ColoradoBennett

I've been reading a blog by Dr. Mark Perry, an economics professor in Detroit, and a few days ago he had an interesting post.  It showed this graph of the unemployment rates in Dec. by sector. Construction is in the most trouble, rising to 15.2%.  We joined those ranks this week when Adam was laid off.  Don't worry about us, I'm more than confident in Adam's abilities to provide and he has a great opportunity to start his own company.

A few weeks ago I read the following quote:

"As the forces around us increase in intensity, whatever spiritual strength was once sufficient will not be enough.  And whatever growth in spiritual strength we once thought was possible, greater growth will be made available to us.  Both the need for spiritual strength and the opportunity to acquire it will increase at rates which we underestimate at our peril...I plead with you to do with determination the simple things that will move you forward spiritually....You have the right and the obligation to choose for yourselves.  You can search the scriptures or not.  You can choose to work hard enough, to ponder, and to obey His commandments so that the Holy Ghost can be your companion....Or you can choose to delay....If you will let your heart be drawn to the Savior and always remember Him, and if you will draw near to our Heavenly Father in prayer, you will have put on spiritual armor.  You will be protected."  Elder Henry B. Eyring

After I read that I decided to increase my efforts at nourishing myself spiritually.  When news arrived that Adam was laid off, I felt as though I had spiritual armor on.  I knew everything would be alright; that one door was closing and another would open to bigger and better things.  It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time talking with Adam this past week about our options.  I loved listening to him talk about his goals, helping him crunch numbers for the new business idea, and most of all being able to go to the Temple together and pray for further guidance.  It has been a great blessing.

Speaking of blessings, Sierra gave me this little note today.  Little things like this are such a  

perquisite (I just used a thesaurus) to motherhood.

Mt Hood stuff

We’re at Mt. Hood for a few days this week.  Here are a few snaps from yesterday.  We spent a few hours at the White River Snow Park.  Pretty fun.

          

see you all later

bglife

can you believe this is my benny?

well she has grown up fast!!  the saturday after joel’s wedding we are going to baptize her down in utah.  Aunt Jack is trying to find us a church.  so if any of you are interested in coming please put it on your calendar and spread the word to those who don’t get on here.

love……………..me

ps i think elly and jason will be blessing finn at the same time.  so it should be super.

and heres some more

there's some more recent ones. the smiling one was even taken this morning.

The playroom dwellers

My little Finny sleeping on Christmas Eve

"I come in peace"

pieni karhu

(little bear)

I really have no excuse as to why i have not been on here. i'm just lazy i guess. or i spend every waking moment feeding or bouncing my crazy child. he is the love of my life however so i guess it's okay.

Jason's big focus lately has been building a desktop. he finally got all of the vital running parts on friday and has been camped out on the floor ever since getting it all put together. yes, that's right, in the middle of the floor where i've had to step over cords in the night as i dazedly stumble to fetch my crying child. besides that and the crazy keyboard i'm having a hard time typing on right now i really like it. it's super fast.

Brooke was just complaining that i haven't posted pictures on the blog lately so here ya go.

The little man is growing so fast he weighs about 12 lbs now and would eat all day if i would let him. he's very strong too. he has been rolling over since about 3 weeks old. i've got a video of that i'll have to post. Like i said he's the love of my life. which is lucky because sometimes, like right now when he's crying like a maniac because he's so tired but doesn't want to sleep, i would want to give him back if he wasn't. ;)

aloha

Darla and I due to the kindness of my parents were able to sneak off to Hawaii last week. Mui fun. The adventure started before we even got to our destination. i mean there's so much to go over. the ghetto hotel in inglewood CA.. inglewood may ring a bell, it has been featured in several rappers lyrics repertoire. Boy were they spot on.

After 7 attempts to get on standby oh the joy of flying standby, we made it to the island of Oahu. One of my bud-e's runs a dorm at BYU Hawaii and we were able to stay with him and his family. Great people, terrific hosts etc.. We had a blast. The weather was a bit brisk around 75 degrees. That encouraged us to do a bit more hiking than swimming.

