Hello..It's Me

Oh hiii. Been a while. So here's what I'm thinking - I'm going to share a little about what we've been up to this school year so I can move on to other posts I've been wanting to share with you 7 people that actually read my blog :)

I feel like every other week I take a pic that I want to share, then get distracted, then weeks go by and I'm sad I never shared it with the world. Anybody else out there? So here is a random feast of pics signifying we actually have lives out here in Missouri.

Back in October, (once we finally got over the shock that our Taylor Swift concert experience was in fact not a dream but real life!) I slipped away to Ohio with my mom and brother to check on my grandpa and visit other family. Really I just wanted to find some beautiful autumn trees because Kansas City was lacking a bit. And I found some :)

When I got back home, our stake had split because we had too many wards (which is always a good problem to have.) Because of those changes and losing people that had been in stake callings, I was released as the relief society president in our ward. I was called to be in the stake primary presidency, which I am loving. Who wouldn't love getting to travel around to different primaries each week?! :) 

Cam also received a new calling- he was released from being ward mission leader, and was called to be the Elders quorum president. So the stress level in our home didn't actually leave. It has only magnified as my sweet husband now tries to juggle studying with making time for each of the elders in his quorum, and encouraging many to come back to full activity in the church. It is humbling for us to serve in these leadership positions though. We are amazed and how much the Lord believes we can continually handle.

The stretch between October and Thanksgiving we..

Sent another incredible missionary home :( 

Celebrated the Royals' World Series win! 

Had a visit from the Kings & cheered on BYU when they came to play against Missouri. Soo many Mormons in one very large NFL football stadium! And please note me in my Aggie attire :) ha I don't own anything BYU...sorry. 

Skyped into little sister's birthday party~ complete with dessert!

And enjoyed these gorgeous red trees surrounding our temple!

For Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to join my family in California. My siblings were competing in a ballroom competition that weekend. We not only got to watch them dance again, which I always love, but we also got to spend a day at Disneyland! Cam and grandma were good sports during the long day of fun :)

In December I finally got a haircut :) AND just before we headed home for Christmas, I performed with the Many Moods of Christmas Choir & Orchestra. It is a community choir/orchestra that has been performing for the past 3 years. This year I had the opportunity to be the assistant director and help get the choir ready for the performance. I also got to be the guitar soloist in one of the movements - a once in a lifetime thing for me because guitar is most definitely not my strong suit :) I think I was more nervous for that then I have been for any other solo in my life. But it was fun. And I got to do the whole thing with wonderful friends, so it was great. 

 

Then Christmas finally came! We had a blast being home with our families!

I also have to brag about the gift I made for my brother-in-law this year. That's about as crafty as I get people, so this was a big deal! 

And I was so grateful I was in town for my dear friend Hannah's wedding reception. I love her so. 

That is one of the harder things living so far away is having to watch from a distance all these incredible girls I have met and taught with EFY & BBY growing up and doing awesome things like getting married in the temple. I'm grateful when I'm in town and get to be in their light :)

And just like that we made it to January!

Highlights this far have been...

Cam got a free selfie stick from school! haha. We have yet to discover its true potential..

Survived another crazy day of freezer meal making with these lovelies!

Got to play Uncle Cam & Aunt Rebecca for a couple days while their mom welcomed in baby boy #3 to the family! Love this KC family of ours.

Thanks to my friend Meghan, I finally got to go to the KC symphony hall downtown! We had world renowned guest pianist Jeremy Denk doing a free master class this past weekend, and I loved every minute of the 2 hours I was there. It was incredible. I didn't realize how much my little heart missed being around others who have a love for and knowledge of classical music. It was so refreshing to laugh with people who understand nerdy jokes about diatonic scales, dissonance, and lines such as "make sure your pinky isn't angry by default." I think my favorite thing he shared was, "You have technic to make the musical phrase..but if everything is so structured, you lose the opportunity for the music to breathe. Find the balance." 

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And lastly our newest hobby: puzzle making! We've been trying to think of different hobbies we could come up with to do together that don't involve netflix, and we thought we'd give puzzles a try. To our amazement, we actually love it! It not only forces us to talk to each other, but the puzzles of Thomas Kinkade Disney paintings are beautiful :) And we got 4 for the price of 1, so we love it even more!

Happy February! Feels good to be caught up finally :)