More Updates

Here is a little bit of what everyone in our family has been up to lately. Sorry about the huge run on paragraphs:

Lily:
Lily is now almost 12 weeks! She is a very sweet, good baby. She likes to be held and talked to. She now sleeps 8-11 hours at night (nice!). I haven't been as good about getting her on a schedule as the other babies, but she is getting there now. She spends her time watching her siblings, swinging, sitting in her Bumbo chair, and cooing with Mom and Dad. She is loved by all on our house. She is so feminine, even her cute little cry. I could spend the whole day cuddling with her. She loves to make eye contact and give big smiles. I still look at her and feel so blessed. What did we ever do without her? What could ever be that bad with her in our lives?

Carter:
What a busy boy! He loves to follow his siblings around and be involved in everything. He can climb anything including out of his crib. I recently bought our first crib tent! Sorry buddy, you are way to young to handle a big boy bed and bed time is crazy enough as it is. Carter is really starting to talk a lot, but not too clearly yet. He even says some three word sentences like "Want milk please." He speaks so quietly that I am constantly surprised by how many words he already knows because I just don't hear him all the time. He whispers most of the time. Today I picked him up and he said "monster truck" (he was holding one). Carter loves going to nursery at church, but has missed it a lot lately because he has had one cold after another for the last few weeks. He likes to come and hug on me throughout the day, but then quickly wiggles down and is off again to play.

Tanner:
Where do I start? I think someone put a teenager in a 3 year old's body. Tanner has so much attitude that it is hilarious. He still takes everything so literally. If you call him something other than Tanner he gets so offended. It makes it even more fun to tease him. Yesterday I was hugging him and told him he was such a good teddy bear. He looked at me and said "Your kidding me, right? I am just Tanner." Other times he likes to be called by something else, but only if it is okay with him. Lately he likes to be Sponge Bob, and carries a toy spatula everywhere. He also loves his collection of Pixar's Cars and can't leave home without them. But of course Thomas and all the other trains are still the most important thing he owns. Whenever Tanner meets a stranger he asks them what their name is and is not shy about telling them what is on his mind. He is very bold. He can be random too, like yesterday when he was the last one awake upstairs. He came down to my room and so I let him come crawl in bed with me for some one on one time. We cuddled for a minute and talked and then he said "Mom, you can't go outside the buoy!"(he went for a boat ride recently). He is so silly, just don't tell him that. He is in Primary now, but I think he would have been content to stay in nursery and play with toys. On Sunday, 3 separate primary workers came up to Peter and said "Wow, that Tanner sure has a lot of personality!" and "He sure does have a big vocabulary!" I guess he is very talkative and not afraid to tell someone to "Get out of my way!" I promise, I really do try to teach our children to respect adults. Like I said, a teenager in a little body.

Eden:
Girly girl. Eden's favorite thing in the world is having a clean room and spending time there. She organizes her toys, dresses her dolls, puts them to bed, and makes lots of play food picnics. She is totally a Mommy's girl and is very protective of me when Peter teases me(ha ha). She has always liked to color, but recently she draws all the time. She is getting pretty good for her age I think. She has this interest in common with her older cousin Miranda so she has really learned a lot from her. I currently have about 10 pictures above my bed that she taped up for me. Eden loves clothes, shoes and makeup. She accepts my fashion advice still, but is quite capable of making her own outfits. Some are rather interesting but she always makes sure that her colors match. Eden is my most reserved child around other people. She is quiet and well behaved in public. At home she is VERY bossy to her brothers and is one of the loudest. Rightfully so I suppose, it is three to one odds since Lily can't play yet. Eden is very good at pretend play and when Dallin is at school she and Tanner make up plenty of role playing games. She is always telling me long stories of things she thinks are funny or interesting. She is working on learning to read and writing her letters at home and loves preschool time with Mommy. She is also really excited to go snow skiing for the first time this year. We weren't really planning on that, but she has asked several times so I guess she is ready.

