My Definition of Charity

Over and over again, Nathan and I have been struck by the overwhelming generosity and love of so many who've reached out to us during our move. More than once it has brought us to tears. The Lord does hear us but it is usually through another that he answers our prayers. Thank you all for your help.

Nathan and I were talking on the way home from church about all of the amazing people that have reached out to us. One guy that we hardly know volunteered himself to load the trailer. We have been so touched. Neither of us is very comfortable asking for help. We decided that service is when you help someone, as you're asked to do--pretty simple, but Charity is when you see or feel a need and take it upon yourself to fill it. So many of you have been that example of Charity to us. That is being truly Christlike. I have a learned a lot from you--especially in the past few weeks. Thanks for that love. You are the greatest. Love Michelle, Nathan, and The Boys

I know I won't remember everything that everyone has done for us, but I hope that by writing a few down, we'll recognize the Lord's hand more fully in our lives now and in the future.

Arnolds- As soon as we found out that we'd soon be moving, the Arnold's recognized that we needed some peace. They knew we would no long be able to participate in trading off babysitting but they asked when they could watch the boys so we could go to the temple temple. Boy did we need it. Nathan made the comment that he had never felt such a huge need to get to the temple. The next week they called to let us know that they were babysitting some other kids and expected us to drop the boys by so we could get more done on the move.

Karma-Just after we found out about the move Karma bought and brought over boxes, tape, and all kinds of good moving stuff. Then she connected us with a friend who had a connection to produce boxes. Sent me with lots of love and treats from the primary.

Richard-Came over to help deliver boxes with Karma and offered to drive to UT with Nathan

Larets-Came by to check up on us and brought boxes and bubble wrap

Judds-Saved boxes for us to use.

Clara-Called up insisting on taking the kids off my hands (more than once) so I could pack (when she brought them back she also dropped off a homemade dinner so I'd have less to do), bought me dinner as one last girls night out, organized, helped us sort out all of unknowns with renting out our house, helped us clean and pack up (and found others willing to help and sent them our way), and held a birthday party for Caleb! The night we were driving out of town, she brought over a home cooked dinner to share with us while we finalized things. She has continued to call and check up on us since the move.

Beth-Packed lots of boxes (on one of the days she was over helping, she insisted that I work on a cake and games for Daniel's birthday party while she did all of the packing up), bought me a farewell dinner, learned to use fondant (amazing) to make a "Nightmare" birthday cake for Caleb.

Will- He was the first to come help us pack up the truck (both times) and even came back after everyone left to make sure everything was taken care of. He is a total workhorse!

Nybergs-They sought us out at church, even though we didn't know them very well, and volunteered to load the trailer

Kristi and Fabio- Kristi offered me one of the books from her classroom set that I've borrowed in the past to take with me. Fabio arranged for a trailer and helped load it so that he and Nathan could take a load out early to UT. He also cleaned off old computer CPUs, and they both collected boxes for us.

Stephanie-Called another friend who'd just moved so that we could have their unpacked boxes.

Pres. Fisher--Called us to express his love and his knowledge of the Lord's love for us.

Bishop-Made time to give Nathan a blessing and talk when things were tough.

Smiths-Babysat the kids so we could pack with less stress.

Nathan's work-Stan, Sheryl, Steven Benson, CORGN unit, made activity bags for the boys on our trip out. Others contributed generously to gift cards (RECO), to make our move easier.

Jen MacDonald- Organized a night out with girls (and bought me the biggest dish of icecream I've ever seen), and helped with babysitting the kids while we packed, and then came over to help us pack all of the miscellaneous stuff that you find near the end of packing. She also made activity bags for the kids and brought over snacks for the drive out. She did all of that while still trying to recover from surgery!

Laura and Kevin Sims- Helped watch he kids, helped me make a 'Mission Impossible' birthday video for Daniel's birthday and did lots of packing up.

Alconcels-Acted on a prompting to drop by and visit us. f

Fitzhughs-Offered one of Rodney's famous dinners (we'll either come out and visit to take you up on that or have you out here!).

MaryAnn Perry-Made cute snowmen for boys with a card to get them excited for the move, brought over pizza and strawberries, and picked up bags of extra toys etc. that we didn't want to move.

Carel Yarwood- Arranged for Nathan's skype interview, called to tell me that I didn't need to arrange for music ahead of time for the weeks prior to leaving (she didn't know what she would be playing for primary until the day of), took time out from her son's wedding planning to come to our girls' night. Has called to check up on us here in UT.

Bro. Dillard-We didn't even know him until he showed up at our door asking if he could help. It was the wrong day, and we had car and dentist appointments so we sent him home--but he came back the next day and spent a big part of his day loading the small trailer for the first load out.

