For King and Country

Have you heard the new For King and Country album yet? It’s great. Unsung Hero, Love me Like I Am, Cheering You On, and Shy are all favorites. Actually, they’re all good. The whole album is amazing. Aaron bought tickets for the girls and I for Reese’s birthday and the looooong awaited day finally arrived! One of the best concerts I’ve been to. This was the 2nd to last show of their tour, and their voices were still incredible. By the end of the night, one expects the quality to drop a bit, but these guys brought electric energy and each song they played out showed the one before. Hit after hit after hit. What a show. This was truly an unforgettable night. 

Leap

She’s an adult all of a sudden.

But not really. 

Done with high school. On social media now. 

Boys literally lining up to date her. (3 dudes showed up in the course of one day, and one texted her.) 

She’s so kind, she’s beautiful inside and out, she’s responsible, she’s hilarious, she’s thoroughly enjoying that liberating feeling of being DONE with high school, and she’s discovering her extroverted side.

She loves to have adventures and just go do things with people. 

She’s so dang fun. 

She’s in my bed every night downloading every event and emotion of the day until 1 or 2 am. And I’m the morning she crawls back into my bed. I’m soaking up every drop of her. 

The future is so bright for her. 

I try not to even think about not having my best friend around at my hip to talk to every 5 minutes. 

You might think that’s a joke but it’s every five minutes. She’s just my best friend in the whole world. 

She’s everything. I don’t even know how to Meg without Reese and I think our ridiculous codependency is gonna be the toughest thing about sending her off to school. Our families and friends who live in Utah really have no idea the leap it takes for a parent yo trust that we’ve done enough to teach our children good principles, set boundaries, develop a solid testimony of their Savior, and then send them off into the wild. It’s gotta be easier when you live 20 minutes from campus, vs 20 hours. We’ll figure it out.  But she’ll definitely be navigating tough classes and work and friends and broken hearts with a lot of distance between us. She’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. She’s a wise girl and she’s ready. 

I’m trying to balance showing my excitement for her while masking some of my gut wrenching sadness for myself. I know I don’t need to. She knows all of it. 

Spring Break 2022: Destin

Can you SEE my exhaustion?  The past few years have really beaten me up and it shows in the grey roots, acne, cold sores, and puffy bloodshot eyes. But I’m smiling and that is my trophy for surviving some crazy month/years. I’ve been powering through a hashimoto flare for weeks and this week at the beach has been all about REST. 

We napped nearly every single day. My vitamin D deficient body soaked in all the sunshine. We ate a zillion Mexican popsicles every day. We snuggled. We took hour long walks on the shore every morning and watched the sunset every night. We played chess and hearts. We collected seashells. The big kids and dad went deep sea fishing. The little kids played on the beach and watched dolphins with mom. 

It was glorious. 

Twining and winning!

Reese noticed we were wearing matchie matchie outfits the other day. Twinning! 

Last night I put some real hair clip in extensions in her hair that my neighbor Jenna gave us. Reese was way skeptical but after 10 minutes with a brush and curling iron, I styled her right into a little mini me! It freaked us all out!  It was a fun thing. Maybe she’ll do it again for prom. 

Then Jacob stopped by and we had to give him a mullet. It was gross and amazing hahaha! 

Quincy’s Orchestra Assessment

Forever Family!

One of the most anticipated, most important, most sacred days of my life. It was so special to be in the temple with all of my children and be sealed to Abram and Esme. We are a forever family. Hallelujah!