May 2025

 SADIE FIELD TRIP TO CROSS E RANCH
This was a fun one.  I didn't get chosen as a parent chaperone, but I went anyway and just met up with Sadie and her calss.  We had so much fun!  Petted the llamas, baby cows, baby bunnies!  I think the bunnies were her favorite.  They rode the little hay ride.  We played ont he playground and ate lunch.  It wa sgreat!!  Sadie seemed happy.  I loved being there with her.  5-1-25

AUSTIN AND AUBREY WEDDING DAY
This was pretty fun, exactly a week after Kelly and Devan, we were at the Taylorsville temple going through all the same things with the Maynes family, only it was Austin and Aubrey.  I loved their sealing- the guy was a son in law of President Nelson's.  Kinda cool.  He did a great job. We saw them sealed, got a few pictures, headed home to get the food and then right back down to Alpine this time, for the "dinner".  Nate did an amazing job on the food!  Went above and beyond!  He ran around setting it all up and then had to serve it as well.  Kinda nuts, but he really did awesome!  I sat at the table with Molly and Sadie and did almost nothing.  It was good to be there though.  After the dinner they moved the tables and chairs around and did a cute little vow thing with the rings and then we left.  I feel bad we didn't go to the reception, but it was already a long day.  So happy for them though.  Nate and I were going to try to get our date night, since we hadn't had one in two weeks, but it was a no go because I needed to set up the Senior breakfast.  5-2-25

 DISCO OF OZ
We were all happy to see Molly dancing her heart out in her performance in the Disco of Oz as a tornado!  Molly did awesome!!  She looked so good up there, knew all the right steps, right on beat.  It was fun!  She had a pretty good cheering section too, with all of us, including the newlyweds, and Grandma and Simon!  Fun stuff.  5-3-25

SOUTH END! ERIKA
Erika made it to the South End meet this year!  of course!  In hurdles.  of course!  She did SO AWESOME!!  I was so proud of her!!  I loved that I got to be there for that even though I was not feeling great that day.  5-6-25

SIERRA ENDOWMENT
I was so glad they did Erika's game when they did, I was able to go to the temple for Sierra's endowment.  Nate came too :).  It was awesome to be there for her.  I feel like we were there for Meg the most :).  Nate had to hurry off to work, but I got to go to Leatherby's with everyone.  Kelly and Devan were there too which was aweosme.  Kelly got to be Sierra's escort.  Good stuff.  Jen was so nice to pay for everyone!  She is the sweetest.  5-6-25

DISTRICT FOR ERIKA
Erika also made it to District!  She did great here as well.  I am so proud of her and all that she's been able to do this spring!  She was on the track team, Lacrosse team and rec soccer!  She did fantastic at District, didn't quite pull off a PR, but did great!  5-9-25

GRANDPA HATCH'S BIRTHDAY
After Erika's meet and me finishing the cake, we drove up to Mueller Park to celebrate Grandpa Hatch's 70th birthday!!  I really cannot believe he's 70.  And nobody else would believe it either.  He doesn't seem 70.  We had a fun time though.  Ate some hotdogs and hamburgers, visited with Steve and grandpa, played some made up version of Volleyball which was actually kind of fun.  It was rushed because the boys had to all leave to go to Father's and Sons, but I think it was a good time.  He liked his carrot cake I made him even though it had all but melted.  Happy birthday Pappy!  5-9-25

MOTHER'S DAY!!!
My favorite day!!  I loved Mother's day this year! It was wonderful.  I spent the evening before with all my kids!  Everyone was here, we were playing games, Sherry Chambers came to visit, we had pancakes for dinner which I think is going to be our new tradition.  I got to sit and visit with Charity and Hunter while everyone else went shopping with Kelly.  That evening felt like part of the celebration :).  Then in the morning, I got to have a delicious breakfast as they showered me with gifts!  In the living room this year, but still great :).  Eveyrone was so nice and gave me such sweet thoughtful gifts!  I loved it.  Then Church.  We didn't get ot hear from the primary because our song person thinks she needs to be micromanaged in that area.  The bishopric did not specify that yes, we are still doing the thing that we do every single year.  Sorry, still bitter.  It's fine.  The Seniors spoke, I loved that!  Then RS where we don't talk about moms was great too.  After church, Kelly and Devan stopped by for a game with me- that was so fun, before leaving to have some Brenchley church and time.  Charity and Hunter played a game with me as well before heading up to Idaho.  The rest of us had a lot of fun playing games and eating Nate's amazing food, before heading up to Grandma Ruthie's to celebrate and love on her for a minute.  She did a cute FHE lesson that had nothing to do with moms :).  But we got to give her a gift and had a nice evening with everyone.  Then the boys called :).  5-11-25

GOODBYE TO KELLY AND DEVAN
They threw a little goodbye party the night before leaving, at Gailey Park.  We enjoyed hanging out with them and the Brenchley's one more time.  It was a hard evening for me.  It's just so hard to let go of my kids.  I am realizing I am not a sharer.  I don't share very well.  So this will take some getting used to, some practice maybe.  I hope I can do better than I did that day, but I think I'll cut myself a tiny smidge of slack and hopefully just do better next time.  I just love my Kelly too much.  5-13-25

SIERRA AND MATT WEDDING DAY AND GOODBYE FOR REALS, KELLY AND DEVAN
This was another big one we'd been waiting for.  It has felt a little deja vu-ish with all the weddings, waiting in the waiting rooms together, and doing all these things over and over, but it's been really cool too.  It was fun to see Matt and Sierra sealed.  Their sealer was Matt's mom's seminary teacher once upon a time, which is pretty cool.  He did a great job as well.  I liked how he went into detail about the covenant.  I like sitting there holding Nate's hand and thinking about our sealing too :).  Things went great, we got some pictures int he POURING RAIN at the Layton temple, and then we snuck out!  It was SO COLD and my dress was full of water, totally stretched out, it was ridiculous.  But we changed, then went to the luncheon over in West Kaysville.  This was good- I liked how they did it.  I LOVED Meg's speech.  Chris's too, they did awesome.  It was a good time.  Minus that Jack couldn't eat any of the Olive Garden food.  Then we got a couple of hours of a break and then headed down to Wheeler Farm to help set up the reception.  This went pretty quick and was pretty painless.  It looked great!  We had a great time sitting and chatting at our table for most of the reception.  That was fun.  I loved those last few minutes with Kelly and Devan.  Charity and Hunter had gone and got some Chick-fil-a for everyone, so we went out to the parking lot to eat and while we were out there it was time to say goodbye to Kelly and Devan.  This was SO SAD!!  I seriously don't know if my heart can handle all this.  But we said our goodbyes, cried, and cried some more, and then they drove off.  It was heartbreaking to see them drive away.  I know they will have a great adventure and I am very excited for them, but this is so hard!!  We went back inside just in time to catch them cutting the cake.  That was fun and seeing them so excited was really great.  I loved being there with family and supporting Meg and Sierra.  We helped clean up which also went SO FAST!  Especially compared to Kelly's reception.  And came home.  We have a couple weeks til the next wedding, so we can recharge a little :).  But this wa swonderful!  Hard to believe these two are married!!  5-14-25

HONORS NIGHT FOR ERIKA
One hard thing we had to choose was to miss Erika's honors night.  I knew what award she was getting, but I had no idea just how meaningful this would be!  I was sad we missed it when we got a video of Coach Yates talking about how amazing Erika is.  This is what he said:

(the beginning is cut off, but he's telling how Erika's score was higher than the usual score) was about 125-195, it was 425-395!  So what that score means is we do an 8 minute run like Coach Spencer was talking about and I count laps, you divide the class into 2 groups.  It's competeition, I think competition is great for the students, so every time they cross the finish the line I count a lap, for eight minutes, every time they go through and they were inside so the score gets quite high.  Erika was in that class today and she was not going to let her class get her groove down.  She wanted to make sure she won.  And that's one of the great things I love about Erika, she is just a fierce competitor, doesn't let anything stand in her way, it's been great to watch that all three years she's been here.  Nothing stood in her way, she's not going to let anyone tell her no or pull her back from anything, she was gonna push forward and you can see that in every aspect of her life.  

How cool is that!!  I am so proud of her!!  I echo this only times it by 10 cuz I know her :).  She is amazing!!  I could not be more proud.  5-14-25

BUILD A BUSINESS DAY- MOLLY
This is one of my favorite things about 3rd grade!!  It always takes me back to my business days in 3rd grade, with Courtney and our C & C Bakery.  Molly had a couple friends she was working with, Maeve and Coco, so they called their business MCM!  So cute!!  Molly and I had been working so hard on her letter keychains for weeks!!  They turned out SO GOOD!!  They also sold bracelets and did a ring toss with soda.  It was so much fun to get it ready and thanks to Noah we got it all in the school that morning.  It sounded like things went really well.  Molly was so happy after!!  She didn't even complain when I let her and Sadie walk home carrying all of her extra stuff!!  Oops.  But luckily, she'd sold all the sodas.  So fun though!  Good job Molly!!

