Christmas Card

So as a lot of people have probably noticed-we didn't send out Christmas cards this year. We have been really busy and decided not to do it. :) So here you go.....

This year has found the Winterton family with a lot of working, playing and growing! We started the year living in West Jordan and enjoying our little family-Deric and I learning and growing as first time parents. In July, we moved in with Deric's parents in Roosevelt and started looking for the perfect starter home to buy. We also went on a big week long Winterton family camping trip to Flamming Gorge and had a lot of fun. We went with Deric's brother Terrell and his wife, Shelby and her family to Green River where Leslie went down the river for her first time ever! Kyler celebrated his first birthday on November 15th, we celebrated our 2nd anniversary on the 16th and closed on our first home on November 30th. Christmas has come and gone and we find ourselves extremely grateful for our family and those gifts they gave us-especially the work they have been willing to put into our new home.

Deric continued to go to school at SLCC in January and finished up in May with his first year of college. Managing working full time and school full time for the first time-we were very proud of him! He continued working at Rite Cabinets in West Valley and absolutely loved his job-even with all the drama. In July, he took a job with Basin Wholesale West as a salesman and hence we moved to Roosevelt. He also started school again at Utah State in August and really had to work at managing a new school. He has yet to decide exactly what major he is going into, but he enjoys learning and is really succeeding at school.

Leslie went back to Salt City Candle Company after her maternity leave where they worked really well with her to let her work from home a lot. She loved her job and being a stay at home mom as well. After being laid off in May, it was a blessing in disguise. Welcoming a move in July, Leslie wasn't quite sure about moving to Roosevelt, but needed the change of pace. Living with in-laws has been quite interesting for us all! She started working at East Elementary in October and really loves working with the children-specifically 1st through 3rd grade. She played in a volleyball league which was quite a culture shock for her! She had a lot of fun, and can't wait for next year.She has recently decided to go back to school in January to finish her bachelor's degree in Communications. She enjoys spending time with family, playing cards and has picked up reading once again.

Kyler has learned a lot this past year! He now has a full mouth of teeth, can walk/run like no other, has figured out that candy canes are amazing, digs through the tupperware, loves to mooch off of Aunt Aisha and has quite a little vocabulary! He is quite spoiled and loves to read books-especially touchy feely ones! He dances to any type of music and loves to bring smiles to everyone's faces-he is really quite funny.

We have been working really hard on our house and hope to move in before too long. this year we are looking forward to spending time together as a family, having both Deric and Leslie working and going school-figuring out how well we can juggle! we hope to spend more time with friends that are away and maybe possibly go on a trip. All of our focus right now is on our house and it's hard to imagine anything else! We hope that this year has found you all well! We love and miss you all!

THANKS!

I just want to say thanks to Jason and Naomi and Hoi and their family-they helped us so much this weekend on our house! Jason drove out here just to help us! We are SO grateful! Deric has some pretty awesome family members that are so willing to help! I appreciate them for sure! Alot of progress was made this weekend because of them so thanks peeps! :)

New Addiction

So I definitely have a NEW ADDICTION!! I love it! Although I want to buy something everyday from it! My sisters finally introduced me to their top two deal-breaking websites where they find all these awesome deals! My favorite is pinchingyourpennies.com although slickdeals.net is awesome too! Last week I bought a way cute tote bag for $2, got free shipping and a free BYU beanie! We also bought a new fridge for our new house. It's a side-by-side HUGE fridge and we got it for only $600 brand new! If you've ever looked at fridges, you know that's an awesome deal! Yesterday I got Pyrex dishes-you know the casserole type dishes and bowls-for $1.99! You can't beat that! What sweet wedding gifts! haha anyway... it's time to surf the websites again for more deals!

House Pictures! -FINALLY

So as most of you know from previous posts, Deric and I are officially homeowners! We just bought our first house in Roosevelt and we are so excited! It's small, but it's ours! We are going to do some work to it to upgrade it and whatnot-so it is definitely a starter home! But we feel great about it and are way excited to have it. we are planning on moving in the week before Christmas-we will see though. We could use a lot of help with not many family members around and available to help-if anyone is in the area and wants to help-let me know! :) Enjoy the pictures!

