Key West

Several Years ago there was a murder in Key West, FL.  The suspects fled to Utah and were caught in Midvale.  Jake interviewed a friend of the suspect and collected some items from a pawn shop.  He was asked to come down and testify in the case.  With his stuff all being paid for we decided it would be so much fun for me to fly down, all I had to do was pay for my flight. 

We had so much fun.  We flew in on Saturday and I flew out on Thursday night.  Jake worked a total of 2 hours while I was there.  We had so much fun talking, laughing and spending time together.  I love Jake so much, he truely is my best friend.  We can be together 24 hours a day and never get sick of each other.  We had so much fun and made so many memories. 

Dont judge my outfits, we were literally at the water all day long, so I had my swimsuit on with tank tops over them.  

 Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip.

 Our first day there.

 This is down on Duval street.  It is the main street with all the shops.

 There are roosters everywhere.

 Our Room

 Lizard on our patio.

 Aren't we so cute!!

 Southernmost Point.  If you look close you will not be able to see Cuba.  It is 90 miles from this point.

 It was so pretty.

 The best part of the entire trip for me personally was laying in the hammock with Jake.  We went out during the day also, but every night we went out and laid on the hammock and cuddled and just talked. We would stay out for an hour or so and just talk about everything.  It was so relaxing and so peaceful. We were right next to the ocean, the moon shining, the stars out and the calmness.  A few nights they had a guy out playing the piano and singing.   It was awesome!!!!

 Our Scooter for the week.

 This was at night.  It was so dark that the flash came on.  It would blind us.  So we would close our eyes and then hurry and open them.  It was a killer on the eyes.

 I love this picture.  There were so many birds and the sunset was just amazing.

 haha, this stretched Jake when I did a panorama the wrong way.  Such a funny picture.

 We missed our kids a lot.  We face timed them a lot.  Here we were, Marshall was out in the shop with my Dad on his motorcycle.

 On the scooter

 the light was a killer with the flash

 Jake was good at keeping his eyes open, I struggled very badly

 I loved the hammock, it was truly heaven to me!

 Parasailing was so much fun.  I would love to do it again.

 I am sorry to share this picture.  But Jake dared me to do this, and well, there you go HaHa.

JAZZ Game

My niece MaKayla has type 1 diabetes.  Each year we do the Walk to Cure Diabetes with JDRF.  The team name is Team Makayla.  My sister is amazing and she goes over and beyond to raise money hoping to find a cure.  She puts a lot of work and effort into all year long.  Marshall walked with them a few times around the neighborhood to collect money and we put a jar at the kiosk to raise some money as well.  We sure hope sometime soon they can find a cure, it is really hard to live a normal life with diabetes.  

Our team raised the most money and so we won a suite to the JAZZ game.  After months and months of run around from Energy Solutions they were not able to give us a suite, but instead they gave us lower bowl tickets and food vouchers.  It was so much fun!!

 The cotton candy turned Kambrias tongue so blue, and her poo!!

 Marshall LOVES basketball and can tell you about every player around the NBA.  He is what I like to call obsessed.

 I sure love my kids.  And my eyes sure look tired!

Easter 2013

Easter came really fast this year and I wasn't prepared at all!  We did our easter eggs the night before, I was going to just skip, but the kids love it so much!  We decided against Herriman this year, its way too crazy and we just did an egg hunt at my Mom's house on Saturday.  Sunday we woke up found baskets and eggs and then just chilled.  The kids got a church outfit, peeps, bag of chips and one small toy.

 On Saturday my Mom did an easter egg hunt for the kids.  We went to Grandma Gotbergs and had it in her backyard because it is so much bigger.  The kids had a blast.

 Marshalls stash!

 All the cousins.

 Marshalls easter stash on Easter morning.

 Kambrias

 Kambrias basket was hiding in the oven.

 Marshalls was hiding inside a computer tower.

Jr. Jazz

Marshall played Jr Jazz for the first time and loved it.  He is a great dribbler and good with his ball control.  He just needs to get more arm muscle so he can make his shots.  Marshall is obsessed with Basketball.  He has a scoreboard app on his ipod, did his great brain report on Basketball, his book report on Lebron James and loves his basketball video game.  He can tell you almost every player that is somewhat good in the NBA and several facts about them.  He plays outside at the hoop daily and is getting really good.  He will only wear basketball shorts or workout pants, refuses levi's.  We sure love this boy of ours.  Jake loves that he loves basketball.

Surgery

Last year Jake had surgery on his hip to repair a torn labrum and to shave his bone so that it was the correct shape so that it wouldn't happen again.  I remember being nervous, but all went well with the surgery.  He was good for several months, he then played Basketball and got hit and his hip popped out and went back in and then a month later he was in pain again.  So he went back to the Dr 6+ months later and they decided he needed to have surgery again.  He was in so much pain those 8 months until surgery, I felt helpless, there was no way to help him and even meds wouldn't take all the pian away.

