I Stand All Amazed

(source)

I Stand All Amazed.

This song has been one of my favorites for many years. I had this song sung at my baptism. I've sang this song to my kids. I've listened to this song on repeat when I would work. So it's not uncommon I start singing this song randomly while folding laundry, driving, etc. But today this song is being sung with my deep appreciation of gratitude.

On Tuesday I went to get a new set of x-rays then went to see my favorite doctor, Dr. Bryson Smith, at Utah Spine Care.  After looking at my X-rays he seen that my back was healed. All those cracks and breaks were back in the right places. I'm not sure what else he said since I was giving thanks in my head to Heavenly Father. But the point was all things are healed. My spine is a little curved from having to use certain muscles more than others so I have to do some exercises to gain my strength back. But my doc said that yoga and some core exercises would be great. But that I'm good to get rid of this brace and head back to work in a few weeks.

I'm so happy, overjoyed, excited, but above all thankful. I was expected to be in this brace another month or longer. But to be healed 4-6 weeks earlier. It's amazing! And I know that it has nothing to do with modern medicine. I healed faster than ever from one thing- PRAYER!

 Our family. Our ward. Our friends. Friends of friends. Co-workers. Neighbors. Just about everybody we know kept me in their prayers for these past 2 months and all I can say to them is, "Thank You!"

When I was done with my doctors appointment I screamed with joy when  I got to our car. Mike smiles at me and cracked a joke, "I'm so glad I don't have to drive you anymore."

Mike had some things to do at work so he was just going to drop me off back at home. But after hearing news like this I asked him to come inside so we, as a family, could drop to our knees and give thanks. He might have been annoyed that he had to shut off the car but giving the Lord those extra few minutes were completely worth it to him so he willingly and joyfully came inside and kneelt with us.

The rest of that day I couldn't believe it. I can drive again. My kids and I could hug without me feeling like a robot. I could cuddle my husband without that huge piece of plastic between us. I can bend. I was on the road of being me again.

The next day while my kids were in school I went to the Ogden Temple. I couldn't think of any better place to personally thank God than to go visit him and tell him personally.

Seriously I was healed!  I've prayed for many miracles in my life. Most of the time the answer was "no''. Some of the times I had to wait a really long time to get an answer. So long that I forgot what I asked for. But this trial; I prayed so many times for a fast recovery that I know exactly what happened when my doctor told me I was healed.

While I was walking up to enter the temple the story of Christ healing the 10 lepers came to mind.  All 10 were so excited that Christ healed them but only 1 came back to thank him personally. I'm sure the other 9 went on to tell others how Christ healed him but I wanted to be that 1 who came to him to thank him personally. I stood there looking at this temple of God thinking how amazed I was that the Lord would do this for me. He surely could have had me stay in that brace for another month or so. And I wouldn't be totally fine with it. But he granted me something so wonderful because he loves me and seen something in me. Seen something in me that showed him I learned and loved this lesson.

Anyways... now onto the next part of my life. This road to strength will be hard. Mostly since I'm a big wussy and I haven't use my muscles in about 2 months. But that doesn't bother me. God will be with me. So I can do hard things.

It's Me

I absolutely love when my kids draw me pictures. I wish I had 200 feet walls so I can tape each one of their creations up. But I don't so I resort to hanging it up for a few days (or at least until they make me a new one) or taking a picture of it so I can blog it. And that's what I'm doing with this gem Cati made me.

It's me!
Me with my LuLaRoe leggings, white tee, cell phone texting a friend, Merida on my lap, crazy curly hair, tattoos on my arms, bracelet on my wrist and smiling while my little girl draws me. It came out perfect! I love that she includes my tattoos. So now this picture will be forever remembered.

Dino Date

For Lily and Mike's date they went to the Ogden Dinosaur Park. Lily can be the one who wants to repeat the same date over and over again so trying something new can be..... Difficult. But just the fact that Mike will be alone her she gave it a go.
Plus this cheap momma found a deal on KSL Deals plus an extra 5% saving with an additional coupon code so it was so cheap that this deal couldn't get passed. To make it more special Mike picked up a pizza from 7-11 (since it was free with a rebate app) and brought it along for a picnic.
 (I know we're so cheap but why pay full price when we don't need to)

Anyways Mike and Lily had so much fun that they were gone for about 4 hours!
This park could be done from start to finish in about an hour so to do it in 4 hours means they had tons of fun!

I would periodically get a text message with one of these photos attached. It was so cute seeing them play around with these dinos. 

  Wee-Haw!!

