Christmas

Christmas was fast but wonderful this year. Dax was so much fun! He remembered so much more than I expected him to. I can't stand how smart he is really. He remembered Santa and Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. He loved presents and knew what he wanted this year instead of us getting to chose for him. That was fun, but more stressful because he changed his mind so many times I was getting worried that Santa would not get the memo of the final choices and changes of mind on Christmas Eve. But, I guess you should never doubt Santa becuase come Christmas morning everyone was happy! Truthfully I just let everything stress me out too much-big suprise-because I was trying to do it all alone while Robert was in Colorado all the while trying to get packed up and ready to move. Dax and I got to spend a few days in Leamington with Grandma and Grandpa Lovell before the move. We rode tractors and made ginger bread houses and had a fun time like we always do. We picked Robert up from the airport on the 23rd in Salt Lake and man was Dax glad to see his Dad! We got a video of him seeing him for the first time in six weeks and he kept hugging him and pulling away and touching his face like "are you real?" and then going back to a hug that lasted quite a while. :) We had a fun little Lovell Family Christmas party that night. We headed down south for Christmas Eve the next morning and had more parties and fun with the Clove Clan. I was not good at taking pictures for any of these events, but we did get a few that I will add. Dax got spoiled by too many people and still loves all of his toys: trains, tractors, computer, tools, movies, and last but most importantly pirate stuff! That was his current obsession. Santa left a treasure map for him to go on a treasure hunt that led to a chest full of gold doubloons. Yes he does call the coins that and says "arrr" and "mabeys" (mateys) and all of those other pirate words. He got an eye patch and swords and is quite the little pirate! We love his imagination and how excited he gets about his make believe adventures.

I think Dax ate more candy than helped but grandma's concentration couldn't be beat!

Can you say cheese?!

Cool car that lights up from gma and pa Lovell

Trying to be a wiseman...he didn't cooperate so well

The Clove cousins on Christmas Eve with new baby Elsa!

Waiting for everyone to wake up and get ready to go downstairs on Christmas morning

The loot

Hand in hand downstairs to see if St. Nick came

Dax thought Maddie's stuff was so cool that he didn't even look at his stuff for several minutes

Playing farmer

After our Christmas celebrations packed up and moved...it was a crazy and fast holiday, but we were so happy to get to be with our families and have a minute to pause and think of the Savior and be grateful for his life. We love Christmas!

Changes...

So this post is very bitter sweet. This is the moment we have been waiting for and yet a very big moment of dread! Robert got a job!! Yea! It is great news and very exciting for him. The slight downfall...it is in Wray, Colorado. Wait you have never heard of it? How could it be that you have never heard this cute little town in eastern Colorado? It has a whopping population of 2200 and is off of the beaten path by quite a ways, it is nearly to Nebraska and Kansas and tucked away in some bluffs in the middle of the flat lands. It really is quite a cute little place though and in our experiences so far it has proved to be very friendly and fits us quite well. When we would pray about Robert getting a job andwhere we should go and where we should look, we both had feelings that we would go to a little town away from our families and go and tryto do some good, especially in a place where the church isn't very prominent. This job opening came up and we looked it up to find out that it was a little town and our "ward" was really a branchthat was 30 miles away from Wray. I think right then I knew this would finally be the interview we got and sure enough. Robert and I went out to visit at the end of October and to interview. I think that I almost got interviewed as much as Robert. They knew they wanted him, they had to make sure his wife could really handle it! Almost everything has felt right about this and we have just known that it was what we needed to do. Most things have fallen into place quite nicely and helped us to know that it is where we need to go. There are still several days that I have to reconvince myself of this, but I am trying to be brave...I have realizedthat I am just not quite as brave as I wanted to think that I was! I hate when that happens.

