Overload!

So I haven't posted much over the past year. OK who am i kidding i haven't posted anything over the past year hahaha. Part of that was cause i didn't feel like I wanted to remember the last year. Its been a tough year. But i know that some day I am going to want to remember some of the feelings I have felt during the tough times we have gone through. I didn't post many pictures of all I hope to do that another day. If not at least I got down the memories. And this year I will do better I will post more and often and add pictures. I started this for the Grandparents to keep up with us as well as for a family journal. And even though life is hard or you don't like how it is turning out at times....it still needs to be recorded. So that's what i did record and record and record.

I came across a quote by Richard G. Scott the other day that I love. I wish I would have found this a year ago.

"With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow."

I love that and even with all the trials we have had in the last year. This puts it all into perspective. Our prayers were answered through out the year. Not always how we thought was best. But it was what may have been best for us at the time. Life is hard but we are not alone. What a wonderful wonderful blessing.

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

The day finally arrived that Noah has been waiting for all year long. His birthday all year I would hear "Is it my birthday yet". We would tell him not yet Noah Christmas has to come before it is your birthday. Im sure he thought the day would never come. But it did and boy was he excited about it.

Noah woke up and came running in to our room saying "Today is my Birthday, its finally here".

He got to pick what we had for breakfast and requested biscuits and greavy. For dinner he wanted pizza. And a birthday cake with sprinkle.....nothing to fancy just sprinkles.

Top 5 Things We Love About Noah

1-His sweet personality and sweet spirit he brings into our home

2- He gives the best hugs and snuggles

3- His love for his family. He is always telling you I love you, your the best!

4- His love for our Savior. Each night he gets down and says his prayers with out being asked and always says he loves Jesus and Heavenly Father. What a example to me.

5- His desire for life

Noah just turned 5 and he loves to play with his brother Thomas. He cant wait till he gets home from school each day and always asks how was school? what did you learn about today? He loves to play the wii and loves anything that has to do with electronics. He keeps our family laughing and on there toes. We love you Noah and so glad you are part of our family.

Christmas Day

This had to have been one of our most exciting Christmas's im sure. There was so much excitement in there air and the boys just couldnt wait for Christmas day to be here. The boys woke up at 530 and so we all crawled out of bed to open gifts. Santa Clause had made it to our house at some point during the night.

It was exciting this year with everything that the boys opened up was "just what I always wanted". It was perfect no matter what it was. They were so excited to see what everyone thought of the gifts they had bought for each other. And I was surprized that everyone kept there secrets this year.

Christmas morning we got up and opened gifts and played with our new toys. Then mom headed into the kitchen to make crepes for breakfast a fun yummy christmas morning treat. We eat and then cleaned up the kitchen and went back to playing with our new toys once agian.

Around 10 we loaded the boys new toys into the car and headed down to Deming to spend the rest of christmas day with Uncle Paul, Aunt Patti and Christi.

Everyone enjoyed watching the excitement of the boys and feeling there sweet spirits they bring into the home. We had Christmas dinner with Uncle Paul, Aunt Patti and Christi and then visited for a little more before heading home for the night.

We were all extra tired that night and we all went to bed somewhat early. But this is definitly a Christmas to remember and one that will be in our hearts year round.

Losing Teeth

This afternoon Thomas came to me and said "Mommy i discovered something this morning" . I said " Whats that Thomas?" He then went on to tell me that he had a loose tooth and that he knew that when you loose a tooth the tooth fairy comes. He showed me where his loose tooth was and sure enough he had a loose tooth....so loose that i was sure it would be out in the next day or two. Every time i saw Thomas during the day he was wiggling away determined to get that tooth out. About a hour later we needed to head out to get a few errands done so we all got into the car and headed out. We were stopped at one place and all of a sudden I hear "Mommy, Mommy my tooth fell out!" Sure enough i looked back and my little red head has a cute gappy smile now. He couldnt hardly wait to get home and put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. And going to bed was as easy as could be that night. And let me tell you its a good thing the tooth fairy didnt forget to come that night, or we would have had a very very dissappointed little boy.

