The words "Thank you" never feel adequate enough

Meet my funny boy :) Mr. Austin ... wearing a fake mustache!

Austin has been sick for about 2 months, on and off. We are trying really hard to get him better.

 Today we asked friends and family to dedicate a little time to him by fasting and or saying an extra prayer just for him.

 

The request for this was answered by so many friends and family it was overwhelming! The desire to serve my son has lifted not only his spirits but mine as well. I grew up in a small town, where everyone knows everyone.  Everyone knows your business...the good and the bad.  When you live in a big city you lose that sense of "small town community/family." Thankfully because of modern technology I was able to connect with all of the family and friends I have all over the world in just a few short minutes.  That sense of family and close knit community is instantly renewed. I am in awe at how quickly people responded with quick messages of love and hope. My faith has been strengthened by the feelings of peace and comfort that has come from a direct result of so many people petitioning our Heavenly Father to help us find some answers.

This blog update is to say thank you!!! Thank you for sharing your time with us, your love with us, and your friendship with us. There are too many people to thank personally...but just know that every message sent, every fb "like" and every comment is appreciated. On most days they are needed more than anything...just knowing people care, are concerned, and are sending hope our way makes a huge difference. 

Every day with Austin is different, we have good days and bad days. Last Tuesday he went to school for 4 hours :) and today he made it to 20 minutes of sacrament meeting. He tries so hard to be brave, but there are days we all just want to curl up in a ball and cry...and that is OK too.

We know our Heavenly Father is with us, and mindful of our struggles. We can do this...we can do this...has become our new family motto. 

Thanks again :)

A little sledding to entertain the kids

With all this cold weather and snow we decided it was a good day to go sledding. We went with some friends and spent 2 hours going down the hill and walking back up. It was fun, but exhausting!

Who would have guessed...

A clean dryer can make a girl so happy!

 I mentioned the other day to one of my friends how it was taking 2 and 1/2 cycles for my big loads of laundry to dry. It was frustrating and I felt like I was wasting a lot of power. That is when she said "um...I know what your problem could be. I bet there is a ton of lint in your dryer that just needs to be cleaned out." And then the magical words came out of her mouth "I know how to clean it and will come over if you want me to and show you how"!!!! I jumped at the chance.

First we moved the dryer away from the wall, and these are the treasures we found.

She took the top off and then the back.

There was so much lint hidden in random spots it was amazing...OK maybe it was only amazing to me :)

She unhooked the vent hose and found all this fabulous stuff. Included was a few bobby pins, a lot of wheat (long story behind that one) elastics, and a paper clip.

She shortened up the the vent hose and cleaned it out. In the spring she is going to come over and help me replace the whole vent tubing...now that should be fun :)

Thank you Mindy for helping me(she actually did all the work, I took pictures and observed. I might have handed her a screw driver once or twice). I learned a lot and am now enjoying the shorter time it takes to dry my clothes, it only takes 1 and 1/2 cycles. I am a happy girl again, haha.

So here is the question of the day...what little things make you happy or brighten your day?

We will just call it another adventure

Christmas has come and gone. We had a great time with family and friends. Lots of parties, dance recitals, presents, and food. 

Our little adventure decided to start a few days after Christmas. We were driving to the store when a dog ran into our van. Let me repeat that...A DOG RAN INTO OUR VAN. We didn't hit it, it hit us, bounced off, and ran away. It was a big dog that was black. We looked for it, but never found it. But this is the damage it did to our van :(

Then on New Years Eve another adventure. I smelled something funny, it almost smelled like wet dog. I was walking around the house trying to figure out where the smell was coming from when I went down stairs and there was water, everywhere. It was up to the steps! I screamed for Shawn (who just happened to have taken the day off from work about an hour before all this happened)

He hurried and turned off the water valve. Water was spraying out of the TOP of the water heater. There was water in the hall, in the bathroom, in the food storage room, in the girls room, in Austins room and under the stairs. So we spent all day cleaning up the mess and replacing the old water heater (which was only 11 years old...come on, they should last 30, right?) A good friend of ours is a plumber and came right over and helped us replace it. Here is the new beauty...

I do love it. I do appreciate my hot water. I know these little "adventures" could have been so much worse. We could have actually ran over the dog and killed it. We could have been out of town and had water running for days and days. Shawn could have been at work and I would have had no idea how to make the water stop, I now know where the water shut off is...lesson learned.

 I am trying to look at the bright side as my checking account looks a little sad. 

I was joking about how one of my goals for 2012 was to "clean out under the stairs" good thing I did that before the year ended, I only had about 3 hours to spare :)

Keeping a journal

Shawn and I both try to keep a journal. Notice I didn't say "daily journal". I just update mine when something important happens. Shawn on the other hand has a harder time remembering to write down those special moments and this is what happens...

His last journal entry...

and the next one he wrote...

You should read it...he is one funny man!

3rd grade wax museum

Every year the 3rd graders do a wax museum. The kids have to pick a person they admire, read a biography about them, write a report, and put together a poster with quotes from that person and pictures of them. Then they dress up as their person and memorize 3 interesting facts about them. They make the kids stand in the gym with little "push" stickers beside them. Parents, friends, and school kids walk through the gym and when they touch the "push" button the student has to recite one of the interesting facts. They have to pick 3 different positions to stand in, they are supposed to be absolutly still. Then every 10 minutes they are allowed to change positions. They have to be totally quiet unless someone pushes their button. They all did an amazing job. 

Austin's person was Mark Twain. Over the summer we read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and he loved it. He dressed up in his suit, and borrowed a bow tie from a friend. He chose to bring in a desk to sit in and pretended to be writing a book. He did a great job.

 He was trying super hard not to smile...because wax people do not smile...duh.

Oh he broke out of character, haha

Austin's birthday!!!!

My little boy is 9! Oh where has the time gone? He is such a boy at that. He didn't have too many requests for his big day...he wanted a "Green Lantern" birthday cake, a shrimp ring all for himself, shrimp Alfredo for dinner and an airsoft gun. He is pretty easy to please.

 The cake...it left everyones mouth green...he loved that.

 Hanging out with mom

 Being silly with his sister

 He loves the rope swing in our front yard

 Austin, Dad, and the boy cousins all playing airsoft wars

I sure love this kid, he is turning into a great young man. He loves Scouts, he loves being outside, he loves playing computer games, he loves to do anything with his dad, he loves to give me hugs...and he HATES to read. Guess that's something he will learn to love :) Happy birthday my man!