Babble

I am undecided on the decision to go private with my blog!!!  I had made the decision to do so- obvious in the previous post- but now I just cannot decide.  I have a lot of family members who do not have blogger accounts, thus making viewing what our little family is up to sort of difficult for them.... ugh, just cannot decide!!  Thanks to those of you who have given me your emails- if I do go private I will surely add you, but as of now, I am still on the fence!! 

That said, the Christmas season has been a lot different for me this year.  I am very VERY used to christmas tree hunting, christmas decorating, SNOW, being around family, and believe it or not, just the way that the community at home feels during Christmastime.  It just has this special feeling about it!!  Did I mention SNOW??  I really am missing the SNOW SNOW SNOW!!! 
However, it has helped me to focus more on what Christmas is really about.  I have actually read a lot of articles out of the Ensign about Christ's birth, and also his life.  It has really helped me to be very grateful for Him,  His Life, and the huge sacrifice he made for us- The Atonement.  I have always known that we celebrate Christmas symbolically for Christ, but I was easily caught up in the commercial aspect of Christmas rather than the true meaning!!  Anyway, just a little food for thought!

The people of Alamo are so very nice, and have been so welcoming.  I am starting to adjust and get used to life in a trailer, and also not knowing people.  Still miss home very very much, but life is really great for the most part.  Tenley is growing up so quickly and I feel like it is just flying by.  She lights up when Cory comes home from work, and Cory does the same- highlight of my day!! 

Hope you are all having a great Christmas season!!! 

The time as come.... Going Private!!

Hi everyone!!!  I have made the decision to take our lovely little blog private!!  I have decided that since I am updating quite frequently now, sometimes with our location and personal information, that I will make our blog private!  So.... if you would like to keep following, you know the drill!!!! 

Tenley Jo!!

The following is an ode to my beautiful not-so-baby girl.... can't get enough of her, and need to get a few tidbits down on paper. 

This beautiful sweet pea is almost 16 months old, and I can't even imagine where the time as gone, or even when or how she has gotten so big!!!  She is the light of my life and at the same time drives me absolutely crazy somedays!!!  (you all know EXACTLY what I mean)  

First of all- SHE HAS ATTITUDE!!!!  Yes this little girl is completely full of it!!!  She has a mind of her own!!!  She is a talking machine and can say so many things.  Sometimes she will suprise us by saying exactly what we are saying, so very clearly- makes you wonder how much she really can say but chooses not to.  Of course she has picked up on the wonderful word "NO"- and uses it quite frequently.  She can say Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Coco, Colby, Teegan (both cousins of hers), milk, binkie, book, bug, butterfly, he-he (horse) puppy, kitty, sucker, candy, grape, apple, cheese, movie, piggie, rat, (i'll explain later) spider, bye-bye, hi, boo, bite, snack, thank you, ....  I am absolutely sure that I am missing many things, but for the moment that is all that I can think of.  

Tenley is currently obsessed with the movie Charlotte's Web- explaining the words piggie, rat, and spider. 

Also, she loves to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and knows the hand motions to it.  She loves patty cake, and also "This little piggie".  

She is into absolutely everything.  Living in this trailer, it feels like it is always a mess.  I pick up one thing just to find her into another :-)  Joys of motherhood!!!  She loves to "help" me wash the dishes and cook dinner- or whatever meal it is that I am preparing. 

Whenever we sit down for a meal at the table, she will fold her arms to get ready to pray- CUTEST THING EVER!!!!  When her daddy gets home from work at night, she gets so excited she doesn't know what to do with herself.  She runs toward him, then runs away laughing, then comes back and dances in front of him- it is so adorable.  Speaking of dancing- Tenley is a very distinguished dancer.  She can shake it like no tomorrow and it is so dang cute!!!  

Right now, Tenley is still napping twice a day, once around 10:30 and once around 3:30.  She is pretty to the minute on her schedule!!!  

Mostly, I just love her dearly.  She is such a joy to be around, and is always making me laugh.  Can't believe how fast time flys, it is definitely bittersweet...  sad to think that she was just a tiny baby, but exciting to see what else she is going to be able to do, and the amazing woman that she will someday grow into!!!  

Life Is Great- Hope you are all enjoying it!!!! 

The other day Tenley and I explored the small town that we are temporarily calling home!!!!  There isn't much here, but it is starting to become more and more like home.  I saw a sign today that said:

Do What You Can

With What You Have

Where You Are!!
Absolutely loved it!!

 This is a picture of the RV park that we are staying at!!

 The town is litterally the like an underground river in the middle of the desert, it's kinda crazy.  Area 51 is just over the mountain!!

 Windwill ridge is one of two places to eat here.

 Couldn't resist pictures of my girl!!!  Absolutely love her and her little personality!!!  She is amazing!!



Happy Halloween!!!

This year for Halloween was a little different.... we don't really know many people out here, so we only did a little trick or treating.  One of my visiting teachers, Robin, has a little girl that is almost one year old, so her and Tenley have been playing together a little bit.  Robin is super nice and I am so grateful for her reaching out to our family.  I am so grateful for the gospel and for the support system that we can find through it no matter where we are at. 
Anyway, I dressed Tenley as a little witch this year, and wasn't super prepared with everything else going on, but, in my opinion, she is adorable no matter what.  She hasn't picked up on "trick or treat" yet, but she kept saying "nandy" which means "candy".  SOOO cute!!! 

Hope everyone had a great and Happy Halloween!!!!

Change Is Life....

Well I officially cried for the first time since all of these life changing events have taken place. It was the weirdest thing, I was just sitting with Tenley in the trailer reading a book and I just started crying, and couldn't stop- all day!! Someone would say something and bam!!! there came the tears again!! I even cried when the post office lady asked me how I was doing?!! Man, guess that's what happens when you are high stress for two weeks and then you are in the middle of no where all alone??


