February

Our first adventure in February was buying bunkbeds. We met up for dinner in Sandy at our favorite Mexican Restaurant before heading to Draper to buy the bunk beds. It was a fun date night with our kids. 

 We broke our tradition of having a non-superbowl party and had a real super bowl party with Zak and Sam. It's because Zak and Sam were going to be leaving soon and because the Denver Broncos were playing. My dad is a huge Broncos fan, and I will never forget that first year they won the superbowl. My dad stood behind his recliner, biting his fingernails the whole game. And the hugs and celebration afterwards. Yeah, the Broncos are kind of like extended family, and it felt nice to be connected with all my siblings since I knew they'd be watching the game. I made Brian take this picture of me to send to my family for laughs. And it was fun hanging out with Zak and Sam.

 Whenever Brian lays on the floor, you can bet that Rachel will use him as her chair, lounger, or horse.

 And sometimes, Michael joins her:

 Reading scriptures. Basically Rachel, like her beloved Ariel, just wants to be where the people are.

  And what would a month at our house be without a project (or ten). When we moved Rachel into Michael's room, the biggest concern was what we were going to do for a Lego table. We had lots of ideas, and finally settled on building a shelf type table in their closet. Brian cut the boards for me and I painted them. He laughed at my make-shift painting clothes and had to take a picture:

 Over President's Day weekend, Brian made this awesome food rotation shelf. We bought wood during our Valentine's Day date on Friday, and we checked out as the store was closing. The lady helping us couldn't find the price on the plywood, and despite our protests, she gave us the three sheets of $24 plywood to us for $5 each. We walked away feeling like we robbed Home Depot. We tried our best. We knew how much they cost and told her several times. We almost bought a couple of Thrive's rotating shelves (around $350 each), but were glad we went ahead and made these because, thanks to the Home Depot lady, we made these bad boys for around $70 or even less. Well, Brian made them, but I did help a little.

 And after loading our cans, we realized we still have a long way to go in collecting our food storage.

Remember what I said about Rachel and Brian?

 The third Thursday of every month is Release Night for Brian. This time, the kids and I went to Chuck-o-rama. Normally, we're not buffet people, but I knew the kids would love this option, and since all I wanted was meat and potatoes, it seemed like a no brainer.

 After dinner, the kids got to spend their Valentine's money from Grandma and Grandpa and piano money on something fun (after putting a big chunk of it in savings).

 We also had some frustrating days, like the day I fixed my throw pillows twice and Rachel immediately came back and messed them up--again. I finally gave up after the second time of messing with them. If it had been a different day, I wouldn't have been so irritated, but it was a rough day. It's kind of funny now, but only kind of. I'm including this picture in the hopes that when I finally publish this book, it is hilarious how mad I got over this silly thing.

 We've been working hard trying to get our basement ready for the last round of Drywall (yay!). One of the things we wanted to do was plumb the basement for central Vac. The top had already been plumbed, so it just made sense to plumb the basement before closing up the walls. Well, Brian has been wanting a Central Vac since his mission. So, we decided to just go ahead a buy a unit, hoses, and attachments as well. The kids have loved vacuuming. In fact, I've barely been able to vacuum at all since every time I start, they come running! It is nice to have a vacuum that has such amazing sucking power and one that I can control. I love my robot vacuum, but it's nice to have a nice vacuum for deeper cleaning--which has really come in handy since the nesting bug is hitting hard.

 Remember what I said about Brian and Rachel:

 And here's Michael's closet Lego table. It is small, but it does the job:

 Not sure what this picture is about:

 Or this one:

Hope you all had a great February as well!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Brian and I officially became a couple on February 29, 2008. February 29, as you all know, only comes around every four years. The last time it came around, we decided to ditch town and head to Vegas to celebrate being together for 4 years. Our anniversary that year was a sad/rough time, so we didn't do much to celebrate on our actual wedding anniversary. And since we were in Orlando for our anniversary this year, we decided we should celebrate on the 29th of February again. I think we're just going to make it a thing from here on out. Since the 29th was a Monday this year, I asked my mom if she and my Dad could come down and stay with our kids at our house so Michael could go to school. They kindly agreed. 

At first, we talked about going to Park City. Driving long distances in the car has been tough on me, so we wanted to go somewhere close to home. And by we, I really mean me. As time went on, Park City started to sound to far, so we were going to look into Salt Lake. But since I really wanted to go see a play, and the play I wanted to see was in Orem, we decided to make our big escape to Provo. Yup, we stayed 30 minutes away from our house in Provo's only Bed and Breakfast. 

