Our New Kitchen!

Just a few before and after pictures of our kitchen.


BEFORE



DURING


AFTER

Change

Life is full of changes and Casey and I always seem to thrive on that for some odd reason. I don't always enjoy every part of every change, but looking back on all the changes we have gone through since we've been married I can't say I regret any of those that we chose to make.
We are making some more big changes in our lives right now by moving to Star Valley, WY at the end of this month. We have LOVED our time here in Lander, and most of all we love our ward and the friends we have made. We are sad to leave them and our house that we bought last year and have put an addition on and completely renovated. We have only lived in our new home for 10 months (will be 11 when we move). The past year has been crazy with house projects that I won't miss terribly since I feel like they have taken over my life. I am ready to focus on simply being a mother to two beautiful little boys. But as crazy as the year has been, living in a constant construction zone, it has paid off in the way that we have already got our home under contract and should be closing on it June 3rd or sooner. It is a crazy story but we got an offer for over our asking price without ever even having a 'for sale' sign in our yard or listing with a realtor. What a blessing in these economic times! We only hope that things continue to go smoothly through the closing.
Casey will be teaching Spanish at SVHS and I will be the freshmen volleyball coach. Both of these roles will also bring change. Casey is not hired on to coach any sports right now and I will be taking on that role for the fall season. This will be a BIG change for Casey since he coaches year-round here. I think it will be good for our family though. Casey will get to spend some more time with just him and our boys and I will get a couple hours away from the house each day during that time of year, which I hear can be a good thing for a full-time mom.
We are excited for the upcoming changes and are thankful for all that we have been blessed with.

We have been blessed!

Well, today we were reminded just how quickly life can change. On his way to work this morning, Casey was in a wreck. The roads were slick because of the new snow on the roads and just south of Hudson (between Lander and Riverton)a truck fish tailed out of control and ended up broad-siding Casey right on the driver's side. It knocked him off the road and into the barrow pit. The car was totaled but it could have been so much worse. Casey walked away with some minor scrapes and a sore shoulder and back, but nothing serious. The driver of the truck was okay as well. What a blessing! It really got me thinking though. Every morning Casey goes to work it could be the last time I see him. Granted, we can't allow things like this to keep us from living life. In fact, it's these types of things that remind me we must live each day to it's fullest, because it could be our last. I am just so grateful the Lord was watching over us today and hope He will continue to do so.