HAPPY 24th ANNIVERSARY TO US!!
We did it!  24 years so far!!  I got Nate a book by Presiden Nelson and he got me a cool Minky blanket for watching games in the cold as well as a neck fan for the hot games!  We got to celebrate Friday by going on the first date in almost a month!  We went to the movie Thunderbolts which was AWESOME and had dinner at Chick-fil-a because we were running a little late for our movie- oddly enough it was the only time I've ever waited in a Chick-fil-a drive thru for more than a few minutes- THIRTY MINUTES LATER!!!  SO crazy.  This is why I don't choose where we go.  5-15-25

PICNIC ON THE PLAYGROUND
This was a fun year for picnic on the playground!  Molly picked Dylans, Sadie picked Pretzel bites so on the way home from taking Becky her medicine, we grabbed their food and headed over to the school- this is our first time going without kids!  Aunt Meg was in town, so she came too!  We laid out the cool blankets Nate got from costco and ate our delicious food.  It was so fun!  Jack and Erika both paid a visit and enjoyed the time with us.  I loved it!  Molly showed Erika the new gaga ball pit!!  Very exciting!  We got to run a few errands with Meg- taking her flowers to someone in Ogden and Costco for Nate's catering order.  Good times. 5-16-25

LAST WEEK OF SOCCER FOR ERIKA AND NOAH
THis was a reallyg reat soccer season!  I loved it.  Both teams did amazing.  I am getting really excited for next year when they are on the same team.  5-17-25

LACROSSE BANQUET
This was a nice night.  Rainy, but nice.  I wish I'd sat closer to the people talking, but I did get to talk with Krista and Emily for a lot of it.  The food was good enough :).  Erika really should have gotten the rookie of the year award, but they gave it to a senior instead.  Such is the life as a 9th grader.  She will have her moment one day I'm sure.  She really had a great season!  She even got invited to play on Varsity for the playoffs.  She didn't get to play in the first game and the second game was during her soccer game, so she opted out, but we were so proud of her and her determination this season!  So much fun!  She got a cute award about how she was always in the right place at the right time, can't remember waht it was called.  But I was so proud of her.  5-17-25

STAKE SPEAKING ASSIGNMENTS
I was asked to trade September Ponds Park speaking assignment with one of the new Primary Presidency that was just called, so that they didn't have to speak right away.  It would have been perfectly normal if I wasn't already assigned to speak in the Hidden Valley ward on the same day.  I decided to be h elpful and agreed to do both.  I had already gotten Clarissa Allen to speak with me, and had no luck with anyone else that I knew, so I let Pres. Morrell try to find someone.  He chose to do it himself, which was funny.  So I gave two talks last Sunday.  One in our ward and one in Hidden Valley ward a few hours later.  I was very nervous as usual.  And I had just spoken in our ward back in October, so that was weird.  But writing one talk and giving it twice did end up being the better deal I think.  I spoke about the Growth of the Church.  I'll post it here:

In Elder Rasband's talk, "Right Before Our Eyes" he shared this prophecy from Joseph Smith back in 1834, to a small schoolhouse filled with all who held the Priesthood at the time.  To them he said, “It is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America—it will fill the world.”  That prophecy is being fulfilled “right before our eyes.”  The membership of The Church has reached over 17 million.  Last year there were 80,000 missionaries serving in 450 missions who brought in 308,000 new members.  We have 367 temples in various stages of design, construction or operation.  And currently there are 800,000 students worldwide enrolled in seminary and institute, the highest enrollment in the history of The Church.  And enrollment in BYU pathways has reached nearly 75,000 and counting.  These are some big numbers!  I like to see the numbers and marvel at the miracle that has grown from the sincere prayer offered up by a 14 year old boy.

I just finished reading the Saints book series, well, technically I listened to it on 1.25 speed, but it was such a great experience.  You get a bird's eye view of the growth and movement of The Church and get to see how it was molded and shaped to what we have today.  I love to see the patterns of revelation followed by each Prophet.  When a question or problem came up they would study it out, gather information and pray, sometimes for months or years, seek counsel from the Lord and then carefully present the revelation to the members of The Church.  The faith and prayers it has taken to move The Lord's work forward is incredible.  But what stood out to me the most was the individuals and the stories of people who were moved by The Spirit.  There were a lot of Saints who struggled with changes and new commandments, who went to the Lord and asked.  Most of them, their hearts were changed completely, or simply softened to accept the Gospel and its teachings.  I was amazed at the power of the Holy Ghost and the role that personal revelation has played in the growth of The Church.  I highly recommend reading the Saints book.

President Nelson said: “Do you see what is happening right before our eyes? I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment! The Lord is indeed hastening His work.”

Elder Rasband clarified:

“Hastening” is a word that matters. It suggests moving quickly, accelerating, and even urgency. In the growth of the Church and the plan of Christ, hastening is happening. And we are all a part of it.

 I hope it's okay, I decided to share a few examples of the hastening that have happened right before MY eyes.

This might sound cheesy, but I LOVE seeing the Young Women as I pull up to Sacrament meeting.  I'm all frantic, finally finished with the getting kids ready obstacle course, and then I see the young women and I just feel better.  They set the tone for me and help me to reset.   It's one of my favorite new changes made in the Church recently.  The Young Women are my idols.  I had the privilege of going to all the ward conferences.  As part of our discussion with the Young women in each ward, we asked them to describe what God's love feels like to them.  Here are some of their answers:  stepping into the sun, from a cold shadow.  Calm.  Peaceful.  Motivating.  Like a warm hug.  Our next question was what can you do to bring yourself closer to Him and His love when you are not feeling it.  Some of their answers were: listening to music, texting a friend, serving others, spending time in nature, smiling, going for a run, reading scriptures and praying.  Their examples are priceless.  The young women of our stake know!  They are part of the hastening of the Lord's work.  They are using their testimonies to strengthen their families and friends, they are reaching out to those in need and seeking personal revelation to bless the lives of others.  I just love that I get to work with the Young Women and their leaders.  It's no surprise to me that the Lord would choose them to be the face of his Sacrament meeting. 

With two missionaries out right now, I can't help but share a couple examples from their missions.  

The first one is when Bradley was in his second area in Peru called Moquegua.  This area had been closed for a while and Brad and his companion Elder Hoff were in charge of reopening it.  There wasn't a place for missionaries to live yet, so they were staying two miles outside of Moquegua, living in what he called "the closet" of some other Elders.  Their President put them in charge of finding their own place to live and someone to cook meals for them. They don't have meal cards in his mission, they have "pensions" or people who are paid to cook for the missionaries, so he didn't even have any money to buy food- he was just using his own personal funds for meals.  Which proved to be kind of challenging.  Then the ward situation was pretty crazy as well, the Bishop had basically gone inactive and the ward was barely getting by with very few attending church.  These two missionaries, sacrificing a lot of comforts of home, walking (sometimes running) up to 10 miles a day participated in the hastening of the Lord's work.  We loved hearing about their progress and looked forward to the week's numbers- how many were attending church that week and how many they were teaching.  They had developed a system to help the members reach out to family members and friends and were even bringing in new friends to church.  The numbers grew SO FAST! It was very exciting for all of us.  But more important than those numbers was hearing about the hearts.  The souls who were brought to Christ was even more astounding.  We loved hearing about the Bishop going back to church.  Brad's sweet testimony of the 11 year old boy he baptized and got to witness passing the sacrament for the first time, while thinking about his little brother, Jack who he was missing back here in Kaysville doing the same thing.  The generous sacrifice of a family who offered their newly finished second floor allowing Brad and Elder Hoff to live in their home, within the area, shortening their walking time each day significantly.  So many Peruvians' lives were changed for the better because of the Gospel.  And just as impressive to me as the growing numbers of that area, was seeing what this work did for Brad.  His first area had been a very difficult area.  Living conditions were new and hard, and he had a tough companion who he could barely communicate with.  He was not in a good place spiritually.  You would think that the stress of this new situation and the responsibility of reactivating almost an entire ward would have pushed him over the edge, but it did the opposite.  It gave him a fire that is still burning SO strong.  He felt the power of the Holy Ghost like he had never felt it before as he was teaching.  He experienced the gift of tongues with his new Spanish.  He learned how to pray and really listen.  He learned how to do the Lord's WORK!  Who knows how many more lives have been touched since then.  Exponential growth.