Dallin:
Dallin is doing so much better. We are giving him extra motivation from home of things to work for so he is really excited to be a good boy. School and Church are going much better. He is very interested in building right now. It is fun to watch his interests change. He comes home from school every day and goes outside to "work". Rain or shine he is out there working on some kind of project. He loves to go to work with Peter too. He has gone a few times to the shop and even to a little job one time. He is very involved and eager to help. He told Peter that he REALLY wants to be a builder when he grows up. We drive down the street and he sees buildings and stores as things he will build some day. Peter asked him what kind of builder he will be and explained different fields of construction. He said "I want to be and Electrician and work with you and Grandpa." I don't doubt that one bit. I know Dallin can be whatever he wants, so I think we have a 4th generation electrician on our hands. Dallin is always asking questions about the earth and how things work like gravity, space and how Jesus made things. He is so curious. He has some leadership qualities with his siblings that I try to encourage. I just love his vigor for life. He wants to experience it all, and is so animated that it makes everything we do so fun.

Cilla:
I think I am finally starting to feel good! The rash is almost gone, I have been migraine free for several days, and I am getting more sleep thanks to Lily. I am spending most of my time adjusting to life with 5 children. Holy cow, going from 4 to 5 felt like doubling the load for some reason. It just became so much more responsibility and going in so many directions all the time. I think I am beginning to adjust to the new normal now and I am thinking I am gonna make it. I am trying to get the house and family organized and planning many fun home improvement, gardening, craft and photography projects. Maybe not all at once though, I'll start with the getting organized part. Life with no TV is good. I enjoy reading a lot so I have been doing more of that. I also love reading blogs. it is like enrichment night every night with all the crafting and such that is going on out there. I get way too many good ideas in my head. I love being in my own house again. Especially since we had already made many changes to work for our taste and needs. It's like the baby bears pooridge, this one is juuuust right! I am hoping to feel well enough to start exercising again right away. I have those last 10 pounds of baby weight to work off (more would be nice too) and I am eager to get my strength back.

Peter:
Peter is now fully into his dream job. I wish I could say business is booming. There is a little too much down time at the moment, but he is spending it fixing up the shop and estimating so he stays plenty busy. He is very motivated to be a great success in this field and I am excited to see how far he can take it. I think he wishes his wife would stop getting sick so he could focus more though. He has also been running a lot since he is training for the Hood to Coast with his friends and siblings. Everyone logs their miles and times on a blog so that is very motivating for him. He fell into a ditch running at night the other day though so he makes sure to take a flashlight now. When Peter is not working or running, he is a fully involved daddy. The kids love it when he comes home and they look forward to it all day. He works on the house too, fixing little things and organizing his home office. Last week he and his dad even installed some canned lighting in the basement, Yay!

The big 5

Eden Turned 5 on th 16th. I really wanted to make her day special since it is such a significant number. The night before her birthday I took her to the store Claire's. She had never been in there before and she was awestruck! She looked at everything in the whole place. I told her that we were going to make her a REAL princess for her birthday tomorrow and we looked through about 10 crowns until we found just the right one. Now she was ready. The next morning she decided to wear her tutu that Grandma D gave her for Christmas(no surprise there, she has worn it just about daily since she got it). We made her cake together, did her hair special and did a photoshoot which she loved. I kept her busy all morning and gave her my full attention. Then it was time to go. She really wanted to have her party with her 2 big girl cousins so I took Eden, Shelby and Miranda over to Build a Bear at the mall.

The girls loved making their animals, putting the little heart in, washing them, picking outfits, and naming them. It was a hit. One of Eden's favorite people, Aunt Lucy came and helped us too.


Afterward, we had some ice cream. Miranda was so eager for Eden to open her presents that she hurried to finish her cone.




Miranda gave many sweet handmade gifts. Eden really looks up to Miranda and Miranda is so good to Eden. They have really bonded since we moved here. She is a big sister type to Eden and teaches her all kinds of fun things.

When we got home, the girls colored their stuffed animal houses.

A little later we had our big family party at Papa's Pizza. The kids ran around and had a great time.

Eden loved her Princess cake, even though Carter took a big chunk out of the side earlier that day.





