March

 I know I say it every month, but where is the time going? 

Addi received her learners permit on the 1st. On the 2nd we ripped the bandaid right off and had her drive on the freeway up to Draper. She has done a great job driving, but we have found out that her and I stress each other out when driving together. Soo.. dad gets to be the one that teaches her if he is around. 

We drove up to Draper to celebrate Sawyer's 2nd birthday at a trampoline park. Everyone had lots of fun! 

Also that same day, but that evening, Ty and I went to the Grand America to a gala for the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Zions had a table and they had extra tickets. We haven't gotten all dressed up in a while. 

We also celebrated Avery's birthday. Breann ended up in the hospital for monitoring and so we didn't get to have a true birthday party liked planned, but we celebrated in our own way with her. 

On March 9th, we had scheduled to do Kelden's temple work at the Vernal temple. I was talking with Breann the day before and I said I hope Kelden can feel loved and that he does have family that cares for him. After the phone call I said a little prayer and asked Kelden if he was ok that we were going to do his temple work? I was checking Addi out of school not 5 minutes after I said the prayer and when we came out to the car I found this coin. I said ok, I hear you, you are ok with it being done. I have found over a $1.00 in coins since his death. I have a little jar that is just for my found coins. Every time I see one I say Hey bud! And as I was writing this story down, Ty sent me a picture of a coin he found. I started crying because lately I have been missing my brother and it is sad that he is gone. He is really good at reminding me that he is near by. 

We had a good turn out for Kelden's session. We had lot of family there and it was a very tender time. My dad was there too, but he was ready to get out of there and so we did not have a picture with him. I am grateful for the temple and the peace that comes from being there. This was a first for me to do a family members name that I actually knew. 

 On our way out of town we stopped at the hospital in Roosevelt to see Nan. She was able to be unhooked for a little bit and she was able to come say hi to the kids and Ty was able to give her a blessing. Her and I had a good chat while Ty took the kids to dinner. Thankfully baby stayed cooking for a bit longer. We said many prayers the month of March and baby girl staying in was definitely part of our prayers. 

Another author even with Lyla Sage. Very fun girl with a great personality! 

We had to celebrate Pi day with some Shepards pie! 

St. Patricks day came and went without a leprechaun being caught. Emmy and Lynne set up quite the trap for him. He came while we were at church and told them to try again next year! 

Parker joined an underwater robotics club at school in November. Him and his partner Lizzy worked every Wednesday to build this robot. It was finally time to put it to the test. They were scored on a few different things. We aren't sure what their final score was, but their school won the best spirit award because they had the greatest cheering section. It is fun to see Parker branch out and try to figure out what he likes. He did like this club and I hope he does it again next year. 

We needed to get some track shoes for Addi and we ended up at Scheels. Inside they have the Farris wheel and the 3 older kids got to ride. 

While Addi went to the high school play, we took the kids to Classic Skating in Orem. They all had a bit of a rough time figuring out how to skate, but in the end they all had smiles on their faces and asked when we could go back. 

Emmy has also been staying after school since January to be apart of their school play, Finding Nemo. She was a reef kid and was so excited to finally preform. She did a great job with her singing and dancing. She was not scared at all to be up there preforming. 

Addi is doing high school track this spring. She has had some great meets. She is trying the 300m hurdles this year. The first time she did that event, she did not have a great experience. But she tried it again and ended up taking 2nd place with her time. It is a different experience doing a sport that isn't a team sport and is individualized. It is a different head space you need to be in and that has been tricky for her. She is doing the high jump, long jump, the hurdles and then sometimes a relay. 

    

I have been missing my brother lately. There has been a lot of life events happening and it is hurting that he isn't here with us to enjoy them. I got thinking about Emmy's baptism and the lightbulb went off of thinking if he had written her a note that day. I went searching for her book that was made for her of little notes that were written while she was changing. My heart warmed when I read his note. He even drew angel wings to go with it. Having Kelden pass away has really made me cherish the little things. 

Ty and I tried to go through the Manti temple open house. This temple is very special to us because after we were married we lived in Gunnison and would visit the temple every Wednesday after some of my classes got out for the day. It is the temple we had many prayers answer at. We knew we needed to start a family while attending this temple. It is also where we were able to learn what it was like to be a married couple. We also learned that we needed to have our 4th baby after attending this temple, not knowing that I was already pregnant with our 4th baby. We unfortunately did not have reservations and waited in line for over an hour and we realized we would be in line for at least another hour before we got in. That did not give us enough time to get home and get kids to various activities. We hope to go down and do a session soon after it is rededicated. 

March 29 is when baby spence arrived!! We were in Las Vegas when she delivered and it was so hard to not be there to meet new baby. This is us seeing her for the first time. Meet Madison Blake Spence. She is a rainbow baby is so many ways. We needed this little piece of heaven in our lives! Can't wait to hold her and give her a squeeze in real life.