In Texas, Luke had a special experience teaching his friend, Sep.  We heard a lot about Sep and the process leading up to his baptism.  We got to see the pictures of Luke and his companion next to Sep in his white jumpsuit.  It was very exciting for all of us. Then a couple weeks ago, we received a picture of Luke's friend Sep in white shirt and tie. This time standing next to someone else who was wearing baptismal clothes, with the caption, "Sep got to help teach someone in Friendswood".  The man he and his companion taught and brought to the waters of baptism just weeks before, was able to help bring someone else.  This made Luke so happy.  It's just awesome.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of witnessing my daughter, Kelly, being sealed to the man of her dreams.  The sealer was amazing and said so many inspired things that touched me knowing how much they would mean to Kelly.  She will love that I'm talking about this, but about two years ago, at the age of 20, we found out she had gone through menopause (among a plethora of other medical issues).  Those two years of painstaking effort ended in the devastating conclusion that she probably will not be able to have her own children.  The doctors are out of ideas.  With this in mind, the words, "multiply and replenish the earth" as they were kneeling across the altar, could have stung a little and admittedly did for me a bit, but Kelly and Devan felt differently.  They recognize that the Lord has a Plan for them.  They are unwavering in their faith and know that the Lord will provide the best circumstances for the outcome HE desires.  They are very hopeful and know that one way or another they will be parents.  I'm sure there are days that are heavy, but their testimonies are carrying them. Elder Rasband says: "I recognize that in the midst of the good news of the gospel, there are those who struggle, who have faith challenges, doubts, and questions that seem to have no answers. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is the answer. Start with Him. Look for His hand in your life. Listen to Him. “Let not your heart be troubled,” He said in His last hours to His disciples before Gethsemane, before carrying His cross through the streets of Jerusalem, before Golgotha, where He completed His atoning sacrifice—what only He, the Begotten Son of God, could do." s

Elder Rasband encourages us to "stand tall as Christ's disciples, eyewitnesses of the fulfillment of prophecy, both ancient and modern."  Are there areas of our daily lives that we could stand taller?  Do we carry the majesty of this Work in our hearts, recognizing the power of the Holy Ghost and Christ's Church in the world and more specifically in individual hearts.  It's really incredible.  What can we do to participate in this work?  I challenge you to ask our Father your role in His Plan.  Ask Him to show you your unique gifts and the way you can help in the hastening. 

Elder Rasband also said, "Whatever is on your to-do list, give equal time, not spare time, to the Lord in personal scripture study, family study of Come, Follow Me, prayer, Church callings, ministering, partaking of the sacrament, worshipping in the temple, and pondering the things of God.  Our Lord and Savior has said, “Learn of me … and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Take Him at His word. And give Him equal time."

Testimony

LUNCH WITH THE BARBARAS
I got to meet up (since they didn't pick me up like they said they would) with them at Kneaders on Monday for lunch.  I was really excited about this and it did not disappoint.  We had fun talking about everything.  They helped me with all my dumb little problems and they got to complain about the political issues they wanted.  It was great!  We need to make this a regular thing- I'm clicking subscribe and save :).  5-19-25

ERIKA'S LAST CONCERT
This was kind of sad realizing this is probably her last concert.  She did so good!  I've been so proud of her and her hard work to develop this talent.  She plays so well and loves it so much.  I wish she didn't have such a dumb teacher.  The concert was great- I loved her songs- even the middle one she said she didn't think we would like.  We got to go to Dylan's to celebrate and then took her back for the second half.  She did awesome!  5-19-25

FIELD DAY
Another field day has come and gone!  I still love it though!  I brought my canopy, then babysat Mrs. Lindsey's class while they got ready for the teacher's blow up costume race, watched that, then headed out to run the Plinko station.  This station was kind of lame.  Plinko with punishments instead of rewards.  Kelli Knapp and I made it a little more fun, turning it into a race, but with how lame the bubbles/bandaid holder awards were- it was difficult.  After that we had lunch.  It was then that I was trying to figure out how to help Kelly with their little dilemma in Cananda.  We had to fix some issues with Jack's pump also.  Then I went back for round two of field day but as a chaperone for Sadie's class.  This was pretty fun.  Also stressful.  There were a lot of tears, Zoie ran off, many trips to the bathroom- thankfully Jack was here to help with that a little.  Erika was there too, making it more fun- just laughing at all the drama.  We did the snowcones first, then the big slide, then some water fun and ANOTHER big slide.  After that it was all downhill.  I think it would have been better to go the other direction- do the lame stuff first.  Oh well.  We really should have ended a few rounds early, they were so done, but we stuck it out.  Mrs. Piper was hilarious.  "I'm so sorry you didn't get a bandaid holder" over the mic.  It was good it was time to go home.  I went out to get my canopy and go home, but ended up helping clean up a bit before I was able to take down the canopy.  Unfortunately, my hand got stuck in the canopy as we were folding it shut.  My helper ladies were pushing so hard and I was dying, so I asked them to pull back for a second.  When I was finally able to dislodge my skin from the pinched position it had been in too long, it was all white and gray!!  It  looked SO GROSS!!!  I got just the slightest wave of yuck when I looked at it, but tried to stay tough and not cry.  Thankfully, I was able to tell Erika, she helped me put the canopy in the bag and insisted on dragging it back to the car before I was able to burst into tears.  It was SO CRAZY!!  But we went home, the feeling came back after an intense burning sensation and all was well.  5-20-25

WALKING FIELD TRIP WITH MOLLY- GAILEY PARK
This ended up being a lot of fun.  Erika was already home for the summer so she came with us.  We walked over to Gailey Park where I tried to get Molly to go have fun.  She wasn't interested, but we did get to enjoy her company for most of it.  She did the tug of war and then sat and listened to me talk to my friends.  But it was pretty short.  We headed home kicking rocks through each other's legs as we walked.  I love spending time with Molly and love that she lets me.  5-21-25

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
We did it!!  We survived Erika's last year of Junior High and Jack's first!  We survived Molly's 3rd grade and Sadie's kindergarten year!  It was a good one for the most part, but it's time for a break!  Last day was pretty normal.  I was able to hang out with my big kids most of the morning and then got some pictures of Molly and Mrs. Johnson after the flag ceremony.  Mrs. Piper was at her son's graduation so we didn't get one with her, but Sadie has only expressed how sad she is to leave Mrs. Piper and Caroline.  We'll see how next year goes!  5-22-25

SYRACUSE TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE
This was a fun kickoff to the summer.  We had to wait for ERika to do some slave labor for Mr. K for a better grade, but then we got all dressed up and made our way to the temple.  This was a really pretty temple!   We loved all the little daisies everywhere.  They were in every little detail.  I love being in the temple with our whole family.  It's fun that the littles can come.  We went to Moe's after and thought about Luke while we were there :).  5-23-25

DATE NIGHT
Second date night in two weeks, we were happy :).  We went to see the new Mission IMpossible movie- Final Reckoning.  Which we LOVED!  It was so good!  So intense!  Well, the first half hour was a little slow.  I was starting to be disappointed, but the rest did NOT disappoint!!  I'm sad if this is the last one.  After the movie we went to Applebee's and raved about the movie :).  Good times.  5-23-25

SO PRODUCTIVE
I hope this Saturday was a symbol of how productive this summer might be :).  We got so much done!  We cleaned up the game room- which was full of Kelly and Devan's gifts, toys, bugs, and more bugs.  We brought in the furniture Bro. Hedin donated to Bradley and set up that half of the room for him. I think it looks pretty good. We took a trailer full of game room stuff and bags of clothes and toys that have been in the garage for almost a year to the D.I. and then to the dump for the pool table top.  Then Erika, Molly and I moved a lot of the games up to the bookshelves and the books down to the game shelves.  It was a lot of work!  But so nice to have it done!  5-24-25

MEMORIAL DAY
We were not able to convince ourselves that we wanted to get up at 7:30 for the family graves and breakfast, which I'm sad about.  Noah could have, he was up running around getting ready for his camping trip!  He and a bunch of his friends went down to Moab to camp together.  I was so proud of him and the planning it took to pull that off!!  Very cool.  He left around 9:00 and we did manage to drag ourselves up to the church for a ward breakfast.  This ended up being pretty fun.  I sat by Tammy and then Margie joined us.  I got to talk to Emily and Barbara Farnes.  The kids got to play kickball most of the time so that was fun for them!  I was glad we had the ball in the car.  After the breakfast, we all did our jobs singing and dancing around to music.  Then we met up with Grandpa at Nana's grave!  This ended up being a really nice time.  We were able to sit down on the grass and eat M&Ms while we chatted.  Kinda nice.  AFter that, we came home to finish the house but ended up playing board games and sitting around.  Charity and Hunter showed up so we made a quick- like literally nine minutes- trip to the Red Balloon store- it was closing.  That was fun.  Jack found some money in a corner of his account and bought some new legos :).  Then we came home and got ready for the Barbecue that I had planned the night before :).  The bbq was fun, we had Grandpa come along with Charity and Hunter.  We roasted hotdogs and ate ribs and my yummy Ramen salad with some fruit.  It was perfect!  Then we played Viking Chess for the rest of the evening.  Pretty fun!  I thought it was a great day!  5-26-25

MOON PARK
We had to get out- it was getting kind of harry here, we'd played all the board games we could play and it was time to get some Vitamin D and pretzel bites.  So we got ourselves out the door and picked up some gluten free muffins for Jack, then Pretzel bites for everyone else and then Moon Park to play.  It was fun to listen to everyone getting along- it's a different dynamic with Noah gone.  But lots of fun still.  5-27-25

MANGO STICKY RICE WITH CHRISTIE
This was a nice little outing.  We FINALLY went and got some Mango Sticky Rice.  Christie is the best and I loved talking to her.  We need to do this more often.  5-27-25

