A Year in Review

What a year 2009 has been. A year of high highs and very low lows.

Bret and I were reminiscing how a friend mentioned at Church last January that while 2008 was a hard year for many people, he felt that 2009 was going to be hard too. I remember sitting in church listening to that. I felt safe. Secure. Blessed. Life was good. Life was easy. And I liked it that way.


With the new year things changed. Life became hard. One thing after another. Trial upon trial. Tears shed. Hours spent in sacred places. Prayers of pleading.

And through it all amazing support from loved ones. Tender mercies in abundance. Faith strengthened. The Lord's hand working in our lives.

I remember an early spring evening in our back yard. We couldn't believe how much our vines had grown. Bret turned to me and said, "Our lives are like these trellises, you never know how strong your faith is until you have something that stretches it."

And then in an instant things changed. Where we had been receiving bad news after bad news, we started hearing good news after good news. We got accepted to the University of Virginia. We were able to sell our home in Texas for above asking price. We were able to buy a great little house in Charlottesville. We had the summer of our lives with family. The kids have been able to make great friends. And Bret really really loves what he is doing.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. I want my kids to remember 3 main things from our experience this past year.

1. Heavenly Father has a very detailed plan for our family. He leads, guides and directs. He is aware of the big things, the little things, and everything in between.
2. Our lives are filled with tender mercies. More often then not they come through the hearts and hands of those around us.
3. We can do hard things and be better and stronger because of them.

More then anything as I think back on 2009 I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. It fills me from head to my toes. There are so, so many things to be grateful for in our lives.

My heart is full.

Clubs

Over Christmas break the kids created they're own "Clubs."

Sisters Club:

Which reads

Rules:

Love each other/no fighting

Say sisters pledge every morning

Make each other laugh

After lunch go to Sisters Club for a meeting. (Sisters Club is room.)

Have fun!!

Sisters Pledge:

Be grateful

Be Smart

Be Clean

Be Humble

Be True

Be Prayerful

Be...SISTERS!

(sound familiar?)

Activities:

Put marshmallows in between toes and paint toe nails

Dress up

Play board games

Put on makeup

Lots of contests

Have lunch in our room

Have sleep overs

Boys Club:

It's easier to read this one, but let me just mention a few of my favorites

Pay attention to the President (spoken well by a third child)

Always Bring Presents when you come to the President of the Boys Club

Do Projects...launch rockets and do lots of yard work

Always watch BYU football.

(I want to insert here a Boys night Bret and Zachary had. Zachary got to stay up late one night and watch the BYU bowl game with Bret. I was upstairs reading and smiling as I would hear Bret cheer out and then Zachary follow and repeat the same thing. I really started giggling when Bret yelled..."No you idiot!" Followed by Zachary saying "No you idiot!" Bret quickly told him we shouldn't say that word so Zachary quickly yelled, "No you goobernaugen!"

Home

I LOVED having the girls home all the time over Christmas break. There were no play dates with other friends, no places we HAD to be, no distractions. As I happened to walk by the girls room one afternoon this sight just seemed to capture it all.

Winter Wonderland Continued

The 5 days of being snowed in were simply magical.

This is what our street looked like from Friday night to Tuesday early evening.

We loved every minute of it....even when milk was running low and we started rationing the hot chocolate! Some other highlights included:

Sammy The Snowman: Bret, Abby and Zachary worked hard on this snowman. I often looked out and saw Zachary having his own little conversation with Sammy.

Sledding: whether it was down our own little front hill or hiking over to the big hill behind our house the kids couldn't get enough of it. Hours and hours were spent going up and down hills.

Family of Snowmen...so fun to build six snowmen in our backyard.

Abby made Minnie Mouse

Winter Wonderland: Day One

5:45 a.m....the kids were up with the excitement of snow.

You'd think it was Christmas.

It had started snowing at 4:00 p.m. the previous day. They watched it accumulate throughout the evening and even braved a few bare foot runs that night to test their strength and resistance to cold.

By 6:07 a.m. they were already clamoring to go outside. I was able to hold them off with the fact that it was still dark outside. We passed the time with a Christmas movie.

8:30 the fun began: 2 layers of socks, 3 layers of pants, 3 layers of shirts/sweaters, boots, coats, gloves, and hats all multiplied by four

8:58 wait...no one went to the bathroom yet this morning

Boots, gloves, hats, coats, layers of pants all come off...and then back on again.

9:30 finally ready and out the door!

Gavin was already cold and crying even before we were able to take the first picture. There were a few more tears from him throughout the day but he really came to LOVE the snow, as long as his hands were warm. He hated being left inside if the big kids ever went out on their own.

