The Thatchers: Moving and More

Some funny moving memories....

These awesome guys helped us move, along with a young man accross the street who had never met before. We felt truly blessed. Thanks Craig, Randy, and Adam!

It looked so sad so empty, but we were excited for our new home. The girls have been real troopers about moving. They haven't been sad at all...I think that's because they knew the house we were moving to so well. Rachel has missed her friends in Provo and Anne has missed her old teacher, but they are happy where we are now.

One of the last night we were there, finishing cleaning, we were supposed to meet back up with Zac to eat, but the truck he was using broke down. So the girls and I had an impromptu chicken nugget dinner on the floor, which actually turned out to be pretty fun. We had music from our clock radio and each took turns dancing while we ate. Zac got a ride home and was safe, so it all worked out.

Anne's first day at her new school. She now attends Manila Elementary and has Mrs. Milner as her Kindergarten teacher. She instantly loved her new teacher and school and didn't have any problems with going there, which for Anne is a huge deal. She even loves going to school now. She plays with other kids at recess, has made friends, and I am astounded at how much she is learning. What a kid.

Rachel reading to Sarah, melts my heart.

So does this :)

And I'm sure this did too. As soon as Sarah saw Grandpa she ran right up to him and gave him a big hug.

As I mentioned in the last blog, my Grandpa Hebbert passed away on January 4th, right after we moved in. My parents, my brother Loren, and my sister Michelle all flew in for the funeral. It was so good to see everyone and have some of them stay with us, even though all our stuff was literally in boxes.

After the funeral services the Hebbert family all congregated at our house to talk and remenisce. Once again, so good to be with so much family.

Anne made a friend with my cousin James. He read to her and played games with her and Anne wouldn't leave his side the entire night.

There was still some more cleaning to do in the yard after the sheds were taken down. Some of the debris, including glass was still on the ground and needed to be rounded up. Shizzy had accidently stepped on one of the shards and sliced her foot pretty good so I went out one day and shoveled most of it up into trash cans. The following Saturday we used the old trailer that we inherited to haul it away to the dump.

I love that her hair is long enough for pig tails now! She is getting to be such a big girl.

Through our kitchen window, Zac and the girls having a picnic while we were working outside.

Rachel tried to convince me she could get Sarah to sleep for a nap....this lasted a wopping 30 seconds before the were playing and not sleeping, so Mom took over.

Some of Anne's schoolwork.

Anne in her Elsa get-up doing her schoolwork. We have found our routine now of doing her homework in the morning after breakfast which is when she is the most alert and focused...aren't we all?

Shizzy enjoying life in a big sunny yard :)

Anne's school had a family movie night where we ate pizza and watched the Lego movie. It was a lot of fun, except the girls weren't huge fans of the movie.

Painting day.

I have discovered that I can get Sarah's hair to be curly!

There are a couple, out of the hundreds, of trees on our property that had to go. This was one of them right in front of the house. It was very thereputic and fun to cut down.

Our new breakfast/lunch/homework/craft bar.

After I gave Anne her breakfast one morning Anne turns to me and gives me this and says "Thanks Mom!" I liked my tip.

I have been on one solo run since we moved here (I've been doing more of a yardwork/kickboxing excercise routine lately) and it was beautiful! At sunrise I ran up to the Timpanogos temple (about a mile from our house). The view from the hill was amazing. I love Utah!

I think we have gone to Home Depot about 30 times in the last couple months. These are always a favorite....of all of us.

Anne's winter assignment.

We found a bike path near our house that the girls could ride their own bikes on. This is when we discovered however that Rachel has grown a foot...and needs a new bike.

We went out for Chinese food one night and they had these little squid/octopus looking things, cooked, in one of the trays. So I got one just to show the kids. Then I asked if anyone wanted to eat it....

Yep, they ate all. All three of them took bites. Rachel and Anne asked for more and Sarah didn't like the texture. My brave kids.

Another tree that had to go was the big Lindon tree right behind the house. It was literally touching the house which posed some problems, so we had it cut down. There's a cool video below. I thought of Grandpa when it was cut, he hated that dang tree :)

While Rachel was at a friend's birthday party back in Provo, we stopped by a favorite hangout of ours.

Sarah's own personal rickshaw.

Our crazy dog loves sleeping in the flower bed.

Our little monkey.

Yeah she knows she's cute :)

Helping Aunt Jennifer make Valentines.

The girls love going and visiting Great Grandma at the care center...and the cat that hangs out front. Grandma is doing okay these days. She had good days and bad days, but the girls always cheer her up.

My lunch one day...mm.

Our first family cookout at the firepit. I'm sure there are many many more to come.

Valentine's Day dinner. My sweetheart made me my favorite, lasagna. I have some pretty sweet valentines.

For a treat on President's day we took the older girls to the dollar theater to see Big Hero 6. We all had a blast! Aunt Jennifer got to have a fun playdate with Sarah which I'm sure she enjoyed more than sitting still in a movie theater for two hours :)

Sarah's pre-birthday surprise from Aunt Jennifer.

An adorable dress and a day at the aquarium where Jennifer volunteers! What a lucky girl.

This girl and her chocolate.

First time using a chainsaw...yep I'm a fan. I officially love power tools.

Our cookout.

Our enormous pile of pruned branches...

...meet the CHIPPER!

The girls were awesome and played all over the yard.

And fell asleep in the Jeep. To fully appreciate this you have to know that the jeep is what the chipper is attached to....and it's on...and it's incredibly loud....and she slept this way for over an hour.

One of our piles of wood chips. We had to haul away a freezer that was sitting in the middle of it. Cool design.

And the enormous pile is gone!

...well not really, just resized and relocated. Today we spread this out all over this area in front of the sheds.

Rachel has been plugging through her Kindergarten workbook and is just learning away. I love that this workbook has a Social Studies section that teaches about citizenship.

Bye bye Lindon tree. It was pretty impressive to watch the man cut all the branches off and then pull it down. It made such a thud when it landed we could feel it up to our ears.

Family scooter ride trying out Mom's new spark scooter.

Our little houdini.

We had no idea that kids still say the Pledge in schools, but when Rachel was talking about it one night at dinner, Anne said "I know it too!" and continued to wow us.