Let it stop SNOWING!

If we could only see the future then we would have bought a snow blower this year.  Last year we had hardly any snow which was good for me.  I only had to shovel a couple times.  We had one storm in Nov. this year and then it pretty much melted.  I got my wish for a white Christmas when it started snowing on Christmas Eve.  Perfect huh?  But now it won't stop.  We had a huge storm a couple weeks ago where it snowed about two feet in a couple days and so the kids had a snow day.  (it's fun to have a snow day but sucks that they call you at 5:55 in the morning to inform you and you can't get back to sleep)  We had weird freezing rain last week so a two hour late start of school on Friday. (same early morning phone call)  We experienced that many times (the freezing rain) in Kansas but most people in Utah have not.  The road crews don't know how to deal with it, unlike Kansas where they just dump sand all over the roads.  Now we are back to snow, it started snowing Sunday while we were at church, it didn't snow much yesterday and then started last night and is still going.  The kids have been great about helping to shovel and we have some great neighbors that help us out with their snow blowers.  I haven't taken a lot of pictures but decided to have the kids stand by our hill by our driveway while we shoveled this morning before taking the kids off to school. (Julia and Matthew usually help as well. Julia was already at school and Matthew was inside doing homework.) Some of the kids have gone sledding a couple times at a park near our home.  But I think now they can just sled in our yard!

Hair today...gone tomorrow

Okay not exactly.  But Julia did get a huge amount of her hair cut off today. 10 inches to be exact.
 This is Julia with less hair on her head.  We didn't really plan on getting so much cut off but I talked her into getting quite a bit cut.  Then the stylist said if she cut off about one more inch she could donate it to locks of love.  So Julia decided that she wanted to do that. 

This is Julia's hair not on her head.  So we just need to wait for the hair to dry and then get the proper packaging and send it off!

Sophie's Three!

We celebrated Sophie's birthday yesterday.  I can't believe my baby is three!  She had fun with her presents and enjoyed skyping with Grandma and Grandpa.  We told the older kids to let her have the time with them because it's her birthday and I was surprised at how much she talked to them.  I guess usually she just doesn't have a chance or you can't hear her little voice over all the other kids.
Happy Birthday Sophie!

We're In!

We've been in our house for a little over a week now.  We're getting settled in but we still have some things to put away (mostly pictures to hang on walls).  A friend came over to help organize the garage a little bit but we need to do more with that but I think it will have to wait until we get some shelves.  We still have no elevator (long story) which has been frustrating of course mostly for Josh but overall it is still much better for him than the other house.  In the picture above there is a wheelchair lift that the elevator guy left for us to use.  He showed us how to use it and I tried it but it is just too scary so I think we'll just wait for the elevator to be put in for Josh to go downstairs. We had a lot of family and friends help us move which we were very grateful for.  We even had a few guys from our new ward come.  I was surprised that they even knew about it and that they knew where our old house was.  It was pretty crazy for awhile with all of the people.   It was hard to get around with all of the stuff and the people :)  The men are all jealous of our garage and they all commented that their wives would love our kitchen :)  We're glad to have the move behind us and are getting settled into our new home. 

We don't always have balloons lying around.  I took these pictures on Sophie's birthday. 

Dance recital

 The girls had their dance recital last Saturday and they all did fabulous.
Emma had two dances, one with her ghillies (Irish soft shoes)  and her Irish hard shoes.  Her hard shoe dance was pretty difficult but her teacher put her on the front row because she could do it so well.  Yea Emma!

 Julia did just one dance because she is only in ballet this year.  She did amazing and had a little almost solo.  At the end of the dance they had a few people go off until only Julia and one other girl were left on the stage.

Katie had two dances to learn this time!  She did a ballet dance (above) and a tap dance (below)  It was a lot more to learn but she did really well.  

The girls had a lot of fun in dance this year and we'll have a couple weeks break and then Julia and Emma will start summer classes for a month.

 Banister completed!

 Master bedroom.  I wanted to show the wood floors and the other room was a mess of boxes.  That is our light/fan waiting to be hung.  They have finished the lights downstairs and hopefully today are finishing the upstairs.

 Sophie showing off her pink walls of her and Katie's bedroom. (My dad did all of the painting of the kids rooms, with minimal help from me.  Thanks Dad!)

 Matthew's blue wall.  Plus the carpet is finished in the two upstairs bedrooms.

 Downstairs carpet is laid out but not finished.  They needed to wait for the electricians to do the lights because it was too dark down there.

 There is now light in the downstairs bathroom so I wanted to show another picture.

 Emma's purple room.

Julia's room.  Julia got new bedding and this was the most toned down color to use for painting.  Thus one wall only.  The same situation with Matthew's room.
We are supposed to have the inspection on Friday and then after that we can start moving in.  So we can start moving things after that.  We plan to take some things over to the house during that next week and then officially move on the 2nd.  No sign of the elevator.  It's looking like we will move in before it is there so that kind of sucks but oh well.  We're glad the city inspectors will let us move in without it.

Two Amazing Moms

I thought Mother’s Day would be a good opportunity to write about two amazing mothers in my life.  They are, of course, my beautiful and amazing wife, and my awesome mother.  This past year has served as a reminder to me of just how fortunate I am to have these two women in my life.  Without them I don't know how I would have survived.

My mom has repeatedly helped to boost my spirits and see the blessings in my life.  Her unfailing optimism, and thoughtful encouragement have kept me going in the right direction.  My mom is a wonderful example of how parenting extends beyond raising your kids and sending them out the door.  I think I've probably learned more from her the second 18 years than I did the first.  I guess maybe I've been a little more interested in learning and done a little less "talking back."  I think I'm starting to understand what that is.  I used to wonder what the problem was with "responding," but now I see that some times a response is not needed or desired. Thanks mom, you're the best.

You may not realize that Andrea has had to deal with a much more difficult year than I have.  While I’ve been sitting around for the last year she has been doing everything for our family, and doing all those things for me that I can no longer do for myself.  Here are a couple examples that come to mind.  For the last 400+ days Andrea has put Sophie to bed every night, sometimes more than once.  It doesn't matter if she's tired or feeling sick, she's had to pick up Sophie, gather all of the necessary items (blanket, baby, and cup), and carry her up the stairs or across the hall to bed.  This probably seems like a small thing, and for one day it is, and even could be enjoyable, depending on Sophie's mood, but she's never had a break, and has nobody to fall back on.  Another example is that for the last year Andrea has gotten up every morning at 5:45 to help me get breakfast so that I can keep on the schedule the doctors have worked out for me.  For those of you who know Andrea, you'll know that getting up that early is not something she would ever choose to do, but she hasn't even complained once.

I still remember how happy I felt when I realized that I should ask Andrea to marry me, and that I was even happier when she agreed. I didn't know what our life would bring but I knew I wanted to spend it with her.  I have been reminded on many occasions just how glad I am that she stuck with me until I realized that she was the one.  I know she doesn't like having her picture taken but I couldn't help but share a few that I've collected over the years.

Isn't she a hottie!  I don't know what the next years will bring but I'm glad I've been able to spend the last 15 with her and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her.

I certainly am lucky to have these amazing moms in my life.  I love you both.

--Josh