These I love

I like to call this series of photos Before, After, Even Better After.

My word I love these seven fiercely and with my whole heart. And that beautiful
Kelsey is just the greatest, best, happiest {almost} addition to our family ever!

An exciting few days

This darling girl has had an exciting few days. In reverse order she…bought a new
(to her) car, spent some time with her Granddad (who is the cutest in all the land)
and got the most gorgeous hair cut and color (goodness she is a beauty).

Most excitingly though, she will be reporting her mission during our church meeting this coming
Sunday, February 26th at 1:00pm. We would love to have any who attend, come to our home
afterwards to visit with Annie and enjoy some delicious food. Feel free to message me for details.

Oh it’s good to have her home.

Two weekend soccer tournaments in five pictures

Ben played in the Rage tournament and his team took second in their age group. Pretty fantastic I’d say.

The celebration of that team at the end of their amazing game Saturday night. It was the best.

Nate’s team after a hard loss. They are an absolutely incredible team and have been winning
every game by a lot the last year, so decided to play a year up in the Icebreaker tournament.
Which resulted in a couple of loses that were both hard and good for them. Their amazing coach
always refocuses them and gets them to a good place after a game like that. It’s pretty tremendous.

Ben’s team over this past weekend.

Nate’s team over this past weekend.

(And I didn’t pose either group, they were just matching their team photos by accident.)

It was a good weekend full of excitement and growth and time together
to cheer these boys of ours and celebrate their goodness.

I’m really grateful.

Matchy-matchy

“Wait, Mom…Dad’s eyes match his shirt and your eyes match your coat. I need to take a picture.”

~Annie Allen of the newly returned missionary variety

Quick trip

A super fast trip down south with these five I love. Some warmer weather,
a little soccer and mostly, a whole lot of family time that feels a lot like the happiest.

Home

Five hundred fifty-one days ago, my girl left everything she knew and loved
to serve a mission as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Today, my Savior brought
her back to me. I’m so completely overcome with gratitude and joy.

Evening soccer and two of my very favorites

An evening drive to Provo to watch our boy play in a soccer game. Spending time with
these two lovebirds, alongside Jacob, made for a really wonderful night. Love them so.

Coming home

Earlier this week, this incredible missionary sent me a birthday email and the last line
of it said, “See you next week!” And I started to cry. My girl is coming home.

His house

There are very few things that mean more to me than my time in the temple each week. The Lord loves us
more than we could ever comprehend. And never is that more apparent to me than in His house. I’m so
grateful for how being there helps me to become more of the person I promised my Father I would become.

A few more photos

Just a few more photos of Nate’s soccer tournament last week, because well,
soccer tournaments are the best. And winning soccer tournaments are that much better.

But mostly, because Jacob Allen is the greatest. For a minimum of 7642 reasons—
one of them being that he uninvited me to the soccer tournament. And took the kids
for three days to give me some time to breathe and relax a little. It was hard for me
to give in, because I didn’t want to miss something that I love a lot, but Jacob often
knows me better than I know myself. And when he insists, it’s usually for good reason.

I’m so deeply grateful for him.

Tournament champions

 
This darling boy came home with a huge smile, a bit of a sunburn, some happy exhaustion
and a championship medal from his soccer tournament in Mesquite this weekend.

Oh he’s something else. And his love of soccer and talent for that game is just
incredible to watch. I’m so grateful I get a front row seat for all of it.

Love this Nate boy more than I could ever say in words.
And being his mom is just the happiest and the best.

Futsal fun

A season of futsal for these two studs. They really are the coolest in all the land.

A really good day

A whole day of snowmobiling, just the two of us. It was the best.

My beautiful girl

My beautiful, beautiful girl. Three weeks from today, she will walk off
the plane and into my arms. And I cry every time I think about it.

She’s done something so good, so brave, so life-changing, so dang hard and so
very right. And what she wrote about it this week in her letter just about did me in.
I can’t stop thinking about it. Here is the link to it, if you don’t receive her emails.

I promise you, it’s worth your two minutes.

My beautiful, beautiful girl. She’s coming home.

My favorite books of 2022

I read exactly fifty books in 2022. Not nearly as many as last year, but almost one a week. And yet, I can honestly say, I only had two I really liked a lot (alongside The Book of Mormon which will always be my favorite). The others were quite good and I mostly recommend them, but it was a weird year of reading books, where I just felt less satisfied than usual in my literary choices. Hopefully I'll have more I love when this reading year is over.

