Winter Blues

Well, it's hit me. I want to be somewhere else. No offense Jack Frost, but I'd really prefer to be somewhere warm and tropical. I wouldn't mind dropping by to visit Amanda in Florida for a week or two if it didn't cost so much. Its that time of year when I just crave that warm summer sun. COME BACK! Sigh. :o)


Christmas Wii time before the black death hit.


Christmas Jammies


The rest of our Christmas break...all of us (except Macie) got the black death for a whole week until finally we found a doctor Friday morning. Wow. Thank heavens for antibiotics!


On a different note:
Last night I was at Zumba, and forgot I had left my water bottle in the hall. After class, I was so happy to see it I grabbed the bottle and chugged. The cool refreshing water was so good! Except the last gulp...which tasted kind of salty, and had a bit of a crunch. I looked inside my aluminum water bottle and found a mostly eaten string cheese, and wrapper in my drink! SICK! I think I must have loaned it to a child earlier that day (hopefully the cheese wasn't any older than that). It took a great deal of effort to get all the pieces out of that narrow top.
I've learned my lesson. Always look inside the bottle before taking a drink.

Favorite Random Comments

Aleia will say some of the funnest things in the car randomly.
Here was my favorite today:

"Mom, Heavenly Father is a pretty great guy, isn't he."

And here are some others:
"Wow. The whole world is SO different."

"Mom! There's boogers stuck in my teeth."

Matt and Aleia talking:

M: if you eat all your dinner I'll read you a book afterwords!
A: Ok!
M: What will you give me if I eat all MY dinner?
A: " A kick in the pants"

Livin the LIfe

Blogs are so interesting you know? A place where anyone can find out everything about you, without ever having to disclose of themselves. Such a wierd concept.
All seems to be well here.
Matt: is still working 2 jobs, but managing it remarkably well- coming home on time from work, and getting family time before the girls go down. He's also working with the 11 year olds in church, and with scouts. Go scouts!
Dixie: is teaching 3 aerobics classes during the week, 2 zumba and 1 yoga. Today's Zumba was so AWESOME! The energy was so high! And shauferring Aleia to Preschool 3 days a week, twice a day.
Aleia: is growing up so much! She is now in the stage of life where she'll go off to friends houses (by herself) That was a big adjustment when we moved here! There is always a friend to play with, and she LOVES that.
Macie: Loves to dance (still. I thought she would get out of that phase, but she hasn't yet). She loves going to "boomba" (Zumba) and loves to play with the neighbors too (if she's in the mood- otherwise she'll tell them to "go away") Her speech has really increased the last 4 months. She and Aleia also play really well together now. They giggle and laugh, and have a lot of fun.
That's us. Hope you are all well too!
Dixie

HI Everyone!

Hello Everyone!

It's been a long time. I just want to give a few highlights from the past few months.

Matt and I have had a fun and busy summer. Matt's been working two full-time jobs (in the same company, until they can find a replacement for one of them) and has seriously been working all hours of the day. But after deadlines, we'll head out somewhere and go have some fun. We've been able to go play with some friends in Kamas, go to family reunions, see lot's of family that we don't normally see, and have some fun adventures.

Kamas at the house with Matt and Amanda Colemans' family

For the fourth of July we went up to Tremonton and spent time with my sister. The kids loved being with their awesome cousins. We loved it up there. They even let us get away for our aniversary. It is beautiful up there.

This past weekend the kids spent the night with grandma and grandpa so we enjoyed motorcyle rides, tried our hand at some mountain biking, and ran millions of errands in Orem. Whew!

Most of all, we're happy we have each other. And are greatful to be living out here. It is so peaceful and quiet away from everything. I love the smell of the fields, and the majestic mountains every where I look. Most of all, people are just friendly. It's nice.

Macie turned 2! She is an awesome little singer. Loves ambulances, cars, ants, barbie, and dancing.

Aleia has made quite a few friends on our street, and spends a good part of the day house hopping to different friends houses.

We have grass now! (It looks better than it does in this picture, this one was taken 4th of July weekend.)

Things haven't been all roses. In fact, this past month, for me at least, it seemed like the furnace of affliction was burning mighty hot. But we are trying to do the things that bring us joy, looking for the good all around us, and trusting that God is in charge. It helps.

Hope you all are doing well!

Dixie

Tribute to Aleia

Aleia turned four in February and I wanted to do a little spotlight on her. Time just passes way too quickly sometimes. So, here it is now.

Aleia's favorites:

• food: ice cream
• animal: horse
• family and friends
• movies
• books
• one-on-one time

Aleia is very quick-witted. I'm always amazed what comes out of her mouth. "Grandma, I have to eat my boogers because my mom and dad don't feed me enough".

Or "MOM! My heart is in HEAVEN!"

One thing I love about Aleia is the friendship she has with her sister Macie. She loves to play and laugh with her. And when Macie is sad, she'll usually help her calm down and be happy.

I'm also impressed by how quickly she picks up words, songs, phrases, etc. She learns very quickly auditorily, and can repeat a song a few weeks later that she heard once or twice.

Aleia is a great friend, and is very good at maintaining close relationships with her family members. We feel very grateful to have her as part of our family. :o)

Just about finished!

The house should be done in one week! That's almost 2 months ahead of schedule! We have an awesome builder. So far, everything has turned out better than I expected. Heres some pictures of the fun!

So, the floors are all in, the cabinets are pretty much all in. They just need to hang doors, put cover plates on outlets and heating ducts, hang bathroom mirrors, and a few other small things. We forgot to take a picture of the outside. It looks AWESOME! It's actually not the color I previously posted. And thank heavens, it looks a lot better than that first color. Whew.

We met some more neighbors. I can't wait to be a part of that neighborhood. They seem really really cool. I'm excited that the moms out there don't work. Most of them are home with their kids. Yea! Friends! And we discovered there are 16 girls Macies age in the ward. NO BOYS. Crazy. One more week. Then we can close. :o))

Yes, It's grey. Man. I never thought the color of a house would be such a stressful thing. And you know what? I'm glad it's not brown. I told Matt, I really don't want anything that is the shade mud, dirt, or poo. Not that those colors are bad on houses! There are some beautiful homes that color. There just seems to be nothing but brown where we are moving to. I just wanted to look at something a little bit different. And well, I got it! Stone grey. I can't begin to tell you how much I've worried about our outside house colors. You know? There's a lot of pressure for it to be nice.

• Your neighbors might not like you if they don't like your house color.
• You don't want to depreciate home values in your neighborhood by making an ugly house.
• Oh, by the way, the builder's model home is 2 doors down. He wants it to be a nice neighborhood to show off the best of his work (which by the way, they have done amazing work on this house).
• It's the first of this model he's built, so he asked if he could send people out to look at it periodically. (no pressure right?)

We went to look at it today with the garage doors on it, and you know? I love they grey. I have no regrets. Go grey! Thanks Matt, for putting up with all of this! (PS. what is the correct spelling for grey/gray? Wikepedia said either one works. Anyone know for sure?

More House Updates

As for updates, when Matt was there a couple of days ago they were putting the texture on the ceiling and prepping the outside for stucco. It should be all done in a month! Wahoo!


This is the house in preperation for stucco. Yea!


Here is the front room

Here's one of the bedrooms (south facing)