Busy Holidays

This week was a very busy week for us with Christmas in Idaho and a family wedding on Saturday! Prepare for a good read about all the fun things we did this week.

Visiting Idaho

It feels weird to say that since we've lived in Idaho for the past 3 years and now we just are visiting there. We traveled up Christmas Eve and Claire enjoyed spending time with Grandpa and Grandma Bell, Uncle Steven, and the Harper cousins. We made graham cracker houses, set up the surprise gift for Grandpa Bell (a new TV mounted to the wall), and then went to the Firehouse for a dinner with everyone who was working that night. The next morning when Grandpa Bell came home from work, we ate a nice big breakfast and opened the presents together with Aunt Julie and Uncle Kaden who came to spend the day with us. There was a new TV to connect and figure out, games to play, and more presents to open when the Harper family came back to visit again! Then we drove back home to our own quite apartment and said a prayer of thanks that the weather wasn't very bad.

Visiting Utah

Now that we live here, this section is labeled this because the Cox grandparents came down to visit us in Utah! We were able to see them for a yummy Thai dinner on Wednesday night, then most of the day Thursday we spent time playing games and opening more presents. Friday I went to the Desert Star Playhouse with everyone while Chris was working and Claire was being babysat for her first official time!! Then, of course, the wedding of my brother to my new sister-in-law was on Saturday which deserves it's own section. My older brothers, Charles and Ammon, came to Utah for the wedding too and it was the most family we've had together in one place in a long time, just missing Charles' sweet girls.

Claire

She learned how fun it was to open gifts over the last week because of the two times she got to celebrate with grandparents. She laughs and looks for approval every time she rips the paper and is sometimes interested in the things that were inside it. She got a new outfit and PJs that will hopefully fit her very soon since they are for a normal 18 month old child and she is just behind the normal growth. She got her first pair of snow boots just in time for it to snow more and loved wearing them all of Christmas day both inside and outside. The new toys cluttering our living room is a shopping cart, a princess castle, markers, and dad's new toy drone that Claire thinks is unnatural and needs to be put down.

Wedding

My brother, Andrew, and his new wife and my new sister, Katelin, were sealed in the Ogden Utah temple yesterday and are so cute together already. They had a reception the same night where we celebrated their casual way of life by dancing, drinking hot chocolate, and socializing in the comfort of jeans. Claire was fascinated by the DJ lights and watched them instead of danced most of the time, but was happy to see so many relatives who were happy to see her. I had fond memories of the temple and loved being back in the area since we were married there only 3 years ago. The temple was beautiful and the sealer did a great job of sharing the happiness that comes from a new family starting in eternity.

'Tis the Season

Claire

She has transitioned really well to being in our new house and still finds new ways to make a mess in our kitchen cabinets and drawers. She likes to be in whatever room mom and dad are in and is learning new things like how to high five and say please. We can get her to pray with us in her own cute way and its really fun to see her learning and finally growing out of some of her cloths! She loves drawing so we bought some ultra washable markers for Christmas but let her use one already which she used on paper for about 2 minutes then started looking for other things like her legs and face. I learned just how washable the markers were and was impressed with how well they came off of everything.

Fitness

We have signed up for a gym because Chris's work gives a discount and if you know us, we are a family that works out together. One HUGE bonus about our gym is the child care they provide that makes it possible for me to do work outs! Chris was originally the only one to sign up because we didn't know about the discount and thought it would be too much for our budget to handle if we both signed up and paid for their daycare. I am so grateful we discovered we only pay $30 instead of $60 and I've been able to work out 3 times this week with Claire getting to play with other kids, an added bonus! She loves getting out of the house and going to the gym and I love it too since its too cold outside to just go to some parks. It's the small joys in life that really make each week great!

Holidays

It is a little sad not having many presents under our Christmas tree because most of our presents are with grandparents. We did get our first present so we could match for our hour of church this last Sunday because my best friend knows how much I love to match. Claire has a new dress that matches a very comfortable pencil skirt made just for my huge pregnant stomach, and Chris got a pocket square for his suit (that he never wears...). He hasn't worn his suits since his mission when he wasn't working out as much as he has while we were married so it was tight around his shoulders. If only ties were easier to make...but I wish he wore suits more often because he is so handsome all dressed up. We will definitely be wearing this outfit next week since I'm sure not many people saw it since we were only there for sacrament. We will be going to Chris's parents for Christmas then seeing my parents later in the week when they come down to Utah for Andy's wedding events. 

