Week in Review...

Abby lost 2 teeth this week!! It was great because her big girl teeth are already popped up behind them, looks like braces in her future!

Ashlyn with her friends at the concert last week...

Last Sunday we had dinner at our neighbor the Weidman's for a belated St. Patty's day dinner. This is our 8th or 9th year doing this, they're so nice! After dinner Haley practiced accompanying them for a song in sacrament.

Abby got a Stop sign at school from a community helper crossing guard that visited her class...

We had a surprise visit from one of my primary teachers this week who had noticed Ashlyn riding to school on a small bike. He was able to donate a bike to her from his fire department! Ashlyn was ecstatic! It's also purple which is her favorite color.

Jacob had his day on the prarie on Friday, they spent all day outside doing prairie activities...

On Saturday Abby and I went to the park and laid on a blanket and looked up at the leaves. It was a beautiful breezy afternoon, it was so nice to just relax after 9-10 hour workdays all week. Then i got a text asking me to come in and work. ugh!

It was nice while it lasted....

Saturday morning Ashlyn and Jacob ran in our annual 3rd5k race. Their PE teacher at Zaharis gave them scholarships to run, because they knew it was our tradition. So sweet! Jacob surprise me by running really fast! I thought he was going to walk the whole way, and instead he was booking it! He got 29 minutes for 3.1 miles, poor Ashlyn had a cramp the whole race but still managed to get 34 minutes! Great times! My little runners...oh and that was with no training before hand. We didn't know they would be running in it until Tuesday!

We also managed to put together a puzzle while we were at the park...

The stake hosted a Mother, Son activity on Saturday as well, it was a busy day! Jacob and I had fun playing ping pong together and doing an Escape Room...

We ended the day by going to Carrie's old pool and holding this sweet baby girl...

Isn't she the cutest?!?!

Week in Review...March 24-2019

On Monday it was my Dad's 71st birthday. Love you Dad! They're currently packing up their home in Livermore, Ca getting it ready to sell. They also just purchased a home in Woodland, Washington. It's a beautiful home that has a beautiful view. I hope that we'll be able to go and visit it. I will miss having that connection to Livermore, where we all grew up and have so many memories. Luckily my brother Randy is still living there, so we have a reason to keep visiting. On Wednesday Haley and Ashlyn got to go to a concert that they had been waiting for every since their birthdays back in November. Why Don't We, it's a boy band and they're obsessed...They had a great time, lots of screaming girls!

This is from Jacob's last Camping trip that he went on a few weeks ago, nearby in Queen Creek.

Ashlyn dressed up as a lady from the past who invented straw hats, she was very much opposed to dressing up but did it anyway. I think she looks cute!

Before heading out to the Why Don't We Concert...

My favorite time of year is when our orange tree blossoms! The scent is heavenly!!

Jacobs Deacon leaders took them on another camp out this last weekend. They were going to do a secret activity that they wouldn't tell us about until they got home. The secret activity was that they went bear hunting!! They were calling bears, but luckily they were all hibernating. Jacob is loving being with the boys and camping all of the time. He is living his best life for sure!

We had Stake Conference this weekend and it was a great one as always. The first speaker touched me the most because he talked about "effectually struggling" which basically means trying to figure out how to learn and grow from our struggles while we are in the midst of them. One joke that he told was that he walked into a room one time when he was younger and asked his grandma what she was doing and she said, "well I just drank a slim fast and now I'm waiting for it to work." He said that sometimes we don't put forth the effort to gain the reward. We are struggling in vain. If we are working towards something, we need to work for that progress to see the reward. I don't know if I'm making sense, he said it so eloquently and it touched me deeply. We learn so much in our struggles, it's why we have struggles and so we shouldn't take them lightly. We should ponder, research, pray and work towards resolving them, that's when we grow.
My brother's daughter Brielle just returned home from her mission, she served so honorably and I'm going to miss her weekly letters home. She is an inspiration to me of working hard and always having  a positive attitude during the hard trials.