April 2018

Dad has been hastening the work of the Lord. He has a wonderful elderly lady in his ward that has reached the age of 80 years old but still chugs along with her visiting (ministering) teaching. She has been struggling to easily exit and enter her home so a bunch of people from the ward including Dad went to minister to her by building her a ramp, which turned into an entirely new porch.

Dad also had the opportunity to take a neighbour to the Senior Center for lunch. Dad has been making it a habit to eat a yummy meal from the Senior Center a couple times a week. His neighbour has a ill wife that could not muster up the energy from her cancer illness to make it for lunch. So after a good visit with his friend, the Senior Center gave them a lunch to take home for this man’s wife.  

Dad put on quite the show for the grandkids easter egg hunt this year. He had all sorts of fun trinkets, treasures and candy for the kids. They had a blast finding their eggs with their names on them and found a surprise of a gold dollar coin inside! Each grandkid received 2 gold coins and thought it was a true treasure! Another adventure Dad had on Easter was the loss of his hearing aid. No one knows where it disappeared but after relentless searches by his daughters and himself it is nowhere to be found.

Gary has also found a blessing in a pain patch. He wasn’t totally convinced it was doing much good until he woke up in the middle of night in pain and realized he was a few days behind on changing his patch. He is very delighted about the life he has been living with less pain.

The Fordham’s have had an eventful couple of months. We had a March full of Madness! No really, we all filled out an NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket. Whoever won with either the winner or most correct picks, got to choose where our family went to dinner one night. There was no persuading for anyone, including Reagan. It the end, it came down to Luke and Reagan for the win. Luke won this year’s challenge, but Reagan may be the only person in America to pick the epic upset of #16 UMBC over #1 Virginia. Some of the other things we’ve been able to get involved with as a family are doing a little bit of geocaching, which is a fun, inexpensive way to get out together. Easter came with another successful year of our Easter traditions, although this was Corbin’s last year of being able to run down the candy at the park. Also, we’re back into a full-fledged season of Lagoon passes.

Eli finished up his spring semester at school. That is a huge relief on the family. However, he received bad news that he won’t be able to finish school this year. He has to take one class in the fall and the other in the spring (yeah, only two classes left). I guess the silver lining on this, is that it really feels like he’s done with school now. One class per semester will be very easy. He continues to enjoy his job and is very excited to be home more.

Colleen and Eli celebrated their 16 year anniversary in April. Colleen did the unthinkable, and painted up last year’s deer hunt success to put in the house as decoration. She does a great job at keeping the kids involved with several different sports, choir, piano and other activities. She had a fun day taking the kids to Classic Skating last month too. She had her eyebrows micro-bladed this past month, and loves the time it saves her on her makeup. She continues to enjoy her time with Reagan where they’ve been doing all kinds coloring and crafts. 

Corbin is obsessed with a game called Fortnite. However, it’s not on Xbox 360, so he’s continually bugging mom, dad, and grandpa to play it on their phones. With the awesome spring weather brings soccer and baseball. It’s been fun watching Corbin play and progress in his sports. He is in the school choir again where they are singing “The Greatest Showman” songs, and he has a small solo part. He’s been playing some popular radio songs on the piano, which is fun to listen to. It’s hard to believe this boy will be going into Jr. High next year.  He was just called to be the Secretary in his Deacon’s Quorum Presidency, and was able to join his dad for his first General Priesthood Session.

Luke, our tournament-guessing champion, is still excited to eat at Golden Corral because we haven’t rewarded him yet. He is back in soccer where he spends most of his time at forward and midfield. He’s just starting baseball as well. He also continues to play the piano and loves to make cards and crafts for anyone he wants to cheer up. He was able to go to a Real Salt Lake game with his dad a few weeks ago. He ended up on the big screen four separate times with his sweet dance moves. We love his smile, and he continues to make us laugh. Here is a sign he made for a “blanket fort” he and Reagan built.

Reagan continues to bring joy to all of us. She is so sweet and brings happiness into everyone’s lives in our home. She absolutely loves to color, and does it whenever she can. She also is loving this nicer weather where she can play outside with her friends and family. She is becoming quite the little soccer player and loves to run around the back kicking the ball with her mom. Lately she has to line up all of her dolls and stuffed animals under a blanket to sleep on her floor. She gets very upset if she can’t make them fit (better not get her anymore or they won’t fit).