LUNCH WITH JULIE
I finally got to see Julie!!  We met up at El Habanero in Magna for some Mexican.  It was so great to visit with her.  We had lots to catch up on!!  I love Julie- always love being with her!!  5-28-25

DATE WITH MOLLY
Molly and I got to go on our date Wednesday.  WE went and saw the movie Lilo and Stitch- live action.  I was a little nervous about how this movie would be, but I was pleasantly surprised.  5-28-25

LUNCH WITH STEPHANI WOLSEY
This was a highlight this week, even though I went out to lunch too much.  We met up at her house, walked over to Orlandos and talked constantly with no silence for a good two hours.  One of the cool parts was being able to introduce Stephanie to Richelle Pearce.  They are both so crucial in our survival with Jack's diabetes it was cool to have them collide.  While we were eating, the waitress brought Stephanie and I a plate of Strawberry Nachos and said it was from another patron.  Gee, I wonder who :).  Richelle and Jeff along with the Nyes (I think), had ordered it for us- so generous!!  Very fun and very yummy!  It made me think of Molly and now I want to go take her to have some.  Stephanie is an angel.  I am so lucky to have her in my life.  I am starting to think that the reason I was ever acquainted with LIndsay Lauder was so that I could connect with Stephanie now.  Very cool.  5-29-25

MINISTERING My new partner Rebekah Flindt was feeling really motivated to do our ministering and so I sent out a message to our people, Lyndsee Harper and Marianne Barth and we were able to schedule visits.  Both on Thursday night.  I really enjoyed talking with Lyndsee.  She is really sweet and easy to get along with.  Rebekah was hilarious here, and brought up some tough subjects- Utah Mormons being one of them.  But we had a nice time talking and getting eaten by mosquitos.  Marianne was nice to see as well.  I really get to see her a lot with all the hair stuff, but it was a nice change of pace to have Rebekah there and talk the way we did.  I am happy when I do my ministering.  I need to remember that.  5-29-25

APRIL 2025

KELLY BRIDALS
This was a really special day!  Kelly and I drove down to the Capitol building in a blizzard!  I guess I should go back- Kelly had scheduled her pictures for the 3rd, but once we planned Yellowstone, we didn't want to have to compete with that, so I asked her (and paid for) to move it to the 1st.  Well mother nature pulled a little April Fool's joke on her and made it SNOW!!  In April!  I mean, we've seen real snow in April before, but this was really in the middle of a lot of sunny days!  So it was such a surprise.  Kelly had wanted to get some photos with the cherry blossoms out on the grounds of the capitol building.  We were trying to stay positive all the way there and hopeful that we could still get some, even some outside, good shots of her and Devan, regardless of the weather.  So we pulled up to the capitol, Mandy was there, having walked up after parking and then offered to park my car also- super nice!- so I could go in with Kelly.  We got in, made our way up to the spot Kelly had chosen for their "first look" pictures.  Devan and the photographer were waiting.  This was so neat!  I loved being there for this and seeing these two enjoying each other.  Kelly looked amazing!!  They were so cute the whole time, posing for all their pictures, nobody complained, they just had so much fun and made it such a pleasant experience.  I loved it.  Mandy and I got to talk a little which was also fun even though she was feeling really horrible I guess.  We made our way outside and got some amazing pictures in the snowy spring.  BEAUTIFUL cherry blossom pictures, with all white sky and background!  Nobody would ever be able to recreate these!  They were so perfect!!  I loved how they all turned out!!  Kelly's feet had to be freezing though!  Poor girl.  4-1-25

YELLOWSTONE 2025
This was kind of a funny trip.  By the time we went we knew that Yellowstone was not going to be open which was a huge bummer, but we'd gotten such a great deal from Ruth on the rooms, we couldn't change it.  We decided to just make the most of it, and I really think we did.  We had a nice ride up there.  We stopped in Idaho Falls to go to Chillis with the Idaho Mayneses which was fun for everyone except Jack.  He doesn't love eating out and he had gotten so hungry that he was in a really bad mood.  He basically just laid his head down the whole time til Nate was able to get him to eat.  Poor guy.  But we had fun with Rob, Heather and Hannah.  Good times.  We got up to the resort in West Yellowstone with plenty of time for dinner and swimming.  Everyone was happy.  We had two rooms while we were there, one for all the girls and one for all the boys and mom.  It was tricky to figure that all out, but that was how it worked best.  The girls were down the hall from us which wasn't super convenient, but we made do.  We were able to go exploring a little while we were up there, took a little drive where we saw some buffalo and had a little snowball fight- yet still snowy.  We walked through the little town, hitting the few gift shops that were open.  Felt a little like a ghost town except that a few stores were setting up for the big season in a few weeks.  We spent a lot of time swimming, laying around watching General Conference in our room, hot tubbing for some of us and at the Grizzly World (or whatever it was called).  We got passes that worked for two days so we went twice.  The bears were so fun to watch!  And they were so much more active the second day.  Noah got lots of pictures of them, which was super fun.  We saw otters which the girls loved- one was chewing on it's tail.  Wolves were cool- not super active, but cool to see.  And LOTS of ravens.  We really did have a lot of fun though.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I had my moment where I overthought about how this trip could be perceived as really lame, especially to the newbies, but it was fine- I worked out of it.  We had some really special study time moments talking about what Jesus would tell Heavenly Father as our advocate.  And played some rousing rounds of four on the couch.  Got a little tense at times.  We survived.  And really, 11 people crammed into 2 rooms for fourish days--- we did awesome :).  I did my questionnaire on the way home.  We did the thing where we have everyone pick a question:

Nate: What is your favorite restaurant?

Nate- Blue Fin

Me- The Habit

Hunter- Cheesecake Factory

Charity- Chick-fil-a

Devan- Hip Hop Chicken
Kelly- Pizza, Buffalo Wild Wings, Olive Garden

Noah- B dubs

Erika- Zupas

Jack- The Habit

Molly- Ihop and The Habit and Dylans

Sadie- Carl's Jr

Me: What's one thing you want to accomplish in the next year?

Nate- Read every book of scripture all the way thru

Me- workout everyday for a while month

Hunter- Jujitsu group

Charity- do a pull-up

Devan- go on lots of fun adventures and have fun with Kelly
Kelly- be a good wife and learn the job in AK and work hard at it

Noah- Sub 16 hurdle time

Erika- make the high school basketball team

Jack- perfect A1c

Molly- make friends on my soccer team and learn to save money

Sadie- be a flower girl and do my tithing

Hunter: If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?

Nate- Sweden

Me- Australia

Hunter- Greece

Charity- Greece

Devan- Europe

Kelly- Amsterdam

Noah- Alaska Cape Town South Africa

Erika- Norway

Jack- Back in Time

Molly- Australia Peru Alaska

Sadie- Florida

Charity: IF you could be any animal what would you be?

Nate- perigrene falcon

Me- Penguin

Hunter- Cheetah

Charity- orca

Devan- Bald eagle

Kelly- panda

Noah- elephant

Erika- orca

Jack- dinosaur

Molly- horse or wolf

Sadie- koala and giraffe

Devan: What is your biggest pet peeve?

Nate- Laziness

me- people calling adult kids "kiddos"

Hunter- when people don't offer him their leftover

Charity- when people say something mean and say it's a joke

Devan- Slow drivers or people that don't walk straight

Kelly- when people cheat in games

Noah- When people ask if I'm okay, fake people

Erika- when people ask how you're doing and don't listen to your answer, loud chewing

Jack- diabetes stuff

Molly- when people know what bugs me and do it

Sadie- when people eat something in a room and don't wash it

Kelly: Which Disney/Pixar movie would you choose to be in?

Nate- finding Nemo

me- brave little toaster

Hunter- Brother Bear- throwing spears

Charity- Inside Out

Devan- Star Wars

Kelly- Bug's Life

Noah- How to train your Dragon

Erika- Cars

Jack- Spider Man

Molly- Tinkerbell, The Little Mermaid or Bluey

Sadie- Tinkerbell

Noah: What is your favorite kind of tree?

Nate- Bonzai

Me- Oak Tree

Hunter- Red Oak

Charity- Willow

Devan- Dark Oak

Kelly- Redwood
Noah- bush tree, mystree

Erika- Willow

Jack- Oak tree

Molly- Cherry blossom

Sadie- Drooping tree where the leaves are down

Erika: if you could have any car what would you choose?

Nate- truck

me- Lambourghini

Hunter- dodge challenger

Charity- Forerunner

Devan- Ram Trx

Kelly- Time travel car- delorian from bttf

Noah- school bus

Erika- cool truck

Jack- truck

Molly- dream house car

Sadie- ice cream truck

Jack: What dinosaur would you be?

Nate- triceratops

Me- mosasaurus

Hunter- stegosaurus

Charity- brontosaurus

Devan- Raptor

Kelly- triceratops that befriends raptors

Noah- pteranodon

Erika- pterodactyl

Jack- T Rex

Molly- Long neck, triceratops or blue

Sadie- pterydactyl

Molly: What is your favorite animal seen on this trip?

