Monday, November 25, 2013

Super Moon - Olympic Park

 Risenmay family reunion - Park City, UT
We had been hearing about the Super Moon for a few days and the kids were so excited to see it.....only problem, you gotta stay up really, really, really!, late or wake up to be able to see it. Jeff promised Lucas he was would wake him up to see the moon the closest to earth it would be in years. We ventured our wrapped in blankets and camera in hand to see this. Wow. (Lea, Jeff, Lucas, myself, Annie and Steve)
 This is what it looks like over South Mountain, Phoenix, AZ from a high powered telescope and a camera 'looking' through the telescope. again, wow. (from Bill Washburn)

 During the day we hit the Olypmic Park to check out the ski jumps into the pool and all the other cool Olympic treasures from the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City - 2002

the little kids didn't make it far off the jump, but they still did it. :)

We came with our Olympic Spirit - only for Great Britain.

6 kid bobsled?
we could win on cuteness
I loved that this man was from Norway - amazing. Alf Engen

It's beautiful.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Surprise Party - summer vacation

A little behind on blogging, but it was such an amazing adventure filled year, it's been hard to pull myself away from the fun to sit and blog about it. :)

What do most people do when they move into a new house? Some might stay longer than 24 hours. Not us! Summer means travel, vacations, water skiing, family reunions, swimming, and lots of family to see!
First stop was Salt Lake -  well it was Vegas because we left late in the evening and wanted to stop for the night. We stayed with Jeff's parents, then secretly coordinated our leaving with his dad so we could beat them to Utah for a surprise party for Judy........seriously, who does this stuff?! They left, then we left 10 minutes later. We thought we had passed them, but it came down to the wire at the end of a straight 5 hour drive with us pulling into Nathan's garage - door open, parked, door closed so there was no evidence of us being there ahead of them. 3 of the 4 kids had to pee, but there was no stopping us. I informed vacamaca to clear a path for the bathroom for the minions. :) Good times - she was totally surprised!

Along the way: it's Temple after Temple. I wanted to take a picture of all of them. Didn't quite accomplish that, but I got a lot of them.
 Payson, Ut
 Love this place.
 Timpanogos
 West Jordan
 Oqquirah Mt

The party: we were instructed to bring something that reminded us of Judy or some memory of her. Too funny. Can't remember all of them but this one included super glue and an injury....
 the brothers grimm over here - aka peanut gallery
Jeff, Eric, Annie, Steven and poor Jennifer who had to listen to all of it. :)
 I'm sure there was some farming story told here
 all the little ones waiting patiently to hand her a gift and listen to her share stories.

 this was my favorite moment. Isn't it sweet Nathan gave his mom roses.......well not really, it reminded him of her planting roses in their (the boys) football field in the front yard growing up.....how dare she!? haha!

  Sisters with matching socks. The sisters - Debbie and Sandy and spouses flew in to spend time together.

food and cake - always more fun with cousins!
 Lucas (Boston), Jase, Abbey
Mo
 Lea, Anna, Mia
 that's my girl - out there with the boys, no fear!
 It's me, Mo!
Happy birthday - Grandma Judy - the big 6-0!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

the Hallway

I'm at a loss for direction right now. I don't normally post things that are super personal, mostly because this is a journal of our family and the good/bad/funny times or raising our family. I just have to get this out. I do not envy my husband - he works his tail off for us, to provide for us, to give us a comfortable life. It comes with a high price tag. Sure he's compensated nicely in the monetary means, but his has given up so much of us, that I'm not sure he knows how to do anything but work and work he does well. I've always known he was a hard worked and dedicated, this is what attracted me to him. I do not envy any other individual who has to go to work day in and day out. I love staying home, not always easy, we have our battles, and our melt downs. I can fix those. The one thing I can't fix aside from cars, heaters, and plumbing, is my husband's work. I can't take that from him, I can't make him come home early - even though there are days I just want him to be home - to see the chaos that homework is after school, running from this place to the next, fixing dinner (that's only once in a blue moon), cleaning, laundry, dinner, scriptures, family prayer (both lacking because we just can't stay awake any longer and we're all so dang tired....mostly me)

I wish I had a clear cut answer (and maybe I do, I just can't see it yet or I'm still not sure I believe it's the right path), but I want him to go to work loving what he does, the people, the place, the actual work he does - to enjoy it or at least more days than not. That he could just tell someone and they would listen that the work he does would get done faster with more than just him, that his family is numero uno (#1) ;) and he can't keep spending his life fading away into the computer screen and another excel spreadsheet.

I feel like we're here: (source)
Photo: AMEN?!

























that until we can get to the door, we're going to follow the light (even if it's night light) until we've reached the door and we're going to be grateful in the hallway, we'll make the best of the time we do spend together even if it's just 20-30 minutes at night. We have Saturdays and Sundays to keep as family days/nights. It could be much worse. We're healthy, we have amazing family and friends. We've been through unemployment - twice, but we've made it through better than we entered. That's what I keep thinking is behind that door is something better than where we are and if that's true, then it's going to be GREAT! because we're not doing so terrible now. ;)

Maybe we're where God needs us instead of where we want us to be. I feel that's why we're in the house we're in - the ward we now belong too, to gain new opportunities, scary as they may be, to push us, upward and closer to God. To value what we have instead of focusing on what we don't have.

I might just be rambling, and that's okay. Maybe I'm not looking for guidance so much as an affirmation we're on the right path or that we need to re-direct and get back on course. I love my husband, he's pretty amazing - doesn't give himself the credit he deserves and while he works a lot and may feel the kids don't appreciate him, he's extremely loved. So much so I try to keep them off for a few minutes so he can have a brief one-on-one time with each child before they drift off to sleep. He does get them all riled up, but they love it because they love him. I love him. God loves him. My only wish for him is that he finds work that makes him happy and where he feels important - maybe not as important as the kids show him, but a little thanks goes a long way. ;)

Ironic (not really, just had to work it all out of my mind), I typed this up, only to realize what I've known all along. I need to read more with my kids, scriptures, books, pray together morning and night and with Jeff, the answers will come - probably later than sooner, but the answers will come. He is waiting to bless us and answer our prayers. No matter what your question or trial is, the answer is a 'folded' arms length away. (haha)

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

we moved!

Before we moved, I went to make something and was pleasantly? surprised to have this strange smell coming from the oven. (good thing we were moving huh?) Well I found this - Jeff's hiding lace for licorice.....probably a pretty safe spot until I actually decide to cook.
 It was a pretty cool science experiment - the whole thing was soft. I left it in there to cool off and then was able to remove it to the trash.

FHE with coke and mentos:
an awesome rocket launcher Abbey received for her birthday


 packing up and finding cute monsters in my boxes:
 
Hanging out on top of box piles, climbing the walls and door frames.
 Last night in our house - 8 years, 4 kids, 1300 sq ft
 we slept in the living room....not as comfy as I thought it would be.

The help and the stash of boxes - we took 2 truck loads and a half of truck load the next day. Filled the van several times and WOW we have a lot of stuff.
 The view at the new house at 2 am after finally getting everything out of the old house. We had so much help til the very end, it was awesome! At this point, Jeff had taken Lea and Lucas to the store to get sheets to cover the windows. Did I mention that was at 2 am??