Merry Warm Chrsitmas

SO of course as I stated last blog, things have been crazy with this new house, and so of course I would forget/not have the time to blog. also i havent had time to clean my house in 2 weeks (till today, dont worry that took priority) we just keep so busy!

Christmas was so fun! we left the thursday before christmas and drove all the way to Idaho Falls. We stayed with Jaxson and Christine and there little girl Qora. We have missed them so so much. I saw them last year right after Qora was born, but Justin hasnt seen them since we left Idaho 2 and a half years ago. dont worry they picked right back up with all the gun and car talk. I know justin missed it a ton so it was fun to watch. we had a great evening and kept it pretty chill. for our long drive and we had a quick morning the next day anyways. Livia, Cody and their little girl Natali came over and we all hung out in the morning. Natali is so precious and so small even compared to Rex. she is just a skinny girl! but way precious. we loved hanging out with old friends! it went by way to fast and we were so not ready to say goodbye and hit the road again. I know we just bought a house, but we still look forward to moving closer to all our friends and family again. hopefully in the next few years! we will see what the Lord has in store for us.

The kids did great on the road trip. they didnt get too cranky till the end, but who wouldnt after 15 hrs in  car. rex even did pretty well. we had a good system going where I would pump in the front seat and then give him the bottle immediately. he did awesome with that. he didnt want it so much on the way home from thanksgiving, but it worked well for christmas.

oh! story time. those with weak stomachs skip this paragraph. its bad.  so when we have a long road trip we get up early and put the kids in the car with their jammies on (with new diapers though). no problem. shortly before we get to our first gas stop where we would go in and change them into day time clothes we start to smell something really foul. someone has pooped. its a bad one. good thing we are about to stop. no harm done just wait an extra 5 min or so. but in those 5 min it gets bad! we can tell its really bad. we dont know who but its probably rylie, ryker can hold it when he is awake and rex doesnt smell that adult ish yet. so we park and start to get kids out. we can see poor rylies footie pajamas are turning brown.... uh oh. we rush in and go to clean her up first. i take her into the stall and get her on the changing table. (only her body fits, her legs hang off.) poor girl is uncomfortable and squirmy. i unzip her jammies and try my best not to vomit. poor thing has leaked all out of her diaper and all over her clothes. but i have to get them off her! only one way for that to happen. so i pull her leg out. she now has poop all over her stomach, bum, leg, in between her toes, its everywhere! somehow i manage to control myself and not breath while i get her cleaned up and changed. then wipe as much of the solid stuff i can off. then we go out into the sinks and i clean as much as i can off there. it was horrid. i was smelling poop for hours after. thats not all! after the first disaster we had to put something on her carseat because of course it leaked into the pad and then smelled up the whole car. to add unsult to injury basically every time we stopped, we had to change a diareahea rylie and get her some new pants. every, stop. for 15 hrs. im so sorry little one. thank goodness jaxson let us use the washer and dryer so we could wash all offending materials.

we got to the cabin in Garden City. snow was just starting to fall. Most everyone was already there. Tricia, Brandon and Bryce would make their way up that evening after Brandon got off work. ryker immediately took off with Kallen and they became good buddies. Rylie was introduced to maya and though they were both a little shy between them and ryker and kallen they all had a great time together.

that night was really come get in and get settled. we went out for Pizza that night. we ordered i think like a 28 inch pizza. it was huge! but delicious. they had a big blow up bear in a santa uniform. Rylie loved it. she wanted to "hold" it and would take it home with her if she were allowed. it was a little quick because we had kids getting cranky. but still fun.

The next day was mostly just chillin. we had some great fun in the snow outside the cabin. sledding, snowballs, and snow angels. then in the evening we had a short cute nativity. many kids got very distracted, but the thought was there and we did get a picture. thats important. kids went off to bed excited for the next day.

