I blinked and madelynn is 6

Dear Madelynn, the been 6 years since you made your debut into this strange world. 6 years since I heard your screams and remember seeing tears in your daddy’s eyes at how absolutely perfect you were. We didn’t know in that moment you’d be our only daughter, but we savored it. 

And while you are our only girl, you my daughter are enough. You love so big. We call you little momma because you take care of Clark the way a momma would. You always ask if Spike is kicking yet because you are so excited to feel him move. Even though you (and I) were really sad when we found out he was a boy, you were excited to love him regardless. Your heart can fit so much love in it.  

We are so proud of all you are learning. You are an amazing reader and ask to read us books all the time. You love learning and you love school. Your teacher, Ms Riley, has great things to say about you. You love her and I know she loves you. It makes sending you to school every day so much easier. 

You love dance, soccer, and gymnastics. You were really sad when I said you had to choose only 2 next year. But your #1 love is soccer followed closely by gymnastics. Your gymnastics teacher last night came up to me and told me how good of a job you are doing and said in the pit you were doing some things her older girls are working on! We love your spirit. You try your hardest at all you do. I hope you always stay passionate. I hope you see your dreams and chase them. I guess chase them is the wrong wording. I hope you make a plan and you work as hard as you can to make it happen. 

Madelynn, continue to learn and grow. And remember you won’t always be the best at everything but as long as your being your best, that is perfectly okay. I hope you can find the good in every situation and be kind to everyone you meet. You don’t have to be friends with everyone but you should always make people feel good about themselves. I read a quote “be the kind of woman who fixes another’s crown without telling anyone it was messed up”. Be that lady! 

When life gets tough, you be tougher. And remember you have a mom and dad who will always be there to help you out. We may disagree but we love you and want the best for you. And more importantly, remember you have Heavenly Parents who love you and want all the good for you. That doesn’t mean trials won’t come, it just means you can turn to us and Them in all things. 

We love you our girl, Madelynn Rochelle!

And so we stay

I guess it’s time to write this. The story behind the past few months for us.
In August Brent and I flew to Idaho to check out a job opportunity. Our plan for the past 5-6 years has been to move to Boise. It became even more one of my goals when my sister decided she was moving out there. 

While there we knew the job wasn’t perfect but this is what we really wanted. We prayed hard about it, we fasted about it, and honestly, we never got an answer either way. This frustrated me because this was a big decision for our family. In the end, we decided to take the risk and move. 

We put our house on the market and within a few days we had 2 offers! Things were working out awesome. Brent was planning to leave the end of September. Some dear friends had said the kids and I could stay with them until thanksgiving, when we thought we’d join Brent. 

Then things starting falling apart. The house sale fell through. Brent was having issues with insurance in Idaho so we decided he would wait and move after our cruise which was the 1st week of November. 

We felt good and this decision and had tons of fun on our trip! We got home and the next day Brent packed up and headed to Idaho. I surprised myself with how well I was doing alone with the kids. I missed Brent so much but knew I was doing this for our future. We booked Brent a plane ticket home to visit for Christmas and having an end date, even temporary, in sight made life okay. Plus I have some great friends around here who were willing to help and distract me some too. 

But while Brent was in Idaho, they were not giving him the days of work. They were having scheduling issues. They didn’t have enough staff. It was kind of a mess. He found other places that were hiring but what we thought was what we really wanted, just didn’t seem to be working out. 

We talked a lot about it. We aren’t quitters and wanted this to work out. But all signs pointed us staying in TN. I’ll be honest, there is a lot of pride to swallow when you thought you were doing the right thing, and it doesn’t work. I felt like we failed. And why when we prayed so hard did we not receive the answer to just stay. We lost and spent so much money during this, we were apart for 6 weeks, we had already packed 70% of our house, donated/sold a ton of our stuff. My friend Laura directed me to a talk that I’ve read so many times during the past few weeks, https://www.lds.org/new-era/2005/07/wrong-roads-and-revelation?lang=eng.

Maybe Brent and I had to experience all of this to be okay with us being here for longer. It did make me realize I love where we live. We are really blessed. 

I mourn not living close to my family there, not living close to Brent’s family but the reality is, we have made friends here that are like family. We are surrounded with people we love and that love us. 

I know this is longer than probably necessary, and I know I don’t have to explain myself about us not moving. For a while, I was embarrassed because i thought of it as a failure, but in reality, we were brave enough to try! 

Elijah turns 7

Elijah, 7 years ago you made me a mother. You are my first born. When I went to the hospital to have you, I was so nervous and excited. After laboring unsuccessfully, I had a csection. At the time, I felt like that the laboring was over. Boy was I wrong. I labor with you daily. Motherhood is filled with long laboring days. 

It is a labor of love and pure exhaustion. 

Elijah, I’m glad I get to labor with you daily. I have the opportunity to watch you learn and grow. There are days it makes me crazy, days when you make me crazy but I’m glad we get to grow together. 

Your love of God is such an example to me. You have a firm knowledge of your Savior. I’m impressed each fast Sunday that you go bear your testimony. It’s strong and sincere. You are a light! Don’t ever be embarrassed to share that light with others. 

