may days: Utah trip for Dr Sam!

Another month, another brother graduating; this time it was Sam, from the University of Utah School of Medicine. He's a doctor now!

I mean, I can't even carry on a conversation and walk in a straight line, but these two managed to kill it in med school and raise three bright happy kids at the same time. Some people.

My dad and Carma and I drove down together, leaving Friday morning and having such a smooth trip - Carma did fabulously well and Dad and I got to talk and talk. Carma was thrilled to arrive at Sam and Terri's and find three little girls there to gawk at and toddle around with. And Bailey and Hazel were quick to school Grandpa on all things princess, including a demonstration of how they 'freeze' bad guys ;). Bailey also showed me her favorite spots to hide and climb amid the moving boxes:

Dad treated us all to dinner and then we called it an early night and headed to our hotel, which was loads less sketchy than the online reviews led us to believe, so that was a relief, haha!

The next morning we got Carma all settled in with Aunt Sue and then headed to the graduation. Dad took this picture of me to commemorate the one time I willingly wore Ute colors:

Dad and I found Quinn and Eden saving our spots up in the balcony and settled in; Mom, Terri, Bailey and Robby were somewhere below us in the premium seating. Quinn and I passed some time by taking pictures of ourselves and texting them to Sam. #supportivesiblings

The actual ceremony was pretty cool, Jon Huntsman, Sr. spoke and holy moly he's a pretty amazing guy! I knew a little bit about him before, but hearing him speak and watching the video about the Huntsman Institute gave me a much better understanding and appreciation for how much he's done for cancer research and patient care. And now I can say I've been in the same room (granted, the "room" was the size of a large lecture hall...) as a billionaire! #bucketlist

And mostly it was just so, so fun to be there and hear Sam's name announced and watch him be hooded and clap really hard and cheer "Yay Sammy!!" with my dad and Quinn and Eden (at the last minute we opted not to use his childhood nickname of 'Scampers' - I mean, this was a classy occasion.)

At long last it was time to exit Kingsbury Hall and find the good doctor - which was harder than you'd think; it was prettttty crazy out there. At one point I accidentally walked between an elderly lady and the young graduate she was taking a picture of, and oh man if looks could kill. Eden can back me up; we were both terrified and fled the area as quickly (and carefully) as possible.

Fittingly, Sam's wife, daughter, and mom found him first! 

And then a nice brother reunion:

A very proud dad!!

At this point I think we just started playing Sardines with the pictures - you know, adding one person at a time...

(Please enjoy these outtakes of this picture grouping. For future reference, this is apparently how I look explaining to someone how to use a camera phone? I feel like I should start making youtube 'how to' videos; it'd be a shame to waste an obvious talent...)

Eden took a break from being my bodyguard to be in the picture (seriously, at this point I was still sure that the elderly lady I offended was still lurking about, waiting to strike):

And then Dad joined us as well!

At this point we were informed that there was a luncheon in a nearby building - apparently it's usually out on the lawn but worrisome weather moved it inside, but word wasn't circulating well so there was nary a line and plenty of delicious food:

Fun story: that photographer was standing near Eden and myself with some sort of stick and I made a random joke about it being a selfie stick... and the nice gentleman took that opening to become our new best friend. It was hilarious and only slightly unnerving - suddenly he was explaining it was actually a 'mono-pod', but hey, he can get pretty great selfies and THEN HE WAS TAKING A SELFIE WITH ME AND EDEN and then just chatting a lot and randomly pulling out his phone because he "thought" he got a "text". I'm pretty sure no one else had acknowledged his presence the whole time he was there working and he just kind of grasped onto the fact that we could, I don't know, see him?, but pretty quick after that we bid a fond farewell to the banquet tables and hit the road.

Everyone else headed straight for Sam and Terri's; I took a detour to retrieve Carma from Aunt Sue's care. She seriously saved the day, there's no way that Carma would have done well at the graduation ceremony (the bajillion babies we saw being carried out at various points during the two hours testified to that) and I really appreciated Sue being so willing to help us out! Thank you Aunt Sue!!!

Carma and I rolled in just in time to put this hat slounch-ily on Miko's head and then sit back and admire the adorableness:

We were able to hang out for an hour or so and enjoy the company - inside there was apparently very engaging conversation, if my eyes are any indication, and some fun on the farm with Grandma Pam and Isaac.

