Christmas is in the air...

 The last few weeks have been busy and fun! Here are the kids at the ward Christmas party with Santa. We were thrilled when Park wanted to actually sit on his lap. Last year he wouldn't even think about it. Indie...well, let's just say we didn't even try with Indie.

 This last Monday we had a combined family home evening with our next door neighbors making "gingerbread" houses with graham crackers.

 This is one of our neighbor boys, Sam. I just had to put this one up, it was one of the best pictures I took that night.

 And then the other day it was pretty warm outside, and being the terrible parents we are, we let Indie out into the backyard while Scott was grilling up some steaks. That's right, he is shoeless AND coatless. Scott came in the house for a few minutes and when he came back out Indie had settled himself into the snow and was shivering and eating to his heart's content. Let me just say, while this was happening I was out doing some of my Relief Society president responsibilities. To be fair I was the one who let Indie out, but Scott was in charge of watching him after I left.

It is finished.

 Our basement is officially finished! We got new carpet in yesterday and we even decided to replace the carpet and paint upstairs as well! We've been working hard over the last several months and we are thrilled with the outcome. Here are some of the before pictures:

 And the after! We are working on getting new furniture for the living room upstairs and once that is all decorated in a few months I will post those pictures.

The carpet is a chocolate brown flecked with tan and it is amazingly plush and comfy on the feet! A far cry from the cheap carpet the builders put in. We have an additional three bedrooms, a bathroom and this ginormous family room. We have lots of plans for this room including surround sound and a pool/ping pong table...but that is a little down the road for now. Right now the most exciting thing for me is that ALL of the toys are now in the basement! I couldn't be happier!

Happy Birthday, Park!

 For Park's birthday we went bowling as a family!

 The kids loved it!

 And even Indie got in on the action.

 Park got "Toy Story 3" and some airplanes.

 And since Park never eats his cakes we decided to go with cookies this year!

Happy Birthday, Park! You are always making us laugh and I love your zest for life! Everything becomes a game and joke when you are around! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Annicka!

 This year for Annicka's birthday we kept it pretty low-key. I kind of like it that way. It's so much less stressful. As a family we went to Jumpin' Jack's in Springville. The kids had a blast!

 We even splurged on a quarter ride because it was her birthday!

 Indie was NOT happy when it stopped...this is why we don't do the quarter rides normally.

 Annicka got a new bike! She's totally outgrown the old one. Now Park gets to ride that one.

Happy sixth birthday, Annicka! We sure love you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 This year for Halloween our next door neighbors invited us up to an uncle's cabin at Bear Lake, along with several other families from our ward. There were ten adults and sixteen kids. It's a good thing the cabin was huge! We had a PHENOMENAL time. We headed up on Friday afternoon and stayed up way too late talking. Saturday morning we headed to the beach so the kids could play in the sand and so we could take family pictures.

 The five wives (top). And four of the five husbands.

 Of course the kids were bound to get their feet wet, even though it was only 45 degrees outside.

 The beautiful view from the cabin.

 And our two favorites of the family pictures. Which do you like best?

Saturday night since the kids weren't going to get to go trick-or-treating we had a candy hunt for them. Afterward we had scripture story time brought to you by Adam. He has the best expressions and the kids LOVED it!

We are so grateful for the friendships we have with each of these families! It feels so good to have friends that we get along with so well, that share our beliefs, and that have strong marriages like we do. Thanks for the great time everyone!

The other day we got a letter in the mail from the city saying that our building permit for the basement was about to expire and that we needed to request an extension by writing or we'd have to pay for another permit. I asked Scott if he could take care of that and this is what he asked me to mail tomorrow:

"We have just received your notice that our building permit #123 for our basement will expire on ... Thank you for reminding me of my procrastination. As if I didn't need more reminders from my wife. I appreciate the non-nagging tone of your letter as opposed to what I've been experiencing day-in and day-out from home.

Even with the unappreciated long hours that have been applied to backbreaking and endless work to finish our basement, I find that I'm still unable to make this deadline. Amid the I-told-you-so's from my wife, I've found the humbling strength and courage to request an extension. I don't see this project going past the new-year (which begs the sarcastic reply, "which year?")

Please allow me to extend the deadline for our inspection to allow for me to pull my dignity from the gutter and gain the self-pride I so desperately need.

Thank you.
Scott Chamberlain"

All I have to say is, Scott really needs a creative outlet somewhere (why does it have to be this?) and I sure hope they get a good laugh at this in the building permit office.

Our first "Fall Break"

 We called it "UEA break" when I was a kid...but now that Annicka is officially in school we had our first fall break. We decided to live it up. Scott took work off on Thursday and we had a great time playing with Daddy that day. Friday we decided to hit the pumpkin patch, without Scott, but with a bunch of cousins. The kids loved it!

 What giant pumpkins!

 Of course we almost lost Indie in the corn maze a few times.

 After the corn maze the kids got to play on a Halloween themed play ground, as well as a bouncy castle and slide.

 Then we picked out our pumpkins to take home.

We decided to make a "pumpkin man." It even got used as a center piece for the ward Halloween party on Saturday night...it won "bishop's pick" in the pumpkin decorating/carving contest. (Okay, there were only about five pumpkins that were entered.) Now it is out on the porch.

And then we had family movie night with our recently purchased copy of "Beauty and the Beast." That is my all time favorite Disney classic. 

To top off our fun and crazy filled weekend I was sustained and set apart as the new Relief Society President in the ward today. That's right, I'm not joking. I, Karin Chamberlain, am now the RS Pres. Pray for me! I still feel like I am dreaming, though I am glad to finally be set apart. I had a lot of anxiety this week and now that it's official I feel like I can get down to business. I feel like I've already been given special blessings this week and I know they will continue as I try to do what the Lord wants. So, needless to say, I will be very busy in the months to follow. I will try to keep up the blog, but it might need to be something that gets put on hold...maybe I'll pass the baton to Scott...then again, all you might get from him are shots of the kids picking their noses with snide comments like, "mmmmm, yum!" or "did you get it?" Oh, well, either way.

Hamily Fome Evening

 Yes, at our house it's called Hamily Fome Evening. This is just an example of the kinds of things Scott comes up with. After our short lesson on Temples the kids wanted to build a fort. Daddy is the king of fort building.

 Park and Indie inside the fort!

 Grandma joined us for FHE this week and Scott HAD to make her play a game of NBA jam on the Wii.

After the kids were done with the fort we piled all of the cushions, pillows, and blankets on the floor and the kids took turns flying into the pile. Can you tell how excited Annie was for it?