Family Times

Just some fun times with family...

My siblings came over to hang out and we watched the BYU, Utah game

(where BYU won)

My sis-in-law had on her Utah attire, so Hayden came out wearing dads BYU hat (on the very bottom) then piled a bunch of other hats on top of it.

another fun day with my family.

These tractors were the best part for them!

A bunch of Finley boys and a girl.

Thanksgiving

We drove up to Logan to spend the afternoon with Justin's family.

The kids all had a blast jumping, playing on the ice covered pond, & just being together.

Trying to get everyone together for a family picture. (25 out of 30)

Can't wait to see the real one!

It had been about 3 years since the whole family was together last.

Then, we drove back down to spend the rest of the evening with my family.

Four out of seven isn't too bad seeing how far apart we all live.

We missed Becca, Dan and Matt.

~Me, Liz, Heather and Mike~

Grandpa Hastings with the kids. I think they were done with pictures.

It was hard to get them to hold still. Two of my handsome boys.Boys being boys. It was fun watching them together. I wish Hayden wasn't hiding behind the sun. oops. It was so good spending Thanksgiving with all of the family again, even though we were all over the place. I love everyone in our family and am thankful for all that they do.

We Just Want to Play

We have had quite a bit of snow lately...

But, with the freezing temperatures the kids go out for about

5 minutes and are done.

They really want to play in the snow...

So, I made it so they can and still be warm and without all of the hassle of bundling up.

Buckets and buckets of snow to the bathtub. He thought he could handle it being inside. He did not realize it would still be freezing. He went and got on shoes. (mine)

If only we had a bigger tub. or... one of those baby swimming pools! That would be fun.

Clean up is nice also... down the drain it goes, and then just a little mopping up of the floor. They were happy.

Look Momma! I Can Fly!

I love this girls sense of humor and fun personality.

It shows in everything she does.

Normally I say No! to jumping on the bed. But, she was so happy and it was just her, and it was fun to photograph it. So, I guess I bent the rules this time. I took these pictures a little while ago and I was thinking how well they portray her & I just wanted to share that.

Wrinkles

Of course I am talking about tubby time.

My kids would stay in the tub for hours if I let them! They love water.

She always makes comments on her wrinkly hands when she gets out of the tub. She wanted me to take a picture so she can remember them. I agreed. This time, it was close to being in for an hour. I love my wrinkly, yummy smelling kiddos!

Bloom Where You are Planted

I feel like our lives have been a roller coaster over the last year and a half. Because, really it has. I have to vent a little in saying I was not particularly too excited to come back to Utah. Which is so very ironic in that it was really hard to leave. Hmmm. I have to give a little background.

I was excited to go to Missouri for the new adventure, new start, new place, new people. I was sad to leave family, all the shopping you ever need and endless options. Living just out of the city life. The mountains a short drive away. The many Temples so close. leaving to a small place that I related to somewhat of a hick town. And quite a few other things... It was hard. But, the area, people and everything it offered grew on me much more than I ever expected. It actually was not a hick town, (maybe some of the close by surrounding areas) I love the people I really got to know and I will never forget them. I learned to not take anything I have for granted. You really have to work a little harder at a lot of things living so far away from a bigger city, in a smaller area. Everyone seams to stick together, work together more.

You just have to. The hard part about coming back is the chaotic atmosphere. Everyone is in a rush it seams. People in general are less courteous. People are friendly but not as outgoing and friendly as I had been used to. It is just different here. I can't quite put my finger on it all.

It's really not all bad. It is great to be close to family again, and all of the first mentioned things I would miss about Utah. I feel like I have had a lot of time to think about things. One thing that has been on my mind after getting here is, no matter where you are, you can make the best or worst out of it. It is what you make of it. I remembered someone said something like that in a talk at church once and how home is where your family is, where you let your heart be. It doesn't matter where. You will have different opportunities and will be needed wherever you go. Just about anything can work when you have set your heart on it and have faith.

I have been thinking about what I can do here to get people to just get together (not too big on playgroups and such) or, are there activities in the community that I can get involved in with the kids, where are places that I can meet new people outside of our little neighborhood/ward. Although, a great thing I do have to add, is that Brandon has quite the number of friends to play with in the neighborhood.

Which he has so desperately needed. I am sure there is so much I can do, I just have to force myself to get out and do something. I know that is what I should be doing anyway. All of this stuff, and much more has been going through my head and I needed a way to put it into one little context. Then I heard it from a friend.

Bloom where you are planted.

It then made sense to me. I need to let myself bloom and just be the best that I can and just get out and do what I can. My sister always told me that when you move to a new place, it's a new start, new beginning, and you can be anyone you decide to be. It's so true. There are so many opportunities out there waiting to happen, we (meaning I) just need to be active and open minded and prayerful in all that we do to let them happen.

No matter where we are planted, no matter how hard it may seam, if we are strong enough, we can grow and bloom, probably in ways we wouldn't ever imagine.

Our Terrific Kid

Brandon's last day of school before we left

Missouri wasn't just any old day for him.

