New Christmas outfits

I always buy the kids a new church Christmas outfit. This year we had a lady in our stake that we were able to order these darling dresses from for a super price. I had a hard time finding something that matched well for the boys so this was as close as we got. But since it was the last Sunday before Christmas the kids got to wear them to church. Here they are after church showing them off. Aren't they the cutest??? I love these kids.

My three Angels. Kennidee, Kyson and Dawson. (Kyson does not have a bloody nose. He has been sick and his nose is so sore that it keeps cracking and bleeding. It is now scabbed over and hopefully on the mend)





These boys are best buds. I am so glad they love each other so much. Kyson is such a big cheeseball though.


My beautiful baby Girl. Having a girl is so much fun. I just wish there wasn't so much drama at such young age.

Elf on the Shelf

Today we started a new family tradition. My sister Kori had called me yesterday and asked me if I had heard of a story called Elf on the Shelf. She told me that this is a story about an elf. With the book comes a little elf doll that is magic. He magically moves around the house spying on children to report back to Santa. You name your elf and can tell him what you want for Christmas but you must NOT ever touch the elf. If you touch the elf he loses his magic and has to be placed back in the box by a parent using rubber gloves for 6 hours to regain his magic.
The kids woke up this morning to the Elf on the Shelf book sitting on the kitchen table. No one heard the alarm go off and no one saw anyone put this magic book and Elf on the table. We sat down with the kids and read the story and then registered our elf that we now call Buddy. We sat him in his box on the hearth and the kids sat around watching for him to move and break out of the box. You would hear the kids talking about how his leg moved, his eyes or his hands. When the kids went to get ready for church Buddy broke out of his box and the kids returned to the family room to buddy sitting on the heart out of his box. Later he moved to the mantle and then decided to go and check out the train around the tree. A few minutes later the kids heard the train going and they ran out to find that Buddy had plugged the train and and was going for a ride on the train. Dawson entertained him by playing him Christmas songs on the piano when all of the sudden the train stopped. He came running into the bathroom to tell us that Buddy now had magically stopped the train. We went off to church and came home to find Buddy in Dawson's room. He later moved to Kyson's and then on to Kennidee's. We told the kids that he must be doing bedroom inspections to report to Santa. When the kids woke up from naps Buddy had found his place on top of the fridge. Later he moved over to the counter and then onto the couch to enjoy a little television. After he had enough TV he went to the table and watched the kids skype with their Grandma's and then all of the sudden he was gone again and had magically relocated to the huge hot cocoa mug by the fireplace where he waited for the kids to go to bed so he could head back to the North Pole to report to Santa on the kids behavior for the day. He will be back again tomorrow for another report.
This is seriously the funnest thing for the kids. Kyson would walk around the house "I gotta find that freaking elf'' and the squeal with joy when he found him an giggle. They have all been so excited to see what Buddy was going to do next or where he was going to pop up. At one point I told them he was freaking me out and I was sending him back to the North pole and they pretty much broke down in tears. Later I told them I was going to touch him so he lost his magic and Kyson cried and said "You will be on the naughty list Mommy." They have been so good to follow the rules and not touch the elf in fear of being on the naughty list. Dawson was leaving notes for the elf and was excited to find that he had received a reply.
If you don't have any family traditions this is seriously the funnest thing. Our kids are really enjoying it. I love the magic of Christmas to a young child and this just brings the magic into our house even more for the kids.

Here are just a few of the random pictures of Buddy hiding around the house on Day 1

Kennidee Dance recital

Tonight Kennidee had her first dance recital with her new dance company called Dance Gallery here in Lubbock. They do it differently then what we are use to as far as the costumes go. In Utah they got a costume that they ended up using for the Christmas recital and then again at the end of the year. At Dance Gallery the Christmas recital is a much smaller scale and they just use a leotard you have from home with some of their stockings and headbands. Prior to the recital they had Santa and Mrs. Clause come for photos with the kids and then they sat on the front row of the recital to enjoy all the dances. Kennidee's group danced to "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." It was so cute and Kennidee did so good. I love watching my little girl dance.

Merry Christmas

I was going to use family pictures for cards this year but decided to just snap a few of the kids by the Christmas tree. They turned out pretty cute for it being 9:30 at night. So here is our Christmas card for 2010

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Our New house

So we are officially moved to Texas. We have been in the house a month now. It turned out so beautiful. It has been really hard being away from all my family and friends. I miss them all so much. I never realized how much I needed them until I moved 1100 miles away. We have met some really great people and our ward is amazing.
Dawson had to fly out to Utah to stay with Glenn for a month and that sucks. I miss him so bad. I have never had to be away from him for that long. Sending your little 8 year old boy on an airplane by himself was the worst thing. I bawled and pretty much have been depressed since he left. On top of all of it Glenn has been a major butt and not allowed him to talk with us numerous times. But after he comes home I just have to remember that he will be with us non stop until Christmas.
Kennidee had her birthday on July 9th and it was really hard being away from family for her birthday. We did invite a few of the neighbor girls over just for cake so she didn't feel so bad. It is amazing how much you take for granted having family around.
Kyson was just so excited to have his own room and his bed and blankets back that he has adjusted pretty well. I got most of the house put away within a week and even started hanging things on the walls. It has been a lot of fun having a new house and getting to decorate.
All in all I think this is a good move. I know after much prayer that this is where my family is suppose to be. As far as the reason...I have yet to find out. I am sure in time we will know.
Here are some pictures of our house the week we moved in.

