Charlotte's Sleepover

This week has been packed with great stuff.  Monday Dad and i just did yard work and a marathon of other things to get caught up from working on our room for the past few weeks.  Tuesday we helped Christian and Shanna and Charlotte move from Provo back to the Roth's basement! Wednesday Charlotte got dropped off for her first sleep over her without her Mom and Dad!  They had a getaway before graduation etc.  Charlotte did great.  She went with me to Jacobs game at HHS and then to pack meeting at the church.  She was sick of that so we had to leave early and come home and get her a bath and ready for bed.  She slept pretty good for a pretty long stretch of the night.  She woke up at 4 am and then i fed her a bottle and she was back to sleep by 5 am.  I laughed because i looked at my watch at 4:46 am when every single one of the 6 of us that were at our home at that time were awake.  I was up with Charlotte of course.  Charlotte's screaming woke up "Buddy"! Buddy woke up james so james took buddy out to the potty.  Jacob had a 5 am road drive session and Dad was taking him to that before he went to work.  It is funny! Charlotte and James, buddy and I all got to go back to sleep for a few more hours though!  haha!  Thursday went pretty fast! Charlotte and i got to go on a walk with my friends.  Then we got ready and cleaned up and i packed up everything from charlotte and drove to Roth's house and went down to Provo to meet up with Christian and Shanna for graduation.  It was cool to see the BYU graduation.  There were 6300 graduates.   The graduation was in 2 parts.  For 45 minutes the graduates were walking in and being seated in the mariott center and then they had some great speakers.  Jeffery R. Holland spoke and i cant remember the names of the other people.  He gave an amazing talk as always.  I love to hear him speak.  Sesuo Oldroyds Mom posted on face book later that they were in the Marriott center for the BYU graduation the same time as we were.  I wish I would have known so i could have met Sesuo Oldroyds family. Where do they live Michelle?

 After everything they have been through, Starlee still graduated with her Masters from BYU!

 Breakfast that i made on Saturday! Dad was gone to work already and the boys refuse to eat almost anything i make.

The next day was the 2nd part of the graduation and I was not able to go because Jacob had a game at the same time.  Dad went to the 2nd part of graduation where they called each of the names and they each received their diplomas.  Jacob did well in the game.  He is really hard on himself when he makes mistakes but i think he is doing really well over all.  He really likes the team dinners!  Saturday i worked hard to get all of my chores done and encourage the boys to do some chores as well.

Today was a great day.  We went to American Fork for Starlee's baby blessing.  It is such a blessing and a miracle that all of that even happened.  Starlee and her family will move to Las Vegas this week and live in Mckays parents house and Mckay will start a new job there this summer.  It. was great to see everyone there.

At our ward, we got there early for sacrament meeting so that we could get a seat.  Riley Conover gave her farewell talk at church.  She did amazing.  She is going to Brazil.  She will fly to Brazil MTC in a few weeks.  I put your email addresses on her list.  The scripture that she spoke about is D&C 45:64 i think.  "Great things await you"  I am drawing a blank as to the rest of the content of her talk but she is so excited and energetic about her mission and so excited to go!  We had the Myers over for dinner tonight and then we went over and visited with the Conovers to visit for a little bit.  Busy day but so many good things.

Jacobs Family Party

This week was awesome to have Shanna, Christian and Charlotte staying at the LeBarons house while Brother and Sister Lebaron are in Italy.  Shanna took care of Charlotte and Ty and Jess.  Christian and Jenna were also there and helped when they could between school and work.  Dad and I were able to see Shanna and Charlotte Monday through Wednesday each day a few times and then i got to see them Thursday and Friday a few times.  They went home on Friday.  We had the Lebaron Boys over last sunday for dinner.  Wednesday, I made fried rice and potstickers and spring rolls and a bunch of other things and they all came and ate here.  It was a bit chaotic because that is quite a labor intensive dinner.  Shanna helped a lot! Jenna helped too!

