Trials make Me Stronger

This past week has been one pretty crazy week. To start off, a week ago last Friday, our car had some problems coming in to Salt Lake to go to work. We knew we needed a new radiator because of a very minor leak in it, but it began to worsen, so we finally had to take it in. So, as you can imagine, we paid quite a chunk of money to replace the radiator and a few minor repairs that needed to be done. I was happy as a clown having a new and improved Jeep and having heat that worked like it should and just everything like that. It was like I had a new car!

Then, less than a week later, everything changed. I was driving into work with Jace heading over to my mom's house to drop him off. I went to turn left into the neighborhood making sure that the cars heading the opposite direction had completely stopped. When I went to make the turn, a girl driving in the shoulder slammed into me. Yeah, not fun at all. Luckily, Jace and I were in a Jeep, so we were okay, but that doesn't mean both of us weren't scared out of our minds. Luckily, it was the passenger side that was hit and both Jace and I were on the driver's side. So, our poor Jeep that we just got fixed a week ago is looking pretty yucky now. We have no idea yet if it's totaled or if it's fixable. We have no idea what will happen with the insurance because the other driver made up her own version of what happened and I know it's to cover her butt. I guess we'll see what the insurance decides on. Anyways, it's over now for right now and hopefully we'll know more tomorrow about what will happen with our Jeep.


Here's what the other car looked like after hitting me.


And here's my poor Jeep. How sad. The pictures don't even do justice of how banged up the Jeep really is. The doors were completely knocked out of place. One of the windows popped out a little. It even cracked the metal in one spot.

I just want to say how incredibly blessed I feel right now. I know without a doubt that the Lord is watching over our family. We've had a lot of trials, but we've been able to overcome them and I'm so grateful to know that. My little brother just went through the very same accident like a week ago and he was able to walk away from it just fine. I can't even express how incredibly lucky I feel that Jace and I are fine and that nothing worse happened to us. I just think back since Lance and I got married and we really are blessed. That first year we were married, Lance's appendix ruptured and he went a week with it like that without knowing that's what it was. I'm so lucky that didn't kill him. The next year, I fell down the stairs carrying Jace. I came out of that with like 4 or 5 broken bones in my foot, one of them being broken into several pieces. I'm lucky Jace didn't get hurt being as young as he was. Our basement has flooded several times since we moved in and hopefully this year, we can fix the problem for good. But each time it happened, we were able to catch it before it caused too much damage. We've had our share of car problems and all that stuff. I'm not mentioning this stuff to make anyone feel bad for us. I'm mentioning it to say that our family is so blessed. We've had our trials and each one we've been able to overcome as difficult as they are. Sometimes we wonder why we were meant to move to where we are, but we know that we are supposed to be here for some reason. Maybe it's to have these trials and learn and grow from them. I don't know, but we know we're here for some reason.

I just want to brag about my wonderful husband now. The day after my accident, my husband surprised me at work with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. I know it was for Valentine's Day, but it just brightened my day having them brought to me at work. My husband is not the average guy. He doesn't order the typical roses for Valentine's Day. He likes to do a variety and I just love that he likes to be original and honestly, I love the variety of flowers.


I know it's not the best picture, but I couldn't get it to load from my camera, so it had to be taken with my cell phone.

I love my husband so much. He's always been supportive of me and my decisions. I suffer from anxiety and he's always been there to help me through it and calm me down. When I was in my accident, he only cared about me and Jace. He didn't care what damage was done to the Jeep or how much it might cost us. He really proved to me that Jace and I are more important than any material object. I'm so grateful to have a husband that works so hard for our family and goes to school at the same time. He's so funny and can bring a smile to my face any day of the week. He has his quirkiness about him like making up his own songs and talking to himself. He's so knowledgeable on any topic you bring up with him. I just love everything about him. Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie! I love you so much!

