Avila Beach

We've made it to the beach a few times since we've been here.  It's best if either one of us goes with the 3 older kids, or both of us go with all of the kids.  A few weeks ago I went with just the 3 olders and it was pretty fun.  It was actually nice to be somewhere without the stress of the younger kiddos.  I quite enjoyed my time there. 

I thought this was a cute house on our walk from the car to the beach.  I love the siding style and color.

Cute little beach walk.

Gracie, Henry and Ella.

The kids absolutely love it - they love all of it.  The water, the waves, the sand. 
The weather has been perfect for the beach.  Hopefully we can get a few more trips in before school starts.

Oh Budget!

We moved to San Luis Obispo 2 months ago.  The move was a crazy time, let me tell you.  It took us 3 days and we had an interesting run with the budget truck.  But we made it.  Moving is a beast, I tell you! 

Here we are as we were leaving South Jordan.  We had to pull over even before we go to the freeway because the DVD player in the car wasn't working... (major problem, I know!)

Here we are driving through Las Vegas.

Here we are in San Luis Obispo, parked in front of my parent's house.  We made it!

We made a decision!

Well, we finally made a decision.  We're moving to San Luis Obispo (my home town).  It's super unexpected, actually.  I never would have guessed we'd end up there.
We have felt along this whole process that the place we went was important - almost more important than the job.  And for us with this experience, the place came first - then the job quickly fell into place.  The inspiration came from prayers offered in the temple.  And as soon as we decided we would go there, the idea of what job to do came to Adam and it's all worked out since. 
We're nervous and excited and sad all at the same time. 
We leave June 5th, which is less than 2 weeks away.  So much to do! 
Hooray that we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. 
And who would have ever guessed - I'm still surprised at what the answer was. 

Planning for...something...

When we first left our home, we first went to my parents house and spent 3 weeks there.  Then we were at the hotel for 4 weeks.  From there we went to Chelsey and Brent's house for 7 weeks.  Now we are at my friend, Sarah's, house and we have 3 weeks left.  The deal was we could stay until school gets out and school will be out in 3 weeks.  SO...where do we go?
We have a few options, but we're not sure about any of them.  We are kind of in denile, I guess.  We have hope that a miracle will happen in the next few weeks and then we don't have to choose our next place because we will be on our way to our final destination.  That's our hope, at least.  We are trying to have faith that it will work out that way.  "But if not, " we will still believe and we will continue to wait for the right opportunity to come our way.
But regardless of where we are going, we have a lot of preparation to do.  Most likely we will be leaving the area (and the state) and so we have a normal list of deeds that must be done, PLUS, we have a little list of things we want to do before leaving.  This is what is on that list so far:

-Hike Y Mountain
-Walk around BYU campus and eat BYU creamery ice cream
-Visit temple square in SLC
-Walk around the grounds of the temples in the area (Draper, Jordan River, Oquirrh Mountain, Mount Timpanogos, Provo)

We did have visit the copper mine on the list, but it is closed for the season due to a landslide.  It's all kind of exciting, plus sad at the same time.  We've both lived here since 1995 and so it's a sad to plan to leave.  And we have so much to do and 3 weeks really isn't a lot of time!  
So we are definitely planning and preparing to go somewhere in 3 weeks.  Where we are actually going to is the question that will be answered soon...

Look Mom - no hands!

I think my mom will appreciate this.  I am learning how to buy clothes at 2nd hand stores and I kind of like it!  I've mostly had an issue with buying things second hand (clothes, couches, etc) if I didn't know where it was coming from.  Kind of grossed me out.  But recently I've bought some things for my kids at Kid to Kid (local 2nd hand kids store) and I bought a few shirts for myself at Plato's Closet (local adult 2nd hand store).  It's not bad.  I especially like the prices!  You have to be patient to dig around, but in some ways it's even better than buying at a regular store.  For instance, I needed some boy vests in specific colors and so I shopped at 2 different Kid to Kid's and I was able to find just what I was looking for.  You can find most colors at any time of the year - you don't have to wait for a certain season like you would at a regular retail store.
Anyways - this probably isn't a big deal to most people, but it kind of is for me.  I think I'm finally starting to grow up.

