Friday Letters

Dear Children, you were kind of bored after being at the beach. Luckily we had one more trip to Mesa this summer. Dear Kade, you will 10 years old tomorrow. I cannot believe that my tiny little baby has grown up so fast. I am so proud of who you are choosing to be, because it is a choice. You are my little man, so cuddly and loving to me, so very unexpectedly funny. I love how your mind works because it entertains me. I love all of the many notes of love and pictures that you draw for me. I love that every day I will hear "I need to hug my Mom" and I get so so many of your big hugs. You are strong and brave, but you have kept your heart tender and loving. You were and will always be the answer to many prayers. I love you! Happy Birthday! Dear Mouse, you were spotted a couple of weeks ago. Will seemed unaffected, but the kids and I have certainly lost some sleep in fear of a dumb little mouse. But really it is gross and wrong for a mouse to live in the cupboards. It has hair! In the middle of the day The kids heard the snap and then there was screaming. I couldn't even look at it I literally get sick. The kids admired it for awhile and then put a paper towel over it until Will came home for lunch and saved the day. So I guess we don't have to move yet. Dear Frogs, goodness this house has seen it's share of frogs! BillyFrank grew from a tadpole to a  little frog, climbed up the side and escaped. Franky was set free for 10 min until Avary cried and then she went and searched for him. He actually jumped so high he knocked the lid off! Let them free and out of my kitchen!Update- frogs should not ride scooters. There was tragedy and limping, screaming, crying, oh the awfulness of it all! One word brings Avary to tears over Franky. I remind her he limped into the forest of weeds and must still be living with his froggy friends. Dear Jump Place, you were really fun. All the kids jumped their hearts out and got thrown off the mechanical bull a few times too. We discovered Hailey's hidden talent, bull riding! I had a little fun myself too. Dear Hospital, I do not like the memories that come back to me when I walk in these doors with my little boy. I know he is in good hands, but it nearly tears me apart to let them take him. Dear Will, once again sitting by my side in a hospital. Thank you! Dear Self, I don't do well with too much humidity. I'm tired and have a fro. Or witch hair as Will call it. And apparently it also affects my brain.

My Mr. Clark

You know, I've heard that blending families is not easy. There will be bumps in the road and compromise.

So far we have been enormously blessed. All of the kids get along and my biggest complaint is the mess that they make while playing together and staying up till all hours of the morning giggling. We are coming up on the teen years and I am praying that they all still love each other.

Thinking about our lives a year ago I wondered how Will feels about all the craziness that our life is full of and if he misses his quiet kind of single life back when his house stayed clean and his tape dispenser was always where he left it? We've had to deal with some pretty serious trials with my kids that would test anyone’s patience and commitment, except a Mother. Yet he stood by my side and by my children’s side, he has traveled to be with me at Dr. appointments and hospitals and sacrificed time and money, he has protected us and wiped away my tears, he has held my hand through it all. He spends all of his free time with our family and has gone as far as changing companies taking a pay cut so that he can be at church with us and be home more. (I asked him why in the world would you want to be home more ha) He is an endless jungle gym to 7 children who all love and adore him. We all fight over him. He makes me laugh every day. He looks me in the eye listens and communicates with me every single day no matter what time it is. He has fixed countless bike tires; I know he does so many things I’m sure he doesn't want to do. He is so patient with my weaknesses. He can be stubborn sometimes, but it only makes me laugh. He can be a little weird sometimes too, but that makes me laugh also cause I’m not weird at all. Smile.

I asked him the other night as we were going to bed if he missed his old life or if he wished it had turned out differently. His reply “sometimes you think you know what you want and what will make you happy…I know the Lord brought us together, He knew what would make me truly happy…who knew it would be 7 kids, a messy house, with a fort in the living room, a tad pole on the table and a frog on the kitchen counter…” (That was the state of things as we went to bed that night) I only hope that we can give back as much happiness as he gives to us for all that he sacrifices.

He is my best friend. I always want to be with him. It is true; Happiness is being married to your best friend. That way it doesn't matter what is going on in life as long as you are with the one you love.

I’m one lucky girl.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, you amaze me sometimes with how great you can be. Like when we spent endless hours in the car and you were all nearly perfect the whole time. Dear Temple, it was so nice to sit in the celestial room and listen to the rain falling on the stained glass windows with my husband next to me. Dear Road Trip, we had a lot of fun. 9 people in the burban for a long time and me in the front middle seat not in the most comfortable position. We had a blast at Ponto Beach in Carlsbad, Ca., watched the sunset on the beach, picked strawberries, ate strawberries in the grass at the San Diego Temple, toured the Mormon Battalion, went to church with 7 kids and nothing else not even a pencil and they were still quiet, visited family in Yuma, and got sunburned. It was so fun just being together. Although I did have 3/4 of a day trying not to be grumpy. No reason, I woke up that way I think. Dear Crazy, the morning after getting back we pile in the car again and drive to Tuscon for the day. While Will does some stuff for work we hit the Target and Kohls to try and get some school shopping done. Now as soon as I get in the car I just want to go to sleep. But I'd rather sit next to my husband in the car for hours than miss him all day. So silly, I know. Dear School Shopping, I don't like it. Dear Awesome/Awkward, having your button not just pop off, but having it actually break the middle of the button off! Hahaha this made me laugh a lot because it didn't happen to me. I don't wear clothes that tight I just move up to my fat clothes. Dear Will, I have loved spending the week with you and our kids. You make me smile and laugh every day. I feel so lucky to have you. Dear Self, I think I have gained 10 lbs in the last week from eating out so much. I think it's about time to do something about that. It's good to have so many different areas in life to improve on right?

