A New Member

These past few months we had been going to classes to get approved to do foster care, and last month we got licensed. On the 29th of November we got a call and got our first placement. We got a 2 year old girl (2 months younger than Tean). It has been so fun having her here with us. Tean loves having her here too. They fight, but they also play really well with each other. Just yesterday we got called that they had found an aunt or uncle in her family got licensed for foster care so she was going to be going to them that day. So we had about 20 minutes notice to say good bye and send her off. We are really sad to see her leave, but we enjoyed to time that she was with us.

Santa and Christmas Party

Last week we went to Jake's parents ward Christmas party. Tean had a fun time sitting on Santa's lap. We prepped Tean on what he should say to Santa, so we got him to say that he wanted a bike for Christmas. When it was his turn, he walked right up to Santa, but he didn't want to say anything.

He was glad to get candy from Santa. Jake's brother was in the Christmas program that they did.

He was a wise man and did a great job!

Kitchen Curtains

Last month my parents came up to visit. While here, by mom helped me make some new curtains for my kitchen. I wish I could find a picture of my old curtains that were here since we moved in 5 years ago. They were red and white and had chickens on them. I so love my new ones.

Halloween

This year Tean was a pirate, and a cute pirate at that! It was a super easy costume to make. Eye patch and sword from the dollar store, white shirt - DI, church pants and shoes, old material for head covering thingy and belt, and old material to make a vest and with all that, an adorable little pirate. We started off our Halloween two days early by going to a trunk-or-treat with Jake's parent's ward.

Tean loved that he got lots of candy. Halloween morning started out with pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with vanilla sauce found here. I found the vanilla sauce on my new obsession, Pinterest. That afternoon, we went to lunch with some friends that used to live here and came up to visit. Then we started our trick-or-treating. First we went to the health and welfare offices, then we went to the Bishes RV trick-or-treat, then we went to another trunk-or-treat that my friends ward did, and finally we went to people in our neighborhood. For the first bit, Tean thought we just went to cars to get candy. He was a little confused when we started knocking on doors, but he soon realized he would get candy there too. Tean loved that he was able to eat lots of candy, and for a couple of weeks he thought that he got a piece of candy after every meal. We are just barely breaking him of that habit! It was fun seeing Tean get into the holiday and even say "Trick-or-Treat" at the doors.

Tean's new bed and room

Last year our dishwasher flooded, so it caused a little bit of water damage into one of the down stairs bedrooms. Since we had to paint it anyway, we decided to make this room Tean's new room for his new big boy bed. Jake made these awesome bunk beds for Tean to use when we moved him to a big boy bed. Don't they look cool? I think he did a great job. We got the drawers for free last year at a garage sale, so we made the bed to fit the drawers, and it looks awesome! I made some quilts for the bed and painted the room and bunk beds and put in the dresser that I refinished a while ago and I think it looks great! Tean loves his new room too. The first night that we had the bunk beds set up he wanted to sleep in them. I wasn't quite sure I was ready for him to sleep in them, but he really wanted to, so we let him. He did awesome! He'll even take naps in his bed and wait until I come in and get him in the mornings and for his naps before he gets off the bed. One day I was sewing in the room next door, and I could hear him awake from his nap playing, when he said, "Mom, I don't want to be on my bed anymore!" He fell off the bed once in the middle of the night (His legs got caught up in the blanket so he was hanging upside down), but normally he does great! My little boy isn't very little anymore :( Now if only he would potty train. . .

Driving Young

Tean loves cars, so he was super excited when Daddy let him drive the whole 2 blocks home from church!

Tean With His Cousins

We have been down to Utah A LOT lately, since it is the BYU football season and we have season tickets, and my parents getting home from their mission, so that has given Tean a lot of time to play with his cousins in Utah. He loves playing with them all and gets along with them so well! It's been a lot of fun for Tean to get to know his cousins better and have fun playing with them!

Parent's Homecoming

My parents got home from their mission to Poland last month. It was great to see them after having them gone for almost 2 years. They did a great job speaking in church. After they spoke we had a brunch at their house. It was great to see everyone there. My Grandpa Arnold came, so here is a picture of 4 generations, My grandpa, my mom, me and Tean. Tean enjoyed eating cake and getting a mess. All the cousins enjoyed jumping on Daren Jr. It was great to see Mom and Dad after 2 years and having them around and hearing about their mission in Poland!

ISU Game

Jake plays basketball in the mornings with one of the coaches of ISU football, so one weekend last month, he gave us tickets to an ISU football game. None of us had any orange to wear, so we had to go out and get us something orange. We had front row seats. It was a really good game. ISU played really well and won by a lot, which was awesome since they haven't been very good in years past. Tean mostly enjoyed bothering the lady sitting next to us. Whenever there was a kickoff, ISU had a dog that was trained to go out and pick up the tee. It was pretty cool.

Piano Recital

I have been teaching piano for almost the last three years, so this year I finally had enough students to do a recital last month. Five of my six students did the recital (one of my students had just started a month before). They all did an awesome job! I was so proud of all of them and look forward to our next recital!