Friends

We love having friends come visit us. Last weekend Dan and Lisa drove up from Santa Barbara and stayed with us for a night. It was relaxing and we don't have much to tell about it. We barbecued and the girls played, and played and played. Shay was so excited when we told her that Lydia was coming she refused to go to bed and was up when they arrived 3 hours past her bedtime. She still asks for "Lybia" all the time.

We're back!

For no good reason I seem to have taken a long break from posting. So I will catch all of you up through pictures.

We hiked through Angel Island with some friends in January. It was a beautiful day! We headed out to San Francisco in the morning and took a ferry to the island. There is only one ferry back so we spent 6 glorious hours hiking around and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We were all pooped by the end of it though!

In February Jon had 2 glorious weeks off from work. We spent one of the weeks in San Diego and went to Sea world. We went to all the shows and you can see a star fish on Jon's hand. Shayla still talks about Shamu and the dolphins. All in all it was one of the best vacations we've ever gone on. Relaxing and just a good family time.

The Ricci's came to visit in February as well. We saw as much of them as we possibly could. Boy we sure miss them. I can't believe they moved away a year ago! We're counting down the days until we go see them in Michigan. Shay is always asking for Lola (still) They are such kindred spirits. And Carrie was almost like a sister to me. I don't know if you can tell but we really miss them.

We went to Happy Hollow with friends. Shayla and Maisie rode the lady bugs for almost a whole hour. I think the workers may have been a little sick of them... Either way they giggled and had a grand time. Happy Hollow is Shay's favorite place on earth.

Our ward had an  Easter Egg Hunt and Shay thought it was great! She was so happy that all these eggs on the ground had candy in them! She was in heaven. Especially since there were M&M's and Jelly beans which are some of her favorite candies.

We tried to be extra festive and we dyed eggs with friends. Shay thought it was great. Although there was a little bit of an altercation over who got to dye the first pink egg...

I also had Shay decorate her very own bunny cake. I'm pretty sure most of the candy ended up in her mouth... And this is her in her Easter dress. What a pretty girl.

We went to go visit some of my family in Arizona, and Shayla overcame her fear of Dogs. This is Misty. She LOVES Misty. She still asks for Misty. When Shay would wake up in the morning, instead of calling "Momma" she would yell, "Oh, Misty!"

I just love this picture.

We have been having a great time the last few months and I just got so far behind that I didn't feel like blogging. But here is our life in snippets, through pictures. I got caught up in time to go to Guatemala with Jon! Expect many pictures of that trip to follow.

Through Shay's Eyes

We had about an hour to kill one afternoon and so Shay and I decided to take her babies on a walk. I documented this walk through photos.

First she instructed me on what was going to happen, and where we were going. It was serious business.

Suddenly she noticed that the Santa wreath that had been hanging on the gate at Christmas was no longer there. We made sure to say goodbye to Santa. He had only been gone for a month...

Not quite time to leave yet. First we need to stop to give naked baby her snacks.

And she's off! Catch her if you can!

Up the stairs! "No, Mom, by myself! I do it!"

Stopping for secrets and giggles...

A park! We found a park!! Wahoo!!(Well actually we came here a year and a half ago and it was to big for her, but now it's the perfect size)

Riding with baby...

Kissing baby better after she fell off the bench

Your turn to go down the slide Mom!

I love watching things through her eyes, and see her take the world in. When I pause to watch her I'm always amazed at what a bright, wonderful little girl I have. I love days like this.

Quote of Forever

The other day Shayla looked at me, wrapped her chubby little arms around my neck, and said, "Best friend Mommy".

I decided I should document this for when she becomes a teenager and decides to hate me. At one time we were best friends.

Catching My Breath

Wow. That is all I have to say about my life for the last 5 crazy months. Wow.

I guess the biggest news that everyone is going to be the most interested and curious about is that Dallin moved back to Utah this weekend. It was very sudden. Almost as sudden as his coming here. I will try to answer everyone's questions here the best I can.

It has been the hardest 5 months of my life. I honestly don't believe that is an understatement. I was thrown into this crazy world of school, scouts, homework, soccer, primary, boys, etc, etc, etc. The learning curve was steep and there are things we did that we are really proud of, but also a lot of areas where Jon and I recognize we have a lot of growth.

I don't regret having Dallin join our family for the time that he was here. I can't regret trying. But it wasn't right. Jon and I kept a stiff upper lip for a long time, but the sequence of events went something like this.

Dallin was very excited and accepting of a Dad in his life. He had never had a Dad and it was a novel and wonderful thing for him to have one. Jon was wonderful with him. Jon is a wonderful tenderhearted man, and if nothing else this experience reaffirmed to me the reasons I chose to be in love with him. (I hate the term "fell in love", as if I didn't have a choice and it all just happened for no apparent reason) But Dallin already had a Mom and was very clear that he didn't need another one. I'm pretty sure he wasn't aware of the walls he was building up between him and I, but they were very real. As Christmas break wore on, Jon andI realized I was at a very low point emotionally and psychologically. It lead us to really start to ponder about what needed to be done. Neither one of us was willing to give up, but something had to give. Let me explain here that I don't blame Dallin for the way he was feeling. Logically I completely understood all of his emotions, but emotionally for me it was beginning to be too much.

We spent last Sunday in Prayer and Fasting and were both separately left with the impression that we weren't the permanent solution. That this wasn't the permanent plan for our family by our Father in Heaven, and that we had done what we needed to do in this situation. I guess it took me reaching a low for us to be willing to reevaluate the situation and really pray about what to do. We had prayed for patience and strength and a million other things, but never to know what to do.

I called my Mom on Monday and let her know what we felt, letting her know that he could stay with us longer until a suitable solution was reached but that we weren't able to do this forever. She felt peace about this and decided to have him come back to live at their house.

Dallin was so excited he could barely contain himself. He's missed my family tremendously. I think it was becoming too much for him emotionally as well. This experience gave him the opportunity to have a clean slate somewhere and correct certain things, and now he gets to have the emotional support he needs.

His one concern was that since he was going to go live with Grandma and Grandpa that he would no longer be able to get baptized this Saturday. We were able to still put on his baptism for him. It was a healing and beautiful experience for all of us.

I've been asked how I feel by a lot of people. I feel relief, happiness, sadness, regret and a million other things, but mainly I feel peace knowing this is the right decision for our family.