Alayna's Baptism

Alayna was baptized today. It was a week later than the Stake Baptism Day because Jeff had drill last Saturday, but Alayna didn't mind waiting another week. She was so beautiful. Her face was so bright and she was so excited to be baptized and become a member of the Church. Here are some pictures that we took on her special day.

Alayna with her daddy, dressed in their
baptismal clothing, before the baptism.

After the baptism, Alayna changed into her very

pretty white dress. Here she is with Jeff and I.

This is Alayna with her Grandma and Grandpa Miller.

Here is Alayna with her Great Grandma and

Great Grandpa Burgener.

It's Been Forever

I don't have any pictures for this post, but I do have a lot to talk about. So, let's play catch-up.

Jeff was able to come home for Christmas time, he was only here for a total of 9 days, but we enjoyed every minute of it. I don't think we could have made it through the holiday without him. Ttwo days after Christmas, Alayna went in for surgery to finally remove her tumor. Boy, was I ever grateful that Jeff was there for that, Alayna really needed him. She healed so quickly, and today you can't even see the incision site. I love that plastic surgeon! Finding him was an answer to many prayers.

Jeff went back "over there" on the eve of New Year's Eve and celebrated the New Year on an airplane while the kids and I fell asleep before midnight. Because Jeff had not been able to find a job while he was here over Christmas, we decided that he would extend his contract until May. This would allow him to come home in March for 25 days, we thought it would be great to go to California during that time. Little did we know, things weren't going to go as we had planned.

In the beginning of February, Jeff called to let us know that the company would not be extending his contract and he would be coming home on February 24th. It was a time for mixed feelings. I was so excited that he would be coming home for good, yet at the same time, extremely worried because he didn't have a job to come home to. I spent a lot of time crying and praying, but I knew that this was the way that things were meant to be.

So, here we are today, together as a family once more. Jeff still has not acquired a new job, but we are confident that he will be receiving an offer shortly. Thank goodness for food storage and savings, otherwise, we'd be in some serious financial trouble during this unemployment stage. To be honest, it is nice that Jeff doesn't work yet. We can use this time to get our lives back to normal, actually things are a lot better than normal, it's sheer joy.

Flag Football

This fall, Donovan and Sean played flag football with the rec center. They unfortunately didn't win any games, but they had a lot of fun. That's what counts!

Kids Museum

When my sister, Shauna, came to Utah, my mom took the kids and I to the Kids' Museum downtown. We rode TRAX down there, which the kids absolutely loved. The museum is huge and has so much for the kids to do.


Alayna and Matthew are grocery shopping.

Matthew is rock climbing with help from Dan (Shauna's husband).

Donovan is a chicken farmer.

Shauna is a cow. (That's the cutest cow I've ever seen!)

Donovan playing in the ball area.

This is my niece, Lianna.

This is my other nice, Sophia.

Halloween

It's been forever since I've posted, so naturally I have a ton of pictures to share. Let's start with Halloween.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all the kids. They are going to a new charter school, Entheos, which is just down the road from us. Here are some pictures of them right before we headed off to school this morning.


What a beautiful morning!


Donovan says he loves being in middle school
and the uniforms aren't as bad as he thought.


Sean had a good day because a couple
of his friends from his old school
ended being in his class.


Alayna loves being in 1st grade
and has already made new friends.


Matthew had a great first day and
absolutely loves his teacher.


Alayna with her friend Meghan.

Swimming

It was soooo hot today, 103 degrees; so we went swimming. We spent almost four hours at the outdoor pool, two hours more than we usually spend. We had so much fun, and no one got sunburned (I was definately on top of the sunblock today). Donovan and Sean surprised me when they decided that they wanted to go off the diving board. They're finally swimming well enough to do so, so I let them go. Sean was a little nervous and it took him a couple times of backing out before he jumped. Donovan went right in and kept going back for more. Alayna and Matthew wanted to jump too, but the rules state that they have to be 8 years old before they can use the diving board, so they'll have to stick with cannonballs off the edge of the pool. The rec center has a new pool which is a blast. It's all very shallow with 3 slides and a bucket. Want to see it, go to their homepage at http://www.kopfc.com/ where they have a small video clip you can watch. It was a very fun day, but now I'm exhausted, thank goodness only a couple hours until bedtime.