A Season of Change

Warning: This will be a long post.
The last couple of weeks have been quite the roller coaster ride for us, there has been so much changing in our lives that I just don't even know where to begin.
First: Our landlord has decided to put the house on the market, which really put me into a tissy!  In case any of you don't know, I really don't like having a dirty house.  It is not because I'm afraid what others are going to think of me but it just makes me feel dirty.  But lets be honest I don't have all the time in the world and spending time with my family is way more important and sometimes feels scarce so the thought of having to spend my precious time to clean my house so it is ready to show bothers me.  I hate having people walk through my house.  I know that if it was me trying to sell my own house I would probably feel different but because of the situation I'm in I hate it.  I hate the feeling of not knowing, I hate the feeling of wondering what is going to happen and where we will end up.  Now this is not the first time that Corey and I have gone through this.  When we lived in American Fork, our Landlord did the exact same thing.  So all of those feeling from before just came flooding back.  Needless to say it looks like things are going to be "OK."  I always know it is going to be OK but honestly this time felt like I had just been stabbed in the back.  I didn't see this challenge coming we have been dealing with Corey being out of work for the last 6 months, and honestly I just wasn't seeing this being part of the picture.  I had felt like I had had enough stress to last me a lifetime lately.  But as things always do, we were blessed that some friends are going to let us rent their basement apartment.  I know it will be a change because it will be quite a bit smaller than where we areright now, but it is also cheaper, which means that we will have more of an opportunity to be able to save, which means we could actually, possibly, one day buy our own house.  I'm grateful for friends, and I'm grateful that we get to stay around friends.  I really didn't want to move out of our ward, and I really didn't want Derek to be moved away from his friends.  He has some amazing friends and they play so well together, I wasn't wanting to take that away from him, at least not quite yet.  So I guess this really was the Lord's way of helping us, but it just took us a little while to realize it.
Corey still doesn't have a job, this layoff, that we were told would last 6-8 weeks at the most has now lasted 6 months.  This has been so hard, because it wasn't Corey's fault that he got laid off, but for as good as a worker as Corey is you wouldn't think it would have been this hard.  We have been blessed with a few temporary 1 week jobs, that at least help carry us along.  Hopefully with a lot of faith and prayers this will end soon.  I'm so lucky to have him though as he has helped kept me grounded through everything.  He truly has such an amazing testimony of the gospel, during my moments he reminds that the Lord really is in charge.

My brother was recently sealed to his beautiful wife in the Temple.  This sealing really touched me for some reason.  I truly felt that there were "others" of those who had gone before there witnessing this wonderful occasion.  Just like there wedding it was a very small quiet event with only family members and their wonderful Bishop in attendance.  The Sealer was so cute and said a couple of things that really taught me more about the temple and purpose behind it.  I hope Jen is now ready to be stuck with our family for eternity, because heaven knows she is going to need all the help she can get to handle us. I was so impressed and proud of her for being able to wear her Wedding Dress, a year later and she could still fit into it, that is amazing in my book.   This day really made me feel like my parents family was truly complete.  We have now all been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity to our wonderful spouses, and our children are being raised in the gospel.  It truly is a great thing.
We have been able to spend a lot of fun together with all of my family lately.  How lucky I am to have such amazing parents, sisters, and brothers.
Last weekend we did a whirl wind weekend to Wyoming to see Corey's parents.  Joe is doing fairly good right now, but we never know when that is going to change.  I love the relationship that Joe and Derek has, they are so funny together and just have a lot of fun.  Corey and I had felt that we needed to head over to make sure that Derek and Joe got to have some time together while both were still good and healthy.  It was a weekend pretty much filled with Driving but some fun time together we went to the Casper Art Festival known as the Nic Fest.  We had a picnic in the park, had huckleberry sundaes, and did a little bit of work around Their house, including installing the window air conditioning units.  Sadly however, me being terrible at taking pictures many times, I didn't take any pictures oh well.
Derek has been doing wonderfully, he is loving summer and loving that all of his friends are home all day.  They spend countless hours outside playing and riding their bikes.  I seriously think that Derek could easily be logging 5 miles a day on his tricycle.  You should see just how fast he can ride that thing.  Well that is all for today, hopefully you weren't to bored reading this.

