June 2011

June went by in a whirlwind fashion and, unfortunately, without many pictures. The clean-up effort in Joplin is still ongoing. The part of town that we live in seems to be making much more progress than closer to the heart of where the tornado hit. Walgreens right by our house is all but finished (all they have left to do is the interior) and 15th street Wal-Mart is making very good progress. They have announced that Wal-Mart wants to be finished by September, which is just amazing to me and will be so much more convenient! Other places like Academy and Home Depot just seem not to be doing anything in their clean-up efforts. There are a few houses that are starting to be built again and I think it is lifting the spirits of the survivors. Our house is still for sale :( I thought that we for sure would have sold it by now, but I know it will sell when it is best for us. The girls are doing great and amaze me everyday with the knowledge that they have! I can't believe how much they remember!

I got to go to my best friend's wedding this month in Utah. It was AMAZING!! I hadn't seen her in 8 years before this month!! The trip worked out perfectly so that I didn't have to buy a plane ticket. My mom and dad were going out to UT anyways for a baby blessing so we all drove together and split the gas. We left on Thursday night and had to be back Monday morning, so it was quite a quick trip! When I finally made it to Katie's house on Friday, we both burst into tears! Katie and Benji got married in the Bountiful, UT temple and it was just beautiful. Katie and I grew up in Harrisville together and did EVERYTHING together! When we were little we always talked about how we would grow up together and get married at the same time and live next to eachother so that our kids could be friends too...funny how life works out exactly how you plan it when you are 10...NOT!! Oh well!

Bachelorette Party:

It was so great to be able to stop by and see some of my family too! I miss all of them so much and really miss the mountains! There is just something about Utah that will always be home to me.

The weekend after I got home we decided to take the kids to the zoo in Springfield. They had a lot of fun seeing the animals but it was SO hot, so the thing they enjoyed most was playing in the water.

The kids just love the zoo! We have been to Springfield several times and to KC once and hope to take them to STL sometime this year...hopefully!

May 2011

This month has been surprisingly eventful! For Mother's Day I got a beautiful patio set from Brevin and the kids.

I got it a little bit early and the day after I was outside with the daycare kids sitting under the umbrella when Hadley asked me to help her get into the swing. So, for about 10 seconds I was up helping Hadley, turned around to go back to the table and watched my brand new table and umbrella blow away in the wind! I was SOOO mad!! Mad at myself for leaving the umbrella up with me not right there and mad at the stupid gust of wind! Luckily the next day I got everything replaced (for FREE) from the places we had bought it just the day before :) SO Happy!!

Then came Aiden's birthday...The girls had a blast at the park riding their bikes and playing on the equipment.

Then on Sunday, May 22, 2011 came the devastation. The day started pretty normally. Hadley woke up with goopy eyes (I thought it was pink eye) so we decided she probably didn't need to go to church and share the wealth. So, I went to sacrament meeting by myself and then when I got home Brevin went to the rest of church so he could teach his Sunbeams class. We had plans after church to go to my mom's house for lunch and to help her out with getting her couponing binder set up (I love couponing!! But, that will have to wait for another post.) After lunch we made a last-minute decision to go to Brevin's parents house (in Carthage) since we hadn't seen them in a while. Jordan went outside with his bow to get a squirrel and the rest of us went out on the deck to watch him. We noticed the "popcorn clouds" and said how they usually don't mean good news. (Little did we know how much bad news those popcorn clouds would bring!) Jordan started to make a fire to cook his squirrel over (new rule at the White's house: You shoot it, you eat it!) when the rain started. It rained and rained and rained and HARD!! We had some thunderstorm warning and some tornado watches/warnings, but we weren't really worried...pretty normal for SW Missouri. It started to get really bad outside...that's when we started to see debris flying through the air. It was unreal the size of the things we were seeing flying through the sky like they were feathers! We decided we had better get in the basement. So, Tina grabbed her photo albums she wanted saved in case it got bad at their house (LOL!!) and we headed downstairs. We watched the skies from the basement and when it had calmed down we decided to head home (not really understanding what had just happened). We got in the car and headed towards Joplin with the radio on. We ran into some more bad rain and wind and heard on the radio what had just happened to Joplin and my heart sank. I just KNEW that we didn't have our home anymore! So, we took the kids back to the house to stay with grandma and grandpa and Brevin and I headed to our house...or what we thought would be left of it. We got to 20th street just outside of town (I live on 12th right in town) when traffic came to a screeching hault. We sat for a few minutes and Brevin decided he wanted to get out and run to the house. I stayed with the car and creeped my way to the house. As I got closer and closer to the house my heart sank more and more. Houses all around mine were gone, just GONE! I had seen all these houses just hours before and now they were reduced to rubble! I was certain that we wouldn't have anything left! I got to 13th and Duquesne (about 3 or 4 blocks from my house) and things started to look up. I got on my street and RELIEF!! We still had our home and so did our neighbors! No damage, no broken windows!! We had some trees down, but that was NOTHING!

