Birthdays

This is a little off topic on preparing for the mission, but just wanted to quickly add that somehow we have managed so far to have all of our birthdays all lined up, neatly in a row, one right after the other, (which I might add has proven to be very convenient!) 
Starting in Dec, Alex our oldest has his (in which he celebrated in Provo, Utah where he living) he turned 23 this year. Then the very next month, January is Jacob's (our youngest) who turned 12 this year.  

The very next month, February is Isaac's our 2nd oldest who this year celebrated in Chile on his mission and turned 21 (he being the 2nd one standing, to the right)

Then just 3 days later, the mother of the bunch celebrates her birthday(yes we are still in February)

 Very next month, March is the dad of the bunch's birthday...

Followed the very next month by our daughter, Jessica who turned sweet 16 this year and was it ever sweet.....

It was then so convenient for our daughter-in-law, Chelsea to stay right in sync and have her birthday, in May, indeed the very next month! With her and Alex's surprise visit to welcome Isaac home, we were able to celebrate her birthday with her.

 

No pressure of course, but it would be great if the next birthday could occur in June? 

Thank heaven for returned missionaries!

It seems to have only taken a couple of days to get Isaac acclimated back into living in America

Acclimated-
1. Become accustomed to a new climate or to new conditions.
2. Respond physiologically or behaviorally to a change in a single environmental factor.
 past tense ofac·cli·mate (Verb)
  After a trip to the mall with his sister for some civilian updated clothing, shoes, and after obtaining other necessities like a cell phone, and a used ipad (that his brother Alex gave him) Isaac was off!  With only 17 days left before we leave, our "to do" list seems to be getting more and more important to finish.  I have now had the honor to experience 2 return missionaries.  One of the many qualities/strengths that return missionaries can and most likely do acquire is hard work and discipline and Isaac did not disappoint!  He  has managed to narrow down our "to do" list quite a bit, by power washing the deck, taking apart the trampoline (which he said "was a lot harder than it looked"!) staining the deck.....

                    \      getting his dad up @ 5:30 to do P90x but had a great sunset to greet them when they were finished.

replacing his retainer, getting a required TB test, washing all the outside windows, replacing the weather strips in doorways, fixing the tile in master bathroom among many other things!  Mostly though he has added much laughter and enjoyment, teaching us in many ways that its okay to have urgency but not anxiety.

SURPRISE!

What an amazing, awesome, all around Ames week it has been!  It all started with a knock on the door Sunday evening....by Alex and Chelsea who completely surprised us by driving all the way from Utah.  Here is a picture that Rodney was barely able to snap with his phone...although Kim's face is a bit blurry, it seems clear enough just how surprised Kim was to see them!  She thought it would be June when they saw them again.

Needless to say we were very excited!  Not only because we love having Alex and Chelsea home but with Isaac returning home from Chile after two years, it would be the first time in 4 yrs we had been together as a family and we loved every minute of it. Isaac thought Alex and Chelsea were still in Utah and that he would have to wait until June to see them again.  Rodney, Kim, Jessica and Jacob all arrived at the airport just in time to welcome Isaac, which seemed to take hours when in reality it was only 15 min-:-) The anticipation was intense and exciting!! But he finally arrived and after lots of tight hugs and kisses, we were off for home where Alex and Chelsea were hiding, and awaiting his arrival.

              

 It was great to see how surprised Elder Ames was to see Alex and his sister-in-law for the first time.  After some big hello hugs we were off to an awesome day together.  Was it mentioned it had been 4 years since we had all been together??!!

 We all piled in the car and we were off! (I think Jacob is still in shock)

 Isaac's first request (other than to please call him Elder Ames until he was officially released) was to drive by the Temple. Then the next request was none other than Wendy's! He had not had his classic 2 jr bacon cheeseburgers, fries dipped in a frosty for 2 years.

Elder Isaac Ames came home with holes in his suits and shoes, so our next stop was to get him fitted for a new suit.  After which we then had to introduce him to on of our new favorite spots, the Lemon Tree that grew in Liberty while he was gone....

It was then off to the Liberty Stake Bldg where Elder Ames was officially released as a Full Time Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was a very bitter sweet moment.  Its just great to know........

Post it notes

We LOVE post it notes.  We have always used them and seem to have been using them a lot more of them these days!  The moving company that will be moving us to Texas made an appt. to come and take an inventory of the things that we will most likely be taking with us to Texas.  We figured the easiest way for them to identify the things we wanted packed and going with us, would be to use our post it notes....

  

One of the many ideas Sister Sagers (spouse of current Mission President) gave us was to bring a piece of furniture that we particularly loved or cherished, to make the mission  house more like a home.  So we were pretty happy to hear that we would be able to bring our round table.  It may not be much to look at, but there have been more times that we can remember, that our little family has kneeled and surrounded that little table in prayer and/or counsel together.  It was once said by one of the children,  "when mom and dad die, this table is the one of the main items we will fight over".  Assuming that's a good thing??

It got to where we were really getting tired of seeing post it notes all over the house, well until these post it "love notes" were discovered one morning on the bathroom mirror.....

And this post it note was left for Jessica when Jacob decided to fix pancakes for breakfast one morning....

  Needless to say....still love the post it notes!