Seeing the beauty in weeds.

I had to speak in church today and while preparing my talk I was able to have what I consider a sweet moment with my Heavenly Father. As today was approaching and I was getting down to those last few days to write my talk and doing the hard part of gathering all your thoughts and actually putting them into a form of a talk. I don't mind preparing talks because it a sweet little reminder of how good it feels when you really take time to study but I don't feel like I am very good at expressing myself in a talk form. I feel more comfortable in a classroom setting where people can chime in as needed and you can have discussions. English class was never my strength and I question my knowledge of remembering how to give an appropriate talk. I feel that the good talks usually have stories that help remember what is being taught and sadly I feel that I can't remember much and don't have many stories I am able to share. Its always nice when you are preparing a talk and you see the truths you are studying and going to be teaching and sharing happening right before your own eyes. 

I was assigned to give a talk on President Nelson's conference talk titled " Drawing the Powers of Jesus Christ in our lives". I had been listening and studying it as well as other talks on the same subject and trying to figure out how to share all these wonderful things you read without just reading the whole talk for your own talk ha! Heavenly Father allowed me to have a simple experience happen to me which could sound really silly to anyone else. It all starts with me enjoying the yellow dandelions in the big field of grass and then while we are at the park I watch the man use the lawn mower to cut the grass and soon enough the field was now a freshly cut field of green grass. It helped me relate it to the atonement. (Talk will be posted below)

As I was finishing up my talk last night I questioned if dandelions were really considered weeds or not because I didn't want to be relating dandelions to "weeds in our life" if they actually weren't. I start researching..meaning googling "are dandelions weeds". You can find quite a few articles about dandelions-some trying to help you get rid of them and some defending these "flowers" and showing all the benefits they bring. The first thing I read was "Only in the twentieth century did humans decide that the dandelion was a weed. Before the invention of lawns, the golden blossoms and lion-toothed leaves were more likely to be praised as a bounty of food, medicine, and magic." As I go on reading a little more because health related things interest me I also learn how they help with the soil. It stated that "dandelions aerate and condition distressed soil. The long, strong taproots of dandelions push through into dry, cracked, compacted earth, helping to break it up, create channels for air and water to penetrate, and maintain a loose soil structure that allows earthworms to do their work. The plants draw calcium, iron, and potassium from deep in the earth into their leaves. When they die and decompose, they leave behind mineral-rich organic matter that nourishes the soil" In that moment I was like WOW! I had related these dandelion weeds to the hard challenges, trails, temptations, heartache, sadness, pain etc in our lives and just like dandelions help the soil in that moment I knew it was just like those negative challenge can help our SOUL.  If you go back and read that again you can relate what I dandelion does to the soil to how trails in our lives help in similar ways. Help dry compacted cracked earth...help hardheartedness. Create channels for air and water to penetrate could be related to many different things. They draw those minerals into their lives just as trials can help draw things into our lives...and so on. But what stood out to me the most was probably the fact that they leave behind mineral-rich ORGANIC matter the nourishes the soil...hard challenges in life can be nourishing the SOUL. 

In that moment I realize how Heavenly Father had that all play out for me which was just a neat correlation that again to other people might sound silly. It was getting late but I was on that spiritual high and was enjoying this experience of relating trails to dandelion weeds. I clicked on another article and what I read next just made me literally laugh out loud. It said " The war on dandelions is a war we cannot win. These plants are here to stay. By developing more environmentally sound lawn and yard care practices we can limit the population of dandelions somewhat, but face it, they are now apart of our landscape. And remember, its just a little plant, its not the second coming of Satan. Take a deep breath, relax and enjoy your lawn more. Life's too short to get all bent out of shape by a little plant." Like seriously did this random person who wrote this article know I was relating these to the gospel? Trails, temptations, heartache, sadness, pain etc are here to stay while in this mortal life (war on dandelions is here to stay) but by developing a good foundation built upon christ and drawing on the powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ (developing more environmentally sound lawn and yard care practices) we can limit them but lets face it we can't avoid them completely. Take a deep breath and enjoy your life more instead of dwelling on the weeds. The end of the article asks "Is Dandelion an unwanted weed or a beautiful healing flower that pops up in your yard every spring". 