Grandma D gave Eden this little ceramic cat that belonged to her Great Granma Josephine, who she was named after. It is quite a treasure for Eden now. She opened lots of other fun gifts and then we called it a day. Eden had major pleasure overload by the time she went to bed and I was exhuasted from catering to her every need all day but she felt like a princess so it was so was a great day.

"As parents, we become the authors of the stories that will dwell in our children throughout their lives."

The Thick of IT

I have been wanting to write and update on things recently, but I didn't quite know what to say. I usually try to keep my writings positive or at least humorous, but I just haven't had the heart for that lately. I will say that we have been blessed through our trials and although I have been weak physically and mentally, I have not lost hope that life is good and that the Lord loves us. Things seem to keep happening that are out of our control, but I can still count my blessings. We joke that we are having Egyptian plagues around here and every time something happens, we think that there could not possibly be one more thing that could go wrong, until the next thing happens and then we say that again. I keep promising my dad that I, in no way have been praying for humility! He doesn't believe me. Here are a couple of the more recent examples from life that I haven't already mentioned.

In that last month we have had numerous illnesses in our house. Carter was even kicked out of nursery for coughing (I didn't notice it before church). It just seems normal for people to have yucky noses and occasional vomiting lately. I have never felt well since having Lily. Just when I think I am getting well again, something else happens. This week I had a severe allergic reaction to something that has given me a terrible rash from head to toe, literally. Even my throat seems to have it. After 3 days of looking like a freak, I think it is starting to heal (not totally sure). It is a very itchy situation. I have really learned to appreciate good heath, I sure miss it. I hope to some day soon be rash and migraine free!

Another "plague": Last week I woke up to feed Lily at 4 AM and noticed a burning plastic smell. It was really strong and as I walked into the kitchen and turned on the light it looked hazy and smelled even worse. I woke Peter up and we started investigating. We thought it might be the fridge, but I could hear the fan working so we kept looking. After a few minutes we were at a loss for what to do because we couldn't pinpoint it. We couldn't go back to bed if something was about to burst into flames!

I decided to call 911 and get the fire department to help us. The operator had us start loading kids in our van just in case so we did that as we waited. They poor little things were totally confused. At first the operator said the fire trucks weren't going to turn all the lights and sirens on, but I guess they changed their minds about the lights. Before long we had a fire truck, with lights blaring in our cul de sac. They came in, smelled the burning smell and called 2 more trucks over, lights on. I am sure we woke up anyone who has a bedroom window facing the street. Of course this was a day that the house was a terrible mess. Isn't that just always how it goes? They confirmed that it was our fridge that was burning up. The fan was blowing the toxic smell all over. The firemen were all very nice and told us that we did the right thing, that is what they are there for. It was probably 5:30 before we were back in bed and it was all over, but I was glad that it wasn't anything worse and everyone was safe in bed once again. The next day I wasn't too excited about buying a new fridge though, ouch!!!

So things haven't been great, but I can handle it. I think I am pretty tough for the most part and have been through all of this. There is only one thing that has really brought me to my knees grasping my chest with a broken heart, blaming myself and praying in tears for mercy. Regression. I HATE that word. I have seen it many times, and I know he always comes out of it ahead, but it is so difficult for me to see. He has worked so hard and come so far. The move has been a hard adjustment for him as it would for any kid. He is happy, but school and church have been a major struggle for him. I don't really want to give more details than that. I hate that he was doing so amazing and we took it all away. I just hoped that he would be fine. It turns out that we are in for more work than expected. I felt sorry for myself for a few days and let it get me down, but now I feel stronger and ready to fight for the boy that I love. I will do whatever it takes to help him be successful. Don't get me wrong, he is happy and doing okay, he just isn't functioning in a classroom setting without a lot of help and breaks at the moment. We have our plan in place to help him stay motivated, so I hope that he will be able to adjust to all the new things soon.

I was reading the recap from the RS lesson on Sunday today about Burdens:

"It is important to prepare for and work to overcome the challenges we face in this life. The man whose wagon gets stuck in the mud is more likely to get help from God if he gets out and pushes than the man who only raises his voice in prayer."

