Backyard Progress and Other Happenings of 2012

We have a lot of house projects going on right now. John is working on the backyard remodel and we've been putting our extra bedrooms back together since we had the popcorn ceiling removed.

Here are some of the progress pictures I've taken of the yard (mostly the progress of the railroad tie retaining wall which is almost done!):

Don't have progress pictures of the bedrooms since we were doing good just to get one of them and our half-bathroom painted! The 2nd bedroom in still covered in plastic waiting for paint on the wall (ceiling is done!).

So here's some other highlights since my last post (covering December 2012):

So in the beginning of December, John and I were in charge of our ward Christmas party. That thing pretty much took a number on me! I have 0 pictures that I took (I'll grab some from the ward photo bucket eventually, but there weren't many on there) because I was too busy making sure all the activity booths we set up with someone to run it and feeding people! It got to the point that I just had to sit and eat and I didn't care if everything fell apart (luckily that wasn't an issue) because I already gave it my all! The week leading up to that I had starting developing a cold that hit me full on after the party. And it took weeks to get over it!

John and I sang with our stake choir in their big Christmas concert they put on every year. I busted out my madrigals dress from high school and we had to buy John a black bow tie. So we had to get a nice picture while we were all dressed up! And oh course I was in the middle of that horrible cold I got after the ward party. I barely survived 2 nights of concerts with the help of cough drops and water before we went on!

So after a couple weeks I don't really remember since I was recovering from the big Christmas events and my killer cold, it was time for birthdays and Christmas! We had a birthday shin-dig with John's family for John and his aunt KK. The nieces loved looking at the Christmas tree and the presents. Zoe would count the Santas and the Mickeys and Minnies. Mackenzie looked for presents that said "Mackenzie" on them.

 Oh course John is always first to volunteer to lick the bowl!

So we did Christmas Day festivities on Christmas Eve with John's family.

breakfast in PJs

Zoe and Kirsty

Zoe LOVES GG! 

Zoe loved her baby doll (and accessories)

John got some decor for the garage to put over his "tinkering bench"

new bike and scooter

new recliner

Zoe taking care of her baby

Zoe approves of the new recliner

Santa delivered some new playground equipment

everyone was a fan!

We had the Grinch show up aka John dressed up as the Grinch for a family in our ward (they had 11 grandkids at the time - and more since). They rented a costume for John to show up in and do "Grinchy" things.  So he came over and scared Mackenzie (until Pompa snuck her into the other room so she saw it was John). We got on Face Time with Jeff, Sarah, and Jackson to say hi so the Grinch popped on to say hi to Jackson as well.

In the evening, we went to Cari's aunt's house to spend some time with her mom's side of the family. John showed up in the Grinch suit - I'll have to post the video of that one. They thought Christmas was going to be boring with the Walkers in Utah that year. Never fear - the Ferrells are here!

Christmas Day was really kick back since Cari's family was in Utah. Consisted of sleeping in, kicking back, and going to Cari's aunt's house to play with the kitties (ok they're cats, but kitty is more fun to say...).

Our new Disneyland savings account

Testing out my new tripod to take a self portrait of me testing out the new recliner 

One of these days I'll be up-to-date, but that pretty much puts a wrap on 2012!