February Fun

I know, I'm really a slacker with blogging. There's just nothing exciting going on lately. I haven't been taking pictures of Jace because he just won't look at the camera. He runs when the camera comes out of the case. We haven't been up to much lately. Jace is just as cute as ever and I can't get enough of him. He's starting to act terribly 2, but I'm pretty okay with it because he's the cutest kid. He's starting to talk so much more and have conversations with me. A lot of it is still jibberish, but oh well. He loves music. His favorite song by far is "Have you Ever Seen the Rain" by CCR. He loves to sing along with it and will ask for it to be played over and over again. He actually had about a week where he wanted to use the potty, so I finally bought him an Elmo potty. He would only go once a day. Now, he's kind of dropped the idea and doesn't want to do it anymore. That's okay, he's still young. Today, we were at the store and he knew where the underwear aisle was because we've looked at it before to see what kind there were when we do want to put him in underwear. He led me right to the Elmo pairs and asked for them. Maybe one of these days I'll break in and buy him some.

Also, something new is I applied to work at my old job, the place I worked before where I am now. I got the job. It was the hardest decision to make because I don't mind my job now and I just never thought I would go back to my previous job. Anyways, at the end of it all, I decided to take it. There were so many pros and cons of going back, but after talking it over, it just seemed like the right thing to do right now. If I had my choice, I would just stay at home with Jace everyday, but unfortunately, that just can't happen right now.

Last night was our annual Superbowl party with my family. It's one of those things that we look forward to every year. The girls usually do some sort of craft while the guys watch the game. Jace got to play with his cousins and he had a blast. And he was so good. There were no tears from Jace hitting them or anything like that. Unfortunately, one of the nieces and nephews were sick. But there was one healthy one for Jace to play with. Let's cross our fingers he doesn't get it! One thing about the Superbowl this year that we've never done before is a game to go along with it. My mom made up a chart with all of our names on it and a bunch of numbers. At the end of each quarter, whatever the score was, whoever's name was by those numbers got a prize. The other game they did was everyone filled out a paper beforehand with our guesses about what would happen during the game and then at the end, they added up who got the most and they got to pick a prize. There were questions like "will the national anthem be longer that 1 min 42 sec or shorter" and "who will the MVP thank first" with some options. Anyways...I outbeat my whole family and got 8 out of 10 questions right. I told my family that I know more about football than they think. Of course, they didn't buy it. Lance about gave in when I told him that. Anyways, we had quite the choice of food items. It's like thanksgiving, but with a whole ton of junk food. My mom said that next year, they're not doing that. I told her it wouldn't be the Superbowl without all the food.

So, anyways, this year, the girls did a Valentine's craft. I've really been enjoying doing crafty stuff lately. I never thought I would be crafty. So, here's what we did last night.

I think it's the cutest decoration and one thing I don't have hardly any of is Valentine's decorations. I went out today and bought the ribbon and I had to watch a youtube video on how to tie a good ribbon. I think it turned out pretty cute. Now, I have a St. Patrick's decoration to do. I've been wanting to make a heart wreath for my front door, but everywhere I go either doesn't have a styrofoam heart or is sold out. I guess that project might just have to wait until next year.

Anyways, here are some pictures for the Superbowl.


Okay, this picture is kind of from the Superbowl. I decided I was going to take dessert since I knew there would already be a lot of other food. Well, I wanted to make a pie for my dad because our car broke down the other day and he came and rescued us. Anyways, I got a food processor for Christmas and I really wanted to try it out with a pie crust. I tried it last year without a food pro and it didn't work. So, I put it to the test again this year and it turned out perfect! I was sooo happy! I accomplished something that a lot of people can't do. Well, it was almost perfect. I still am not sure how to make the fancy edge of a crust.


Jace and Cambree were such buds last night. They share their dinner and they watched movies together. Then, later in the night, Cambree was sick with some sort of stomach bug. Woops....guess I should have kept Jace away and not let them share their food.


They're so cute. I love that they're so close in age.


Brynn wouldn't let me get by without taking a picture of her. She was the only healthy child there besides Jace.


Here's sicky Dillan. He was my bud last night laying on my lap so I could scratch his back. He wouldn't pull a real smile so that's why I have a grumpy face. I was trying to match his but he managed to pull out a small smile.

Anyways, it was a fun night last night with the fam. I look forward to next year (unless my mom won't let us bring all the food).