You are mostly a good big brother. You generally will help out when I need the help. Sometimes you like to aggravate the other kids. You also try to parent them; especially since daddy has been in Idaho. It drives me insane but I also see it comes from a good place. 

You are a math wiz and becoming smarter every day. You don’t love doing your homework but I know it’s important so we fight through it. You are one of the top readers but are still really reluctant to do it. Be confident son! You are ama I gotta and will do amazing things. 

You love to play soccer and are pretty good at it to. And you are in an all boy gymnastics class currently too. You are getting really at it too. I love watching you. 

You love all animals and dream of becoming an explorer. You want to teach every one to be kind to all God’s creatures. I am slowly learning not to kill spiders but to let them go. 

You have a big heart. You are a tender soul. Even now you love to be cuddled by your momma. And I love to cuddle you. Remember to always be a force for good. Remember who you are are what your goal is. Love you always. 

Clark is one

Dearest Clark,

I know it’s cliche to say but this year really did fly by fast! We blinked and you turned one. The first few months of your life was really hard on us but whenever we looked at you dear sweet boy, it was sunshine on a very cloudy day. You have added so much joy to our family. 

You started walking about 6 weeks ago and since then, you have been one busy boy. We can hardly keep up with you. Not only are you everywhere, you are into everything! You no longer want me to hold you because you’ve decided you need down to explore. 

You are not a fan of other people, you will smile at them but if they try to hold you, you cry. But that smile quickly melts people. 

You love your blankie and carry it everywhere. You look so cute with it. You love to wear it like a scarf. 

You think daddy is the best person in the entire universe! You are such a daddy’s boy. You’ll even refuse to come to me if he is around. 

We are so happy to have you as our littlest person. Being a parent is hard, but you bring so much sunshine! We daydream of what/who are kids will be, be kind! That is the most important thing you can be. Be courageous, humble, a leader ( and follower if needed), determined, and gracious. When life throws hard things at you, you get to choose how to respond. Remember to always find the sunshine. And remember how much your earthy parents love you and even more importantly how much your heavenly parents do. 

Love you Clark Michael Adamson! Let your light shine. 

Happy Birthday love Mimi and Grandpa

Happy 4^th Birthday

to you, Nolan!

It’s hard to believe that you are only 4 because you keep up so well with the “big” kids. It’s easy to think of you as 6 or 7 which you often claim you are, silly boy! We love the pure joy and happiness you add to our family.

This past year has been a wonderful one and we were excited to get to come to visit all of you in Tennessee for Christmas and Clark’s baby blessing.  Suddenly, you were the BIG brother!  We had a great time at Christmas playing games, reading books, doing puzzles, opening presents, singing songs, and celebrating the birth of our Savior together.  You and Elijah slept in Maddie’s room while we visited and Grandpa and I were just next door.  Sometimes, you three had a hard time going to sleep…you giggled too much!  One night we kept yelling down the stairs, “Go to sleep or we will come down there!”  You three kept goofing around so I came down the stairs stomping my feet a bit so you would be warned.  You three immediately quieted down and pretended to be asleep.  So, I just sat quietly in the family room.  After a few minutes of quiet I heard you say, “Wow, that was a close call!”

I started to laugh!  You can be so funny that it’s hard to stay mad at you!  You have a great sense of humor.  And you are so smart, you know just when to make a joke!

We didn’t expect to see you until summer time but our dear Grandma Adamson passed away in March 2018.  Your whole family decided to come out for the funeral.  We were so glad that you did so you could say good bye to our sweet Grandma.  You, along with all the other members of our family, sang, “Love Is Spoken Here” at the funeral.  It was a good description of the kind of home Grandma and Grandpa Adamson had which was a blessing to all of us.  We all spent some time at Grandma’s home visiting with the family before and after the funeral.  We decided we needed to pick some lemons one last time and make lemonade in honor of Grandma Adamson. You may not have many memories of her as you grow up but she loved you a lot and enjoyed every visit you and your family made to see her and Grandpa.  She was proud of all of her children, grandchildren, and GREAT grandchildren and especially YOU!

Summer is our favorite time of year because you and your family come to California to visit us.  We look forward to having so much fun.  This past month you arrived.  We had fun swimming at our neighbor’s pool and going to the Ward Barbecue where you rode horses, jumped in a bounce house, went down the water slides, and ate lots of yummy food.  We also watched Paw Patrol and Wild Kratts, played Candy Land and Guess Who, read books, did puzzles, took walks, made treasure boxes, and had campfires where we made s’mores.  But our favorite thing was going to the beach.  You were so brave this year and spent most of the time boogie boarding with Elijah. Grandpa and Bryant helped you boys and you caught a lot of waves.  After a big wave caused you to wipe out, you got up and said, “Now I am a real surfer dude!  We always have wipeouts!” 

So, a very Happy Birthday

 to our Surfer Dude!

We love you so much, Nolan LeGrand Adamson.  You are one of a kind!                                                   

                          Love, Mimi and Grandpa   August 18, 2018