The Ranch

This year we all went to Florida for a vacation.  I got to take Jenn and the boys to a few of my old mission stomping grounds.  My favorite of those was The Ranch.  This pic by the ranch sign is the same pic I took close to 15 years ago with Elder Jeppson.  We went to church in Elsworth.  I had such a feeling of gratitude looking around at all of the faces that were still so familiar to me.  We ran into this boys mom at the ward and I told her I remember how excited her little boy was to be a missionary.  She said that he dreamed of being a missionary and always talked about it.  He is in Brazil now serving.

One of my heroes in Florida during my mission was Kent Cook.  He was the ward mission leader out at the Ranch.  Not long after I left, Bro Cook died in an accident driving home from a stake meeting.  This eagle was carved in that spot in his honor. 

Big fish story

Here's a pic of the giant Tiger Muskie I caught at Pineview.  Just had to throw this in.  Really really big fish! 

Santa Overheard

Last week I was doing the dishes in the kitchen. This is what I overheard between my 2 boys:
Little J pretending to be Santa, "K, what do you want for Christmas?"
K, "I want the Bumblebee Transformer."
Little J, "Okay, here you go--your princess." Hee Hee
K, "I don't want a princess, I want a transformer."
Little J, " Here is your princess." He is now laughing his head off.

I love my boys.And yes, I did laugh my head off too (:

Canning and Potty Training

I know, it's been months since I've posted and much longer since there's been pics--so I'll start off small. Back in Sept. Jas went fishing for the weekend w/ his bro. My mom (Nana to my boys) came up for the weekend! We had a blast going to K's soccer game, playing with the boys, eating Chinese food, taking little J to the potty a million times and canning! Here's little J helping smash the raspberries for jam! So proud of him being potty trained!!! I had Jas take this pic of all our hard work--My mom says it's like taking a pic of the deer you get hunting! I am positively giddy about these beautiful bottles of goodness--peaches, pears, raspberry jam, and jalapeno jelly! Thanks mom for the good memories (my favorite: the jalapeno jelly at near midnight and her lips and my hands burning--the oil from the peppers went through our gloves--such pain and slaphappy laughing!!

From The Mouth of My Boys

I recently was thinking of all the fun, cute things my boys have been saying and decided to write them down for memories sake.

K:
"49." (His number for everything!)
"But, Mom can I tell you something?" (His most often phrase--he uses it 20 times a day. After I say, "Please do" he proceeds to tell me a story of some sort.)
"Can I WAY tell you something?" (that's when it's REALLY important!)
"Am I 49 pounds?" (this is what he asked J and I when he was way up in a tree. He really wanted to know how high up he was!)
"What am I going to do?" (Better than "I'm bored." but not my favorite.)
"Lots of very deep questions like "Why did Heavenly Father give us toenails? How did He get our eyeballs to stay in? My fav--"Why did Heavenly Father make mosquitoes?"
"I'm biggeter than you." (he adds et to a lot of his words)
"He has a feber." (for fever--it's adorable!)
**BTW: K just woke up from a nap and just said to me "Mom, Can I tell you something?"

Little J:
"I'm going to ring the ding-bell." (Doorbell)
"I'm 2 Mama. I'm 2." (He probably says this 20 times a day, especially when I put on one of his favorite shirts--that part bc I showed him the tag w/ 2T. It makes me smile every time!)
"What's smell Mama?" (He has the nose of a trained dog--seriously!)
"I want window on." (when we wants his window down in the car.)
"I cried at you." (On the Sat. mornings he wakes up before J & I are back from our long jog--training for a 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks! This is the first things he says when we get back. Melts my heart.)
"You owie Momma? Need kisses? Need band aid?" (He then comes and gives me kisses where ever I hurt myself."
"I want my clip-clops." (my personal favorite--he's asking for his flip flops!)

Both K and Little J:
"Why?" (No explanation needed--all moms and dads know this one!
"Does Jesus see our balloons if they go up in the sky?" (:
"I want Dada." (this phrase is used especially often when J is out of town and I'm trying to get boys to bed. In my mind I'm thinkin,"Me too. Then he can put you two to bed!")

So, there you have it! The cute things my little guys say!

New House!

I was talking to a friend of mine and she made a good point---(thanks Jen!) So, no excuses (although I can't show pics) here is a short blog--We closed on a new house last week!! We are in the thick of picking out colors for tile, granite, carpet etc. It'll be like old times bc we are doing a lot of the work ourselves. We're excited to have a place of our own! We'll show pics soon.

The boys are doing well. We just finished swim lessons and K is becoming a little fish! We've been doing the fun summer activities of swimming, park and play dates. More later!

