Sachs Clan

We closed on our S.D home yesterday.

What a relief and what a bitter sweet moment. We loved our home, friends and family in S.D. so it is with a bit of sadness that we close on the place that we called home. But at the same time... We feel so blessed that we can move on to our new life here in Utah.

We close on our new home on December 29th. I have a lot of things to pull together before we can move in. The house needs new carpet... and we will be painting and putting in tile. So the next few weeks will be beyond busy for us. I still don't have any photos to publish... my camera cord is missing in action. But I heard from a little birdie that I can expect a new camera for Christmas!!!! I'll be sure to take before and after shots.

Here is our new address: (as of next week)

Edited! If you need it email me privately!

Due to my life's circumstances I have had to take a leave of absence. Thanks to Leah for pointing out that I left without a trace. LOL!

Don't quit checking in on me... I hope in the New Year to be back to posting reguraly.

Here is what is up...

We had an offer on our SD home, which required us to make a sudden Thanksgiving trip back to South Dakota to pick up all of our stuff. We are offically under contract and should close on our SD home next week. We found out that since moving into our home 5 years ago we have acculmated too much stuff to fit into a 26 ft Uhaul truck. It was hard to let some things go but overall probably good to get rid of some of the stuff. A HUGE thanks to good friends who helped load and clean.. couldn't have done it with out help.

We also have put in an offer on a house here in West Point, Utah. It's a great house with alot of things we have been hoping to have in our next home. (three bedrooms on one floor, main flr laundry, front living room, Huge backyard, a party room for teenagers etc) I'll post pics when I can. We have some updating to do... but I guess we won't be bored. LOL!

Anyways... those two things are the biggest things on the Sachs Minds.... I'll update as I can.

Here is our current address: (not the new home, but my parents address)
EDITED!!!!

My baby is two years old!! Where has the time gone??? I just can't believe it... sigh. I guess I better get use to it.

Here is my baby Lee, blowing out his candles... it's kind of loud so turn down your speakers and ignore me singing in the background!!! LOL!

Friday night, Nate went camping in the Mountains with our Nephew Chance. Which left the night open for Taylor and I, to go out on a very special date night. Taylor got to pick out what we were doing, he even made a list earlier in the week, it went like this....

Dinner
Chat
Movie
Bowling

He decided that he wanted to eat at a Chinese Buffet and he wanted to go bowling (we couldn't do it all). I have to say, it was the most lovely evening, I chuckle knowing that my six year old child loves Chinese food as much as me!!! I loved hearing him talk about all the things that were important to him and getting a glimpse of what was going on in his little head. He even got a STRIKE during his tenth frame of bowling!!!! What a stud!

So here is a video of the bowling action..... (just not the strike, that was MUCH MORE exciting!)

Halloween... what can I say? Dress up and sugar make a great combination. (a true horror story for any parent) LOL! Here's are pics of the crew! With a little treat at the end. : )

Here are some pics from our pumpkin carving night! This year, Taylor wanted to do it ALL by himself. Which was a 1st for him. I think he made a pretty cool pumpkin!

pics taken: Oct. 26th 2009

Whenever we get the camera out Lee starts to say cheese. The "cheese" will go on and on until the camera is put away. It cracks us up. Well now we have it on video and we are sharing it with you. LOL!

video taken: Oct. 28, 2009

Grammie does dinners on Monday and she likes to do themed dinners... just for fun. She says she has more energy as a grandma for these things then she did as a mom! LOL! Though I remember "breadstick night" being a big hit as a kid. : )

This last Monday Night we had a cowboy dinner. The kids each ate out of a can of beans and a blue camper mug. We had hot dogs and brats and of course you had to come to the table dressed as a Cowboy!!! Gotta love living at Grammie's house!

pics taken: Oct. 26, 2009

pics taken: Oct. 26 2009

We had some good friends from South Dakota visit us on Saturday the 17th. Nate and I were friends with their parents when we were all single and our children have grown up together. The Fillmore's just moved to Idaho so we are not that far away. We love the Fillmore's very much and think of them as family. Here is a picture of the crew! (minus two kids)

On Monday October 12th (TJ's b-day) we went and picked apples from a neighbors yard. I have to say I have never seen such an apple tree, I joked that I was in the Garden of Eden. LOL! The apples were HUGE. The tree was so full of apples that it looked like it was just barely able to hold it's branches up. Taylor and Leo (my nephew) had fun picking the lower branches and Lee had fun eating the apples. I want an apple tree now... it's so cool to grow your own food.

