One of Grace's favorite nights--ever

I spent last night watching Broadway's The Lion King in Salt Lake with this little love
and I may have gotten emotional a time or two watching her happiness throughout the show.
It seems that this was one of our girl's favorite birthday gifts in all of ever. I would have to agree.
Because spending time with Grace, especially doing something we both love, is kind of the best.

A third grade program for our girl

This little darling had her third grade program tonight at the elementary school
and I loved it so much. Anything to do with music and singing is Grace's
favorite and it shows in her face. Love this sweetheart something fierce.

He’s such a stud

Oh yes, and subtle cleats always. And forever.

The last few days

A baptism last week (well, three to be exact), an incredibly beautiful letter this week (her attitude and
goodness just bring me to tears) and the official thirteen-month mark hit just days ago (I'm not counting
down the seconds of the last five months or anything). This missionary girl of ours is just so amazing and
full of light, I can't get over it. So proud of who she chooses to be and the deep honor of being her mom.

Yesterday (but actually Friday when he was available)

This incredible birthday guy

Happy Birthday my incredible boy! We are the luckiest ever because we get you in our family.

Five things I love about Campbell right now:

1. He is, and always has been, one of the very funniest people I know. His commentary about pretty much everything makes me snort-laugh constantly and the way he sees the world is honestly hilarious beyond words. If you don’t hang out with him on a regular basis, I’m sorry.

2. He loves people. He has since he was little and the way he cares about them and does everything he can to show them that only gets sweeter and more touching with every year.

3. Because he loves people, he is an outstanding leader. He naturally falls into that role and does it well because he just cares so deeply. He was just called as the executive secretary to the bishopric in his brand new ward and as biased as it may sound (doesn’t mean it isn’t true), that is one lucky bishopric.

4. He is so sweet to his mother, it is ridiculous. He regularly checks in to see how I am doing, to make me laugh, to tell me he loves me. I don’t have words for how much it means to me or how grateful I am for this boy of mine.

5. His voice is truly unreal. He doesn’t know how amazing it is and Jacob and I regularly give each other a look of amazement when when we hear him sing. Even if it is for the hundredth time. And he can mimic any singer’s voice with exactness. It is truly something else and I hope he never stops singing. For the world and for his mother.

We love you Campbell Allen! So much it is a little ridiculous.

Yesterday

This darling birthday girl

Happiest Birthday baby girl! Everything about our family is happier and brighter because you are in it.

Five things I love about our Gracie right now:

1. She is one of the kindness people I know and is always trying to find someone in her class, at lunch, at recess who doesn’t have a friend so she can include, sit, play with them.

2. She loves art and creating and music and dance to the deepest part of her heart. It comes naturally to her and she can spend hours quietly making something amazingly beautiful.

3. She’s extremely comfortable and confident in her own skin. She doesn’t seem affected by how others view her and it makes her incredibly outward-focused and brave in her actions of wrong and right.

4. She loves Jesus. She has a quiet, strong testimony of Him and it especially causes her to know and love the scriptures in a deeper way than someone her age usually would.

5. She has an amazing ability to compliment others genuinely. It doesn’t matter a person’s age or gender or if she knows them or not—I hear her constantly telling others how she likes their shirt, their hair, their shoes, anything that stands out to her. And the sincerity in her comments does something to my heart every single time.

We love you darling Grace! More than you could ever know.

His children

My beautiful missionary girl. Sometimes my Heavenly Father allows me to sense just how proud
He is of how she chooses to love all of His children and it makes me weep. I think it makes Him weep also.

Campbell's first day

 
And our final family member to begin the school year goes to Campbell. Oh I love this boy
of mine. Even if he sent that second photo as his back to school picture when I requested one.
Okay fine, it made me laugh pretty hard. So I had to include it with this handsome one.
This guy has about four semesters left of his undergrad to go. He’s amazing. And I adore him.

Matt's first day

And this guy officially started college yesterday. I asked him for a picture of his first day of school
and he sent this beauty. I seriously love it so much. But this boy even more. He's just tremendous.

Here we go again

First day of school in the books for these three. Three?
Pure craziness I tell you. Love these chicklets something crazy.