For Sale

We had a huge sale yesterday at Chelsey and Brent's barn.  What did we sell, you ask?  Most of our belongings.  We have wanted to do it for some time now, but we've dragged our feet a bit.  But yesterday we finally did it and we found much success.  There were a lot of people there and we sold a lot of our stuff.  Whatever is left we will sell next week at our next and final sale. 
We did this for 2 reasons.  1.  We have felt promptings to do this for some time now.  2.  We just don't have the storage room to continue to store everything.  We have to fit our belongings into 2 storage units (instead of the 4 that we've currently been using) and there is just no way everything will fit in just 2. 
Yesterday was an emotional day.  Adam was much braver than I.  He sold all of his tools, and if you know Adam you know that he loved his tools.  That part breaks my heart a little.  And at the end of the day as we spoke about our experience he told me that through it all he wasn't sad but he was filled with gratitude. I didn't feel like that during the day, but as I pondered on his words I, too, was filled with gratitude.  Not because it was fun to sell all of our belongings, but because we have been so richly blessed.  We have witnessed so many miracles and so many tender mercies.  And I know that the Lord's hand is in our lives and for that I am so grateful. 

P.S. Thanks to Chelsey and Brent for being so patient with us and for allowing us to use their barn for so long. 

Finding my center

By nature, I am a very high stress, anxiety laden individual.  I do not do well under stress.  It takes over my body and I crumple - my mind stops working and I don't function very well.  Kind of an unfortunate feature of being me!
Since the beginning of this whole situation, we've been under a tremendous amount of stress.  The event that started us down this path was our decision to try to buy the house across the street.  And that in itself was SO stressful, as anyone who has ever bought a house knows.  Then when we didn't get that house and we already had new renters moving into our current house, that was crazy stressful!  And it all kind of snowballed from there. 
The good news is that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  And when I was baptized a member of this church, I also received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  If I am living in accordance to the laws of the gospel, I have a right to the help of the Holy Ghost/Spirit of God in times of need.  And that is how I have found my center throughout this experience. There is no other way to explain the times of calm and faith and hope (given my nature).   I often lose that center, but I can find it again and again and without that I would not be able to survive.  
I know that it is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that I am able to have the help I need.  The Atonement can help to lift our burdens through the Spirit, if we choose to allow it.   In Mosiah 24, verse 14 (in the Book of Mormon) it reads, "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."   The first time I truly experienced this lifting of burdens was the week we moved out of the house.  I had gone to the temple the weekend before and I had a strong feeling that everything would be fine and that we would end up in the place where we were supposed to be.  That assurance gave me SO much strength.  I was able to make it through a really tough week, without feeling the burden that was being placed on me.  I know for certain that I was receiving strength that week.  There is no other explanation.
So throughout this experience we have had a lot of ups and downs.  But I know that the ups are because we are willing to come unto Christ and we can find hope and strength through him.  How grateful I am for that.
These last few weeks have been particularly hard for both Adam and I.  But last night we spent some time at the temple and we were both strengthened and renewed in our faith.  We have been so very blessed in this journey and I bare you my witness that it has been through the Grace of God.
So grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the help that I can receive because of it.      

