First Snow-Holy Cow

 We got our first snow. It was just a tad bit shocking to us warm blooded
Texans. It just kept snowing and it lasted for a week. We are used to it snowing
and melting the next day. Everybody played and played in it. Even Izzy thought
it was great. We had to use warm water to melt the snow balls on her fur.

 This is our church on Sunday morning.

 This is one of my views out my windows. This has got to be my most favorite part of living here.

 Sledding a new found love. This hill had three huge drop offs. It was so cool. I went down once and decided I'lll keep taking pictures. I'm getting a little too old for this. I've never seen so many different kinds of sleds while we were there. Our cheap five dollar saucer was the fastest and the favorite.
Looking forward to more fun in the snow.

Corn Maze

 After visiting the witches we went to our first corn maze.
The kids loved it. As you can see in the pictures. They would run in and out of the corn stalks and "sort of "follow the map. Even Stella came and had a good time. So glad they moved up to Utah too so we can still get together with the Humphry family.

The Witches were out at Gardner Village!!

Witch on a bicycle

                                          Outhouse Witch

Porter even found one that made him laugh.

Hula Witch

       Spell casting Witch

Hannah found a student driver like her.

Camping Witch

Swimming Witch

Claire and Emilia found a real one.

                                                    Porter and Carson are the best buddies.

Hannah finally found a witch after her own heart. Full of Bling and Pink!

We had so much fun spending the day with the Romy,Todd and their kids.

October Fun

Halloween came and this is the 

crew. I wanted Claire to be Merida

from Brave but she, "no I'm going to make it easy  on you mom and be a witch."

That costume was in the dress up  box and was easy.

Porter was a Florida State football player. I think since we moved to Utah

he has become a stronger fan of our teams in Texas and Florida. Then 

there is dad  aka Elvis who wanted to pass out candy and give all the kids a hard 

time.

Yes this was her collection of candy! Plenty if you ask me.

We missed our cousins to trick or treat with this year but it did turn out to be a fun Halloween.

My home away from home

Ok these are some pictures of my home away from home for the past 18 years. I have worked for Dr. Ken Wallace full time and part time. I also cleaned this office for over the past 10 years.

The girls( Kathy,Delphine,Stacie,Emily,LaRue, and Cheryl) in the top picture are some great friends and co-workers. I know its because of them that I loved working at Dr. W's office.

Kathy is a dear who taught me so much through her kindness and her love for her family.

Delphine I love because she's from Canada and loves raspberries like me. We thought a like on a lot of situations in the office. Her openness about life I love and she made me laugh more than I can count.

Stacie and I worked together the longest. She and I had baby boys in the same year. I never saw her cry until we said goodbye. She is the rock in the office.

Emily was my partner in crime. We did some dumb stuff but, had fun doing it. I felt like her big sister. She has CF, because of my tender heart I took it upon myself to take care of her when her mom wasn't around. I saw her take her disease and accept it as apart of her life.

LaRue was my other mother. She listens oh so well and gives THE PERFECT advice. I watched her go through cancer treatments and win. She is truly a woman who loves the Lord. She shared and gave so much to me and my family. I will never be able to repay her.

Cheryl just started working at the office but in the short time of her working there she fit right in.  She is so kind and so grateful. She laughs and smiles all the time. She is a genuine person.

Mary Jo was another one not in the picture but that I worked with for many years. She and I worked really well together. She and I had many talks. (What is talked at the office stays at the office)

Last but not least is Dr. Wallace. He was a great boss. There were some difficult years in the beginning, but as time went on he mellowed and it was much better. I'm sure a fantastic staff had something to do with it too. He was always in a good mood unless we ran behind. That is why we never (or tried not to) double booked. His wife often made the comment that I was his other wife only because I had worked with him for so long and I could read his mind while we were doing procedures. After 18 years if I couldn't then there would have been something wrong with me.

I miss working at Dr. Wallace's office because of the comments above and it was my home away from home.

First day of school for everyone- 2012-2013

Hannah started her sophomore year at Maple Mountain High School. She has made lots of friends and loves it. She went from Martin High School in Arlington with 6,000 students to her new school with 1,000 students. She has seminary as a class and is much happier with that instead of early morning seminary. (Hannah DID not like getting up at 5:30am) She's made comments of how nice all the students are to the down syndrome or other challenged students. They are all voting for one of the girls for homecoming queen this week. I love the love the students have for those that are not like them.It quite a change from a child who didn't want to get up to one who gets up on her own and is so happy. Porter started 5th grade at a whopping 5 foot 8 inches!! He loves his school. Sierra Bonita Elementary is only 2 years old. The staff and teachers at both schools have been so helpful and nice. Porter has made friends and is very protective over those who are being bullied. He loves his teacher and thinks its so cool she is a member of our church. He said the atmosphere is very different from his other school. He loves playing soccer during recess. Claire started 1st grade this year. She makes new friends everyday. I think she might be a little bit bored because they only have half day kindergarten here, so if you think about it she is a half a year ahead of the other students. So hopefully she will be challenged this year by her teacher. She comes home with a new boo boo on her almost everyday. We don't call her "crash" for nothing. She has fallen and tore a hole in her pants,she fell and got a goose egg on the back of her head and gotten stung by a wasp on her finger. As a mom I couldn't be happier knowing my kids are happy with school!!

Ok I'm back after being gone for a year. I thought theres no better time to blog than when you have made the HUGE decision to move 1100 miles away from where you have lived 22 years. After much prayer and fasting, oh and me digging my heels in, we did it. We moved from Arlington, Texas to Mapleton, Utah. Jimmy bought into 5Buck Pizza and we are going to start a concept store and try new ideas. Roll those ideas into the franchise stores. It will take a while to get things going but Im sure in a few years we will see our hard work come to fruition.

This is our new home in Mapleton. We love it. We also love the view as you can see in the other picture. You can even see the steeple of our church. Thats how close it is to us.

3 parties for 1 ten year old birthday boy

Every year we are in Montana on Porter's birthday. So we usually celebrate with our cousins on the day of his birthday. This year we happen to be at my dads so we made him a cake and gave him a few presents. Then we went to see the cousins and Grandma Ila and Papa Bill treated Porter and all the cousins to a pizza place with games. So we celebrated again with cake,games and pizza. On the way home he mentioned he wished he could have a party with his friends and I figured 2 was plenty. Then I started feeling bad because you are only "birthday party worthy" for a short while so I decided to throw a surprise party at our friends Carol and Toms pool. Everyone I invited came and they all met at the house while Porter was at his Nana's house. Then we met together at the pool for a party. He was so excited and his comment was, I have so many friends here I don't know who to play with." Now Porter is ten aka "double digits" These are a few things that I love about him at this age.

1. Sweet sensitive personality
2. Loves his mama
3. Loves to play outside
4. aims to please
5. when asked to do something he almost always jumps right on it
6. is very spiritual and has so much faith
7. his prayers are so sincere and thought felt
8. he is 5foot 4 1/2 and wieghs 135 so he is a small giant
9. very considerate of others and their feelings
10. loves to play some sports and watch
11. very good big brother to Claire
12. he can not hold still and loves to talk (and the name still sticks,"Porter the Reporter")
12. he is very smart in math and it comes very easy for him
13. he loves Marvel Comic books,games and action figures
14. he got to shoot his very first gun this summer and loved it/ also loves his rubber band gun
15. he gets along with others and never wants to leave someone out
16. his love language is definitly spending quality time with him
17. loves to go on dates with his mom,dad or Nana
18. loves Sunny D orange juice
19. loves to build or create things
20. ssshh he still loves me to read to him and tuck him in bed every night