Nate- wolf

me- bison

Hunter- bears

Charity- otters

Devan- fish

Kelly- grizzly bear or otter sucking his tail

Noah- bison

Erika- bison

Jack- wolves

Molly- all of them

Sadie- turtles

Sadie: What is your favorite kind of weather?
Nate- cool summer morning

me- fall rain

Hunter- sunny

Charity- summer rain

Devan- warm rain

Kelly- lightning storms

Noah- sun but not super hot but like fall sun when it's fall and there's sun, wait change mine to acid rain

Erika- sunny rain

Jack- sunny

Molly- warm actually magic weather

Sadie- raining hard

What was your most memorable moment of the trip?

Kelly- snowball fight on the sid eof the road and icicle hunting

Charity- opening the door and taking pictures of the buffalo as we drove past

Nate- study time Sunday night

me- swimming and the bears

Devan- Four on the couch when me and Noah were crashing out, and fishing

Noah- fishing or when we were driving thru the bison taking pictures, when Molly let me go swimming with her

Erika- looking at the bison

Hunter- when Kelly threw a snowball at Charity's crotch

Jack- seeing the buffalo

Sadie- when Noah put Erika's phone in his pants and when we were panicking

Molly- everything

ERIKA SET APART FOR STAKE YOUTH COUNCIL

They finally did it!!  We're so proud of Erika and her willingness to accept this calling.  She's going to be awesome.  She had her first meeting also and it did not disappoint- wink wink-- kinda funny.  She's going to be great!  4-13-25

NOAH NEURO-PSYCH EXAM

This was pretty fun :).  Noah got to play with blocks, look at pictures and memorize lists while I sat in the waiting room listening to the Saints Book.  He did great!!  One more day of it.  4-14-25

TRACK

Our track season for both Noah and Erika has been amazing!!  I'm so far behind on my blog that I cannot update on specific meets and times and stuff which is a huge bummer!!  But they've been doing so great!!  They've had lots of support from grandma and Simon, me and Nate and even Kelly and Devan :).  Fun stuff!  4-15-25

CULTURAL NIGHT
This ended up being really cool!  We got to see so much talent and everything pointing to Christ!  I actually really loved it.  I hope we do it again sometime.  Erika had played her cello with a few other string instruments and it was compiled together to be played as one song and it was cool, but would have been better if we'd been able to just listen to them all play!  But very cool.  4-16-25

MOLLY'S 3rd GRADE PROGRAM

Molly was so cute in her program!  Did her part perfectly!  She knew all the songs and sang her little heart out.  I really enjoyed this one- lots of fun songs!! 4-17-25

PAIN

Erika found herself in an excruciating amount of pain this weekend.  She did NOT feel well for most of the evening Friday night.  She had a moment that felt especially awful, but the pain did not go away.  She played her game in the morning, but all afternoon was just writhing.  The poor girl.  

DAVIS INVITE

This was a big deal this year!  Nate had volunteered to cook the meat for the sponsors this year! BIG JOB!!  Then he decided he wanted to try selling sandwiches outside of the entrance as well.  So he was VERY busy, running around getting things done.  With a big smile on his face.  I know because I was sitting across the way in the ticket booth watching him work.  He did awesome.  It was a crazy busy day but we survived!  That night was Kelly's Bachelorette party!  I'd give details but I wasn't invited :).  4-19-25

ER FOR ERIKA

Once we were done with selling meat and the ticket booth on Saturday, I'd had enough of Erika's pain and decided to take her to the Urgent Care.  They did some tests and then decided she needed to go to the ER.  We walked over there, they ran some more of the same tests, plus an ultrasound (that they call three ultrasounds, the weirdos).  They were able to determine that it wasn't her appendix or gallbladder but that she'd had an ovary that burst.  There was a lot of fluid floating around so they told her she'd be in pain for a while.  This was a huge understatement.  About a month later and she's still having off days with pain.  Poor thing.  4-19-25

EASTER SUNDAY!

I really wanted to do Easter baskets and stuff on Saturday, but it just didn't work out with soccer games and Davis Invite.  So we did it all on Sunday.  Charity and Hunter slept over.  Kelly was here.  We did creamed eggs on toast.  It was a good day.  I was trying to make it more Christ centered so I assigned everyone to come prepared ot share something or an activity or something about Christ.  I think it went pretty well.  4-20-25

ERIKA ON VARSITY
Erika was picked to dress and play on Varsity this week, the same game that Kelly had volunteered to announce!  This was so cool!  So after a huge lead, Devin put her in the game and seconds later, SHE SCORED!!!  It was so much fun!!  Kelly got to announce her first shot/score on the Varsity team!  Very cool stuff.  Erika played awesome in that game and in the next one!  So proud of her!  4-22-25

SETTING UP THE CANOPY

I wasn't there, and I didn't help at all, but it took them like five hours so I had to document that Nate, Kelly and Devan all set up the canopy!  Not the arrangement we'd signed up for, but they did it!!  It looked AMAZING!!  4-23-25

SADIE KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM

It was a tough decision, but I decided I needed to be with Kelly on her wedding morning, getting all ready.  So I chose to go to Sadie's program the morning before, during the assembly performance of it.  This was SO FUN!!  I had Jack, Erika and Kelly with me, we all LOVED Sadie's performance!  She did so good!  She knew all the words and got so into all the fun actions- it was so much fun!!  Her beautiful smile and saying her part perfectly!  I loved it!!  I was so glad I got to see her!  She did amazing.  4-24-25

FLOWERS

We went down to Trader Joes after Sadie's performance and got all the pretty yellow, white and green flowers we could find.  We even ran into Mandy while we were there :).  Then we went to the D I for some vases, ran into Mandy there as well :).  Then that evening after Erika's game, we all put together the centerpieces.  It was actually so much fun!!  They weren't professional by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so fun doing it.  Sierra, Matt and Meg and Chris were here to keep us company and help take things up to the Church which was so nice.  We had taken a lot of it the day before, which was so good, but still a lot to take up there.  We were waiting for the go ahead from the Samoan/Mexican wedding that they were done and once we got the word we were up there.  Unfortunately, it felt like we kicked them out!  But it was a LOT of work!  We ended up cleaning up after their reception, moving all the tables and chairs to one side of the room to mop and then back to the other side to mop the other half of the gym.  SO much work!  We finished cleaning up their stuff and then started on ours.  We had help from the Brenchley's and bridesmaids, and then Sarah Laramore and Barbara Noriega as well.  Our one sad moment was when Kelly's mirror fell off the easel and cracked.  She was so sad!  It was really heartbreaking.  Luckily we found one on Walmart really quickly and we'd basically solved the problem minutes after it happened.  She just needed to write on the new one sometime tomorrow :).  But it all looked so good! So awesome!  We really couldn't have done it without them all.  We were all SO pleased with how it turned out though and very excited for the next day!  I think we got home around 1:30am!!  SO crazy.  4-25-25

