**Dog Update**

You know, not everyone is a dog person. Some people can handle dogs in their house, playing in the garbage can, eating shoes, chasing their children, and so on. After 3 days with Jimmer, I have figured out that I am NOT a dog person. Last night I gave Jimmer to a new family. A better family. A family who volunteers at the Humane Society and trains dogs as therapy dogs for the elderly. He is going to be much happier.
The boys do not seem to be upset about Jimmer leaving. They just continue to run through the house being the fun and crazy boys that they are :)

WOW!

I am ashamed! I cannot believe so much has happened in our family in the past 3 months and I have not blogged about it. Probably because so much has happened in our family. lol

We will start with the every day stuff, life is still crazy. Between home, school, church, and friends our house is a busy place. I am 1 year away from graduating and it cannot come fast enough. I am in the "as long as I pass this class" phase and just want to be done. Tanner asks me what I want to be when I grow up and I just tell him a college graduate.

In February we bought our first house. That was the biggest event for us :) We have waited 8 years for this and we are so happy.

It is wonderful to live in a subdivision with other little kids and be able to take the boys on walks without fearing that we are all going to get killed by a car going 90 miles an hour. The neighbors are great and the area is so quiet.

We were trying to find a house in the ward we had been in for 6 years but it just wasn't meant to be. The perfect house was a mile out of the ward boundaries, which outside of Utah is a big deal. We are so close but yet so far away..lol

Tanner changed schools but he is loving being a Taylors Topcat. He thinks it is funny that mommy went to Taylor Elementary when she was little and now he is also. Different school and different state but he doesn't care.

We moved in the last week of February and honestly, we are still not completely unpacked. I cannot yet park in the garage because it is full of boxes that need to go in the attic. We will get there eventually.

A few weeks after we moved in Zach had his 2nd birthday. I cannot believe my baby is 2! He is such a joy and loves to tickle everyone :) He hates bedtime and gives mommy a run for her money every night, but he LOVES his brothers and that makes up for all the stressful things.

I have to say that the hardest part of this move has been the new ward. Tanner is doing great and he is very happy that his Primary teacher is one of Grandma June's best friends so he knew her before we moved. Gavin is giving the Primary presidency grief every week. As soon as the door to his classroom opens for them to go to Sharing Time, he runs away. Now, picture if you will a Primary presidency where the youngest sister is older then 60. No kidding! These "older" sisters have to chase Gavin through the church. UGH!! He gets in trouble weekly!!

And Zach, well Zach will not go to Nursery with mom...or dad...he will only go to Nursery if Grandma is with him. She stays with him the whole time just so he will not throw a fit. It is a good thing that Grandma prefers to be in Nursery with him :)

Last but not least, I was out-voted and we got a dog.

Not exactly my idea of a good time but the dad at our house and the 3 little munchkins ganged up on me and I caved. Our newest member is Jimmer. He is a 6 mth old beagle and he is cute. Now just because I said he is cute does not mean that I am happy with the whole dog thing, but I guess I will survive. Now if I can just figure out how to get Tanner and Zach to not be afraid of Jimmer, life might just be hunky dorey :)

Let It Snow!!

Living in South Carolina is wonderful! We have wonderful friends, we live in a wonderful ward, we are close to the mountains, and the Greenville area is great! Another thing we like is that we only get 1-2 inches of snow a year. You read that right, a year. Well.....On Monday morning we woke up thinking that perhaps we had moved to Utah! By the end of Monday afternoon we had 11 inches of snow in our yard!! The boys were so excited! School was canceled on Monday and Michael was unable to get down the road when he tried to go to work...he slid down a big hill...sideways :( Then we woke up on Tuesday morning to an inch of ICE on top of the snow! Welllll, school was canceled again and the plant Michael works at was closed also. Let's just say that tomorrow is Thursday and school is once again canceled. That is 4 days of all of us stuck in our house. Can you say insanity!?!?!? LOL, my kids are driving me crazy! Do not get me wrong, I do not mind staying home, but I like having the option of leaving. This has not been possible because there are not enough snow plows in this state to even come close to getting all the roads plowed. Heck, I cannot even step out my front door because my ramp is a luge! I thought of setting the boys on a card board box and giving them a little shove..lol..they would have loved sliding down the wheelchair ramp. Not sure exactly how they would have gotten back up after..LOL!

