Isaac's Story

For Hallie and Ashton's annual hot chocolate stand

I met Isaac last year at the Webb family Christmas party. My uncle Chad brought him along as he has no family around and would be alone at Christmas. Isaac was working at an internship at the time with my uncle in the Church Office Building. I instantly fell in love with him. He had a warm smile, a happy personality and so much humility. Isaac grew up in Cape Coast Ghana and came to the states to serve his mission. He decided to stay stateside instead of returning home after his mission so that he could earn a college degree here. He has to earn his way entirely, so even though he has been here for 3.5 years since his mission, he has only just earned his associate degree from LDSBC. He doesn't have a cell phone (we asked him if he thought Americans were too materialistic with all our phones and wireless whatevers, he just smiled) and he gets by on the bare minimum. He is working now to earn money to be able to go to BYU so that he can get his BS and then his Master's Degree. He plans on returning to Ghana after his education to help businesses in Ghana streamline, maximize and increase productivity while increasing their profit margins (essentially, he wants to help his country's businesses help themselves). As we continued to talk to Isaac, we asked him about his family and he told us how much he missed them. He hasn't seen them in 5.5 years (and with having to scrape for school, it's likely that he won't see them for another 5+ years). He told us the best Christmas present he could ever receive would be to go home for the holidays to see his family. That was it for me, I knew we had to help him! I talked to my uncle to see if we could send him home this year, but his travel days would be very limited with work. A plane ticket to Ghana also costs about twice as much if you book it two weeks out as opposed to 3 or 4 months out, so we decided we would send him home next year, when he can be home longer.

The Webb's, Hallie and Ashton and their hot chocolate stand, and now the Morris family are all going to pull together to raise the money to send Isaac home, and to help him pay for school.

I can't tell you how excited I am to help this deserving young man. There is nothing more that I love than to help people who are good and who are trying to make a difference. He will be so so excited, and so very grateful. Thanks everyone for all your help!!

Azy

The older I get, the faster time flies by.  Azy has gotten so old so fast!  I just want to freeze her right now in her full chub-cheeked glory for a little while.  She is a wonderful baby, so happy and laid back about everything.  She is scooting around pretty good (although not very gracefully) and loves everyone in the family.  She is starting to get a little bit of stranger anxiety, but nothing horrible.  Adam and I hold her A TON (maybe not very good?), but she's just so nice and so cute, we can't help ourselves.  We adore her.

Summer part 2

Wakeboarding, vacationing with Adam's family in San Diego, and swimming.  We miss summer!

Wind farm on the way to the lake (Adam and I think they're awesome, despite most local's opinions)

Ashton loves tubing!  Even tried the wakeboard a few times this year.

I prefer staying dry.  Although I promised Stu next year is the year of the wakeboard :)

Adam got pretty good this summer

Stu showing his stuff

Tater man

Landed it!

Tubing with Grandpa

Classic Beckham face

San Diego Zoo!  Gorgeous flamingos, love that color.

Attitude

BFFs!

Cousin love at the pool

The September Summer Bummer

September is definitely a bummer around here.  School starts again, the days cool off and life gets back to the regular grind.  We love to just play and have fun all summer long, and we definitely lived it up this year.  We got to go boating nearly every weekend with our favorite fam, ate a lot of hamburgers, had 2 litters of kitties, went to San Diego and hung out at the beach, played at Rigby lake and the gym's swimming pool, played t-ball, played with friends, went up to the cabin, had a family reunion in Rexburg and capped it all off with a quick trip to a tiny town in Arizona for Uncle Zach's wedding. 

princess and pirates party

Hallie's favorite from litter #1

BFFs!

Cake for the Rexburg Art Show

This last picture is a statue that my uncle had made for Hemming Village.  It's a statue of my great grandma and grandpa Hemming that sits out in front of their log cabin that was built back in the early 1900s.  I love how much my Uncle Val and Aunt Alice appreciate and value art as a way of preserving heritage.  This statue was done by a professor on campus.  He made it by sculpting out of clay and then making a mold of that sculpture and finally casting it in bronze.  The detail is incredible.  I could look at it forever.

