Mummy & Gwampa in Town!!!!

Landon: 

Oh man. This week was so intense. I'm so grateful for Lando's program though. Because even though it was an exhausting week, they still take care of their residents. Landon is exhausted. I was so impressed yesterday afternoon when he went out for a 4 mile run. Its marathon training time though, he doesn't joke around once training starts. Also, I am so grateful for Jonathan and the Curtis family this month. They are the best!!!!! 

Becca: 

This week was hard. It just was. Landon has been gone so much lately and it doesn't feel like it will lighten up for awhile. Our buckets feel empty and what we can give to each other and the boys is starting to become less and less. SOOO I am so grateful that Lando's parents came into town this weekend. It has just been the best weekend and I think we all feel a little less depleted! 

I spent a significant amount of time the beginning of this week consolidating all of my calendars into one place. I'm excited about it! Maybe i'll feel more on top of things because of it! I also went to a RS activity on Thursday night and stayed until 11. It was soooo nice to get out and be with some sisters. I talked with Audrey, Breilynn, Angelina and Julie for a while. They are some pretty amazing women. 

Jaxson: 

LOVED going back so school. Its going to be a pretty awesome mix I think. On Monday we read the scriptures together, he read for an hour, did his geography lesson from dad, we did a science project together, we did math, he went to Audrey's house for writing(she is AWSEOME! And we are so excited for her to be Jaxson's teacher), practiced piano, basketball practice and still had lots of play time with Ty and FHE. It was a day filled with good things, together. Then he went to school T-TH! Then on Friday we did reading, piano practice and a field trip as a family. He also had two basketball games this week. He loved this Wizard of Oz play. This morning he let us sleep in a little and he took Luke from me and went into his bedroom and managed to keep both Luke and Ty happy for almost an hour! I'm so impressed with how Jax takes care of Luke and how sweet he can be with both of his brothers. He was so sweet this morning when I came out of the bedroom. "Dad needs to keep sleeping right? He can sleep as long as he wants because he didn't get a lot this morning." I rely on Jax so much. Maybe too much sometimes. But I honestly couldn't have done these years without him.

Ty: 

He had the best weekend of all because it was spent with Hallie. And he too LOVED the Wizard of Oz! Soooooo much! He came home yesterday and made lego creations for Hallie, Mummy and Gwampa and is so excited to give them their LEGOS today. 

Luke:
He got a little cold this week. He is moving EVERY where now. Three is becoming more and more real with every passing day. Love you yukers!!!!!

Landon's view from the operating room. He is managing all of these monitors at the same time. A lot of people joke about how an Anesthesiologist have a cushy life.

I've heard it all:
 "Sooooo he sits a lot"
"So, he makes a ton of money and gets a lot of vacation, right"
"Oh you guys are going to have a cushy life"
"So they just do epidurals right?"
"So he just knocks people out and then looks at his phone the rest of the time"
"All I see on TV is the anesthesiologist is drunk and barely knows what he's doing"
"He's so lucky. He can just sit the whole case, the surgeons are the ones that have the heavy lifting"
"You know who gets paid way too much, Anesthesiologist, all they do is a little math"

Those are just a few comments off the top of my head.

Here is the deal. All of that is really offensive. It is not funny. And it is frankly not true. We mostly just laugh it off and agree with people. But unless YOU are willing to go through 12+ years of training post high school (ours will be 13 or 14 years), spend the first 8 of those years being well below the poverty line and then next 4 years making money but FAR less than what is required of him both in hours and in pressure only to be in over $300,000 of debt when you are done...... then STOP MAKING COMMENTS!!!!!  Better yet, unless you are an Anesthesiologist yourself or you are married to one, stop making those comments. It is rude and belittling and makes me respect you less.

Thats all.

