What happens in Vegas, stays in vegas

Wow! I can’t believe how long it’s been.  We loved our time in Vegas. We had a great home. Great friends.  And great weather.  But not great schools.  Livi won the lottery and got into a charter school. That was good.  Luke lost the lottery with his school. Eek!  We ended up moving back to Idaho. We live on a small mountain in the middle of nowhere.  Blessings and trials found\find us here just as well as other places,  Luke is 19. He lives in Provo. He is working at road construction. He likes it. Olivia is in 8th grade.  She is public/online/homeschooling due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Ryan and I own our own business now. We have a non emergency medical transport business called Rollin’ Shuttle.  We are hoping to survive the pandemic,  I teach English online for VIPKID. I love it.  I love my students.  I have to wake up rally early.  Which is hard for a night owl like me, but once I see those kids’ faces, I am in heaven,
Idaho has been good and bad, we’ve had our shares of ups and downs.  But we are strong.  Who am I kidding, I’m not strong.  But with the help of our Savior, we are pushing forward. Last year, President  Russell M Nelson instituted home centered church.  He reminded us that the majority of the gospel learning needs to happen at home, and church is a support for that. Now with COVID we are self isolating and cannot meet in groups. This means that we can’t go to church. So all church is done at home now, until the threat of COVID has passed. General Conference is next week. President Nelson already promised it would be unlike no other conference we’ve had.  That’s already true. It is the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.  I look forward to what will happen.
At our hone church we learned about keeping a record through journaling.  And this is really sad, but I remembered this blog.  Livi and I had fun reading it until midnight last night.  I am excited to get this printed so we can have a written copy of it.

I’m prepping some pictures to hopefully add.

A Rainy Day in Vegas

I am so thankful for a good husband who is so kind, loving, hardworking, steady, calm and rational even through all the issues life throws at us.  He is such a great example to me and I love him so very much.
I am also so grateful for the amazing children we have been blessed with. Everyday they bring so much joy into my life.  Today I got to help in Livi's classroom. I had so much fun. I love to be able to do that. To be a part of the kids' lives. And right now Ryan is on a Scout camp out with Luke...in the rain...and how often does it rain in Vegas?  And he forgot his raincoat, he left it right by the stairs when he came home a few hours ago to pick up their  contact cases and solution they forgot. :)
Hopefully they will stay dry tonight. I am sure whatever they do, they'll have a blast.
Livi and I had a girls' night with our friends Kris and Lydia W.  We went to dinner, watched a movie and then went for ice cream.
Sometimes the small and simple things make life the best.

I'm back!!

I think it may be time to start blogging again. I will have to figure out how to blog our current life, as well as catch up on everything else.
So maybe I am back. Hopefully I won't get overwhelmed and quit. I can do this.

Cabo San Lucas 2011

Ryan and I were blessed to be able to go on a trip again this year for his work.  Yay for President's Club, and for my husband who works so hard.  We were at Cabo San Lucas this year, and it was a good trip.  The weather was perfect, and we had fun getting to know others Ryan works with.

The beach had quite the incline.  The waves would crash in so strong.  We would stand down at the water line, and then race up the beach trying to avoid the surf.  If it caught you it would push you up the beach and then drag you down into the ocean.  It was fun, but at times it would really grab a hold of you and you had no control over what was happening.  It was not a beach to take children to!

We went horse back riding on the beach.  The horses looked like they were pretty straggly, but they were strong and fast.  We would get to galloping, and I would get laughing so hard, because it was NOT a smooth ride.  It was hilarious, I thought I would get thrown off the horse.  We had a lot of fun, and we had a good guide.  He had 5 kids, I asked him how old his kids were and he said, "10, 8, and younger."

Mango on a stick.  It was delicious, but my favorite was a Mango they would cut off the core, sprinkle it with chili powder and cover it with fresh squeezed lime juice.  Oh it was divine!

Loved this sunset just off our resort.

The Cabo San Lucas Arch.

We loved whale watching,  We saw some amazingly huge whales.  I will try to upload and even better picture from my phone. 