Catching Up

Okay, so I know it has been far too long since my last post. Many family members have been requesting that I post some updated pictures of Kimball so here they are. I also want to catch up a little bit on what we have been doing this past month since Kimball has been born.
We were able to enjoy a nice quiet Christmas here at home with just the 4 of us. Kimball, only being a couple days old at the time, slept through the day. Tel got to open plenty of presents thanks to grandparents and aunts and uncles. He thoroughly enjoyed ripping the paper and opening any boxes to see what was hidden inside. Of course, with a couple choice items (mostly his new power drill and tool set and his cowboy boots) we had to take a break and let him play for a bit before he was ready to open any more presents. It was different for us to not be at one set of the parents' homes but we enjoyed it and had one of the greatest gifts of all, a new little boy. I guess Kimball was our present to eachother since we didn't buy for eachother this year. The other great thing about Christmas was that Casey had 2 weeks off of school and we got to see him so much. Tel especially enjoyed having his dad home and playing with him outside. He has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to having Dad gone everyday again. Having Kimball take up so much of my time has also been hard for him but over all he has done pretty well.
At the beginning of this month we were able to attend Mariah's baby blessing (Taffy's new little girl) in Mt. View. It was the first time in quite a while that my WHOLE family was together. We were also able to attend Violet and Austin's reception in Cokeville which was another great time spent with family. The day before the reception we were able to drive to Logan, UT and get some tile for when we redo our kitchen, dining room and laundry room. We spent the night with Casey's brother Stewart, his wife Tiffany and their kids Alana and William. It was fun to see them.
On Sat. the 10th Casey was gone wrestling in Sheridan so I made a day trip to Cokeville to watch Olivia play basketball against Mt. View. She did a great job and it was fun to see her play as well as see the rest of the family. Tel absolutely loves going to see his Aunts, Uncle Sulli, and his Grandma and Grandpa Teichert. Taffy was also there with her kids so it was fun to see them again.
On the 14th I was able to go to Mt. View for the afternoon and night and spend some time with Taffy and her kids. It was a lot of fun. Taffy and I both decided that we would never want to have a 5 yr old, 3yr old, 19 month old and twin babies. It was all we could do to keep some order, the babies happy, and get dinner on the table with both of us being quite busy. I'm not sure how mothers with that many children so close in age do it. I struggle accomplishing much of anything with just Tel and Kimball. I'm sure Casey comes home many days and wonders what I did since the dishes are not done, the laundry not yet folded, and the house is completely torn apart (Thanks to Tel's curiosity and energy). Maybe someday I will figure out how to "do it all" but for now I am surviving.
Anyway, the following day I headed down to Mt. Pleasant to spend some time with Casey's family. I got to spend some time with Diana in Spanish Fork and then headed to Chris and Ramona's for a couple days. We had a great time with them and were able to just enjoy visiting and spending time together. On Saturday we drove back up to UVU to watch Casey's wrestling team at a tournment they had there. We were able to see some good friends from Idaho Falls while we were there. It was so nice to see them and visit with them a little bit. We still miss all of them. It was pretty late before I got out of there so I headed to Cokeville for the night and got to spend time with my parents and Olivia and Tessa which is always so much fun. The next morning we got out the door fairly early to make it back here to Lander for our 1:00 meetings. It was long 5 days but it was so nice to see everyone.
This past week I just stayed home, which after all the traveling was quite nice. I was able to get a few things organized and some pictures hung on the walls and decorations up (yes I am just now getting around to that even though we have been in this house since the beginning of July).
On Saturday we did go over to Thermopolis to watch Casey's wrestlers. They did a great job in the tournament taking 1st place as a team. He had 6 wrestlers take 1st, 1 take 2nd, and then a few others taking 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. It was fun to watch, though with Tel and Kimball in tow I don't get to watch much. Tel has a hard time at the wrestling because he just wants his dad and can't understand why he can't be with Dad when he is RIGHT THERE!
Well, that is quite the novel but gets me caught up for this month. I am going to try to start posting weekly but you all know how my promises on that go so don't get your hopes up too high.

Kimball Clyde Parry is here!!!

Well, our baby boy has arrived! He was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 inches long--born Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 at 7:01 PM. We are so happy that he and I are both healthy and well and that there were no complications with the delivery. We decided on the middle name of Clyde a little while ago but were choosing between a few different first names. A few minutes after he was born we settled on the name Kimball, which was the first name we had put on the list a few months ago.
Tel has handled it all very well. We thank his Aunt Kathy for how well it has gone for him. She came all the way from St. George, UT to help out with Tel. She stayed with him Sunday and Monday nights and all day Monday and Tuesday. She also took great care of Casey and I as she stocked us up with some wonderful food. We appreciate all she does for us and were so grateful that Tel was able to stay here in his own house since he has never been away from me for more than a few hours at a time. We think it made all the difference in the world for him and I know it did for me and my worries about how he was doing. Thank you so much Kathy!!!
Tel is proving to be a very concerned big brother. We came home from the hospital last night and today every time Kimball would cry Tel would go running to his side, look at me and motion to me to come and get Kimball. He has asked to hold him a few times and is very soft and careful with him which surprises me since he has not had any interest in other babies and we have not tried to teach him how to "be soft" with babies. It is fun to watch and I'm sure will only get more fun as they both get older and can enjoy playing together. Here are a few pictures from the hospital. I will post more later but have a few more things I need to get done since it is Christmas Eve and I am past ready for some sleep.

