Ryan is very patient with me. I appreciate it a lot. He's all about buying stuff, turns out I'm a bit too picky to fall in love with something off the shelf. At least something inexpensive enough to be in love with. I always see something and the price and think "no, I could make that for a lot less." So, I end up making a lot. Usually Ryan doesn't have to be involved in doing the project, just has to put up with the mess and craziness that is our house while I go through it all. I like being creative. It makes me feel good to know that I have added something to my home for less then I could have bought it.
I pulled out my sewing machine the other day, and was only able to get it out of the box after I pulled out all of the fabric I've been keeping for different projects first. So once the sewing machine was set up and I had a deadline for putting it away (we had furniture arriving shortly) I decided that I should get everything done that I could before I had to put it away.

In the last couple weeks I've made

-Curtains for Elise's Room
-Added Black out lining to our curtains
-Made three pillow cases for our couch
-Made three pillow cases for our bed
-Made a seek and find quiet activity for church


Unfortunately I also added a couple projects, I am determined not to let them sit around for two years like I had done with the fabric for the bed pillows....

-Quiet book (get dressed, has different article of clothing on each page)
-Paint a white mirror on my mantle blue
-Make curtains for the living room
-Plan Elise's birthday party and make invites

Another adventure for our family. We went to Lagoon with Ryan's work. Ryan and I didn't ride any rides but I think Elise had a lot of fun. She went on all the rides that I remember as a kid.

She was really unsure about us leaving her alone, but she was excited about the fishy. Her face was priceless as the ride started but she heard us cheering and she quickly grinned.

She got really good at the waving to us as the ride passed by.

I'm trying to make this one really big so you can see her, she was purely terrified on this ride. She couldn't see us because she went up so high and it was pretty fast. She came off smiling though because as it slowed it was like the other rides where she could see us and wave.

We moved in and for the next two weeks we had huge flash storms come through. My friend Jamie reminded me that I should lighten up and go play out in the rain with Elise. So the next time it rained I took Elise outside and we splashed in the puddles on our balcony.

We may not have the beach anymore but we have a wonderful friend that will let us come over and play with every outside toy she has for hours and hours.  Thanks Jamie!

Lunch Time!

Oh good, Sadie finally got a turn, and luckily I got this picture before she tipped over in it and was scared for the rest of the day.

Some good friends I haven't see in too long

One of two kiddie pools we had out. Sorry about the huge mess we left behind Jams...

This is the best baby I've ever seen. He just sat there and watched all the other kids play and never made a peep.

Literally every toy possible was pulled out. Look how proud Elise is though.

Oh my, I can't believe she wouldn't take a nap when we got home.

Not pictured above is Carter and Zac, rambunctious boys that I never got a clear shot of.  They were fun too though.

I love Utah.  We get two holidays in July for fireworks and movies and eating too much. And for those of you who didn't know aerial fireworks are no legal. Utahans went crazy! I still saw Sunday night, a full week after the holiday. We went crazy right along with them and lit aerials off, although the firework guys must have seen my pyromaniac sign on my back and demanded that I not light any off. Lameness.

mandi writting with sparlers

Anyway I got some good pictures of our fireworks. Thought I would share our happiness.

Elise has been able to go from this
 Walk in closet made bedroom
to this master bedroom with her very own bathroom. (the bedroom was bigger and we figured we would keep it cleaner for guests to come use then Elise would keep hers)


We are slowly but surely moving in!

Elise was pretty neglected, Kipper kept her company.

On moving day we set the ipad with a show on and Elise watched until the boxes were being moved. Then she was yelling at the boys "stop, stop" not my favorite word she's learned. We took her outside and she saw them putting the boxes in the truck and she felt better. They weren't just taking off with our stuff.

She wasn't near as unhelpful as I thought she might end up being. She did watch movies but she also watched us. She would go get things for us and run errands between Ryan and I.

We made sure to pack the most important thing with us.

Elise made sure that she packed her most important things.

and Daddy got tired.

The drive itself was a little harrowing, Luckily we were able to get Ryan's parents to fly down and drive our moving truck back. We felt really bad because the truck seriously went like 35-40 mph up all those hills between Cali and Utah. Probably because it was hauling our second car so that we could have two people to take care of Elise in the car. It was a really, really long trip.

FUN, that is all I can say.

A few months ago we got the impression, no, not just an impression but a very exact direction that we needed to move back to Utah. Ryan started applying for jobs and after a few very promising leads he finally recieved an offer. We feel extremely blessed and niether one of us have felt at any point that we haven't been watched out for. We have had no stupor of thought and for anyone that knows me well, knows that stupor of thought is my speciality. What a worrier I am.

We are now here and I'll be playing catch up some with some posts about our adventures. I would be remiss if I didn't start my posting fun with a post about my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for blessing us every step of the way on our journey to here. I have never felt more like I am right where I need to be. I don't know why we are here, and I may never know but I am so very greatful to be here with family and friends.

Heavenly Father watches not just over us, he watches out for us. I know that I have prayed for guidance before but no answer has compared to this answer.  I think that it never mattered much before which option I chose, or maybe I had something to learn from the choices I've made in the past.

Please pray, please listen, please feel Heavenly Father's love for you individually. Be anxiously engaged in a good cause and the answers will come. I have felt my share of the world's misery and the anquish that comes from trials. We all are tested and we all feel our own misery and anguish. If you are ever in doubt, continue choosing the right. Even if it doesn't seem to matter anymore what you do, the answers will come. Not just answers, but blessings will come. No one is tested beyond what they can handle.  The blessings are there, and for some reason we seem to need hindsight to see some of them.  Keep on keeping the faith, good things have been promised to those who endure it well.

This is my short humble testimony blog post, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.