Love Bugs

I love this picture of David and I.  I love the gray in David's beard and the blue in my eyes.  I love how comfortable we look in each other's presence.  But even more so, I love that we still look and are in love with each other.

First Day of School 2023-2024

Um...still behind.

School starting for the younger boys snuck up on me.  If I remember right, Hyrum and I went to the mall the day before school started to get him some new clothes.  Normally we try to find stuff online but like I said...it snuck up on me.  I remember us starting to leave the mall when I realized I didn't get anything for Ruger!  So, we went back in some clothing stores and could only find long sleeve shirts.  I bought one because I felt bad not getting him anything but he ended up wearing some clothes he already had for his first day of school.  Definitely dropped the ball on the whole first day of school thing.  Ruger didn't even have a backpack on his first day!  What can I say?  I guess we were just enjoying our summer too much!

Alex

Brigham's boyfriend from Spain came to visit for a couple of weeks in October.  I felt like I had a good idea of the type of person Alex was through video chats and all that Brigham had told me about him over time.  He did not disappoint when we finally got to meet him!  Alex is such a great and likeable guy.  It was so easy to talk to him and just be around him.  

Once I knew it was ok with Brigham, I wanted our family to spend as much time with Alex as we could so we could get to know him better.  So, Alex and Brigham spent the days together while we all hung out in the evenings.  Every night (with an occasional day in there) we did something new like visit Ashton Gardens and the Butterfly Biosphere (with Christine), join an Escape Room, tour Temple Square, Corn Maze, double date, and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.  But what I remember the most was giving some first-time experiences for Alex like playing in snow and eating shaved ice...but then again, Alex gave us a first-time experience in having real Spanish food!  It really was a memorable couple of weeks!

Fan X 2023

Time for another Fan X post!  This year, Leia and Hyrum went as Sunny and Basil from one of their favorite video games.

Levi went as Anakin Skywalker.

Having some fun before they left!

Sundance

In September, Cami invited me to go to Sundance to ride their ski lifts to see the fall leaves and then get off halfway to hike back down.  I am very afraid of heights and normally I would have said no but I have really been working on my fears lately since Hyrum has been such a good example to me.  He has really been pushing his boundaries, when it comes to his fears.  I want him to know that I notice his efforts.  I also want him to know that he can be an example to others so I said yes!  But before Cami and I got on the ski lift, we walked around Sundance and took in all the beauty of the water.

I wish I could say that the ski lift wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but it was scary!  I tried to keep my eyes open as long as I could but honestly, it didn't last very long.  It was especially scary when we were going down.  When going up, I could keep distracted with talking to Cami but not so much going down.  Cami was so good to me and just kept talking to me to try and distract me.  

I was so happy to get off that lift and hike!  It was just beautiful.  After hiking a while and with my heart not racing from the lift, I decided to be brave and get back on to go up higher.

After all was said and done, I can say that I don't care to go back on a ski lift but I can say that I'm glad that I tried.

Motorboatin' and more with Valerie!

Valerie and Shawn came to visit in early September.  They were only here for a short period of time but it meant so much to me that they would stay a few days, on their way to their Alaskan cruise.  We toured Temple Square, the Great Salt Lake, wore matching cousin shirts, ate out, and just enjoyed each other's company.

Valerie and I harassed each other, brought up old memories, and probably drove our husbands nuts but I had soooooooooo much fun doing all of it!  She is one of my oldest and dearest friends.  I love her so very much!  And to get to do it with our husbands was even better.  They better get used to it because we for sure are going to do this again!

 

Catch up for Fall 2023

 Ok, I have gotten behind from time to time but months behind is something else!  Being this far behind, I'm bound to leave something out.  I'll do the best I can remember.

Our ward had a cultural night where everyone had the opportunity to represent their culture through food, activities, or display.  We had to represent OKLAHOMA, of course!  Ruger insisted we bring crawdads!  All that time spend at Little Blue catching crawdads must have paid off in his memory!  The picture above is with Arika who came down to visit Hyrum.  Hyrum isn't the only one who loves it when Arika comes.  Mom does too!  She is the sweetest and I just love her!

Annie, Peggy, and I met up for lunch a few months ago.  I hadn't seen Annie in almost 10 years while Peggy and I had been going on 2 years probably.  We definitely laughed but there was serious conversation to be had as we caught up and realized that all of our families had been through the ringer.  I'm so grateful I could be open and honest with them as they were with me as well.  It felt good to feel their strength and know my challenges were safe with them.

Levi received the Melchizedek Priesthood.  We went to church with him that day and got to meet his Bishop.  He is an amazing man, well, the whole Bishopric seemed amazing but I was super impressed with the Bishop and his love for Levi. 

