Addie

Apr. 18, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

So we’ve been having a lot of fun having Addie in our home. Kirk went to Denver last night for training for his new job with Verizon and Sarah and Addie will stay here all week. She’s so fun to have around-Sarah and Kirk too. :) Today Leah has her psychiatrist appt so Sarah and Addie are even going with me there.

Addie is still so independent. She went right into nursery yesterday, new place, new people and she just goes right in and doesn’t even say goodbye. Kirk was trying to say goodbye to her since he was getting ready to catch his flight, but she just wanted to play. She also absolutely loves jumping on the tramp. It’s hard to keep her inside and she keeps sneaking out so we have to lock all the doors. Then when she gets on the tramp she yells for me to jump with her “Nana Nana” and points next to her.

We’ve been to parks, on walks, to the mall, to the Boise street market,  to McDonald’s so she can have a playplace, etc. I’m getting nothing done here and I love it. It reminds me of when I had young kids and you just have to slow down, not do so many projects and just give all your attention to helping the kids grow up. Sometimes you go out the door with one eye with mascara and not the other just cuz you have to keep up with the kids. haha It brings back a lot of fun memories.

We got this horse that is like mine when I was young. Thought we’d keep it here for all the grandkids. My mom and dad said I would never get off of it and loved it, so I had to have one in my house.

Addie got my phone at church, turned on the camera and started taking selfies. It was so funny. I heard her saying “cheese” and looked over. She cracks me up.

So how was your week? I remembered Ally in my prayers and I saw on your facebook post that she got baptized. I’m so happy. Tell me a little more about her and how it went.

I wasn’t here when Ellen stopped by with your flash drives and I wanted to hear all her details. I was so sad, but I got to see her pics of you at lunch. I’m so happy she got to meet with you. Hope your treats got to you ok.

Sarah Allen is coming home this week from her mission. She reports on Sunday.

This Thursday I’m flying down to Utah for a quick trip to see Alex and Savannah graduate. Dad and I debated over and over about me going down there, then we decided it would be a fun thing for me and I could also see Kirk and Sarah and Addie. Two minutes after dad booked my flight, Kirk called and told us they had decided to come up here and that Sarah would love to stay with us while he was in Denver. We just looked at each other and laughed, then changed part of my flight. I was actually coming back home on Saturday, but I changed my flight to come home Friday night. Alex and Savannah fly out to Chicago on Saturday, so we’ll be seeing them next week when we go for our visit. All of you kids are just all over the place now. It’s kind of crazy and remember how the girls always say in their prayers “and bless everyone in Utah” meaning our family. Well, now they have to say “bless everyone in Chicago, California, Utah, Denver”. Pretty soon they will be blessing everyone in New York once Alex gets there. 

I hope you are doing well and your letters sound so good. I love that you have the young adult ward because I know what great missionaries they are. 

I went to a great training meeting over the weekend for our area. It was on the Addiction Recovery program. I thought it was going to be on just where to go if you are an addict, but turns out they told us all about the program that is for family members of addicts because they suffer so much. When you have a child or spouse or even brother or sister who has addiction problems (drug, food, sexual, etc) the family members sometimes suffer even greater. The church has such a wonderful program for the families and I was so impressed with what they are doing. I could really relate to some of the symptoms of the family members just from my recent experiences with what we’ve been going through with Leah and how I’ve felt. So many of the symptoms were exactly the same. They call missionaries to be over the classes and Sarah’s parents had that calling. Her mom said she thought every person in the church should go through the program because of how amazing it was. They really help you understand how powerful the atonement is for everyone. I’m going to really help push it for our stake and get the word out. I know there are so many families affected by this and I don’t think they know how much help there is out there for them.

Last night the girls had a Bishop’s Youth Discussion and they said it was like a testimony meeting and Nikki said she bore her testimony. Leah said it was really good. Nikki is really coming along in her testimony of the church. Yesterday she even taught the Sunday School lesson (complete with awesome treats of course). She loves preparing devos and lessons.

Here’s one more pic for you that I found. Thought you might like it. Fun memory.

Well, Addie is wanting me to go outside again. :)  We’ve even been eating half our meals out on the back porch thanks to Addie’s requests so it’s been really nice. Can’t wait to hear from you. We are well here and remember that you are always in my prayers (and I don’t just bless all of California, I actually say your name, haha). Have a beautiful, grateful week. I’ve been working with the girls and we are trying to have our prayers be more full of gratitude. I am sooooo grateful for you and for the service and love you are giving.

Love you,

Mom xxoo