Christmas 2015

We had a wonderful Christmas making memories in our new home. I take a lot of pictures all the time so I am going to just put a few... but there are still a lot :)

We started the holiday season with the Choralaire's concert. I love singing with this group of ladies and working hard memorizing the music. We also sang at some Nursing Homes, the Museum and for a Relief Society meeting.

We attended several activities in town that Santa was helping with and we saw some of his reindeer.

We set up our Christmas tree as a family one Sunday after church.

We went to the Temple Visitors Center while we had friends in town.

We played in the snow after we shoveled the driveway.

We sent out a Christmas letter & Picture to family and friends we don't see very often.

Dear Family & Friends,

        We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Many of you we haven’t seen this year but know we think about you often. Some of you have been keeping tabs on us through facebook or our family blog and we are glad we have social media to keep in touch.

        This past year has brought lots of change for us and we wanted to share it with all of you. The most noticeable change is our address sticker on the envelope you just received. We moved! We love our new home and we are mostly settled in now with a few boxes still left to go through. We love all the room our new home has and want to invite you to use our guest room if you’re traveling our way. Visitors are always welcomed! Be sure to update our address because we don’t want to miss any correspondence from our family and friends.

        The kids are all growing and adjusting to our move but they haven’t switched schools yet. We have celebrated birthdays, traveled, had some campfires, went to movies in the parks, packed up our house, attended scouting activities, spent time together as a family, went on bike rides, unpacked into our new house, camped, played with the dog, went on lots of walks, played sports, worked, unpacked some more, wrecked the van, got a new van, school, church, made new friends, and been given new opportunities. Did I mention unpack? We met so many new friends when we had so many strangers/new neighbors show up to help us unpack our UHaul! We also can’t forget all the help we had loading the UHaul especially with the heavy stuff!

        We want to thank you all for helping make our 2015 AWESOME! We want you all to know we love and care about each of you and think about you often. We love and miss those that don’t live close enough to visit and hope to see you soon!

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

                                 Love,

 Josh, Brenda, Brayden, Kaytlin & Alayna

Leading up to Christmas Day we also did some shopping, baking, taking walks, attended some parties and checked out some fun Christmas light displays.

On Christmas Eve the kids were tracking Santa most of the day and even went to bed early so Santa could come sooner.

Christmas morning the kids got up at 6 a.m. and we got busy on gift unwrapping.

After the kids were done we skyped with Grandpa & Grandma Vermillion but we didn't get any pictures. We then went to Grandpa & Grandma Dawson's house to open presents and have lunch.

After everything was opened and we got some lunch, toys were brought out and then we went home to get ready for bed.

I did say I had lots of pictures!  If you haven't gotten our new address please let me know so we can be sure to get that to you! Thank you for all the Christmas cards and Pictures we received in the mail. It was fun to hear how everyone is doing and how fast the families are growing. We love you all!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and we want to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Halloween 2015

Happy Fall! 

At our new house there is a tree that likes to drop leaves. The kids wanted to go out and rake them up. It was still plenty warm out so they are raking leaves wearing shorts and flipflops.

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Halloween was fun this year.

Brayden - Ted (Man in the Yellow Hat)

Kaytlin -  Doc McStuffins, Curious George

Alayna - Witch, Curious George, Doc McStuffins

 The kids have a halloween parade at school where they carry a book and go into each classroom.

 We went to a Trunk or Treat and got to see lots of fun costumes and the Oscar Meyer Hot Dog Car. The kids were able to climb inside and hear some hotdog statistics.

I listed several costumes for the girls because they kept changing their minds and sharing their costumes so they were several things between the two days. The weather was warm and nice for the kids to go without their coats and wearing flipflops. Next year Brayden has told us he would love to stay home and pass out candy and that he is getting to old for Trick or Treating.

September 24, 2015

3:50 p.m.

I was making a left hand turn when we were in an accident. The lady who was driving the black car was speeding through a school zone texting on her phone and didn't even see me. I saw her and she was far enough away to safely make the turn but her speed didn't seem to register until after the fact.

I had the three kids in the car headed home. This turned out better than it could have. A third car sitting at the stop sign was also hit by her after she ricocheted off our vehicle.

The accident didn't seem to faze the girls until the tow truck was taking our wrecked van from the scene. At that point Alayna started crying because they were taking it.

We all walked away with only bruises and Brayden had a scratch on his neck from his seat belt. The bruises started out painful,deep, and dark. They got bigger and bigger over a two week period of time before they started to fade.

After the accident we were quick to call into our insurance company to get a rental vehicle and find out the specifics of our tow truck and everything. We went directly over to Classic towing to clean the car out because the insurance would be picking it up to take it to a safe undisclosed location.

 A few hours later we picked up a rental car which was a small car that fit our family very tightly but we used it overnight. The following day the rental car agency was able to get us something a bit bigger for us to use. We were spoiled with the rental van we were able to use for approximately a month. We then got word our van was totalled out so we started looking for a new vehicle.

This experience was my first accident and scared the kids a bit but we were all fine. I think back about how blessed we were through the whole accident and insurance process. We have since bought a new van that is similar to our rental van.

Grandpa Dawson

Before time flies by I wanted to take a minute and share my thoughts and feelings about Grandpa. He recently left this earth life after 97 years of life. He did some wonderful things while here with us. He fought a good fight and is a great example to our family.

His obituary:

Vernon Roy Dawson, 97, former longtime Pocatello resident, passed away Saturday September 12, 2015 in Idaho Falls. Vernon was born April 16, 1918 to Arla Roy Dawson and Hazel Katherine Stoddard in Pocatello, Idaho where his dad was City Clerk. After living in several different towns the family moved to Burley, Idaho where he graduated from high school. He later attended the University of Idaho until being drafted into the army just prior to World War II. He served as an infantry commander in Italy during the war where he was awarded three Bronze Stars. On October 4, 1946 he married Vernell Butler of Oakley, Idaho in Burley, Idaho, who he met on a blind date. They lived in Burley until 1957 when they moved to Pocatello, Idaho where Vernon was employed by the J..R. Simplot Company Gay Mine for 30 years. Vernon loved to travel and was famous for his “rides” which often resulted in several hundred miles traveled in a single day. He loved going to Yellowstone and often visited the park several times each summer. He was very handy around the house being able to fix many things when they broke. He enjoyed wood working and made many things out of wood. He wasn’t much of a talker, answering questions about his life with few words, but enjoyed being around family. He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife. He is survived by his two sons Greggory (Burnadene) of Kingman, Arizona, Terry (Sara) of Idaho Falls, and 11 grandchildren and 38 great grandchildren. A viewing will be held at Cornelison Funeral Home in Pocatello Tuesday, September 15th at 10:00 a.m. Graveside services will follow at 11:00 am in the Mountain View Cemetery (52 East), Pocatello, with military rites by the Pocatello Veterans Honor Guard. Arrangements are under the direction of the Cornelison Funeral Home, 431 N. 15th Ave., Pocatello, 232-0542. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.cornelisonfh.com

The weather wasn't kind to us the day of his services but I think of the many hours he spent in service to our country (especially World War 2) in conditions much worse than a little bit of rain. He saw and did so many honorable things that I am in awe of him.

 He has brought forth some strong posterity who will honor his name until they also leave this mortal existence. Each of his seven grandsons are great role models who show love, kindness, and sincerity in everything they do. My memories of grandpa shine through each of these men!

 After being laid to rest and knowing his body is here but his Spirit is already residing with grandma! I am sure he was also laughing at some of the stories shared at his own funeral.

He may have been a man of very few words but his actions speak volumes.

Love you Grandpa!