Our Family Christmas Letter -year in review

We hope this letter finds everyone happy and well. i love this time of year for several reasons: it seems like everyones seems to make some sort of contact and i love to hear how everyone is doing and what they have done throughout the year, i have to admit i like the commercial end of christmas.. the lights, decorations, christmas trees, christmas songs, and the hustle and bustle. it seems to give me extra energy and you just can't help but smile. most of all the reminder of our saviors birth and the personal reflection i am reminded to do. without our savior none of this would be possible and i am eternally gratful for him and the amazingly, perfect gospel.

we have had a very eventful year with plenty of ups and downs, however i can't complain about any of it.

GREG: greg graduated with his Masters in social work from BYU in april. what a wonderful day. we are so proud of him and all his hard work and accomplishments! greg was offered his first job as a therapist at a residential school for at risk teen girls in tropic, ut. he also had an amazing deer hunt in october. with several days of seeing nothing in koosharem, ut, we decided to come home. he went out the night we got home and got his "award winning" buck. his buck was a 6X7 and scored a 207 5/8. from what i understand the "monster" bucks start around 180/190. so he got a MONSTER!!! it was the talk of the county!

MICHELLE: after 2 years of managing 2 tanning salons in provo, i quit when greg recieved his first job. since then i have loved being at home with jaxon full time. i still am not sure which is more work, managing 2 salons or being a full time mom! jax sure keeps me busy! i love seeing him grow and learn.

JAXON: i am always amazed at how fast babies grow! in the last year jax has gone from eating babyfood, crawling, almost bald, and well a baby to a little boy with lots of curly hair, running EVERYWHERE, and eating everthing in sight ( of course he has to feed himself!) Jaxon loves to talk on the phone (as long as no one talks back!), reading books, climbing, jumping ( on the ground and off of things) he has no fear!, he loves sports, especially watching them with dad, he loves cars and trucks, and animals. Jaxon is FULL of life and energy! he has quit the sense of humor and loves to make people laugh, he really is quit funny and constantly keeps us entertained. he says new words everyday, we are now realizing that we need to be cautious of what we say! he is quit the chatter box! jaxon is very smart for his age! we are always surprised with how smart that little boy is!

FAMILY: as a family we have had lots of fun this year! mom and dad were able to spend a couple days in lake mead while jax stayed with papa and nana hall. we have made our first official move since greg and i have been married to tropic ut(just 7 miles from bryce canyon). we have gone from college students to gregs first job, to loosing his job. the owners of the school he worked at decided to close the school. greg has been able to work with some friends who own a motel and resturant. with the closing of the school one of the students ended up living with us to attend the local high school. we have loved savannah living with us and jaxon loves her to death! she is an awsome girl that we will miss dearly, she has become part of our family in the short time she has been with us. she is returning home in jan. we have had quit the year, but during it all we have grown as individuals and as a family, and have learned some great lessons. but the best part of our year is finding out that our family is growing and we are expecting baby #2 in june!!

thanks for all the love and support we have recieved from family and friends, we love you all! have a wonderful holiday season!

love, the sorensons

family update

Hi everyone! we STILL don't have internet :( i thought i had better take this chance that i have with internet to let you all know what we have been up too!

my little brother left on his mission in july to guatamala. we miss him dearly, but know he is an amazing missionary doing what the lord has asked of him! he is such a wonderful example for our little boy and we couldn't be more proud of him! love you elder hall!

greg had a gret deer hunt. he spent several days with his dad and brothers in koosharem. unfortunatly there wasn't much there to hunt. the night we got back to tropic greg went out to the ranch and within 30 min he got what is know as "the monster". technically it is a 6x7 with an aproximate score of 200. from what i understand that is really good!:)

as many of you know greg has been working as a therapist at a residential school for at risk teen girls. about the first of oct we found out that the owners had decided to close the school. the last day was the end of october. not quite what we had expected for the near future but that was what life threw at us! the owners of the school also own a motel and resturant. we are in the process of working some things out for greg to work with them in building their business and corporate retreats.

one of the girls from the school has come to live with us and attend the local high school. she is a great girl who needs to work on graduating H.S. and we are hoping this will be a great opportunity for her to finish school and learn and grow. so our family has increased to 4!

