2013

Welcome 2013!  

We had a fantastic 2012.  At the beginning of the year Les was at home full time taking care of our girls, but that quickly changed when he accepted a job offer in early March at SupraNaturals.   We sold our home in Payson, moved to a rental and began the building process on our new home all in June.  Our beautiful home in Lehi was completed in September and we moved in Sept 15th.  We went fishing, camping and boating several times throughout the summer and had a lot of family fun together.  We took a trip to California for Thanksgiving.  We were able to visit Brandon & family, Les' uncle Lee and his family and even took a couple days for Disneyland.    Our gorgeous girls are now 1, 5, and 7 years old and are everything to us.  This past year has been good to us.

Les rang in the new year with the yearly snowmobile ride today.  I spent a little time cleaning up, playing with the girls and thinking about all of the things I hope to do this new year.  Some thoughts.....I have been doing more with my camera lately and would love to push myself harder to learn more about it.  These last 10 "mommy" lbs would be great to get rid of now that our family is complete.  I lost an amazing 16 lbs this past Jan-April to get back to my pre-Leah weight.  It has been pointed out to me this past month that I have not been making a habit of shopping for and taking time for myself.  How embarrassing, but I can do better and show my girls by example that taking personal time is healthy and rewarding. For some this next one is easy, but for me it is not.  I will go to the Temple....more than once.... this year.  It is very emotional for me since Quinn passed away so I avoid it.  Not good.  I can do better!

I am looking forward to Addison turning 8 in March and getting baptized.  I am also looking forward to turning 30 in March and pray that the next 30 are filled with more family and friends.  So much to do...better get started.

LEAH IS ONE!

So my little baby girl turned one on September 25th.  She has been such an amazing blessing in our lives and we couldn't be happier to have her.  To celebrate we had a big party with pink and green as the colors and even threw in a few monkeys.  It was so nice to have everyone over to the new place for her party.  She loved the gifts and balloons, but the smash cake was definately her favorite part.

New House

I am way behind in blogging so here is my atempt to make it up.  This photo was taken the week before we moved into our new home in Lehi.  We made the move on September 15th.  Although it has been really hard for the girls to move and leave their friends we love living in Lehi. 
Outside:
We put sprinklers and grass in during October and then added cement and gravel for trailer parking and cement borders for flower beds and a playground.  In the spring we will be adding a playground, fence and plants/flowers completing the yard. 
Inside:
All boxes are unpacked and we are feeling more settled into the house.  We added onto the cabinets in the kitchen just after we moved in.  We felt like we were told there would be more of them when we met to design the house, but they were never built.  Such a mess!  It looks amazing now though.  

Have you been over to see it?  No?  Well, all family and friends are invited to stop by and take a peek.

This is Our Temporary Home

Lots has happened since I last posted.  We recieved another offer on the Payson home just a week or two after the other offer was withdrawn.  We closed on the house on June 18th.  It was sad for our family to say goodbye to over 4 years of memories.  Addison had an especially hard time leaving as we walked through the empty house for the last time. 
So here we are...in our temporary home which is a basement of a very nice home here in Payson.  It has tons of closet and storage space and everything we need to get through the summer.  We are trying not to open too many boxes that will just have to be repacked and moved again. It is so strange to hear the baby cries and little running footsteps in the home above us and not to have a yard to ourselves for the girls to play in.  We will definately feel spoiled in the new place.
And speaking of the new place.....a hole should be dug this week which will begin a fun journey of stopping at the new lot on the way home from work each day to see what has been completed.  I can't believe it should be done in six weeks.  The girls will have their own rooms, two full bathrooms, a playroom and a family room in the upstairs.  The master bed and bath is on the main level along with another half bath for guests, a laundry room, kitchen, dining room, gathering room and office.  I love the floorplan so much and it is the perfect size for our little family.  We have purchased our new appliances and have begun shopping for other top-priority items.  It may take a year or so to get it all together how I want it, but I am looking forward to the challenge.  Addison will be going to Meadow Elementary about the same time the house is finished. Daycare, piano and dance classes (possibly gymnastics) have yet to be figured out, but I feel like it will all fall into place somehow. 