More summer pictures to come!

Blessing

Azy was blessed at the beginning of June.  She wasn't real excited to have her picture taken, so this is the best I got....

 

I just love her dress.  It's a long, heirloom style dress that my mom bought before Hallie was born for all the granddaughters to be blessed in.  One of my favorite parts of her blessing was when she was blessed that as she goes through trials in her life, she will draw upon her faith to get her through those hard times.  Adam gave Azy her middle name, Faith, and it fits her perfectly!  My parents, Nathan, Stu, Adam's parents, Zach, Jake and Grandma and Granpa Yaegle came to the blessing.  It was wonderful.  We had everyone over for dinner afterwards and enjoyed having so much family together.

Azy has been such a joy.  She's super happy, sleeps better than any of my other babies did, and is usually just content to hang out.  I'm pretty protective of nap time (cranky baby=stressed mom), and she's pretty clockwork as far as getting tired after being up for an hour and a half.  We just love her so much, and she's the perfect little addition to our family (which I was pretty nervous about adding a third, but it's been great!).

At 3 weeks

At 3 months (filling in those cheeks!)

Since January

 Hallie turned 6 in January, and of course, she requested a kitty cake for her birthday.  We went with Marie from Aristocats, and I think it turned out cute (and definitely perfect for Hallie).

 I haven't made nearly as many cakes since moving here, mostly just for birthdays, my sister's wedding, and the occasional cake for a community event at my dad's business.  It's better this way, all the mess was driving me nuts :)
Hallie wanted to do crafts and games for her birthday, we had tons of fun making snowglobes and coloring and playing games in the basement.  Hallie's favorite part was the presents, naturally.

 

Tax season hits us hard and fast after Hallie's birthday every year, so we pretty much go into hibernation for 2.5 months.  I had to stay down a lot with this baby, so I started teaching myself how to sew.  I'm not perfect, but I'm getting better.  I made this blanket into a car seat cover for Azy, and I loved how it turned out.  I ended up making a ton of hair bands, shoes and blankets to pass the time while watching Friends every night.  Good times :)

We decided we would let our cat have a litter or two of kittens before we get her fixed for the kids.  They LOVED having kitties around.  They were both pretty sad when we had to give them away, but we think the cat might already be pregnant again, so they'll have one more go-around of kitties soon.

Tax season finally ended in April (yay) and Azy came 2 weeks later.  For Mother's Day, we tried to take our first family pictures together.  We didn't have a whole lot of good ones, but they still turned out fun.

 A few weeks after Azy was born, we went up to the cabin with my family just to hang out.  We stopped at Mesa Falls on the way home.  It still amazes me every time I see it.  I love summertime in Idaho.  There really is a lot to see and do close by.  The winter is long and freezing, but we really enjoy those 4 months of nice weather we do get :)

I've still got more from Azy's blessing and some other things, so I'll update soon!

Baby baby!... and other news

I've been a failure about the blog, I know. But I figured since we had a baby a couple of months ago, I should document it.  Besides, I sit around nursing all day, so I really have no excuse to not keep things updated now :)

Since I last REALLY  posted, a ton has happened!  We bought a great house in an awesome neighborhood.  There's plenty of room for our growing family (it's like 2.5 times bigger than our Vegas house, so there's more rooms (and cleaning) than I know what to do with) and we even have a real lawn!  It's very exciting.  Hallie and Ashton have lots of neighborhood friends and are basically living the childhood dream of getting to play whenever they want.
My awesome sister moved into the same neighborhood right after we did, and we love it.  We're not in the same ward (weird), but we hang out nearly every day and my kids love having cousins their age.   We also love to mooch off their boat in the summer and spend most Saturdays at the lake.  Hallie and Ashton are fearless and love getting thrown off the tube.  Adam's become a decent wakeboarder and I can at least get up :)  We love it, so many fun times and memories.

