Thanksgiving

Well, this year we're joining my (Nathan's) parents and some siblings for Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and stuffing and cranberry and YUM. We were a little late getting our sweet potatoes and apple pie in the oven. It was great watching mother and daughter making that pie together, and though apple might not be one of the traditional pumpkin favorites, who can say NO when those little blue eyes ask to make apple pie? Her daddy has a hard time for sure!

Did I say sweet potatoes?  We used the recipe from Our Best Bites (the picture was flagrantly stolen from their linked blog entry. They're amazing! They're delicious! We had a preview last Saturday and I made Lisa make another batch for today. What a good guy, huh? I did help with the cleanup and some pie pastry cutting.

Since I'm going in random order, I'll also mention morning football. We had 16 guys from the neighborhood get together and no one (that I know of) wimped out when they saw snow had fallen overnight. (: Okay one almost wimped out, but he gave in to the peer pressure. :) It seemed like everyone had a good time, everyone was a great sport, no injuries were reported (maybe a few bruised egos) (mine) and I expect some really sore legs tomorrow or the next day. I don't think I've ever played football in the snow before. I didn't have great shoes for it, my feet got soaked, but I had a great time.

So thanksgiving... I'm thankful for a wonderful family, a comfortable home, plenty to eat, a good job that keeps me engaged and gives me a comfortable living, great friends, and too many other things to count.

super COOL moon!

Amazingly, I remembered that tonight was the full moon and also a super moon, meaning the moon is as close to the earth as it has been since 1948. Because of this it appears larger and brighter. It was beautiful! If a little girl wasn't anxious to get back home, I would have enjoyed a longer time gazing at it. Nathan climbed on our roof to get some good pictures, but our camera or lenses aren't the best at night time pictures.

The super moon shortly after it appeared above the canyon

Who dat up on de' roof?

I took this shot of the moon a couple nights before it
was completely full. It was pretty in clouds.

And how about this weather?????
So gorgeous!! And these roses of mine are the best--
they bloom from spring through the end of fall.

In sad news, my lil' indian fell on her face and
scraped it up pretty badly. It shook her up a lot, but
she's doing fine now. The grossest part is that she
has been eating her scabs!!!

somebody dropped the ball

Somebody, somebody is responsible, you see?
So I found that somebody, and....oops! It was me!

Yep, I have not kept the blog up for the last several months. And how on earth do I catch you up? Well, I'm afraid I will just have to "sum up."

• Our kind, playful, imaginative daughter turned 5! And did she want a princess theme for her special day? No, it was Star Wars, and Darth Vader more specifically, she wanted. She still loves her princesses, but I have to admit I'm glad she's interested in other things, too. We sure love her!
• Nathan had LASIK on both of his eyes. He's still in the healing process, but is past the most uncomfortable stage. He has at least 20/15 vision in both eyes and is happy with the results. We've talked about having him get LASIK for a long time, so I'm glad we finally did it!
• I was called as Relief Society president in my ward. Talk about a shocker! Nathan warned me it could be coming, but I really didn't think it would. It was VERY overwhelming for the first while, but it's gradually getting less so. I'm grateful to get to serve the wonderful women in our ward and I'm thankful the Lord can use me.
• We finished our application process with Premier Adoption!! We're very hopeful that this will give us the opportunity we've yearned and prayed for for years to bring another child into our family. Of course, shortly after getting everything finished our home study needed to be updated again, but we now have that taken care of as well! Now we're ready for our miracle.
• I was in charge of my family's annual reunion and we had it the weekend of the 24th of July. We did a session at the temple Friday night and then spent a lot of the day Saturday working on projects in Mom's backyard. We got a lot done! Then in the evening we had some family history activities and a BBQ up the canyon. Things turned out pretty well. Now I have some years before my turns rolls around again -- whew!
• I had a nephew return home from a mission in the Dominican Republic and another nephew leave for a mission in Chile, and yet another nephew receive his mission call to Guatemala! Nathan had a nephew return from a mission in Sweden and another nephew left to serve in Mexico.
• We took a short trip to San Francisco and San Jose with some friends in our ward. We had such a great time! It was really fun to spend time there with our friends and Nathan got to visit with some of his friends there as well. Fun times!
• A trip to Lagoon, a picnic in the Uintahs, pool time, playing in the sprinklers and at splash pads and parks, a couple hikes, an overnight camping trip, birthdays and family gatherings, a trip to my sister, Lynda's, to surprise her for her birthday, and a recent trip to the zoo with my sister, Lori.
• Another big event was S starting preschool. I was nervous about this because she was really needing her parents around a lot at that time, so I sought out some advice and prayed a lot and the transition actually went pretty smoothly. Now she loves it. She's also doing an online preschool and is doing really well there, also. Thank heaven!