I need an oulet

I have so much in my head that just goes around in circles and festers.  There are many frustrations and stresses and just plain stuff to deal with right now.  So I thought that maybe I could blog about it to at least give it somewhere to go.
There is a lot of history here that explains our current situation, but I think I'll talk about different parts of the story as I go.
Today I have 2 sick babies - Sam and George.  They both have bad colds.  Poor little Georgie can barely breath from such a stuffed up nose.  And Sam.  Oh, Sam.  He is not a good sick patient.  He gets SO fussy when he's sick.   He already has fussiness issues and so it's REALLY hard when he gets sick.  This morning he screamed and screamed at 6:30 in the morning and woke Sarah up (we live with Sarah and her family) after she had planned to sleep in today (sorry, Sarah!!).
Sam tends to get ear infections easily and so I am taking him into the doc at noon to see if he has one this time.  MUST GET HIM BETTER!
I also decided to make him an appointment with Dr. Jerry Duggar - a holistic chiropractor in Bountiful.  I am getting desperate to figure out how to help him to be a happier child.  He has eczema all over his body and he is ALWAYS fussy.  I've listened to similar experiences with friend's kids and I am starting to believe that he has something going on inside of him that we can help with.  We just need to find what it is.  Dr. Duggar says that eczema is almost always associated with gut issues.  I think that he might be able to help us figure this out.  But I will make the appointment Monday since they are out of the office today.  
And George is having neck issues.  He needs a little bit of help from a physical therapist, but the first available appointment is June 3rd, so I made the appointment and then we'll be on a cancellation list until then.  Hopefully we can get in sooner.
These are just a few medical issues, I guess.  But there is so much more to talk about and so I will plan to do other posts.  What could I have to talk about, you ask?  So much, I tell you!  Here is a brief overview: We are completely exhausted in every way, we have a new baby and we're trying to adjust to 5 children, we are looking for a job, we're living in someone else's home, we haven't been in a home of our own in 5 months, and all of our belongings are in storage.  So you see - I'm just getting started.

Update - Sam does have an ear infection.  Mommy senses, I tell you.     

Update on our lives

So, just a little update on our lives...

1) Amy is still pretty darn sick from pregnancy. It's a bit tough to keep up with everything at home, but we're doing ok. We want to thank Chelsey and her kids for coming over and helping clean one day and Jen for taking the kids for a while today. It is very appreciated!

2) Sam is now standing a lot and is a very funny boy. He loves getting into every drawer/cupboard he can and has already broken some items. He crawls all over the house and talks a lot (nothing understandable, of course). Oh, and he took his first steps this last week. He'll be walking around in no time.

3) The other kids are doing well, enjoying summer and a lot of time outside with friends.

4) Amy was released as the 16-17 yr old sunday school teacher and then called to be the activity days leader. Although I'm not sure how much of that will get done till she is feeling better.

5) We are still enjoying living in South Jordan. The house has been good for us, but we are still trying to get the basement organized. I finally have the garage mostly organized and under control. It's been a nice ward and a nice neighborhood.

6) I was called as the assistant deacons quorum adviser/assistant scout master. It has been lots of fun so far. We have a great group of boys. We spent 4 days a few weeks back up at Hyrum Reservoir boating, swimming, and having fun - this was our "scout camp" this year.

7) This week I made arrangements to leave my business, Kyazma Business Consulting. I am leaving the company and selling my shares in the company. It wasn't totally my choice or decision, but in the end, I believe this is going to be a huge blessing. I have worked on this business really hard for the past 2 years and it has been a really great learning experience. I leave Kyazma in good shape and in good hands. We have grown from 2 employees to 7 and revenues are going to hit nearly 1/2 a million this year, with a lot of great opportunities in the pipeline. This year we added clients like KSL (Desert Media), IHC, Megadyne, Huntsman Chemical, Lightspeed (ADP), Celtic Bank, Gluten Intolerance Group of America, the Reier Group, Sorenson Construction, Clyde Co, and many others. I am proud of the progress we made and the bright future the company has because of our efforts. Now I am ready for the next adventure. I do have a number of great options right now, and am close to finalizing my new chosen opportunity. I will let you know when that is finalized and what the opportunity is. It's going to be pretty exciting here. The nice part is that buy leaving my company, we are able to pay off some debt and make financial progress that we have wanted to make. Also, I will be able to transition upward in my career and into an industry that I am very excited about. It feels a little like coming home.

