Merrick Laughing

Friends and Family

Now that we are back in Show Low, we are able to see so much more family and as a double bonus, since we moved here around the holidays, we were able to see so many more friends that came home for Christmas.  It was so awesome.  I think the week after Christmas, we had at least one person come over to our house everyday.  I loved it.  Nate's brother came up from Tucson who we haven't seen for a while so we got some family pictures together. We also were privileged to see Granny and Aunt Cindy who were so sweet to come home through Show Low to see us after going to the valley to see my Dad.  We didn't get to see them at Thanksgiving so it was so special for us and it was their first time getting to meet and hold Merrick.  It was so great to see so many friends and family again.

New Years Eve

I don't have any pictures to go with New Years Eve, but we spent it with some of Nate's friends and their families at a party where the kids just ran around and played and the adults talked and played Bang.  It was fun and since the kids are still young, I didn't stay the whole time.  I brought the kids home at 10 and then Nate went back and played some more Wii and Xbox with his buddies.  After the kids were in bed, I did some painting in our bathroom and watched some Friends are the computer and that was how I brought in my new year.  I actually enjoyed it, just being by myself and doing something productive instead of just sleeping and Nate enjoyed his because he was playing with his buddies and got home shortly after.  If the kids were older though, what we would have done is go downtown where they were having their 1st Annual Drop-A-Deuce event.  The boys got a kick out of the name.  A little background, the main road in town is called Deuce of Clubs and the story is that Show Low became a town because of a poker game and the low card was a deuce of clubs.  So they had a lit up deuce of clubs card that they dropped at midnight like the ball in New York.  Maybe they will do it again next year and we can see it then. It was fun that we were able to go to that party and see a bunch of friends.  Can't ask for anything better.   

Christmas

This was one of the best Christmas's since we have been married.  It was Merrick's first Christmas and Kayton was a little more into it this year so it was a lot of fun.  He knows who Santa Claus is now and will point him out to us when he can. We woke up that morning and read the Christmas story from the scriptures and then opened presents.  We did stockings first and in each of our stockings, we had a thing of powdered doughnuts and after Kayton found those, he wouldn't do anything else until I opened them and let him eat them.  He did have fun opening the presents but after opening like 2 of them and then liking the toys so much, he didn't want to open anymore so we ended up opening most of the presents ourselves. Kayton made out so good this year, it was ridiculous.  After we were done opening presents here, we all got dressed real fast and then went to the Pratt's house for breakfast and also more presents.  We couldn't stay for very long because we needed to get our dinner started and then go to church.  So we did and then afterwards, we finished dinner and then Nate's Mom and sister came over for dinner where we all got spoiled with more presents from both of them.  All the presents were hits.  So we had dinner with them and then that night, we went to the West's house for dessert and more presents.  We ate some delicious pies and hung out with them for a while.  Then sadly the day had to end, so we came home and put the kids to bed.  Wow, was it so great.  The last two Christmas's have been us staying home by ourselves because Nate was on-call for his jobs so it was really nice to be with people and feeling so loved.           

      

We moved!

It finally happened.  We moved from Flagstaff to Show Low! Nate had his last final on Thursday the 15th and we got tons of help from people and we got our Uhaul that morning and loaded it.  It took longer to get the few little things and clean up than I thought it would, but we did it and after saying goodbye to our few friends in Flagstaff, we all got in the car and drove to Show Low that night. We stayed at our friends house that night and then the next day, Friday, we had some painting at our new house that we wanted to get done before we got our furniture in.  So that was what we did all day Friday.  Then on Saturday, we had help from our friends to move all our furniture in.  It was a bitter sweet experience.  There is a lot about Flagstaff I am going to miss.  We lived there for 3 and a half years and we loved our ward and now that I am in Show Low, I realize how awesome it was to live in a complex where I could just go next door for friends to play with and see them every day.  I don't think I will have that any more. There is more shopping stores in Flagstaff too and I will miss having some of those stores close by.  I feel very secluded here.  I love having family here though.  Just in our first week here, we have seen so many friends and family that it makes me more happy to be here.  I had a very difficult time with the move at first because it was such a big change for my day to day routine and I am scared of finding friends my own age with kids to hang out with. I forgot to get a final picture of us in Flagstaff, but I know we will go back for Nate to walk at graduation.  For now, we are settling here very well and it's amazing how much stuff we have and that we filled up a 1200 sq ft doublewide trailer and we only had a 600 sq ft apartment.  We love it though and even though the trailer park is run down, our actual trailer is very nice.         

this is how they helped me pack

Christmas Parties

We went to two parties this year.  Our friend hosted an Ugly Sweater Party, which was so much fun.  We counted it as like our last thing that we did with all of our friends before the big move.  We played games and ate yummy food and just hung out. 

dancing to the Christmas music

 

 We also went to our ward Christmas party. I was feeling adventurous and made a potato dish all by myself for the party and then it committed me to going too.  There was a little skit put on by the primary and then our special guest of honor came, Santa!  I was so anxious to see how Kayton would react.  We went up to see him and I had to sit by him and hold his hand but the best we could get out of him was a high five.  He did get a little goody bag though.  Maybe he will be better next year. 

Play Dates

I don't know how I'm going to survive without having friends live right next door to us where we can go play with kids every day.  It's going to be so rough, but in the meantime, until we move, we are totally taking advantage of it.  On Wednesdays for a few weeks in a row, we all went to one friends house and made crafts with the kids.  One time we made hand prints and the next we made Santa hats with paper and cotton balls.  I loved it and once we get all settled in we are totally going to just do craft time once a week or so.

Then there is the other favorite thing is to take the kids and go to the play area in the mall.  I love the soft toys and the bouncy floor and I totally want to have a big playroom with stuff like that one day.  It has to be huge though.  Anyways, we went one last time with our closest friends and the kids had a blast.  I am going to miss having a indoor place to go play.