In that moment I felt that Heavenly Father showed me how he has a little sense of humor and I felt that connection to Him in a different way then I have felt before that even when I tell this story to someone they will not fully be able to understand and experience it and I am grateful for that experience but as I learned when I was studying for my talk without my agency to choose to study this subject I would have never had this opportunity to cherish. :) Something as simple and silly as this was a way I felt closer to my Heavenly Father. When we put ourselves in a situation to feel of His love He is always there reaching out ready to give it to us. We have to act and not just expect to be acted upon.


Here is my talk even though I didn't read it word for word and I added things here and there.

Just the other day my kids and I were walking to the park and I passed a big green grass area that had little yellow flowers popping up all over and just couldn’t help but think how beautiful it looked. I made my kids stop and take a picture to remember and soak in that moment. After the picture I kinda laughed to myself thinking its funny how these little yellow flowers popping out all over the grass were actually just dandelion weeds but looked so beautiful to me even though they are considered weeds and usually are unwanted. I realized though it is all about perspective. We can see beauty in the weeds. Since living in Las Vegas the last 5 years it’s a nice pleasant change to see these bright beautiful colors even if they are considered weeds. But lets be honest none of us really want dandelions all over our front yard just like none of us really want a bunch of “weeds” in our lives. These weeds can represent different things for each of us-they can be trials and challenges, temptations, heartache, sadness, pain and any of those negative challenges we have in this mortal life. But We all have to unavoidably deal with these unpleasant weeds that pop up all over in our lives.

As we played at the park over the next little while I watched as a man used this nice ride on lawn mower to cut the grass and when the field was done it was a smooth nice freshly cut field of grass. It might seem silly but in that moment I thought how anyone could have slowly put surely picked every one of those dandelions off that grass if we wanted to but that lawn mower he used made the process so much easier and efficient. Just as in this mortal life we can get through challenges and heartache by ourselves but if we draw on the power of Jesus Christ Atonement it can help ease the burden.

Matthew 11--28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

President Nelson said We live in a most difficult dispensation. Challenges, controversies, and complexities swirl around us. He warned us that in our day the adversary would stir up anger in the hearts of men and lead them astray.¹ 

He continues-" Our Heavenly Father never intended that we would deal with the maze of personal problems and social issues on our own.God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son² to help us. And His Son, Jesus Christ, gave His life for us. ALL so that we could have access to GODLY POWER—power sufficient to deal with the burdens, obstacles, and temptations of our day.

How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?

He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.

How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?

He sent his Son to walk with men on earth, that we may know.

How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?

He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath.

What does the Father ask of us? What do the scriptures say?

Have faith, have hope, live like his Son, help others on their way.

What does he ask? Live like his Son.

When you think about teaching someone about the Atonement of Jesus Christ I believe the first things a lot of us teach is that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we can repent and be cleansed-which is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. 

But as Elder Bednar said “we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us—not only to direct us but also to empower us. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints—We may mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.

Relating back to those dandelion weeds in the grass…We don’t need to suffer pulling each of those weeds out one by one and then even going with little scissors to cut the grass down to the right size to make it look really nice. We have that lawn mower already paid for and sitting right there waiting for us to use it. But we have to make that choice to actually use it. So how do we choose to Come unto Christ and access that power?

President Nelson says We begin by learning about Him. The more we know about the Savior’s ministry and mission⁷—the more we understand His doctrine⁸ and what He did for us—the more we know that He can provide the power that we need for our lives.

How convenient that this year we are studying the saviors life in the New Testament this year individually and with the family. 

President nelson also suggested or even challenged to-Study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works.⁹ He invites to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become your personal core curriculum.¹⁰

He did that challenge himself and knew of the benefit of doing it and said “my wife asked me what impact it had on me. I told her, “I am a different man!”

He also urges us to Study the Living Christ. I feel like most of us that are here are striving to become better so we he said he was a different man it makes me curious what impact it can have on us if we take on the challenge if you haven’t done so already. 

