Trip to Utah

The month of June for us was crazy but wonderful. We figured it out that we only slept in our own bed 5 nights of the month, but oh we had some fun times, although it is very nice to be back home and settled. The finale of our month was spent in Utah for Grandma Jex's 90th birthday party, then some time with my immediate family. The reunion was incredible as there are 98 people, spouses included, that are direct decendents of hers.(Lorilyn was 48 out of her 49 great grandchildren with another due in August!) What a wonderful legacy this amazing woman has. I am so grateful to be a part of it. This is a long post, but it gives a basic overview of the 10 days Lorilyn and I were there. Ryan was there, but he had to leave Sunday after the reunion to get back to work. Thanks hubby for working so hard for us! Well I have put the pictures in order, with some events missing because we forgot to bring the camera...sorry:( Hope you enjoy following our Utah journey!

Everyone arrived by late Wednesday night, 6/24/09. So on Thursday for lunch my immediate family met Uncle Gil, Aunt Shannon, Aunt Gloria and Cole at Cafe Rio for some yummy lunch and a fun visit!

This is Ryan taking his first bite of his favorite burrito of all time...he was loving life!

Ryan with Kori and her boys...look at all that yummy food! I've only been home 3 days and I miss Cafe Rio already!

Here is Grandma and her youngest grandaughter Lorilyn. Aren't they pretty in red?

Grandma with all her grandaughters. So cute!

Here is Lynette and her youngest Michael, and Gloria with Olivia's baby Cole. What cute boys!

Aunt Shannon with Lorilyn

Family picture with Great Grandma Bird. It was wonderful to see her!

Great Grandma Bird and LJ

Thursday afternoon was filled with lots of fun at 7 Peaks water park with many of the Jex aunts, uncles, and cousins, but unfortunately Ryan and I forgot our camera so we will have to depend on others to share some pictures:) It was a great way to kick off the reunion. Thank you Grandma Bird for watching the little one so Ryan and I could have a fun time!

Friday morning began nice and early with a hike up Mount Timpanogos. I unfortunately was unable to go due to having to watch the little one, but Ryan got to enjoy the beautiful scenery, awesome caves and some fun time with some cousins.

Friday night was spent at a park where most everyone was able to be together. There was food, softball games and pinatas. Lots of fun was had. Unfortunately I don't have those pictures yet because they weren't taken on our camera so just imagine LOTS of people having LOTS of fun!

Saturday morning Ryan and I got up nice and early to be at Temple Square when the geneology library opened. Ryan has wanted to get to work on his geneology since he is the first member on both sides of his family. It was an exciting time figuring out how to find the famliy and then go about getting the information ready for temple work. It is fun to know Ryan will be one of the first to gather all of his family histories together. We definitely caught the geneology bug fast after starting the search!

Ryan on the computer reading about many of the Russian/Polish Stoianowski's.

We thought since we were on temple square we would take a couple fun pictures in front of the beautiful temple. The feeling of peace of the spirit at Temple Square is incredible. We were grateful to have the chance to experience it.

Saturday afternoon was spent at Grandma Jex's cultural hall with EVERYONE together. It was so fun to have everyone there and catch up with cousins I hadn't seen in years and Ryan had never met. Ryan got the 2 thumbs way up from the whole family so that was good:) I am very grateful to my wonderful husband and how much he loves my family. I was asked by a cousin if he was always that nice and wonderful and the truth is YES, that is why I am so lucky! After a pizza and salad lunch we were able to gather together for a program to honor Grandma. Many wonderful stories and thoughts were shared. She is truly one of the most influential and amazing women in my life. Thank you Grandma for being the incredible example of what being a true daughter of God is about!

Just some of the girls hangin out:)

This is a picture of all of Grandma's grandchildren. There will be more pictures to come with her great grandchildren and all 98 together, but I was busy with the little one so we are waiting on the CD that wonderful Corrine will be sending, thanks Corrine!

All her grandaughters.

After the program was over we all began cleaning up and saying our goodbyes until next time. Later Saturday night though just our family took my mom out to dinner for her birthday at The Mayan Adventure. It is a restaurant where they have a cliff diving show and people dressed up doing fire shows and coming around to your table. We all, espeically the kids, had a blast. And the food was tasty too!

Most of the kids with one of the divers.

Grandpa with the fire guy.

On Monday my immediate family got to spend the day at Heritage park which is a pioneer village at This is the Place Monument. Unfortunately like I said Ryan had to leave Sunday so he wasn't with us. We had a wonderful time though, touring the shops, playing with animals and surviving the heat!:) Kori took lots of pictures with her camera, but here are a couple I was able to get.

