Busy Boy

At some point this morning while we were all getting ready baby Ray was downstairs stacking movies sky high. The girls told me about it and I called down to him to tell him to clean it up. He told me it was too high. Aspen said it was as tall as me. I didn't believe them until Raym went down and said babe you gotta see this. There it was. How he did it we aren't sure. He had to use a stool to get the top oness off to put away. It only took him two hours to eventually clean it up. Gotta love it!

Claim to Fame!

So Ray rented a movie last night from Red Box. We were watching the previews, which included Mall Cop. It was an extended preview. As I am watching I am thinking I know that mall. That is my mall. My Boston mall that is. My FAVORITE mall ever!!! The part where they show Legal Seafood's, and there is an escalator. Yeah I have been on that escalator a million times :) Loved it. Now I am DIEING to see the movie just cuz I want to see that mall. It changed my life :) It is beautiful. It had such great stores. It has Coach, which I knew nothing of until then. I love Coach. They have great bags :) It has an Ecco show store, which is the only shoe Aspen can't destroy. It has the Rain Forest Cafe. So fun, even if you don't eat. I could truly could go on about this mall. Oh and it did have a Crate and Barrel until they built their own store just outside the mall. So fun!! I know that some of you who read this blog have been there as well. And some still live close enough to go. So there it is my claim to fame, but not really, I just love the mall :)

My Elliptical

I have very loose ligaments. I believe it is called ligamous laxity. Look it up. It helps explain why I pulled my shoulder out of socket so easily recently. In fact they are so loose right now with me being pregnant that yesterday at physical therapy for my shoulder it was slipping out during a stretching exercise. You can call me Gumby if you want too. All my joints are "slippery". My hips are the worst. They snag and snap all the day long. But it causes me pain, especially if I go on a long walk. I need to exercise. I love to excercise. We looked into a gym membership for me, but with Ray leaving in April we would need babysitting as well. It was going to be a lot of month for those four months he was gone. So we bought an elliptical instead. The elliptical doesn't hurt my hips or my knees. I am especially excited because we got real one. By real I mean we got one like something you would use in a gym. I found it on KSL. The manufacturer is selling it for a really great price. I love it. It feels durable and strong. It feels real. Do you know what I mean? I also feel relieved to know I will have a way to exercise everyday that Raym is gone. And it will be good pain free exercise :) Thank goodness for tax returns :)

Another Snow day

It snowed again yesterday. Not much stuck around, but it snowed pretty much all day. Alora and baby Ray decided to paint the day away, and Aspen of course spent quite some time outside.

Snow Day Saturday

My neighbor Emily is just so wonderful. Last Saturday it snowed A LOT. I was shoveling my driveway and along came this lovely girl. She told me to hold on a second and she would be back to shovel for me. She shoveled this neighbors driveway (first picture below) and a several others along with mine, and also shoveled some sidewalks. She is just great! Then she took the kids on sled rides pulling them with her four wheeler. It was definitely a hit with the kids :) Even Alexa got a ride.

Alexa Nicole

My baby will very shortly no longer by my 'baby'. She is growing fast. And I just love her!!!

We were visiting with the fam when she commandeered this car seat. Yes she forcibly removed, or at least attempted too, her 11 month old cousin so that she could lie in it and reminisce of the good ol' days of riding in an infant car seat. She covered herself with the blanket and requested the sippy cup and then rocked herself and hummed a little tune (really she hummed to herself). It was awesome!

Alexa one day got out of the crib. I was curious how she did it so I put her back in and watched as she climbed out onto this dresser, and then was starting to turn around to let herself fall off. I stopped her, first for her own safety and second so I could take this picture. She reminded me of how Aspen used to do the very same thing. We have since moved the dresser and for now she has resolved to stay in the crib.

If you are wondering about the lack of decorations in her room. Well, her and baby Ray are sharing a room again, and I don't really decorate his room. If you know him, you know it is just better that way for the decorations sake :)

Houses

I love houses!!! I love big houses :) I could live in a castle. My favorites really are Chatsworth and a house in Lyme Park, both are in England, both were used as a representation of Pemperly in the Pride and Prejudice movies. I saw this one below on a realtor site. Isn't it amazing. I love the pillars and the lawn. The other pictures are of homes next to or near the Draper temple. The homes up there are beautiful, and actually most of them for sale :) I will have to wait till they are on clearance (a wink to you my dear friend Beckie) before I can buy one. The last one I have pictured I just loved! My kids did too. I went up to it to look in the windows. It was very nice I must say. Very fancy. It had video surveillance. I waved :)

Draper Temple Open House

January 15th was Aspen's 8th birthday. We made reservations specifically for that day to go the Draper Temple Open house. It was beautiful of course. The kids loved it. I loved it. It was such a beautiful thing to be able to walk through there with all of my children.

This is Alora with her cousins, Hannah and Chloe

Ray's Mom came with us. She brought Stephanie's three older girls, Sunny, Hannah and Chloe.

There were refreshments in the stake center next to the temple. It was so beautifully decorated. I took pictures of the whole gym because I thought it was so amazing. My kids loved the desserts...brownies and cookies.