Robert moved out before us in the middle of November. Dax and I stayed in St. George for 6 weeks without him while I tried to keep making us money, sellingour house and trying to box all of our junk up! It was not anything I would recommend! In fact, I have told Robert that I will never again box up a house alone, be left behind ever again and I never want to move anywhere near Christmas EVER! But we made it and lived to tell the tale. Robert flew back to home on December 23rd and we had a very good Christmas and a few days of quality family time before we loaded our Uhaul and Vue, said our painful goodbyes and began our trek.

packing...

King of the boxes!

Dax and Maddie's goodbye

(don't you love Dax's headband? Pick you battles...what else can I say?)

Although every goodbye we said was terrible, I think my worst moment was watching Dax and Maddie say goodbye to each other. It was terrible! These two have spent a lot of time together in their short little lives and Dax definately misses his "best Maddie" and asks for her often. How I have loved watching their little friendship and wish we could have brough her with us!

The ride was LONG and well....LONG! But we made it and we are now here in our new home. We were greeted here by wonderful friends from our branch that helped us get everything unloaded. Robert's boss, Keith, showed up after it was all finished to help as well. I think he very carefully planned that. :) We were so grateful for everyone who came to help and welcome us. Robert's job is so great for him. I am going to work part timeish out here and will soon be getting a new job. Our house is getting put together slowly...maybe there will be pictures if I ever get it in order enough to want it documented! It all seems a little crazy that this is my life now, but I feel at peace and know that it is going to be good for us right now. I am excited to see the things we will learn and the experiences we will have. I hope I am ready for them! I hope the year we have just had has prepared us and made us strong enough to do this! We are excited and grateful to be together as a family again. That is how it is supposed to be and I am so grateful that we are forever! Anyway, that is the new part of our life with hopefully more to come in our Wray diaries!

Robert. . .

So this post has been started and sitting in my drafts for far too many months. I decided that it was about time for it to get finished. Everything is very late and long overdue, but that is usually how I roll.

So clear back in May, Robert graduated from Dixie State College! It was a long awaited day in our family's life. He has worked long and hard and we have all sacrified for this day to get here. This post should have originally been published in May as I tell you all of the reasons that we love and appreciate this wonderful guy in our lives. The post didn't happen but here are some of the highlights of that day. First is was Dixie's 100th year and as a special guest speaker President Monson came to speak. It was fun to be able to listen to him. Each graduate got 2 tickets to give to family, which isn't very many. But, thanks to a very nice home teacher we were given an extra ticket so both of Robert's parents and I could go. My mom stayed and watched Dax and brought him later when he actually recieved his diploma. I am so proud of him and how good he is at what he graduated to be. Yea for Dixie State Alumni status!! :)

Listening to President Monson

Getting his diploma

With two of his favorite professors-Dave and Stace-and his favorite boy!

The supporters...

The family

I really am so proud of Robert and all he has done and accomplished. I feel so blessed to have him in my life and for eternity. I couldn't have asked for a husband and friend for me and a better dad for my children. There are so many wonderful things that I admire and love about him. I love how hard he works for things that he wants and how he makes things happen no matter what it takes. I love his loyalty and integrity. I love his patience (especially with me!). I love his ability to see the good no matter how bleak it gets. I love his whit and sense of humor. I love that the gospel and his family come first. I love that he can dream and then goes out and accomplishes those dreams. I'll follow you anywhere Robert Cole! I love you with everything and can't wait to see where your dreams continue to take us!

Dax is 2!!

So Dax had a birthday a month ago and I am just super slow getting around to documenting it...It was a fun couple of days of celebrating and he is a pretty spoiled little boy! His birthday just happened to be right when Robert's graduation was (which will be another post that I will hopefully get around to soon!) so Grandma and Grandpa Lovell even were here that day. We had a fun time with them going to Texas Roadhouse and Grandpa and Dax got to ride the saddle for both of their birthdays. Dax loved it but I think that Grandpa liked it just as much or maybe even more! :)

After we ate we just went back to our house and opened a few presents and had cupcakes. Dax finally figured out candles this birthday and wanted to blow out the candles about 7 times. Dax's cousin Maddie had a birthday the week earlier and loved candles too so between the two of them, that cupcake was good and spit on before we were done with it! Dax got a basketball hoop and a cool Buzz basketball that he loves a lot, some books, bubbles, and all sorts of fun toys.

