Bittersweet

Today I was released from Young Women's.  I knew the day was coming and wasn't very surprised when Brother Roden started calling us out of mutual on Tuesday.  I've thought for a little while that it was time.  I was exhausted, going through some personal things, and it was still hard with Keith's schedule and the boys.  I knew it was time, but it's so hard to let something like that go.  I've never had a harder yet more fun and rewarding calling.  I have loved all of the girls so much and have been thrilled to watch them grow and learn.  They are so amazing...I've said that so many times how i just can't believe how amazing they are.  I was truly blessed to get to know them and to work with some of the most fantastic women.  I don't know that I can actually sit here and write my feelings at this time because I feel quite emotional about it, but I wanted to document this day for my records.  It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to leave these girls and despite being "free" this Tuesday night, I know I'm going to feel a little bit "empty".  I know the women who will now be with our girls will be fabulous.  They are all amazing and I know that at this time it is what the girls will need, but I can't help feeling slightly jealous.  Jealous of the time they will get to spend with them, and jealous of the way the girls will grow to love them.  It sounds silly, but really, it was a great calling for my self esteem :)  To feel so loved by so many girls was great.  I am also so sad to not be working with my dear friend Karen anymore.  I was so sad to lose Mistie when they released her last year and was so worried who they would replace her with.  I waited a long 4 months for someone too and glad that for whatever the reason I had to wait, I did and was able to work with Karen.  I know that my Heavenly Father knows me and put 2 wonderful women in my path to get to know as friends and to work with.  Sometimes I wonder how much the calling was really for me to be there for the girls or for them and my advisers to be there for me.  I'm sure it goes both ways in so many aspects.  For whatever the reason I know my Father in Heaven truly loves me and watches out for me just as he does for the young women.  I also need to thank my sweet friend Susan.  I honestly could never have done this calling without her.  There were so many times she took the boys for me when Keith was working and I hope that she knows just how much that meant to me.  It was not an easy thing for me to have to worry about and so many times she just would offer and not even wait for me to ask.  All of that help meant the world to me.  This is really all I can say for now and maybe will be able to write more when I feel a little less emotional about things. 

Just a couple quick pictures of randomness

Yep...this year was the big election year. So glad it's over and happy that I'm not hearing so much unrest between people.  I don't know if it was the wide range of social media now in use or because our country is in such a crappy economical state but it seemed as though this was the most heated election I've been able to remember.  Needless to say...I did my part and voted.  Not that it really matters in Utah.  Our votes don't seem to make a difference and you can pretty much guess which way they're going to go.

Roxy is getting bigger and we needed to get her a bigger kennel.  I need to mention how much nicer it is to have a dog that we kennel trained instead of one who ran the show lol.  However, this new kennel provides lots of room for Roxy's "brothers" to hang out with her.

I was at Brittani's for her birthday and sent her and Chris out while I stayed with the kids.  It hadn't been a very good day for me but I snapped this picture of my 2 buddies who can always cheer me up :)  And for the record...Brittani did NOT choose this haircut for Paisley.  She decided to be her own hairdresser FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!!  What a stinker!  The best part was Max giving Pais a lecture on how we don't cut our hair, only paper.  It was all on his own too, no prompting.  Thankfully it doesn't seem as though I'll ever have to worry about Max and the scissors :)

I went to Gavin's parent teacher conferences for the first time.  His teacher said they had an assignment to draw a picture and then try their hardest to write something about it all on their own.  She wasn't exactly sure what this said.  I wasn't either, but then I asked Gavin and it made perfect sense.  "Mom had a baby."  How cute is that.  The irony is he had no idea I was pregnant and had just found out the day before that I was going to miscarry as they couldn't find a heartbeat.  That brought on another round of tears for sure.  (I'm sorry if you read this blog and didn't know.  Please don't feel the need to send your condolences.  I'm doing ok.  Maybe I'll blog about it eventually.)

Paisley spends lots of time with us when Mommy is at school.  Somedays she really misses her and we have to send pictures to her. 

We had our first big snowstorm and the boys were in HEAVEN.  Gavin didn't even have time to be included in this picture he was out the door so fast once those snow clothes were on!

The boys had a sleepover at Aunt Britt's and she sent me this cute picture of Max falling asleep. 

Naturally Gavin had to pretend he was sleeping for a picture too!  I love it!

