A New Chapter

On March 25, 2024 I had my first official day of work in a very, very long time. Due to some unforeseen circumstances the past several years, we felt like it was necessary for me to get a full time job and go back to work. It has been a rough transition for me, but the family is stepping up and I hope we can adjust all together. I have had a myriad of emotions, but I pray this will be a blessing for our family and I can support our family as much as before, just in a different way. 

I started full time as part of the office staff at Northeast Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. I work 4 ten hour shifts, so hopefully I can adjust quickly to the long days! 

Channing's NJHS Induction!

Last week Channing was rewarded for all her hard work and inducted into the National Junior Honor Society! She work so hard at school and we are so proud of her!

Mr. Buck, her principal handing her the award. 

She has a great group of intelligent friends who value academics! 

Ella's Last UIL!

Ella was involved in 4 separate UIL competitions with her school these past couple months. She had two UIL's for orchestra and two for choir. She spent a lot of after school rehearsals at the school!

She participated in full orchestra with the band included. They scored all 1's.

She also did her varsity orchestra and got all 1's there also! 

Finally, she participated in Varsity mixed choir and Varsity women's choir and also got all 1's!

Pretty impressive to get sweepstakes, the highest score, in all four groups over several weeks! I'm proud of all her hard work and dedication to the music programs! Good thing she loves it! She's got a long life ahead of it if she stays in her current career path! 

Girls Camp 2024

Channing and Ella got to go to one more church girls camp together over Spring break. I was glad they were able to fit in one more! They went to camp Niwana.

There were a lot of fun girls from their ward who they got to spend a few days with!

Ella and her friends had a great time after the entire group got over the shock of the state of the camp! There were so many bugs and the cabins were not the cleanest! 

They took turns helping with meals. 

She and Ella got to shoot riffles and axe throw! 

Channing loves being with friends so she was in heaven and stayed up WAY too late!

Ella was a YCL so she had to led a few classes and help out more as a leader. They said testimony meeting was phenomenal and I am so glad they got to strengthen their testimonies and grow together! A lot of work for the leaders, but I am grateful for the experiences they got to have! 

Brace Face!

Channing has been really looking forward to getting braces on for years!! On March 11, 2024 her dreams came true! She really wants to straighten her teeth. 

Before braces...

After...

I am looking forward to seeing what 2 years of braces does to her already beautiful smile!!

Spring Break With Visitors!

Spring Break has been the week of my birthday for years. This year it was the same. Ragnar's parents and sisters were leaving on a cruise over our Spring Break from Galveston, so we got to see them on the book ends of their cruise. They got to see Cavin in his soccer game, Channing at her track meet, and Deacon at his soccer game. It was fun to have them be able to watch them do their activities. 

It was a beautiful night for soccer!

Channing's track meet was chillier and ended up being rained out so she never got to do her pole vaulting, just her race. 

She ran in the 2400 and got her best time by like 45 seconds! She finished at 11:44! I was proud of her making so much progress! 

Deacon's game was really cold!! It was windy and a cold front had come through!

After the game the girls all went to get pedicures for Sandra's early birthday celebration. 

We then went to Los Cocos for dinner with everyone. They left on their cruise and the boys and I hung out while the girls went to girls camp. 

On my birthday we went to the park with Marisa's family who had come in from Arkansas and my parents and Natalie. 

We played pickleball and celebrated there. 

Then Marisa and Ethan joined us on a double date to the Cheesecake Factory and axe throwing! 

Ragnar in his natural viking element ;)

It was a nice birthday and I'm officially 41! 

I love puzzles, so we spent the whole week doing a puzzle and put in the last piece together!

We got to hear about the cruise and hang out a little more before everyone left. 

We were happy to see so much family this week.

We are grateful to have the family we do in our lives! It was a nice, relaxing Spring Break week.