Update

So I know we have been MIA. I haven't blogged in months and even the posts that are there are few and far between. 

So we can catch up on a few things. I'll add pictures and the whole story later so for right now it's just going to be a list.

Holidays-

-School starting

-Christian's 5th Birthday- Big Party, Bounce house with water slide. Treats at school, Eating out. 

-Seth's 7th Birthday- Big Party, Bounce House with water slide. Treats at school. Dad checking him out of school for lunch.

-Halloween- The boys were Werewolves (including Sam) and Lexi was Little Red Riding Hood.  

-Thanksgiving

-Christmas, we did the traditional Christmas at our house and then a week in Hurricane.

-New Years, being away from home with puking kids = no kiss at midnight but a kiss at 1am.

-Valentines, Sam and I spent it apart but I can't remember why right now. Valentines is never a big deal for me. 

-My Birthday- Sam baked a cake, we got ready for Lexi's party. 

-Lexi's birthday- We had a Tinkerbell party. Some High school kids from the local theater group had been preforming Peter Pan and we saw it at the Library and Lexi became obsessed.  So we higher a few of the kids to come to her party for entertainment. 

-Easter- Easter and Spring break happened at the same time this year. We went down to Hurricane for Grandma Great's funeral. Then we came back for a few days and then headed back down to Hurricane for the Easter Traditions, Egg Hunt, Egg Launch, horses, cousins, etc

- 12 year anniversary

-Sam's 40th birthday I had been planning a 40th birthday party for him for over a year. But he really sincerely asked me not to have one. He doesn't like attention on him. He didn't want to spend the money. He was supposed to go sky diving with his brother and 2 brother in laws and Dad. But it was rainy so the sky diving place canceled an hour before. He was supposed to fly a plane for a different activity but it was to rainy and windy for that too. He got to reschedule flying the plane for a few weeks later. The boys got to fly with him. 

-End of School- Kindergarten Graduation for Chris, Field Day for Seth, Family Pizza Lunch day and so much more "fun"

- Memorial Day- Enoch's BBQ Seth won for best shirt and Chris won for most patriotic, Sam won for most eaten by an adult and Lexi won for best condiment, Sam made bacon jam but let Lexi accept the trophy.     

Sports-

-Seth is playing Baseball and Chris is playing T-ball and Sam is coaching both teams.

-Lexi and Chris are doing gymnastics and I am still coaching. We had a Gymnastics performance in May. 

-We skipped Soccer this year because of Seth's cast and Chris didn't want to play if Seth couldn't. 

Music- 

-Seth is still doing Guitar and Drum Lessons

-Chris has started Piano Lessons

-Lexi loves to sing at the top of her lungs
-Seth was in music club this year and had 2 performances,  Christmas and Spring concerts

Adventures-

-Camping for a week for Hall Fest on Smithsonian Bluff. For the first half it was just me and the kids. Sam had to work so he came up later. 

-Swimming, lots and lots of swimming, back yard pool, Rec center pool, 7 peaks 

-Water- Slip n Slide, Water Balloons, Sprinklers

-Visits to the Library

-Riding bikes

-Playing with Friends

-Hikes

-Getting ready for our other vacations

-Flying in an Airplane

-Museums- Natural History, Museum of Natural Curiosity, Bean, Museum of Ancient Life

-Aquarium and the Zoo

-Trips to Grandma and Grandpas

-Crafts 

- Payson Temple Open House
-Dates 

Other happenings...
Summer Hair Cuts

Home Improvement, Tile in the Hallway, Curbing outside, new garden boxes, new paint, and more projects to be completed this summer

Sam is still working alot and in the Bishopric

I graduated last August

I'm still working at the Fitness Center

Sam lost 20 lbs to Skydive
The boys were in the Summerfest Parade


So with all of that throw in broken arms, tonsils, kidney stones, infections, broken teeth, rebreaking of arm and it's been crazy.

Sealing

We heard back from the First Presidency about Christian's Sealing. 
Right now we can't have Christian sealed to us. They won't let us have the supplemental sealing that we wanted. They said it will all be figured out on the other side of the veil. So right now it's just going on faith that it will all work out. 

I'll start out by saying this, the hardest part for me of having Sam in the bishopric has been his openness about our life from the pulpit. We are normally pretty private. We keep a lot of our life private and what people do know are surface details. And I know some of the feeling of being judged and under a microscope is in my head but it's still something that bothers me so I react to it. 

That being said there are certain people that know us better that know more of the details. But even they don't know many of them because I get tired of people finding out about our normal and feeling sorry for us or looking down on us or the opposite and thinking to highly of us. Everyone has their own battles and ours are no different than anyone else's.

I hate feeling vulnerable and having him open up about our life to the large congregation is really one of those things that I have to grit my teeth and bear it moments. And most of the time I do. I put on a happy face and listen to all the "helpful" questions/inquiries/suggestions.  

After the primary program, back in October, Sam had a few minutes to fill up. The topic was Families are forever. He shared about how we so strongly desire to have Christian sealed to us and our family to be forever. There have been rumors and questions about why he isn't sealed to us. Are we unworthy? Which one of us is unworthy? Oh the speculation! What did we do? Are we horrible parents and that's why they won't let us? What are we hiding? It's died down over the last few months and that has been nice. 

Well here is the truth. Both of us are worthy. We both attend the temple regularly, together and separately. All of our children are born in the covenant. Yes all three. Christian's birth parents are sealed in the temple. They are still happily married. They gave us the gift of adopting him because they knew that we could give him a different upbringing. You see they are developmentally disabled. They are high functioning. They have jobs. They own their condo. But they knew that caring for a child that would one day be higher functioning than they are would be unfair to that child and wanted him to have more. They love him. They are sealed to him. We don't want to break their sealing. We just wanted a supplemental one so that he is sealed to us as well. 

You can go on to tell me that he has all the blessings of being born in the covenant etc. We understand that. We have considered many options and have taken years and years searching for an answer. We have consulted with our leaders. No one knew what to tell us. So we submitted an "appeal" to the First Presidency through our Stake President. It took months to get an answer back and it wasn't the one I wanted. It broke my heart. I want the comfort of knowing that all my family will be together forever. I wanted all 5 of us dressed in white in a sealing room looking into those mirrors knowing that forever was real. 

So we are waiting patiently for the Lord's timing for it to work out the way it needs to be but that doesn't dampen our desire at all to have us all in the temple one day. It's just going to take longer than I wanted; it will have to be when they are older. 

So for now we have faith that our family will be together.