Happenings

Hallee loves to play games.  I loved seeing Jonah playing games with her.

Hallee had fun building forts one weekend. 

I cut Jonah's hair and it looked really good so I took a picture so I could try and duplicate it next time.  

We got to go to the Orem Temple Dedication in January.  It was nice that we could all go.  Wyatt ironed handkerchiefs for us the night before. It was really good and we are so excited to have a temple so close.

Caitlyn came home for a weekend to go to Kaleb's farewell.  We loved having her home. She was sad to see Kaleb go. They worked together for a couple of years and she is going to miss him. 

Hallee and Caitlyn love to do their nails together.

Wyatt stayed home sick from school.  Jackson always stays with the kids when they are sick, it's really cute.

Shelley texted me this picture of Jonah with her girls.  Jonah went to Sawyer's dance concert and she dances with Jessica's girls so they all came over to talk to Jonah. They thought it would be funny to send me this picture.  It made me laugh!

Wyatt got ordained as a Teacher at the beginning of February. I'm having a hard time accepting how quickly he is growing up and becoming a teenager.

We were glad that grandma and grandpa came down for it.

It was neat that Jonah could stand in the circle too.

It has been a long time since I have made peanut butter play dough.  Hallee didn't really remember it, so we made some.

It was so good!  She had fun playing with it too.

Jonah played in the teacher/student basketball game. He said he had a great game and made a bunch of three pointers.  He had a lot of fun.

Hallee and Trinity did their country project together.  They chose Germany.  

We pulled out Wyatt's hover board and charged it and Hallee has loved riding it around.

We got to watch one of Damon's basketball games.  He is so fun to watch.  He always gives everything his all and he always has a smile on his face!

Jonah went to sweethearts with Kalli.  He had a great time. 

Jackson loves all the attention that the kids give him.

Hallee loves Jackson and loves when he will just lay on her.

Keith helped Wyatt rearrange his room and then Wyatt wanted to bring in the weight bench.  It feels a little crowded to me, but he thinks there is plenty of room.

I loved playing with Zariyah when we went to mom and dad's for the Feburary birthdays. She is just so cute!

Jackson loves to sit or lay on Keith. I thought it was cute when Keith fell asleep with Jackson.

Wyatt looks more like a teenager every day.  An evening bowl of cereal with his headphones on and that teenage look of, "what are you doing mom?"

Wyatt wanted to make cookies one night. It's nice that he can do it on his own, they were really good.  He did not however want me to take a picture of him!

Wyatt was so excited to spend the day with Rockwell for his birthday. They went to Lowes for hours and got McDonalds for lunch.

After that Rockwell came over for a while and they played video games together.  Wyatt loved every minute of it!

Dante reached out a while ago and asked if he could stop by sometime.  He talks to Jonah on the phone a lot and Jonah wanted to see him.  I was a little nervous, but felt like I was in a spot where I could see him and I thought it was important for Jonah.  He asked a couple of weeks ago if Sunday would work.  He came over for a few hours. We had a really good visit and I was so happy to see a lot of very positive changes.  He has worked at Harmon's for over a year and he has lost almost 100 pounds to be able to join the military.  It was so great to see those positive changes and have a good interaction with him.  I'm so glad he is building a happy life for himself.

God wasn't surprised by this

Late Thursday morning on January 18th, Keith called me. He doesn't call me from work, he texts, so I immediately started to worry when I saw his name. Unfortunately it was bad news, he told me that Daniel had just let him go.  We were both in shock. He said Daniel came in his office and told him that he was great and had done a great job for them, but they were going a different direction with his position and he had to let him go.  Keith was shocked, he did not see this coming at all. Daniel wouldn't give him any reasons behind it and said he had a lawyer there (we have always known that Daniel was crazy and very hard to work with, but this was not on our radar).  He told Keith he would give him six weeks severance pay. He asked Keith to write down everything he needed to know about his position and then he got pulled away for something.  Keith didn't write anything down and packed up his stuff. Daniel walked him out and said goodbye and that was it. Keith was still in shock when he called me.  Everything felt so out of control in an instant.  I couldn't stop crying all day and Keith just looked shocked all day.  He immediately started looking for jobs.  It was hard to tell the kids.  When Hallee got home she came in the house and said, "What's wrong, if dad is home then someone got hurt or someone died." It has been a rough year and it seemed like things were finally settling down until this happened. I think Jonah was crying, but he tried to hide it.  He really wanted to talk to Cody and was sad that all he could do was e-mail him.  He also reached out to his boss at the rec center and asked if he could start working again.  Cailtyn called and I cried to her.  She said something that changed everything for me. She said, "mom, God wasn't surprised by this."  That brought me so much comfort.  Because I am a very anxious person, I hate the feeling of being out of control or not being prepared.  This was so out of the blue and I felt totally unprepared for it.  Those words brought me so much peace, I may not have known this was coming, but Heavenly Father did and He would help us. We had an appointment that night with President Luke.  We knew Jeremy was getting released as elders quorum president soon so we figured Keith was just getting called as the counselor in the new presidency again.  I almost didn't go because I couldn't stop crying. I'm glad I ended up going, it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that we had that appointment that night when we had no idea what the day would bring, but He did.  President Luke was so nice when we told him and told us, "well the Lord is very aware of you and He has confidence in you guys."  He called Keith to be the Elders Quorum President. He told us to take some time and think about it and that they would talk about it as well with the new information.  Keith prayed about it and we went to the temple and he knew pretty quickly that he should accept the calling. They ordained him on Sunday. He's excited about his counselors and ready to get to work.