Ninth, fifth, third.

He's off

Fly high my darling boy.

One darling champion

 
Just this morning, this cutest stud and his team won the championship of his
soccer tournament this week. The entire team played so well during each game,
going undefeated throughout and then taking the final game to wrap it up nicely.
So love this incredible boy and his athletic, darling, kind, amazing, happy self.

And that makes three

This really incredible boy of ours moved a good part of his things into his dorm at the U of U
yesterday. And will be moving his amazing self out of our home on Sunday evening. I feel
simultaneously sad beyond words and so excited for him I could burst. I'll miss him so much
I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. Yet I love his two friends that he is rooming
with and the goodness and fun and hard work that lies ahead for him a whole lot.

How I love this boy of mine. With a fierceness that brings me to tears on a regular basis.
He's just truly something tremendous.

One year

My missionary girl. One year today. I just love her so much.

“God is a God of promises. He makes promises with us every day. He's made promises with His people
since the first day on this earth (even before that actually). And He has (or He will) kept each and every
one of His promises. Every single one. He doesn't lose track, no matter how many He makes.

But how does He keep all those promises? How does He offer comfort to a person with a really big
trial? A friend to a person who's lonely? Peace to the soul of a human who is really stressed or
anxious? As the scripture in D&C 1:38 says, "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse
not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all
be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." I have always
thought about that scripture like, God and His servants (prophets and apostles) can make the promises,
and it is the same. And yes. That does apply. But aren't we all His servants? And doesn't it make
sense that His promises can be fulfilled through His voice or the voice of His servant (you)?
.
Sometimes God fulfills His promises by speaking directly to us, by changing hearts and giving internal
peace. But more often than not, it's through other people that come into our lives and make us better,
bring us joy, and fulfill the Lord's promises through their actions. SO! What if we become those "other
people"? What if we become God's promise keepers? What a cool title that is, no? You. God's promise
keeper. As you are serving, loving, giving, sharing, comforting, YOU are keeping God's promises.
WHAT A PRIVILEGE! So go out there, and look for who in your life are God's promise keepers for you,
and then go become a promise keeper for someone else. Help them to feel His love. Help them to feel
His joy. Help them to find peace. Help them to really know that there IS a God. That HE loves them.
That HE will do anything and everything to keep His promises. And that HE will use YOU in mighty
and marvelous ways to love and care for and keep His promises with all His other kids too.”

This amazing boy

Last night, this athletic wonder suddenly decided he wanted to learn to do a backflip on
the ground. So he went outside with his dad and five minutes later asked me to come watch
what he could do. Seriously, this child is something else. And boy do his legs ache today
from doing several dozen backflips in a row so he would feel less nervous with every try.

Good grief, Nate Allen is the coolest.

Nate's soccer camp

Our darling Nate had a soccer camp this past Friday and Saturday and he pretty much loved it.
His incredible coaches scheduled all sorts of activities for the boys to participate in—time at Boondocks,
a soccer practice at the park and at the RSL facility and a Monarch game, to name a few. So grateful
for @metasportfc, Nate’s coaches and teammates and mostly, our Nathan boy. He’s just the best.

These soccer fans of mine

Jacob and these three studs went to the RSL game last night (Grace, Matt and I declined
the kind offer) and had a fun time. Well, Campbell had a fantastic time because RSL was
playing LAFC and they recently acquired Gareth Bale, one of Cam’s favorite players ever.
So he went to watch Bale—who was subbed into the game and ended up scoring. So happy
for my boy and that exciting moment for him. And sad for Jacob, Nate and Ben who
were cheering for the right team, who unfortunately didn’t end up winning.

Either way though, love these boys of mine big time. Even more than
they love soccer. And good gravy that is a lot. A crazy lot.

Oh I'm grateful for Jacob Allen

 
Just feeling so grateful for my incredible husband and his constant goodness to our kids

He spent three different evenings in the last few days making sure our three oldest boys had a
night on the boat with a few close friends. He prepped and drove and loaded and unloaded and
taught and laughed and made sure every single person had the best time. And he did it kindly
and happily the whole time. That’s no small decision to make. And it meant so much to his boys.
And to me. I feel so thankful that I could give our kids the gift of their dad. He’s the best.
Pure and simple. And we are all better, happier, more kind, more adventurous and especially,
more talented skiers, wake boarders and surfers because of who he chooses to be.