Jaxon is becomming even MORE of a charactor then he was before! he really like to read books, more specifically he likes to read them to us! he LOVE to talk on the phone and is very animated about it! he has quite the intense conversations! he is full of energy and is such a BOY! he says about 40-50 words, most of which no one understands but mommy and daddy! he is very musically inclined! he loves listening to music and making music. he dances like nobodys business. he also loves to "sing"! he got his first haircut last week. so sorry for all of you mullet lovers, but his is FINALLY GONE! it is still "long" and curly! he is growing so much and we are loving every day of it!

so in the middle of all this happening we have received more life changing news that will affect our future as well as the above mention items. as you will soon see that we have had a very "exciting" past month and a half. not only has Jaxon gained and "older sister" (which he adores and follows around EVERYWHERE!) he is also gaining a younger brother or sister. i am only 8 weeks along and the projected due date is June 25th. i have been much sicker this go round so it has been nice haveing greg home! he gets up and takes savy to school gets jax up, feeds, changes, and dresses him. he has basically taking on all household responsiblitites! i don't know what i am going to do when he starts working again!

we hope you all are doing well and we miss all of you!

We are still alive!

ok so it has been way to long! and it isn't totally my fault! we don't have internet hooked up yet and so that cause a problem! we are in provo with internet at the moment so i thought i had better make a quick updated post!

we are FINALLY moved in to our rental in tropic, yes rental! greg has finally convinced me that the best thing is to wait for a house and hopefully build so i can get exactly what i want, so in the mean time we are saving money by renting. it is much smaller then our house in provo but will do for now. now don't get me wrong, i still make comments now and again about wanting a house NOW!

so far greg likes his job. it can be frustrating at times with how things are ran, but the therapy end he is liking. he gets to do a lot of experiential therapy which he really likes. the girls are quite entertaining as well!

Jaxon had his first birthday in june and was SPOILED rotten! he is getting so big! he says lots of words such as more, eat, mom, daddy, baby, shoes, keys, bye bye, hi, beebu (belly button) and tries to say about everything we do! he loves to say prayers! when he tell him it is time for prayer he sits on one of our laps folds his arms, bows (?) his head and starts babbling! he loves to visit daddy at work and every white truck IS daddy! he loves animals! especially puppies, horses and cows. he is getting very independent lately, he gets into the cupboards, gets his snacks, gives them to be and says more eat!

i have been working on getting really settled in. we still have a few more boxes to unpack and some creative organizing, but we are just about there! i love being able to spend so much time with jax! up untill a few months ago i have always worked so it is a nice change to just be a full time SAHM. i have to admit i highly dislike living in a small town away from everything i know and love! it has been a very hard change for me but as long as i can go to provo every few weeks i think i might survive!

my little sis cam for 10 days to help me with jax so i could unpack and organize with out him "helping" me.

thanks mom and dad for your visit! we really enjoyed you there and wish it could have been longer!

well untill next time.....hopefully it will be sooner! i told greg that if he gets his cable for the upcomming footbal season i get internet! so it should be soon since BYU season opener is in 7 days! GO COUGS!

my first tag!

thanks ryann for making me feel so spiffy and tagging me! lol! i have fallen behind quit a bit on my posting! (whats new right!?) a lot of it is due to the before mention old computer. a lot of our stories have great pics which are on the new comp. therefor i can not post:) BUT i can post my tag, no pics required! lets just hope the computer does not die on me in the process! enjoy!........