Fits and Temper Tantrums

So our sweet little boy has recently learned how to throw a real fit or temper tantrum, whatever you would prefer to call it. He has been throwing little fits for a while now, but this last week he has really been making an art form out of it. They are generally started because he can't have something or Mom or Dad won't do something with him RIGHT NOW! If the tantrum begins while I am holding him he will hit or kick at me and scream NO! So I put him down on the floor while he continually screams no and kicks and hits. I don't know if he actually means to hit and kick or if he is just flailing his arms and legs around. Anyway, Casey and I have learned quickly that when one of these begins it rarely works to try and distract him by giving him something he CAN have or showing him something else to do. This generally makes it worse or if he is starting to finally settle down it starts the whole thing over again. Last night, for example, Casey had been playing with him by giving him rides in the laundry basket (a game I regretfully started on laundry day, which was yesterday), but when it came time to stop he was not ready for it to be over and get ready for bed. He began swinging his arms and legs around and screaming NO over and over. So, Casey laid him down right where he was (in the middle of the hall) and let him go at it. We ignored him completely. If we had to go down the hall for something we just stepped over him as if he wasn't even there. It took quite a while (probably close to 15 minutes or so), but he eventually calmed down and realized he was not going to get his way. It used to be extremely hard for me to listen to him cry like that and it still is, but it is soooo much easier to handle when I KNOW what it is about and that he is OKAY! As long as I know it's about not getting his way and not because he is sick or hurt, I'm learning to walk away. We love him to death and I hope this is a phase he will grow out of if we continue not to give in to him when he acts this way.
On a brighter note, Tel brings us such joy. Although he is learning some undesireable behaviors, most likely typical of an 18 month old little boy, he is also learning a lot of fun and exciting things. He will bring me a book now and want me to sit and read to him, as long as there are only a few words per page, but now I can atleast read something before he is tearing at the pages. He talks to me like he knows exactly what he is saying (though none of it is understandable) and uses such funny body and facial expressions when he is telling me his stories. He takes my hand and can ask me to play with him by leading me to his blocks and then pulling down on my hand to have me sit. He loves for me to sit and stack blocks with him. He loves to mimick Casey and I when we are working, whether it is mopping, sweeping, vacuuming, or working on the addition, he wants to help. It is amazing how observant he is as he copies what we do with a screwdriver, hammer, or other tool. He also likes to play his own kind of dress-up by wearing Casey's head lamp, a hat, helmet, or his life vest. He can watch a movie now (not usually a whole movie in one sitting), and laugh at what he finds funny. He is full of smiles and has learned to give kisses and hugs and wave goodbye to his dad in the moring. We are so thankful for him and love him more than we ever thought possible.

Too tired to wait for lunch.

Playing dress-up with Dad's head lamp even though he's not feeling well.

Hanging out with Dad after sanding our mud seams in the bathroom addition.

Crazy hair after taking his beanie hat off.

Helping Mom clean up the yard.

Well, I have been informed time and time again that it has been over a month now since I have posted anything. I have actually been reminded about it fairly consistently since about two weeks after my last post by my wonderful younger sisters, Olivia and Tessa. So thank you both for the reminders and I am FINALLY getting around to it after Tessa's umpteenth reminder last night on the phone that it has been a whole 5 weeks. My how time flies. I have thought about it quite often, sit down to post and end up looking at everyone else's blogs and by the time I am updated on everyone else's lives I have no more time left to update my own--usually because Tel only allows me so much computer time per day without some major screaming and I often use my allotment before I get to my own blog.


Anyway, after that novel of an explanation (excuse) for my procrastination and laziness I will go ahead with an update. We have been quite busy with our addition this past month, though progress is slow because Casey's schedule is quite hectic with football practices and games, masters classes 2 nights a week and a little pre-season wrestling practices and responsibilities getting thrown in there. We are getting closer and will hopefully finish up quickly once the plumbing for the bathroom is done. The bedroom portion of the addition is all done except for the flooring and trim and we will hopefully get most all of that and the tile in the bathroom done this week. Then we will be at a standstill until we can get the plumbing done and go ahead with sheetrocking the bathroom.


