You've Got Mail!

Lately it seems like the universe is trying to tell me something about the order of my house. It started a few weeks ago when I spent the entire day cleaning my house from top to bottom, only to have it completely annihilated within a few hours. I was so frustrated I "boycotted" cleaning my house for the next few days. That's when it got really really messy. We're talking out of control messy. Which equaled more and more frustration with the help I've been getting... or not getting I should say.


A few days later I saw a post on one of the blogs I follow with a cute idea of how to encourage your kids to do their part. The post showed little letter sized chore cards that had point values assigned to them. They then had two sets of mailboxes; one for each child and one for the parents. In the morning the mom would put the "letters" into their mailboxes showing them which chores they needed to complete. The mom would then flip the flag up to let them know they have mail. When the chore is complete they put the chore card back into the mommy/daddy mailbox to track points earned. I knew as soon as I read the idea that it would be perfect for my kids. They LOVE to pretend to play mailman! I put this idea on the back burner and continued my daily routine for a few days.


That next Sunday our 1st counselor in YW was teaching a lesson on organization/cleanliness/attitudes. She had the girls (and leaders) do a quick word association with words like Home, Parents, Dark, My Room, Messy. You should have seen the words I associated with my room and messy.... not pretty. One of my answers was literally "Ughhhh!" I knew that I needed to make a change in this home.



Yet again, a few days later my husband and I went to Target to do some birthday shopping for Jon's oldest son, Trevor. When we passed the dollar section I noticed these: (SOOOO EXCITED!) PERFECT! So each of us have our own little mailbox that will have our chores in it. I then went and created a few little letters with the chores I hold my kids responsible for using paint.net and laminated the letters.

I haven't implemented our new system yet because Zoey's been sick all week but I can't wait! The kids are pretty excited too. I'll let you know how it goes!

Kind of a dumb random post but it's pretty much all that's going on in my little life. hee hee I'll write more next week when we get home from our quick trip to Roosevelt.

2010- An Amazing End to an Amazing Year!

I'm preparing my lesson for Young Women's this Sunday and I took a minute to look back over this year. What an amazing year 2010 has been. It's been full of ups and downs and I'm happy to look back and say.... every single minute has been worth it all. (Totally choking back tears as I type this) Our family has been so blessed, I want to take a minute to reflect over each month and how it's made our family and myself so much stronger.

January- With little Tanner B having just joined our family, it became crystal clear that something was missing in our little family. We had been inactive members of the LDS church for almost the entire time we had been married and knew that we could not raise another child that doesn't know his Father in Heaven. Just two weeks after Tanner was born we made it back to church and have only missed a few Sunday's as we traveled or kids were sick. It feels amazing. We have such an amazing ward family who has made our transition so much easier and our lives have been infinitely blessed by doing the things that we are supposed to.

February - With the passing of my Grandma's husband it became even more clear how important it was for our family to get our ducks in a row. In a meeting with our bishop we were able to set a goal for Jon to be ordained an Elder and have a rough goal set for becoming an Eternal family.

March- Jon and I received our first callings since we went back to church. I was called to be a Relief Society teacher which has blessed me in so many ways. I learned so much through the calling and I loved every minute of it. Jon was called to be a Sunday school teacher for the youth. Even though his class is very small, often with only one young man that attends, Jon loves his calling. The mom of the young man has told me how much she appreciates and how much he looks up to Jon. It means the world to us!

April- One of the best months out of the whole year! My dad has struggled with his activity in the church for most of my life. He had not been to church in over ten years. With Jon preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood, my Dad had agreed to let us watch General Conference in his home. While we were watching he pulled Jon aside and said "I feel like this conference was written for me. I need to get my act together." Two weeks later Jon was ordained to the office of an Elder. A miracle that I cannot thank my Father in Heaven enough for occurred that day.... for the first time in over ten years my ENTIRE family attended church together. What an amazing feeling to look down the pew and see my two sisters, my nephews, and my parents. Jon's family came down from Roosevelt and his brother ordained him an Elder. I will NEVER forget that Sunday. One of the many reasons my husband is my hero.