Outside there was all sorts of fun just the right size for Carma, and a Grandpa on hand to photograph all his cute granddaughters! And also Isaac eating green strawberries, hahaha.

And of course I found time to take a couple more selfies before we left ;). It sure is fun to be a grown-up and be friends with my brothers! The drive home went almost as well (Carma wasn't super thrilled the last hour or so) and we arrived safely in Nampa a mere 36 hours after starting out on our journey! I'm so grateful that I was able to be there for Sam's special day and travel with my dad and spend that time with him.

All of which wouldn't have been possible without my fantastic husband encouraging me to go and holding down the fort in my absence, even if that did mean picking up another bike off craigslist, haha. They spent Saturday afternoon at the bike park, ensuring that no one missed me!

And the new bike has pegs, which the boys were happy to demonstrate for me :). 

And now in a few hours, I'm heading back to Utah alllll byyyy myyyyself for a couple days of girl time with my BFSCs. Have I mentioned lately what a superstar Chuck is?

may days: Church Stuff

May started off on a high note: a Sunday School adventure with the fantastic Raquel! I pulled up to her curb, she hopped into the truck, buckled her seatbelt, and pulled out a jar of Nutella and two spoons and we were on our way! We spotted Jared at his snow cone job, so naturally we had to stop and scare him ;). Then we hit up Subway and split a footlong - we helpfully nicknamed Raquel's portion 'the exotic half' to make things easier for the nice employee while we rattled off which toppings we each wanted. I'm 88% sure he appreciated our help.

 And then we busted out the Nutella and talked some more. Raquel is bright and fun and slightly boy crazy and loyal and valiant and talks almost as much as I do, so of course I love her.

One Saturday afternoon Grandma Pam came over after her shift at the temple and Carma was all dolled up for a baptism and they just looked so cute in their coordinating eyelet outfits that I had to take some (poorly lit, sorry!!) pictures. 

 

Grandma Pam and Carma and I reunited a few days later for our stake Relief Society women's conference. So cool - they had different service projects set up around the church for women to come and participate in during the hour leading up to dinner and the speaker. Carma and I wisely avoided anything sewing/artistic and found a happy spot in the room writing letters to servicepeople :). The theme for the evening was "A Shower of Heavenly Blessings" and the decorations and dinner were perfect, and what I heard of the speaker (Carma wasn't suuuper cooperative with letting me listen) was excellent.

That same evening, the men and wee ones of our ward were out at the orchard to thin some peach trees! 

 One May weekend found Chuck and Bishop Swenson taking four of the Priests on a campout and hike to... Leslie Gulch? Pretty sure. Adam, Dakota, Noah, and Andy all seem to have had a swell time:

as did the leaders ;). As always, after seeing the sketchy terrain and narrow gaps, I was happy to have remained home.

Another day, another trip to the orchard - our ward has like a bajillion trees (okay, maybe just 50? 60?) and thinning is a pretty slow-going process. Imagine finding a clump of grapes... and pulling a bunch off... so that only a few remain, each a fist width apart... and each tree has lots and lots of such clumps. 

The boys usually help for a bit... and then play with friends the rest of the time. Works for me! Carma hung out in the baby carrier for a while before getting down to explore, and it reminded me of one of her first orchard visits almost exactly a year ago:

 I say this all the time, but the orchard is such a beautiful place to spend an evening, especially serving alongside other members of our ward. 

At the end of May, Sister Corse and I got to have a little field trip to attend Naomi's end of the year choir concert. (Bonus was finding Janell there to sit with!)

 We were happy to chat with Naomi as we left and tell her how amazing she was and get a couple pictures :).

Next up in May: a Utah trip for Sammy's graduation! If I use my 'Daniel Tiger' time wisely, it might get posted tomorrow ;).

may days: Jack skips driver's ed

Once upon a time Holly was in town and we went to lunch and came home and Jack was highly offended because Holly nicely opened the van door for him and he refused to get out. I decided to call his bluff and left the van door open for him while Holly and Carma and I came inside for a minute before I tried to lure him out again. A very. very. short time later, we heard a metal scraping noise and went to the (open) front door to see this:

 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Well, not this exactly, this is after I sprinted across the street and threw open the driver's door and snatched my terrified, naughty boy into my arms while replacing him in the driver's seat to put the van back in park.

