Woah, has it really been a year since i last blogged? Apparently it has so, I guess it's due time for an update.
Warning, this is probably going to be a little long, feel free to stop reading at any time.
Jan.: Most of it was spent just getting settled in after moving to Loa. It was a big decision and a good one at that. We had many goals in mind and new that this would be the best decision to be able to accomplish them, so off to Loa we went. We were in a car accident this month as well. We were driving up to SLC from Provo on a snowy day and Jarrod lost control of the car and we spun out and ended up getting hit by a car. We were fine and so was the other driver, but not our cars. Thank goodness for insurance! We started looking for a house to buy...exciting!
Feb.: We went on our annual trip to St. George. This year we went over Valentine's weekend and we took our nieces Charity and Saren with us. It was such a treat to be able to spend a whole weekend with them. We went to the Parade of Homes and it was so fun to see how excited and amazed they were by these homes. We also enjoyed lunch at Roy's, which is now a fave of mine. To celebrate valentine's day Jarrod bought us ladies a rose and some candy, so sweet. He also treated us to a night of bowling. A funny to remember is how we all squished into our truck to drive to St. George. Since our other car was totaled from the accident, we just had our truck. It has a back seat, but it really isn't much room. The girls somehow situated themselves and their stuff into the truck and off we went for a 2 hour drive. I also didn't have much room, since I scooted the front seat up to provide more leg room. Well, I am not sure how the girls survived, but they were good sports. The weather was nice and it was so great to spend some time with them before they left for college in the fall.
We also celebrated Ian's birthday. We made him a huge chocolate cake with a tractor on top. We also made a Minecraft cake out of rice krispy treats for his friend party.
Ian played basketball this year, so we got to go and cheer him on. We made him a couple of signs, which he really appreciated. Oh, Ian was baptized and he asked us to give a talk on baptism. We were honored he chose us. Our house hunt continues!!!
March: Hmmm...I guess March wasn't too exciting, cuz I can't think of anything we did.
Oh wait we went and watched Donkey basketball. It was one of the most entertaining things I have ever seen.
April: This was an extra fun month. My brother Travis and his wife, Jessica and two kiddos came to visit all the way from Russia, yay! It was so fun to have them for a few days and to reunite with their kiddos. Since they live so far away, we celebrated Easter, Christmas, and birthdays with them.
While they were here, Travis celebrated his 40th birthday, so Jessica set up a surprise for him and we got to join. We went on a ATV tour just outside Capital Reef Nat'l Park. The weather was perfect and it was so fun to see the amazing beauty, that is right in our backyard.
There were a couple of times when I thought we might die. Our driver was a bit of a daredevil, which was exciting, but at times made my heart skip a beat...haha!!! There was also a time that I thought Jarrod was going to die. We were up somewhere high and Jarrod had lost his balanced and I for sure thought he was going to go over the cliff...eeks! I yelled at him to just sit down, before he lost his life. I think the most scared was Tina, out sister in law. Tina had to sit for a moment after she saw Jarrod tumbling around trying to catch his balance.
We also made mondu, which is basically Korean potstickers. A funny story: In our small town, the grocery store isn't the biggest, so, we probably bought every single package of wonton wrappers they had and we made several trips to buy them. I guess we should have just bought them all the first time out. Our grocery store may be small, but they usually have what we need.
We also got a visit from Chantil's hubby, Eric. Eric is a pilot in the Airforce and was being transferred to Hawaii. They couldn't take theor dog with them, so he was in town dropping Gizmo off to our friends, who decided to adopt him. We had dinner at Huhot and got caught up. Also this was the first time that Eric and Jarrod had met. It's about time...geez!
May: We celebrated Jarrod's birthday on the 6th. I can't really think of what we did, but I do know we went to see Iron Man 3. Oh wait, we also had a little party for him as well.
The twins celebrated their 18th birthday. I can't believe our nieces are that old. Also this month the twins graduated from high school. The house hunt continues!
For Mother's Day it snowed, what?
June: We finally bought a new car to replace our other one we totaled in January!!! We bought a Nissan Altima and love it.
We went to the Highland games at Thanksgiving point. We enjoyed time with Troy's family and listend to some great Scottish bands.
We built a fire pit at my parent's house, so we took advantage of that when we could. Lot of weenie and marshmallow roast. Oh ya and before we could build a firepit, we had to move some ginormous tree stumps. This wasn't a fun or easy task, but we did it. At the July we attempted to hike to a waterfall, but we only made it half way before turning around. We had started to late in the day and it was too hot. It also didn't help we weren't in the best of shape. Oh and the House hunt continues...it's getting old...why can't we find a house we want?
July: We celebrated the 4th of July at Jarrod's grandmother's house. We roasted hot dogs and had ice cream and watched the Pleasant Grove fireworks show. Her house is right across the street from where they have them, so her lawn is the perfect spot to watch them from.
On July 5th, our nephew Braxton was baptized and Jarrod was asked to be a witness. It was nice to relax and enjoy time with family.
August: August was a busy month. Jarrod's parents came and watched the Utah Symphony perfrom in Capitol Reef Nat'l Park.
It did rain, but we still enjoyed ourselves. It was fun to show Jarrod's parents around where we lived.
We went and saw the Tour of Utah complete a leg of the race that ends in Torrey. They also held a kids bike race, so Ian participated in that. While we waited, we got shakes at a local burger shack. It was so exciting to watch the bikers cross the finish line.
