Way To Go Todd!

This is so GREAT!  (I hated Econ 110 at BYU!!)  Todd, you will accomplish great things!  Keep up the good work!  We are all proud of you!!

Shelby's Baby Shower...

Mom, Robin, Katelyn and I drove out to Gilbert to the Baldwin’s house this morning for Shelby's baby shower.  It was so cleverly decorated with a Winnie the Pooh theme.  (She’s decorating the nursery in that theme.)  It was sooo cute!!  She got a lot of really cute things!  It was such a cute shower and so fun to be there to celebrate this little Baldwin baby boy that's about to make his debut!  (He doesn't have a name yet.)  I think Shelby is going to have that baby before February 11^th.  (The Dr. moved it up from the 18^th to the 11th, but I think he's coming before that...)  We are all excited for you Shelby!!!  Enjoy your little man!!!

A Fun Text Message From Megan!

Megan sent these in a text I got from her this week.  Some pretty incriminating photos I must say!  (Todd is on the left in the naked buns picture.)  He was always in blue and Tanner was always in red...  Pretty cute kid!  These pictures might show up again sometime/somewhere as blackmail!  

Minnesota We Love You!

This is what I found when I looked up the Minnesota weather for Minneapolis this morning!  This isn't even how cold it really gets there... they must be having a "warm" spell right now!  Brooke seriously doesn't comprehend the cold that she will experience during the winters in her mission! 

BROOKE GOT HER MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it’s official! Brooke is going to Minneapolis Minnesota! At least she is getting some practice with the cold in Provo... poor AZ girl!! The people of Minnesota and Canada will love your warm, witty and fun personality Brooke! They will also be blessed by your goodness and testimony of the gospel! Minneapolis Minnesota Mission you are getting a good one!! We are so excited for you Brooke!! You will be one amazing missionary!!

Here's my journal excerpt with all the emotions I was feeling that day... 

Tuesday I woke up after having dreams about Brooke’s mission… I dreamt that she went to Manaus, Brazil and then ended up in London!  I couldn’t stop thinking about her mission all day—then about 3:00pm she called me and told me that she’d received the email for her mission call!  We’d talked earlier that day wondering when it would come.  Bill said they usually come on Mondays or Tuesdays with the new email system, and he was right!  So she decided she wanted to open it quietly by herself beforehand, and then later on have everyone over to the dorm lobby for her to “open” it then.  It was decided that she would open it at 10pm because that accommodated everyone who wanted to be there including Megan and Todd and Dad—mainly Dad because he had meetings until late that night.  So Katelyn and I “stayed up” watching Minute to Win it on TV to kill the time!  (That’s really late for us to just stay up on a week night and Katelyn didn’t have any homework either, so normally she would’ve been fast asleep as well, by that time!)  Brooke and I were texting back and forth while we were waiting and she gave me some clues and I kind of guessed it, but she didn’t tell me that I’d guessed it until she read her call later!  SHE IS GOING TO MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA!  That poor girl is going to freeze into a human ice cube during their winters!  (She’d mentioned that she wanted to go somewhere tropical!!  Hahahaha!)  She is truly super excited about her call and recognized after the fact that she was nervous about going foreign, even though she’d put down that she would love to learn a new language.  She told me that she really was nervous about going really far away from home.  Well as a mom, I was too!  I think it would be hard to send my 19 year old daughter really far away!  I was 21 when I left for my mission and had lived away from home for 3 years, so it was different back then.  Now I have the ease and comfort of mailing packages that will arrive, and the security of knowing she’s in the good old USA!  (Although part of her mission is in Canada!)  Canada is safe too, though.  This mission is the same one Adam Holmes just returned from and he’d already texted her to tell her he’d sit down with her and tell her everything she needs to know about that mission!  (He’s up at BYU too.)  I thought that was really nice!  Word carries fast!  (Especially with social media!)  Many people came to her dorm to see her open her call… Skylar Silva, Allie Hart (who lives there), several of the girls she graduated with who are up there from our stake, even Tyler Crump went over to see it!  (I think I saw Tanner Polley, Todd's twin there in the video as well.)  I thought that was really cool!  And of course Todd and Megan were there and CC too!  Megan took pictures for me and Todd took video of the whole thing!  It all turned out GREAT!  Well needless to say, I couldn’t go to sleep and I got on Facebook and joined the parent support group AND the Mission group!  I also posted in Missionary Mommas (which I haven’t done in FOREVER!) and also my own page, along with Instagram, as well.  I was up late looking through all the pictures and video Megan and Todd sent me and watching the video over and over again.  I just couldn’t go to bed!  The next day Brooke called and we were both buzzing with all that had to be done as we looked through her mission checklist and discussed the clothing she would need to get.  We have 5 months to prepare though, so plenty of time!  She reports to the Provo MTC on June 19^th!  (Hopefully she’ll be home before Christmas in 2020!)  Wednesday morning I ordered a Minnesota Flag on Amazon and got it by Thursday!  J  I know Brooke is truly excited about her call!  She can't wait to serve the people of Minnesota!  

Below is a screenshot of the notification Brooke was sent from the Church Missionary Department!  It's so weird that it comes via email now!!  The next two pictures are snap chat notifications that Brooke sent out to notify everyone about her mission call opening.  My favorite picture, though, is the close up of Brooke holding her call letter.  She has the look of pure happiness on her face.  One of complete peace, joy and contentment with her call!  (The map with everyone's guesses is behind her!)  Then afterward, cute Todd and Megan took her our for ice cream to celebrate!  They are so good to do these things when Bill and I couldn't be there to revel in the excitement with them!!!  We sure are excited and happy for Brooke!  She will have such an amazing mission and I am happy so for her as she begins this adventure!!  

A Bike Ride, Rio Vista Park For A Pic Nic Lunch and Rock Climbing!

We biked 6 miles round trip to Rio Vista park today as a family to enjoy some time together on our Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday!  It's fun to have a Monday off every now and then!  We biked down there and then enjoyed some sub sandwiches for lunch!  It was a beautiful day-- cold and windy, but beautiful!  Katelyn reminisced about playing at this park when she was little and how much bigger that rocket ship seemed!  We enjoyed rock climbing, but it was really hard!  I had run 6 miles that morning, plus the bike ride down there... by the time I got on that wall my muscles were shot!  Plus it doesn't help that I have horrible grip strength and forearm strength!  I found out you really need those 2 things in rock climbing!  It was fun though!!  Katelyn even tried climbing up the rope!  She got almost all the way up!  We were all pretty tired!  She and Dad got the last pictures on the way home... McKenzie and I were still a ways back-- McKenzie decided she didn't want to ride anymore and walked part of the way home.  Below is Katelyn doing a reenactment of when Brooke ran into this bush, or one near here when we did this bike ride several years ago.  We sent it to her today and she laughed!  She got pretty scraped up-- it was a really prickly bush!  It was a fun day!!!  I really enjoy being outdoors and the weather right now is gorgeous!