Day 5 PROJECT 365 BFF’s Matti & Wyatt

After coming home from a long day at Kindergarten, Wyatt sits up at the counter next to Matti for lunch.  She says, “You’re the best in this whole house.  I love you, Wyatt”.  Then she leans in to give him a hug.  And in turn he plays Barbies, mermaids and makes up dances to country music with her.  He is confident enough in his manhood to play with girl toys because after all, he is playing with his best friend. 

Day 4 PROJECT 365 Winter Blues

This is my least favorite time of the year.  It’s cold.  It’s dark.  I don’t have enough Vitamin D in my system.  And all I want is for Spring to come (and a tropical vacation).  But since I can’t have either right now, I dressed up my table in spring décor and I will just pretend that spring has sprung. 

Day 3 PROJECT 365 Colton Bancroft aka: Houdini II

“Lay down”, I say.  He drops like a sack of potatoes, puts his thumb in his mouth and stays there.  I feel empowered.  I am the “Colton Whisperer”.  After countless hours of routines and consistency, he listens and responds to me well.  He knows what to expect.  But before this proud moment happens each day, much preparation is needed for naptime.  Yes, that’s right.  Naptime. 

Comfort is not the reason he is dressed in his pajamas in the middle of the day.  Because Colton likes to take off his clothes, including his diaper.  Colton is as happy as pig rolling in mud in his crib.  Unfortunately, if we miss a step, he looks like one, literally.  We have learned these safety measures, one at a time, the hard way.  What you DON’T see is the duck tape around the waist of his diaper, the special ordered large onesie, the safety pin attaching his pj’s to the onesie.  The cutoff sleeves are not a fashion statement.  They are a necessity.  With long sleeves, he uses his teeth as a tool to wriggle his way out of the pajamas.  Was that Houdini’s secret?

Day 2 PROJECT 365 The Cat That Never Has to Walk Again

I love animals.  Really.  Especially when they are at the zoo, on a farm, or at the pet store.  I love them anywhere but  in my house.  I love when other people take care of them and clean up after them.  So how did this happen?  A persistent husband is the culprit.  He has been begging (and bugging) me for anything furry for the last year and a half, and I finally fell in love.  But I am not the only one in love.  So are the kids.  Meet “Harley”.  She lets the kids carry her like a stuffed animal.  And even though she looks like one below, she IS real and she is a wonderful addition to our home.  And just in case you were wondering, hell did not freeze over.    

In fact the kids are so crazy about this 2 year old kitty we adopted that I have to set the timer so everyone gets a turn holding her.  If that’s a precursor to bringing home a little brother or sister (this is not an announcement) then I am set. 

DAY 1 PROJECT 365 Getting Married Again…For “Real” This Time

I don’t have an awesome camera.  I am not a photographer.  I don’t have a journal.  I don’t have an excuse not to record our new life together as an eternal family.  There’s not a better time to start the first day of Project 365 than now, on the day we are joined for time and all eternity in the Draper, Utah Temple on January 15, 2010.

There’s really no reason we picked the Draper Temple.  We just liked it.  We also liked the Hawaiian Temple and San Diego Temple, but we wanted our family and friends to enjoy this day with us, so here we are. 

Last fall on our way back from a weekend getaway in San Francisco, our plane experienced major engine failure.  The pilot tried to ease the seriousness of the damage to the aircraft by calmly stating that we would not make it over the mountains and across the desert if we did not land immediately.  Justin and I looked at each other with the same thought in mind…that we weren’t sealed yet.  We made an emergency landing in Sacramento where our plane was surrounded by crash landing crews.  A few hours later we discovered that our flight made national news via The Associated Press.  While we boarded a new plane back to SLC, we casually asked how serious the failure was.  The senior flight attendant said that our plane should have never been in the air.  Which makes today much more meaningful.  

It took patience, perseverance, faith, prayer, testing moments (aka:  being pummeled by the adversary) forgiveness, repentance and dedication to reaching one specific goal in mind to get to this day.   We made it because we wanted to be here for us, and our forever family.  

