Teague Turns Ten!

Teague's birthday fell on his favorite holiday this year- Easter Sunday, the first time since 1957!  Which means we had a 4-day weekend to celebrate Easter and Teague!  On Friday night, Len and I took him on a dinner date to East Side Mario's.

On Saturday, we took him shopping with his birthday money.

He added 10 new Beanie Boos to the family collection.

He also opened his birthday cards...

...from his family, and both sets of grandparents.  His grandparents always spoil him!

On Sunday, we had the Montminys over for our Easter feast and afterwards we had a fresh strawberry birthday cake for Teague.

I love all the kids' facial expressions in these pictures.

Happy Birthday Teague!  This past decade with you in our lives has been a pleasure, and I can't wait to spend 100 more with you!

Macy's Echo-cardiogram

Macy had a sedated echo-cardiogram scheduled for April.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't give the date until a week before.  Of course, they called with the date the day before I left for Las Vegas.  Luckily, Daddy was home to take her, but I still wish I could have been with my girl too.  (In September, I was there with her for her eye surgery, while Leonard was in Poland, so I got my turn.)

The poor girl knows the hospital all too well, and doesn't like it.

But her Daddy made her feel better.  I was there though when her cardiologist shared the results.  After her heart surgery she still had a mild to moderate leak.  However, her echo showed that she now has a trivial to mild leak!  The cardiologist was very happy with this result, as were we!  She'll still be monitored every so often, but the doctor suspects her heart will be healthy and happy throughout her life!

Strawberry Cake

For my last night in Vegas, I made a couple of fresh strawberry cakes and we had the Barlow side of the family over.

Here's 7 of the 13 of us that were able to get together.

Aunt Debbi, Lynn, and Harper.

Me, with Aunt Susie, and Uncle Jimmy.

Uncle Steve, and Aunt Connie.

Bennett, Mandy, and Coleman.

Of course, I had to take a pic of George and Lilly too.

Unfortunately, Kris and Devin and their kiddos weren't able to make it over.  I also saw Jared and Scott while I was in town, but I didn't get pictures of either of them.

Thanks Mom and Poppa for letting me come visit!

Rock-n-Roll, Religion, and Home towns

After sharing two posts in "real" time, I'm back to blogging about my spring trip to Vegas.  After a relaxing Sabbath (of going to church then having dinner at my sister Mandy's house), Mom and I shopped until we dropped on Monday!  We went to Deseret Book, Cafe Rio, Costco, Target, Kohl's, The Container Store, Ulta, and Down East.  Deseret Book is clear across the city from us in Seven Hills to Summerlin.  While we were on that side of town we went to Costco.  Guess who gets in line beside us?  That would be Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons.  Now I've seen and met celebrities a few times in my life, but I always get a little star struck.  I wish I had been brave enough to ask for a pic with him, but my shyness was turned up all the way.  Anyway, it got me to thinking of other famous musicians from Las Vegas who also are members of my church.

Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons.  Back in 2011, my cousin Lynn gave me a copy of their CD before they were famous.  She would listen to them play locally before they were signed and she knew they would make it big one day.  My family quickly fell in love with the CD and it was a road trip staple.  It was so fun once their songs reached the radio in Ottawa!

Brandon Flowers of The Killers went to high school with my cousin Lynn and she used to listen to them practice in their garage.  Lynn's friend Lisa (who shares other mutual cousins with me) went on to marry The Killers' drummer Ronnie Vannucci (and our 3 families vacationed together back in 1998, however they've since divorced).  I used to work-out to their CD every day while living in Taiwan.

Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco's mother was my daughter's Sunday School teacher while we lived in Las Vegas in 2017.

Marie and Donny of The Osmonds were best friends with my Aunt Debbi when they were teenagers (Debbi is Lynn's mom).  I remember when I was little my Granny had a photo of them together framed in her home.

Gladys Knight (and the Pips) sang at my parents' previous Stake's firesides and my parents heard her sing at them.

Chad Kroeger is not a member of my church, nor is he from Las Vegas.  He is from Hanna, Alberta though, where my husband is from and they did go to school together.  I got to meet Chad back in 2010, and he told me he used to cheat off of Leonard in school, ha ha!

Decades

With this new year bringing a new decade I've done a bit of reflecting on the previous decades of my life.  Thought I'd do a little summary.

I was born in 1975, so the 70's were my pre-school years.  I don't remember much, but I lived in Indiana, Ohio, California, and Idaho in those years.

The 80's were my childhood!  I started Kindergarten in 1980 and I started high school in 1989.  After attending 5 different elementary schools, I was able to go to only 1 junior high and 1 high school.  My parents got a divorce and we moved to Nevada.  A couple of years later my mother remarried.  I finally became a sister 3 months before my 9th birthday and had all 4 of my siblings join our fam in this decade.

The 90's had the most change.  I graduated from high school.  I moved to Utah, where I graduated from college.  I got married.  My father got remarried and I got 4 new siblings.  I had a miscarriage.  We moved to England for Leonard's Master's degree.

