A Change on the Horizon??

A few months ago Eric was offered a new job. It is in the same field that he has been working in forever, but it was with a company who is just starting up a finance division and they asked him to head it up...it was an offer we couldn't refuse. With the way the economy is, it was a big decision but one that we felt good about. We were pretty sure that we would still stay put for the next 3 years or so just like we had been planning on before the new job came into play because again, the economy is a scary place right now. Well, we got to looking around and discovered that if you are able to do so, it is a pretty good time to build a new home. Not good enough that we have picked out exactly where we are going, but good enough that we put our home on the market and are waiting to see what happens next. We will probably have about 6-8 months of homelessness, don't worry we have a place to go, but it will be worth it if everything falls into place! If you know anyone who is interested, give them the following listing.

http://saltlakecityogden.yahoo.pruutah.com/details/start.aspx?Results=true&propid=071W000848175&mode=Featured

Anyway, that is what has been going on the last couple weeks at our house, hopefully soon we will have some exciting news!

11 Years

Today Eric and I have been married for 11 years. We met at Salt Lake Community College. I remember the first day I saw him, and not because it was totally a "love at first sight" thing, but kinda. I was sitting in my first day of math class and this guy walks by, and sits a few rows up. I remember thinking, "That is the guy you are going to marry!" Then I almost laughed out loud at myself because I had never seen him before in my life and I was dating someone else, plus that is a totally crazy thought, and besides who thinks that way...not me. The next class was English. Again, the same guy walks in the door and sits down a few seats away. In this class, the instructor actually called roll. I heard the name, "Eric Prettyman?", that guy raised his hand and acknowledged that he was Eric Prettyman. I remember thinking, "That is definitely not the guy I am going to marry, Prettyman?, Prettyman?, what a funny last name, No Way!" Well that guy and I became really good friends and had several classes together over the course of the year. He came over to my house a few times to study and my family LOVED him. I told my mom that he was not my type, to lerpy I think was the term I used, and was just a really good friend. Besides you don't like the guy that your family does right. Yeah, remember that guy that I was dating, well by this point we were engaged. I will not say much except that my family HATED him. My brothers referred to the 2 of us as, "Dumb and Dumber". To this day, whenever he is mentioned it is not by his name, it is by Dumber. Anyway, long story short, I broke off the engagement and Eric was there waiting in the wings, still just my really good friend for awhile longer...then more than a friend, then my fiance, now my wonderful husband and the father of my 3 beautiful kids. I could not ask for more, I do not want more. From that first encounter in math class through eternity, he is the only one who could ever make me this happy. I love you Eric, Happy Anniversary!

Southern Style Weekend...Utah southern that is!

This past weekend we had the opportunity to go down south to St George. Eric taught a flex net class for the University of Phoenix that was based down there. He had flown down for the first class, the next three were online and then the last class was back down there. When he signed up for the course we planned to spend that last class with him and make a weekend out of it. We invited any family who could swing it to make arrangements and come and spend some time with us. My parents, Eric's mom and Kim and Michael were the only ones who were able to make it. We headed down Thursday afternoon to be there in time for Eric's class. While Eric taught his class I took the kids to High School Musical 3. They loved it and it was a great alternative to sitting around the hotel room trying to entertain the kids whilst avoiding the pool, that is Eric's department :) Friday morning we had breakfast and the kids and Eric swam and then we headed over to the outlet mall to wait for the rest of our party to arrive. The rest of Friday was spent relaxing and gearing up for our hiking day on Saturday. And hike we did.

We started off with a Petroglyphs hike that we had heard about and then on to Snow Canyon for our favorite hike up "Pudding Mountain" as we like to call it. We took the back way down the mountain and even braved coming through the crevice. I think Marilyn thought we were crazy, but she was a great sport and hung in every step of the way! She was amazing!

Chloe found a hiking buddy in Michael and did not let go of his hand for more than 2 minutes at a time, sorry Kim...and Michael!

Alec scrambled all over the mountains and found a hiking buddy of his own.

Kate spent a great deal of the hikes crying, but only because she wanted to be down with the rest of us and not in her pack.