8) We are all working hard to be healthier and eat healthier. I have lost 35 pounds in the past 2 months and am already feeling a looking better.  I have a long way to go, but we have a long way to go - if you know what I mean. This change has been good - and better than dieting, for sure. It's a good place to be headed.

9) I am blogging regularly now over on my blog, clarksystems.blogspot.com. Check it out if you want.

10) And lastly, look at this...we're updating our blog. hahaha.

Thanks to everyone's support and love. We love you back!

Adam

Green Smoothie Girl!

So. Adam and I have been working on changing our diets a bit. We like the idea of eating more whole foods and we're trying to get away from processed foods. This is a process (no pun intended) for us.
A few months ago we went to a wellness workshop by Dr. Jerry Duggar and his wife Tammie Duggar. All in all it was great and it was a good motivational experience for me. We've tried to incorporate a few things that we learned there. And I bought Tammie's cookbook - it's called "Scratch" - it's all about making food from scratch. We have tried several of the recipes and we like most of them. Some are fantastic and then there are also some that I haven't loved.
But like I said, we're still working on this whole food diet thing and we're hoping to get better and better.
Adam's brother, Jess, and his wife, Jen, have been drinking green smoothies. They went to a little class by the Green Smoothie Girl and they have added these smoothies into their lives. Jen was telling me yesterday that she has more energy and she can tell if she hasn't had her green smoothie. This got me thinking. And then last night I dreamt of green smoothies and so this morning I looked up the website. It is http://greensmoothiegirl.com/. It looks pretty cool! And this lady travels around teaching free classes and next weekend she's going to be really close to us. I got tickets for Adam and I to go. And I wanted to try it before the class and so I got a recipe that was linked from her website (at least I think it was). It is made up of frozen mixed berries, banana, kale, and water. We had it tonight for part of our dinner and it wasn't bad. The kids all liked it and Henry LOVED it. He kept saying it was the best smoothie ever. The only problem is that our blender didn't blend up the kale very well because it is not a good blender. The smoothie was pretty chunky! Oh well - we'll keep trying and maybe get a new blender soon because we've been wanting a new one anyways.
But something else I'm happy about is that she isn't just about smoothies. She promotes whole food/raw food eating in general. I'm excited to see what else she has to say.
So that's it. Check it out if you find that sort of thing interesting and let me know what you think.

Sam's Birth

I know, I know.
I've been thinking about this blog a lot lately and I really want to start blogging again.
Since Sam is now 9 months old, I thought it would be nice to first blog about his birth... :) This is a good place to start, right?

Sam was born on May 30th, 2011. My water broke in the middle of the night - I believe it was around 2:00 or so. I woke up immediately to the feeling (which was actually just one little squirt). I had my bag packed and so I just grabbed a towel that was on the end of my bed (just in case) and told Adam - "my water broke, we need to leave now." He jumped up, told me that it was all going to be okay, and then got dressed (or whatever he did then).
My mom was sleeping in Henry and Ella's room and so I poked my head in to tell her we were leaving. I wanted her to come, but I didn't know how to do that since she was with the kids.
I went upstairs (we were living with Adam's parents at the time) and I told Chris we were leaving and that it would be great if somehow she and my mom could both come to the hospital to be there for the birth.
And just like that we were off! It didn't take too long to get there because there was no traffic in the middle of the night. They got me all checked in and hooked up to IVs and all of that good stuff in no time. Chris and Carole (our moms) were not far behind us. I had been worried that the baby would come fast if my water broke, but the labor actually took about 5 hours. That was a great blessing because I was able to get enough antibiotic in me (strep b positive), which had been a concern of mine.
Not long after getting there Adam noticed that Kaitlin (his sister) was on facebook because she was having a hard time sleeping. So Adam asked her to go up to the house to be with the kids when they woke up. She agreed and that was a huge blessing! Thank you Kaitlin!
For some reason my blood pressure had a hard time with the fluid that was accompanying the epidural and so a few times it dropped down kind of low. That made me feel sick almost the whole labor.
We had asked Gillian (Adam's sister) to come to the birth. I called her when we left for the hospital, but then we didn't call her again until it was almost time. She rushed over and it was great to have her there. It was a full room with Gillian and our moms and I'm so grateful they could all be there.
Sam was born around 7am (I can't remember the exact time now) and he was 8 pounds, 6 ounces - our biggest baby yet. The doctor asked if anyone wanted to cut the cord and since Adam didn't want to (not really his kind of thing), Gillian decided to do it. So Gillian cut Sam's cord.
That's about it. Oh - and it was Memorial day! He came 1 week early and was born on Memorial Day.