Top to Bottom: 1-Front view of house (with ugly wood fence, yes) Good size front yard and I love the porch-no one has to stand in the rain waiting for me to answer the door! 2- view of side yard-again, pretty good size, although hopefully next summer it will be mostly gone as we intend to add on right there. 3-view of deck on back with hot tub that doesn't work-yes we're going to tear it out and patch up the deck. 4-Wood burning stove, stone is ugly-eventually we will brick but SO excited! I LOVE wood burning stoves!! 5-ugly kitchen, yes Deric is re-doing it, hopefully before we move in! 6-hardwood floor in kitchen 7-front room-small, but we're hoping to fix that by tearing out a wall to a bedroom and expanding it 8-a bedroom 9-the bathroom-all we are going to re-do at first is the vanity. Deric just can't have ugly wood in our house! For that I do love him though!!!! Well hope you enjoyed! Love you all!

The Work Begins....

We closed on our house yesterday! WAHOO! Now the work begins-we're hoping to move into our house by Christmas! YAY! :)

VENT

Just a vent for a second-I WANT TO BE CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE AND MOVED IN!!!! I'm going crazy with things the way they are right now and I feel like my marriage is failing. Okay. Vent over.

TAGGED

My friend Jami tagged me in this and I must admit-I'm enjoying some peace and quiet, so why not do it? :)

TAGGED

5 Things I Don’t Leave The House Without
1. Purse
2. Phone
3. Hair thing(kinda silly, I know)
4. Wedding Ring
5. Kyler!

5 Cartoons I Watched When I Was Younger
1. Arthur
2. Magic School Bus
3. Bugs Bunny, Tweety, & Friends
4. not sure
5. not sure

5 Things That Terrify Me
1. Being alone (Deric dying)
2. Dying without telling loved ones I love them (basically, death scares me but it's exciting in the eternal perspective of things)
3. Car accidents
4. Sending my kids to school (have you heard how kids are now a days?!? )
5. Disappointing those I love

5 Things I Hate/Dislike That Everyone Else Seems To Like
1. Being messy (I HATE IT!!!)
2. certain syles of clothes-skinny jeans-yuck !
3. Bananas
4. Going out all the time-I like to be home
5. The game Monopoly.

5 Things I Want To Do Before I Die
1. Raise my family with Deric
2. Move out of Roosevelt, own a bigger and nicer home!
3. Go Skydiving with my husband
4. Learn a new skill-not sure what yet though
5. Get my Bachelor's degree to prove those who said I wouldn't and couldn't do it wrong! Moms CAN go back to school!!!

Friends/Family I Tag
1. Ashley
2. Shelby
3. Laura
4. Jena
5. Melanie

Halloween-yes a little late

So Halloween this year was not so great. I was SO excited!!!! And then, it strikes again... Kyler was sick and we couldnt go out. He did get to wear his costume to my aunt's house on Thursday but he was miserable, so it stayed on for about 5 minutes. Actual Halloween day, we spent most of it in the hospital because Kyler had a REALLY high fever. Luckily, he is better now. Just a note about Kyler: He is walking, he LOVES to climb on things (just like his Dad). Story from Deric's mom about Deric: one time when he was about 2, she couldn't find him. She looked and looked and looked and eventually found him, asleep....on top of the fridge! He opened ALL the drawers to get on the counter, then proceeded to open ALL the cupboards to get to the fridge. All I can say is, like father, like son. Kyler is learning to climb on everything and anything. Here's some pictures from Halloween and other things. Deric says I always take pictures of Kyler when he is in his high chair, so II'm trying to be better at that! P.S. Kyler was a monkey for Halloween!

He LOVES to play outside, I'm worried for when it snows!! Haha the picture with his binky is when he woke up in the morning, he slept on his binky clip and it stuck to his cheek- Deric and I thought it was pretty funny! He loves to play outside and is walking all over the place, getting into EVERYTHING!

HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Today is our 2-year anniversary. I want to take just a second to say how amazing my husband is! Deric and I have quite a love story in my opinion. Most of you already know it, so I won't bore you with writing it again. I'm so grateful it happened the way it did! Marrying Deric for time and all eternity in the Manti Temple was the best thing I could have done for my life! I love him so much! He is such an amazing husband and father to Kyler! He always tries to make me happy-no matter what. He is constantly telling me how beautiful I am-even if I don't feel like I am. He always is asking me what he can do to help me-especially with Kyler. He works SO hard at work and school to try to better OUR future. He loves sports-as do I. He lets me beat him at horseshoes-or so he says :) He holds the priesthood and uses it regularly. He takes me to the temple every Friday morning. He supports me in anything I do. Those are just a few of the reasons why I love Deric. I'm excited to celebrate our special day today and am looking forward to many more years to come and ESPECIALLY for eternity! :) Love you Babe!!