What was I doing 10 yrs ago.... i was a Jr. in HS, enjoying the last year i will have with some of my best friends! almost all of my friends were older then me. i received my first real kiss! unfortunatly for you i don't kiss and tell;) most of you know him.... i couldn't wait to be a big Sr. and rule the school!

5 yrs ago....i had just started really dating greg. although it was top secret and no one could know! it didn't take long till i was literally begging him to marry me!! we took a lot of trips to koosharem visiting his family. it was always fun cause gregs sis.'s family lived there at the time and the kids were a blast! 2 of my best friends left for missions and college. being the last one of our group left in orem i really had to learn who i was. it was a time of great change, insight, faith building, Heavenly Father relying and growth! i am very grateful for that time and those experiences

yr ago......i had just become a mommy! what an amazing thing, to be a mom. i never thought i could love anyone as much as i love greg, then i became a mom! i am in constant awe of how much love i have to give, to greg and to jaxon! the heart is an amazing thing! the way it changes and grows. i don't think i will ever finds to words to express the feelings that are evoked when i look at my sweet baby. thank you jax for blessing my life in way i never thought imaginable! also greg was starting his first internship at sorensons ranch school so we moved to koosh and lived with his parents. yet another learning personal growth experience!

yesterday.... well i woke up at 11am and jax at 12pm. great start to our day..so i thought! did a bunch of laundry, tried to keep jax entertained and happy.( he has a very bad doule ear infection) tried to not go crazy cause jax was so tired but wouldn't take a nap so he just wined all day! finally got to bet around midnight just to have jax wake up sreaming till 2 am. and then at 4 and then 6 am.....what a day!

5 snacks I enjoy..........ice cream (is that considered a snack?) raisenetts, kettle corn, sugar snap peas, smoothies

5 favorite books......all of harry potter! mans search for meaning

5 places to run........that could mean so many things! ummm... lately i only run crazy!

5 bad habits.........how funny mine are a lot like ry's! swearing when i am really mad! not good with a little one who is learning words ! procrastination! saying what i think when i think it! waiting till my house is a tornado before i clean!

5 pet peeves..... stupid people! when you are talking to someone on the phone and they just start talking to someone else, when greg won't just answer my questionss! even if they are dumb with obvious answers! when people on things like facebook add you as a friend jsut to have a lot of friends! if we weren't really friends DON'T ADD ME! when strangers give you judgemental looks when you are with your kids. like when they are loud, cry, throw food, etc! especially when they have kids! i thought mommies are supposed to unite!

5 things I enjoy......sleep, going out to eat, shopping, being with my family, sitting with greg watching mindless tv with a good bowl of icecream when jax is in bed,

5 favorite tv shows.......greys anatamy, good things utah, decorating/remodeling shows, desperate house wives, brothers and sisters

5 people I would love to meet........oprah, matthew mcconaughey, tim mcgraw(they are just hot!), family in england i have never met, pres. bush

5 things I would never wear........mini skirt with leggings, disney charactors, live cockroach broach, holiday sweaters, body paint as clothing

5 people to tag.........sally, kendal, julia f., kali, melissa

slow old computer

so i thought i better post something quick since it has been a few! last week greg convinced me to go to tropic with him. all i can say is i can't wait!!!! till our place is available! i hate being in provo without him and i hate living in a hotel room! anyway being in tropic with out a computer puts me behind! this week greg went without me. we are going to LAKE MEAD!!! for the weekend. so i stayed to pack and get things ready for that. it has kept be pretty busy this week. so on top of being gone for a week and then packing, greg doesn't have anything in his office but a couch and a desk. so he has been taking our computer for work. we have an old one, but, it is OLD! it will crash on you at a drop of a hat and it takes forever to pull anything up! so i don't like to use it much. and all that just to explain why i haven't posted in 2 weeks! we have had some fun moments in all of that so when we get back from lake mead i will post those moments and pics and tell you all about our great trip!

some of mays highlights

ok so i am a bit behind on some of the blogs that i would have liked to have posted. my 2 reasons for even having a blog are 1-keep family and friends updated on our lives, especially now that we are living so far away, and 2-to help me in my journaling when i scrapbook. so with that being said here are a few things that have happened this months...