Hal with cousins and friends selling hot chocolate 

Our third addition came almost 2 months ago.  We named her Azy Faith.  We've had a lot of people ask where her name came from.  I wish I could say we came up with it on our own or that it's Greek for some exotic flower that only grows when you sing to it or something crazy.  But really, I just had a friend in Vegas whose name was Azy and I loved it, so I asked her if she wouldn't mind if I used it.  It was very nice of her to let us, we think it's perfect :)  I gave Adam full control over her middle name, and he chose Faith.  He did good, right? I should have let him do the other 2 kids' middle names, too.

Azy has been a joy.  She was born on May 1, the day after my birthday and 3 weeks early.  I had to be really careful during my pregnancy and stay down a lot, since I don't hold my babies in very well :/  We were so happy she went full term, although we did have a few scares along the way. I went into labor in the middle of the night, and I wanted to be really sure I was in labor before I went in, but by the time we got there I was already dilated to a 6, so I was ready to go.  She came about 3 hours after we checked in, holding true to my fast delivery history.  Everything went really well, and Azy was born at 6:02 am, weighing in at 6lbs 14oz, my biggest baby yet!

First bath

Hanging out with Uncle Stu

Meeting Grandma (you'll love her Azy, I do!)

World's greatest Grandpa

3 kids!  We're old (and crazy)!

I'll post later about Azy's blessing and other fun things we've been doing, here's to Keeping up with the Blog (you thought I was going to say Kardashians, didn't you? :)). 

P.S. We're going to be in Vegas July 18 and 19, hope to see some of you then!!

μαραθώνιο

There she is folks, my HAWT wife ran an entire marathon this last weekend. Despite waking up at 3 AM, driving for an hour and a half to reach the starting line, waiting in line for 30 minutes to used the port-a-potty on the top of the mountain, getting rained (a lot) & hailed on, having a hurt knee before she even started, she still did it. 26.2 ridiculous miles.

I'm really proud of her. Watching someone prepare for a marathon is a pretty inspiring thing to witness.

I love you hot wife!

Treasure Hunting and Farmland

Since the snow all melted in April, I've really come to enjoy the quaint and run-down places that are everywhere in Idaho.  I find it all very charming.  Just in my little 30 minute drive from here to Rexburg, there are all kinds of deteriorating barns, adorable white farmhouses, tons of rolled up hay bales, ginormous tractors rolling around on the street like it's nothing out of the norm, and even some cute antique shops.  I've been taking a few pictures, but it would be so very fun to get a nice camera and take a day to photograph it all.

When we moved to my grandma's old house, I decided to go through the pasture (picture above) and the sheds to see if I could find any hidden treasures.  I started at this shed...

and I ripped off the door... which, if turned sideways (and cleaned up a bit), I think would be a really fun headboard. 

I also just really like the wood on the shed...

It would be fun to cover a wall in a house with it, just to add some character, similar to this...

photo via The Lettered Cottage

Then I went and looked through this old shed...

and found my mom's old saddle and stirrups, fun!  It made me wish I had a horse.

I like chestnuts, like this one.

She's beautiful.  Being in Idaho has always made me want to have a horse.  I've never really wanted one anywhere else I've lived.  Maybe that's because I grew up associating Idaho with my grandma's horses.

Anyway, I digress.   I looked a little deeper in the shed, and I found some vintage skis.

Cleaned and stained, I think they could be fun.

I finished up looking through some other old sheds and places I used to play as a little girl.  I didn't find much else, just lots of fun memories. 

It's been fun to re-visit some of my fondest childhood memories.  We like living here, although we're aching to feel settled again (we'll only be in this house until January).  We're trying to decide whether to build or buy, stay in a neighborhood or go a little more rural.  Save for a nice house, or buy a fixer-upper and go all DIY on it.  Any suggestions??

I'll be back soon-ish with family pictures, we've been doing so much that it's hard to get it all in one post :)