I felt so bad for Keith. He has worked so hard for this company.  It literally almost drove him crazy last February when Daniel closed down Vasayo and opened up Three International.  Keith worked all hours of the day and night and put up with Daniel over promising and lying to people and Keith having to straighten things out and smooth things over. He went to convention after convention and worked for four days straight (6 AM to midnight) without even having time to eat lunch or dinner. He went all the way to Hong Kong for a convention.  Daniel didn't plan anything and expected them to make impossible things happen and Keith did it and smoothed it over when Daniel over promised.  Keith stood up for his employees and made sure they had a good work environment even when he didn't and had to deal with Daniel and his mood swings and rage.  A lot of good people have left the company because of Daniel.  I think the trip to Hawaii for the executives was to smooth things over for how bad he had treated all of them.  It makes no sense why he would do that and then let Keith go.  It was hard for Keith to lose all of his work friends that he has seen every day for the last six years.   He has no idea what Daniel is telling them and that bothers him, but he had to let it go because there is nothing he can do about it.  Niki was sobbing saying she couldn't do her job without him.  He has helped her so much.  She was barely employable as an agent, Daniel and Dallin wanted to get rid of her, but Keith stood up for her and trained her to be an amazing supervisor.  I was so grateful that she told him how much she appreciated him. He was a great boss for his agents and they loved him.  Once the shock wore off we were mad and sad.  It's hard not to be mad at Daniel, but it doesn't help anything for me to keep thinking of all of the things I want to say to him.  I don't think Keith or I realized how unhappy he was there. This isn't how we would chose for things to happen, but it didn't take long to feel like this would probably be good in the long run.  Keith found a lot of jobs to apply for and got a few interviews very quickly, that really helped us to stay positive and feel like it would work out soon.  Most of the jobs had more of a sales aspect than he is used to, but he's good at sales so he felt like he could apply to a lot of them.  I was worried that he wouldn't even hear back from people in six weeks, so having interviews right off the bat was amazing.  It was a good boost for his confidence too.  There were a couple he was surprised to get rejections from, but luckily he always had another job that he was interviewing for when a rejection would come. 

Last week he accepted a job with Figure Financial.  He had three interviews with them and the last one was with the CEO and Keith said it was the toughest interview he has ever had.  They sell tax solutions and financial planning to small companies.  Keith will be starting up their sales call center.  It will be a big job and a lot of work, but he is excited.  He had to build from the ground up at Vasayo so that was good experience that they were happy to see.  Anthony, the guy he interviewed with first, called him to let him know he got it.  He said that Keith should feel very good about himself because they interviewed a lot of people and Keith was the one they chose.  He said he stood out because he talked about making a great experience for the employees and the customers and they really liked his philosophy on company culture.  They also liked that he had built up the call center at Vasayo.  After his first interview, Anthony asked Keith to send him a proposal of what he would do in the first 90 days.  He really liked that as well.  Keith was so excited and so was I.  It was three weeks to the day that he lost his job that he got his new one.  I had a good feeling about this job all along, but I still did plenty of worrying.  He is going to start next Tuesday on Feb, 20th.  Our benefits won't start until May so that is the only tricky thing, but everything else could not have fallen into place any better.  We drove by his new office on Saturday, it is about five minutes away from our house.  We feel so blessed and grateful that things worked out so quickly.  It's amazing to think of how many things are happening and falling into place that we don't even know about.  

