A Lot Can Happen In a Week!

A lot can happen in a week! Last Wednesday, we were driving to Colorado. Next Wednesday, I will be on my honeymoon with CK. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

So....this is the documentation of this last week.

Wednesday's (7/20) drive (14 hours):


Thursday's (7/21/11) visit with old friends that I love sooooooooooooo much!

Friday's (7/22/11) drive to Utah:

Sunday's (7/24/11) Family Get Together:




Monday's (7/25/11) Pioneer Festival and Temple Square:




Tuesday's (7/26/11) Manis and Pedis with my dear sisters:

And...fun with family:
Today's (7/27/11) very exhausted J....it has been a long week. C and I went everywhere looking for him....even thinking that he must have fallen asleep. Finally, we found him. Yep. Asleep.


I am so blessed. I truly am happier than I ever imagined I could be. I am so blessed to be so close with my former in-laws. We may not have the marriage to bind us, but we have a love that spans Eternity binding us together. I cannot express how much I love them.

CK and A's flight was delayed THREE hours. (That is why I have time to post this) Poor CK. He left home at 7 am (Central Time) and we will not get to his parents until between 1-2 am Mountain time.....17+ hours of travel today. YIKES!

But...3 days from now....we will be married. I am so excited. I cannot wait. At the same time, it seems surreal that it is really here. :)

So blessed. So blessed. So blessed.

Almost Here! 6 days until our wedding!

Even later.....K's birthday party (July 1, 2011)

K had her 12th birthday party on Friday, July 1st. CK took the boys and they went out to dinner and then went to watch a movie at his apartment. It was fun for me to be here just with the girls. I tried to be around if they needed me, but not obtrusive. K said I did a good job. Phew! I have never done this mom-of-a-preteen thing before.

These are the girls that could come (some of her best friends were out-of-town (darn summer birthday!):
They loved playing Lego Rockband together. They did a great job at taking turns. I loved this picture because look at Super Girl...she was jumping and her feet were off the ground. Cool.
They ate when they wanted to eat, did nails, opened presents, and began a movie. There was a lot of laughter. I was impressed the great caliber of girls that K has chosen to be her friends. I know that they are good girls and that they will help each other make good decisions. I am so grateful.

4th of July (Just a tad late)

We had a wonderful 4th of July. A got to be back again with us. She is so much fun.

The 4th of July is my very favorite holiday. I love it. I love the people. I love the fun. I love the fireworks and I love the low-stress. I love it. My kids love it, too.

For years, we have done the 4th of July with our good friends, the W's. They are awesome. This year, we celebrated together again. We had a BBQ/dinner together so we could stay in the air conditioning. ;)

Then, we left to go a nearby city's fireworks. We love them. There might be ones closer, but this is always worth the drive. We park at a nearby mall and then take a free bus shuttle to the park.

While at the park, we listen to live music and the adults talk and the kids play. They are playing leap frog here. It was very cute to watch.
Some other friends that we hadn't seen in a while showed up and all the kids enjoyed some together time. :)
A and E are only a couple of months apart. They have become great friends. I know they both wish that we were all together more often.
It was a great 4th of July! I am so blessed to live in this country. I am so blessed to have a great family and great friends. :)

12 days!!!!!

I am in awe. CK and I will be married in 12 days! I feel more and more blessed every day that I have been led to such an amazing man. That I am the lucky one that gets to be his wife is absolutely amazing to me.

We have had such an interesting road. Our story is complicated, yet fun. The interesting thing is how clear things are with hind sight. I see the Lord's hand in all the conflicting answers, in all the strange timing, even in my time with M. It is a beautiful tapestry, woven to bring us together at the right time and the right place. All that had to happen before we could get married has and we are so blessed. :)

C is 10!!!!!

This post is slightly overdue.

C turned 10 on Sunday. Wow!! I cannot believe he is that old. He is such a joy to me. He has so many interests and so many talents. He loves cartooning, computer animating, anything Nerf (especially Nerf guns!), tennis, football, swimming, building and planning. He is just amazing.

It was his weekend with Dad and so I did not get to see him much. When we were together, though, we made sure that he felt special and loved.

Friday, he woke up to streamers on his door (since he wouldn't wake up at home on his actual birthday). We ate what he wanted for breakfast (crepes) and lunch (BLTs). We also went to a waterpark...partly for this fake-birthday and partly because it was A's last day with us.

Here is C with the present that A got him:
Then, Sunday night, we opened the rest of his presents:



and ate cake (Lemonade cake, of course!!!): (BTW..I hate this picture of me, but I love the smile on C's face so much...that I had to post it!)
One of C's big presents from CK and I was a Nerf Tag set. It is very fun. We have been playing that a lot at our house.



I love you, C. I am so glad that you are my son. I am so glad that I get to be your Mama and love you and treasure you forever and ever! :)

C4K 2011

This year is our third year in a row participating in College for Kids. I love this program. It is very reasonably priced and the kids spend 4 hours a day on a college campus taking classes. It gives them valuable life lessons, fun, and opportunities to learn things that they wouldn't normally have a chance to learn.

First, though, as I was going through the C4K pictures, I found a few of our last pack meeting that I wanted to post.

First, CK is our new CubMaster. He was thrown right into the fire because we had pack meeting soon after his call. He did a great job!!!

We did archery and only two boys could go out a time. So, we did water balloon catch. It was so fun and all got involved, from little ones to adults.
This is the picture that really captured my attention. Look at the arrow! You can see it flying through the air. Very cool.
I had the chance to attend a few classes with C on his last day of C4K. (K did not want me to attend hers.) The first class he had was chess. He loved it and even won first prize from his teacher. :)
His next class was computer animation. He LOVED this class so much. For his birthday, he wants an animating program. :)
His other classes were Tennis and Lego Robotics. K took weird science, Lego Robotics, creative photography, and acting. Her favorite was the photography class.

On the last day of class, the acting class performed. For some reason (probably because J was wiggling around on my lap), the ones with her in them are more blurry. :(


She did a great job. She loves being on stage. She is so much like her dad, but this is one of the few things that assures me she did get a few of my genes, too. :)

I am so glad that both K and C had the opportunity to attend this program. I am grateful it is over because I am ready to stop having a rigid schedule and driving them, but it is sooooooooooooo worth it.

Blessed. Oh, so blessed.

I have been extra busy lately. Lots to do during the day. Lots to do in the evenings. It has been very busy.

Yesterday, I had a post planned in my head. It was to go something like this (with the list of things to do for the wedding) Wedding Dress: Check, Boys' outfits for the wedding: Check, etc. I planned to end with Temple Clearances: Not Yet.

BUT....as I was leaving this afternoon to go to CK's apartment to eat lunch with him, I checked my mail. There they were: two letters from the First Presidency. I was sooooo nervous.

One thing I knew for certain is that their decision would come back EXACTLY as it should. I mean, who better to receive direct revelation from the Lord than His Prophet? Nobody. If the answer had come back that we had to wait or "No" on being married and sealed in the temple, we would have gone from there and prayerfully made other plans.

BUT.....We don't have to worry about it. We were granted our temple clearances and we will be married and sealed at the same time in the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple on July 30th. :)

Yahoo! It is a bittersweet moment for me, for sure, though. I was surprised that the finality of it did hit me a little. That is how it is supposed to be. Marriage and sealings should not be taken lightly. I did not. Now, however, I am looking at 29 days and I will be sealed to my best friend. Life wasn't what I expected, nor wanted, but a loving God has taken care of me through every step, every tear, and every heartache. He has blessed me with a man that loves me and cherishes me in a way that I could never have imagined.

I am blessed. Oh, so blessed.