Man ... what a rough couple of weeks I've had. I have had physical trials, major emotional trials, and not enough time to actually take care of myself. I have had breakdowns worrying about certain things with my kids, my callings, my family, and my friends.

I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who is aware of the times in our life that are dark and challenging. Everytime I have had these moments (large or small) he has placed people in my path that lift me up. He makes sure that I am taken care of through multiple people. In these last two weeks of struggling my Heavenly Father placed 3 different angel friends to buoy me up.

I feel better now, I am my happy self again, and I will be blogging again .... although I don't know how I am ever going to catch up with everything that I need to report!!

Mean Old Woman

Dear God,

Please don't let me become a mean old woman who yells at a stranger's children (they weren't even doing anything bad) and goes to a specialty store for mobility and then complains constantly about the prices of the motorized recliners they offer (the prices were actually no different than a company like lazy boy). I know I have spent too many days in the sun to avoid wrinkles, but please let me always remember to smile and uplift the people I come in contact with rather than wear a permafrown.

Amen

terrible blogging

---------------another warning to the men ... there is "female" talk in here-------------------

I think about my lack of blogging and I am filled with guilt. The guilt isn't for the sake of my limited faithful readers, though that is true as well, it is because this really is the way I document my families development. This is where I turn to to remember the details about my kids, Justin, and even me that are so easy to forget.

Right now I couldn't even tell you how long we have been back from vacation. Is it 2 weeks? 3 weeks?? It is a while and I still haven't unpacked the luggage that we took. Lame!

When I first got back I was hit by a truck-load of immediate tasks (medical appointments, school registering etc.) I was completely and totally overwhelmed and even had a "cry on the floor in the fetal position" meltdown. I had WAY too much on my plate, but couldn't get rid of any of it. I felt that I was doing a mediocre job at everything and I hate that. On top of everything Landon was teething and was constantly screaming and there was nothing I could do about it.

Then came my half marathon. I will write details about this when I am able to hobble my broken body down to the basement to load pictures. Lets just say I did well, but I really hurt my foot! I hobbled around for 2.5 days and today it is starting to return back to normal. Give it another day or two and I think I will have completely healed.

You can probably imagine that with all of this going on I wasn't getting much sleep. What happens when I get no sleep??? My body tries to get sick. I was doing really well at battling this until I got my period today. My body gave up!! I really am not that sick, but my head is cloudy and throbbing, which makes it even harder to push through my severe menstrual cramping.

Thank goodness my dear friend came over today with her kids!! I got some adult talking, baby cuddling (don't worry I didn't touch the babies face or hands while I cuddled), and my kids were entertained for at least a little bit of the day.

I got my kids in bed, took a really hot bath, and am now curled up in bed with my heating pad, some Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and a movie.

Goodnight!

Going Mad!!

The only thing that has been getting me through the last 4 days are:

these

and an update from my friend that reminds me that it could always be worse!

All I have to say is that this weather has GOT TO STOP (I think we all have cabin fever) and Landon has been teething again and we have had 4 days of almost constant screaming!

Guess who's been married for 7 years!!

Day 3

I planned on putting all the Disney pictures into one post, but then I just couldn't narrow them down and I picked too many pictures for just day one. So the result, you are bombarded with my Mama pride!!

There were so many moments and I smile just thinking about our experience. Disney knows how to turn something that is so hard (SMA) into something so special!

We prepped Evan for our Disney trip and I think he was excited. This is him on the tram over to Magic Kingdom

This is the first time Evan saw Mickey Mouse. He kept screaming "Mickey, Mickey, it's Mickey Mouse!!!!!" His face says it all.

these pictures NEVER get old!!

check out the SIZE of this SNOT BUBBLE!!!

Buzz Lightyear was the first ride we went on at Disney. Evan was awestruck, Landon was nervous the first 3 times, but loved it the last 2 times we rode it. (yes 5 times) The first 3 times we rode it our family was all in one car, but the last two Evan got to ride in their wheel chair car, the pictures speak a thousand words. Evan thought he had died and gone to Heaven!

