Thanksgiving Break 2019

It was nice to get together with family. We spend thanksgiving with the days. Everyone was there (including Jared and Sara from Texas) expect Joe and Susan who are in dental school. 

I brought a fruit plate and fruit salad. Moms pecan pie was my favorite for sure! 

As usual the grandkids played nice together. Vivie and Bingham sure do love each other. They spent a solid 30 min in the back bedroom playing "night night" with each other. Cuties!

Rachel and Talie get along great too. Dayton sometimes feels left out because he is a boy and they love each other so much they don’t alway include him. That said they do try.

Lucy is Nates baby girl and she turned one, Nov. 30th! Time flies! We did celebrate her birthday after Thanksgiving. 

As a family we got all of our Christmas decor up and it was fun! I always love doing that together. 

Summer 24th

The 24th celebration this July was a huge hit as always. Our kids raced, caught animals and played all day in the sun on the blow ups and in the fireman hose down. We watched fireworks with our friends the Hernandez and stayed up way too late. It’s always such a great day! 

Adam had surgery!

Adam had surgery in his face. This is because his MRI showed significant sinitus in his head last spring. So he saw an ENT and after years of ruling out allergies and doing antibiotics he decided it was best to change the anatomy. So the doctor took cartilage from his ear to rebuild is septum. He removed his old septum totally and built a new one around a dissolvable splint. Then he also cut off the tip of his nose and lifted it a bit to aide in better drainage. He widened tubes (like my technical terms?) in his sinuses so that things can drain better. He made some flaps up there smaller too so the same reason. The doc said Adam will be in pain for two weeks then it’ll be much better. The surgery was done the 30th and we are taking it easy. Poor guy! I really hope this pays off for him.

Summer!!!

Kids are out of school and summer is here! We have big plans. Including doctor visits for Adam. Praying the lung specialist can help us figure out what his nodules are from. Tomorrow is a packed day already with baseball, guitar lessons, private gym lesson for Rach and baseball game for Dayton. Did I mention Adam is his coach? It’s been so fun to watch Adam coach the boys. He does a great job! Bring on the sun and popsicles! No more school for mom either. I decided not to teach next year. Hard choice but in the end it is what is best for us right now.

May Day

Rachel got to France May Day at Mendon square yesterday. It was so special! She really did well and liked beautiful! All the grandparents made it to watch and cheer her in. I think it’s so cool that we have such a traditional event still happening today in our small town.

She also lost her front tooth right before she went to perform. 

Valentines Day

Groundhog Day

We had the traditional celebration at the Day's. Carter helped make every cupcake face and was delighted by it. The cousins had a great time playing together and the dollar tree gifts and pot luck didn't disappoint.

Or course I taught my kindergartners about Groundhog Day too and we made predictions at home and in my class. This year it looks like an early spring!

Dayton got his wolf!

Adam and I are wolf and bear leaders for our ward. We have been for a couple years now. It has been fun to be part of Dayton's scouting experience even if it is just boy scouts. As the church is moving away from BSA we are anxious to see what they put out next.

This month Dayton earned his wolf at pack meeting. Before he has even been in scouts for a year. Good job Dayton! It was my first Mom pin, that was neat! He looks so little in his big scout shirt, that Grandma Day bought big for him to grow into. Ha! Ironic.

Matchy Girls

Rachel is 7 and Vivian is 2.5 years old! I love how I can still get away with matching them! I know it won’t last much longer so I need to enjoy it! Aren’t they sweet? Rachel is a kind big sister, 99% of the time. I’m so glad we braved having one more baby cause Vivie is definitely special in our home. Lately Adam and I have been eating up how cute she is and her emerging talking!!! 💕 We love our girls! 

Treatment Weekend

Adam has had some bowel issues lately. So we had to go for another colonoscopy this past Thursday to see what the problem is. Turns out he has ulcerative colitis with an umbrella diagnosis of IBS. So after his $800 medicine we already paid for and tried that didn’t help now he has a $900 medicine that he needs every month forever apparently to deal with this issue. Oh my word! So help me! Why is it so expensive? Anyway, we are trying to go through a Canadian pharmacy and see what they can do.
Then the day after that holabaloo he went for his treatment for NMO, nearly 8 hours of infusion and 1 gram of retuxin. He has now been in bed for two days. That is to be expected.
We are grateful he does as well as he does. We are grateful for the many miracles and healing we have seen. We try to see the good and not whine too much. I just like to document our life, the hard parts sometimes too.

Must see pics!

Carter goes to Grandma Day's on Wednesday with Vivian while I teach. He loves going! He loves reading with her too.


Dayton is so grown up and can feed the dogs on his own. Which is saying something because Pawnee is 100 lbs and Koda is about 150 lbs. He is a giant! Gosh, I don't love animals! I sure do love Pawnee girl though. She is mild and sweet.


Vivian helped herself to the peanut butter. She got both hands in it and licked away. She is so dang busy and funny!


Carter said, "Mom can I take a picture of you?" This is what I got! Our everyday life I guess, me getting ready in the morning for teaching.


We have implemented the new Come Follow Me program in our home. In fact I have started a business doing it. I send weekly lessons to families all over the world geared toward primary aged kids. It was 100% inspired for me to do it. All that said, personally for our family it has been delightful to be teaching more at home with a focus and purpose together. On another note Vivian loves to color. Her fine motor skills are exceptional for age two!


Dad and Rachel reading from the New Testament that we are studying this year. I think this is priceless!


It is a new year and we are grateful for eachother. Winter is in full gear and although we are freezing our hearts and our home is filled with warmth and love. Mostly, there is that real life sibling rivalry part. ha!

Rachel got a fish

She paid for it with her very own money. She originally came home from the pet store begging for a bird. That was a big fat no! Stinky, tweety and another animal, in my house? No thank you! I told her we have 40 birds already, the chickens. She bawled. When she calmed down she came in and calmly asked what animals she could get with her own money. So a fish it was. Adam took her tonight. All is well in the word again.

Vivie loves to color!

She colors all the time on her own accord. She loves to peel the crayon wrapper off. She even colors in the lines. 

Date Night

We hit cold stone tonight then went walking around the track at Logan High. It was actually really nice to get out and talk and move! Winter is rough sometimes with how cold it gets so this was awesome! Thanks babe!
 

Noon Years Eve at the Library

This was so fun to go to! The kids didn’t have to stay up til midnight, nor did I. We had donuts, sparkling cider, made hats and counted down to a balloon drop. I’ve loved break with our kids this year. Teaching is so bitter sweet! I love kindergarten and the kids but oh how I miss mine when I’m away. I don’t know if that will ever get better for me.

This new yet my goal is to come unto Christ. In all ways! With the new Come Follow Me manual in the home, daily scriptures as a family and for myself (I listen on the app as I drive to work) working on our marriage (dates and making each other a priority) and attending church. I want to focus on this thought, “we no longer have the luxury of spending time on anything that does not point us or our families to Jesus Christ.” I agree and am going to do things with more purpose and aim to God.

Anyway, here are pictures!

Happy New Year! 2019 here we come! 

Rachel has been giving!

Rachel has been really giving lately. She has left many notes next to my bed of nice things she will do to serve. We introduced to the service hearts as part of a family home evening lesson, she has really taken to it. Then on Sunday she chose to make Dayton a special card saying she would do his dinner job. Just to be nice. I love that she has such a big heart. Some days she is fierce. Other days she is tender. I hope as she grows these two qualities will come into perfect balance. We sure love her.