President nelson says As we invest time in learning about the Savior and His atoning sacrifice, we are drawn to participate in another key element to accessing His power: we choose to have faith in Him and follow Him.

There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought.¹⁵ But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.¹⁶

True disciples of Jesus Christ are willing to stand out, speak up, and be different from the people of the world. They are undaunted, devoted, and courageous.

I have been reminded repeatedly when I am not feeling motivated that the Natural man is an enemy to God who I would say naturally wants the easy way out or to be lazy. As Satan also convinces us Its easier to just turn on the tv or sit on your phone and relax then to get out your scriptures and study. Its easier to not fit into your schedule a temple visit. Its easier to not minister and think about others because we are too busy with our own life. Its easier to sit home on the weekend then to get ready and come to church and in my stage of life take care of crazy kids at church. And to even put that on another level its easier to just show up to church and just have them teach you want you need to learn instead of putting forth your own effort to really study and learn for yourself. Its easier to make excuses or blame others and not be accountable. 

I am humbled as I have to be honest and admit that I could do a better job myself and put more effort into these things that are important especially scripture study. ( I don't believe God wants us to feel guilty about it I believe he repeated reminds us because he wants us to feel his love-to use the Atonement each week as we partake in the sacrament and see where we can improve. ) I would like to use the excuse as we just moved and I have young kids and don’t have much time to myself but I feel like any phase of life we can have excuses. One of the quotes I have always love is from

Richard G Scott: Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!

We need to reach up in Faith to draw on the powers of Jesus Christ. As we recently studied about the women who had been sick for 12 years who said “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”

President Nelson said Her physical stretching was symbolic of her spiritual stretching.

He continues-When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.²¹

Isn’t it amazing that when we have true desire to make those righteous choices in our lives that God helps us find a way to make it happen and things usually seem to go a little more smoothly. We somehow find that we have more time, we have more patience, we have more love and understanding for others. Even the simple thing like my kids taking naps at the same time and I have that choice between the million things on my to do list or sit down and read my scripture I find myself being able to get more done when I put him first. Some people may call it coincidence but to me I feel my Heavenly Fathers love for me saying I see your effort. Other times I believe we might be tested us a little more to see where our priorities are and no one naps so I don’t get that perfect opportunity but I can choose to still find time and put forth that effort which I think that situation happens more than not for most of us. Our lives are filled with so many distractions and choices and that talk titled “Good better best” keeps coming to my mind over and over again. How we choose to spend our time shows our commitment to the Lord.

Another way president nelson says we can increase the Savior’s power in our lives is when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision. Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power.

He says: Covenant-keeping men and women seek for ways to keep themselves unspotted from the world so there will be nothing blocking their access to the Savior’s power. He gives the example of a couple who instead of listening to the radio chose to listen to conference talks. Think if there is possibly an area in your life that you could be changing into a better choice to help you draw on the savior’s power?

President Nelson says: Faith in Jesus Christ propels us to do things we otherwise would not do. Faith that motivates us to action gives us more access to His power.

You know that feeling when the spirit is so strong and you feel on a high and even your worries start to fade away-maybe you have felt this at a church meeting or activity, or at the temple, or reading your scriptures, or listening to conference this past weekend. That moment when the spirit is testifying to you that what you hear and feel is true and it motivates you. I believe He wants us to feel that way everyday. He wants your worldly worries to not seem as big of a deal so he gives us these tools to use so we can continue to feel his love for us. We have the agency to choose to use them.

Richard G Scott said: Because He respects your agency, Father in Heaven will never force you to pray to Him. But as you exercise that agency and include Him in every aspect of your daily life, your heart will begin to fill with peace. It will help you to manage those challenges from an eternal perspective. He even goes on to say that “Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life.”

When I brought my 3^rdchild home from the hospital I was a little worried about how I was going to handle life. I was told by my mom and a handful of others that adding that 3^rdchild can be a challenge. I had received in the mail that same day a wall hanging for my house with the scripture Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And that scripture is always a humble reminder that I have a choice to access that enabling power of atonement of Jesus Christ. 

 President Nelson said: There is no amorphous entity called “the Atonement” upon which we may call for succor, healing, forgiveness, or power. Jesus Christ is the source.