Also, I have a brother who is a neurosurgeon, another brother who is an orthopedic surgeon, a sister in law who is a family doctor, and a best friend whose husband is an oral (maxillofacial) surgeon. I can think of unique challenges that come with each of those specialities. I also have a lot of Dentist friends and a friend whose husband is a PA. They also have unique challenges too. And I hope that they know I love and respect them all. In FACT to go further I have a dad who was a entrepreneur most of his life and now he works for The Church, a brother who is a software developer, another brother who is still trying to figure out but wishes he could just be a writer, a brother in law who is in sales/management and another brother in law who just started in Real Estate. My father in law is an Optometrist. All I see with EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE jobs is A LOT OF HARD WORK. There are great things about each job and unique challenges. And then there are all of those amazing and wonderful stay at home moms, A LOT OF HARD WORK. So lets just all agree to stop making stupid, uneducated, hurtful comments to each other about what it must be like and start respecting the work that we all do, no matter what that work is.

Okay thats really all. 

My view from the treadmill. 

Ty loves bats!!!! And this bat is insanely terrifying. 

Good bye planner. No more planners. Everything is on my phone now. 

Hahaha! He can't move in this thing. 

Such a blessing that with as busy as Landon was this week he still made it to both Jaxson's games. 

Sleepy Landon. 

Field Trip at the Aquarium! Thanks Mama & Papa Woolf for the pass. 

Gilmore Girls! Its been with me through it all :).  

I was SOOOO bummed to miss this play, but sooooo happy that my boys got to go and have a blast with some of their favorite favorite people. 

Such a fun night! We spent most of dinner talking about the best and worst candies. We found that we have fairly different taste buds. All I can say is mint is the worst flavor ever.

Hello 2019

Soooo we are pretending like last week didn't happen and that this week was our official new year! I love the new year so much. I love re-evaluating my life and my goals and my direction. Like I've mentioned in previous years, I only ever set ONE goal a year. And its the best way to do it. And this is how i've convinced my family to do it also :). 

2019 Goals: 

Landon

Become an early riser 

Becca: 

Be on time to commitments 

This is something I desperately need to be better at. I've always been a really insanely efficient person. I'm also known for being able to get a billion things done in a short amount of time. But i'm not just one person anymore and somehow, its taken me almost 10 years to realize that. I think that this goal it will help with so many things. My family gets most frustrated with each other during transitions. So if I plan better we should have more room to budge when emotions run high. I also feel like this will help me stop multi tasking so much, which hopefully will help the frantic feeling I always feel. It would be great if this goal helped with a big eternal goal of mine which it to be a calm, peaceful, and mindful person. But baby steps people.

 Sooooo, i've mostly failed so far. We were late to church last week and Jaxson's basketball practice and game this week. BUT today, we were KILLING it and were all ready to go to church at 1:10 (our church starts at 11:30). When I grabbed Luke from his crib he had a MASSIVE blow out. Which took me about 12 minutes to clean up. But we were able to still be 3 minutes early to church and we were all calm. You guys, i'm excited about this one. 

Jax:

Read 25 chapter books 

He finished his first one this morning. 

Ty: 

Read over 1,000 picture books 

(This is 3 books a day. So I really should be able to hit this one.) 

Luke: 

Learn to walk

Family Goal: 

Read the Book of Mormon 10 minutes every night 

Be ready for church and start our Come Follow Me 15 minute devo at 11:00am every Sunday

Couple Goal 

Run 2019 miles collectively

We will do this with the help of training for the Ogden Marathon (Landon), The Pioneer day Marathon (Becca), The St. George Marathon (Landon) and the Thanksgiving Half (Becca & Landon)

REVIEW:
The goals we made for 2018: 

1. Couples Prayer nightly! We did really great at this one and feel like we've gotten into a good pattern. I take odd days and Landon takes even. And yes that means I pray more, but i'm more spiritual than him so it makes sense ;) (ahemm.... or I need it more than him.) 
2. Ty's goal was to scream less. And i'll tell you what, by the end of the year he really was screaming less. In fact, I don't really think he screams consistently anymore. YAY!!!! 
3. Me, Lando, and Jax had the goal to read the Book of Mormon every day. We didn't do great at this goal, but Jax and I did finish the Book of Mormon individually, yet at the same time on December 31st so that was great!
4. I also had the short goal to run 2 miles when I was 39 weeks pregnant and run a half marathon 4 months after baby came. I completed both of those goals. Landon PR'd in both the marathon that he ran and the trail half marathon. 
5. We had a family goal to pray for someone in our area that needed help each week and then serve them. We only did this til mid February and it faded out. Bummer! Maybe another year we will re-visit this idea! 