This turned out to be perfect. After a busy day at church (with Brian speaking and me helping coordinate a primary teacher training), we came home, made an early dinner, packed, bid farewell to our kids, and checked into the B&B around 6 p.m. I was so happy to arrive at our destination so quickly, and since we met, fell in love, and started our family in Provo, it was the perfect place to go to celebrate. Our room was tiny, but historic, and it reminded us of when we stayed at the bed and breakfast in Washington, D.C. when I was pregnant with Rachel. Here's Brian pretending to write something in the guestbook. 

 We were a few blocks down from the newly finished Provo City Center Temple, so we took a nice evening stroll to the temple grounds. It reminded me of all those walks we took together when I first got home from my mission, back before we decided to start dating. We relived the weeks leading up to finally deciding to just date each other, and we set goals to not talk about our kids until such and such O'Clock. (It's amazing how we can't wait to get a break from our kids, but then we just want to talk about our kids the whole time! That's parenthood for you, right?). We both had colds, so we mostly just relaxed in our room, talking. We went to bed early. Our college selves would have been ashamed.

The next morning, we had a fabulous breakfast and then headed out to celebrate our special day--by running the errands we couldn't do with our kids. We made it to the first store, but I was so tired that we decided to go back to the room and watch a movie from Redbox. We lamented that it was a bummer that we both had colds for this get-a-way, but remembered it was sort of poetic since I had a bad cold on our honeymoon and spent a good chunk of that time napping in an attempt to feel better. We also decided that if we had to be sick, at least we didn't have to worry about our kids and could just rest. We set new goals to see how long we could go without talking about our kids. Then, we went to lunch at a Teppanyaki place, and ran the rest of those errands, and then ate at La Jolla Grove in the Riverwoods:

 It was fancy and delicious! Then, we headed to Hale Center Theater to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was so fun! We laughed the whole time. In their production, they had Pharaoh be more of a punk rocker instead of an Elvis guy. He was AWESOME! So we took a picture with him at the end of the show.

All too soon, it was the next day. We had breakfast, slowly packed up, took a picture in front of the B&B

And the Provo Temple (it's there on the right, promise). 

And made our way back home. We stopped at a fireplace store to look at Fireplaces for downstairs, ate lunch, and then headed home to our kiddos. It was short and sweet, and oh so needed. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for taking such good care of our kids so we could temporarily run away.

BYU Men's Volleyball and Provo City Center Open House

Back in December, 2010, Brian, Michael, and I were in Idaho, visiting my folks for Christmas when Brian got a picture text from a friend in Provo showing that the Provo Tabernacle was burning. It was very sad as we watched news stories covering the disaster. We had attended concerts and Stake Conferences in that building, and it hurt to see it destroyed. Then, after months of Provo speculation about whether the Church would restore the Tabernacle, President Monson began his opening address at General Conference in October 2011, saying, "First, may I mention that no Church-built facility is more important than a temple," I knew that he was going to announce that they would be rebuilt to be a temple. I was giddy with excitement.

By the time he made his announcement, we had already moved from Provo, but I ate up every video, every picture detailing the temple's progress. Whenever we'd visit Provo, I liked to drive by and see how things were coming along. By a miracle, the kids and I were even able to see them place the Angel Moroni 2 years ago. 

So, when they announced the dates for the Temple Open House, I set an alarm on my phone to grab tickets the second they went online. I texted my sisters in Ogden to see if they wanted to go, but decided not to wait for their response before grabbing the first available Saturday with enough tickets for all of us. The earliest I could get were on February 26, near the very end of the tour dates. I was a little disappointed to have to wait so long, but then I remembered that I had asked my parents to come that very weekend to watch our kids so we could get away for an anniversary trip. I tried to add two more tickets to our group, but everything was sold out. In fact, the tickets went on "sale" at 10 a.m. and by 10:15 a.m., all Saturdays were taken for all tours. 

Okay, enough of the backstory. Actually, one more thing. My mom is a die-hard volleyball player. At least once a week while we were growing up, she would drag us to the church so she could play volleyball with her friends. When I was in high school, she became a high school volleyball referee. She played club volleyball. She LOVES volleyball. If she is near Provo during a volleyball season, she tries to get tickets to watch BYU. She and my dad took Brian and I to a game last fall. But, she'd never been able to go to a BYU Men's Volleyball, so since she was going to be here and the men were playing, she made sure to figure out how she could take whoever wanted to go to the Volleyball game. Between the game and the temple open house, we had a weekend of family at out house, and it was fun. 

