My Sister's Wedding and Our Big Announcement

The third weekend while I was working in Idaho, my sister got married in the Salt Lake Temple. I drove down with my parents. Dakota stayed in Idaho since we would only be gone for a day and my parents had someone coming to feed their cat. Their neighbor nicely fed our dog too.

I stayed that night in my own bed while my parents went on to drive to Salt Lake. It was so nice to see Grig! I'd really missed him. It was really nice to be home, even if it was only for a couple of nights.

The next morning, we left our home super-early to go to Salt Lake. We dropped Kevin off at the hotel that my parents were staying in, so he could play with his cousins while we went to the temple sealing. He was pretty excited.

It was a beautiful ceremony. My sister and her new husband looked so happy and the feeling of peace was very strong.

Doesn't she look beautiful?

Once the ceremony was over, we quickly went to get Kevin and his cousins so they could be there when my sister walked out of the temple.

 After the temple, we went to a dinner served by his family and then we had a reception later in the evening. I took pictures during a lot of it while Kevin played with his cousins in the nursery room. They had a good time.

Kevin likes to play with two toys at once.

My sister designed these dresses for all of her nieces, and my mom made them.

 When the reception ended, we drove back home and I got to sleep in my bed again. It was really nice.

The next day we drove back to Idaho. We made a stop on the way though. During the last family reunion, my aunt announced that her dog had just had puppies. She wondered if anyone wanted any. Grig and I have been discussing for a long time whether or not we should get a puppy. We decided we would go and look and them and decide if we wanted one.

After visiting, we tentatively picked out a puppy and decided that if we could get so much money stored away by the time he was old enough to take home, that we would get a new puppy.

Unfortunately, Dakota is getting old, and I'm pretty sure she has cancer. We don't know how much longer she's going to live and we wanted her to help train the puppy before she leaves us.

This is the cake I made Dakota for her 14th birthday last month. She loved it!

We've been able to save up the money amount that we needed, so our big announcement is that we have decided to bring a new puppy into our family.  This is him:

Isn't he cute? He's got a great, calm personality to match. We are picking him up next Friday, the 19th. 

From there, we went straight to the next reception back in Idaho. This reception went faster for me than the one in Utah, because I knew almost everyone that came. It is always fun to reconnect with people I haven't seen in a while.

The matching father and son

The daddy/daughter dance

My sister with the only sister who couldn't come. We made a cut-out copy of her so that she would know we missed her. My dad posted the face on. I think it looks pretty awesome. 

It was a fantastic event, and a very happy one. I am so grateful that my family all gets along and loves each other. I am grateful that we know that husbands and wives can be sealed together in the temple for all eternity. We believe that when marriage is performed under the proper authority, that it can go far beyond "death do us part."

That is a comforting and wonderful blessing.

Havelock Moved Out and Other Updates

Kevin, saying goodbye to his cousin.

This weekend was one of some pretty big changes. One of my sisters moved across the country while my brother-in-law Havelock, who has been living with us for some time, moved into his own apartment.

On her way through, my sister stopped to say goodbye to us. Kevin enjoyed playing with his cousin for a little while. It was nice to see her before she and her family left.

 I avoided showing you her face because she's not my kid, and I don't have permission (yet) to show her on our blog. These are cute pictures anyway though.

Before we moved into our current apartment, we felt inspired to ask Havelock if he wanted to come live with us. He had been wanting to come to the west coast for some time, but hadn't had the opportunity. He accepted, and so we decided to get a three bedroom apartment.

Living with Havelock has been a great experience. He and he nephew are really good friends, and we all learned a lot from each other. Sometimes it was challenging to have someone else live with us, but it was definitely worth it.

As he prepared to leave, I experienced my first taste of what it's like to send your kids off to college. It's a little scary, because after they leave, they're kind of on their own. You just kind of have to trust in them and the Lord that they're going to be okay. I'd always kind of assumed parents couldn't wait to get their kids out of the house once they turned 18, but now I understand that letting your kids leave is also an exercise on faith.

Here's a picture of us with Havelock and our snake.

I'm sure Havelock will be just fine. All of us have matured since he came to live with us, and I think he's really enjoying the college life, even though he's not going to college. He's just learning to be independent. He felt like it was time to move out, and so he got his own apartment up on campus. Luckily, campus allows non-students to live in their apartments.

