{Angels from above}

Can i just say...there are A LOT of things that don't make sense in this world; Things people do, the way people act, things people say, media, politics,etc. The only thing that does make perfect sense to me is my boys and my husband. When i see them suddenly everything makes sense. When there are times i feel down for one reason or another, or uneasy about something, or nervous, or when anything might be bothering me or whatever it may be....as soon as i see my boys and my husband everything is suddenly better. I am fine. I will always be good as long as i have them. :* And when i am happy, and not stressed or anxious, but just content and happy...seeing them doubles my happiness and i reach a happiness inside that is probably the extent of what i am capable of feeling in this life. The love i feel for my family and the 3 angels that Heavenly Father gave Shane and I suddenly puts everything into perspective and seeing them makes sense of everything. Seeing them makes my purpose in life clear. Seeing them makes sense of life and why we are here. With Shane and the 3 boys we will One day have lots of priesthood blessings going on around here! I will be Surrounded and protected by my four men. :) I am one lucky momma.

{Square}

I forgot to post about Gavin. He had a physical done before he could play soccer. He weighs in at 45 lbs. and is 46 inches tall. They called him a square. He is in the 75th percentile for his weight and height! Go Gavin! This kid cracks me up sometimes. I recorded him on my phone playing goaly at soccer practice, but not sure if it's possible to put it on here. I was DYING laughing. It was hilarious. Basically, he shouldn't be goaly. Am i spelling that right?! He should be out running that ball all over the field because he was WAY TOO MUCH ENERGY to just STAND there. I so wish you all could see how he was acting as goaly. If you ever come visit i will show it to you b/c i don't plan on erasing it off my phone EVER! :)

{busy, Busy, BuSy, BUSY}

First of all....My best friend Lauri and her daughter Jocelyn came into town a few days after we got back from visiting my family in Kansas. Of course we had to take some pictures of the kids together. I have a lot more and will post some when i have more time to work on them. They came in town on Thursday evening and we left on Friday to go to OKC where her dad got married. We had lots of fun there and arrived back home on Sunday afternoon. They headed back to Albuquerque this last Monday morning. We had tons of fun and can't wait to see them again.Since then we have been up to all kinds of stuff. Gavin started Soccer. He has practice 2 times a week and games start later this month. He keeps telling me "Mom, i love soccer!" He really does. So, of course, i had to buy him a soccer drink for his practices. He loved it. :) Tanner and i still work hard during preschool. Friday's are game and baking days. We have made choc. chip banana bread, we have made muddie buddies, and our most recent was rice krispie treats with chocolate on top and peanut butter. Yummy! Tanner had fun licking the chocolate!

Making his crazy wild face....

All clean...
Jaydon enjoys watching us cook from his seat... Oh, and do you remember that wall hanging i told you i was going to turn into a chalkboard? Well, if you don't, scroll down and you can see what it looked like before. And here is how it looks all done! :)....

Daddy and the boys had a "pool party" yesterday. They got into our jacuzzi tub...we filled up some balloons and turned on party music. The boys had contests to see who could stay under the water the longest....

They decided to fill the tub with bubbles and had fun putting bubbles all over daddy's head. They thought it was so funny....

Here they are surrounded by bubbles....

Yesterday we also went to the Oklahoma / Texas Fair. I have been to better fairs, but it was still fun. They had goat showings, which i had never seen before. It was like a dog show. The goats tails were cut weird and they try to make the goat stand in this perfect posture. It was so funny watching it. They also had horse contests going on. One of our friends here from Norway trains horses and rides. She was in the horse showing and contests all day yesterday. So we were able to watch her for a little bit. And of course here the boys are on the rides and enjoying the petting zoo area...