I'm so happy they had themselves a great time. These two goofballs could have fun in a cardboard box... I've seen it so I know this. But Mike told me that while they were there they learned so much about dinosaurs. They explored the sand digging area where Lily found 43 gem rocks. They played a scavenger hunt. And just played on everything. Yeah for Daddy Dates!

Swimming Pool

For Mike's date with Cati he went swimming with her. I found a coupon in Hometown Value. It's a local magazine that comes in the mail once a month has tons of coupons for the business around us. And this issue had a coupon for Buy 1 adult pass and get 1 kid pass free at our local pool. So this seemed perfect for these too.

They went swimming and had so much fun. Mike "encouraged" Cati with to face her fear of water slides with the promise of a frosty. So of course she went down it since it invloved ice cream. Soon afterwards that's all she wanted to do. When they came home she talked about touching the bottom of the pool with her tippy toes, the water slide, dogging paddling with Dad's help, and the yummy vanilla frosty.

I love how she smiles with her "fake" smile and then the REAL toothless smile. Real smiles are way better to remember than those fake cheese smiles.

Art Date

IMike loves spending time with our kids. But we know that they also need some one-on-one time with each of us so we try our best to give them that alone quality time. So Mike went out with Hailey to Hands On Art. It's a place where you pick up a ceramic, pain it, they fire it up and soon you'll have a new decor or kitchenware. So I found a Groupon for them that 50% so that was an easy choice on what they could do.

The Groupon included 2 mugs so they made each other mugs. 

Here's Mikes to Hailey.

Here's a haileys to mike

She had a lot of fun with Mike. Mike likes to change things up and do different activities with each person so this was their first time painting mugs. I'm just over joyed that they spent some time together.

Family Visit

Mike's side of the family was in town for a week and oh my goodness we tried to see them as much as we could. We drove down to G.G.'s so we could visit and it turns out our kids were spoiled with buckets of chalk, art supplies, jump ropes, etc. These goodies have entertained my kids for so many hours. Besides yummy dinner my niece, Alex, had a birthday party a few days early of her actual birthday since this was the first time in a long time she had family around. 

Here's Alex and Hailey chatting. They were shy around each other at first but after a few helpful topics to talk about they broke the ice and chatted for an hour. They haven't seen each other in 4 years but that seemed to melt away right here. 

The next day Papa came to visit us at our home. Lily and Ducati read to him their favorite books. And he sat patiently listening and helping them sound out a few words.

Hailey made us all some Valentines pink heart shaped cinnamon rolls. This was her first time making a shaped cinnamon roll.

Mike got off of work early so when he got home we all headed out to lunch.

The next day Mike's sister and brother in law, Chrissy and John, came to visit us too with their kids. We went to see Kung Fu Panda 3.

Our girls wanted to play on this display while I got snacks.
The movie was so cute! We all loved it. There were times we either teared up or laughed so hard our sides hurt. We all just had tons of fun that we didn't want our time to end so we went bowling next.
I found a deal on Groupons for all of us to go for 50% off. Gotta love saving money!

Our first game we just played to play. Score was kept but it was just all fun.

 Roni enjoying the spotlight when she knocked down 8 pins.

 Ducati's Strike Secret. Turn and twist so the ball hits the pins you want.

 All our kids had so much fun! They laughed, chatted, joked, and high-5'd each other so much that you'd never know they haven't seen each other in 4 years.

Ducati enjoying a moment to her self. She loved playing with this hand blower!

 Cousin chats!

So for the second game we up'd the annie. We played Parents VS Kids. So parents on one lane while the kids had the lane next to us.

 Our kids really up'd their game. They won us parents by over 40 points! They really improved their skills. They got so many strikes and spares that at one moment we didn't even think we'd break 100.

After bowling we headed to dinner at Rumbi's. This is where Alex showed Lily how to use chopsticks. Now Lily eats with chopsticks as many times as she can. 

The next day Papa went to church with us. This was really nice. But of course my kids were wiggle worms in sacrament that they must have bugged him cuz they bugged me. Then afterwards Papa treated us to lunch. 

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But then everyone had to head back to CT Monday night so Mike took Hailey and Mason with him to say goodbye. I stood home with Lily and Cati since their colds that we ignored were now worse and I could no longer ignore their coughs. Plus I was so sore and in pain from bowling that I couldn't stand up. But Mason and Hailey were so happy that they got a chance to say Good bye. They were with their dad this holiday weekend and feared they were going to miss out visiting family. 

Oh man... we miss our family. Papa mentioned we should vacation in CT sometime soon. And this is something we'd really want to do as soon as I get back to work. But until then we'll reminisce on these past few days.