On our walk tonight we...

Took a picture of the beautiful sky.

Literally stopped to smell the roses.

Decided socks were not necessary.

Happily captured this moment of obedience.

 Smiled way too many times at these two chicklets.

Laughed hard when this picture was taken.

Laundry basket fun

Someone seems to be feeling better. And someone else looks a bit like a ragamuffin.

With lots of fabulous hair. But a darling ragamuffin at least. Love these kids so much.

Day six

It's been rough. Really rough. This poor sweet boy. This sad face is actually an

improvement from the last several days. But he woke up this morning and I feel like

 he turned a corner. A very small corner, but a corner nonetheless. So grateful for 

sweet boys and days ahead that will be better. And the blessing of being a mom.

Love, love, LOVED General Conference

There were a so many talks I needed to hear and I just feel so grateful.

It makes me ridiculously happy...

...that our kids love to read so much.

Oh this girl!

Not sure how effective baby gates are when this little one figures out she can begin to wiggle

underneath them. Oh my Gracie girl, your mother is too old for the brilliance of you.

 And this hair...it is just so crazy and so fluffy. She looks like a 65-year old grandma 

who desperately needs her Friday visit to the salon. Unfortunately, this particular 

"grandma"  has a mother who is too lazy to do anything but laugh and take a picture.

And just to make yesterday a little more stressful...

On our way home from the hospital yesterday, Jacob realized he had a voicemail from Matt's sports doctor. Which was pretty surprising to us.

You see, about four weeks ago, Matt started complaining about pain in his thigh. Matt is one seriously tough kid, so the fact that he mentioned it at all, surprised me. And over the next several days, it continued to bother him. We had him take a long break from any kind of running or sports and when he went back to it, the pain returned. After almost three weeks, we felt like he should meet with his sports medicine doctor to see if he could figure out a cause.

We did just that and after an x-ray and a thorough exam, the doctor could not find what was going on. He said he had the feeling we might want to do an MRI, but he thought we should give it one more week of absolutely no physical activity and then have Matt play in a soccer game and see how it felt. The pain came back during that game.

That was this past Saturday and the doctor's office was closed. I wouldn't have been in a huge hurry to get Matt that MRI, except that Nate's surgery was scheduled for the coming Tuesday and I knew after he had it, I wouldn't be able to leave him for several days to take Matt in for an MRI. But all I could do was wait until Monday morning and give Matt's doctor a call.

Which I did and after explaining about Nate's surgery the next day, they said they would do what they could and call me back after they spoke to the hospital. A few minutes later, the phone rang and the doctor's assistant asked if 9:30 that night would be too late for us to bring Matt in. I didn't even realize something that late would be a possibility, but if it meant we got it done that day, we were great with it.

Jacob and Matt didn't get home until almost 11pm Monday night, so when Jacob had a voicemail from Matt's doctor Tuesday morning, we were definitely surprised. The message asked that we call and make an appointment to go over the results of the MRI and come up with a plan.

Umm, come again?

We have been parents for 15 years and have never had a doctor ask us to schedule an appointment to come in a discuss the results of any tests.

Cue my heart beginning to beating faster.

I called in, made the appointment (gratefully, I talked them into an appointment that day, while Jacob was home and one of us could leave, as the next few days were much more iffy) and then asked if we could get the results of the test over the phone, just to know ahead of time what we were dealing with. To which the assistant responded, "Well, the doctor would just rather you came in to discuss the results and then you can come up with a plan together."

Cue a large-size pit in my stomach.

A few hours later, sweet Jacob was home with our little Nate, and I was on my way with Matt to the doctor's office. We had played it very cool (at least in our mind) with Matt, but I truly wasn't prepared to feel the way I did driving to that office. I honestly think I was even more sick to my stomach at that point then I was that morning, only because this seemed to come out of the blue. I just prayed and prayed that I wouldn't show that outwardly and that whatever the result was (major or minor), we could handle it the right way.

