First Day of School 2015

I thought life would be calmer once school started. 

So far, that hasn't been the case.

This past week I had a root canal, our air conditioning broke, and Lucy had strep. 

It's been quite the long and expensive week. But as of today, we are all good, for which I am so thankful!!

The first day of school was both exciting and scary. For all of us. It's a new school with new teachers, and I was nervous for them.

Sami is in 2nd grade. 

 Janie is in 1st grade. 

 Not sure where this pose came from, but we'll take it. 

 Glad my girls like the camera.

 Trying to get a sibling shot.

 Walking to the school. Nerves were high. Lucy thought she was going to. 

 Their mascot is now the eagle. They are the Oak Hollow Eagles. So we took a picture with the creepy eagle man.

 I felt like I was kind of embarrassing Sami by hanging around. How did it come to this so quickly??! But she was a good about smiling for me. 

 At first Janie was very uncomfortable and nervous with the whole "new school" thing. 

 But once she found out our neighbor and a friend from her primary class were all in her school class, she was totally okay. 

 Lucy was sad it wasn't her first day too. Poor thing. It's hard to always be left out of the good stuff. 

 This was the smile I got from Sami as it was time to go in and I knew she would be okay. 

I sure do miss these girls all day, but I am so thankful that they love school. 

Ben's Wedding

On August first, my little brother, Ben, got remarried. 

The wedding and reception was in Denver, and I am very thankful that I was able to go. 

This is a picture of Ben, me, and my nephew, Davy, at the hotel, right before we headed over for the wedding. 

 My other little brother, Danny, with my mom. 

 The groomsmen. 

 Ben, watching his bride walk down the isle. I love his expression. 

 Ben and Kelli during the vows.

 Their family now. Ben, Kelli, and the kids: Julia, Sarah, and Nathan. 

 The whole wedding and reception was so beautiful. I loved their first dance together. Ben even took dancing lessons so he could do this with Kelli. Way to go, Ben!

  I will admit that I was balling when I watched my mom and Ben dance. 

 It was so good to see my brother so happy. 

 My dad was cracking us all up with his dance moves. 

 After a lovely wedding and reception, the happy couple rode away. 

It was a beautiful day and I was happy to be there for them.

Congrats, Ben and Kelli! ♥

Pioneer Day in Utah

Summer has been crazy busy for us. But we love our new house and are enjoying the neighborhood and all the good things Utah has to offer.

Right after we moved in, Jonathan's family came to visit us for Pioneer Day. 

I am just going to be honest  and admit that I really don't get why Pioneer Day is so big here. From what I've heard, only about 25-30% of Salt Lake County is active LDS. Now, I love and admire the pioneers, but I guess I don't understand why it's such a big holiday (even bigger than Independence Day) when so many people don't share our heritage. I guess that just makes me a weirdo and an "outsider." Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for another holiday (even though Jonathan had to work), and I am thankful for the pioneers. 

But back to the family.

We had a full, fun, house and we saw family that we hadn't seen since we left Arizona. 

Our neighborhood had a bike parade. The girls decorated their backs and we rode to the local park. 

At the park, we had breakfast with the neighbors and community. 

We also took the kids to Cabelas. We thought it was their fishing day, where they let the kids fish, but that was the following day. But we had fun just looking at all the fish and animal displays. 

Jonathan's oldest niece, Makenzie, is going on a mission in a few months. And we realized that this was maybe one of the few times that all the grandchildren would be together for a picture. I am so thankful for the pictures we took and the memories made. 

Then it was time for a sibling picture for all of Jonathan's side. We were only missing Gregg. I am going to see if I can photoshop him in sometime. :)

I am thankful for the time we got to spend together.  

Fellowship Graduation and Marathon

We move in less than two weeks and life is getting chaotic, but I didn't want to forget to blog about two really special things: Jonathan's done with training and he ran a marathon!!