Our last stop was the Sand Dunes, also in Snow Canyon. We buried Alec, Chloe and Michael up to their necks in sand and did some sand jumping.

Kate was in Hog's Heaven just being able to roam at will and play in the sand. Eric thought she like it so much he decided she would like to stay forever. My mom and I walked back to get the cars so we could pull them up closer to where we were playing. When we pulled up, everyone came walking down to get in the cars.... and nobody had Kate. Eric promptly turned tail and ran back to get her. She was just hanging out up on the hill with a cute family that was playing next to us. They were standing around watching to see how long it would take before we realized that she was missing! Thank goodness it is a funny story, or Eric might have lost his happy home!

We had a great time, got some great pictures, had some good laughs and got hooked on a new game, Mexican Train. Next time we go we hope that more people can come and join in on the fun!

Trick Or Treat

Our Halloween season, minus Alec's flu, was fantastic. For Sunday Family Dinner at my parents in October, my mom always does a Halloween party. A full come in costume and eat Sloppy Joe's party. This year she hid eyeballs and worms, all candy of course, in the buns. It got a great reaction from several people, some screaming some laughing. They also planned some fun games. For the kids, they had to dig through skeleton intestines, spaghetti, to find eyeballs, ping pong balls, with points on them and then toss/bounce the eyeballs into a bucket. They all got a really cute jar of goodies at the end. For the adults it was Silent Endure. There were large cards laid upside down on the table. Whoever drew the witch card had to silently endure the gag card. There were several; Have a giant balloon blown up under shirt until it pops, Eat kipper snacks from the tin, eat 5 Bertie Bott jelly beans, the gross flavors from Harry Potter which include rotten egg, skunk, booger, and worm just to name a few, Eat a tablespoon full of baby food peas, Eat Sardines from the can, Take a whiff from the bag of smell...those were just a few. It was a ton of fun and such a relief that I did not draw the witch 1 time. Eric drew her 3 times...hehehe, too bad 2 of them were the fishy things and he didn't care but the baby food REALLY got him. It was a really fun night and so great that my parents do stuff like that and we have such a blast together. On Monday we carved and decorated our home grown pumpkins for FHE. On Halloween night Alec had perked up a bit and actually ate dinner with us, which was Jack O Lantern Pizza and Root Beer Potion, and went out to do some trick or treating! They didn't do much and didn't go far, but at least he got to enjoy the day a little bit. I was not too disappointed that they didn't come home with a whole truck load of candy because I myself don't give out candy. I usually give out the mini bags of Act popcorn that come out for Halloween, but I could not find them this year...I gave out tattoos instead. I think they went over well, plus no candy waiting around to be eaten...always a good thing! Anyway, I even put on my costume from the party at my parents to hand out our treats. Here are some pictures from everything from the last week! Enjoy!


Party at Crosby Castle



My parents; Raggedy Ann and Andy.



Us; Nerds, Ninja, Mean Old Witch and Cat.



Paul and Eliza; Daddy Warbucks and Ms. Hannigan, Ghosts and a Fairy.



Jordan and Becca; Nacho Libre and Nun.

I have some video that I will add soon, I can't get it to transfer...so frustrating. But I will post it, you have to check it out...SOOO FUNNY!


FHE Pumpkins.



Halloween Night; Dinner and Costumes.



Now on to the next holiday...I love this time of year!!

Happy Halloween??

The worst thing that can happen to a kid on Halloween!

POOR ALEC!

MAN...Those are some cute kids!!

Fall 2008

Happy October!

This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love fall, or as I like to call it sweatshirt weather, and all the changes that come with it. I love to decorate for Halloween. This year we have a witches house complete with a cat cemetery and a potion garden.
We also decorated with the pumpkins that we grew in our garden. A few of the carving pumpkins are still green because of the early snow that killed our vines. We used them anyway in the cemetery...they add to the spookiness! We had a really good patch going until that darned early snow.
We had our annual Halloween sugar cookie decorating FHE last night. The kids had a ball and did a fantastic job!