Mother's Day

It's killing me to not put my pictures on here.  I tried uploading them directly from my camera and it won't let me upload a bulk amount, I have to do them one at a time and considering I've taken 834 pictures since the last time I was able to post them, I thought that might be a little too time consuming (who am I kidding that would drive me NUTS!).
I'm frustrated.
Hopefully I can get up to my Dad's eventually and use his computer soon.
I keep saying that.

But until then....

My Mother's Day was so amazing this year!  I LOVED IT!!  I always look forward to Mother's Day just because I'm so proud of the fact that I am a Mother, and so grateful for the blessing it is, but then when it comes, I'm always blown away by how Nate and the kids just go all out to make it my day and spoil me!  Makes the anticipation all worth it :).  No unmet expectations, it's just fabulous!

So this year, I woke up a little early, but felt that Nate's spot was empty and could smell the bacon cooking, so I just laid in bed, with a smile on my face, waiting for the day to begin :).  (usually there's a note or something telling me not to get up, but I figured they'd just assumed I'd stay :) )

Then the kids and Nate all came upstairs (to my beloved bedroom- have I mentioned how much I LOVE my new bedroom!!  It's so amazing!  It's just more than I could have ever asked for), sang "Happy Mother's Day" to me, and then gave me a plate of some fabulous eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.  It was like the Denny's Grand Slam times 10!!!  Nate had given me a little extra so that I could share :) he thinks of everything!  So I ate, they had bites, an we all just were happy, it was lovely.

After I ate, one by one, they all showered me with thoughtful gifts and cards.  There were so many sweet gifts!  I'm not sure I can list them ALL from memory... maybe I should consult my gift bags.  They wrote the sweetest cards, and said so many things that just made my heart skip.  They were so thoughtful!  They are always thoughtful, but they went all out for me this year.  I loved it.  I'm thinking of making a book of all the cards and letters they give me on Mother's Day.  I don't know if I can round up past years, but I guess I could just start now.  Anyway- they were so kind to me.  I'm not sure how I got such great kids, but I did.  I'm just so thankful for them.  I don't know what I would do wihtout them in my life.  They mean everything to me.

So we got up and got ready for Church.  We were a little late, but not too bad.  I sat with Erika and Noah for a few minutes in Erika's class (the men were all subbing for the women so nobody had the same teachers they'd had the week before... it was a little tricky to get them to go to class).  Then Nate took over and I was able to go to Relief Society.  They did a quick little lesson (just a couple minutes that I saw) and then they opened up the gym and had a huge spread of Breakfast foods!  I couldn't believe how much food they had.  It was amazing!  Lots of fruit too, which is what I mostly ate, I was still pretty full from my breakfast in bed.  But it was such a cool thing, everyone just sat around visiting and eating.  One of the ladies, whom I'd been sitting by, Anna, kind of took it upon herself to introduce me to everyone.  That was really cool, we just walked around meeting people for the first few minutes.  I loved it.  I felt so welcome.  Everyone was so nice.  Another lady (can't remember her name, unfortunately) came and "stole" Jack so that I could eat, and then he got passed around from lady to lady... we were both just so loved!  It was so fun.  I really REALLY love  our new ward. It's such a relief to feel so welcome and to feel so much fellowship.  I think we needed that.  I've really enjoyed the lessons I've heard in this ward.  I feel like the Spirit is so strong and I have just been so pleased with the feeling in this ward.  It's amazing.

So then I went to Sunday School by myself because Nate had ended up going to Primary with the kids... poor Nate couldn't peel them away... and then Sacrament was really nice.  It was a good Sunday.  They had had a candy buffet at the breakfast, and I thought that was probably the "Mother's Day gifts" but nope, they still had another little goodie as we walked out of the chapel.  So cool.  I felt spoiled :).

The evening was heavenly as well.  We got to just relax at home the. whole. day.  I LOVED it!!!  We did go on a little walk around our neighborhood in the evening and really enjoyed that.  I'm so grateful for this neighborhood, for our new home, and for the great feeling I have here.  It's just such a comforting feeling.

I feel a little guilty that we didn't go see Nate's OR my Mom.  Nate's was in California, so I guess that wasn't possible, but my Mom was kind of lonely I guess... oops.  I was just so happy to be able to stay home, I didn't even think about anyone else.  So maybe next year.

It was a nice day.  Thanks to Nate and my sweet seven little dwarfs :) (who will only be dwarfs for a few more years I'm sure, Bradley's creeping up on my 5'4" already!)

12 Amazing years!

Our 12th anniversary was this year!  May 15th.  The weekend before, we went on a little overnighter :).  Heidi and John babysat.  Jack is still on Mommy Moo Juice, so he had to come with us, but we still managed to have a good time.  We went and saw Safe Haven (Heidi's recommendation) SUCH a good movie!!  I LOVED the ending!  Almost cried, but not quite.  I really liked the story.  Then we went to Famous Dave's and then headed up to the hotel.  It's always nice to spend time together, but when it can be away from life for a whole day and night, it's just heavenly.  Jack enjoyed the attention as well :).  Soaked it all up.

