JAMES AND CAMI

but I am grateful and blessed to have these 3 men in my life

{June 15th} 

Happy Fathers day babe. I just wanted to let you how much you mean to me. yes fathers day is the day you get recognized more.. but I hope we show you our love and express our appreciation to you daily for all you do for our family. we love you and I thank heavenly Father every night for bringing you into my life 11 years ago. I am grateful to you for the husband that you are, the dad that you have become and I don't know what I would do without you in my life. 

We have gone through a lot in our 10 years of marriage… It's been an adventure, a good one for sure. It has gone by in a blink of an eye, it sure doesn't feel like 10 years. Thats gotta be a good thing right!? :) We have lived in so many different states, had 3 children and i have loved every minute of this journey with you. Yes there has been ups and downs… life is hard, marriage is hard. You put up with a lot with me that is fore sure, but we have always worked as a team and i'm so grateful for your patience and unconditional love for me. I don't know if i always deserve it, but I'm truly lucky!!!  Thank you for your love for the gospel and the priesthood that you hold in our house and your worthiness to teach and serve our family. Nothing i love more that listening to your read the kids the scripture stories to them. You make the stories come to life and make it fun for them. I am learning right along with them:) You are an example of faith and obedience to the Lord. When faced with trails you turn to the Lord as we should, pray for guidance and always say, "everything will work out how its suppose to" I am still striving to do this, I know it's true of course but it's always hard in the moment. I know you were guided and prompted to go back to school.  It was hard for you, already having a good paying job and being content where you were. But you have grown to love learning and have been such an example to our kids they are sure lucky to have you. It's been a long 2 1/2 years of changing our lives around… moving to orem to finishing your bachelors degree at uvu.. deciding on what career best suites you and i know you have done countless hours of studying and praying to know what you should do. We are entering the next few years of grad school… applying to dental school this coming fall brings a lot more stress upon you for providing for our family but i now things will work out "how they are supposed too". You will be successful in whatever you do. I worried about you going the dental route for a while just because of outside opinions and comments… i shouldn't have listened to others… it's hard not too. You have felt good about your decision and I support you 100%!! You will be the one working in that field not me, ha all i want is for you to do something that you love!!! That is all that is important. 

Thanks for living your life righteously to receive blessings. I'm just glad that i get to be on this life journey with you. I love you more today than ever, you truly are my best friend. I know I can tell you anything and you will just listen. Even when i am crazy and my emotions are everywhere you listen and love me. Having 3 kids is stressful enough!!! haha I feel we are in a good place right now, yes i feel we probably could have had our 4th baby by now, but gosh times flies by and i can't believe we have an 8 year old and two 5 year olds!!! It doesn't seem that long ago that we had the twins, they sure changed our world. I am definitely not as patient as i was… yes i blame it on having double ha but i love our 3 kids more than I ever imagined. I wanted to be a mom my whole life,  I love love being a mom. It's the hardest yet most rewarding job. I am thankful that i have been able to stay home with them. Thank you for allowing me to do that. For aways working that much harder for me to be able to fulfill my dream of being a stay at home mother. thank you.

this turned into a novel and my thoughts are scattered… just wanted to journal my thoughts and show gratitude for the amazing husband you are. Nothing melts my heart more than watching you with our kids. I remember seeing this trait of yours when we dated… you have always been so good and loving with kids and you show me you love them on a daily basis.. they miss you when you are at work but excited for the time they get to spend with you and we aways love sundays with dad home: ) 

thank you. thank you. we truly love you to the moon and back!!!!!! xoxo

Parker loves reading dad his stories he has wrote in his "book of Parker stories"

we started it this summer to practice writing stories.. this kid has quite the imagination but struggles writing his stories on paper. Its helping i think and its been fun listening to them. love my 8 year old! 

To my DAD

Where do I even begin… I love you Dad. I look up to you more than you will ever know. You have taught me by example, love unconditionally, serve others, and love the gospel. You show this by living your life to the fullest. As shocked as i was hearing the words come out of your mouth "Your mom and I are going to serve a mission" I wasn't surprised one bit! I knew it was coming (just thought it would be later) but hearing your thoughts and feeling about it, and your devotion to the Lord and knowing he has a plan for us all even when you least expect it makes me have more faith and knowledge in this plan here on Earth. I am truly thankful for your example to serve the Lord at this time. You and mom said it wasn't as much of a sacrifice but a blessing but it is a sacrifice too. You and the best nana and Papa around and the kids miss you everyday but you are once again being an example to them to serve the Lord. They pray for you everyday, and I love that they know where you are and what you are doing there. they always "pray for you to teach the gospel, for the people there to listen"  they also pray you come visit them tomorrow and that they miss you everyday:) but as much as we miss you here, you are doing wonderful things there in Guyana the people are so lucky to have you!!!! we love getting your emails and hearing about your adventure there, you look happy in the work and you are being blessed. We are feeling the blessings as well and we thank you for that. 

