January 2014

Welcome to the new year.  The first month was a pretty great month.  It started out with some family time fixing up a leaking issue that we will finish addressing come spring.   I played music in a wedding which I was stressed out about for about the first two weeks.  They loved what I played and it really made me feel awesome.  We are loving our new ward.  I got a new calling I am now Relief Society secretary and Relief Society pianst and a member of the compassionate service committee.  I have never felt like I truly belonged in a ward until this one.  I know it is silly that holding a calling could create a sense of fellowship, but it does for me.  In our last ward it took them six months to place us in a calling and our ward now is just as big and just as transitory so I just feel that we haven't been overlooked.

Lynlee and I started doing a play group with two ladies in our ward.  It has been nice to get to know these ladies and their little girls.  The youngest is 8 months, the next is 16 months and then miss Lynlee (28 months).  This time with these little girls is teaching her so much and I am grateful for it :)

Matt and I were able to get out and go snowboarding.  I truly forgot how much I love this sport.  I love just getting out on the mountain and being in nature.  Maybe that should be a goal for this summer/spring/fall.  Get out and hike and camp more in nature.  It is such a stress relief.

We spent lots of time with both sides of our family.  My cousin just got a job in North Phoenix literally down the road from where we lived.  I reminisced a little on how I missed that specific area and even thought of how fun it would be to move back and then laughed at myself because I remembered how much I dislike the summers there haha.

We went to the temple with the Shelton clan and did family names.  It was so fun to be part of the experience and to be able to share it with some of Matt's siblings.  In the past six months or so I have changed dramatically as a person.  I don't know what has changed, but I finally feel like I am in a place where I can be myself again and not battle with the thought of "keeping up with the Jones" or the new disease of pinterestite haha (not a word, but definitely a condition in my book).  I guess I came to realize that I don't need to be perfect haha (this will constantly be a battle).

Lynlee is speaking in full sentences which sometimes takes me off guard.  An example is that she will want to go somewhere, but she will turn to you and say "I am going..mumbled words(sometimes you understand a word like potty)....I will be right back" or "No way mom I don't want" or "Need my coat it is cooooolllllld (said in a shivery voice) outside." She is growing up soooo fast.

Also this past month I have come to the realization (thanks partly to being in this ward) that it is OK to have your children more than two years apart.  There are so many families that there kids and three years apart or they have three year olds and not a second child.  I really needed that conformation because conceiving another child for us has been not easy.

Matt is really enjoying his job. I am really liking the people he works with even though only one is an active member of the LDS church (there is only one that is inactive) in an office of about fifteen people.  Funny that he gets a job in Utah and there were less members in his office than his first job in Wilcox, AZ.

January has truly been a new beginning for our family.  I have set some personal resolutions and so far I am keeping to them.  Lets see what February has to offer :)