This week

Fiora has this tendency to take pictures of herself that are really bizzare. There were 30 variations of this picture on my phone this morning. I have this knee jerk reaction to delete them all, but who am I to not post a picture based on its perceived appeal?

 We got to babysit my nephew Knightly again while Jesse and Kelsy went to the temple. He was a little less enthusiastic this time because it was during his nap time, and he didn't want to sleep, and then only slept for 30 minutes, but still as adorable as ever.

I got to watch this little cutie for half a day last week while her parents Chris and Jamie Jensen were in San Fransisco.  Avery is about 1 1/2 years old and the most well behaved little thing, at least she was for me. It was fun to spend some one on one time with her playing, although I admit feeling a little stressed about "the stuff I wasn't getting done." I remember feeling like that when my kids were little too, guess I will never learn my lesson and just enjoy time with babies.

Savanna continues to try her hand at baking and cooking, her favorite show lately is "Chopped" on the food network.  She looks up recipes on line and helps herself to making a huge mess in the kitchen to create something.  This last week it was brownies and cupcakes, which she insists didn't turn out well because they had too much cocoa. I steer clear of the kitchen when she is in there despite the fact that I feel like I ought to stand over her and help her out so it turns out ok.  I don't, I let her fail and learn and waste many ingredients, its better on our relationship that way and hopefully she will learn from her mistakes quickly.

Weston tried to photo bomb the picture.

Sav held a party for her friends this weekend just because, and she made a face mask concoction out of things from my pantry against my wishes.  She loves doing girly things like nails, hair, and make up. She is constantly painting her nails and removing the design and trying something else. She keeps trying to get me to do nails as well, and I oblige her once in a while to make her happy, but most of the time I tell her to "keep away from me with your nail polish."

Fiora got to have a make shift party Friday as well. Her friend Kimee's mom is a teacher at Lindon Elementary and she invited Fiora to stay late with her and Kimee at the school watching movies and having pizza while she corrected tests/assignments. Fiora helped her correct, she said it was a really fun time. They watched Frozen! Speaking of which, my kids have listened to those Frozen songs on Youtube over and over until they have them memorized, and they sing them all the time. Wow the music on that show has made an impression.  I'm already sick of the soundtrack and I've only seen the movie twice!  My kids never get tired of it. 

Jared was working Saturday, so after I got my chores and yard work done I invited Weston to watch Hobbit 1 with me from the redbox, and that evening Jared took us to Hobbit 2. I like the Hobbit, it was a fun day. The girls were invited to have a girls-night with our tenant Heather Boekweg bc her husband was out. They did nails and make overs and watched a girly movie, and loved it. I loved my date with my boys!

Last night we got to see a fireside given by Peter Vidmar, he is an inspirational speaker and seminary teacher who won the olympic gold medal for pommel horse in 1984 and made it to the USA gymnastics hall of fame.  We took Weston and the girls to see him speak. It was really neat, he showed him performance the won him the gold and talked about the little things that made it possible for him to get to that point, little things like an extra 15 minutes a day on what is important to you (like reading the scriptures or perfecting a difficult routine) can make a huge difference in your future. It was a great talk on perseverance, discipline, and dedication, and he was sure to emphasize that although winning an Olympic medal is wonderful, it is nothing compared to what exaltation will be like, so we need to make sure we are practicing and setting our minds on our goals that will get us there, and don't quit just because you are tired!  

AAG takes State

Weston competed in his final meet for the season, Utah State Gym Meet Level 5 at Arete in Lindon on Saturday 3/15/14. He completely blew us away with his performance. Just to give you an idea, his overall scores in his last meets have been 54.8, 53.6, 55.5, 54.9, and 54. This meet somehow he scored a 61!!!  Jared and I don't know where that came from, he did an amazing job!  He got second place all around in his division out of 20 boys, and qualified for Regionals (that he won't be competing in because its on a Sunday).  What a finale Weston! We are so proud of you and all your hard work.

Mother daughter dates and other stuff

It just so happened that last Saturday Savanna asked to be taken to Kneaders for their french toast in the morning with me, and Fiora had a friend's birthday party that was a mother-daughter party.  They even served dinner at the birthday party, so I had great food that day. After our Kneaders visit Savanna and I came home and organized her clothes. Sav gets pretty overwhelmed at the thought of putting away clothes so most of the time her clothes lie in a pile on the floor, two piles, a clean pile and a dirty pile. Don't ask me why the dirty pile can't make its way to the hamper, I've given up trying to understand it. (Fiora usually has piles of clothes as well, not saying she is any better at putting clothes away, but they are usually shoved into her closet or in the hamper.) When it was all done Savanna said "Wow it hasn't been like this since you organized my room at Christmas!" True.

