Finally.
Hooray! I have
finally committed to the blog once again after a six-month (or more let’s be
honest) hiatus! Hopefully the blogging readers/world/mainly myself who probably
only reads this accept me with open arms!
A lot has happened so
I can’t go into much detail? However, I can touch on the big notes of life as
of late.
First.
It happened! We did
it! We bought our first home & made the official signings on Friday, May 15th!
We finally have a place to call our own & it’s a big deal! We felt really
good about the whole process and where we ended up. It was very time consuming
but we had amazing help with Heather our bomb realtor, which was referred to us
by my good friends husband. She truly made everything smoother & a
comfortable process; less stressful than I would have thought. We are forever
grateful for everyone who helped us in one way or another! Our neighbors are
legit awesome & very welcoming. Our ward is massive, which is probably an
understatement. It is very similar to stake conference every Sunday with the
addition of five nurseries’, crazy. Sounds overwhelming, which it was at first,
but we love it since everyone is in the same boat! We are all newbies! It feels
great being in a place where you know you are supposed to.
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| I will post pics of the insides soon! |
Five.
Ryan & I have
been married for 5 years, on May 20th. Honestly has flown by! He is the most
patient man I have ever met. It isn’t easy living with someone like me who
worries about the little things too much, get’s frustrated easily, sometimes
has too much to say haha, I can be a handful. However, he never forgets to tell
me he loves me, he calms my nerves by his jokes & wackiness, he listens to
me blab, he is a father I always pictured for my children, & I know that
through our struggles & love of Christ we will make it. I am grateful I
found him for my forever. (He actually wrote a freaking sweet blog post about
our marriage the last 5 years! Here is the link if want to read about it:Five Reasons Why a Man Needs a Best Friend in His Life).
To celebrate we
didn’t go on a wild crazy adventure, sorry, boring us haha.
Buying a house was a
pretty sweet thing to do so that was our major gift to us. We did go out to
dinner to Johnny Corinos since it was one of the first places we went on a date
too. Also, thanks to some friends still watching the kiddos, we added grocery
shopping on our date. Haha it was a perfect night out.
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| My best Friend. :) |
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| We are so little! (Year 2010!) |
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| Year 2015. |
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| A lot can happen in 5 years :) |
Fertility.
We were blessed with
another niece who graced our presence 4 weeks early! Ryan’s sister Danielle
& her husband Tyler struggled with fertility for sometime. This past
thanksgiving they finally told us they were going to have another baby! This is
their second after Ellie who is 6! We all were so happy & crying of course.
She was supposed to
be born June 19th, but came the day after our anniversary on May 21st. They named her Isabelle May Thompson, &
we all call her Izzy! She was 6 lbs & 19 inches. Which is awesome for a
premie baby! She is currently still in the NICU with breathing/eating
complications & other little things here & there. However, she is doing
great & we love her to pieces! I was able to hold her & she was so tiny
but so strong & perfect!
We love you Izzy!
Congrats Dani, Ty & Ellie!
Frustration.
We have been living
in our home five or six days & Ryan calls me. He proceeded to tell me that
he was laid off from work. A lot of things were going through my mind. I kept
saying “okay, okay….okay.” haha kind of awkwardly. However, I stopped &
told him I loved him, it will work out, you are a great team player, it’s okay…okay…
haha jk. But seriously it was a shock to us both. We had no idea it was coming,
which was really hard to take, not really understanding why. I won’t go into
all the details but you are more than welcome to ask me in a more private
setting. For Ry, obviously the responsibility of taking care of the family,
amongst other things were first thoughts, & the fact we now had a home to
pay for each month. For me, the same concerns, but my heart hurt for him. He
dedicates a lot of effort into work. He enjoys working & being in the
position he was in. Not being able to be in control of that was again a major
shock. We didn’t tell anyone except close family for a couple days. That
actually helped, prayers were felt. Love & support were what we needed more
than I think we realized at the time…
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| Our feelings about life for a couple days. |
Faith.
Now it being 2-3
weeks later, Ryan has had multiple interviews, second interviews & many
options available open up. Right away, he applied, & applied, &
applied, & applied. Non-stop. I admired him more these past couple weeks
with his dedication to take care of us. His love is great, & we grew
together much more in a sense. Mainly, it has been our faith in Christ we have
been relying on, & dedicated prayers of thanks/help. To know that we would
be okay, that buying a home was right at this time, that Ryan being laid off
was a blessing in disguise, & other things were difficult to see at first.
Over the past couple weeks we have felt more okay in our situation than we ever
would have thought in that first moment of “okay…okay what next?” The unknown
is frightening, but with the help/comfort of the Savior’s love we wouldn’t want
to be anywhere else at this time in our life.
Lately, I have been
hearing mission stories from my cousin in Toronto, Canada (which I love by the
way, missionaries are the best). He is always telling us of people who need
Christ in their lives & don’t have it, & the miracles that happen when
they meet these people at the right time/place. I just keep thinking to myself
how hard it would be for us right now if we didn’t have that hope. That love of
Christ to keep us moving forward. He truly does love us at our worst/best
moments in life. In all things. I am thankful for the knowledge we have to hold
onto that faith & pray that others kind find it too.
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| Elder Cattelain! |
Fortunate.
Ryan and I truly are
fortunate with the children we have been given. They are for sure busy, wild,
but have a great love & passion for anything they want. BQ stops at nothing
to get what she wants. I found out recently that she has a cognitive/speech
disability right now. Long story short, we had a woman come in our home &
do some testing. Mainly, Blaire doesn’t understand consequences & can’t
express her emotions/behaviors in ways she should at her age. Now we have the
opportunity to do more testing & to find solutions to overcome this
disability. It was hard at first with everything going on & having to add
this on was very overwhelming. Of course I cried off & on about it not
knowing what else I could differently to help her. It broke my heart that she
couldn’t understand me in certain areas. However, it made things more clearly
as to why her communication was off & why Ry & I were having difficulty
with discipline. Thankfully we are heading in the right direction, & will
have answers overtime. Brooks was having a hard time sleeping through the
night, but amongst the crazy two weeks, he had multiple ear infections,
constipation, & was teething. Poor little buddy! However, he still laughed,
smiled, & was nothing short of a good comfort we needed.
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| Date with mommy! |
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| Park time! |
Finale.
Last weekend I had
the opportunity to dance again! It was scary, but fun, & exciting, however
my body was so sore, yikes haha. DSDS had an alumni dance, so for the finale at
the annual TDT concert (aka: Tullerettes) We danced to “uptown funk” and put it together within a
couple days really. I loved seeing familiar faces, for sure missed some people,
but really loved being in the studio again. It was very much needed after all
our crazy up’s & down’s at home. Memories kept flooding back & I am
forever grateful for the time & dedication put into something that changed
so many lives for the better. Thank you DSDS!
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| My little fans! Missing our Ry guy! :) |
Anyways, until next
time & not 6 months later I hope!
(as I use to say in
my dancing days)
1, 2…Love you!
JPB
