So we've been in Georgia for the summer and it has been interesting to say the least. James has been doing pretty good for his first year selling although it's been a lot tougher than he thought. We don't see much of each other but it is so much nicer being here with him instead of far across the country. Alexis not only walks now but she runs. It is amazing and she is starting to say words and she tries to copy everything we do. Alexis and I go swimming almost every day and she has these arms floaties that make her think she is invincible. :) She copies all of the bigger kids and dives in to the water and pops back up with a huge smile on her face. It is going to be very sad when we leave our big, fun pool.
We did get to take a week off and went to Maine for a family reunion. It was James' first experience with all of the Stehmeier's and we had a blast. Maine was beautiful but VERY small town everywhere you went. People literally stared at our family when we walked into grocery stores or any public place. It was crazy. We stayed on this beautiful lake and went canoing and kayaking, we had these two big yards in front of the houses we stayed at that were perfect for games and the week went by way too fast.
We leave for Utah on August 31st and I will be happy and sad to go. The weather has been wonderful here and I love the south, but I am ready to go home and see my family and friends.

Wow has it really been this long???

Sorry I am such a slacker but I am way better at facebook. James has moved to Georgia for the summer doing summer alarm sales for Platinum. Alexis and I are still here in Utah and she just turned one. My mom had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her kidney and to remove a cyst (thank goodness that's all it was) roughly the size of a softball along with all her female organs. All of that the week after James left. No fun for me...let's just say I was feeling a little overwhelmed. Now though the doctors are confident they removed all the cancer so my mom is home recovering from the surgery and has a check up in a month and then every three monthes after that for a year to be sure. James is doing pretty well down in Georgia and we are excited to be debt free at the end of this summer!!! YEA!!! James is getting very lonely with out us and we are doing suprisingly well considering James was the confident one that we would be fine for the summer and I was dreading his leaving. He asks me every day when I'm coming out there and I love being missed. Being a part from my husband has made me appreciate a lot about him that I think I was taking for granted and it has opened up doors in our relationship for us to explore that I don't think could've been opened without a seperation of longer than a week. I have enjoyed discovering things about myself and James that hadn't been brought up before now. I do miss him so much though and so does Alexis. It's not easy being a temporary single mom and taking care of someone else's kids on top of that. Alexis and I will be going out to join him soon and I look forward to the oppurtunity of living outside the Provo bubble. Maybe there I'll be better at writing here.

Our two year wedding anniversary was in March and we went hiking down at Arches National Park. It was a blast!! We had a ton of good times and there are a ton of pics on facebook should you care to look. We also went on a family vacation to my granda's house in California. It was awesome and much needed. again I tell you I'm way better at updating facebook but even then that's not to hard to do compared to this. :)

Here is a picture of my new hair color, Alexis loving the swings, and some pictures of us on Easter. It was so fun. Alexis was throwing things out of her basket and digging the candy. I let her have some chocolate and she was loving it. We went up to Logan on Sunday and spent the day with my family. It was a blast. We went on an Easter egg hunt and Alexis found three eggs. On Saturday we went to the big Easter egg hunt at Scera park and it was insanity. The adults are crazy. I saw a grown man rip a giant stuffed animal from a 10 year old boys hands. Craziness I'm telling you. We'll definitely be back next year. :)

Busy Busy

Well it's been awhile again. Things have been crazy with the nanny job and my patience is being tested to it's very limits. If all twelve year old girls are like this I hope all the rest of my kids are boys. :)

Anyway something kind of fun that I did is become a redhead...that's right I have been brunette, blonde, and am now a redhead. I'll have to put some pics up tomorrow but it is fun for sure and different but I love it. Thank goodness so does James and Alexis hasn't seemed to notice so it's all good.

James and I are going to be pretty busy the next few weekends with Easter, our anniversary and Conference coming up we'll be gone visiting the family, going camping, and hanging out in Salt Lake with some of our extended family. Life is great, Alexis is keeping me on my toes but is the angel that saves me from going insane. Her innocent smile and wet kisses keep me laughing. Here are a few more fun pics of her.

Oh my goodness I have been slacking. I can't believe I've taken so long to write. Well Valentine's Day was awesome. My incredibly handsome husband brought me flowers and balloons and a card and conversation hearts (as has been tradition since I was a little girl;the hearts I mean) and he bought a cute pair of red shoes for me (I of course helped him out with that). Then we went to dinner at our tradtional place since being together, the oh so delicious Carrabas. It was a great day and so much fun making valentines for him... :) Alexis had her nine month check-up and did not grow in 2 months, but I swear I feed the girl whatever she wants...well almost. There are too many unknown papers and who knows what that she tries to eat all the time. :) She is such a joy in James' and my life we can't get enough of her.
James and I have been discussing buying some land this year in Texas to build on later in the next 4 or 5 years when James has gotten enough experience as a ceramist so that we can move down there. We have planned on moving down there but we plan on staying with our current live in nanny situation for at least 3 to 3 1/2 years as is desired by our bossman. And James is working in such a good lab that things may work out for us to stay here but we figure if we end up staying here we'd just sell the land and enjoy whatever profit we made. Anyway that is the latest update for now.

Well a few new fun things have been happening...James has applied for American Gladiators and he tried out for a professional indoor football team, the Saints, for which he will be paid to play if he makes the team. He's pretty excited for both things so keep your fingers crossed. Things have been going so much better with the nanny job I'm doing. Both kids are being so much better. It's nice to go three weeks in a row so far with out world war three going on with them. Although hopefully I haven't jinxed anything by saying so. :) Alexis is pulling herself up with much ease and crawling around so good. She has already started letting go of the couch or table or whatever else she's holding on to to stand on her own.

It's snowing like crazy and while I'm grateful for the moisture it will provide...ENOUGH already! I'm done driving in the snow with crazy drivers that have no idea what they are doing. Bring on the spring.

Holidays

Well it has been awile since I last wrote. We went to St. George for Christmas and it was a quick trip that didn't last nearly long enough. It was Alexis' first Christmas and she had more fun tearing up the paper and trying to eat the paper than playing with her presents but it was so fun to see her get excited. We were home for a few days and then went up to Logan to spend New Year's Eve with my family and it was a blast playing games and staying up late talking.

A few days after we got home from New Year's and we were off to Vegas for the big CES conference. James loves the car audio display and since his hobby is to "pimp" his ride he was very excited to drag me all over to see every booth we could get in the few hours I was with him. We all stayed with Monaca and she was wonderful for watching Alexis while James showed me all the new gizmo's and gadgets at the conference. Alexis did so well traveling and thank goodness for the wonderful blessing she is. The weather was insane on the way to vegas and a 5 to 5 1/2 hour trip ended up lasting 7 and a little hours.

We are finally back home now and settling into our normal routine and the new year is treating us very well so far.