Temple Square

I haven't gone to see the Christmas lights at the Salt Lake Temple in a long time and wanted to this season since we lived so close. Some plans fell through so we didn't get to go with our friends like we wanted to, it was just us and the tons and tons of people that had the same idea...I would highly suggest not going on a weekend, especially the one RIGHT before Christmas because it was packed and inconvenient to push a stroller through the crowds. We did find out that it only takes us $15 and half an hour to get to Salt Lake using the front runner which means we didn't deal with traffic and parking. It was a good date night for sure.

Reading

As predicted, I finished before Christmas! As soon as I finished the book of Ether, it was easy to just read all of Moroni in one sitting because of how short some of the chapters are. I hope everyone who planned on doing this challenge is able to complete it in the next couple of weeks and continues to find the joys of our Savior in the Book of Mormon.

We Love Christmas

Family

I have such an immense love for my family! I've been blessed with a wonderful, loving husband who I've been able to laugh and learn with. We are so grateful for our beautiful, precious girl that has given us such joy. I come from a family who taught me to be good and loving, dedicated to my goals, and passionate about everything I want in life. Now we will soon be joined by another angel and cannot wait to continue growing and learning together.

Traditions

One of the traditions we have that I got from my parents is reading from a Christmas book that has a scripture, story, and song. Even though it is just Chris and I because Claire isn't great at listening during our reading, we have enjoyed this tradition the last few years and look forward to keep it up. A new tradition I've decided to start (besides sending out Christmas cards) is to take family pictures because the pictures we got this year were so great! The painting of Claire's toes was really fun and that is probably something I will do too, but the professional pictures for the cards are the main goal. As a young family, we also have the tradition of visiting our parents and I don't see that changing anytime soon honestly. We want our children to be close to their grandparents and be excited about seeing them for holidays because family is important.

First week of work!

Chris went in on Monday to get his name badge, have orientation, and learn what he is going to be doing as an ER tech. He then scheduled his next couple of weeks and went in two more times this week for shifts so he can be trained and official start his full time work. We have learned that Intermountain Healthcare, which is the company that owns the hospital he works for, is a great company! They offer great benefits and prides themselves in taking care of their employees through retirement plans, education help, and even bonuses for improving your health.

Claire

Isn't she the most beautiful girl ever! We say it all the time and just laugh and smile at how cute she is all the time especially when we capture such adorable pictures. She got cold because it was snowy and almost night time, but she was so happy and looked at the camera so well during our picture session. She will be a camera hog for sure and I hope she will be as excited about getting a new sister and sharing the spot light. As much as I try to get her to understand there is a baby growing in side of me, I don't think she will understand until she is here.

New hobbies

Now that Chris is working, I seem to have a lot of free time on my hand that I didn't realize would become so boring. I've tried watching movies that I haven't seen in a long time or Christmas movies, but there is only so much I can watch before I  go crazy. Claire and I go out and about every so often, especially with the errands I've had to run to get Christmas cards out and finish presents for people. She likes going outside so on the days I don't have somewhere to go, we walk around the backyard. We live on a somewhat busy street that she has shown interest in so we have to watch her very carefully when we are in the front yard. Luckily, there are horses that fascinate Claire on the other side of our back fence and she likes petting the nose of the horse that reaches across to smell her. I wish I had another way to work from home that is more than in the morning, something I could do when I've finished chores, play time, and everything else I have to do. So far I've been on Pintrest and trying to find crafts, but that cost money instead of makes money...

Reading

How is everyone doing? I've made it to the book of Ether which means I'm still a couple days ahead of schedule and looking to finish before Christmas. I enjoyed the story of Christ visiting the people of Nephi after His death like I always do and tried to gain new insights about His love for the people during this read through. I know His love for all people is so great and He showed it many times by what He taught and how He treated the people.

A Week In Our New Home

Settling In

We have been living in our new apartment for a week now and I feel like we have made some great progress towards settling in by getting all the boxes unpacked. There are still things in the kitchen that I want to move around and put in better spots, but at least we don't have partially unpacked boxes hanging around the apartment. We were expecting Chris to be at work this week, but his EMT license didn't come in until just this last Friday so he will now start tomorrow, which he is very excited for.

