Har's Date

Another Christmas Eve date in the books!  Today, Joey and I took Har out for a little time together.  We went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  The food was so good and the conversation was even better.  We just love spending time with the best daughter we could have asked for.  The waitress smelled so good and we found out the perfume that she was wearing.  Since Har did not have too much time for the date since she was going to Hozier that night, we went to Ulta to buy the perfume in lieu of an activity.  Then we snuck in a quick trip to liquidation team.  It was such a great afternoon.  So grateful for this time with our kiddos one on two.  We are so blessed.

A night we've been waiting for...

Tonight we got to hear from our friends Josiah and Gregory up at Deer Valley.  We went with Mike and KC and it was such a good time. Mike and KC picked me up and we met Joey up there.  I was so sad that Joey's meeting and traffic made him miss Josiah.  I called him and kept him on speaker so he could hear him as he drove.  He did such an amazing job!  He was so humble and even got a little choked with the amount of people enjoying his music in the crowd. Joey made it for Gregory and it was pretty much perfect!  He is for sure one of our favs.  At one point Joey and I were standing with our arms around each other singing to his encore.  Definitely a moment I will never forget.  We have seen Gregory 4 times and I am sure that this will not be the last.  

Happy PDay Monday

It was so good to hear from Luke again this week.  He is doing so well and wishing that time would just slow down.  Here is what he said this week:

The Rundown:

• "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things..." (2 Nephi 2:11) Google is my opposition. My Google photos just stopped working, how wonderful. 

• Found a cool family through a referral from the Maplewood Sisters, the main homie is named Luc & he started the discussion guns ablaze with random verses in the Bible about sanctification. We were able to steer the conversation into a productive one about the Restoration & invited them all to read from the Book of Mormon. 

• Met some really cool people, such as our friend Charesson. Haitians are elect (most of them). 

• Our friends, Chris and Lysette, are doing really well. We watched the restoration movie with them at the church & helped them understand more about Joseph Smith & to help them get a testimony of him as a prophet. 

• Met with our boy Jean, did some push-ups with him, he told us the swear words he knew in English, and it was such a funny lesson. We put him on baptismal date for this upcoming Sunday, so praying for that. 

• Our recent convert, Sheila, is going through a tough time so we met with her a couple times and called throughout the week. 

• Had a good amount of friends come to church on Sunday, and had Creole service afterwards. 

• I had to give a talk in Creole at the Creole service, one which had maybe 5 minutes of preparation. Needless to say, a little stressful, but it went better than I thought. 

• Last, but definitely not least, our friends Beggy & Tyson got baptized!!! Complete miracle. Beggy was solid, I had no worries. But the other Creole elders called us Saturday night at 10 saying they just met with Tyson (who was in their area due to the split). They said he told them he wanted to be baptized the next day, and since he was interviewed a few weeks back, he was able to get baptized as well.

A night with Tyler Childers

                                                          

It was a little tough getting there with the traffic and we missed Bella White which was a bummer.  But the rest of the night was amazing.  We made it to our amazing seats in time to see the other opener Shakey Graves.  He really put on a good show and it was uncanny how much he reminded us of Ryan.  Tyler came out next and it was seriously the BEST!  He started the show off with one of my favorite songs and one that I did not think was on his set list- Shake the Frost! It was beautiful!  The rest of the night just continued on that high.  Tyler has been on our bucket list and I think we should keep him on there and plan to see him another time.  Loving all of these concerts with my best friend.

Another missionary Monday

Our missionary had another great week!  Here is the rundown he gave in his email:

The Rundown:

• Our friend Beggy is so dope. He is progressing really well, and is on track to be baptized this upcoming week. Him and his friend, Pascal, are the most humble guys ever. 

• Our friends, Chris and Lysette, are also on track to getting baptized in the next couple of weeks. 

• We have found a bunch of really cool people, Irvington is elect. 

• Had some guy get in right our faces on Springfield Ave because we were "trying to convert" instead of telling people we are saved by grace. 