A really crooked picture of the exterior.

My Master Bedroom and my new bed and bedding. LOVE IT!

Kennidee's room
Kennidee's bathroom

Family room

Dining area
Boys Bathroom

Master bathtub and toilet closet area.

Our master bath with separate vanities and the door into the master closet.

Kitchen


Another view of the kitchen


Here are a few pictures of us celebrating Kennidee's 6th birthday her in Lubbock

7 years ago today...

I asked for Kacy's hand in marriage... SHE SAID YES! I've never been happier! I won't post the story again, but you can find it in the blog archives under last May.

The last 5 months have been among the hardest of my life. Being away for 2 weeks or longer at a time have really taken their toll on me. I absolutely cannot wait for her and the kids to get to Texas so we can be a family! Hopefully only 5 or 6 more weeks.

I love you Kacy! My life has been blessed in countless ways since you came into it!

Can't wait to have a last big date night in a few weeks. An early anniversary celebration!

This is the picture I used to propose to her, the note says Will You Marry Me (we still have it packed up somewhere), so for more on the proposal story you can go here.
http://jasonandkacy.blogspot.com/2009/05/6-years-ago-today.html

Blog Break Over

Okay so I have been such a slacker with my blog the last year. I am working on playing catch up. I am backdating everything though so it is in the right order. Be patient while I get it up to date. There has been so much going on with our lives. We are currently building a home in Texas and we just sold our house in Lehi. It was only listed since The end of December and when we listed we priced higher then expected to give us time to find a place or build in Texas. Of course as soon as I dropped the price it sold in 5 days. Unfortunately our times did not match up so I am going to be living at my Mom's house til school is out and the new house in Texas is done. I will update more on this as i get more up to date on everything else. It will fill you all in on why we are moving and such. So far I am only as far as May. LOL

Day Two of framing

Here are the photos from Day 2 of framing. I am still amazed at how fast they can do the framing

This is a view of the back of the house

This is the view from the front

Day 1 of Framing

They started framing today and it is amazing how fast the framing can go up. It is also amazing to see it take shape.

This is the side of the house where Kyson and Dawson's room will be

This is the full view of the house

The left sid of the house is whree the guest bedroom, Kennidee's bedroom and Master will be

Just another shot of the left side.

Check out my Slab

So we finally were able to get our foundation. They finally got enough dry weather to lay the slab. I am so excited and can't wait for more progress on the house! Due to the weather they were going to have after the foundation was poured they had to cover it with tarps and stuff. But we are glad to have it done.




All covered up to keep it safe and dry

Picking things out for the house

So our house has been super delayed due to the wicked winter they have had in Lubbock. Our house by this point should have been as far as framing and partially or fully bricked. Well that didn't happen. I was so bummed. I flew down to Texas with Kori to pick out everything. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. We had to choose carpet, paint, cabinet stain, tile, grout, plumbing fixtures, appliances, light fixtures and pretty much everything. I had one day to do so. Amazingly enough we got everything picked out and we didn't even argue about any of it. Building a house doesn't cause too many fights apparently. Maybe building while we are seperated by 1100 miles is the way to go. I am retarded and did not take any pictures of anything we chose except the brick. But I did take some random pictures of other things. While we were there our footings got poured so I did get those pictures as well.

This was at Ferguson's where we chose out our fixtures, tubs, appliances and all that exciting stuff.

Kori trying out one of the toilets. LOL

Who seriously names their restaurant this??? I mean seriously. We thought it was so funny we had to take a picture in front of the sign. I am sure some won't get as big of a kick from it as I will. That is just my maturity shining through.

This is a house with the brick I chose. I love it!

This is our new neighborhood. This is next to our house looking down the street.

This is across the street from us and down that side of the street. It seems like it is a very quiet nice neighborhood.

