The latest DIRT on the Dutton's

It's been as crazy as ever here at the Dutton house. I have an official announcement to make. As of February 1st Stan is now a member of the Army National Guard.

I know its a bit of a surprise to do something this drastic. I guess drastic times call for drastic measures. However It's no surprise to any of you that right now the construction industry is about as lucrative as peddling pond scum. We've been extremely blessed to hang on for as long as we have. Over the last 6 months we've talked about the possibility of Stan going back to school. Before Layla had all her "fun" hospital visits and we endured such a slow winter were looking into student loans and grants. Of course then life happened. We then considered another option. Instead of going into even more debt, Stan to join the army and let them pay for his education. Being almost 30 with 4 children we knew it would be a bit of a struggle. Has it ever! We started the entire process about the 2nd week of December. We thought once they let him sign that he'd leave fairly quickly for boot camp. Hoping he could leave and then be back for the summer months when or if work picks up again. But things never go how you plan, they don't have him scheduled for BC until July 20th! There's still a chance that they could move his date up. Both of us prayed really hard about this decision and felt like it was what we needed to do. I think Stan's going to do really well in the Army. He's an extremely competitive guy. He loves machinery, guns and being physically active. The last few years I've felt like he needed something to challenge him. Owning a company that's slowly being sucked dry by this horrible economic crisis leaves one feeling a bit stagnant. Being in the army not only gives him a chance to be a missionary for the church, but to physically push himself, it'll expand his mind and give our whole family a chance to serve our country. A country that despite current turmoil and being governed by self serving leaders is one that I still love. I love the original principals this country was founded on. I respect my ancestors who sacrificed so much to ensure our freedom. Both Stan and I have Grandfathers who served during world War II. I used to love hearing my Grandma Mary tell stories of what it was like on D day at Peal Harbor. I hope our family won't have to endure the hardships our grandparents faced. Whatever our fate I know that this is the right decision for our family. Most of the time I go through life making choices, praying for inspiration and hoping everything will come out alright. However there have been a few instances in my life where I know with my whole heart what choice I'm supposed to make. This happens to be one of those times. Still who knows what the Lord has in store for us. I'm a planner so this whole wait and see thing is really hard for me. Do any of you remember those books that came out in the early 90's that you could choose your own adventure? You could choose to open door 1 or 2. Or go down the stairs to the creepy basement or up stairs to the creepy attic. I confess there was a time uhhhmmm...or 2 that I cheated and peeked ahead to find out what consequences each choice would unfold. Well, I admit it if I had that power right now I'd waist no time flipping through the book to search out our fate....
.... You know after I typed that last sentence I sat for a moment and wondered if knowing my future would really be all that satisfying. The concepts of faith and hope would be entirely useless. I could say goodbye to being surprised. Or working really hard for something and having the satisfaction of overcoming unforeseen obstacles. Obstacles are what make us stronger. They make us think on our toes. In fact the saying, "Necessity is the mother of all invention" strongly comes to mind.
The more I think about it I don't want to know our future. It wouldn't matter anyway. Stan's already signed all the papers. We've started down this road and there's no turning back now. I guess the only thing to do now is to be the very best Army wife I can be. There's this old saying it goes something like this...
"Know who thou art, and do well thy part."(If anyone knows the exact quote for sure leave it in a comment.) Basically what I get out of this is...If we know who we are, why we're here and what we need to do and then do our very best at it, despite circumstance; Everything will work out just fine.

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to this last couple of weeks.

We made a blanket fort.

The poster on the wall is in honor of Stan coming home from working in Panguitch.

Cute Kiddos

" It's HUMONGUS!", says Todd

This picture is of Layla chillin in a little bed Grayden made for her.

Layla's first bowl of Nanna Mush

Hhhmmm...very interesting

Kids can sleep anywhere!

It's like she dropped dead going up the stairs.

Grayden lost his third tooth!

Hope everyone's doing well,

Thanks for stopping by to check on our little Fam.

Have a great day!