May- The most amazing Birthday present and Mother's Day present I could ever ask for: watching my husband bless my two sons. We were not active when Gavin was born so he was never blessed in Sacrament meeting. To watch my husband bless my 3 year old and listen to the words of the blessing still brings tears to my eyes. Yet another moment I will NEVER forget.

June- We took our first official family vacation! We picked up Trevor and took all the kids to Jon's sister's house in Lincoln, NE. where we had a mini family reunion. Jon's mom and step dad came down from New York and we spent the week playing and catching up. It was so great for my kids to get to renew their relationships with their Grandparents.

July- Jon was able to step back from his Vacation Relief position at work and into a regular route. This meant a little less pay but meant much more time with his family. It was an amazing blessing.

August- We hit a little bump on our happy little road. The trial that we were faced with changed EVERYTHING... while it seemed at first like everything changed for the worse... we are beginning to see how Heavenly Father has his hand in all things. We've been able to grow closer to each other and to our Father in Heaven because of it. Always look for the silver lining I guess. We began taking Temple classes to prepare our family to become an eternal family.

September- Jon and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!

October- Gavin turned 4! Jon hit "mud season" and we began using our money in savings to help cover the bills. Jon and I begin to work on tying up some loose ends in our marriage. What an amazing opportunity this has been for us. As I said earlier... through our struggles we are made stronger. We have been able to use our struggles to become closer to each other and even closer to our Heavenly Father.

November- Zoey turns 7! Jon tears his ACL while playing basketball at the church. We are DEVASTATED as he is the sole provider for our family. He receives a blessing from the Elders in which he is told that this is did not happen to teach him a lesson....that this will be an experience that will grow his testimony and faith. BOY WAS THAT AN ACCURATE STATEMENT! We continue to work on our relationship and do the things we know we are supposed to do (pay our tithing/read our scriptures/say our prayers)....... miracles begin to occur..... we get a card from one of Jon's dear family members with just enough money to help us cover our bills.

December- this month has been completely amazing. Again with the tears. On the 13th of December I was sitting in my living room flipping through the phone book looking for a number to follow up on a job interview I had a few days before. The house was very noisy so I grabbed my phone and stepped outside to make a call. I pretty much trip over a huge box filled to the brim with gift bags. Each bag was labeled with a number and a small poem. Every night we open a bag that has something to do with the 12 days of Christmas. There were also a few small gifts in the bottom of the bag for my kids as well as my husband and I. We felt amazingly blessed. A few nights later while attending a church meeting I was handed an "anonymous" Christmas card with a substantial amount of money inside. We again are amazed at the kindness and charity of the people we know and love. On Saturday I had an opportunity to serve along side the Young Women and Young Men of our ward. During a fireside our Bishop and previous Bishop shared amazing stories of how their lives have been touched by service. I could not hold back the tears. We have been so blessed this year by so many people. That night I came home and my husband and I decided that this week, the one before Christmas, we were going to dedicate each day to help someone any way that we could. We volunteered some of our time today to help at the Bishop's Storehouse that provides food to members of the church during times of need. When we came home we found a small envelope taped to our front door. Inside was a LARGE amount of cash with a small note telling us how much we are loved. Tears poured down our cheeks as we said a prayer of thanks. These amazing miracles that have happened over and over again make me view every person I know in a different light. My husband and I can guess or speculate over who did what... but we will never know for sure. And because of that I love everyone so much more and cannot wait for the opportunity to pay it forward and provide a miracle for someone next year.

I love you all and hope you know how much your kind words and support have helped us through the tough times. Jon is going back to work tomorrow (yay!) on light duty and we are going to make it. We always will.

Merry Christmas to you all!

October and November

Holy Moly! It's time for another update! Geez. Where does the time go?

So things have been completely NUTSO in the Stanley household. Our life has been dumped upside down and inside out... but we're still hanging in there!

