True Friend

I can think of several instances where things have been put in my path exactly when I've needed them. What a tremendous, tremendous blessing. 

Just over a year ago, one evening as I was putting the littles to bed, I knelt by their bedside completely discouraged and in tears. I had never felt so badly about myself. It had been building for years. I was tired of not having my body cooperating with me since Olivia was born. My feelings, my self-image, seemed to be all over the place and I just felt awful. I wanted so badly to feel better about myself. It was a major internal struggle for me. I tried to not let it bother me, but it was more than just my vanity. I didn't like the way I felt about myself. I didn't feel like my care-free, fun, self. Something was weighing me down (literally!).

Within two weeks I was sitting in my friend's living room learning about Energy Profiling and Dressing Your Truth.  It certainly wasn't a light-bulb moment then and there, but I found I couldn't stop thinking about it after. I went over to another friend's house to re-read the Types three times - I had to figure it out. Another two weeks went by and I just couldn't get past it. I watched everything I could online and even tried to figure out the Style Guide/Colors myself. It wasn't enough. Finally, on Valentine's Day, Ryan encouraged me to buy the course. Perhaps he was tired of me hemming and hawing about it, or simply the discouragement he knew I felt about myself, but he told me to go ahead and do it. It was a chunk of change ($199) and I was sweating a bit as I bought it, but as soon as I did, I absorbed everything I could. I still do.

I was hesitant to post this again, but I've hooked some of you :) and I know there are some of you out there that have felt how I have. So here goes.

Dressing Your Truth is having their True Friend sale. You can check it out HERE. You can also learn your profile for free if you're not ready. DYT is all over the internet/youtube. I love learning how your type affects the way you get angry, the best tips to reduce and eliminate stress, best parenting and even your body shape tendencies, and skin! Everything. I love it. (Let me know if you'd like the links to those.)


So there you go.
Thanks for letting me share. again. :)

Wrestling and Basketball

January brought more wrestling for Clay just over at the high school .Clay’s desire to wrestle seemed to wane near the end. He didn’t want to go to practice much, but only preferred the meets. Nice try. He picked everything up pretty quickly and it was fun to watch him. Not so much for me at the beginning. I didn’t like seeing kids all twisted up and watching their eyes as they struggled – Clay included. Ryan was in heaven. I told him I wanted to video some of Clay’s matches; especially his first ones. Ryan said he would. First words out of my mouth, “are you sure you won’t be too loud ?” To which he responded, with a grin, “no I’m just going to watch.” Yeah right. 

Warming up at the last meet.

January thru March brought Young Women basketball for Rylee. She was invited to play as an 11 year old – turning 12. She wasn’t so sure about playing in the beginning, but once she decided to actually play, she blew us away. She’s fast and feisty. One of the games she caused 6 turnovers! She was never afraid to get right in there and swipe the ball away. She’s on her way to being quite the little point guard.

I was graced with another year coaching the YW.  Our team dynamics couldn’t have been more different this year than last. Our team was huge – enough for two full lines plus subs.  And, all of those girls were Beehives, but 3! Isn’t that awesome? (wink) We won a few games and some how still made it to the Stake Championship game. You wouldn’t believe how much these girls improved, it was an awesome season.

Rylee loves basketball, and certainly didn’t stop with YW basketball. On March 4th, her middle school held a tournament Hoops for Heart to raise money for the Heart Association. Rylee was quick to help form a team. Twenty-four teams entered.

 

Each team played a series of 4 minute games to see where they would start in the tournament. We were thrilled to see Rylee and her team go to the semi-finals and finish 4th over all. I was really impressed watching these 6-8th graders play. Most could show me up any day. 

About a week later, Rylee came home from school with a cool little trophy. She’s ready for next year.

 

(Love how I didn’t get any action shots of either Rylee or Clay? yeah, awesome. We do have video though;)

Contagious

 

Olivia, Henry and I ran to Target yesterday to grab a few things.

They were sitting in one of those huge carts and I walked away from the cart for a moment.

I came back to these two laugh hysterically at each other.

Really laughing. 

They couldn't stop.

The next few moments made my day.

Every person we passed started smiling and some even started to laugh.

It was contagious.

As we turned the corner to go to the check-out, the man paying even took a few steps back to see who was laughing and smiled.

Henry and Olivia stopped laughing and quickly became distracted when I agreed they could pick out a treat.

The lady at the register told me to

"make them laugh again. I love to hear kids laugh."

