New Year's Eve and New Year's Job!

 It was fun to have Jason and Amber come join us for the Christmas celebrations. Jason wanted some time with us before we headed to Montana. So, Byron starts work on Jan 3 and headed out New Year's Eve morning to beat the storms.

 We ate at another favorite sandwich shop, Pot Bellies before he left town. Took a few more groupies and he was off. The house still hasn't sold in North Salt Lake, this is a point of much distress for me as we don't want to close on the new house until the old house is sold. SO we are waiting in North Salt Lake while Byron head North. I was a weepy mess saying good-bye. I really tried not to but there are so many emotions going on right now. Prepping to say good-bye to everyone in North Salt Lake and my family who lives in Utah. Having so say good-bye to Byron which was crazy hard even though he'll come back on weekends whenever he can. It is all just so much to handle. I'm feeling stressed out and anxious and I hate having Byron gone. He's my rock.

 New Year's Eve Party at Deborah's house. We played lots of games. Ate yummy Chinese take-out. Had a good time ringing in the New Year. I tried hard not to loose it and cry but seriously if everyone would stop asking me if I'm okay I would cry less. No I'm not okay, but that's okay. Had a good sister huddle and let loose a few tears on them. Thanks ladies. I was able to pull myself together and not ruin the fun night for everyone not going through a life change right now. We all take our turns right.

 This New Year is going to be full of big changes for us. Hopefully all good ones if we can get through this period of transition which won't be easy as I have found out again today. Byron called from Kalispell and had made it up safely. He did have a bit of an adventure though on the way. He pulled over to ummm....use the facilities which in this case was the shoulder of a long snowy road. Turned out there wasn't a shoulder there but just a snowbank. He luckily had a shovel in his car and was able to shovel his way out of the situation. A nice guy passing by also stopped and lent him a hand. It was freezing outside like minus thirteen freezing but they were able to get his car unstuck and he got on the road again. He also had a run in with a mountain lion when he pulled over a different time. He saw the lion running down the road and couldn't quite tell what it was. When he got close he was astonished to realize it was a mountain lion so he slowed down to get a closer look. His car kinda of had the lion pinned for a minute and he got to watch it until it figured a way out of the situation and ran off. So far Montana has been quite the adventure for Byron and he couldn't seem more pleased about it. Well, on we go and welcome to 2017-may it be the best year yet.

Christmas Parties and more Christmas Parties

 Carter had his fun group of friends over for a christmas gift exchange and whatnot. They had a great time eating pizza watching the Happy Elf movie and doing a white elephant game. They laughed and laughed so that seems like a good night to me.

 It's a good thing I got that fireplace clean since our house is on the market and all. These monkeys are roasting marshmallows over the gas fireplace and its not working but it is getting little marshmallow spots all over the glass. They look cute but really they are mischievous.

 Byron working on a little smoker dinner for us. It's much trickier in the winter but always turns out delicious. Well, almost always.

 Carter got his blow torch going. He hooked it up to a gas tank for the grill and was pleased that it works so well. I was terrified that it works so well. I may have secretly been wishing this project would never come to fruition. Now what on earth do you use a blow torch for?

 Christmas Eve dinner at our place. We had pot roast and a bunch of delicious sides. It turned out okay for my first try. I do wish it had been a bit more tender though. The boys didn't seem to mind.

 Christmas Eve presents. The kids never have any clue what's inside these ones. Some year I'm going to have to not give them pajamas. They would really be surprised.

 Jason made this cool t-shirt for Carter in honor of his dirt bike project he finished this year.

 Ally is pleased with her BYU soccer ball.

 Carter is super pleased with his truck key. It's a little broken but it still gets the job done. Just like his truck he got. It's a forest green toyota tacoma. Circa 2000 just like Carter. He was very pleased.

 We sent the kids on a treasure hunt to find the last gift. We searched all over the house and eventually ended up heading down to our neighbors garage and ahhhh we got a boat. Should be great fun this summer boating all over Montana. We have no idea how to drive boat so hopefully we can find somebody who knows how and is willing to show us the ropes.

 Christmas dinner at grandma and grandpa Livsey's. There was a bit of family drama but luckily Pie Face pulled us through and we all ended up in stitches with whip cream on our faces.

 Grandma Livsey was nearly in tears waiting for her clicks to go by. She really did not want to get hit with the cream. Kate really wanted her to. Haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Carter made me this awesome ring for Christmas. I love the alpaca face on it. He takes the wood and soaks it then shapes it and sizes it and carves out the design and fills it with metal shavings. It's impressive. 