We were able to swing from vines, visit Pearl Harbor, (Ben Affleck was nowhere to be found), almost get killed in the mega waves of the North Shore, surf (I did get up a few times), and simply relax.

Very Fun.

Sorry I’m bored…

Here are a few more photos.

From the boys’ bedroom the other morning, Mt. Hood in the background:

 

Some photos from a park nearby the other day, with G&D’s kids:

 

 

Dayne fell off the slide:

 

Post-Dollar store-trip loot:

Slow Sunday stuff.

Hey everyone.  Church was cancelled again this morning cause it snowed for an hour and we got a 1/2” of snow.  Pretty hilarious to all of you Utahns I’m sure, but we take all we can get up here.  So, due to the fact that I’m up and have nothing to do, I figured I’d put a few things on here.

Here is Meags at a race last weekend.  It was a 15 mile trail run in the Olympic Natn’l forest.  She ran for a while with a woman who finds it difficult to train because she has a daughter.  A daughter, as in one daughter.  As soon as Meags mentions she has four kids the conversation turns to the weather. 

 

These races are great.  Runners are freaky people on the whole, but trail runners are pretty cool.  No matter what time of day it is they always look like they just crawled out of bed. Their pre-race food consists of Red-Bull, carrots, and a ham sandwich, while their post-race food consists of a can of Monster, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and a bag of chips.  And they never stretch.  For the first time ever, I actually find this sport somewhat attractive.

Work is a little slow right now, so I’ve been able to spend more time with the kids, especially Wil and Hazel, and that’s fantastic.  We went to the river the other morning.  It was fun til Wil’s boot got stuck in the mud, which caused him to fall over and fill the other with water.  He was not happy with that at all.

Man we’ve had GREAT weather up here lately.  Aside from the bit of snow today, its been pretty sunny.  Here are a few shots from when we had G&D’s kids while they were off in Hawaii.  We went to the Ft. Vancouver-ish area of town.  Hence the barrack-style buildings in the background. So historical. 

So that’s a lot of pictures.  Hopefully it’ll post.  Hope everyone is well.  Looks like you had a pretty good party Lyd.  You look extremely at home on that saddle. 

Thanksgiving Surprise!

We keep trying to post this video, but it seems to be just too daunting for our computer... So this will be our final attempt.

This is how Brind and I broke the news to my family on Thanksgiving. My granny cracks me up when she screams "OH MY GOSH!" :)

Love - Brind & Jules

The low down on the little nugget...

Where to begin…

I guess I should start by saying I'm sorry the Washingtonians (is that how you say it) were the last to find out.  I really had been meaning to blog about it and I just couldn't find the energy.  We told all the aunts and cousins at the "Sisters Christmas Party."  Indie was wearing her big sister shirt.  So anywho here is the scoop... 

On November 19^th I realized I was “late” and grabbed my calendar and started doing some calculations...about a week late to be correct so I basically knew right then.  I took a pregnancy test and sure enough it was positive.  Only Indie and I were home at the time so I cried out to her, “You’re going to be a big sister!”  I wanted to do something cute to tell Tony but I was too excited and just wrapped up the pregnancy test.  He was so cute when he opened it.

 

We had been debating when to have another baby since early spring.  We couldn’t decide whether to wait until we knew if Tony got in to PA school or not.  Plus we were still kind of waiting for the genetic test results.  So we weren’t really trying but we weren’t being too careful either.  But in early November I said, “Okay let’s go to Seattle but let’s not have another baby for about a year.”  And the next week we found out we were pregnant.  The Lord took it into his own hands and we are definitely okay with that.  We are really excited about the baby but now I am really scared about possibly moving to Seattle.

 

I am due July 23^rd so I am 14 weeks along and already this pregnancy has been completely different.  I guess it is karma because last time I wasn’t sick and the whole thing was a breeze.  I kept saying “I love being pregnant” and “Pregnancy is so easy for me”.  This time...not so much.  Since about 4 days after finding out I have been extremely nauseous.  And I don’t know who the joker is that coined it “morning sickness” because I actually feel the best in the morning and I spend the rest of the day sick.  Thank goodness for a little pill called promethazine.