Well, enough rambling. Here are a few pictures of the great snow fall of 2011:

Trying to open the screen door in front. So much snow!

At least the snow makes the neighborhood look pretty :)

So leave it to dad to show the boys that going down the slide when it is snowing is MUCH funner than when it is dry..LOL

And our little Gavin man who was just done with the snow after only 5 minutes out..lol

Christmas in Pictures 2010

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we had a great weekend! Christmas Eve was spent with friends and family and lots of yummy food. Christmas Day came bright and early with three little boys way to excited to see what Santa had brought them. They were not disappointed :) here is our Christmas in pictures:

Santa came for Tanner:

Santa came for Zachary:

Santa came for Mommy:

Santa came for Daddy:

Santa came for Gavin:

Santa came for Grandma:

After the presents were opened, Tanner tripped and hit his head on Grandmas wheelchair. We took a trip to the hospital:

One stitch later, he was on his way home :)Christmas also produced our first snow storm of the season. It was also the first white Christmas in many, many years:

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!! We sure did!!!

Service with a Smile

I love this time of year! I love showing my kids the importance of service and the good feeling it can give you. Every year we take Christmas cookies to our local fire station. The boys love doing it and it is the perfect opportunity to teach them about serving others. The last 2 years we have invited some friends of ours and we each bring 2 plates of cookies. We deliver 2 plates to our fire station and the take the other 2 plates to their local fire station. The firefighters are so sweet and let the kids climb all over the trucks :) Here are the pictures from this year :)

The boys are getting very excited for Christmas. They keep trying to add to their Christmas lists and I keep telling them that Santa already has things ready to go in the sleigh. They are excited for Grandma Carol to come down and spend Christmas with them. This time of year is magical and I love watching the boys get more and more into it :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

We had the best Thanksgiving spent with wonderful friends!! It is hard to live so far away from family but when you have great friends who are in the same situation, it makes for a memorable weekend. Our friends Kurt and Tracy came up from Atlanta and spent Thanksgiving and friday with us. We also had our sweet friend Rebecca and Tanner's friend Evan with his dad Brian. Oh, and we cannot forget the Missionaries :) It is was a great day spent laughing, playing, eating, and checking out our new phones..lol....


The kids all had a great time playing with toys and watching fun movies. On Friday we went to a bouncy house and the kids jumped around for a few hours...

We were sad to see everyone go but we have wonderful memories of Thanksgiving 2010!!

Now, we are on to Christmas! We love this time of year and look forward to all the fun adventures! Michael got a little excited a few weeks ago and put up the decorations while I was gone..lol..it does look great!

The boys are having fun reading Christmas stories and listening to fun music. They have also watched Frosty the Snowman about 10 times and it is only November 30th!! hahaha The blogposts will continue through the month as we have some really fun things planned!!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Gavin Worth Havin :)

Our little Gavin man is certainly worth havin!! He is such a sweetheart and cares for everyone!! If someone knocks into him, he will turn to them and say, "I sowwy, I not mean to." It is precious!! He loves to give hugs and tells everyone that he loves them and he adores his brothers more than anything.

Today our little monkey is 3 YEARS OLD!! What a blessing the last 3 years have been! He is a shining ray of light and his little spirit brightens our home soooo much!

It is hard to believe that he struggled when he was born and was in the NICU for a few weeks.

He got to come home the day before Thanksgiving and we were so excited. He was very succeptable to illnesses so we spent that Thanksgiving in our home, just our little family, but it was wonderful and memorable.

Today Gavin is a ball of precious energy and hilarious to boot! He keeps us laughing all day. He is a lover of all things SUPER WHY and MICKEY MOUSE, and could eat cheetos and chocolate milk all day..lol.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONKEY!! You are a treasure and we are so blessed to have you in our family!! Love you to! Mom, Daddy, Tanno, Zachy, and Mama :)