Linford 2021!
2021 was a wonderful year of growth, challenge, and prosperity for the Benyo Linford family! We moved to Payson into a beautiful, newly built townhome. Having the extra space has made working from home much more pleasant and Sally certainly appreciates the extra room to play. We also love the slower pace of southern Utah county and have already found great friends in our neighborhood and local community. We enjoy going on walks and saying hi to all the cows.
In January, shortly before we moved, we found out that we were expecting our second child! We decided to keep things a secret and didn’t tell anyone until half way through the pregnancy when we were far along enough to know what we were having. This made for quite the surprise and allowed Jonny to execute his “reverse gender reveal” idea he’d been cooking up where one walks into the room and explodes a cannon of confetti, simultaneously revealing the gender and the very existence of the gestating baby to a group of very confused family members.
In May, Jonny and Lauren went on their annual trip, this year to Costa Rica. We were able to do some amazing things together including spending lots of time at the beach, hiking to a waterfall in the jungle, zip-lining over the canopy, bathing in volcanic hot springs, riding four wheelers, and learning to surf. A highlight of the trip was meeting up with cousins who also happened to be in Costa Rica to go snorkeling on a Catamaran cruise. We always love the opportunity to adventure alone together in a totally new place and it does so much to strengthen and recharge our relationship. We are so grateful to the grandparents who watched Sally and made this possible.
In September, we welcomed our sweet baby Luke into the world. After a very long, exhausting pregnancy through a scorching hot summer, his arrival was highly anticipated. Having had a previous c-section for Sally, Lauren was very hopeful to be able to have a VBAC. The doctors informed us that inductions are risky with VBAC and suggested that the highest likelihood of success would come from going into labor naturally. For the last several weeks of pregnancy, trying to go into labor became Lauren’s full time job. She tried every trick in the book (both scientific and non-scientific) from Webster trained chiropractors to eating a gag-worthy amount of dates and raspberry leaf tea. She must have done something right because her water broke at 39 weeks and Luke was born after a perfectly successful trial of labor. We are so happy to have him in our family!
Here’s a few individual updates on each of us:
Jonny: After about a year and a half working as an android engineer at Utah-based tech startup Route, Jonny accepted a new position at Amazon. In his new role he looks forward to broadening his skillset into new areas of software development. He is a counselor in the bishopric in our new ward and stays busy during the week with church obligations.
Lauren: She enjoyed her maternity leave at home with the babies and started working again doing therapy at a psychologist’s private practice in Spanish Fork. There she is looking forward to working specifically with maternal mental health patients and will even be running a postpartum group. She is in her 4th year of her doctoral program and is in the process of interviewing for her 5th year internship position that will require us to relocate for a year. We will find out where we are moving on match day in February. It feels very good to be in the home stretch of her PhD. Lauren has a church calling as a relief society teacher and is loving the opportunity to facilitate discussions in a teaching capacity.
Sally: This girl has a whole lot of personality and if you’ve seen her recently, you know how fun she is to be around. She is always talking and always moving. She has grown up so much since the birth of her baby brother, whom she absolutely adores. Sally’s beloved babysitter moved away this summer which was a difficult transition but she and Luke started at a new home daycare close by in Salem and are doing well. Sally is in nursery and loves to play with the other children at church. She has an undying passion for balloons, stickers, hearts, swimming, anything rainbow-colored, and Daniel Tiger.
Luke: He is just the sweetest, most joyous little guy and we love him to bits. He started life out a bit rough and had to spend his first day or so in the NICU due to an infection during delivery. At 4 weeks old, he contracted RSV and was hospitalized on the pediatric floor for about 6 days. This was an extremely distressing time for our family but we are so grateful for all the prayers and fasts and meals from friends and family. He was on oxygen for about a week or two after being discharged from the hospital and now he is doing much, much better! Our sweet guy is very smiley and happy and is treating his parents to glorious rest as he began sleeping through the night at one month old!
Here, you will find a link to our “year in review” video. We love making videos from the short little clips that we accumulate over time; they make the best mementos and Sally watches them about 10,000 times. The song we chose describes perfectly how we feel about this time in our lives. It says “If I wished myself a superpower, I would make this moment last for hours”. I find myself thinking this thought on a daily basis as I try to savor every moment with our family. One thing we’ve learned from the last year is how quickly children grow and change and I know that in the blink of an eye our kids will be adults and we will be looking back on these days as “the good old days”. So until then, our goal is to drink deeply from every second we have and appreciate all the little tender moments, developmental leaps, and happy smiles. There is so much joy available to us in the present moment.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love,
Jonny, Lauren, Sally, & Luke