Last night we went to the Midwestern State football game vs Southwestern Oklahoma. I wasn't sure who to cheer for! haha! Midwestern whooped them. It was a fun game. There were tons military there! It was free for them so they all showed up. The half-time performance was very patriotic with lots of military out on the field marching and spreading out a large USA flag. There were fireworks and a flyover(very loud, but always cool). We had a busy and FUN day yesterday! :)

So, i like to have things to look forward to. This weekend is the Fall Fest, which i am excited about going to. Also, my family, minus my little brother(who is going back to s.korea), is coming to OUR house for Thanksgiving this year. I am so excited about it. Then for Christmas we are staying here, so we are going to make a drive to San Antonio to experience Sea World, which the boys haven't seen yet(i am so excited!), experience the river walk and the Alamo. I cannot wait. Shane gets 2 weeks off for Christmas and that is the only time he gets off for a whole year, except for the occasional day like Veterans Day or 4th of July. Ya know. So, we are going to make the most of those 2 weeks and experience what we can in Texas as a family while we are here. :)

Let me tell you, life is busier than it has ever been. Gavin is loving school and makes sure to pray that he "can work hard". And he sure does work hard b/c at the end of his school days he looks tired and says to me "I am tired of working hard." Tanner reminds me everyday that "we need to have preschool mom." He loves learning new things. He loves when daddy asks them at the dinner table what new things he and gavin learned in school that day. It makes him feel like a big boy. Jaydon loves just being a one year old. He is way too much fun and we cannot get enough of his fun personality. He makes us all laugh so much and it wouldn't be the same without him here. This household is Crazy, but so much fun.

{Bad stomach bug, anyone?}

I have never seen such bad stomach bugs going around as i have this year. We got a HORRIBLE stomach bug over the summer. Worst i had ever seen. Jaydon puked every 15 minutes for 6 hours, along with diarrhea. No exaggeration. Gavin puked every 15-20 minutes for 12 hours straight. Seriously. Tanner wasn't puking as much as Gavin was. Lucky boy. Then everyone else in the family got it...me, shane, g-ma, g-pa, aunt, uncle, cousin. Terrible. Well, we were in Kansas over the weekend and Gavin got sick. Sunday he was feeling OFF all day. Finally the puke came on Monday morning at 1 a.m. I went and set up a bed for him down by the tv and slept on the couch by him for the rest of the night. He puked all the way up until about 5 p.m. That is about 14 hours of puking. He heaved so hard that he created this weird looking red rash thing on his face. I felt so bad for him. Well, Tuesday he was fine, but i could tell his stomach still wasn't right b/c he would take one or two bites at dinner and breakfast and that was it. Wednesday the same. Thursday he is sick again. Except here comes the explosive diarrhea and one more bout of puking. Now he just wants to sleep. It's really really weird. Tanner had it the weekend before but he only puked a couple of times and it was over. What's weird is that it used to be that Gavin got over his illness a lot quicker than tanner. Tanner always took longer. Now its the opposite. Interesting.
My best friend is coming into town today and we are supposed to be going to watch her dad get married, and we are leaving tomorrow. So, i really hope he feels better by then otherwise i won't get to go....boo. One more thing....why does the sickness always come when something fun is going on? Or when we are ON vacation. That is the only time we EVER get it. Stinks man.

{Family is what it's all about}

This Labor Day weekend we drove up to my Aunt Donna's house in Olathe, Kansas. I have not seen my cousin's in nearly 7 YEARS! That is WAY TOO LONG to go without seeing your family. We arrived saturday morning. It was awesome being there again. I cannot even tell you in words what i felt. I was just overwhelmingly excited to be there again and see them again. We were together from bright and early morning, until way late at night on saturday, sunday, and part of monday(which is the day we left at about noon) One night some of us were up until 2 a.m. talking. Yes, that is how much fun we have together. Anyway, We got there and they all just are so welcoming, accepting, genuinely helpful. They wanted to get their hands on Jaydon and they all passed him around the whole weekend, taking care of him, squeezing him, feeding him, changing his diapers, WISHING he still took the bottle so they could feed him like a baby...hahaha. It was so funny.
That family of mine knows WHERE it's at and knows WHAT it's about....life. They put their heart and life into their family. They know family is what it's all about. They take care of each other and are there supporting each other at ALL their events. They might as well live in the same house. No, just kidding. But seriously, they are at the heart of what this life is about. They know who they are, they know what they want, they know what's important and what's not, they don't sweat the small things in life, they stay close to each other, they put family before anything, they have nothing to complain about. They have it all together. I love the way i feel when i am around them. They make every single thing in life exciting. They make life exciting. When we are all together we are laughing all the time. Some people would call us crazy, but boy do we have fun. We are the type of family that can sit and talk about farting and our farting stories and laugh about it. We can talk about anything and everything under the sun. There is NEVER a dull moment. When we get together we sit around the pool and talk and eat and laugh....we sit around the bonfire and talk and eat and laugh....we sit around the kitchen and living area and talk and eat and laugh. We sit out on the patio and talk and eat and laugh.