The 2000's saw family growth and more moves to foreign countries.  After 3 years of fertility treatments we had our twins!  Several years later we had 2 more babies join us.  We moved to Canada, we moved to Taiwan, we moved back to Canada and bought our first house.

The 2010's saw more family growth with 3 more babies joining our fam and another foreign move to India.  We also sold our first home and built our second home.

Now we're in 2020 and I can't even believe it!  I am hoping one more sweet baby will join our family, but half of our children will also leave the nest this decade.  Before this decade is through I hope to have children-in-law and grandchildren as well!  I hope we will get to travel to see our extended families often and I hope we can plan reunions with our own children after they start lives of their own.  I hope we can travel to more continents.  I hope we can develop our talents and bless the lives of others.  Here's hoping this decade will be a blast!

*I got this from Facebook, but it has a typo.  It should say millennia, not millennias, ha ha!

University Dreams and the Financial Aid Fairy

This year my oldest children will graduate from high school and they have dreams to leave the nest and go away for university (yes, I've become Canadian in my lingo and no longer say college).  As a mama, I have such mixed emotions about this.  My heart is split into 4 different options for them.

One option is to have them go to university here in Ottawa and live at home.  I love this idea, because well my kiddos will still be living under my roof and I like them and enjoy having them around.

The second option is to have them both go to my husband's and my Alma Matter, BYU.  This would be a great option too as two of their cousins on the Reil side go there and it'd be nice to be close to them for once in their lives.

The third option is to have them both go to their dream schools.  Kaleb's is Yale and Noé's is BYU-Hawaii.  What parent doesn't want their child to succeed and for their dreams to come true?  I'd love to visit them both in Connecticut and Hawaii too.

The last and newest option is to have them both go to their second choice schools.  Kaleb's is Notre Dame and Noé's is UNLV.  They've both already been accepted to these schools and Kaleb would be close to his Pittl grandparents and Noé would be close to her Lee grandparents.  I'd love to visit them both in Indiana and Nevada too.

They haven't applied to any Canadian schools, and they're still waiting to hear back from their first and third choice schools.  The big question isn't about them getting accepted though, the big question is how are they going to pay for it?

I was extremely fortunate when I went to school because my father paid for it.  I will always be grateful for his sacrifice for me and I worked hard to earn good grades and graduate.  I am currently a stay-at-home mom and have been for almost 18 years.  I am most thankful to be working at my dream job, but sometimes I feel bad to be working at a job that doesn't pay a cent after my father spent a lot of money so I could get a great education.

Leonard graduated with his Bachelor's degree and $28,000.00 worth of student debt to pay back.  Unfortunately, we lost his parents 8 months after we were married.  The life insurance we received did pay for his Master's degree, but we would have gladly taken on more student debt to still have his parents here with us.  Student debt is nothing to sneeze at though.  When our twins were wee babes, and we paid our outrageous apartment rent, made minimum payments on our credit card and student loan debt, bought diapers and formula for two, we were left with enough money to buy lentils for us to eat for dinner.  It really wasn't fun (and I'll add we rode the bus for 2 years as we couldn't afford a car after ours died shortly after their birth).  It wasn't until we got our first posting to Taiwan that we were actually able to save money each month.  It felt so good when we were able to pay his student loan completely off, after being married for 9 years.  

My husband's dream job, as a Foreign Service Officer with the Canadian government is now earning a nice salary after 17 years on the job.  However, that salary goes to provide for 9 people.  We are not poor my any means, but we are not rich either.  We live a nice day-to-day life and do our best to be generous in our tithes and offerings to others.  However, we don't get to visit our extended families as often as we like and we have not been able to save for our children's future educations.

Even though I want my children to shoot for the stars with their dreams, I also want them to be practical.  I just read I Killed My Teenager's Fancy College Dreams.  You, Should Too.  The article states that collectively, Americans owe $1.6 trillion dollars in student debt.  $1.6 trillion is one thousand and six hundred billion dollars or another way to say it is one.six million millions!  That is A LOT of money!!  And I don't even want to know how much interest will be paid on that debt.

Of course, as they're waiting to hear back from their dream schools they're also waiting to hear back from the Financial Aid Fairy.  Maybe the fairy will be generous with them and things will work out for them to go away for school, but it sure makes this mama worry.

Saturday with the Fam

In the morning Mom and I biked to Mandy and Kris's neighborhood to watch the little kids at their community Easter egg hunt.  We all went to the Shake Shack for lunch, then came back to Mandy's to visit before Eri had to head back to San Diego.  

Mom with her three girls and sweet B.

I love my sisters!

(and my brothers too!)

Mom and Poppa.

Mandy, B-bop, and Coleman.

Kris and Charlotte with Logan in the back.  So sad I didn't get a family pic of them before Devin had to go to work!

I wish my kiddos could see their cousins more often!

