First Talk!

Letty gave her first Primary talk today. She got up there with her little voice and so clearly shared her talk (so cute!). We prepared it last week and she has been practicing since then. I don't think I've ever seen someone so excited about a talk, she could barely sit through Sacrament meeting. When she got her assignment last week she ran through the halls telling anyone who would listen that she gets to give a talk (I wish I had her enthusiasm). We were so proud of her. I thought for the benefit of the grandparents I would share her thoughts:

The Temple has blessed my life because it makes it so that my whole family can be together forever. My brother Isaac went to heaven just two days after he was born; but since my parents were married in the temple we are all sealed together and I will see him again someday. I love that I can be with my mom and dad, brother, and sister forever.

When I get older I want to get married in the temple. I love coming to church every week and seeing the temple. I can’t wait to go inside. I love the gospel and love the blessings that come from the temple.

Hair Trauma!

So Letty decided to defy my instructions to not play on the treadmill. She can not turn it on since we hide the key (what kind of parents do you think we are?) We had been babysitting her friend and I ran upstairs to walk them out. I returned just in time to hear Letty’s frantic screams. I ran over and see that her hair is caught in the treadmill!! My first though is great, get the scissors! She had been on all fours making the belt move with her feet and managed to wrap her hair up. I investigated the damage, while K-Rae is clams Letty who is freaking out since she couldn't move her head and our talk about cutting did not help her composure. T-man grabed her hair, yanked and out came most of it. We moved the belt back and forth a bit and she was freed! Traumatic to say the least! Luckily you can’t really tell…I was a bit alarmed at the wad of hair that came out as I brushed it, but she has plenty to hide any that is missing.

Other Events:

Friday night T-man being the great dad that he is decided to have a backyard camp out with Letty. She happened to be quite grouchy so every fun thing we tried to do ended up with crying, whining, or both. Why is it when you try really hard to make something memorable and go out of your way to be "fun" they seem to be in the worst mood and make you question "what is the point?"

Saturday We went and had some family pics taken by my amazing friend. I’m sure, due solely to her abilities, they will be cute. Poor Gracie needed to fall asleep and couldn't and in our rush to leave the house Letty didn’t use the potty. Twice while there she tried to go and couldn't (we were outside, which she thinks is a great place to pee, until it comes right down to it). Regardless it was still fun. It took place in a grassy field full of exciting bugs to examine and fun flowers to pick.

Spokane's Top 10

We could have several top ten lists but decided to spare you all the details. Instead here are some of our favorites since being in Spokane.

10. Swimming at the Y

9. Going on some fun family/friend hikes (Celeste, our excursion is one of my favorite)

8. Couer d’ Alene (swimming at the lake, playing in the park, and enjoying downtown)

7. Watching fireworks from our roof

6. The view from Mt. Spokane

5. Sliverwood

4. Green Bluff in the fall

3. Sledding in the winter/picnicking in the summer right in our own backyard (we have loved our first home)

2. Riverfront Park( the carousel in particular) it is Letty’s all time favorite thing to do, she really will do just about anything for a ride on the carousel.

1. Living in the mountains! The feeling of camping in our own yard., having a view from every window, the smell of pine trees, opening our front door and enjoying the vista. (ok that as technically more than one things but hey, this is my blog and I make the rules!)

A few words to our Friends: Many of these things we have enjoyed in your company. Thanks for making memories with us! Thanks for the love and support you have shown us. We can never adequately express what it meant to have you stand by us as we went through the loss of our Isaac. I don’t know what we would do without you. We love you!

We are excited to start something new in our lives but are still sad about leaving here. We have had a lot of first here. This is our first home with all of the memories that go along with that. My Letty babe leaned to walk in this house (sniff, sniff), she has grown up so much. It’s hard to leave a place you love! Maybe one day our path will lead us back here.

Here our some pics from our favorite things:

Going...Going...Gone!!!

In retrospect, I find it hard to believe that so much happened in the short week between when we arrived home from a trip to Seattle with the family on Saturday night and the following Friday when we headed to see my family. Sometime in that week we put up our house for sale, showed it twice, received a full price offer, counter offered and sold it. Amazingly, in such a buyer’s market, our home sold in just one day. We close at the end of July. We attribute such a miraculous occurrence to divine providence and see it as God’s way of saying that he approves of our decision to attend BYU this fall.

As mentioned, we traveled to see my family last weekend.

Highlights from our trip include:
*Attending Amberlee’s dance concert where Letty and her cousin Curly went crazy dancing in the isle.
*Watching Letty and Curly play so well together.
*Getting to see Susanna and her two children.
*Hearing Amberlee talk in church and realizing in disbelief that our little baby sister is graduating from high school.
*Attending Oklahoma at the Playmill where an old co-performer of mine and Laney’s starred as Curly. We then had to dig out the home videos and watch our star performances in a cheesy musical preshow to the Sugar City community play.
*Taking the kids to play at Porter Park and ride on the Carousel.

While we visited family, K Rae traveled to Southern Utah with her uncle and cousins to climb Elephant hill in the rain. She is excited to start work this week as a nurse and Speech Therapy intern at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute.

This weekend, we didn’t do much as a family because of work commitments that I had. I spend most of Friday night and Saturday helping with a first-of-its-kind database merge. Fraught with stress, nevertheless, the merge completed successfully and I now find myself greatly relieved having completed this project that has been in the works for over a year.