My poor patio furniture...

I got lucky this time...only one tile broke!! One of the chairs was pretty banged up and in the neighbors yard, but still useable!

The swingset BARELY got missed!!

My favorite tree in the whole yard got crushed by one of the bigger ones :( It was a beautiful Redbud...I will miss the purple buds in the Spring!

The back porch was splattered with insulation and mud, but everything was still there!

Some sort of plastic hanging from the power lines...

I am so grateful that we werent at home when it happened and that our home is still here! Just three houses down from mine they are gone! Just a block away from my house is the 15th Street Wal-Mart and the Plaza Apartments!! We are so blessed! My heart aches for those that lost their homes and loved ones. I know that Joplin will rebuild and things will get back to somewhat normal, but nothing will replace those loved ones that so many lost. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that they will all be reunited one day. It will be a long road ahead.

Pepsi warehouse/offices:

Flying J:

Wal-Mart:

The Plaza Apartments:

On a much lighter note, next came Jordan's graduation.

Brevin and I went and left the kids with my mom. There were some bad storms coming into the area again that night, so as soon as it was over we darted to the house to be with the kids. We ended up in the basement again with the tornado sirens going off, but luckily nothing happened!

Then on Memorial Day we went over to Trudy and Brian's house to have a pool party. The girls absolutely LOVE swimming!! They are getting to be quite the little daredevils!!

Hadley on the slide:

Jayden on the slide:

Kaleb on the slide:

We put our house up for sale. There are a lot of people in Joplin looking for homes and buying homes without even seeing them! So, we figured we would take advantage of the newly developed housing market and try to get out of Joplin (something we have wanted for some time now!) We are hoping to find something to rent that is a much smaller payment than our house and save up for a while for the house of our dreams :) Also, Brevin has a business idea that we are hoping to get started on soon too! I think it is a great idea and Brevin is very enthusiastic about it!

Daycare is slow right now. I have two families that I babysit for that lost their homes completely. One family moved to Arkansas, but they still work in Joplin so I still get to watch one of their kids (the other is starting school next week and has been staying with grandma so they don't have to pay for her to come to me too) and the other is staying with family in Kansas City and I am not sure if she will be coming back any time soon. I am hoping to get back to my old routine with the kids, but it has been hard with everyone's new schedules due to the recent events. Things will eventually work themselves out and get back to normal or to a new sense of normal (the eventually part is what I don't like!)

Aspen and Hadley are getting so big and developing such wonderful personalities! They never cease to amaze me! I love those girls more than anything in the world and am so grateful to be their mother!

April 2011

Aspen and Hadley's cousin (Baby Spencer) is getting SO BIG!! We get to watch him every Wednesday and Thursday night and the girls just LOVE it!! Aspen especially loves it when she gets to hold him and/or feed him his bottle. He is such a little cutie and I love that we get to spend time with him every week!

I started to make my own bread and finally found a recipe that would work for me. I love not having to buy bread and the way it makes my house smell...YUMMY!!

This month turkey season started and Brevin got a big one this year...

He was definately proud of his kill and I was happy for him. He talked me into going hunting with him too this year and opening weekend was on Easter weekend. We went up to Bethany, MO (by St. Joseph, MO) to visit my step-dads family for Aunt Laura's birthday and to go hunting on Uncle Don's land. We didn't have much luck hunting, but we stopped by the Kansas City temple site on our way home...

What a beautiful temple! I can't believe how fast it is going up! Brevin and I kept saying how we felt "right at home" at this temple site. I am so excited for the open house and dedication!

It was a long trip and this is one of the many things we did to pass the time with the girls...

HA HA HA!!!