 So this is more like it:

 Right? Let's get a different angle:

Maybe a close up of the back so we appreciate the downhill slope that my child was rolling towards:

 

  HOLY MOLY. Honestly the whole five minutes afterwards is kind of a blur. I kept frantically asking Jack if he was okay, he wisely burst into tears and then fell asleep on the couch. Once I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to pass out, Holly and I went over to troubleshoot the situation, deciding that I should drive out along the path. 

Except:

 Oh yeah, the front tires were stuck in the mud. 

At this point I called Chuck on the verge of tears and he was calm and collected and told me to call someone in the ward with a truck. He listed off a couple (very nice) people and then said, "Brother Murphy" and immediately I could breathe again - of course Brother Murphy would make everything better! I dialed him up and he answered on the second ring and said he'd be right over. Bless him.

In the meantime, Holly and I (and Carma) wandered around the van some more and marveled at the fact that it didn't go down into the crick. We have this little patch of mud and weeds to thank:

It dipped enough between the street and the path to slow down the (already sloooow) progression of the van for which we will be eternally grateful. I feel like I should have shown more enthusiasm in school when we learned about inertia ;).

 At this point Brother and Sister Murphy showed up and hugged me and all was well. Brother Murphy hooked up the van to his truck...

and shortly thereafter we were free! After only delaying one nice person trying to drive down my street ;).

And here's the awesome reminder we had of the experience for the next week or so:

My heart still races when I see these pictures, imagining a million different ways things could have been so much worse. I'm so grateful that Jack was fine, albeit a little shaken up. I hope his guardian angels got some sort of promotion. I'm so grateful for Holly, who helped with Carma and kept me from having a panic attack and served as a witness when I was sure I was hallucinating and took pictures of everything. I'm so grateful for the Murphys; I'm sure I don't tell them enough how much they mean to me and our family. I'm so grateful for my awesome friend Cathy from down the street, who came promptly down to investigate as soon as she saw the ruckus. I'm so grateful for the reassurance I've felt listening to everyone else's similar 'driving' stories - including two out of my three brothers when they were little.

And now we have some updated policies about the van! We utilize the parking brake. Religiously. (postedit: for some awesome reason in Uplanders, you don't need the key to move it out of park. We even took it to a mechanic, thinking something was broken - nope, just how they're built!) And obviously Jack isn't allowed in it by himself. Possibly ever. 

It's cool to have your mom chauffeur you to prom, right??

april: e'erything else

All right, let's wrap up April. I don't want to rush it or anything, because it was a good month, but in the wings we definitely have a post about the time that Jack drove the minivan in May, so let's do this thing:

We bought a piano! After bustin' in to the church building on a regular basis for the boys to practice, Chuck and I scoured craigslist until we found one we really liked within our budget. Much thanks to a few of Chuck's co-workers who helped him load it after work one night and to a couple friends who helped Chuck unload it once he arrived home and to the Swensons for the use of the trailer - I think it liked being reunited with the truck ;). We put the piano into the bonus room, kicking off a room swap (Jack and Carma from the bonus room to the back bedroom, guest room from the back bedroom to the bonus room with the piano). It's so much easier for the boys to practice, and we often find them... and the littler kids... in there, randomly plunking away.

The first weekend of April was General Conference! I shamelessly copied all of my lds fb friends to get us through the two days - candy jars corresponding with certain possible talk themes (temples, service, families, prayer, etc) and rotating activities every half hour. Standing on the arms of the couches to sing along with the MoTab choir was an Izatt family original idea though ;). And on a cheesy religious note (the best kind!), Conference was just so beautiful and fulfilling - I honestly love when it coincides with Easter Sunday, because I feel like it's just so stripped down to the essentials without all of the extra fluff. And as always, I felt like several talks were given just for me. At our girls' day the weekend prior, we discussed a specific phrase pertaining to family dynamics. I was grateful and humbled when three or four different speakers specifically addressed and clarified the point that we were curious about. Pretty awesome stuff.

The boys patiently waited until Chuck got home from work that evening for an Easter egg hunt, and Chuck's hiding spots in the backyard didn't disappoint :).

The boys were pretty thrilled to be reunited with Uncle Cody at the end of March, and one day Jack was thrilled when Cody stopped by and spent time with just him! And I was thrilled to put Cody in charge of cutting up my bell peppers for me!