1 2 3

1) todd's graduation! way to go! 2-3) during gregs time at BYU he met 3 awsome guys. they had a lot of fun together during their last 2 years of school. as a sort of "graduation present" us wifes got together and planned a trip to park city to stay over night and for the boys to golf. (ok really it was all august and maryann! thanks girls!) the little boys just played and played while us big kids played card games. the next day while the boys golfed us gals shopped till we dropped! it was a great weekend! we missed you andy and julia!

4 5 6

pics 4-6) mothers day at my parents. 4) jax loves to jump on the tramp. he had so much fun with daddy! 5) a 4 generation pic. my dad, grandpa hall, jax, & me. love you guys! 6) my dad took jax out to "teach" him to long board. jax (and i think papa) had a lot of fun cruising up and down the sidewalk! watch out kali! you've got competition!

7 8 9

7) i think we are in trouble! looks like we have a couch potatoe in training! jax climbed up to the couch nestled in and sat there watching tv. but hey at least he is darn cute! 8) jax thought he was pretty cool with his hot red shades, hat, and binkie! i love that he bib says "what are you looking at!" how fitting! 9) aunt nichole had to bring a little kiddy to school for her adult roles class to play with and observe. well we had to be at the HS at 9am and jax doesn't wake up till no earlier then 10am so for him (ok and me) it was an early morning. after that mommy got her hair cut so jax played at gammie's and papa's (my parents). he was so tired but he would rather play with them then sleep! so after that uncle mike came to hang out with us while we did some errands. we didn't get home till 5pm and jax had only napped for about an hour all day! ( usually he would have had 2 2-3 hr naps by then) so i layed him down and he was out till 8 pm!!! he was so cute i couldn't resist showing how tired he was after a full day!

naughty naughty boy!

jaxon is a very independent baby. he is very content to just play around the house, not needing to be entertained. i was checking my emails this morning and as usual jaxon was just playing around. but then it got very quiet! i just figured he was in the other room. but then after a few min.'s i still didn't hear him so i figured i had better make my rounds and check on him. this is what i found... a naughty little boy crouching on the floor eating my coveted caramello!!! he has figured out that the good stuff is in the lazy susan and can now spin it and get the good stuff!

curls & humidity

who would have thought that humidity could affect an 11 month olds little curls! jax's hair has a bit of curl to it in general, however! the last couple of days with all the humidity his hair has just gone crazy! i have really debated on whether or not to cut his hair or let his shaggy curls flow....! so what do you guys think? should i cut it or go with the fro?

look at that face! what do you think his little face will vote for! (i think he has this look of mommy don't cut my curls!)

allergies

well this is for ryann.....she did a post of how cute her little one is when he wakes up. jax is generally a happy kiddo when he wakes up as well. however for a few days he would wake up in the morning or from a nap just hysterically SCREAMING! don't know why and it was only a few days. on top of that i also have reasons to believe that he has allergies so he has a very runny nose all the time! lets just say crying doesn't help with the runny nose situation. well here is what i found after a nap...

(can you see the nice big booger on his check?! it looked much worse in person. what a bad mommy taking such pictures!)

greg is officially done!

so for those of you who don't know....in order for greg to actually practice as a therapist he needs to pass the state licensure test. it is not a fun test from what i hear! greg is a smart guy as well as a super test taker plus BYU has a high percentage of its student passing so i wasn't worried about him passing at all. he studied from morning-night for days! on fri. morning greg took his test. i was a little anxious as i sat at home waiting for a phone call from him (i can't even begin to imagine how he was feeling!!!). he FINALLY called and of course i missed it! i had to wait untill he got home to hear the great news! HE PASSED! now all he needs is his 2 years of working under supervision and then he will be an LCSW (licenced clinical social worker) YEA!!!!