This little tiny pack in play and the incredible pack in play cover has changed my life. When I took this picture Luke was currently sleeping in this tiny contraption tucked away quietly in my closet while I finished my 2 mile run on the treadmill in the same room and the boys came in and out multiple times AND as you can tell its fairly light in the room. Its essentially given us our entire house back. WOOt WOOT! 

Let the running begin!!!!!! 

I'm still obsessed with this stuff!!!!! 

Its weird I only took pictures of Luke this week! I've been putting my phone to bed outside of my bedroom to help with me being on time to things. I often find myself wasting the very beginning of the day looking and communicating with the world before i'm even out of bed. So I figured if I wanted to start having breakfast by 8:00 every morning I needed to NOT have this distraction. But its changed everything the last 4 days i've tried it. Today at 3:00pm I still had 100% battery on my phone. Im noticing wants I get through that jerk reaction to wake up, roll over and "scroll" (even though I don't have anything to scroll I still find a way to waste time) that I start getting the day moving and then forget all about that little device. SOOOO this is all to explain why I think I haven't taken many pictures of the boys. 

We FINALLY figured out Jaxson's schooling. Boy its taken awhile. But We are going to do part homeschol/part public school and its basically going to give me everything I want. Its actually a law in Utah that you can do Dual school. And yes I had to show both Jaxson's teacher and his principal that it was a real thing. Also, in the end, I think we just needed to get back to Bennion. It is what makes all of us the most happy. The special education people were just adamant that Jax would be bored and should be in the "gifted" program. But in the end, I think there are things Jax is advanced in and there are things he isn't. Just like everyone else! I'm so happy we will still have him for most of the week. I'm so happy Landon and I will have time to supplement some things that are important to us. I'm so glad he will still have lots of free time. I'm so happy that I will have individual time with each boy every week and that I will have quiet time to myself each week. Its just going to be great!!!!! And as you've seen before, NOTHING is ever set with me. In fact this schedule has already changed.

We took the boys to Sushi on Saturday. They we BEGGING us!!!! And the just devoured it all. 

Landon go lots of money for Christmas and this is what he purchased with it. 2019 miles baby! I think that means he needs to average 25 miles a week and I need to average 15 miles a week. We got this! 

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES????? YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
On Tuesday's we were doing growth mindset day. We loved that day. So we shifted it to Sunday. Jax worked with Mummy in his journal and then we watched this Growth Mindset Movie!!! Sports are so cool.

Also we had Ty's Sunbeam Teachers over for dinner tonight. He has really taken to them which has been so wonderful and a little surprising to us. They are so wonderful though!!! We love Brother and Sister Jones aka Batman and Elastigirl. He's praying on his own, and reading the scriptures with us and saying sorry when he does something he know he should, and not fighting me as much when I need to get him to school or put on his church clothes. This boy, he's going to change the world!!!!! 

The Time We Almost Moved

You guys! 

This week: 

Monday

We signed a contract with a cute little house and a fenced yard and a basketball hoop in the driveway

I cried about it late that night, like bawled, I love our apartment 

Tuesday

We did laundry and watched football 

We stayed up til 2:00am making a pro/con list about moving on Tuesday night 

Wednesday

I started packing 

And crying (I love this area and the people I know here)

And packing 

Talked to our new ward

Thursday 

I kept packing 

Then I finished packing out entire house

Then went an got the keys to our new place 

It seemed smaller than I remembered it being (last tenants had soooo much more stuff than we did)  

We went and measured our furniture and.... it didn't fit. Meaning any way we put our 13.5 foot couch, the front door would not open. 

