Pay it Forward

i saw this on another friends blog and LOVED the idea! what wouldn't brighten your day then to recieve something in the mail just for you that is NOT bills! hopefully we will all be more inspired to think of others through out the year. so here is the deal : the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...You knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift. Let's see who looks at my blog!

what's in a name?

for some reason i feel like this little girl of ours needs a name ASAP. greg doesn't feel the same urgency as i do on the subject. the good thing is that we have both come up with a name each. we like each others name, however the problem comes with that we both want OUR name and do not want to give into the other. so i thought i would open the discussion to you all and get your opinions. so PLEASE leave us a comment on what you think.

the 2 names are:
a) maycee
b) grace

copy cat

more and more i am realizing how much we have to watch what we say with listening ears! although we have not had any "bad words" repeated (not that we say any :) ) he does repeat a lot of things that we say. his latest that jsut makes me laugh is calling me and greg by our first names. the other day greg was calling for me, all of a sudden i hear this little voice.... "mee sow, mee sow," and there is jaxon calling my name with daddy! so now he calls me momma, mom, mommy, and mee sow! later on i was calling for greg and he started calling "ga weg, ga weg" it was all i could do to not laugh! it was so cute to hear his little voice calling for greg! so "mee sow" and "ga weg" really have to watch what we say..........

Sledding

i am sure most of you have heard me complain about tropic and how there is nothing to do there. one saturday greg and i decided that we would wonder around and find something to do. as we walked around the hotel/motel property we found a sled. and it so happens that there are small to big hills right behind some of the buildings. jax loves to be pulled around on one so greg pulled him all around. well he then decided to sled down some of the hills with him, which i was grateful for because i didn't have the energy or the strength to pull jax up the hills.

they both we having a lot of fun, especially jax! well greg then got the idea to jsut let jaxon go down by himself! it was steep enough to make me worried about sending an 18 month old by himself! but what does mommy know when it comes to potentially dangerous fun things!?? well i was worried about nothing! Jax LOVED it! he FLEW down that hill! he kept asking "agen, agen!" (again, again) greg and i started splitting up the task of taking him up the hill. it didn't tak long before we were both exhausted! and we had a crying little boy the whole way home! all he wanted to do that day was sled down the hill! all and all i think it was just as much fun for us 'rents as it was for little man!

our lives as of now........

i think we finally know what we are going to be doing concerning our lives! we finally got an offer from bryce pioneer village. ( they are a hotel restaurant tourist company, the owners also owned the school greg worked at ) pay isn't exactly the best, but there are several "perks" that help to compensate. during the winter months they are closed so we will be able to travel or do what ever during that time while still getting paid, greg can take jaxon to work with him when i need help or a break, we are working on some on the side business to make more money. for example we will be doing corprate retreats and scrapbook retreats so if you are interested ;) let me know! so we will deffinatly have our hands full for the next several months, ok i should clarify GREG will have his hands full!, but it will be an adventure! plus we love the owners and have a lot of fun with them so we know we will at least have fun during all the hard work! greg really has a bad taste in his mouth for therapy after having such a bad experience so this will be a nice change for him and an opportunity to try something new. SOOOO we will be in tropic for at least another year. the good news is that we are finally getting internet!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

jaxon is getting more and more fun as the days go on but along with that he is getting to be more and more of a handful! he talks none stop and is making sentences with always catches me by surprise! he loves music, singing and dancing! he plays on the drumset his uncle gave him for christmas constantly and sings songs while he plays. one of his favorite parts of the day is in the morning when we have dance parties. we turn up the radio and dance! if i try to do something else he yells at me to "dance momma!" he also loves to visit daddy at work and "help" him. greg has been doing a lot of remodeling and there are tools everywhere. jaxon will pick up what ever and mimmick what ever greg is doing. he loves to hammer and use the screw driver. lately he has really become a momma's boy. he always wants me to hold him and doesn't like it when i leave anywhere without him! although it is cute and i love the new attention, i am getting to big to hold him and he is getting to heavy for me to hold him! i wonder if he can sense things are going to be changing?

as for me i am feeling great! minus the horrible heartburn every night, things have been good. luckily i mentioned it to my dr at my last visit and got a perscription for previcid!!!! i am in heaven! that medicine has been heaven sent! so speaking of my last dr apt, everything looks great with the baby! no surprise the baby is measureing 9 days bigger. my due date is june 27 but with what the baby is measuring at, they could change my due date to june 18th. since i am having another c-section it doesn't matter if we change the date so we just left the date the way it is. jaxon always measured big through out my whole pregnancy so they moved my date up and he ended up comming on my original due date. i guess i just have big babies! we also found out what we are having!!!! i am sure you all noticed that we are having a GIRL!!! i had a feeling from the begining that it was a girl. everything was different this go round so i felt it jsut had to be a girl! i will be honest we really wanted a boy. a girl kinda freaks me out, they are hormonal, sensitive, all that kinda stuff where boys are nore mischevious. i can handle the dirty mischevious boys but hormonal girls.....that is a whole other story! plus we already have EVERYTHING! for a boy. but we have a girl and we are going to have new experiences with her! plus i get to shop for a whole new wardrobe! can't complain there! truley we are excited for what ever and can't wait to meet this little girl!

all the best!

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!