greg has worked so hard the last 6 years and i think especially the last 2 to graduate. i am sooo proud of him and all his hard work. he has been a full time student as well as working to support his family! i am so grateful for him! he is my world, my everything, my soul mate, my best friend! there is no one that could complete and compliment me as well as he does. he is an amazing daddy who looks forward to comming home to his little boy everyday. who simple just loves being a daddy! so honey, thanks for all you have done and all that you do! you rock my world! I LOVE YOU!

overwhelming!

this whole job thing has been rather exciting. i have enjoyed the spontaneity of getting a job unexpectedly, up and moving to a new place, house hunting, etc....well now i am not so sure! i thought i was a spontaneous person, i like adventure, change. well in getting older, having a family i think i have changed my ways. i like things the way they are. i am comfortable with my life. if it is not broke why fix it. so this has been a harder process for me then i thought it would. now don't get me wrong i am excited and i think this is going to be a great thing for all of us, just in different ways. i will have to grow and learn in ways i didn't realize i needed to. i will have to rely on my Father in Heaven more, have more faith. but i guess that is part of life, we learn and we grow, we continue to challenge ourselves to be better.

so here is the update on where we are standing with life. greg has been studying like crazy the last couple days preparing to take his licensure test which he will take tomorrow (fri). before he can really start work he needs to pass it. he is so smart and an excellent tester so i know he will do well! so once that is out of the way he will start working next week!

we went to tropic last week in search of our new home. it didn't go as we had expected. i really thought we would go, find a house and move in the next week. boy was i completly wrong! people are a little reluctant to give out information to "outsiders". it was interesting for greg to be an outsider. since he grew up in a small town he understands the dynamics of small towns and the fears of having some unknown city people try to move in. but we did meet some neat people that were willing to help us out. we found a house that i am totally in love with! it is only 9 years old and was built for a local couples mother who has since passed on. it is quit a bit smaller then what we are in now but will work. it has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with room to grow. it has a nice well kept yard with fruit trees and a "guest house" minus the bathroom! we are crossing our fingers and hope that the owners will let us lease to own. if not, i hope that we can buy it and have the support of our family! ( everyone seems to be against us buying anything. i understand their concerns but our options are limited!) out of all the options in tropic this house is perfect for us! when we looked at it i could actually picture myself living there and knew this was the one! so cross your fingers for us and we will see what happens!..... hopefully when we get this house thing situated thing will be a little less overwhelming!
here is a pic. of the front of the house. it reminds me of a country cottage!

got dirt?

we have been loving the warm weather as i am sure most of you are as well! my sympathys to all of you with kiddies at home! i never realized how hard it is to keep a baby cooped up in a house all day! oh the freedom that is associated with warm weather! so with that said the other day it was so beautiful and so greg decided to get some yard work done and me and jax jsut played outside and "watched" greg. jax like all babies has this fascination with dirt and rocks. and he knows that he is not supposed to eat either. he will watch you and as soon as yor back is turned he is shoveling it in! let me jsut say it makes for a very gritty diaper! well here is a few shots from our dirt eating day...

chips and salsa

Ok so i just have to share cause i thought this was pretty funny and shows how, shal we say, special we are! so with greg "jobless" untill he starts his new job and me still jsut working very part time, the money tree has started to die. we are living off savings for the time being so we decided that we need to be more thrifty for now, ie not going out to eat everyday! well greg dedcided that he wanted to get chips and salsa from bandito's in springville (they have the BEST!) so we go get our chips and salsa and on the way home it dawned on us that we just spent $15 on CHIPS AND SALSA! we could have gotten a bit more of a meal for that! and we are trying to save money? where is the logic in that! we got a good laugh out of that one! well when we got home greg asked whats for dinner? are you serious! chips and salsa! so that was our dinner......one piece of advise.....not a good meal! we were SICK the rest of the night! i guess that'll teach us to beat the system.