And they were off!

Literally swimming in 22 inches of snow!

Zachary finally came in to refuel at 2:00....I wish this picture could capture the sounds from behind the mug. It was a constant "mmmm" And then he was back at it until dark.

Abby's cute friend Evelyn from up the street trudged down to play for a little while.

Bret had to borrow a shovel to clear the driveway. But we were officially snowed in until a plow made it our way, little did I know that would be 4 days later.

Faces of Christmas Morning

Santa came to our house, amazing how he finds us no matter where we are!

I am still the first one up in our house on Christmas morning...maybe someday that will change.

Even with two boys being pretty sick, the kids didn't let that get in their way and they had a wonderful Christmas!

Abby's excitment over Wicked tickets

McKenna loved her art set

Zachary and Star Wars...what more can I say?

Gavin...he didn't care what was inside the present, he just wanted to open them all.

It was a GREAT day.

We hung out.

We stayed in our PJs all day.

We ate good food.

We played games.

It's Hard To Blog...

when I can't find my camera cord!

These last four days have been nothing short of magical. We literally did not see a snow plow until 4:00 p.m. yesterday, being snowed in a few hours shy of 5 days! (I was happy to see that plow come down our street...knowing I would be able to make it to the grocery store for all the Christmas meals in the works.)

We have been:

Sledding

Building snowmen

Drinking hot chocolate

Baking cookies

Playing games

Reading books

Watching movies

Having snowball fights

Making snow angels

Forgoing chores (for the most part)

This is a Christmas we will never forget! Last Saturday we were out the door at 9:30 a.m. to play in the snow and didn't come in until 4:00 p.m. Zachary in particular has died and gone to heaven. Last night I looked out our front windows to watch him sled down our little hill in the yard and couldn't help but grin...it was dark, he was still going after a full day, and he would pause after each run down to have a little conversation with Sammy the Snowman.

I truly will treasure these days for years to come! Hopefully I'll get pictures up soon.

He Did It Again

That's right, another gift giving occasion upon us and Bret once again discovered his gift. (Completely on accident I might add.)

10 1/2 years of marriage and with all the times I have given Bret a present be it Christmas, Birthday, anniversary, what have you...I can count on one hand the number of times I have successfully given a gift that has not only been a surprise but that was not returned as well.

It's frustrating. It's irritating. I swore this summer after our anniversary that I was finished. That I would not buy him another gift and he was on his own to buy himself whatever it was he wanted. So why did I even try it again? Because I know that the thought behind the effort counts.

But this problem of ours takes all the fun out of it. It causes unneeded stress in my life. So do I officially throw in the towel or as the saying goes...try, try again?

(I have to add here that I'm one lucky girl. There's hardly anything at all to complain about when it comes to Bret. Grateful to be complaining about something so trivial.)

Gavin's Favorite Pastime

Gavin's favorite thing to do these days is empty one of our toy baskets, get a book and climb on in. It is the cutest thing and I love walking in to a room to find him just like this.

Now I know this picture is blurry, but to me it just captures him right now. He is ALWAYS on the go and getting him to sit still for picture is nearly impossible.

Ballet

Abigail and McKenna have been taking ballet for all of eight weeks now. Last Saturday they had a performance at the art school where they take. They were a little nervous but did really good.

While McKenna has done really well and enjoyed it, she has informed me that next year she wants to do a different sport. I'm not sure if ballet has enough energy for her.

Abby on the otherhand has just blossomed taking ballet. I have been suprisesd at how good it has been for her and how graceful she is.

Snow Update

21 inches and still snowing.

Church is cancelled tomorrow.

We are officially snowed in! :)

Fun snow pictures to come.

The Dinner Party...

...that never was.

We had a great night planned with friends. We were hosting a Christmas dinner party with lots of good food and fun things planned.

There was forecast for snow, but in talking to everyone that day we were still a go. After all, we had all lived in Utah, Michigan, Minnesota or Boston.

An hour and a half before it was to start it looked like this out our front door.

But it kept coming, and it kept accumulating. Apparently there is all of one snow plow where we live and that combined with people out here not knowing how to drive the roads got really treacherous. 45 minutes before we were to start and after many phone calls we officially cancelled the night.

My beautiful table was not sat at.

The food was not eaten.

The white elephant gifts not exchanged.

The party gifts not given.

I have to admit I had myself a little cry.

And then I tried to get over it and enjoy the fact that it was snowing with my children.

And so just because I want to, I'm including all the pictures I had taken for fun of the table.