Matt has a tear in the muscle in his thigh. And I'm pretty sure the doctor has no idea why my response was one of relief. He let us know that this is relatively serious and that Matt was out for the remainder of the soccer season, along with zero physical activity above a walk for the next four weeks. But all I could think was that it was absolutely something we could handle and that would heal somewhat quickly. Of course I was disappointed for Matt, but nothing like a deep sense of worry to make something quite serious, seem lovely.

 Now if we could only get Matt to quit crying about the note the doctor gave

us to give his coaches and school teachers. If there ever was a boy that

would not appreciate being a coach potato, it is our Matt. Poor guy.

 No, actually, he is handling it remarkably well. (I think even he was nervous about the

fact that the doctor wanted to see him in person.) Very little gets to Matt and I could

learn a whole lot about how to handle the big and little things in life from my boy.

Nevertheless, after the worry of this morning and then the worry this afternoon,

I'm all full up on worry. If you have any to send my way, keep it to yourself please.

I'm good for at least another few weeks or so. Several months would be better.

(Oh, and just for the record, if you ask a doctor who technically isn't treating you to write 

you a duplicate note to get you out of all exercise and physical activity, he probably won't

go for it. You know, just in case you wondered. And hypothetically speaking of course.)

Our sweet baby boy

Nate has had trouble with his breathing for quite a while now. And we could tell it was getting worse.
And so, not many days ago, I took him to an ENT doctor that we trusted a lot (a friend of my parents
and just a really good guy). Apparently Nate has extremely large tonsils and adenoids, especially for
his age. And trying to breathe around them was not going so well. And would only get worse.

And so this morning, we took our sweet Nate boy up to a children's hospital in the area, to have those
annoying tonsils and adenoids removed. I was calmer than I thought I would be, but there is no
question my heart was heavy and my stomach had a huge pit in it. Nate handled it amazingly and
I have no words to describe how grateful I am for that good doctor (and everyone there helping him)
and for the blessing of being on this side of Nate's surgery, instead of waiting for his time to come.

Our sweet baby boy after getting changed into his surgery clothes.

He was nervous, no doubt, but like I said, he did better than I could have ever hoped.

He had the nurses and doctors charmed and one of the nurses kept showing him off to

anyone who came in the room. I'm so grateful for good people and how they treat our kids.

Waiting to go down the hall with the anesthesiologist. Nate and I were both pretty

anxious, but were doing quite well at pretending everything was fine. (We gave him 

that cute green monkey the night before the surgery, as a comfort gift. He slept with

 it and they let him take it into the actual surgery. He loves that thing so much.)

I know it is over and he is just fine, but this picture makes me cry every time I see it. I was

so nervous for our baby boy and so proud of how well he was handling it. Just feet from this

picture is where he gave me a hug and went with the anesthesiologist. He seemed fine, even

when he got out of sight of me. And then, as the doors were closing, I heard him sob, "But I

just want my mommy!" I have never had to try so hard to hold it together as I did right then.

Immediately after surgery in the recovery room. He was pretty worked up when we got to

him, as he was confused and still mostly under anesthesia. But he calmed down the second

Jacob and I were by his side. He was so out of it and it was hard to see him that way.

And then he was moved to a different recovery room, before they let us go home. He was

still out of it and just sad, as you can see. Every time I started to get worried and emotional

for him during and after the surgery, I just started counting my blessings. There were so

many parents in the surgery waiting room that were not there for something as simple as a

T & A surgery. I truly knew how blessed we were. And was so grateful for how well it went.

Finally, the anesthesia started to wear off and the television grabbed his attention.

But he was still out of it, off and on, for quite a while.

But we made it home and laid our sweet, pale, exhausted baby boy on the couch to watch TV.

After a while he decided he did want some food and jello was the only thing that tasted good to him.

And more quiet time on mom and dad's bed. I was a fan of tablets in that moment, for sure.

Nate was so adamant that he wanted to sleep in his own bed. But it was too far

away from us to feel comfortable with that for the night. So I let him fall asleep

there and told him I would move him to the mattress on our floor after he was asleep.

Tonight, as I tucked our little guy in bed, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude. It had been

a rough day, but so much better than I ever dared to hope. God is so kind to us. And we are

so very blessed. Being a mom has exceeded my expectations in every way and I don't take

the privilege of being with my children, during these hard, yet sweet, moments lightly.

