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.