On our actual anniversary, we were able to spend almost the entire day together.  I LOVED that.  We were both in such a good mood most of the day.  We did have to go up to the old house and clean a few things thanks to our stupid Landlord who suddenly doesn't like us because we didn't use him to buy our house.  But the rest of the day was very pleasant.  Then in the evening, Nate took me out to see Iron Man 3.  I wasn't AS in love with that movie as I was Safe Haven, may have been because Jack didn't love it.  He and I spent a small portion of it out in the hallway. But other than that, I thought we had a great evening.

I always like to talk about how much I love Nate, but I'm just running out of words to describe it.  My love has grown so much from that first day.  Which is hard to believe considering the power of my love for  him that I could hardly contain as we sat together in the Celestial Room 12 years ago, waiting to make that special covenant with our Heavenly Father.  The sweet twinkle in his eyes.  The adoring smile as I came out of the dressing room in my wedding dress.  I will never forget that moment.  And to think that my love has grown.  It's amazing how time and a few (okay, seven) kids can strengthen that sealing.  I love that we are the couple that we are.  I love how he treats me, and I hope that I treat him okay too.  It's nice to know that I will be taken care of forever and that I will have someone to live for.  He is everything to me.  I really don't know what I would do without him, emotionally, physically, mentally, he just makes my life whole.
Mushy, I know, but true.
I love my honey.
Happy Anniversary Babe!

Journaling

-0 Nate and the boys went to our new ward's Father and Sons Campout last night!  They were all SO EXCITED for the campout.  I LOVED listening to Noah talk about how much fun it was going to be and counting down.  They were so cute about it.  Nate even, couldn't stop making plans and thinking things over for what they would need and stuff.  It was looking a little cloudy while they were getting ready to go, so we knew there was a possibility of it raining, but I don't think they were prepared for how much rain they would actually encounter!  They said it rained all but 2 hours.  Everything was soaking wet!  But they still had a great time.  I love hearing about it all.  Bradley got to shoot a gun for the first time.  Didn't love the kick back, but he still talked about it like it was cool.  I was grateful for something for them to spend time with our new ward.  I think it was a positive experience for everyone.

While the boys were camping, the girls and I (and our honorary girl, Jack) had a "big party"!  Actually, Kelly had been invited to a birthday party so she was gone and then I let Charity invite 6 friends over.  So we called it a "big party" to Erika to get her psyched up for it.  I think she was somewhat disappointed with the turn out.  She asked me when the rest of the people were coming (as if 6 loud little preteen girls weren't enough ;)), and when I said that they were all here, she said, "Oh, so it's a small party then."  Not what she had hoped for.  But we tried to recover.  She and I played the Cupcake game, made cookies, ate candy, watched movies, even played babies for an hour, and so I think we had enough fun :).  Jack was pleasant as well.  So we all had a good time.  We spent a little time unpacking my room as well... it's kind of been on the back burner with all the other rooms needing to be done first.  It was a pretty fun evening I thought.  And Charity seemed to have a good time with her new friends.  They spent most of their time out in the rain... they seemed happy.  5-17-13

- Kelly finally has her kitty!  Plus one!  Not sure how, but we ended up with 2 kittens today!  They seem very playful and everyone is all very excited about them.  We'll see how it all pans out with the allergies, and the litter box.  But it's fun to see my Kelly happy :).  5-18-13

We're finally here!!!

We are finally in our new home, mostly unpacked, and LOVING every minute of it!  It's been a long 4+ weeks that I haven't updated, so I'd like to slowly add to this post a I remember things (famous last words) but in a nut shell:

We began moving on Saturday the 27th.  We'd been offered the use of trailers from several different people, so we decided that would be the way to go rather than forking out all the dough for a moving van.  The really nice trailer, with sides and all, was only available on Saturday, so we took advantage of that (and the fact that our real estate agent told us we could begin moving in early) and started the move!  Luckily Heidi and John chose to help us that day.  We wouldn't have been as productive without them.  We took the beds first.  Then we filled up the trailer with most of the boxes I'd packed and stuck in the garage.  That was HUGE!  The whole family room in our new house was full!  Crazy stuff.  Our new neighbor was there, helping us move in.  He also helped the next door neighbors move in as well.  They moved in the same day as us!  So that's been fun.  We had a lot of fun with Heidi and John, had some pizza, played on the rope swing, and then went back to the Bountiful house for the rest of the weekend.

We went to our last Sunday in the 24th ward.  That was a big deal for a lot of us.  We've made some very good friends there, many of whom I will miss.  We will be back every week for dinner group of course.  But it was hard to have the kids say good bye to their friends and Primary teachers and stuff.  Moving is so hard!  Even when I am so happy about it!

