My favorite Christmas moment

Merry Christmas!

I hope to post pictures soon too, but here's a sweet story:

So, my mom bought the boys these advent calendars to have for the month of December - you know - where you open a little door everyday and there's a candy inside? So, about a week ago, I had the boys both taking their daily candy out and I had to run into the office (right next to our kitchen) and help a student. When I returned five minutes later, Caleb was sitting on the floor next to an empty calendar with a chocolately face and a smile. I was like, "Caleb! You ate them all?!" Gabe was shaking his head and said, "Now Caleb's not going to have any more candy!" And I was like, "Nope, that's too bad for him. He ate it all and now it's gone!"

So, this past week every time Gabe has opened a little window on his calendar, Caleb has come to me and been like, "My candy?" and usually I've scounged up a piece of chocolate somewhere for him. But on Christmas Eve Day, I was fresh out of everything chocolate. And Gabe was so excited to open his very last door of chocolate. But when he opened it, Caleb was kneeling down next to him watching (as usual), and Caleb looked at me and asked, "My candy too?" And I said, "Sorry Caleb. Yours is all gone because you ate it and I don't have any for you today." And do you know what Gabe did? He looked at Caleb and looked at his last piece of candy and said, "Here Caleb. You can have my piece if you want." And he gave him his very last piece! It was soooo sweet! I was like, "Gabe, I can not believe you did that! That was so nice!" (Caleb of course didn't really grasp how nice it was, he just took it and ate it - he may have said a quick thank you, I'm not sure...) But then Gabe's like, "That would make Jesus happy right?" It was so cute because we've talked about how Christmas is really Jesus' birthday and for his present he just wants us to be nice to eachother. It was soooo cute! Merry Christmas everyone!

"It look like Disney World!"

Quick funny story....

Last night when we were driving home from the store, we went past the corner on the hill where the temple sits (yes, we live down the street from a temple - crazy!) and it was so beautiful all lit up that we said to Gabe, "Isn't that pretty Gabe? Look at the temple!" And Gabe said, "It looks just like Disney World!" We had a good laugh. I guess I can see how it would look similar to a four-year old. That's all I have time for now! Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Getting Moved In

Wow, time flies! We spent about a month living with Josh's parents and it is nice to be moved into our own place. However, I am still getting adjusted to this crazy manager lifestyle I've signed up for! My friend, Tiffany (who has managed with her husband for a few years now at other apartments and now manages the "brother complex" to ours) keeps telling me it will slow down.... I hope, I hope!

We moved in last Thursday and had to decorate the just barely finished clubhouse for Christmas. Then they had an open house on Fridy and Saturday. This week it's helping Tiffany at Southgate with her check-outs and lots of girls moving their stuff into storage here for the winter break who are moving in in January. In between all that I have about 300 girls to assign apartments to who all have many requests, "room with Mary, same ward as Scott Hart, building by the clubhouse, and oh yeah, near Julie..." the list goes on. I really hope I can make all these girls happy! I've been so busy, it's like, "When do I do my laundry? Go grocery shopping?" I kind of miss just hanging out with my boys all day! :( I'm trying to get them to let me hire an office assistant a couple of afternoons per week. Hopefully it works out. When we signed up for this, the hours were going to be 9 am - 1:00 pm M-F but right after we got here the owner said he wanted 9 am - 6 pm M-F and we were like, "Uh, well, we can't really back out now...we're here!" So, I really hope he let's me hire this assistant that I want to cover at least Tues, and Thurs. afternoons. They did double the salary, which is nice, but at some point I just say, "I don't care, I still want more time with my kids," you know? So, that's where we're at right now. It is a beautiful place to live. Every girl I show an apartment to just loves it. I can confidently say it is the nicest apartment complex in the city. So, I'm grateful for the situation we're in, (especially since our house STILL hasn't sold!) it's just sad somedays, especially when Gabe says, "I miss spending time with you, Mom..." awww! Tear! He is in preschool here, but I still miss Hope in Wisconsin. I talked to his old teacher today and she said the kids still talk about Gabe and how, "He's never coming back." (Aww! Tear again!) I think maybe we should come home for a visit in Spring and let him go visit Hope again for a couple days just for fun. I'm thinking May would be a good time for a visit to Wisconsin. :)

Well, that's all for now! Here's some pics of all the snow and the boys sledding, kitties at grandma's house, and more.