An update...finally!

Okay, I know, it has been way way too long. But now, like I promised, I am finally updating this blog. Wow, were to even start! Let's see, like I said before, in July we moved to Utah. We lived with my parents in West Bountiful until the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for my parents letting us stay there with them, but man, it was a little hard at times. They were trying to sale their house, so we were always busy with that, and taking care of my dad. Then you throw taking care of my own family in there, and I really didn't have much time to do anything (i.e. update my blog :) ) Anyway, I decided that I would just go through my pictures and post some and catch up a little on what we have been doing for the past 7 months....

This was our last fishing adventure in our backyard in Ohio. Man I miss that house! Look how big Mike's fish is, of course, kind of an extra kick in the pants for leaving. That was the biggest fish we ever caught there. I think he is a little proud. :)

In June, we sold our house in Ohio. It actually sold a lot faster then we thought that it would, that was nice. During all the packing and everything, Alyssa graduated from her GLAD school. The great ladies that we did that with helped so much with everything. They had a cute little graduation for all the kids. Here are some pictures of that...

These are the great ladies that we did GLAD school with.

Ben, Alyssa, Carter, and Aneisha

We headed to Utah in June. That was a long sad drive. But we were excited to see family and Mike was thrilled to start his own practice in Sugarhouse. In July Zachary and Mike ran a short marathon in Bountiful. I was very proud of them both.

This is after the race. My studs!

On the fourth of July we went to Sugarhouse park with my sister Sarah and her family. There were a ton of people there. Henry loved the firework while eating red vines. Like father like son!

Here is Henry watching the fireworks and his face covered in Red Vines.

August Zachary started second grade. It was hard to decide where to put him for school because my parents were trying to find a new house and we didn't know where we were going to be living. So my parents thought that they had found a house to buy and we were going to live in the huge basement. So I decided to put Zach in the elementary school there, Holbrook Elementary. It was a really nice school and the teachers were good. So everyday I had to take him to and from school about 10 minutes away. Then my parents buying that house fell through, so we started our search for a house in that school district. We found one we really liked, but after a while we found more and more stuff wrong with that house and didn't really feel too great about it. So we decided against that.

Here is Zach on his first day of 2nd grade. Can you see him waving from the front door? He had to make sure that I waved to him every morning from the front doors after I dropped him off. (Now he walks to school, so much easier)

In September, Alyssa turned 5 years old. She missed the deadline for Kindergarten by two weeks. She was very sad about that, not to mention, so was I. :) She has been so ready to start school. And she is so tall that she already seems older then most Kindergartners this year. Oh well. For her birthday she had a prince and princess party, she loved it. It was fun to have some of her cousins come. Everyone dressed up as either a princess, prince, or dragon.

Here Alyssa is all dressed up with her castle cake I made.

Halloween was fun, but for some reason I could only find a picture of  Alyssa.  What a cutie!

During October we were trying to buy a house in Riverton. It was a new house that was being built and was big and nice. Although it had a tiny little yard and would have totally stretched us, money wise. But of course, that didn't work out (I know Heavenly Father knows what is best for us and lets that happen or not). Then we found a little house in Bountiful that we liked. It has a nice yard for the kids to play in, with a little hill at the back for them to sled or roll down. It also came with a fun swing set. It is an older house, but way good taken care of and all updated. So right after Thanksgiving we moved in. Come to find out, the people that we bought the house from are also dentists. They went to VCU and lived in Meadowbrook apartments and graduated the year before we got there. Small world!

This is a picture of our house, but there is so much snow you can hardly see it. And yes, as soon as it is warm enough we are taking that lovely awning down. I will post more pictures and better ones of our house when the weather is a little nicer.

So now we have just been unpacking and getting settled. Zachary started school at his new school, Muir Elementary, and he loves it! He has made friends a lot faster at this school and I can tell that he is happier here. Our new ward is great, we had a lot of help moving in. And there are kids all over the neighborhood for our kids to play with. They love it. And I have a nice big window in the kitchen to the backyard, so I can watch the kids playing. That is one of my favorite things about this house. It was fun having Christmas in our own place again. We had a great Christmas and it was fun to be with family. Of course we miss all out Virginia and Ohio friends. And the warmer winters of Virginia. But we did get to get together with a few of our friends from Virginia the other day for dinner. It was so nice seeing them and catching up. With more of you could have been there! Sorry we didn't get Christmas cards out this year. I blinked and Christmas was over. But next year, I will start early!

Well, now that I have made you read a novel, I will finally stop. Hope that catches everyone up a little.