Provo River Falls in the Uintahs with Nathan's
sister and her family on Memorial Day

We hiked to Lisa Falls on the 4th of July (Yes, I had
to go there ;) but it wasn't much of a hike)

S and her daddy horsing around

S and I on our camping trip

Lynda blowing out the candles on her birthday cake
(either that or...she's trying to fly, lol!)

Our friends with us at Pier 39 in San Francisco

S and her friend drinking water from the sprinkler

S and her cousin at Lagoon examining the map

Nathan and I volunteered to help at the rodeo this summer

Cousins playing in the creek

S with cousins on Grandma's porch swing

The family at the reunion in July

She's become very good at drawing

Being silly on our hike (Mommy was trying to get S to smile)

Her first day of preschool (trying hard to be brave)

S and her friend from preschool on their first field trip
to the apple barn

Goodbye to Alan

The heartbreaking news in April was that my oldest brother, Alan, died unexpectedly from a heart attack. He'd never had any previous trouble with his heart and he was only 61 so it was a shocker. He lived in Montana with his girlfriend, Angie. He loved her, riding his Harley, singing and playing guitar with The Dirty Corner band, and taking in the beauties of nature.He was an easy-going and kindhearted man. He always lived away from home during my life so I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. Thanks to Facebook, I had more contact with him the last few years than I have in a long time. He was a good brother to me. He always called me "sis" and told me he loved me. Nathan and I drove up and stayed with him for a short visit while I was pregnant. He and Nathan played guitars together, he drove us around, and took us out to eat at an Irish pub. :)  I was certainly not prepared to lose him nor, especially, was my mom. There's another hole in our family.

We had services for him in Montana and all of my siblings were able to come. It was good to be together and remember him. Montana is such a beautiful place. Alan loved it there. Nathan and I made a video slideshow of him for his funeral and it was a good way to reflect on his life and who he was. I'll miss him.

his senior picture

Alan on his Harley (one of them)

Alan and me at dad's funeral

The view from the back of Alan's house

The rest of us

April overview

Wow, looks like it's been a while since I've blogged! Somehow April just flew by. Let me hit some highlights.

First off, spring. It's been beautiful (in spite of the unpredictable spring weather). Here are some of the lovely blossoms I was drinking in this year. I love spring blossoms!

And my child has developed a fondness for dandelions. I've already received more dandelions than ever before in my earlier life. Lucky for her, we have a steady supply of them in our yard ;-)

There's been some tree climbing...

and duck feeding,

some cousin time,

and some puppy time.

Nathan and I were able to go to a Collin Raye concert and I rediscovered:

1. Yes,I'm that old and 2. Yes, he's that old

But the concert was great and we both loved it.

And last, but not least, my nephew married his lovely bride. My sister and her kids stayed in our basement which was fun for us. S LOVES her Aunt Lynda...a lot!

Easter

We had a really nice Easter this year. It came at the end of an already busy week, but it was great to get together with family. We love that. Saturday included an Easter egg hunt at both grandmas houses. At my mom's we saw some of my nieces and nephews and their kids that I don't see all that often so it was fun to catch up with them. S had a fun time with 2 cousins close to her age. Of course, she didn't want to leave at the end. There were more older cousins at Nathan's parents' and they found lots of eggs really quickly. I think S liked being outside as much as anything.

Sunday morning S and I colored Easter eggs and she helped me decorate bunny cupcakes and a bunny cake (okay, well, actually she was taking a bath while I did the cake =) She squealed with delight when she saw her Easter basket that morning. Nathan slept most of the morning. He's still getting used to this getting-up-early-every-day work schedule. And he usually has to get up early on Sundays, too! After church my mom and sister came over for a typical ham Easter dinner. We had a nice time visiting.

A tradition that I have tried, but not very successfully, to establish on Easter mornings is to get up and watch the sun rise. This year I kept going outside to check on the sun's progress. It was a bit cloudy and I didn't catch the exact moment the sun broke over those majestic mountains, but I saw it soon after. I love to remember how Mary got up while it was "yet dark" to visit the tomb and anoint the Lord's body. At that point Christ's death seemed like such a tragedy, and I think those saints maybe even felt like Christ's mission on earth had failed. But I love, just like the sun bursting over the mountaintops, how all that sadness and disappointment was swept away as Mary and then others witnessed the miracle of that first Easter morning when Christ rose from the dead, when He overcame it all! Their sadness was turned into joy, and, oh, what joy!! I love that Christ appeared first to Mary--such a personal, tender reunion. How grateful I am for the miracle of Christ's atonement! It gives me hope that all can be made right, that I can be made right.