We still had many visitors coming to see the kittens.

Levi is not a cat person but as the kittens grew up, I noticed him pay more and more attention to them.  It was cute seeing him interact with them.

David got a few pictures of the little ones sleeping on me.

And I caught this one night as this kitten was searching for a warm place to sleep.  Needless to say, Ruger loved seeing this picture in the morning when I showed it to him.

Ok, so Levi and Ruger has such an interesting relationship.  Ruger plays the best with Levi, out of his brothers, but he also physically fights the most with him.  It's actually kinda humorous.  They beat up on each other like it's no big deal.  They also tease each other a lot.  So, when David and the boys were carving their pumpkins, Levi secretly carved in the word "TURD" into his with an arrow.  "Turd" is what Levi calls Ruger a lot of the time.  After everyone was done and we took the pumpkins outside, Levi placed his so that his pumpkin was pointing towards Ruger's pumpkin.  We laughed so hard at this but surprisingly Ruger did not find it funny at all!  We had to hold Ruger back from kicking in Levi's pumpkin!

I don't carve pumpkins.  It really grosses me out.  But I did have our family start this "thankful pumpkin" that we worked on in October and November.  When we remembered, I had each family member tell me one thing they were thankful for that day.

July 31, 2023

Just like Brigham's birthday, I felt like I didn't give enough in my time and efforts for Hyrum's birthday.  He wanted to go to Lagoon with Arika and the family but didn't feel comfortable enough to leave the kittens alone with Momma just in case something happened.  So this Momma stayed home.  I know he had a blast though.  He loves spending time with Arika so much.

I asked them to take pictures while at Lagoon and this is what I got!  Hahahaha!

Hyrum's birthday didn't look the way I envisioned it but the thing is, he had a blast!  Memories were made.  And that is what is important, right?

 

July 13, 2023

Sadly, I did not journal Brigham or Hyrum's birthday on their actual birthdays...or even in their birthday month...or even the month following!  I already felt like I did not give enough attention to both of their birthdays as it was.  Okayu was in labor on Brigham's birthday and with this being her first birth I was nervous with leaving her alone.  So Daddy and the boys took Brigham out to a steak house while I ordered in cake pieces to have ready for him when he got back.  The only thing that made me feel somewhat better about it all was that one of these kittens was going to be his to keep!

And here she is!  Bip (or "Red") is officially the kitten Brigham has chosen.  She is 8 weeks old today and I really feel like she is going to be a perfect fit for Brigham.  She came out being really vocal and feisty but since being mobile, she is real chill and quite the cuddler.  I took this picture today and it just doesn't do justice to how beautiful she really is.  Kinda like a certain boy I know.  Just beautiful!

Bip's presence in Brigham's life is a neat story.  Neve was Brigham's cat and when she passed away a few months ago, it really hit him hard.  This Momma's heart broke a little bit having to witness pain like that in him.  He wasn't ready to say he wanted another cat for a while but when he was ready, we jumped on offering one of Okayu's babies to him.  Okayu went into labor on his birthday...is that not a wonderful gift?!  To make this experience even more special, we got Neve on Brigham's birthday years ago.  Full circle.  I am so grateful I believe in a God who is so very in the details of our lives.  Thank you, Lord, for loving my son so much.

Summer Happenings

Like the last few summers have been, this summer was full of days of me either taking Ruger hiking or swimming.  On both activities, we almost always met up with friends.  

Levi ran a race on the 4th of July and met the cast of "The Chosen" with some of his friends.

Just a cute picture of my Dad that my Mom sent me.  It's a picture of the things my Mom loves to cuddle with...including my Dad!

And then there was soooooooo much kitten time.

Momma with "Orange."  We just call them by the color of their collars.  I put collars on them because they looked so much alike and I wanted to accurately weigh them every day.

"Red"

We had lots of visitors that wanted to see and hold the kittens.  I was grateful for this because I wanted to get the kittens used to other humans other than just our family.

This is my very favorite picture.  One night I looked over and Okayu's head was leaning on David's arm while she was nursing "Orange."

As the kittens got older, they loved to play around my legs.  This is a picture in the early stage of my leg scratches.  You should see them now!

Seiiki has been the best co-momma to the kittens.  She pottied them when they couldn't go to the bathroom on their own and now plays with them.

The kittens are now 6 weeks old and love to play.  They are nursing less and less.  They are eating soft food and try to eat Momma's hard food any chance they can get.  They love drinking water and are fully potty trained (which they taught themselves).  Next week they will get their first round of shots.  Only 2 more weeks and they will go home to their forever homes.