Abby turns 3!

This little sweetheart turned 3 in March.  We waited a long time for her to join our family.  She is full of personality.  She talks very well and non stop.  She always has questions.   I wish I could say she gets all that talking from her dad!  She loves her blanket and her tiggie.  She loves to be carried close and snuggled tight.  She finally grew out of her crib.  She loved the safe cozy walls around her.  Some nights she even request to go sleep in her carseat in the garage.  She likes to be snuggled in tight with her buckles on.  

She had yummy birthday breakfast cake.  She gave lots of loves which she doesn't do very often.  She had some fun friends over for a play date and had cupcakes.  Then for dinner we had mac and cheese with more cupcakes and ice-cream.  Journey and Ella made it a fun little family party.  They wrapped a few fun presents and made Abby pick who was giving them to her with a blind fold on.  Abby loved her new dress.  Her lipstick and barbie.  We played her favorite game super why.  

Tyler on the Organ

Tyler's organ teacher, Jan Clayton,  was asked a question the other day at a large convention filled with older men and women who are leading and teaching organ.  They were people from around the United States.  Each person had to go around and answer one question.  The question was something like this... What is the vision you see with the Organ in the future? Is there a future for the organ or is it a dying instrument?

She stood and told how her ecclesiastical leader (her stake president) had asked her (given her the calling) to teach lessons- for free- to people in her area.  This calling would help make interest in the organ grow and not disappear.  She told this large group that she has a 10 year old boy who comes to every lesson.  She told them of his love for the organ.  She told them... "when I hear this young boy play I have hope for the future."

I am so proud of all the work Tyler does.  Its a lot for a 10 year old boy.  He practices 30-40 minutes a day on the piano then he tries to practice at least 30 minutes on the organ.  I know he would practice more on the organ but we just dont have time!

Basement projects & 15 year Anniversary

Its been a busy month.  We are trying to get the basement to a less messy stage.  But it has to be a lot more messy before it gets cleaner.  We are excited to finish up our sunny reading nook.  It will happen in May.  

We had lots of material delivered.  Doors. trim. baseboards. flooring.  

We had our driveway fixed where the Sheetrock truck cracked it.  

We have our second bathroom almost all tiled.  It will be a walk in shower.

We had no kids for our 15 year anniversary and instead of heading to Moab for 24 hours we stayed and put down a beautiful floor.  Its amazing what can get done when you have two adults and no kids.   We went to bed really late every night  after finding whatever we could that was open at 10:00.  We did head out for a bike ride Saturday morning.  We met up with some friends on the trail.  It was a nice weekend.  15 years down and at least 35 more to go.

We also worked on our fireplace area.  We used the old barn wood that used to be a real barn on our property.  Today it looked pretty awesome as the mantel got installed and the built in is taking shape.  

February 2016

Here are a few pictures and highlights from February.  

- We found a little Yorkie on our property.  Ella and Abby wanted to keep it but we just took it back to the owners.  Abby tells everyone that "Toby died and went to an angel".  She never knew Toby on this earth but she sure talks about him a lot

- Abby is still napping.  She tells me she is tried and brings me a book to read to her.  She crawled in my bed the other day for a nap and put on my cute eye covers.  

- Ella and Journey dress up Abby all the time.  Lipstick, hair and clothes.  Abby loves it.  

- I have the same picture of Ella wearing those boots when she was little.  One day I will find that pictures and put it here.  

- Ella is doing gymnastics.  Its amazing to see her soar.  She loves it so much. She pushes herself hard.  She is improving so fast.  ...well... she practices all day every day.  She is always doing a flip or cartwheel or something EVERYWHERE!

 

- Darren has still been riding a lot.  He runs, skies and bikes really early in the morning so he can be home with the family.

- Tyler and Ella started a rock climbing class.  They love it finally!  Abby climbs on the rock outside the store for her climbing practice.  It is one of those cool sports where they do hard things and they are surrounded by their peers.  That is some good peer pressure right there.

My friend Sarah and I have been to 3 or 4 temple open houses together.  This time at the Provo City Center temple we are asked at the end to come help with the booties they put on your feet.  In exchange we got a private tour of some of the rooms that they dont show on the tour.  It was neat.  Quiet peaceful and lots of neat details and stories he told us.  He also shared an amazing testimony at the end of the tour.  The next day I went back with Renee and Cousin Megan.  Lots of little kids but goo.

I still love where I live.  It brings a lot of peace to my life.  My backyard is wonderful and the mnts that are close by are priceless.  I took my kids up skiing a lot this year.  It is definitely my happy place up there on skis.

We had a great weekend with Corie and Nolans kids.  We have fun walks. We went to Schools to see the animals.  We played a lot.  And its really fun because all the kids are getting older and they play well and go to sleep well.

Jenny came down to do some house shopping.  We are all thrilled she is moving to Utah.  Darren is in the background (sleeping) supervising the boys games.  Tyler is a thinker.  He loves to read.  He loves games.  Teya and him have had a good friendship for years.  A bit of competition never hurts.  We also attended Beth and Ben's birthday bash.  The piñata was super fun.  Tyler asked me if we could slip away and go play the organ in the chapel.  Lots of fun to see him doing so well with music.  He has been playing prelude or postlude for several months in church.  I am so proud of him.

January is gone!

 (my backyard view)

 January was a rather long month.  Not in a bad way, just so busy and yet I am sure it will continue to get more busy as my kids get older.  We had the new year come in with some food and games at our house for new years.  We made our tree into a New Years Eve party tree.

And the next day we were on to working on the basement.  Darren is a finisher.  He gets going on a project and it consumes him until he finishes.  

We got some fun dress up costumes from cousins.  and had some fun phone visits with other cousins in Kentucky.  Corie and Nolan took our kids for 2 nights while Darren and I skied and worked on the basement.  Its a pretty sweet trade! We have been trying to ski once a week.  We took a Teya Snowder up and its amazing how fast she learned.  It was a whole lot easier teaching her then any 2 or 3 year old!  

 I am over the Webelos boys.  Tylers age.  Super fun.  I took the boys downtown to the Cathedral of the Madaline.  Besides seeing another church they listened to a beautiful organ concert.  Tyler keeps playing the organ.  I have started to be more serious about it too.  I have helped him play the prelude in church twice now.  Next week I told him I am playing all the way up the bishop standing up.  Which is hard because if he stands up to start the meeting in the middle of song, I have to skip down to the bottom and finish the song so he can start.  Lets see how it goes next week!

One cold weekend we had friends over.  The girls made me play dough fruit.  They also made a big fort.  Abby fell asleep in one day.  She still takes naps because she has been getting up at 6:00 AM when the kids get up and going to bed with them at 8:00 PM.

She thinks she is so big. She sat and "read" her scriptures the other day in the window.  We went to Airborne Trampoline place and she loved it.  But she thinks she's as big as the other kids.  She crashed the next day and didn't even make it to take the sacrament before she was fast asleep in my arms.  It was such a nice peaceful church meeting, holding my little sweetheart that is growing so big!