• We met a ton of cool Haitians on our street at the various Haitian spots 

• Our recent convert, Francy, got the Aaronic Priesthood. W Francy, he is the goat. 

• We have a few more really promising friends, like I said this area is so good. 

• Can't think of anymore interesting happenings. I'm sure a lot more happened, but we won't know til the next life I guess. 

I love him so much and I am so proud of him.  He is such an amazing example to all of us.

Four eyes

Har and I finally gave in and went to have our eyes checked.  Turns out that we both needed glasses.  I have trouble seeing far and apparently up close also!  Har has trouble seeing things that are up close and her eyes struggle to focus.  We are both looking forward to a little less squinting and a much crisper world!

Another brace face

It was a bit of a difficult experience for poor Tig but they are on!  Tag has braces!  He looks so cute and so old.  He laid there for what felt like hours but he did it.  Such brave boy.  I know that these things are new and difficult for him but he handled it like a champ!  Here is to next three years...

First Day of School

I am sure I say this every year but I this was the fastest summer ever!  I can't believe we are already going back to school!  I feel like the older I get the faster time goes for sure.  This is going to be a great year for the Childs kiddos.  Har is a senior, Nash is in 10th grade (first year at Skyridge), Gray is in the 9th grade, and Tag is in 7th (first year at Viewpoint).  I love that each of them have a buddy with them this year- calms my worried heart.  Love all of them so much and I know that this year will bring amazing experiences!

Seventh Grade Day

Today was the first day back for our seventh grader.  I was a little nervous since it is such a big school but he did great.  Each class was only 10 minutes but it gave him an opportunity to find each of his classes. When they arrived at school, there was a tunnel of their old elementary school teachers cheering them on. So sweet!  He came home excited which is a great sign.  Tomorrow will be the official first day for each of the kiddos.

Missionary Monday

Luke had a crazy busy week and was unable to send an email.  I did want to do a little weekly report based on our phone conversation.  He had a great week this last week.  They did not have any baptisms but they did have a lot of lessons.  They are working with a lady named Rosadine that is super solid and he feels like she will get baptized soon.  He finds out tomorrow if he will be transferred.  I seriously cannot believe that he only has 3 more transfers until he comes home.  I know that he will make the most of every moment and leave his mission with no regrets.  Love how much he is loving his mission.  Can't wait to hear what happens next week.

Last summer getaway to our favorite place...

This summer has by far been the fast summer so far.  I cannot believe that they go back to school next week.  Carson and Kylee moved out last week so we decided to go down to SG and spread out!  Harlee invited Miah to come with us and everyone was so excited to get away one last time before reality hits!  We left on Thursday after Joey got home from work.  We got down there around 10:30pm, unpacked, and went to bed.  Friday was a little busy for Joey and I with work but we found some time to have fun.  I got up and took Ike on a walk for an hour.  I love SG mornings!  We worked while the kids slept and then went to Pork Bellies for lunch.  It was just as good as we remembered.  Before going home we stopped by the Salt Water Taffy store to show Miah some of our favs.  The rest of the day the kids just relaxed and spent a little time in the bathtub pool- so hot!  Miah and Har went shopping a bit and then went out at night to find cute SG boys.  Saturday was a great day.  We got up and got Donutville donuts per Tag's request and then we made our way to a few garage sales.  We went to Chubbys for lunch that day.  After lunch, Har and Miah dropped me and the boys off at the rec center to swim in a cooler pool.  They went shopping a bit more.  They picked us up and then dropped me, Nash, and Gray off to see the movie Trap.  It was a little intense but so good.  We got In and Out for dinner and then worked on getting the house clean so we could take off in the morning.  Har and Miah went out again that night and actually met some boys that came over to play pool.  All in all it was a great trip!  Hope the kids had one last fun weekend before school starts.  We will come down again to our favorite place for Fall Break.

Nash loses some wisdom...

I remembered last week that I was supposed to schedule Nash getting his wisdom teeth out this summer.  Thankfully they had an opening this week so he can hopefully be healed before school starts.  Nash handled it like a champ! The oral surgeon said that he was so mellow which is so typical Nashie.  He got a little nauseous from the anestethia and was my first kiddo of 3 to throw up.  Besides that though he has been amazing.  So glad that this is done and hopefully the next few days will not be too bad for him.