Dissapointment

Just hours after my last post we recieved word that the buyer had withdrawn their offer.  We have found out that their loan was not approved.  Back to the drawing board.  UUHHH!  So much for being excited.  :(

Moving Out

We are finally moving!!!  In March we decided to get serious about selling the house and it worked.  Within one month we had an offer on the house which after a couple back and forth negotiations we have accepted.  As long as everything goes well with the sell we will close on May 24th.

I couldn't be happier about this.  Being a mommy of 3 little girls is the best, but is very tough when their daddy works 2 jobs 8 months out of the year and I work full time 50 minutes away from them.  By the end of the summer I will be able to be with my girls for a full extra hour per day!!!!!  That is about 20 extra daytime hours per month!!! 

We have spent numberous hours over the last month driving around, checking the internet and scheduling appointments to look at homes that are for sale in the Lehi/American Fork area.  We were not impressed with what we were finding.  Lots of short sales and foreclosures which we found take a miracle from God to get into.  We found one with a huge, unfinished lot that would take a little work, but met our needs.  One problem....the seller wanted 'new house' prices on it and would not budge.  The next day we took a drive over to some model homes and fell in love.  We were even more pleased to find out that building the base model of the home we loved was the exact same price of buying the other home that would take repainting and recarpeting.  We have reserved a lot (the last one that would fit this home with a 3rd car garage pending Les' decision on if he wants that added) and are in the process of financial approvals to move to the next step. 

In the meantime......we are packing our home to prepare to move.  We are on the hunt for a rental in the Payson area for 3-4 months and have only 2 weeks left to find one.  Lots to do.  Selling, renting and building at the same time are quite the nightmare, but it will be worth it in the end when we have a new home.  Wish us luck!

Spring 2012

The last few months have been very busy and I have not blogged any of it. Oops! Life happens. Girls are doing great (all 3 of them) and Les has started a new job at Supranaturals as a Shipping Lead. Leah is now 6 months old and is a beautiful and wonderful addition to our family. Payton has turned 4 years old and Addison just turned 7 in March. These three girls keep us on our toes, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Leah Paige Badertscher

Leah Paige Badertscher was born on September 25th at 1:57pm. She was 6lbs and 5oz and 19 inches long. Welcome to our family little one....

Starting School Dance and Stitches

Addison started 1st grade 3 weeks ago. Her teacher is Mrs. Toutie this year. She is having a good time and is glad to be back to learning. She has decided not to take dance this year because she would rather learn to play the piano. We are currently on the hunt for a teacher. I am so proud of her and know that Grandma Peart would be thrilled that she is going to play her old piano that we now have at our house.

Payton is now old enough for Preschool and Dance. She is so excited that she is finally doing "big girl" stuff away from home. Her Preschool is only one street away and her teacher is Mrs. Amy. She also began dance two weeks ago at Limelight dance studio here in Payson. She is adorable in her dance clothes and loves it so far.

Two weeks ago today the girls were playing on the trampoline after Sunday dinner at my parents house. Payton was double bounced and landed on the metal bar. I was in the house at the time, but her daddy and Papa were right there. When I found out and ran outside she was covered in blood and sitting on the grass and Papa was doing his best to get rid of the blood on her face with the hose so we could see what the problem was. She ended up with a gash next to her left eyebrow so we took her to the instacare for stitches. They gave her 2 inside and 7 outside. Other than crying for a minute or two when she got hurt she didn't say a peep. No tears at the Dr.'s office getting the stitches in and no tears getting them out. What a brave girl. It is healing really nicely and doesn't look like she will have much of a scar.

Flag Cake-Fourth of July

My Uncle Sean was killed in a car accident on May 31st. A couple weeks later my Grandma Peart passed away due to heart complications. My poor mom has had quite the busy summer so far and has spent a lot of time in the last while moving things out of and cleaning Grandma's house so that it can be sold. My Grandma used to make all kinds of cakes including wedding cakes and birthday cakes. She was amazing with it, so it was no suprise when my mom found several pans in her house. She passed down at least a dozen shaped cake pans to me and I am thrilled to try them all out. The dates on the pans go way back to 1973 (10 years before I was born), but work all the same for baking. On the July 4th weekend I decided to try out one of the American flag. I found a photo online of one they had done in layers. The middle layer is vanilla ice cream and the others are vanilla cake colored with food coloring. I was really pleased with the way it turned out, but should have thrown a party to have it all eaten. You can tell that the girls also had a good weekend in their flag shirts, festive hair and doing fireworks in the rain.

