Thanksgiving!

This was the first time in 4 years that all of The Babe's siblings have been home for Thanksgiving! We had the best time together! It was so great to have everyone together!!

It was so fun to have Uncle Nick's family and Uncle Matt with us! We missed having Emma with us.

Clean-up duty!

Uncle Matt did not go uncontested for the plate of ham rolls!

Ahhh! So sweet!

Black Friday Shopping! I should have taken a picture of our whole group! Mom, Aunt Marie, KJ, and Katelyn were in the other car! We had a great time!

After a long day of shopping, Uncle Matt convinced me to go on a hike. Uncle Matt, Ty, Bella, Bianca, and I hiked the LaVerkin Overlook. It was beautiful! 

I'm so glad I went or I would have missed this sunset! The pictures don't even do it justice!

Claire was feeling really cute with Olivia's hair pieces and Addie's hat!

Daisy got lots of loves!

Benson made sure she was really cozy and brought her his favorite blankie!

Lots of Karaoke fun!

Addie was eating lunch and chipped her tooth on a piece of lettuce! She will not be happy that I posted this picture, but it must be remembered! 

Dr. Denos was a real hero and came in on a Saturday, on a holiday weekend and fixed her smile! He said he wouldn't let her go back to college with a broken front tooth! He really is our hero! We love Dr. Denos! So grateful he was willing to help us out! She's all fixed up and, on her way back up to Snow. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So grateful for our wonderful family!

 I hope yours was as great as ours! 

 

New Office

Visited the new stopping grounds today! 

We braved Wal-mart and picked up a volleyball so we could test it out on the beach! It was a really beautiful evening. A little chilly, but not too bad. 

This is The Babe's new office! 

Welcome Home, Babe!

I'm loving that he will be 13 minutes away from home. He hasn't worked that close to home for over 9 years! 

We're ready for some Thanksgiving fun! I love it when our families start to gather! There is strength in gathering! Not to mention laughter, and joy! 

Love these precious kids so much! Even Jack Stewart who joined in all the fun today! 

Will was playing catch with his dad. He was loving it! I can't keep shoes on this kid! 

Addie is ready for her pie baking contest with Uncle Nick! Grandma made the crust, but shhhhh!

Home For the Holidays

Has a different meaning when you're the mom! 

So glad Adelah is home for a few days for Thanksgiving!

 I've been really missing her so much lately. She is really fun to be around. She has been catching me up on all of Taylor Swift's new songs. I really love my children, they bring me so much joy! I'm glad she's home. 

Willie was really excited to see his big Sis!

Funny thing...I'm sitting here writing about her being home, and she just handed me this note...

and now I'm crying.

The Babe was a champion today! He braved Costco with me, which was a total zoo!! Even I wanted to run away screaming and never go back! And that's saying something! As we were driving around trying to find a place to park (which was our first clue that this was a bad idea) I saw a lot of cars parked out by the school. I said to The Babe, surely those cars are parked there for the school and not for Costco, right??? WRONG!!!! Seriously, it was the craziest I have ever seen it! 

When we got home, he so kindly helped me get my pineapple bottled! 

24 jars and 3 cookie sheets in the freezer!

 Sarah and Hartley came over to visit us. That girl is so adorable!! Did I tell you she calls me Aunt Trinie! It's the cutest thing! 

KJ used to call me Aunt Na, I haven't been Aunt Na for a long time! 

Being an Aunt is the bestest.

It's Official

 

I Hope They Call Me On a Mission...

Guess who got their mission call! My mom and dad have been planning and waiting and waiting and planning for this for a long time!!! 

It has finally happened! They have been called to serve in the Heber Valley Girls Camp Mission! 

They start on my birthday, April 8th 2024! It's a 6 month mission. 

It has been an interesting experience. They received their call last Tuesday. In order for all of the family to be available, they had to wait until Thursday to open the call. On Wednesday, they received a phone call from President DeSanto who is a mission president in Brazil. (It was actually his assistant who called because he speaks English) He said they wanted to request my parents to come to Brazil because they need Senior Missionaries. We're not sure how all of this will play out, but for now, my parents will server in Heber City and they will readdress the Brazil mission at a later date. 

Another Chapter Comes to a Close

It's harder to say goodbye than I thought. 

The Babe got word today that he will be the new manager for Quail Lake State Park. I'm so proud of all of his hard work! He has done so well at Gunlock!! He has done so much to make this park grow and blossom. If you saw it 5 years ago, you wouldn't even recognize it! It's amazing what he has done!

This will be a grand new adventure! It will be a blessing to our family. The Babe will be able to save 2 hours a day in driving. Quail is only 15 minutes from home, so it will be easier for him to make it to the kids' activities and other family things. He is probably most excited about not doing waterfalls! It's a little scary to start something new, but I'm sure we will fall in love with Quail, just like we did with Gunlock!

Gunlock will always hold a huge piece of our hearts! 

Extra Heartbeat Inside

I finally have permission to post this!

I received this text not too long ago. At first it was just the pregnancy test. I thought it was some kind of scam. So, I didn't respond for a little while, until The Babe texted me and said, you have to guess so they will tell me. Then I realized this was for real! Reading this text doesn't even give you the sense of suspense we experienced that day! It was so frustrating and fun not to know! 

Sarah and Zach and Hartley even came over to my house, but for some dumb reason, I never read her sweatshirt! She tried standing in front of me several times, and I didn't notice! 👀

I'm so observant! 