It is the Savior who paid the price for our sins and transgressions and blots them out on condition of our repentance. It is the Savior who delivers us from physical and spiritual death.

I believe as you access that power it can help you change your perspective in the challenges in your life. You can look at each of them as an opportunity for learning, growth and development. You can be humbled as you trust in Heavenly Fathers plan. You can start finding beauty in those weeds when you have that power from the atonement of Jesus Christ to help. I actually started researching about dandelions because I questioned if they really were weeds or not and there is quite a few articles that talk about the benefits of dandelions to use medically for us or even being good for the soil. I learned that they aerate and condition distressed soil. When they die and decompose, they leave behind mineral-rich organic matter that nourishes the soil. So is Dandelion an unwanted weed or a beautiful healing flower that pops up in your yard? We don’t always find happiness in those hard challenges but when we focus our life on the savior Jesus Christ we can find lasting joy.

Commit to "Try a little harder to be a little better"

Its funny how the same thing seems to be coming up in my mind and I feel like I need to write it down maybe to help me recommit each time I have these feelings...or promptings might be a better word. I was listening to "The Scripture Study Project" podcast and such a strong feeling of how I am spending my time each day came up again. Since moving I of course have been so busy with just trying to stay on top of things with the house and the kids plus all the unpacking that I don't have much time to just relax or do anything without thinking and knowing of all the things I do need to get done. I think about how I can better spend my time with my kids and how I can better spend my time with studying the scriptures and words of the prophets because I know those are the two most important things right now. Trying to balance just those two things with the household chores and responsibilities is hard with trying to make sure I am not wasting my time on things I just want to do with sitting down and relaxing-specifically with social media stuff. I have a hard time because I do get so many good things out of social media that I enjoy and make me a better person so I don't feel like I need to completely cut that out but I also constantly question with the talk "good better best" coming to mind. Yes those things I am looking at or reading are good and theres nothing bad about it but is there better things to be doing?..But of course you could say yeah you could be reading your scriptures all day or any relaxing moment because thats the "better" thing to be doing. I don't believe that is realistic as well but I do have to catch myself and make sure I have at least read that and spent that time that day studying. Its such a hard phase of life constantly being needed by my kids that when I do have some alone time or time that I can just sit there for a few moment that quick easy thing I enjoy doing is to hop on social media. I don't feel like I have a problem with it by any means but I can admit I can find better ways to spend my time still-so I definitely have room for improvement.

Anyways back to some thoughts on the podcast-so they were talking about how Jesus Christ already paid the price for us to make it back to Heaven but we need to be born again. Meaning He has the power that He could do all the work for us but He specifically knew that we needed to put in some work and be tested to see what we would do. And it got me thinking about how yes I am not doing anything really "sinful" by any means but you can't just be good to make it to Heaven you need to be born again having a true conversion yourself. You can just sit back and "be good" if thats all you want out of life. Honestly its not that hard to be good at this point in my life. But it can be much harder to choose the not so easy choice of just coasting through life. I need to really start applying myself and choosing each day how much I want to grow spiritually. I have to choose how much I want to change. I need to act and not just be acted upon. (I learned that in an institute class and it really stood out to me cause I have always been one that would rather be acted upon because it is the easier route) I would like to try to recommit to "try a little harder to be a little better". And thats really all that matters that we are trying each day to be a little better. With the new church curriculum it is reminding parents that is it our job and duty to teach our children and it really has help to remind me that I need to be spending more time studying and teaching my children as much as that is the harder thing to do sometimes but I am grateful for the push that the church is giving us. So many "changes" President Nelson has been helping us do our duties better! Basically the recurring theme that I keep being reminded of is that its your choice of how much you want out of this life. You choose how much you grow and learn. You choose how converted you truly are. You choose every day to become a better person or sit back and let the days pass you by being that good person you are. Everyone has the potential to do more and be greater but its our choice of what we want to do that can make the difference. Sounded like I'm trying to write a motivational speech I feel like now ha! One thing I would like to work on right now is with that alone time I have at night once I put the kids to bed it is soon much easier to choose to relax and sit in bed on my phone and find myself staying up too late..most the time I am not necessarily wasting my time because I am doing beneficial things but I need to limit that time I do it and I am now wanting to commit to scripture study time (I hope with Jesse) from 9-9:30 every night (or around then). That will hopefully give me an hour from 8-9 to finish cleaning up or doing what I need/want to do after I put the kids to bed. Baby steps of becoming better and thats somewhere for me to start right now..and hopefully I can add more soon. The more selfless I become the better I will spend my time.