A month into the new library's existence and we're still big fans. The little two love the play area, and Jack insists on opening the doors as we enter and exit and carrying whatever Lego Star Wars/Ninjago movie he conned me into checking out ;).

Sometimes when Chuck works on Sundays he texts me to see how church is going. Sometimes I send him back pictures of my face that suggest I probably shouldn't answer that question whilst still in the Lord's house, haha. OH, and speaking of nursing (weren't we?), in mid-April I got to cross something off my bucket list that wasn't actually previously on it, but let's not get all technical: I nursed someone else's baby! A good friend had gone out of town on a much needed and well-deserved trip and left plenty of pumped milk for her little boy, who had taken a bottle before just fine - only this time he didn't. (KIDS, I tell you!) Long story short, I was so thrilled to help and it went really smoothly (until the point that Carma came into the room towards the end and got a little possessive hahaha) and it was really so cool to be able to be of service in that way.

OH, and another bucket list item hit the dust: eating sushi! Technically I tried some homemade sushi in high school, but I can't remember it super well. We had a modified girls' night in April - Nicole's sweet Myla was in the hospital in Boise for a few terrifying days so Paulina and Nycole and I busted Nicole out for a few minutes of fresh air and raw fish ;). And I didn't hate it! Both kinds were good, the extra cream cheese definitely helped, haha.

One day the two little kids and I stopped by to see my dad and have adventures in his fun backyard. Carma politely declined the blanket Grandpa laid out for her and opted to explore the bark... and bricks around the pond... and almost the pond itself... busy girl!!

While I was at my dad's house, the elementary school called to say that Will had fallen off the monkey bars and gotten roughed up a bit, including a bloody nose. I felt SO horrible that I was a half hour away and couldn't bring my sweet boy a new shirt right away. In a tender mercy, I was prompted to ask the nurse to call Clyde down and have him give his shirt to Will - I knew that Will would feel more comfortable in Clyde's shirt and that Clyde wouldn't mind wearing a shirt from the school's stockpile of extra clothing. Will's teacher emailed me a little later to let me know that Will was doing great, and I took this picture of the boys after school. I credit so much of Will's progress and general well-adjustment in life to his closeness to Clyde - both in age and relationship. Aaand now I'm crying, so let's move on ;)....

We loved being outside lots in April, and Clyde loved riding his new bigger bike, and Will loved inheriting Clyde's old bike. (spoiler alert: it quickly became apparent that even Clyde's old bike wasn't big enough for Will, so Chuck hit craigslist again and found another bigger bike so they now have the same size and their old ones are waiting in the wings for Jackers as he grows.) Carma still prefers a car to biking, even when she has to crawl in to drive.

Random exploring / conquering on a Sunday evening walk:

And some around the house pictures, including Grandma Pam holding Carma, wrapped up in a sweet blanket that my Grandma Carma made for me when I was a baby.

April was when I stopped watching the oh-so-cute Ashtyn and I couldn't help but dress Carma to match her that last day. She and her family have since moved closer to family in eastern Idaho and it's fun to keep up with her on facebook!

Oh, I was leaving the church with the kids after Cub Scouts one night when Chuck was there for missionary splits with the Priest's Quorum and found them posing for a picture. So naturally I snapped my own as well, resulting in this gem that if you glance really quickly at, looks like Chuck has his hand nestled into the crook of Andy's elbow, a la all the cheesy Regency romance books I read ... when it's in fact Elder Roberts' hand from the other side... but still, hahahaha.

At the end of the month, Will was so excited to celebrate his good friend Spencer's birthday with him at Wahooz!, but Clyde and Jack were less excited to be left home - so I rallied the troops for a Costco run with a happy ending of frozen yogurt swirl and a hot dog. I'm not saying I would never get sick of it if I ate at the Costco food court every single day, but I am saying that I wouldn't mind giving it a shot.

Chuck and I ended April with a lovely Ward Temple Night - on Bishop Swenson's birthday! A temple worker joked about refreshments afterwards and we all held back laughs - there were definitely cupcakes back at the church waiting for us ;). Bishop Swenson has put such a great emphasis on temple service and it was really neat to be there with so many ward members and especially with my stellar husband. 

And that was April!