New years

We had a quiet New years eve at the house this year just our family. We did have fondue with Martinelli's, but everyone except Jordan was asleep before midnight. This morning the kids woke up, and the wise men must have found them. They were happy to have a few lingering gift this Christmas season to open, but it was quick since Church is now at 9am

I told Skyler we could see about having a party next year so that he could have some friends around, he is getting old enough that he would be thrilled to get to stay up.

Thinking about new years, new beginnings, goals and resolutions. 2011 was not a nice year for us, although we do have much to be grateful for, and I would rather have another 2011 and have my Dad with me then have an easy 2012 and know that it will be a long time before I get to see and talk to him again. But this is the reality that we have to live with and we are going to find a way to be happy, have as much fun as we can. We are going to make memories, take pictures and enjoy the many blessings that we have been given.

This year I want to make sure that I make time for those things that are best for me. I am really good at scheduling my time and can accomplish a great deal, but am I accomplishing the things that matter most? My family, my husband and Children, My mom and brothers. I am going to make sure that I am giving my best to the relationships that matter.

We are busy developing the basement so that my Mom can move in, and I am excited and nervous at the same time for all that it will bring.

This year I am going to be a better me, and part of that is taking time for me!

Christmas 2011

This Christmas was hard. Harder than I expected, and I think harder than we were really prepared for, but we still managed to make some good memories as a family, and my Mom ensure that we were busy.

Christmas eve was at our place since we now have room for everyone, and we had planned to see Arthur Christmas, come home and decorate gingerbread houses, talk to Stephen for his call home, have some appetizers and finger food and go to bed. Mom added a few things to that list.

As a family (minus the kids) we went to visit Dad's grave, this was only my second time going out to the grave since we had to say good by 3 months earlier and I cried, It all felt so wrong and unfair. Dad is supposed to be here to share in fun family traditions, and instead we were adding a new tradition of visiting the place where he is burried knowing that he isn't there, but feeling the need to go all the same.

Now this is where Mom kicked things up a notch. She insisted that she needed a pedicure and was taking all 5 girls (that includes Ryley) out to get pedicures and the boys were all going bowling. Ryley loved having someone rub her little feet and paint her tiny nails, and she sat very well for it.

Then we had to have some lunch and she treated us all to Chinese food (I might have had some say in where we went to eat, I was really craving some good Chinese). Then we only had about an hour in a half until it was time to go to the movie.

It made the day a lot busier, but it was fun all the same.

The kids all got new pj's to open, and it was really fun to see how excited Ethan was with his pj's, he more or less ran all over the house screaming "I love them, I love my new skeleton jammies"

After quickly getting kids to bed Jordan and I cleaned up from the evenings festivities, and set out the gift for Christmas morning.

This year Chirstmas was on a Sunday and it was nice to kind of drag out the day. We had breakfast and opened presents with Melanie's family before church, then went to 1pm Sacrament and spent the remainder of the day with Jordan's family where we had a wonderful Turkey dinner with some great company.

I just wanted to include some pictures of Ryley from a photo shoot Jordan did with her before Church.

New Home

We moved on December 15th, just over 1 week before Christmas, and we feel very blessed to be where we are. Jordan was put to work almost immediately on projects to help us be better organized. One of those was storage in the garage. We have 13 foot ceilings in the garage, so he built storage coming down instead of shelves on the ground. He and his Dad put in some good hours one day and they were done, now we have to fill them with storage - although that will not be a problem.

The second project was a locker system in the mudroom. I LOVE how they turned out, and love the independence that it gives the kids to be responsible for their own coat shoes etc. The kids also enjoy being able to be more independent, so it is a win win situation.

I will post some pictures of the rest of the house shortly.

Skylers Christmas Concert

This was Skylers first Christmas Concert (they didn't have one when he was in kindergarten) and he did wonderful. I loved going to see him preform. He was soo mad that he wasn't wearing shoes, but refused to wear his sunday shoes when we were leaving and his boots stayed at the front door of the school. I am excited to see how he grows throughout his school years.