Pregnancy Update

Just 2 1/2 months left until our sweet baby girl Leah Paige is due! We had a little scare last Wednesday when I woke up to contractions and cramping pains. Once we got to the hospital to have it checked out they found out that I had an UTI that was causing it and put me on antibiotics to avoid a very dangerous Kidney infection. They also did a Fetal Fibronectic test that came back positive. A negative would have been very accurate in telling that labor was not going to start in the next two weeks. A positive just puts me at a higher risk for preterm labor. We will just have to take it easy for a while, but everything looked fine at my checkup yesterday. Only 8 lbs gained. The photo is of me about two weeks ago.

Addison's Kindergarten Graduation

We are so proud of Addison! She graduated from Kindergarten today. She loves math and reading and is even almost an entire year ahead in reading. Great Job!

Vegas and Jan's Graduation

We went down to Las Vegas last Saturday and came home on Tuesday so that we could see Jan graduate from medical school. It was about 75-80 degrees with a breeze the entire time, but was nice to get out and take a couple days off of work. We stayed at Tahiti Village where the hotel is non-smoking and they have a great pool and a Denny's inside. It was very kid friendly for a Las Vegas strip hotel. We had a good time and wish her luck in Florida.

Payton-Dance Dress-Up

Payton will start dance next year, but felt very left out when Addi got to get all prettied up for her dance photos last Thursday. I grabbed Addis recital costume from 2 years ago and curled Paytons hair all up (the best I could for her short hair). The result was darling. I let them go play in the outfits for a couple hours since we no longer had a need for them.

Addison's Dance Recital

Addison not only looked like a princess all dolled up, but did a great job at her recital on Monday. We are so proud of her.

Tulip Festival-May 7th

On Saturday we took the to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in their spring dresses. It was not what I expected, but was gorgeous. It took nearly 2 hours for us to walk along all of the pathways of tulips. The weather was also quite nice so we finished the afternoon there with ice cream cones on the grass in front of their huge waterfalls. Perfect day! FYI-This is my tummy at 19 weeks.

April again

There is so much I like and hate about April.

*Birthdays of people I love-Quinn and Brooklyn

*Spring-weather and flowers (even though it is snowing right now)

*Easter-watching the girls gather eggs and twirl in spring dresses

*Lawn care season-Les coming home after dark

*Brandon and Jen's anniversary (today)-so greatful to have her added to our family

*The anniversary of the day Quinn was killed in a car accident (tomorrow)- so thankful for temple blessings

So many good emotions mixed with a little sad. I am blaming it on the pregnancy hormones, but I have had a hard time not focusing on the bad lately. I hope writing it all down helps me realize that the wonderful memories and good times are much more important than the not so pleasant ones.

So glad my kids are in my life. It makes the hard times easier to get through. This was a conversation from this morning.

Addi-"Why is Mom crying?"

Les-"She just misses Uncle Quinn today (with his arm around me)."

Me-"I'd rather just stay in bed today. I don't want to go anywhere"

Addi-"Mom, it's not dark outside."

Me-"Addi, what does that have to do with anything?"

Addi-"It's not dark and there are no cows out in Payson so you don't have to stay in bed."

Les- (laughing) "Addi, Mom isn't scared to go outside she just wants to be sad."

Addi-"Oh, I hope I didn't make it worse" (starting to cry)

Me-"You never make it worse. You always make me laugh and make it better. I love you."

Big News and Pinkalicious Party

So I tried not to blog for a while on purpose as not to spoil the news too soon......WE ARE EXPECTING #3!!!- I know, I know we said we were done, but just couldn't resist the feeling that we needed to add just one more before we were officially done. 14 weeks today!

