Moving

Austin and Kaylynn's Homes 1996 -2012
1. Logan - little white house
2. Logan - apartment
3. Nibley - little brown house
4. Hyrum - bought our first house
5. Cardston, Alberta - yellow house on the dairy farm
6. Leavitt, Alberta - Austin's parent's house

We moved for the 5th time in our marriage into Austin's parent's house in Leavitt, Alberta (10 minutes from Cardston, Alberta). Buck & Martha left for their 18-month mission to Nauvoo, Illinois. We moved into their house so we can take care of it and take care of their animals.

Moving is good and bad.
Good - you sort through your things and de-junk and deep clean
Bad - it is tons of work

When you move, you wonder why you carry lots of things from house to house (like books and dress-ups and food storage). Austin wants to make a new rule that you just leave your food storage in the house for the next people, and you get the food storage from the house you are moving into. Plus you wonder where all of that dust under your furniture comes from.

We really enjoyed our time in the yellow house (1,050 square feet) near the cemetery.
Things we liked:
Being close to town but out of town
We kept our horses in the pastures at our house
It was protected from the wind because we were next to a big hill plus lots of trees and barns
Greatest landlords and neighbors (Robert & Lorraine Hull)
Great water and water pressure
Front door school bus service - plus a short bus ride to town
Great view from the kitchen window - Cardston, cemetery trees, pasture, sunrise

Things we didn't like:
Dozen mice killed in the house
Appliances that were as old as me (3 1/2 hours to dry a load of laundry, 2 burners that work on the stove, cold air flowing from the fridge, dishwasher that makes a loud grinding sound during the drying cycle)
Dogs that brought us tons of dead animals and animal parts



Now into our new location..

the Quonset behind the house

The barn, wind fence and some of our horses and Buck's horses

Things we will like about our new house:
New kitchen - flooring, cupboards, appliances
A bit more living space
Closer to the church - Leavitt is a great place to live

Things that we will adjust to:
Wind - the first three nights we all laid awake listening to the wind howl
Water - doesn't taste great plus it has its own special smell
45 minutes longer on the bus ride in the morning and 30 minutes longer after school

Thanks to....
*Barb Salmon for helping me clean, pack and move my kitchen
*Hometeachers, Larry & Morgan Leavitt, who helped us move our furniture and fed us Sunday dinner (well, really Carolyn Leavitt fed us dinner)
*Shauna Smith for bringing us muffins
*Rod & Jackie Olsen for feeding us dinner the day we moved in - plus they sent us home with leftovers for the next day
*Lots of people who offered help

Now for unpacking and decorating...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love - It's what brought us here today...

For our Valentine's Day...
The kids took valentines to school - except Jill who is past that but did have a fun Valentine's dance at school. She even danced the jive with her Dad.

When they got home from school, I had the string maze ready. They each have to follow their string throughout the house until they find their prize. This year the gift was pajamas with a bit of candy (less candy than normal because they eat a few pieces, and then I end up eating the rest).



Then we went out sledding on our hill. Austin pulled the tube behind the horses. It was a beautiful day with 5 inches of fresh powder.

Then we enjoyed a candle light dinner of heart pizzas and pink pop before everyone headed out for their church activities of the evening.

Grade 7 Girls Basketball Champs

Jill's Grade 7 Girls Basketball Season has come to a successful end. The Cardston Cougars are the Division Champs!



There are 7 schools in our school division (district). Four of those schools have 100 kids or less in grades K-9 or K-12. To get a basketball team they gather up most of the girls in the grade and even some from the younger grades. They try hard.

There is one team that beat us once this season by 3 points - Raymond, and we had to play against them in the championship game. It was intense and exciting.

1st Quarter - Cardston up by 5 points
2nd Quarter - Raymond up by 5 points
3rd Quarter - Cardston down by 8 or 9 points
4th Quarter - all of the Raymond starters fouled out

Cardston ended up winning the game 51 - 47. A few people commented that they have never seen Austin, who coaches Jill's team, quite so intense. Jill played well but had to sit out quite a bit because she had 3 fouls in the first half. She ended up with 17 points. Go Jill!

Good job girls!



In honor of their gym class (thanks Miss Burt) where they are learning line dancing....





Hanna, Savannah and Ashley - the great little sister cheerleaders!

Lucy's Birthday

We had a birthday-eve celebration for Lucy because we didn't have school. We went swimming in Lethbridge. It was a really fun pool, and we had a fun time. We weren't quite as excited when we left the pool and our car battery was dead because I didn't close my door all the way. After running from car to car ten times in the parking lot asking if anyone had jumper cables, I finally went and asked for help at the Backstreet Pub. Some very friendly men came and jumped our car for us. We were on our way to lunch and grocery shop.