At the end of the month we helped Jarrod's parents move to St. George from Cedar City. We took Ian with us that weekend. We stopped and visited Saren at SUU, where we took a tour of the campus, saw where Saren lives, and ate dinner at the Pastry Pub. If you are ever in Cedar City, you must stop at the Pastry Pub...yum!
A funny story: We were running/walking through the lawn, but it was super muddy and soft, so we were sinking in the mud and getting it all over us. I think I got the worst of it. All over my feet (i was in flip flops), shorts, legs, and shirt. We decided to wash off in the fountain...shhh...don't tell. After saying good-bye to Saren we went headed down to St. George. Jarrod's parents weren't there yet, so we just set up shop and headed to bed.
Funny story: We were stopping to get a quick bite to eat at Jack n' Box (the only one in UT) and I asked Ian what he wanted and he said cheerios. I was like I don't think they have that. He goes you know the thing with cinnamon and sugar and I was like oh, do you mean a churro? He said ya, cheerios...hahah!!! Well i told him that I still didn't think they had any churros, but we could see. Well lo and behold, they had them on their menu...awesome!!! We had one happy boy and that is all that matter at that moment. Well that weekend is was exhausting, but I think everyone had a good time.
Jarrod and I celebrated our wedding anniversary, but I don't recall doing anything too special. We had hoped to be sealed in the temple, but circumstances out of our control prevented that from happening. We were super sad, but knew it would happen sooner or later, so life went on.
We also had Wayne county days this month. We went to the parade and then that evening we went to the demolition derby. It was my first time going and it was awesome!!! We also went to Lake Powell for a day of boating with Troy and his family. It was my first time there and I loved it. I hope we can go more next summer.
September: early in the month, I got cellulitis in my toe. My whole foot swelled up and it was pretty painful. I had to be on IV antibiotic for a few days to clear it up. I am lucky I caught it early, cuz it could have turned out a lot worse.
On September 13(my birthday), we were finally sealed to each other in the Mount Timp. temple. Getting to this point in our life was a challenge, but we are so happy we finally were able to be sealed to each other for eternity.
Once we overcame our own personal challenges and were ready to be sealed, we ran into some unforeseen challenges that were out of our hands, so that is why we say finally. We were patient and trusted the Lord and of course it all worked out, but not with out a lot of frustration, stress, and sadness on our part. We are so blessed and know it is because of our faith and desire to be together. At the end of September I went to the Steals scrapbook retreat. This was my 4th time going. Jessica, came all the way from Russia as well. It was so fun to be able to scrap and spend time with her!!!
Still house hunting...ugh!
October: Another car accident...this is not our year. I was on my way up north to SLC and a deer thought it would be a great day to commit suicide. I basically T-boned the deer. I was going about 65mph and never saw the deer coming. It was like hitting an invisible brick wall. Debris went flying and so did the deer. Well the deer was successful in his attempt to die, but I was not injured. However, I was pretty sore for a long time. The car didn't fair well and was smashed pretty bad. Thank goodness there were so many kind and concerned people who stopped to assist. So, only 4 months after buying our other car, it was totaled and it was time to look for another one. We loved our Altima, so it was so sad that it was gone. I did have some pictures of the car, but I must have deleted them. Still house hunting...when will it end???
November: We bought another car. We purchased another Nissan Altima, yay!!! This car was an upgrade from our last one, fully loaded. We feel so blessed to find such a great car so quickly. Oh and guess what? we finally found a HOUSE and were under contract. This was actually a house we put an offer on about a year earlier, but lost it to another buyer. We were thrilled to see it go back up on the market and jumped on it quickly. We made our offer and about 3 hours later, we were under contract...what? I couldn't believe how easy this time around was. We had been trying to get another house for months and there was a lot of negotiations going on, but it just didn't work out. We were so excited. There were lots to do before we could actually close, but it was a great feeling to be under contract again. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents and younger brother Brenton. It was one of the nicest Thanksgiving we have had. It was small, quiet and low key. Funny story:I was preparing to make Jarrod's fave sweet potato casserole. Well I went to crack the eggs into the mixture and when I did the eggs were super liquidy, like water consistency. It turned out they were bad eggs and I had to start all over...sad! No worries though, i got it made again and it turned out great!!! It was a great month to reflect on our life and how blessed we have been.
December:
 |
| We found the tree of life! |
We couldn't believe how quickly December came. We celebrated Christmas eve day with Jarrod's family. We had lunch, entertainment, and of course gift giving. We came away with wonderful gifts and memories. I worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which was kinda sad, but it is definitely worth the extra money. Jarrod and I didn't really buy any gifts for each other because we were in the middle of buying a house and needed to save every penny we could. We did however, buy for our family members and that is the most fun anyways. We are still under contract with our house and there were a few bumps, but we are progressing forward with this house.
 |
| This is where we live, isn't it beautiful? |
Well there you have it, you should all be updated on our year. So many obstacles and hoops to jump through this past year, but it was all worth it. We have been extremely blessed and are so very grateful for that. We are excited to see what the new year brings us. Hopefully, I will be better at keeping up with this blog, so stay tuned.
Until next time...ENJOY!!!
This was my fortune from the other day. It sure made me so happy, so I had to share. 
Here is our poor car! Doesn't look too bad right? 