Christmas

After emptying boxes and getting our normal decorations up, I set up our Christmas Tree and a few decorations to make it feel more like the holidays in our new home. Chris commented that it started feeling like our place when I put our pictures and decorations on the walls, and I agree! Seeing the things that we had in our home in Rexburg up on the walls of this home made it all real and ours. We moved in just in time to enjoy the Christmas parties our new ward planned and have felt very welcomed so far by our neighbors and ward members. We were even given a fruit basket that was meant for the previous tenants! Apparently they didn't tell everyone they were moving and there have been many people surprised that they have a new family in the ward.

Claire

Claire has been enjoying the freedom of roaming the whole house instead of being locked downstairs like she was in before. She gets to jump on the couch, play with the books on her bookshelf, bring toys our to be stepped on by mom, and isn't barred from anywhere except the desk which is our tiny office. As long as we aren't sitting at the desk she doesn't seem too curious about that area anyway, but that might change when she is finally bored of everywhere else. Her sleeping went pretty well the last few days even though earlier in the week we learned that she can somehow crawl under her bed. One minor mishap of falling out of the bed happened as well but now we have totes under the bed and padding to prevent her from falling again. She has gotten used to being put in her room with her milk and blanket, and hasn't cried about it for the past few days...knock on wood...

Memories

I have had the desire in the past to send out Christmas cards because it would be really fun to share the season with friends and family, but never went through with it. This year, despite all that is going on with moving, I am going to actually send them out! I found the cutest idea that will now become a tradition every year with our kids to show how they grow that includes being messy with paints. We made some MistleTOES out of Claire's feet, had our pictures taken in the cold, and whipped up a cute card to send out. I'll be keeping the original feet print for some kind of compilation later in life, but we are putting the full sized copies on the cards with our pictures and update. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Reading

With all that has been going on, I've still found time to read my scriptures in the quite moments when Claire is sleeping and Chris is busy. I've even been fortunate enough to stay ahead of schedule and will possibly finish before my estimated time! Not that it's a race, I just always have been an over achiever and apparently have too much time on my hands.

Finally Moved

Moving

Last week we were getting home from Thanksgiving in Montana with my parents and had some plans for how we were going to move in before Chris started his job on the 3rd. We took a day trip down to Utah to look at some apartments on Monday and after visiting 4, we signed the application for the one that felt the best to us. We headed home after a long day and began the packing and prepping for a move that we hopped to complete on Saturday when the previous tenants moved out. Chris had to make another trip to Utah for an orientation on Friday and came down early to buy us a couch for our new apartment.

New Home

It may seem sudden, but we are now moved into our new apartment home in Riverton, Utah! We were able to move in on Saturday and that was lucky for a couple of reasons. First, we have longer until the start of the week to try to get through as much of the unpacking as possible. Second, we didn't have to travel on the Sabbath and could go to church in our new ward. Third, the weather was a lot better on Saturday than Sunday! We got at least 3 inches of snow over night and woke up to a beautiful white winter Sunday which ruined my plans to walk the block to church...now I have to wait until spring! Our favorite part of our new home may vary because of our personal preferences, Chris likes having a garage and I like having a new place to decorate.

Claire

Our little trooper has handled this move very well and taken each day one step at a time...or box at a time if you want to be punny. She enjoyed the last few days she had to spend with Grandma and her cousins when we all went to the Festival of Trees on Wednesday. There was a talking tree that fascinated her so much that I could barely get her to be interested in coloring or anything else. I personally enjoyed the themed decorated trees and the snowman tree was my favorite. Another big step we decided to try with Claire in our new home was to have her no longer confined to a crib. Our first night wasn't the best because we weren't prepared for her falling out of bed, and I'm sure we will have a few more learning curves, but she ends up in her bed when we check on her before we go to sleep.

New Everything

Like I mentions, we got to go to church today and was warmly welcomed by several different people. Claire made an impression on the family that we sat in front of and while running around in Relief Society sitting in strangers laps. I hope we can do our best to fit in and serve the members of this ward like we were able to in Rexburg when I felt I was apart of the ward. It was very hard to be in my in-laws ward and in transition, knowing we weren't going to be there for a long time. This time will be different as we are here for a while with Chris's new job, our new apartment, and a brand new ward to meet.

Reading

Even though I still feel behind, I think I've caught up to where I am supposed to be and have finished Alma and started into Helaman. I'm just a chapter behind my reading with Chris and will be soaring past this coming week as I keep up my pace.

P.S.

I would talk about my unpacking but I'm far from done at this point so I'll address that next week. I'll also include pictures of our new home and how I've decorated of course!