Thornton Mom

 Here are lots of highlights from July: Glenn, Angy, Anna, and Christian came to visit.  We went to the Lake House and really enjoyed ourselves.  Everyone was so sweet to me and my kids it was a wonderful time. We then spent a few more days at the Lake House.  It was delightful to be up there for a full week.  Derek was sweet and drove back and forth everyday.  We really enjoyed it!  We did lots of fishing.  Samantha caught a huge cat fish!  Michael "caught" a fish too.  He did what I did as a child and helped real it in.  Granddaddy and Grandmommy made their famous homemade ice cream!  We got to try paddle boarding.  I really liked it and so did the kids. The Christensen's came to visit us one more time before they flew home. All the kids loved Anna.  She was a delight! Christian and Elizabeth are really good friends.  I am glad they like each other so much! It is fun to have u...

Aunt Ruth came over yesterday and brought coloring book shirts for the kids to color.  It was really cute.  They had a lot of fun coloring and being together.  We also spent a lot of time with our little cousins.  Everyone really enjoyed holding Aurora and taking care of her.  It was fun to play with such a cute baby for the day. We celebrated John Derek's Birthday this week.  He was so excited to have his birthday in Utah.  Grandma Christensen had us sing him happy birthday and she put a candle in his pizza for lunch.  Michael insisted on us singing both birthday songs.  John Derek loved having family over and loved all the presents.  I think his favorite one was a real life jaw breaker.  He is still working on eating that o ne.  John Derek even decorated his cake.  He wanted a football field.  He did a great job.  I was struggling with the goal posts and fina...

 Samantha loves Hope Reins!!  It has been so good for her to work with the counselors and the horses.  She has really felt a connection with the horses.  She loves Abby and talks about her all the time.  My father in law made the observation that Samantha is happier and more engaged as she works with the horses and I have to agree. Maddison has been asking me for several months now if she could do a lemonaid stand.  Finally a few Saturday's ago we granted her request.  She set the stand up in our driveway and I was worried that she would not get any business.  It brought tears to my eyes to see my neighbors surrounding her little table filling up her money jar and buying cups full of lemonaid.  It truly was an answer to prayer.

 We swam our last swim meet for Bamberry Woods.  With Angela and her family moving we will no longer get to be a part.  It has been a wonderful 10 years and we feel so blessed to have been apart of this great team and to meet so many wonderful people. John Derek was able to swim in the TSA Championship.  He really enjoyed himself.  His freestyle medley team came in 9th over all.  He came in 2nd in all three of his heats and improved each of his times by at least 2 seconds.  I am proud of my boy!

I am so grateful past two and a half weeks are completed.  It was very hard on me trying to figure out this car situation.  We had been looking for over 2 months for a 2013 Honda Odyssey but things kept not working out.  After several days of "waiting until tomorrow" we were blessed by our Father in Heaven and guided to look for a new car.  With only 3 days to go until we left we contacted our dealer Monday night expressing our desire for a car we had looked into a few days before.  Just as we put down our deposit we were informed the car we wanted had already been sold.  After much prayer and deliberation we ended up with a 2016 Honda Odyssey Touring.  This is not the car or the price tag we were thinking we would get.   As Derek and I drove to the dealer Thursday morning, the day after we had planned to leave, we discussed our feelings. The scripture in 3 Nephi kept coming into my head " If ye then, being evil, kn...

Yesterday was a crazy day.  Here is a text I sent my family: Hello family, each of you asked to be kept up to date about our new car adventure.  We have another part of our story . . . Today I was driving Elizabeth to her volleyball tryouts when a block away from the school the car made a huge clanking sound and I lost steering power.  We were so blessed to be in easy walking distance of the school and just pulled the car right over into a parallel parking spot just for me.  We called Derek who dropped everything to come to my rescue and Elizabeth walked to her tryouts. With AAA on their way Derek arrived and discovered my fan belt broken and the fan itself falling apart with metal everywhere. I then mentioned it was a good thing that the mini van we are wanting can be picked up in the next couple of days.  At this Derek frowned and said that the car transporter broke down again and the car won't be here until Tuesday evening.  HaHa. I am so gratefu...