As for our social life, we were lucky enough to have my sister Taffy and her two kids, Connor and Mylie visit us for a couple days. We enjoyed having them here and spent some time at the park and up Sinks Canyon. We were lucky on their visit and got to see a couple of BIG Big Horn Sheep very close up (probably about 10-15 feet away). We also had the pleasure of having my mom, Aunt Linda, and Grandma and Grandpa Oberg spend a couple days here with us on their fall road trip this year. Boy was that a lot of fun. I was not ready to say goodbye when they left. I rather enjoyed having them here to entertain Tel so well, help prepare meals and clean them up, as well as just to visit with. We drove up Sinks Canyon and showed them it's wonder and beauty (though we didn't spot the Big Horn Sheep we were hoping to), watched Conference, and had a dutch oven dinner on Saturday afternoon/evening. We also had some friends from Riverton join us for that (the McCormick's--the new head football coach and his family). It was very good food--thanks to Casey--and we had a good time.


This past weekend we spent a little bit of time in Casper for a foreign language teacher's conference. The school put us up in a nice hotel and we just got to hang out all day Friday. We drove down on Thursday night after Casey's football game, spent Friday there and then came back Saturday morning. Tel and I were able to go swimming at the hotel, which he enjoyed as long as he didn't have to get more than his toes in the cold pool water. He did enjoy the hot tub though, which was more like warm bath water than a hot tub, which we were both thankful for since he, nor I, are supposed to be getting into too hot of water right now. After Casey was done with his meeting for the day on Friday we got to do some shopping at Home Depot and the mall. I even broke down and bought myself some "pregnancy pants", you know, with the elastic panel waist. I only had 3 pairs of pants left that I could button up and only one of the three didn't have a hole in the knee or something of that sort, so I am glad to have another pair of pants, even if they are a sign that my belly is getting bigger by the day.


We had a "wonderful" surprise in the weather this week with an early fall snowstorm. That is one reason we left early on Saturday morning instead of spending part of the day in Casper. We were thinking it was only going to be a couple of inches, like we had seen the whole drive home, even up through Riverton we were thinking it wasn't going to be as bad as the news had said (6-12 inches), well, we were very wrong. When we got into Lander and pulled up to the front of our house we were sick at the sight. There was probably over a foot of snow, a branch had fallen and been hauled away by a kind neighbor in our ward (we have now found out it was James Whiting--thank you for doing that) and the branch had absolutely flattened our mailbox. We were just glad it missed our car. I wish I had gotten a picture of our mailbox before Casey bent it back into shape, but I missed out on that. So right now, as a I write, I look out our window and have the view of a couple feet of snow in our yard, which is melting slowly since we are in the low 30s today (happy that it's melting, but it is somewhat depressing none the less). I was rather enjoying our beautiful fall weather and colors. I have some pictures posted of what it looked like when we got home, but then it continued to snow all afternoon, evening, and last night, so now there is quite a bit more out there than what these pictures show.


Well, I think I have given an update on our most exciting events of the past month, and I will try to do a better job at posting more often, but I am not making any promises until we are done with this addition, but then of course we will have a new baby and things will be still be somewhat crazy, so don't hold me to anything. All of you keep it up though because I love reading your posts.

Just a couple of smaller bucks that are frequent visitors to our yard.

Mylie, Tel and Connor going for a wagon ride, pulled by Casey.The front of our house after some shoveling yesterday afternoon (Oct. 11).

Tel was not prepared for how cold the snow was. He wasn't happy about his cold hands.How high the snow was on our deck railing when we got home. We cleared this off and then had atleast this much more on our railing again this morning when we woke up.