New Year Resolution!

I am deciding that I am bad at keeping up with my blog. I keep telling myself that I will update but after how many monthes of neglect I cannot be in denial any longer. I am a terrible blogger!! It is emabarrassing!!

This year is going to be different. I want to make changes this year and for my New Year's resolution, I will do better at maintaining my blog.

Last Year was a fabulous year for me and I did not even write about it. I headed out to Utah for a wonderful visit with family. I got to see a brother and sister I haven't seen in almost 17 years. (It is actually his birthday today). Happy Birthday Jacob!

I also got to meet a brother-in-law and sister-in-law and they are really great. We would stay up late talking to everyone and just catching up. It seemed like no time had passed. It was great. I sure did enjoy meeting their spouses and beautiful children.

Another highlight of the summer was seeing my grandmother and introducing her to my children. She did not remember me but she was very pleasant and enjoyed the visit and attention. Sometimes it seemed as if she was remembering. She couldn't remember other family visits but I know she has been visited regularly by many family members. My sisters, who was there with me, suggested we paint her nails so that she will remember our visit. We pulled out red nail polish and pink polish and she definately wanted the red. I definately take after her.

I really liked our Utah visit and I really love our family. We definately want to move there to be closer to my family and husband's family. I have some great in-laws! We tried to visit with all of them before the trip was up and the time flew by. We were always heading out to someone elses home. I got to see more family than what I was expecting. When I went out there, I found out that I had an aunt that was getting married. When I attended her reception, I got to see so many of my mom's siblings and cousins of mine that I hadn't seen in years.

Family means alot to me and it was good to see everyone.

The best thing that happened last year was the birth of my 6th baby. The baby was due a couple of days after my mom's birthday. I really wanted to have my baby born on that day and was surprised that I went into labor the day before and had him that very next morning on her day. It just so happened that we had the baby blessed on my mother-in-law's birthday.

It was a busy year for us. It was all wonderful!

Miracles

Last year, we got a deck put in. It has been wonderful. The only problem is, they tore up our yard when they built it, (which is what we expected). Since we put in the deck, our backyard has gotten much more use. Unfortunately, we have had more dirt being tracked in because of the torn apart backyard. My dh and I put down seed with all intentions of keeping the yard moist to get the most of our seed. Unfortunately, everything has been sooo busy and hard. Several times I have seen the soil dry. Each time I had to leave to deal with more important things, saddened by the lost investment that we put into it. Each time, I went to bed only to hear the rythmic beatings of the rain. I have felt that God has made up for my shortages. Of course as it rained all yesterday and today, I couldn't help be so grateful for the small miracles in our lives.

This is our deck and as you can see (under the leaves), our grass is gone!

This is our new grass, only because God sent the rain.

Of course when I think of the many small miracles in our daily lives, I cannot help but be overwhelmed by the many big miracles in my life.

Our Star

Today was our second daughter's school program. This program was even more special because our daughter wrote a play for it and got to perform it with a few of her classmates. She was even given credit on the program they handed out. It turned out so well.

I made a mistake and cut off the video right before she got another speaking part. I did get a little of her recorder playing and a little of her singing. She never ceases to amaze us with her talent.

Our very own Dr. Doolittle

We have been very impressed with our son's ability to talk to the dogs in the neighborhood. It is so entertaining to see him barking off the deck getting the neighborhood dogs all worked up.






You can imagine how proud I was when I started to see him trying to talk with our bird.






I don't know, maybe he is talking with the animals. Hopefully he can learn English soon.



Just a side note, he is trying to whistle in the second video. Sorry for the slobber. He is a baby.

Headache

It is 3 in the morning and I can't sleep. I have this huge headache and have had fever dreams all night. Its all because I was playing basketball with my son after school. I have my keys on a spiral coil keychain, much like the keychain picture I uploaded. I have that kind of keychain so that I can have my keys on my wrist which frees up a hand when I am carrying babies. I have a bright neon green one to help me find the keys because I am always losing them, but thats another story. As I was playing basketball with my boy, I lifted my hands to block. As I did this, my keys swung up and smacked me right in my face. I now have a big welt (which I will not show you because of my vanities), and I have a huge headache which leads me to writing in a blog at 3 in the morning! I am hoping my fever dreams are a result in my headache and not of me getting the flu. Yesterday, at school, my youngest daughter went to the office because she wasn't feeling well. I picked her up and walked her to the car. Right before she stepped into our minivan, she lost it. Thank heavens it was before she came into the car. She was so sick. I am so scared I am going to get sick too. My poor child, I tried not to touch her as much as possible. My dh will be gone this next week and I need my health. I asked my little one if she could take care of herself or if she needed a mommy. She repled that she really needed a mommy. I totally understand. There is so many times that I just really need a mommy too! Maybe now that I wrote in my blog, I can get back to sleep.

Another pet?

He followed me home mom!
Can I keep him?

My son R found a parakeet on our basketball hoop and ran to get his sister. My oldest daughter J thought she could get it down by using a big stick. Of course the bird flew into the tree. My daughter ran into the house to get the bread to lure the bird down. The bird flew down at her and she screamed throwing the bread away. The bird still tried to land on her but she was so scared. My dh came home at that time and started calling for it trying to coax the bird. The bird then flew down and landed on his head. He then flew on my daughter J's shoulder. We walked around the neighborhood asking if anyone lost a parakeet. No luck! The bird is a sweet bird. It was obviously loved by its owner. I was surprised how gentle he is and easy he is to handle. It will be bittersweet when the owner comes looking for him. Meanwhile, we will really enjoy having him as a pet. We did go out and purchase the things needed to take care of him. We named him Saphirra (Saphirro if its a boy). I don't know if he is a boy or not. I am glad we found him because of so many hawks and eagles where we live. A bright colored bird is easy target.

What an exciting day at our house!!