Christmas sunday was great! of course the kids were up by 630 and we went upstairs. we had filled all the stockings and laied out the santa gifts. we had fun playing and enjoying the morning. we all went off to sacrament meeting at 9 am. it was beautiful. they had some great musical numbers. Ryker and Rylie were really sad we were not staying for nursery. they come to love that time. we came home and finished opening presents, did the cousin gift exchange. then had a great time playing with all the new fun toys/learning that sometimes we dont want to share our new christmas toys so its okay if others dont want to share either. it was rough for the younger crowed but we managed and not too many tantrums or tears were shed. sorry to all if my kids did something rude!

We had a DELICIOUS! dinner and more fun with everyone. it really was so relaxing and chill i just loved it. I did get to skype with my family/fallyn on christmas day. she looked so good. i was wrangling rex the whole time but ryker and rylie did get to come say hi real quick. it was so good to see her. we miss her a bunch! but love her emails every week.

monday morning was clean up, pack up, and head to tricias house. that was a short trip but poor justin wasnt feeling the best. he spent the morning in and out of the bathroom as he tried to pack things up. then half way down the mountain pulled over and got sick in the car. i tried hard to reclaim my dignity, but i have such a hard time with vomit im sorry. i tried not to be a little girl about it but i sat there plugging my nose and humming to myself so i wouldnt have to hear or smell anything. ryker looks at justin from the back seat and says "dad? what are you doing?" justin is wretching his guts into a bag with a small hole in it in the drivers seat. it was an eventful drive! justin still wouldnt let me drive after that. come on man! you are clearly sick! but we made it to tricias with no further incidents.

tuesday we went to visit grandma deitrick. We left the kids at home and went during their nap. i have never met her. i really loved it. being in an assisted living place totally put me back in work mode. it was interesting. it was a little sad to hear how far her memory has gone. but she still seems happy and thats important. she had a little book with pictures of the whole family. we could show her a pic of rex and tell her we named him after her late husband. i dont know if she remembers, but it was good to share with her anyway. she acted like i was a friend that always came by! it was fun to have her remember me! even though she has never met me. we saw a pic of her with grandpa rex. i kept staring at it. oh my goodness that was my baby 40 years later. they look so similar!

the rest of the day we celebrated rylies birthday. we played with her and then we had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. i made her a fun strawberry cake with a duck pond on top with duckie candles. it was super cute. thank you tricia for letting me commandeer your kitchen. it was great to celebrate with family. (technically her birthday wasnt until wed but we would be driving all day) she got some adorable new outfits from grandma and grandpa plus a cute waterwow coloring book from aunt crystal and family. a few gifts from mom and dad. she was so happy and had a great day. thanks for celebrating with us everyone!

wed we drove to billings and spent the night in a hotel. it was weird. justin was in a bed with ryker and i was in a bed with rylie. we got rex to sleep and put ryker and rylie to bed. hoping that with a parent in each bed they would sleep okay. eh. we were tired. them not so much. it took a bit for them to fall asleep but it was mostly okay. my biggest issue was getting up to nurse rex and then coming back to bed to find rylie turned and her head or feet in my spot. i mean i knew she twisted a bit as she slept but i didnt really think about it till i was sharing a bed with her. but we made it through the night! woke up and got some breakfast before heading home. it was only a 6 hr trip so it wasnt too bad. we got home and didnt know what to expect. We had a big storm come through during christmas and with us not here to take care of it the wind drifted it pretty bad. we couldnt get into our driveway. justin got out and shoveled a walk way to get me and the kids inside. then he unloaded the car in our living room. we were going to tackle it the next day but remembered we had my new fixed stove coming early the next morning. no rest for the weary! we got the kids in bed then justin went and borrowed a snowblower from the church to clear our driveway. sorry neighbors. he was plowing for about an hour and a half at 10 at night. but we needed our driveway! we got the van in the garage and out mailbox cleared out so the usps could start delivering our mail again.

it was crazy, but we are happy to be home! i am not sure how many of these stories were repeats from my last post. but i hope you enjoy them none the less.

finally got to give misty the bed we made!!! it looks so good!

working on all the sections for the herringbone pattern for the bed. all pieces needed to be cut, sanded, stained, painted, and distressed. oye!