Jon has been going through a lot lately. We hit the start of "mud season" in the middle of October. We had stocked up our savings account and thought that we would be okay until things picked up after Thanksgiving. On November 2nd Jon went to his usual Tuesday night basketball game at the church. He called me at about 10pm and said that he had hurt his knee and couldn't walk. I have to admit I totally down played his injury when he called. I figured maybe he sprained it or twisted it and would be back to work in a few days. The next day he went to a sports injury specialist to find the extent of the damage.... almost immediately the doctor said he was 99% sure he had torn his ACL. A few days later they confirmed by MRI that Jon has completely obliterated his ACL. In order to repair it they would need to do surgery and this meant he would spend about 3 months out of work. MAJOR PANIC ATTACK! He is the SOLE provider for this family... I don't work at all. Not one penny comes into this house because of me. We do have short term disability insurance, however, it pays us 55% of his wages over the last 9 weeks (remember we were in mud season... the checks were not pretty), we still have to pay our insurance out of each check, and they still take out his 401k and stock plan. Not to mention we had to "eat" the first two weeks after the injury so we wouldn't receive any money at all for at least a month. YIKES!

Admission #2: Financial struggles make me come UNGLUED! I lose it. If we even seem to be low in funds I freak out. This frustrates the heck out of Jon and we normally end up getting into very heated arguments and one of us mad in the other room LOL. BUT this time has been different. Not a SINGLE argument about money. We knew that we had been doing everything we were supposed to be doing.... and that we couldn't do it alone... and our Heavenly Father has provided us with some AMAZING miracles. Everything is going to be okay.

Jon has been to two sessions of physical therapy and his PT has assured us that Jon can be walking without a limp in 1 to 2 weeks! This means he can be released to light duty and get back to work with a helper or running shuttles to Salt Lake. His PT is pretty much amazing. He came in on his day off to work with Jon, offered to work his lunch breaks so that Jon can get in 2 to 3 sessions in a week. That's so awesome to me! We're going to be working super hard to get Jon walking.

Zoey is doing amazing things every day. We are so incredibly proud of her. It completely blows me away that someone so small can have such an amazing testimony. Our ward had a primary program a few weeks ago and Zoey was asked to retell the story of the first vision in her own words. It took a little prompting (she didn't know that the story of Joseph Smith was called the first vision) but she was able to retell the story of the first vision in amazing detail. We've also started letting her take a turn reading verses in our family scripture study at night. Words that she would normally have a problem with she breezes through. We've talked a little to her about next year she will be ready to be baptized and we want her to know that she is making the right choice (her mom is not a member of the church and occasionally takes her to a different church). We encouraged her to pray to her Heavenly Father, just like Joseph Smith, to know that she is making the right choice. She told us that she already knew which church was the true church and that she wants to be baptized next year. We told her to keep praying anyway so that she knows for sure. We are so proud of her testimony!

Gavin is also blowing us away with his grasp of gospel principals. We have him sit on our lap during scripture study and have him repeat two or three words at a time to get through a verse. For the first time ever he has been able to tell us in his own words what we're reading. What a gift for a 4 year old to have! He still has his crazy little personality that makes us laugh every single day. The other day the kids had asked Jon if they could have a piece of candy. The kids came up eating a small piece of chocolate and Jon teased them "Hey! I said you could have candy not chocolate!" Smarty pants Zoey says "Chocolate IS candy". Jon teases them again and says "Chocolate isn't candy, it's a drug!" Without skipping a beat Gavin goes "Mmmmm! We like drugs!" LOL that took some explaining!

Tanner is getting so big! He is crawling over every inch of this house... and he's fast too! He can make it up the stairs almost as fast as the other kids. He is starting to eat like a giant. Yesterday for breakfast he ate a whole pancake by himself. Then for dinner he consumed FOUR jars of baby food. Tanner is so good at mimicking sounds. If someone says "Ow!" or "Hey!" or "What?" he makes the same sound almost immediately. It's pretty funny to watch. He loves music and pats his hands on his lap whenever you sing to him. I can't believe he will be 1 next month! Where did this year go?

Things have been pretty nutso for me as well. Having Jon home every day has been nice for the company but has completely killed my routine. All I want to do is lay in bed with him all day... my house is greatly suffering because of this. Before Jon even got hurt we decided I may need to head back to work. This feeling INTENSIFIED when he got hurt. I've had some really exciting opportunities present themselves. The one I am probably the most excited about is working as a dental assistant for Dr. Jolley's office. I've had one interview so far and waiting to hear back after the Thanksgiving holiday about the second and third. It seems to be a great office to worked for and I feel really good about it! We'll see how it turns out. In October I was released from my calling as a Relief Society teacher and asked to be a counselor in the Young Women's. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the girls and the other leaders as well. I was really scared to accept the calling at first but my husband reminded me of the amazing leaders I had growing up and their lasting effect on me. My life would not be the same without their amazing influence. I hope that I can have half the impact on these girls as my amazing leaders had on me.

