The Last Week with "The Girl"

These last few weeks have been such a wonderful and much needed experience for my family. Having Ari/ the Girl here with us has been such a blessing. I have greatly needed the time with my boys. She was such a big help and made it all possible. She just loves my boys and did so much to help lift the burden of me being stuck in bed.

Who's better at Just Dance? Ari or Rhev? 

It was a pretty close competition, but I think they both won. You can tell by the smiles on their faces.

Sunday we had quite a busy day. Sunday is the one day a week I'm guaranteed a chance to get out of the house. I Love Sundays! I love going to church. I have a really hard time missing sacrament meeting. In the 8 years we've been married I have only had to miss church 5 times. Church gets me through each week.

Ari looked especially beautiful on Sunday. She had her new dress to wear. She teased me that I was more excited about her new dress then she was and lets face it, I probably was. It is so cute!

After Sacrament meeting we left to go to Torrey's ordination to a priest. I still can't believe that boy is sixteen. Following the ordination, we had lunch and chit-chatting at Janae's house. While Ari was here she got to spend quite a bit of time with Tyce's extended family and she soon found out just how wonderful Tyce's Grandma is. Ari loved her the most. She said "I was a complete stranger and she hugged me like I was her own granddaughter". Yep that's our Grandma Christensen. She is such a neat and wonderful lady. It was fun to share that with Ari.

In the evening we headed over to Luke Grandma's house to see Lori and her family before they left. 

The boys had fun playing with the Dora Castle.

The adults were able to get a few card games in while they played. During our gaming, Rhev walked in a told me he had a surprise for me. I closed my eyes and waited. When I opened them, this is what I saw.

He had made me some soup. He took toys from each box in the play room and mixed me up a soup. It was the most delicious soup I have ever tasted :) It was a really proud moment for my boy.

Monday is also a great day at my house. Cleaning/ Laundry day. Thanks to my wonderful Mom/ maid, my house gets cleaned and laundry done at least once a week. I don't know what I would do without her. It is such a huge relief to me to have a clean house. I am such a "clean-a fobe" and it kills me to lay in bed when I know my house is a mess. I have a really hard time staying down when it's messy. I can't express in words my gratitude for my dear mother being so diligent and taking care of me. She only thought 8 years ago when I got married and moved out that she was done being my slave. Now she's my slave more then ever. I love her so much.

Kim also came out to my house on Monday. Only she didn't do any cleaning. No, she weeded my whole garden! That's right the whole thing. My garden looks better this year then it even has thanks to all my family. We were really worried about doing a garden this year because we knew I wouldn't be able to do anything, but a year with no garden is a year with no food storage. It just wasn't something that we could risk not having. I am so thankful for our selfless families that take care of us. Kim has her own garden at home to take care of and instead she gave up her day of weeding her garden to come and do mine. She is such a great example.

Later in the afternoon, Ari decided Rhev really needed to have a "cool" train track set up. So while he was away swimming at Candy Grandmas, she got one set up. She managed to use all the pieces but three.

He was pretty excited about it! I is the best track he has ever had.

Once Trayvn woke from his nap, Ari kept him distracted from making messes and got him to color in a coloring book from Aunt Lori. I could not believe how long he sat there with her coloring. Rhev would NEVER sit for that long. It was so cute. I love that I finally have a little colorer. 

The coloring book came with stickers, so of course that meant you wear them on your face:)

Tuesday, when Tyce wasn't out fixing pipe issues, he managed to get the camper ready for us to go on a camping trip. Thanks to Ari the carpets in the camper were all shampooed and clean and all the camper supplies were restocked in the camper. Rhev has been begging to go camping for weeks. So Tyce loaded us up and off we headed on a 5 mile drive to "Cow Creek".  Cow Creek is a pasture in Moreland that Tyce's uncle owns. It is the perfect place for a quick camping trip or just an evening roasting marshmallows. The boys don't know the difference from going there and going into the mountains. That was the only way I could go camping with them and Tyce could still do his pipe. It worked out great and the boys were just happy to be camping.

Once we turned into Cow Creek, the boys and Ari climbed in the back of the truck to ride the rest of the way in.

Once we got to our spot, Tyce unloaded the 4 wheeler and off Ari and the boys went. They had quite the adventure exploring the old rock house that's there and all sorts of things. Ari is so good to them. When they got back, Ari and I headed over to my parents house to grab some hot dog buns. Tyce sent me this picture of Rhev to my phone.

He had gotten up there all by his self :)

Upon returning, we found the boys were nowhere in sight. After a minute, a couple cute little giggles and some red boots gave away their hiding spot. 

Can you see them?

I don't know hoe Tyce managed to get both of them up in the tree. He said both of them were just as content as could be climbing a tree. Trayvn especially had no fear and loved every minute. 

Ari had to help him get them out.

First Trayvn

Then Rhev.

Tyce was on his own :)

After tree climbing and Dad got the fire started, the boys spent some time throwing rocks in the ditch.

They were a muddy mess!

We roasted hot dogs for dinner. When we finished (around 8:00) Rhev asked if he could go to bed. I think he was just so excited to sleep in the camper that he couldn't handle it any more. So Trayvn and Ari went for another ride and Rhev went to bed. Tyce and I were finally able to have some quite time, just the 2 of us, and talk. It has been months since he was able to just sit and relax and not be so worried about pipe or getting stuff done on the house.

Luke Grandma and Grandpa came a while later. Grandpa switched Ari and Grandma went in the camper to lay with Rhev. It was such a sweet moment for the 2 of them. Once it was dark we all went over and roasted  marshmallow. Candy Grandma, Brielle, Kayl and Chase also came to join us. Trayvn was quite the little performer.

He loved all the attention and gave us quite the show. I think he burnt about a half a bag of marshmallows, but it was sure cute.

Once it got late, everyone headed else headed home. Tyce, Ari, Trayvn and I headed to the camper for bed. We put Trayvn to sleep in the tub. He loved the echo of the bathroom so for a few minutes he quietly serenade us to sleep. The next morning, Tyce woke up early to go do pipe and the boys woke up not long after that because the cows were right next to our camper bellering.  So we had breakfast and Ari took them on a walk. Once Tyce returned, we headed back home. 

It was a quick trip, but it was totally worth every minute.

Later that afternoon we had to send Ari home. It's been 2 1/2 weeks of fun having her and my boys home with me. I was so sad to see it end. We had such a good time with Ari and my boys love her so much. When Rhev woke up from his nap yesterday the first thing he said was "Where's the Girl mom".  My boys just loved her. She made them feel so special and loved them every minute. Never once did she get frustrated and annoyed with them like most teenagers would.

I loved having the company there and having someone to talk to. This house has been so quiet today as it's my first day home alone again. I miss Ari like crazy! She was such a blessing to have her around and I will remember the time we had together forever! Thank you a million times over Ariana!