Family Pictures 2015

Not much has been going on here is our small part of the world. We desperately miss Mississippi winters. I heard it was 80 degrees last Saturday in Mississippi, in Roosevelt it stays about 16 degrees. We both received callings in our ward as teachers, Spencer is yet again a Gospel Principles teacher and I am a Relief Society teacher. We are officially buying a house but won't close until March 1st. This year we have really tried to teach Rhett why we celebrate Christmas. Last Sunday he wrapped himself up in a blanket, he layed a stuffed animal down on it's back and told me it was the baby Jesus and he was Joseph. He then began to call Spencer a donkey. We also told Rhett that for Christmas we give treats to our friends. So he decided and then got really excited that we were going to take Cookies to his Nursery friends. He has reminded me for days about how we needed to take things to the two boys in his class and his teachers. Tonight we took cookies around and our kids couldn't have been more happy to give them to people. 

First Snow

We went to park city for the weekend with Spencer's dad and we had so much fun. It was really the first time our kids have been able to play in the snow and they couldn't have been more excited. Plus even if they see a speck of snow now they want to have a snowball fight.

Hope has been so excited to start to use the potty. But even more excited for the Minnie Mouse and Let It Go underwear I found on sale. She insists on wearing two pairs at once over her diaper. 

When I was 16 weeks pregnant with Hope our doctor told us from the ultrasound that we were going to have a boy. When I finally had our ultrasound the Tech confirmed that indeed Hope was a girl. 

At 18 weeks I saw a doctor for the first time with this pregnancy. When the doctor did an ultra sound he said we were going to have another girl. The next week we went in for the big ultrasound and the Tech told us she should get paid more because no way was the baby inside of me a girl. So we are excited to announce that another baby boy is on his way at the beginning of April. Rhett of course has no idea what is really going on and Hope is in denial that the baby is a boy. We tell her that she is going to have a baby brother and she begins to tell us over and over again that the baby in my tummy is a baby girl. 

This picture tells the real story of how they are feeling about a baby brother

Surviving

My brother entered two pumpkins in the giant pumpkin contest. They were only half the size of his last pumpkin, but they were still gigantic! Our kids mostly liked the free samples from the vendors.

Spencer was offered a job in Roosevelt (no one ever knows where that is so in case you don't it's 30 minutes away from Vernal). It's pretty much the middle of nowhere but have no worries Grandma Pace set Rhett up with his own pair of cowboy boots so he is ready to live in cowboy country. Spencer has been living in Roosevelt during the week and comes back on the weekends. On Monday the kids and I will move to our new place. In the meantime we have been hanging out with my family.

One weekend we took our kids to the zoo. We were at just the right places at just the right time. As we were looking at the giraffes, the zookeepers came over and let all the kids feed them. Most kids held the branch of leaves over the fence and let the giraffe take it from them. All the kids except mine. Rhett decided to hold on to the branch a little longer than he should and the giraffe ended up licking his entire arm. Then as we were looking at the elephants, the workers started to give one elephant a mud bath.

Last week I learned what it would be like to be a single mom with 8 kids, with the youngest two being 4 months apart. My brother and his wife went to Hawaii for a week, and I volunteered to watch their 6 kids. We were doing great and then the stomach flu hit the youngest which then hit 3 more of us including myself. For a split moment I didn't know if we or maybe just I would survive but my brother is home now so apparently we all survived. Now I just need to wait a few more days until my two kids are completely better. Rhett has had the stomach flu for over a week now! Even though that week was really crazy we had fun playing tons of games, playing basketball at the church, going to see witches and running around at the park.

And then Halloween happened. Hope has been obsessed with anything to do with Mickey Mouse. She told me she wanted to be Mickey Mouse for Halloween but instead I had her be Minnie. Rhett had told me for months that he wanted to be Batman. Poor Rhett has been so sick and even today on Halloween he threw up and spent most of the day on the couch. He really wanted to go out in his costume, so we took him trick or treating and let him eat candy even though we knew at any moment there could be a disaster. Luckily he did great. When we got in the car to go to the trunk or treat he told the people walking their dog, "Hey, we're getting candy!"

Moments before that cookie came right back up