Happy 5th Birthday Jacob!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Jacob! I cannot believe my baby is 5. I had mixed emotions last night as I contemplated my little guy turning 5 and heading to Kindergarten next year. I'm not ready for this! Where did the time go?

Jacob had a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends. Sweet Darci took him out to his birthday lunch at McDonald's. Then we had Cafe Rio for dinner and cousins and grandparents over for cake and ice cream. Last Saturday we had a birthday party for him at the karate studio and he even had the chance to cut his cake with a real Samurai sword. He was so excited.

We are so blessed to have this sweet boy in our family. He can be a handful, but he has a smile that lights up a room. His laugh comes all the way from his toes and it is contagious. He is almost always happy. He is tender and loving and is so good at school. He is a real treasure to our family. Happy Birthday sweet Jacob!

Cutting the cake with a sword

Rescue City Center. Police and fire trucks. What more could a boy want?!

Remote controlled Jeep

He has been driving all day!

Love that smile!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! We love you and are so glad you have come into our lives and touched us for the better. Be safe and healthy and may we always remember the greatest gift of this season!

Something that rarely happens in St. George....

And it happened twice in the same week!!!!!! I had the chance to teach the kids how to build a snowman and snow fort. So much fun!!!

This past month

It's been a month since I have written. How is life so much more busier now that Marshall isn't bishop? actually, I know why. It's because we no longer have all those blessings sustaining us and allowing us to do all that we needed to do when he was bishop. I don't miss him being bishop, but I do miss those blessings!

It has been an adventure of a month. It seemed that this month we were given health issues for our trials. My dad had surgery on his bladder and was found to have the most aggressive form of bladder cancer. Thankfully, the doctor was able to get all of the tumor out and bladder cancer tends to stay in the bladder. He goes into surgery on December 13th for a check-up to see if the cancer has come back. It is a painful surgery to recover from. It has been very sobering having him go through this. He's not allowed to do this! He is doing well and feeling great so hopefully this next surgery will find all well with him.

My sister was hospitalized for a few days from having her intestines back-up and overflow back into her system. It seems she will have to have surgery sometime soon to take care of the bad parts of her intestines. It's not any fun and we worry about her, but also hope this scare will encourage to take better care of herself.

And I had the experience of having an ovarian cyst that was 6 cm big. I had this horrid pelvic pain that would come and go and really put a damper on my active lifestyle. I was put on birth control pills (which I cannot take because they make me looney and feel like crud) for a few weeks until I had to stop because I was feeling so badly. Marshall somehow had the ability to do most of the cooking and let me rest as much as possible. The cyst thankfully popped, which was also painful, and I am pretty much back to normal.

Despite all these adventures, I was reminded that the Lord really is in charge and He knows what He is doing. Through our experiences we learn to put our trust in Him and move forward. He can help us find the strength, energy, and faith to continue on and hope for better days ahead. I could not do it without Him!