Where to begin!

Oh my heck it has been awhile!  Life got crazy quick and the time has flown by!  Geez let's see, where to begin...

Dec of 2011 Jake lost his job and I was 5 months pregnant with our third baby, Miss B.  Not even two weeks later we got a letter in the mail saying that Jake had done all he could at LDSBC and he would need to transfer to a different school to get his Associates. We started looking at other schools and then discovered that the credits he did have would transfer, but the majority would only be considered elective credits.  Basically he just spent two years doing electives and not much towards an actual degree.  We felt completely lost!  our whole world had changed  in a few short months and we didn't know where we were headed at that point.  I remember while looking into schools pulling up the Dixie State College website just for fun.  Both Jake and myself have always wanted to move back, but never really considered it.   While looking on their site I saw that we had the same problem, with most of his credits being considered 'elective' instead of core classes.  But more of his credits transferred here than anywhere else.  I jokingly mentioned moving there to Jake and he sort of laughed it off.  Later that day while job searching I saw a post from a hotel in St. George and sent Jake's application. I didn't expect anything to come of it.  I had been sending his resume to 5-10 companies a day with no response whatsoever.  The next day Jake received an e-mail from the St. George hotel.  It didn't say much, just asking why were were moving to St. George.  It was the only response from a job offer we had received in a few weeks and something about it just stuck with both of us.  We both started to feel like we needed to move to St. George.  It seemed completely crazy since not even 3 days earlier we had no inclination to move at all.  We couldn't shake the feeling and the next day we talked to my parents about it.  My dad expressed that he had been feeling like we were about to move also.  He wasn't sure that it was so far away but wanted us to make the decision on our own. The next morning we went to the temple to help us figure out what we were supposed to do.  That confirmed it in our hearts! We were St. George bound! We started looking online that day for a place to live and  happened to see someone trying to sell their family housing contract online so we called them up. So by then we had a place to go, and a plan.  We enrolled Jake into the Spring semester and moved that weekend! All of this happened in one short week.

  After we moved we still struggled to find Jake a job.  We called the hotel that responded to our e-mail and they had him come in to fill out an application.  This was in January. We didn't hear anything back. We kept applying to more jobs, but by this time we were beginning to wonder why we felt so strongly to move.  Everything fell into place perfectly until we got here. Then everything slowed down again.  I struggled finding an OB that I liked, and Jake was struggling with finding a job.  We were living off of financial aid and it was running out quick.  In April, Jake finally got a call for an interview.  It was the same hotel that we had e-mailed and turned in an application for in January.  He had applied for a manager position and ended up getting hired on as a night auditor.  We were back to Jake working nights again.  We were so grateful that he had a job that we didn't really care.  But the pay wasn't good at all so we kept applying everywhere we could.

Shortly after this we received a notice that we would need to move because the apartment complex we lived in was converting to single student housing.  We found a place literally right down the street and made the move 2 weeks before I was due.  We barely had time to get everything put away when I was induced into labor a week later.  We still didn't know anyone and family was 4 hours away.  My parents were on their way, but until they got there I went to the hospital alone.  I was fine with that, I wanted Jake to stay with our kids, and come as soon as my parents got there.  They ended up being delayed a few more hours so Jake brought the boys in to hang out with me for a little while.  After things started to progress in my labor and my parents still hadn't made it, Jake brought the boys home and asked our neighbor if she could watch them for us until my parents got there.  We just met this cute couple a week earlier and they were so awesome about keeping the boys for a couple hours.  since we weren't expecting to have them babysat by someone other than family, we didn't buy any disposable diapers for Dallas but they were fine using our cloth diapers!  This couple rocked! we knew we would be keeping them around. :) 
My parents made it a little while later.  Jake was able to be with me at the hospital and we welcomed our beautiful baby girl Brighton!  

That about sums up most of our adventures this last year. Now to catch up on the boys.  Carson is 4 and started preschool last year. He LOVES it!  It has been amazing watching the transformation in this kid.  He was always so shy and quiet.  But now he can walk up to new kids and say hello! He is always so brave and walks into school without me holding him even though I know how hard it is for him.  His teachers tell us how quickly he catches on to everything and how great he is doing.  He also started soccer last fall! We had so much fun watching him interact with the other boys. Carson is naturally very athletic. But socially he has a hard time being outgoing. He definitely takes after his mom! :)

Dallas is just a little ball of fire! He is like the energizer bunny. He has this way of tearing through the house destroying things and making huge messes, but then he will look at you with his big brown eyes with the sweetest look on his face so there is no way you can get mad at him.  His language has exploded over the last couple months.  Jake, myself and Carson can understand him perfectly. He is the complete opposite of Carson socially.  He will walk up to anyone and start up a conversation.  He makes friends everywhere we go. He is just stinkin cute and we love it!

Brighton is 8 months now.  She is definitely a girl.  She is even starting to get a little attitude. She is a lot more cuddly than my boys ever were, but a total mamma's girl. If she had her way nobody else would hold her but me.  I secretly love it :)

Jake just recently found a great job that he loves! He is now the mail director for Patriot Home Mortgage. He is in charge of all of their advertising they mail out.  Just last week they sent out 16,000 pieces of mail!  They were at around 7,000 a week and he has more then doubled that since he started less then a month ago.  Yup! that's my man! :) 

I started going back to school last summer.  I just did online classes since I started two weeks after B was born.  I am loving it so far!  I also work for Jake as a writer.  I hand write some of the mail they send out each week.  It's a great stay at home mom job and I love the extra play money. OH we also just ran our first half marathon! WOOT WOOT! we are very proud of that!  We are now training for our next half marathon in March! 

 We just found out that the apartments we are living in now are also converting to single student housing. So we are being kicked out again! We have learned to roll with the punches after everything so this is just another day in the Holmes household ;)

Well that about sums it up! hopefully I can keep this updated a little quicker!