Pre-Sleep Confession

"I am closing my eyes but I am not going to be asleep"
-Kamri, every night, minutes before she falls asleep.

Shhhh......

The monster is sleeping.......

Gymnas-tickers

I thought it would be fun for us to go to the SUU Gymnast's preview meet for Family Home Evening.  I also tried to help that motivate the kids to get their chores done. When they got home from school I told them the plan of getting all chores done quick so we could go. Kamri went ballistic. No gymnastics and No Chores!! I gave her the option of her staying home with dad and the rest of us going to gymnastics but she didn't like that either, she wanted us to all stay home.

She moped all through doing chores but not about doing chores, about going to the meet!  She was the one I thought would be excited to go, not the one I was forcing.  I knew she would love it once we got there.

We found our seats and the gymnasts were warming up on the vault. One gymnast flipped over and landed. Kamri's eyes went huge as her mouth turned into an 'O'.  "WOW!" and she was hooked.

"Are these famous gymnas-tickers?"

She watched happily and when we got home she put on her gymnastic outfit and started doing cartwheels around the house.

It's nice to know I was right.....even if she won't admit it.

2014

I'm back on the blogging wagon.  Since I only posted once last year I am confident I will post more this year but I am not ambitious enough for everyday.

This year I want to focus on being grateful, hopeful and joyful. These attributes radiate from the people I want to emulate. Hopefully recording some of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences this year will help me focus.

Today I am grateful for warm sun and a family that supports my spontaneity. We have been cooped up inside because of sickness and cold weather. I needed sun so we headed down to St. George. 

We ate at Brick Oven, then headed to the park. Hayes rode circles around the field, Kamri scootered around and tested out the playground equipment. Lyla swung and tricycled and Hansen tried to crawl in the grass without the grass touching his hands, all with a smile. We played tag, I took a lap on Kamri's scooter and Bracken got Hansen to take a nap in the sun. We stopped on the way home for smoothies and soft pretzels. It was simple but those few hours in the warm sun were perfect.

I forgot my phone and camera but Bracken did take a picture of Hansen and I on the swing. Hansen was giggling away as we swung.

Sisters

With Hayes at school all day and Kamri not having preschool for a few weeks after we moved, Kamri and Lyla have had a lot of time to spend together and have become such good friends. 

 Lyla was sick a few weeks ago and we had to take her to the doctor. She had to get a steroid shot to help her croup and Kamri was so worried about her crying. She hid in the corner and covered her ears. It was almost like Lyla knew because she didn't even cry from the shot.

Kamri told me her drawing was of Lyla and we'll just say that Lyla was reciprocating with a picture of Kamri.

Kamri comments often to me, "I love Lylie!" From the amount of times Lyla copies Kamri I know she loves her too! It's so much fun having Lyla old enough for them to play together!

Did you notice Lyla's scrunched up nose in every picture, she squints and yells "Cheese!" whenever I bring the camera out.

Farewell 2012!

It has been a big year for our family! The end of a stage in life we entered into three years ago. Which makes it hard not to compare 2012 with 2009. Bracken and I like to refer to 2012 as the anti-2009.
2009 we got robbed in Costa Rica, we left a home we loved, Bracken stopped having an income, he started law school, and our son Dane was born early and was only here with us for four short days.
2012- We didn't get robbed on our trip to a foreign country, Bracken graduated from law school(!!!!), he started having an income again, we moved into a home we love and I made it past 26 weeks being pregnant!

There were great times in 2009 just like there have been stressful times for us this year...but you get the idea!

I look forward to 2013! I have a few general ideals I want to achieve next year but haven't narrowed them down to specific goals yet. Healthier eating, more fun mom, enjoy moments, precision instead of eh, good enough....that kind of thing...

I'm glad I made it the year blogging and even though I wasn't perfect at it, I still feel like I achieved the goal and now I realized I CAN do something everyday if I set my mind to it...no excuses. This year it will studying scriptures daily.

I'm for sure taking the day off blogging tomorrow, but I'll still try and keep the good ole' blog updated at times. Thanks to those who commented, it made blogging much more fun for me!

Today at church during combined Relief Society and Priesthood we Watched a talk by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient" It is a great talk and I also think the perfect time to listen to it as we think about changes we want to make for the new year. I know the video is a bit long but I promise it will be worth your time. (His talk starts at 1:45)



 You can find the full printed text here

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