For Taylor's birthday on October 12th, we took him to a Family Fun Center here in Layton, Utah. Where he was able to jump on big balloon jump toys, play lazer tag and go skating. He received lots of fun toys but the high light was a "razor scooter" Which he was able to take with him on the skating rink floor. He tried the skates but that was to much for him. He felt a bit more safe with the scooter under him. They did the normal skate games... one which included all the boys with scooters in a race, they had to try to touch a boy wearing a witch's hat. It was so cute... so I had to include a video of that. I've never seen a skating rink allow scooters and skates... it was great!!! So here you go.... pics form TJ's 6th birthday party.

The night before we left Rapid City we had a small family gathering to celebrate Taylor's upcoming 6th birthday. Taylor had the chance to pick the restaurant of his choice... we ended up at Golden Corral. His favorite by far, because of their MANY delicious deserts. : ) It was bitter sweet because for the last 8 years we have been blessed to have spent many Sunday dinners with Nate's, Dad, (Jim) his stepmother, (Rexann) and his brother and sister. (Amanda & Spencer). Here is a pic from our last night in Rapid City. We will miss them horribly. Thank goodness for vacations, our heart is in South Dakota and we plan to be back as often as possible.

trying something new... I just signed up my phone to send updates and pics to my blog. This is a test.

We made it. We now officially live in Utah... CrAzY! We are finally all settled into a room in my parents house. There are now 6 adults, 5 kids, and 3 dogs living together. LOL! Sounds nuts but it is working well. My family already had a pretty good living system before my family of four joined them... so kuddos to them for pulling off what many would struggle with.

Nate is enjoying his job so far... I think working with other people will be good for him. For the past 5 years he has worked pretty much solo. He just finished his "welcome to the Air Force training". So now for the real job stuff.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us... a F16 plane had trouble with its engine on take off so it dropped it's fuel tanks and returned for a landing. I was sitting here at the house and heard a big bang and the windows rattled. Nate's office is less than a mile away from where the fuel tank was dropped. Made me a little nervous until I heard from him. It took him an hour and half to make it off base. (the explosion knocked out the power on base) Normally it's a 10 min. drive. Anyways... excitement all around.

I just located my Camera cord so I'll be updating the blog as I can. luv ya -heather

We are leaving Friday for the great state of Utah.

Nate starts his new job on Oct. 13th sp please keep us in your prayers as we travel across country. Also a prayer that our Rapid City house will sell soon, would be wonderful. We will be staying with my parents until we sell the Rapid City home. Then renting something near by them until we figure out where we want to buy. We are kinda leaning towards a house with some acreage so that we can have a small hobby farm (any ideas?). Anyways, that is the update!!

Goodbye sweet South Dakota you have been good to us!

So most of my facebook friends are already aware that I had a fabulous evening last Wednesday night. But for my non facebook friends.... here is a picture from my highlight last week! Me and Jason Mraz!!!!!!

Ahhhh..... What a night! Not only did I get to meet him, but I also had his arm around me. (sigh) And I have the picture to prove it! LOL!

At the last minute a friend called me up and mentioned that she had won Jason Mraz tickets and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her. I enthusiastically said YES! Along with her free tickets she got meet and greet passes. We had a great time laughing and singing to music. I don't think I'll soon forget that night. (sigh) THANK YOU MARGO!

Our last stop was Amarillo Tx... where Nathan's Nana lives. We didn't get any pics of her because she is on oxygen and frankly has never liked having her picture taken. But we did get some pics from the Amarillo Zoo. (a FREE small zoo) Just perfect for small kids. The highlight of the visit was the Lion. The male lion was sitting next to the fence showing off his beauty when all of the sudden he stood up turned around and showed off his rear end to all of us. A few seconds later he proudly peed on everyone watching him. Yep, have I mentioned that I love getting peed on by a lion.

Actually, I barely caught any of it but my fellow watchers did not fare so well. Unfortunately, I had just turned off my video camera, so the entire incident will have to be told by memory only.

I have some pictures and a short video of the above mentioned lion... what a Lion.

And that about sums it up... a road trip to remember. Till next year.

