Matt is 15!

Matt turned 15 this year.  I can't believe how old my kids are getting!

His birthday was on General Conference Saturday and he was such a good sport to watch 6 hours of speakers on his special day.

For his birthday he wanted a room makeover.

So, he kicked Josh out and into the guest room, we got rid of the bunk beds, bought a full bed and mattress, desk, and desk chair for him.

 

He seemed pretty happy with the results...

Another thing Matt wanted was some LED lights...

Matt said he didn't want a birthday treat so I chose one for him just so he would have something to put candles on...

Matt is a joy to have in our home and we love him so much!

The next day we gathered as extended family and celebrated...

We sure love our Matt!  He is a light and a joy!

Goodbye AR :(

In October of 2018 my group of workout lady friends started attending Athletic Republic.

It was so great!  We had two amazing trainers during the time we were there and we loved it!

Circumstances changed and they had to close after three years.

We were so sad.  We had had such awesome experiences there together!

These pictures were taken on the last day of our class...October 1st 2021.

I snapped a couple of pics as everyone else tried to arrange themselves for the real picture...

These ladies are some of my best friends ever!

Megan, our sweet trainer and the woman that introduced me to cookie decorating :)

Every day after workout we would have anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes of therapy (talking :)

We struggled to find a gym that would work for our group but we finally decided to try a group class at Kubex taught by a woman we knew from an earlier gym.  The day we were going to start...Oct 4th, class was canceled because someone else in the class tested positive for COVID.  So, instead, our little group went on a lovely walk up Logan canyon.  It was seriously beautiful with all the fall leaves and good company.

Then, on October 6th, we started our journey at Kubex.

So far so good...and we hope to be there a while.

It is so sad that our gyms keep closing :(  I've been with most of these ladies now for over 4 years and this is the 3rd gym we've gone to.  Some of them have been together for longer than that and had 2 other gyms close on them...super frustrating but we just stick together and keep finding the next gym :)

 

Josh's Mission Call!!!

Since Josh has been working and waiting for his mission call he has had time to come up to the institute and take mission prep.  One day I was up there to watch some of Andy's peer to peer teachers and we all ran into each other and decided to have lunch together at the Institute Deli.

I just love these two guys!

Three weeks after Josh turned in his mission papers the call came.

Andy had been able to watch the status through his current calling so we knew that morning that it had been assigned.  I texted Josh at work and told him to look at his email on his break and let me know if it had come.  I was actually going in to Macey's for some groceries right as he texted me back and told me he had it.  After I was done shopping I went and spied him in the deli (he moved from the meat department since they could give him more hours in the deli...it was his second day there) and blew him a kiss.  He looked a bit embarrassed bless him.

 I had butterflies all day!  

Josh finished up work, picked up Matt and Abby from school and came home and did his job.

Then he got cleaned up and went up to the temple to open his call on his own.

He came home and I couldn't tell for sure if he was truly happy or just pretending to be so I took him aside and without prying too much asked how he was.  He said he was excited and that he thought I would be as well.  We invited all who could from the family to come to our house that night.  Mom and Dad and Jo were able to come and Nancy and Merill, Lyndi and Todd and some of their kids, Jenny and Mike and their kids, and Angie and James were all able to chime in via Zoom.  (Jo Face Timed T on his phone).

Josh read the letter and confidently declared he had been called to the Washington D.C. South mission English speaking!

This is truly incredible!

When Josh was a little boy he told us more than once that he wanted to serve in the Washington D.C. ASL mission.  I don't know where he got the sign language idea from but that was a thing...and we all remembered it so to have half of that little boy's dream come true is a beautiful tender mercy and a testament to God's mindfulness of us.

Josh says that looking back, he feels like a seed was planted when he was young and that this is definitely not a coincidence.

I love him!

Another cool thing is that Andy and Josh just got back from that area on their trip the month before.  He visited his mission without even knowing it :)

Here he is talking to the family on Zoom...

We enjoyed visiting for a while and talking about all the cool details and things!

He starts one week of home MTC on Dec. 27th.  So that most likely means he will only be missing one Christmas which is nice :)  It looks like his mission president was just put in a few months ago so he will mostly likely have him his whole mission.

So grateful for the support from loved ones in person and digitally!

This is the perfect call for our Josh!

We are so excited and thrilled for him!