~Sons~

I've been thinking a lot about the men in my life lately, and particularly my sons. My oldest son, Zack, moved to Ephraim to attend Snow College last Saturday. And, my GOSH, it was harder than I thought it would be. I'm so proud of him, but can't help but be sad that he's all grown up now.

Tyler is working SO hard at football this year. Tomorrow is his first game, and I CAN'T WAIT to see him play! I'll be wearing my Juab football tshirt all day:)

And of course there is Dixie's son, Kurt. She tells me all the time how proud she is of the man he has become.

And Becky's son, Paul aka Woggy... I LOVE this man more every single year. My brother is an amazing man and I am so proud to be his sister.

And all three of Tawni's sons... Logan, Landen and Lincoln:) Tawni spent years trying to get pregnant after she and Mark got married. We were all so worried that she'd never have the blessing of being a Mom, which would have been devastating. She is the sweetest, most patient among the four of us sisters, and she was born to be a Mother. So, when she finally got pregnant with Logan, we were SO excited! And along came two more adorable sons. They're such a cute family:)

I didn't get any pictures of my other nephews in this blog, but they're all amazing. Sissy wrote this on a card to Tawni when Lincoln was born, and it touched my heart so deeply. It's really personal to our family how much we all love Stephen's son, Aaron. He and Aaron's mom divorced when Aaron and Brittany were very young, and Tara and Stephen spent many, many years and many thousands of dollars trying to get the kids back here in Utah. They are finally here, and it's been so hard for Aaron to really figure out where he wants to be-- here or with his mom.

He'll be 18 in a couple months, and I pray that life brings him all of the opportunities and blessings that he deserves. I love him so much.

We had a really amazing Christmas in our home this year. Ashli got engaged to Mackenzie Brown of Moroni, originally from Grantsville. I actually went to high school with his Dad, and then we all ended up in this area eventually. Kenz is really good to Ashli and we're thrilled to welcome him into our family. As of today, the wedding is set for September 12, but we'll see what the summer brings.
And I've decided to feature this lovely picture of my husband, Kurt, as my first blog post. This is him wearing his Dad's hat and reading glasses on Christmas Day. His dad, Ken, always wears a red shirt, too, so looking at this picture of Kurt is like looking into my future as he gets more and more like his Dad!
We're all praying daily and sending positive thoughts to Kurt's brother, Mark, as he battles multiple myeloma at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I've known Strapper longer than I've known Kurt even, so I consider him a friend as well as my brother-in-law. I never could tell him and Wes apart when Teri ( my sister Tami's best friend) was dating Wes, but they both just answered to whatever I called them as we roamed the hills above Grantsville either in Mark's old Bronco or on the snowmobiles or four-wheelers. Little did I know then that there were even more boys to choose from in their family! Once I met their little brother, Kurt, I was hooked. We got married four months after we met, and here we are twenty years later.
Teri married Wes and she used to ask us every year to go on the family campout the end of July. We were always just too busy, with sports or work or something, or Kurt was out fighting fires, and we never did make it. When we lost Teri two years ago, my biggest regret was missing those camping trips. I'm so grateful for my memories of Teri's amazing Christmas parties, though. Somehow Santa always knew exactly what the kids wanted, and he'd bring the perfect gift to Aunt Teri's Christmas party.