Ode to Oak City

I love Oak City. Of course at first I had a hard time adjusting, the closest store is 15 miles away and they close at 10:00 and your lucky if the local gas pump is up and running. Everyone is either a neighbor or someone your related to. There is often the smell of a rotting deer close by who happened to die of "garden disease". And you don't have much privacy due to the fact that it is a small town. Yet as I've lived here I've not only come to appreciate these once annoying facts but I have come to love my little town very much. A place that people still live simply, no Keeping up with the "Jones" . A place that the stores still close on Sunday. You wave at everyone who passes even if you don't know who they are. If you have a need it's filled and more so, by the kindness of everyone around you. (One thing I love is that when someone has extras from their garden they just drop it outside the post office for others to have access to. Seems like such a simple act but it's one of those characteristic things about Oak City)
So here is my Ode to Oak City, a beautiful well kept little secret, my Home


The canyon is just up the road from us, so every Sunday we go for a drive up the canyon. Rozi loves to be on the look out for deer. Boone enjoys seeing the river.

This is the view coming in to town


The sunsets here are some of the most amazing I have seen! Every evening there is a beautiful sky to watch.

The sand dunes are also close by. It's so fun to be able to choose either canyon or dunes and know that they are just a minute away. Nick knows the layout of the dunes like the back of his hand, but with the wind constantly changing the shape of the dunes I have a hard time knowing my way around.

Oak City: one of the few places you can have a pet crow (named Eskimo) Rozi loved that bird, and Eskimo would just follow her everywhere.



I love the patriotism here. Every year before Memorial day everyone in town gathers at the cemetery to clean it. We rake all the pine needles, trim around headstones, pull weeds. Then on Memorial day there is a free breakfast of sourdough pancakes (the best in the world!) and then we go to the cemetery for a program to honor those who gave their lives for our freedom.
This is the main highway into Oak City. =)

Well after not blogging for a couple of years due to the lack of a computer there is a LOT of changes to our family! Here is one of them, her name is Haleigh and she was born in September. She is a welcome little sister to Rozi and more of just a toy to her big brother Boone.

Rozi just adores her little sister and reminds me frequently throughout the day "mom, I love Haleigh." she holds her and even though she gets really grossed out whenever Haleigh spits up she is willing to go get the burp rag for me. Boone is in the process of learning that he can not feed, sit on or pick up his little sister. But I know he loves her too because the other day when I Haleigh was on the floor I watched as he lay down next to her and gave her one of his big slobbery kisses on her head. It makes me so happy to see my family grow, not only in numbers but in love.

We recently went on a family vacation to Lagoon (I don't have the pictures downloaded yet) We stayed in a hotel then the next day we went to temple grounds and saw the Cristus statue. Then we took our yearly trip up the Nebo loop. We take a family picture and we carve in our family tree. This year we had to add both Boone and Haleigh because we missed a year. It is a little bit of a hike to get to our tree and this year it felt worse because I am out of shape from having Haleigh, but it was a lot of fun. The leaves were fantastic!

the first pictures are some more projects I was working on. The others are close ups of rozzi That I love. They have a water mark on then because I entered them into a photo contest. The last picture is her most recent picture, you can kind of see her new molar in it. She now has her two bottom molars and she is working on the top ones. She has learned a couple of new words.. Heart, honey, busy bee, and she says Rozzi when she sees a picture of herself. She is completely obsessed with chairs right now. Any chair she sees she has to sit in it. If you haven't heard we will be moving to Oak City soon!! Nick got the job at the Power Plant. We found a place to stay and everything and we are excited to finally know rather than waiting.

These are a couple of pictures I have been working on lately in my photo editing shop.. I was learning how to create a fairy. I thought for my first ones that they turned out pretty good..

into a new month

Still not much happening in our family. We were very sad to hear of the passing of the prophet but we are excited to see what President Monson will do, we think that he will do a great job. Rozzi learned quickly that when daddy leaves his drink on the floor it's fair game. Rozzi also went to a friends birthday party the end of January. She had a lot of fun playing with the balloons helping Ciera eat her cake.

Rozzi loves books and she loves reading to her bear! She is such a goofball and has a great time playing in a box especially when we play "tag". I love that picture of her pouting. She wanted the camera and I wouldn't give it to her!

nothing new

Just wanted to post a couple of new pictures. Nothing new is really going on. Rozzi is getting molars so life with her is interesting right now. =) She is really in to giving everything hugs and kisses, especially her bear! She loves the snow and "talks" about it, and the meow, that are outside all the time. I am also posting some of the collages I have been experimenting with on with my photo editing software.

More Christmas Photos!