** I need to get this down to keep a record of everything- so if you get bored easily or don't want the whole story-you may want to stop reading here***


To explain the high stress part.... it was October 9th when Cory left for Las Vegas. He had just gotten the transfer call earlier that week, but he had to clear the hall in Las Vegas, so he headed to Vegas on a Sunday evening. He then cleared the hall and had to be in Ely, Nevada the following Monday morning. Ely and Vegas are about 300 miles apart from each other. Anyway, that monday, I went to Ely to see if we could find a place for our family to live while Cory was on the job. If that wasn't a big downer, I don't know what is.... Ely is not that nice of a place, and the only place for rent was pretty much a dive, and they wanted $850 not including utilities. Oh, let me back up, I had to quit my job. Cory and I decided that it would be better for us to all be together as a family, rather than have him be gone all the time and all by himself. So I quit my job at the credit union, which was super hard for me to do for many reasons. I LOVED my job, the people I worked with, just everything about it, I was pretty attached.


Anyway, back to moving. So, since we couldn't find anywhere to rent ( which ended up being a blessing in disguise ) we decided maybe we ought to start looking for a travel trailer to live in.... this is what most of the guys on the job do anyway.... or live in hotels. So we started looking. The following weekend Cory had to be in Tooele for school so I met him up there on Friday night and stayed in a hotel. While he was in school on Saturday morning, I looked all over Salt Lake for a travel trailer. When he got done with school, he came and met me, which was about 3:00 . We really were blessed. We found a super super nice used fifth wheel trailer at Motor Sportsland in Salt Lake, and got it!!


The next issue was our truck.... Cory's white Chevy was lifted too high to pull a fifth wheel- even after putting a lift on the trailer- Suprised?? Me either.... So we decided to put his truck on KSL and try to sell it. Cory's history with selling things on KSL is seriously ridiculously lucky!!! Well the truck sold within two days... and Cory had found a red Chevy that he liked that would work to pull a trailer. SO, we got the red Chevy....


Living Situation figured out in Ely ..... check


How to get living situation to Ely. ....... check





Oh wait, now we aren't going to Ely?? Cory found out that it would be closer for him in the long run to stay in a place called Alamo. This little town is about 200 miles south of Ely. It is SOOOO much warmer here, so that is super nice, but it is a very little town. Probably about the size of Spring City, but with a High School, Middle School, Elementary School, and very small credit union- that's about it. We are staying in the only RV park there, but it's a pretty nice place... for an RV park ... ha ha... this is where some other guys from the job are staying as well...





We decided to rent our house out to some good friends of ours- Mal and Kipp :) It is nice to know that our house is being taken care of while we are gone. It was really sad packing up all of our stuff and leaving it empty though :( We also sold our car!!! The new owner is so excited she can hardly stand herself- and that makes me very very very happy!!!!





Our lives have definitely changed a bit......





Anyway, we are now here in Alamo, as I said in my last post. There isn't much to do, but I'm learning. Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me, but today has been better, and that's all I can ask for. I'm trying to stay positive and take one day at a time. I do get to spend all the time in the world with my Tenley girl, and I really appreciate the roles of mother and wife that I get to fill a little better and a little more each day. I guess I now understand what my grandma meant when she said that we should be going with Cory... "He needs to come home to his family, a clean home, and a hot meal on the table!!" Love that lady soooo much!!! Tenley helps out by saying "tank you mommy" to almost everything I do.... couldn't be doing this without that little angel's smiling face!!!

Alamo Nevada

We are officially here!!! Wherever here may actually be!! Alamo,NVisin themiddle of no where for sure.... I guess we are not too far from Vegas but other than that it feels like the middle of no where. We just arrived on Saturday October 22, thanks to the help of my mom, dad and sister :-) Cory has been out here working for about three weeks now. We made the decision to come with him, which meant quitting my job, leaving home, and living in a trailer for six months to a year- it should be a new adventure to say the least. I am trying to stay positive and look at it as a new start for our new little family- but not gonna lie- I miss home, my family, friends and job..... I miss my bestie Linds- she is like my other half ( yes I love Cory too, but it's just not the same ) LOL While Cory is totally awesome and I love him to pieces- I now have no one to get ice cream with, jam out to AWESOME music with, and just to talk to about everything including girl stuff- it's just not the same!!! I'll be seeing her soon though- whether she is ready or not ;-) Hopefully it will all work out for the best. It is nice to be able to spend a lot more time with Tenley and be able to see Cory every night. It sort of makes me appreciate what it really means to be a stay at home mom and wife.... it certainly is no easy task!!! So hats off to all of you who do it all the time!!! Tenley is growing and learning like crazy. She is little miss independent and MUST do everything on her own- I swear "big girl" is her favorite thing to say (and hear). Pictures to come!!!

Family Pictures

I haven't written a post forever, there is just so much to write about, and not enough time. Tenley is already 7 months old and I can't believe it. Time is just flying by. She is getting to be more and more fun every day, and I just love her little personality. She does have an attitude that I am a little nervous for, but she is the cutest little girl in the world :-) Cory is still working in a different place all the time, but is mostly in the Salt Lake Area. For that reason we have put our house up for sale. I have mixed feelings about selling it. I don't want to leave Sanpete County, with all of our family and friends, but at the same time, it would be nice to see Cory more and it would be a lot less of a commute for him. I guess we'll see, the market isn't the greatest for selling right now. Anyway life is great and I am loving it. Aubrey took our family pictures a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd share a few. Enjoy!!!