 A fun Christmas tradition is to head to Juanito Bandito's Christmas Show with our friends the West's. This year I thought we were going to be moved already so we didn't buy tickets until the last minute. Luckily we still got to go our for dinner with our buddies and made it to the show even though we weren't sitting really close together.

 Super fun night with this cute gang of friends. Ty and Jaggar have been hanging out since preschool. Ally and Ethan have been in many home room classes together. They have been great friends of ours for years. It is going to be sad leaving them. MarLyn and I worked the front desk together at Legacy. Good peeps!!

 My Mom called with tickets to the Nutcracker so Byron took Ally and Tyler because Carter said he had to speak in sacrament and I was supposed to give a lesson. Turned out Carter didn't have to speak and I could have gotten out of my lesson if I had known Carter wasn't speaking. Those who got to go had a great time at the ballet though. I love seeing the Nutcracker. I'm glad Byron snagged a photo for me at least.

 Ally and I snuck over to waffle love for a treat. She probably scored a goal and I owed her something or another as a reward for her awesome soccer skills.

 Carter has been working on this blow torch for a while now. It has taken him many trips to all sorts of hardware stores to get it all lined up right. I think he's getting close, Thank you u-tube for another how to video that has kept Carter entertained for weeks.

For some reason she really wanted a candy-cane after Sonja's concert at the U tonight. She wanted it enough to sit on Santa's lap and let me take a photo. Probably one of the last chances I'll get with this gal and Santa. She never did care for the old guy much and I hardly even have any photos of Santa and Ally. It's a shame really as they make such a cute pair. She earned her candy cane.

December 2016

 Free Zoo Day at Hogle Zoo. The kids went with the Gehrings up to the zoo for free zoo day. They were happy to hang out with Ava and Calvin. It's hard wrapping up friendships but we have been trying hard to get in a playdate with lots of our friends.

 Speaking of saying goodbye to old friends. This is our beloved Puntes De Filette. We order it at the Blue Iguana whenever we can. The almond mole under the sirloin steak and sirrano peppers is amazing. We have tried to recreate this meal at home but cannot figure it out. We will miss you old friend. We are hoping for lots of new favorite date night places but I just am not sure if you can beat the Blue Iguana.

 Carter is up early eating his brain food on a Saturday as he is taking the ACT Test this weekend. Pancakes, chocolate milk and a banana. This is one smart kid here. He is going to do awesome.

 Ally at her trumpet concert. It's so hard to get good photos of them during these concerts. I wanted to post it anyway even though it's not the greatest. She has loved learning the trumpet and is very pleased with herself when she gets the notes just perfect. It has been fun watching her take so much joy in her music.

 I picked up a ukulele in Kalispell at the black friday sales that I wanted to paint. I looked all over online for cool tattoo designs and have put it onto this ukulele. I ended up using permanent marker as my medium and am really pleased with how cool it looks. Ally and I are jamming on our ukes to make sure the marker won't rub off. These are going to be Christmas presents for a few lucky sisters/sister in laws who have expressed an interest in learning the ukulele.

 Lucy and I out in the garden doing a bit more fall clean-up work. This could be one of our last garden days together in the North Salt Lake house. It is seriously hard saying good-bye to my yard. I have loved filling it in and getting it to grow. Looking forward to new things in Montana.

 Tyler is sizing up for new skis this season. This kid keeps growing and growing. He is inching up on me faster than I can take it. I think he's only a quarter of an inch shorter than I am now. Won't be long before he's outgrown me too. Carter is 6'3'' right now and Tyler is just under 5'10''. Ally is 4'10'' Everyone is growing up so quickly.

 Tyler and his trombone crew at Legacy. Christmas concert season is upon us. It's great to get to hear what the kids have been working at. Tyler's band is sounding good. Mr. Jensen does an great job keeping all these kids playing in tune and sounding good.

Double ponytails courtesy of his sister Ally. Maybe she can convince him to get a haircut. Actually I don't mind it long. He looks great with short or long hair so long as he keeps it combed down.

Thanksgiving Break Trip to show the kids Kalispell

 It's official, we have a job and a house under contract in Kalispell, MT. We thought it was about time we took the kids to show them where they are moving to. So road trip...luckily it's only 9 hours away from Salt Lake. The boys are checking out their new workshop. It's going to be awesome! I can see many projects happening in there.

 Carter is calling dibs on this tree for his future tree house site. He and Tyler want to build two tree houses and connect them with a rope bridge. Sounds awesome.