Goodbye for Now

It's been a crazy few weeks. March 26th was our official last day in Missouri. We knew it was coming, but it felt like it still snuck up on us. The last week in Mo was hard--lots of goodbyes, and packing. I have pics to help us remember--but no way to transfer them--all packed up in our storage unit.
Moving makes you learn a lot about yourself and others. A few things I learned: saying goodbye is always hard, people surprise you at just how kind they can be, 4 year olds have very tender spirits, and people are the best thing of any place.
*Saying goodbye is always hard
To those of you who saw a few tears, there were even more! (: Let's just call it see you later...
*People surprise you at how kind they can be
I knew I had kind friends and neighbors, but I was still surprised! I am not one to accept help easily, so it took multiple offers before I finally accepted help (thanks Amy and Chris, you saved me). SO MANY people offered to help lend a hand, brought over treats and cute cards (I actually got teary-eyed when I read a note from our babysitter, Emma and our neighbors the Murphys). I can't even name off all the kind deeds--from the Benney's driving the boys around in their convertible, to treats from Rachel to little gifts for the boys from Traci and Ryan/Danny.....the list goes on and on. THANK YOU!!!
*4 Year olds have very tender hearts
K ADORES his neighbors in Missouri. Thursday night before we left may have been the toughest moment of them all. We went and said goodbye to our neighbors. K and Little J got to wrestle one last time with the boys of the neighborhood. When we said it was time to say goodbye, K lost it--he was so sad it tore me apart. His little heart was aching and so was the rest of our family. The last day, he teared up again saying goodbye to his room. My little tender heart. Thank goodness kids are so resilient.
*People are the best thing of any place.
The people are what we will miss most of Missouri. We will miss the rain, the bunnies in the yard and the Cardinals fans, but mostly the people. To all our neighbors, and friends--you will always hold a place in our heart. AND this is not really a goodbye, but a see you later. We hope to see you all soon--come visit us!! Utah is a great place to visit (that's a huge hint okay?!)

When I Grow Up

This is the conversation that I had w/ my four year old at dinner the other night:

K,"I want to be a dinosaur when I grow up."
Me, "Wow!"
K, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
(Oh, he thinks I'm not grown up....so sweet.)
Me, "I want to be a mom and a teacher." (so true, but NOT what he was looking for.)
K w/ a frustrated look on his face, "No, Mom, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Me, "I want to be a bird so I can fly." (a little more imagination right?!)
K was satisfied w/ that answer. He goes into all sorts of details about being a dino and how Dadda and Little J would be dinos too. I then said I wanted to be a dino that could fly wanting to be the same species as the rest of my family.

K, "After I am a dinosaur, I want to be a police officer. Then, I want to be a race car driver. Then I want to be a sword fighter. Then, I want to be a golfman."
I am so glad that my little one has such high expectations for himself....until he said this:"Then, after a golfman, I want to be a bad guy." Me, "K, I don't think you want to be a bad guy. Don't you want to be a good guy?" K, "Okay, I will be a good bad guy."

(On a side note, as I'm typing this K comes up to me. He asks what I'm doing and I retell our convo. He then says, "After all that, I want to be a monster. After all that, I will be done."

Oh, then it's settled.
(I'm rooting for the golfman--the least dangerous of the bunch. A golfman w/ values, of course.)

The Request

"Momma, play cars with me." The request came from my 2 year old. I was actually writing thank you notes for Christmas gifts--I figured January was coming to a close and that was my deadline. (yes, I am a procrastinator) He asked 2 times. I pulled myself away reluctantly. I sat on the kitchen floor and little J did too.
We zipped and passed cars back and forth. We had a fabulous time. Seriously. The first minute playing I thought of the thank you cards and how it might actually be February when they were received. Then, I thought of the floor--it so needed to be vacuumed. You know your floor needs to be vacuumed when your 2 year old points to bran muffin crumbs all over the floor and says, "Yucky." Following the crumb thought, my mind wandered to the fact that I needed to take a shower and get dressed--I couldn't stay in workout clothes all day. Finally, I told my mind just to knock it all off and "be in the moment." And, so I was. Best.ten.minutes.of.my.day. Thank you, little J.

20 Cents

I finally changed my cell phone plan--every text/pic/video I received/sent cost 20 cents. However, the story that unfolds to you now is a video VERY well worth those two dimes.
J was going out of town and K said, "Dadda I am going to wave to you from the window." Well, with all of the hustle and bustle, J forgot to look out his window and wave to K. He drove off and K was absolutely devastated. You know the look, the crumpled up face followed by big crocodile tears. "Dadda didn't wave to me."
I immediately called J, who felt terrible about it. He then sent K a video message waving to him and telling him that he loved him. K probably watched it 20 times the first day. Every time he watched, K would wave back to J and say he loved him too. It was so very sweet--my boy with the tender heart who ADORES his daddy. As the commercial says, "Priceless."

Christmas Gift

As many people know, we have been blessed with a great Christmas gift--a new job!! An answer to our prayers. We really feel so blessed. It has been a very learning and growing last half of the year.

It's a job back in Utah. Everyone knows the saying, "Home is where the heart is." Well, your heart can be in a few places--which makes it all interesting. We are thrilled at being close to our family. Grandparents were in tears when they heard the news (let's face it--they miss their grandkids). Born and raised in beautiful Utah, I have missed family, friends, mountains and the snow. That said, thinking about moving makes me already miss things from the beautiful midwest--the rain, bunnies in the backyard, amazing neighbors and friends.

Something that I have come to realize is that one can find beauty wherever you are--both in the surroundings and the people. We have learned so much while here in Missouri. I'll save that for another post...now, I'm not saying goodbye anytime soon--sorry, Mo friends, you can't get rid of us yet! We're here until the house sells (that's the plan for now). Just wanted to spread our good news and thank everyone for all the thoughts and prayers on our behalf.