Settling In

We have been in our new home a month now and we are still working on unpacking boxes. My goal is to be done by my birthday, as a present to myself : ) Today we went by our old house and retrieved sand toys and other items from the backyard that had been buried in snow until this week. Down in Spanish Fork the snow has vanished, where up in Woodland Hills we still have 2 feet in our yard. If we want to have grass to play on before May, we'll probably have to shovel it into the neighbors yard (j/k).

The kids are still going to school in Spanish Fork, so I go back and forth 3 times a day, which makes for a lot of carpooling. I am looking forward to next year when all the kids will be riding the bus.

We love our new neighborhood. The houses are all on an acre of land, so we have lots of room and privacy.  The first week after our move, Mason had a hard time understanding that he couldn't just walk around knocking on doors asking if he could play. There isn't a lot of spontaneous play, but rather you have to set up play dates.

The people here are wonderful. When Gabe came to unload the moving truck, 6 men showed up to help. Then they all followed him back to S.F. to help load up the truck again and then back to Woodland Hills to unload it.

There are 4 families here that are originally from Upland and who were good friends with Dick and Deon's family. So it has been fun meeting them and hearing about old connections.

Today we had our warmest day in months, 60 degrees. We were able to spend some time outside together and get some winter yard work done.

Many blessings

We officially closed on our "new" house a week ago. We have been excited but also apprehensive because we will be renting out our current home. We have heard many "horror" stories about renters and have had many people give us advice about hiring a company to handle everything for us. We decided to try it on our own at first, hoping that we could find just the right family to take care of our home. I haven't been worried or stressed about it because I've had a peaceful feeling that everything would work itself out. I posted an add a few days ago and we've had many people come and look at our house. Yesterday a family came to look at our home, non-members, but very nice and friendly people. They have 4 young children, one of which is a boy named Mason who is in kindergarten. My Mason instantly befriended him and told his new friend that they were cousins : )  This great family signed a lease with us for 3 years and we are sooooooo happy and relieved!

Many people have asked to see pictures of our new house, which was actually built in 1975, so not really "new". It is on 1.2 acres of land and has beautiful views. This video was made by the realtor, so it shows the house still furnished by the previous owners.

In your opinion, what is the the best toy to have in your collection?

Like many parents we have bought our kids toys that they "just had to have" knowing that a few weeks or may be even days later, it would become forgotten. Over the past few years we have tried to steer clear of those kinds of toys. However if our kids want to save their own money and purchase that 'must have toy' themselves, then that is their choice. Growing up, the favorite toys in our house were wooden building blocks, tinker toys and legos.  But the most often used were the wooden blocks. Now 25 years later, the true can be said for my kids. They are the toy that gets pulled out the most, are always scattered across the boys bedroom, and are the one toy that we can never put in the temporary storage rotation.

For Christmas this year, Gage's Santa gift was a set of 96 large jumbo blocks, that are a mix of lego and block. The older kids asked for electronic gadgets or bikes, toys that don't necessarily require a lot of imagination. While they all loved their gifts, it has been Gage's mega blocks that have been the most played with toy, even with mom and dad.

Gage's Castle 

The boys sharing the double throne mom made

Happy New Year

It's been 2 months since my last post so this one is going to be a doosey! We didn't send out a Christmas letter and photo this year, we usually do them every other year. But I will do a brief recap and update for you because I'm sure everyone is dying to know what's going on in the world of "Gosney".

Gabe has been at his current job for 11 months. He manages a team of software engineers for Access Data, which is a company that provides encryption software for companies including many government agencies. I would tell you which ones, but then I'd have to kill you : )

I, Anna, have an incredibly interesting day job which consists of doing laundry, decluttering, cleaning, sometimes cooking dinner, assisting children with homework, and if I'm lucky I can sneak in a shower here or there and put on make up a couple times a week. I am currently one of nine nursery leaders in our ward, which consists of 3 large nurseries with 25 children each! I am so happy it's the end of the year because we have so many graduates.

