Utah - Days 1&2

Thank goodness my hives went down just in time for us to get on the road for Utah. Somehow we got the house ready, packed up, and got on the road by about 3:30 on Saturday. Our plan had been to leave earlier, but that was impressive if you would have seen how unprepared we were that morning! We drove to St. George and spent the night there.






I just had to take a picture of Lexi dancing in one of the bathroom stops!





I couldn't help but do this before and after collage. Isn't that scary? It's sort of jaw-dropping. I am so grateful my face did not stay that way.





We were so lucky, the drive was beautiful and the weather was perfect. The girls kept wishing for snow, and we did see a little bit, but not much.






we pulled into the Salt Lake Valley just before 3 o'clock. When we had found out that Jaden was scheduled to speak in church that day, we decided to do everything we could to be ready to pull up to the ward building just in time to watch him speak. We got there about 10 minutes before sacrament started, perfect timing! That was pretty special for us to be able to be there since it is so seldom we would get that chance.





I'm sure it's not the most appropriate thing to be taking pictures in church, but I was pretty sly about it and couldn't help but capture just a couple!





Jeannine and Neal came out as well!











Afterward, Maren invited us out to have dinner at her house. We were able to play games and have the kids play and eat a really yummy dinner. It was a fun way to kick off our Thanksgiving week!












That night, we arrived at Gam and Pa's house around 10:30 PM. It feels like coming to an extension of our home when we get there. It's so fun that we have our own space in the basement to spread out and make a mess and just feel comfortable. The next morning, we woke to a special day! It was Lexi's 11th birthday!











I have to say, I was pretty blown away at this beautiful message that Jordyn wrote to Lexi and posted on Instagram. It's not often you hear your children express themselves this deeply, and it brought tears to my eyes because it was so heartfelt. They are so lucky to have each other.





I'm sure lucky to be able to be Lexi's mom. It is a joy and I absolutely love watching her blossom and grow and continue to become more of who she is meant to be.





That evening, I had invited everyone over, with Jeannine's permission of course, to come over and have pizza with us and celebrate with the dessert Lexi had been requesting for months: my slushy punch and chocolate chip muffins. (this candle is too funny, we could not find any birthday candles in the kitchen, so I grabbed a huge candle from the China cabinet and shoved it in the muffin.)

































































Carly was able to stop by for a little while in between work and big huge papers she's writing for school.











The Hintze fam got Lexi this really cute dance shirt!





And Gam and the Gertson's got her this footbath with lotions and scrubs. She was so excited!


















Awe, Annie's sixth [furry] baby, Maggie.











It was quite a fun day!

Tour de Fresno Bike Race

September 15th: The "Tour De Fresno" is a local bike race. Tucker signed up to do the 75 mile ride, for the first time. He likes to have a big goal to work toward because it motivates him to stay on track, so he had been training for it, but the most he had ridden, up until that day, was 60 miles. 

It just so happened that the race went through Kingsburg and had a rest stop there. So the girls and I were able to go meet Tucker there and cheer him on and give him some encouragement for the last leg of the race! It was pretty darn hot that day, and even though the race started early, by the time he came through Kingsburg it was starting to get a little extra warm! 

Tucker said one of the really fun parts of the biking community is the people you meet and get to encourage each other along the way by drafting off one another and just pushing each other to go harder.

We are proud of you, Tucker!

Couches!

Before and after!!! 

We have had our couches for 12 years. We bought them when we moved to Kingsburg. They were $500 each, and made of microfiber. We were very intentional when we picked those out. We knew we would have babies and lots of little ones all over them, and we wanted them to be very easy to clean and very durable. For the most part, the couches served their purpose and each of those ways and really worked well. It's strange to think how many things those coaches have been with us through. I laid on those while pregnant and sick, every baby learned to walk by holding onto them, they have had lots of animals on them....etc. but lately they have become a total eyesore for me. They just are one of those visual things that clutter my brain. 

So I landed at the airport after my Oprah weekend, and realized it was totally within my control to fix this particular mental block! It's really easy to put buying new couches low on the priority list because, let's face it, they still work even when they are gross! But I figured that I need all the positive energy that I can get, and if this would help my home flow better, it would be worth it. So I texted Tucker and asked him to bring the girls up to Fresno and meet me at the furniture store. Luckily he is used to my crazy ideas. We browsed around and picked out the perfect set for us! They had 12 months same as cash and no tax financing. It was like a dream come true! And we all truly love them.

The other good part to the story...we decided to put the couches out in front of our house early Saturday morning when people are out garage sale hunting. I was embarrassed to do that, but I knew it would get the most exposure. Well, eventually our neighbors were out there looking at our couches and I got embarrassed because I swore they were going to come up and tell us to please move them because they looked ugly out there! Instead, they told us about the single mom they know who needed couches desperately. They were so thrilled to be able to give them to her, and it made us feel so good to pass them on to someone who could use them.

Lexi's 11th Birthday - Friend Outing

Lexi's birthday is always during Thanksgiving week. Because of that, sometimes it is hard to fit in a friend party since everyone is gone for the holidays. It's been a few years since she has done something with friends, so this year I had her pick four friends from her class at school and invite them to do something. She has a pretty close group of girls and there are 20 girls in her class, so we really didn't want to leave anyone out, but I wasn't up for a party for that many! Lexi picked Phoebe, Lauren, Mady, and McKenna. She wanted to go get pedicures and then go to dinner. I think she had a lot of fun doing that in second grade when I did that for her birthday, so she wanted to re-create it. After pedicures, I took the girls to Walgreens to pick out a nail polish (which was actually pretty crazy and they were doing cartwheels and covers and wanting every color in the store!), and then we ate at Lexi's requested favorite place, Panda Express. It was a really fun night and the girls were really cute together!

Wood, Signs Galore

The following pictures document a random mix of all things wood and signs. It takes so much time and effort to balance signs into life, but at the same time it's a creative outlet and brings in extra money, and is fun. It just makes life a little crazier most the time. I love all of my wood tools and I wish I could have a huge room and a huge woodshop and just stay there all day long. I also wish I could close the door on the mess and not have it in my dining area!