We took an excursion to San Jose and had fun at a street fair.  The food was great.  The vendors at the food booths would give you all these samples to try and get you to buy from them.  We had a great time.  It was fun to be able to spend time with Ryan, I love him.  We sure were excited to come home to our kids though.  And they were excited for the gifts we brought them.  They didn't miss us at all.  They stayed with our friends Abe and Rachel and their  kids, Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Mariah, and Juliana.  We knew they were in good hands. 

Olivia was complaining of an earache the morning we were to leave, so I got her into the doctor and she had an ear infection.  I got her on antibiotics as soon as I could.  We took the kids to dinner that night and then we were going to drop them off.  At dinner Olivia started complaining even more that her ear was hurting and she started crying.  Within minute her ear drum ruptured and clear fluid was pouring out.  After we left, puss started draining and continued to drain for 2 days.  I had to call the doctor's office from Mexico, luckily I was able to talk to my friend Lisa, who talked to the doctor, who ordered a stronger antibiotic.  It began to clear up after that.  I felt bad because a week later, little Juliana got the same cold Olivia had and got an ear infection too.  Aren't we so sweet to share?

Random pictures Spring 2011

Luke's birthday snack for school. 

Luke wanted dirt cups for his birthday snack for school this year.  It was fun to crush the oreos and stick in the slimy worm.

For his birthday cake, he wanted the yummy chocolate cake from Sam's Club.  We had some friends over to share it with us.

Olivia and Maddie did gymnastics last year at Kid's Gym.  They loved it.  It was so much fun for them.

My friend Sarah's little boy Eli.  Isn't he adorable?

Would anyone like Olivia to give them a make over?  She's good.  :)

Oops, someone spilled the popcorn.  (I miss my floors.)

First time getting her hair straightened.  Everyone in the salon kept coming and telling her how beautiful it was, and she turned and whispered in my ear, "When we get home can you make the curls come back?"  I LOVE that my little one loves her curls!

She is pretty cute with it straight, but we love our curls.  After a few days of it being straight, she started to love it and wants me to straighten it occasionally.  I do at times, but it's so damaging to her hair, even if it is a lot easier to do in the morning.  I miss her curls if it's straight.

Visiting the Rez Sept 2011

Now we are closer to "home" we are able to visit family.  For Labor Day Weekend we took a trip to Many Farms, Arizona to visit my parents who are serving a mission for the LDS church on an Navajo Indian Reservation.  Eric and Angella were also able to come over from New Mexico to visit as well.  (Eric and Ang moved just before we did to New Mexico, so now we're not quite as close as before, but we're still able to see each other.  Thank goodness for that.  We would go thru cousin withdrawals if we couldn't see them).  We had a lot of fun seeing family.  We enjoyed a hike and seeing some of the sites on the Rez. 

 Love this shot of Livi and Kaiya.

Could Sarah be any cuter?

White House Ruins are behind us.

Luke and Brooklyn loved exploring, and watching the Rez dogs.  While we were at grandma and grandpa's trailer Luke and Brooklyn were out in their weed patch playing all they could.  Together they built a fort and had a great time bringing everything they could to it.  They didn't want Livi and Kaiya bugging them, so they made them a secret hide out complete with broken glass.  Livi and Kaiya were holding the broken glass up to their faces to use it like phones.  Thank heavens neither one of them sliced their faces or bodies with the glass.  Livi and Kaiya were not happy with us for taking their phones away.  Aren't we mean?

That reminds me that Olivia came and gave me a huge hug and told me, "You are the best mean mom ever!"

What better words could I ever hear?  :)

Catch up 2011

It's been a long while since I posted anything.  I didn't post for so long I got out of the habit of it, and so here I am so many months later. 
Do I catch up, or just start from here- that is the question.  And blogger changed some things around, so now I have to re figure everything again.  :)
So in the last many months:
I guess the biggest thing is we moved to Las Vegas.  What a change this has been.  We love Vegas, we love the wide open nothingness of the desert.  We love the layout of the city.  We love the warmth, and the blue skies and sunshine.  We love the parks.  We love we are closer to family.  We love our new house.  We love the people.  We love our neighbors. 
We miss our friends desperately.  We miss going to the beach..  We miss our friends.  We miss not being able to reach each other on the phone due to the time difference.  We miss our friends.

