Abundant Recompense Copy

Our baby boy is seven! Holy guacamole! It has been every emotion rolled up into one watching this little guy grow up. We are so proud of our Addison. He's growing into a sweet, smart, sensitive boy. It's painful and rewarding all at the same time to be a part of his life as he learns what is right and how to fix things when they're wrong. What a blessing to be his parents.  Addison's birthday was on a school day this year, so we decided we'd better surprise him with balloons at the bus stop when he came home.    He picked Papa John's pepperoni pizza and corn for his birthday supper. Asa got to try the crust. He dug.   He picked lemon cake and vanilla frosting for his cake. We made it look like a creeper face from Minecraft. The haul. He enjoyed opening cards and presents from us and the grandparents. He and Nate have worked to "publish" a couple of Addison's books that he's written lately. Nate finished one up and gave it to Addison for his bir...

My sister Jenna spent the last six months in Idaho and we had the pleasure of seeing her several times while she was here. I am the number two child and Jenna is number eight, with roughly eleven years between us, so I graduated from high school when she was sevenish. I had so much fun getting to know the grown up Jenna. We laughed and cried and stressed and schemed together. All those sisterly things you're supposed to do that we have never really had the chance for. Also, my children adore her. She spent a lot of time wrestling each of them to the ground, tickling, playing, and rocking Asa to sleep. I wanted to blog about a couple of good times we had. And also put up amazing pictures for posterity. Heh heh. After we came back from Thanksgiving, Jenna stayed with us for a few more days and celebrated Addison's birthday and just hung out. It was great. One of the nights I decided to try a Pinterest hair experiment with her as the very willing guinea pig. The basic idea is that...

I love Thanksgiving! The smells, the nip in the air, the opportunity to express gratitude more readily, the promise of Christmas around the corner, I just love it. Here's this year's thankful tree. We each put up a leaf almost every day in November. It was wonderful to be reminded, each time we walked by the tree, of how very richly blessed we are. It was hard to choose just one blessing to write down each day. You may notice the one in the center here that says "Alex." He's a classmate of Bryn's. Bryn says maybe she'll marry him. He did ask, after all. This year we scooped Jenna up and headed to St. George for Thanksgiving weekend. It was lots of fun. We got to see all of Nate's family, including the newest addition, tiny Elaina. Because the house was packed with visitors, we stayed at a hotel nearby and enjoyed playing games with the kids at night, watching movies once the kids were in bed, and taking advantage of the pool. I should mention, just so ...