallas on interior walls, and I learned how to build a staircase! I finished my first one on Saturday morning. It is such a cool feeling to see your work!

On the home front things are going well. The kids have been really good for the many babysitters they see each week. Will and Annie even act disappointed when they don't have one! Paige never cries for the sitters, but she has been punishing me. She is very clingy and cried whenever I walk out of her sight. I hope if will get better as we all continue to adjust. 

Jensen's house being trussed!

Molly Seawright, Jenna Baker and I were trained on staircases. We are the ultimate "Stair Masters!" (Molly is the one in the picture. These are the stairs in the Jensen's house).

A Few of Our Favorite Things

So much happiness is found in the little things:  

Play dates with friends.  Colorful leaves. Giggles.  Books.  Molasses cookies.  The smell of sawdust.  Slingshots.  Cousins.  Ring-around-the-rosies.  Coloring.  Sunsets.  Bikes.  Naps.  And for me- all things fall.

Week 7

Another week under our tool belts! We are starting to catch on. It tools us almost the entire first week to do floor joists on one house, and last week we finished nearly 3 houses. I'm so proud of the work we are all doing. I'm really glad we are building our home this way. It is something we will be proud of for a long time. It's good to work hard!

Our house is lot #2. It is the only one that doesn't have lumber yet, but it will soon!

I'm really enjoying all of this husband time! It's date night 3 times a week!

Working at night leaves us with some glorious views, too. 

Special thanks to Sierra this week. She came and worked an 8.5 hour shift on Saturday and allowed me to go run a relay race with my friends. We couldn't be doing this without such great family and friends!

RRR Park City

I played hooky from the house (special thanks to Sierra for working a 9 hour day for me!) and ran around my favorite valley with my best of friends.  The mountains were on fire, and so were our legs!  To our surprise, we ended up at the front of the pack of runners, and ended up crossing the finish line at Red Rock Relay Park City FIRST!  It was an awesome moment as Breona passed the one remaining team when we were less than a mile from the finish.  Our all women's team ended up 9/213 teams!  My girls have skills!!!

I ran the same leg as last year, runner 2.  A 3.7 mile run through Charleston at a 7:20 pace, and a 10.2 mile trail run around Jordanelle Reservoir at a 9:33 pace.  I beat both my times from last year, but only by a hair!

The whole team!  Me, Jenn Robinson, Cathy Kendall, Mindy Kohler, Breona Carter, and Katie Nelson.

TVT Children's Choir

This year we put Annie in a children's choir.  She loves to sing and I'm hoping to nurture a little performer.  Tonight was her very first performance.  It made me a little giddy to find her name in our program!  She was a bit timid, but I could see her little lips moving!  I know she knows the words because she has been walking around our house singing, "One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater!"  After her performance she said she loves choir and the performance was awesome!  I look forward to many, many more performances in her future.

Sweet Annie Kate, you are our favorite piggy-tailed performer of all time!