Highlights!

Highlights: 

Driving Landon to work in the morning 

Picking Landon up from work at night 

Swimming at the Preserve with the Webbs and Bloomers

Working hard on Monday as a family 

Going to the Bishops' Storehouse to serve as a family 

Nurf Gun fight for play group 

Healthy food all week 

Pioneer Day breakfast with the ward 

Lunch with Landon at the Hospital on Pioneer Day 

Ministering to a new sister

Planetarium 

Quiet time and then a movie every afternoon #loveroutines

Library with the Curtis 

Jaxson reading 3 books in 3 days 

Don't Mom Alone Podcast 

Ty doing a backflip into the pool, yeah you read that right. I need to get him into gymnastics

Luke eating whole apples and whole peaches 

Reading Acts in the mornings (I've been reading the KJ version with the NIV and EVS and its been INCREDIBLE.... All I want to do is learn about Paul these days. Its filled my soul.) 

Getting Grandma Klepingers necklace!! 

Mummy and Papa coming into town 

18 mile run on Friday night 

Landon ran 8 of them with me 

The Aquarium 

Pickleball date with Cory, Lace, and the parentals 

Church and the people there 

Hanging at Lace and Corys house today! 

is one of my favorite pictures!!!!!!!! I think Landon looks so handsome in this picture. And I love that his smile shows just his love that he has for his boys and me. Jax has this, "I don't really want to do this but I will honor you mom and be a good sport about it" face on. Ty is his usual, seeing the world from his point of view face on. He see's the world in a way that none of us do. Its more slow paced, appreciative and heart felt. Sometimes the rest of us are just rushing to some arbitrary finish line, but Ty enjoys the moments he wants to enjoy. And the Luke. He is just happy to be with his people, because they are his people. He also has a giant apple in his hand that he finishes by the end of the day. He LOVES fruit so much! 

Movie in quiet time after a lot of working in the morning! The house felt so homey after it! I LOVED IT! I love our little apartment when its clean. So so soooo soo much! 

Ty stood right over that #5, bent his knees, jumped and tipped his head back. It was crazy. He actually hit his back on the wall, but still flipped all the way around. 

Yep, there is the apple that he finished! 

I love Jamie so much!!!! And her family. The conversation I had with her Friday was really a game changer for me! Jamie is really a gem! I hope to be half the person she is one day. Also Luke fell right when I took this. 

I LOVE this special special gift. I think its beautiful and I can't wait to meet Grandma Klepinger one day

8:01am Jax comes out and i'm sitting in this very spot. He says, "Mom whats for breakfast?"
"I don't know bud, what would you like for breakfast?"
"I don't really care, I just want you to get up and make me breakfast while I read this book."
That sounds so snotty, but it was just the way he said it. I can't explain it, but it just made me want to make him the most delicious breakfast while he sat and enjoyed childhood! 

Quickly after Jaxson's moment Ty brought his elephant to me and said, "Look mom, his bum is as big as my face" and then he laughed his face off. I love this tender hearted, emotion filled, crazy coordinated, goof ball!

Pickle ball was SO fun! 

Such cute grandparents!!!! 

Good to be Home!

Landon: 

He had a busy week in the CVICU. However, Tuesday night we went to one of his Co-Residents birthday party, Wednesday night he helped me coach Jaxsons soccer game, Friday night he watched the boys while I ran, and Saturday we dated. All in all it was a good week for him. Half way through CVICU 

Becs:

I ran 17 miles on Friday night in 90 degree weather, luckily I found shade/sprinklers most the run. Sarah, my mom and I planned and threw Jen a baby shower. That was a lot of work but it was so fun showering Jen! I spent any free time I had preparing for my lesson today. I taught on Acts 6-15 and truly just tried to follow the spirit. Its a huge class, which brings its own challenges, its hard to have intimate, lasting discussion in a class that way, but I think we got there a couple of times! It was also my week to plan playgroup. We hiked up a mountain and it was harder than anticipated. And hotter. PHEW. But we made it. Tiff and her kiddos came to visit and that was probably the highlight of my week. I remembered why medical school felt so possible, we got together with our kiddos multiple times a week. I just had an extra skip in my step when she left. Man I love her!!!!!!!!! 