Thursday, Shanna and Charlotte and I went shopping at the district for the first time in many years.  It was really nice.  We found a few shirts for Christian for graduation.  The goal was to try to find some clothes for Shanna but she found nothing.  We found a few things for me! A tan cardigan and floral shirt at downeast.  Next we met my mom and sister at Zao Asian Café (new in the district) for their birthday lunch.  It was really good and healthy.

Shanna came to our house a few times but other than that i would stop by and see them and snuggle baby Charlotte almost every time i drove past their house. Haha!

Dad and I finished painting our bedroom, bathroom and closet.  We took out the old yucky carpet and put in the new flooring.  Dad got the flooring done so fast.  I painted all of the base boards and we replaced some that were broken and got it all put back together.  Friday, both Jacob and james had soccer games.  I went to Jacobs game on Friday night and got a ride for james.  Saturday morning I played the piano for Emalie Miller and Chelsea Gray baptism.  In the afternoon,  I went to james game.  Dad's hockey team did a tournament and they did really well and he had a game yesterday too.  After that I came home and tried to hurry and clean the house and start making food for the family dinner tonight.  We had a Mexican feast.  It all turned out really good.  I also made strawberry short cake and coconut whip cream and pineapple upside down cake (gluten free for my sister).  It was all really yummy.  I ate too much.

 I had my hair up in a bun this morning while i was making food for the dinner and Jacob came in the kitchen and said "what's up with your hair mom"? He has a hard time with change.  I have had it in a bun before but not that high up! Haha! 

Exciting news! Nick Burrell received his mission call to the Philippines Cebu East mission!  Hunter Ramsey was called to a Peru mission.  Austin got to skype in to hear Hunter open his call.  I think it was a surprise to Hunter by the way he acted when Austin came on skype behind him.  He started crying.  Cute boys.  Also, another family moved in to our ward that has a missionary out already.  That makes 9 missionaries again for now.

Lindsay Wright is dating a really cute sweet guy named Adam.  I see a wedding really soon in their future!  He came to the family party tonight.

Charlotte rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time tonight at our house!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Jacobs

Shane and Kristin LeBaron went to Italy so Shanna and Christian and Charlotte are staying at the Lebarons to help take care of Jess and Ty.  Matthew lives in Village on the parkway and goes to UVU.  He stayed at their house this weekend to take care of his brothers and Jenna just is gone from 7 am to 11 pm so that is why Shanna is staying there.  We had the Lebaron boys over for dinner tonight and then Shanna, Christian and charlotte arrived there tonight. I took this picture after Charlotte had her bath at the Lebarons.  

                                                                   Buddy the Baby

 Mom and I had the chance to go see Starlee and Harper.  We are so thankful for her recovery.  They finally get to be together at home.  Starlee's kidneys were cleared on Friday, no more dialysis.  They are functioning on their own now.  Our prayers have certainly been answered.  We are thankful for miracles. I am thankful we can take a picture of Starlee with Harper together.  Starlee's bandage on her chest is where her port is for the dialysis.

 That is Jacob on the 50 yard line ready and waiting to sub in!

 Guess what we are in the middle of! Yes I painted our room a beautiful "Sparkling Sage". We didn't move our furniture out! We just moved them to the middle.  I just cover the furniture when i am painting and then we take the plastic off and go to sleep!  The painting is done.  We will start working on the flooring tomorrow.  It is just a big mess right now.

 Grandma Jacobs birthday was this week on April 11.  Shanna, Charlotte and I met down there to visit her.  I stayed and helped grandma quilt for a while after shanna and charlotte had to go home.  I also was able to visit Grandma another day this week and now she completed Olivia's baptism quilt and she is trying to get Cason's done quick before they start traveling down to Skyler's wedding in May and then they will be traveling to Washington to spend some time with Daniel and Teresa's family.

 I had the opportunity to go with James on his field trip to the capitol building.  James didn't want a picture with me or at all so i took this one when he didn't know.  I also got the class picture so that is good. It was very interesting! I had never been on a tour in the building.