My parents arrived with Taryn and her kids on Thursday, February 25. I was still a little bummed out that Sam had just left. They got there around 9 p.m. Taryn got her kids settled, and then we went to bed. I'd been working all week to dig out the room for my parents (since it had been a construction zone of sorts with the room swapping and all that.) I was tired physically and emotionally, but it was so nice to see my mom and dad.

The next day was pretty lazy, mostly hanging out with Taryn while my mom worked and my dad taking Rachel for a cookie run. Michael took a nap after school so he could go to the game that night (a miracle!), and when he woke up, he anxiously waited for Chelsea and her kids to arrive. She got there in time to eat dinner, and so did David, I picked up the babysitter for Rachel and Aaron, and Ethan arrived as we were loading cars to head to Provo for the game. Chelsea brought Walkie-Talkies, and we had a little too much fun with them as we caravaned down.

We had a blast at the game, and BYU won in 3 fast games.

 After the game, we headed back to our house and got kids to bed. Then we talked. I was sad that I needed to put myself in bed before the good conversation ended. I always have a hard time walking away from it, but Brian was proud of me for being strong. I'm not a fun person if I don't get enough sleep, and with being pregnant, I need way more than usual. 

After a lazy morning on Saturday, we decided that we would head to Provo to eat lunch and then go right over to the open house. We heard that even with tickets, most people ended up waiting up to 2 hours to get in--that many people wanted to see the restored tabernacle/temple. Chelsea picked up these cute, matching outfits for the little girls, so I did all of their hair matching, and then we had to take a picture or two:

 Amber didn't want to smile. These are all the Chadwick granddaughters. Pretty cool.

And then we pulled the boys in. Except Elijah. He must have been sleeping or something.

This time, we sent all the grandkids with Mom and Dad to Provo, and everyone else (minus Elijah, who rode with us, and Ethan who had to go back to Logan for work) loaded into our car. David was good enough to sit in the very back. But we weren't as cute as the load going with my parents, so we only took a picture of this crew:

 We ate a Burgers' Supreme and then headed to the Open House. The lines were quite long, but I enjoyed a good chat with Chelsea while we waited, so it was totally worth it. And we were smart to go right after we had stuffed ourselves with food. Finally, we were able to go inside, and can I just say WOW! They did such a good job restoring it to her early 1900s glory. The arch from the windows was carried throughout. The woodwork was amazing, and the murals were breathtaking. Every now and then, I could recognize the old tabernacle. It was just so wonderful to be there, and my historical design loving self was in heaven. Add to that was the fact that it was a temple and I got to show my kids the inside was such a blessing. I didn't mind that we had to wait so long in line, because it was totally worth it.

  

 After the Open House, we went to the BYU Creamery for ice cream

 And then headed back to our house. We helped Chelsea and Taryn gather up their stuff and them sent them on their way home. We put our kids to bed, It was a quiet house after that. We all were pretty tired, so we went to bed early. Thanks for a fun weekend, everyone! And thanks for being patient with a very tired hostess!

Where's the Good in Goodbye?

On Christmas Eve, the rumor/speculation was confirmed. Sam, my next door neighbor and friend, along with her family, would be officially moving to Wyoming. Zak, her husband, officially accepted a job offer, and Sam let me know the news. That may be why I felt a little depressed heading into Christmas. Over the past almost 5 years, we have really come to depend and love this little family. They were one of the first people to come to our house to welcome us to the neighborhood. They were so excited--and we were too upon meeting them--to have a couple move in next door that was in a similar life situation. Over the years, Michael and Eva have become the best of friends, and Rachel and their almost-three-year-old Emmett were best friends too. We even decided that we wanted to have our next babies around the same time. She had her baby in November, mine is due next month--both boys this time. My heart has broken over this. 

I refused to dwell on it as they looked for a house, put their house on the market, and the weeks of January ticked on by. So many days involved Michael helping Rachel get into her snow gear (while he got his on) so they could head out into the snow to play with Eva and Emmett--and I let them, encouraged them, helped them. My regret is that I didn't join them and take more pictures.

On February 10, while I was teaching lessons, I kept hearing Michael messing with our folding chairs in the mud room. I wondered what was going on, but figured it would just have to be okay until I was all finished. Then, I looked out my front window to see a booth set up. Apparently, Eva and Michael's latest venture is giving away free hearts. This has so much of Eva written all over it, and I'm tried so hard to keep from sobbing about her moving away in a couple of weeks. That day, I shared the picture below and this :

"We are so blessed by our neighbors. They're going to leave us with a big hole in our hearts. Guess we'll just have to take advantage of the opportunities like this that we have left, even if it means lots of little papers to clean off the snowy grass, and try to fill the hole with gratitude that they've been such a huge part of our lives for so long." And then I started crying. 

