Horses and Stuff

So, still trying to catch up a bit.  Way back when, when Dad was in the hospital getting an operation on his plumbing, somehow a cow got into our field so the horses were going crazy.  Ethan went out there and brought the horses into the nearer field, and then helped get the cow out and fixed the two places in the fence that had been broken by the cow.  There was a lot of excitement and much anger involved, but I have a hard time getting myself worked up about it now to describe it all, because it was a long time ago.  But I did take a lot of pictures of the horses when they were running around like madmen.

In the picture below, you can see Ethan working on the fence.  I just now called him over to look at this picture and he said, "Working on that bloody fence!!  LITERALLY bloody, that cow kamikaze charged into the fence.  Worst day of my life!"

These pictures are to show how much Wyatt loves babies.  Awwww.

This is to show that the Christmas season arrived--we put up the tree and decorations and all that.  And we, according to tradition, had the Chipmunks Christmas music on and at the moment captured below Ethan said, "That is seriously my favorite Christmas music.  I kid you not--Ask Kourtney what we listened to in our apartment on our first Christmas."

 

Mom made millions of chocolates and caramels and toffee, etc. as usual.  It was awesome, and still is.  There's still some down in the fruit room.

This is Hazel in her owl shirt and Natalie.

Snow Pictures and Little Boy Pictures

This was in November.

This was when Wolfie made a huge mess.  LUCKILY Grandma wasn't home, and we cleaned it up so she'd never know.  ;)

Cutest little boys!!

Ethne's Birthday and Baptism

Ethne's birthday was a long time ago on November 1st, but she waited for a long time for Brett to come from Switzerland so he could baptize her, so she only got baptized on December 27, so since I'm so far behind, we can do both in one post!

I am not sure why we don't have a cake picture at all, since I'm sure we made her one, although I can't remember right now what it was like.  Anyway... she did get presents.

She got a little pink squishy thing (that got punctured within the hour), scriptures, dolphin stickers, and a little loom thingee to weave little potholders.  And something else too I think, but I can't remember what.   Basically I can't remember anything if there isn't photographic evidence of it.

And her baptism!  We were in Vernal with Brett's family.  It was freezing cold but beautifully sunny.   And Orrin is in the picture below, but you have to have a good eye to find him.  :)

Awww, so cute!

This lovely dress was made by my staggeringly talented sister, Kami, for her daughter Elena.  But then I somehow lost the dress I had bought for Ethne (not a white one, a cream and blue one in these pictures- http://www.somethingsclever.blogspot.com/2014/09/ethne-fay.html (I realllllly hope it turns up somewhere!) and so I had Kami speedy-ship her gorgeous dress to us to borrow.  Look at pictures of Elena in it here: http://thelatorrefamily.blogspot.com/2014/11/another-crazy-two-weeks.html because they show it off much much better.)

I hate that these pictures turned out fuzzy.  I thought there was enough light in the room, but evidently not.  Grrr.  Oh well, you can still see how handsome my men are and beautiful my daughters are.

Hurray for Ethne!  (Yes, I am already planning to take a picture just like this at Ethne's wedding.)

Getting ready.

Brett's mom and dad gave the talks, Jethro and Hazel sang a song, and all of the grandkids/cousins sang the Rainbow song.  It was all so nice.

Wyatt wanted to be in the picture.  :)

Paisley, Hazel, Ethne, Challis, and Riata

We're going to....

I just realized that I haven't announced on my blog that Brett got a job and we are moving to 

!!!!!

So after we had flown over from Switzerland and had a few days here, Brett flew to Pittsburgh to do an interview.  It wasn't very long later before they offered him the job.

Honestly, we would have loved to be somewhat closer to our families after being in Switzerland for five years.  For a while, there was a slim chance that Brett might get a job in Colorado, and oh my gosh how I wished and wished for that.  But it was not to be (mostly because it was to do with laser ablation of brain tumors and Brett has no experience at all with lasers).  But we feel good about Pittsburgh and I am getting excited thinking about moving somewhere with a REAL permanent-ish job for the first time.

He will be working for a company called Blue Belt Technology, a company that works on medical devices for knee replacements.  Here is the website: http://www.bluebelttech.com/  Now you know as much as I do about them.  :)

Very happily for me, we have a couple friends in Pittsburgh.  One is a family that we knew from Purdue, Mark and Kelli Kimber, who have six kids similar ages to ours.  I am super excited to get to see them (although we probably won't be in their ward or very near them).  They are the nicest and best family!  And the other people we know are Seth and Kristen- Seth worked with Brett in the same lab at Purdue, and Seth is the nicest guy ever (Remember how he helped us replace the windows in our house in Lafayette?) and Kristen is his girlfriend.

So what I know about Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania is very little.  I've never been there.  Kelli told me that Mr. Rogers was from Pittsburgh, so there's that.  Also, apparently we'll have to all learn another language again.

And when I told my brother Ethan that I was moving to Pittsburgh he told me all about how their hockey team has one of the best players on it?  My other brother Derek told me that the Steelers won the night before, and I said, "Yeah, now whenever the Steelers play you can think of me," and he said, "I kind of already do."

So Brett is in Switzerland (he's been gone from me for SOOOO LOOONGGG!  sob sob), but on the 11th he flies to Nashville where he'll present at a conference, and then he'll be totally finished with the University of Bern- and then he'll fly to Pittsburgh, and I'll fly there and meet him and we'll search for a house to buy.  Exciting stuff!  A-because it will be like a honeymoon trip! and B-we're going to buy a house!  Brett is supposed to start working on Jan. 5, so we'll have to see how soon we can get into a house to know when exactly the kids and I will go out.

So, good, happy news.  I am very excited.

But in case you ever wondered, Colorado has WAAAAAY cooler posters than Pennsylvania:

:)