What we have been doing:

1) I have almost all of the Christmas shopping done. Trent is the hardest to buy for, I think he will have to tell me what he wants. All the shopping stresses me out. Sat. Evelyn and I ran to St. George, it was snowing but I wasn't too worried with my all wheel drive car. My sister Elliah came down to Logandale to sell some stuff at my mom & Camille's boutique they were doing. She drove back that night and ended up stranded in the gorge and also sliding off the road in her truck, there was 300 cars stranded that night in the gorge. Luckily Elliah was able to get a ride home with a cowboy stranger and leave her stranded vehicle. I feel very blessed that Evelyn and I were safe and ok. I can't imagine being stranded over night with her in my car. She would have been so scared. Elliah was lucky to get out as well.
2) It has been soooooooooo cold for us desert rats here. I feel like it is too cold to do anything outside and enjoy it.
3) I am now in young women's and I love it. Also Shannon Ruiz my awesome neighbor and friend just got called to be my advisor and Amy Marshall is also my advisor. I love both of them so much.
4) Lyla is a chatter box and is becoming less shy to those around her. It is really fun. She is dressed up in dressups all day long. Both of my girls could not be more princess like.
5) Evelyn is doing so well in Kindergarten and is getting so grown up. So, grown up that she thinks she can decide what she will and won't wear. We went to our ward party the other day  30 min. late cause I couldn't convince her to wear a jacket for the life of me. She said, people will look at me and think I am weird, It is my body, not yours mom and I can dress however I want!! What the heck what is she 16?
6) We had so much fun with my neighbors tonight at a bday party. We are so fortunate to have so many friends around us.
7) Our baby chicks are growing fast and we love them. They will stay in our garage for a while....its too cold. Our older chicken that got attacked by the dog is ok and alive. So, that is good too.
8) This week we are headed to AZ to go on a train ride on the Polar Express at the Grand Canyon. We are going with the Ruiz family and are very excited the girls will love it. I will report back next week.
9) Infertility really is so hard and is still weird that I am dealing with it. Sometimes I think this is it.....we will only have four in our family, I feel that way. But, then I could see us as a family of five too. Basically I feel really close to giving up.... I know it sounds pathetic but it is true. It is like a gaping wound I can't seem to mend...and I feel numb to what I have gone through in a way. I have the hardest time when I see people prego with their 3rd child. And soon in Feb. I will have to face that I don't have a baby still. And, I would have had a one year old. Sigh....
10) I long to go to the temple.....it is calling my name. I need the peace that it brings and to get some answers to it all.
11) We had such a fun ward party, cold but fun. The best part was it was centered on Christ and not Santa and receiving presents. They had live animals there and amazing soups and hot chocolate. The spirit was so strong when you went to the different stations and people told you about Christ and what he did for them. Well done Overton 4th Ward. We are very lucky to be a part of such a great ward too.

Weekly Ten:

1) Trent and I had the BEST WEEKEND GETAWAY EVER!!. My mom watched the girls while we ran to Vegas for the weekend. We went and saw the new Hunger Games Catching Fire and it was awesome. Then we went and checked into our hotel MGM Grand. Then finished the night off with a concert of the one and only Michael Buble. Oh how I love him. Great show only thing I would have changed is cut out the swearing he was doing and he had some cruel jokes. Oh also I would have him come out when the concert started instead of well, Naturally 7 who was on stage for an hour. I was pretty annoyed. But his entrance made up for all of it. I want to go back. This crowd was a lot more respectful than the Taylor Swift concert was. Lots of Senior Citizens that were really nice to sit down the whole time. lol. I am so lucky I was able to see my top two fav artists in the same year. I am feeling spoiled they were so so worth it though. Our room at the MGM was fantastic. 

2) We got soooo much rain this past week which was great but makes our whole neighborhood a muddy swamp. I used Trent's truck to run around Friday and got stuck in mud 3 times, ya not my most proudest moment. In 4 wheel drive, ya pretty lame. Our mud is that bad!! 

3) We picked up 4 baby chicks from the Hardware store that we ordered in. They are about a week old. We have been trying to keep them nice and cozy in our garage. It has been fun and the girls love them. They are barred rock breed and will grow up pretty and striped, we had those birds before. Their chirping is so so dang cute. 

4) Today we were outside in the back yard, I was washing the car and the girls were playing around the yard, out of nowhere a dog runs up and gets one of our large chickens and is killing it. Evelyn shouts mom, the dog has our chicken, and I scream and run towards the dog. The dog releases the bird and the bird flys and runs off. We never could find it and I am sure it is dead now. Or will be tonight. I was furious. 5th chicken down. The dog ran from Leon Fries yard. Trent text Ryan Frie, a son of Leon's and it was his dog and he felt horrible. I just wanted him to know what his dog did and to not let him just run around. Must be a hunting breed or something. It wouldn't have been that tough but Evelyn was really shaken up by the whole thing. She saw this one get killed and it was brutal. That poor chicken, now one is lonely in the coop tonight. I think the universe doesn't want me to have chickens...lol. At least we have our chicks. 