 All too soon, their closing day arrived--February 25. It started out rough (bad sleep or something) and I knew it was only going to get worse, so when I saw lilies and tulips at Wal-Mart, I bought them for myself, sending a picture message to Brian that said, "Thank you for the beautiful flowers you bought me. I love them!"

 Just before 4, Sam came over to see if I wanted some things they were leaving behind. And that's when she told me they were leaving at 4:30 for their closing and weren't planning to come back. I called Brian and could barely make it through the phone call. It took me a couple of minutes to squeeze out, "Brian, Zak and Sam are leaving at 4:30.  You need to run home now. Please be fast."

Meanwhile, we took some pictures:

 Brian finally got here and took this one of Sam and I.

And then they were gone. There were more tears. I'm going to miss this little family like crazy. They've become so much more than neighbors and friends, and I'm still trying to figure out how to fill the void they left. At the same time, I'm so excited for them and their new adventure. This is a good move for their family and Zak's career. Good luck, my dear friends. Wyoming is super lucky to be getting you!

A Whole Lot of Love!

The day before Valentine's Day is Galentine's Day--the day you celebrate all the amazing ladies in your life (something that Leslie Knope does on Parks and Rec). My vision of this day was to invite my girlfriends to my house for brunch or lunch. Last year was a success, and I was looking forward to having it be on a Saturday where even more friends could come. Well, this year finds me tired a lot. I can really not count on having energy on a given day, and the thought of getting my house ready and preparing a meal was just too much. I almost didn't do it at all this year, but instead I wimped out and sent out a group text, "Hey, let's all go to Kneaders for brunch." We had 6 ladies make it (one left before we could take this picture), and it was so nice to have an excuse to just get together and chat. 

  I have so many amazing ladies in my life, and I'm so grateful. They've all been so wonderful and supportive of me and my little family. 

Valentine's Day was on Sunday this year. Brian and I went on a date on the 12th so we could spend the three day holiday weekend working on basement projects. I was glad that Valentine's was on a Sunday so we had lots of time to just rest and enjoy our little sweethearts. We did a heart attack on their door the night before and blew up lots of balloons (because by the time Brian made it to the store on Saturday to pick some up, there weren't a lot to be had). We woke up to them excitedly kicking balloons around. 

Then they decorated hearts for their grandparents (that we sent via picture message)

 Brian got me pink roses and some more kids: 

 Trying to take a good picture to send:

Michael's heart was adorable since he wrote the message himself without any help. It says, "I love you so mush". 

 And we had our traditional pink heart-shaped pancakes for dinner (only we forgot about the pink part until halfway through. Oops!) 

 And ended the night with some games and a little EFY music dance party.

  

  

 I love these little excuses to make days special. Sometimes, we all just need an extra push to step up our game, even if that stepping up seems to wimpy compared to what we would like to do. I guess it proves that small and simple things really can make a big difference.

Roommates

In preparation for baby's arrival, we had to rearrange rooms. We bought bunkbeds and moved Rachel into Michael's room. They were both so excited about the bunkbeds. Since Michael would be on the top, I wanted him to have a shelf to put book on so he could read up on his bed. I got a couple of spice racks from IKEA, and decided that they would be perfect for this. So, while Brian and I were setting up bunkbeds, I put these two to work on painting their shelves. It was a little brave of me. Michael does great without supervision, and Rachel...well, she's three. But, Brian appreciated not having little "helpers" being in the way. 

 It's been a work in progress trying to put things in there that they both like, but both seem very happy and in many ways, Rachel has been sleeping better with Michael in the room.

I really wanted this to happen sooner than later so that we can all get used to this situation before we add a newborn into the mix. So far, mostly good. 

The Big Storm

This has been a long winter for us. We got snow in December, and it didn't melt until towards the end of February. That was the norm growing up, but since moving out here, we hardly get any snow during the winter due to a lake effect. I've been really grateful for the snow. I would much rather look at the dead world covered with snow  the obvious lack of foliage and greenery that is evidence of the plants taking a long winter's nap. Plus, the mountains and frozen lake have been breathtaking. 

That being said, there are always down sides to living in a place that snows in the winter. There are days where I'm grateful for my rural Idaho upbringing. One of these such days happened the day of my 3 hour glucose test. I failed the one hour, so I had to go back and be tested again. I dreaded it. It seems so silly looking back and trying to explain why this particular test seemed to break me. I think a lot of it has been how many hours I've spent in doctor's offices this pregnancy. 