Buddy the baby gets lots of attention.  We have a constant flow of little new friends that want to play with Buddy! Ruby Lynn is his most frequent guest! Everybody loves buddy.  Dad finally has somebody to bark with ! Haha!

Buddy the dog

Ever since Zoey passed away, the boys have been begging to get a puppy.  We would talk about it once in a while and then not really do anything about it.  This week was spring break and so we started our quest to find a dog.  We had been looking at KSL but hadn't gone to look at any of them yet.  We started out (Dad, Jacob, James & I) going to puppy barn. A few of the pictures are at puppy barn. That puppy james was holding at the puppy barn did a big pile of diarrhea on the bale of hay right after i took this picture.  We did not get a puppy from puppy barn.  They were super expensive.  We went and looked at an animal shelter in Lindon and the humane society in Murray and there were just not any good options available.  All of this was just research to us to find what would be good or not.  By this time Jacob was done! We went back home.  We went back to KSL and narrowed it down to a handful and i started texting and finding out which ones we could go and see.  When it came down to it, we found this puppy for $150 on KSL.  We went Tuesday night to go see him and get him and we all fell in love with him and had the cash ready so we adopted him on the spot and went straight to Walmart and bought a bunch of equipment and food etc, while Jacob babysat the puppy in the car.  The boys were so excited, Jacob kept saying this puppy is so beautiful on the way home and he took a selfie and posted it on social media.  It made me so happy and he told us that girls were saying how adorable his puppy was.  James and Jacob both have been taking turns taking the puppy out to go potty and we are trying to train them to train the puppy.  I forgot to tell you the most important part! His name is "Buddy" the dog like "buddy the Elf" .   Dad is already calling him different names though which i think is so funny! Dad is the king of nicknames!

Starlee did get to go home from the hospital last Monday.  She will have a really long recovery.  I think she cant even pick up the baby by herself for several weeks.  She is still having problems with her kidneys and has to have dialysis a few times a week.  It is just such a blessing and we are so grateful that she is alive and able to go home with her husband and baby now.  Amy was able to stay with her through Friday and then mckays mom came to stay with her for a week.  Grandma Jacobs and i hope that we will be able to take a turn and help her as well.   

Dad and James and I were able to go to the Jordan River Temple open house.  It is really beautiful.  I wondered which things were original and which was new.  I recognized some things that were different but cant really remember the rest of it.  I feel like since it was closed for so long that most everything was redone.   I am thrilled that they will open that temple back up to relieve some of the pressure on oquirrh mountain temple.  We didn't get to see charlotte since easter sunday but Shanna sent us the picture on her tummy with her head up during the week.  She is growing so fast! 

My shoulder seems to be getting better all the time.  I have still been going to do the treatments and i have some good days and some bad days.  I prepped our bedroom to paint Saturday but Dad woke up and threw up for a few hours during the night and i woke up with aches and fever so Dad stayed home from work and we all just laid around and were lazy all day Saturday.  I got james to his game in the late afternoon but other than that we barely did anything.  Dad and I both felt better by Saturday night.  I will paint tomorrow.

Happy Easter

It has been another great week.  We have prayed together as a family for Starlee! It is a miracle that she is still with us.  She lost a lot of blood and had 7-9 blood transfusions.  She finally got out of ICU after a week.  She is very weak but is in a regular room now.  If all goes well she might be able to go home tomorrow.  We will see.  I finally got to go see her on Friday.  She doesn't have very much energy.  It was really good to see her smile and hear her voice.  Jacob had a game against Riverton this week and played really well.  They won over Riverton which was really good because a lot of boys from Jacob's club team are on Riverton!  Jacob was pretty pleased with it.  James also had a game and played really well and won the game.  He made a great left footed goal.
Shanna and Christian and Charlotte came and watched conference with us today and slept over here last night.  We loved being able to watch conference and witness all of the amazing things that are happening in the church.

 Rachelle, Francine and I went out for dinner for Rachelle's birthday. We hadn't been able to do anything for a long time so it was great to catch up!