MOVING on!

 Well hello long lost blog!  So much has happened since last time I blogged...  For starters, we are moved to Wyoming.  I am going to focus on that.  Keeping it positive!  I need to, because, just like I lectured my children on this morning, we need to look for the good.  It will make us happier in life!

• Things we love so far in this wonderful state- people!  The people here don't look down on us for being hunters or listening to country music!  How wonderful, right? 
• The windmills are beautiful!  We went for a drive the other night and it was just before dusk, they were amazing!
• I have meet some super nice people that have just taken me in as a friend.  Two in particular:  Lindsey and Michelle.  They have been a blast to run with and just be with! 
• The ward seems awesome, the bishop and his wife are just grand! 
• There is a great trail we have ridden bikes on and ran on and walked on.  I love the trail! 
• Brad loves his job!  That is good!  He works reasonable hours and we feel more secure here than we have felt in years.  
• There is a Smiths here, I love shopping at Smiths.   
• There is a great Rec Center.  I am a sucker for good rec centers.  We go all the time, even if it is just for a half an hour to shoot some hoops.
• Lindsay and I have been swimming quite a few time.  I love the lap pool and they have a huge separate pool for kids.  It is a great set up!  Also they let little kids in the hot tub!  Bonus!
• The sky is so big here!  Sunsets and sunrises are pretty!
• I get to be a Primary teacher with another cool lady.  The kids are fun and so cute!
• There are a lot of parks around here that are really fun!
• My kids have really nice teachers!
• We get to see deer or moose every morning on the way to school.  I love all the wildlife.
• I have a neighbor that has different colored hair all the time, that is amusing, admittingly.  Ok, that might be it, I am really scrapping the barrel there :) 

Hyrum!  He is still trying to adjust.  He is very confident and does his own thing and if others want to join, they are more than welcome to.  That has it's pros and cons.  He is having a hard time finding a good friend.  Some days he has a lot and some days he has none.  He is really advanced academically.  His teacher worries about him getting bored because he already knows what she is teaching, so she gives him the marker and has him stand up and teach the class the math lesson.  Flattering?  Yes.  But that also has its concerns.  I love him and want him to keep learning and growing too.  I love Hyrum so much and hope and pray things start going better for him all across the board.  We did have some friends over last night for the first time since moving here.  Hyrum had fun.  So hopefully things will start looking up!

Paul.  I love Paul!  He is a roll-with-the-punches kind of kid.  He is usually just happy-go-lucky.  This move has been hard on us all, even Paul.  But he seems to have friends to play with at school and, dude, I am shocked that he is doing as well as he is in school.  He is out performing the state average and district average by more points than Hyrum in Math!  He doesn't show off that he is as smart as he is, so it makes me just giggle with joy that they have these tests that show how smart they really are.  He is working really hard on learning to read.  It didn't come completely natural for him, so he is putting forth a ton of effort!  He reads to me over 40 minutes a night.  He is still Mr. Athletic and enjoys when we head to the rec center. 

Bry-Bob!  He is very... very......  opinionated.  And he is generally quite loud about it.  He is trying really hard to not hate it here as well.  haha.  He misses having a yard and friends more than I can tell you.  He needs room to run, he has more energy than most.  It is really really cold here already, and so it is hard to take him out all the time to give some of that energy some freedom.  When we go to the rec center, he spends most of his time running in circles and up and down the bleachers and across the rock climbing wall, over and over again.  He is so happy when he has some adventure and room to explore that imagination of his.  Bryan is a joy!  I love watching him grow up and love what a sweet boy he is to me!

Jared is so loved.  We all just love him!  He has started going around giving us all "Knuckles" that Becky's boys Cade taught him.  He gives hugs when somebody cries.  And he dumps out every dish or box of cereal left of the table.  He won't go to sleep now that he can climb out of the crib.  And he loves going to the rec to play basketball. That kid LOVE balls and nursery!  He keeps us on our toes, that is for sure! 

 

Brittney took our pictures last month and I couldn't be happier with them!  She did all these, plus some ones of us in red that will be as our Christmas card!  I really appreciate them and can't believe she got so many good goes with all these young boys!!!!

 

For Halloween:

I made these hats and shirts.  I am really happy with how they turned out!  I guess that is another thing I can be happy about.  The place we live is really small for a big family and mostly easy to keep clean, so I have a little bit of time to do fun projects!

 

 

 

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One of the many...

 

So we will be leaving our home and moving.  Brad has found a great job and he is takin' it!  I am glad!  And super sad.  There are many things I will miss dearly.  I love my life here.  I love my neighbors.  I love the trails.  I love the kids and the families here.  I love my calling.  I love the stores here.  I love the parks here.  I love the rec center.  I love the Stake and Ward Leaders here.  I love so much.  My heart just aches thinking of the people who have touched my life here. 

 

One of the many thing I am going to miss is this:  Running with my best friend Carolyn

 Another one of the many things I am going to miss is this:  Swimming with more of my best friends Tammy, Stacy, Marcie, Carolyn and Paige and Maegan too.

I have had the best, the VERY BEST, support group of friends and neighbors.  They have been there for me and my family through the toughest of times...  They have been my sisters and my friends...

 

I love them and appreciate them always!

 

Please also take note that each picture makes a statement (the no swimming, no running).  It makes me laugh, even as I cry!

 

I am a Women of Steel

WELL....

 I am so happy to say I have done one more thing on my bucket list!  I did my first triathlon yesterday!  Sweet!  It was cold and wet and windy and freezing and fun!  I feel extremely grateful for the chance to do this!  We are watching our money really tight these days and would have never done this without the help I got.  My aunt Larene does this every year and offered to help my pay for it so we could do it together---

 Here we are!  Me and Larene! 

