One Day at a Time

I am not sure how this post will go.  I normally don't share these types of things on my blog.  Dave has been away almost 7 months now.  Some of the months have flown by and some of the months have dragged painfully slow.  Most of the days, we are left just like Haylee here, barely able to keep our eyes open before we gather for prayer each evening.  These last few months have had some ups and downs.  We are very thankful that the Lord has watched over us.  Shortly after Dave got to the Middle East, we learned that in December, he would be out a job.  The baby is coming and we were stressed.  I was having a hard time with following the Lords plan when it was a difficult choice for me to begin with only to have things turn out so uncertain.  I was thankful for the talk by Elder Hales in the October 2011 Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints where he says...

"Even with the shining examples of Job, the prophets, and the Savior, we will still find it challenging to wait upon the Lord, especially when we cannot fully understand His plan and purposes for us. That understanding is most often given “line upon line, [and] precept upon precept.”³²

In my life I have learned that sometimes I do not receive an answer to a prayer because the Lord knows I am not ready. When He does answer, it is often “here a little and there a little”³³ because that is all that I can bear or all I am willing to do."

 

I imagine I would have never taken the step of faith to undergo this uncertain times in our life if I knew how things would go.  But I took solace in the idea that our Heavenly Father gives us a little at time so we are willing to follow His plan.  We have been blessed that Dave has been able to stay on where he is working.  He is currently the only known priesthood holder in his area, which is a great blessing to one of the other female members of the church there.  We were even more blessed to learn that he would be able to stay with his same company which has allowed us to transition to his new job without changes in insurance or vacation time.  There have been some setbacks as to when he is able to come home for vacation.  It is looking doubtful that he will make it home before the baby is to be born.  The pregnancy has been exhausting and the time spent caring for the children has been even more exhausting.  But we are so excited for the changes that our family will make.  Right now, I am just trying to take it one day at a time and listen for the Lord to give me a little more "here a little and there a little".  Until then, I will keep passing out on the ground just as Haylee has in this picture.

 



Football Game

Here are a few pictues from Trent's first football game.  He is in the middle in the white.

 In the middle with Nike written on his butt.

 And here he appears to be running the wrong way but I don't recall him running the wrong way!

He usually plays defense.  It is kind of a shame because he is a quick runner that really I think he would make a great running back.  But at 8, who really knows?  I can't wait to see how he progresses through the season!

Halloween

What kind of characters filled our home on Halloween?  Yes two beautiful garden gnomes!

 She wanted to be an evil princess... as you can see she is too pretty for that!

 And it looks to be a crazy ninja!

Another fun year of Trick or Treating!

Tether Ball

Some kids get it.

 And some kids don't.  Ha Ha

But we all have to learn the hard way sometimes right?  See Laycee's sad face and Logans huge smile?  Who doesn't love siblings right?!  And yes, this is correct, its the end of Oct in this picture and much to my dismay, the children are still in tees and shorts.

Hats, hats, hats

Our stake recently started a humanitarian project.  We are making items needed by the Newborn In Need program.  It is a 6 month long project and the first month my sister and I worked on making neck supports for NICU infants.  However, I decided this past month that if I was going to spend 6 months working on a project, I should try to branch out of my basic sewing skills and learn something new.  So last month, I sat down at the hat loom table and asked someone to teach me.  Little did I know, it is super easy!!  The first one took me probably 5-6 hours.  But since then, I can finish one in about 2 hours now.

This is the first hat I completed.  I have even shown Haylee how to do it and we occassionally work on hats together.  It has been so fun learning and practicing this new skill this month, that I am considering trying to learn something new next month!  Haylee and I have made about 7 hats this month and I am really excited.  I have loved this humanitarian project because there is something that everyone of all skills is able to complete.  And it is fun to spend some of my free time serving through making these needed items at home.  I have really loved this opportunity!

Future Football Star?

Well maybe not, but Trent has recently started flag football.  I was looking for a way to help him earn some of the belt loops for scouts, and this flag football experience just kind of showed up. 

He has been really enjoying the opportunity to learn how to play football.  There are several kids who have played before which always makes for a difficult situation, but he seems to really like it.  Trent is not much for team sports, so to find one that even remotely interests him is a task.  Its been a lot of fun though!  Maybe we have found a sport he may enjoy in junior high and high school.

Gingerbread House

Another one of our Halloween traditions is making these gingerbread houses from Wilson.  This year, I had purchased a few houses for us to make at the cabin, but we ran out of time.  So, we decorated ours at home.  On the fun side, Ethan and Rileigh (my nephew and niece) were able to participate in the fun.  Haylee and Trent were in charge of the icing.

 Laycee, Logan, and Ethan were in charge of the decorating.

Rileigh was in charge of eating the extra candy.  Normally, I try to do two houses.  The boys like to decorate one and the girls like to decorate one.  But this year, I felt like that would be a bit too hectic for me.  So, we jointly worked on the one.  I was impressed how well they all worked together on this one house.  They had a plan and a bit of how they wanted the house to look.  It was great fun.  I already picked up one 75% off after Halloween for next year!  I can't wait!!

Pumpkins

As you can see, I am trying to quickly finish up the pictures and blogging I have from the month of October before November ends.  Life should be getting pretty crazy around here in the next few weeks, so I need to get all caught up!  Then I maybe will get around to blogging November and December eventually.  So, each year, we try to color faces on our pumpkins.  I like to use the seeds and the pumkpin later.  I kind of think carving pumpkins is a serious waste of money.  However, the days flew too quickly, and my plan did not work out this year.  Suprisingly, the pumpkins held up in the Arizona heat, but I didn't realize how long had passed and they did begin going bad before I could use them this year.  Here are the pictures of them decorating the pumpkins!

Some how I ended up with pictures of the decorating process, but never a picture of the final product... Oh well, maybe next year!

Schnepf Farms

What would be Halloween time without a visit to Schneph Farms for their events.  Thankfully, this year SRP offered a buy one get one free coupon for Thursdays.  So, we headed over there on a Thursday which happened to be parent teacher conferences, so it was a half day. 

 We started off with  a little face painting.

 Headed to some mini golfing.

 We went on a hay ride.

 And stopped to pet the deer on the ride.

 We painted some pumpkins.

 And successfully navigated a corn maze.

 Rode some rides

 And loved on each other.

 Rode a few more rides.

 Watched a bike show.

 Got an amazing workout trying to peddle this car.

 Explored the petting zoo.

 Participated in Pig Races, which Laycee won!

 Rode the carosel.

 And the ponies.

When we returned home several hours later, we all fell asleep swiftly!  What a great day!

Baby Project

With the baby bedding came a few of these vinyl stickers.  I chose to try and and be artistic.  Art is really not my thing, and neither is vision, but I was excited about this project.  I purchased the canvas and put the stickers on.

Drew the lines

 Painted

And ended with 4 cute pictures to hang up!  I apparently am not that great at making the lines straight, but I am hoping when they are on the wall, you wont notice.  I was really pleased with the end result.  Just a few more weeks left, and I am excited to meet the new addition to our family!