Thanksgiving was just not the same this year. We always have dinner with my family at my mom and dad's. The night before Thanksgiving my dad had been having some dizzy spells. Three or four throughout the day but nothing that had kept him from going to work. That night he was walking into their living room and passed out. Luckily he didn't hurt himself when he fell. Now my dad is not exactly the picture of health. He's over 250 pounds, diabetic with high blood pressure. So when he passes out it sort of freaks us out a bit. Mom called the doctor and they advised her to take him to the ER. Everything seemed to check out okay.... blood sugar, heart rates, everything normal. The doctor still wanted to keep him overnight just to be sure. Because of this, Dad was stuck in the hospital while we were preparing Thanksgiving dinner. He called mom around noon to come get him but when she arrived they wanted to do more tests on dad which could take up to 2 to 3 more hours. They called us and demanded that we eat without them... it just wasn't the same. He came home as we were finishing our meal and seemed to be okay just a little tired. He will be on a heart monitor for the next 30 days and has been instructed to hit the record button whenever he has a dizzy spell. Scary stuff for us Johnson girls. We lost our Grandpa very suddenly in 1998 and now whenever someone tells us that "everything will be just fine" we can't help but second guess.

That about sums it up. I want to post some more about Jon's birthday present but my children are ripping apart my living room as I type.... I will post more hopefully today!

Thankful for my life

I have so much that I want to blog about. The last month has been a whirl wind of craziness but I just want to take a quick second to write a message of gratitude.

I stumbled across a blog today of a family who lost their little girl over the summer. While they were vacationing, their little girl drowned in a swimming pool. The blog is a way for them to sort through their emotions and feelings and press forward with faith. They write little letters to their daughter who has passed about how much they miss her and what they're doing to help themselves heal. I couldn't get past the first post. I was a wreck and I have never even met these people. I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying and soul altering it would be to lose a child. I know that I could not be strong enough to go through what these amazing parents(and so many more who have lost their children) have gone through.

My life is so blessed. I have three amazing, beautiful, healthy children who are the light of my life. They make me laugh, smile, and I enjoy my life so much more because they are in it. They are selfless and give love to everyone so freely. They are innocent and compassionate without being judgemental. They are quick to forgive and are so understanding. They are loyal servants of their Father in Heaven and they were sent here to bless my life. They are everything I want to be. I am so proud of them, everyday they surprise me even more. Mommy loves you, Tanner, Gavin and Zoey. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

September update- Anniversary, Temple Date, Conference and more!

September has been a pretty busy month for us Stanley's! Jonathan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the 24th. We are in "mud season" right now with his job and so we had to have a pretty low key Anniversary. It was still pretty wonderful! We made a picnic dinner and took it and the kids to Eagle Rim park. We played around and took a few pictures then went to the mall to get some much needed clothes for the two boys. Picnic dinner and shopping?! I loved every minute of it.

The next morning we met my Mom, Grandma Noorlander, and Jen and Kelly out at the Fruita Fall Festival and spent the day with them. It was a fun day. Jon and Zoey climbed the Army rock wall until they got scared and let go. Gavin tried too but didn't weigh enough to keep the rope from pulling him up the wall. It was so cute to see him try.

Then the kids rode the carousel and we looked at a few more booths and listened to some music in the shade. I went to my mom's house Saturday night and enjoyed the Relief Society General Broadcast with her. Can I just say that I love President Monson? His facial expressions and little jokes he cracked melted my heart! What great messages were shared at this meeting. I loved the story about the family who saved all their money and traveled for over 24hours for their family to be sealed in the temple. On the way home both of their small children passed away. What a HUGE test of faith. It made me want to be that much more faithful, especially while we prepare to attend the temple.

The kids are doing great!

