Merry Christmas (a little late)

This time of year always sneaks up on me! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. We have settled into our house pretty well. We are still trying to figure out where to hang pictures though! We were able to get part of our back yard finished this summer. So we have some grass back there to play on. We are still working on settling into our church family. Both of us are such home bodies that sometimes it’s a little hard! It has been great to be closer to the majority of our family, and old friends.

Eric has been busy with work, scouting for deer, and hunting this year. He spent about 7 weeks in May and June in Georgia, Arizona, and in Salt Lake City for training and classes with the National Guard. Eric spent most of his spare time this summer setting up trail cameras and hiking all over his Uncle’s property just north of Cedar in preparation for the deer hunts. He took the family a few times with him and we all loved it. The kids especially love riding in the ATV. He found a couple good sized bucks that he was able to keep an eye on. Eric’s hard work paid off, and he shot the deer he wanted on the opening day of the black power hunt. Now we have the deer meat in the freezer, and the antlers up on the wall!

Mary never has a dull moment being a stay at home mom. Both kids keep her on her toes almost all day. Thank goodness for baby naps and preschool! She spends the few free moments she gets to herself reading, & doing crafts, when she’s not cleaning up the house that is! She is glad to be so close to her two best friends who are always up for a “Girl’s Night”! Mary is a Sunday school teacher and teaches 4 and 5 year old kids. It is so much fun to see the kids open up, be excited to learn, and remember stories about our Savior!

Scotty is in preschool 4 days a week, and he loves it. He says he loves his teacher Miss Stephanie because she is the best teacher ever. Scotty can type and write his name, Mom, Dad, and Woo woo, which is the nickname of his cousin Chris. He is still learning how to spell Ashley. He knows his alphabet. He loves to sing songs, whether they are nursery rhymes or church songs. He loves riding horses and the ATV’s. He is very much into Star Wars right now. Scotty is a great big brother and loves his baby Ashley so much. He can always make her laugh.

Ashley has just grown like a weed! She turned 1 year old on the 10^th! She is such a silly little girl. She is learning to make all different faces and laughs when you laugh at them. By 10 ½ months she was a pro at walking. Now she is running! She has decided that she no longer wants baby food; she wants what everyone else is eating. She can say “Dada”, “Mama”, “Da-ee” is Scotty, she points to the dogs and says “Da”, and is even trying to say “Boo” which is one of the dog’s names, and her newest word is “Wow”! She is too big for her britches! She loves her big brother, and watches him do everything. Ashley is very much a Mama’s girl! She loves to be around other kids too.

We are thankful this season for our Savior, and all of you. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Some Randomness

Well on Sunday at church I see Eric's sister-in-law, Richelle's, cousin Burke and his wife April. After church I see April again so I ask just to make sure they are who I think they are & they are Richelle's cousins. Fast forward to Monday morning, I go to the city office to pay our utility bill. The little library here is next to the city office, & it looks like a house. & April comes walking out and heads over to the office building. We say hi, she goes in does her stuff, I go in pay my bill, and come back out & I'm putting Scotty back in the car & he asks "why did that lady leave her house?" I said "she had to do something in the building we went to." Then he sees her walking back to the Library & says"Mom why is she going back to her house?"
I said "well I think that is where she works."
he says "O, she works at her house."
I said "No that's the library. Did you know she is Aunt Shell's cousin?"
Scotty :"She's Aunt Shell's cousin? She's my cousin too!" (Scotty LOVES his cousins)
Me: "Well she's Shell's cousin, & Shell is your aunt, so we're kind of related. She would be your.....Well I don't know what she is."
Scotty: "She's a girl, Mom."

I just had to laugh and say "yup you're right. she is a girl!"
I love that things are so simple for kids! That was early in the morning and it made my day!

the last 2 1/2 months

Ok so it's been a while. I've been busy with Ashley and Scotty, and this takes a little more time to do than facebooking!
We had a good Christmas, Scotty got lots of Transformers. That's all he wanted.




January we were all settling into having our new addition. Ashley is such a mellow baby compared to Scotty! She is a great sleeper, and only wakes up 1 or 2 times a night. She's not as big of a snuggler as Scotty was, and would rather sleep in her own bed, than be held. We took Scotty sledding a couple of times and he loves it. He's quite brave. He doesn't need me or Eric to go with him. But we have to carry the sled back up the hill with him on it if we do ride with him!



Here's a few of Ashley.



February quieted down a little. Ashley is growing bigger everyday it seam, looking at pictures from when she was born til now. She looks a lot like Scotty did when he was a baby.

Scotty 4month old

Ashley 2 months old

March 4th was Scotty's birthday. We had a Spiderman party for him that night because Eric has drill this weekend. Our family and a couple close friends came over. Scotty had a lot of fun.


This is my best friend Mindi's husband Robert holding Ashley at the party, and Eric's friend Mike. Robert and Ashley share birthdays.


Scotty loves his baby sister. He loves to talk to her and sing to her. If he is sitting by her and she has her pacifier in he'll pull it out and say "Mom baby sister doesn't need her plug, she's not crying."
Ashley is all girl, she loves baths. The sound of the water being turned on in the tub doesn't scare her, she gets excited when she hears it. I think she'd sit in her tub all day if she could!