Monday was to be our big moving day.  Nate still had to work though, so I spent most of the day loading up our car and unloading it at the new house.  That wasn't as beneficial as I had hoped.  But I did have some help from my Mom and I was even able to do my dinners and clean the old house a little.  We had so much drama that day with the old Landlord.  I cannot express how grateful I am to not have to deal with him any more.  He was such a crappy Landlord, and the whole situation just made life so miserable.  It is a very good thing we are done renting.  Once Nate got home it was moving full force!  We had three trailers parked up and down our street.  Everyone was loading up furniture and boxes.  My Dad was there, Don, Nate and I and the kids.  It was craziness!  We were able to get so much of it that first trip.  Steve and Jauslin, Dawn and her son and friend, and my Dad were there to help unload at the new house.  It was such a tiring but awesome day!  I was so happy to be out of the Bountiful house.  Monday was the first night in our new house.  It was heavenly.  Nate ended up not working the whole day on Tuesday, that was a relief.  We spent a lot of the day packing and moving.  It was a pretty productive, but we began to realize just how much stuff we really have.  If it hadn't been for my Dad that day, we wouldn't have made it.  He did so much!  And let us use his trailer.

We were able to get the new house livable, and also spend most of our time moving for the rest of the week.  It was a crazy busy week.  We were all so tired!  Relieved to be able to have a nice home, but also stressed out by all that there was to do.

We were blessed to have the young women show up one of the days to help clean a little (we were their service project).  Then the young men showed up and took apart the trampoline for us when we weren't even there.  That was so nice!!

Friday was our big cleaning day, we did a TON of work that day and got a lot done.  It looked really nice... as nice as that house could look.

And then we were done.

I must say, I have very few fond memories of that house.  We made a lot of fun memories while we lived there, but I don't have warm fuzzy feelings about that house at all.  I know I should, but I just don't.  I even brought one of my babies home to that house from the hospital, and I still just can't.  I think there were a lot of wonderful things about living there, but I am just SO GRATEFUL that we don't have to anymore.  It's on to the next chapter of our lives...

WE'RE MOVING!!!! TO OUR OWN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a long awaited blog post!!!!!  I'm SO EXCITED to be posting it finally!!!  I wanted to document the miracles that led us to our new home.

During March, we were really gearing up and preparing ourselves financially, and vacationally (new word :) ), for the upcoming furlough.  I had pretty much written off any thoughts of getting a house until after October (which was really depressing, believe me!).  Which is why it was so strange that I thought to email myself via text on my phone, an address to a house hunting website, as we passed the billboard on the freeway.  I had passed this address a million times and thought, "I should check that one out", as I had never before.  But for some reason I thought to do it that time.  Then a week or so passed before I was at the computer to check my email and found it.  I was bored, so I looked at it.  I was so non-chalantly looking at the houses that fit our specs, and found a few that I liked.  I'm not sure why I thought to send the links to Nate, since we were "done looking for a while", but I did!  I even ended the link to one of the houses with "this is my new favorite house!"  I honestly didn't think Nate would even look at them.  As it's been somewhat depressing to look at houses we loved and have to pass them all by.  But for some reason, Nate opened the email and had time to look at them, and. did.  He too loved the one that I had, with the little stream in the backyard.  So he made a call to the realtor.  A little later, he asked me what I thought about that house, if I'd really want to live there.  Of course!!!  So he scheduled the walk through.  We were both pretty casual about it, not really thinking we could, but after one walk through the yard and then the house, we were sold!!!  It just felt like the perfect house for us!  We let the kids go through it and they were even more sold than we were :).  They especially loved the rope swing out by the stream.  It is a fun little novelty :).

We made the offer that night!!!  That's when the stress set in. Waiting has never been one of our strengths. We decided to involve the kids after a few days, and began praying for things to work out according to the Lord's Will. It's an interesting concept to teach our children that maybe what we want, and have wanted, and seems so perfect to us, may not be what Heavenly Father has planned for us. But we wanted them to know that praying about can help us to deal with and appreciate the outcome whether it's what we want or not. Anxious as we were, we survived! After almost two weeks we got the official word and could finally start plans for our new house and the move there!  We were SO EXCITED AND RELIEVED!!!

It had been so easy that it almost felt too good to be true, but I think it really is!  I have to admit I get nervous about crazy things wrecking it all, but overal, I'm hopeful and faithful that this is actually the house for us.  It really is a great house.  I love when things just fall together and work for our good.  It really is cool to think that in less than 3 weeks we will be in our own house!!!!

So to all of you who are SICK of hearing about me wanting a house of our own and being settled, you can celebrate!!  The day is finally here! (or will be shortly :) ).  I'm beyond excited!

We have been packing for a week now and plan to spend the first night possible in our new house, Monday the 29th. Since Nate works that day and the following, it will probably take us all week to move and clean.