The Holiday Season

Well, the past few months seemed to have flown by. Samantha had her first Halloween and helped carve her first pumpkin as can be seen here and here. She loved the gooey mess, and especially liked trying to eat the seeds and the newspaper the pumpkins were sitting on! She went trick or treating as a lamb this year and enjoyed all the colorful little pieces of wrapped candy she got every time someone opened the door.

She really is growing like a weed and is active as ever. Samantha's been crawling for awhile and now can walk along the furniture. Nothing is safe anymore from our little goat (she tries to eat everything!!) She is so bright and is a people person. Whenever we go to the store, she always talks to the other customers. I cannot believe that her first birthday is just around the corner.

We took Sammy's 9 month photos as well as a family photo last month in the leaves. I am happy we did it when we did because it got cold and rainy/snowy the very next day! Trying to keep the leaves out of her mouth was a challenge, but we all had fun.

Thanksgiving was great. This was the first time that I had to cook all of the meal, and I think it turned out pretty good for the first time around. We have so much to be grateful for and it was wonderful talking about it. We started a new tradition this year as well--the Thanksgiving Jar. The week preceding Thanksgiving, we each wrote something down on a slip of paper that we were grateful for and then after dinner on the big day, we opened and took turns reading the papers. I loved the opportunity each day to think about the thing that I am grateful for. This is definitely something that we want to continue with our kids each year.

Now we are into December! The year has just flown by. John is finishing up his last finals before the break. We are both extremely excited because on Saturday we are flying home to FLORIDA!! It will be so great to spend time with our families. I love this time of year and the warm fuzzies I get thinking about the blessings we receive because of Christ. I really am grateful for my wonderful husband and and beautiful daughter. I don't know what I would do without them.

The Coming of Autumn

Fall is finally here! The leaves really starting to change colors now. I always forget how much I enjoy Autumn until I am in a place that actually has all four seasons. Mount Timpanogos has some snow on its peak now. I really want to hike the mountain before it gets too cold, but I don't think that thats a hike I could take Sammy on. Its at least a 6 hour hike, maybe more.

We did get to hike The Timp caves a few weeks ago though. It was National Public Lands day so there were no fees. the hike was a bit strenuous, but we made it to the top and the view was fantastic. The caves were gorgeous. It gave me some ideas for some short stories. John was sick last week and Sam is getting over being sick now. I am fighting off getting sick too so we haven't been hiking the past few weekends. I'd still love to do Rock Canyon and the Y before it gets too much colder. We are also planning a trip down to Vegas over Thanksgiving break. John has never gone and his Great Grandfather did a lot of the neon lights on the old strip. They say John gets his artistic ability from him so I think it'll be great for John to go down and see it all. And you can't beat a deep fried twinkie or oreo now and then. On the way back up, we're planning a short camping trip at one of the National Parks. I am UBER excited.

School is in full swing for John. He is doing well in all of his classes and is especially enjoying his 2D animation class. He is also in the process of applying for an ORCA Research Grant to be able to research and create a modern cartoon-style short animated film. I really hope that he gets it because I believe his proposal is very solid and strong and his short film idea is great! I am still working away at my creative writing class and loving it. I also got back into BYU so I will start taking classes on campus next semester. John and I have already sat down and mapped out our schedules for next semester and one of will always be with Samantha so we won't have to have anyone else watch her.

Samantha is eight months old now. Her top two teeth have come through so now she look a little like Spongebob! She is still doing her inch worm crawl and she loves playing with her daddy. I still cannot believe how quickly she is growing. Right now we're reading Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. We get through a few poems a day. I am looking forward to when Weird Al's new picture book comes out, When I Grow Up. I think picture books are great! This story, by The New York Times really burned me up. I think it is so sad kids are being taught that picture books are "baby books". Some of my favorite books from childhood were picture books. I have fond memories of my mom reading to my sister and me before bed time. Pictures books are what started my love for reading. I just hate how much pressure kids are under to perform perform perform. How are kids supposed to learn to love learning? At least I'll be able as a parent to choose to read picture books with my kids.

Settling into the Groove

Well, We've been here well over a month now. Strange how it feels shorter and longer at the same time. Last weekend we hiked up to Stewart Falls with Bekka. It was the first time we got to try out our Sherpani Rumba Superlight backpack carrier. I have to say it was fantastic. The pack does a great job of transferring the weight to your hips and legs. This is great for me because I get backaches/headaches easily if there's a lot of weight on by shoulders. Samantha LOVED it. She even fell asleep at the end! The falls were beautiful, but very cold. I learned that it is important to pack an extra layer of clothes, especially for the baby. Fortunately we had a warm blanket for her. The leaves were beginning to change, making the valley begin to light up. We were exhausted by the end of it all. I am hoping to hike up Rock Canyon this weekend, but we shall see.

John started school a few weeks ago. He is adjusting well and loving his classes. After his art classes his favorite class is Geology! He's been getting in lots of drawing and I am getting to see some of his real life art. He's fantastic! How did I end up with such a wonderful, amazingly talented guy?