September phone pics

The first part of these photos are definitely heavy on the Nate. He just wanted to go

with me to one of Annie's riding lessons and I couldn't help taking so many photos

of the cute. I mean really, the kid loved waving hello to each horse we walked by.

And I know you can't tell, but he was pretty excited to be petting one of the dogs there.

Mostly though, he loved watching Annie girl. And yelling encouraging things. It was very helpful.

And some fancy headwear while waiting for Annie to get Shylo put away.

And another picture of Nate. Not ours though. We invited our fabulous home teachers and

friends over for dinner and Family Home Evening and asked their son, Nate, to provide us with

the FHE talent. This guy plays with the local high school and is good. We sure loved having them.

And someone tried out driving on the day of his birthday. In a church parking lot of course.

My September sky photo.

I should have ended with that last photo. But felt compelled to share this one. (To answer your 

question, I have no idea). We had some friends over for dinner one night and all of the kids spent a

lot of time outside. At one point, I guess "snail collecting" seemed like a good idea. You're welcome.

My getaway

This past week, my sweet husband sent me away. For three days and three nights with 

strict instructions to rest and relax. And then rest and relax some more. I returned

tonight and I have honestly not felt this rested in more than three years.

Don't worry, I truly know how blessed I am. Jacob is so incredibly good to me.

Before I headed up to my hotel in Park City, I stopped to spend a couple of hours

at the temple. I love the temple. I'm so grateful for the time I spent there.

The view on the drive up. I love being in the mountains.

It was nice to get a great deal on a beautiful place.

This is the room I spent a lot of time in over three days. Boy howdy, I rested so much.

And the nice little patio on the back of my room. The air was amazing

in Park City, so clean and fresh and full of fall. I absolutely loved it.

The mountain view from my little patio.

 What I spent a ridiculous amount of time doing. Oh reading, how I love you. The other

big part of my time was spent sleeping. Oh blast, I forgot to take a picture of me sleeping.

The books I read during the three days away. Although, I didn't quite

finish that top one there. I mean seriously, I'm not totally crazy.

And I really did leave the hotel room several times to walk, do a little birthday

shopping for a certain girl turning thirteen soon, get some food and to do some hiking.

This is the view of where I stayed from up above. I love the clouds in this photo.

The leaves in the mountains are starting to change colors. I adore fall.

And I just loveth everything about this picture.

Once again, Linn and her version of the selfie. Mighty attractive yes?

I woke this morning to pouring rain. I love the rain. Abnormally much.

This was my view driving away from the hotel. 

*Huge sigh of restful happiness*

I am so ridiculously blessed. 

Especially to be married to the most thoughtful person I have ever known.

And I don't just say that because of his incredible kindness the past few days.

I love my life.

Jog-a-thon

Pack meeting

On this day of joy and gladness

That hymn keeps running through my head as I think about yesterday and the absolute
privilege it was to attend the Ogden Utah Temple dedication. It was one of the sweetest
experiences I have personally ever had and I still cannot get over how kind the Lord is
to me, how blessed I am to have His gospel, how important it is that I don't take
the honor of attending the temple for granted and how much I love my family.

I wasn't prepared for the emotion I felt during the dedication, nor for how deeply the
words of the speakers, especially Elder Holland and President Eyring, would touch me.
I wasn't  prepared for what it would feel like to attend a temple dedication after almost 15 years
of not living where one was held. I wasn't prepared for how it felt to be with my children and
husband, in a temple setting, and to be overwhelmed with gratitude for having them there.
And I wasn't prepared for how much strength and power I felt from the time I spent
listening to the Lord's servants and hearing their testimonies of the privilege it is
to keep the covenants we have made in the temple.

Yesterday was most definitely a day of "joy and gladness."
And I can't get over how blessed I feel to be a part of it.

My new favorite wall

Even if weird lighting/blogger turns everything yellowish/brownish. It definitely doesn't look like this
in real life, but I still wanted to remember when I had the idea to turn our huge hall wall into something
beautiful. At least to us. It is lovely and lovely. And is only the beginning of our quote wall. I liketh.