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....

Solomons speech.

Today Solomon had to give a speech at a Scholarship Business Luncheon up at the University of Utah. He was accepted into the Business program up there about 3 months ago and was asked by Rich Kaufusi to represent the scholarship recipients by giving a speech. So being the man that he is, he didn’t write it til last week. He was super nervous and read, re-read and re-read his speech about 100 times a day leading up to today. Rich helped him out so much by adding things into his speech and practicing with him for the past 4 nights. He didn’t have to, but he went the extra mile to help Solomon out.

So today finally came. We arrived 20 mins early and were given name tags. Solomons was all special and magnetic, while mine said “Solomon’s wife.” lol I got a blank one and wrote my wonderful name on it..hahaha! Anyways, we headed up to the 4th floor suite at the stadium. I’ve never been up there or even knew they had suites( that's how much I know about football) sad. Well we found our table #22 ( my fav number) and it was right in the front next to the podium. This made Solomon even more nervous. I took so many pictures and that didn’t help Sol either. So we sat at our beautiful table, mingled with other students and with Solomons donor. His name is Rick and he is the president of CIT banking. He was such a kick back kind of guy. He instantly calmed Solomon down and just made him feel at ease. We ate our delicious lunch and then Solomon was called up to give his speech.

I just have to say he did WONDERFUL! He has such a commanding presence and tone about him that everyone was instantly attentive when he spoke. It seemed as if he was a natural and that he had done something like that before. I seriously almost cried because I was so proud of him. People stood and applauded him when he was done. I couldn't even stand because I was so emotional. I can say that I saw my husband spiritually/ emotionally grow before my eyes today. It was a breath taking experience.

We have taken steps that should not be taken for granted and are very very grateful to those who helped us get there and who continue to walk with us. In the words of my husbands speech, “ we MUST balance optimism and realism, intuition and planning FAITH and FACT.” Alooooohha

LEALAO'S

My first Thanksgiving!

This year I will be celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time without my WHOLE familia. So I was searching the Internet to see what traditions I could start with my children and what ways we could show thanks. Thanksgiving is often looked past, but I want to make it a staple to do something special besides eat with our family, which in my eyes is special enough. But my daughter Serena is very adamant about us celebrating Thanksgiving with thanks. She gets offended when we walk in a store to see that the decorations have gone from Halloween straight to Christmas. So heres to our first Thanksgiving. Check out this article I got from the parents magazine it has some good ideas of Thanks!!

Thanksgiving is always a meaningful holiday, but this year, families seem especially eager to celebrate life's blessings. "People are looking for ways to acknowledge what's good in their lives," says Jane Hammerslough, author of the new book Dematerializing (Perseus Publishing). To help children make the most of Thanksgiving, plan activities that can become part of your family's traditions.

• Many families take a moment on Thanksgiving Day to let each person say aloud what he or she is thankful for. Hammerslough recommends expanding this practice to name one small thing every day that brings you joy: pretty weather, a delicious dinner, a conversation with a friend. "When you make a point of talking about little things that you're grateful for, those things seem to multiply," she says. "It's all about setting a positive tone for your kids."
• Use your "gratitude list" as a springboard to help others. "If your kids say they're thankful for good food, figure out a way to share a meal with someone less fortunate," suggests Hammerslough. If time with family tops your list, reach out to someone in your community whose family lives far away. Kids often say they're thankful for toys, so let them help you put together a basket of unused or nearly new playthings for a holiday toy drive. "Sharing with others helps kids connect to the concept of gratitude in a meaningful way," Hammerslough notes.
• Plan projects that reinforce the importance of family. Kids can create and fill in a family tree poster to display on Thanksgiving, or make collages from duplicate family photos. Grandparents will be delighted to receive a watercolor painting of the family created by a grandchild or a Thanksgiving card adorned with a child's hand print.
• Remember when, as a kid, you traced the outline of your hand on brown construction paper, cut it out, and drew a turkey's face on the thumb?Children still delight in simple Thanksgiving crafts, including making pinecone placecards, cardboard napkin rings, and Pilgrim hats cut from black construction paper. Be sure to photograph these creations for the family scrapbook.
• Collect favorite recipes that can become part of your family's traditional holiday meals. The November issue of Child includes healthy,appealing side dishes that kids can help to make. Little ones can start the day by mixing pumpkin raisin muffins and fill pie crusts with apple- or pecan-pie mixture to top off the meal.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love the holidays. I Christmas shop all year long and stash it all over my house. I become obsessed with QVC (ask my family, I'm constantly watching it) because I can shop through all the people who shop with them and I want to be there, sad I know. I put my tree up the first week of November. If today wasn't Sunday, it probably would be up already. My husband loves the holidays too, but he is a typical man and shops Christmas Eve. He loves the rush of things and the holiday feeling out in the stores. I on the other hand want everything done with by December, so that I can go out to all the sights, such as the Temple lights, a sing along, sledding, and just spending time with my kids and family. I like to plan Christmas months in advance and I know my family is sooo not thinking about it, but I don't care, I am...LOL!
The spirit of love and joy during the holidays is what I wish I could feel in the world year round. Maybe that's why I "act" like it's Christmas year round, because I want to feel that special feeling. We have a tradition that we do as a family every Christmas. My kids have a piggy bank that they put any money they find in all year long. In December we take them to pick a child off the Giving Tree and buy them a gift. We've done this for 3 years now. It's a humbling feeling to see my kids want to give to someone in need. They really think long and hard as to what to get "their" child. We're seriously at the store for over an hour just picking a gift. It's a fun tradition.
What are some of your traditions? Or what do you think is a good one for me to start with my family?