Christmas

This Christmas was great, but of course every year is. We had a nice quiet Christmas at home. Honestly, that's the way I like it. The kids of course stayed up until almost 1:00 am. (checking every few minutes to see if Santa came) Then Jordan was back up at 4:30 am. We had a secret Santa this year and the kids have really enjoyed those gifts. We had a goal to be mostly out of debt by the end of this year, so we were going to have a small Christmas. It was kind of fun to see a few extra presents popping up under and in our tree. I don't know who all the secret Santas were, but we all enjoyed the gifts. Our month started off with our Christmas calender in the Friend. Every night there was a question and a scripture to read. It really helped bring Christ into our Christmas. The kids were really upset when that ended. We have played a lot of games and just spent time as a family. It really has been great.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We have been very busy this year and expect it to continue into next year. We are very optimistic about next year and are looking forward to the changes it will bring. I hope that we all can remember the true meaning of Christmas, and realize all of the blessings that have been experienced throughout the year.

Halloween

This is about half of the candy my kids got this Halloween. This is one of the reasons I don't like Halloween.

So I Finally Did It!

I finally made a menu for the rest of the month. I'm trying to save money and not go to the grocery store every other day. We did the menu as a family so that there would be meals that everyone liked. And believe it or not, but I already had all the food I needed to make every meal for the rest of the month.

My Latest Project

True Motherhood

All this ended up in my purse by the end of church today. I finally understood why my mom always had us kids carry her bags, half the stuff was ours anyway.

1st Day Of School

Wednesday was the first day of school for my kids. We decided to enroll them in Quest Academy. Hannah and Jordan love it so far. I really like their teachers. The whole school is really on top of Hannah's diabetes needs. As you can see even Emmie and Mary wore back packs the first day. Just so you know Mary really was happy, she just didn't want to stand with the kids to get her picture taken.

Catch Up!

It has been such a busy summer already. I can't believe it. My baby is now 16 months. She has changed so much over the last month, it is crazy. The kids were able to spend some time with grandma and grandpa in Idaho. They really enjoyed that. We were able to spend Memorial Day in Idaho and go visit Arkadia's grave. It has been many years since we have been able to do that. She would have been 8 this year. I can't believe how fast time has gone by, and I can't believe how much I still miss her. While in Idaho, we celebrated Jordan's 5th birthday. He has a cousin who's birthday is just before Jordan's, so they had a combined party. Both boys were excited. They really got excited when they realized they were the same age for a couple of days. I am so happy. My wonderful neighbor gave me 2 rose bushes. I love rose bushes. We also got tomatoes and strawberries planted. We had hoped to do more, but I'm thinking we are about out of time to plant anything else.

Bowling

The American Diabetes Association hosted a family bowling night. We were able to bowl 2 games. Hannah won both, and of course all the kids beat mom. Even Mary got in on the fun. We all had a ton of fun and enjoyed being able to visit with other families living with diabetes.

End of School!

Last Thursday my children officially finished school. The weather has even cooperated to make it feel like summer vacation has really hit. However, I'm going over my schedule for the summer and I feel like it is already over. I think that means I need a break, and I need to slow down.

Mary Walking

Sorry again about the quality. I seem to only have my phone around when things happen.

Yesterday

Yesterday was our Ward Conference. Our Bishop ended up in the hospital from complications from the H1N1 virus back in October. He has been in the hospital and rehab since. Even though it has been a very difficult situation for him and his family, it has been a very spiritual experience for our ward and stake. I can't even put into words the experience. Our kids have grown so much as they have prayed for him in every prayer every day. It really has been neat. We were supposed to have our ward conference earlier, but they postponed it to yesterday on hopes that our Bishop would be there. Last week, we learned that he had faced some setbacks and would still be in rehab for a while longer. However, we walked into Sacrament Meeting yesterday and there was our wonderful Bishop. He is still in a wheelchair, but he was there and able to speak to us. It was so spiritually wonderful, and I know that he was able to be there because of all the faith and prayers of the ward and the stake. The city of Enoch was taken up to Heaven because they were so righteous and all were working together for one purpose. For a few months the little area of Sunset felt a little of that as we all came together with the one purpose of getting our Bishop better. It is an experience that we may never have again, but while it lasted it was an amazing journey.

Mary

Here is a sample of Mary's 1 year pictures. I personally think she is absolutely adorable.

Mary Turned One

Mary's birthday was on Sunday. It's amazing how quickly time flies. She took a couple of steps on Sunday, but still prefers to crawl. The girls were sick, so we just had a quiet family celebration. Mary enjoyed it though.

Learning To Walk

I love seeing each one of my kids reach new milestones, but sometimes there is a little sadness involved too. Especially when babies grow too fast. Please excuse the sound. I recorded this on my phone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (late)

We spent a quiet Christmas at home and had a lot of fun. We were able to go look at lights in Ogden and around our neighborhoods. We saw Santa at our ward Christmas party and at the mall. The kids liked that. We also had the kids buy presents for eachother. That was their favorite part of Christmas. New Years Scotts, brother and sister-in-law came over and of course we stayed up way to late and ate way to much food. But it was a lot of fun.