I am taking a BYU creative writing course online right now. It is so great. I remember now why I love to write so much. Next semester I hope to starting going back full time. I am really excited for that. The goal is to graduate December 2012. Its so crazy. I graduated high school in 2004 and started college. That'll be eight years ago once I have my degree. Its kind of disheartening. But then I have to remind myself that I went on a mission to Brazil for a year and a half. And I took a year and a half off to start a family. So it'll just be like me getting my degree in 5 years. Ha ha. I guess I just need to continue pushing along.

Wymount is great. We love where we are located. The church here is great too. I really like the people at church. And there are quite a few kids around Sammy's age so she'll have friends as she gets older. Sammy loves going outside and playing in the grass. Real grass! None of that icky stuff that grows in Florida. I really want her to like the outdoors and not be a TV veggie. We try to go out as often as possible. Although she does like Super Why. I think she has a baby crush on the main cartoon character. :)

The Eagle Has Landed!

Well, our herd of Herzogs has officially made it to Utah and we are unpacked. Actually, we've been here since the 5th of August and have been unpacked for about 3 weeks now. I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

The epic trip out here was long, but good. We left Florida early on the 2nd of August. We drove through 10 states--Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah. Samantha was fantastic about 90% of the time. We would leave early enough that she was still asleep, but she would get pretty grumpy in the evenings, around 5:30-ish. Fortunately, all we'd have to do is stop for awhile and feed her and play awhile and then she'd go to sleep for the evening. She was such a good little girl!

I would not recommend the drive we took on a regular basis, but its fun knowing that we did it. Everything went very smoothly. A word to the wise--it takes MUCH longer to stop at a red light when pulling a 1500 lb trailer. In fact, you may end up in the middle of the intersection. Once you realize you're there, you have to try to speed away (which is not very easy with a 1500 lb trailer) before the crossing traffic can begin to move. Needless to say, we were all safe and it was very funny after the fact.

Tennessee was by far the prettiest state that we passed through. If we had the time, I would have loved to do some sight-seeing there. Lots of caving and camping and hiking. Nebraska consists of a whole lot of NOTHING. And it was one of the longest states. We woke up in Wyoming and it was in the low 40s! It was great. No more humidity for us. We were so happy to see the "Welcome to Utah" sign.

We were very extremely blessed during our trip. After we got to Utah, I happened to check the rating on our car, and we found out that we were pulling about 1000 lbs more than our car is rated to pull. We never once had a problem with our little Dodge Neon. The wind in the mountains that everyone told about seemed to vanish once we got there. No wind at all. HUGE blessing. The worst of it was a hill in Tennessee and about three or four in Wyoming where, at the bottom, we were going about 60mph but by the top we were going about 25mph. We just kept praying the the car just kept going. We are really thankful to all of our friends' and families' prayers. We could definitely feel the Lord looking out for us.

Our new apartment is great. It is wonderful to have three bedrooms and for Sam to have her own room. I will be posting more later on this week about our apartment and the unpacking and John beginning school. We are extremely grateful for all that we have and we are looking forward to our life here in Happy Valley (Provo) for the next few years!

Sam & Dad the day after arriving

The Saga Begins...

Well, I guess that the saga really began November of 2008 when John and I got married. I can't believe that we are going on two years! So much has happened. John and I have been able to travel a little bit to some film festivals where Twistee Treat was accepted. Samantha was born this past February and she has been a blessing. Already 6 months old!

Tomorrow we leave to drive across country from Orlando, Florida to Provo, Utah. We are excited, but nervous. Will our little red Dodge Neon, Sadie Mae, pull a loaded 5' x 8' trailer that far? Only time will tell. We'll get to drive through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah. Driving with a six month old will also be interesting. I hope that all will go well, but I believe that we will have some stressful moments. There have also been severe thunderstorm warnings and tornadoes across much of the midwest. Praying that we do not hit any of that.

This all will be a huge change for us. We have planned as best as we could. John left Triangle Reprographics two weeks ago, and now he is much happier. The future seems more hopeful. I know that going back to school is the right thing for John and me. I believe juggling home responsibilities, a baby and school will prove a challenge. But one that I welcome. I have lots of goals for when we are out there. One of the big ones is for me to finish my degree. I only have about three semesters left. John has three years. I'll go part-time so that we will finish about the same time. This will be a huge blessing because we will be able to configure our schedules so that someone will always be with Samantha and she will not need to go into daycare. I am so happy about that.

John is hoping to enter the Animation program at BYU. I know that he will do fantastic as he is amazingly talented. I have finally finalized on Humanities with an emphasis in English. The funny thing is that I have enough credits to graduate and then some, just not enough in any one field! There's just too much to learn! I love it. But I will be sticking to this major, as I really want to get my degree.

We just finished renting our apartment at Wymount Terrace. I think its a great location. We'll see if I still feel that way after we move in, though. We will have a three bedroom, so Sammy will have her own room (finally!) and we'll use the third as an office space. I love BYU and it will be nice to have lots of young families living close by as well. I am also looking forward to our family growing together and closer to the Lord as we continue to read scriptures together, pray and have family night.

All in all, I think we have a lot going for us. I hope to regularly update this blog so that everyone back home can keep up with the Herzogs. So make sure to check back regularly!