Abundant Recompense Copy

Nate and I were sick when we heard about President Trump's temporary refugee ban. We really wanted to do something to show our support for refugees. So when we heard about a march to the capitol protesting the ban, we were all in. The kids were very excited to participate too, and we were proud of our little protesters. They designed their own signs. Addison's said, "Show love to everyone." Leah's was, "Let refugees in." And Bryn wrote "Treat others like you want to be treated." So the morning came and we headed to Salt Lake City. We started at the Federal Building and marched up state street to the capitol. Neither Nate nor I have ever done anything like that, and it was thrilling. It made me grateful to have been born in a free country where it is safe for me and my family to openly disagree with government policies. We continue to look for ways to help and support refugees and encourage you to do the same! The LDS church's website has id...

This year we have a goal to tackle one pretty major house project per month. Nate's editing a book on the side to help with the cash flow to reach our goal. January's project was our game room. Nate's parents got a new tv for Christmas and were looking for a home for their old one. We offered to take it off their hands, and decided that the game room was the perfect home for it. We used that as our jumping-off point to design and organize it just the way we wanted. We worked our buns off. Most of the post-kids-in-bed time we had in January was spent in the game room. We are very excited about the results! Here's the before and after! Before: As you can see from the photo and video, there wasn't much to love about it. Here's Nate to take you on a tour of the new and improved game room.  Here's the list of what we did: - Organized games and closets. - Cleaned all the surfaces. - Painted the ceiling white. - Painted the walls gray. - Ordered and installed bambo...

I've just got to post about Asa. He's grown up like a weed over the past three months or so. It is so encouraging to see him growing, learning, and mellowing out a little! I can definitely tell they're related. - His vocabulary has at least doubled. As a result, we are now able to reason with him more than ever before. I needed that bad! I think I have some version of PTSD because of past outings with this child. Taking him anywhere still makes me extremely anxious. But he really is getting to be much more cooperative. In fact, I've been ordering groceries online for the past several months in large part because I've dreaded going out with Asa. But for the past two weeks we've gone, in the flesh, to the store, and it has gone amazingly well! I even let Asa walk for part of it! - He is potty trained! Woohoo! I started him on a whim, and he was amazing at it! My easiest ever by far! To this day, he has never once had a #2 accident! - Asa tells jokes! His favorite ...

From these little cutie pies to you! Here they are ready for their school/joy school parties.

For new year's eve, we went to our friends' house for a fun appetizer/game/hang out party. It was fun to catch up with Sallie and Chris and their family. The kids spent their time snacking and watching Zootopia downstairs while Nate and I got to visit. We lasted until about 10:00, and then headed home. Leah and Asa went right to bed. Then Addison and Bryn decided to stay up till midnight with us! Wow! So Addison and Nate played Myst on the computer and Bryn and I played the game of Life. They were wild and crazy by the end, but they felt so grown up, and we had a great time with them. Here we are at the stroke of midnight, January 1, 2017! Happy New Year!