"Sometimes we are stuck in the mud. What we need, is to come to an understanding of what skills we have to develop to help ourselves."

That's all I have to say in the thick of all of this. Now I will start getting out of the mud.

I have so many other things I want to write about and I will be back to my happy blogging self now.

Big Brother's Lullaby

I have been so bad about videos lately. When we took this video today and I unloaded my video camera there were 43 video clips going back to the end of August! I was shocked that it been that long. This one was too cute not to put on the blog though. Dallin was making up all kinds of cute songs for Lily. Some of them sound a lot like the primary songs. He is so sweet to her.

(You can view this full screen if you want by clicking on the second to right bottom button)

Engaged Parenting

(I want to be like the third mother more often. Always praying for more patience. Dear self, pray harder!)


Three approaches to parenting
In a thoughtful article in the Los Angeles Times, Dale Russakoff presents a parable told by Phyllis Hunter, former director of reading for Houston's public schools.

Hunter's first mother wheels her shopping cart down the produce aisle of a supermarket, where her kindergartner spots an eggplant and asks what it is. The mother shushes her child, ignoring the question. The second mother, faced with the same question, responds curtly, "That's an eggplant, but we don't eat it."
The third mother seizes the moment: "That's an eggplant," she says enthusiastically. "It's one of the few purple vegetables." She picks it up and encourages her child to put it on the scale. "Oh, look, it's about two pounds!" she says. "And it costs $1.99 a pound. Let's round it to $2. That would cost just about $4. That's a bit pricey, but you like veal Parmesan, and eggplant Parmesan is delicious too. You'll love it. Let's buy one, take it home, cut it open. We'll make a dish together."

Russakoff concludes, "Hunter's parable makes clear why an attentive, engaged parent is one of life's greatest academic advantages." The trouble, Russakoff argues, is that although there is widespread agreement of the power of families' influence, it is difficult to find intervention strategies that work with the families that need it most.

Why is it so hard?
If you walk through a grocery store, it is easy to spot the three types of parents Hunter identifies. Not without reason, interventions have focused on encouraging the behaviors exhibited by the third mother because they are so beneficial to her children. The trouble with focusing on the behaviors is that they cannot be separated from an entire way of seeing the world. The attentive mother engages her children because she sees her role as important and her children as responsive to her direction.

What is needed?
The pressing question is not how to get certain parents to change their behavior. The pressing question is how to precipitate a paradigm shift - a new vision - that undergirds nurturing action. How can you help parents to see that they play the most important role in the nurture and education of their children? How do you help them to see that they are not only influential, but responsible for the nurture and education of their children? Only when these questions are answered will there be meaningful change in parent engagement.

ER

Last week Dallin and Eden were playing in the back yard. They got shovels out of the shed and got busy digging a hole. A few minutes later, Dallin came running in the house crying. I guess his face had accidentally gotten in the way of Eden's digging. My mothers intuition kicked in and I already knew that it was going to be a stitches incident before I even saw him. Funny how that happens, I was already prepared to stay calm. I came running and met Dallin in the kitchen and saw his hand covering his eye and I could see that there was blood. I lifted his hand to see a really gnarly gash on his eye lid and brow. Peter was home working on a bid, which is a rare thing so I quickly handed Dallin some tissue to hold on his cut and rushed him out the door. We got to the urgent care in less than 5 minutes, but because of where the cut was they said we had to go to an ER. I was a little bummed because with our new insurance the Urgent care copay is $20 and the ER is $250! I decided to try another urgent care that was on the way to the hospital just in case, but they turned us away as well. So we headed over to St. Vincents. Dallin tried to convince me that he was okay because he was scared about going to the hospital. I told him what it would be like and he calmed down a bit.