 Do you ever feel like time goes by so amazing fast that you can’t remember what happened the last month or so? However, when you look back at photos and remember all the amazing memories you made and realize how grateful you are for pictures and the memories they hold!!

Easter was one I won’t soon be forget.  This is not only because of the drama ;)!

We started with a fun family trip to Moab. I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I feel like life gets so busy at home. Vacation is a time to relax and enjoy my family!  There are none fo stresses of real life. No cooking dinner, no homework, no piano, no soccer. Just plain old enjoying life! We took the razor out to some beautiful areas in Moab, God’s creations truly amaze me time and time again. We drove to some fun caves that we were able to explore.. Another day we hiked to an awesome arch and all my kids had a blast. One unforgettable event was when Jake opened the razor trailer and it landed on top of him. Dan and I are still baffled as to how he wasn’t badly injured. He still has a scar above his eye but other than that he is just fine.

After Moab we headed to American Fork where Daniel had an old Dental friend offer him a job.  We went to meet up with him and talk about logistics and finances. We were really excited after talking with him. After many prayer and some consideration we have decided that God’s not ready for us to leave New Mexico yet. We are still looking at other options but felt this wasn’t the correct timing,

We we able to attend Shaylee’s baptism.  It was also wonderful to see Cindy and Grandpa and Grandma S.  Daniel also worked on Abbi’s braces on the living room coach (or the room nobody uses according to Dan).  Big Bonus was we finally got to meet baby Emmie and she was well worth the wait! Grandpa Lundell had a fun Easter hunt for the kiddos with all sorts of tiny trinkets in the eggs including baby chicks and dollar coins.

It was a quick trip to Utah with a little some drama, but it was fun coming to see everybody and enjoy a historical conference weekend!

We came home and quickly put together the Rudd talents and all 4 of the Rudd kids performed in the Ward talent show!  I was shocked that Kylee kept bugging me to sing a solo. She performed and did amazing! Hadley really wanted to sing a song from “The Greatest Showman” but then got nervous and recruited her mom to sing with her, after hours of practicing Mom was the one that bailed.  I told her she was welcome to sing on her own, but it wasn't a talent show for mom’s it was a talent show for the kids (really I almost had a panic attack thinking of singing a duet in front of the whole ward, i’m kinda a chicken). So Hadley stuck to a piano playing and did great. Hayden and his buddies put on thee cutest lip sync to a Beach Boys medley. I love seeing his confidence grow.. Jake and his preschool buddies performed an impromptu performance of “Coming get your Love.” Jake and his buddies had the whole audience in tears. J ake took over the microphone and when friend Gabey took it away he threw an epic toddler tantrum on stage. It was hilarious!

Hayden and Daniel had the pinewood derby in April! Oh my GOSH! Daniel is so competitive. I think Hayden painted the car and Daniel did everything else. Dan spent so much time (not to mention money) on that dang car.  He watched a million youtube videos and 20 million articles on how to make your derby car faster! Hayden and Daniel were both super nervous and couldn’t sleep the night before. Race day came and the Rudd’s pulled off 2nd place.  They were pretty excited, but one of the other fathers was not so happy. He called Hayden’s car out because we had lifted up one of the wheels on the car to reduce friction. He made a big fuss out of it and the Cub master dismissed.  He then took it to a member of the bishopric who also said it was okay. I thought it was quite comical when the member of the bishopric came over to Dan and patted him on the shoulder and told him since he approved the car he deserved half the win.  The first place Dad stepped in and told the upset Dad that he had also moved his wheel and that majority of the cars had a lifted wheel. Overall we still had a fun night.

Hadley had a field trip to the Zoo that I was able to accompany her on. She had a blast. She finished her soccer season playing against her old team. She had a hurt leg that she had injured earlier that week and was bothering her during the game.  The morning of the game she was playing soccer during Hayden’s half time and got kicked in that shin again and was in a lot of pain. Although she tried, she didn’t play much of her game because she struggled to run. Needless to say while her team played so well but they lost to her old team. They had a pizza party afterwards and received trophies. Hadley has really enjoyed her team this year.  She has made me proud that with a new team she was able to make great new friends with all the girls on her team. She also had a diorama presentation on bottlenose dolphin due this month. She did awesome with moms help at the diorama and killed it on the presentation part.