One Year Old and Going Strong!

Today is Kyler's 1 year birthday! I must say, birthdays are so much more fun when you have kids, more stressful too but it's all good. i know Kyler only turned one and doesn't really realize what's going on, but I still had a party for him. All of the family on Deric's side got together today for Kyler's favorite dinner (not really, otherwise we would all be eating bananas and grilled cheese) but it was more of mom and dad's favorite dinners! Anyway, Aisha and I made a SWEET cake for him! (see below) it was a race car cake and was so super easy and fun! Other than the fact we only had one cake pan, so it took forever, it was still great! He loved it and dug in real fast! Now time to reminisce-a year ago today, I remember waking up and having major contractions, I hadn't slept well in the night, but then again, being 9 months pregnant, you really don't. I told Deric that if this was false labor, I didn't want to know what real labor felt like. I had had plenty of Braxton Hicks! The doctor had told me that if you think you are in labor, jump in the shower-if the contractions stop or go away, it's false, if they stay-you're in labor. So I did. I jumped in the shower (againsts Deric's wishes) and the contractions were still there! I was so excited and ready but oh so nervous!!! Deric was washing dishes and wanted to finish doing them, so we just hung around for a while. I finally decided I couldn't stand it anymore and we needed to go to the hospital. When we checked in(around 9:30 a.m.), I was dilated to a 5. My doctor just happened to be out of town and I was terrified to have a different doctor that had never seen me. But what can you do?The doctor for the epideral had just left that wing, so I decided I could just last on regular pain killers-ya that lasted for close to like 2 seconds-haha just kidding, but I was in a lot of pain. By the time I got an epideral an hour later, I was completely dilated and fully efaced. BUT I couldn't start pushing because I have what's called Strep B and I have to be given 2 doses of a certain medicine BEFORE the baby is born or else it could be really bad for the baby. At this point, I had one dose and they were waiting to start the second dose. So we waited, and waited and waited. Finally I told them I couldn't wait any longer-this baby was ready to come! So they broke my water and away we went! Deric called all of our family and told them to hurry because the doctors and nurses said they expected me to go way fast considering how long things took to get going. My mom was shopping and didn't think she would make it-she was so distraught-it's kinda funny. Well... low and behold-I have a stubborn son! Kyler took a LONG time to get here!! He kept turning his head to the left and he wouldn't turn it the right way. I was getting exhausted from pushing so hard and it was getting late. The epideral had worn off and I was administered something else. Finally, the doctor came in and said we had a choice-either a C-Section or forceps. Things weren't looking good. Kyler was swollen from being in labor too long and I didn't have any energy left. Deric and I didn't know what to do. We had never had a kid before and didn't know what the best choice would be. I asked the doctor if she was in my position what she would do. She said she would try the forceps and if that didn't work, to go on to the C-Section. So that's what we did. It took about 3 pushes with the forceps and Kyler was born! He had had a bowel movement while he was in there, so the NICU kept him from breathing until they could clean it up. I was so scared when he didn't cry when he first came-"aren't they supposed to cry?Why isn't he crying" was all I kept saying. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 ounces and 22 inches long! The cutest thing ever! He had a little heart shape on his forehead that still shows through when he gets mad! I think it's adorable! Well now that you've been bored to tears with my memories-I think I'll end! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLER! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Priesthood Power!

I just want to say how grateful I am for the gospel and the power of the priesthood. Deric is a worthy priesthood holder (as am I :D) and I am SO grateful! Kyler woke up SCREAMING last night and we could tell he was in a lot of pain, but of course, he can't tell us what's wrong. Deric gave him a blessing and immediately after, Kyler stopped crying. He didn't go back to sleep, but he sure felt better and played all morning. How cool is that? I guess I just appreciate it alot more now that I have my own family. YAY FOR THE GOSPEL!!!!!

Picture Catch-Up

So I am totally playing picture catch up! I have a ton of pictures that I haven't posted of things we have done. Kyler has been so funny lately. His personality is really starting to shine through! He is just starting to walk and is doing really well at it too!