After 14 years of training, Jonathan is finally, FINALLY done!! Yay. Now we get to start paying for all those student loans. I am super proud of him. His fellowship program threw him and his co-fellow, Mark, a graduation party. It was at a bowling alley and super fun. 

 They recognized him briefly. It was perfect. Short and sweet. 

 Jonathan and the two other fellows and his good friends.

 And then today he ran a marathon in Missouri. It was his first marathon and he was nervous that he wouldn't be able to finish. I wasn't worried because this man is awesome and he always does what he puts his mind too. He finished residency, worked 30 hours shifts on a regular basis in said residency, and by golly, he can run 26 miles. And now he is out mowing the lawn. He's amazing. Love him!

And I found these cute pictures on my camera. I just love these girls of mine!! 

Next time I blog will be in Utah! I can't believe it. We are so blessed. 

♥

Release and House Drama

Two weeks ago I was released as primary president. It was bittersweet. Mostly sweet. There was a part of me {a big part} that was totally giddy. 

It was the hardest calling that I have had since I was a full-time missionary. The Sunday I was released, we had 175 kids on our roster. We had moved to a building that was too small for our huge primary and our ward is still feeling the affects of the move. 

I had no idea how much work there is behinds the scenes as an auxiliary leader. I spent hours and hours and hours every week just on my calling. My life became my kids and primary. And that's about it. I haven't photo-shopped or scrap-booked or even exercised consistently since I got my calling. It was just so demanding all the time. 

But I learned SO much! I grew so much in that calling. Here are a few things I learned:

-I always want to be nice to presidency leaders. I may not understand or agree with what they are doing, but there is always stuff going on behind the scenes that I am not aware of if I am not in the presidency. Always.

-Be nice to the bishop. He has a super-dee-duper hard calling. It's pretty much an awful calling. 

-You can't please everyone. And sometimes no one will be pleased. Our ward move to another building was so hard for a lot of people. But I couldn't change the decision. Heaven knows I tried. So I had to learn to not take things so personally. That's really hard for me. 

-One thing I got better at in the end was delegating. It was hard for me because I don't like to put my counselors out but then I would be put out, often for hours and hours. Delegating is a must-do. 

-If I am ever a primary teachers-and I hope I am in our next ward-I will get my own subs. With all the presidency has to worry about, getting subs should not be one of them. That's all. 

-Counseling with my counselors was a great experience. Whenever I tried to make a decision on my own, it didn't turn out so well. Whenever I talked to my counselors, a better decision was made. They knew things and had experiences that I didn't. And we didn't always agree as a presidency but we always got along. That was a great experience. I think that's how it's supposed to be. They challenged me and helped me see things in a different way but always accepted the final decision. 

-Mostly I learned I need to rely on the Lord more. One time I learned that one of my counselors was going to be released to get a stake calling. I was so upset because I really needed her and I was crying right after I got the news. I decided to stop what I was doing and pray. I totally spilled my guts out in that prayer and told Heavenly Father that I couldn't do this and I needed help. Immediately in my mind I knew what I was supposed to do. It was such an amazing experience. It taught me again that this is the Lord's church, the Lord's primary, and the Lord's kids. He knows what is best and is willing to help with it. 

I am so grateful for all I learned as primary president. And I honestly hope I am never president of anything again. I just want to be a primary teacher. Or nursery worker. Or librarian. 

And now about our new house drama. 

We almost lost it. The house and our sanity. 

We were supposed to close this past Thursday. 

On Monday night Jonathan gets a message from his new boss/partner that his clinic has been moved from Sandy to Murray. 

I was upset. I didn't think it was right of him to just make that decision for our family after he had told us (and showed us!) where the new clinic was. We bought our house for the location of the clinic so that Jonathan wouldn't have to commute or be on the freeway. Now he would have to commute and be on the freeway and would have a longer work day. I was really upset. 

Then the next day Jonathan got a call from the bank that our loan fell through and we no longer had financing. Less than 48 hours from closing!! 

