The new normal...or maybe not so new

We are learning to adjust without Jordan.  There are moments when each of us will tear up missing him, but Jordan is thriving and loving Provo...without us.  He does communicate with us daily, a blessing of modern technology, and that is nice.  It allows us to stay close even though we are far in distance.

So what does the new normal look like for us all?

Ben now shares a room with Kenzie.  Kenzie drives Ben and the boys to school, seminary and open mat when she can.  Less food at the dinner table is needed.  There is a little less laundry.  Not much yet.

What looks the same?

We are all still growing and living and loving.

Jake is learning to mountain bike better and better so he can keep up with his brothers.  The other day he had a pretty big crash that ended with a slight concussion.

Yep, I got that phone call from Ben....Mom, uh, Jake can't remember anything...at which point I rushed home to make sure he was okay.  Luckily, his memory came back.  We kept him home for a day just to make sure he was okay.

Speaking of phone calls we got from Ben, I received another call the other day from him.  "Mom, there's a big giant Bear that Blue has treed in our front yard."  To which I responded, well don't go outside then.  As soon as Brad finished up his work, he ran home to take pictures.  As he drove down the driveway he finds the boys standing like this.  Guess they didn't take my advice to stay inside.

The bear looks small here but that is a big tree and he is about 50 feet up.  He wasn't small at all.  We think he weighed around 400 lbs. 

He kind of looks harmless in these two pictures kind of like Baloo in Jungle Book just hanging out singing the Bare Necessities.

At a certain point, after an hour or so, he must have gotten bored and he decided to descend.  The kids scampered inside.

 Brad found himself caught between the bear and the kids and wasn't about to move to expose them.  When the bear put a foot on the ground he sat and stared about Brad.  Brad fired a round in the air. Brad noticed at this point the bear was taller than himself.  The bear stood there for several seconds staring at him.  Eventually, after Brad stood his ground, the bear decided to saunter off in a non-confrontational direction.

Before he was completely out of view, he decided to play peek-a-boo around a tree to make sure Brad wasn't still following him.

He was in our yard just last night too.  We went to take the garbage to the trash, because of the bear, and our dog was going crazy.  I told Ben to let the dog go and we shone the light where Blue headed and sure enough, there was Mr. Bear, making a meal of our garbage.  The kids ran inside, leaving me all alone but with Blue I felt safe.  He chased the bear away and when he was done I petted him in his favorite way...on his belly.  I loved Blue so much at that moment, I would have let him lick me if he wanted to.  Blue is a big licker. Good thing we have Blue to protect us from Mr. Bear.

We moved into our new building. Our waiting room took a lot of my time and energy just decorating so I am going to post the final product here.

Kenzie tried out for the High School Musical, 9 to 5 also in the last few weeks.  Her audition was going great....right up until the moment her thoughtless brother decided to call and ask her (in the last 5 seconds of her song that she was playing the music from on her iphone) if she was going to take him to open mat.  Oh the casualty of siblings.  Despite the mishap, Kenzie did get the part of Doralee (Dolly Parton) in the musical.  We are excited to see how the musical turns out and we're looking forward to experimenting with big hair for Kenzie.  Here is our pinterest collection so far for ideas.

Riley got braces but he won't let me take a picture.

And Ben, well Ben's getting all the girls.  Really.  They all seem to like him.  It's the hair.