Then a few days later we went to Enterprise and did it all over again. The parties just are never ending! What could be better than more food and cake and presents and more fun with cousins and family?! This is what it is all about. :)

We sure do love our Daxton and wouldn't know what to do without him. He has been my reason to keep going and smiling along the way. We love his funny looks and his mean glares. We love his sweet songs. We love his Toy Story obsession that allows us to hear "to infinity and beyond" several hundred times a day. We love his imagination. We even love that he can wear a crown, high heels and a purse with all of the girls in his life calling himself a princess while sword fighting. We love how he can find anything silk to rub so he can sucks his thumb (well I might could do without that!). We love that he LOVES 4-wheeler rides and horses and cows. We love that he loves his cousins and aunts and uncles and his grandmas and grandpas. We love his prayers and group hugs and kisses at night time. He is our sweet boy and we are so lucky that Heavenly Father blesses allowed us to have him as part of our family! Happy Birthday Daxton Cole!!

Kari

With today being the day after Mother's Day I just want to write a few lines about my amazing wife and Dax's wonderful mother.

First of all she truly is amazing.  She is everything to our family and does nearly everything for us.  While I have been finishing school she's been the breadwinner, the mom, the wife, the housekeeper, the cook, and she even tries to get me to let her do some of my homework.  She truly is exceptional and does her best to make sure we are living a good, comfortable life right now.  I thank her for that and am so grateful for all she does, especially to pick up where I lack.  One of the amazing things is how she does it all on a very small amount of sleep because she works nights.  She is such a great mother to Dax and makes sure he is growing up right.

In my last post I hinted that I would write about something else that happened on our trip to Ohio.  This adventure once again speaks to how strong and wonderful Kari is.  We were in Ohio from Friday to Wednesday.  On Sunday night Dax was having a really bad ear infection so we got a hold of our Dr. in St. George and he called in an antibiotic to a 24-hour pharmacy in Canton.  While I was picking it up I grabbed a pregnancy test because we had been trying to get pregnant and Kari was a few weeks late but wasn't getting a positive test.  That night she took the test and it came back positive.  We were really excited and looking forward to the day when we would get to welcome another one of Heavenly Father's children into our family.  The next morning however, Kari started cramping really bad and bleeding.  She hurt most of the day so we pretty much just did and saw stuff from the car so she could sit.  That night was when we met with a bunch of people Kari grew close to around Cleveland and she did her best to put on a happy face but she was hurting and so she wasn't quite her normal self.  The next day we started thinking maybe it was a miscarriage and contacted our Dr. again.  He told us that's likely what it was and that we should do two rounds of lab tests on Thursday and Saturday when we got back.  The problem was that on Tuesday she was in so much pain she could barely walk.  She had started looking up the symptoms she was having and they were consistent with either a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy.  That night we were staying at the Titera's and Bro. Titera and myself gave Kari a blessing that she would be able to travel the next day (carrying luggage and Dax through three airports) without any problems.  She was a trooper to be sure.  She did great the entire time and is incredibly strong.  She did hurt most of the day, but the really bad pain didn't come until about the time we got in our car to drive from Las Vegas to St. George.  The Lord truly answers prayers and blessed her on that day.  The next day she went in and got her first round of tests done and felt OK on Thursday and Friday.  Friday night was a different story though.  She was in pain most of the night and didn't sleep.  When we were getting ready to go take her second set of labs I got in the shower and while I was in there she came in to the bathroom and said, "Robert, I'm going to pass out."  Startled I quickly jumped out to make sure she didn't fall and hit her head or anything, but she did pass out and didn't know what was going on or remember telling me she was going to pass out.  When that happened I insisted that we go to the emergency room and her sister and brother-in-law Kellie and Matt met us at the hospital to take Dax.  We owe a big thank you to them for all they did and do to help us.  We were there for two hours before they finally came in and told us that the ultrasounds confirmed an ectopic pregnancy.  For those of you who don't know, it is a tubal pregnancy and as the fetus grows inside the fallopian tube there isn't room causing the tube to rupture if you don't catch it in time.  Well we didn't catch it in time and they said that when she passed out was likely when it ruptured.  Our Dr. also mentioned that the tube likely should have burst days before.  The fact that it didn't we once again credit Heavenly Father and the power of priesthood blessings for that.  Once they confirmed that it had burst they had to do emergency surgery.  When the surgeon came out and told me how it went he said the surgery went good but that she had lost 2 liters of blood, nearly half, and it was all in her stomach.  He said it took longer to suck the blood out then it did to perform the surgery.  Because she is young they didn't put any blood in her and just wanted to let her body regenerate it, that caused her to be really tired and lack energy the next few weeks while her body was trying to get back to normal.  The surgery itself went well and she is doing better now.  The physical toll was enough to have to bare, but she also had the emotional toll to deal with, which might have been worse.  She is now constantly concerned about the chance that she won't be able to have kids again because they had to remove one of her fallopian tubes.  But through it all she has been absolutely amazing and has shown strength and courage.  Her family did so much to help out during these last couple of months and for that we are forever grateful and we are once again so grateful to our Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ for Kari's health and safety during it and for truly everything.  We are a blessed family.  Happy Mother's Day Kari and to my mom and mother-in-law.