We had Addi's Pinkalicious party on March 19th (my birthday, but moms make sacrafices). It turned out really cute. We hired two 14 year old girls to paint fingernails of Addi's guests and then they all made pink necklaces. We had Pinkalicious cupcakes, pink lemonaide and pink ice cream while Les read the book to the girls. We also had a table of all kinds of pink candy for the girls to make a goody bag with. So much fun. Can't believe she is 6!

A New Year

I haven't posted in what seems like forever, so here is my attempt to quickly catch up. Our family had a great holiday season.

We made the usual rounds at Thanksgiving and were able to spend some time with Les' uncle Lee and his family in Park City for a couple of days afterwards. We changed real estate agents in November and the house remains on the market. After much construction, snow storms and pothole repair I am very anxious to get moved closer to work. We had a family look at the house yesterday morning. Hopefully we will find the right people to purchase it soon.

Payton turned 3 years old on December 14th. We had a Dora The Explorer birthday for her and combined it to celebrate Weston's 2nd birthday at the same time. She is such a hoot, always keeping us entertained.

Christmas was wonderful as usual. The girls were extreemly spoiled this year. It took me literally 3 hours to open the 10 Barbies and many other items that were tightly secured in their packaging.

Well, it's a new year already. Work for me has been challenging, yet a wonderful opportunity of growth in the last month. Les hopes to be employed until May. I am sad to see him have to make a job switch after 8 years of working at Natures Way, but not much we can do about their move to Green Bay. Who knows, maybe he will find something better...

Addison will be turning 6 in March. The Pinkalicious party planning has already begun. She is doing great in school. Reading above Kindergarten expectations.

More to come...

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Fall is almost here!

Our little family has been talking about and making plans for fall. Both of the girls have new fall clothes and Halloween costumes. Payton has decided to be Minnie Mouse and Addi is going to be Tiana from The Princess and The Frog. We have also booked a trip to Disneyland for 6 days in October. We are super excited to go. I am sure we will have photos to share once we get back. We went there two years ago in October and love the special Halloween decor and things and the weather seems to be just perfect for us that time of year. Les has even began threatening Payton that if she keeps having potty accidents in her big girl panties she will only be getting diapers from Santa. She really doesn't love that idea.

Addison has been in Kindergarten for 3 weeks now. She loves it, but is such a perfectionist that she is having a very hard time getting her work done in the short time they give her. It is however, flawless. Her cutting and coloring is exactly on the lines. She cried the entire first week from the frustration of not being able to have time to do her best work. She was missing "free play time" to finish her projects. We compromised...I told her to do what she could as well as she could until all the rest of the kids were done and then save the rest to finish at home. That has seemed to be working so far. Love her little smarty pants! Her dance class just started for the year as well. She is telling me that they are learning a new dance called Monkey On A Stick. Sounds pretty silly for a bunch of 5 year old girls.

The girls have also been through another major change. Since Addison's Kindergarten is here in Payson they are no longer able to be babysat by Grandma Batty. They have gone to her since they were babies and the change has been very hard for both the girls and Grandma. We were told about a woman (Relma) who has a daycare just one road north from us in her home. The girls simply adore her and are growing very attached to the other kids and the puppy there. She has a daughter and two other girls that go to Kindergarten with Addison, so she is able to drop all 4 of them off at school at once. She has also been great to help enforce the potty training we are doing with Payton.

I became a manager at work at the end of June. I am the Order Process Manager now along with keeping my previous duties. I hired 4 new employees and have been training them for the last couple months. Along with the new drive to South Jordan (long drive + constuction=yuck!) I have suddenly gotten very busy! The vacation can't come soon enough! Les has been great to help out more at home and take the girls where they need to be since my commute is much longer.

Addi's 1st Day of Kindergarten

Some shots I took today of Addi before taking her to school.

June 2010

Busy Lately

As you can probably tell by the length of time between posts life for us has gotten a little busier lately. We are selling the house and looking at new ones, Les is working 2 jobs (lawn care season), my work moved to South Jordan last week, etc.

Addison had her dance recital at the end of April...

Fun stuff I have baked (and more I didn't photograph.)

Brandon and his family moved back to Utah. We are so happy they are bck. They blessed TJ on April 25th which happened to be Quinn's birthday.