2009 come and gone!!

This year has been such a whirlwind of a year. I had a lot a "firsts" and fell off the wagon a couple of times. The biggest thing in 2009 was my 3oth birthday, crazy huh! I couldn't believe that I was 3o and that I am almost 31...lol! Hey 3o is the new 20 right? At least I don't look it....hahaha!

I have so many memories and good times that

I am thankful for and having lived for 30 years is one of them.

I am grateful for my wonderful husband and children.

I am blessed to come from a wonderful family with parents still married for time and all eternity and siblings who love unconditionally.

I am thankful for my first big calling as the Young Woman counselor, it has blessed me beyond words.

I am surrounded with smiling faces from the time I wake up til I fall asleep. (My children)

I love the Lord and am grateful for those in my family who have taken steps to become closer to Him.

This coming year, I want to reinvent myself physically and spiritually. I want to become a woman of service and charity. I want to learn about, study and know my children individually. I need to be a better organizer of time.

I pray that we all live another year surrounded with those we love and with only those who lift our spirits!!

Goodbye 2009!! 2010 Here I come!

Education.

I got an A in both of my classes this past semester, wooooowhooo!!! I've been in college off and on for the past 10 years, seriously! Both Sol and I have been and have decided that we really need to get serious with our education and finish ASAP. We take turns going to school, but starting January, he'll be full time and I'll support him wholeheartedly til he's done at the U and then it's my turn. Okay, this semester was the toughest one yet for me. I had English and Communication. I thought if I took these classes, they would go hand in hand and it would be easy for me. Nope, I was wrong. I did have to write ALOT of papers, but they didn't even go with each other. This made it very stressful. Writing 2 sometimes 3 papers a week was madness. Both classes were taken online, which made it convenient for me, but hard at the same time. I felt sorry for my family, because I neglected them during this time. I had to learn to prioritize my time with them and to teach them that mommy has school too. I have always loved English and wanted to major in it, but I don't know if I have the passion to write anymore. Life changes and we change along with it, sometimes you remain the same, but most often you learn and grow into new things. I really don't know what I'd like to do, but what I do know, is that I want to graduate from BYU with a degree. This has been my dream since I was a little skinny girl..lol and it still is. But I wanted it to be from BYU Hawaii, and since I know that isn't going to happen, I'll settle for BYU Utah...lol I enjoy learning and pray that my kids will follow me and their fathers example. GOOOOO Me! I'm my #1 cheerleader.

Juniors honesty..lol

So a couple of weeks ago we were scheduled to feed the missionaries. My son's basketball practice was changed to that same night, so I had to find someone with the priesthood to come take my husbands place. The first person I thought of was my dad cause he only lives around the corner. So as my son Junior is setting the table, Jasmine is sweeping the floor, I tell Serena to call grandpa and ask if he'll come over. My son Junior who is setting the table casuallly says, "and mom make sure to tell him to brush his teeth." And he just kept doing what he was doing, all serious and focused. I started laughing hysterically and said, "Junior why would you say that?" He again still focused and serious said, "because when he picks us up for school in the morning, sometimes he doesn't have to time to brush his teeth." I couldn't even control my laughter at this point. I had tears streaming down my face. Junior looks up and says, "mom it's not funny it's sad." I still crack up thinking about that story. If you know my dad, don't laugh..lol j/k Kids are so funny sometimes!

Pictures w/ Kayleen

On the first of this month, we had an appointment with Kayleen to take our family pictures. The last time we took pictures as a family was when we had only our 2 oldest. Three kids and 8 years later we decided to take the opportunity given to us to take them again. My sis Anna was scheduled and rescheduled with her in laws about 5 times, and finally gave up on it and asked me to take the appt. I was so excited because it was such a good deal. Kayleens work is beautiful and I couldn't imagine what or where she would have us go. Kayleen had us meet her at This Is the Place park and we drove about 5 minutes up the canyon to take our first set of pictures. So my sis Anna, her family and mine all got out at and parked on the side of the road. Kayleen had us walk through this beautiful field of waist high golden grass. I knew right then that these pictures were gonna be beautiful.

Let me just tell you that it was 3pm and freezing. My daughter Ebony was whining about the cold and I said, "Beauty knows no pain." LOL (That's a saying Isa would always say to us when we were single and thought we were so cute in our outfits with no coats)hahaha Anyways, we spent about an hour in the field and then went back to the park and spent another hour there. The sneak peek she sent us were ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! I'm so grateful that we took the opportunity to work with Kayleen and I would recommend her to everyone.

I told my husband that all I want for my birthday is all the pictures she took of us..lol. We'll see....