Shalessia

While Kaleb got to go to Toronto with his friends, Noé got to go to Montreal with her friends...

to the Shawn Mendes and Alessia Cara concert!

Emmeline and Noé were able to get tickets at the last minute from some friends that weren't able to go.

They were so excited, can't you tell!

They went up to the city with Alessandra and Brogan too, but they didn't have seats together (thanks Brogan's dad for taking them!).

I love their music too, but I feel so old, ha ha!

Canada's Wonderland

Kaleb headed down to Toronto to spend a day at Canada's Wonderland with his friends Shannon and Zaynab.  Thank you Swatie (Zaynab's mom) for taking them there!

Unfortunately, Kaleb forgot his camera.  Luckily, Zaynab shared some photos of them with a bonus friend.

 

Zaynab, Daniela, Kaleb, and Shannon.

Acrylic Nails

Noé went with her friends Samantha and Navy to have acrylic nails put on.  I love those bright colors!  It reminds me of the 80's, ha!

Noé's nail color matched her shirt, my bedroom wall paint, and her eyes!

Pioneer Trek -1,000

I haven't been moving forward with catching up on this blog, because I wanted to go through the 1,000+ photos from Trek to make sure I got all the best ones.  I give up!  I'm trying to remember, "Don't let perfect, rob you of good."  Here are some lovely photos that captured Kaleb and Noé's trek experience last summer.

The handcarts each "family" had to push and pull.

The pleasant fields where they got to camp at night.

The lovely view as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.

They had to go uphill and downhill and through streams and got rained on.  The theme was "Angels Shall Bear You Up", and I believe they did!

Time to rest after a long day of hard work.

Dinner time!

Noé with her trek siblings, not sure why her Ma and Pa weren't pictured.

Kaleb with his complete trek family.

I have fond memories from my youth, when I went on a pioneer trek. I hope each of our kids has this opportunity, AND I hope Len and I can go as a Ma and Pa, so he can have the experience too.

Living Clay

"To help another human being reach one's celestial potential is part of the divine mission of woman. As mother, teacher, or nurturing Saint, she molds living clay to the shape of her hopes. In partnership with God, her divine mission is to help spirits live and souls be lifted. This is the measure of her creation. It is ennobling, edifying, and exalting." ~President Russell M. Nelson

SHE MOLDS LIVING CLAY TO THE SHAPE OF HER HOPES...IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD.

This is my greatest blessing and greatest responsibility. I am so grateful to be a mother. And I am so grateful for my mother. I have been blessed with bonus mothers and I'm grateful for them too.

Happy Mother's Day to ALL women <3 span="">!

Uncle Tom

On May 9, 2020 the world lost a giant among men :(. Uncle Tom, I hope you know how much you impacted my life. You were such a kind, welcoming, loving man and my life is better because I knew you! You will be missed until we meet again. Sending all my love to Aunt Gretchen and all my cousins.

23 Years

Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming

Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running

Didn't make sense not to live for fun

Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

So much to do, so much to see

So what's wrong with taking the backstreets?

You'll never know if you don't go

You'll never shine if you don't glow

*All Star by Smash Mouth

23 years ago today, I became Leonard's wife- the best decision I ever made. 

I love you honey with all that I am!

We were asked to sing a song to share with the primary in our ward.

 

Click HERE to watch all of our kiddos sing (well you can't see Kaleb, he's playing the piano and he didn't fit onscreen).

Click HERE to watch Macy sing a sweet solo.

So very grateful for this family of mine!

Quakers and Seasiders

My blog is all over the place with "catch-up" posts interspersed with "real time" posts.  Someday I will get it all organized!

Kaleb just made the hardest decision of his life. He was accepted to Notre Dame, BYU, Emory, Duke, and UPenn, and he honestly would have loved to attend all of them. UPenn offered him an amazing financial aid package that he couldn't refuse. So we are rooting for the Quakers now!

Noé made the easiest decision of her life. She was accepted to UVU, UNLV, and BYU-Hawaii. Since she wants to live in Hawaii permanently, of course she chose to go to school there. We are also rooting for the Seasiders (although they no longer have sports teams)!

Now, Kaleb and Noé have another tough decision to make. Will they attend in the fall of 2020 or wait until 2021? Click HERE to read an article about this. If you or your child is planning to attend university this coming fall (as a freshman or upperclassman), what do you think about it?

Pioneer Trek

Kaleb and Noé got to participate in a tri-stake pioneer trek, that was amazing!  I ordered them pioneer clothing and we had a little fashion show to make sure everything fit before the big trip.

Outfit #1- Kaleb had navy pants, cream shirt, brown vest, and straw hat.  Noé had pink floral skirt, buffalo check apron, cream shirt, and pink floral bonnet.