KELLY AND DEVAN'S WEDDING DAY

This day can only be summed up as perfect!  It went SO WELL.  I have said that so many times and it is so true.  We only had a few tiny hang ups.  Kelly was just giddy getting ready.  She was bouncing around reminding everyone that she is getting married today!  So fun!  I had been trying to figure out how to do a video with their kid pictures and the ones Devan had given me were way too small so it wasn't working at all.  I feel bad that I was working on that quite a bit that morning, but luckily, I finally moved on and we made do without.  But it was cute to see Kelly bouncing around, so happy.  She passed around notes to everyone, gave me a sweet gift, and was just a little ray of sunshine.  As we were walking out the door to make it to the temple on time, Jack announced that he was almost out of insulin.  We paused, reloaded his pump, and THEN left for the temple.  We got there a few minutes late, but it was okay.  I got a little anxious at this point and needed some calming, said a prayer and seconds later Lynn was sitting by me, laughing and talking about kids and this crazy job as parents.  It was nice.  Then I ran into Debbie McColley who gave me the warmest hug.  It was great.  I was calmed down.  Things moved very slowly after this, which was SO nice.  The temple workers are so amazing.  They led us to the Bride's dressing room, Kelly and I got to talk and laugh as she got ready.  We loved that the temple worker informed her that she "chose right!" when she saw she was wearing her temple dress for the sealing.  So cute.  Then we split up again.  I got to go in and talk with family waiting in the waiting room.  I got to talk with Maddie, Becky and Jen, then Brent and Sarah came in and I got the biggest hug from Brent- that was nice.  I got to introduce him to Devan's parents.  It was such a calm, peaceful wait.  I loved it!  We paused for a minute waiting for a couple family members on Devan's side, but then we were escorted to the sealing room.  I LOVED this part!!  Nate sat down next to me, just cuz there was a chair there, we both thought they'd make him go back to the witness seats, but they never did!  Which was SO awesome.  We got to sit there holding hands and loving the moment together.  I had to whisper to Nate, "How did we get here?"  It feels like just yesterday Nate and I were sitting in the hallway of the Salt Lake temple, outside the 2C sealing room, telling our sealer what we loved about each other, then sitting on the couch in a pool of my tears before kneeling across the alter together.  Those are some of my most cherished memories.  They are so vivid still.  And yet, here we are.  Sitting next to the couch/pool of Kelly's tears, watching her making the Everlasting Covenant of marriage with the Lord and Devan.  So cool.  I really loved it.  COuldn't believe it is here already, but I definitely loved it!!  Their sealing was amazing.  I loved that the sealer talked about the Initiatory blessings and Heavenly Mother (things Kelly and I had been talking about on the way to the temple! that were very important to her).  It was hard when he talked about "multiplying and replenishing the earth" just knowing the hard road they might have ahead on this matter, but also knowing that they are tough and are geared up and ready for that challenge.  Everything about their sealing was so wonderful.  I loved it.  At the end, Nate nad I were talking and found out the same line had stood out to both of us about "presiding in gentleness", which I thought was interesting.  We got to hug them a few times, everyone walked by and hugged and congratulated, it was so fun.  Then I got to go back to the Bride's dressing room with Kelly and help her get in her wedding dress and touch up her makeup and hair.  This was so awesome also.  I loved it.  It was fun to come out to the large group of Kelly and Devan supporters/family waiting for them.  I was handed a sick, feverish Sadie, which caught me off guard and was really the only challenge we faced that day, but we carried on with the grand exit, pictures, and more pictures just fine.  Sweet Aunt Jen offered to get some medicine for Sadie (and of course took some orders for a toy pony for Sadie and some candy for Jack).  We met up with her at the luncheon.  Kelly and Devan were only 20 minutes late :).  We ate the delicious Cafe Rio food and enjoyed visiting with everyone.  This was a really nice relaxing part of the day, no pressured speeches or anything, just sitting and eating.  We were anxious for our part of the evening, but this was a highlight.  After the luncheon we hurried home for the food and things to finish setting up the reception.  We got up there, got things done- thanks to lots of helpers- Sarah Laramore, Barbara Noriega, Suzanne Blanketship, Cathie Nybo, Krista Johnson, who am I forgetting?- and it was all ready to go when Kelly and Devan got there at 6:00!  I had kind of maxed out and had promised Sadie some cuddle time, so we made our way to the far foyer couch and cuddled for a while.  My dad joined us and it was fun talking with him about how awesome Kelly and Devan are and what a great day this was for them.  I loved that.  I was pretty prepared to just sit there all night and might have enjoyed that enough, but thankfully, Paige came and got me because, "Someone needed to see me".  She didn't say who or how I would know them, but when I got in the gym it was Mrs. Ashliman!!  I was so happy she had shown up and that she'd requested to see me!  I got to talk to her for a while.  SO cool that she would come- it's been over a decade!!  That's just too cool.  By then I was in the room.  I may as well make the rounds a little.  Sadie was asleep on the couch all comfy.  I got to talk with Nancy a little, then Kim Ball!! Then Courtney!!!  The wardies made it- I got to talk to Shelly Last and Margie.  It was so fun!  I only wish I'd been able to talk shorter with people so that I could have said hi to more people?  I don't know.  Seemed like things went really fast because all of a sudden we were doing the shoe game, cutting the cake and throwing the bouquet!  Then the dance party started!  This was a LOT of fun.  The Ritchies showed up.  So amy good things!!  I really loved their reception.  I was exhausted of course, but I really loved it!!  The cake was to die for!!  I did get a slice of that.  We ahd pulled pork sliders, baked potato bar, pineapple, caesar salad, and lots of dessert bars!  Apparently we did really good on amounts of everything.  There was enough food/leftovers, but not so much leftover that we didn't know what to do with it.  So that was awesome.  Nate did great on the meat.  We had our exciting send off with the sparklers.  Took some coordinating while we waited for the newlyweds, but worked out SO WELL!!  I couldn't believe it!  It was so cute when she got in the car with her "HUSBAND" and less cute when they drove off.  Kinda sad really.  But I am so happy for them.  They are going to have a beautiful life together.  They left for their stay up in Ogden.  We stayed and cleaned up for a VERY long time.  I think we got home around 10:00 though, so that was good.  4-25-25

March 2025

 ERIKA LACROSSE

Erika did it!  She decided to play Lacrosse!  I think she's really going to enjoy it.  Her coach is already very impressed with how good she is and she's reached her goal of becoming a "Swing player".  So that's fun.  We're excited for a fun season!  3-5-25

QUAD SHOWER
It came!  This was a much-anticipated event... lots of fun drama... and we were excited for Kelly and Devan to have their moment.   It ended up being so cute!  Waffles with all the toppings.  A cute flower buffet to create your own bouquets.  Fun games and visiting.  And lots of gifts!  Fun stuff.  3-8-25

CHARITY'S 23rd BIRTHDAY!
Charity chose Texas Roadhouse for her birthday party and since the Layton one was packed, we made everyone go down to the Bountiful one.  Unfortunately, it was just as packed!  We sat there for about an hour and a half.  It wasn't anyone's favorite to wait, but we did get to chat a little.  We got to have Steve there for a little bit, but again, with the wait, it was too much.  Jack also met his match, and really wasn't happy for a lot of it.  But we loved celebrating Charity and having that time for her.  They finally brought my food while I was out getting Molly at her friend's birthday party and they also sang to Charity, so that was good.  Good times.  3-8-25

WARD CONFERENCE
Martha was out of town this week for our Country Lane Ward Conference meeting, so I did her part.  It was a little crazy.  I was SO nervous.  But I think it went okay.  I'm no Martha, but I think it passed.  I hope it wasn't too bad.  3-9-25

ERIKA'S BASKETBALL TEAM BANQUET
Erika struggled with where to be that night, with a lacrosse game on top of it.  But she made it to the banquet and got her special blanket and some recognition for the fun season.  She is going to miss Christine and Bree.  But what a great season!!  They did so well!  3-13-25

PRESIDENTS DINNER
We had our dinner with all the YW Presidents.  Martha did all the work picking up the food from zupas which was nice.  I showed up late because I had Erika's Basketball Team Banquet.  It was a good little meeting.  I've got to get myself in a place where I can listen and not think about what I want.  There are some opinions I don't agree with and the misinterpretation of the Worldwide Broadcast with Emily Freeman is crazy.  This will be an interesting calling I think.  We'll see how it goes.  3-13-25

PINEWOOD DERBY
Molly, with activity day girls and boys, got to participate in a Pinewood Derby :).  These are always so fun and get so many in the ward to come out.  Molly's Snickers candy bar was so cute and did pretty well on the track too!!  So fun!  3-14-25

KELLY'S FRIEND SHOWER- TANGLED THEME
Mine and Charity's hard work and planning finally game to fruition Saturday!  We threw Kelly's friend shower.  It took a little preparation but was pretty easy to pull off.  She had a really good turn out and it was really fun to see who came.  SO many friends.  She really does have a lot of support in life.  Makes me happy for her.  We had a lot of fun with the question game Charity made and everyone put advice on wooden hearts for the picture frame.  We ate soups (not hazelnut, but that's okay), pineapple, purple grapes, braid breadsticks, purple drink.  It was so fun!  We got these cute little purple votive candle holders, with candles and then a little flower in each as centerpieces.  Along wtih a little printout of their timeline that I made on Canva and put in the little wire stands I made.  She got lots of gifts and had a lot of fun.  The clean up was pretty quick- we had a lot of help from bridesmaids and Claire :).  It was so fun that Claire came.  She helped us clean up and then showed us some of her published books she's been making.  Then she actually came with me to take pictures of Noah's Prom group and Chick-fil-a after!!  So much fun!!  She's the best!  3-15-25

NOAH'S PROM PICTURES
I had so much fun doing pictures for Noah!  Claire came which was so fun!  She seemed stunned by how not modest the girls' dresses were.  But we had so much fun posing them and getting some fun pictures.  Noah is nice to let me do that :).  I think he had a fun time at Prom.  He seemed happy about it.  3-15-25

ST PATRICK'S DAY
I didn't get to do everything I'd planned for this day, this year, but it was still wonderful :).  We had green pancakes, I left little gifts of green things for the kids by their beds.  The leprechauns left us a treasure hunt that actually required some thinking this year.  Still fun.  Although, we have yet to escape the saddies.  Maybe one day.  The pot of gold did not disappoint!  Such a fun day!  3-17-25

JACK ENDOSCOPY
Jack and I were not looking forward to this day.  Anxious to hear whether he had celiac or not though.  Everything went really well though.  As good as we could expect.  It felt pretty early in the morning, we were up at Primary Children's, but we were able to check in, sit and relax in the waiting room, and then they called him back, got him all set up with the anesthesiologist, and off they went.  I really wish they would just let me stay in the same room, but they never do.  So dumb.  But I did get to listen to The Saints book while I was there.  Got through almost a whole volume.  Jack did awesome!  Coming out of the anesthesia was a trip :).  He was funny.  But pretty quickly.  Then we headed home.  We found out almost a week later that he did in fact have Celiac disease.  Kinda crazy.  One more thing to add to Jack's list.  He's done so well and is handling it really well so far.  3-21-25