So yes, I was crying. And I thought maybe it was sign that we should just rent in Murray. But there were no good rentals. I think Murray must be an older city because all the housing seems really old.

Anyway, Jonathan wrote a very professional but very specific email to Zions bank (who we were getting our loan through). He stated our position and why we were upset and that we were going to file a complaint with the BBB and he sent it to all the loan officers involved and the CFO, CEO, and vice president over mortgages. 

And surprisingly the CEO emailed back right away that he would look into it. Then later that night he called and talked to Jonathan for an hour. We were shocked. He said they would make it work out somehow. 

We didn't hear from anyone for a day and were discouraged again, but then we heard that a whole team was working on our loan. 

And it was a miracle. It worked out so well in our favor. It's really technical and I don't want to go into it all here, but this new loan saves us a lot of money and is a huge blessing! 

I feel very, very blessed. While I am sad that Jonathan now has a big commute-which was our goal to avoid-I feel blessed. We are going to treasure our house because we almost lost it a few times. 

And now for a last bit of awesome news. Sami's birth mom, Becca, had a beautiful baby boy! Colby is a beautiful baby and we are so thrilled for them!! We can't wait to meet him! 

And now back to packing...

The Variety Show 2015

Sami came home from school with a piece of paper that I had to sign if she was to be in the talent show and she was begging me to sign it. 

I asked Sami what she wanted to do for the talent show and she said she wanted to make up a song and sing it while she made up dance. 

Ummmm...not happening, Sami.

She sobbed when I told her she would have to wait to be in the talent show. But I was trying to protect her. Did she really just want to get up on the stage in front of a ton of strangers and make up a song and dance? Yes, yes she did. 

And she wrote a song and left it out where I could find it. I knew it was a song because it had music notes on it and then the words were how she wanted to be "a rockstar" and there were "tears streaming down her face," and how she wanted "to be freeeeeeeeeee!"

I read that, and took a picture with my phone, and sent it to Jonathan. 

We decided she could be in the talent show on one condition: she had to sing a song she knew or that she could easily learn. No making up songs on the stage. I gave her some options and she chose "Give Said the Little Stream." 

My mom found a beautiful blue dress for her, which seemed so appropriate since she was singing about water. I made her a wand with white and blue and green ribbons that she could wave while she sang. The big day came and she was so excited. We practiced and practiced. When the day came, she came and woke me up early and said, "Mom, today is the big day."

I was SO nervous for her. I was probably more nervous than she was. But she did a great job and we were so proud of her. She forgot about waving her wand when she got up in front of everyone, but we assured her afterwards that it was just fine since we just wanted to hear her sing.

Sami loves to sing and I think she has the genes for it. (Becca is an opera singer and talented in all things musical.) We are thinking that maybe we will get her voice lessons in a few years if she is still interested. Not so that she can be a rockstar, like she dreams, but so that she can develop this talent.  

I am really glad that we had this experience. We sure are blessed to have Sami girl. 

We are homeowners!!

Last week we went to Utah with the goal to buy a house. 

And after some very stressful days, we did it! 

We bought a cute home in Draper, Utah; more specifically, South Mountain. 

We feel blessed to have gotten it, as there were multiple offers. We are happy with it, and what we paid for it, and feel like it fits our current needs. 

I didn't get very good pictures on my cell phone, but I will just show my favorites:

I love the blossoming tree and the little porch. 

 I like that the kitchen has a pantry and a place for bar stools. 

 I love that there are two gas fireplaces. One upstairs, one downstairs. 

 My food storage room! Love this!!

It's been pretty scary and unsettling for me. This is our first time buying a house, and I felt the pressure. But we are really happy with it and even more happy with where it is. Jonathan won't have to take the freeway to work, which is HUGE for Utah. That I-15 is crazy, so this is a real blessing. 

It now feels real. We are moving. Bittersweet.