Hi family!! I thought you might like to see what we've been up to in Utah.

That's Hayden with the hat and his Devenport cousins

Camping - in the mountains. This is Lake Fork

This is Scofield. That's Thomas on Labor Day when the air is only about 75 degrees and the water is about 50 degrees. Riley is already in the water. They still love it.

Here's Danielle's sweet 16. Yea!

Three days after turning 16, she's going on her first date! Hayden had asked this girl to go with him to Homecoming but he couldn't find anyone to double with. So at the football game Friday night, he asked this friend, Zac. When Zac couldn't think of anyone he would want to ask with one days notice, Hayden offered his sister. He met her, of course couldn't pass up her beauty, and they went. Weird but oh well.

Most recently (today) Thomas had a birthday party with friends. I only do it every 3 years because after almost 24 hours with a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds, it may take me 3 years to recover. My brand new house is definitely "broke in" now. Thomas turns nine on Monday.

I must say, I either don't know what I'm doing or this is a big pain. I will send more another time. Love you all!

My new house...

After being prompted, I'm showing off my new house. First I need to show you the mess of my old house. It was disgusting. This is the old house:






There was mold everywhere, and in that bathroom picture you can see a big hole in the ceiling. That's where I touched the ceiling when there was water dripping from it and my finger went right through. Oops. It was nasty. And every time it rained the basement flooded. My bedroom was in the basement. That meant I got to move all my things to the one corner of the house that didn't flood, but then everything, probably including me, stunk to high heaven. And I got sick every time too. It was lovely.


This is the new house. Clean. Overhead lighting. A pretty fireplace. White walls. I have closets. I didn't have closets in the old place. No mold. No flooding.






Dad, you'll be happy to know I finally put a back on the shelf my tv is on. So it's not all open so you can't see the cords behind it now.


So I moved in April 15. So far, so good. It's not as close to work, but the commute isn't too bad and the gym is between school and home so I don't avoid it much. My new house is super cute and I love it a lot.

I went car shopping while I was home in July after y'all left. When I got back to Virginia, I got a deal I couldn't refuse. So I bought a new car. It looks like this.

Obviously that's not MY car, but mine looks just exactly the same, minus the tinted windows, of course, but that's just for show on the website so you can see there's actually glass there. I think. Unfortunately, the new car is the same color as Stanley, so it's not as exciting and flashy, but my little Hyundai Elantra is zippy and happy. I sold Stanley a week ago. It was very sad.

Mark and Alison

Here is our latest family picture just taken on Sunday.  Aren't we cute??  

Bring it on!!!

Okay, won't this be fun to upload stuff and keep each other up to date a little better??  it's worth a try, I guess...let me know what you think