Dakota (our dog) was in a lot of pain Sunday night. I woke up to hear her panting at a million miles an hour. Thinking she needed to go outside, I took her out, but after we came in, she continued to pant. She calmed down a little bit, but a couple of house later I woke up to hear her breathing very quickly again. Grig took her out, (I was busy with Kevin), and he said he thought she was in pain from her arthritis because she didn't really need to go and she was hobbling down the stairs.

She laid down on the floor in obvious distress. So, after I finished feeding Kevin, I got off the bed and laid next to her. I proceeded to give her a full-body massage. As I worked on her sore muscles, her breathing slowed and she fell asleep.

She was able to sleep the rest of the night, but the next day, she was still very still and sore.

So...last night I gave her a bath. She's funny, because she doesn't like to get into the bathtub, but once she's in there, she'll relax and lay down in the water. I massaged soap into her fur and gave her another massage as she relaxed in the water.  When we finished, I dried her off and she was a completely different dog! She went running around the house and for the rest of the evening, she was relaxed. She didn't even pant. It was bizarre because she pants all the time, but she was so quiet that I had to keep looking around to find where she was.

I'm glad that helped her so much. We might need to look into getting her some pain meds. Poor girl. At almost 14 years old, she's starting to fall apart. I guess that's what happens when animals and people age. Grig and I are trying to decide if we should get another dog before she leaves us, or after. It's a hard decision to make, and hard to think about her dying at all.

We'll at least wait to think about it until after our trip back east this summer. We're going to be driving across the entire country to visit family. I'm pretty excited. I love road trips, though we're not sure if Kevin is going to. It's going to be at least 32 hours on the road.

Well, that's about it for now. It's been a crazy few days, and this week is looking to be equally crazy, but good!

When Did My Younger Siblings Get So Old?

This weekend, we were able to travel to my home town and visit with my family.  It was a real treat.  I've missed them quite a bit since we moved.

Most of my family was there.  My younger twin sisters were speaking in church because they are leaving for a mission for our church in eight days.  Crazy!

Saturday night, as we were having family scriptures and prayers, I looked over at my younger brother.  He is sixteen years old.  I just kind of glanced at him, but it suddenly hit me how grown-up he looked.  He's over six feet tall, and he has been for a couple of years, but maturity is beginning to settle into him.  An overwhelming feeling of love filled me and my mind flashed back to when he was just a baby and he and I had been very close friends.  I used to call him Buh-boy (don't ask me why) and we'd go everywhere together.  Since I left home, we aren't as close as we used to be.  He's grown up and become his own person.  Though part of me looks back at that little boy with kind of a nostalgic sadness, the other part of me enjoys what he has grown into.  It is fun to see the adult that he is becoming.

My baby brother is also growing up.  He has become a wonderful friend to his nieces and nephews.  He is a good example to them, and he is trying hard to find his place in the world.  In only a few years, he will be all grown up too, and my mother and father will be "empty-nesters."  For a couple of people who had ten children, that will be an incredible transition for them.  

My sisters did a fantastic job at church.  They gave great talks, and I truly felt the Spirit as they spoke.  They will be wonderful missionaries.  It will also be difficult for them.  Their whole lives, they've never really been apart.  I think back on the curly-haired little babies that they were, and I wonder where time went?  When did they get so old and mature?  Who are these attractive young women and why don't I know them as well as I should?  They are such individual people, but I don't know what their hopes and their dreams are.  Who do they want to become?  What do they like to do?

I realized as I contemplated the things that made each of them unique that I had a huge regret.  I regretted that I hadn't spent more individual time one-on-one with my siblings.  Sometimes it was easy to get caught up in my own life and take my family for granted.  They never change, right?

Right?

I'm finding out how wrong I am.  In my mind, my little siblings are still the kids that they were when I left home.  They are still adorable, small, and waiting for me to return to visit.  However, I'm beginning to realize that I've let time slip by me.  They haven't held still, they've changed and grown.  I want to know the people that they've become.  They are neat people.

I also want them to get to know me.  I'd do anything for my family.  I love them so much.  I love my in-laws as well, and I'm so grateful that I have such amazing grandparents for Kevin and any future children we will have.

My sisters are coming to visit today, to spend some time with me, do some last minute shopping, and visit another sister who was unable to come to their talks.  Hopefully I'll be able to make up some lost time.

I'd like that.