This is only a sneak peek at just a few of our wedding photos.  I will post more when I get them! 

Been awhile

It's been forever since I last updated anything. Not a whole lot has gone on really. Kari did finish up her time teaching a couple weeks ago and has been home with the three youngest during the week. She has been happier and the kids seem to be enjoying going to the local school and getting home early enough to play with friends and neighbors. It has been a very positive change for us and we have enjoyed the extra time together as a family.
Kari and I were asked to speak in church last Sunday on the topic of..what else..adversity. We both took up more than enough time and really enjoyed the experience together. It was a nice Valentine's day present. We will be enjoying a night out this friday at a local bed and breakfast from a Christmas present from my dad. Dinner will be at Tuscany from a gift from Steve, also from Christmas.
We have a family in our ward that is dealing with some very difficult medical problems. The father of the family is in need of a liver transplant due to a rare condition. We are in the infant stages of putting together a fund raising garage sale so if you have any furniture, or anything else that you would like to donate, please hold onto it and I will update plans soon. We hope to be able to raise the expenses needed to get him in line for the transplant.
Colton is still working with Kids on the Move about his speech and communication issues. They want him to start therapy involving horseback riding to help improve his balance. We are also looking at him getting into an ENT to see if he has any problems with his tongue and if that is why he is unable to make certain sounds or stick his tongue out all the way. We'll get it figured out and hopefully get a treatment plan put together to help him catch up. He's such a happy little guy, it would just be nice to have him communicate better.

Catching up after Christmas and New Years

We've had a very busy last couple of weeks but have enjoyed the time we all had to spend together and a house full of kids 24-7 since they were out of school.
Christmas was fantastic. We were able to have my Mom and Steve stay over and have Christmas morning with us. I think it meant as much to them as it did to us to have them there. After a "storm" of wrapping paper, hassling with the genious packaging of toys, finding and installing batteries, throwing away trash, picking up candy wrappers, etc, Kari's parents, Carmen and Hubert came by for Christmas breakfast. We had breakfast caserole and sweet rolls. Very tasty after snacking on various candy and chocolates throughout the morning.
The kids were all loaded with various toys, clothes and electronic gadgets. I'm pretty sure that to this point, nothing has broken. Wyatt went crazy with his new Air Hog helicopter but due to increased air traffic restrictions in the living room the Air Hog has been hangarred atop the fridge for the last several days. Cam got a new arsenal of nerf guns and it is Normandy all over again at our house as the kids terrorize each other with foam darts. Brooklyn and Britney each got a new DS systems that they have seemingly forgotten about since Christmas day, Matti loaded up on mermaid toys (what else?), and Colton got some new toys with incredible volume levels that seem to go off without even being prompted to.
Kari and Justin's present arrives this weekend and we could not be more excited to start doing laundry faster and more efficiently. We were very blessed through the Christmas season and enjoyed our first major holiday season as a new family. The kids started back to school and Kari and I started back at work. Kari is getting nervous and excited to hang up teaching and staying home. Not sure still what will be an easier job for her, working full time or being full time Mom?
Life at Justin's work is as normal as it could be. Justin will be starting school again as soon as Kari isn't working anymore. The only motivation he can find is that the GI Bill will put a little more $ in the pocket since school is essentially free. We are very excited about what 2010 has in store for us. Kari and Justin are very excited to go back east and visit NYC sometime in the spring, take the kids to Yellowstone this summer and hopefully get sealed in Hawaii in August. If not Hawaii, we will travel to another exotic locale like South Jordan and get sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain temple, wither way, the covenant is the same so what will be will be.
We are not sure what we will do with ourselves for the next 8 months as college football season is now essentially over. We will find ways to entertain ourselves but it won't be cheering on the Jazz as each game seems to bring the end of the successful Jazz era of the last 20 years to a close.
Best wishes to all this new year and we hope to get to know all of you better this year!