These are just some cute pictures of Kyler playing.

These are some pictures of when we went to Holden for the deer hunt. Kyler DOES NOT like leaf piles! It was the first time he has played in one and he didn't like it very much. His cousin, Tyler, just watched while Kyler screamed. It was really funny. Tyler kept saying "baby eat" while Kyler was eating and he would just stare at him-super funny! They are 6 months apart and will have so much fun together!

This picture is when Kyler was getting "locked up" in our new dresser. haha He wanted to play in it, so Deric let him. We moved it to the wall and Kyler soon loved his new "fort" it was SO hard to get him to come out. He threw a major fit, but he is fine now! :) Hope you all enjoy the pictures! P.S. Don't we just have the cutest son?!?!?!

Blah, blah, BLAH!

Ever have just days where you feel... .well... blah? And you don't know what to do to fix it or even exactly what's wrong other than you are either crying one moment or laughing the next. Simple things set your emotions on a roller coaster and you just want to fix it? Well today has been one of those days. I could really use some suggestions on how to fix it if anyone has any ideas... please share!

NEW HOUSE!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!! We are finally getting a house of our own! We just started the process this week and our closing date is November 24th. We have to do some work on it so we're hoping to move in the week before Christmas! I'm so excited I can't even explain! I have loved living with Deric's parents, but it's time for our own house. It's a small home, but one we can afford. It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home with a nice sized yard and a deck! We really feel blessed to have found a home at this price especially with the market the way it is in Roosevelt. Hopefully everything continues to go well! I will post pictures as soon as I get some! YAY! :)

Couples Tag

-What are your middle names? Deric Thomas and Leslie Lin
-How long have you been together? Been together 2 years 3 months, married 1 year 11 months
-How long did you know each other before you started dating? We knew each other for 6 years before officially dating or rather getting engaged.
-Who asked who out? I argue that I told Deric I wanted to marry him first, he says otherwise. We never actually dated until after we were engaged.
-Who made the first move? I definitely did! When I asked his little sister for their address when I was 13
-Did you go to the same school? Never have. Deric went to Union High, I went to Millard. He went to SLCC and USU, I went to Snow.
-Are you from the same hometown? Nope, he grew up in Neola, I grew up in Holden
-Who is the smartest? Depends on the situation. I think I'm more book smarts, he's more working with his hands smart.
-Who majored in what? Deric isn't sure exactly what he's majoring in yet, either buisness or education and I majored in Communicaions
-Who is the most sensitive? Definitely me, I cry over everything
-Where do you eat out most as a couple? Depends on which restaurant Deric is feeling close with at the time. usually Stockmans
-Where is the furthest you two have traveled as a couple? um.... Denver or California. Not too far.
-Who has the worst temper? I say 50/50, Deric says me
-How many children do you want? 4-5 probably, we'll see
-Who does the cooking? I do right now cause Deric is never home, but he is a much better cook than I am
-Who is more social? Depends, it's usually me unless it has some connection with Basin Wholesale, then it's Deric
-Who is the neat freak? Definitely me
-Who is most stubborn? Me for sure, Deric is really good about that
-Who wakes up earlier? Deric for sure!
-Where was your first date? We went to Temple Square with Karmin and to a UVU dance meet.
-Who has a bigger family? Definitely Deric, there are 10 kids in his family, 5 in mine
-Do you get flowers often? Used to, not much anymore
-How do you spend the holidays? We switch each year and each holiday between families
-Who is more jealous? I think it's pretty equal
-How long did it take to get serious? about 5 1/2 years
-Who eats more? We're probably pretty equal, athough I always pass what I can't eat on to him and he usually tries to eat it.
-What do you do for a living? Deric works at Basin Wholesale and is a full time student, I work at East Elementary and am a mom to Kyler
-Who does/did the laundry? I do, always.
-Who's better with the computer? I am but Deric is getting close to understanding modern technology
-Who drives when you are together? Deric all the time, I'm terrified of driving
-What is "your" song? I dont think we really have one, but the most probably one is "You had me from Hello"

I tag.... Shelby, Vicky, Jami, Maddi, Mel

Conference weekend...

hmm... Conference weekend... I can sum it up in just one word: MISERABLE! I was SO sick the entire time, Kyler has been cranky, family members have been cranky and driving me nuts, I still hurt really bad, I fell down the stairs while carrying Kyler and messed up my wrist, I didn't get to watch/listen to conference very much and I missed it! Overall, I'm not ready for Monday but I'm ready to start a new week. Guess I'll just have to hope my Ensign subscription got my address changed so I can read conference next month. Whew! That was one long vent! :) Pictures of Kyler in his "jail cell" to follow shortly!