Spring Break!!!! Ohio here we come!!!

The title of this post is correct. We left St. George when it was 70-75 degrees and sunny and made our way to Cleveland where it was 35 degrees and snowing the day we landed.  We never claimed to be the smartest people, but we still had a good time during our trip.

Kari served her mission in the Ohio Cleveland Mission and spent some time at the Kirtland Historic Sites.  She has been wanting to get back there to show me off for quite a while so we decided to go over spring break this semester.  We actually went back because a couple of people she taught that joined the church are getting up there in age, they're both 90, and she wanted to see them while we knew we had the chance to do so.  The second reason was because she wanted to show off Daxton, then there were a few more reasons before I showed up on the list but I was more than happy to go along for the ride.

Daxton was very excited to see the airplanes and to "fly in the sky" but he fell asleep right before take off and slept for the first hour.  Mid-flight though he woke up suddenly and said "fly airplane in the sky."  It was really cute and fun to see how he acted on the plane.  He was really good for all of the flights we had to and from Ohio.  We flew out to Ohio on Friday and stayed at the Titera's house.  They are a family that Kari grew close to during her time out there and we were very fortunate to be able to stay there and are very grateful for their hospitality.  Saturday we got the chance to see George, one of the converts Kari taught.  He is an incredibly neat guy and a great addition to the church.  Then we made our way over to Kirtland and stayed the night near there.  We deemed Sunday as our spiritual day and went to the Kirtland Ward and Kari got to see some members she worked with while she was in that area.  Then Karin Stewart, who is from Enterprise, took us on tour of the visitors center and the open sites.  It was a great tour and fun for Kari to be back in that area to see everything.  Sister Stewart and her companion would often ask Kari to share what she remembered about certain sites and to share her testimony of it.  That aspect of the trip was really neat for me and I only wish Dax would have been older and better behaved so that he too could have had a more powerful experience of seeing his mom beam at the memories she made and the testimony she gained of different principles while at Kirtland.  That area truly is a remarkable place and the spirit is felt very strong there.

