Prayers for Randy

My Step-Dad, Randy has been in the hospital for most of this month. He is so sick with Diverticulitis. He has already had half of his colon removed and doesn't seem to be getting better. I'm worried about him and my mom, Nancy. He goes back in for surgery some time today. I love you guys! I hope all will turn out well. Lots of prayers, your name in the temple at least four times, and loving thoughts are going out to you!!

Adams Canyon

For Family Home Evening last night, we decided to hike up Adams Canyon. It is just up the road from us and I used to go there all the time in high school. It's a beautiful hike and we all need to get in better shape. We asked Denise to come along as well. She is so great with the kids.

The leaves were just starting to come out and I found this little wild flower. The air smelled so fresh and clean. I knew it was going to be a great hike.

The kids always enjoy hiking, but I'm always amazed at how well they do, especially the boys being as young as they are. Aunt Neecie found them all walking sticks, and she helped them along the way. The stream was quite full this time of year, but it wasn't muddy and the temperature was great. The best part of the hike? Not one fight, squabble, or selfish moment. It was a wonderful evening.


We hiked for almost 2 1/2 hours. We got as far as the first little waterfall before turning back. We should have turned back sooner because it was completely dark when we finally returned to our car, but we loved it. Ryan and I really need to get in shape in time for the Pioneer Trek this June. We will be coming back weekly, at least. A few more pictures...

Ethan just sat down on the trail for a few minutes and grinned...

Aunt Neecie being the World's Greatest Aunt

Grandma's House

Yesterday, we went up to visit Ryan's grandmother, Roberta. She is the cutest lady. I love my grandmas, but I am jealous of Ryan for having this lady as a grandma growing up. She is very spunky, whitty, and opinionated. She is always telling you what she thinks. She is in pretty good health for her age, though I think her eye sight is failing her. She lives alone (though right down the street from two of her kids) and is very independant. We don't get up there as often as we should because life just gets so busy. I know that's not much of an excuse, but it's true. Weeknights are obviously out, and Saturdays are consumed with yard work, soccer, or doing stuff as a family. So we shoot for Sundays, except this year we have one o'clock church (YUCK!). We never have time to make it out to her house with that schedule. But yesterday was Stake Conference (more on that in a minute) and we were out of church by noon. So we packed a lunch, and headed off.

She is so fun to visit with. We talked about all the goings on with the family. Who's having babies, how school is going for the college grandkids, church gossip, etc. She gets pretty upset when we talk about how much her small town is growing. The constant flow of move-ins puts Grandma in a bad mood. "Why do these people have to move up here anyway?" We joke about how we could never move up there because we would get the same reception from the original residents, but Grandma insists it would be different because we are family, and family would be accepted. Ryan's Grandpa, Leo was the Mayor at one time, and now Uncle Blake is mayor, so we have an "in". I love small towns and their strong sense of community (as long as you are not an outsider). It must be frustrating to see your small town community get bigger and less tight-knit. It was a fun visit. We love you, Grandma! We will try and come up more often.

As for Stake Conference, it was really good. Ryan and I went to a really early temple session Saturday morning. That was a test of faith, because I didn't sleep well the night before and was functioning on about 2 hours sleep. But for what was a little sacrifice, I got big rewards in terms of an outpouring of the Spirit (and I stayed awake!) My body didn't like the lack of sleep, but that's OK, you can always make that up later, right? We also always try and go to the adult session on Saturday night. I think it is where the best talks are given (or maybe it's just I can actually listen instead of dealing with kids). I wasn't disappointed. The talks were on just staying on the path and enduring to the end. It wasn't one of those talks that leave you depressed or make you feel like you aren't doing enough. It was very uplifting. When we arrived on Sunday morning for the general session, the chapel was dark. The power had gone out earlier and hadn't come back on. We thought it was a little weird sitting in the dark, but enjoyed the speakers. The presiding general authority talked about how the priesthood leaders had met in the morning to discuss what to do about the outage. They prayed that the sound system would work so that the conference could be held. I hadn't realized it, but the lights were off, and the microphone still worked. We could hear everything perfectly. I don't know how it happened, but to me, it was a little miracle that strengthened my faith. What a neat weekend.