Thanks for always being the dad i needed. growing up i knew I could always go to you with anything and you always listen, no matter what it was. you always knew what to say and i learned so much from you. You would always relate it back to the gospel and think about the big picture. My favorite times were when you would wait up for us each night (curfew) and we would continue talking, watching law and order or some movie, and eat ice cream together. nothing has really changed, I still love those moments with you, every time we got to visit, and now my kids get to experience how wonderful you are! They love their Papa and i love seeing them with you. every time we'd pull up you went straight the kids giving them hugs and telling them you love them. They are lucky to have you!!! thanks for being so great dad, I appreciate your love and concern you show toward our family, you are always there for us.  I always know you are only a phone call away and I will forever be grateful to you and lucky to call you my DAD.  xoxo 

Mark- 

Happy Fathers day to you!! I have been a part of your family now for 10 years but it feels like much longer. You welcomed me into your family from the beginning and I've always felt love from all of you. I look up to both you and Janeen as parents, you have raised 5 wonderful children and you should be proud of who they all have become. I know you are, but i want to especially thank you for how you have raised your oldest, and now my husband James. He has many qualities from both of you and I am grateful for that. He is a great husband and father and much of that goes back to how he was raised. You have taught him how to be respectfully and love his family unconditionally just as you do to your family. thank you. I am also thankful to you for the grandpa you are to our children, they are so lucky to have you! They look up to you so much, I see it day to day, whether they tell me stories about you or even just your name coming up in conversations. They love telling you jokes and you are always great to sit and listen to them. They always come back from your house having learned something new, that's the grandpa you are, always wanting to teach and educate them about everything and anything, its so great! they love learning and you are always great to sit and listen and talk with them. Parker now loves talking soccer to you and has already learned so much about the game from you. I have as well; can't leave that out! ha You know the sport there's no doubt about that, we love when you come to parker's games and he loves it too! I hope he continues in the graham footsteps of a great soccer player!   

We loved living with you guys for a time, and continue to love living close. It makes me smile every time you pull in the driveway and if my kids notice they go running to your truck. I know it brightens your day, but it does mine as well. I hope they know how lucky and blessed they are! I love the relationship you have with them, from taking them on lawn mower rides, movies in the backyard, family BBQ's, to scripture study at night with your family; we love it all. Thanks for being an example to them and to James and me. We hope to be great parents to our children as you are to yours. I hope you know how much we appreciate everything you do for our little family, we are grateful to you and love you and Janeen so so much. You always go out of your way to tell us you love our family, how proud you are of us and how we are living and doing great things together as a family. It means a lot as that is what we are striving for everyday. We sure aren't perfect but you are helping us succeed and be those great parents you say and hope we become. thank you.

{ SO BLESSED }

 We were all on the same row.. which i was so happy about. Me and Abigail sat by a young girl and her new baby which we ended up chatting with the whole flight she was from Orem herself we actually lived quite close to one another. The boys quickly started chatting with the person next to them. They have become good buds and love watching them together. 

walking through the airport with all our stuff was challenging… I kept going back to pick up someones bag to help them along ha. I think someone felt bad for us because we were handed a cart to help out. ha. I accepted it graciously:) I won't lie it saved me because i knew we had time to walk around. 

Kids were hungry so we stopped at the Olive and Ivy cafe and i have to say it was the BEST turkey panini sandwich i've ever had!!! It was so good, i didn't get to enjoy much of it as the twins took it over. no i didn't buy two of them… they were $10 haha i maybe would have if id know how good it was ha. Well by the time we took bathroom breaks and got a snack it was boarding time for the next flight. Kids ran down the tunnel thing onto the plane, everything was so fun for them. 

We ended up having 2 seats together one row in front of the other. This was wasn't as good and i couldn't keep Adam quiet as well. Yep i only say his name because lets be honest, he's my wild child. He doesn't have a quiet voice to his name!!! Abigail was happy she talked the guy next to her into letting her sit by the window. from then on it was like a roller coaster ride. It was like it was their first time flying.  Everyone laughed around us as he was yellowing "wahoo" "higher higher" all the way up. She cracks me up. 

It felt like the longest flight ever i have to say. I was exhausted… the long nights were hitting me and i couldn't stay awake. the boys were being good but just not quiet. It was a late flight as we weren't getting into Houston until 11pm and they were just happy to be on a plane. Everyone around us were sleeping ha. but all and all it was a good flight. 

We were all anxious to see dad. 5 weeks is just too long. When we got off the flight we went running down to baggage claim, James was outside with the car so i took the kids out to him and I planned to go back and get my bag. seeing this just melting my heart. They sure love their dad!!!! We all missed him and i'm just overjoyed being together as a family again. Yes we miss our friends and family but we are happy to be together. I felt the humidity instantly. "supposedly" it just hit that day… but man I knew right then it was going to be a hot and humid summer! 

The next couple of days were spend checking out the area… swimming and more swimming!! It rained a little off and on. They have some crazy rainstorms here!! 

 :: the pool is awesome as you can see. 

I think we will be spending many days here ::

:: rainstorm watching… they started to get soaked and come in ::

:: my little crafty girl, always painting something. i love it ::

 :: movie night. They think it's fun to share a room. I sure hope it last :: 

 :: Parker requested we go find somewhere for him to "shoot around" 

soccer lingo, i'm still learning ha. we found a great park for him to practice at 

close to our apartments :: 

Until next week….

really trying my best to blog this summer, lets hope i do!!!