We are completely moved into our new home in Layton, UT. We're close enough to Hill Air Force Base that we get to hear F-16s land and take off on a regular basis. We have a little more room in our bedrooms and the living room, but we have a smaller kitchen now. Trying to find space for all of our pots, pans, dishes, and food will be a challenge.

We're excited to be closer to a lot of our family and friends that were forsaken because of school. Hopefully y'all will still want to hang out with us after 4 years.

Oh, and we've figured out the first name for our child in the oven. We're going to call her Savannah. That name has been on our list for a while. One morning a week or so ago, I was thinking maybe we should just use the name Savannah because we keep coming back to that name. Well, a few minutes later Lindy pipes in and says out loud, We should name our child Savannah. Well, that did it for me. I don't believe in coincidences. We're still working on her middle name.

We're in the process of moving down closer. We're at the packing stage. Then on Saturday, December 16th. We're actually moving. We're moving to Layton for now. It was difficult to find an apartment in our price range that was large enough for us and had a washer and dryer hook up. The place looks slightly ghetto, but I've been told there is not such thing as a ghetto neighboorhood in Layton. We'll have to live there for at least a year (1 year lease), but I'll be able to get a real job in May so we'll be able to afford a better place. I guess you could say that we'll be "saving money" from May till December (without a dishwasher).

Sydney is walking now (although she still prefers to crawl -- apparently its faster). We've been having her walk all over the place while holding our hands. We really want her to walk outside so she won't get her clothes dirty whenever we go outside. Her language is ever getting better. We've learned that we have to spell out words around her if we aren't willing to give her the thing at the time (words such as milk and cookie). Our daughter has become a sugar addict (something we've been avoiding at all cost), we don't give her straight sugar items often, but when we do she becomes fanatical. She went through a kissy stage where she would give everybody a kiss and then say "Ooooh". She would pick up all over her toys and give them a kiss. She would even walk up to you (or crawl) and then kiss your knee. She decided that with cold and flu season that maybe she should stop her kissing marathon. Now she's back to her good old self, difficult to get a kiss from. We generally have to "steal our kiss" from Sydney, but every once in a while she'll give us a kiss.

She has grown into quite the tantrum thrower. All that she wants is for us to give her anything and everything to play with and never put her down and let her have full reign over the apartment. We of course don't, and she gets a little upset. We are the meanest of parents not letting her play with the pots and pans or eat pens, throw food, and cause general mahem and destruction. But she forgives easily.

Sydney has decided that Gammy (Grandma Alice) is preferrable over mom and dad. She loves her gammy, and her aunt Elise. Most of the time, when she sees Elise's picture she will say "Lesie", she says it with a lisp, but its still really cute and Elise eats it up.

My brother, Nate, brought something up in his blog that I share as a pet peeve in his post, We Don't Worship X:

I won’t share any examples here except the one that drives me crazy this time of year, Xmas. We don’t worship X, we worship Christ. I don’t think I need to say anything more. I know some of you are not religious like I am and don’t agree with this, and for you Xmas is ok, but for me it is Christmas.

Either in an attempt to shorten the word Christmas or as an attempt to secularize the holiday, Christ has often been replaced by X. Our society has attempted to remove Christ from Christmas with much success. Some feel that X = Santa Clause or receiving gifts, etc, etc. As the holidays get rolling and shopping starts to take its toll. Remember what the this season is all about. It's not about X. It is about Christ. Christ came here to Earth to die for our sins. Isaiah puts it so well in chapter 53:

"Surely he hath ^aborne our ^bgriefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted...He is ^adespised and rejected of men; a man of ^bsorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we ^cesteemed him not. "

Merry Christmas, and remember what it is all about.