The story of the cleaning elf

There has been a cleaning elf around my house lately. It's pretty amazing. Thanks to this elf I have:

- A clean front yard (no more ghetto rock/dirt pile!! woo hoo)
- A clean back porch
- A finished kitchen
- An organized office (seriously first time since we've owned this house)
- ALL of my laundry clean
- Bills paid
- My Christmas tree put away
- New flowers planted
- A re-organized bedroom including a new vanity for me to get ready in the morning (since I am blind and have to be THIS CLOSE to the mirror to get ready without my glasses on)
- A clean back yard (bye bye 4 foot weeds!)
- Some new decorations hung
- and The bedskirt I got a year ago put on my bed for the first time



Thanks little elf - I don't know how I'd even start to re-pay you for this!





(Dear ASU: Please don't start classes tomorrow. I like having Benson home all day to take care of our house. kthnxbye)

Ringin in 2010!

We decided to celebrate the new year in lakeside this year at Nate & Heidi's new house!

Most of our family came along as well and we had lots of fun staying up late and playing in the snow!

New Years Eve!

Sledding

Reagan was offered a ride in the sled but insisted on walking...

then he got snow on his gloves and was quite upset.

Jake is apparently way too cool for sledding. He prefers being half buried in snow.

done, Done, DONE!

That's right people... the kitchen re-model is officially DONE!

(If you don't remember the previous hideousness you can check out the before pictures here)

So after months of this

and this

and this

this horrible thing...

became....

THIS

We're so proud.

We wish you a merry Christmas...

This is one of three pictures I took at Christmas... all of which were on this couch of the same kids. It was too much fun having all the family around! We had three "first Christmas" babies around, Tanner and Shelly staying with us from Utah, Nate and Heidi down from Lakeside and lots of fun!

San Diego

Benson and I took advantage of the $25 Southwest flights and our (finally) free schedules right after school ended and took a fun trip to San Diego and then to St. George! Unfortunately I didn't take one picture in Utah, but here's a few from California!

Plane ride there...




Birch Aquarium


Seaport Village




Balboa Park


Tidepools & Lighthouse in Point Loma

Out with the old and in with the new (year)

2009 was a good year...

January - A new niece

February - Our first garden

March - Finding out what Benson would look like at 300 lbs.

April - Whitewater Rafting!

May - Little Brother & Little sister #2 Graduate

June - Trip to San Diego and LA to get Passports

July - Mexico!

August - Baby Niece #2 and Nacho Party!

September - Starting our Kitchen Re-Model & Baby Niece #3

October - U2!!!

November - Still working on the re-model

December - California & St. George

Other things to note in 2009:
I was licensed as a CNA
We FINISHED the kitchen (finally, I'll post pictures soon)
Benson finished another semester with all A's
We served in the Temple
We were able to take lots of trips with friends and family


Here's to hoping 2010 is even better!

Stay Classy San Diego!

3 Days of this are in our near future (meaning the next three days)



They'll be followed by three days of this in St. George



See you all Wednesday!!