Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day was a bit dampened by two things.  The first was that I was diagnosed with shingles the day before.  I didn't feel well and was in bed most of the day.  The second was a large dose of rain. So we celebrated by having an indoor picnic.  Dad grilled hamburgers out in the rain for us, and we capped off the night with ice cream cones.

Still most were all smiles by the end of the day!

Sarah Jane

Sarah was all dressed and so smiley so I shot a few pictures of her before church!

1st Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Benjamin earned his Bobcat award and a bead toward his rank of wolf as well as a patch for participating in the pinewood derby.

Mother's Day

I had a great mother's day and was showered with love through cards, flowers, breakfast, taking Sarah for all of church, dinner and lovely gifts.  Thanks for my precious family for making this mom feel special!

6 Months Old!

I can't believe this girl is 6 months old.  In some ways the past six months have been the longest of my life and the shortest.  How that is possible is not something that I can explain easily.  Most of her health problems have improved so much.  She is now on the most expensive (price per ounce is more than gold and we feel so blessed that insurance covers a good portion of it) and most hypoallergenic formula that is made.  I was so doubtful that it would work better than what she was already on, but it seems to be doing good things for her tummy.  We now have a smiley, happy, and SLEEPING baby.  It certainly feels like a miracle to us that she will now sleep on her own in her bed which I know sounds a bit dramatic to those who have a normal baby that sleeps ~ but to us it is a huge tender mercy, blessing, and miracle! She is a bit of a chunker at 17 lbs. 8 oz. (75% percentile) and we love to kiss those lovely baby fat rolls.  We have a referral to visit the pediatric allergist because we now suspect a soy allergy because her previous medicines weren't tolerated well and contain soy.  We still have a few more health hurdles to jump, but she is receiving such great care and feel blessed to have doctors and friends to help us navigate them.  Warning: Picture overload of this cutie . . . because she finally is so happy and smiley!

Toca Pictures

My kids crack me up with these pictures.  I think they capture the craziness of our lives right now.

Door Closes

I am so far behind on my posts.  I think there are at least three things that I need to post but it requires me going to get the memory card out of the camera, downloading the pictures, going through them, exporting them, and then uploading them and frankly I am just too tired.  So those posts will wait and I promise they will be uplifting and happy, but this one probably won't be.

I think I mentioned in our last post that our house is on the market.  We were building a house in a neighboring town that we loved.  It allowed us to keep Benjamin in the same school district, and we would have been in the same ward.  See all the past tense talk is leading up to something.  We lost the house this week.  We had it contingent on the sale of our house.  No one outbid us or anything- we lost it because the builder is deceitful and just plain wanted more money for the house that what we locked it in at.  There is another whole side story about how the realtor and builder lied about the lot lines, the completion date, etc. etc. etc. but really I just can't bring myself to write all about it.  Blah, blah, blah the fact of the matter is we now have no where to go.  There isn't anything on the market in the area that we want to live in, for the price we want to pay, or that allows us to stay in the same school district and ward.  Luckily our house hasn't sold yet so I guess we are staying put until the time comes again that we find something that we both love, because heaven knows even if it is the right time to buy as everyone says it is, I am not going to settle and then regret the decision.

But really this isn't about a house for me right now, it is more about how God works in my life.  We have made this a serious matter of prayer for our family.  We had always planned on this house being a five year house for us until Stephen got tenure.  What we didn't plan for was the economic drop about a year or so after we purchased.  Even with all things considered we felt like searching for a new house would be a good decision.  For heavens sake we have poor Sarah sleeping in the master bedroom closet right now (we did have all three big kiddos together but that just wasn't working with Emma's night terrors).  We prayed and prayed about where to go just about looking everywhere considering almost all the possibilities inside and outside the ward/stake boundaries (for friends not of my faith we attend church based on geographical boundaries which I know is a bit different than most churches~ I have one friend not of my faith who still can't wrap her mind around this so I know it is different).  We looked at other school districts and where we felt like we would be a great fit.  We did this all prayerfully still not feeling any answer.  So we decided to make a step forward and make a decision and then take it to the Lord.  We did that and just kept making decisions until we finally put an offer on the house we were under contract for.  I was feeling so good about it, we made our selections for all the inside and outside choices and the morning before everything ended in a pile of bricks on the ground I had driven by the house to see the painters painting our color selections.  Then whamo the house was no longer available to us.  The door seemed to slam in our face.

So now I find myself struggling to pick up the pieces and start over again.  I know that it can happen and that God has opened doors in the past and will again in the future.  It is just hard in the waiting part to see where a door can possibly open again and that it is all out of my hands.

First Tooth

 This little lady got her first tooth.  We had been thinking that she was teething for weeks and then one day it was finally there. Stop growing up little one!

Benjamin's 2nd Grade Play

 Benjamin's school's 2nd graders put on a play of "Freddie the Frog and the Mighty Meter Gnome."  It was very cute and they did a fantastic job.  Benjamin's favorite song was "Super Frog and Mr. E."  The best part was that Grandma Joy came over to babysit so Stephen and I got to go with Benjamin alone.  We are proud of our big 2nd grader!