NEW, Exciting, and Scary Adventure!

Well ...... greg and i had our lives somewhat figured out. greg was going to continue to look for a job in the provo area and i was going to go back to work full time and just go with the flow, or so we thought!!!

last week we got a surprising call from a fella that greg worked with a few years ago. "C" was just offered a job at an RTC (residential treatment center) in tropic, utah. he is the new program director. well apparently their clinical director took another job and was leaving (ironically it was where greg was applying at as well) so there was a position open for a therapist and not just a therapist the CLINICAL DIRECTOR! the more greg and "C" talked the better it sounded. so off to tropic we went! to check out the the place.

while there, greg felt right at home. the owners reminded us of gregs family, down to earth country folk:) it is a newer school with a whole lot of potential. they have a great vision of where they want their program to go. it will be located on a 130 acre lot. greg would be able to do 2 things he loves, farm and therapy. unfortunatly there is no golf course near by or a walmart for me... :( but hey you can't have it all right!

we have felt so at peace about the job, so greg will accept the offer and we are MOVING to tropic! again not at all what we had ever expected in our wildest dreams, but what an opportunity! bryce canyon national park is literally in our new backyard. it is a beautiful area. so we are now trying to wrap up things in provo, pass gregs licensure test, finish up work, find a house and move in the next 3-4 weeks! needless to say we are going to be busy crazy for the next little bit, but that is part of growing up and being big grown-ups!

well ya'll are invited to come and visit anytime and enjoy the beauty of tropic utah! it is only 3 hours from provo!

the sorensons

our life so far......

Ok so for all of you who have asked about what i, we, have been up to here you go....

so i got married in feb. 2004 to my bestest friend! for those of you who knew me "back in the day" would never see me and greg together. he is not at all the guy i would go for, yet once you see us together it all makes sense! (so i have heard :0 ) yet from day one we instantly clicked, we were best friends. he wanted to date and tried for 6 months to date me. he was just my best friend, like a brother. i finally gave in with the thought of well it won't work so whatever! after about a month of "dating" i spent the next 5 months trying to convince him to marry me! who would have thunk it??! he was everything i ever had wanted in an eternal companion, except for the the fact he is an inch shorter then me!!! he has made my life nothing but a fun adventure! he gets me like no other and will do anything to make me laugh!

so after a great 3 1/2 years of having fun together we decided to add a twist to our lives and Jaxon was born June 2007. he is the PERFECT child! he has basically slept through the night since day one! he only cries when he is tired or hungry. he is a total joy! such a happy little boy! he has quite the personality and has a lot of spunk! he took his first steps when he was 7 months but has just dabbled in walking since. then at 9 1/2 months he just took off walking, well almost running and hasn't stopped! oh did i mention he is the cutest thing EVER! and i am not just saying that cause i am his mommy, he really is! i can't imagine my life with out either of my boys!

for the past 2 years i have been managing 2 tanning salons in provo and love it. everyday is different and it gives me a good outlet from being mommy and wife. greg graduates with his masters in social work at the end of april, to be exact, in 9 days!!!!! he has been doing internships the last year at RTC's and recently, at an out-patient clinic as a thereapist. a lot of his work has been in substance abuse. he would ideally like to work with teens at a ranch type RTC.

well that is us in a nut shell!

Finding Time

So I am totally new to this whole blog thing...mainly because I don't have time to write a blog let alone update the thing. I tried myspace, facebook, and now this? Who am I kidding! I didn't have time to keep the other 2 updated so I thought I would try a 3rd? But the 3rd time is a charm right? The thing is, is that I see all these people that have blogs and they update it at LEAST once a week and most are SAHM? WHERE DO YOU FIND TIME!!!??? I only work 10-20 hrs a week, but with a little one, tying to keep up a house, being a mom, wife, and working I feel like I have no time to myself and when I actually do, I want to sit and do NOTHING!? So all you SAHM's please share your secret with me!