We were all in bed sleeping when all of a sudden Thomas comes running into my room so excited yelling "Mommmy, Mommy the TOOTH FAIRY came!" Me opening my eyes looks at the clock and cant believe my eyes when i see that it is only a little past midnight! He comes climbs into bed with me and Daddy and tells us that the tooth fairy brough him a golden coin. He just couldnt believe it he was so excited. Finally we are able to get him settled down and sent back to hand with the golden coin tight in his fist. We all go back to sleep and were all so very glad the Tooth Fairy didnt forget a little red headed boy in Silver City New Mexico tonight.

Cookie Day With Grandma

We love cookie day with Grandma. Every year before christmas mom has all the grandkids get together and decorate cookies. We have been lucky enough to be able to go the last 2 years and it is something the boys talk about all year. This year we headed down to Yuma friday night and had cookie day on sunday Grandpa was able to be there since it was held on a sunday. It was so wonderful to be able to see Kendalls kids they are getting to be so big. Trevor reminds me more and more of Kendall the older he gets. Bria is beautiful and growing into a beautiful tween. Little T is not so little anymore and is cute as can be. I see bits and pieces of Kendall in each of his children. Katies Micheal was there also and we were able to spend some extra time with Micheal since he spent most of his time at Grandma and Grandpas house. It is always so fun to be able to spend time with cousins.

This year we not only decorated sugar cookies but we also dipped pretzels and made other types of cookies. Cookie Day is a day that all the grandkids look forward to each year its time to spend with family that we dont usually get to see. Its time spent with Grandma. There is lots of laughter and lots of smiles and lots of cookies. Just the way a good day should be spent.

We Love Cookie Day!

Family for Thanksgiving

I dont know what we were thinking we moved into our home and had two weeks to get settled before Thanksgiving and i think because we were so excited to be in a home agian we thought it would be a great idea to invite people for thanksgiving. So we started out signing up to feed the missionaries and inviting Uncle Paul and Aunt Patti for dinner. We then invited Adams parents to come up if they wanted to come. And why not keep inviting and invite Sarah and Lance and there family also. It would be a houseful but im sure it would be fun and it was! This is the first time in the 8 years that we have been married anyone has come to our home for Thanksgiving and we had a houseful. But it was fun and we had lots of delicious food. I would do it agian in a heartbeat.

Adams parents came up earlier in the week and brough Natalie and Brooke with them. Anne and I spent the week in the kitchen making just about anything you could think of christmas candies, pies, dinners etc. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with her. Tom and Adam entertained boys and talked about gardens, played with there phones etc. Natalie helped Anne and I in the kitchen cooking, baking etc. And we all enjoyed having a toddler in the house agian.

The day before Thanksgiving Sarah and Lance's family came up and we celebrated Hunters 6th birthday. The boys could hardly stand the wait for the Milners to arrive and when they finally got there Thomas, Noah and Hunter were inseperable. I thnk that they will be buddies for life.

Thanksgiving day Uncle Paul and Aunt Patti came up and the missionaries came for dinner we had a houseful but it was so fun to be around so many people that we love.

The day after thanksgiving everyone left and our house was quite. We were all tired from all the excitement. But we look forward to the next time people come to visit.

I feel very blessed to be lucky enough to marry into a family that is so wonderful. It is always fun to get together no matter how long the trip is. I love my family all of them and look forward to the times we get to spend together. So who is coming next year?

Welcome to our New Home!

We are so excited to say that we finally after much looking and looking have found a place to call home. We have been going to the Silver CIty 2nd ward since we got here and we wanted to stay in that ward if we could but it was starting to look like that may not be the case everything we looked at was well......lets just say not very desirable. We had finally made up our mind that we were going to trust in the Lord and where ever we found a home that was where he needed us. The day that we decided that we found a wonderful house to rent and the best part it was in the ward we wanted to be in. It was being remodeled so we had to wait a few weeks to get moved in which worked out fine for us. We are so excited to have a little bit of room for each of us and get settled in. We are going to miss the boys little friend Forrest from the KOA but plan to invite him over to play. We live right down the street from the school that the boys will go to so that is wonderful we will be able to walk to school each day. I just have to decide when i want to enroll Thomas at Stout.....wait till the end of the school year or move him after christmas break. We are excited to get settled and have a somewhat normall life back. We are loving being in Silver City we love it here and hope to call it home for a very very very long time. The weather has been wonderful and deer walk through the neighborhoods it is such a peaceful quite little town.