Easter sunrise

the hunting begins...

S enjoying her candy

just look at those cuties!! I love it

Pre-hunting picture --the best we could get!

I love this little sweetie

cute lil' bunnies

I think I'm being hunted...

my little sweetie

Adoption Video

We're excited to share this video about our family. It was created by our sister-in-law Angela who offered to share her talents to help us in our adoption efforts. We're very grateful and indebted to her and to many others who reach out to help and pray for us in this process. Thank you so much!

The video gives a glimpse into who we are. 

a little getaway

So we had some very shocking news in February when Nathan went to work one day and found out that he and half of his team were being let go. It was very unexpected. Things seemed to be going really well for the company, but it was a startup and I'm learning--through hard experience--that startups aren't always extremely good at predicting where their business is going. Anyway...thankfully Nathan is in a good field with lots of job opportunities. He started getting calls from recruiters the same afternoon. Finally he had to start telling recruiters he couldn't work with any more of them! I will spare you all the details, so "let me sum up" by saying he received 4 job offers. We struggled with deciding which one would be best and eventually chose the one that seemed to offer the best opportunity for him to develop his skills and grow his career. He starts soon and is very anxious to get back to work!

The job search proved to be very stressful. Once he accepted an offer and declined the others and we knew life wouldn't be quite so unpredictable we decided to GET AWAY. And, by the time we left, I was SOOOOO ready for a break!!!

We ended up deciding to head to southern Utah. We stayed in Springdale just outside Zion National Park for 2 nights and then a final night in St George. The first night was a nightmare: S couldn't sleep and complained of pain in her ear so she and I made a middle of the night trek to Hurricane for medicine. It was around 3:30 am when I finally got to bed. Talk about a miserable start to a vacation! Ugh! We slept late the next day (and every day thereafter).

We opted for a room with bunk beds at the Springdale hotel.
S was in HEA-VEN! She loved playing on them (I just wish
the sleeping on them had gone better!)

Eventually we made it to Zions and enjoyed the river walk. S wanted Daddy to hold her a lot of the time. She was enthralled and nervous to see cactus. At one point I asked her what her favorite part of the trip was and she said, "the cactus" :) We saw some curious squirrels up close, climbed some rocks, threw rocks in the river, and enjoyed the beauty of the red rock canyon. Nathan brought his camera and enjoyed capturing the sights. That day we drove the Kolob Terrace while S slept in the car and the remainder of the day we walked around Springdale and ate.

a beautiful spring we saw on the walk

S and I watching the squirrels

hello squirrel!

because you can't just walk past a perfectly good puddle!

Nathan's handiwork: Kolob Terrace Drive

Nathan's handiwork: Kolob Terrace Drive

hello cows. yes, they're very photogenic ;)

We were all feeling more revived the next day and set out to hike to all 3 of the Emerald Pools. I think this is my favorite place in Zions. It's a nice hike: enough that you feel like you actually did some hiking, and I love to go hiking, plus the waterfalls and pools are beautiful, the evergreens against the red cliffs are stunning, and the size of those cliffs is just incredible! I loved being there again. S loved it, too. This time she didn't want to be carried and she didn't complain about the hiking at all. She loved playing in the sand, dirt, and puddles and she chattered happily as we hiked along. So fun! We also visited the Weeping Wall and then drove through the tunnel and past it a ways. 

ah...I love this place!

one of my favorite pictures

playing in the sand

waterfall at the uppermost Emerald Pool

At the Weeping Wall

View driving up to the tunnel

on the East side of the tunnel

We made it to St.George that night and S finally got to play in the pool for a while. She's a big chicken in the water--like her momma--but she loves being in it. I finally got to soak in the hot tub for a little while, too.

eerie-looking girls in the pool

On our last day we went out and had a big, yummy breakfast and then found a park for S to play. I did a little shopping and then we started home. We took a detour to drive up Kolob Canyon, which I'd never done before. It was, in a word, gorgeous! We also took a stop in Beaver at the cheese factory and loaded up on cheese (although not the huge $45 cylinder of longhorn cheddar Nathan wanted! :)

us at Kolob Canyon

It felt really great to be home again, but it really was good to get away from the cares and demands and stress of life, too. It's amazing how easy it is to let the little cares of life grow out of proportion and weigh so heavily upon us!