Here is my dad and my favorite Aunt....Aunt Donna. :)
The boys had tons of fun with their cousins whom they have never met before. Hudson is six i believe , and stella is in first grade. She is either six or seven. The boys loved playing with them. They played all day and we NEVER saw them the entire day except when we were all swimming. There was NEVER a single fight. Never one complaint. It was awesome. They were such nice well mannered well behaved kids. It was awesome to meet them for the first time. Olivia, the oldest, who like like 11 years old is such a sweet girl. She has her own rock band and apparently sings really well. I still need to get on youtube to listen to her.


Out on the patio, talking, eating, and laughing.... There house is surrounded by trees. I absolutely love their home. Out on their patio they have 4 different sets of patio furniture. That is b/c that is where they like to spend a lot of their time. Plus they always have family and friends coming in and out. There home is a HOME.

My grandma, which is my mom's mom was there too. She is visiting my parents in Minnesota for about a month and she went along for the ride to come hang out with our crazy, loud, probably shocking family.

Here are the boys inside chatting it up. I took this picture from outside looking in....

Erica, my cousin, might kill me for posting this. I caught her making a pretty funny face! :) haha

More and more chatting. Brion, my brother, sitting there on the left had been in south korea for a year teaching english. He came there and surprised ALL OF US. He suddenly just showed up by walking in the room. It was awesome to see him and he surprised us all. He is heading back to south korea for another year in a few weeks.

We were all together again, except for stephen who couldn't be there. There were 20 of us. It was my aunt donna, uncle zip, cousins stephanie, erica, and lyndsey, erica's two kids, and stephanie's one girl and of course my sister and brother, husband and kids.

My Uncle Zip is a big time designer/decorator. He owns a REUSED furniture consignment store. He KNOWS how to decorate and design. They all do. They all have it in their blood. So, we went and looked at his store. I wanted to buy lots of stuff , but we don't have the room in our car for it all. The one thing i was going to get i ended up not being able to get b/c gavin got sick. He had to lay down on our ride home and in order for him to have a comfortable spot to lay down he needed to lay down in the back. We didn't have room for my piece of furniture plus gavin, so i didn't get it. Anyway, then we did a PARADE OF HOMES. I made sure to carefully look all around my aunt and uncle's house and soak in all the awesome ideas and decorating tips, then we went and walked around erica's and stephanie's home. Erica and her family live just down the street from my Aunt Donna. SO, get this...they bought a golf cart, with pimped out rims. They use that for transportation to and from her house. It is such a FUN and awesome idea. AND they live set out more in the country in a small little neighborhood so it works out perfectly. Then there is Stephanie and her family who live about 3-4 miles from my aunt's house. Soooo, we drove over there. Can i just say , woah! It was b. e. a. utiful. The neighborhood was the prettiest neighborhood i have ever seen. The community was the most awesome and beautiful i have ever seen. The landscaping was gorgeous. I so want to live there now. Anyway, her house and the way she decorates is beautiful. They have one little girl and when you walk in her room you walk into a room that looks like a room that walt disney world would decorate for a little princess. Not kidding. It was amazing. and i wish i would have brought my camera to take pics of it but i didn't. poo. My cousin erica's house is awesome too. She has a more contemporary retro style, which isn't my type of style, but it looked awesome still an i did like their kids rooms a TON. Now i know where to go to get advice on my boy's rooms when we decorate and design. They all have an amazing gift and talent when it comes to decorating and designing. I didn't get to see lyndsey's house b/c they lived about 45 minutes away and we didn't get over there to see it, but i hear it is so cool.