Lorilyn and the adorable Emma taking a break in the shade.

Our favorite shop it seemed was the hat shop. There was a wonderful lady who would look at you and choose a hat she thought "fit" you. I wasn't able to get picture of everyone, but here are a couple. I personally think hats should be back in style!:)

LJ and her baby bonnette.

Me and my fancy hat:)

Doesn't Steve look so dapper?

Oh what a pretty hat on you Grandma!

The next couple days were more low key as Steve and Kori went to visit Kori's family in Elko, and Lynette and Jason went up to Idaho for a couple days. So really I was able just to hang out with Grandma Jex and my parents. I also went out to dinner and spent some time with Erika which was wonderful as always. Wednesday night Lynette and Jason got back from Idaho and we took them to the South Jordan rec center to the incredible aquadic center. It is such a fun place to spend some time. It has a huge water slide for the big kids, a lazy river that my parents exercise in every day, a lap pool, and an infant area where they have Johnny Jumpers in the water. Needless to say, everyone (including Lorilyn) had a blast!

Here is the view of the big pool with the water slide.

Here is the infant area. Lorily is in the jumper closest to you. She spent an hour in there with no fussing at all.

My little jumper!

The rest of the bunch in the lazy river.

Mommy and her little swimmer:)

Unfortunately our trip eventually had to come to an end. Lorilyn and I left Friday so we could be back to spend the 4th of July with daddy. Right before I left I made sure to get some pictures with LJ's Great Grandma Jex and Grandma and Grandpa Bird.

Lorilyn and her Great Grandma Jex.

4 generations of Jex women.

She LOVES her grandma and grandpa Bird!

Thanks for letting us stay there and for being so wonderful! We love you and miss you already!

Unky Jigs Birthday!

For the weekend of the 19th Scott was able to come home for a highschool reunion, but also for his birthday. We had a wonderful weekend, spending lots of time together hanging out, golfing and just having lots of fun! Here are a few pictures that were taken. Thanks Unky Jigs for being such a great brother and now uncle!

So many giggles!

Rock band...always a fun time:)

It was great to have the whole family together:)

A Fun Day with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma bought Lorilyn an adorable turtle pool so they invited us over to spend some time and try out the new pool. LJ wasn't so sure what she thought of it at first, but she ended up deciding swimming was pretty cool.:)

Anyone who has held my daughter is very quickly taught that she is not completely happy until you are allowing her to jump up and down on your lap. She can jump for hours, it is really your arms that get tired before she ever does:) Here a just a couple shots of her enjoying her time with Grandma.

She says I'm a BIG girl:)

First Full Roll-Over!

Just a fun note that on June 10th Lorilyn rolled over all by herself! She now is rolling all over the place with the greatest of ease, but here are a couple of pictures of the first time:)

Now if she could only pull her knees under her to crawl, but we are in no hurry for that...that just means even more work for mommy:)

Visit to Great Grandma Irene's

In the beginning of June Lorilyn, Laurie and I were able to take day trip to go visit Laurie's grandma Irene. What a wonderful time we had! She is still so full of life and love, even at the age she is. Laurie's mom and dad went with us so we had a wonderful time visiting and ate a delicious lunch that Great Grandma cooked for us!

Lorilyn and her Great Great Grandma Irene

Lorilyn and all 3 grandma's! Aren't they a beautiful set a women?:)

The 5 generations, kind of. It would be correct if it were Ryan sitting there instead of me, but he was working that day so it is me in place of Ryan. Still pretty cool though to have everyone together.

Just Some Thoughs

So in the past I have only used our blog to post pictures with little captions, but today I thought I would write down a few thoughts that have been going through my head the last little while. I definitely need to keep a better journal, but for the time being this blog is mostly what I have so I thought I would share a bit...

I have been mostly thinking a lot about prayer and answers to prayer. It seems that in these troubled times we are faced with challenges left and right. From physical to spiritual, emotional and financial, sometimes it seems that the adversary is lurking around every corner, waiting for the next thing he can use to bring us down. Why I ever even let myself get down at all is just ridiculous because as I look back in my life, especially the last couple years, it is so blatantly obvious the hand the Lord has played in my life. My prayers have been answered in ways better than I ever prayed for or ever hoped for. So why in the middle of trials do we so easily forget how He continues to lead us through it all? The thing is though, I never do loose faith. I know without a doubt that it all will work out, I have even had blessings promising me such, but I still find a way to worry and at times despair as to HOW it will. My thoughts lately have been turned to the stories of healing. Stories from the Savior, but also of when the saints were in Nauvoo, as it was still a swamp, and many were suffering with deathly illness. Before being healed, Joseph would ask if they had the faith that it could be done. It makes me think do I TRULY have the faith to know that these great things that have been promised will happen? I keep praying saying that it is totally ok if they don't and I know it is His will, but I realized I need to have the faith that since they have been promised I need to believe that. I don't know how, or when, but I now know they will. How easy it is to be blinded by our trials and situations during, wondering how it will ever work out. But looking back the Lord ALWAYS has His hand in our lives as we turn our lives over to him and trust that he will lead us to where we need to be.