Big Move

I am going to try to write the quick story to get us up to speed of where life is at right now. When we move down to Las Vegas Jesse said to me to expect to live there for about 3-5 years. At the time Corbin was about 21 months old and I was 7 months or so pregnant with Gavin. I was the most sad about leaving family and moving away but knowing we can sacrifice these years and see what the future olds for us. I was optimistic about moving but of course had the hopes of moving back to family. A year or two of being there is when I realized there could be a possibility of us moving somewhere else instead of back to Utah-different areas and state got brought up but nothing ever really serious just possible opportunities of job openings that could happen in the future. Jesse at one point even thought of just finding a completely different job and looking at other possibilities but those thoughts didn't last for too long-He went to the temple one time with the questions in his mind of what to do and got the answer of basically tough it out and stay. He shortly after got called into the Bishopric and he felt like that was a little confirmation to his answer he got as well. At a different later time when he was questioning again what should we do as a family he got the same answer of stay there and actually got put back into a new bishopric. Funny how God answers prayers some times. 

Anyways the last few months the possibility of moving got brought up again and it was kind of one of those things where I just had to keep living life like we weren't because of all the other times I worried and started researching for no reason because nothing happen from it. Well we found out the week before Christmas that Jesse could have the job of managing 5 stores but we would be moving to Portland then. Jesse immediately felt good about it and was excited for the position and opportunity. I was in denial and didn't really let it sink in but also in a panic questioning is this really happening...because if it was it was going to happen quickly. I had no reason to question Jesse in this new position because I overall knew it seemed right but I did make sure he knew it was the right choice for our family because the big change of moving for me and the kids is a lot more overall for us then for him. I questioned if he would enjoy the job, if the pay really made a difference, if the hours and time with us would change, how life would be there for us as a family, schooling, being further away from family. So many things race through my head of course but still I had an overall feeling of this is the right choice.

Jesse had his last day of work in Las Vegas the week before Christmas and then we drove up to Utah and enjoyed the holidays with Family not thinking too much about the move. Jesse started his new position as of Jan 1 and he started flying to work and staying in a hotel and flying back home on the weekends. I started to slowly pack up the house. I felt like there was so many last minute things I wanted to try to do in Vegas before we moved because I felt like I didn't want to regret not doing things we could have. We were able to do a few things but not every thing I would have hoped for because all my kids got sick!

(So I got distracted with kids and never finished writing this-surprise! but thought I would try to quickly finish)

I surprise myself with how I overall didn't feel completely overwhelmed packing up the house kinda of by myself since Jesse was away working most the time-he was very helpful when he was home but I wanted to spend quality family time together doing things and not just packing with our time together. I feel overall very blessed that I was at an emotionally and mentally good state. I had so many people from the ward offer to help with watching my kids, bringing me boxes and food, and just being there for support. The week of moving of course was a bit crazy. Trying to finish packing up all that stuff that takes a lot longer than you think, me having a hard time letting things go and just getting rid of it, and wanting to spend more time with friends before we move. Moving day I had Courtney and Roxana come over to help as well as Aunt Nancy-she was so sweet to help us out and even bad goodie bags for the kids for the long hours of driving in the car-so grateful for her help! The day of moving and packing up the truck is of course stressful and emotional. As we were packing it up we realized not everything was going to fit so we either had to get rid of stuff or the other option was to pay more money and have our additional stuff in other truck which is what we ended up having to do because there was too much stuff left to just get rid of. (A family of 6 the stuff you have can definitely add up and I wish I could minimize a little better...I say once I am done having babies I can at least get rid of all those boxes of baby clothes that add of for each gender)