 

Besides the “all day sickness” I have been ex.haus.ted.  To say I have been ridiculously tired would be a huge understatement.  I told Tony if it weren’t for Indie waking me up in the morning I would probably sleep all day.  I don’t remember being this tired last time.  I mean seriously I am always tired.  Right now I don’t get a single thing done because normally when I would put Indie down for a nap or for bed I would be productive but these days I just end up taking a nap with her and going to bed early…hence the death of the blog. 

 

I have been sick twice already, once with the flu and once with a cold and literally I could not get out of bed.  Normally I can somewhat function while being sick, but not this time.  Luckily Tony has really stepped in and taken care of all of us.  He said it was the sickest he had ever seen me.  So while I laid in bed for probably 3 days straight, he ran the house.   

Well that's about it.  I will keep the updates rollin' and I will try to get back to blogging too.

Busy Week, Sunny Week

It's been on of those weeks. The kind where you finally sit down at 9:00 at night and realize that is the first time you've sat all day. Except for in the car of course, somehow that doesn't count. So this morning I am just taking few minutes to chill. Actually, I don't know how long that will last because I just glanced over at the pile of magazines Sawyer pulled to the floor right before I laid him down for his nap (I wrote put him down, but after describing the magazine pile it sounded too morbid, like I had "done him in." Not my cute Sawyer, possibly the two furry beasts that share my dwelling) and I am already feeling the cleaning itch. The itch that never goes away because these days my house goes from clean to chaos in less than 10 seconds. This is only a slight exaggeration.

It has been lovely here, mid 70s all week and again today. I do not want the cold weather to return, I want it this way for a REALLY LONG time. It has made me very happy, which is good. I've had a few frustrations as of late, just dying trying to get stuff done and dealing with the two @#$*#$ dogs that are on probation right now. Ellyn has had her moments as well but she is doing fabulously lately. We've started "brushing" and joint compressions on a regular basis, they are supposed to help regulate the body, and it seems to be working. Temper tantrums are definitely down. We finally have a girl (okay, she's almost my age but single and looks very young) doing Respite and that is very exciting. Ellyn needs a day full of purposeful activity and Rebecca will come over and help with that a few times a week. Also, she will babysit for some date nights. Once I have a date. I'm excited.

Meanwhile, Mike sits in a lovely suite in D.C. with time weighing heavily on his hands, wishing he was home. I'm not going to lie, there are times I am a little bit jealous. A run around the mall, a day at the Smithsonian, out to eat for every meal, reading, movies, alone, all by yourself. I would take it in a heartbeat. But not for 6 weeks, maybe a few days though. But that would be all I could take before I would miss these little munchkins horribly. They keep me so very, very happy.

Well, if I don't get going I will be miserably behind. News- Jane had an appointment with the Orthodontist yesterday, braces are in the very near future. We have Young Women in Excellence tonight and she is very excited. Sawyer- says "mom" like the Seagulls in "Finding Nemo" say "mine" and it is adorable. The kid imitates his big sisters on everything, he always has a smile and he constantly sends the entire family into fits of giggles with his crazy antics. He is so dang cute. Sadie is quite the reader now and seems to be growing up in sooo many ways. She just isn't so much of a little kid anymore. She's a big girl and is acting that way. It's kind of fun. Ellyn has been covered, she is such a sweetheart, 90% of the time, it makes the other 10% all worth it. I can only imagine her frustration level as she tries to communicate her wants to us. I am confident that we are working in the right direction, which is a great feeling after so, so long.

That's the short of it. Hopefully time for more- later!

better late than never

cory took me to the beach for my birthday.  i was the most laid back relaxing trip.  we watched like 5 movies stayed up til 2 every night (which is unheard of for us) and went running on the beach and hiking and to the most amazing lodge on the olympic peninsula. 

i love cory and our times together.  we are best friends!