MY BABY IS H O M E !!!!!!

No words.

 

THIS IS WHERE HE BELONGS!!!!

 I thought Michael's sign was hysterical as he MOCKED me...WHO is coming home???

 So HAPPY to have him HERE...but SO FELT that ONE missing boy...

 

                            We stopped at Betos on the way home (Spencer's request) and some of da Brethren tracked us down:)

                                                                         Reunited....

My brothers came to welcome and swim for the weekend! Megan outfitted everyone in Ryan shirts.

 

So....HE IS HOME. Sam we missed you BIG. I KNOW you felt it. I was SO HAPPY when Susan called me to tell me that her Aunt and Uncle were taking you out for dinner again! Is there something you can think of that I could send them as a THANK YOU that they might appreciate from the States?

Spencer's Homecoming talk will be on the 19th. We had a huge BBQ and gathering Thursday night...it was so PERFECT and RIGHT to have all the boys back. Our home is shaking with delight. Kim brought him her chocolate chip cookies...she loves us the way we LOVE to be loved:) Tammy came  by too...Perk showed up after taking his girlfriend to THE ROOF...it was her birthday dinner:)
Kim and Karie, the Cardins, geez... a LOT of people came to welcome him! HE is SO LOVED. WE are so LOVED. My heart can't put the right words on the JOY I feel when we are surrounded like that. Baby Cooper is too cute for words...Mike is getting "ready" for Wednesday...Spencer is SO going to miss him. Friday I set Spencer, Mike King, Ruben, and Cole Wharton up for a blind date to Iron Man 3. Mike Cooper took his girlfriend. Brynn Willis helped me a ton...she got Taylor Nelson to go with Cole, Aslynn to go with Mike King and she went with Ruben. It was 6 and I still didn't have a fourth...but GOD provided the Ram in the thicket:) I went to show Holly Bergmann's home and the potential buyers had a DARLING 20 year old daughter that came with them. I just had 20 seconds of insane courage and asked her and she was HAPPY to do it! Dad and Spencer came to pick me up...(we had been shopping for new shoes for him when I had to run to the house) and she just came with us to dinner. What a trooper. So SPENCER proudly wears the badge of having a date the second night home. Those boys are too funny. I love how much they all loved it.

It was great to have my bothers here too...all is well in Logan and the kids are as adorable as EVER! Elle is into telling JOKES....we now have a storage of them. I told her to write you a letter with them all. Her favorites are "Your Momma is SO FAT...". Graham is ALL OVER the pool like a fish!. Haven just  turned 11 on Friday. Drew and Laikyn are MORE inches taller.
Spencer is at Coopers having Sunday Dinner. I am being a big girl and sharing since Mike leaves Wednesday. The Cooper's have been such a blessing  and such dear friends to us throughout our lives. I am sure we CHOOSE each other before we came. I am eager for Karie to be DONE with school so we have more time to spend together.

The Sunshine has made the WHOLE WORLD feel better. It will get up to 72 today:)

Really Lovey...your letters and pics are AWESOME SAUCE!! THANK YOU!!! It really does matter to me. When I woke up Tuesday to the extra pics I danced! Let me see your apartment? What is your favorite food so far? Do you have everything you need? If YOU want to take Susan's Aunt and Uncle out I would be SO HAPPY to add money to your account! I love that when I get up your messages are already here. Although I am EXCITEDLY  subtracting an extra 15 min from sleep so I can still get on my run on time:) Never been so HAPPY to get up earlier.

You are LOVE and LIGHT and ALL THAT'S WONDERFUL in the world. YOU DARE GREATLY!!! This week I've read another book for my list of Books I need you to read---ALL of us to read so we can talk about it...it's entitled DARING GREATLY by this most astonishing woman named Brene Brown. She is my soul sister. So she starts her book by telling us what it means to DARE GREATLY:

The phrase DARING GREATLY is from Theodore Roosevelt's speech "Citizenship in a Republic." The speech sometimes referred to as THEN MAN IN THE ARENA was delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910. This is the passage that made the speech famous:

"it is not the critic who counts; not the  man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have  done them better.
The  credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust  and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly...."

YOU my SAM, YOU are DARING GREATLY. I hope you can print this out and put the quote somewhere in your scriptures for the harder days. YOU are IN THE ARENA. You have chosen your worthy cause. YOU KNOW GREAT ENTHUSIASMS, great devotion....I am so proud and LOVE YOU SO MUCH for WHO you are and  the choices you make. The book is really about being vulnerable enough to BE your TRUE most authentic self...and being brave enough to let ourselves be seen. It's when we are ALL IN....I love that you and me...we get to be ALL IN with each other...we trust each other enough to show up exactly as who we are....Thank you Lovey.

Get your most perfect self ALL OVER EVERYONE this week!!!
There is only ONE COMMANDMENT....
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Mom