I don't know if any of you have read the First Presidency Message this month called "Prayer and the Blue Horizon" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The whole article is wonderful, but my favorite paragraph is this...
"The answers to our prayers come in the Lord’s due time. Sometimes we may become frustrated that the Lord has delayed answering our prayers. In such times we need to understand that He knows what we do not know. He sees what we do not see. Trust in Him. He knows what is best for His child, and being a perfect God, He will answer our prayers perfectly and in the perfect time."

I am so grateful for the power of prayer in my life and the knowledge that the Lord will answer all of our prayers "Perfectly and in the perfect time."

Sorry if I have just kind of rambled, but all of this has been playing out in my head over the last couple weeks and I thought I would share it out loud.

The First of Many!

LJ got to go to her first softball game today! We found out Michigan was hosting the college regionals and decided we needed to go see a game, and oh what a game it was! We were down in the bottom of the last inning and won with the combination of a huge home run to start the inning then a winning hit to score the girl from second. The people who know me well reading this know I was in heaven being here. Being at a fastpitch softball game again felt so good! So many memories from growing up at Lynette's games to playing in my own came rushing back to me! I was giddy as I was watching it. Ryan and I had so much fun we decided we are definitely going to the games next Saturday too. We also agreed we would LOVE to be softball parents, so not saying I will ever push our little LJ, but she will definitely have our support and help if she wants to play!:) So she was a little scared as mommy was holding her and jumped up and screamed for the homerun, but she will have to get used to it because this was definitely the first of many for her!

It was pretty cold and windy so she spent a lot of time in her car seat covered up, but she still got the experience.

This was right before I scared her to death yelling after the homerun!

Getting her ready to play someday! Gotta start early:)

Family Pictures

One thing I find interesting is how hard it is now to get pictures of our family. I mean we have TONS of just the baby, some with me and the LJ and some with daddy and LJ, but us 3 together takes planning! So since spring has finally sprung here in Michgan and there are gorgeous views all around us we decided to take advantage of it and take some pictures. After church mother's day we asked Grandpa if he would snap a few shots of us in their beautiful back yard.

With it being just after mother's day, if you would indulge me, I thought I would share my thoughts on some of the amazing mother's in my life.

#1 - Most obvious being my mother. I couldn't be more grateful to have such a wonderful mother. She has always been the most amazing example of what true Christlike love is all about and I try every day to emulate her and all she does. I don't know if I will ever be able to accomplish the goal of truly being like her, but I am thankful for her constant example and friendship. Now as I am a mom I love knowing I was raised by such a wonderful woman that as long as I can do as I was shown, I might be able to be a good mom, that is the goal anyway. Thank you mom for your constant kindness, love, and support. Now that I am older I am so glad to call you one of my best friends!

#2 - My sister Lynette and sister in law Kori. I only about 14 when they got married then started having children so I got to just sit and observe as they began their journey's of motherhood. I couldn't have two better leaders of what being a good mother and wife is all about. Thank you for the wonderful examples you have set me in my life. I hope to be able to raise my family with such strength and love you two are raising yours with. I LOVE YOU!

#3 - The last mother I would like to talk about today is my mother-in-law Laurie (aka Mamma Jigs). Not many women get to say that their mother-in-law is also one of their best friends, but I honestly can. From the moment I met her she has been such a wonderful sunshine in my life that I don't know what I would do without. Thank you Mamma Jigs for raising such an amazing son and now accepting me as one of your own children and more important friends! I LOVE YOU!

And a big thanks goes to my special hubby for making it a wonderful first mother's day for me. People asked me what my husband did, and he did all of the normal mother's day things like breakfast, taking care of LJ, complimenting me continuously, doing work around the house, and any other nice thing they tend to do on mother's day. The difference though is that it truly wasn't much different from any other day of the year, and for that I couldn't be more grateful. I realized Sunday that am married to someone who truly treats me like it is mother's day every day! What more could anyone ask for?! I love you hubby!