At one point, I was going to my regular OB once a month, physical therapy in Murray once a month, and the chiropractor every other week. Then, some months, I also had kids dentist appointments and my dentist appointment. Most of the time, I could take my kids with me, but others, like my physical therapy appointment, I could not. It's hard asking for so many baby-sitting favors, especially since I'm not sure when I'll be able to return them.   My physical therapy sessions require a good 3 hour time commitment from my volunteer baby-sitters due to the drive to a from Murray (and that's when traffic isn't bad). So, I didn't know how I could ask someone to take my kids for this 4 hour time commitment to take this test. Originally, Brian was going to work from home, but then he realized he had to be at work. I found someone, and on February 1, I got up early, and went to the doctor starving fasting like I was supposed to. 

I tried to hurry and get there as soon as the lab opened. I knew that each minute I was late was a minute before I could eat. It is torture to make a pregnant lady fast. I barely made it out of the neighborhood before getting caught in stop and go traffic. The roads were pretty terrible, thanks to a winter storm. There were lots of wrecks. I'll just say that a trip that normally takes just under 30 minutes took me an hour, and it probably would have taken longer if Brian hadn't looked at google maps to point me to a less backed up route. I arrived at the lab pretty grumpy. They drew my blood to make sure that I was a good candidate for the test, and then gave me that nasty glucose drink that is basically straight syrup. Eh! Then, I had to sit there for 3 hours, getting my blood drawn every hour. I crocheted the edge of a baby blanket while I waited. 

Finally, I was done. I left the lab, stopped at the nearest food place, and ran to the grocery store to pick up some essentials, feeling guilty at each step for not running back home to pick up my kids. I felt so weak and sick from that nasty drink, despite the food. I got the few things I needed and headed to the checkout. There was a problem with the card reader, which they discovered as the person in front of me tried to check out. I almost started crying. I had already waited in line, and now I would have to do it all over again. They moved me to another line, and I had to wait again, feeling weak and feeling guilty. I finally got checked out, loaded my groceries, and headed for home. Thankfully, the roads were mostly clear of traffic and snow, but there were still spots trying to drift. 

I cried most of the way home. I was so discouraged, felt like a total failure that I had to have my blood tested again, and feeling so guilty about how much time my friend was watching my kids. There weren't any good songs playing on my regular stations, so I switched to the only country station on my second set of presets. It has been years since I really listened to country stations, and I thought, "Sometimes the best pick me up songs are country songs." As soon as I landed on that station, the Rascal Flatts song, "My Wish" came on. I've normally thought the words were kind of cheesy, but they really hit me hard at the time: 

I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you wanna go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile.
But more than anything, more than anything

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

The chorus really hit home. Normally, I'm one to down play my number of friends how many people care about me. It's a carry-over from my insecure high school days. In fact, I've lost track of the time this last year where I've told Brian, "I don't feel like I have any close friends" or "I'm starting to think this 'best friend' thing is a myth." But for some reason, I had countless faces come to my mind when the main singer sang, "I hope you know somebody loves you," and I knew that there were hundreds that did. I thought of aunts, young women leaders, teachers, mentors, my home ward members, my friends from college, and the wonderful people in my neighborhood, not to mention my family members, both blood related and marriage related. I was filled with the strongest assurance that all of them would be at my side in a second, helping me in anyway they could, if I would only let them. It was kind of like a virtual George Bailey/It's a Wonderful Life moment. There has only been one other moment where I felt so overwhelmed with the love of those I couldn't see in my life, and that was when I was a missionary. Both moments are now quite sacred to me. We really aren't going at this alone, and as silly as our struggles may at times seem, Someone is always aware, and occasionally opens our eyes to see that truly "they that be with us are more than they that be [against us]." (2 Kings 6:16). 

I had pulled myself back together by the time I picked up my kids and made our way back to our house. Thanks to the storm, I barely made it into our driveway. I had lessons that day, and I worried that my students wouldn't be able to make it into my driveway. There was nothing else to do; I had to dig it out. I shouldn't have, but I did. I slipped once, catching myself mostly with my hands, but I did hit my belly. I secretly hoped someone would drive by, stop and finish the job, but no one did. But, I knew that they would if I asked. I was just going to shovel one more stretch, just one more stretch. Michael helped a little, but's he's only 6. Towards the end, Emmett and Eva came over with shovels to help. They didn't do much, but I loved that they tried.  

I was grateful that I had a few cancellations for lessons, because I had nothing left to give, and I felt pretty sick the rest of the day. But, I was able to finish my blanket, and Brian was kind enough to hold it up so I could take a picture (he's had lots of practice doing this for his mom).

So glad this winter (and pregnancy) is almost over!