Grateful

I am so thankful for the gospel in my life. I am thankful for the direction that it gives me. I am so thankful for opportunity I have to be a mother. I am so thankful to have 4 beautiful and healthy children. I am so very thankful to be married to a good man who works so hard to provide for our family. I am thankful that we understand our roles as parents and that he is to be the provider and I am to be the nurturer. I have spent most of today letting things people have said get to me and I have to realize that I am in control of my own happiness. I know, and the Lord knows that I am trying to do what is right for our family, and that is all that matters!

THE TANK

It is really only 22 inches longer than the Armada I had, but it feels like I am driving a bus now. But with our ever growing family and the need for more grocery space we weren't left with many choices. I do like it, but it is going to take some to get comfortable parking this beast!

Snow Trip!

There was no school last Friday because of Staff Development, so the stake took advantage of that and had a Priest/ Laurel ski trip. We left the church at 5am and headed to Brianhead, UT. Chris and I were the chaperones on the bus, which was lots of fun!! Since I have never been snowboarding before I kind of chickened out and just decided to stay and tube with Jenny. Most of the youth from our ward went snowboarding and I heard that Chris was a great teacher. That is good because eventually I do want him to teach me. After spending the day with little snowflakes falling on us we boarded the bus again and headed to The Pizza Factory in St. George for dinner. The pizza was so tasty! It was a very long day, but so much fun!!

I just thought I would post this to keep myself motivated. Although I have accomplished this I know I am not finished, it will be a lifelong journey!

January

It seems like this year just began and now we are almost a month into it! The beginning of the month I celebrated my 26th birthday. It was probably my best birthday yet! I woke up to pink Gerber daisies on my dresser, my absolute favorite. Not even a trip to the doctor's office to get Chloe up to date on her immunizations could ruin my day. We just went to dinner at Outback with my family (all 22 of us!) and then to our house for lots of yummy cake. It wasn't really what we did, but that I felt so special. I am so thankful to have good friends and such a great family to help me feel so special!

Even Cooper enjoys a little work out now! After I am done they all have a turn now. Funny kids!My kids have now learned about the ice cream truck. It was so cute when Alex came running in the house, I couldn't help but give in. Now they wait daily for him to come. Lucky for me, our street isn't one of his regulars.

And last but not least... this has been my favorite part of the day lately! My kids have had colds off and on and they have been straight up difficult. I have been talking with a couple of people lately and they have asked how I do it with 4 kids. And my only answer is it didn't use to be this hard. I have been praying for lots of patience to handle all the nastiness that my kids have thrown at me this last month. I know I will make it, lets just hope they do too!

Let's Bowl

This last Friday was the half way mark for our bowling season. I only have about 18 more weeks!
They teamed the first and second place team up, the third and the fourth, and so on. And we were matched up with the last place team. At least we weren't last! In our favor we did forfeit the first 4 weeks or so because are team wasn't together yet.
It is not about who wins or loses, but what matters is that we have a good time! And even though I joined this kicking and screaming and still do scream abit. We do have a good time! The good news is that even if we did place last we still win $money$!
Not counting last week , but I definitely have improved my game. Not that I really know what I am doing anymore than when I started, but my average has gone from 60 to 96.

So here is to a better half! I will really try and follow through!

GO OH REALLY!

A Snowy New Year!

I think there has only been one New Year's day since we were married that Chris and I haven't gone to play in the snow. The first couple of years included the kids, but they were so little and Chris and his friends thought tubing more of an extreme sport. So we would go play with friends and have a day without the kids. But after last years little incident ( I am not allowed to talk about it!), this year was a very safe, family outing in the snow!

My sisters joined us to do a little sledding and we even built a cute little snowman.
Cooper wasn't so sure about it. He was only happy if somebody was holding him. Alex had a blast going down the hill on his "keek" board. And Nick and Chloe had fun making snow angels and racing down the hill. Next year we will have to buy a couple of more boards so they can each have their own. They grabbed the boards and climbed the hill all by themselves. They mostly just needed help sitting down on the boards before they slid down. They, me too, went down many a times without a board!

After the snow we headed back in to town and met my parents at the movies to see Bedtime Stories. It was a really cute show!
We hope everyone had a great day! Happy New Year!