fully done in our garage

the cool string art we gave Beez this year. its our last name in chinese

early christmas at home! 

big gift being the kitchenet this year

cool track!

hurray for road trips! this was after blowout number 1 i think

gorgeous views going through the teteons

liv playing with rex

jaxson with Qora

rylie loved playing with christine

this is the only pic i have of natali! which isnt even a pic! i need a better one. but she was there playing with us too!

our big pizza friday night!

maya and rylie hugging the bear

all the grandkids (minus Bryce)

maya shared her big monkey with rylie. she loves it!

loving time with grandpa

putting up the tree

rylie sledding with grandpa

dad with ryker

rex and i came out to play too

snow angels!

rex didnt sled down but it was a good seat for him

rylie still loves to playwith rex

bryce and rex became great friends. so cute holding hands

all our stockings!

a candid photo of grandpa taken by ryker. he was always good to indulge and play with him. 

loving snuggles with grandma

kallen and rex

dad and ryker built a fire to help keep us warm downstairs

our wiseman

our nativity

christmas day! a fun car to take apart and a drill to use on it

rylie got some awesome velcro cut apart fruits and veggies for her kitchen

our sleepy wiseman that was only awake for it the next morning

ryker helped "fix" kallens lawn mower with his drill. so cute. 

christmas french toast! with lots of bed head

baby santa and i after church

opening the rest of our gifts

maya got a bubble maker that everyone LOVED!!!

the adult gift exchange

we had fun playing this balancing game. i already forgot what its called. justin was good at being sneaky and throwing some crazy changes in there. 

in the right pic is grandma deitrick and grandpa rex. i know its hard to see. but that is my baby! give or take 50 years

fun in the hotel

sparkly gift for justin! he loves it so much.... 

our christmas card!

family photo for the season

our fun track from Aunt Alicia and Uncle Brandon

sledding!

the nativity

kallen and ryker got some cool guns for christmas!

ryker hunting haha

December in Dakota

I will just start by telling you all that december was crazy and intense and between projects and the house and holidays we have been running round like headless chickens for weeks. we are just now starting to get back into a normal routine and we are almost 2 weeks into January. speaking of, its 2017 already? how did that happen? i was just getting used to writing 2016. i have already messed up the date at least 5 times. oops... oh well. anyways... i need to break up december into multiple posts. so sorry you dont get all the juicy details on our life just yet. but they will all be pretty heavy in the picture and video department so dont you even worry.

Lets start with the obvious. WE BOUGHT THE HOUSE!!!!! after all the painful waiting for any information and the slow as a glacier sellers we finally got things figured out and accepted and approved and all the other millions of things that had to happen to buy a house. we have officially signed our names like 20 times and took our awesome record of being in no debt and flushed it down the drain into a mortgage. but we are so happy about it! it is still a little surreal. i can really call our living space a house and our home. its beautiful. even from when we first walked through it i could feel it that this was our house. and im so happy things worked out. we have been actively getting it livable the Deitrick way since getting the keys. first order of business was switching locks out. We got in a week earlier than anticipated. we closed the 9th of Dec and moved everything the 10th. we had tons of help moving things. thanks everyone!!! I got our babysitter and came over to the house early to watch the kids in one of the rooms downstairs. Upstairs I made something special for everyone who helped (cookies and hot chocolate. it was -11 degrees outside. yay north dakota!) as well as i helped direct people once they started bringing things in. mostly i kept thinking how much crap we have! holy cow. how did we ever get so much stuff. also i kept looking at boxes and wondering what was inside them. i know i only packed it a week ago, but i feel like i had all the necessities. oh well we figured it out, and i did indeed find things i forgot about but did need.

