Halloween 2013

For Halloween this year, Zachary was the black Spider-Man, and Zoey was Cinderella. They were both adorable and had a great time at parties and trick or treating!

Her dance class had a party which she loved. 

After filtering all the treats with nuts. Yum for us! 

Corey wore a giant cowboy hat, but I didn't dress up this year, even though we love Halloween and usually have fun costumes. Next year! I actually bought some fun things on sale after Halloween, so watch out 2014!

Minion spaghetti squash instead of carving pumpkins. Yum!

Mike and Allyx's ventriloquist costumes. Hilarious!!

Natalie and Ryan's Nightmare Before Christmas costumes. So cool!

We finally got family pictures again. Still waiting to see the final proofs. I love this handsome, amazing husband of mine. Life just keeps getting better and better with him. 

I love where we live. This little hike is just ten minutes from our home. It is stunning. The weather, the red rocks. I hope we never need to leave. 

Beautiful sunset after a hard day. We had another miscarriage recently after trying for 14 months. Still hoping and praying for more little ones. This is not a fun struggle to have, but it is teaching me greater compassion and empathy for others with similar struggles, and to never judge why someone has a small family, when and if they have children, etc. (Though it is making me quite an advocate for starting a family earlier rather than later in life!) There are many with greater trials than I. I am thankful that this challenge came after we had our two sweet munchkins. Not knowing if I would ever have children would make me completely crazy. Crazier than I am now, just wondering when and how more will come! 

And in other random news, Zoey split her lip and I had to suture it. Twice. And the sutures only lasted one day. Aye! Luckily, it was on the inside if her lip and healed quickly without scarring. It wasn't a fun task, but I'm grateful to have the training to care for my family in emergency situations. It was a lot less expensive than an ER visit, though after factoring in the cost of my education to learn these skills... a few ER visits would be cheap in comparison!

October Fun

We took the kids to the local Staheli Farm, which has a big fall celebration, and they had a blast. I can't imagine them having more fun at Disneyland! 

First, we went through a corn maze. Those are always more fun in theory and the first 5 minutes than any other time. I think I'd have liked to get lost with my hot date back in the day... We snuck in a smooch or two, but didn't want to permanently lose the kids!

We actually paid $1 each to ride this nasty, rickety old farm train past herds of the most vile-smelling cows you can imagine. 

The kids lived having their faces painted by the witch. 

This was by far my favorite attraction. It is different than a trampoline or bounce house, and makes you feel like you're walking in the moon. It looks like you'd slide off, but you don't. Super fun!

We took the kids on an "ackventure," as Zach calls it, to watch the full moon rise up on the mountain. We cranked the oldies, opened the sunroof, sat the kids on top of the car, and watched a beautiful moonrise. They loved it, and thanked Heavenly Father in their prayers for days after!

Zach and I hiked through this narrow slot area near our house. I was feeling claustrophobic, so didn't go all the way through. Zach could've, but we found some other fun spots instead. 

Corey had a pretty busy, anticlimactic birthday, but we did squeeze in some tasty lunch at Don Pedro's. 

Beautiful sunsets make me thankful everyday for God's amazing creations. I love it here and hope we can stay forever. 

St. George

So I guess it's about time for an update! Don't you hate when bloggers go forever without an update?! Geez!! Well, it has been the busiest, craziest few months of my life, probably. We moved from Dallas, TX, to St George, UT in mid-June. I took a job at a local dental office here, and we have been working on getting a practice started for Corey. I work 3 days a week, and would like to go back to my 1-2 days before too long. It takes the fun out of dentistry to work too much. Corey is able to be home with the kids while we have been deciding on an office location, and we still have to wait for the build-out, so it is working OK for now. Truth is, they LOVE being at home full time with their dad! They are going to have some serious withdrawals when his office is done.

Little Zs on the steps of the beautiful St. George Temple

Why St. George? Well, we were faced with the daunting decision of where we wanted to live for pretty much the rest of our lives. Hawaii was seriously at the top of our list, but I am too practical, and the cost of living is just ridiculous. So we will be vacationers there until we have enough money to not worry about that! I seriously considered the Carolinas. Beautiful, beachfront areas, nice weather. We wanted somewhere with nice weather, but also wanted to be closer to family. St. George was the closest you can get to Idaho and still have palm trees, so that was it!

Our porch swing and patio set are my favorite furniture items because they allow us to hang out in the beautiful outdoors.

Golfing at Sand Hollow Resort in Hurricane. Gorgeous course.

We love the beauty of this area, the fact that it has so many fun things to do outdoors, and that our families are not terribly far. It is also a great place to raise a family. Our home is up on a hill, with a stunning westward view. We try to watch the sunset every night possible. It brings peace to my soul.

We also try to hike as frequently as we can. The kids have done great. Zach whined a bit on our first one that was 3-4 miles long and a bit strenuous, and had to be mostly carried down, but he's held his own since then and done awesome on some big climbs! Zoey is in the Kelty backpack for now, but itching to be on the ground. There are a lot of hills on our horizon that I can't wait to ascend!

This is on our first hike to the Petroglyphs in Santa Clara. It was about 4 miles and a little strenuous. I had to carry Zoey on the way back because Zach couldn't make it down by himself, so Corey carried him on his shoulders. It was beautiful though.

Zoey screamed about half the time because her sunglasses weren't staying on right. Worst $5 I've spent lately.

It was all worth it because we got to see this at the end. Come to find out there were petroglyphs all along the trail, but they were on the edges of the cliffs we were trying to keep our kids from. Go figure!

This was just a baby climb by Gunlock Reservoir.

My babies at the top of Shadow Mountain, really close to our home. Stunning panorama. Zach is doing his "cactus pose." He climbed to the top all by himself, and it was a bit of a scramble. We also saw some petroglyphs on this hike. They are all over out here where the ancient Puebloans lived around 500-1200AD. So cool!

This was a slightly scary scramble we took to the top of a hill in Snow Canyon State Park. I need a better picture of how high it is, but just Zach doing his cactus pose. He and I do the scary parts hand-in-hand while Corey has Zoe-zoe on his back.

She's just beautiful

We are still finalizing the decision for Corey's location. It is like getting married all over again--I feel like it is almost a lifelong decision--one that can make or break our business. Anyway, we are taking our time to get everything as perfect as possible. It is exciting, but also stressful.

Zach and Zoey started a Montessori preschool that we like so far. Zoey is recently potty-trained and that is also an adventure. A very wet one at times. ;)

We took a quick trip to San Antonio just before our move for a chiropractic seminar. Grandma Nettie saved the day by helping with our move. Best Mary Poppins grandma ever!!

Views from our home

The things we miss the most about Dallas- all our friends. These are the kids' very best friends, Cruise and MacLayne. Every so often, Zach sadly asks to move back to Texas because he misses Cruise. We are all definitely going through some Lone Star withdrawals, but love being closer to family here. We miss the park near our home where we would always take nice walks. However, we don't miss the humidity, and the climate here in Southern Utah is just right for our tastes. There are unfortunately still big cockroaches and I have found 2 dead scorpions in my house. *gasp* At least they weren't in my bed! To have warm winters, some trials must be borne!

The reason I took so long to post anything was that we had some technical difficulties with getting our internet up, then my phone took a swim, and I have been doing a lot of CE in my spare time due to some big cases at work that I need to be up on. I have a ton more to update, and hope I can keep up with it, because seriously, those guys who never update their blogs are LAME!! LOL!!