Sparkly

Meet Sparkly.

He's our new elf.

Santa sent him this year to help keep an eye on Scott and Dean.

Scott was so excited to see him.

We've come to find out that he's quite the mischievous elf.

He's very excited for his first trip to our house and wants to play all sorts of games while Scott and Dean sleep.

Here are just a few of the places we have found him in after we wake up. 

We hope we get to see Sparkly again next year.

We'll see if he's learned some manners within a years time.

Happy Birthday Ryan

 See these cute boys?

Oh how I love this sight.

This is Scott's friend from school.

He's not in school anymore since we moved but Ryan here was having a birthday party and hunted us down to make sure Scott was invited to his party.

I was amazed that he would put so much effort into seeing Scott again.

I called to RSVP and Ryan's mom was so thrilled to hear that we were coming.

She said that Scott was his best friend and he's been so sad since he's moved.

This just warmed my heart.

I asked Scott about Ryan and Scott said he's his best friend and then told me everything about him.

Oh boy were we both excited.

We went to pick him out a present, a present suitable for only a best friend.

Then I went to drop him off.

At that point it finally hit me that I was taking Scott to someones house that has no clue of his issues.

I got nervous.

Real nervous.

But then I got there and thought, I'll stay if I need to.

But when we got there Scott went right over to Ryan and said hi.

Then Ryan got so excited to see Scott he hugged him.

And the other little boy from their school ran over and said hi too.

Ryan's mom was so pleased we came.

She treated us like Scott being there was the best gift for her son.

How warm and fuzzy do you think my heart was?

This one kid alone made me rethink moving.

He gives me hope for the future.

And that is the greatest gift I could ask for.

Live Nativity

My parents got tickets to the Alpine Live Nativity.

I thought, cool I liked the one in Draper with the young women, it'll be fun.

Mark didn't feel like going so I took the boys.

Holy cow, it was so much better then the one in Draper.

There were more animals that Scott was able to touch.

That was the fun part.

Then you head up the hill and wonder through these ginormous barns where there is a market place of Bethlehem.

People buying and selling things, children playing games.

Then you walk out and find some shepherds.

Then some angels singing.

After listening for a while we were allowed into a smaller barn.

In there we found a few more animals and a mom and a dad and a sweet little baby.

It was magical.

Scotty and the other kids were shocked and started whispering.

"There's Jesus!"

They said.

I loved sharing this gift with Scott.

Having him see a reflection of the true meaning of Christmas.

Having him feel the sweet spirit of Christmas.

I love this time of year.

I hope we get to come back next year.

Just perfection! 

Packing

I really love packing.

I'm kinda a nazy about organizing the boxes and labeling.

Mark is not allowed to help me pack anything except for his own things.

Even then, he's really not very good at it.

He throws things in his bags, then puts a few other things in boxes, way too much empty space in my opinion.

But when we've started moving in, he always comes to me asking where somethings are.

How am I supposed to know, I didn't pack it.

But I can usually find it, cause I'm pretty awesome.

Anyway, this time around packing is hard.

Dean is hard.

Whatever goes in, he pulls out.

So frustrating.

So we are restricted to nap times or when Mark is home to occupy him.

Scott on the other hand is awesome.

He loves to help.

I love to get him to write my labels.

Well the easy ones.

I tend to get a bit detailed.

Not for the packers help but for mine when we get into the house.

I also love unpacking.

It's like a brand new puzzle with the same pieces.

Well sometimes I get some new pieces after I move in.

I'm so looking forward to our old house and making it feel new again.

It's weird, we're moving into the house while Dean is the same age as Scott when we moved out.

It's like picking up where we left off.

This adventure is going to be good for us.

Now for more boxes, I must go.

This is Not Good Bye

 Look at these sweet ladies.

While living here we've grown to be such great friends.

Mark, Chad and Jeff have also become good friends too.

I love having friends that we can all go out with and I hope that the move doesn't change that.

Soper, you are my crazy nut head sister.

You understand me on a plane that few people do.

Love you crazy lady.

Amber, you are one of the sweetest kindest people I know.

Thanks for all the long talks and the encouraging words.

Baby Burn

We have loved having a fireplace.

It makes me so relaxed seeing the flames and feeling the warmth.

It is the only way to heat our house too.

Sadly Dean is also attracted to the flames as well.

We have always turned the fire place off when he is awake.

But today we didn't get to it soon enough.

He touched the glass.

Here he is soon after it happened.

Here he is a few hours later.

See the blisters on his finger tips too.

It's so sad.

It was so hard to get him to go to bed.

Oh my poor baby bubba.

Moving On

Mark and I have been feeling like we need a change.

We are really getting to big for our misshapen basement.

We've been making it work but something just isn't sitting right.

Fate stepped in when we got notice from the people renting our house that they would be moving out at the end of the month.

So after a LOT of pondering we have decided to move back to our house in Salt Lake.

I have so many mixed emotions about this.

I have finally grown to love our ward.

Or rather love my calling in the ward.

I love my girls.

They are the biggest reason I don't want to go.

My calling and the leaders I work with have been one of the greatest blessings in my life right now.

They give me so much strength and support.

But in the end we have to do what is right for our family.

I'm worried about Scott and the people we will be living around and going to school with.

He is so influential.

I will now be on the hunt for a school for him to go to.

It's kinda strange moving back.

No it's really strange that we will be moving back.

I loved my house and I really like the ward we were in.

And I had such a hard time leaving.

But since I got used to the village I've trained myself to think negatively about it.

I'm so used to thinking of everything that is wrong with it and now I have to start thinking of the good stuff.

I'm excited to have the well divided space.

technically it's similar square footage as this basement but it's laid out so much better there.

The boys will have their own rooms and so will Mark and I.

I'm excited to have more then one bathroom and a bath tub again.

I'm excited to have a place for my sewing stuff to go and a place for the storage that isn't in the front room.

I've been telling Mark that I want to bring the green couches with us since we will have a nice place for a living room.

He thinks we should put the tread mill in there and I'm not ok with that idea.

So I told him if we can't have the green couches (which he hates) then we have to buy new couches for in there.

I think I've just about got him convinced.

See the more I think about it the more it grows on me.

It will be a good change.

There's a lot to do but it's fine cause I enjoy packing and even more then that I love unpacking.

I'm weird I know.