All Because 2 People Fell in Love...

Today is my parents' 36th Anniversary and boy am I glad they got married! I'm glad my Dad was persistent, my mom moved to Fillmore, mom finally gave in and they fell in love. They now have: (this is an old picture, but it works right?)

5 children (4 girls, 1 boy)
5 children-law (4 boys, 1 girl)
11 grandchildren(5 boys, 6 girls)
and I'm sure there will be more on the say soon!

My parents are such AMAZING people! I love them both so much and I truly consider them to be some of my best friends. I love seeing how in love they are, how much they care for each other and how important family is to them. They are such a prime example of how I want my marriage to be. Yes, they have problems too, as all married couples, but they always work them out and in the end-it's the love for each other that takes over. They both have a STRONG love for the gospel and live it's principles the best they can. They both love sports and enjoy being involved. They love to work outside together, go for bike rides, visit with family and friends, go to the temple, watch movies and go on an occasional date night together. I always love the time of year when we brand cows-to see my parents working side by side to help establish their livelihood. Both my parents are very hard workers who are honest, kind and loving. I'm so grateful to have been born to such amazing individuals! I love them so much!

Love you Mom and Dad! Happy Anniversary!

Spaghetti Time!

Kyler has recently found that he loves playing with his food (doesn't every kid?) oh well.. good thing kids are washable! I can hardly believe my little man is 10 months old! Oh and you can't see it, but he is totally getting fangs! (Just in time for Halloween!)
His eye teeth are coming in and he has no other teeth on the top, but soon he will have 4 on the bottom!

16 is far away...

Kyler LOVES to drive and be behind the wheel...we literally have to pry his fingers off and of course he SCREAMS when we put him in his carseat...guess I know what I'm getting him for his birthday!

He's OUT!

Recently I have been LOVING attending my nephews' little league football games. Since Deric is in school at nights, I go almost twice a week. Kyler really loves it too. The other night, he fell asleep on our way home from a game (DANG IT!) It was like 2 hours before his normal bedtime, so when we get home, we turn the light on in his bedroom, go around doing our normal things (trying to slowly wake him) and nothing. He won't wake up. (by this time, Deric made it home)So Deric and I decide to take him out of his carseat and try to play with him on the floor. Kyler sees Dad's phones sitting on the floor and he goes to reach for them.... and.... he kept going... and going... and he fell over. Crashed! Snoring SO loud! He was TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, asleep! We COULD NOT get him to wake up! It was SO funny! haha oh I love my little man!

Turn around for one second....

I turn around for one second while Kyler is playing... and this is what I find! I think every little kid LOVES plastic bags! haha

Answered prayers

Well...to begin, as all of you know, I've had struggles deciding what to do about working. Thank goodness my prayers have FINALLY been answered! I turned down the job I was offered at the college and went to another interview yesterday for a job at the elementary school. They told me they had LOTS of applicants and would get back to me sometime next week. Well they called this morning and guess what! I GOT THE JOB! This one is totally what I am looking for! It's from 12-3 Monday through Friday being an aid for teachers, helping with kids in Chapter One. They are paying me more than the college was going to and I think it will be a great experience! I don't start until the 28th of this month, but I am excited! :) Yay for answered prayers!!! My mother in law and cousin are going to watch Kyler for me which is a HUGE blessing. I'm excited to be able to have a job and still be able to stay home with Kyler.

To work or not to work?!?

Well.. I have been searching for a job since I got laid off from Salt City in May. Since we moved to Neola, I thought FOR SURE i wanted to work-otherwise I would go crazy. I applied for a lot of jobs and only got one interview. So I figured it just wasn't meant to be and I was content with staying at home with Kyler. Last week I got a call for 2 more interviews. I just had one a few hours ago and they offered me the job! The hours would be from 8 a.m. - 3p.m. with a one hour lunch(still considered part time so no benefits). Which is more hours than I wanted to work. It's being an aid in the Business Lab at the Utah State Extension out here. We could REALLY use the money right now but I just don't know if it's right! There are so many things to look over like whether or not I should go back to school (I was thinking January but now am not sure we can afford it) if paying for day care is worth working and being away from Kyler all day or what. I have a different interview on Thursday so I really need to figure out what to do! ADVICE ANYONE?!?!

