January 2015

January seemed to fly by at our house - so many fun things happened. Take a look:

I started babysitting my nephew’s baby girl, Raeleigh, every Tuesday while dad is at school and mom is working - it’s great fun for me and she is such a darling baby.

Of course, the best part of the month was the welcoming Megan home from her mission in Houston. It felt like the longest day ever as we waited for her flight to come in at 2:20 that afternoon. It didn’t feel real that she would be home even as we put out her welcome home sign, tied yellow ribbons around the yard, picked the other kids up from school and drove to the airport, where we waited anxiously for our beautiful missionary:



It wasn’t until we saw her coming down the escalator that it finally felt real - Megan was HOME!!! We laughed, yelled and jumped up and down and then when we finally got to hug her, many tears were shed:









After our reunion at the airport, we drove to the Church Office Building where our Stake President works to have Megan officially released as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was a bittersweet moment for her when she removed her name tag and officially became a civilian again. :) It was a tender moment for all of us.

A few days later, we got to hear her homecoming talk in sacrament meeting and it was obvious to us all that she has grown and developed in some pretty awesome ways during her 18 months of missionary service.  Her testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the possibility for change for all of us was powerful.  We are so proud of her and her hard work and continued optimism and faith.  It is beyond wonderful having her home and having our family all together again!!




On the day Megan gave her homecoming talk, we were also privileged to get to hear Autumn speak in Sacrament Meeting for the first time ever as a Young Woman.  She did an awesome job sharing her testimony of temples and how the Personal Progress program is helping her develop her testimony of and relationship with her Savior, Jesus Christ.


In other family news, Devin had a great evening with his date, Natalie, at Lone Peak’s Preference (or Girl’s Choice formal) dance. They had a lot of fun together and looked pretty spiffy, too.



Autumn had her first dance competition of the year in conjunction with a dance convention (2 days of intensive dance classes) in Provo.  Her team did such a great job and showed great maturity and resilience when they had to re-space their lyrical dance 10 minutes before performing after one of her team members injured her foot in an earlier dance. You never would have known that they had reworked it all from watching it on stage - it was beautiful!  They are off to a great start!!


My sisters Kristi, Becki and I along with Bernie and Megan got together for lunch to celebrate my mom’s birthday. It was a fun gathering and so fun to reminisce and share memories of my mom.


Seth is keeping busy trail running with Bryce, keeping up with school and starting rehearsals for the Spring Musical, “Shrek”.

After weeks of job hunting and interviews, Megan has been offered a full-time job at a local company, Vivent, doing office work.  She is so excited to have her first “grown-up job” and is looking forward to starting her training next Monday. :)

Blog you next month!!