The friends Fiora has made in her ALL class are awesome girls, and their moms are neat too. Alecia Bales and her daughter Amanda were the hosts and they did a marvelous job, a lot of work went into that party. We had marshmallow shooters (that we got to take home) and played around with those for a while, had a nice dinner with decked out tables, everyone got a rose and we mom's had a chance to visit and get to know each other during the dinner.  Fiora had a blast and was very miffed that I took her away before it was over so I could go on my movie date with Jared to Jesse's theater.

Last Friday Karli Sue my sister turned 24 and her husband surprised her and brought her to Utah (they live in Idaho going to school) for the weekend for her birthday. We all met at Carrabbas on her special day which was fun. Karli Sue is expecting her first child but is handling the discomfort very gracefully and patiently. At least in front of the family ha ha. I remember when Karli Sue was the baby, I was 12 when she was born, she was a beautiful little girl and will have beautiful little babies!  After that Jared took Savanna to a BYU play so she could fill an assignment for school, so Sav got a father-daughter date that weekend as well.

Jared and I are fortunate enough to be able to go to Jerusalem this October for our 15th anniversary, and so we went to the mammoth theater at Thanksgiving point to see the Jerusalem movie. It was awesome, what a truly "holy land." I'm even more excited to going there now to learn more and see it all in real life.

My brother Jesse created a logo for the therapy office I work for, and I'm so proud of it!  My boss and his wife love it too, she has been putting it on everything, she said "I'm a little obsessed with this logo." Jesse has a real talent for graphic design that I didn't realize the extent of until I asked him if he would do it and the first one he came up with the very next day was perfect.  He showed us other variations on it but my boss went with the first.  Jesse is awesome.

Jared I love you

I know the last thing you want to read is how much I love my husband. It makes me uncomfortable when I read posts on facebook about how great so-and-so's partner is and how lucky they are and they are SOOO happy and SOOO in love.  I get it.

Why have I decided to jump to the other side this morning?  Because God selected a great one for me and I want to express my gratitude somewhere where it will stay forever. When I was single and dating around, I was pretty judgmental and selective and had a hard time as people often do dating. One day I made a pledge to Heavenly Father that I was done trying to trust my own judgment, and I decided I was just going to love every guy I dated and I was going to trust Him to pick out the best one for me and make it work. I met Jared the same month, and true to my word I practically threw myself at his feet in an attempt to love whatever boy was put in my path, and Jared took the bait.

God chose better for me than I could have chosen for myself. I would have dismissed Jared as not this and not that, too much this, and lacking here and there, and definitely not who I imagined myself with for eternity, but I went on faith that God had taken me up on my pledge and provided me with what was the best for me. For the first 10 years of our marriage I struggled because of our differences, but I always loved him just like I promised I would. So glad I did.

There is a quote I like from Kung Fu Panda II when Master Shifu says, "Once I learned the problem was not you, but within me, I was able to find inner peace and harness the powers of the universe." When I figured out my issues, which took about 10 years, I was able to find so much more joy in my marriage.  Jared is easy to live with, as long as I am in a good place myself he is the happiest boy in the world, because he is naturally full of gratitude and positive thinking ability, I am the beneficiary of his being loving and protective of me every day. I had to take a moment and be joyful for this great blessing this morning.

Jared, thank you for loving me in my weakest moments, which are frequent. Thank you for letting me "hoodwink" you into going to Jerusalem for our 15th wedding anniversary, and for even acting a little excited about it too.  Thank you for the Cancun trip and the Alaska Trip and the Hawaii trip, for the LASIK, the homes, the many dinner dates.  Thank you for being careful with our finances and providing well for our family. Thank you for being willing to pay for a painting made by my Aunt Linda, and wanting it to symbolize our family. Thank you for giving me Savanna, Fiora, Weston, and Lillian, and for wanting to be with us forever.  Thank you for being careful to spend time with me every day, if for only a few minutes, even during your busiest weeks. Thank you for defending me when a child is tearing me down. Thank you for listening to the Spirit and heeding it when I'm too emotional to understand. Thank you for being righteous, free of addictions, and honoring your priesthood so we have those blessings. Thank you for teaching our children how to work hard and working so hard yourself.  I am immeasurably blessed to be yours.

