February Little things

For Young Men's Cameron painted self portraits

I began attempting Sour Dough bread. Alisa Hill taught me and Amber Dunn to bake it and I do it almost weekly now.

Brax bought himself a car while he was in Texas. Its a little Ford Focus and it gets him around with great gas mileage.  The farm is about 45 minutes from their house so he drives like a crazy man out there super fast on windy roads. 

Robotics is in full swing and the boys are doing great.  They really improved their robot over last years and they are having a great time.

This boy (Dakota) falls asleep now more then Braxton ever did, he is a professional "teleporter" as he calls it. He can hop in the car at anytime, fall asleep and the next thing he knows he is at his destination.

Our favorite Valentine's tradition, dipping strawberries. It is so yummy and actually pretty easy and fun.

Both boys participated in the district science fair and both won in their age groups. Neither of them wanted to do it, but they were both glad that they did.

Me, Shane, and Cam took a long muddy hike up Logan Canyon to the wind caves. It was a bit chilly and too muddy for me, but worth the effort. It was beautiful!

From 4 years of braces to an amazing smile. Dakota persevered many many moons of braces and I would say his patience paid off. He looks amazing! And much older too.

Valentini.  Our annual tradition where we eat Tini foods and celebrate a day of love.

We went to another robotics competition and Knox had gotten his haircut so we facetimed Braxton to show him. It is so handsome.

Brax got to go on a vacation to Mexico with Juan and Trish during his stay in Texas. Here is a cowboy hat they wanted him to buy, he didn't go for it because of course he is a ball cap boy through and through.

Early birthday goggles since Dakota started skiing pretty seriously this year. He loved them.

Juan's mom and Dad went on the vacation with them also.

A very kind neighbor dropped off a bucket of RC cars and parts and Dakota and Cam were in Heaven going through all of it.

We took a family road trip with Matheus to Cedar City for the two boys to check out Southern Utah University. They loved it and we got to see some really neat parts of our state that we had never seen before. Lots of hiking and driving it was a beautiful place to visit.

 

January little things

While we were cleaning out Braxton's bedroom to move Cam in I spotted this darling note Shane wrote to Brax when he built his bed back in 2004.  It was a sweet gentle reminder of how fast life goes and how much these wonderful children mean to us.

I got a new couch right after Christmas.  I had been saving up all of my Christmas bonuses from Joe for like 3 years and we went a picked this one up.  We love having 4 recliners in the couch.

We had an awesome time with Ed & Brit, Casey & Alyson, and Jake and Alayna at Alayna's parents cabin over Martin Luther King holiday. The kids skiied and me and Shane chilled in the lodge. We sure love this awesome group of people.

Our boys doing what they love. Denim and Dakota at robotics competition. It is their favorite thing to do and they are great at it.

Young mens hike in the freezing winter up to waterfall canyon. Surprisingly they had a wonderful time.

We had Weston Family FHE and we had to build a mini golf hole. We did a red carpet themed one and it was a lot of fun.

 

Braxton's move to Texas

2022 Started out as the Year of changes for us. As I sit writing this it is July 6th and it continues to be a year of change.  A year of spending a lot of money as well as a year of big changes in our home. Braxton decided right before Christmas to move to Floresville, Texas with Juan and Trish Gaytan. He went over there to work on a horse ranch and live with Juan, Trish and Brandyn. He ended up staying for 4 months total and we missed him so much but had the opportunity to talk on the phone to him often and we also went down to visit as a family.

We had a lot of preparations to do before he left. He needed to go to the dentist, eye doctor, buy some clothes, get some luggage, pack up his bedroom, and get all his affairs in order such as quit his job and figure out how to get there. In the end it was decided he would fly down and buy a car when he got there. Juan drove him back and forth to work for a while, but that got old fast so he bought a small Ford car that he used to commute back and forth each day.

Saying goodbye was awful. I cant really describe what this did to my mama heart except it was a heart wrenching experience knowing it was what was best for him but also realizing he would no longer be under my roof. He needed to spread his wings and learn to be on his own, but it was oh so hard. Love will do that to you, make you sad and happy at the same time.

On his second day there a horse slipped and he had to go to the instacare. It was just badly bruised, but it was quite the ordeal that got him on crutches for a week. Juan did a great job the entire time taking pictures and sending them to us. It was nice to see a picture into his world since he rarely takes photos and never sends them if he does.

Saying goodbyes at the SLC airport. I cried for days ahead of the leaving day and got some great hugs from Brax when he left. Shane also gave him a beautiful blessing the night before he left.

Cam literally moved into his room the day after he left. It was already cleaned out so the process went pretty smoothly.