This is me right after we go to the hospital (mind you it was in the middle of the night...).



This is Sam not long after he came out.


Happy and tired new parents!


Big sister Ella meeting Sam for the first time.


Henry meeting his best little brother Sam for the first time.


Gillian came back to the hospital later and painted my toe nails - my favorite hospital gift ever!

What Henry's been up to

I haven't really written much on our blog for a while now and so I'm going to go through my 3 kids, one by one, and go over some interesting points from their lives from the past 6 months or so.
Today I'll start with Henry (with a few family things mixed in).

Here we are last fall, hiking to the Grotto - a fun place up Payson Canyon:

We stayed in California with my parents for 6 weeks and Henry had so much fun with his Brundage cousins.
Here is Henry and Charlie just before a hike up Bishop's Peak mountain:

Henry and the cousins on Thanksgiving, eating ice cream cones:

Henry and cousin Will hugging goodbye after a fun Thanksgiving visit:

We have had a battle with Henry over taking showers pretty much his whole life - he just hasn't liked them. But through some miracle he decided that showers were okay! Here he is taking his first shower without crying and actually enjoying himself:

We love monarch butterflies and went to this cool grove in Grover Beach to see thousands of them hanging out in the eucalyptus trees.
Here is Henry looking at them through binoculars:
And here he is with Grandma Carole and Grandpa Joe:

We've gotten TONS of snow up here this winter(well, in my book, at least) and here is Henry helping to shovel the driveway:

Henry was very enthusiastic about decorating the Christmas tree this year. Here he is with Ella after all their hard work (note the flower headband - he can be very silly):

And here is Henry on Christmas morning - very excited about his new nerf gun:

For some unexplainable reason, I let Henry's hair get WAY too long - it just took me a long time to get around to having it cut (months and months and MONTHS). For a while it looked kind of cute, but then it started to look like a mullet with crazy long side burns.
Look how ridiculously long and bad it looks:
And here he is after a traumatic cut by me (he was sad because the hair was getting all over his mouth and face):

And last but not least, here is our little Karate champ. He's been taking karate for a couple of months now and he really likes it. He has advanced in one belt rank (from white to white with an orange stripe) and this last Saturday he participated in his first tournament. He was in 3 events and won one gold metal and two silver metals. After it was over he was sad that he didn't get a gold, a silver AND a bronze metal - he thought getting one of each would have been pretty cool.
Here he is in the sparring event:

Here he is in the padded sword fighting event (I can't remember it's name):

And here he is sporting one of his metals:

So - there you have it. Hope you're still with me and didn't get bored along the way! Any questions?

The COOLEST color game ever!

Henry has been really interested in what happens when you mix colors and so I thought I'd look online to help us find a tool to know which colors mix to make other colors.
In our quest, we just found the most amazing game! The kids are loving it. Have your kids try it - you'll love it, too!
Here is the link:

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/colorgame/

Have fun and we hope you like it!

It's a....

BOY!

We're so excited to tell you that we had our ultrasound and it's a boy. And so far he looks healthy.
Due date is still on for beginning of June and everything is on schedule.
We've been waiting for this little guy to come to our family and we're ecstatic that he is on his way!

