Making a Comeback!

I honestly can't believe it's been two years since I've blogged. It makes me sad that I've missed out on recording so many memories, but life is busy. Ten years ago I would have said that life with three little kids was about as busy as it gets. I would have been wrong. The older the kids get, the busier we all get. I do not glorify busy. I actually quite despise the "busy" excuse. So, I've decided to do something about it and we will no longer be the BUSY family. More on that soon. We just finished Birthday Week around here, so I need to recap that.

Niki had a birthday on October 27th! Who's Niki you say? She is our foreign exchange student from Sweden. We ADORE her. She is an amazing (now) 17 year old who is truly beautiful on the inside and the outside. She has been the perfect addition to our family. We celebrated her birthday with a little shopping trip to City Creek and we had lunch at Johnny Rockets while we were there. We made her dinner at home and I made her a chocolate Reeses PB Cup cake. Reeses are her favorite American candy discovery. The morning of Niki's birthday she was at school, so I dropped off a candy bouquet with balloons attached and they delivered it to her class. I knew she'd hate it, and she did... a little.

Brandon's birthday was on Monday. I woke up early to get the the store for Swiss Porridge ingredients and bacon. Niki missed her first class to have breakfast and celebrate with us. We sang and we ate. In the evening we had a quick dinner and headed off to Temple Square. We took Niki there shortly after her arrival and she loved it... she had a life changing experience. She'd been asking to go back, and this was the perfect night to do it. The Balzotti's (minus Mike) and my mom joined us. We tried to find a Swedish speaking missionary to show Niki around, but we were unsuccessful. We walked over to the newly remodeled Church History museum and walked around there for over an hour.  It was beautiful and we were able to talk to Niki about some new topics, like the restoration of the priesthood. From there we walked over to the visitor's center. It was here that Niki had her first spiritual experience and she wanted to go back and sit in front of the Christus again. Her and I left the kids downstairs and walked up the ramp. We found some missionaries to play the recording in Swedish for her. She listened quietly and when it was over she said to me, "I'm going to pray for my friend."  She had recently learned that a friend from home has leukemia. It was amazing to me that she had wanted to return to the most spiritual place she knew of to say a prayer for her friend. This is a girl who had never said a prayer before she arrived in Utah! When she was finished I told her that what she just did is exactly what we do in the temple. She said, "I want to go there so bad!" It was another beautiful experience for all of us. So yes, I know this was Brandon's big day, but why not spend it doing something he loves, like missionary work! We went home and had pie and ice cream and he opened his two presents.

We had a regular old day the next day and then it was MY TURN! What a wonderful day it was. I am so very blessed. I've had some terrible birthday's in the past. In fact, last year was the worst. Brandon went out of town and the kids didn't even know it was my birthday until the evening. It was no fun. This year Brandon was a little more determined to make it great.

I got out of bed to take care of my normal routine: wake up the kids, clean up before Shelly (Taba and Hyatt's math tutor) comes, eat breakfast, get ready, etc. I put Tabitha in the bath tub and she sleepily asked me if Dad gave me my present yet. All the kids had gone to the store with Brandon the night before and I assumed he'd bought me something she was excited about. I told her no. Brandon was in the kitchen making my Swiss Porridge for breakfast. Niki skipped her first class again to eat breakfast and celebrate with us. As we sat down to eat, the kids could not contain their excitement about me opening my present from Brandon. So, he handed it over and I opened it. Let me just say, I will never be able to talk about this gift without feeling Brandon's love, and without crying probably. You'll need a little back story. In 2013, on our Disney Alaska Cruise, I fell in love with a painting of Carl and Ellie from UP. It was too expensive to buy, but I never forgot it and when we went on our cruise this year I hoped it was still there so we could buy it. Of course it was gone. So, when I opened my gift and realized what it was, I could not believe the time and thought that went in to it. Brandon had hand drawn a replica of that painting. It is so beautiful to me! I think it's the best gift he's ever given me, besides my children, ahem. Brandon said Tabitha would watch him drawing (he did it in his office over three days) and say, "Dad, you're so careful."

That was pretty much the highlight of the day, but I was also able to go to lunch with Brandon and my mom at Cheesecake Factory, thanks to Tyfani who taught my homeschool art class. I got to take a little nap, and I didn't have to cook dinner. We watched InsideOut as a family and I may have slept through that too. As an added bonus, Jessie showed up after the movie with flowers and a beautiful minky blanket, gloves and a hat for me!

It was a beautiful day and I was so grateful to spend it with my loves and to feel so loved. Thirty seven is looking pretty great so far!
Halloween was nestled into this week too. I'll do a separate post for that, but oh what fun we've had!