A Day of LOVE

(Heart-attacking our house)

Trevor is not a romantic and quite frankly neither am I so Valentine's Day has never been a big holiday for us.
This year (and from now on) I decided I wanted to focus on the LOVE part of Valentines and on doing things for our family to help everyone feel how much they are loved. I got a great idea from my friend Lacey and I had the girls help me cut out tons of hearts and write things we love about each member of our family on the hearts. Valentines morning we hung the hearts up all over the house for everyone to read. It was so fun to read some of the things they wrote like Hallie's heart that said "I love playing Up high, Down low, on the side, too slow with Dad." and Megan's heart that said, " I love Davis' chubby hugs."
This will definitely be a new tradition for us. Thanks Lacey.

A traditional we have had since Trev and I were first married is a Valentine's Treasure Hunt. The kids love this and it's fun for me to come up with the clues and of course the treasure.





After running up and down the stairs about 5 times ( I like to wear them out) in search of clues they finally found their treasures in our closet.
Love letters, treats, and a toy. Hallie and Megan got some more "littlest pet shop" animals. I love to give these to the girls because it is one thing they love to play with together.

As soon as they found the new toys they were off to their room to play happily together ... love that. I came up about an hour later and had to take some pictures of how they set them up.
This is the other reason I love to give them these little animals... so cute.

(love how they put all the fish and frogs in the bathtub)






I cooked a nice dinner... made with lots of love and then we thought it would be good to spend a little time at the local Nursing Home and share a little love with those folks. So, the girls made some Valentine cards to pass out and we went with our good friends to the Friendship Manor.





HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Hope you felt loved. :)

Campbell through the years... all 3 of them

This kid is fun, fun, fun! I can honestly say he makes me laugh every single day.

He loves to put on his "super Campbell" cape and run around the house announcing, "To the rescue!"

If he spills something he is quick to say, "I'n so sorry Mommy, I'n so sorry."

He has a bad habit of wiping his nose on his sleeve and we were discussing this the other day. I told him he needed to use a Kleenex and Hallie said, "I hope he isn't still doing that when he dates!" Megan added, "Yeah, or if he gives her a hug and wipes his nose on her shoulder! Ewww!" lol

Campbell eats and eats and is still hungry. He tells me "I need somefin for my mouff."

As I am typing this he is telling me, "Megan pushed me... she need to go to time out!"

We just love this little guy. He brings so much sunshine and yes, a little craziness into our home.

We love him for it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMPBELL!!

Campbell turns 3!

Saturday, Feb 13th was Campbell's 3rd birthday.

It was full of presents, yummy food, and friends.

This kid keeps us laughing.

He thought Hallie's glasses needed a little welding.

Thank you hugs for Meg and Daddy.

Enjoying his new crazy straws.

Water tastes so much better when you drink it from a crazy straw... just ask Cam.

Ice cream and cake with friends.

Blowing out the candles is harder than it looks!
What a fun day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMPBELL-MAN!!!

Happy Valentine's Day Kathryn.

I met Kathryn at a party on the 3rd of July and my life was never the same. We ate dinner and played buddy tag and she was my buddy. I was immediately attracted to her - she was so genuine and of course beautiful. I am one lucky dude:) Thank you Kathryn for giving me a chance and for these 4 little kiddos.

Mothers- this is worth watching

I know it is nearly 8 minutes long and 8 minutes can be hard to come by but I promise it is worth it.

Our little monkey

I can't even tell you how much fun this little guy is.

I took these pictures the other day of Davis examining Trevor.

Too Cute!

Campbell says...

(Campbell weighs 1lb more than Davis and they are 21 months apart)

**Yesterday we officially took Campbell out of the crib (yes, he is almost 3 and he was still in a crib) and put him on a mattress on the floor (no, the poor kid does not have a bed because we don't want to have to move it, and because I want to buy the boys bunk beds which we really don't want to have to move). Anyway, he loved sleeping on the floor in his "new bed" (aka mattress on the floor). He was exhausted and went right to sleep but then around 1AM he climbed... er... rolled out of bed and walked out to the balcony where he announced to the entire house in his loudest voice, "I wake up! Hey errybody, I wake up!"

**We were in the car this morning when out of nowhere
Campbell said, "I cant' see the Holy Ghost. I can't see the Holy Ghost mommy!"

** Campbell came up to me sticking his finger out and said,
"Mommy, Tinkerbelle scratched my finger."
I said, "Oh no, are you okay?"
He said, "Yes... Tinkerbelle said sorry."

My favorite quote this week

"Nothing touches our soul but leaves its impress, and thus, little by little, we are fashioned into the image of all we have seen and heard, known and meditated; and if we learn to live with all that is fairest and purest and best, the love of it all will in the end become our very life."
--David B Haight

I love this quote. It reminds me that as a mother I must do all I can to fill my children's lives with all things good and pure.
I truly believe that in the end they will love and they will seek after what they have known best.

Snow

Enjoying the snow this morning... I'm hoping it will be gone by Monday.

What is wrong with me?

I used to love the snow but now it just complicates things! ;0

We don't own a snow shovel so we are sweeping the snow off the driveway.

