Giving Thanks for How It Turns Out

Thanksgiving morning, Kasen and I ran the Eagle Mountain turkey trot 5K together. We finished it in 39 minutes, so faster than last year! And it wasn't as cold, but still below freezing when we started.

This was my 30th race! This year we got another pair of socks at the finish :)

Kyle smoked a beautifully delicious spatch cocked turkey! And he got to watch the Packers win right before we headed over to my parent's house for dinner. Jake was able to be there from California even! Kristi stayed home with Jackson so I was the only one there with my spouse. Emma was there without Mike and Jordan was there without Ben.

Kolt loved Jordan's Mac and Cheese. I think 3 or 4 times he asked me to get him more "Mackey cheese."

Sunday we had Sibsgiving at Hayden's house, with Kyle's siblings. Kyle smoked some pork belly and bacon deviled eggs too. It was all so yummy.

The day before Thanksgiving, I took the kids up to Hogle Zoo!

We saw 6 giraffes, the tiniest baby gorilla and the sea lion training. Kohen wanted to see an eagle, but we got to see TWO! Kasen just wanted to see the reptile house so we saw lots in there and had a fantastic day there.

And today we went with some cousins from both sides of the family to see Zootopia 2!

Tai has still been checking out a new cook book every time she goes to the library. Her rock candy didn't work, but she loves making all sorts of fun treats. I suggested switching it up and trying a how to draw book sometime though too.

Katey hosted a cozy girls night at her house in Midway this month. We walked around a couple shops, including Ballerina Farm where they gave us all their left over cookies before closing. Inside Dainty Pear, we ate at the Olive Press Cafe for dinner and then went back to Katey's to sit in her hot tub! We missed Ashley though.

We also went on a double date with Heidi and Kyle to go see Wicked For Good together!

Loved it. Not as much as the first one, but still good.

And this is Kohen's cute little turkey dressed as Kyle. He made it all by himself.

Today Kasen gave his very first ever talk in Sacrament meeting and even wrote it all by himself! He introduced one of the new Christmas Hymns, Star Bright and talked about Samuel prophesying about the new star and that God keeps his promises. Great job Kasen!

When Bishop was asking him to speak he called Kasen calculator. He forgets his name, but calls him calculator because of some encounter they had once that made him think Kasen is a calculator. lol

 Have you ever been in one of those lessons where the teacher asks you to raise your hand if your life turned out exactly how you thought it would and everyone chuckles because of course nobody is going to raise their hand... but what if I want to? Because sometimes I do.

When I think about when I was younger and how I wanted my life to turn out, this is it. My life has been everything I always wanted it to be. I have been SO blessed. Everything I planned so far has happened. I served a mission, dated for over a year before marrying a RM in the temple, someone that works hard and has never once even yelled at me, graduated from college before having kids. I always wanted 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls about 2 years apart. Which didn't happen exactly, but just the way it needed to be. I get to stay home with them and have a front row seat to them growing up, we have family close by, a house we can afford, living debt free, all of us are healthy, we're able to go do fun things together and it is absolutely the dream that I had for my life.

That doesn't mean that we have never experienced anything hard, but at the same time I already knew hard things would happen. They happen to everyone. So while I haven't known exactly which hard things would happen, that fact that they have was already anticipated so it was still part of what I envisioned for my life.

I've gone through parents divorcing, leaving on a mission to a foreign country, Kyle losing his job, then living apart for almost a year, secondary infertility, miscarriage, gestational diabetes, another parents divorce, a NICU baby, family members not wanting to talk to me anymore, death, and many smaller heartaches in between.

Anything COULD happen. There are so many what ifs that run through my head sometimes. What if I got cancer? What if Kyle were killed in the line of duty? What if we got into a huge car accident? I'm not one of those people that doesn't think anything bad won't ever happen to me. I fully expect bad things to happen sometimes. Because that is part of mortality. And when they do it makes me thankful for the gospel because just living the gospel helps me avoid and minimize so many unnecessary struggles. It is such great risk management! I don't have to worry about the stresses that can accompany drugs, alcohol, addictions, immorality etc. And when bad things do happen because of things outside of my control like others poor choices or life in general I can still rely on God and know that He will help my burdens feel lighter. I can still feel peace, joy and hope regardless of my circumstances. I can still learn something to help bless or connect with others and bring me closer to my Savior.

I'm so thankful for how things have turned out. For a million blessings I have in my life and the little choices I have made to get me here. Family, friends, health, happiness, warmth and the knowledge that it all comes from a loving Father in Heaven.

So blessed with this beautiful life.

Baby Kolt

Oh my baby Kolt. He has started calling himself baby and it is the cutest thing!

"baby turn?"

"baby comin!"

I love how he says "nim nim" for M&Ms, always wants his "winow down" in the car and likes to watch "foop-ball" with dad. He's getting better at helping to "Cleam up" too!

He is obsessed with my chapstick. He knows all 3 places I keep chapstick and will make the rounds multiple times a day asking for chapstick.

His language has exploded. We're definitely not worried about him talking like we were at his 2yr appointment. And he's mostly stopped throwing his head against his door now that the beading has completely separated from the corner of the wall. 

He's getting better at staying in his bed if we leave the door open for him too.

He still LOVES lining up all the cars. He moves them from one spot to another and then back again, driving them to where he wants them to be. I love it so much. This IS one of those things I'll miss seeing someday.

No cavities at the dentist!

