Sunday, September 3, 2023

Welcome Home

My last blog entry was July 23rd which was a Sunday. The very next day Clint gave us the green light to move in. We spent the whole week finishing moving out of the rental and getting moved in. Tuesday night we spent the night at our new house. Beds weren't all put together but it still counts. I took a picture with Colby Monday night before putting him to bed in our rental bathroom for the last time. Now he has his own room! I spent a lot of the week cleaning the rental and selling things off. We finished the week with Emmett's birthday in our new house. It was a hectic week so we ordered a cake vs. making it this year.

All of August was basically moving in, waiting for furniture, and adjusting to all the DUST around us. It's been rough waiting on a yard, but I'm also embracing that we won't have all this dirt/mud for long so I'm letting the kids enjoy it. We spent the first weekend in McCall with some of the Beals. I had a great weekend especially hanging out with Mitzi. She and I went on a four mile walk both mornings! 

After McCall it was time to turn our attention to the yard. I've made several trips to R&D Nursery and finally enlisted Trisha's help to plan out some landscaping. They started on the yard the second week of August and it's been slow going ever since. I think we'll be lucky to have it done by the end of this month.

Logan learned to ride a bike (finally). To be fair, I didn't have a bike for him to learn on, so when I finally bought him his own bike he learned in about 5 minutes. That was exciting! Proud of him. Justin has taken up bow hunting this season. Blake Pence is showing him the ropes so now Justin can be found practicing his shooting in the evenings after work. He's also had a goal to bench press 225# which he hit in August. Proud of him!

I called the school the second week of August to tell them I would be homeschooling my kids this year. This has been the hardest parenting decision I've made to date. There are so many things I want for my kids that they would get at school: friends, new classmates for Logan, the whole Kindergarten experience for Logan... but the list ends about there. There are so many things I want for my kids that public school can't do for them, and I've been feeling for a LONG time that this is something I should do. I've been fighting it to be honest because of all the reasons people look down on homeschool! Kids are weird, blah blah blah...but oh well. Who cares what people think - people judge regardless so you've just got to be brave and do what you know is good for you and yours. I got judgment for working and having my kids in daycare while I taught other people's kids... now I get judgment for staying home and teaching my own kids. People are going to judge either way so you've just got to have your own back and go for it. I really struggled as I prayed about it - and I prayed about it A LOT - just wanting to make public school work. But when I finally pulled the trigger on homeschool all the feelings of doubt and hesitation and "am I doing the right thing?" vanished and were replaced by total peace. I know the Lord is calling me to this work for this season, and we are going to soak up every second of it. Tuesday is our start day and I'm feeling so blessed to get to live this life of teaching alongside my kids. What a privilege to nurture their minds and hearts at this stage of life.

We decided to try to climb Lonesome Pine yesterday. We started at the telephone poles which was a mistake because we were already pretty exhausted by the time we even got to the trailhead. I need to remember not to take the truck and to take the four wheeler next time! We got probably 1/4 up the hike and turned around. Our kids could have kept going but Justin and I were spent as we were both carrying Beckham and Colby. We'll have to try again another time! 

Last days in our rental:













Life in our new house! Working on the driveway; ward party

















Emmett's birthday; new couch arrived; Justin mounted the new TV; new dining chairs but still no new table 






















McCall ; also loving our farmhouse sink for dinner cleanup with Colby!















8 months with Colby boy; we had a "Bluey" week and made lots of recipes from a Bluey cookbook the kids found at the library.

















































Getting ready for our first day; Butte went back to school on the 21st. We had a rain storm the night before so we celebrated our freedom by going all out playing in the mud in the backyard.







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Documenting my childhood medals/achievements up until middle school - the *actual important* medals from high school are gone! So just to document:
District and state champion basketball (2007); district champion 400 m dash (2007); district champion volleyball (4th at state) (2009); girl's state (2009); ICUA (2008); first place women's division 19 and under Mesa Falls half marathon (2010)






I hadn't had a haircut since the beginning of June! Snapped a pic right before she chopped it all off again.


We ventured down to the river one night while Justin was away hunting. It was the last day of August: summer's last stand and it was truly magical.











Happy 11th anniversary to us! We celebrated by....running errands in Idaho Falls for our landscaping and went to Red Robin with the crew. One day we'll have nights to ourselves!


Lonesome Pine 2023




This part was STEEP!




From Justin's phone

Logan has shark teeth! One growing in before the baby fell out.









This is as high as we got - still had A LONG ways to go so we gave it up. Another time when we can leave littles behind we will give it another go...and drive the four wheeler up the majority of what we hiked that day.

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