Doesn't make much sense to buy a shovel now since it doesn't snow much in Richland.

I didn't get any pictures of Hallie in the snow but here is one of her enjoying some hot cocoa afterwards to warm up.

Hope you are enjoying the weather today... wherever you may be. :)

This week at our house

Campbell found a new hiding place and invited Davis to join him inside.
Today he said to me, "Let's go to space mommy! But... but, where is my rocket ship??"
Megan decided she wanted a haircut and insisted on "bangs". I was nervous about cutting bangs on her but in the end I think she made a good choice... she looks so cute with bangs. :)



Hallie is learning how to play the recorder and loves it. She practices faithfully and learns so quickly. She also started "STOMP" this week.

Campbell is always doing something to keep himself (and me) busy. He is a sweet boy and LOVES to be funny. He will do something silly and then ask, "I funny Mommy??" and of course I say, "YES, you ARE funny!" and he grins from ear to ear.

The other day I was working out and he walked in the room with a little cup of water and asked, "You firsty mommy? You need a drink?" What a sweet boy. :)

I just love this little... er... big guy.

Davis loves to eat and to talk on the cell phone. If I am on the phone he grunts and moans and cries until I give in and let him have it then he holds it up to his ear and kisses it (i.e. sucks on it).

Oh, he also loves purses. ;0

Trevor has had a great month of elective and his schedule has been more flexible in January. He is studying ultrasound and has to do 100-300 ultrasounds this month which is a lot but he is getting them done.

Davis likes to jump on daddy when he is studying... daddy just loves it. ;)

Megan in STOMP

This past fall Megan joined an after school group called STOMP which is a music group that uses different kinds of things (sticks, buckets, brooms etc) to create rhythms, poetry, and music. She worked so hard and met with this group weekly for 3 months to practice her part.

On the night of the performance we didn't know what to expect from Meg since she is terrified of performing anything in front of a lot a people but SHE DID IT! And she did such a great job. We are so proud of all her hard work and her bravery! Way to go Meg!

Our Path

(warning, long journal entry)

Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."

This has been my favorite scripture since my seminary days and I have grown to love it more and more as I have witnessed the Lord directing our paths when we "trust in him".

I remember when a prompting came 8 years ago that completely changed our path and Trevor called the Veterinary school in Oregon and told them he would no longer be attending (he was to start in a few weeks!). Then our focus became Medical School and we still can't believe how that all worked out so well. We were led to our house in West Bountiful and we have a tender place in our hearts for our neighbors and ward members there who supported us during a really stressful time in our lives (aka. Med school).

When Trevor interviewed for residencies we prayed and pleaded with the Lord that he would "direct our paths" and when Trevor came out here to interview he said to me, "It just feels like home." I thought to myself- Louisville Kentucky feels like home??!!!

You may remember how we found our house here. We could never deny the guidance we received to buy this home and that experience alone has strengthened my testimony that God lives and loves me. Throughout these 2 1/2 years I have had so many experiences when the spirit whispered in my mind- THIS is why you are here in Kentucky and THIS is why you are in THIS house. Our time here has and still is changing our lives for the good.

So when it was time for Trevor to start looking for a job we felt the importance of "Trusting in the Lord". He has always been so good to us

We had a FHE and talked to the girls about this and memorized Proverbs 3: 5-6 together then we offered a prayed and asked the Lord to guide our search for a job and a home... again please.

Trevor started applying to jobs in Idaho and Utah since we knew we wanted to be close to family but when we went out there we wanted to feel good about it but we just didn't. :( So we kept praying and Trevor kept looking. We thought about staying here in Kentucky since we love it here but we didn't feel good about it either. There were some more job openings in Utah and Idaho but nothing felt right. We knew we had to widen our search. We looked at the surrounding states and there was only one we felt good about... Washington. Trevor kept making comments about "the tri-cities area" but neither of us had been there and there weren't any job openings there until one day when one job opened in Richland and Trev immediately applied for it. He received an email back that day from the Medical Director of the Emergency Department. He was interested in talking to Trevor and we soon found out that he was LDS and has 5 kids (and Richland has a temple!)! We were so excited.

Trevor scheduled an interview there and in a few other places in WA and he flew out in the beginning of December.

He interviewed at the other hospitals in WA first and they offered him jobs but he was waiting to see how he felt about the interview in Richland (tri-cities area). Well, to make an already long post a little shorter when he got to Richland once again Heavenly Father answered our prayers and he knew it was the place for our family. The interview went great and they offered him the job.

Trevor called me on the way home from the interview. He was floating on air. I can't remember the last time he was so excited and happy. We knew it was right and we accepted the job a few days later.

Since then we still feel great about the job in Richland and we are excited but we feel so sad that we have to leave Kentucky (in June) and we feel so sad that we will still be 9 hours away from our family and friends in Utah. We never imagined that we would finish residency and then move somewhere away from family where we don't know anyone but it seems that the Lord has a different plan for our family.

We are excited for our new adventure but right now we are just enjoying our home and friends and all the wonderful things Kentucky has to offer our family. We are so very blessed.