we spent the next week or so moving in and setting up and getting to know our new place. because we were in so early i did put up the christmas tree for a little decor, and also because we had no blinds or curtains on our front window so a little something to block the view made me feel better. i love how we have set things up. we have a nice living room upstairs that stays mostly clean. it has the toy box with little toys upstairs to play with, but it can all be thrown in at the end of the day. downstairs we have our big play room with the TV. that room i dont care as much if it gets picked up. sometimes it goes a whole week before i put things away. and thats only because i need to vacuum. trying to clean a whole house by myself now is a lot of work. i need more than just an hour and a half of nap time to complete it all. cant wait till the kids start helping! mostly they just want to play with the vacuum so that i cant actually vacuum. darn...

we bought new appliances for my kitchen on black friday so we had those delivered a week after we moved in. we got a 4 piece kitchen set. big fridge with french doors and a pull our freezer on the bottom. im in love and smile everytime i get something out of it. its a win. a nice flat top stove and stainless steel microwave. Then a new dishwasher thats clean and has all the prongs on the racks! this is a big deal to me because the dishwasher in our townhome was literally falling apart everytime i ran it. as much as i love putting rust all over my plates and such, i wasnt a fan. not to mention i had to keep dwindling what i put in because i didnt have enough spoked to keep everything standing up! i was a little frusterated. not to mention when we got into the house the 30+ year old dishwasher was even worse than the townhome!!!! it was horrid. then a week after we got here i noticed it wasnt draining at all. awesome... so even though we bought all new appliances we were not going to put the dishwasher in till we remodeled the kitchen so we warrantied that sucker and got a little money back.

anyways! to make a long story longer when they came to deliver the appliances they told us they couldnt install the dishwasher (apparently a licensed plumber has to. thanks for the update.) we said we would install the microwave because thats plenty easy and didnt want to pay the 15$ instalation fee. totally not worth it. they took away our old tiny fridge (scuffing the linoleum. thanks guys) and gave us our new big one. but said their truck wasnt big enough so they laid it on its side. so dont turn in on for 12 hrs. then wait 12 hrs for it to get to temperature. so you cant use it for a day but we are taking your current fridge and freezer. (we ended up putting food in coolers outside because it was cold enough if not colder than our freezer haha.) then they went to put in the new stove but for some reason the old plug was not deep enough? justin had to go out and get a new plug to install into the wall and plug it in. we turn the breaker back on and the display doenst light up. the burners work, but the oven doesnt. great... so at the end of the day, 4 new appliances! half of 1 is working. i was a little frustrated and minorly emotional about it. dont judge.

things have worked out since then. now the fridge, range, and dishwasher are all new and working great. we are waiting to install the microwave till we renovate. we have started many other things. the main water shut off valve was severely corroded so we replaced that. it was still dripping water so we tried 3 times to solder it with no luck and we were running out of pipe to cut into! so we bought some push valves. i only severely burned myself once! while trying to unsolder a joint it dripped on me and i will have a nice trophy scar of our first house/big project. its a doozy.

we have since started and almost completed moving the laundry room downstairs. we have just a few more wires to run and clean up then it is ready for appliances! its okay using the ones that came with the house, but they are tiny and front loading which i hate. i want my washer back... i feel it cleans better. but we are close!

with the cold weather we are trying to endure. we had a major snow storm after thanksgiving. then some big wind with a smaller storm (still making it blizzard white out conditions) a few days later. we had another storm over christmas with 12-18 inches. then another 6 inches a day or 2 after we got back, and we are projected another storm coming monday. as if we dont have enough snow. literally mountains of it everywhere. and in the evenings you see bulldozers everywhere trying to shove snow places where people wont drive. i feel like we finally get a little control then another dump hits. well this is a bad winter like they have been predicting since we moved here 2 years ago. it has killed the batteries in both our cars. i tried to go to the store the other day only to have both cars not start. the van needs a new battery. but the truck is having some electrical issues like it did in the fall. we are still working on figuring it out. with the van we jumped it and let it run for a while. then i drove it around for half an hour then stopped at walmart (for 5 min or less) got in my car and it still wouldnt start.... i had to flag someone down to borrow their engine so i could jump my car real fast. in case you were wondering. it is customary in ND to leave your car running while you are in the store so that it will start and you can still get home. i did not know this... this morning we went shopping and we left it running. (we brought the spare key to lock it of course) but that thought never crossed my mind. oh the joys of living up north. anyways! i think thats most of it on house stuff. definitely have to do a separate post for christmas and rylies birthday. but enjoy! we will keep you updated on how the renovations go.