BRENCHLEY SHOWER
This ended up being a really fun, chill shower.  We got to meet some of Devan's extended family and stood and talked for a bit.  Then got some food, played a few games and got to hear Kelly's answers about their dating and engagement, that was fun.  It was a fun time- everyone was really welcoming and fun to be with.  She got good and spoiled with gifts!  So fun though!!  We're getting closer!  3-22-25

DINNER WITH CLAIRE
We met up at our usual place- Sawadee Thai I think it's called.  We had fun talking.  It is always good to visit with Claire.  Hopefully we get to meet her puppy when she gets home from Georgia.  3-227-25

WARD SHOWER
Brooke Desmond was so sweet to offer to throw a shower for Kelly.  Christie May helped her.  They invited the entire ward!  I thought she had a really great turnout to this one.  Christie went all out on the gluten free stuff for Kelly which was so nice of her.  We had a lot of fun.  It was fun to be with everyone and get to chat with a lot of people.  I loved that Aubrey McColley and Debbie came!  So fun.  3-29-25

February 2025

ABBY WATSON'S BABY SHOWER
Charity did me the hugest favor and came to Abby's shower with me on Saturday.  We got there a little late, ate some food, watched her open gifts, chatted with Amy, and then we were off again.  Super cute shower- Abby was adorable.  We got back to Charity's house and got to talk for an hour or so.  That was so nice!  I love hanging out with Charity!  She's so fun to talk to.  It was a long ride home by myself, but a fun morning.  2-1-25

MUFASA
Kind of on a whim, Erika, Jack, Molly, Sadie and I decided to go see Mufasa at the Kaysville Theater.  Everyone seemed to like it!  Even Sadie sat there and watched most of it.  I was happy about that.  Cool movie.  I liked talking with Jack about all the details and things we noticed.  Fun times.  2-1-25

CHURCH
I extra enjoyed church today, being able to go to my own ward.  I really enjoyed Sunday School.  Michelle Johnstun was teaching and announced that the reason her husband wasn't there was because he was just diagnosed with Diabetes.  Kinda crazy.  I think it was Type 2, but I felt a connection right away.  She did a great lesson, I loved all the discussion and it felt good to be there.  I shared my story about feeling prompted to go take something to someone and I had had good intentions and wanted to do it, but then let other things come first and eventually felt like it was no longer needed.  I had missed my opportunity.  It was such a sad thing, but I know Heavenly Father will forgive me.  It's nice to know that He forgave Joseph, with the lost pages because that seems huge and if he can be forgiven of that, surely I can be forgiven of my mistakes.  I don't think I've enjoyed Sunday school that much in a long time.  2-2-25

TRAINING YW LEADERS
This was a hard thing for me, for some reason.  I really didn't feel qualified, but I tried and then I felt like I screwed it all up.  It's fine.  I'm over it for the most part, but I do wish things could go differently next time.  That felt like we were pretending.  And I didn't like hearing that the girls' lessons were boring.  I don't think that's a reason to take over teaching.  I also don't think anyone needs to move up to the next class at the school year.  Handbook.  Oh well.  2-2-25

GRANDPA RUSS'S BIRTHDAY PARTY
Grandma Ruthie had the Family Meeting a week early so that we could celebrate Russ's birthday.  This ended up being a really fun evening.  I got to talk with Dan and Adele and Meg and Ali.  Good stuff.  It was fun to have Charity and Kelly and their guys with us.  We had pizza from Papa Murphy's, which Jack won't eat, so that was a little frustrating.  I need to remember to bring him a PB and J.  Then his pump was dying and his phone was dying and all things were going haywire on the one time we forgot his bag!!  So nuts!!  Not our best obviously.  We fixed it and made things right.  It wasn't too bad.  2-2-25

LUKE'S 19th BIRTHDAY!
It's the weirdest thing to not be able to be with my kids on their birthdays.  I'm trying to get used to it, but so far not.  We did send him some fun little gifts, who knows when he'll get them.  Then he got to call and we got to talk to him for quite a while, that was nice.  I wish we could have done more.  I wish we would have sent him a sign or some food or something.  But he doesn't make it over to the mission home much anymore.  So lame.  Hopefully he had fun at FHE :).  He told us that their friend they just baptized knew it was his birthday and got him a cake and sang to him and everything!  So fun.  I'm happy they did that!  I hope he had a nice day.  2-3-25

JAZZ GAME!
We were able to get Danika Desmond to come babysit Molly and Sadie- they're not huge fans yet- and the rest of us went to the Jazz game for the free Junior Jazz night!  This was a lot of fun!  It was nice to be able to just sit there and watch!  The Jazz played so well for most of the game!  They were so close to winning and if it hadn't been for some stupid calls at the end, we would have totally won.  It was so dumb that the refs sucked it up so bad at the end.  But we had a good time.  Even got free mini hot dogs and drinks :).  2-3-25

ERIKA GAME 1
We were playing Fairfield.  The last time we played them the refs were awful and really made it unenjoyable.  We weren't quite sure how it would go, but they had only won like two games the whole season, so we weren't too worried.  Erika's team played SO WELL!!  It was a great game!  I was really proud of her!  They won by a mile and made it to the Semi-finals!!  Nate had picked up Grandma Ruthie to come watch Erika's game, which was super fun.  2-4-25

DINNER WITH GRANDMA RUTHIE AND MEG AND CHRIS
Taking Grandma Ruthie home we met up with Meg and Chris at Chubby's in Riverton for some yummy dinner!  This was a fun time.  I think there was some tension about us getting there a little late, Nate had had to help Hunter with his brakes right before and it took much longer than anticipated.  But we made it and once everyone had food in their tummies we were good to go.  That was a yummy restaurant.  Yummy fries.  2-4-25

ERIKA TEAM DINNER
We threw together a team dinner for Erika's team for Wednesday night.  Nate had catered for the Junior High teachers earlier in the day and had plenty of pulled pork for the team.  We weren't able to stay for it- watching Noah's game- but it sounded like it went well.  I'm glad we were able to help.   2-5-25

ERIKA'S ORCHESTRA CONCERT
We were able to get everyone out to Erika's concert!  Even Noah!  Super fun.  They played a song from Pirates of the Carribean and Try Everything from Zootopia!  They sounded great!  We did the unthinkable and left in the middle of the concert, but we had places to be!  I actually found out mid-concert that my presidency meeting was at 7:00 and not 8:00.  So that was fun.  I was only like 20 minutes late surprisingly.  2-6-25

PRESIDENCY MEETING
Lots of calendaring at this meeting.  I really wish there was more talking about the girls and their leaders, but maybe that's not how this calling goes.  We planned some fun things and food.  It was fine.  I am anxious to get to know our presidency better.  It's good though.  Things are good.  2-6-25

ERIKA TEAM BREAKFAST
We decided on pancakes which was super easy and nice.  Nate thankfully helped chop up the strawberries.  We got yummy syrup and got it over to the school in time for practice.  Meg's mom helped and brought parfaits.  It was a good time.  I got to talk with Christine a little about her athletic career and about our team.  She's been an incredible coach and I was happy to be able to tell her that. 2-7-25

MISSIONARY MOMS LUNCH
We had our lunch at Kneaders this time.  This was only my second time going.  Got to talk about the boys and hear about everyone else's kids.  It was nice.  And the french dip sandwich was amazing!  2-7-25

ENDOWMENT SESSION WITH DAN AND ADELE
We met up at the Ogden temple for a session Friday night.  I was so happy we were making it to the temple that day.  This was nice, but I was slightly distracted worrying about my out of control period the whole time.  Luckily everything was fine.  We were able to go to Sonora's for dinner after as well.  It's always fun talking with Dan and Adele.  Good times.  2-7-25

NANA'S BIRTHDAY
I tried to plan a little party for Nana with Steve, but apparently we didn't see it as such.  So we went and got Steve, took him out to her grave for some M&Ms and joking.  Steve also ran over to the cannon, fell and ran back.  Kelly and Devan met up with us there.  We thought Steve was coming back to our house with us, but he was not.  So we grabbed a few things at Smith's and then took him home.  I made us BLTs and we ate Frozen Snickers and Mentos to celebrate Nana :).  We did play a game, but overall it was pretty lame.  2-8-25

WARD CONFERENCES
We only had one ward conference this week.  Same building as last time, so that was a rerun.  But overall, things were great.  Bishop Dewsnup gave a nice talk.  The girls were SO lively in YW.  It was really fun to have their comments and discussion.  It was fun to have Becky's girls in there and to talk with them for a bit.  All was well.  2-9-25

PREP FOR LIFE
This was my first Prep for Life in the presidency.  We decided to do chips and dips for refreshments.  We had chips, nacho cheese, salsa.  It was pretty yummy food.  Took a lot to get the cheese warmed up and to the church, but I did fine.  It was a good time.  Brody Last and Alan led the discussion.  Things were great!  It was SuperBowl Sunday so we only had about 30 kids there, unfortunately.  And we had planned for 80!!  So lots of leftovers!!  But it was fine!!  Good times!  First time down.  2-9-25