And this finger gun thing is what he's started to do when he's mad at you. I think it's his way of threatening to flick us. Haha

Kyle has tried putting him on the toilet a handful of times, but I was going to wait till after the holidays to really try. Well, on November 20th he got really excited about it and actually both peed and pooped in the potty for the first time! He got stickers and treats, wanted his underwear on and woke up dry the next morning. He's had accidents since then, but he's doing pretty well.

Kyle and I were laughing so hard this week because Kolt walked into our room, sneezed and then said, "Achoo." Haha

He also says "yoink" when he grabs something and has started saying "banana boo boo" when he wants us to chase him.

We love you Kolt!

Philadelphia, PA

My brother, Josh moved to Philadelphia a couple years ago for ENT Residency and we missed him so Kyle planned us a trip to go visit their family last week!

We flew in on Wednesday and on the way home from the airport they took us to dinner at both Pat and Geno's Steaks. They are right across the street from each other so we tried both. Kyle loved the cheese whiz, but I prefer mine without it.

Thursday afternoon we went over to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. It is massive and has all sorts of places to pick from, but the coolest part is that no chains or franchises are allowed in there so they are all family owned. When we got back to their house, Oliver showed me all of his chickens and we played some baseball outside.

That night Kyle and I went over to the Philadelphia temple to do sealings together. The 2 other couples there with us were both from Utah too.

On our way home we tried another place called Dalessandro's Steaks that was my favorite one we tried! I also learned that they do not put Philadelphia Cream Cheese on their Philly Cheese Steaks. I've always thought they did... Also, they are cash only so we were running around to an ATM, came back and saw that they had one there the whole time!

Friday afternoon we headed over to tour the US Mint, where they make money. Wednesday was also the very last day any pennies would be made so that was cool that we got to go there the week that happened.

We walked over to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The government shutdown also ended that week, but they decided that Independence Hall won't reopen until next year so we didn't get to walk through it.

Afterwards we walked down to eat at Oh Brother, where Kyle tried another Philly. I was the only one that knew that the man in the mural of all the Philly people was Bob Saget, apparently from Philly.

On the way home we stopped for dessert and C&C Creamery for some water ice! So good!

We went home and played some Taco Cat Goat CHEESE PIZZA! with the kids then some Priceless with the adults. Marissa won, but it was a very close game between all of us.

 

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Hershey's Chocolate world. We rode the ride to see how chocolate is made, then picked out a toy and treat for each of our kids and Kyle got to hug his most favorite candy!

Throwback to 2006

From there we went to Gettysburg. More men died during the Battle of Gettysburg than in any other battle on American soil before or since. It was the turning point in the Civil War. We walked through the museum there and then each of us picked which memorial we wanted to drive to see. 

Josh picked the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. It has a natural gas flame burning up at the top that never goes out.

Marissa picked the Pennsylvania Memorial. We walked up a big spiral staircase to look out from the top. Then Kyle picked East Cemetery Hill to visit. We ran out of daylight to visit anymore, but it's okay cause I visited Little Round Top when I was here in 2006.

For dinner we stopped in Lancaster at Shady Maple Smorgasbord. It was a ginormous all you can eat place that was much more expensive than Kyle or I anticipated. But we ate salmon, steak and shrimp so maybe we got our monies worth?

Sunday we woke up even earlier to go spend the day in New York! When Kyle started planning this trip he first looked to Green Bays schedule and came when they were playing in New York so he and Josh could go to a game.

We took the Staten Island Ferry over to the city, walked past the Wall Street Bull and then stopped by the 9/11 Memorial on our way to the Empire State Building.

We got tickets to go all the way up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and I could not believe how much my ears were popping on the way up! The view was pretty spectacular though!

They boys had to hurry to their game, but Marissa and I walked up to Times Square to have lunch at the Stardust Diner. The waiters there sing broadway songs there while you eat and it was so much fun! Oliver especially loved the confetti.

We walked past the Rockafellar Center Christmas Tree, but it was covered in scaffolding to be decorated. We visited the FDNY Fire Zone, FAO Schwartz, the Lego store and a bookstore.

We also stopped at the Magnolia Bakery for some hot chocolate and key lime cheesecake. It was divine. I will be thinking about it for a while.

Kyle was so happy the Packers beat the Giants! He's been to 3 Packers games now, but this was the first time he's seen them win. Go Pack Go! The boys met us back at Times Square and the last thing Kyle wanted was to have NY pizza so we stopped at Joe's Pizza (seen on Spiderman) and had some legit and very satisfying NY pizza. Kyle gives Marissa's travel agency 5 stars! We fit it all in and it all worked out perfectly.

Right before this picture on the subway was taken, Kyle went to sit down right as the subway started going and he made eye contact with the woman sitting across from us as he fell into his seat exclaiming, "I almost died!" and she had a good giggle Haha He says he hopes she always remembers him when she rides the subway now.

Monday morning I wanted to visit Delaware, because it's one of the states I had never been to. Delaware is number 29 and the only new state I've visited, out of the 9 states I've been to this year. 

I was trying to look for something to visit that wasn't too far away and found a couple "lighthouses". One was Bellevue Rear Range Lighthouse, which can be seen from Wilmington Port Terminal, but access is restricted. So we went to Marcus Hook Rear Range and it's not even on the water. It's up in a neighborhood on the hill, literally in someone's backyard. Really weird. So then we left Delaware and stopped for one last Philly and water ice, (watched Josh's car turn 200,000 miles) before the airport.

This trip was incredible. We packed in so many fun things and thank you Josh for driving us around everywhere! We had so much fun hanging out with their family. Thank you for everyone back home taking care of our kids too.

Trip of a lifetime.