Alex's baptism

This post should have come a few months ago....ooops! Guess I've been a little preoccupied with moving, getting settled, building a house and the new baby to come. But this was definitely a very important event that needs to have it's own post on "The blog".
Alex was baptized on July 3rd by his Dad. It was a wonderful day and we were blessed to have many of our family and friends celebrate with us. We had only been in Utah for 24 hours so we were all tired but we were so happy to have finally made it "home" and to be able to share such a special occasion with our loved ones.
I think the look on Alex's face sums up how we all were feeling. PURE JOY! And you can find this look on Alex's face 99% of the time which is one of the things I love most about the kid! Love you Alex!

Back to School.....Again!!

The kids started school on Aug. 25th and so far they are loving it! Savannah is in Middle school and has made lots of new friends. She has already experienced the joy of turning a piece of ordinary wood into a work of art (a giant die) in shop class and is on to the torture of P.E.!!

Alex is in 3rd grade and has also made lots of new friends. He is in the same class with his cousin Makenna, which I admit I wasn't sure would work out very well, but it has not caused any trouble and he is enjoying his new school. His teacher says he's always happy and a joy to have in class!

Micah is in 1st grade and is one of the top readers in his class. I get to watch him at recess a couple of times a week when I take Gray to preschool which is located in the elementary school. He is always running around with a group of kids and a huge smile on his face. This new school has 3 recesses which the boys are LOVING!!! And so am I!!!

Gray is in preschool 2 days a week and for the most part he loves it. Once in a while he cries when I drop him off. We're hoping he comes out of his shell a little!

And here's the big announcement, for those of you who don't already know. We're having another baby in January. This was a big surprise and has taken a little while to come to terms with. We found out 3 weeks ago that it will be another BOY!!! One more and we could have our own basketball team.....but we won't!!

Home again, home again jiggity jig!!

We're home! We're finally home!

In January, Jeremy took a new position with his company that would allow him to work from home when he is not traveling. We spent 3 1/2 long months fixing up our house in Chicago and then put it up on the Market in March. Just when we were starting to loose hope we got an offer and had to be out 3 weeks later. We closed and moved out on June 30th and were in Utah July 2nd. Just in time for Alex's baptism on July 3rd!

We are so happy to be home among our family and friends and of coarse the beauty of the Mountains!! We are staying with Jeremy's Mom in Mountain Green while we build our new home (also in Mountain Green).We haven't started yet.........still trying to decide on a house plan. We plan to die in our next home (NEVER moving again!!) so we're feeling a lot of pressure to get it just right!

A Visit from the Chocolate Fairy

Late last night I had a visit from the chocolate fairy. I was on a conference call when I recieved a text from her (I'm assuming the Chocolate Fairy is a female.......because the love of chocolate is truly girl thing) that said "If you haven't checked your porch your chocolate fix is there"

Earlier in the day I had posted on facebook "There is just not enough chocolate in the world today. At least in my house there isn't enough."

So after a brief moment of debating weather this was a trap by some psycho trying to lure me outside with the promise of chocolate and then mom-napping me while my children were sleeping and my husband was out of town, I looked and this is what I saw.



Well it looked just like this, but bigger.

There were more brownies last night.

I won't even tell you how many I ate.

Hey! Don't judge! Would you be able to resist this?



And they were still warm! I just knew that if I faithfully paid devotion to the Chocolate Fairy by partaking of chocolate EVERY Day I would be rewarded!!! Thank you Chocolate Fairy! I believe!!


Ok, really the best part is (aside from the fact that my kids were asleep and my hubby out of town and I had a whole plate of warm quadruple chocolate brownies in my possession) that I don't know who my chocolate fairy is. But while trying to guess, I came up with several good friends who love me and that I could easily imagine would do such a thing.

But it did make me wonder.....if one of my friends received a late night visit from the chocolate fairy, would my name pop into their head while they were wondering who it could be? It's been far too long since I have been of service to my friends.

So THANK YOU Chocolate fairy for the kindness you've shown me AND for the reminder of the importance of service!

Where does all the time go?

How do I keep getting so far behind on this blog? I guess it's because I get busy living my life and forget to make time to record it. I'm not going to go all the way back to the fall and fill you all in on the happenings, I'll just start from here.

On January 22 we set out on our trip to much anticipated trip to Disney World. We have been planning and saving for about 3 years so we were all very excited to see the day FINALLY come! The first day we drove to Atlanta, Georgia where we stopped to see some of our friends, the Evans family. We lived across the street from them in Arkansas and they were like family to us. It was great to see them again and catch up! We got to Disney World on Saturday afternoon and stayed until the following Saturday.

The trip was everything we could have imagined. The kids loved meeting all of the Characters and all of the rides and shows. Alex and Savannah were able to go on all of the rides and there was only one ride that Micah couldn't go on. Our faverite rides were Space Mountain, The go-carts, Arosmiths Rockin' Roller coaster and the Tower of Terror.

And then there was Gray. He was not an enjoyable person to be around that week. I guess it comes with being 2, almost 3. He didn't want to ride in the stroller but then he would stop and pout or just run off if we let him walk. I thought he'd just take a nap in the stroller, but I think that only happened once. We still love him though!

We left on Saturday afternoon but had to take a different route home due to Tennessee being hit so hard with snow/ice. We didn't get home until about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night.

It was a great trip and we enjoyed spending so much time together. We made a lot of memories that I'm sure we'll re-tell over and over for years to come!

And They're Off!!!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!!! After such a fun-filled summer I was very ready to send the kids back to school and get back to a schedule. They are all doing very well in their classes so far. Savannah is in 5th grade, Alex is in 3rd and Micah started all-day Kindergarten. I was a little worried that Micah would be grumpy and tired after school for a while, but he gets on the bus with a smile and still has a smile on his face when he gets home! He also begs me to give him homework. Wonder how long that will last : ) And now I think I'm caught up on all of our happenings! (Except for the ballet recital video's that I still need to post!)



Savannah 5th Grade
















Alex 2nd Grade





































Micah Kindergarten

St. Louis

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to the Shaklee conference in St. Louis. When she asked me I happened to be having a bad day with the kids and she could have asked me to go away to a poop convention and I would have agreed as along as it meant a few days off from the "mom gig"! We had a blast! I'd been using Shaklee products for a while and I think the company and their stuff is amazing. It was great to hear all of the science behind their products and to
get a better feel for the company. After I got home I joined Shaklee so that I can start earning my products for free! It has been a bit of a roller coaster so far but I've really been enjoying learning all about nutrition and how to help the human body to be healthier! If you want to know more about it, I have a website. Check it out! www.greenandhealthylife.myshaklee.com



After several nights of staying up way too late and then getting up really early I was in desperate need of coke. St. Louis, however seems to be a coke free city. Pepsi everywhere. But NO COKE!!!



Here is a sample of my fabulous shoes and all of the foot care paraphernalia that goes along with them. I really like to get dressed up!!


















Me, Chrissy and Cathy on our final night.