Love Heather

Office blog spot

The office manager at Successful Therapy where I work started a blog to which I also contribute. I'm going to try to add to it often and give tips and inspirational stories, check it out if your interested.
http://successfultherapy.blogspot.com/

My Life

Blog readers--
I am writing a separate blog about my personal life experiences from childhood to the present taken from journal entries I've written since 1988. I have a lot of journals I've always wanted to condense and compile, and this week I decided to start on it. It's a private blog so you will have to comment and request an invite if you want to read it.
http://heatherbarrettschauersmylife.blogspot.com

Gym meet to AZ

I've really noticed a dearth in the blogosphere this past year from friends and family who used to blog, and thought I would never have that problem because I am by nature a faithful journal-keeper. But I have had a hard time lately drumming up the motivation to blog! I don't know what it is, 2014 I can empathize with those who have dropped out of the blogs because I've been tempted to myself. Anyway, here I am again and here's whats new with us.
Weston and I had ourselves a mother-son date last weekend Feb 22, to sunny Arizona! Boys who work hard get plane rides. We took the flight out of Provo airport to Mesa, which was pretty slick! Friday afternoon we arrived and my good friend Emily Norton, who grew up with Jared in Montana and coincidentally roomed with me at BYU and became a fast friend before I ever met Jared, let us stay with her at her home in Mesa. I was able to meet up with my Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Rick and cousin BrieAnne for dinner that evening, they took us to a pizza place called Flancers, which had really yummy gormet sandwiches, and it was so fun to catch up with them. Saturday morning Weston and I got up early to ride the 30 minutes west to the ASU Sundevil Classic gym meet held at Wild Horse Pass outside Chandler that started at 8:00 AM. What beautiful weather!!! 75 degrees and sunny.  Of course I was inside the big warehouse gym most of the day watching the lengthy meet. Weston did pretty well, choked a little on Pbars but he got his best pommel horse score of the season. Floor 9.7, PH 9.4, Rings 8.7, Vault 9.3, Pbars 8.2, High bar 9.6. We heard that the coaches there were tougher than the Utah coaches we were used to, so I felt like Weston did a little better than usual getting about the same scores with tougher judges, but really we were just happy to be there!  I took him to lunch and then to see Lego Movie after the meet, and while we waited for the movie to start we strolled outside in the beautiful weather. Emily and Enoch took us to dinner that night with their two cute kids, and the next morning at 5:30 am we were up and headed back to the airport to catch our 7:00 am flight home, and I made it back home by 9:30 when choir practice started. I stood up and led my choir with no shower in a jeans and t-shirt, dedication for ya. 

 

 

In other news, Fiora's used to her night time hard contacts now and her eyesight is great. I booked a nice lodge in Heber for our fist ever Barrett Family Reunion we will be holding in August when Krystal gets back from her mission. The whole family has been pitching in $20 a month for about a year now so we can afford a nice place, I'm excited about it. We celebrated Kayden's birthday at Jump On It yesterday and came here for cake and ice cream, and celebrated my brother Justin's 26th birthday today at my parents home, so its fun to have some family time. The kids are plugging away at school, Fiora had a fun field trip to Salt Lake City and saw a planetarium and a symphony. Savanna made a strange and funny film with her friends for a Spanish class Jared is helping her edit, we'll post it when they finish. Savanna decided to bail on her idea to join the track team at school, and she quit her violin lessons this week cuz she didn't really like the teacher, which made me sad, but also less stress for me juggling it all in.  Jared surprised me this week and bought me a lap top for work because my old one bit the dust a while back and I've been using my iPad to do all my casework with.  I'm usually disappointed on holidays and anniversaries but I don't need to worry, Jared always takes care of me eventually-- no anniversary gift last October but a new car at the end of the month, no Christmas gifts but a new washer and dryer that month, no gifts on Valentines day but a lovely gift of a lap top "just because" on Febrary 27th. Ha ha. Jared's still putting in a lot of hours and is very busy, but this week he might be able to slow down a bit, but we did get a date night finally Friday evening dinner and a movie which was a fun time for me.  So besides the big gym meet nothing too exciting, but we are blessed and grateful and enjoying the "little moments" during this time of life.