Surgery day finally came.  I slept horrible, so worried about his surgery.  I knew Jake would be okay, but I was worried about what was wrong, would they be able to fix it ....  Jake is young, he can't have a bad hip the rest of his life, that would be horrible.  We check in, we go back and get in gown, IV goes in, Dr comes and talks to us.  He tells us it will be 2 hours and when he is done he will come out and talk to me.  I have decided I'm not leaving until I talk to the Dr.  So I sit in the waiting area and read, play games on my iPad for 2.5 hours.  During this time, many Dr's come out and tell them the surgery went well, he/she will be in recovery for X amount of time, we will let you know when you can come back.  Normal way of talking to the family.  A nurse comes out and is wandering about, comes over and asks if I am Jake's wife.  Why yes I am, I tell her.  She says, Great, the surgery is over and the Dr will be coming out to talk with you.  She kinda pauses and looks around and then says, if you would like to come with me I'll actually bring you back to a little room so you can have some privacy.  So I go back in this little room and sit there for 10 minutes (it felt like hours), stressing and wondering why did I have to come in this room?  No one else has.  Is he okay, it did take 30 mins longer then planned, is Jake hurt, is there no fix for his hip, my eyes are getting watery and I am beyond scared.  Dr West finally comes in and says super cheerful, Everything went great.  He tore his labrum again which explains the horrible pain!  I shaved his femur bone some more to make it even better then last time. I took his muscle/ligament and pleated it and sutured it to make the socket tighter so that the hip won't pop out anymore, and won't give Jake that sensation.  That was the long part, there is no science to it, it is a work of art.  He drew me a picture and it all made sense. He showed me what Jake can and cannot do with his leg, that there were certain hip extension he could not do for 6 weeks while it healed.  He then made the decision to order a brace for Jake to wear so that he the Dr could sleep better at night.   He made sure I was good and understood and apologized that we were back a 2nd time and then said go eat, Jake will be up in the room in about 1 hr.  He left and I was so relieved.  I was so very thankful to my Heavenly Father that Dr West is so smart and knows how to fix this problem. There are only 2 Drs in utah that can do this surgery.  Only one on our insurance plan.  We truly are so thankful for Dr West and all of his medical knowledge.   I was thankful that Jake would no longer be in pain (once he was healed).  I then went and ran some work errands and then waited in the room until Jake came up.  It was so great to see him when they rolled the bed in.

It is going to be a very long 6 weeks of wearing the brace and a longer 6 months to 1 year of no sports, but it will be so worth it in the end.

Love

Love is an amazing thing.  I love my husband and my kids more then anything in this world.  I love my parents and my sister and my brother.  I love all my family. 

Jake and I went out last weekend for an overnighter.  We had so much fun.  We laughed our heads off, we talked, we enjoyed each others company and we came home feeling so refreshed.  We went up to Midway and stayed at the Homestead in a little cottage room.  We shopped in Park City, went on the Chocolate lovers Train Ride on the Heber Creeper and then we shopped some more on our way home.  I suprised Jake with the trip and set the whole thing up.  Found a sitter for our kids (which wasn't easy because my parents were on a cruise.  Thanks Kim & Ryan). 

Today I was out running errands and came home to this on the counter.

when you open it up he also wrote, " Don't forget to share".  The funny part is I called him on the phone to tell him thank you and the kids were going crazy.  I get this one, this one is mine.  I hadn't opened it up, I looked through the top.  I said all crazy, NO they are mine, leave them alone.  Jake said, did you open it up?  I said No, why would I open it up, so I opened it up and thought to myself, this doesn't look any different then peeking through the top, then as I went to close it I saw this ...

and we all laughed our heads off.

 

So happy Valentines to you Jake!  You are such a great husband and you are always so thoughtful.  Jake knows that I HATE flowers.  I think they are way too expensive, I hate having to remember to water them, and I would rather buy clothes or food with the money :)  But the best thing about Jake, is he doesn't need a holiday to tell or show me that he loves me, he does it all the time.  He randomly shows up to work and brings me treats.  He tells me and shows me daily that he loves me.  He is really good about that, and I need to learn from his example.

 

So there is another kind of love that I have learned.  I have always been a kind person (I think).  But my calling, compassionate service, has really made me come out of my comfort zone.  I am pretty shy if I don't know you.  I like to mind my own business, I don't need to know what is going on with other people's lives, that is personal, and I don't want to intrude.  So with this calling I have had the oppurtunity to get to know alot of families I probably wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise.  I have seen heartache at a  new level, I have felt the spirit guide me in what to say and how to help.  I have cried more then I normally would for these people I don't even know.  I love my calling .. it has been hard and I have wanted to be done with it, but man it has showed me how giving poeple around me are, how amazing of a ward family I have, and has turned me into even a bigger cry baby.  It has truly made me LOVE my life and cherish every moment of my Life.  You never know when your time will come to leave this earth and I know without a doubt I do not want to have any regrets.  So Love with all your heart and all your soul and accept everyone for who they are, because we have no idea what struggles they are facing and we have no idea how much our smile or our hello will change the day they are having!