Living Life :)

I'm truly surprised that Zayne hasn't wanted to dress up in Evie's dress up clothes previous to this one and only time. He wanted to be Anna from Frozen and here he is in all his glory :)

He wanted to still prove his manhood because a few minutes after Evie and were laughing at him because he was dressed up and dancing like a fairy, he grabbed his lawn mower :)

No stop at Sportsman's Warehouse is ever complete with out a picture in front of the statue of this elk!

Owen's parents left a couple of weekends ago to serve another 6 month mission for our church. They are headed to South Carolina this time, which happened to be the same location their last child served :) we met them on their way out to say our last good bye! Zayne wasn't too excited to see them, is he ever excited to see anyone?!! Don't take it personally grandma and grandpa- it's jot just you! This kid loves his mommy!!

He did warm up to grandpa after he tried to eat his fingers ;)

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful mother and father in law! They are such wonderful examples to our family :)

Here is Zayne eating his own fingers after we got back in the car!

That night we went to the night lighting of the hot air balloons, here in the valley.

They were really pretty. My favorite one was the one with the globe on it - it looked very cool!

My parents went to visit my sister and her family in Alaska, so we invited Owen's brothers and thier families and his aunt over for dinner the Sunday they were gone. It was a nice get together and the cousins had lots of fun :)

Here is Evie watching My Little Pony with all of her ponies!!

The kids liked following daddy around one night as he was mowing the lawn, which of course turned into a water fight while watering grandma's flowers!

I told Evie to smile so I could send this picture to grandma and grandpa Johnston since they were the ones who gave her those bunny ears last Easter. She says, "no, mom! I'm going to of my best BUNNY face." :)

I can't remember the last time we went to Krispy Kreme, so we stopped by for a few minutes so the kids could watch them make doughnuts :)

Zayne hadn't been feeling that great. It started with a high fever for a day and a half and then he had been up EVERY night crying "owee" he said everything he ate was "hot! Hot!" I took that to mean he had a soar throat. So we went to the doctor to rule out any type of infection. It ended up just being a nasty virus. Poor kid. Nobody else got it, thank goodness! He is finally all better now, but is still working on one pesky molar to come in. PLEASE erupt through the gum soon!!!

What else do you do while you wait for the dr?! 

He started feeling a little better and was acting silly instead of grumpy - for the most part!

Evie had back to school night last week and was SO excited to show us everything! She LOVES library and music and PE!! 

The weather was perfect for the park last Thursday night :) the kids had fun running, swinging, sliding, and rocking :)7

Evie had to have a bday party with her favorite Pony, Applejack!

We are coming up on a year since moving in with my parents. We honestly thought we would only be here a couple of months, but it looks like it will still be a little bit longer. We are longing for our own space, as I'm sure my parents are looking forward to getting theirs back! We have been looking at housing and weighing the pros and cons between renting and buying. The rental market is INSANE! Basically, we could but a house for cheaper than it would be to rent. So we are going to stick it out until we can get some savings built up for a possible down payment. It feels like we will never get back on our feet - but I know we will. These things just take time, so with this time we are going to be smart about any decisions we make! It reminds me of a time I was driving in the car and Evie wanted something and she just kept hounding me. She wanted whatever it was and she wanted it RIGHT then! I told reminded her about how she needed to have patience. Then I asked her if she remembered what the word patience meant. Her response, "but MOM, patience is HARD." That's right, Evie!! Hah! And so, our little family will have to continue in our patience for more good things to come our way! My patriarchal blessing talks about patience, so apparently it is something I REALLY need to learn!

I love the talk given by Elder Uchtdorf entitled Continue in Patience. I've read it and or listened to it a million times, but this last time, this part stood out to me:

patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!

I can honestly say that I see a light at the end of this last period of our lives. I have had several priesthood blessings that talk about receiving the desires of my heart and I can say that some of the biggest desires have already been given to me. I am so grateful to two loving parents who have loved us enough to let us live with them for this last year! We have been blessed immensely with all if the temporal and spiritual things we need. I hope that Owen and I can be as good of parents as both of our have been to us :)