Red Light, Green Light

So we have all played the game as a child red light-green light, which at the tender age of four we are able to comprehend this concept, or at least my cute little 4-year old primary class was able too.  But for some reason on Friday night as I was driving to go play soccer for the first time in months, which I was super excited for, the person driving behind me must have forgotten the simple concept of stopping at a red light and you guess it rear-ended me.  I could not believe it!  As I pulled over into a parking lot to assess the damage I prayed and hoped it wasn't bad, for as bad as it jolted the car I was prepared for the worst. 
As I walked around the back of my car, which I have only owned for 6 short months mind you, I was relieved to find that there were only two small dents.  These dents are the perfect shape and size as the screws from her license plate. 

Since I was super anxious to get to the soccer field and the damage wasn't terrible I called Oley to see what I needed to do.  I asked if she had insurance so we could swap information, when she told me she had no insurance and was a single mother of two kids, I felt really bad.  So I elected to not do anything, but Oley then told me I needed to call the police if she had no insurance.  So as I was trying to find the number for the police, she got back in her car and drove away.  My sympathy for her slowly transformed into "what in the world you can't just drive away from your problems".  The license plate number I was able to take down was registered to a Subaru and she was driving a jeep, so that did me no good.  Now we just have two small dents in the back of my car, which had this lady stuck around and been willing to exchange information in case something more serious was wrong I would have been fine, but running away from your problems kind of bothered me.  But you can only stay frustrated for so long!  Guess we will see what we can do about getting these small dents fixed up so they don't rust or anything, and hope it doesn't happen again!  Made me realize how trusting we really are of other drivers on the road. 

Nobody's Body But My Body

So the past few weeks the lessons I have had to teach in YW have been on the importance of caring for our physical bodies.  Growing up it always made sense to me that our body is a gift from God and that we should care for it.  It wasn't until these past couple of weeks when it really hit me that our bodies truly are a Gift from God.  Those who chose not to follow our Father in Heaven do not have a body.  I don't know why it took me this long to realize this but this is huge, no wonder Satan tries every way he possibly can to take possession of our mental state so that he can posses our physical state. 
I went on to think about how I really treat the body that I was given.  There are mornings, recently A LOT of mornings, when I just don't want to get out of bed and run becuase I am "too tired", no I really am not too tired I am just being way to lazy to get out of bed and take care of my body.  While I was on my sugar free month last month, I never felt as though I ate too much or was bloated and that's how it should be our appetites should be in Lord's bounds.  But it is hard, there is a point of becoming way too obsessive about this and just remaining conscience of it.  So I guess here is my start to a better healthier me.  Maybe I will even be crazy enough to run another marathon, but don't quote me on that one!

One Lucky Kid

Last night we took Oley's aunt out to dinner for her birthday.  We tried out this new place in Sumner and according to Oley they had the best onion rings he had ever had!  But that's besides the point, as we talked about the past weekend and how we were able to spend time with my family and nephews Oley pulled out his phone to brag about our newest little nephew, Oden.

Oley's aunt made a comment that I just couldn't shake for the rest of the night, "Oley you are going to make a great dad!" Obviously it wasn't becuase I was shocked at this comment, becuase we hear it often, but I began to reflect back on how Oley interacts with children.  He always wants to be the first to hold babies, he has this love that radiates off of him that the little children at church always want to sit on his lap and be his best friend. He loved our nursery calling, and the kids loved him.  Because of this place in Oley's heart for children, and our dream of having a family, it makes the difficulty we have in reproducing that much more difficult.  But I am so glad that we have siblings that allow us to be apart of their children's lives and gives Oley the chance to be Greatest Uncle a child could ever want.  When he is interacting with children I can't help but think of how great of a dad he really will be!  When it finally happens our child(ren) will be on lucky kid!
As I continue to reflect I want to take a trip down memory lane. . . lucky for you I am going to take you with me.  

Much like any good uncle there has to be some goofing around.

Oley has always had a special place for Ryker.  I think it has to do with the fact Lauralynn left Ryker with him when he was a couple months old while we were at a coaching clinic.  In the picture above we were on spring break and nobody could get little Ryker to settle down, so Oley took him in the other room and Ta-duh he was able to stop the tears. 
 

 

I love that Oley is so great with little kids, I can't wait for what the future holds for us and for him in his career! 

