Our Life as of Recent

We are FINALLY home!!! We made the great drive across the U.S. from St. Louis to Utah and then on up into Idaho. It is so great to be home again. I missed being home and close to family and it is so GREAT to be close to them and visit them more often.
Before we headed up to Idaho for school we spend about a week with our families in Utah; it was very much needed.
While we were at my house my sister Michelle and her husband Stephen were sanding and painting all of the new furniture they got.

I love this picture of Ben and Stephen...don't they look so manly!

Michelle sanding down a table

After spending a few days with my family and having tons of fun painting and sanding down furniture, boating and water skiing we headed up to Syracuse to visit Ben's family. It was so great to see them. We had a great big BYU party with lost of YUMMY food and watched BYU kick Oklahoma's butt! It was such a great game. Then on Labor Day we went to a park and had a picnic and played tree golf. This has to be one of the funnest games I have ever played.
On Tuesday we headed back down to Spanish Fork for my Great-Grandma's funeral. This is a picture of my Great-Grandma and this is how I will always remember her...working hard out in her yard.

She was so sick and worn down by the end of her life. But I am so happy for her. She finally gets to be with her husband again. She has been saying ever since Grandpa Scott died that she wanted to go and be with him...well now she is finally with him. I am just grateful to know that families are forever and that I can see her again if I live worthily. I love you Grandma and I sure will miss you for now!
After the funeral we headed up to Idaho and started moving all of our stuff into our apartment. It was so nice to finally be in our own home. Derek my brother was so nice and came up to Idaho to help us move in our things. We really appreciated his help. Then this past weekend we headed back to Utah for my brother Derek's mission farewell. While we were there we went to my brother Jared's soccer game. Ben and I both love watching sports...good sports...so to watch Jared's team was a lot of fun for us. Here are some pictures from his game.

Jared is the goalie for his team and he does a pretty good job. They won 7-1!

This is Kaylee messing up our shade. For some reason she decided she was going to tilt the umbrella...poor Ben spent the rest of the game trying to fix the umbrella!After the soccer game we headed up to Syracuse to visit Ben's family for the day. We watched the BYU football game and watched them slaughter Tulane! Go Cougars!!! While the football game was going on Jan, Crystal, and I were canning peaches and peach jam. I have never had to work so hard for my food in all of my life. I had no idea there was so much involved in canning things. By the end of the day I was exhausted and so were my feet. Lets just say I appreciate my mom, grandma, & mother-in-law a lot more now!

These two pictures are of our nephew Trey. He is the cutest and sweetest little man! We don't get to see him very often but when we do it is so much fun. He has been learning sign language and so when we see him we usually learn a little bit of sign language too. It is really cool because he can't talk yet so he talks through signing. It is really neat. But we love seeing our family and being around them again.

Then on Sunday we were in Spanish Fork again for Derek's farewell. He did such an awesome job and will be a fantastic missionary. He is serving in Brazil and both Ben and I are so excited! We sure will miss hime while he is gone but we know he is where he should be. We wish him the best of luck and send him our love!