Brianna is half way through her first year of junior high school. She gets to ride a bus because we live 2.2 miles away from the school. If we lived 1.9 miles away she would be walking. She loves that she no longer is in primary and is the secretary in her Beehive class. She enjoys writing movie scripts, playing the piano, baking, bossing her brothers around and playing her new i pod touch.

Hayden is in the 4th grade and has made a lot of academic progress this year. He was enrolled at the Sylvan learning center during the Fall and attended 3 afternoons a week for 3 months. He has been taking karate for 2 years and is enrolled in a black belt leadership program. He has earned 7 belts so far and he should have his black belt by the age of 13. He is a natural athlete and enjoys playing basketball, soccer and football.

Tucker is in the 3rd grade and does everything at his own pace... I don't know how he does it, but he can stretch 10 minutes of homework over a 90 minute period. Luckily he was blessed with natural "smarts" so reading and math come quite easily for him. This year he has been making more of an effort to stay on task at school and he has become quite the charmer with his teachers.

Mason is our social butterfly. He has no problem approaching people and just starting up a conversation. He is in kindergarten and loves to be with his friends. It took him awhile to adjust to his class routine and on the first day of school he told the principle that he wanted to be bad because then he wouldn't be able to come back. Mason has a lot of charisma but is also emotionally high strung. Hopefully one day it will click for him to use his words to resolve conflicts rather then screaming and screeching. He definitely makes our lives more interesting and it would be pretty dull around here without him.

Gage is almost 3 and has fallen in line right behind his brothers. Gone are the days of snuggling with mom and dad and being entertained by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Now his interests are "killing" zombies, playing pirates and cowboys and repeating everything he hears his older brothers say : (  He loves to be silly and thinks it's sooo funny to use potty talk at the dinner table to make everyone laugh, especially during the prayer. He is the "baby" though and our last child, so he can pretty much get away with anything.

This past year has been an adventure and we are blessed to begin the New Year with a much needed change, a bigger house. We are scheduled to close on our new house on January 10th in Woodland Hills, which is just 7 miles west from where we live now. The kids are excited to have a "real" backyard and I am excited to have an additional 1500 sq. ft and a basement that includes a rec room. Hopefully now I can prepare dinner without footballs and nerf darts whizzing by my head and landing in the food I'm preparing.

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 A few weeks ago we had Elizabeth over for dinner and we played Christmas charades, although you wouldn't be able to guess that was the theme from watching the video I took.

Hayden's Adventure Time Party

Hayden wanted to have an Adventure Time theme for his friend party this year.  It's a show on cartoon network that Gabe and the kids like to watch.  A few months ago I made Finn hats for the boys, he's the character with the white fleece hat with ears.  They created an Adventure Time club in our neighborhood and those with Finn hats got to be executive members. Although it was the middle of the summer and blazing hot, that didn't deter them from wearing their fleece hats.

For the party I made a Finn cake, actually Gabe did half of the decorating, so I can't take all the credit.  The boys played pin the nose on the Ice King, who is a character on the show, and Balloon Bulls-eye, which was everyone's favorite.  This is how you play: give every child a balloon to blow up and tell them to hold the neck shut rather than tie it in a knot.  Place a target in the middle of the floor (we used a stuffed Jake, the yellow dog from the show).  On the count of three, everyone releases their balloon.  Whichever balloon is the closest to the target wins.

Hayden received a football from one of his friends and the boys were getting a bit crazy playing catch in the house.  So I had Gabe take them to a nearby park where they could run around and expend a lot more energy. Gabe brought his rocket along and they had a "blast" shooting it off.

Happy Halloween

Here are the boys all set to go trick or treating. Hayden is on the left dressed as the grim reaper, Mason a cowboy, Tucker a Hill-Billy (he had a mason jar with "moonshine" that he carried with him), Gabe a Zombie Hunter, and Gage was the cutest pirate you ever did see!

