Custody Court

Alex and Landon had their  final custody  court  battle this week.  This has been a two year long custody drama with evaluations and delayed trials and infighting and a crazy x-wife.   Alex would tell us stories about his x and what she was doing with the kids, but we always thought,   "...yes but.. there are always two sides to a story."  So it was eye opening and interesting listening to Dr. Dunn a court appointed custody evaluator , after three hours on the witness stand, basically stating that the momma is toxic to Andrew and Sophia and needs to have therapy for years, and that Andrew and Sophia are much better off being with Alex and Landon.   We now only pray that the judge sees it the same way and changes custody with a decree in March.   The precedent is that the judge always goes with what the court appointed evaluator says to do.....so.....we are now just waiting......

Wanda and Wanee turn 80!

We celebrated these two elect ladies with an open house in North Logan on their special 80th birthday, Feb. 20th 2016.  They are people-people and loved having family, friends and siblings all there for them with hugs and notes and brownie sundaes to celebrate.

We gave Wanee an 80^th Birthday Locket with this note...

Trying to figure out what to give the most elect Lady on her 80^th birthday has been a challenge.  You have given us all soooo much.  There is no way we could fit all of the love we have for you in a gift box….so we decided on symbols that remind us of you.

We have gifted you this locket as a small token of what you mean to all us.

The necklace is silver because as the scripture says in Malachi you have been through the refiners fire and have been purified and become beautiful silver. 

It sparkles because your personality always shines through.

The locket is filled with 9 charms for your 9 children- Hence the number 9 charm.

There is a green birthstone for your beloved Tom.  

There are angel wings because you are an angel to all of us.  You have given each of us wings to fly.

There is a potted flower which represents your love for the outdoors. (If there was a cabin charm we would have got that one!)  We appreciate your love for the beauty of the earth and are grateful that you have shared this love with all of us.  You are a nurturer and have learned to bloom where you are planted.

The Piano charm is for your love of music and for teaching each of us to play….some better than others…but you persevered with grandchildren too.

An “I love you hand”…sign language sentiment. 

The Basketball Charm…. We love that you love the Utah Jazz and share in this love with your sister Eva Fay. 

There is a heart with family inscribed.  We know where your heart lies…one just has to look at your living room wall of all your posterity to see. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Finally there is sewing machine.  We can’t count the hours you spent sewing for each of us  - Sunday dresses, bridesmaids dresses, costumes and more.  You work with your hands with crocheting and needlework too.

If it were possible for us to conjure up the perfect Mother, Mother-in Law,  and Grandmother, she would be exactly like you!

As you look at the charms in this locket, we hope that what you see is how much we all love you.

Happy Birthday!

Wanda wrote down these sweet growing up memories to share  and had them on the display table.  I took pics of the different moments.  

We loved celebrating with Wanee.  Wanee has 9 children,  41 grand children, 37 Great grands with 3 more on the way.

This is just some of the family that were at the end of the event.

I love Valentine's

I love holidays...even the "fake" greeting card ones...like Valentines. 

Why do I love them? Because life is too full of things to not celebrate, like sickness, natural disasters, death,  disappointments, overwhelming to-do lists, a crying teenager.  So when there is a chance to celebrate something, anything, I’m there.  I get my decorations out; hang up a banner and write something on my chalkboard door. 

I appreciated how my Live Happy magazine put it about giving cards, cookies, candy etc...on Valentine's. They indicated it wasn't necessarily an expression of  love.....,

"But you know what it’s definitely an expression of? Not-hate.

And we need so much more not-hate. If we could all take a day and give each other little teddy bears with chocolate-filled hearts, we would spread so much not-hate.

And you know what people do when they feel not-hate?

They express not-hate towards others. They help each other. They solve refugee crises, fix up schools, invent cures for diseases, discover new planets, and a way to get there without traffic. People who feel not-hate also don’t cut you off in traffic; they’re the ones waving you through as you cut them off. They don’t mind because they feel not-hate, because someone probably gave them a little teddy bear for Valentine’s Day."

I had my annual Valentine's skate party for my school complete with old fashioned Valentine boxes. I remember creating boxes for this holiday as a child.  We have the online kids come together to celebrate and pass out tokens of "not hate."