A Beginning

I'm completely new at this. Until a few months ago, I hardly ever even checked my e-mail. But then I joined facebook and now I'm online a lot more. It's been so fun reconnecting with old friends. I also realized that a lot of them were posting blogs. I love reading people's blogs and gaining a better insight into their lives and feelings. I decided to give it a whirl. I have had a very strong desire lately to express my thoughts and emotions. Mainly just to myself, but since I'm horrible at journal writing, I figured I would try blogging. Maybe it's just a passing phase because the whole facebook and messaging thing is still new, but it's worth a try.

So, since this is my first post, I guess it's as good of time as any to give you a brief history. ("Let me explain....no, it will take too long. Let me sum up..." --Princess Bride, one of the greatest movies EVER). Here it goes...I was born to Dennis and Nancy (no last names here--you never know who lurks on people's blogs). I have a twin sister. Her name is Denise and I honestly think that we had to come down here to earth together so I would make it through our first rough years. My parents divorced when we were about 2 and my Dad remarried shortly after that. He was granted primary custody of Denise and I. Janis, my new step-mom, became my mom in every sense of the word. We became a new family and my parents had three more kids: a brother, Jason; and two sisters, Jessica and Kaylee. My mom Nancy, also remarried when I was in Junior High and Denise and I visited them quite often.

Life was pretty good growing up. We moved to Davis County from Salt Lake City when I was in fourth grade. It was the perfect little community to grow up in. I had lots of friends and things were great. When I graduated from high school, I immediately went away to school up in Logan. It was there that I started dating the love of my life, Ryan. We were friends for a while before dating (I was 17 when I first met him), and we dated for almost a year before getting married in 1995. We had our first daughter a year and a half later. Kaitlyn Denise was born on her daddy's birthday. I was so thrilled to be a mom! I had always known that was what I was meant to do and be. She is so beautiful in every sense of the word. We had our second daughter 21 months after that. Lauren Elise looked exactly the same as Katie did when she was born (except for her cone-shaped head) it was like I had had the same baby twice. But I soon found out that she was different from Katie in almost every way. She is just as beautiful as Katie, and also spunky, full of life, emotion, and passion. It is amazing to me how unique all children are. I knew two little girls were going to keep me quite busy, so we slowed down the kid-making department for a while. It was during this time that Ryan was starting and completing 3 long years of law school.

Sometimes I wonder how we survived those days, and yet, I really miss them sometimes. After law school, we moved to Idaho Falls, bought a house, and started "normal" life. But Ryan was frustrated with his job, and we really felt like we belonged in Utah. One day he got a call from the Utah Supreme Court asking him to consider a clerkship position for one of the Justices. He had previously applied for that position, and it had never come through. We were thrilled. After a short 8 months of living in Idaho, we took the job and moved back home. After several mini detours, we built our home in Davis County, Ryan took a new job with a firm in Salt Lake after his clerkship, and we've been here ever since. Braiden Ryan, our first son, was born two weeks before we moved into our house. He was mellow and easy going from the start. He has remained that way for the most part. Two and a half years later, our final (yep, I said final) son was born. Ethan Dallin is full of energy. He definitely keeps me young (or at least tries to).

My life is mostly consumed by my role as a mother. It is who I am and I love that. There hasn't been much time for anything else in my life besides Ryan and the kids. I do a lot of the typical "Mormon Mom" stuff: scrapbooking, carpooling, church callings, housework, trying to make my house a home, cooking, etc. It is exhausting and, most of the time, thankless. There are more times that I want to sob than I care to admit, but when it all comes down to it, I love these five people more than anything. I'm so lucky and blessed to have them in my life. I hope they feel the same way about me.

That is a brief summary of me. There will be more to come that will hopefully fill in the gaps that I left with this post. I'm just excited to get it out of my head and on paper (so to speak). I will figure out how to post pictures and such. Be patient with me---I'm a rookie.