Kylee learned how to ride a bike!  Can you all stand up and start clapping please!  We have tried and tried and tried to get this girl to ride but she has always been so scared.  I finally bribed her with “girl legos” and she finally got on and kept trying. She figured it out in about ten minutes later and just kept going. She now asks to ride her bike everyday as soon as she gets home from school.  It’s so fun seeing her show off her new skill. She is counting down the days of school and asks everyday home many days are remaining. I don’t understand why she hates school so much when she does so well at it. She goes on her first Kinder field trip this Friday to the aquarium and botanical gardens (she missed her first 2 field trips because we were out of town).  She was pretty upset when she found out I wasn’t coming to her field trip. So instead, I took her on special date to get sushi at Smith’s and a paint your own pottery shop around the corner from Dan’s office.

Jake, my baby, turned 4.  He has been going through some major growth spurts. I have had to nap him a couple times a week because he is getting so exhausted and will fall asleep at 4pm on our drive to pick kids up from school in the car.  Jake never went through the terrible 2’s or horrible 3’s, but I feel like we are getting a few more of those tantrum coming on now. Jake still makes me laugh everyday. He received a little battery powered 4 wheeler for his birthday and loves that thing to death.  He has been really struggling at sitting through his lesson mom gives him, so we have been just trying to get through half a lesson to make it less tortuous on him. He is learning a few letter sounds really well and can sound out a couple words with those sounds. But Jake really just wants to play with his friends all day long.

I’ve been filling my time with girls camp preparation. Wow, there really are a lot that goes into girls camp.  We haven’t had a ward level girls camp in 7 years. So that means that we don’t have a ward budget for Camp. Which has been a little stressful.  We have been putting together a fundraiser for the YM/YW that will happen this Saturday as a garage sale. People are amazing. We went around and picked up donations tonight and we had filled an entire 3 car garage full of stuff!  Wish us luck in getting people to purchase things this coming Saturday! Cub Scouts are also still keeping me occupied and so are my own 4 kids of course! I love the slow time off the year when soccer is out, but I totally miss watching my kids play every week.  I feel like the Lord has really blessed me this month to the help me see the good in others. He has touched my heart many times these last couple weeks in trying to make some big decisions and helping me try to serve others. I also feel like he is teaching me humility and patience in seeing all my Utah friends and family at the Hamilton play this week.

Daniel’s Office manager came back from maternity leave this month and it has been wonderful!  He was excited to be released from the Elders Quorum presidency but was placed back in last week.  He said he doesn’t have much to report but I’ll tell his accomplishments. He was able to finish an entire bag of Doritos in one night, while in bed! Yeah that takes some skill :)

We have really enjoyed family bike rides now that Kylee can ride her bike (Jake learned before she did). We have gotten into Geocaching (Colleen’s family introduced us) and we have been every Sunday since we returned from Utah.  We even have a few families into it with us. So we are a biker gang riding around on Sunday looking for hidden treasure. I was so proud of Jake we were headed back from our Geocache and headed up a long steep hill. Jake didn’t complain once, he would just get off his bike and walk and then get back on and ride until his legs were tired and get back on and ride again.  Not the same story with Kylee and Hadley.

Horspool Family Newsletter
Feels like a lot has been going on in our neck of the woods. We enjoyed conference weekend and are excited for our new prophet and the changes that he has made.
Gibson has been busy with soccer and basketball. He loved playing basketball and scored 7 baskets in his final game. He is continuing soccer and is now going to add tee ball to his sports list.
During spring break we did a staycation at the Hampton hotel in Farmington. Emme went swimming for the first time. She was a bit confused but loved kicking her legs around in the water. Gibson was in heaven going back and forth from the pool and hot tub and getting to play with new friends. We spent the rest of our day at Farmington station shopping. We stopped off at the baked bear and enjoyed an ice cream sandwich. These were crazy sandwiches! So good!
Emme had her blessing on April 8th. She looked so beautiful in her dress and was full of smiles. Even I (Mike) got dressed up in my kilt attire. It was a special day and we are so blessed to have Emme Lou in our family.
Emme had been struggling with acid reflux but she got into her doctor and got some medicine that has made a big change. She is still smiling so much and has been caught starting to giggle a little.
We attended our friends birthday party at a South Weber park and Gibson had the time of his life. At the park they had a mini train going around the park. I’m not sure how many time he rode it he did not want to stop.