Love my Sisters

It's so fun to get together with my sisters to see how different and similar we really are.  Since we have never really had sister pictures taken and this was a full weekend of taking family pictures I wanted to get at least one shot of all of us together.  I was hoping we would have had time to do a full shoot, but the few shots we got are perfect! 

I love my sisters and am proud of each of them and all that they have accomplished.  I will have to admit they are some strong-willed women!
Before we headed up to Everett Oley took us to his new FAVORITE place for breakfast.

His anticipation for breakfast!

The restaurant had the perfect chair to get a quick snap shot of our two little nephews, Oden and Ryker. We can't get enough of them. 

We then drove up to the temple grounds so I could take Lauralynn's family pictures.  Here is Rykers trademark flip Holly off while taking pictures pose, I think every time I have taken their pictures he has one.

 Lauralynn and Doug's Family.

I took photos of Mar and Jacob the day before, I love how they turned out!

Tried out a photo shoot in our house, quite frankly turned out much better than I expected it too. But how could it not when you are taking pictures of such a cute little baby!  Our adorable little nephew Oden.  Such a cute little guy. 

 One of my favorite shots from Marilee and Jacob's photo shoot. 

It was so fun to have my sisters and their kids here, they make some of the cutest little fellows.  Someday we will have some rug rats for them to run around with, until then they will just have to continue to be spoiled by our attention.
Oh I forgot the only good picture I have of the Halloween party.  But oh what a great party it was! Can't wait to see Robyn's photos of everyone's costumes, our bobbing for donuts game, and the cupcake decorating contest.

My mom is the most amazing seamstress I have ever met.  This costume was awesome!  Loved Baby Oden's as well.

Drip, Drip, Drop

While we were out at the park taking Marilee and Jacob's photos, Lauralynn used the opportunity to teach Ryker the purpose of an umbrella.  What better place to do it than Washington!

It was so fun to watch him realize what an umbrella was used for.  It amazes me how smart kids are and their ability to learn everything!

On our way back to the car Ryker saw a squirrel and wanted to chase it.  Needless to say this squirrel was used to being fed by little children so ran up this stump and then started chasing Ryker, so freaky!

Dinky's New Best Friend

My family has an annual Halloween Party, one in Idaho Falls and recently one in Everett.  Since we were finally close enough to attend the one in Everett we were more than happy to welcome them into our home and enjoy their company this past weekend, unfortunately I forget to have them take a picture of Oley and I in our costumes so will have to get it once they all get home, dang it!  Dinky thought having a little kid in the house was the greatest thing ever and wouldn't leave Ryker's side. 

Oden's first taste of rice cereal.  He loved it!

The beginning of the Ryker - Dinky friendship.

Ryker was showing Uncle Jacob and Cousin Oden the kissing bees.

Best of all Oley's new glasses came in.  Goodness I love this boy!

Dinky and Ryker having bath time together.

Ryker wanted me to sit and watch him take his bath.  Silly kid.

Dinky inspecting the bath tub once Ryker was out.

Dinky was so sad Ryker had to leave. Never seems like there are enough hours in the day when family is around to do everything you hope to get done, maybe next time!

Trick-or-Treat

We knew we were in for A LOT of trick-or-treaters this year when the neighbor gave us the following tip:  "Go to the store and buy more candy than you think you could ever hand out, and then buy three times that amount."  I thought she was joking but oh no, we had more trick-or-treaters than I could have ever imagined!  The sad part about this is we got home from work late and missed all the monsters from 5-6:15ish.  I hadn't ran that morning and so I went running after work, and Oley had to run errands on his way home so unfortunately we missed all the little kids in the light hours, but the two hours we were home we had well over 100 trick-or-treaters. Oh the joys of being a child! 
The dogs did so good about greeting all the little kids and then coming right back into the house once they were gone.  Oley was so cute when he would answer the door and comment on all the children's costumes, and then nicely say, "oh it's okay, you can have two pieces your just a little guy."  I love my husband and his love for children. 

Oley passing out candy to some of the little goblins.

Lily on Halloween.

The second best part about Halloween this year was that at the beginning of the month I made a deal with my sisters that we were not going to eat any sugar throughout the month of October until Halloween.  I had been looking forward to gorging myself with all the chocolate I had been missing out on all month long.  It's all I could think about during my run.  But once I sat down to decide what my first piece of chocolate was going to be, I had a hard time convincing myself I wanted to break my sugar free spell. 

It didn't last long though I made the decision. . . a Milky Way, and oh how delicious that chocolate tasted.   But boy was I sick the next morning!