The two week catch up

We celebrated Jons 39th birthday. He got a pink tie from Becca, cologne from Sarah, a green "Im Irish" tshirt from Rachel and a big popcorn maker from Anna.

Here's a snapshot of the older two on our way out for Jons Bday Dinner.
Our family spends many Friday nights renting a Red Box movie and having popcorn--LOVE this new machine!

Sarah has has softball practices--her first game is this Wednesday. It will be fun to see her play "for reals." Rachel had Track try outs times on Saturday-her first meet is on Thursday. They will post what she made Thursday morning. She is doing Long Jump and Triple Jump. Once she saw those SUPER FAST AFRICAN-AMERICAN girls run she thought "um maybe I should try the long/triple jump instead!"--classic.

Anna has her HUGE Destination Imagination competition this Saturday. I have to get her and I CLEAR to Pasadena by 8am and we will be there all.day.long. If her team wins Regional, they will go onto State which is March 31st in the Clovis area.
Becca started gymnastics right up the street here at the community center-seriously so dang cute. Maybe her dimples make it extra cutsey!?

We spent Presidents Weekend in Arrowhead. Robert and I moved a TON furniture into the cabin.

My truck is loaded with stuff for the cabin-the Hales truck was loaded too

along with a huge trailer packed with 11 brand new mattresses. The cabin will pretty much have a bed for all 34 of us-how fun huh!
We were cranking machines! I LOVE to be productive and get.things.done. It was awesome. It had snowed before we got there-so the roads were all clear for us and the sun was out shining and warm-it was perfect.
Todd's family came by Sunday afternoon and moved in more furniture. So now the cabin is pretty much set up!
There is a Jr. High School two houses away from us-so all the kids would just get dressed and walk over there. That is where all the AWESOME snow is to go sledding. Only those of us that live there know about it.

The internet was SUPPOSE to be hooked into the cabin by 5pm on Saturday--the guy didnt even show up till 730 and took till 830pm. So the night before Jon and I had to get our work done for StubGate so we had to get into my denali-drive to McDonalds parking lot to access their free wiFI internet. We had both laptops going and then had to run back to our cabin to get the car battery charger for my laptop to work so we sat in the drive way for FOUR hours WITH the truck engine on to charge my laptop while we worked-then at 1145pm drive BACK to McDonalds to access the free WiFi again.
It was craziness. So when the internet was on and working Jon and I were SO RELIEVED we didnt have to do another 4 hours in our truck! We were done with work in about an hour. SO NICE.

On Valentines Day Mark proposed to Clarissa.

She is in the dark grey. Her mom is on the right of her and her sister on the left.
They've been dating off and on for about two years. Such fun news-she's adorable and loved by everyone. They will get married April 21st. They were trying for sooner but the SD Temple was totally packed up until April 21st. Crazy huh!

Also on Valentines day-

the girls EACH got stuff left on our doorstep. Too cute!

Rachel received a letter from her HS Art Teacher.

Basically telling us she has a huge future in Art. Awesome!

Business is doing FANTASTIC and we are BEYOND grateful. Such a blessing-so thankful.

Sadly Jon has come down with another UTI. Poor guy. It makes him tight, feel like he has the flu, feverish, cold, hot-just all around yucky. It started just today. Jon always has a chronic running UTI-it's part of his injury. Sometimes it stays calm, and sometimes it flares up-it just kind of is what it is. We try to fight them naturally because if you keep feeding it to antibiotics-you have to get a stronger and stronger one. We are worried one day when he has a REALLy bad one-he'll have already gone thru all the anti's and nothing will work. The last one he had not too long ago was really rough. He tried to fight it too long. We'll see how long he wants to fight this go around. When he's like this-he is bed bound for about a week. Makes life a little difficult. Hopefully he gets thru this UTI quick and he can resume to his life again.

Highs & Lows

Lows:

Having to pay $101 to fill up my denali. I'm so grateful I work from home and that the HS is around the corner, JR High up the street, softball up the street, gymnastics up the street, the younger two walk to and from school, the bank down the street, fresh & easy down the street, walgreens down the street, and that wendys/carls jr/del taco are down the street!!!! Too bad my Target is 10 minutes away. They will be building a SUPER Target about 1 minute from me-not sure when that will be done-but then I will be set!
I SERIOUSLY live in the PERFECT spot.