Jaxson: 

He showed me a test result he actually got back in May and I was blown away. I think he started and finished 5 books this week? I can't even keep track anymore. He had a blast playing with his cousins on Monday. The slip n slide was legit!!! Thanks Nate. He loved the library on Tuesday and hanging out with Tiff kids on Wednesday. He scored 5 goals in his soccer game! He fell pretty hard on the way back from The Living Room Hike. It was a cool hike, but probably one of the harder ones we've ever done. But we all loved being with the Fetzers! Friday and Saturday he spent with cousins while the moms set up and threw Jen the shower. Cousins are the best! 

Ty ty: 

Ty came over to me today and said, "Remember Jesus mom? Who I yought was not real but is real. I prayed to him, my big best friend Jesus, that my head would feel better." Sttttoppppp!!!! I love him. He's been practicing shooting his little blue ball in the tall 8 foot hoop. He gets it every once in a while and loves it. When we go to the library he heads straight to the halloween section and plants himself there and looks and looks and looks. It takes all of my convincing powers for him to pick one more book. He just loves the halloween world. Ty continues to make our hearts melt in a way that no one else can. Everyone that first meets him always mentions his voice and how adorable it is. Between his voice, his little dimple and his face its hard not to just feel happy when he is being his true self. He constantly wants to play the math game. Its cute watching him use his little fingers to add 4+3. 

Luke:

Oh this boy! I love him. He loves strawberries. He loves sitting behind out portable AC unit. He loves toothbrushes so much and screams bloody murder when anyone is brushing their teeth and he can't have one. He will eat every fruit but watermelon. Hard carrots are probably his favorite vegetable. He loves any and all pouch food and smoothies. The only time he will eat a veggie is if we let him walk around with it BEFORE he's eaten. Like right now he is walking around with a pepper. So thats good. He only takes one nap a day, though he definitely needs too. But he is taking one for the team this summer. We made it to 14 months with solid two naps. I just think it will take a couple more months for him to not be so whiney between 8-1!

Other Moments: 

Our apartment has been 95 degrees for the last two weeks. They finally fixed the swamp cooler for real and we are freezing at night at a low low temp of 81 degrees ;). So grateful for the swamp cooler.

I was grateful that we got our tire fixed before it exploded. Our alignment was awful and by the time we did a trip to California and back and then Glacier and back, our tire was bald. I didn't even notice it, but Nate did. And then I forgot, and then i'm convinced the spirit brought it to my mind while I was driving with my boy on the freeway. I immediately took it to the nearest tire shop. Phew. Safe and sound. 

We had a wonderful Sunday that started with Landon and I studying in the bible for 2 hours in the morning. A good family planning session in the afternoon. And then a sweet family movie cuddling. Finding Nemo is hilarious. 

I had a wonderful talk with my mom on the phone about motherhood during my 17 mile run. It was so nice to feel both validated and encouraged. She also gave me some good feedback too! I love her. 

We didn't technically have a full week home this week, but 6 days home in a row is HUGE given the last 6 weeks. I calculated that in the first 40 days of summer we were gone for 33 of them. Its going to be good to be home. 

Exhaustion to Perspective

This week started out with emotional and mental exhaustion with some personal things. Then went to some physical exhaustion by helping Shmar Dawg and Jacuzzi from Chicago to Cleveland. And it ended with some hard/scary family news that put everything into perspective. Everything. Suddenly every part of my world was put into the reality that it is. So blessed.

Life is good and hard and beautiful. I'm glad I can lean on Landon, Family, Heavenly Parents and my Savior. This week changed me to my core. Tonight I have hope and faith and courage for my little families future and for the future of some of my very favorite people in the whole world. Everything will be okay. 

A PICK ME UP QUOTE: 

Well, my dear sisters, the gospel is the good news that can free us from guilt. We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It's our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don't think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don't experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism. Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were, "And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He's been there. He's been lower than all that. He's not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don't need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief. You know that people who live above a certain latitude experience very long winter nights can become depressed and even suicidal, because something in our bodies requires whole spectrum light for a certain number of hours a day. Our spiritual requirement for light is just as desperate and as deep as our physical need for light. Jesus is the light of the world. We know that this world is a dark place sometimes, but we need not walk in darkness. The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and the people who walk in darkness can have a bright companion. We need him, and He is ready to come to us, if we'll open the door and let him. (Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up, Preface; p. 174)

A miracle! 

Oh I love shmar dawg! We are a crazy good team and i'm so proud of him for what he is accomplished the last 9 years!