Luke has turned 10.  He is maturing in so many ways, yet he still can tease like there's no tomorrow.  I doubt he will ever outgrow it.  :)  Luke hit the goldmine with our move to Vegas.  He has so many friends on our street, and the kids come looking for him to play.  Within the week of moving here our house was filled with boys playing.  I LOVE it.  I am so glad he has found so many friends in the neighborhood and at church, and now school. 
Luke started 5th grade.  There are 5 5th grade teachers and each teacher took a subject and the kids rotate through the teachers throughout the day.  Luke loves this setup and he seems to be doing really well.  He has made lots of friends and the teachers have been very happy with his work.  I am so happy about that. 
Luke started a cleaning business at home this summer.  Luke has impressed me immensely with his abilities to work and clean.  He is a great hard worker.  He worked with some young men from our ward in Kalamazoo while we were packing our house and I have to say, the other boys were good, quick, hard workers,  And Luke kept up with them very well.  He is a great worker and when he sets his mind to something, there is no stopping him. 
While finishing up 4th grade Luke kept getting sick.  He started with a sinus infections, to muscle soreness, exhaustion, more horrible colds, to something where he was so sick he didn't move other than to use the bathroom for 6 days straight.  I was very worried, and the doctor was as well.  They drew a bunch of labs on him and we found out he had had Mononucleosis.  Thankfully it was just that.  Since this, Luke has been taking colds and things harder than normal, but luckily since we moved to Vegas he has stayed healthy. 
Luke has earned his Webelos award with scouts and he is working toward his Arrow of Light.  Go Luke!

Olivia has had a productive few months as well.  She finished up preschool, and loved every minute of it.  She was excited to tell people we were moving and we were going to be lost.  I couldn't figure out what she meant by that for a while, until I heard explaining to someone that we were moving to "Lost" Vegas.  :)  She is too cute.  I love figuring out what little ones hear.
Olivia loved playing with her friends Maddie and Madi and Christina as much as she possibly could before we moved.  She and Maddie N.  were practically inseparable up until the time when we moved.  It broke my heart to tear her away from the friends she's had since she was a baby.  Once we got to Vegas, she told everyone she was happy we moved, but she just had a hard time connecting with friends here like she had in Kalamazoo. 
Olivia just turned 5 just before the school cutoff for kindergarten.  Olivia was so excited to start school.  Mom- not so much.  I had a very difficult time giving my baby up for only 2 1/2 hours. 

Olivia and Brenna, her new friend from school and church.

Olivia loves school, she is so excited to learn.  Her class is HUGE!  There are 31 kids in it, and the teacher is having a crazy time controlling all these kids.  Olivia tells me all the time they don't get to do things because the boys are goofing around or some of the kids weren't behaving.  Seems like they need to figure something out to make an environment where the teacher can teach (like have smaller class sizes). 

Olivia has made some cute friends, Brenna above, McKinley, (below), and we just had a new family move in with a 4 year old little girl who Olivia connected with right away.  They live right across the cul-de-sac.  Wahoo!

Livs thought this rock looked like Bacon.

I am adjusting okay to the move.  I miss my friends A LOT.  There have been a few tears shed.  I need friends.  And thankfully I am making new friends here, so that is good. 

Ryan is loving his job here.  He is working so hard to try and make this a great place for our family to be. Ryan moved out here in May to try and open up the area and get things rolling before we came out in June.  Our house, which we were supposed to close on then, didn't come through until June 23rd, so he was staying with my cousin's family.  We are so grateful for them opening their home up to him for us.  We are so appreciative for all they have done for us here.  

We have had some fun hiking in the Red Rock Canyons, (they are beautiful) and canoeing and swimming in Lake Mead.  The kids and I have been able to go to a small amusement park, a petting zoo with some cowboy comedian shows, swim a ton, have play dates, go to many parks, go to a horse ranch, and so many other fun places.  While I may not be able to catch us up completely, at least there is a little bit of our lives recorded. 

Our new seasons, I thought this was too cool. :)

It has taken us some time to feel like we're getting our feet underneath us, but we are excited about all the possibilities for us here.  We love and miss our friends in Michigan, we will return to visit and hope that all our friends know that our doors are always open for you to come and visit anytime.  I'm (we're) not kidding.