What a Humbling Experience!

I've posted before about my connection and friendship with author, Jason Wright. He's such a great guy and our family has so much fun with him when he's in town, texting, Facebook-ing, etc. Last weekend when the girls and I were at Time Out for Women, there were a couple of times when three or more of us were texting him at the same time! Pretty funny!!

I teach The Seventeen Second Miracle each year in my 9th grade English classes. It's so much fun to see the kids change their perspective and start looking for ways to serve others or recognize ways they have been served in small ways. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and curl up with a Diet Coke (Lime, of course) and enjoy!!

Each week, Jason contributes an article to the Deseret News. As usual, they are inspirational, thought-provoking, and they always get me thinking about how to be a better person. (More often than not, they're pretty darn funny, too...) Anyway, today I was reading SSM with my kids and we get to Chapter 17...a personal favorite (you'll see why when you read it... :) ). I wrote on Jason's wall telling him where we were in the reading and that the kids were really enjoying it. He referred me to the email I'd automatically received about his DN article being available. In a quiet moment, I clicked on the link and began reading. HOLY COW WAS I SURPRISED!!! And humbled!!! And SHOCKED!!!!! I'm not gonna lie...it was pretty cool!!

Check it out!

 

WOW!! I can't believe where the time has gone!

I look at blogs every day. I get so sad when they aren't updated frequently so I can "stalk" and see what's going on with other people. How in the world has four months flown by and I haven't taken the time to update our lives? Mallorie told me a long time ago I needed to do it so she'd have something to do when she's feeding Drew in the middle of the night. I. FAILED!! Now he's sleeping almost through the night every night and if he's not, he takes a quick bottle and goes right back to bed. Sorry Mal!! Bad Grandma!!

However, in my defense, the past four months have been

• Amazing
• Wonderful
• Horrible
• Stressful
• Unbelievable
• Exciting
• You name the emotion/experience...we've had it! (Sometimes more than once!!)

There's no way to play catch up with everything and I know no one would want to read it anyway so here are a FEW brief updates:

Drew is four months old and absolutely adorable. Mal brings him to see us often which is FABULOUS!! Everyone told us how great grandkids are...now I completely understand! Here are a few quick little pictures I have on this computer...I have more on others.

 Cute little booger in the Halloween t-shirt and jeans I got him. 

Our little hunter in his Halloween costume. Pictures taken at Busath Photographers. He was the hunter, Mal was Little Red Riding Hood, Tom the wolf. LOVE that grin!!

Baby attacked by an alligator...that's a Florida gator BTW. 

Ya...Grandpa isn't very whooped! Drew fell asleep on him while he was sitting up on the couch the other night. Bob carefully laid down on the floor and they were both out like a light. It was all we could do to get him away from old Gramps so he could go home. So fun!!

Zack, Kenzi, and their little punkin' are progressing right along. The Dr. told them in September he was 90% sure they were having a girl. We were so excited and promptly went out to buy all the pink fabric we could find along with designing all the bedding in the most adorable browns, pinks, greens, etc. Kenzi and I were having a blast working on it and had it about 80% finished. On the Thursday of UEA weekend, Kenzi's mom and I went with them for the "big" ultrasound. As we stood there watching, the tech said, "And there he is...your little boy!" WHAT???????? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING US??????? Needless to say, we asked her to check, re-check, and check again! YEP...there's absolutely no denying it! Our little Reagan is now WYATT!! (Note: we even asked her to look harder to see if there were two babies in there...) So, the cute pink stuff is boxed up for another time and we went shopping for moose, trees, and outdoorsy stuff. It's cute and we're excited to sew for a boy again. :)

Sam and Maddi keep us entertained! Sam is working at Busath almost full-time and going to Weber about 3/4 time. She keeps us laughing each day with her "Public Transportation Story of the Day" (she rides the bus and FrontRunner to Ogden and Salt Lake each day). It's SOOOO great having her home! Maddi is a hoot and keeps us on our toes with her dating and "boy drama." She's working almost full-time at Zions Bank and LOVES it!! It's so much fun to watch them together again...not so much fun to watch them fight like sisters but, at this point, the good times outweigh the bad. Thank heavens they grow up!! :)

Bob has worked a lot of overtime, went to Detroit for training, went Deer Hunting, and keeps busy working on cars. It's a never ending job but we're so grateful he can do it! 