Friday Letters

Dear Children, it has been one crazy week! You have all been good sports! You found a snake by the front door and Kade cut his leg climbing the tree. It needed stitches, but scars are cool right? Dear Family, it has been fun to see you so much lately. We have had to come so often I promise we will stop coming so much so you can maybe miss us. Dear Mesa, you were muggy and hot this week. But I got a lot of appointments taken care of. Dear Hailey, you look so cute in your new glasses. Lets keep them in one piece and maybe remember were they are. Dear Kade, you have made so much progress. You have worked hard on really hard things, you are learning things that a lot of adults never learn. I am so proud of you and all that you are. My little man. Dear Avary, you're adult teeth just decided to pop through after months and months of you missing four teeth. Each day they have noticeably grown. I will miss your adorable toothless smile! Dear Hazel, you have your dental work done with IV sedation, for good reason. You were so funny when you woke up, you kept saying you were blind and you needed glassed because you couldn't focus and were seeing double vision. You touched my face and asked why I had four eyes. You were so brave. Dear Dentist, I am glad I felt comfortable letting you take my baby from me. It helped to have Will with me and was a strange coincidence that you went to the fourth grade with Will and are close friends with a family that my sister is named after. It's a small world. Dear Tadpoles, it has been interesting to watch you transform into frogs. Cute little frogs. Dear Gila Valley Temple, you are so beautiful. I love being there with my husband. It's a nice break from the world. Dear Road Trip, packing our stuff and getting stuff ready to travel with 7 kids until 4am the night before is not the best idea. Being in town for one day in between is not the best idea either. Having the kids be awesome the whole way made me very happy. Dear Will, I love that you are always there to support me and my kids. It meant a lot to me that you drove to Mesa after work to be with me and Hazel for her Appointment. I love that my kids all run to you smiling and happy when they see you. I guess I do the same thing too. smile. Dear Self, you know I'm just going to do what I can and that is all I can do. I fall short every day but I try and that is the most important thing. If the people I love know that I love them every day then I will say I am being successful.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, it has been a good week. We got to do fun things. And we also had fun while doing them. Dear Storms, I love a good long thunderstorm! Unfortunately poor Hailey is still terrified of thunder. The kids were watching the storm roll in when the loudest house shaking thunder clap came out of no where. Hazel ran in screaming. Kade was out there screaming in excitement with Avary. And Hailey was sobbing in the house. Dear Fry Mesa, we forgot the camera. I couldn't have carried it anyway. It was a lot of fun. Even just the drive on the dirt road going over the bumps the kids were laughing and having fun. Catching crawdads, jumping off of rocks, swimming to the waterfall, with 7 kids! Emi caught a frog and kept it with her the whole time, even jumping off of rocks into the water with it. She put it in her water bottle and brought it home. Gross. They also brought home crawdads. We still have a bunch of tadpoles from the catwalk!!! While I was wading in the water a gigantic fish swam onto my leg, I mean huge, you could see it swimming around. I seem to attract all kinds of weird things. Dear Thatcher, apparently there is a tradition here that they set off a cannon at 5:00am and then the fire/policemen drive up and down every street in town blaring their sirens honking their horns. I guess we are lucky to know Wes who drove into our driveway and gave us our very own alarm! The kids said he went up and down our street lots of times with the firetruck. He woke everyone up...except for me. Haha I slept right through it all and never heard a thing. I guess it was super loud. I told you I have been tired! Dear Independence Day, Although there are many things that are going on in our country that are just plain stupid, there is no other way to put it, that is not what it means to be an American. I am still proud to be an American and what it truly means. Dear Fireworks, after the kids stopped complaining about how this is not Heber we got to sit and watch the fireworks after burning some sparklers. Dear Will, I love our family. And I love you. You make me laugh. Even if you do smash a roach with you hand(a thin grocery bag between is still gross) put it in the toilet after I get upset and then NOT flush it. So when I wake up to pee in the night there is a roach staring at me. And even when you flush a dead bloated frog down the toilet! You flush a big frog, but not a roach? Smile. Dear Self, I have been so exhausted! Why! It drives me crazy. So tired that I fell asleep while talking..in the middle of my sentence I start dreaming and tell Hailey to get her hand out of the sugar....she got very defensive and a little confused. I quickly changed the subject and tried to pretend that didn't just happen. What sugar?

The Cat Walk

We drove all the way to the catwalk in New Mexico only for the actual Catwalk to be fenced off from rock damage. So we played in the creek.

It was a fun day.

Kade caught a frog. And the water was freezing. 

But it was so beautiful and the smell of the water and trees together was perfect.

We came home with a caterpillar and 8 tadpoles!

It was happy. I loved watching all of the kids explore. 

And having a whole day with my Will.

Willvenge

While eating watermelon Will decided to spit a seed straight up in the air right above me. It came down and splat right onto my neck. (Yes, Ranell I know. I know.)

So naturally I spit one back at him sticking to his ear.

I bet he always wanted to know what he would look like with an ear ring anyways.

Me and the kids got a good laugh out of it.

Believe me he deserves what ever he gets in this regard.