Taking Anna to her FIRST karate class--wow that was a no joke class. It was 1.5 hours LONG and at the end all I had to say was "So thinking you want to do gymnastics with Becca instead?" She relieved a huge "YES!"--It will be fun to be doing it with Becca and their friend Kate.

Chase bank calling me DAILY after the 5th of the month bugging me about our mortgage payment. We got our loan modification last year (our rate dropped from 5.125% to 2% for 1st-5th year, 3% on 6th year, 4% on 7th year and 4.375% year 8 on out.) and apparently they call you every.single.day after the 5th of the month to see where their money is. The last call I said DO NOT CALL ME!!! Yet they still do. I just pick it up and hang it up. Good grief already.

MANY.LATE.NIGHTS with our new business venture-its SO TRUE when you own your own and run it YOU WORK YOURSELF TO DEATH! But the rewards are a total pay off. We are actually working on a way to not have to stay up so late--it's a work in progress but we are BEYOND THANKFUL for the support its providing our family no doubt. Thank HEAVENS for my Nuriche REVIVE to keep me going!

HIGHS:
Driving (speeding) to Todd/Celene's ward to be there for Taylors ordination. Chad drove down with 3 of his boys-we were all in this TINY room and then all of us Hales walked in--Chad joked "Um is Taylor in here anywhere?!" It was awesome. So great to be there to support family like that-I REALLY do love that about Jons family. SO VERY AMAZINGLY supportive in all things that are important!

Hanging with the fam bam after the ordination. Jon SO LOVES his brothers-they truly are his best friends. It always makes me tear up to see how they interact with each other. I also SO LOVE that the cousins REALLLLLLY like to be with each other. I am so grateful we have them close by!

Online Bill Pay--does anyone write checks anymore?! HA I even pay my tithing online. It's so nice to hop on the computer-pay EVERYTHING and be done in 10 minutes.

Rachel is doing SO.MUCH.BETTER. we still have her cell and iTOUCH. She's meeting NEW people from the Track team who are GOOD KIDS. She's seeing how they are different. She's wanting to hang with them more then her old volleyball girls-who are nice-but kind of catty. (Ya know the kind who talk about the one girl who just left to get a drink of water.) She's nervous about leaving that group to hang with other track kids. I told her she totally should and can. She's going to once track season actually starts so it wont feel/be so awkward for her. YEAH FOR POSITIVE CHANGES! I'm surprised she isnt BEGGING for her stuff back. We did tell her it would be "a while" and that we were "watching" her.

Sarah JUST MIGHT be the FIRST to get all straight A's on her report card. That girl is doing goooood-she'll come home, totally do hw/ chores. She's on the ball--till Anna gets home then by the end of the night she's driving us crazy. Good thing she's in softball to be out of the house. It totally helps. We told her IF she gets ALL straight A's she's getting something MAJOR. We already know what it is-but she doesnt. WAY FUN. Rachel would get all A's then a LAME B in PE or Band--hello--those are suppose to be the EASY A's!!! So Sarah would be the first.

Thoughts that are in my head...

I cant seem to be clever with my titles--but have all these blog posts in my head about my family--HA!

We have our family "to do" list board that I LOVE. Yesterday I found this lovely creation on it:

She cracks me up-and is so dang talented. How does this happen?! It just goes to show you each of us are given "gifts!"
Instead of taking a LAME spanish class-we put her in an Art class and she is LOVING it. I think it was a good choice for her first year in HS. Here are a couple of pieces she did recently.



Jon and I are being REALLY blessed in our efforts with our new business venture and it is SO.PAYING.OFF. We had a FANTASTIC January and feel SO HOPEFUL. Jon created our "image" of our business.

Awesome huh!

Lastly, here is Becca-in her usual form!

Photo is kind of dark. This girl STILL loves to sniff her blanket-any blanket! Weird huh!? It cracks me up.