Tough Lessons Learned

As many of you know, we have been looking for a house to buy in Roosevelt. Well... an offer of ours FINALLY got accepted!!!! YAY! Right? Wrong! Let me begin from the beginning. A little while ago, Deric and I sat down to go over our finances and realized we haven't saved up as much as we would have liked....so our budget for a house went down a little bit. But we were still hopeful. One day this house dropped 30 grand overnight so we hurried real fast to go look at it. I really liked it! Deric liked it but didn't love it. Our real estate agent told us it would be gone by the end of the week for sure so we should put an offer out that night if we were going to. So we did. And it got accepted within a few days. However, the night we put an offer on it, Deric informed me that he didn't feel good about it and we immediately began to pray (we really hadn't prayed about that particular house yet). We also got to go to the temple and we felt that this was not the house for us. So we could just back out of it right? WRONG! We had a miss understanding with our real estate agent and we had put earnest money down. The only way we could get that money back was to have an inspection and find something really wrong with it. Thank goodness we had that inspection instead of taking the house! To name a few reasons would be: all the electrical was either taped to the ceiling or just hanging out (we hadn't noticed before), and it's an older home and the old sewer line had the cap blown off and there was a lot of old human waste in this little crawl space, can you say DISGUSTING!! Luckily we had Deric's cousins do the inspection for us so it didn't cost too much! All I can say is I have learned that buying a house is ALOT more than just signing papers and getting the keys. You have to be smart, look into things and completely trust in the Lord. We're still looking and we're going to an auction on Thursday... still keeping those fingers crossed! :)

Shanae's Wedding

Deric's sister, Shanae, just got married last weekend. It was so fun to be a part of planning her wedding and helping her get things all together! They only had a month engagement, so a lot was crammed into a little bit of time, but it was still great. Deric's brother, Terrell, took a lot of her bridals and wedding pictures and they turned out SO CUTE! He also took some family pictures for us! It was great to see all 10 of Deric's siblings together for their sealing in the Mt. Timanagos temple! As always, seeing people get sealed in the temple and being there reminded me of my own wedding/sealing. I have married an amazing man who loves me and our son unconditionally. He works SO hard!!! I have never met someone with such dedication to everything he is doing. He is currently working 50-60 hours a week as a salesman for Basin Wholesale, taking a full semester of classes from Utah State at night, is the Priests Quorum advisor in our ward and on top of that, he always makes time to spend with me and Kyler! How amazing is he?!? FREAKIN AMAZING in my opinion! I sure do love him! :D Well here are a few of our family pictures from the wedding-hope you enjoy!

3 years ago...FaMiLiEs ArE fOrEvEr!

Many of you have probably noticed my change in header on my blog. Many of you also know who the featured man is, but for those of you who don't, I'll tell you about an amazing man, husband, dad, brother, uncle, and most of all friend. I didn't get a chance to do this yesterday as I had wanted, so I'm getting to it today. On August 17, 2006 my brother-in-law, Spencer, was killed fighting a wildfire called the Devil's Den fire near Oak City, Utah. This was definitely a hard time for my family. We were greatly blessed to have Spencer in our lives, in my life. I loved that man and looked up to him more than almost anyone. He treated my sister amazing and he was such a wonderful dad to three beautiful children. I remember when they were dating and I was just little-I thought they had the perfect "Cinderella" type fantasy of a love life. haha Spencer always showered my sister with flowers and showed her how much he loved her, she in return was so smitten by her knight in shinning armor! They built a house in Holden and I was able to be involved in their lives quite regularly when I lived at home with my parents. Spencer was an avid Scout leader and he helped so many young men realize how wonderful it is to be on the right path! He would bet the boys when they would get their Eagle projects done and he ended up shaving his head over it! Everyone in our community loved Spencer and looked up to him. He was an amazing example to everyone. Well I literally could go on and on about him. I miss him more than I ever realized I would and it's hard to see my sister raising her 3 children by herself. I can not even imagine it! I cannot imagine not kissing my husband or telling him how much I love him. I can't imagine not seeing him play with Kyler or look forward to more children. I simply can't. Nichole is SO strong, there could never have been a stronger woman, of that I am sure. Nichole, Turner, Kadence and Kambree miss their husband and father, but thank goodness for the gospel! What an amazing thing that is in our life! Nichole can look towards hope to seeing her beloved spouse and best friend again and the kids can look forward to running into their daddy's arms someday-even Kambree. (for those of you who don't know, Kambree has Angelman's syndrome and she cannot walk to talk.) Spencer blessed our lives immensely. He will forever be missed and loved my many. Thanks Spencer, for all the fun times, laughs, cherished moments and love you showed to everyone. We love you.

