It's finally ours!

Finally after 3 long years of hoping to buy our house and farm we did it!  We are so grateful that things have come into place.  Now we are planning for a remodel.  They say if your marriage can survive a remodel it can survive anything(I don't know who "they" are).  But I  don't think it will be too bad since we already built a house together.  I'm really looking forward to getting rid of the 8 different colors of carpet, including the carpet in the kitchen....what were they thinking????

Doesn't anybody want to stay in one place anymore?

These are Kyla and Mackenzie's friends that moved to Arizona last week, we were very sad to see them go.  They did leave their older brother behind to finish his Senior year so we are glad they will need to come visit for football games.

 I grew up in the same town for most of my life, in fact my mom told me this week they have lived in the same town now for 40 years.  Hard to believe it's been that long. 

The first 7 years of our marriage we moved 7 times, then we stayed in CA for 2 years, Portland for 7 and now we've been in WA for 8 years.  It's been hard to see so many people come and go but I guess that is how life is.  Although now it's nice to know that we have so many friends in many places.

Anyone want to move to Lynden?

Skiing at Mission Ridge

Craig and I decided that we wanted to take our kids skiing for Christmas and let those that have never been skiing give it a try. After much debate we dicided on Mission Ridge over on the other side of the mountains. I was lucky enough to find lift tickets for half price and we found a house to stay just outside of Leavenworth that was large enough for our brood. As it got closer to going I started to worry because of the lack of snow in the mountains. The good side it made for a really easy trip picking up Brendon and then going over the pass. Bad news was there was only about 20 inches at the base and maybe twice that much on top. The resort was making snow but I found out for the first time it just is not the same. The other issue was it was soooo cold. I don't think it got over 20 degrees that day any the runs that were open didn't even see the sun

It ended up not being too bad for most of us. Brendon is already a ski bum, Craig and I both grew up skiing and it was like riding a bike. Kyla and Jensen did not have fun and ended up in the lodge most of the day. Kaden started out frustrated and then finally caught on and Mackenzie is a natural. So......5 out of 7 Mayberry's love skiing. We hope to try it again at another location with even better results.

You know it's been a long time since you've blogged when........

You have 9 months worth of pictures to blog about.

Christmas was 6 months ago and you haven't bothered to download them and blog about them.

Your friends ask about your blog and why you haven't updated it.

You have almost forgotten the web address for your blog.

Guess I'd better get caught up!

Graduation

Mackenzie and her friend Abby

 Hard to believe but our 3rd child has graduated from high school!  It was also our 3 graduation that was held inside the gym because it was raining outside the day before and ended up being a gorgeous day on Friday.  Thankfully the gym wasn't nearly as hot when Kyla graduated.

Mackenzie will be heading off to BYU-I in the fall.

Jake and Mackenzie

Mackenzie, Kyla and Taylor

7 Long years......come to an end

When Craig decided to go back to school to get his PhD we thought we had the big plan all figured out. He'd go to school for 4 years, graduate, get a job and we'd live happily ever after.

The reality was we lost our income from our business in OR when it shut down. I had to go back to work, Craig had to find other income(including a paper route for a time) and both Brendon and Kyla graduated from high school before Craig graduated. Although Craig ended up employed with Western Washington University even before he graduated but it still took 3 years longer then we had hoped. Craig had said the last few years he was not going to walk in graduation and I said he was. Guess I won. It was pretty cool. Each of the PhD students had a short write up about what they had done their studies in. Most of the group had done their PhD in some kind of medical research, but Craig was the only one that was business related.

We were also lucky enough that graduation was American Thanksgiving week-end and Kyla was able to come home. We sure wished that Brendon could have been there too. Maybe next time.....oh wait, there had better not be a next time for Craig just the kids!

I'm glad he went back to school but I'm also glad he's done. Farewell UBC!

Long or Short???

I was recently at a church youth activity Kyla mentioned to me in front of a couple men in our ward that we needed to hurry home to cut her hair. The one guy said "Your not going to cut it short are you???" We were going to just cut her bangs a little shorter. This prompted a discussion on whether or not women should have short or long hair.

Since I do cut hair I've always been bothered by men that think all women should have long hair. I have nothing against long hair but a lot of factors go into any hair style. Age, height, lifestyle, if your hair curly or straight and amount of hair a person has have a lot do do with what style a women can wear.

My other opinion is the woman should decide how she wants her hair not her husband. He's not the one that has to wear and style the hair. Besides that I loved it when I heard on "What Not To Wear" that hair is an accessory and it should be changed just like jewelery.

So what is your opinion? Long or short?

Girls Camp

We had a very fun week at camp. I didn't know I was going until only 2 weeks before. Much like the first time I went only about 2 months after we had moved to WA. At least this time I knew the girls and many of the stake and ward leaders. The first time I went at the last minute was because the ward leader had some medical issues and couldn't go.

This time it was because I have been asked to be next years stake camp director. Big job! I've been told this already many times. But I'm very excited about it! I feel very blessed to have grown up with good ward and stake camp leaders that gave be a very positive attitude about girls camp. Many of the years I went were not so ideal. One year we had a bear very close to camp, another year we had rats in the lodge and another year it poured rain the entire week. I think our leaders still made camp fun and I learned a lot. The program has changed but ideas and values learned have not.

M was a YCL (youth camp leader) and I think she had fun too. I'm sure it was good for her to practice some leadership skills. This will be her last year. So I'll be going to camp by myself. I've been lucky enough to spend several years at camp with my girls.

I feel really blessed to have such a beautiful place to go to camp, fairly good weather and great group of girls and leaders to go with!

Hair cut time.

I have had my cosmetology license for about 25 years now. I had always planned that I would teach my kids to cut hair to save money, and the boys could use it on their missions. Well so far I've not done a very good job. Mackenzie mentioned a few weeks ago she wanted to cut someones hair. Who would be the best person to start on....Kaden or Jensen were great options. Jensen refused.

Now I started too on one of my siblings. My sister. Go back around 30 years, we decide that I could cut Melanie's hair. We asked our mom and she said fine but if I messed up she would not be paying to fix it. I must of been ok because I don't remember any tears or trips to the salon to get it fixed. That was my beginnings of cutting hair. I don't think I've stopped since.

Mackenzie did a good job and Kaden doesn't have much to complain about. I think we'll have to pin down Jensen soon.

Real view

Day 3 we had much better weather and so we were lucky enough to drive back up the mountain to see a much better view... talk about beautiful. I'm sure it's even better on a completely clear day. We would have been able to see Vancouver Island, the Olympic Peninsula, Mt Baker and Mt.Rainer, and the Canadian Rocky's. Just with our limited view I can see why they say it's so beautiful. We really didn't have a lot of time so I didn't get too many pictures. Maybe next time.