I'm through the first term of school! HALLELUJAH!! I've never felt so disconnected, unprepared, overwhelmed, you name it! I've talked to other teachers and they all say the same thing! We all think we have different reasons for it but bottom line, this is a TOUGH year!! At this point...all we can say is one down, three more to go! :P

I had sinus surgery number four the middle of September. I finally got officially "sick" (HAHAHA!!) of being sick all the time and went to my favorite ENT. He's been home from serving as Mission President for a year so I decided it was time to go see him again. Of course, he said I should have had it done sooner...the last one was 15+ years ago. At this point, I'm still not so sure I'm glad I had it done. I just can't seem to get over it! They tried to pull the "age card" on me and tell me I'm not as young as I was when it was done before...ya...thanks a lot! They also said it was incredibly extensive and would take quite a while to recover. Ya think? And...now I feel like I've got another sinus infection on top of it all. REALLY? I thought the surgery was supposed to stop that for Pete's sake! Of course, he's out of town for a week and I don't want to start with someone else until he gets back. So...here we go again! :(

There's a LOT more going on...some good...some not so great. But, in the long-run, know we're all happy, healthy, and loving each other! 

Andrew is here!!

Wednesday, June 29, Mal was supposed to be induced in the evening. I was going to go up and help her finish up a few things around the house before they went to the hospital. When I called to make arrangements to head up, I noticed she didn't sound too great. When I asked what she was doing, she said, "Just sitting at the hospital..." The little stink got started Tuesday night and "wanted to surprise us!" HA!! She was at a 6 and said she'd call after the nurse came to check her the next time.

Bob came home and when we couldn't get hold of her to see how things were progressing, we decided to head over to the hospital. We were totally shocked when the nurse told us she was "delivering." She'd gone from a 6 at 11:40am to delivering by 1:30.

Andrew Thomas Forbes was born at 1:50pm weighing 7lbs 15oz and was 20.5" long. He's got a full head of dark hair and is beautiful!! We couldn't be more proud of him and are thrilled to be grandparents!!

About an hour old...so incredibly alert and bright-eyed!

Yep...we're proud grandparents!

He's totally whooped!

Auntie Tusiga! (She was one of Sammi's companions in the mission...Sister Lealaogata. She's adopted herself into our family and we LOVE it!!)

Uncle Zacky and Aunt Kenzi-poo

Proud Aunt Sammi!

Aunt Maddi is in love!

Zack looks scared but not really. :)

Cute little family

So adorable!!

Fun with an Aussie!

Sammi had the opportunity to be companions with a sister doing her "outbound" mission from Temple Square around Christmas time last year. Demelza Katterfeld is from Perth, Australia and served the same time Sammi was out. They became "fast friends" during their four weeks together and then we were able to meet her just before she left her mission. We instantly fell in love and looked forward to the time she could come to visit. Well...that time has come and it's been a BLAST!!!

Saturday night, we invited a bunch of the Florida Ft. Lauderdale missionaries and their families over for a BBQ. We ended up with about 40 people in our backyard and it was FABULOUS!!! There were quite a few of the RMs that we had already met but some we hadn't plus a great family I had emailed and been friends with on Facebook. It was really a lot of fun!

Bob, Zack and our nephew, Brady, grilling the grub.

(Bob was NOT wanting a picture at that moment...can you tell?)

One of about 5 platters of food going up on the deck! YUMMY!!

Kenzi and our niece, Michelle, chatting away.

Maddi & Joshy-poo

Joshy LOVES him some pasta!! :)

The GREAT Florida Ft. Lauderdale missionaries!!!

(front: Breanna Crane, Mikayla Barros, Becky Gardner, Sister Holdstock, Sammi, Demi Katterfeld, Whitney Clegg, Travis Hansen, Ben Parry)

(back: Clark Wilcox, **Mendenhall, Chaz Ricks, AJ Gubernick, **Hone, Elder Holdstock, Jaron Wardle, Ainsley Felton, **Lowder, Steve Mc**, Derek Dube)

Hmmm...Brady?

Great time visiting!

S'mores!!

Demi, Chaz, and Tyler Voorhes

Then, Monday, we took Demi and Sammi 4-wheeling up above Bountiful and Farmington. Demi hadn't been to the Utah mountains and hadn't ever been 4-wheeling. We bought the "wheelers" while Sammi was on her mission so she hadn't had a chance to ride them yet. What a BLAST!!! The weather was perfect; the scenery BEAUTIFUL!!! 

Sammi & Demi in the parking lot by the "B" in Bountiful.

Bob giving Sammi riding lessons

Oh ya...she's got it! :)

Demi learning the tricks

Yep...she's got it too! :)

As high as we could go (the gates were shut). We wanted to take pictures to show Demi's mom and dad how high she went in the mountains. See the Temple between them?

SNOW!! (Demi was so excited with how close we were. We wanted to get her right to it...)

Beautiful little spring. The water was FREEZING!!

Dirty face...a sign of a GREAT time! :)

The Farmington "river"!! It was running so high and so fast!!

I love those grins!!

Farmington Fire Break parking lot

At the top of the fire break road...as far as we could go.

The gang! It was SOOOO fun!!

Demi crossing the "river"

She's getting there...slowly...

SHE DID IT!!!!

Back at the truck. We made it and everyone lived!!!

After riding, we decided Demi needed to experience a true "Davis County" delicacy...a Pace's Rainbow! YUMMY!!!!!