Anyway, one of the nights we were there we went out in the back, back in their woods where they cleared out some of the trees to have a little open area in the woods for bonfire and swingset. And they cleared out a path in the woods for their grandson, hudson, for their 4-wheelers and motorbikes. We had a bonfire....we sang, we showed our talents, we imitated someone in the family and had to guess who we were imitating, we hummed songs and had to guess what song it was, we talked and laughed, we roasted marshmallows, etc. It was so fun. If it sounds like i am bragging about my family, well, i guess that is what i am doing if that's what you want to call it. To me, it's just being proud of having such an awesome family who i feel like ME around. I can get lost in all the chaos of life, but when i get around them i am reminded of WHO I AM, my routes, WHAT I LIKE, what is most important and what life is really about. They are such genuine people and make you feel so loved, important, and are so accepting. They just have fun. You will learn quickly what life is supposed to be about after being with them for awhile.

my aunt donna is an amazing host. She had huge tupperware buckets full of diced watermelon, grapes, diced up cantelope, strawberries....she had loads of different kinds of breads, lunch meats, everything for lunch sandwiches, chips, veggies and dip....it was all prepared and ready and just needed to be set out. She was completely prepared. Every morning we woke up she already had everything set out neatly waiting for us with a little note. She had the cereal out, bagels out, toast out, butter out....she had a little bowl and sippy cup sitting on the highchair for jaydon. she had a note telling us where the frozen waffles were. She had soda's, lemonade, drinks ....she had them in a fridge out in the garage, she had them in a fridge in the basement, put a little mini fridge out on the deck, along with two coolers. She had it all set up. She had towels out in a basket for us for after we were done swimming. She is AMAZING and that is the kind of host i want to be and will be from now on. They go above and beyond and WANT to. Gosh i love em. I hope to be able to live close enough to them one day to where i can make the drive within 6 hours. I so want to be able to see them more often.

We had an awesome time there with them. I wasnt' ready to come back to real life, but i will make sure i remember everything i took from them to use it everday in my life. Remembering that family is WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT. Nothing else is. They would drop everything to help and support each other. And they will do what they can to help someone out. They make sure that you know you are loved. They are just wonderful people and i am so proud to call them my family and i have missed them so much and hope to get to see them more. All i can say is that i am one darn lucky and blessed girl to have such wonderful families in my life. My side and Shane's side. I am sooooooo grateful for my families. Sooooooo grateful.

I am working on being a better mom and wife right now and making our home a home. That is what you will be seeing a lot of on my blog from now on. :) FAMILY. The only thing that matters in this life.

{Just some spiritual thoughts}

Just some spiritual thoughts i want to write down...