Two New Updates

Friends,

Another update from me (Amy isn't really feeling well enough to do this these days). There's only really two things to report of significance. Here they are:

1) We're going to California. Tomorrow morning we are leaving to go to California (San Luis Obispo). I'm driving them out tomorrow and Saturday (going to make it a 2 day trip). Amy and the kids are going to stay there for a few weeks (probably till around the weekend of December 10th). This is their annual stay with the grandparents and lately, it's been when Amy is pregnant and sick. Grandpa and Grandma Brundage are amazingly generous and always willing to help out. They'll help take care of Amy and the kids for the time they are there - while Amy is sick. the kids love going too as they get to spend time with the grandparents and other cousins. Unfortunately it means that we'll be apart for Halloween and Thanksgiving - a big bummer for me. I fly back to Utah on Sunday morning.

2) On Tuesday morning I lost my job. I had been with AtTask for the past 3 1/2 years. It's been a Jekyl and Hyde kind of job for me as I've had to adapt to 11 boss changes, three different roles, and long 12-16 hour days for most of the time I worked there. Yet, I learned a lot and gained some great friends there, so that has been good. I knew this was coming, but didn't think it would happen for a few more weeks or longer. Anyway, overall I think it was a good thing for us. I really needed a change and this presents an opportunity for growth with a new opportunity. We're not sure what we'll end up doing or going, and we're pretty open minded about it at this point in time. It's going to be a good experience to discover new things and perhaps new places. Who knows.

Well, that's it for now. We'll try to keep updating you on things a little more often.

Adam

An update and a secret message...

Pay attention folks - there is a secret message in this post...

Anyway, it's been a long time since I posted on the blog. I thought I'd update everyone on things.

We've been living here in Elk Ridge now for about 2 full months. Here is an update on everything (hang on, it's going to be a little long).

Church
Amy and I got callings as primary teachers. We're teaching the 8 year olds (Valiant 8). We have 6 kids in our class (5 of which actually come to class regularly). It's pretty easy cause the kids are really good and they can read - much different than when we taught sunbeams. Anyway, it should be a pretty good calling. It's always fun to frame the gospel in a context that an 8 year old can understand. Odd how we also then tend to get it more sometimes as well...

Amy has already been assigned and fulfilling a visiting teaching assignment. I have yet to hear anything about home teaching and I don't think we have home teachers yet either - but I'm sure it will happen soon (maybe?).

Today we were asked to speak on Sunday - subject of "enduring to the end". I am an odd one and love to speak (I don't get to speak very often, though). I am excited to both study and share what I can about this subject. Amy won't be speaking though - due to sickness.


Health
We've been blessed to have pretty good health. Grace does have eczema, but it's not too bad and we've been able to keep it under control pretty well. Henry is the healthiest of us all and seldom gets sick. Ella gets small colds once in a while, but nothing else too major. We all got flu shots for free through my work and we hope to escape the flu this winter all together, although it won't matter much for Amy, as she's getting in all her quota (ok, much more than that) of throwing up right now.

In January I really scared myself by standing on the scale. I was a few pounds (like 2) from 300 pounds. Scary. So I began working on losing weight. I began just cutting calories and doing some exercise, but after 20 pounds down, I gained 10 of it back by April. So I decided I had to get drastic. We were recommended by one of our doctors to go to a guy named Dan Wilcox, at Total Health and Fitness. I met with him once, discussed the program he runs, and decided to go for it. We paid for a 24 week program up front and I began full force. It's been a great program and although hard at times, I keep plugging away at the pounds and getting in shape. I meet once a week with Dan and he weighs me, measures my body fat, measures my body, and helps me design a workout program and meal plan for the next week. Then I go and do it. Dan has been great to work with! I am down about 55 pounds total and have cut my body fat % by almost 15%. My goal is to lose about 30 more pounds and 12 more % body fat by January. Then, I will attack my fitness, flexibility, and shape with vigor. I want to ride the Lotoja this next Fall (a very long bike ride from Logan to Jackson Hole). Anyway, it's been great to lose all the pounds. My clothes don't fit me very well and one of my belts is now at it's last hole, but I love how I feel and look forward to finishing my goal. A total of about 80 pounds this year will be good - gosh I have a lot more work to do...