So starting off, my three very favorites--followed by a few others I liked pretty well.

The Book of Mormon
Always my favorite, always the book I make time to read from each day, even for just a few minutes. I was able to get through it three times this year and am a better person because of it. I've written a lot about it on our family blog, so feel free to go back to read any of those posts. I've linked just three here (one, two and three) for those interested. I love The Book of Mormon to the deepest part of my heart.

The Downstairs Girl
This book is a historical fiction and social drama that is set in the New South. I absolutely loved it. It was both enlightening (had no idea about this time in Atlanta in the 1890s in regards to people who had moved here from China) and at times, absolutely hilarious. It actually made me laugh out loud over and over. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and the Audible version was especially fantastic.

Atomic Habits
You likely have already heard of this book, but if you haven't read it, it is worth the time. At least in my opinion. I'm so fascinated by non-fiction that has science and studies behind it (actual, real studies for the record) and this book about how to build good habits and leave old, unhelpful ones was just fabulous. I think everyone would benefit from what it shares.

Dream of Flight and Ask Him Why
I'm a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Hyde and many of her books. And one of the reasons I love them is because they are about ordinary life. But the way that she writes about the human mind and situations we all can relate to is just beautiful to me. I don't know, I wish I could explain it better. But she is a brilliant writer and many of her insights (written through fiction, of course) keep me thinking for days after I read them. Especially as I subscribe to the idea that not everything is as it seems and you need to approach life and situations without already pre-deciding (totally a word) the facts. It was a good reminder for me to work on that.

Cross Fire
So this is a Christian suspense book that has four books within the series. This is book two (and now I'm trying to remember if I've read both of the other two or just the third). I liked it quite a bit. It is cheesy at times for sure, but also extremely clean and kept me reading with suspense (and sometimes annoyance because I would think you would be much more careful in your daily life and activities if your actual life was in danger, but that's a tangent for another day). Anyway, it's a hard topic at times, so keep that in mind, but it definitely wasn't graphic, which makes me a fan.

If We Break
This is the book by Hunter Biden's ex-wife and I really went back and forth about if I wanted to read it. I'm not into gossip or just sensationalizing things (not saying I thought it would be this way, I just didn't know), but I do appreciate a good memoir and what I learn from them. I don't know, it was something that stayed with me for a long time. I didn't feel like Ms. Buhle was trying to just get out her grievances about what her ex-husband had done to her (although I couldn't blame it if she wanted to quite frankly--all things, even outside of this book, point to some really horrific choices and treatment by him toward her), but more how there are often two sides and what she learned through it all and could have done better. I wasn't sure about recommending this one (apparently I'm still not), but for certain people, I think it would be good to read. (And I love that this is the book I am most unsure of on this list and I wrote the longest paragraph about it. Ha to the ha.)

The Pecan Man
I really enjoyed the Audible version of this book. It is a book set in the deep South in the 60s or 70s and good grief, I just can't stand how humans often treated humans, especially during that time. And yet, this Pecan Man, Eddie, was just so endearing and good. And even though it felt difficult to read at times, for me, it just really matters to be uncomfortable about things that are just plain wrong--especially by reading books that choose not to include unnecessary details and junk. And this book definitely did that for me.

Okay, that is more than enough from me. Happy reading folks!

{And just because this year wasn't my best year for favorites,
I'm linking previous years at the bottom of this post, for anyone interested.}

 

2011     2012     2013     2014     2015     2016     2017     2018     2019     2020     2021

Round four at our house

 
Learner’s permit for this stud (who passed the test on his first try). Here we go again.

Darling Nate and the temple

First time at the temple this morning for this incredible boy—definitely one of those
beautiful experiences in mortality. So thankful for Jacob who took time this morning
to join us. And especially for this Nathan of ours. He’s just the sweetest and the best.

My favorite fifth grader

Fifth grade field trip yesterday with my favorite fifth grader.
Love this Nathan boy so much I can hardly stand it.

Here we go again

Another fifteen year old, another chance to give driving a try.
On his birthday. In the church parking lot. He was actually really good
at it and enjoyed it quite a bit. Learner’s permit, here we come.