Our Christmas looks a little different this year, so I’m opting for a virtual Christmas message. My good friend, @secristphotoco took these darling photos for us and I’m so very grateful. This year has been full of highs and lows… a bit of emotional whiplash from the army, days spent in the hospital getting Bev …
I feel incredibly blessed this week. This Tuesday, we were invited to a Christmas party for burn victims. It was at Walmart. We were fed chick-fil-a, had pictures with Santa, and Bev was given 150 to go shopping. The boys were also given one fifty dollar gift card to split. Bev was feeling generous and …
I’ve gotten most of the outside lights up, but not all. I’ve lined the porch, the front window and put up the blow-ups. It’s good enough for this year. The inside isn’t as festive as normal, but I need less clutter in my life, so it’s perfect. We have one tree up instead of two, …
Saturday was a long day! We only had six hours of drive time (compared to the 16 the rest of the lot had), but with Orlando traffic and pee breaks, it ended up being closer to 8 hours. The Butterfields and my parent in laws didn’t roll in till about 10 PM, so once I …
Andy fixed my tech issue. Here are pics from last week. These are the photos from my dear friend, Steph Secrist. Hers are of course much better and more professional looking. She’s so good at capturing my kids and their personalities. She did this session for free for us, since Andy is deployed. It was …
Missed a week! Two Sundays ago, Crista told me she felt inspired to tell me to read Grandpa Cook’s history, specifically the ancestor section. In Brandon Sanderson’s new book, Wind and Truth (not sure I’m a fan of everything in there, but it has some redeeming qualities), there are “Spren” which are spiritual ties to …
My migraine-free-streak had to start over today. I said a quick prayer of gratitude because it has been a long week. Some migraines were worse than others, but today was the first day I woke up without one since Saturday of last week. I’m hoping it was just because I was sick and not because …
I should write my blog before church. Between being “on” and energetic for the Primary kids and then a baptism following the two hours of church and trying to keep my feral children somewhat behaved, I get home pretty wiped and anything I thought about sharing on the blog is long gone. I did write …
As you know, the past three months have been a bit of a struggle for me and my family even though we have amazing friends, family, and heavenly support. Can you imagine what troops over there are feeling that don’t have the same? Max has taken on a service project for his BETA club. We …
When we got the news that Andy was going to be deployed, I was devastated. It was instantly a heavy weight that fell on my shoulders. I’d probably already through several stages of the grief process before he even left. Of course, it didn’t help that the dates and location and logistics of it all …