My mom and dad- Came out to help us with packing and loading, and driving. The first night my dad received a call informing him that his basement in Logan, UT had flooded. Instead of rushing back he just did what he could to help us--he even spent his birthday driving and unloading our things into a storage shed. Mom made arrangements for our freezer food to be stored, and rearranged her house to fit all of my photo albums etc.

Lynch family- Made snacks and fun stuff for our trip out, and arranged for final play dates with the boys. Stacy came for my girls' night out.

My mom says she's worried that we won't like it in Utah as much as we liked it in California because of all our amazing friends. We truly have felt so loved. Now we just need to remember all of that love and take it with us to others in our new ward and neighborhood. Thanks again for everything.

Does Santa go to Utah?

Last week Liam asked "Does Santa go to Utah?". I assured him that yes, Santa does visit Utah, so long as the kids are good. Liam is still young enough that he hasn't objected much to the move. He has worried a little about starting kindergarten in a new place. (If only I knew where that would be!) He is really excited to be close to cousins and grandparents. He also wants to go to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum. He has been sad a few times about leaving his friends.

Daniel is (as you might imagine) a totally different story. The night we had our family meeting to tell him about our move he cried and cried. He kept saying, "I don't want to move. What about my friends?" We told him that we might have a big enough yard to get a dog in Utah. Daniel informed me that he no longer wanted a dog, he just wanted to stay where we were. (Daniel has wanted a dog for so long that those words just broke my heart! Of course he has gone back on that now and keeps trying to tell us which kind we'll get. Mostly he picks Dalmatian, or bulldogs. Neither are the type we want to get.) Next he gave us the silent treatment. We decided we needed ice cream to smooth things over, but we practically had to carry him out to the car. (Most of us in our family can be bought with ice cream.) He didn't speak on the way there. He finally started talking a few words when we dished up. We told him that Utah is the ice cream capitol of the world and he seemed to like that idea. We told him about all of the fun things to see and do in Utah. We reminded him that we would get to live closer to grandparents and cousins. Daniel suggested that we stay in our house and just let the extended family move closer to us. We promised Daniel that we'd get addresses from his friends to write letters to. Nathan and I told him that we'd both moved when we were his age and about all of the new friends we'd made. Daniel is still very worried about starting at a new school. He cried that he couldn't cut the trees out that I'd painted in his bedroom to bring with us. He also wanted to bring the plum, pear, and peach trees from the backyard. We tried to assure him that we'd let him pick out a tree to plant when we find a new house.

I don't know how much Caleb has understood about the move. Sometimes he got upset when we packed up boxes. He kept telling everyone he would find a new house in Utah. Mostly, I think Caleb was upset because all of this moving and packing stuff really messed up most of our routines. He's been very grumpy.

Caleb's Nightmare Birthday

Back in March when it was Liam's birthday, Caleb started telling us that he wanted a "nightmare birthday". We were a little confused at first until I realized that Caleb was talking about one of his favorite books, There's a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Meyer. Caleb loves the book and he can basically 'read' it to us. Caleb wanted a 'Nightmare' birthday cake. (The Nightmare is very cute in the book.) I told some of my friends about it and planned on making it for him, but when we found out that we'd be moving, the plans were put on hold.

I am still amazed as I write this...My friends decided that it just would not due for us to put off Caleb's birthday, so they decided to throw him a party! They knew about the nightmare request and decided to make sure he got what he wanted. What a lucky 3-year-old. We read the kids the Nightmare book and then Clara had the kids decorate punch balloons to make their own nightmares. They were really cute. They had lots of fun playing in bubbles and running around the park.

Clara took charge of food for the whole group. A yummy feast.

Beth took on the whole "Nightmare cake". She had a friend who had planned to teach her how to work with fondant, but at the last minute had to cancel. Any sane person would have just bagged it and done the normal cake thing...but I did say any SANE person and it is Beth we are talking about. She decided she could figure it all out by herself and did a really cute job. Caleb was thrilled. (When he first got to the party, we showed him the cake and he wanted to skip everything else.)

Caleb had hugs for all of his sweet friends. He totally loves this air plane that Jennifer gave him.

His brothers picked out a present for him too. Hugs, hugs, hugs.

OK, not one of our more polite moments...Caleb opened a gift of clothes and instead saying thank you--first he stuck out his tongue. I guess we'll forgive the birthday boy.

I'm so glad we got to celebrate with our close friends. It meant a lot to the birthday boy, but maybe even more to the mom of the sweet 3-year-old. What an amazing group of friends we have. We love you guys.

Grandma was here to help with the move--but she also spoiled the birthday boy.