Another P Day for Elder C

It was so good to hear from Luke today. I missed him so much last week as we got to go experience Canada and he was not able to be with us.  He was for sure where he needed to be.  Sheila was baptized!  It was such a special experience for Luke to witness that. They also had 20 friends show up to church.  It is crazy how many more "friends" Luke is finding in the Haitian Creole area.  He had two exchanges this week: one with Elder Melor and one with Elder Egan.  Luke really enjoys exchanges and I am sure it is nice to change it up a bit!  The rest of the week was full of lessons and an interview with President Durrant.  Another great week for our misisonary!

Finally made it to Canada...

We have been talking about it for years and we finally made it happen.  With Joey's crazy work schedule we could not get away for too long so we packed each day to the fullest!  We left on Wednesday morning at 5am and drove all the way to Canada.  We stopped for lunch in Montana but still made it to our hotel by 5pm.  Not bad!  The kids were all so good on the drive.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Lethbridge.  That night we went to Costco to try their fries and ketchup which was recommended by our favorite Canadian grandma!  We also got to see some of our Herderite friends on our shopping trip.  We went back to the hotel and the kids swam for a little bit.  We ended up going to bed pretty early since we were getting up again at 5am to head to Banff.  Thursday morning we made our way to Banff.  It is such a cool town.  We parked and then took the shuttle to Lake Louise.  It was seriously just as beautiful as I remembered it.  The whole process to get there was a lot and Tag was not impressed.  Once we saw the lake he said "Not worth it!".  Got to love his honesty.  Thankfully all the other kids loved the experience.  After Banff we headed back to Lethbridge.  We stopped at a yummy pizza place for lunch.  It was so good.  Once we got back to the hotel, the kids went swimming and Har and I tried out the fitness room.  Joey ran to Costco to get some blankets for the kids and picked up some dinner.  We relaxed the rest of the night and went to bed early.  We had another early start on Friday.  We got up, ate some breakfast, and made our way to Waterton.  On the way there, Joey stopped and gave us a tour of McGrath.   We then went on to Cardston and saw the temple.  It is such a pretty one.  After driving through town we made our way to Waterton.  Joey and I walked over to a small shop and rented a paddle board.  The water was freezing but that did not stop the kids from having fun.  We all took a turn on the paddle board and loved it.  It was a little tough standing up, but once we did, it was so fun.  After some time in the water, we walked over to Pats which came highly recommended by Sarah Sam.  We got some smarties an ketchup chips.  The ketchup chips were not as bad as I expected.  We left Waterton, stopped for lunch in Cardston, and then went back to the hotel to get ready.  We had plans to go visit Donna.  We were so excited to see her.  She was especially excited to meet Tag.  She just loves hearing about all of the funny things that he says.   We took her out to eat at this place she suggested named Earls.  It was super good food and everyone was able to get something that they liked.  We then took Donna to Costco and stocked her up on a few things.  We also got her an air conditioner that Joey installed for her.  Her house has been so hot and it will be such a blessing for her to have that.  It was so fun to visit with her and wish that we lived closer.  We got home and went to bed for another early start.  We got up and started our drive home on Saturday.  We went the long way around Glacier.  It was so pretty.  We stopped in Kallispel and had lunch at this really good Mexican restaurant.  We then drove past Flathead Lake which was so pretty!  May or may not have decided that we need to get a cabin on the water.  We made it to Butte and checked into our hotel. We were all exhausted so we just grabbed dinner to go and just relaxed.  We got up early this morning and we are on our way home.  We got gas and went to start the car and it really struggled to start.  Pretty sure that the starter needs to be replaced.  Joey was smart to leave the car running while we got gas and now we are on the last stretch.  Just about 2 hours from home.  Minus the car stress at the end it was an amazing trip.  So fun to get out and see new things.  Love spending time with our family.  They are all so good and just easy to travel with.  So glad that we finally made the Canada trip happen.