That’s a pretty cool combination if I do say so myself.

A tooth tale for our family history

 

Monday night I got a text from Campbell that said something like,

“What do you think would be the best thing to do if I just got a tooth knocked out?”

Oh good grief, bless his heart. As we were talking about options, he suddenly let me know that
his friends from his church congregation (remember the Ramoses I mentioned a bit back who love
our boy and are so ridiculously kind to him?) had a good friend who was a dentist and were taking
him there right then to get advice on what he should do next. This was at almost 9:30 at night.

An hour or so later, Campbell called to say he had seen the dentist.
And was the brand new owner of a replacement tooth. Um, come again?

I guess because the tooth that was knocked out had about a fourth of it still in his mouth,
the dentist was able to drill some pins into it and add a lovely new tooth to his mouth.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, until our boy sent a picture. And it looks amazing.
Now we are just praying the nerve doesn’t die. But if it does, we will figure that out also.

Just so grateful for incredible people that love and serve my kids, a very kind dentist who
happily went into the office so late at night, a darling son who was remarkably calm and
mellow about getting a tooth knocked out of his head and a fun story for our family history.

And also for Campbell Allen who when I asked for a good photo of him to put with this post
tonight, sent me three or four dozen photos and videos that were so random, so ridiculous,
so hilarious, so Campbell. Most of them were not of my oldest child at all. We all laughed a
lot. But gratefully, he actually did send a few that I could actually use here, even if some are
a bit on the old side. And oh my, that one of him at his job as a loan officer and supervisor
at the credit union. I might have shaken my head and laughed out loud at the same time. 

Oh, I love this boy of ours. Fake tooth, crazy photos and weirdy bank faces and all.

Serving her Savior

"I've literally just come to LOVE testifying of the simple things. You'd think it would get redundant
(and honestly some days it does) but 98% of the time I'm in awe of how the simple things change
lives. Jesus Christ lives. God loves you. You are His child. The Church of Jesus Christ has been
restored on the earth, TODAY! God speaks to us, hoy en día. We can talk to God. Families can
be together forever. We have the word of God to lead us and guide us, from prophets all over the
world and in every time period. The heavens are OPEN! Life is a blessing, and I'm so grateful
to be able to share that with people every day. Teaching is so fun and so so miracle filled.

Be kind. Choose joy. Expect miracles. God loves YOU!!"

FSY conference

We had him home for a weekend (during which he gave the most wonderful talk
in sacrament meeting), but he’s off to Provo again. This time to FSY with his
fabulous friend, Kyle. I loved driving them down and taking them out to lunch
before they started (along with Campbell and three of his college friends).
Oh I love this Ben boy. He really is just something else.

Tonight

An evening on the lake with so many of my favorites. But especially this guy.

BYU soccer camp

 
I picked up these darling boys from BYU soccer camp yesterday and loved hearing
all about it on the way back from Provo last night. So grateful for their friendship and
so thankful for my incredible Ben and his amazing, good, athletic, hilarious self.

This oldest of ours

It’s ridiculous how much I love this guy. And the couple of hours we spent together
this afternoon. I love that I came down to pick up Ben and his friend from the BYU soccer camp
and got to have lunch and see my Campbell at the same time. He’s just the best.

She's a brave one

 You’ll have to look closely at this before and after to see
the significance of these two photos. Oh man, this girl is darling.

I cannot stress enough that I am not a parent that walks by a store
on the way to our car and leaves ten minutes later with a child with
pierced ears. I have no problem with that parent, I’m just not her.
In any way, shape or form. Or I wasn’t before today.

But here we are. And Grace is the cutest. And the happiest.
And Nate, of all people, was the encourager and challenger of his little sister.

It was a weird few minutes.

But I kind of loved it.

Our Palisades vacation ~ Saturday edition

And then it was over. And we drove home happy and grateful and tired and excited for next year.