General Conference & Miracles

Friday Mike and Jenna invited us to go to their house for dinner and cousin play time since Steph and Ken were still in town. Matthew had to work Friday evening, so I loaded up the boys after nap time and went down to Parker. Traffic was slow, but Oma and Papa happened to be driving through Phoenix traffic at the same time so I had good company. Jay was so excited, I told him we were going to Uncle Mike and Aunt Jenna's house, and he immediately started to call it "Tanner's House." The whole way down he talked about Tanner's house. I think it came from going to Tanner's game a couple weeks ago, but he was so excited. Jay did great playing with cousins, and mostly staying in places he was allowed. Once I went downstairs when it was just Caden and Jay. Caden was watching a basketball game and I asked where Jay was, and Caden casually said he was in the food storage room and he had just checked on Jay and he was fine. I laughed, and asked Jay to come out and I don't think he went back in. Hugh eventually warmed up to the crowd and latched onto Cambrie. Cambrie took him for most of the evening. Overall, it was a great break for me, and so fun to be with family and have the boys mostly taken care of.  

General Conference weekend is always a highlight! Katey and the kids came over Saturday and watched with us. Matthew and Jason had to work, so it was mom's and kids. I heard some of some of the talks, and I am very grateful I can listen to them all again. I did love the reminders about prayer, and how we should pray aloud whenever possible and pray to grow, show, and know. We cooked pizza for dinner and got all the baths done before the evening session started, which was a big win. Sunday was a little calmer, especially the afternoon session. Plus Matthew got to join us! The weather was much warmer, so we got to go for a walk between sessions and the boys took good naps which allowed us to mostly focus on the afternoon session. One of my big take-aways was the need to have daily spiritual nourishment. It takes a lifetime of days of building faith in Christ, to be strong and faithful. Sunday evening we joined everyone at Jack and Lindsay's house for Easter dinner 2.0. The Merrill's were sick for the first Easter dinner on Easter, so we were glad we got to join for the following week. Such yummy food and ending the Conference weekend with family was the cherry on top! 

Matthew and Jay

Our basement is coming along! HVAC is done, electric is starting, and soon plumbing. We bought our bathtub this week and shower walls. Uncle came and helped us at Lowe's which I needed more than I realized! I had Jay, and he was being his very curious self and hard to contain...mostly because I didn't get a basket with a functioning clip. Uncle helped us drive the carts, talk to the workers, load the tub into our van, and tied the bathtub walls to the top of his van and brought them back for us. Jay talked all day about how Uncle helped. We should be ready for our first inspections soon! 

I missed pickleball on Monday due to appointments, but got to play today outside. It's a great way to spend the morning, and I feel so grateful we have courts nearby and that Hugh is a super trooper and doesn't seem to mind being locked in the court with some toys for an hour. I also went for a run one day, which was very tough but good at the same time. When I do my indoor workouts, Jay and Hugh always want "crackers" which are cheerios and craisins. It keeps them happy and it allows me to have some personal time to take care of myself. 

Post run picture

Eating their crackers! 

I mailed some Germany paperwork this week, the address had a word that was at least 20 characters long. I had to copy it down a couple times and I sure hope I wrote the address correctly so it can get to the right person and place in Germany! We also got our apartment locked down. It's about 300 square feet, with one bedroom, one sofa bed, and a baby bed for Hugh. Needless to say, we're going to be going on lots of adventures outside of the house every day that it's possible. Plus, we won't have room for toys or extra things, so we'll need to go out anyways.

The boys have been a little extra fun recently, they both LOVE being outside! Hugh has figured out how to do the slide inside and loves climbing onto the couch anyway he can! Swings are the best part of the park and our backyard playset. We walk to school whenever we can, and sometimes I snag a picture. This week Jay had crazy hair day, so we definitely needed a picture. 

Swings in our backyard

Hugh and Jay (with crazy hair)

Hugh resting on the couch after climbing

Wrapping up the week with a couple miracles and tender mercies that have shown me that Heavenly Father is keenly aware of me and my family. First, Michelle Soderberg, my cousin, got invited to perform at BYU Women's Conference in May! She's an amazingly talented musician and her music is inspiring. She has inspired me, and I am so excited she gets to go share her music and testimony to such a large audience! 

The last miracle of the week I'll share is that we got Jay's appointment scheduled for a neuro-psych evaluation for the last week of May! We got on the waiting list in early February after his yearly check up with the doctor, and they told us they were two to three months out on scheduling. I filled out the paperwork and have been waiting to receive a call to schedule. I have felt over the past few days I should call, so I finally did this morning explaining I wanted to understand where Jay was on the waitlist. She looked up his chart and scheduled us for the next available which is May 29th. We will be able to do it before Germany, and I am so grateful! It's a little overwhelming and scary to think of Jay going through this three hour evaluation and what we may or may not learn from it. We feel it's the right thing to do, and I hope we can get some answers on how we can help Jay learn and grow in ways that will work for him! I found this quote right after I scheduled the appointment, and I felt like it was a little miracle and message directly for me from Heavenly Father.