I signed up!  And then, realizing you can't just do a tri without gear and what not, I started to get a little nervous.  My sister offered to let me use her bike and so did Carolyn.  It was way more convenient to use Carolyn's.  Not only did I use it for the race, but Carolyn let me use it for training-which was super kind.  The petals were clip ins, so I looked around for a place I could rent some shoes.  Nothing.  I called around to see if I could use someones.  Nothing.  The shoes are so expensive, like almost a hundred dollars!  Yikes!  I found some for $15 at a bike store near by.  Seriously amazing deal (apparently they have been on clearance for 2 yrs waiting for me lol)!  My husband encouraged me to get my own suit as well, since I ruin things by accident somehow when I barrow things...  Jess had offered hers, but I did end up getting my own.  It was on clearance and the lady at the store I got it gave me even more money off the clearance price!  Triathlons are not only a lot of work to train for, there is quite a bit of gear to get as well!  So plan for that if you ever do one!  It came together just fine, I don't feel like I spent too much and I think I found me a new hobby!  And I never will forget all the wonderful people who supported me monetarily, verbally, and by letting me use their stuff!  It means a lot!  I really think this opportunity and my marathon are more than I deserve in our financial circumstance.

The race was great!  Like I said, it was cold!  I never, ever wear a tank top, but there I was in my tank top, freezing, waiting for the swim.  I seated myself in wrong...  Or everyone else did.  The water was wonderfully warm, but the other swimmers were dreadfully slow.  I got stuck behind one girl, and passed another in that short 300 meter swim.  In my bare feet I ran across the parking lot to my bike and got everything on and went on my way.  But my shoe was bugging me!  So I took it off and adjusted it.  My thought was "that just took 30 seconds of my time for nothing."  My shoe was still bugging me.  The bike ride was just under 13 miles.  The uphills were steep, with headwinds and rain.  The down hills were amazing and fun!  Transitioning to my running shoes was hard!  My fingers were totally numb and tieing my shoes took forever!  I did terrible on my transitions.  I didn't practice them though.  The run was good.  I started out really slow, because I couldn't feel my legs or feet and it just felt awkward.  But half way through I finally started feeling my toes and could take off!  It was a 2.9 mile run.  Triathlons are pretty challenging.  But man, my joints feel so much better after a tri than a marathon!  I might convert to save my knees!  I came in 4th place for my division.  Which sounds pretty great for my first tri, right?  Well, I am so bugged!  I came in 31.2 seconds behind number 3.  I was SO CLOSE to medaling.  So close...  Next year :)  Hopefully... I have to buy a bike! 

While I was doing my tri, the rest of my family was doing a mile race!  So we ended up with no pictures of either of us actually competing.  The boys seemed to love it, and they love the cool tech shirts even more!  They ran it with our wonderful neighbors the Smith's.  We sure love them!  Also the day before Hyrum took 4th place at his Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta!  Way to go Hyrum!

5-4-3-2-1 Blast OUT!!!

 

I seem to never be able to guess what this little Bryan is going to say next!

Jared has had tummy problems lately...  he can't seem to kick the diarrhea...  We have had blow outs down both lets to his feet, up his back to his neck and up he tummy up to his neck also!  It has been messy and stinky and so sad to know my baby can't been feeling well.  Many times it has taken me AND Brad to get him stripped down, clothes taken care of and Jared put in the tub. 

Well, this morning I got started changing Jared diaper and Bryan was close by...  He turns to me and asks, in only a tone Bryan has, "Mom!  Is that a BLAST OUT?"  I love it!  Such a better term and description of what we have been dealing with, not a BLOW out, a BLAST out!  Perfect!

One more tidbit of awesomeness

Here is one more tidbit of awesomeness in my life!  I am training for a marathon again!  It has been fun and stress relieving and nice to feel like I have a grip on something in life :)  This is my super awesome best buddy Carolyn, who is also running the marathon!  We have a blast!  Even on windy, cold, beautiful 18 mile runs like today!

 Also I am training for my first triathlon!  I have the bestest group of friends to swim with as well! 

Hehe!  And here is Bryan's best friend Seth running along side with bread to feed the duckies!  He is such a cute kiddo!  I am so blessed to be surrounded by hand fulls of sweet children in my life.  First and for most my own!  They are so amazing in millions of different ways, then my wonderful back door neighbors and carpool friends and it just branches out to our whole neighborhood.  I love the kids in my hood!  My calling has been a huge blessing, both from being around the kind children to the wonderful women and men I get to serve with!  I am so blessed.  I need to remember that when I feel totally and absolutely discouraged about so many other aspects of life!

Picture update!

This year has been pretty crappy.  I try not to blog about it.

 

Thankfully we have had a little bit of fun.  My dad took our family to Goblin Valley.  It was so nice!  Camp was beautiful, being with family was awesome and the food was top notch!  The boys loved being with Emma, Ali and Canyon and exploring with them.  We took a hike through some slot canyons also which was AMAZING!  I sure loved spending time with my bro and his wife and family and being with my dad and Paula was wonderful as well!

 

Also, somewhere in my mess of pictures, is Jared's first birthday.  We had some family take the time to come all the way here to celebrate, which was awfully sweet of them!  Jared is a shining ray of sunshine in our home, we love him very much!

 

There are a few pictures from our trip to Sheridan, WY, where Brad had an interview.  Brad decided it could be our 10 yr anniversary trip.  Fitting, since it took 10 hrs to drive there and 10 hrs to drive back and we were only there for just over 10 hrs. 

 

I am honestly trying to stay positive, but after 9 months of Brad being out of work...  And just other matters going on in life right now...  Ugh.  Anyway, these pictures are the highlight of fun for me this year!