Friday Letters

                                           

 my boy

Dear Children, you have had the best time playing with your cousins. I love to see you play and be lost in your own world of childhood summer. Dear Week, we crammed some stuff in there! Two trips to Mesa for the Dentist, Oral Surgeon, Orthodontist, Optometrist. We still have $ more dentist appointments to go! We took the whole fam to the Variety Show, which I loved, I thought it was so great. We watched the 24th Pioneer Parade while I was dripping sweat. And then had the dinner which caused me to go broke. The food was pricey and on top of that I got each person their own cotton candy all because I didn't want to share mine. And then enjoyed the fireworks. Dear Kaden, my little boy. You turned 11 yrs old. The time is going by way too fast. I can't quite accept that you are growing up. For your birthday Will took you and two of your friends off roading, then we took you too eat pizza and wings and then we all went to a movie. When we got home we had a new bike waiting for you. THEN you had a family party Mesa and Grandma accidentally gave you three $5's and $1 instead of two. Lucky. I'd say you had a great birthday. Dear Mesa, I just had to make appointments for the kids on the hottest day of the year 116 degrees. It was really hot. Dear Hailey, you are lucky your day at Sun Splash was the day after the hottest day of the year. You are also lucky you have Aunties that love you and give you make overs but still make you behave. Well, maybe that makes me lucky too:) Dear B+D, I was so glad we had lunch together. I really miss you guys. Dear Shoes, I never really understand how wearing a pair of shoes to church, and not even walking hardly at all can give me a pair of serious blisters on my (ring toe?) on both feet. I was sitting most of the time! Dear Awkward, it's always cool to rush for church and so you throw on your dress but cant quite reach to zip it all the way up, thinking let me have some one do that for me, then forget. And then walk into church during the opening hymn, sit down and have the person behind you zip it up the rest of the way...I was glad I sat in the row right in front of my sister...and that I wore my hair down. Maybe I should look in the mirror before I go anywhere. Dear Family, I miss girls night out. I don't know why we call it that cause we bring the boys too. And there's nothing like staying up late and laughing at funny stuff with your Sis. Dear Car Wash, I did that just so we could have a huge dust storm along with some rain. Your Welcome. Dear Will, you worked all weekend. I hope you enjoyed the quiet house cause I missed you way too much and I'm coming home. Dear Self, I'm not ready for school to start along with the millions of activities and things that go along with it. I could use another month of summer time. I am reminded daily how blessed I am. And every day I choose to be thankful.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, we have spent the week relaxing, kind of. You've played with friends and just kind of hung out all week. It's been nice. Dear Temple, a quick visit is still so edifying. I am a lucky girl to have the Temple less than 5 min away. Dear Avary, poor BabyCakes. You haven't felt well all week long. I hate it when you are sick. Dear To Do List, the same things have been on my list for a very, very long time. I've had to let some things go while attending to the more important. Like sanity, although I feel much more sane and at peace when the house is super clean and organized. sigh.  Dear Yoga, oh my friend, how I've missed you. I am so looking forward to regaining my strength again. Dear Rain, I love rain. And thunder. I do not however love that it makes the bugs flock to the front door. Dear Will, my Man. It has been nice to steal away a few moments together this week alone, even if it is just a few moments. Dear Self, I'm trying to soak up ever moment we have before all the chaos starts with school. My goal is to get a good nights sleep. Just one, please.