We had a warm Halloween, 70 degrees, so the kids lasted a lot longer trick or treating and brought home lots of loot. Which is always good news for mom and dad because we can pick through the candy and snag our favorites without the kids noticing there's anything missing : )

Little Football Fanatic

This is a video of Gage playing football, or rather catch with Gabe and Brianna

Tucker's Baptism

We waited to baptize Tucker at the end of September so that both of his Grandpa's could be involved. It was a special opportunity and we're glad that Tucker can have that memory forever. My father baptized him and Gabe's father confirmed him. During the program a member of our bishopric was explaining to the kids who were baptized how repentance works. He quoted the scripture from D&C 58:42, "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more."  He turned to Tucker and said, "Tucker if you were mad and hit your brother, you could pray and ask to be forgiven and the Lord will no longer remember what you did."  Tucker, excited as this prospect, eagerly asked, "And my brother too"?  All the grownups couldn't help but laugh!

Grandpa Gosney's Visit

Terry came to visit at the end of October so he could participate in Tucker's baptism. We were so glad he was able to visit for 4 full days. He was able to spend a lot of fun time with his grand kids as well as visit his sister and attend a BYU football game.

We took him to Trafalga in Orem and did some miniature golfing and raced the go-karts. Hayden was ecstatic that he was tall enough to drive by himself. I can't believe that he's already 60 inches tall! I'm not sure if that's typical for a nine year old but I guess we'll find out as his next "well-child" visit...

Gage had fun, when he wasn't upset about something, which

was most of the time, oh well. That's the life of a 2 year old!

Mason had so much fun riding in the go-kart with Grandpa.

Terry was a good sport when it came to reading with Gage. Having 3 older brothers has certainly had a comedic influence on Gage. He loves to make people laugh and using bathroom humor is a sure way to make that happen, according to his experience.

Ode to Mason

To say the least, Mason makes our lives very interesting:

On the first day of kindergarten the principle was called in to help deal with his behavior and he told her that he wanted to be bad, because if he was bad he wouldn't have to come back.

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Two weeks ago Gabe took the boys to Toysrus.  Gabe was with Mason near the Little People toys when Mason saw a 4 year old girl looking around. He went up to her, introduced himself, then began giving her a tour of all the toys and how they worked. 

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Last weekend Mason went missing for a couple of hours, (which is typical because he has so many friends houses he loves to go play at in our tight knit neigborhood). When he resurfaced Gabe asked him where he had been. He said that he was at a birthday party. We were a bit puzzled because he hadn't been invited to any parties. We noticed that our Spanish speaking neighbors a couple houses down had a bounce house set up in the backyard, festive music playing and lots of balloons.  We asked if that was the party he was at, and he replied yes. Gabe told him that it wasn't polite to go to a party if you haven't been invited. Mason quickly retorted, "I was! I knocked on their door and said, can I come to your party, and they said yes!"

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I often have people relate funny conversations they have had with Mason, whether they are complete strangers or people in our neighborhood.  This summer while we were at Seven Peaks water park, an old man came up and tapped my arm. Pointing to Mason he asked, "Is that your son"?  I looked over and saw Mason and Gage sitting on some of the rock landscaping and assuming that Mason had done something to offend him, I gave a hesitant, "yes"?  He continued, "I saw him kissing a rock and I asked him, "Is kissing a rock better than kissing a girl?" and he told me "YES!"".

***

My visiting teacher related this story to me after she watched him for a couple of hours. He had walked into her house and noticed her 11 month old niece playing on the floor. He curiously eyed the baby, then asked, is that your baby? She replied that it was her niece. He didn't quite understand, so he asked, "did that baby grow inside your tummy?"  She answered, "nope, she didn't grow in my tummy". Then very dramatically he queried, "Well, if that baby didn't grow in your tummy and it's not yours, THEN WHO'S BABY IS IT!?!"

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Now that Mason is in kindergarten, part of his his homework is to read 15 or more minutes a day. The other night he was whining and complaining and wasn't following directions. He wanted Gabe to read to him but he kept misbehaving until Gabe said, "Mason! Why should I read to you? You have been whining and not listening and are being mean to me! Give me one good reason why I should still read to you?" Mason paused a moment to think, then replied, "because I like you daddy."