We had a Valentines weekend get away to St George with the Belnaps and the Evans to see the Parade of Homes. Marie Osmond's new home is amazing. I loved it.  We met up with the Lakes, Binghams and Capsons for dinner, biking, pickleball and card games. 

Getting out of the cruddy air and into beautiful sunshine was great!

We had a family Valentine dinner at our Love Shack!  The whole family was here eventually, including Holly and Wanee. I love spending time loving on my family. 

... And just for fun here is a pic of Monson at 4 months and Tayla at 4 months...pretty close. 

Be Present

Just a reminder to me of my goal word this year........

Tayla Addilyn's blessing day

                                        Tayla Addilyn's wonderful blessing day!
Monson and Lexi had many family and friends come to the meeting and support them on this day.
Monson gave a beautiful blessing.   Tayla wore Lexi's Christening gown from 21 years ago.

Blessed by: My daddy

Others who stood in the circle: Bishop Belnap, Papa Wayne Welch, Uncle Addison Welch, Rob Madsen, Terry Welch, Brady Bentley, Clark Bentley, Guy Brown, Gary Call

 

"Heavenly Father by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood we take this infant in our arms and give her a name and a blessing. The name which we have given her is Tayla Addilyn Welch. Tayla at this time we bless you that you might be able to grow up loving the gospel and loving the Lord. Tayla we have named you very particularly after the siblings of myself and your mother, and we bless you that you might be able to take the wonderful traits from each of them and make them your own. We bless you that you will have the spirit of gathering  that you can gather this family together whenever needed and that you can be a missionary to those around you. We bless you that you will be able to be an example of virtue and righteousness. Tayla we love you so much and we pray for these things and all the other blessings that our Father in Heaven has for you, which are many, and we do so in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen."

 Lexi, Wayne, Addison and Holly all bore their testimonies.  It was a sweet, tear filled meeting.

4 generations of Welches:

Thoughts on a Friday

 I've had a sad week. I have cried every day. This hasn't happened for awhile but it did this week.   A tv show had a funeral, I read a book, I saw a meme on Facebook, I tended Alfie, my sis in law mentioned my mom and how wise she was and how she needed her right now, Tayla smiled at me, the teachers in staff meeting brought mom up....... All of these brought so many tears. I find it hard to get out of bed in the morn and to stay away from said bed throughout my day. I thought there must be something teally wrong with me so I went to the doctors and had labs run and an ultrasound to check out my organs. I received an all clear- I'm so healthy which is good news. The bad news is I'm grieving. 

I got my hair done today by Gary and we cried together. He has yet to clean Marcie's side of the bathroom or deal with a lot of her stuff. He said it was good to know we were both grieving and not just him. 

My friend Kim gave me the draft of a book to quickly read and comment on that her sister wrote. It's called "Smile" and it's about her husband dying of cancer in 2011. I really liked the book but it brought up so much raw emotion in me. It was hard to get through and hard to put down all at the same time. 

________________

This picture with the window line down the middle makes me think of mine and Laila's current relationship. We are on opposite sides most of the time. 

Laila is...trying.  Trying to be happy, trying to be good about going to school, trying not to let her friends bug her. She is also trying my patience. I'll keep trying to be a better mom to her.  

_______________________

Addison got his eyes fixed. He got lens replacement surgery and has 20/15 vision now. "Twas blind but now he sees."  He got glasses in kindergarten an had -10.5 vision. I am -4.5 and it's crazy hard for me to see so I know how much worse it was for him.  I am just so happy for him.  The procedure prep and the procedure were not ideal. He felt all sorts of pain. He said it was like having an elastic flip his eye over and over.  Then his anesthesia stopped in his arm and 4 times the amount later, he could still feel what was going on and remember it.  

But.... Good news... He can see 

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We have a lot of change coming this spring. All of our kids except for Laila will be moving. Alex and Landon out of Eagle Mountain. Addison Bre and Alfie out of the Shurtz home. Truman hopefully somewhere with a new Delta airline job or if not that he says he is outta here. Monson, Lexi and Tayla off to Fresno, California for pest control summer sales. 

Just when I like having everyone near and available for Sunday dinner, things  change.