To my incredible husband...

Happy Engagement Day! These have been, without a doubt, the happiest 
ten years of my life. Thank you for marrying me! I love you, L

Tender mercies

I do not have the words to express how I felt about President Uchtdorf's talk during the General Relief Society meeting on Saturday night. I was not able to watch it until Sunday because we were on an airplane Saturday evening, but I still feel emotional just writing about this incredible Apostle of the Lord and the hope and love and peace I felt listening to his message. I am in awe at how much our Heavenly Father loves His children. Every. Single. One. And how He uses others to answer our prayers and help us to feel His love and His approval. I do not say this lightly when I tell you that my life changed while listening to President Uchtdorf's talk. And I will be forever grateful to the Lord for His tender mercies in my life.

(For those of you who might have missed it, you can watch it here.)

Home

Tonight we arrived home from our trip to Utah. And it was more difficult to come back than I thought it would be. Not because I do not love it here, but because my adjustment has been harder than I imagined. And right before we left for Utah, I was really feeling settled and happy about living in Boston. So coming back has brought back a few of those old feelings. Although I am grateful they are less intense than the first time.

There is a reason I did not post about my feelings in our first two or three weeks here. They were hard for me. Really hard. And really lonely. Painfully lonely. I wanted to give up and go home. Many, many, many times. But I find when things are at their hardest, if I just do what I know I am supposed to, even when it is the last thing I want to do, it always works out. And it has.

Our children are truly happy here and have adjusted incredibly well, in my opinion. And my darling husband. He loves his job. And he is so very good to us. Especially to me. Even when I broke down almost two weeks after arriving here and told him I hated it and just wanted to go home. I tried to hold it in and pretend it away. I think it worked really well. But it must have been okay for me to share my true feelings, because I started feeling better with each minute that passed. Note to self, don’t try to hide things from your husband. It makes you both unhappy. And life isn’t meant to be lived unhappily.

But now that we are home, I know what will get me through the difficult times. It is what I have learned since our move almost five weeks ago. It is this simple. Wherever those that are mine—truly mine—are gathered, there is home.

I am home. And it feels right.

Our trip to Utah ~ Part I

We were in Utah the past three days for the wedding of Jacob's sister. Angela and Justin
were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple this past Thursday. We were so grateful to be
there and they were so happy and looked wonderful. We had to make it a
quick trip, but were just thrilled to be a part of it all.

Congratulations Justin and Angela! We love you guys.

The happy bride and groom.

All of the Allen siblings. Angela and her six brothers.

Angela and Justin with all of the nieces and nephews. Too cute!

The Allen family all together.

And one last shot I couldn't resist throwing in. (Thanks for the picture Taunya!)

Our Annie was SO excited to be a part of the wedding. Can you believe the
beautiful princess dresses my mother-in-law's friend made?
Thanks Jannie--you are incredible!

Our trip to Utah ~ Part II

The other two days in Utah were spent being together with the Allens. We went to a parade,
played in the yard,visited and laughed. In addition to Allen family time, we were also
grateful to spend one morning with my sister, Megan, and her kids. She took her oldest out
of school for a couple of hours and we all went to a place called Kangaroo Zoo. Doesn't the
name just scream fun? It was a huge room filled with jumping apparel of all shapes
and sizes. It was awesome! The kids had the best time and were exhausted by the
end of the two hours. They absolutely loved hanging out with their cousin, Noah.

All four of the big kids playing around.

Ben having a great time in his own little play place.

My cute sister and her darling little girl, Lucy.

Jumping on the tramp in Grandpa and Nana's yard.

Ben and Caleb are only a month and a half apart. Such darling boys!

Jacob, Grandpa and Cam playing volleyball.

A traditional Allen family soccer game.

These cousins played on the tramp for hours. They loved being together!

What I needed to finish the living room

To my cousin, Noah

Thank you for the suit you gave to me when I visited you in Utah. I have been
so excited to wear it and my mom finally bought me a shirt and some shoes
so I could wear it to church today. I told everyone I saw that I had a
new suit from my cousin, Noah. I can't wait to see you soon.

Love,
Matt

We start'em young

Going for the ball.

Practicing his game face.

Enjoying Cam's birthday gift

My stay-at-home buddies

And then there were six

No, that is not an announcement. No, there are not twins coming our way. I'm talking
about teeth. Ben's teeth to be exact. Our sweet little boy just broke his sixth tooth.
In just over four weeks. Unfortunately, now he sounds a lot like this guy.

It seems that four straight weeks of major teething has caught up with him. He sounds lovely.
And I won't even go into his poor runny nose. If he is anything like our other three, he should
still have two more to go this round. We'll see how long those take to come. There are positives
to this though. He is super talented at eating a huge variety of solids. And I absolutely love when
he smiles and all of those funny teeth, coming in at different stages, show. What a darling baby boy!

I heart the DMV

Okay, I really never imagined that thought would enter my head. Or appear on our blog. Jacob went yesterday to register our cars so we could feel cool driving around with MA plates. And he said it was the easiest time he has ever had with the DMV. But that is not the reason I am happy with the Department of Motor Vehicles today.

It is because those kind and considerate people issued us license plates that are identical, except for one numeral. And that number is only one off. Maybe we have never registered our cars as the same time, maybe other states do not issue similar plates to one customer, or maybe the DMV in this lovely state just wanted me to be happy. I think it is the latter. I mean, what is better for OCD than to have license plates that go together and make you happy each time you see both cars together? Or separate for that matter. Because even when I do not see them at the same time, my heart knows that they match.

Blast, I just realized we have a problem. Our van has been sickly of late and we need to replace it with one that is healthy and well. Errr, no more matching plates. Oh well, the post is already written and I'm too lazy to get rid of it. Besides, how will you all make fun of me without ammunition? There you go. Have at it. I'll be outside admiring our matching license plates.

NINE

Dear Campbell,

Happy Birthday darling boy! You are amazing and wonderful and dad and I
are so grateful you are a part of our family. You are so kind and good and you
always try to do what is right. You are handsome and funny and are growing up
so very much. We hope your day was as happy as you imagined. I love you Cam!

Love,
Mom

How I got dinner on the table tonight

Soccer season

Today was the first day of the soccer season. Happy day at our house. Annie started playing this year and is so fun to watch. She runs crazy fast and was more aggressive than I imagined she would be the first time. A little hesitant to push her way into the middle, but she did great. She was just so happy to be a part of a soccer team

Cam is an old pro and played amazingly well today. He kept going up against a boy that was at least three times bigger than he was and Cam didn't seem intimidated at all. He's never been one to be extremely aggressive, so we were pleasantly surprised. With just a few seconds left, he took to the ball down the field and scored. Gooooooal!

The first day of preschool

Seriously, how cute is this boy? We found an absolutely wonderful preschool for Matt. It is only
two days a week and is exactly what we were looking for and more. He LOVES it and the
teachers were so kind about him. He is one sweet boy. I do not even know how to put
into words how funny and darling and just good this boy of ours is—we sure love him.
A happy beginning to what we know will be a wonderful year. We love you Matthew!

Included

Last night Jacob and I sat on our front porch watching our children bike up and down
 the quietest street in America. And I thought my heart would burst. Because they rode up
 and down our street with friends. And they were all so happy. And while I know friends are
 not the most important thing in the world, I felt so grateful that these neighborhood kids were
 including ours. It not only made me happy to see them a part of a group of friends, but it made
me want to teach them. Every. Single. Day. To be kind. To include others. To stand up for those
that need it. To be a friend. Because all of those things are vitally important. But if for no
other reason, than to one day make some mother's heart burst with overwhelming gratitude.