After leaving the visitors center we crossed the street and went to see the Kirtland Temple.  The building itself is remarkable and the spirit is definitely there as well.  We got there about the same time as a Community of Christ tour bus and so the tour we had was quite different than most tours they give to LDS members.  Kari went on tour there many times as a missionary and said the one we went on this year was vastly different.  The tour guide talked a lot about their doctrine and stuff more than normal because of the tour group that we were with.

We weren't able to go to Johnson Farm because we got there like 10 minutes after it closed, which was disappointing because that was one of Kari's favorite places and when I went to Kirtland 8 years ago it's the place I best remembered also.  After that failed attempt we made our way to Canton so that we could go to the Football Hall of Fame.  That night though we went swimming at our hotel and Dax's ears were no bueno after that.  We think the flight bothered his ears some and then swimming definitely didn't help.  But we got a hold of our Dr's office in St. George and they called in an antibiotic prescription to a 24-hour pharmacy for us.

The next day we went to the HOF and had fun seeing all of the artifacts there and getting pics of Dax playing football.  Then we made our way through Amish country and Dax loved that too.  He loved saying "horse and buggy" and seeing them.  That night the Titera's planned a get together for a bunch of ward members that Kari knew so it was fun to meet the people Kari always talks about and for her to interact and reminisce with them.  The next day we took Dax to a nature center so he could see some animals and fish.  He loved seeing all of them and we also went to Lake Erie and took a picture of the frozen lake.  We also saw James, the other convert that is 90 years old.  It was good for him and Kari to see each other.  We also did a couple of things to help him out.

We came home from Ohio on Wednesday.  We went and saw George one more time that morning and met his daughter, who Kari has always wanted to meet.  Then we went to lunch with Sister Titera and her daughter Linda before jumping on a plane and flying home.  Dax loved Linda by the way.  She is incredibly musically inclined and talented and works as a music therapist.  Dax loved all of the instruments she had and playing with her.

Overall it was a fun trip and it was good for Kari to go back and show us off and see everybody, despite the unfortunate adventure that we had about midway through that I will write about another day.

February Re-cap

On February 6th Robert turned 26! The old man! He shared his birthday with the super bowl and we had a fun party. He decided that he wanted to go up to Leamington since we don't get up there very much in our crazy life. He took the weekend off of listening to every Dixie State sporting event and we actually got to go on a date! Grandma and Grandpa Lovell took Dax on Saturday and we went to Provo for the day and had a fun time. Then on Sunday we had a super bowl/birthday party with all sorts of yummy and completely bad for you food and some healthy gambling! :)

What a wonderful guy I married! I am so lucky that I belong to him and tricked him into being stuck with me for eternity before he figured it out and could get out of it! I am so thankful for the wonderful husband and dad he is and for the fun and happiness he brings to our lives. You are one of my best blessings babe! I hope you know how much I love you and how glad I am that we are a family! You are the best!

That was basically the highlight of February though...the rest of the month was just work, school, basketball, baseball, more basketball and sports center of course! :) It is a good thing I kind of enjoy it I guess. Me and Dax actually started going to most of the Dixie State basketball games and it has been pretty fun. I realized fast that I miss the gym and the smell of basketballs and sweaty people or whatever it is that gyms smell like! Dax has had fun though and has started to take an interest in basketball and has been trying to dribble on the kitchen floor. It is pretty cute.

Valentines Day was pretty lame really...in fact I am still waiting for my Valentines date! I had to work the night before, valentines night, and the night after and so the extent of our festivities were Robert waking me up before I had to go back to work on Valentines with this romantic heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, a card from both of my boys and a rose from "Dax." Poor Robert got nothing but a lame card. We decided to count the rest of our valentines presents on the trip that we are taking soon that hopefully we will still be on the ball enough to post about after it is over. Yea for the holiday of love! Maybe next year... :)

The rest of February was our normal boring selves doing our regular boring and busy lives. We are all well and happy though and we can't complain. We are ever so blessed and wonder everyday why we are given so much. We hope that the rest of you had a great February. I can't believe that it is March already!