When we got there, they took us right back to the pediatric ER. The nurse person was this HUGE guy with lots of tatoos and shaved head. I told Dallin that this nice guy was going to help us out. Dallin proceeded to talk his ear off. He told the guy that he and his sister were digging a hole in the yard so that they could have a lake to fish in. Huge nurse dude thought that made a lot of sense. In our little room, I changed Dallin into a little gown and he watched Cartoon Netwook for 2 hours. Every nurse that came in to check on him fell in love with him because he would talk to them nonstop and was being really cute.

As we sat there we had a really cute conversation:

Dallin: Mom, what are mountains made out of?
Me: Rocks and dirt.
I could see wheels turning in his little head.
Dallin: What holds the mountains up?
Me: Well, rocks are really strong so they do.
More wheels turning for a couple of minutes
Dallin: Do we have any rocks?
I can see where this is going now
Me: Yes, why?
Dallin: I want to build a big mountain in our yard.
Me: Oh, I see. Why?
Dallin: Because it snows in the mountains.
I explained that we don't have enough rocks or room for that kind of project. Plus, where would we put the new playhouse that he and daddy were going to build?
Dallin: Well, how about just a hill then?
Me: Okay.
Dallin: Maybe we could build a little mountain and then the playhouse on top of it. Then we could slide down the mountain.
Me: We'll see buddy.
Apparently a little shovel to the face action doesn't deter this guy from back yard projects.

The doctor finally came in and he was such a brave little guy. He got 4 stitches and the cut looked so much better after that. Just a few minutes later we were on our way home. The next morning, his eye was almost swollen shut so he got a free day off from school.




I am so grateful, this could have been so much worse. It was also a blessing that Peter was home at the time.

5 years old

I am so amazed that my little Eedy Beedy is 5. My goodness time flies. I was pregnant with her when we bought our house, which is now home to a family of 7. Now she is a big grown up girly girl. There is something so fun about our mother daughter relationship that is different than the boys. I guess we can relate to each other and speak the same love language.

Eden is a very sensitive sweet girl.

Always eager to please and be good

a loving and nurturing sister,

and loves to clean and organize her room.

She loves to have fun and be with family,

my little shadow,

loves to color and cook, do puzzles, and reading lessons...

playing with girls a bit older than her, and all things PINK and PURPLE.
This is how she came to us:
5 years ago, at 6 am, I woke up feeling some contractions. I was not due for 6 days and after Dallin being 7 days late I was very surprised. They were pretty strong so I woke Peter up and we both got a little excited. I told him, lets just start getting ready to go and if the contractions keep coming we will go. 15 minutes later they were still coming so we happily grabbed our little 17 month old Dallin and headed out.

We dropped Dallin off at my sister's who lives on the way to the hospital. By the time we rounded the big corner exit that leads to the hospital I was positive that things were really happening. I told Peter to hurry (as if he wasn't already). I tried to stay calm during the contractions because I had learned that screaming through them like when I was in labor with Dallin made things worse. We walked into labor and delivery and told them what was going on. In the triage room I just remember saying that I was definitely in labor and that I wanted them to call the anesthesiologist right away. When I was in labor with Dallin I had to wait a long time for the epidural so I was just trying to get the ball rolling.

I was at a 4 so they admitted me. I sweetly told the nurse that walked me to my room to go ahead and get the epidural ready. Then I told the admissions lady too. Then I told my nurse that came in to hook me up to the monitors. I was still very calm, but the pain was starting to get worse and I didn't want the same screaming session that I had last time. Can you tell I was a little over anxious about the whole epidural thing? Within just a few minutes I had my epidural and was comfortably waiting. The doctor came in a little later and broke my water.

I was so much more rested than with Dallin since I got a full nights sleep so I was full of energy and excitement. I was totally ready for the action. We told our mom's to come on over at about 8 am thinking it would go pretty quickly. I couldn't stop smiling. I was so ready to hold my little girl. Like I always say, Christmas Eve times ten! Moms came and we sat around and waited all morning. I watched the contraction monitor go up and down and didn't feel a thing.

