A name and a blessing...

We had a wonderful time this weekend in Utah. We started our drive on Thursday afternoon and drove to Bozeman where we spent the night. On Friday we drove the rest of the way. The kids were amazingly wonderful in the car, (hope I didn't just jinx that), and the weather was very nice. We had enough time that we were able to stop and say hello to a few good friends. We stopped at Honeyville first and visited with Ivan's old co-workers and showed off the baby. Then we went into the floral shop and said hello to Mama Donna and The Jewel. I love those ladies! They were in full swing for Mother's Day and I just wanted to throw on an apron and get to work. I really miss working with flowers...but not as much as I would miss staying at home with my kids. We got to Pleasant Grove Friday evening. Josh and Trisha were already at Grandma's house with their kids. Hailey and Caden were anxiously waiting outside for Emma to get there. Hailey let me know that we were late because we said we would be there at six...I think it was maybe 6:30. Emma had a ton of fun playing in the backyard with the kids. It was nice to see grass! We still just have dirt at our house.
We blessed Levi on Saturday at my mom's church. We had a lot of family that were able to be there. We had opening and closing prayers and songs and Ivan asked his dad to give a short thought. Butch did a great job at inviting the spirit into the meeting. After the thought Ivan gave a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful to have the Priesthood in our lives and in our home. There were a lot of great men in that circle and I am glad that each of them were able to be there. After the blessing we had lunch at the Barlows. It was FANTASTIC as always. My dad smoked beef and pork, we had fresh fruit and veggies, watermelon, potato salad, rolls and lots of other yummy treats. Janelle made a delicious pasta salad and Marjie brought her yummy Strawberry Cheesecake dessert. Trisha made her famous pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. She said that the recipe makes 80 cookies...they were nearly gone by the end of the night! The weather was wonderful on Saturday. There was plenty of room for the kids to run and play and the adults had a nice time visiting. It was nice to be outside!






On Sunday Ashley took our family picture again. We figured we better get one with little Levi in it. Emma was so tired from the weekend and was NOT cooperating. We will have to try again in a few months. We also took my friend Brandy's family picture. I love that girl and her cute little family! After pictures we headed to Corinne. We met at the park and Emma got to play with some more cousins! For Mother's Day we bought Marjie a webcam. When we got to her house Ivan got it all set up and downloaded Skype. We have really loved talking to my parents on Skype since we have moved and thought it would be great if we could talk to Ivan's parents as well. We tested it out by calling Dave in Washington. All of Marjie's kids were at her house on Mother's Day except for Dave so it was fun to get to see him. We only saw Dusty and Brandee for a minute, but it was good to see them. It was also really good to see Melissa and Klade and their cute kids. It makes me wish we lived closer so Emma could play with Aubree more often. They are so cute together.
We spent Sunday night at Butch and Marjie's house and started our drive at 6am the next morning. We had great weather on Monday and enjoyed our ride home...even if it was 15 hours. I drove the last half so that Ivan could work on some homework that is due this week. One more class and all he will have left is his thesis! I am proud of him for working so hard...he hopes to be finished by Christmas! He would like to teach a class or two at the college in Williston but doesn't have the time right now. He is hoping that next semester he will be able to do that. Anyway, we had a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who helped out!