On Lucy's birthday we had sticky buns and bacon. (*Note to self: instant pudding doesn't work in sticky buns. I couldn't find and cook and serve pudding in Canada. Okay, so I really only looked in 2 stores. I have to remember to stock up in "the states.")

We had Lucy's birthday dinner (steak and twice-baked potatoes) in between Lucy's basketball session and Hanna's. Grandma and Grandpa and Dixie joined us for dinner and Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

Thanks for all of the phone calls. She loved the song from the Lees!

Lucy got fun toys, 2 movies, and a shirt. She gets very excited. I hope she had a fun day!

Thanks to Karma for the cute Barbie clothes!

Thanks to "my favorite aunt" Diana for the shirt and Barbie movie.

Meet Rico

Hanna has always loved animals and has always wanted every animal she sees (puppies, miniature donkeys, baby deer, bunnies, chickens, etc).

A few months ago she decided she wanted a chameleon, but then she learned that they aren't very hardy. But she heard that bearded dragons were great pets. So she started saving her money, and she would search the internet all the time to check prices and what equipment she would need.
Six months later, she had saved enough money and hadn't changed her mind about wanting this pet.

So we headed to Lethbridge, went to all 3 pet stores and came home with Rico and a glass cage for him, along with a carton of crickets and worms.

He really is a low maintenance, easy going pet. They say they are like a family dog and they will get to know us and our voices. They also told us to hold him everyday to keep him gentle.

So Hanna feeds him crickets and worms everyday. We even took him to show her class at school.
Because we love Hanna, we have welcomed Rico to our home!

Trip to Idaho/Utah

We packed up and headed to south to visit our family and friends after Christmas.

First stop, Julie's house in Idaho Falls.
We enjoyed good food, playing with cousins, sledding, shopping, going to my cousin's wedding, and the start of the stomach flu. Lucy was sick and spent a whole day in Julie's basement.

Luckily Julie's basement is very fun with the cool wall and the slide!

Second stop, Doug & Emily's house in Logan. Okay, the first stop in Cache Valley was to get my haircut. Austin and the kids went to visit the Summers family while I got my haircut. Then we met Scott & Natalie Ward and their kids for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Our favorite. That night the three other kids were up through the night with the stomach flu. Yuck. So they spent the next day in the basement watching movies while Austin and I took turns leaving. I even went to a K-1 party by myself so we didn't spread our germs. I had a super fun time with my cool friends.

Austin and the girls (who were feeling a bit better) walked to the mall (Doug lives close and it was so warm for December) and then had pizza and watched movies with Doug and Emily.

Next, we headed to Jeanette's house for a New Year's eve party. We had a blast hanging out with the Bennetts, the Whipples and Diana. 5 guys and Jill and Hanna went to a BYU basketball game and then to 5 Guys Burgers for dinner.

The rest of the women and children talked, shopped for food, made food, ate food and talked some more. We did little fireworks at midnight and watched big fireworks all around us, and some really cool floating lights (just like on Tangled).






Sunday we journeyed back to Hyrum to go to Sacrament Meeting at our old ward. Next a visit with Steve and Karma Albiston - we miss them!!

Then we stopped to see Scott & Natalie's new house and then on to Montpelier to spend the night with the Pitchfords.

Next back to Idaho Falls to spend the afternoon and evening with my parents.

One week later, we headed back home. It was very fun to see everyone, despite having the kids with the flu. And in between all of that, we did manage some shopping. Okay, more than a little shopping. It is a little shocking to add up our receipts as we head towards the border. It's a good thing we only go a couple times a year, but we have to stock up.

Christmas

There's nothing like wearing your new pajamas to bed on Christmas Eve.




Still sleepy but excited for Christmas morning.

We had a super fun Christmas morning. Kids are exciting at Christmas.

We got lots of great gifts for Christmas. Thanks to everyone who was thoughtful and kind. Here are the things we got from Santa this year:

Jill got a leather tool set.
Hanna got a camera.
Lucy got a talking dog named Cookie.
Carly got a Baby Alive.
Austin got warm stuff to wear outside (sweater, long johns, etc.)
I got a fancy new camera (yeah) and a new knife set (the ones from our wedding 15 years ago were quite dull).


Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we headed to church. Jill and I sang in the choir. Jill, Hanna, Lucy and Carly sang "One Bright Star." They did a great job. Austin had to work to keep Carly awake until their song because it was near the end of the program. (I wish I had taken a picture - Lucy and Carly got new dresses).

After church, we went to watch all of the rest of the Nunn family open their presents. Fun. Chaotic, but fun! We enjoyed the afternoon looking at all of the new stuff, reading, sleeping and eating.

On Boxing Day, we spent the day at the rodeo in Cardston. It was fun to have the cousins there. Jill and Hanna did great! Jill placed in the goat tying.