It took longer than we thought to pack up the trailer and get ready to drive ourselves-the plan was to leave early afternoon and drive around 6 hours--we had a 16 or so hour drive ahead of us. We didn't end up leaving until around 5ish and so we changed our plans and only drove a few hours that Thursday night. Friday we planned on driving all day and we basically were driving in the middle of no where up through Nevada and then Oregon. Friday night got a little crazy as we were literally in the middle of no where pitch black in a snowstorm! Lets just say I got a little tense driving and we had to drive quite slow in order to know we were staying on the roads and wouldn't slide off in the crazy snowy weather. We finally made it to our hotel much later than we thought but thankfully we made it there safely. The plan was to drive those few last hours Saturday morning and meet the moving truck by Saturday afternoon. 

We started driving up a mountain Saturday morning and within 20 minutes it had snowed a good 3-4 inches-the weather was crazy. With Jesse driving his car we knew it wasn't the smartest idea to try to drive where we had no idea how the roads would be and we didn't feel safe. We turned back around and drove back to the hotel and sat there not exactly knowing what to do. I called the moving truck and had to let them know I didn't think we would be making it in time and they actually gladly rescheduled to meet the next morning. We knew we could take it slowly at that point and mapped out a different route we thought would be safer and knew eventually we would get there...and of course we did. We stayed an extra night in a hotel which probably ended up being better to be refreshed and really to unpack all of our things with the movers. Jesse and I both agreed we hope to not have to make that 20 hour drive with 4 kids and 2 cars in the crazy snowstorm again but it was quite the adventure and overall the kids did well-which I think having them be 2 and 2 in each car helped. I am grateful that Caden as a baby did overall well too or else that would have been more stressful having a screaming crying baby while driving.

I can't explain exactly how I feel about this move here but I just know it was the right thing as much as it is hard to move away from my friends and have this big change I just feel like good things are to come of it and I am grateful to know that even though I don't really know whats instore for us here. I feel sad to be further away from family but again I feel optimistic about this move and I feel like we will enjoy it here. I have always felt like I am pretty easy going and could probably be happy anywhere but my biggest worry moving to Washington is that everyone warned me about the rainy and gloomy skies. I didn't realize that I can suffer from a little seasonal depression until I moved to Vegas and realized how nice it is to have the sun all winter ( I think I will miss those mild winters there). The first week we were here it rained every day and we didn't really see anyone out-Corbin even mentioned how sad it seemed here because of the gloomy wet and no people around can really make you feel that way.

Jesse's mom, Jodie, was able to come out and help the week we moved here and I am so glad and grateful she did! It helped to get those essential things unpacked and feel like you could function somewhat normally. I was also able to go out and run some errands and buy a few things for our new house which can be quite difficult with kids. Having her help entertain the kids and doing the dishes was just what I needed to help make this transition smoother. 

The first time we went to Church it was a little discouraging because it looked like our ward was an "older" ward and it made me question if there were many in my phase of life to possibly make friends with. Now we have been 3 times and I am feeling better about it. I also feel like I am in a phase of life where I am busier and don't need to get out as much as I used to with young kids. We also hadn't seen anyone in our neighborhood so I was beginning to question if this was going to be rough for my kids not to have friends around either...and that has changed now too. Our next door neighbors, The Frost, have two little girls 7 and 5 that have come over and played and the kids love to play with each other! 

Jesse has been busy with work which is to be expected with starting a new position. I thought we would have a little more time as a family as far as him getting home a little earlier and being home on Saturdays which was a big perk to this new job and I believe once things get more settled we will and we can bond more as a family and that is something I am really looking forward to!

Things overall have gone very smoothly and I feel like we will enjoy it here especially as the weather warms up and we are able to get out and explore. This past week we were able to check out two trails by our house and we enjoy the outdoors together. I started the boys in baseball and I believe that will keep us really busy as well between that and soccer I might be crazy for signing them up for both but we will stay busy till summer! Thats not to say that we won't miss vegas and our friends but I am trying to stay positive and optimistic and choose to be happy here and what it has to offer! I am excited for what is in store here in Washington for us.