We only got to see my brother and his family for one evening but it was wonderful. I am so glad that we were able to stop off and see them. It has been far to long. We didn't do much except enjoy each others company and of course see the newest Sparks baby. Roger Lee Sparks III is adorable. But he has adorable parents... it's in the genes!

We started our vacation on Thursday night, Nathan's little brother, John, joined us on our trip and between the two guys we were able to pull an all nighter and get to Bartlesville at a reasonable time on Friday. Lee slept for a large part of the evening (in the car) but it didn't go exactly as planned. (it never does) sigh.

We stayed with Nathan's (and John's) grandparents for 5 days. Phil and Maxine are the best hosts you can have... we ate out, went shopping, snoozed and had a great time visiting. Maxine even bought me a beautiful Sunday dress. Basically they spoil us like crazy.... after a few relaxing days we drove up to Grandpa's homestead and saw where he was raised. (about 1hr away from Bartlesville) We even had time to see where his parents were buried and a few other relatives. It was fun to imagine Grandpa as a boy running through the trees and heading to town with friends. What a wonderful carefree time and place he lived in. Beautiful!

One of the small towns near his homestead was having a small carnival for Labor day so we stayed and played for awhile. TJ rode his 1st big kid carnival ride... he promptly told us after wards that he WAS NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN! LOL!

Unfortunately all good things come to an end.. and we had to leave. BUMMER! It always comes to soon! We left Wednesday for Wichita Falls, TX to see my brother and his new baby.

Pics taken:
Carnival photos 9-7-09
Group photos 9-9-09

I think I am ready... my goal today is to get this blog updated! It's been a little crazy because we were on vacation and now we are preparing to move. Nathan starts his new job on October 13th... that is less then 2 weeks away! AHHHH! Utah here we come! LOL!

So we are leaving for vacation tomorrow and won't be back in town until the 15th of September. We are headed to Bartlesville, OK to see Nate's Grandparents and then to Wichita Falls, TX to see my brother, Roger, and his new baby and then finally to Amarillo, TX to see Nate's Grandma. It will be a whirlwind drive but fun to spend so much time together. Nathan's brother John will be coming with us also. (he is currently living with us but we barely see him, it will be good to spend some time with him)

I was in the backyard and saw this HUGE spider sitting on it's HUGE web... and in it's web there were lots of grasshoppers stuck and wrapped in web. (this year we have been over run with grasshoppers)

I thought! Great let's catch the spider and identify it... and then lets put a grasshopper in with it... Sounds  like fun , huh? That way we would be able to watch first hand prey vs predator.

Well, we did find out that it was a Yellow Garden Spider... but after three long days of no action. (Except Mr Grasshopper and Mr Spider leaving in agitated peace)  We decided to let them go. Maybe, a few sticks would have helped the process out? I dunno? It was a good try... maybe we'll have better luck with our next experiment.

Here are some pics of our little friends.


pics taken: 8/31

We welcomed a new addition to our family on August 24th. Roger Lee Sparks III was born to Alyssa and Roger Jr. They couldn't be more delighted to have a little brother for Madison and we couldn't be more delighted to have a new nephew/cousin. Congrats to them. Such a happy moment.

On my way home from Utah we stopped in Casper, Wy to say hi to my little brother, Micah, who I haven't seen in FOREVER!!!! He is living in Casper and working for the railroad. Still single and still busy... we barely had time to see him. We both look a little rough around the edges... I had been driving all morning and he had just come off work. We only had about 1 hour to visit but it was wonderful! Here we are, sure love my brother!

So this was back on July 29th. I got together with a friend and her two boys and we went to the Rapid City Fish Hatchery. I had Lee, Tj, Triniti (my niece) and two daycare kids (Lance & Hayden).

They gave us food to feed the fish with... it was amazing to see that many fish jumping for the food. Then they let us go into a separate area where the kids could touch little fish and toss them back in to the pool. Most of the kids loved tossing them back in.. but my two wanted nothing to do with them. Watch the video and watch TJ's face as he tries to touch them... that about sums it up. So here are some pics of our outing.

Oh, yeah... the best part was that it was FREE. Gotta love free entertainment for the kids.



Well, never mind the video upload on blogger has been changed. I dunno? I can't seem to upload a video anymore. It's going to take some research. Bummer! Any one else having trouble??


pics take: Weds, July 29th 2009