Home Life
Living here in Elk Ridge is an adventure. Living with family is always interesting. It's been good, however. The living space is pretty good and it's hard to be a more beautiful place. The kids certainly like the additional space to run around both inside and outside. We still have some projects to do: replace outlets, put in a few light fixtures, put up curtains, and other items - not to mention that we still have some boxes to unpack and organize.

We've been really happy with the flooring and paint that we did before moving in. It's nice and comfortable. Winter will be a challenge with the drive I have (35 minutes to work and nearly an hour coming back in traffic).

Kids
The kids are doing great. Henry just turned 5, Ella turned 3 in June, and grace just had her 1st birthday. Henry is enrolled in Karate and really seems to enjoy it. Ella continues to be the funny, party-girl that she's always been and says lots of funny things everyday. Her and Henry spend a lot of time playing together. Grace is still light as a feather - even though she loves to eat just about everything we give her. Since we moved here she has had a pretty difficult time sleeping, however, which is hard (mostly on Amy). Grace is crawling (mostly army style) fast and now can stand up while holding onto the couch or something else solid. She is still has big, bright eyes and is always smiling.

Work
I've been at AtTask for 3 1/2 years now and not sure when that will end. It's a good job, although it is full of drama sometimes. I've had something like 10 boss changes in 3 1/2 years with 8 of those in the past 2 1/2 years. Yeah, it's a little crazy sometimes - trying to re-adapt myself to a new boss with all new ideas and ways of doing things. I just keep working hard and surviving. One of these days either AtTask or I will decide it's been long enough and I'll be on to new things, but I'm really not sure when that will be. I continue to work on ideas of my own as well and one day I'll actually take a chance on one of them.

Well, I think that's about it. I hope all of you reading this are doing well. Feel free to drop by anytime. Oh, and yeah, in case you're wondering...early June.

Adam.

Henry's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Henry's 5th birthday on September 29th. Henry had a great day!

He opened presents in the morning:

He ate lunch at Pirate Island:

And he had Provo friends up for a BBQ and cake in the evening:

(in case you are wondering, the glasses are protective eye ware for nerf gun play)

All in all a great day.

Happy birthday, bud! We love you!

The Clarks are MOVING?

What?
Yep - we are moving on Saturday. It's been somewhat of a whirlwind because we just decided to do this for sure about 2 weeks ago. We are moving down to Elk Ridge to live in Adam's parent's house. We will have the basement pretty much to ourselves and we will share the upstairs living space. The Clarks are very generous to let us move in! There are 3 of them and 5 of us and so hopefully we won't turn their world upside down (too much, at least!).


This is our cute little house and it has given us some great memories. 6 1/2 years ago I bought it and moved in as a single woman. 3 weeks later I met Adam. 5 months after meeting Adam we were married and he moved in. And since then we've been blessed with 3 wonderful children. A huge part of our lives has happened in this house! As cramped as we are in here, we will miss it terribly and we will very much miss our good friends that live around us.

We found some good renters - a young family with one 3 month old daughter - and they will hopefully be signing the contract and sending it back to us in the next few days. They have agreed to a 2 year contract and they seem like really nice people.

We know this will be a good move for us to save money and to prepare for the next phase of our lives. We are excited for what the future holds for us.

Elk Ridge here we come!

Hooray for Adam's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Adam!

We love you and we are so grateful for you. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to your family and your job. You are appreciated. You are loved. Enjoy this day - it's all for you!

Things we've been up to

Here are a few things we've been doing the last few weeks -

Celebrating the 24th of July at South Fork Park:


Swimming lessons:
The kids are doing so well which is a relief because last year was somewhat of a disaster!


Gracie is 10 months:
She has 2 teeth (hooray) and she will hopefully get her helmet off in a few weeks (we're keeping our fingers crossed). She has also learned to army crawl and she's getting better and better at it every day.