The Rest of February

Towards the end of February, our family was faced with it's biggest decision ever. Richie has requested a transfer to a small town in Utah or Idaho for years now. About a month ago, he mentioned that transfers were coming up and if we didn't get transferred this year, then he was going to stop asking for it and just be happy here. (A big deal for him). Then about a week later, we were told there was a position in Altamont, UT opening up. (in the Uintah Basin, an hour west of Vernal) If he wanted the position, it was his. But 2 major catches were 1. They wanted him to be there for the rest of his career, and 2. They needed to know by Friday. Yikes!! We got them to extend the deadline, and after lots of soul searching/praying/research, we took a day trip on Saturday to check the area out. We left the 3 oldest at the Garners, and took Benson along for the ride. He was such a trooper staying in his car seat pretty much all day!! The area was much smaller than I was anticipating, but we still felt so torn. We debated it from every angle possible and talked to as many people as possible. The biggest temptation for moving there was that we thought we could get a bigger and nicer home on more land, for the same price as what our home here is worth now. However, we didn't find that to be the case. So ultimately we decided that we'll put up with the yucky air quality, the ever growing valley and choose to be really happy here. I say that as if we don't love living here...but we do. It's just hard not to feel like we closed a door on a specific dream of ours. I'm so grateful to be here still, but I'm not entirely ready to say that we will never move, if the opportunity presents itself, and feels right.


Miles is a newbie at scouting and therefore is completely excited and enthralled with the whole idea. He begged and begged me to get his uniform, and then when it took me more than .4 seconds to sew on the patches, it was a life or death situation...obviously! I took a picture because it seemed like a rite of passage. For him sure, but mostly for me. His Grandma and Grandpa Garner have done their fair share of scouting, raising 5 boys and all, and so when we drove out to Vernal and the kids stayed over there, G&G helped Miles build a kite for one of his scouting requirements. Here are the kids trying desperately to fly it. :)


We got Miles his nice set of scriptures for his 8th birthday. I promptly challenged him to read them every day. Then I promptly realized that his reading skills probably weren't quite ready for the sophisticated language of the scriptures. So we made a goal to read the scriptures together every morning before the other kids woke up. If you know me, at all, you realize what a big deal this is. However the sacrifice has brought a multitude of blessings already. The time with just he and I is sacred, we bond together, his reading skills have already vastly improved, and we get a head start on our day. We are working our way through the picture version of the Book of Mormon, of which he can read most of it independently. After we read a chapter of that, I help him read a verse or two in the actual scriptures so that we can put one of those cool see-through stickers in!


This "project" has only been in place for a few months, but I'm going to be so bold as to say that it might be in my top 5 awesome parenting moves yet! I tried to get the kids to journal independently, but they didn't quite grasp the concept. So I started a "mommy and me" journal with both Miles and Gwen. The idea behind it is that they practice their handwriting and composition without even knowing they're working on language art skills, that they record things about their lives right now to look back on later, and it opens up a great form of communication between us that is sometimes hard otherwise. I cried when I read this sweet note from Miles, and then had to chuckle that the next one from Gwen was this.


Two of my nieces and nephews live only a hop-skip and a jump away in the Provo area. They had the genius idea to do pot luck dinner the other night. The kids were in Heaven with Taysom and her significant other, and Tucker and his fiance over! So glad we were able to get together!



Dad and the kids finally finished "The Swiss Family Robinson". Dang, that book is long! I am wishing we would have read it in the summer time and turned it into a unit study of sorts. There are so many cool project opportunities in there! To celebrate we kept it really simple. We ate food I imagined them eating, we made "air fresheners" with oranges and cloves, and then watched the Disney movie. Good times.


Benson is officially 6 months!!! What a chunk!!


My sister Jenn graciously handed down her old smart phone to me, which means I officially entered the smart phone realm and everything that entails. I'm a beginner, so I literally did not know how to answer the phone for almost 3 days. True story. I'm loving some of the perks of having a smart phone. Only one of which is finding all sorts of fun gems in my pictures. :)