 This is the family down by the Flathead River taking our first family photo at our future home. The realtors didn't get the message along to the home owners so they didn't know we were coming to see the place today. They had us look around the property while they straightened up a bit. We had a great time outside showing the kids all the fun things in the yard.

 There is a giant tree stump in the field. Not sure what we will do with it but it has lots of bird house holes drilled in and looks like a mouse hole at the bottom. The boys wanted to climb onto it and claim it. We decided we'd do that after we really owned the place.

 Inside the kids are checking out the upstairs loft area. Maybe the wii and a tv will go put here for a kids zone. It's up on the fourth floor. The house is pretty much the same square footage as our place in North Salt Lake it's just stacked skinnier and taller so it feels more like a town house. Lots of stairs everywhere.

 Norms News is on Main Street and is a local tourist spot. We came for burgers and shakes. It also has a candy store inside so it was sure to please this crowd. We had fun talking about who liked what in the house and who was going to live in which room and such. Lots of planning going on right now.

 Ally and I trying to keep warm. We had a pretty good weekend as far as weather was concerned. Didn't really hit any bad conditions driving back and forth either. We did tow up our pop-up camper which slowed our trip down considerably and we had to stop for gas constantly. We put the Jelly Bean Camper in a storage unit to wait for us to move up officially.

 This is our groupie at McDonald Lake. We came and had a great time looking around in Glacier Park. It is so gorgeous here!

 Skipping rock competition was fierce. There were lots of smooth stones around which made for perfect skipping conditions. Luckily nobody ended up in the crystal clear waters today though as it was pretty chilly outside.

 The Trail of The Cedars Hike is awesome. You pass through three or four different forest types on the way up to a waterfall at the top. Gorgeous moss and super cool river cutting through the rocks. I hope I get to take this hike many many times.

 We ran into snow on the way up to the waterfall. We were still able to get up to the end of the trail but our feet did get a bit wet. Welcome to Glacier Park I guess.

 Happy Thanksgiving from the BJP's! We ate our feast at the Montana Club Restaurant. It was absolutely delicious. We ordered the traditional Thanksgiving Turkey Feast but they were out of turkey and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and well, almost everything so we ate prime rib and carrots and salad and a few roasted potatoes. Then they ran out of those as well. So it wasn't the traditional turkey dinner we were expecting but it was super delicious. Everyone went away pleased and they did have pecan pie for dessert so we stuck with tradition there.

We are so ever grateful to have a job locked down and a house under contract. It is nice to have a few answers to where and what we will be doing in the near future. We feel the Lord has been guiding us in our decisions and things are moving in the way they should although much slower than we originally had anticipated. So far the Lord's timing has worked out better for us than we could have planned for ourselves so we are going to keep trusting in Him and have faith we will all get to where we need to when He needs us there.

I'm grateful Ally was able to finish off her season with her soccer team. It was good closure for her to get to wind down slowly with them. It has been good timing for Carter's school schedule to have a bit more time to wrap things up in Utah. He should be ready for a fresh start in Montana when he gets up there at the end of January. It was nice Byron won't be starting work until after the holidays so he can spend Christmas with us before he heads off to start his new job. Tyler has been able to finish another semester and hopefully will have an easy transition into the new junior high. We also feel if we had offered on the house earlier than we did they may not have been prepared to accept. We couldn't offer full asking price but really wanted the place. It really just feels like the timing has been right overall, although like I said much slower in coming than we had thought.

 Yes she's in bare feet playing at the frozen beach. Ally found her cute reindeer hat at the fairgrounds craft festival we ran across. We also got a few fun bird houses we can put out and a few Christmas gifts. It's funny we are taking things back to North Salt Lake that we are then going to turn around and move back to Montana.

 Tyler loves pizza. I'm pretty sure he could eat it every night. He's a kid after my own heart. He has grown his hair out for his Halloween costume and now it's just getting really long. It is keeping him warm though. What a great kid Tyler is. We are so lucky to have him in our family I just love him so much even when he's messy and leaves trash all over and picks things apart into a bunch of tiny messy pieces. It's the genius in him, you can't be neat and be a genius. The two elements don't function in the brain at the same time.

We got all excited about the idea of going ice skating and then the rink we found turned out to be an outdoor ice rink. I nearly changed my mind but the kids really wanted to go so I strapped on my hat, gloves, parka, another coat, more hats, extra sweaters, three pairs of pants....no just kidding. It wasn't too bad, the skating kept us warmed up. Byron drove around and checked out some sites while we skated. It is weird to think the local kids on the ice could be going to school with my kids in a few months. We might know these people soon, but not yet. It was a fun trip, the kids like the house and are excited even if nervous about the move.