Sorry all, I know it has been forever since I last posted but man, we have been so dang busy. So here is the recap of what our last month has held for us. If you don't care just keep scrolling. So December 14th Darren had his last final, we picked up our UHaul after his class and then started filling it that night with the help of his brother and sister in law that were nice enough to drive all the way over from Wyoming to help us move. We could have never done it without them, they truly saved us! So the next morning we finished up packing and then cleaned the place and took off that afternoon for Utah. The sellers of our house were nice enough to let us move our stuff into the garage of the house even though we still had yet to sign closing papers (that was a nightmare all of its own) so we got to Utah that night and the boys unloaded the truck (thank you Dan and Dave for your help there as well) That night we stayed in a hotel just to try to sleep in and regroup from all of the late nights we had been pulling with finals and then packing. We then stayed the next night at Darren's brothers house and then flew off to Oregon the day after that. We spent a couple weeks at my mom's house and celebrated Christmas there and just spent time with family. We also had the stress of the house hanging over our heads. In a matter of a couple weeks we found out our mortgage broker sucked had to fire him, hire a new one, redo everything we had already done with paperwork and what not, redo an appraisal on the house (ouch being out $400 sucked) create the most precise paper trail of all our finances ever known to man, and ask the sellers if we could extend past our date of closing since we had to start over with a new person. It was an absolute nightmare and we were so stressed and cranky the whole time. The new mortgage person we found was a life savor though and if anyone is buying a house anytime soon let us know. She was amazing! So we finally got to sign papers the day after Christmas. After all this Darren's parents got back from their visits with family and we went to stay with them for a week. Then on the 5th of January Darren, Allison and I flew out to Fort Lauderdale to go on a cruise with my mom and step dad and some other family. That same day Emmie drove to Utah with Darren's parents and stayed a week with Darren's brother Dan and sister in law Jen while we were gone. (thank you, thank you, thank you Jen) The cruise was so much fun. Darren and I are normally the type of people that like to look around a lot when we go to new places and see the sights but this trip was all about eating and relaxing! We went down to a few places in the Caribbean and some of the ports were really nice but we really enjoyed being able to take naps (which we couldn't even remember the last time we got to take one at the same time before this trip) and eating the most absolutely AMAZING food. Darren and I would get multiple entrees and appetizers and deserts each night at dinner, we would hit up the midnight buffet and gorge ourselves at lunch each day. Needless to say we didn't spend much time in bathing suits this trip! We came home pounds heavier but it was a nice trip after such a nightmare of the last month. The day after we got home we got the keys to our house and brought our luggage from our trip in and began to feel the overwhelming stress again of thinking about cleaning and unpacking. We still have so much to do. We didn't want to move anything in until after we could get the carpets cleaned and scrub the place down. So little by little we have been cleaning away and the carpets got cleaned today. On top of this the girls are both sick and oh so cranky. Emmie has a really bad cough and runny nose and Allie is so congested she can hardly breathe. She is such a sad sight! Her eyes are watering and all gooped up, her nose is running none stop and since she can't breathe through her nose she is drooling everywhere. Oh the insanity of life! So there is the LONG recap of what has been going on with us. I will try to update more often and post pictures of our developing house. Most of our work is the unseen stuff so there won't be much to show. Mainly we are scrubbing the heck out of this place, getting and installing new blinds and getting and installing a washer and dryer. So pretty boring stuff right now since we are now too poor to furnish this place and make it look nice. For your viewing pleasure after this monster of a reader blog here are a few pictures of our month.
Emmie playing on our packed boxes
Allison packed up and ready to go
Emmie would only look at Santa
But Allie seemed to like him
My niece Abby and Emmie making gingerbread houses. (thanks Becky for getting her on a sugar high, I think Emmie ate more than she decorated)
Making sugar cookies with mom on Christmas Eve
Twister with the cousins
Darren and Allison on my parents balcony on the ship
Allison ridding the towel elephant
Hot and sweating in Tortolla (our ship is in the background on the far left)
My mom, stepdad, Allie and I on the water taxi. Can you tell how dang hot it was there?
This is how Allison spent most of the vacation, attached to me on a front pack
Darren and I at dinner one night
While living in Rexburg we lived right down the hill from the temple and got to see it out our window each day and see the progress of the construction on it. Also our church building was right next to it so every Sunday we would get an up close view of it. Emmie would constantly talk about it and tell us how she wanted to go inside. When we moved in December we were pretty bummed that the construction wasn't done on it so we could take her through, but we decided to make a special trip back up so we could take her inside. Darren had to go out of town for work training last week so I went up to Idaho with the girls while he was gone and stayed with my brother and sister in law for a couple days and then Darren joined us on Friday night. Friday we spent the night with my old roommate Becky and her husband Travis in Idaho Falls and then all of us went to the open house Saturday morning. The temple is beautiful and it was so awesome to be able to take Emmie through it even though I'm sure she probably won't remember it. Sorry Becky I know you didn't want me to post pictures but I liked the group shot of us all and the one of us together so I couldn't resist. Forgive me :)
This picture cracks me up, Darren's eyes are totally closed and I am making a really strange face. The sun was so bright in our eyes it felt like they were going to burn out of our heads. 
Travis, Becky, Emmie, Darren, me, and Allison standing at the back of the temple
Awww so cute. Old Roomies!!!
