Halloween

I LOVE LOVE LOVE holidays!!!  The natural closeness of a community and family that comes from the holidays are so uplifting for me.  Halloween is one of my very favorite holidays.  

Remember the "memorable" trip to the pumpkin patch?? 

This is what we did with the beauties that we brought home with us.

Tonight my friend, Kristen, and I hosted a trunk or treat at the church.  We kept it simple and had a REALLY good turn out.  I even ran out of candy!  It was fun and I am so glad that we did it!  

Now for the BIG reveal .........

we did a family themed costume this year!!!!

Justin and Evan both won awards for their costumes :-)

could not get a better picture of Landon!!!  He would stop running!!!!  (such is my life ;-)

my knight is shining armor!!!!

My co-conspirator!

yeah that's right .... we pimped out our van even better this year!  I need to do some more research on how to better attach things to the ceiling inside our van.  All the lights and streamers kept falling down :-(

Tender Mercies

I have wanted to write this particular blog for a while, but really needed to have some significant time to be able to write it as effectively as I possibly can.  I have that time tonight so here goes.

Life is hard.  That really is the point of it.  We are sent here to be tested and tried, but God knows us so well that he gives us the things we need ... good and bad.  It is so easy to see the trials because they are all encompassing at the time.  From extremes in infertility to physical disabilities, and rejections to being jobless.  Justin and I feel like we have been given a lot of trials.  There were times that I questioned whether God really knew how strong I was, because there were so many times I felt I would break.  The trials aren't what I want to talk about right now, but they factor into what I am feeling.

I am grateful!!!  Sure I am grateful for everything that I learned/ am learning from each experience but that isn't even what I mean.  I feel like there is nothing wrong in my life right now.  In fact I can't believe how well everything is going.  I feel like I am literally the luckiest girl in the world because I get to be me right here, right now.  Some would say, "I'm just bracing myself for the bad, because it's coming."  I know the bad is coming (it can't be avoided), but I am not spending my time bracing myself.  I have been spending my time LOVING this amazing wonderful ride I am currently on.  It is going to be these moments of tender mercies  that get me through whatever is coming next.  It is like Heavenly Father has said, "Kira and Justin, you have gone through a lot.  I know you are grateful for the miracles you have experienced throughout the years, but I also know that those years have been hard, really hard.  Here is a pillow to rest for a little while.  You deserve it.  Take a nap." 

I love my life and I want everyone to know it.

A Fish and the first pictures

So we had a cement slab poured so we can get our pool in next week.  The "cement guy" and I were talking about the lake.  I told him that our neighbor had pulled out some REALLY BIG trout.  Next thing I know I see "cement guy" fishing outside while his employees (he's the owner) are slaving away.  He didn't catch anything that day, but the next day I see him pull out a HUGE fish.  So Ashley and I run the boys out to the dock so they can see this sucker.  

I made the comment that he should keep fishing and catch me a fish too.  Next thing I know it is the end of the work day and he has given me the beautiful fish.  He did offer to gut it for me, but I figure he gave me our dinner, the least I could do in return was gut it myself.  

Now I do know how to gut a fish, but I have never gutted a fish this big.  I would have had an easier time if I had a sharper knife, or bigger hands.  I cut my thumb ... pretty badly.  The cut still hasn't come together (like I can see straight through it), but unlike my sisters accident I didn't go to the hospital and I will survive.  My thumb really does hurt though and because it is open it catches on everything!!!  

Landon fluctuated between super excited, curious, and scared.  He would touch it and run away and hide.    It was super yummy and we have a ton of left overs.

 I just wanted to share a picture of Evan using his new piece of equipment.  Living in this house Evan is able "walk" around.  I love seeing him use this.  I love that our home is now one that enables Evan to be the best he can be.

And now what you have all been waiting for ..........

I don't have a ton of finished rooms, but this is one of them.  I promise I won't wait to post pictures until everything is totally finished, but I want as much order as I could have when I share the pictures.  

With that said ... I LOVE this room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you see the lake?

the nook by our stairs

I love love love our view.  I took this picture tonight from our bonus room.

I didn't realize until after we moved in that we have mountain view!!!  I was so focused on the lake and the water that I didn't realize we had the mountains too.  

I really feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world right now.

I could lie, but .....

 I have always prided myself in the fact that my blog is full of the truth.  I will always tell the truth ... good bad or ugly.  That is why I COULD just post these beautiful pictures of our trip to the Calgary Corn Maze and pretend it was a great outing for our family.  But the truth is ........

...................these pictures are a better depiction of our family outing.  

We can pretty much call this family activity a BUST!  :-)  

at least I did actually get some cute fall pictures of my little men.

Evan's prayer

Dear Heavenly Father

Thank you for me!

Now if I can keep this attitude up through his teenage years I think I'll call my life successful!

Love Letter #2

Dear Landon, 

There is one phrase that everyone (including myself) is constantly saying about you lately ... "he is soooo cute!"  Your little BIG personality is infectious and I am always looking at you and admiring this age you are at.  I love how curious you are about EVERYTHING!  I love your zest for life.  You totally give me a run for my money and I didn't have to start dying my hair until after your arrival into our family, but I would trade my virgin hair any day for the times I have had with you.  I love that you are really turning into a little boy and as challenging as it can be, I want to keep you at this stage of life locked up in my heart forever!  

I love how much you love your brother!  He is your favorite person on the planet and I adore seeing you interact with him.  I love your awareness of others.  Your "bull in a china shop" personality might make it seem like you are careless, but in truth you are unnaturally aware of others needs for your age.  

You added a level of excitement to my life the day you arrived to our family.  

I love you!

Love Mommy

Love letter #1

Dear Evan,

What can I say??  I can't believe how grown you are.  You make me laugh every day.  You are constantly coming up with AWESOME one-liners and I can hardly keep up with them.  Sometimes I wish that I could have a personal videographer follow you around just so I could have your best footage on tape.  You are funny and sweet at the same time (the perfect combination).


I am so proud of your little body and your ability to push it to the limits that you have been given.  Whenever you say "No Mom, I can do it" I want to melt because that is music to my ears.  You have such inner strength that so many people could benefit from.  Even when you don't want to initially do something I ask you to do because it is hard you will eventually push through and do it anyways.  I love that you trust me.

I secretly wish that the pirate phase you are in right now won't end.  I love that you think you are a real pirate.  One time when I asked if you wanted to be a missionary when you grew up, you got very angry with me and insisted that you were going to be a pirate and nothing else.

I'm sorry that I passed on my fear of spiders to you.  I guess we are just going to have Landon kill all of them for us. ;-)

Evan you are such a gift to me.

I love you!

Love

found a cord

Ok, I at least found one cord to hook up to the computer!!!  Here are the lovely happenings at our brand new house.  

 no joke ... this hole was about 30 feet.

So we still don't have a driveway.  The rebar is in and we are waiting for the weather to improve.  Hopefully we will be able to stop parking in the street soon!

I was supposed to deliver a baby today.

It makes me sad.

I'm grateful that there were people in and out of my house all day long and for the friends that came over tonight.  I don't think they knew and the noise was welcome.

Has it really been this long?  It feels like yesterday for me.

I sooo badly want to show pictures of what we have been dealing with.  It involves poo water coming up out of the shower drain in the basement, a pipe that wasn't attached properly to the city sewer system, a 30ft. hole in our driveway, and the loss of cement in said driveway.

Hopefully they will get the cement poured this week.

I'm glad it is fixed and we can shower and go to the bathroom, but I'm sad that I can't find the cords to download pictures.

The house is very slowly coming together though, which is wonderful.

I think that Ikea might love our family right now :-)