Friends and Family Weekend

So I realize this post is almost a month late...but I did eventually get to it right? Well over the 24th of July weekend, Deric's family threw a Friends and Family Weekend (although it technically lasted a week) at Flaming Gorge. His mom reserved a group campsite and anyone and everyone was invited to attend. Because of Deric's work, we were only able to go out Thursday-Sunday, but it was still fun. We were able to go skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing on the lake, eat lots of food, stay up late playing games, go 4-wheeling and ultimately spending lots of time together. Our friends, Seth and Jen were able to come and it was such a blast! The highlight of the weekend was rafting down the river on Saturday. Although it rained, it was still fun. We had our raft (the middle-agers) , an old people's raft (the parents) and the teenager raft. It was SO much fun! However, I took pictures on that trip with a waterproof camera and don't have them back yet. Deric and I enjoyed taking walks around the campgrounds at night to get away from things and have our own time. Ultimately, we had an awesome weekend!
We were able to celebrate Lepeka's birthday while camping-she had a dutch oven cake and turned 7!

It's been a while...

Well, it truly has been a while since I have posted a post on our blog. Life is just going on as usual. We are liking living in the Basin. Deric is really enjoying his new job and seeing lots of success in it. Right now he has to work long hours in order to get the hang of things (he is paid on salary, so no overtime there) and I miss him alot, but we're adjusting. He starts school in the next few weeks and then he REALLY won't ever be here. We are still looking for a house. We have put a lot of offers out there, but so far, none have gone through. We got really excited last week, but we were the back up offer (meaning that someone offered higher than us, but if for any reason, it wouldn't go through, we would get the house). But low and behold-we are still living with Deric's parents. I have been looking for a part time job but have yet to find success there. Deric just got called to be the Priest's Quorum advisor in the Young Mens in our ward. He is excited but nervous cause he really has like no extra time in his schedule. I had my 21st birthday on July 22nd. It was fun, nothing too exciting. We went on a family/friends vacation (post to follow) at Flaming Gorge. Kyler is growing like crazy, as usual. He has recently learned he can scream and scream LOUD! as well as screaming, he just learned to blow bubbles in the bath tub-he loves it! It's so cute! The last few days, Kyler and I have both been sick with a cold. It's definitely not fun. I think that's all the updates as of right now! Love you all!! :)

Western Cutie Pie

Out in the Basin they have a celebration every year called UBIC. This year, I decided to enter Kyler into the Baby Contest just for fun (after all---my kid is the CUTEST right?) The contest said he could wear ANYTHING western. I couldn't decide exactly how to dress him... but this is what we ended up with. Unfortunately Kyler was tired and was REALLY cranky for the judges... so he didn't win---but we still think he is the CUTEST COWBOY in the West! :)

I'll Do it Myself!

So a few nights ago, I was making dinner for Deric's family and we were having this noodle dish with spaghetti noodles and vegetables. I put some in a blender for Kyler and asked Deric to feed him while I finished getting it ready for everyone else. The phone rang and Deric answered it. While he was talking on the phone....this is what I found.... Deric had left Kyler's food right in front of him and Kyler was helping himself. He was scooping up the green mush with his hand and SHOVING it into his mouth. It was really quite comical. We let him eat the rest of his dinnder that way for sure-and of course BATH TIME was after! You may also notice that Kyler's food is in a BIRD DISH! I had NO IDEA what it was and it was up by the bowls in the cupboard-so I figured it was just a dish of some sort. It worked. Deric made fun of me SO bad! If you know how I feel about animals----you will understand.