A Morales Minute

  We had friends over playing games tonight. We knew there was a buzz about being able to see the northern lights but when we'd looked outside there wasn't anything to see. It was literally minutes later that Olivia said her friend could see them and so she went outside. She came back and said they're there! We went outside and it was absolutely beautiful! I have never seen northern lights before so this was so exciting. None of us had seen them before! Even our friends were able to cross this off a bucket list.  Truly, our world is beautiful. I know there's science reasoning behind why things like this happen,  but seriously, how can you not believe that God created this and science is just part of the creating of His world?! It just doesn't look real, but it is. It truly felt magical being outside in our BACKYARD with family and friends. Definitely a blessed feeling I don't take for granted. 

We celebrated May the 4th with Bel and Chris this year at their place Bel and I put together a fun spread for themed food for our dinner.  Sometimes it's fun to still get to play and be a kid. :) I didn't get any pictures this year of Cinco de Mayo. But this year I wanted to have our celebration with my family. It landed on a Sunday this year so it worked out for everyone to be able to come. Mom and Dad, Elizabeth and Lori's families as well. I made it all. Enchiladas, rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, aqua Fresca, and fresas y crema. Everyone enjoyed the food. I loved having everyone over and spending time with them. I do get enjoyment of being able to make food for others when we get to be together.   

When Lindsey came home to go to the temple she brought some things home so that she wouldn't have as much to bring back later at the end of her semester. A day after she left I had gone into the spare room where she had left boxes. I pulled out the chair and this is what I saw... She has finally decided she doesn't need Oink anymore. 😢 She's engaged and ready to really grow up and leave stuffed animals behind. I knew the day would come. Honestly she's kept him a lot longer than I thought she would. She received Oink as a Christmas gift on her first Christmas when she was nine months old from her Great-grandma Naylor. She grew attached to him immediately. It was always so cute. But this, was harder for me to see than I thought it would be. It wasn't where he just got stuffed into a box or closet as a kid. She kept him on her bed for all her life. Through over a year of college, and now she's brought him home. I love the girl I've raised. 💗 I had a bag of do

  Brian has been wanting to run a half marathon so he asked me if I'd get back into running and train and prepare to run one with him. It just so happened that he was available to come up for the Run the River half marathon on April 20th. (Lindsey deciding to go to the temple the day before made it perfect timing so that Brian could be there for it and the half marathon.) My parents stayed the night at our house so they could come support us at the start of the race.  I kept a good pace and was trying to get a PR. It would have been awesome to make it under two hours but I just couldn't run faster it seemed. I felt good the entire race but the last couple miles it seemed to drag on, like I was running longer than 13 miles. lol But I am happy to say I did get a PR! I cut 2 minutes off my time. I ran it in 2 hours and 33 seconds. So not far over 2 hours! I placed 49th out of all runners, 22nd among all females, and 5 in the female age group of 40-49.  Brian finished in 2 hours 8

After we came out of the temple Lindsey had many family and friends out waiting for her.  I thought it was so special that Jaime's parents and Bel came with Olivia and the boys to see Lindsey come out. Brian flew up for the event and Lori, Elizabeth and my parents were all there inside the session with Lindsey. I appreciate that Jaime's side of the family supports our kids in their religious endeavors and even though they don't completely understand what happens inside the temple, they understand how important is to us and they still do what they can to be a part of it.  After these pictures Isaac took Lindsey for a walk around the temple. The rest of us crept round the other side to take a peak at the scene unfolding at the back of the temple.  Isaac proposed to Lindsey! His parents set this up for him and they were there to record it. The rest of us tried to stay back and give then some time alone for their moment. lol I'm sure Lindsey knew what was going on as soon a

What a blessing to see Lindsey have the desire to go to the temple for herself and make covenants with Heavenly Father. We were looking forward to this day and the morning of I got a message saying that our session at the temple was canceled! I just couldn't believe it. I called the temple and found out that they had a pipe break and so the water was turned off to the temple and all appointments for the temple that day was canceled. They said they were working hard to get it fixed but there was no guarantee! We had family fly into town for this. Isaac's family was currently on their way because they wanted to be there for Lindsey and, little did she know, but Isaac was planning to propose to her outside the temple that evening. Because they were working on getting the pipe fix we just continued on that day with the plan that we'd still be going. We decided to exercise our faith.  Isaac's parents got in to town. We visited for a bit and then were headed out to go for lun