Driving away, these two busted up again. :)

 

Being Brave

Ryan and I have been invited to go on the Pioneer Trek this year.
We're going to be a Ma and Pa to 8-10 youth.
When the 2nd counselor of the Stake Presidency extended the invitation, he graciously warned us that there would be two 14 mile hikes back to back.
Oy.

Not long before that, my friend mentioned she'd like to run the Bolder Boulder 10k again this year.
Thinking that would be a great way to get in shape for the Trek, I told I would do it, too.
Now, sometimes, I can talk a pretty good talk, but not always follow through with the walk - especially when it comes to exercise.
It always sounds more dreamy in the head, then I end up talking myself out of it.

Last Friday, I signed up.
The furthest I have ever run is 4.15 miles.
Don't laugh.
I think I have a picture of it somewhere, too.
I have just less than 12 weeks to prepare.

I still have this taped to my treadmill:

I got this.

Simple Joy

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. I’m a fairly simple person and we live and fairly simple life – you know, as much as you can with 6 kids and a dog (wink).

The kids enjoyed the snow over the weekend –  before the blizzard hit.

I’m not sure how much they enjoyed the 11” they trudged through this morning to get to the bus stop, but I’m sure they’ll be back on that hill. Church was canceled yesterday because of the weather conditions, the second time since we’ve lived in Colorado. I can say I got quite the workout shoveling the walks and driveway today. Thankfully, it’s warming right back up so it was melting pretty quickly – just in time for another round of snow tomorrow!

Henry didn’t seem to mind, although he wasn’t much help with the shoveling . . .

I got a kick out of watching that boy try and put a pony tail in Kaycee’s hair yesterday – without pants still, of course.

Couldn’t quite get it, but it was sweet that he wanted to try.

I was thrilled last week when I found these toss pillows and little birds. Honestly, I was lead to that store! I had been on the hunt for pillows for a couple months, so I was over the moon that I found some that I loved. At that same store, I found these little birds for $4 each. The green one was perfect , but I needed to find the right spray paint for the second. I finally found it after 4 stores. (Looking at the coral one now, I didn’t spray it very well!) We’ve had the green color in our house for a while now , but I’m tickled to start adding the coral accents.

This weekend I’ve also been listening to this:

I’ve seen the move twice and I like it a lot better the second time. I think I may be the only person that thought Russell Crowe did a great job. Considering he’s not a singer, I really enjoyed his voice and appreciated how well he stayed on key. I was expecting more from Hugh Jackman, but he did fine. I loved the female leads. Anne Hathaway blew me away. I was so not looking forward to her in the movie, but I think she nailed it. The children singers/actors were phenomenal. I loved it.

I’m not even sure I should write about these. Last month, we happened to find them at Sam’s for less than $4 a bag. Yeah, I bought 8 bags. Ah, the simple joys, right?

Don’t ask me how many bags are left.

Back from the Dead

We haven’t died, but jumping back into blogging is a little daunting. I figured while I’m in the mood to post, I probably should. I’m going to give you the short version of everything and perhaps a few pictures. (Yeah, more than a few.)

December was busy. From craft shows, vinyl orders, dance, wrestling, gymnastics, school programs, turning 32(!),Christmas decorating, Christmas shopping to Christmas. This was our first year celebrating the holidays on our own. I was so worried my kids would feel so lonely, but my anxiety was in vain and it ended up being so nice and cozy. Rylee, Olivia and Henry fought strep throat the last week of school right into Christmas. The day after Christmas (ahem, Boxing Day), I came down with the flu. Nasty, nasty flu. It laid me out for a good three days – in bed. We were healthy (enough) by New Years Eve and partied it up with some friends at a hotel, swimming, eating and playing games. The return of good health was short lived as this past Sunday, Henry woke up puking at 6:45. Olivia followed shortly after, with Kaycee and Clay that evening. Thankfully, by Monday the throwing up had stopped yet Henry started a fever. He’s still fevered. Poor kid. That flu is nasty.

Now for pictures. Thank goodness for cell phones – I’m not sure I would have remembered all this!

Turning 32. The little boys’ faces are my favorite

Miss Olivia right after her dance recital. She nailed it. .

Kaycee in her 3rd grade Mighty Minds production. She was one of the 7 Mighty Minds. I was blown away by the huge banner/sign when I walked into the gym. She was fabulous. She reminded me of myself in my elementary school performances.

