From Bloomfield to St. George

Last weekend we went to St. George, Utah for a little Jones Family get-together.
This is all the Jones grandkids, all 18 of them. They are lined up according to height, not age.
Marcus, Sydney, Mathew, Holly, Benjamin, Brynley, Kaleb, Jack, Emmalynn, Bryant, Lyndsi, Cassidee, Hailey, Chase, Graysen, Chad, Boston, and Adam standing in the corner.

This is the awesome house that belongs to Nate's wife, Leesa, 's parents. If it was big enough for all six couples and their kids, and cousin Annie and her hubby, Rob, you know it was big.


One the way home we stopped at the dam that creates Lake Powell. It was pretty cool. We were on a bridge that goes over the river. The dam on one side, the trickling river on the other.
This is the dam side:
We thought of our friends, the Johnstons, as we looked at Lake Powell. Maybe we'll still get to hang out with you there someday??


This is the river side. I love the red rock cliffs.
Ok, so it's not that trickling. It is after all the mighty Colorado River.


These are just some cool rocks we saw close to the Arizona/New Mexico border.

Our pathway (which was almost soli little two lane highways that wound around cliffs and canyons and desert) from Bloomfield, NM to St. George, UT took us from NM to AZ, into UT and back to AZ, then back into Utah. No wonder it took 7 1/2 hours to get there! But there was some awesome scenery along the way.

We Closed!

We closed on our house yesterday. It is officially ours now.
I'm not sure if I'm happy... or disappointed. There's no turning back for sure now. We could be here FOREVER!
We are excited to get the rest of our things next Wed. Anyone want to help unpack??
We'll see how everything will fit into this house!!

Tomorrow - The Closing Date

Tomorrow we are scheduled to close on our house here in New Mexico. We think we have everything set, but we'll probably find out something we are missing when we actually start signing the papers. This will surely clean out our checking account! Next week, hopefully we will get the remainder of our stuff and then we'll really feel at home once again.
We'll let you all know the update on the closing after tomorrow!
Hopefully we'll still have the use of our writing hands after signing the zillion papers it takes.

The Life of a Moving Box...After Moving

Oh, what to do with all the moving boxes!?

Play in them, what else?
When the Ryan cousins came to visit they had a fabulous idea to decorate and play in the boxes. They each made their own.

My kids have had countless hours playing in the gigantic boxes! But...someday soon those big boxes will have to find a new home. (Like next week when we close on the house and the rest of our stuff gets here and there won't be room for big boxes!)

Yikes!

It's been a long day.
Little Adam got a fever yesterday and took medicine before going to bed. He woke up at 2:30 in the morning burning up. I was up from 2:30 to 5:30 taking care of him. I slept until 6:15 when all the kids woke up. Emmalynn dressed herself and did her own hair. I didn't really pay attention to what she looked like when she went out the door. This is what I saw when She got home from school.
A patterned purple and maroon skirt and a bright red shirt with a shiny sequined heart.
This is the result of three things.
#1 - I was half dead this morning when she went to school because of Adam's fever.
#2 - All her pants/capris were in the laundry.
#3 - She only has 5 pairs of capris anyway because the tub of her new school clothes I'd been collecting for her got left in the storage unit instead of coming to the new house.
Ooops! Maybe she needs a lesson in fashion. Or just one in matching colors instead!

Bathtime Fun

The cute pictures of my kids playing with bubbles in the tub have been removed to avoid possible problems with Social Services and Child Pornography Police.
It's a pretty sad world out there when parents get their kids taken away from them for trying to print a picture of their kids playing in the tub.
Jill informed me of such a thing she saw on CNN yesterday.
I wouldn't want to risk having my kids taken away.
But, how in the world are moms now supposed to get the "Bathtime, Bubble Fun" scrapbook pages done??

The Undaunted

I wasn't aware that Gerald Lund had recently published a new book called The Undaunted. It is the story of the pioneers that came through the Hole-in-the-Rock. They started the settlements in the southeast corner of Utah.
For my birthday my wonderful mother-in-law gave me the book. I loved his other books and was very excited to read this new one as well. (Even though I didn't know it existed before she handed it to me last weekend.)
I happen to be a terrible mom, wife and housekeeper when I'm in the middle of a good book. I can't stop reading to attend to other things. I couldn't finish it fast enough. I started Monday night or Tues. morning (I can't remember, see how bad I am) and finally finished it this morning. It's over 800 pages long, it's massive! (Cassee has watched way too much television these last few days.)
It was fabulous. (Thank you so much for giving it to me, Chris!)
This story has special meaning to Dan's family on the Jones' side. The people in this story are his ancestors from the family tree. One of the leaders, Jens Nielson is a great-great-great (I'm not sure how many, the pedigree chart is in a storage unit) grandfather to Dan's dad. He was an important leader and was a main (real) character in the book. He was also a main (real) character in another book by Gerald Lund, The Fire of the Covenant, the story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies that crossed the plains. Also an excellent book.
These pioneers went through so much to do what the Lord asked them to do . They are an inspiration to me. I have grown to love these pioneer ancestors so much as I've learned about their trips and trials. I know that I'm not a direct descendant, however, my children are! I hope that I can teach them to love these ancestors as well.
It's an amazing story. You can look at pictures of the areas and learn more about it at the website: Undaunted-TheNovel.com
Thanks again Chris, I thoroughly loved this book. And I definitely didn't wait for Dan to read it together!

Labor Day Fun

Chris came for the Labor Day weekend. We had lots of fun with Grandmama.

On Monday morning we headed to the Bloomfield sign for some pictures.


Then we went to a park in Bloomfield next to the river. Bluffs line the south side of the San Juan River. There is a nature trail along the river too.
Cassee's having fun in the sand on the bank.

Then we headed to Dan's workplace to see the building. Good job, Dan!! We are all glad you got a job!!!!!!

NAPI stands for Navajo Agricultural something something. (Irrigation might be in there somewhere too.)


Then we headed to a park in Farmington. After our picnic the kids played in the water area. Fountains shoot water up randomly. They had a blast.
They were all soaking wet for the ride home!! And no one wanted to leave. It was as fun as the pool, yet even better because it was free!!!

Toy organizers

I've never had any toy organizers in the kids' bedrooms before. I was determined to get some in this new house. I found these at Target and put them together. (Actually Dan did Adam's.) The bins come separately. They have little handles on one side and come in lots of different colors. The shelf can serve two purposes: bookshelf and toy bins.


This one's in the girls' room.


This one's in Adam's room.

The wooden stool

Did all you Tuttle-ites notice the wooden stool in the picture of the bathroom? Did you all still use yours?? It's perfect to use when I bathe my kids in the tub.
We all had to make a wooden stool like that in shop class in 7th grade. Thanks Mr. Abeldinger. (Did I spell that right??)

The Bathroom, put together

Here are the finished shots of the bathroom.

Here's the shower curtain.



Here's the rug and the towels.


Here's the sink.


I realize it looks better in person than in the pictures.
I'm not making any more returns, so don't tell me if you don't like it!

The Bathroom Dilemma

For Dorothy, who spent much time with me examining the bathroom section at Target.
We have an interestingly colored bathroom floor. It has made finding matching bathroom accessories difficult. This is the fourth set of stuff I've gotten. Target might ban me from the store soon. I just can't make up my mind or find anything just right. What's your opinion?

The colors in the floor are a Santa Fe reddish-orange and tan color combination.


Here's the latest shower curtain I've gotten. The stripe of orange and red match pretty good.


Here's the rest of the stuff: the rug, a bathmat, washcloths, and decorative towels.