Girl's Weekend in Sundance!

The first weekend in February we held a "girl's" weekend. My sister Lynn married into a family that was kind enough to allow us the use of their gorgeous cabin in Sundance Utah. I have more pictures than this but I didn't want to hold off posting - so more pics wll come. We invited everyone (girls) that branched from my mom and her 3 sisters. We had all of the cousins turn out and a few of the "married in" cousins as well. We played games, ate way too much junk food, sat by a constant fire, talked, told stories, dreams, jokes, memories, had hair demonstrations, went to bed way too late, cried, didn't change diapers, got a car unstuck from the snow, and watched the snow fall. My grandparents even came up for the afternoon . Grandma got her hair cute and toes painted - she is darling - very regal classy woman. We went to church with grandpa on Sunday - I think there were like 12 of us with him....it was great! Anyway, it was very relaxing, very renewing to draw strength from everyone - each in our own set of circumstances, each wanting the others to succeed. I know the Lord was very wise in allowing us families, they truly are a gift.

What am I not learning?

So, the last 18 months or so have been really rough. I think I may have mentioned that. We keep thinking that the end is near (end of the hardship), and just when we think there's a "glimmer" of change, something happens and we find ourselves in the same place. I am not complaining really, it's been a while since I've had a good cry so it's all good. Sometimes just ramble writing helps clear my mind. It would seem like if you have spent 5 years building a relationship with another business that they would really consider you for more work...but that has not been the case and now we are back at square one. We thought it was in the bag...we thought it might be a way to be able to just pay our day to day bills - but they decided to go with someone else. It's not our fault that we got the shaft when the economy tanked...we paid our bills, but it's the hundreds of thousands of dollars (literally) that other people owed us that they didn't pay that put us here - small businesses like ours can't recover from something like that, so we did our best with what we had. We paid our bills and took a very personal hit in doing so in order to save the business to keep us with some kind of income. We have listened so closely through this whole process -we feel like we've done everything we should've done. I am fine going through hard times and I know there is something to be learned. I don't understand what I haven't learned yet that I still must need to learn so that it can be over. I'm trying. I can't complain or lose it around my kids or Travis. It's not fair to any of them. Travis is trying so hard to do whatever he can - but in case you haven't heard finding a good job is near impossible - minimum wage employment - there are some, but not to support a family. And my kids just get really concerned if I walk around in a stupor, so that's not an option either. I just wish I could see the outcome - somehow I know it will work out, I know that there's a plan, if I'm just patient. But for now, I will continue to have a constant headache, a mind that never rests, tears that fall after the lights are out and the house is quiet, very personal blog posts that I'm sure one day I will look back on and be glad to see I had emotions during this time, I will continue to remind myself that I have 4 beautiful happy HEALTHY kids that I adore, and a husband who adores me and tries so hard every day - because I am blessed and I know that...but it's really hard sometimes to remember that when there's adversity staring you in the face day after day. In spite of it all, as long as I try to keep the faith and perspective, life is great! ( I mean that with all sincerity.) We are so richly blessed, maybe not financially at the moment, but in every other way.

An ode to my sister

let me tell you about this amazing person that I am lucky enough to be related to... her name is Trish, but I call her Teton.

You might think that it must be her birthday or something for me to do an "ode." It isn't. She is "Ode-worthy" 366 days a year. Yes, that was 366, there is nothing wrong with your eyes. So I said I was going to tell you about her, here goes:

she is: the prettiest girl

the nicest mom

the best BIG sister

a perfect example of how to chill out on the couch and let the cleaning wait for you- she's not on the houses schedule, she won't be pressured into dishes, laundry, dusting, floor scrubbing, cooking, etc... no, not her... The only thing that waits for no man, is vacuming- and she makes the straightest, most lovely vacume lines you've ever seen.

The voice of an angel, the body of a greek goddess (a Rubenesque-zaftig greek goddess!), the humility of... something humble, and the integrity of... well don't trust her with your passwords, but other than that, she's as "integral" as they come!

And since she has hacked my blog... that's all there is to say~ it is very likely that marie will (and she should) remove this post... hopefully she is the only one who sees this in the meantime ;-) Love you sister!

Cute Hair and Random Pics

Gwennie got her hair cut this week and when she had school the day after the cut - she told us that everyone would surely be drooling over her because she was so beautiful. :) It is a very cute cut.

Tyler wanted his picture taken when I did some of Gwennie's hair, so he's in here with his shirt stuffed with underwear so he can be "bigger."

Dallin is a monster and is constantly in the office on the desk or the chair reeking havoc.

AH! He's bleeding...

Well, he's not really bleeding - he just loves to play in everything that is underneath my bathroom sink - he finally got the box of nail polish opened and then he opened a bottle of nail polish and put it on his head - in his hair. He was sure happy about it.

The Dally Doodle @ 18 months