Finally around 12 noon, it was time to push. I felt kinda bad for calling our moms in too early, but you just never know. After about 3 contractions my sweet little Eden came right out face up, all 8lbs, 8oz of her. I guess after the first baby, my body just knew what to do because there was no difficulty about it. That was the first time I used a mirror so it was pretty fun to actually see the birth of my baby. I figure of all people, the mom should get to watch their own birth! I have used one with all of the others since. Peter cut her cord and I grinned ear to ear and couldn't stop kissing her little face as I met her for the first time. I just remember smiling so much that whole day and loving Peter so much too for what we had just brought into the world.

Eden was for sure my easiest delivery. I really appreciate a baby that gives me a full night sleep before coming. I also appreciate one that comes a few days early and only takes 6 hours of easy labor so she was very considerate from the start.

When we brought Eden home, I felt like a little girl with their favorite baby doll. All the cute little dresses and bows and so much pink! I had so much fun with her. She was a very easy baby, like they all have been and I loved showing her off (not that it isn't a lot of work to have a newborn though). She was perfect, and meant for our family. I am thankful every day for having Eden in my life. Life would not be complete with her, she is a sweetheart.

Happy 5th Birthday my little girl.

It Has Happened

Life has gotten so crazy that I am now officially in a blog lull....I will be back as soon as I can find where I put my marbles!

First Day of School Jitters

Dallin gets to start at his new school tomorrow. I am so excited and nervous for him. I really want him to like it there and have a good experience. Today I went to the school and had a meeting with his new teacher, special ed teacher, and a few other specialists to plan for his needs. I think that he will definitely have an adjustment period, but that he will do great there. Everyone seems so nice and I am very impressed with how interested they are in helping Dallin succeed.

The only thing I am worried about is that they are not going to give him a full time aid like he had in California yet. They want to have someone come in the mornings with him and see if he needs more support than that. I know legally they have to provide what is in his current IEP so I could push for it if I feel that he needs it, but I think I will just go with what they are doing for a few days.

My only other worry is that the classroom size is a little bigger. Before he had 20 kids, one teacher and a full time aid. Now there will be 25 kids, one teacher and part time aid. His teacher did say that she has really great kids and no discipline problems so I guess I should just stop worrying and see how it all goes.

Overall, after the meeting today I just can't wait for Dallin to get back into school and continue to learn and grow! It will be nice to get back to a regular routine around here too. Now that the holidays are over and the flood is under control it is time to really start getting the home in order. What a huge project. One box at a time...

The Flood of 2010

Well, this year started off with a unexpected bang. On Friday night my little sis and her family came over to hang out and play Rock Band that we borrowed. I thought they would like to sleep in our game room so just as we were about to put the kids to bed so the grown ups could play I took Cami down to get her situated. We both kind of paused at the top of the stairs because the cement at the bottom of the stairs looked wet. We had pulled up the carpet in the TV room about a year ago for other water issues(the joy of having a basement when you live in Oregon). As I got closer to it, I realized that this was not just wet, it was deep. I started yelling for Peter as I rolled up my pants to investigate. I waded through the TV room and opened the door to the game room. "Oh good!" I said "It's not in this room!". Then I realized the door was a little harder to push open than usual and when I stepped on the carpet, it sunk!!! "Never mind, its all over." Our sump pump had broken and backed up into the whole basement. We measured over 2 inches of water. The next thing I remember saying (or shouting) was "Cami, call Bryan right now!" My brother in law owns a carpet cleaning business and has helped us with flooding before. Peter called his family and within a half hour we had 2 pumps sucking out water, the carpet was being torn into pieces and removed and many teenagers were carrying all of our storage boxed and furniture out to the garage.

I was fighting a bad migraine before it all started and I think the adrenaline rush made it spike because I could not even function for 2 hours. I had to lie down in a dark room because the light hurt and I was very nauseated. My head hurt so badly that I couldn't even take care of Lily. I was so embarrassed that all these people were working so hard and I was hiding in my bedroom. By the time the pain subsided I went downstairs to empty rooms in the basement and damp concrete. They worked so fast.