CALL FROM THE BOYS
Brad had called and hung up the night before since he wasn't feeling great.  Then he and Luke both got on Monday early afternoon and it was a really fun phone call for like an hour and a half!  We heard all about Brad's new area.  We got to hear all about Luke's successes as well.  It was a fun time.  I was making posters for Erika's team, we were doing a big send off for them to their Semi-Final game, and of course, since I was having so much fun talking to the boys and perfecting the posters, I completely missed the send off!!!  I was SO MAD!!  It was good to talk to the boys though!  2-10-25

ERIKA'S SEMIFINAL GAME!!
This was a rough game!!  There were so many nerves in that room!  You could have cut it with a knife.  I was annoyed that the music was so loud and new and we were at the High School which felt like more pressure somehow.  It was stressy just waiting for the game to start!!  This ended up being a really rough game!  Millcreek was a good team.  They were all older and taller than our girls.  They were really rough and aggressive physically which caught us up in the beginning and then once we got so far behind, I just think our girls weren't sure how to pull out of it.  They had such a good season, they never really had to come back from behind.  They weren't experienced with that at all.  They pushed so hard though til the very last second and did so good!  Nothing to be ashamed of at all!  I just think we were a new team, with inexperienced players and way younger... just not the recipe we needed.  It was super sad when it got over and they all burst into tears.  Having the season end and their first loss at the same time was too much emotionally I think.  Erika was so cute and was able to such it up pretty fast.  She knew she did her best.  We were so proud of her and the whole team.  They really pushed it!  Plus, you can't be sad with an undefeated season!!  It was nice we had Steve's birthday party to distract us when we got home.  2-10-25

STEVE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY
We had finished late at Erika's game, didn't make it home til 20 minutes after 7:00 (the start time of the party) so Steve had been waiting here for an hour (he thought it started at 6:30) and was pretty hurt and bummed by the time we all got here.  It was a tense few minutes of trying to convince him to come back and some of us yelled, but he came back and we were able to have a nice evening with him.  I made him a chocolate Reese's cake that looked amazing, if I do say so myself, and we even played Spoons at the end of the night, so that was fun.  Charity and Kelly and their guys were here.  It was just a fun time.  I think Steve felt loved by the end of the night.  Thanks grandpa for the pizza!  Who knew Little Caesars had other toppings besides cheese and pepperoni- jk.  Good times.  2-10-25

CULTURAL NIGHT KICK-OFF
I was very relieved when I was finally able to get ahold of Becky to make sure Katherine was ready for her presentation (did I mention I was asked to invite her to present her calligraphy craft to the stake at this kick-off night).  Kind of stressy for a second there.  But she did such a great job!  I was so happy she did!  I had stayed home for Sadie- she woke up from her nap feeling horrible and Nate needed to be there.  But I heard she did amazing!!  Thankfully!  2-11-25

1st COUNSELORS
Thankfully, I finally got all my treats out to the 1st Counselors.  This was weighing on my mind and I was very relieved to get it done finally.  Brownies are not super exciting, but they worked!  2-12-25 

SEMINARY MORNINGSIDE
I got to go to the Seminary Morningside- we were in charge of refreshments.  It was super nice of Seth to provide Chick-fil-a sandwiches for all 800 kids!  Well, there weren't quite 800 so we had lots to throw around and give seconds at the end.  This was a cool fireside.  I'm trying to remember the guy's name.  Something Young.  He was a runner and got 8th place in the Olympics last year in the marathon.  Reminded me a lot of hearing from Jared Ward.  He was really great and shared a powerful testimony.  His wife did as well, talking about how he ran the New York Marathon and then WALKED a mile to church as soon as he was done.  The magical moment when he saw his old college roommate at the church they ended up at.  So cool!!  I loved that story.  I also loved seeing all those youth in that room!  Filled that stake center up!!  So many sacrificing their time to be closer to the Lord.  What a miracle and blessing to be able to witness that.  The church is in good hands.  I'm excited to see what they all do.  2-12-25

JACK'S EDUCATION APPOINTMENT
This was annoying.  I don't love taking time to go there and have them scrutinize what and how Jack eats.  He gets enough of that at home.  I was happy I told the doctor (or "Trevor") how it was.  We didn't make any changes, just talked about everything- huge eye roll- and then he quizzed us about keytones for 15 minutes after I told him we didn't need anything else.  Sorry, but when it happens, I'm just gonna look up the information.  None of it is staying in my brain and Jack is just a kid!!  So annoying.  I don't love these.  2-12-25

NOAH REC GAME
NOah had a really fun, awesome game tomnight!!  They were so close the whole game, came back from five or six point lead, then totally won the game with a shot right at the end!!  Noah had played AWESOME!!  It's such a miracle that he can play anyway and then to be scoring half the points for the team is just so fun!!  Good job NOah!!  2-12-25

VALENTINE'S DAY
Molly had slaved on her box all evening the two nights before.  She ended up with a really cute long nekced llama :).  She LOVED this box!!  We all did!!  It turned out so cute.  Complete with a little blanket on it's back.  She's been obsessed with llamas ever since Bradley got his call.  So this is fun for her.  We had a very normal Valentine's day for most of us, but Nate was doing his own little thing, obsessing over career day :).  It was pretty cute, he was making airplanes on sticks for the kids to practice controlling traffic with.  He was going all out with pens and peanuts.  Super cute.  So he was busy doing that while I made pink waffles and helped Sadie and Molly label their valentines.  Molly gave out little scratch pages with wooden scratchers and Molly gave out tiny erasers with cute foods on them.  They were both so different from our usual ring pops or fun dip we've been doing for decades.  But super fun to try something new.  We got everyone to school- not all on time, but to school- Molly even took her llama box to rehearsal, pretty cute.  During the day, I spent about four hours cleaning our house.  It was pretty messy, I got it looking really nice.  Then took food to Nate at the Junior High (he had also volunteered to bring in the food for all the volunteers), I got to sit there and talk with Erika (she was wanting some pulled pork and to avoid her friends at the moment), Nate, Mrs. Beebee and Andrew Larsen's dad.  I forget his first name.  The rest of the day was fun, we went through all the valentines which was fun- some really creative ones out there.  Sadie got slime, a toy car, a 3D printed hammerhead shark, stickers, squishies, a paper seed to plant, and a couple of suckers.  Kinda crazy.  We're evolving again.  At about 3:30 my mom showed up with some treats in a bucket.  The kids were less than thrilled with these, none of them are their favorites.  But we got to chat with Simon and Grandma.  After that, Nate and I left for our big date.  We went to Sushi Monster pretty early, were seated right away and then didn't get our food for about forty-five minutes :).  It was a nice time talking though and really didn't feel that long.  Jesse Johnson showed up and said hi- he was waiting for take out.  We ate way too much sushi- like- I felt like I was going to explode.  But we walked around station park for a while and then made our way over to the theater for the new Captain American Brave New World movie.  It was pretty good.  Hard to follow on some things, celestial body in the Indian Ocean- but that's because we didn't watch the movie Celestials.  But it was very entertaining.  We had a nice time.  When we got home we learned that Jack had taken matters into his own hands, no drivers were around, so he rode his bike in the almost freezing temps up to Dollar Tree to get a treat for his Valentine and then came home and talked Noah into driving him to her house to deliver it.  How cute is that!?  I just love it.  What a cool guy!  Kinda fun for him.  We all finished watching Hugh School Musical and then went to bed.  I don't know what was going on with my body, but it was not happy!!  I didn't fall asleep for quite a while and it was a struggle laying there twitching and feeling like garbage.  2-14-25

SIMPLOT
Kelly, Devan and I all drove Noah and some of his fellow track buddies up to Pocatello for Simplot this year!  This year was a lot of fun.  We were responsible for getting kids places, so a little more of that, but we were staying in the same hotel with them, so that helped too.  It was a little less comfortable to be in a two queen room for the three of us- felt a little weird, but we made it work.  Kelly and Devan loved the pool and hot tub.  We got to go up to the Pocatello temple, but Kelly didn't have a recommend, so we just took a picture and left :).  We spent some time at the mall, smelled EVERYTHING in Bath and Body Works while it was the only store open.  I made a little friend there.  I hope that guy finds a good group of friends and can straighten his life out.  He seemed like he was trying.  We got lots of dirty sodas at our favorite little shack.  I got my Third Wheel drink- very tasty.  Kelly's drink was gross.  I think we ate out enough to last us a lifetime.  Noah did great at Simplot! I was so proud of him and glad he got to participate in that.  He was pretty bummed when they invited him to run in a relay and then the guy who they thought wasn't going to make it, made it.  Such a bummer!  But everything went really well.  It was another great Simplot trip in the books!  2-20-25--2-22-25

MOLLY IN MATILDA
We had a great week of performances this week!  Molly did amazing!  She was in the ensemble as one of the young kids, but she shined like a true performer!!  It was fun to see her getting into it and having some fun.  This really is such a great experience for my kids when they get to do plays- they really shine.  Makes me so happy!  We had fun running the concessions stand as well, did some fun Matilda themed things like mini chocolate cakes, candy boxes that looked like books, some book keychains, green cotton candy for the dad's hair... I can't remember it all- but lots of fun!  Good job Molly!  2-26-25--3-1-25