The heat and the humidity totally knocked out Landon! I think it was a shock to his little Canadian body :-)

The only Florida rain happened while we were in "It's a small world" (poor Irene who got caught in it with all of our stuff!) By the time we were out it was just raining (there is a difference between the two types of rain). We hustled our wet little buns over to the haunted mansion and by the time we were out it was sunny! Evan loved the ghosts and was VERY confused at the end. He kept looking at the ghost in the mirror who was riding with us and then looking next to him. Evan could not figure out how he could see it in the mirror and not sitting next to him.

too funny

sleeping again!

sweet baby Isaac

my little prince

I think it is funny that of our whole group only the Palmers and Millie got the memo to pose for the picture!!

Evan loved finding Captain Jack Sparrow on Pirates

look at Evan's face

During the night parade Mickey pointed right to Evan and waved. THis time Evan was screaming "Hi Mickey, Hi Hi, Hi Mickey!!!"

How can you not love this boy????

11:00 at night and this boy is still ready to party!!!

Vacay Day 2

Day 2:
-Church and lots of friends!
-Drive down to Orlando with the Da Costa's

LOVE this picture of floating head Walmir

It was so fun to watch Landon and Christian play together. Christian didn't so much appreciate Landon's obsession with pulling his beautiful curls!

couldn't choose!

SCARY EYES!!

Once we were down in Orlando we stayed the first night with Sandra and Andy. They introduced us to a GREAT game one the Wii! Soooo much fun!!!

My AWESOME Vacation!!

How do I even begin to do my vacation any justice. It was one of those vacations that I wasn't ready to leave. I was gone almost 3 weeks and I could have easily stayed 3 more!!! I figure that I will update 1-2 days at a time over the next week or so. Enjoy!

We essentially took a red eye flight down to Florida and I have to say that our boys handled the trip like true champions! They were happy, fell asleep easily, and weren't even too disturbed by the continually interrupted sleep when we got off the plane in Orlando at 2AM, rented and loaded a van, then drove to Gainesville. We rolled into Gainesville at about 4:30AM.

It was 2:00AM and the pilot stayed back an extra 5 minutes to let Evan sit and play in the cock pit. It was so cute and Evan was so excited to have the pilot show him everything. The pilot even gave Evan his own set of pilot wings!!

The Da Costa's got up with our baby who doesn't like sleeping and let the rest of us sleep in a little bit. When we woke up we got ready and went to one of my FAVORITE places in the world ... the Itchetucknee river! It is a spring fed river that you can tube down. I wish our water proof camera had been working because it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life (one of the reasons I love it so much) and I want to share that beauty with my Canadian friends.


It was glorious to be able to spend that time with our friends like we used to talking, splashing, watching Justin and Walmir make fools of themselves and roping Joe and John into their nonsense :-) It was fun to watch little Joseph enjoying the river like only little boys can, and to see all the big boys jump into the rafts when a water moccasin was spotted (cool to watch from a safe distance). It was the best start to our wonderful trip!

Being the kind of family that thrives on tradition we HAD to hit our favorite Itchetucknee burger joint "Bev's Better Burgers". I couldn't wait to get my hands on some of those corn nuggets!
The lack of sleep caught up to my boys on the drive home!

We were back at the Da Costa's only about an hour before it was time for the BBQ that we set up. We knew our time in Gainesville was going to be limited and we wanted to make sure we saw as many people as we could. Our dear sweet friends helped to organize a BBQ/pool party that night. It was so sweet to be reunited with so many people that I love!


This has got to be one of my all time favorite pictures!!
Joe, Justin, and Walmir
I love this woman more than words can express! When I saw Sharyl I burst into tears!
It was so fun to introduce her to Landon.
When I lived in Gainesville I worked with the Young Women of our church. Many of them came to the party and it was so crazy to see how much they have grown into beautiful women.

Chandlar was Evan's primary babysitter
Some of my girls!
Bit, Me, Chelsea (another fabulous babysitter), and Irene
Maren and Chelsea
When Justin went to BYU he lived in the dorms his first year and was lucky enough to make some fabulous friends. They all went on their missions and lived together when they came back. Everyone graduated and Gainesville seems to be another gathering place for these men that we love. When we were living in Gainesville Justin, Joe, and John all lived there as well. Since we have moved Dave has moved there as well. We are so grateful that we were able to see him and his family despite him and his wife's insane schedule!!! (They are both in a medical residency and have a baby!!)
The Young Women presidency that I worked with the whole time I lived here.We were playing around with crazy settings on my camera.
It was so great to spend a whole day in my swim suit!! Man I miss that!!!!