cute little bath time. last time in the townhome. 

day we bought the house, we brought a small load over and ate pizza on the floor. loved it. 

draining all our bottled water! now we can get some better jugs to save in. 

one of the first rounds of stuff in the house. mostly its our little dining area (WITH A HARD SURFACE FLOOR!!! NO MORE CRUMB AND CRAP IN THE CARPET) and the kitchen overlooking the backyard we cant play in because the snow is as high as my toddlers. 

first morning in the house

my smiley boy!

yay christmas in our front room!

first demo project, taking all the shelving out of the will be new laundry room

ir was very satisfying to break it apart. 

our big downstairs room. i can literally shove all the toys in the closets and it looks clean. i love it. 

deciding where all the plumbing, piping, wiring, and venting will go before we dive into changing everything. 

dad had to remove the pantry and move the water line for the fridge before they new fridge came in. 

attempt number 2 at fixing the water valve?

soldering some joints before putting them in line. real safe i know. holding crazy hot copper pipe and trying to take a pic. 

these ones made me nervous. the old owner made compression attachments that were awful and sketchy so we basically replaced them. but a blow torch in a small cramped area that is highly flammable made me nervous. justin did great though. and his solder joints look way better. 

doesnt that look pretty? this is my burn bubbled up the next day. now it is all red and scary and scabbed over. but healing!

look at how much my family has changed in the last few years. love it. 

relaxing after a long day

justin showing his parents something. mostly i just think its funny that he is up on the counter but still too tall so crouching. 

curtains and blinds! a little bit of privacy!

one of rykers fine pictures

this was one stop when we were driving home from christmas. everyone out of their seats enjoying some wiggle time. rex pretending he is big enough for rykers seat. 

came home to a snow filled drive way. we ended up borrowing a snowblower and clearing it that night after kids went to bed. mostly because we were getting the new (fixed) oven the next day at like 8 am! not a relaxing evening after a long drive that we were expecting. 

shoveling a walkway to get me and the kids inside then he took loads in just to get it out of the car. 

plowing at like 11 at night. so much snow!

rylie rocking her princess dress and fireman boots. 

this archway in the basement. i hate it. it served no purpose. so we tore it out! because its our house and we can do whatever we want! while tearing it out we found out if really was once a door. surprise!

taking the doorway apart. 

so much more room!

she sat here lifting up her legs like this for like 10 min. it was hilarious. 

we like movies... can you tell? (finally unpacking them)

starting drainage for laundry sink and bathroom sink on the other side. 

copper tubing is all in and no leaks!

more plumbing in the bathroom

rylies 2 year apt. she is 87% for height and 50% for weight. happy healthy lean tall girl! we love her

i know its a terrible pic, but mostly im focusing on the curtain. its for right next to our door. we bought the fabric and i sewed it to fit. im so happy with the color and how it turned out!

for christmas grandma reed gave her some bows and she loves them! wants them part of her outfit everyday. which is making me try harder and she is much more stylish. im thrilled she will let me put stuff in her hair finally. and keep it there

the box for the dishwasher. they loved to play in it. perfect size to ship off to grandparents! haha

my new dishwasher!!!! it actually cleans without giving my family tetanus!

wearing dads hat

sure love her

officially homeowners!!!!

here is what the house looks like not covered in snow. pretty cute right? i love it!

rex at his 4 month apt. they said he was 96% i think? though they didnt specify for height or weight so i dont know what that means. but he is 19 lbs 5 oz in this pic. big boy!

but so happy!

the quick happy birhtday to fallyn on her mission!

playing on our stairs. she and ryker did this in the cabin we went to for christmas and they thought it was the funniest thing. 

a new fave book we got for christmas. its the pout pout fish! its actually adorable and they love to read it every night.