Real soccer game

 Craig and MaryAnn invited us to go to a Real (Ray-Al for those who don't live in Utah and have never heard of the team) Soccer game with them!  It was sure fun and Gavin was excited to see a real game.  He'd been with Keith when he was younger but couldn't remember it.  This was my first time at a Real game.  It was really fun!  Not mention the fun we had with Craig, MaryAnn and boys. Max stayed with a sitter and that made it nice too...I don't think he would have enjoyed it as much.  The best part was Carson wore his Halloween costume.  Carson is SOOOOO into soccer and he loves Real.  He was Kyle Beckerman for Halloween and had his crazy hair wig on.  You should have seen this kid get into the game!  I wish I had gotten a better picture of him.  He was too cool for words :)

You can't really tell, but that's Carson in the wig :)

Deer Hunt 2012

Yep.  The only time I will post about a deer is if Keith gets one, so I suppose you know what's coming.  I'll admit, the deer hunt is not my favorite time of year, but I try to overlook that and remember that Keith enjoys going with his brothers and dad.  I guess I should be thankful that he is not completely obsessed with hunting like a few of his brothers, but then there is always the fear that he'll actually get one and I'll be forced to eat deer meat.  The kids saved me last year when they left the big freezer door open before we went camping and the small deer Keith had gotten ended up all being worthless.  Ok that did kind of suck as it was a waste of money, but there wasn't any eating of the deer meat.  This year, there will be plenty!  I'll have to buck it up and just be glad that he mixed all the ground stuff half and half with ground beef to make it taste better.  It also means that because his taxidermy guy was going to be out of town and he wants to do a European mount on his deer that I have a dead deer head sitting in my freezer in the garage.  Go ahead and say it...I am the ULTIMATE wife :)

The proud hunter....

I should also mention that I'm glad all of the cutting up, skinning etc. takes place and Mom and Pops' house!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monkey Cake for Kirra and a little Phineas and Ferb on the side

My sis in law Mandy needed help with a cake for Kirra's birthday.  I was only to happy to help her out.  Mandy is so cute and really wants to learn cake decorating.  If anyone can it's her and I'm pretty sure she'll be the next Cake Boss.  We spent a fun night together while the guys were hunting and the kids played well.  Not to mention we ended up with a super cute cake!  Mandy honestly did most of the work while I just bossed her around :)

Then the following week my friend Karen and I made a Phineas and Ferb cake for her daughters birthday.  It turned out so cute! 

WTF

Gavin is so into writing.  He is loving school and doing so well.  We've been working on reading and sounding things out.  The other day he brought me this paper.  I looked and it and tried really hard not to laugh.  People and their texting, acronyms these days have given meaning to the abbreviation of WTF.  We'll just go with "what the freak?" for those of you who may not know this one.  So he brings me this paper....

 Mom and Alan were visiting and none of us could stop laughing.  I asked Gavin what it meant and he said, "Duh, Won, Two, Free!"  Yep, he had sounded it all out to put the correct first letter with the number :)  He was so proud!

Where's Max?

There has been no shortage of times that my kids have randomly gone missing in the house.  Not sure why either since my house isn't that large!  Almost every time this has happened it's because they have fallen asleep somewhere they shouldn't have.  Can you find Max?

There he is :)

End of soccer season

I'm going through some older pictures and realizing that I've missed blogging some things.  We had a great end to Gavin's first soccer season!  He really enjoyed playing and enjoyed Uncle Craig as his coach with cousin Adalie on his team.  For their final game Grandma and Grandpa Smith headed over to watch them play.  It was a double bonus for them having 2 grandkids on the team!  I didn't take a lot of pictures the last day but did get a quick shot of the cousins with the grandparents.  Gavin also scored a great goal the last game and was so proud!  I think MaryAnn has it on film, I'll have to check with her.  He did great for his first time and seemed to enjoy it aside from the minor issues that only Gavin would have :)  He likes to complain a lot about random things and soccer was no exception.  (I.E. It's too sunny.  Or my personal favorite, "The other kids are RUDE!  They're taking the ball from me!"  He had to be reminded that it was what the other team was supposed to do!)

Grandma and Grandpa with Gavin and Adalie

High fiving the other team

He was pretty excited about his trophy :)

Looking forward to more years of soccer!  (At least I hope because that's one sport I don't mind watching!)