Daxton's Surgery

So I am still back tracking a little to get caught up, but since this is about the only record I am keeping I decided that I needed to get it in here somewhere!On January 5 Dax had to have surgery to get an inguinal hernia repaired and a hydrocele removed. Don't worry if you don't know what those things are, it is enough to just say that they are some sore things in especially tender areas! :)Being the good mom that I am, I had every intention of taking the camera and capturing just the right moments, but of course I left the camera at home and didn't even think of pictures most of the time we were at the hospital. We have a few pre-op ones in his cute little hospital gown but that is about all she wrote!

The good news is that everything went great. He had a hard time right after surgery while the medication was wearing off-he was actually mean and nasty a little bit, but what can you expect-some stranger cut into his goods! The thing that he hated the most was his IV. He tried his best to rip that thing out as he was coming back around and kept looking at me and Robert like what did you let them do to me! If you asked him about his ouchie after surgery he wouldn't point to his little groin, he would point to his hand where his IV poke sites were and tell you a sad story of that blasted IV! It was in a sad way very cute. Our other sad moment was that about 8-9 hours after the surgery, Dax woke up from dosing off and on all morning/afternoon screaming and just rolling around in severe pain. As I investigated a little further, we discovered that the the numbing had worked a little too well and the poor little guy couldn't pee. It was really sad. After a little bit of trying to get him to pee we were to the point of getting ready to go to instacare to have them straight cath the poor kid to get him out of his misery. I had his diaper off for one more hopeful look for yellow, when it all came loose! It covered him and me and the couch and ended with him heaving a sigh of relief! I am a little warped and I know it but it was funny and we sat there and laughed for a bit!

The evening after the surgery Robert had to go to work and do a ball game at the radio station and so Dax and I were hanging out at home. Robert took the car with the car seat because we were certain that we wouldn't be going anywhere. Dax fell asleep late in the afternoon and woke up at about 8:30 that night-never a good thing! I decided to put him in his pj''s and went searching for a onesie pair that didn't have a waist band and found in the hand-me-down bag a pair of slightly too large Toy Story jammies that we put on. You must know that we don't, well didn't, own any Toy Story movie or character and to my knowledge Dax had never seen it, but when he saw the pajamas he said "Buzz? Woody? Watch Buzz?" I thought it was a little weird but was certain that he could be distracted and would soon forget but no...He continued to ask to "watch Buzz" for a solid hour and would not give it up. So at 9:30 p.m. I started calling every neighbor to see if they had any Toy Story movies. I finally got a hold of my uncle who lives a few blocks away and we broke the law and drove over to his house without a car seat to get the movie. Apparently he learned about Toy Story at Christmas from cousin Easton-I had no idea he was paying so much attention. It scares me just a little! Toy Story is the new favorite at our house and we have watched it almost daily since and went out and purchased it the next day as his surgery prize for being so brave. Kind of funny our little Dax boy is, but we love him and are so glad that he is doing well!

The Jazz Bear

A couple of weeks ago at one of Dixie's basketball games they introduced their new mascot by having the Jazz Bear come to St. George and entertain the crowd alongside Big Dee.  I was able to "pull some strings" to get Kari, Dax, Kellie and Maddie access to the floor and we were able to go back by the bear's dressing room and get pictures with him.  Dax was mesmerized by him from afar, but once I told him we were going to go see the bear, he was terrified.  He wouldn't get close to him unless I was holding him, but did eventually give him "five."  Maddie on the other hand did really good with the bear and let him hug her and rub her head.  It was a pretty fun night for those four, not so much for me because Dixie lost and I had to write about it.

Now for the holidays...

So I searched for pictures from Thanksgiving only to realize that we didn't take any so in a nut shell...we ate lots of food, saw a bunch of family, watched some football, ate some more food, did some black Friday shopping, ate some more...the end!