Daddy's Conversation with Derek

First thing as his head left the pillow...

"daddy, can i go outside?"
"yes buddy, but lets get some breakfast first."
"but i don't need to eat breakfast"
"yes you do"
"ok, well can i wear these shorts?"
"no, lets get out of our jammy shorts and put on our tough shorts?"
"ok, cause the sun is shining brightly and we are gonna ride on a boat!"
"yeah, we are going to ride on a boat bud."
"yeah!!!! oh, i gotta go potty first!"

Derek wakes up almost every morning asking me if he can go outside. I have to convince him almost every that breakfast IS important and that it has to be eaten. Some  rare days "daddy's special cereal" as he calls it, is put into a receptacle of some kind with a cup of milk as an accompaniment and breakfast takes place on his trike. I'm pretty sure he would park it right next to his bed if we would let him. He is an amazing motivator for anyone when it comes to going outside because he is just like me in that he doesn't like to be inside when he doesn't have to be. The only problem is that he wants to go out as soon as he opens his eyes. I love his use of descriptive words such as when he talked about the sun this morning. maybe he will grow up to articulate his words better than his father. Either way i love being his daddy and can't wait to see what happens tomorrow. As for right now, we have to go get ready for our boat ride.  

Derek the observant one!

Derek looked at Corey and said "Dad your putting on pants are you going to work today?"  We just started laughing, because if you know Corey you know he would live in shorts, and secondly he was just that observant.  Yes Corey went to work for the day, just wish it was a permanent job.

This is the Place State Park

So this past week, we had a gift certificate that was about to expire to This Is the Place State Park.  Derek likes this place because it has a train, but all the animals and history is fun too.  Corey and Derek went while I was at work.  So here is the pictures of there trip.

Waiting for the train to go.

Riding the horse.

Derek loved being able to ride "all by himself"

He loved being able to pet all the little lambs  This one stayed asleep the whole time.

Waiting at the Train to come pick them up (Again).

This is what happens when the Conductor has to take a bathroom break.

Afterwards, they came by and saw me at work, and Derek of course had to show me his hat (again) and say that I looked silly in a hat.  I was so happy to see them.

Derek's First friend Birthday Party

Last week Derek attended his  very first "Real" birthday party!  He was so excited to go and give his friend Calvin his gift and even more importantly the party had a theme of Thomas the Train.

I was a little worried that Derek might not wait for Calvin to open the present.

Playing games

Making their own little Thomas the Trains

I think they turned out really cute.

The Thomas Cake!

I was so impressed with Brittany's cake decorating skills, next year I will have to hire her to make Derek's Cake because well, I don't even come close to be able to do this, I can barely decorate cupcakes.  Thanks so much Calvin for letting Derek be apart of your special day.

My Boys

I absolutely love my boys and I absolutely love their friendship that they have with each other.

Let's Go fly a kite.

He will ride his Trike anywhere, and at anytime of the day.  Everyone would be amazed at how fast and how far he can go on this little thing.

Day out with Thomas

So this was our 2nd year attending Day out With Thomas at the Heber Valley Railroad.  Derek really enjoyed this last year, so we thought that we would take him again this year.  Believe it or not, Derek is even more into trains now than he was last year, which I honestly didn't think was possible.  He remembers where every railroad crossing is, and always points out to us the Signs and Signals.  Derek was so excited to ride on Thomas and was so not okay with having to get off.  This day is always fun, as they have several activities for the kids to do.  The Weather wasn't really great since it had snowed the night before, doesn't Mother Nature know that it is the end of May!

On the Train waiting for it to start.

I just have to say that I love the Boston hat, he likes that his PaPa, Dad, and all his Uncles have one just like it.

with Mr. Conductor

Waiving as we got back on the train.

Not so sure that he is ready to get off.

In front of Percy, Thomas, and Rosie.

The Diesel's

The Official Photographer kept getting in my way, so this isn't a great picture.

Getting his "James" Tattoo

Playing at the Imagination Station

Meeting Sir Topham Hat

Waiting to ride the Motor Cars, isn't he just such a cute kid.

The Motor Cars

By the end of the day though he was pretty pooped out.