5) I have felt like a farmer lately. My neighbors Tim and Shannon left for the week and I have been feeding their animals twice a day. 6 horses, lots of chickens, a cow and some cats. All I can handle is my chickens....lol. 

6) I recently got released from my Primary calling for my ward. Which I had for almost the past 2  1/2 years. On Sunday I will get called into the Young Women's and I am so happy to be there. It is going to be busy but really neat. In my patriarchal blessing it says I will be a great example to the youth of the church. So I am happy to finally get the chance to be with the youth once again. Wahoo!!

7) Confession, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have bought zero, zip, for Christmas. Yep I am that lame. Cyber Monday here I come:) 

8) Today I felt horrible, I raced to Evelyn's Kindergarten Thanksgiving performance and left my phone in the car.....so I couldn't really record and document it well. I used my moms phone but for some reason the sound didn't get recorded....blah... worst mom of the year award right here!! No really, hang it over and let me give a speech. I think I get more ditzy and spacey daily. I am so sad I won't have much to document that moment. They all passed a mic and Evenly said she was thankful for the Earth and Jesus it was a very proud moment. She came up with that on her own and I know that she loves and looks up to Jesus. They sang....five, fat, turkeys are we, we slept all night in a tree, when the cook came around we couldn't be found, and thats why we're here you see. Loved every moment. I learned a lesson today. 

9) The older I get the more I realize how hard life is and everyone has their own personal trials that they never really thought they would have to bear in this life. You should never think someone else's life is better than yours or perfect. You have no idea what they are facing behind closed doors. There is always someone who has it harder than you. 

10) I eat, sleep, and dream about my dream house. We have found the perfect plan that we want to tweak some and it would be perfect. It is awesome and Trent's cousin Austrie says she will do it for us. She is in the design program at BYU -I and she knows all the programs and how to do it just to our liking....so so excited. I love the craftsman style, nice and clean lines and white walls with wood floors that is my fav. I could go on and on about it but I will save that for later in my life. When things actually start happening. Nighty night. 

Lately:

1) I was supposed to attend jury duty last week and miraculously got out of going. My badge number was excused. I was pretty relieved. Wahoo.
2) Taylor Trent's youngest sibling is getting hitched. He is marrying the wonderful Meagan  and we are all delighted.
3) Our chickens are all set up in their new home, but our new hens are like two old lazy women. They don't lay eggs and just want to sit around all day. Needless to say, we are getting four baby chicks in a few days who I know will be great layers someday. lol
4) Sat. I turned 29.....tis true. The age change wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I went to Mesquite and we ate at a great Italian place. My new favorite. The girls actually ate. We went bowling and I got a call from my brother Isaac to wish me a happy bday. It was really loud in the bowling area. After we discussed my bday he asked if I had heard about Christy? And I could barely hear him. I could not think of a Christy really that he knew too. He said hold on and never got back on the phone with me. So I hung up....But I kept wondering Christy....Christy something bad had to have happened to someone named that.
After we ran to Walmart with the girls I called Kendra and wished her a happy bday. She then told me about Christy Clark who lost her little girl on our bday. She got Meningitis suddenly and her parents had no idea. What???? How could that be possible? (Christy was Kendra's roomate in college and then was close with my brother Isaac's family while they lived in Cedar. She is super nice and I knew her pretty well too).
It put a differnt mood into our birthday....it was all I thought about for the rest of the night. What they are going through. Losing one of my girls. All of it playing out in my head for hours. I think it really hit me because this is a girl my age with 3 kids and she just lost one suddenly. That can really happen to me. Life is so short and we need to spend every day like it is our last. We never know when Heavenly Father will allow a member of my family or even me to join him in the ranks of Heaven. We just don't know. It has been a very heartfelt few days.
People are truly amazing they set up a fundraiser for baby Jane's family and since Sat. have raised over more than $10,700 for them. How remarkable!
5) I am getting released from my first counselor primary position next Sunday. This makes me smile only because I have been in there for 2 1/2 years and am ready for a change. Plus Lyla is coming in this next Jan. They have been bringing in the nursery kids to get them ready for the Sunbeams. And Lyla wants me to be by her every second. It is a blessing I am being removed from her sight...lol. No new calling yet.
6) Trent and I are so excited for the weekend we are heading out to Vegas to go see Michael Buble and spending the night, we haven't done that in such a long time. It is really needed. My mom is going to come stay with my girls. I love her and don't know what I would do without her. Plus it is really easy when she comes to our house and is willing to sleep here.
7) Trent and I have been looking at house plans and I love to dream about our dream house. We have a plan we have fallen in love with but we don't love the outside but think we can change it to our liking. We hope to get going on our house building process by the new year. Seeing what steps we need to take and what not. It may still be a year or so away until it even begins. We shall see.
8) I miss the temple and hope to go soon with my honey. It is calling my name.