Then all of the sudden it was Christmas, then it was past Christmas and I have no idea where the time went! We had lots of fun parties with family and friends and a busy wonderful December. One of these parties was the Tait/Bergstrom family party. It was lots of fun with food and baby Jesus and Santa even came! We weren't sure how Dax would be with Santa because if we are honest, Dax is one of the biggest chicken hearts I have ever seen! He is very afraid of a lot of things and a very cautious little boy. After watching Maddie and Lydia both not be big fans of Santa this year, I was even more sure that Dax would completely freak out. But instead he went right up and said "anta come?, anta come?" He sat right on his lap and was excited for his little football that he was given and really didn't want to leave him. 

Christmas eve night I was scheduled to work at the hospital. It was kind of a bummer, but Robert and Dax were going to go up with my family and have Christmas Eve with them and I planned to just come up on Christmas morning when I got off work. I was dressed in my scrubs and ready to go when I got this marvelous call from work that told me that one very nice girl that I work with said that she would work so that I could be on call and have Christmas Eve with my family. Thanks Oakley! It made my whole Christmas that is for sure. Anyway, so I got to go up to Enterprise and surprise my family. We all went to my Aunt Jen's and ate yummy food, sang songs and had a little program, and act out the nativity. It was a fun little party and I was just happy I got to be there!

Dax was an angel with Aunt Melinda :)

The Three Wise Guys

The angel bringing good tidings to the shephards

A tired angel

Then there was Joseph, Mary, the trusty donkey and a cow :)

The whole crew

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Dax and Maddie were funny and Santa definitely found all of us and dumped his sleigh! Dax and Maddie couldn't decide if their new toys were the coolest or if the others toys were better. Luckily they shared pretty good and had fun with everything. Maddie loved the chocolate first thing in the morning and made us giggle as she went through everyones stockings. 

Waiting to go down stairs to see if Santa came

Playing with Uncle Dallin while waiting to go donwstairs

Dax was excited to see Lightning, Mack and Mater under the tree!

Aunt Melinda in her cool new chair

Maddie got a fun trampoline from Santa that Dax loved!
Please bless he learns how to jump right on it!

After all of our presents were opened and we had eaten breakfast, we loaded in the car to head to Leamington to see Grandma and Grandpa Lovell for more presents and fun. Unfortunately we have not one picture to show for our fun weekend with them. If anyone has some that they want to share then please send them our way! We did have a very fun weekend. We ate and played games, basketball and volleyball and enjoyed so much seeing everyone.

For New Years we went to Enterprise and had a party--well at least as much of a party as the Clove family knows how to have! We even made it to midnight! It was pretty miraculous! We had a good time and laughed a lot which is always good...I shall always remember singing beneath a full moon!! :) On New Years Day we went sledding. It was pretty fun. Dax liked it until he got so cold he couldn't move or feel anything and was so tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. Robert forgets he is getting old and was trying to do tricks on little saucers and entertained us all as he fell over and over! We captured some of them on video if I am smart enough to get it on here for you all to enjoy I will...(I ended up putting them on-Robert)

The whole holiday was great and we were so glad that we got to spend time with our families and think about and focus on the Savior. We are so blessed to have so many things, most importantly our families and the gospel. There were so many sad things that seemed to happen around the holidays this year that it really made me stop and realize how blessed we really are to know that Jesus really was born and came to earth for all of us. He made it possible for all of us to be happy here and make it through all of the hard things and live forever with our families someday. How grateful I am for the atonement and my knowledge of the plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for the Savior and his love for me and my little family. I am blessed so much to be able to feel his spirit and get his help though my little hard spots in life. I have been thinking so much about the people, some that I don't even know very well, who are going through such hard things and hope and pray that they are feeling the Saviors love and spirit as they go through the hard days that will most certainly come. I hope that I will be able to keep the Savior in my focus as we go through this year and be more grateful for all of my blessings big and small and take advantage of every day I am given.