May recap

I'll start off the month with pictures of my favorite 10 month old. Look at this face! Who could not fall in love with this boy? I was counting the days until I could see him.

 Oh man- I'm so smitten with this little cheeser.

 
This is Kylee's first Mother's Day. She had a special day with her boy and her hubby who pampered her all day.

 My Mother's Day started off with this healthy delicious bowl of oatmeal...
 
and ended with Skyping with all 4 kids! Even though I was sad to be childless for the first time in 27 years, my sadness was greatly diminished after being able to see and talk to the kids. It was wonderful to see Jake and Cam especially and know I would be seeing Jake in just a few short weeks.
I'm so excited about my Mother's Day gift from Mike.
Cam continues to do well in Chicago.  This is his first companion Elder Martinez with a couple from the ward that they love and that were so good to them.

After 3 transfers w/ Martinez, Cam got a new companion named Goodrich. Coincidentally, they were comps for 6 weeks in the MTC! Look at their size difference. haha

They got to go hang out outside of the theater that was playing The Book of Mormon musical. They had a lot of people stop and want to take pictures w/ the big BOM and they passed out a lot of pass along cards and some BOM's as well.

Downtown Chicago is so cool!

Jake and his last companion Elder Thompson. He had such a great last transfer!

This is the view out their apartment window!

This is Brian and Nadine whom they met, taught, baptized and confirmed all in the last 3 weeks! It was a miracle and an answer to his prayers.

 Mike and I had a long list of things we wanted to get done before Jake got home. One of them was cleaning off the patio and deck. Another one was having the siding on the house painted. We hired Sara's husband Mike to do it and he did a fantastic job. Because it rained every day for the first 3 weeks in May, he wasn't able to get it all done before Jake got home, but he did get it done before his welcome home.

Even though the house didn't get done until June, I'm still going to put the before and after pictures on for this month. I am SO thrilled with how it turned out.
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I had this sign giving the countdown to when Jake got home. It was fun to change the number every Monday.

This is Jakes last letter in the mail to us. It was a happy/sad day. I'll miss that weekly communication with him.

This is me sending Jake's last letter to him.

We had a fun Memorial weekend. It stopped raining long enough for us to get to the Clarkston Cemetery.

We had fun having breakfast and playing pickle ball at Trace's church.

April happenings

While I was in Washington visiting Janae, Mike took it upon himself (as he often does) to help me out by doing some deep cleaning on our kitchen appliances. So, while he was listening to the Saturday afternoon session of conference, he gave the dishwasher, stove and the outside of the fridge a good cleaning. Some men may bring their wives flowers or jewelry, but my man does this. And I much prefer that.




Between sessions of conference on Sunday, the 4 of us took a lovely walk in the canyon. It was lovely to be outside and enjoying each other.

We had a going away dinner for Jess and Brad with the Bundy's a couple nights before they left for Kentucky for the summer. Their leaving makes us be without a child nearby for the first time since Kylee was born. I was so sad to see them go.

They stopped in Chicago for a few days in hopes of seeing Cam, and also seeing the city. On his PDay they were lucky enough to "run into" him at his church with a little help from the zone leaders. They all loved spending an hour together.

I gave a ward bridal shower to my friend Kathy's daughter Arie.

Emma and Lydia helped me clean the hot tub. They didn't think it was a chore. They thought it was a fun adventure!

I've really perfected this whole wheat bread recipe. It is quite delicious. I love giving a couple loaves away to someone each time I make a batch.

Ann's been helping me spruce up my decorations- inside and out. Here's what my front porch looks like now.

I love this little chalkboard that I can write fun messages on!

Mike and I went to SLC one Sunday to hear Parker Lester give his farewell talk in his YSA ward. I'm so glad we got to see him before he leaves for Russia in May.

One Friday morning I went on a lovely hike to the wind caves with these fun friends.

Here's a couple adorable and funny pictures of Evan. I don't know why I don't have more to put in for the month!

 Jake was so happy he could attend the temple with one of his converts Zheng.

Here he is outside the mission office.

Emailing at the library on Pday.

Cam with his comp and 2 guys from his ward that he hangs out with a lot- Oskar and Pedro.

This is the bishops cute little 3 year old.

He got drenched riding his bike in the rain

Jake can't believe the way missionaries can dress on Cam's mission. He said if a missionary in his mission showed up somewhere looking like this they would probably get sent home! haha.

Hanging out with some neighborhood kids.

Lake Michigan!