A question from Aspen

First. I do have pictures....On my camera :) I do plan on downloading them...one day :) For now I will share with you a question and a statement (each done at different times) Aspen said to me. Tonight while they were eating dinner (my feeding schedule is a bit off from theirs right now) she asked me how to find joy in work? That'll freeze a mom right up. I mean I talk to my kids about finding joy in work, that not everything in life is about fun. I am not sure that I would have ever thought one of them of was internalizing it. She told me she could find joy in farm work, but not helping around the house. We talked about that finding joy in work didn't necessarily mean that you liked what you did, but that you found joy in doing the right thing. The conversation went on a bit, but I was impressed with her ability to talk with me and understand what I was saying. On another occasion which I don't recall exactly when she came to me with a puzzled look. I do know we had been to the temple open house in Draper. She said "Mommy, sometimes I feel like there is more to the temple than just going, that there is more than I can understand here on earth." What do you say that? This kid I tell ya. We talked of course, to the best of my abilities. Talking about this just reminds of times when she has floored me when she was so young. When she was three she brought in a picture of the Savior sat it on the desk and looked very seriously into my eyes and said "He is coming back, you know that..right?" she paused for a moment and then left. When she was about 19 months old we were living in PA and we drove down to Dulas airport (Washington DC) to pick up my brother-in-law. I had one of the young women in our ward with us and she had never seen the DC temple. We had pictures up of the temple in our home, but I hadn't said anything to Aspen yet about them, in my naivety I hadn't thought she wasn't old enough to understand. When we pulled in she pointed to it and said with such excitement "Jesus house, Jesus house". It was a very humbling moment for me. Moments with her often are. I learn so much from her. From all of my kids. I fear they teach me more about the gospel, and what it really means than I teach them. I have often thought that becoming a parent isn't so much about what you have to offer a child, but that it is an opportunity for us to learn from what these children have to offer us.

Lots happening!

So let's see where to begin. I am feeling better and better everyday. I am only sick when I get too hungry or eat the wrong thing. Which that kind of thing sticks around for most the pregnancy. We have a part time job. If you will recall Ray was working for Home Depot for a bit, but he stopped that in December because we thought we were opening the jiu-jitsu academy in January. Did I ever tell you about the academy? A friend had offered to help open it, but he just didn't have the funds ready when it came time. Raym got a blessing from the Bishop and he was told to continue on the path he was on, but to keep an open mind that things might not happen the way we were planning. Okay so we knew we were going to the right direction trying to open the school. We were looking for some work until we could get it opened. We were praying about how to get money to open it. And the most exciting thing we had no money. There for a few weeks we literally had no money. It really isn't as scary as you think. Ray's parents came in town to help with Stephanie's new baby and family. They were generous enough to offer some money to carry us for a bit. We sold some more stuff...random stuff really that people bought off Ebay. But during that time I felt so peaceful. I have felt peaceful really this whole time. I have always known the Lord knew my family's needs exactly, and he has provided for those exactly. About three weeks ago I was lieing on the couch while Raym put the kids to bed and I had the clearest thought, if Ray went away in the military for a few months I would be ok, I could handle it. The thought did not linger, it came and went. The next day Ray was at the skate park our friend runs who was going to help open the school, and an Army recruiter came in to drop off stuff for the park. When Ray came home he tossed a shirt at me with the Army logo and off the cuff said "maybe I should join". I said okay, which stopped him dead in his tracks. I shared with him the thought I had the night before. We prayed about it. And the next day he went in and told them he wanted to join the reserves. That next week he swore in and went through all the processing stuff. He will leave on April 8th for basic training. It lasts 9 weeks. Right after that though he will have AIT (advance individual training). They will let him come home for the birth of the baby for two weeks and then he will go back and finish up. So in all I will be a single parent for 4 to 5 months. This whole thing would be hard if I hadn't already had a confirmation that at the time I hadn't realized was a confirmation. In the reserves they serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year, after his basic training and AIT. It will definitely be helpful for the business because he wanted to teach hand to hand combat, and work with the police departments, SWAT, and the military. And with the 'bonus' money we get from joining we can use some of it to open the business, it will help pay for Ray's school (he is getting his master's), and open up client possibilities. On Tuesday he was asked to work for Missionary Mall in Layton, originally they wanted him to manage the store but because he will be gone for so long they asked if he could work part time until he goes. So we are still poor :) But poor with direction. I like how my life is going. The Lord is rebuilding our lives one small step at time. I love that the Lord is never in as big a hurry as we are. I learn a lot from that. He knows that we are supported solely just about by the church. Our food, our basic bills and housing. And I know that he is ok with it, he is ok with us being exactly in the situation we have been in. If he wasn't our lives would have gone in a different direction. We have been so prayerful every step of the way. I am sure there are some along the way who have thought we "should" do this or we "shouldn't" do that. Thank goodness they aren't making the decisions. My life, if you know me very well at all :) has never gone the way anyone has ever thought it "should". The Lord's way are so much higher. I know that soon (that could be a whole year from now) we will back in business. We will be able to pay our own bills. We will be able to sustain ourselves. I also know that that is when the real test will begin. What will we do with our money? What will we do to show the Lord our gratitude for what he has done for us? How will we repay him? How we will make sure we always remember where real success comes from? I must say though, I love that by this years end the Lord will have done so much more with our life, so long as we constantly turn it over to him, than we ever could with out him.