The saddest damages were all 3 of Peter's full mission journals, 100+ letters he had written to me from the mission and his mission photo albums. They are very damaged, but not total losses thank goodness. I also found a wet shoe box filled with little things Peter had given me when we were dating in high school like corsages, notes, etc., all fun memories. It was also a bit heartbreaking for me to see my volumes of note taking binders from college ruined as well as many of my favorite textbooks. It was all good reference material for me since I majored in Home Economics.

We will be a lot poorer now (insurance doesn't cover flood water damage) and have a lot of work to do to get things back together, but we still feel blessed. We had so much help and advice. We had already ordered carpet for the TV room so we just need to order one more roll. We may have to repair the walls but my dad has our back on that one. Everyone is still healthy and happy, and we are still home so I will keep counting my blessings.

31!

That is the number of minivans and full sized that vans were in the parking lot for our Ward today! Yes, we counted after seeing so many dang Honda Odysseys in a row. That includes ours and since we are the first ward to have meetings we are pretty sure they all belong to our time slot. This number does not include Suburbans or other SUVs. Seriously?!? I think we are going to fit in just fine here. Holy Minivan Batman!

mmmmm

Tanner: Mom, that was tasty!

I am just finishing feeding Lily as I look up and see some yellowish remnants around his mouth

Me: What was tasty?

Tanner: Um, the butter, but I like it. I like butter.

He knows that we don't just eat butter, but apparently liking it makes it okay!

Dallin Quote

I should really quote other people every once in a while, right?

Tucking the kids in bed each night is my favorite time of day. I spend a couple of minutes with each one kissing and hugging them and telling them how important they are to me. We often have cute little conversations and I get to hear what is on their minds. So the other night it went something like this with Dallin:

Dallin: When people sleep at night do they put their hands under the blanket, or out like this?
(Dallin pulls his hands out from the covers and puts them above his head)
Me: Well, if your hands are cold you put them under, but if they are hot you pull them out.
Dallin: Okay.
(He kept his hands out. I guess they were hot that night)

Blessing Pictures

Happy New Year! My New Years Blurb

I love that feeling of vigor that comes with the new year. A new start. That couldn't have come at a better time for me, with so much change. I can start so many things new. My thoughts center around being a better mom and homemaker, growing closer to the Savior, and of course getting healthy. HAVING BABY + LOTS OF STRESS + HOLIDAYS = BADONKADONK! (have they added that word to the dictionary yet? Spell checker has no suggestions).

One thing that excites me is that we are not going to have TV anymore. Of course there are always plenty of videos at our house and the with the Internet I can watch the final (sad, but its time to move on) season of Lost. I like the idea of reading a TON of books, working on projects and having more fun just hanging out with Peter after the kids go to bed.

I am ready to work hard(I am starting to feel health returning). My formula for being fulfilled is:
WORK HARD,
CREATE,

SERVE,

AND LEARN.

If I am doing any one of these I feel happy. These things enlarge my soul. I could probably just copy and paste my goals from last year and be good, but I think I just want to work toward finding balance(oh, is that all?) this year. A couple addictions that throw off the balance are bad food habits and too much Internet. I guess kicking the TV habit will be easy now.

I may not always accomplish everything I set out to, but I think being goal oriented is a good thing. I am usually pretty lofty about it, but I think I am farther than I would be if I didn't have any goals at all. There are so many things I want to be better at, but I refuse to be too hard on myself and try to remember the things in life that I have done.

2009 brought some accomplishments and blessings. Reaching a fitness goal(before getting pregnant), bringing Lily to our family, learning tons more about photography, finishing all the early intervention, keeping record of our family via this blog, and of course our ultimate goal of moving home! I feel pretty good about those things.

I want Twenty Ten(how sci-fi does that sound)to be even better and I plan on making the best of it that I can. Peter has a lot of exciting career plans and I am going to figure out how to handle 5 kids(I have no idea how to do that yet). I don't know where the phrase "The world is our oyster" came from and I don't even like oysters but that is how I feel today. I love that about starting a new year. Well, I am off to write new schedules, calendar, and plan out my next year and then some. Go team!

Happy goal setting, and as the song says,

Prospero ano y felicidad!