Thursday night we decided not to move

Friday 

I unpacked

Saturday 

I unpacked an rearranged to try to make our small space feel a little bigger

Sunday 

Reflected on all the reasons this week happened: 

Our house is dang clean now 

I feel closer to our ward and the people here than ever before 

Money 

My relationship with God deepened 

It helped me see that there are some hard things about this space, I can be grateful for now and I can be excited about what the future holds

I think most of all I learned that God wants us to be happy. He doesn't compel in all things. I would even say he doesn't compel us in most things. Which is honestly hard for me. I tend to think that there is one path to him and that he both knows it and created it. But this experience taught me that there are many paths to Him and God doesn't create or pick our path (even if he knows what we will pick). We get to pick it. I get to pick and create my own path. 

This scripture:

27 Verily I say, men should be aanxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are aagents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their breward.

People who significantly helped me this week: 

Landon. Mom. Jaxson. Ty. Johnny & Marie. Nate & Sarah. Anna. Lanie. Fetzer kids. Angelina. Doretta. Jael. Lacey & Hallie. Candace, North & Oscar. Rachel. Dawn. The Curtis Family. Erin. Amy Johnson (other ward). Mrs Candleless. 

We went to IHOP Friday morning. I felt like the boys deserved something after the craziness. Jax was particularly bummed about not having a yard. I let them get some hot chocolate. Once Ty got his he said: 

"Mommy! God yyyoooo happy with me" 

"Why Bud?" 

"Because I picked hot chocolate and it makes me happy so he is happy. God is happy" 

God really does want our happiness!!!! 

So yeah, that happened. If you want more details of why we decided to move in the first place, and why the decision was so painstackingly hard for me, call me. Im still trying to understand how this all happened. And again, my house is so freaking organized. And I got two dinners out of it from wonderful women, sooooo worth it???? You decide :) 

Landon: 

Was a saint this week as he dealt with all of my emotions: 

Me: "Babe! I'm so sorry you have to put up with me!" 

Landon "Its okay, someone has too." hahah 

Becca: 

Refer to the top of this post 

Also, one of my friends said this week "If it is hard to leave you didn't do it right!" We've moved so much and will continue to do more. I hope to use this as my model 

Jaxson: 

He noticed Luke sitting up after he was laying on the ground "WAAAIT! Are you Serious! Mom mom! did you see that mom!!!? He sat up he sat up he sat up by himself. LUKE! Luke THAT IS UNBELIEVABLE!" He was a proud proud brother. 

Ty: 

Jax was crying because his LEGO Masterpiece broke. Like, sobbing (I wonder who he gets that from). Ty stopped what he was doing and started running in circle arounds Jax saying, "BYU is the BEST! Jaxson is the BEST! Spiderman is the BEST" Over and over and over. The love Ty has for Jaxson to say "Spiderman is the BEST" thats something for a little 3 year old. 

He also prayed for me on Thursday morning "Thank thee for Yaxson and Yukers. Thank thee for daddees work. And thank thee for my mommees heart." 

Okay Ty. Okay. 

Luke: 

Honestly he was so hard this week. SO so so so SO hard. I think he has some allergies to food. OR he is teething. OR his mom neglected him for most of the week while she packed up and unpacked. Not sure. Love him so much though. 

HE FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON! When I asked him how felt, he said, "Happy and exctied to have accomplished a goal that was so hard" 

All day long he jumps on our beds. Dont judge what you dont understand! 

New Years Eve! Love my parentals. And Utah LOST. Suckers! 

Man! He deals with some real real tragedies. Daily! 

I'm always always learning so much. 

OH and Ty had a really good time as a Sunbeam. He was the only one today. There are two of them though. I was so proud of him for being so brave!