And finally something exciting to post. Our lot is no longer just dirt. Our footings are in and now hopefully the weather can cooperate so they can pour our foundation and get the ball really moving.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Today I had parent teacher conferences for the kids. First was my appt with Mrs. Harris for Dawson. I don't usually worry about him cause he is always the ideal student. So when I get in there and meet with her of course she has nothing but awesome things to say about Dawson. He was tested in his reading as high as they are allowed to test them for 2nd grade and passed with flying colors. His accuracy has gone up to 100% and he read as fast as most adults. His Comprehension is as high as they rank as well. So in that area is his the highest in his class. He is always telling me that he needs to do better at math. I think he does wonderful and always ask him why but never get an answer. Well Mrs. Harris says he is doing awesome. I told her that he was concerned about it and she said that is because there is one girl in his class that her Dad is a Mathmatician and she is doing better then everyone in the class. So not only is he smart but he is very competitive. She said that she wishes he wasn't moving and could stay in her class forever. She said he is always on task and is such a respectful little boy. She always has them set goals for themselves and his goal was to get better at Math and to keep all four legs of his chair on the ground. I loved hearing such wonderful things about him. I left and couldn't have been any prouder of my little man.

Next we were off to Mrs. VanLangen for Kennidee. I was really nervous about going to see her teacher. Kennidee is definitely a different type of student then Dawson is. When she comes home from school and I ask what she had learned I typically get the answer of "I don't know" or "I can't remember" followed by "so and so said I looked really cute today and they liked my hair or clothes." Oh My goodness!!! What does a mother do??? So we got in there and her Mrs. VanLangen told me that Kennidee is right where she should be at for her reading and math stuff. She said that Kennidee is a great student and she has never had any problems with her. She said that she pays attention and is always on task and that she is a great student to have in class. I left feeling such a relief. I was on cloud 9 the rest of the night knowing that my kids are doing so well in school.

Being a parent you realize more things. The one thing I am learning more and more is the importance of education. I want my children to enjoy school and have it not be a struggle. I want them to know that Mom and Dad are here to help them with anything that they don't understand so that they can always enjoy it and excel! I am so proud of Kennidee and Dawson and am so grateful to have them as my children!

The Big Move

So in December Jason took a job in Lubbock Texas. He had served his mission there and we never thought we would ever be moving there but the opportunity was too good to pass up. So Jason and I flew out to Texas on December 28th to look at houses again and meet with builders. After about a week of deciding we ended up choosing our builder Randall Fuller (Royal Construction/Robert Wood). We had an idea of the house that we wanted so we sent Randall our ideas of plans with the changes that we wanted made and we settled on our lot. Now we are just waiting for our plans to come back from the architect as well as for the weather to clear up so they can start out new home.


Here is where our new home will sit



Here is the first draft of our plans. Still a few changes need to be made but you get the idea. I am so excited to be building a home that I can actually choose the colors and everything I want. It will be so much fun.

Yes it's true... we're moving

So the blog has still been very neglected, we promise to catch up on it at some point!

But for those who don't know.... we are moving to Lubbock TX. I (Jason) have accepted an amazing offer with Cash Register Services. I will be the Director of Core Business Systems and Accounting.

I start on January 5th, working 2 weeks in Lubbock then home for a week.

Kacy and the kids will be moving down in June once school is out.

So stay tuned of exciting updates as we hopefully start building a home and prepare to move to Texas!

In the mean time, if you are not our friends on facebook, you can see more current updates of what we're up to on there. Find us at jasonpbyu@gmail.com or kacy215@gmail.com

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Ya'all Come back now ya hear!!!

Okay so most of you know that for the last 5 years Jason has been traveling for work. His position was a software consultant for Digital Gateway and his job was to train and do conversions for their clients who purchased the E-automate software that Digital Gateway designed. Well there have been several times in the five years where customers have wanted Jason to come and work for them. A few years ago we actually had flown down to Arizona to check out a possible job offer. We never felt good about working there and decided that it was not for us.
In July of last year Jason had flown out to Lubbock for 10 days to do some training for a company out there and then in October they had him out again. Well during that time I received a text message from Jason's phone that said "This is Brad, are you ready to move to Texas?" I just kind of laughed and called Jason and apparently he and Brad had been discussing a possible job opportunity. I just told Jason to tell Brad to make it worth our while. Well I didn't think much of it after that and then a few weeks later we were scheduling flights out to Lubbock to check things out. Brad had picked us up at the airport and gave us a car to use. They put us up in a hotel for a few days. The night we got there we went to dinner with Brad and his wife and one of the other owners with his wife as well. While we were there the kids and I were introduced to all the employees of CRS and met with a realtor and were looking at properties. It was crazy and I was nervous as heck about this. The day we were getting ready to leave we had taken the kids to a park and while we were sitting there I just knew this was what we were suppose to do. I knew that for one reason or another the Lord wanted us in Texas. So after returning back to Utah an offer came in and then the fun of counter offering and accepting began. Within a week or so it was final. After lots of prayers and negotiating we made the decision that this was what we were suppose to do. Now for the fun of finding a house and making the big move