That night Poppa made a delicious stew and Mom made a fresh peach pie and cinnamon pinwheels with the leftover pie crust.  Jared had been working on the new floor at their house, so he joined us for dinner too.

Erika and Lucille's

On the next day of my trip, Erika flew to town from San Diego.  I'm so glad I got to see all of my siblings during this trip!  We all went out to dinner at Lucille's.

Eri, Mandy, and Coleman.

Bennett, and Charlotte.

Devin, Logan, and Kris.

Poppa, Mom, and Me.

I was actually too full from the delicious lunch we had earlier at Yard House, so I skipped dinner and went straight to dessert- yummy banana pudding (but my Granny's was much better, miss her!) and perhaps the best strawberry lemonade I've ever had.

Since we were a week away from Bennett's birthday, Charlotte asked the server to bring him a birthday treat (what a sweetie!).  Bennett was so surprised!

It's safe to say he enjoyed his early birthday treat though!

Outside, Charlotte...

...and Logan enjoyed some lollipops!

I love my family!

Spring trip to Salt Lake

Early the next morning, Mom and I hopped a plane to fly to Salt Lake City to visit Brent and Whitney and their family.

Cadence, Jackson, and Isaac with their Auntie that doesn't get to see them enough.

Mom and I had a fun day with them as we went to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, toured the model home at the Island at Daybreak, and had dinner at Olive Garden.  It was so nice to see everyone, but it's so hard that these visits are so few and far between.

Spring trip to Vegas

It's a new year and time for me to get caught up on this blog!  I've made a goal to do at least one post a day until I'm all caught up again.

Back in April (on a day that snowed so much there were over 100 car accidents in Ottawa), I took a trip home to Vegas.  I arrived late in the evening, and my mom babysat my niece and nephews early the next morning.

In the morning I unpacked, then Leslie picked me up and we went out to lunch.

Afterwards, she dropped me off to spend the rest of the day with my mom and the darling the kiddos.

Cute cousins- Charlotte and Bennett.

Mom and Logan.

The 3 little ones together.

Mandy and Kris home from work.

Our Greatest Wish

I'm sharing this post from Facebook on my blog as well.  Thanks for reading and I would love to read your comments.

*IF YOU KNOW US AND LOVE US, PLEASE READ THIS LONG POST AND MAKE A COMMENT BELOW. WE LOVE YOU!*

Happy New Year from our family to yours! This day (and every day) I am so grateful for all of my loved ones- my extended families, my friends, but especially- my husband, and each and every one of our children.

For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of having eight children, four sons and four daughters. This dream may not have been Leonard's dream since his youth, but as we have grown together, it has become his dream too. I can't believe that we are lucky enough to have four sons and three daughters. They are such amazing kiddos! The desire in my heart though for one more daughter is just as strong now as it was when I was a young girl, and it is so sweet that my children also share this desire and pray for her each day.

Our new home has five bedrooms- and all of us share a room, except for Macy. Some may feel she is the lucky one to have a room all to herself, but I feel the opposite-she's the only one not to have a roommate.

For the past year and a half we have tried to conceive another child. For the past six months we have been receiving fertility treatments. As much as I would love to create another body for one of Heavenly Father's children, something has been tugging at my heart about adoption. For the past six months Leonard and I have also attended information seminars on public adoption, as well as international adoption, and have met with a private adoption practitioner.

The adoption process is very intimidating, to say the least. And yet, I know how much we would love any child that came to our family. And yet, I think of a little girl needing our family to love her and raise her. And yet, I think of birth parents who love their child, but don't have the means to provide for her the way they would like to. And yet, I think the answer to our prayers could also be us being the answer to someone else's prayer.

Since there are a couple of gaps in the ages of our children, we could adopt a girl born between Sept. 7, 2003 and June 17, 2005; between November 26, 2015 and July 22, 2016; as well as after July 22, 2019.

I have been praying for guidance for a very long time, pleading with my Father in Heaven to hear His voice and to be granted one last miracle, this desire of my heart to have one more daughter. Every time my thoughts turn to adoption I feel peace. Sometimes, it is hard to decipher between one's own feelings, the whisperings of the Spirit, and doubt from the adversary. However, I know we are commanded to do good things and the Lord will help us accomplish those good things. If we get it wrong, he will also correct us as needed.

So here we are this New Year's day and I am feeling so much gratitude for this sweet family of mine, while at the same time I feel like I have to do all in my power to bring one more little girl to our family, and then sit back and let God work in our lives. If you have read this post, thank you so much, it really means a lot to me. It is a little overwhelming to share the most tender feelings of your heart on a public platform. Even though I want many eyes and hearts to see this, I have decided not to make this post public. I am hoping that amongst all the amazing Facebook friends that Leonard and I have that one of you might know someone to help us with this miracle we are seeking. If you would like, please leave a positive comment below, so Facebook's algorithms can have as many of our friends as possible see it. And please reach out to us at: adopt(dot)baby(dot)girl(dot)love(at)gmail(dot)com

Thank you and God bless you!