Major Life Changes

In February, we received the news that Platinum, the company Matt has been working for, was closing its doors.  We were surprised with the news, and suddenly found ourselves unemployed.  It has been pretty tough for everyone involved.  I was a complete mess for a couple weeks, but we pulled it together and decided to try to rent out our house.  We were so blessed to find some great renters.  It meant we had to move a little sooner than we originally thought though. We packed up our house, and moved to Leamington in March.  Leaving Mapleton was really hard for us, and I still cry occasionally when we drive through.  We loved it there, and have a lot of great friends there!  Luckily we have been close enough to visit sometimes.
Matt started working for Absolute Air, and was making the commute from Leamington.  My parents were nice enough to let us move in with them while we did some work on their old house.  That project has been both fun, and a big pain...I will post more on that later. We knew Matt's job was only going to be a temporary one for him, but we kept having a hard time figuring out what our plans for the future were going to be.  When we thought we should go one direction, things didn't work out, so we would change again.  We finally made the decision for Matt to go back to school full-time.  This decision has felt right from the moment we made it, and we are excited for the opportunity!  Going to school full-time with a family is tough though, and we have been so blessed to have help from so many people!  We really could not do it without them!
So, here we are.  We have now moved into the house I grew up in.  Honestly, it has been great!  Being in Leamington has made all of this a lot easier.  The kids love living on a "farm" and being by Grandma and Papa.  It really is a great little town and hard not to be happy here.  We feel like we will really be able to enjoy these next two years instead of just wishing they would go by fast.  While this has certainly been a trial for our little family, I am amazed at how the Lord continues to bless us and make our burdens light! 

Digging for trilobites

Around Christmas time we also headed out to the west dessert to dig for trilobites.  It was pretty chilly and a long drive, but the kids loved it!

 Poor Sawyer had to wear his sisters extra clothes.  I didn't have anything warm for him.  He looks so cute though!

 

Catching up/Christmas 2011

I am finally going to try to catch-up on this blog.  It has been a while, so I will just post a few events/activities that we have been up to.  I guess I will have to start with Christmas time:

We spent Christmas and a few days afterward in Leamington with my parents.  It was just our little family, so it was pretty quiet for the most part.

 Maxwell and Sawyer in their matching PJ's

I have mentioned before how one of the perks of Christmas eve in Leamington is that Santa comes to visit every house to drop off a bag of candy before he starts making his rounds delivering presents.  The kids were pretty excited, and kept watching out the window for him to come.

They all got to sit on Santa's lap....some appreciated it more than others.

 Savannah FINALLY got her Rudolf!  I don't know what it is with her and that reindeer!

Maxwell got a Hot Wheel set, and Sawyer got a ball popper toy that I am pretty sure has NEVER been played with.  Oh Well, you win some you lose some. 
We had a great Christmas!  I love when Christmas falls on a Sunday.  It's nice to be at church, and spend that time to worship and think of the Savior!

St. George

Most of my family was able to get together in St. George for a Christmas party this year.  We love it down there, and it was a lot of fun!  Our first night, some of us went to the Tuacahn theater to see their live Nativity.  That theater is amazing, and the kids really enjoyed it.  Now I think we need a camel in our back yard! :)

Sunday, after bombarding some poor un-expecting ward with all 31 of us, we had our official party.  The cousins all drew names and had a gift exchange.  They also all got a chance to preform some amazing talents for everyone.

 Maxwell rocked out to "Dynamite" while Savannah sang "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree".  I was impressed they knew every word!  Savannah was a little nervous and would not take her eyes off me.  Immediately after she finished her song, she raced to the couch and hid her face.  She did a great job though.

 Another day, we went on a little hike.  The kids loved exploring.  Papa was nice enough to hang out with the slow pokes in the the back. (Max and Millie)

 An attempt to get all of the grandkids together with Grandma and Papa.  Some of them are hiding though.

 Remember my goal to make my family take more pictures?

 Ahhhh....how cute!

Right after I said that Sawyer never falls asleep anywhere but his bed, he crashes on Dad's shoulders.  It was a long day for the little guy.
We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to have (almost) everyone together.  Thanks Jake and Krystal for hooking us all up with a place to stay!

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Savannah could hardly contain her excitement about her Christmas program this year.  She was always practicing her songs and telling me all about what they were going to do.  The girl loves to sing! I am so impressed with how quickly she can learn the words to songs.

The whole program was so cute!  They had a lot of parts where the kids could dance around and be silly, but Savannah would have none of it.  She is totally fine belting out a song, but asking her to dance in front of a lot of people is going too far I guess.

Sooo cute!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we went to Montana.  We always love our trips to Belt!  It was nice to be able to visit with family.  We of course, had a really yummy dinner and even did my first ever Black Friday shopping.  How did it go? Meh...it was okay.  Probably won't happen again.  

 We always have to walk down to see the swinging bridge.  Savannah loves it, Maxwell hates it.

We have been sorting through some pictures, and I realized how bad we are about getting pictures of our whole family together, so much to my family's dismay, I am going to start making them take pictures all of the time.  Maxwell even gave a sweet thumbs up!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sawyer

Our little boy turned 1 last month!  Isn't he cute?

 We had a small little family party for him.  He did invite his best buddy, Houston over for some cake.  We gave him a cute little animal train that looks suspiciously like the same train Savannah received for her first birthday.  He doesn't seem to mind though.

 He really hadn't had many treats before his birthday cake, and he loved it!  None of my kids have ever pounded their birthday cake quite like this kid!  He has kind of been a treat junkie ever since.

We are so happy to have Sawyer in our family.  He sleeps great for the most part, but is picky about being in his bed to sleep.  He rarely falls asleep in the car/stroller/anywhere but bed.  You can always tell he is tired in the car when he talks to himself a lot.  I guess he is trying to keep himself awake.  He loves his brother and sister despite his many battle wounds from playing with them.  He is a great shopper, and is almost always happy while we run errands.  I guess he just loves to be out and about.
Sawyer hates to me thrown in the air at all.  He is kind of a chicken and wants to be hanging on with both hands at all times.  He is a pretty major momma's boy right now, but every now and then he will take a liking to other people.
 He practices blowing spit bubbles all of the time, and can now blow some pretty impressive ones.  He loves sticking out his tongue and trying to copy words/actions we do.  The kid can make a serious mess too!  I swear he is trying to make me crazy because he always hits the spoon full of food out of my hand, so it goes flying!  I have to sweep under the high chair probably 5 times a day.  He also sits and waits all day for the bathroom door to be left open.  If we forget to close it, he will be in there splashing in the toilet in a matter of seconds.  Last week I left him alone downstairs for a few minutes.  I suddenly realized the bathroom door might be open and raced down to check.  It was too late.  He had gotten in the toilet paper stash and shredded parts of 4 different rolls.  When I walked in, he was standing in a pile of shredded toilet paper, splashing away in the toilet.  Gross!  He definitely keeps us busy, but we sure do love him!