It was really quite fun! I even called Ruth, but she didn't answer her phone. I left her a message telling her there were serious rumors being spread about her! Ha Ha. 

Poor Ruth received 15 phone calls that day, asking if she was pregnant! 

We are so excited for Sarah and Zach! I love that they live close to me! It has been a struggle for them to get pregnant, a struggle I know well. It endears me to her. My heart is very invested in Sarah and her growing family! I love them so much! 

I can't wait until June!!!!!

Quilting with Barbara

Barbara and I finally found a day when we were both home and could work on my new quilt!! Barbara is such a sweetheart! I told her I needed her to teach me how to make a charcuterie board a few days before. She was telling me how to do it and what things to add. When I showed up for quilting she had THIS amazing spread ready for us!! It was just the two of us and she prepared all that food for us! It was so thoughtful of her. I want to make charcuterie boards for my kids for after school. They always come home so hungry, I think it would make a great snack! Now I have to get brave enough to try it! I'm not sure that I can duplicate that beautiful spread! 

It was so fun to cut out my quilt together! We had a really good chat. She does my soul a lot of good! I hope I do the same for her. She has the most amazing sewing room! I can't even tell you! IT'S AMAZING! After a couple hours of cutting fabric, we realized we didn't buy enough fabric. I only had an hour and a half left before my kids got home, but we decided to chance it. We jumped in the car for an impromptu run to the fabric store. Luckily, they had most of what we needed. We found the other piece on the internet. Which was lucky! It was super fun! I can't wait to do it again! 

 

Words of Wisdom

I took this picture of Will walking into school yesterday. Mostly because his outfit was cracking me up! But I want to remember. I want to remember him this big. He's going to grow out of this stage so fast!

Tonight, I had a RS "meeting" with my counselors and a couple ladies from the ward. I say "meeting" because that was a pretty loose term. We watched White Christmas with Sister Webster because she is from Vermont! Vermont, with all that snow!! But she has never seen the movie! So, we had to watch it with her. While we were watching the movie, we put together our Christmas gift for the sisters in the ward. It's just a little hand cloth towel. But we have this quote that we attached to it....

I love it! We had some glittery tule that we tied it with, and we had glitter everywhere by the end! I also had a Stake meeting that I had to be to after, so I had to leave a little early, but I got there and had glitter all over me! Thank you, Jessica!!! Ha ha just kidding, I started it! 

Anyway, that meeting always makes me come away feeling like such a failure! I don't know why. It just feels like everything we talk about are all the things that I do wrong! 

So, I got home, and Leighna asked me how the meeting went, and I told her, it made me feel like I was failing at everything. She cried with me and told me I was doing a good job. Which I hope is true. Then Will asked me to come and tuck him in before he fell asleep. I reached over the bed to hold his hand for a minute, and he said, "Mommy, you know how you said you were a failure?" I was surprised he heard me say that, but I said, yes. He said, "You're not a failure, because you only fail if you quit, and you didn't quit. I love you, Mommy." 

Wisdom from my 7-year-old! Cried my eyes out! Still crying, sitting here writing about it. 

Driving

Look at all the states I've visited! There aren't too many left on my list, I'm glad they're still there though, that means I have lots of adventures still awaiting me!

We visited Garth Brooks' town! We even stopped for a Sonic drink. 

I love this picture! It was so beautiful!

How can you not think about Jesus when you see this cross. 

We stopped at a place called The Big Texan in Amarillo. It was so fun! This cute couple came to our table and sang us Amarillo by Morning. It was such a fun and much needed little break! Plus, I ate the best steak I've ever eaten here. Then we were back on the road. 

 

Westward Ho

Those little yellow things in this field of cotton are cotton bails, they're actually really big! It was cool to see!

Cotton field

This is the map of all the states I've visited when we started out! I got to see 4 new states that I've never been in!!

This is the best sign picture I got the whole trip!!

The Eastern trees did not disappoint in all their fall glory! It was a very beautiful drive! SO many trees!!!

Seriously, look at all those trees! I had the best road tripping partners of all time!! So much fun!

I'm so glad I got to do this with my bestest friend of all! I love you Babe!

Stopped at a Buc-ee's and that was super fun! We had a good little shopping run! 

Cool pyramid before we crossed the Mississippi River.

The bridge was all lit up and it was pretty. It was raining so it's a little messy in this pic. 

I told you the Alabama sign was the best one! Welcome to Arkansas!

After 12 hours of driving, we stayed the night in Little Rock! It was a bit of a stressful day. Silvia lost her bag with all of her credit cards and ID's and she was supposed to be getting on a plane. She got to the airport and realized it was missing. Then she forgot to take her luggage out of the rental car. Miracles happened this day! Her friend was able to find her bag for her. She met a nice lady at the airport that could fly the suitcase to Vegas the next day. They made the flight, even without ID. 

Many Miracles!

I was restless when we got to the hotel. I needed to walk around awhile, so I went out in the hall, and through the door by the ice machine there was a man in a sombrero. I thought I was seeing ghosts for a minute, but Marie and The Babe and I went to get food, and Marie saw the sombrero guy in the parking lot! We ordered the last of the chicken at Popeye's chicken and had a good laugh when everything else we tried to order was out. No chicken strips, no chicken nuggets, but when we asked what we could order the lady told us, chicken! It was funny! It was an adventure! 

Little Rock is not the picture of Little Rock that Collin Raye sings about!

 At least not in my mind!