A few F Words.

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 15^th! 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.

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. 

My best Friend. :) 

We are so little! (Year 2010!) 

Year 2015. 

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 19^th, but came the day after our anniversary on May 21^st.  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…

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.

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.

Date with mommy! 

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! 

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