This is an picture of the 3 stockings (unfinished) I finished just in the nick of time. I just had to blanket stitch the fabric on and the two pieces together. I love them. I thought I had a picture of all the stockings, but I don’t. Now, ALL the kids have a stocking. Fancy that.

I found this beauty at Savers for $5. Perfect for Rylee for Christmas.

Sorry, the pictures are lame, but this was re-finished Christmas Eve. I thought about distressing the black, but it was more Rylee left crisp and clean. The lamp was from Santa.

My cute crew Christmas morning.

I didn’t take any pictures of our tree this year. It was a joke. The pre-lit thing no longer was pre-lit and covered in lights that you wrap around bushes. It was quite the sight. Hence, it was taken down the earliest ever, New Years Eve day.

Speaking of New Years Eve day, Ryan’s parents were set apart as full time missionaries. So neat. They reported to the MTC in Provo just two days ago and will head down to serve in the Lima, Peru Temple for 18 months.

Don’t they look great?  We miss them already.

I love this picture. Excuse the back light, but I love that Aaron and Ryan are in their Dad’s clothes – at least from the waist up. (Neither of them knew until upon their arrival that they’d be participating in the setting apart.  Cute fellas.)

PHEW, I’m done.

Happy New Year!

Helping Grandpa

It must be in their genes.  My boys sure do love to help Grandpa  - and anything that has to do with the tractor.

Thanksgiving Week 2012

Our Thanksgiving Feast

We were anxious to scurry off to Utah to be with my family for Thanksgiving – ALL together for the first time in 4 years. You think it would be easy when all of my siblings live there (but me and Marcie), but it hasn’t.  In fact, our kids were excited when they found out that Ryan was coming with us!

We had a whole week together and we certainly maximized our time. We arrived Saturday and all the adults headed out for dinner. Sunday, we attended a few wards for talks, primary, and priesthood ordinations, then gathering at Patti and Ben’s for treats and games in the evening.

Monday afternoon, we went up to Herriman to visit Ryan’s cousin’s family, aunt, uncle and Grandma Didi. From there, for family home evening and Gma and Gpa’s gift exchange, we went to Micki and Spencer’s new home – purchased two weeks previous. A beautiful home easily accommodating all 43 of us. Sitting there, I realized that this very could be the last time as we’re all together for a long time. Now that we have nephews that are (and very soon will be) missionary eligible. I still ask myself how that is even possible, but they are. This thought prompted the following pictures. I think I took over a hundred.

Also, some pictures of Gma and Gpa giving the kids their Christmas gifts. (Remember, we celebrate Christmas every year together – whether at Christmas or Thanksgiving.)

Tuesday evening, was the highlight of the whole trip for me. The adults all drove up to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple to do sealings.  The first time all together, all in white with my Dad performing the sealings. My dad’s cousin, Uncle Neil, had brought in family names. It was amazing and the Spirit was strong. I appreciated my Dad’s tenderness as his voice broke with each couple kneeling at the alter.  Such an incredible experience and surely one I will always treasure.

Wednesday, we got it on at the church gym playing some ball. Basketball and volleyball. We’re a fun bunch. Not a timely bunch as we had the gym booked from 9-5 and we all showed up at 2, but oh well. AND, I’m pretty sure my volleyball team won the CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD.

Thanksgiving day, we drove down to Jeannie and Brent’s new home. Another gorgeous home boasting 8,000 square feet. (I’m sure they appreciate me sharing that…).  We had plenty of room to eat, play video games, ping pong, Spazz, Wacky Sixes, enjoy a small talent show and have a dance party. Fun and more fun.

Friday, some folks went shooting in the morning ( I would have gone had I known I’d have to take 5 girls to the mall on Black Friday.  I didn’t swear out loud but I did give someone the what for when they pulled out in front of me on the way home. I’m sure my blood pressure was through the roof that morning. Me + a mall + Black Friday shopping + gobs of people everywhere = kill.me.now.) Friday took us back down to Jeannie’s for leftovers. The adults snuck away for dinner and a movie.

Saturday, we peeled our children off their grandparents and cousins and made the long, sad drive home. There are always tears and questions of when we’re coming back – the kids cried, too.

What a wonderful week. I always love being with my family. I’m so grateful for such wonderful parents. It was a few years ago, I was driving alone with my Dad in the car. I was asking him how it felt to have his kids get along so well. He explained how satisfying it was to not only have kids that love each other, but LIKE each other and really enjoy being with one another.

Agreed.

Me and my brother, John

Cousin Love