Tanner Royce just turned 9 months and is officially crawling! He is in to EVERYTHING! He has also cut his 3rd tooth this week. We were having some major problems with him waking up 5-6 times a night until he spent the night with my sister. Ever since that night he has been sleeping through the night. Not sure HOW that happened but I'm cool with it! He can pull himself up onto the bottom stair and can side step along it pretty good. He loves to "talk" and is still such a happy baby. So far he can say "Da da, Ma ma ma, and Hi" I don't know if he is aware of what he is saying but they come out pretty clear. He also does this really cute thing when he wants something or wants you to pick him up. He will open and close his hand really fast. It looks like he's waving and it's pretty stinkin cute!

Gavin is about to turn 4! I can't believe it! He still loves music and dancing and as always loves to make us laugh. The other morning we were getting ready to head out with some family and he wanted us to come and dance to the radio. We went into his room and danced for a few minutes and when we left he goes "You're welcome for that awesome dance party!" LOL Yes, Gavin. It was an AWESOME dance party! Gavin wants to be a robot for Halloween and I'm soooo excited to make his costume. It's going to be SWEEEEEEEET!

Zoey is doing great in first grade! What a change from last year! She loves her teacher and is doing really great with her reading. We read 20-30 minutes a night before bed. She can pretty much handle all of our level 1 books and is starting to work on some level 2 books. She does get a little discouraged when she gets stuck on a word and occasionally will have a meltdown. But for the most part she's a great reader! We took her out last night and got her hair done and picked out a new dress for school pictures. She looked so cute this morning! I'll have to post a pic later today.


We had a great time watching conference this last weekend. I had read on a few LDS blogs some ideas on how to make conference more enjoyable with kids. We tried out one of these ideas and had a little success with Gavin. I took two large blankets and pinned them up to our ceiling in the living room to make a tent. We talked a little to Gavin about how a really long time ago people would pitch their tents to face the Prophet to hear him speak. He was more excited about the tent than listening to the significance but it was kind of fun. We got him to sit quietly through one session of conference with the help of doughnuts and toy cars.


We definitely learned a lot this weekend. Probably one of the biggest things that I walked away with was that I need to give up two of the shows that I watch pretty regularly. I've felt this way for awhile but I'm pretty much addicted to them. Sad, I know. We have just basic cable here at the house and so I'm pretty limited on entertainment choices throughout the day. Lifetime shows back to back episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. So after this weekend I am determined to eliminate these shows from my house. They don't send a good message to me and I need to set the example to my children. Aslo, I learned that I need to spend much less time goofing off on Facebook and spend more time on my other priorities.

How lucky we are to have a modern day Prophet to help us keep ourselves in check! I love President Monson's facial expressions. I first noticed them at the Relief Society General broadcast but this weekend he made me giggle with them as well. His genuine tears melted my heart and undeniably brought the spirit into our living room.

Our original goal was to be able to attend the temple on our anniversary. We started taking temple classes and had the most amazing teachers. They taught us so much and brought such a sweet spirit every time they came into our home. We learned so much. As September 25th got closer we realized that we had a few more things to work on and we probably would not make our goal. It was really hard and disappointing to tell all of our friends and family that we weren't quite ready. BUT we have amazing people routing us on and encouraging us. We are so lucky to have so many people who love us.

These last few months have been a real struggle for us. I've always felt like Jon and I had a great relationship and that we could talk through anything. But these last two months have really been a test for us and our communication skills, which luckily I feel like we've passed. We are communicating better than ever and have been able to use these trials to grow closer to each other and to our Heavenly Father.

This is my promise to all of you who have been so great and supportive to us: YES we are still diligently working on making it to the temple. We're getting so close! We will be there... and soon I hope! Thank you for loving us!

That's pretty much it for now! I'll have to update more often so that my posts aren't so dang long!
Thanks for hanging in there!

(A More Real) Love Story

I love love love Sugardoodle.net and this morning they posted this video to Facebook. Have to admit it made me tear up at the end. Still very funny and VERY true. Hope it makes you laugh like it did me.

Desiderata- a poem from my mom

A few years ago when I was going through a really hard time my mom wrote me a letter and inside the letter she attached this poem.

Whenever I get the sad feeling that I just can't kick and I feel down, I pull it out and read it again. I pulled it out this morning and made it into a page. Just thought I would share it with all of you. It's brought my lots of support over the last few years, maybe it can do the same for some of you.