Meeting Santa

Monday my boys were able to play with their cousin (Ezra and Lincoln) one more time before our and their moves.

My mom and I took the boys to Vegas with us. I had to get a copy of my medical records from the base hospital for the move. We went to Walmart then over to Nicole's house. 

We all took the boys to play at a park together and mom went to pick up McDonald's for dinner.

The cousins played with each other more than I'd ever seen them do before. They all had so much energy and ran around the playgrounds together the whole time.

We enjoyed dinner at the park. It was fun to see baby Hank, Aaron and Nicole's newborn, again. 

Aaron has already moved to Grenada and Nicole will soon take her boys and go there as well.

Tuesday evening was the Logandale 5th ward's Christmas party. The boys and I went to see Santa before the party dinner.

Luke had been wanting to see Santa. 

In the car on the drive over I asked the boys what they want for Christmas ...what they would be asking Santa for. Ty responded "A bag of candy." And Luke said "I'm not going to tell you. I'm only going to tell Santa."  Cute kid

I thought they'd be a little shy about sitting on Santa's lap. As we came to where Santa was sitting greeting children in the church I leaned over to ask Luke if he was ready to go sit with Santa. I looked up and saw Tiberias was already full speed toward Santa. He is not a shy boy! He sat with Santa and when asked what he wanted for Christmas he saw what Santa had with him...he replied "A candy cane!" lol and that's what he got...right then.

Luke wasn't scared either. He wanted a toy car and understood that Santa wasn't handing out the gift requests right then. But Ty didn't know. When Ty heard that Luke asked for a toy car he said "Wait. I got a candy cane but I want a toy car!"

 Mom, dad and Nephi joined the party for dinner. David and his family came too. There was a production put on by the ward and Autumn played the roll of Mary, mother of Jesus. She's a talented young actress.

For my mom's sewing class, which I have been helping with, we decided to give the girls Christmas decorations as an option. So I made some sample decorations for the girls to see. It was so fun but took a lot of time! Some are made of fabric and some of felt.

Tomorrow is our packing day. Pack up all our stuff in preparation for our big trip to Sterling.
Tomorrow is Sterling's last day of cross training in Mississippi. He has to take a test and when he passes he will be allowed to move on to Rapid City, South Dakota...our next base.

Friday my boys and I are driving to Provo where we will stay the night. My parents are going up to Provo that same day for a Boren family party where dad and his siblings get together annually.

Sterling starts his journey Friday as well.

Saturday my dad will head back to Logandale and mo will come with me and my boys. We'll drive to Rawlins Wyoming and stay there in a hotel that night. Sunday we'll drive the rest of the way, as will Sterling, to Rapid City. Reunion! We are so excited and eager!

The weather is getting cold all of a sudden...like everywhere. It's suppose to be snowing in Provo when we leave there and freezing if not snowing the rest of the way to Rapid City.



When there were two weeks left to the move I got so excited and then depressed. It seemed so close and then so far...too far.  But I got over being depressed. I keep busy. And I am so excited and happy...it's almost here.

I've been so busy all week that I can't even get half the stuff on my "to do" list done each day. Tomorrow I will pack, take the boys to the library/grocery store/hardware store and possibly McDonalds, make dvds with the One Touch Video system Sterling bought that records vhs tapes to computer so I can make dvds, and finish packing.

In Provo I will need to pack our Christmas gift to Trevor and Simone (since Sterling had it mailed to his mom's house) and take notes of where everyone packs my stuff into my van. I'll have to have a bag packed for the first nights and know where everything is in the trunk because we will not want to take everything out of the van in the hotel while we are looking for a place to live.

Mom will stay with us a few days then fly home. In January when the baby comes our plan is to have both my parents come out...for the birth and to help out.

My pregnancy is going great. About a month and a half left.  I feel healthy and the baby seems to be doing great.
We likely won't have our Christmas tree out this year...even if we get all our stuff and into a house/apartment by Christmas we won't want to unpack the tree and decorate it just to pack it up again when we have so much work to do unpacking all our things and preparing for Athena's arrival.
But the boys have been enjoying the Christmas scene at my parents' house. They put up colorful lights on the outside of the house. Luke helped set up the tree in the formal room. Both boys helped decorate the tree. Then my mom got a small tree for the tv room that the boys are decorating with homemade gingerbread cookies and candy canes.

We will be reading the story of Christ's birth to our boys. Maybe we'll get out one of our nativities because that won't be too much trouble to unpack and pack up again.

The year will end pretty crazy for us. The new year will start the same way. But our life is amazing and we love the changes happening.