Every month there is a Terrific Kid assembly for all of the kids in the school who received a terrific kid award for that month. Brandon was chosen a few weeks back. Families are invited and the students are recognized and called up to the front and receive a certificate and a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. (like Chili's) The certificate says: In recognition of demonstrating a positive attitude, good character, and responsible citizenship.

We are so proud of what Brandon has done in school. He has had a Terrific year so far. We miss his teacher so much! She was So good with him! I believe that having a great teacher and having their personalities go together also helps so much in a child succeeding. We have seen that with Brandon. I love this kid! Great Job Brandon at being so "Terrific"!

Changes

Time has flown by way too fast! It's super crazy how things happen out of the blue and throw you trough some unexpected loops.

Here's the story...

The first big thing: We spent Labor day weekend with Becca and Matt. It was a fun relaxing time. But, Justin was having lots of pain the whole weekend. The next day after being home, doing some needed things at work, finishing school work etc... He calls to tell me he is driving himself to the ER. As I am processing it all trying to figure out how I would get up there with him taking our only car. Finally a little after 9pm he calls to tell me they are prepping him for surgery to have his appendix taken out. So I call my wonderful friend up the street to drive me to the hospital, who also volunteered to take the kids for me. As we got up there we had another friend show up with orders to take the kids also. So we divided the two older and younger to make school easier in the morning. I was so thankful for such trusted friends and their willingness to step in when we needed help at the spur of the moment. Surgery went great and I was able to stay in the room with him the first night. He was there another night and came home Thursday. Despite all of the horrible pain he was in and slow healing the tough part was to try to get him not to lift and do more than he should. Which was almost impossible. (if you know him you understand this).

Next: Two weeks after surgery he had a flight scheduled with work to go do his ropes course training in Utah. Wondering how this would work with him just having surgery, it was going to happen and he still made the trip and everything was good. This is where the fun begins... A few days after returning home, he sits me down to talk to me about something. His old job in Utah asked if he would like to come back to work with them because they had a position they needed filled that offered us better than what we were currently getting. So, after a few weeks or so of talking about it and putting together details and seeing if it was the best thing to do... We made the decision. This was not an easy decision for me. It was completely unexpected, the whole moving and repacking the entire house again after only 6 months was overwhelming. Starting the kids in a new school again. (Brandon has had 5 teachers from K-2ND so far. And he is going to have one more to add in January when his current one retires! Too much change for someone so little) Just all the fine details of moving itself, finding a new home. etc... But, in the end, it was going to work out.

Last: The Move: I did not have quite the time I wanted to do everything, especially see all of my friends and say goodbye before I left. (That was the hardest part) But, at I am happy I had seen most of them recently. My most wonderful sister came down and helped with the kids and took them to a hotel for a night to let Justin and I get the packing finished and start loading the truck. I am so thankful to her for her help and for the cousins to spend more time together before we are far apart. We always said we wanted to live close to each other. It was almost unreal when it actually happened. I am so glad we did have that time to let the kids really become best friends and all of us grow closer together. Of course it did make it so much harder to leave. The day before we left we had lots of people and great friends show up to help finish off heavy stuff for the truck and misc. items that needed to be packed and were given some awesome care packages for the road trip.

I am really going to miss the people in Missouri. It was hard moving out there because of the big change, but it was much harder to leave than I ever thought it would be. The people in the area were amazing! I can say I did come out a better person for being there than I might have anywhere else. I had some amazing opportunities and experiences I will never forget. I will really miss it.

So, here starts our new journey with life back in Utah....

Scenery

I love the Lakes beauty no matter how it is.

Fall colors overlooking the lake and valley...

Morning Fog as the sun comes up... Backyard

Down the street...

Back

Alyssa before getting the fire pit ready for s'mores.

Night of the most recent full moon

Happy Bday to Me

I told my children they didn't have to get me anything for my Birthday except for some really good smiles for some good pictures of three of my favorite people. Well..... It didn't start out too good.

"But Mom! This is boring!" "The grass is itching me." "I'm too tired."

"I just want to go now."

But, I still love these photos because it is how they really are.

They are cute when they make their grumpy faces.

And I love them.

Then you let them do what they want and you get...

"Take a picture of me Mom!"

Very much doing their own thing.

I love this and it makes me laugh because I took the picture and showed

Brandon his smile and asked about it and he said that is his smile.

It gave me a good laugh.

So, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind but I didn't have a whole lot to work with. I love my Presents. They are beautiful! Pictures of my wonderful kids make me happy.

We had a great walk to the neighborhood pond (by my sister's house) and fed the ducks and ran through leaves, and they even found a great climbing tree. (first pictures)

I was able to spend the weekend with my sister and be with her on her Birthday the day before. I made it home in the late afternoon to be with my sweetheart and he surprised me with some way yummy brownies with peanut butter chips in them. I love brownies! That is my kind of birthday cake.

I feel that Birthdays do not seam as big of a deal as you get older. But, I also feel that it is a good day to make some fun times and good memories. So we did. I had some great Birthday memories.

Happy Birthday to me. :)