When we're helping, we're happy, and we sing as we go...

I had another 'first' today. Taught Sam how to do his own laundry! He stripped his own bed, loaded the sheets and a few dirty shirts and things into the washer, turned it on, added the soap and shut the lid! Can I just tell you how wonderful that is!!! After nine years of taking care of every little itsy bitsy detail of his life...he can now do his own laundry! Wow, I'm really ecstatic, can you tell? ;)

Although, the day for him to leave on his mission is 9 years away, it'll fly by so fast. I keep telling him that I'm not going to be able to go on his mission with him just to fold his blanky the way he likes it. And he laughs and laughs. But oh I will miss him so. I already miss him so much on the nights he goes to his dad's house. What will I do when he's gone for two years? Wow, I'm already getting sad about that. Now is the time to savor each minute. I can't believe my baby boy is 9.

Took the kids to see Hotel For Dogs tonight. They all loved it but at one point in the show, all three of them were crying...I have some very sensitive children with huge hearts. I love them all so much. I am one lucky mom! TTFN. (For we love to help mother, for we all love her so!)

More pics from Snowmobiling Trip, Island Park, Jan 2009

The Girls: Kennedy Sarah Mary Ava

Mary & Ava

Dad & Rosie

Bill & Brooklyn

And over the hills we go...

We just returned from our annual snowmobile trip and what an amazing time we always have as a family. We take an obscene amount of food and STUFF and caravan up to Island Park, where we rent a cabin and chill for a couple of days. It's almost always chaotic and nobody gets very much sleep but I'm so thankful that I have family to be with and share the holidays with. The kids love to be pulled in the sled behind the snowmobile. My dad has been planning this trip for over a year now and he gets so excited; he is the biggest kid out there! I'm so thankful for my parents, and my brother & his fiancee and sisters and their husbands, for all making it possible for us to have so much fun together.


We also were able to celebrate Sam's 9th Birthday! Happy Birthday Sam, we love you!

PS. Sorry for the lack of format, I'm still trying to figure this out! ;)

And a Very Merry Christmas to you...

Well I finally am updating this..I know of few of you who are going to fall over and die with shock!



















I figured that because I'm not sending out Christmas cards this year, this would be a good way for all those interested to check up on us.

It's been an intensely busy year. My single mom friend, Serena Buss, and her two boys have moved in to our basement apartment. It is so much fun to have them here and to share life with them. It is so wonderful for the both of us to have someone we can rely on. We love having family home evening together and dinners together. Her boys, Carston and Kennon, get along great with my children. They all are such good helpers and they are all trying their best in school and around the house.

Sam is now almost 9 and in 3rd grade. He absolutely loves school and is doing well. He is my best little buddy. We love to read together and he loves to create games for all the kids to play. He has really grown spiritually this year and thinks deeply about many things. I'm so thankful to have him in our home. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have our Christmas Tree up yet!

Sarah is 6 and in 1st grade. She is my girlie-girl. She loves all things girly. She also loves music and singing and wants to take piano lessons. She is learning how to read and is doing a marvelous job at it. She helps me out so much with Mary and other chores around the house. Her favorite job is to clean the toilets!! Yeah for me!! She also loves to write me stories and draw pictures. She is my mini-me!

My Mary is 4 and in preschool every day. She is so brave to go back and forth everyday to my house and to her dad's house. She is a wonderful friend and loves to play. We love to read together and she gets to come to lunch with me often, which we both love. She loves her blanky and her thumb still, but we're trying to help her break that habit. She loves to sit on my lap at church. She brings such a wonderful spirit to our home.

I am now working full time and I absolutely love it. I work for a real estate broker, I'm her personal assistant and the transaction coordinator for her brokerage. It is still very busy despite the market being slow. I'm hoping to get my real estate license soon, which I'm excited about. Serena helps me out by picking up my kids after school and watching them till I get home. I wouldn't be able to work full time without her help!

I just wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and let you know of my testimony. I'm so thankful for my Savior. He is my rock. I know that he knows who I am and who my children are. I'm so grateful for that knowledge. Thank you to all those who love and support us. We love you so much!

Merry Christmas!

A few of my favorite things...

Tonight I had the opportunity to take Sarah on a date. We went to see Little Women at the local Hale Center Theater. It was really good and so much fun to spend the time with Sarah. I asked her if she wanted to sing and dance in musicals when she grows up and she said, 'no, I want to be in the real movies.' Great....

Life was pretty slow today. When I start a new book, I seem to want to do nothing but read. I'm starting a new series that Bodie and Brock Thoene wrote called the Zion Chronicles. It's about WW2 and Hitler and the Jews but written from a Christian perspective. It was so good and as you can tell from the past tense, yes, I did nothing today but read my book. Well I did take kids to school and pick up twice, but other than that I read and the girls played and the house is a danger zone...

Sam is stoked that tomorrow is the last day of school. I took a picture of him and Sarah this morning because it was the last day that they had to wear uniforms. I will post when I can figure out how to do it. My kids are so dang cute. I love them so much!!!

PS. Thanks to Lissa and Rose for posting their blogs. I love reading your blogs! It makes me feel a part of your lives even though we don't talk every day like we used to. I thought about all my sisters tonight while watching Little Women. It was tender and I'm so thankful for all my beautiful sisters and for the love and friendship that we share.

Hip Hip Hooray, School is NOT TODAY

Ok, so actually my kids have two more official days of school. Friday is their last day and we are all praising the lord!! We have really struggled these last week months. I came back from my NYC trip (which I will blog about later) and I just wanted to play play play with the kids but we had to finish up with school. But now it's almost here! Yeah!

Sarah has been trying to get her 'golden key' award before the end of school. She keeps trying every day to pass off her irregular vowels but to no avail. Mrs. Waite is a task-master. She wants Sarah to have the award before she finishes the school year. Well Mrs. Waite, we'll just have to see about that! But Sarah has been trying hard. She did get to go to the class party today and it was a readathon and she loved it.

Sam is fried. He was pretty much done with school two months ago. His teacher has been pregnant all year and she just had her baby on Friday, so at least we don't have to deal with her anymore this year. (Can you tell that I'm excited to be done with Challenger?!?!) He wants to play in the pool every day! Too bad we don't have one. But we'll remedy that by going to Scera pool and other fun water places. Maybe he'll just get to play out in the rain all summer long!

Mary is a delight lately and my very fun little friend. She loves to play restaurant and act as if she is taking my order and brings me pretend food. She is such a character.

Well as for me, I've made some new friends lately in my ward. Apparently there are other single moms out there! So my heart goes out to Serena and to Joy and their kids. Love you guys! Thanks for being our friends! We'll do lots of fun things this summer.

Sam told me to write this. I just got home from work about an hour ago and he was supposed to be fast asleep but he came out after the sitter left. He is my little bud. We love to read together. We just finished Artemis Fowl and last night we started From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It is one of my favorite things to do! We are going to go read now so ttfn!

Do we live in Monsoon country?

Ok, just to let you know, I'm damn sick of the weather. I just wish it would make up it's mind and stay one type or the other. This back and forth stuff is driving me crazy. Just the other night, I was awakened at 3am because the wind was whipping so badly. It was so strong that it pushed my new grill out from the spot where it was and knocked it completely over. The picnic table and chairs were strewn all over the yard as well as all the kids toys. It was eerie. Do you ever wake up in the morning and just feel that something is ominously not right? Like something bad is going to happen and you're not sure what? I have that feeling sometimes and it freaks me out. That's how yesterday was and I couldn't shake it.