1. I believe that the spirit world is closer than we realize.
2. I believe that the veil can be so thin sometimes that we can remember things from before when we were in the pre-existence. I KNOW it because i have experienced it.
3. I believe that we need to listen a bit more to know what the spirit is telling us. I believe the spirit is there confirming things to us often, comforting us often, etc. We just need to be aware of the spirit there. We need to be spiritually in tune.
4. I believe that if we remember HIM(just like it says in the sacrament prayer) then we may always have HIS spirit to be with us. When we remember HIM and what he has done for us, we can't help but be filled with gratitude in our hearts and have feelings of love for HIM. And when we have those feelings toward HIM we then feel a greater appreciation for our life and what we have. We then feel the want and need to do better, to love others, to serve others. When we remember HIM we are filled with LOVE. When we remember HIM and what he has done for us it gives US the strength to bare our burdens. It gives us the strength to do what we need to do b/c of what HE did for us. We do that because we LOVE him. When we remember HIM always, it makes us better. It invites the spirit. Thus, we may always have his spirit to be with us. That is the way i see it.
5. I believe we are SOOOO much better, SOOOO much stronger, SOOOO much more than we realize. We are more. But we are pulled down constantly by negativity, feelings of insecurities, incompetent feelings, and bad things in this world(satan) that we don't realize how great we can be. Satan see's WHAT we can be and works hard to prevent us from becoming GREAT(from becoming what we CAN be). Because it would stink for him if we did become great. Especially if we became spiritually great.
6. I was having a discussion with someone. It was about missions and how missionaries experience such spiritual strength while on their missions. And this person said to me "I think it's almost impossible to experience the same spirituality, the same feelings, like i did on my mission. I instantly thought "No way....there are NO limits on our spirituality!!" No limits. I truly believe that.
7. There are so many different ways to feel the spirit. There are soooo many ways. We need to stop limiting ourselves and how we THINK we should feel it....OR the ONE way we know we feel it....rather think about the fact that there are MANY ways to feel it. We just need to pay attention and be more aware and discover what those different ways are.
8. I believe there are people on the other side cheering us on. They are there helping us along the way. They are helping to push us along. They are telling us not to give up. They are telling us to keep going. They are proud of us when we do what's right. Those people could be family, it's our Savior, it's anyone in heaven who knows us. It's the spirit confirming to us of the LOVE our family and Savior has for us. I believe that b/c i have felt it so many times in my life. I have felt like there is someone cheering me on throughout my life so far.
9. If i had a few days to live the ONLY thing i would think about is my family. I wouldn't think about anything else. I would be sad if there were hard feelings, frustrating feelings that i had towards anyone. I would regret HAVING any of those feelings towards anyone in the first place. ANY of those feelings would QUICKLY disintegrate and would no longer be there if i knew i had a few days to live. How could i hold on to those kind of feelings in that kind of situation? I couldn't. Because none of that is what matters. It's all silly petty stuff. I would wish that i were a better mom, a better friend, a better wife, a better daughter, a better sister, a better EVERYTHING. I would feel not ready b/c i haven't done what it takes to be my BEST. Knowing that makes me want to live EVERY day as if it were my last. Family is EVERYTHING. That is all that matters in the end. That is all we are here for. Family...being together for eternity. Loving each other. Being there for each other. Growing together.
10. We need to remember our Savior during our times of GOOD and not just during our times of BAD. During our times of good we need to remember him with GRATITUDE. A heart full of gratitude will take you a long ways. A person who is a thankful person is a person who is a happy person. I truly believe that. During our times of BAD we can still be happy and thankful by using the atonement and remembering HIM.
11. Someone else always has it worse than you do. So, before you start to think how bad you have it and how bad your life stinks, think about people in third world countries. Then suddenly your life looks perfect. And truly it is a good life. You just need reminders often until it actually sticks in your brain that you do have a good life.
12. Trials are a good thing. Hard times are a good thing. We grow tremendously from it. AND hard times are something we will experience our whole life. So, we better get used to it and learn how to deal with it. And better to deal with them in a good way b/c if we are going to experience hard times throughout our entire life better to do it happy than grumpy, otherwise you will be grumpy your whole life.
13. If we stay close to the Lord, serve others, and do what's right, life will be so much easier to face. JOY. Jesus first, Others second, Yourself third. Things will look good even if they are bad. The light of Christ will be in us. We will realize who we are , realize our purpose, realize what's really important. And when we can do that life will be a wonderful journey.
14. EVERYONE is human. As long as you are human you are going to have your faults. You are going to make mistakes. It doesn't matter who you are. EVERYONE makes mistakes.
15. You don't know someone's story unless they have told you their story. Do not judge someone by what others say OR even by what you THINK you see. You don't know their thoughts, you don't know what is in their heart, you don't know what they have been through, you don't know anything about someone's real story unless you are them. Unless you get in their brain. Therefore, we just shouldn't judge. We should just LOVE. :) haha...that is one thing i have had to relearn over and over.

These are just some thoughts i have learned or have thought about a lot lately and things i truly believe. Some of these things are so hard to remember all the time. But what is great is that we can always strive to remember these things. We can try our best to put them to action. We will never get it perfectly right, but we can try.