This last month has brought a lot of changes for our family and in a short time it fills like we accomplished a lot. The Biggest accomplishment it that Joel officially graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Construction Management. He has been going to school for the last three and a half years we have been married so it will be a whole new experience to have him be done; but it is an experience we are looking forward to. We are all really proud of all of his hard work.
Joel's graduation was on the 16th of December, at 8pm on a Friday night. He had a final earlier that same day and then left at 4:30 for the first part of graduation. His family and my family all came down for the occasion and I really appreciated their help. Especially since we kept Brynlee up way past her bedtime so she could watch her dad graduate.
Joel really didn't get a break because the next morning we woke up and Joel loaded all of our stuff down the three flights of stairs. We had lots of help from family so we were done before lunchtime but it was a lot of work. I spent the two weeks previous packing and we spent the next few hours cleaning so that we could leave. My sister Alesha rode in the car with Brynlee and me to keep Brynlee entertained for the 4 and a half hour drive to Boise (although Alesha slept for most of the car ride) and Joel pulled the trailer with his dad's truck. We pulled into my grandma's house around dinnertime that night and we stayed there while we looked for a house to live in.
We didn't find a place to live until Monday and the house wasn't ready to move into until late Tuesday night. Joel and several of the family came over to help get things moved in and we spent all day Wednesday unpacking. We also went to the ward Christmas party that night. Right before we left Brynlee scared us by walking in with blood all over her face. Turns out that she found one of her dad's razors and managed to cut up her face pretty good. Luckily the injury wasn't worse than it was but it sure scared us.
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| Brynlee helping to unpack |
On Thursday Joel went out and bought a Christmas tree and found all of our Christmas decorations. We decorated for Christmas and we went and finished all of our Christmas shopping. On our shopping trip we determined that Brynlee is not fun to shop with. Brynlee loved the tree so I am glad we put it up. She thought all of the decorations were for her to play with and I am still finding them all over the house.
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| Me and Brynlee in front of the Christmas tree. Almost 28 weeks pregnant. |
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| Playing with the Christmas decorations. Notice the cut on her face from her first attempt at shaving. |
Friday we spent more time unpacking. We spent Saturday, Christmas Eve, with Joel's family. We ate tacos and went caroling. We spent Christmas day with my family unwrapping presents and eating a ham and turkey dinner. It was fun to be with family and to remember the birth of our Savior. We all got great gifts and had a great Christmas. I was especially excited about my new camera that my dad gave me. He got a new one so I got to inherit the old one.
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| Brynlee showing off one of her Christmas presents. She pushes all kinds of things around in this stroller. |
Now that Christmas is over Brynlee and I are settling into a new routine in our new house and Joel has started working on the farm. We are glad things are starting to settle down because that move and everything was really stressful. Joel is still hoping for a job in the construction field but for now we want to stay here at least until after we have the baby. It is so nice to have family around and I am going to the same doctor that delivered Brynlee. Later Joel will look harder for a job so who knows where life will take us. For now we are excited about where we are and we are just taking things one day at a time.