My family was so supportive.  Everyone was reaching out to us and offering encouragement and any help we needed.  Tiff took the kids to her house that Saturday.  They had so much fun and loved being spoiled by Tiff and Paul.  It was nice that Keith and I could just relax and not have to put on a happy face that day while the kids were gone.

 Tiff brought us dinner too.  I knew we were in for a treat when she said Paul made enchiladas, they were so good!  It is a very comforting feeling to know you have a family who cares about you and has your back.

We tried to make the best out of the situation and I think we have done a pretty good job.  There were days and times that we both felt pretty discouraged, but for the most part we have just tried to enjoy this time together. Keith was usually busy for a few hours a day with applying for jobs and interviewing. I would get the stuff done around the house while he did that and then we would go for a walk. It was warm and sunny one week so we enjoyed walking on the river trail.  The next week it was rainy or snowy every day.  We started doing Walk Away The Pounds in our house.  We laughed a lot and tried to finish before Jonah came home (he comes home from school multiple times a day) because we knew he would laugh at us, ha! We have worked together to meal plan and shop to cut down our budget.  I was so happy to get pizza to celebrate the night he got the job.  Coming up with dinner ideas and making them every night is not my favorite thing!

We have been going to the temple once a week.  We went the day after Keith lost his job and that helped a lot. It's nice to focus on that eternal perspective when this life is hard. We have been able to go to the new Orem Temple a few times.

It's hard to get baptism appointments in the evening so it was nice that Keith was able to go on a Friday when the kids got out of school early. 

Hallee got out of school early for parent-teacher conference so we were able to take her again. She feels comfortable now and really enjoys it. 

Keith has better handwriting than me so Jonah asked him to write on his poster to answer Calli for Sweethearts.  Keith has been working hard to stay busy and find things to do that help him feel like he is accomplishing things.  He loves to organize and clean things out so he has done some of that. I love that his biggest accomplishment is being there for his family.  He has taken this time to spend quality time with the kids.  Hallee said she is glad Keith got a job, but she is going to miss having him home when she gets home from school.  I agree with Hallee, it's been so nice to have him home.  We have enjoyed our days together.  I think going through this has brought us closer together and helped us appreciate each other more. Heavenly Father can use anything for good for those who love Him and He has definitely done that for us. 

Ballroom Performance

Wyatt finished up his ballroom class in January.  It is a half-year class and they had a performance for the parents at the end.  Wyatt has really enjoyed the class and decided to take intermediate ballroom next semester. 

Wyatt did five different dances and he had to do them all three times since there is so many more girls than boys in the class. 

Keith and I loved being able to watch him dance so many times.

He did such a great job. They did the waltz, fox trot and the cha cha.  I can't remember what the other two were.  I loved all of them, but the cha cha was my favorite.

He knew those dances well.  It was so fun to watch.

When they were finished the teacher told them all to go get someone from their family and bring them out onto the floor. I immediately panicked and thought about running out.  Keith would have been fine to go out there and dance, but since it was Wyatt I knew it had to be me.

I went out there and Wyatt taught me the cha cha.  I was able to just relax and forget about all the people there and enjoy time with my boy.

I'm very glad I didn't know about it before so I didn't have time to stress.  Wyatt was a great teacher!

Keith kept telling me that he was so proud of me, he knew how out of my comfort zone that was.  I told him that I knew I would do anything for my kids, but this proved it! It was a fun night and we loved watching Wyatt perform.

Hallee's first time at the temple

Caitlyn didn't start school until the second week in January so we were able to get a temple appointment during the first week in January after Hallee got her temple recommend.  I was so excited to be able to take all of the kids to the temple.  We printed off family names for all of them.

The kids were not happy about taking pictures in the cold, but I had to capture this night. I couldn't figure out the lighting, so the kids were really good sports with me doing it a few times.

It was so special to be in the temple with our whole family.  Hallee was nervous because she didn't know what to expect so having Caitlyn there with her was perfect. 

Jonah baptized all of the kids.  It was so special to watch that. I told Jonah I could envision him as a missionary while he was doing that.  I loved seeing him baptize his siblings!

Keith confirmed all of them and I just watched it all and soaked it all in.  It was a special night and made me so grateful for my family.  I love them all so much.

Caitlyn had been craving cake so we stopped at Macey's on the way home and the girls got some cake. Hallee loved having her big sister there to show her the ropes.