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, It has been a more low key week of sleeping in, for the most part. I am so glad you all still like each other. Dear Ranch, we all love the Ranch. It was nice weather with an afternoon rain each day. I love the sound of rain on the tin roof of the cabin. The kids never got tired of being there. All that was missing would be a hammock for me. Dear July 4th, the Heber fireworks were so pretty. The time flew by and we had a great time. My favorite part is the big BOOM you feel in the ground and the echo it causes. Dear Headache, it feels like I waste a couple of days a week lately battling a headache. I'm glad the kids have had friends to play with. Dear Day Trip, trying to save money we did a quick drive over to Kartchner Caverners. It was pretty cool to see and even more amazing if you spend any time thinking about all the amazing places that are still undiscovered. Then we headed over to the Cove indoor swimming pool. The kids had a blast there. I prefer an outside pool I think. Maybe because it was so crowded or I needed more fresh air? It was fun though and the water wasn't too cold so I could actually swim. We made a day of it, getting up at 6:30am and getting home after 10:00pm. I was running on 2 or so hours of sleep that day, I'm not sure how I survived. Dear Rain Storm, on the drive home a big storm hit. The rain was just pounding us and the sky was a constant light show of lighting. It was so beautiful. I love rain storms and thunder. Dear Eating Out, with a family of 9 it's not something we can often because it's just too expensive! We can't even go to Taco Bell without it getting too pricey with a large family. With half of them being teenagers and tweens they aren't satisfied with getting one thing off the dollar menu like when they are little. Anyway, we planned to take them to Olive Garden for dinner, on our day trip, you following still? It's a treat because they don't have Italian in this little town! We always get looks when we are seated from those around us, they may be frightened. But it seems just about every time we go out someone comes up and compliments us on how well behaved our children are. I feel lucky this way cause our dinners at home are pretty loud with everyone talking, laughing, singing, making completely random noises, you get the idea. Dear Will, it's been so nice to have you home, even if we are both sitting in bed reading. I'm not too excited about you going back to work. I'm sure you have mixed feelings. Smile. Dear Self, I need sleep and just a little food and a shower. Oh and my own bed. I also need to regain all the strength I've lost this year. It's a goal I've been forming in my mind. It's been a rough road for me physically the last year and a half, but I really need to get back to my old self in many ways. Also, I got to hold two babies in the last week! They were so sweet and cuddly I wanted to cry..I may have just a little. Some of the most precious moments of my life are when I carried my babies, and then would just sit and hold them. Something I will never ever regret was taking the time to enjoy my babies. Slow Down. Enjoy them while they are little. They grow up so fast.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, I think we were all pretty burnt out this week. We did go to the pool one day, but most of the time you just stayed home. Dear Avary, I'm not sure what to do with you! You sprained your ankle pretty bad, we thought it was broken. You were relived to hear you wouldn't have a cast, me too. This time you got hurt from doing something normal! Ha Well, wearing wedges and walking and curbs can be pretty dangerous. Believe me, I know. Dear D+S, your wedding was so beautiful. I am so excited for you to start a new life together, I know there is so much happiness ahead. Dear Family, It was so great to see so much family that I haven't seen in years. Weddings are always good for that. I had the best time. I even got to see all 3 of my long lost brothers! Dear Utah, there is so many fun things to do there and it really is so beautiful. I can see why people choose to live there. Dear Drive, after the wedding we drove until midnight and then slept and headed off again for home. 13hrs in the car. It was all good until I got a little car sick and got a huge headache. When picking up Will's car from MaPa's I hit both of them up for a shoulder rub, just enough for me to drive the remaining 3hrs home. I'm glad to be home. Dear Earthquake, we wondered why some stuff was knocked over in the house. We were one hour too late to feel the earthquake in the Gila Valley. Dear Packing, I think I am starting to hate you. I'm a little tired though so maybe that is affecting things. I haven't even un-packed from the last trip out of town. Dear Ranch, the kids are so excited. And it isn't even as fun as it was when I was a kid. Good thing they don't know the difference. I'm glad they have so much fun there. Dear Will, after spending the week with you I wasn't looking forward to you going back to work. Although, with some of the grumpy days the kids had this week I'm sure you were ok with it. I am pretty happy that I get to spend the next week with you home even if all we do is clean. Dear Self, I have been in a funk all week. At least it happened at the end of our trip and not during. Where has my holiday spirit gone?!