Outfit #2- Kaleb had khaki pants, blue shirt, and suspenders.  Noé had a green floral skirt, another cream shirt (they didn't offer different colors), and... 

...bloomers, ha ha!

You can tell I didn't iron their new clothes before the fashion show, ha!

The big day finally arrived and we had to get the kids over to the church by 6:00 in the morning!

Look at all the cute pioneer girlies!

I wish I got a better picture of all the youth from our ward attending.

Their is a website with 1,230 amazing photos from the pioneer trek.  Unfortunately, they are small thumb nails that you have to click on individually to see if you want to download it or not.  I'm hoping Kaleb and Noé will help me go through them to find and save some of the best ones they are in.  I did find this one and will share more soon.

After school started they had a "reunion" dance.  I think they might be cuter in their pioneer outfits, ha!

This photo was sent to me today of my great-great grandparents Anton Pittl and Elizabeth Mergl and their 3 children.  Isn't it so cool, now that it has been colorized?  My great-grandpa, also named Anton, is the little boy in the middle.  My great-grandpa emigrated to the US with his wife and my 2 year-old grandpa (they lost a daughter in Europe and their baby boy passed away on the ship coming over from Europe).  After settling in the US they had another 2 sons and a daughter.  Later, my great-great grandparents moved over too.  My father knew all 3 of his grandparents in this photo and I remember talking to my great-grandpa on the phone when I was 6, shortly before he passed away.  My great-aunt tried to emigrate to America, but got on the wrong ship and ended up in South America.  My great-uncle also emigrated to America and I am facebook friends with one of his grandsons!  They may not have been pioneers trekking across the prairies, but I'm grateful they trekked from Europe to the US!

*Now I want photos of all of my great-great grandparents and their children.  I have 8 sets of biological great-great grandparents (as everyone does), and another 8 sets of great-great grandparents through my step-parents, and another 8 sets of great-great grandparents through my husband's side of the family.  Yes, I want photos of all 24 families!  I also need photos of my great-grandparents and their children!

Jen's #44, part 2

Ontario has a civic holiday the 1st Monday of August, and it always coincides nicely with my birthday- this year it was the day after.  Kaleb and Noé convinced us that we should go to Calypso, just the two of us and they would watch the little kids for us.  I felt guilty leaving the kiddos behind (although we had already planned to take the whole fam later in the month, and we did do this!), but I'm so glad we did it.  It was so fun just being on a date with my honey.  We had a blast too, we rode every ride!

We always take the back roads whenever we can, and we like to take a different way home if possible.  On this trip we found the town of Leonard, Ontario.  I think we should move, I bet they'd let Leonard be the mayor, ha!

As I mentioned before, we are huge Stranger Things fans.  I was so excited for all of us to go to Baskin-Robbins to have some USS Butterscotch sundaes.  I was so disappointed though, they were just regular banana splits and looked nothing like the advertisement.  Oh well, they still tasted good!

We had the kids pair up to share since they were so big.

I shared with Macy too.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Jen's #44, part 1

I look at this photo and think, wow!  I've gotten so old and chubby.  I see the weight I've put on, I see my wrinkles, I see my gray roots.  I really want to be more grateful though, so for every negative thing I've said I'm making myself say a positive thing.  I may be chubby, but this body of mine has grown SEVEN children, including TWINS, and they have all been born by CESAREAN SECTION.  I think that's pretty miraculous!  I may have wrinkles, but I am grateful that my husband still finds me beautiful.  I may have gray hair, but at least I have hair!  Yes, we'd all love to be forever young, but since we can't I'd rather be alive and hopefully I can give grace to myself and allow myself to grow old gracefully.

My birthday fell on a Sunday, so we took a few pictures before church.  I'm so grateful for this wonderful man beside me that has loved and supported me for the almost 26 years I've known him!

By looking at our family, you would never think that we struggled with fertility issues for 3 years.  I am so very grateful that each and every one of these sweet children is mine!  I truly am one lucky lady!

At first I didn't want a birthday cake, I wanted us to get ice cream from Baskin-Robbins.  However, with my birthday on Sunday we wouldn't go there on my actual birthday and I decided I did want something sweet to mark the occasion, so we got a Costco cake to eat after church.

*I miss the Costco cakes from the US (2 pounds of cheesecake mousse as the filling and authentic buttercream), but we decided we won't be buying anymore sheet cakes from Costco in Canada.

I love these silly kids, especially when Ali smiles so big, Teague doesn't smile, and Gavin doesn't look at the camera, ha ha!

My wishes have come true 8 times, but I'm still hoping one more wish will come true!

The beautiful birthday cards I received.  I love happy mail!