Life is hard.....

-Right now I am up while the rest of my house sleeps peacefully while I stay up to edit a photo shoot....Life is hard.
-Today I offended a friend in the wrong way, I feel horrible about it....Life is hard.
-I feel I am the only one in the world that isn't pregnant having no luck in that department myself....Life is hard.
-I want to build a house now....with lots of space, a laundry room, and most importantly more than one bathroom, the economy still sucks....Life is hard.
-I am turning 29 on Sat.........ehh Life is hard.
-We all have trials we never expect will happen to us nor do we plan for them.....Life is very hard.
-My Pilates class has had on average 2-4 people for the last few months....Life is hard.
-Lyla pooped in the potty 2 days in a row.....LIFE IS GLORIOUS....LOL. I will end on a good note:)

Lately;

One of my favorite things about the morning is my girls climb into bed with me. Lyla was sleeping in when Evelyn crawled into bed with me and we talked and laughed. That girl is getting so smart. And very grown up. She already has had boys try to kiss her and chase her. Plus when her neighbor Weston left from playing she said I love you  Weston..lol. I told her that she probably shouldn't say that at her young age. And she asked.. "Well can I say it when I am six then"? Wow that blew me away.
That same boy gave Evelyn her first kiss. At age five which I wasn't expecting. Haha They are really good friends;) Today he told Evelyn he always brushes his girlfriend's hair and he has 17 of them.
Here is some recent things Lyla has said:
1)Mom Evelyn and I are the prettiest. ..but your not the prettiest just us are the prettiest, but not you. Ok got it Lyla...lol
2)Mom..Is your name Tara Leavitt? Yes it is Lyla. I knew that;) lol
3)Mom I need a treat....Mom I need a treat.....but Mom I really need juice. It never ends...lol
We recently headed to Williams AZ to ride on The Polar Express train. We went with our neighbors the Ruiz family. We also went to a place called Bearizona where you get to see live bears and other animals we haven't been in a trip that fun in a while. The girls got to see Santa and he gave them a bell and we got to sing Christmas carols and see the north pole. Awesome awesome; )
Young Women's 2 nd counselor bis keeping me really busy. But I love it and the ladies I get to work with.
I had to have my neighbor help me out with my old chickens that realky didn't di anything useful...and stopped sleeping in their coop and kept sleeping close to the house and pooping on everything we owned. I felt bad about until I talked to any other chicken owner. I also moved our baby chicks to their outdoor fence. They are getting really big now, and really love it in there. I can't wait for their eggs. I have missed my fresh eggs more than I thought I would.

Halloween-ween (Neighbors show lol) 2013

This year we got to start our Halloween off with a neighborhood party. Tim and Shannon hosted it and we ate yummy food and the kids played games. Then we all piled on for a trick or treating hayride. It was so much fun and we can't wait to do it next year. When we first moved back to the valley we were the youngest in our neighborhood and now, there are some really fun young families. The kids all get along great too. We are so happy here and are convinced we can never leave this area of Moapa Valley.
After riding around with our neighborhood for a while. We hopped off, walked home, and got in the truck to do some family trick or treating. First we stopped by Grammy and Papa's house, then to Aunt Taryn and Uncle Shane's, Grandma & Grandpa Leavitt, and then Great Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt. Fun, fun, night.

Chicken Drama...lol

We have had 4 of our chickens get killed in the last few months.
The first two got killed early one morning when they came out of the coop. Then we got two more chickens from my neighbor. They kept walking back to her house to sleep. Even if I kept them cooped up for a few days.  I had to catch them to bring them back to my house one night. I caught one but lost the other one. Then it got dark and I lost the other one. That night we heard a coyote and I knew it got that chicken. A few days ago I looked outside Lyla's window and saw the other one dead. Yep....something got it in the chicken coop. I was really annoyed. And the night before 2 chickens had died...uhh really. Our husbands need to go hunting.  So now we are chicken-less. We bought a chain link fence today and I am getting chicks tomorrow that we will one day put in the fence. I like chickens and need them for eggs and more importantly bug control. I will post pics if the chicks soon.

J/k we went to pic up the chicks and they were out of them....oh so funny. It seems I am not meant to have chickens at this time. ha ha