Halloween Pictures

This Halloween was so much fun. All of the kids were really creative this year. Here are just some of the pictures...

Owen, cards, and more...

We have been busy getting ready for Halloween. My porch is decorated with 20 pumpkins in all differend sizes and we have cornstalks that are from our garden. That is my favorite part. Paul and I are trying to plan a weekend get away to a bed and breakfast. There is a place called the Homestead here in Utah that is breath taking this time of year. It is in Park City and very romantic. We will be married for 7 years in December but it is hard to have an anniversary celebration a week before Christmas so we always celebrate in November. This year will be so fun spending Thanksgiving with Paul's brother and all of our nephew's and nieces. Paul's brother that lives in Seattle has 2 kids at BYU that we get to see often. We love it. We took our little nephew, Owen who is 3, all day to play last week. We took him over to my Mom's because she has such an awesome yard that we can all play in. My parents are not his Grandparents but they totally love him and get a kick out of listening to him. They love to have him over at the house! He is the cutest funniest kid. He is so smart. We took him to the mall to get a pretzel and he saw a bow and some arrows in the window and he said, "look Aunt Jenni at those arrows and that shootie!" His brain is unfiltered and so he sais what he thinks. I think that a bow should be called a shootie now! HA HA HE HE! That is what a bow does, it shoots. Of cours it is a shootie! I love my family.
I keep forgetting to post that Tricia and Hailey chopped off their long hair and they look darling. Tricia looks so much older. I miss her so much since she moved in to my brother-laws to be a nanny for them. She loves it and she is so busy. She is working at Office Depot and nannying and she is also going to start school in January. I am so proud of her. I love how close my girls are. Hailey and Tricia are the best of friends.
I made these cards last night so I thought I would share with you what I have been creating. I have my first class at my house in a few weeks. I am so excited to get back to teaching what I love to do. I am having a big group at my house. I am also creating cards for an amazing decorating and gift store here in Clearfield. They sold 17 of my cards last week. I am getting great feed back. HI to all of my friend in St.Louis! I miss you all so much! I am going to post this without fixing my errors because Paul just walked in with flowers and a gift and I want to go be with him and open my present. He is so thoughtful. He is always surpising me. I have the most thoughtful hubby ever. Goodnight!

A Very Happy Day In Court!

Our family is so happy! Yesterday, we had our day in court. Paul was finally able to adopt my four children that were from my first husband that died many years ago. My two youngest children were so young at the time that they don not even remember their biological father. They have known Paul as their Daddy for 7 years now. They have always called Paul Dad and they have always wanted to have his last name. For years the children have told everyone that their last name is Haywood but at school they would go by Carter because the schools had to go by their real name. The first few days of school are always so hard on my kds because they have to explain to the teacher and the other students why they had two last names. We finally hired an attorney to get this finalized. We now have the documentation that sais they are now and forever Haywoods! The kids were so excited. The Judge was so sweet! He had the entire family come up to the stand and introduce themselves. He asked the kids questions about Paul and he asked them how Paul treated them. The kids had sicere and sweet answers. Paul was glowing with pride. My sister in-law, her 2 kids, and my Mom and Dad were there at the court house to be supportive. Tricia, our oldest, got the day off of work so she could be there also. All 8 members of our family were there. The Judge had us come up to the bench so we could take pictures of our entire family with him. After the Judge said that there last name was now Haywood, I looked back at my Mom and Dad and they were both crying! My Mom and Dad have played such a huge role in all of the children's lives. They love Paul as their own son. Tricia and Taylor, my two oldest children from Paul's first marriage, are so close to my parents. My Mom and Dad have always treated them as their own grandchildren. Taylor is especially close to my Dad. It has been so cool to watch them grow so close over the years. Paul is such a wonderful Father! From day one Paul has treated my four children like his own. He has always changed diapers, helped with homework, listened, taught, loved and laughed. Now my children have their Father's name. That means so much to so many people. We are truly blessed.

Some New Eye Candy...

I love days like today where I don't have a whole lot going on and the kids are content just playing games with eachother. Why do I love it so much??? Because I have time to make cards and catch up on my scrapbooking. This is one of the cards that I designed to teach to a group of women at the end of this month. It is very late so off too bed I go. I would love to hear from any of you that read my blog. Come of from lurking because I know you are there. SMILE!!

I'm Back!

I decided I would take a break from cleaning and decorating to post a few cards that I made from the Melibean kit. I just love the things she puts together! She is one talented gal! I hope everyone is doing well! I will write again soon this time...I promise!

Loving Utah and our house!

We are finally moved in and we can just sit back and relax a bit! The moving van came on Sunday and move all of our things in the hose. They also set up all of the tables, appliances, beds etc... That was a huge help because Paul was at work so The kids and I did so much! When it comes to moving into a new house I can't sit or barely sleep until everything is all the way done. I stayed up for 2 nights in a row until 4:00 a.m. undoing boxes because I can't stand to not have things clean neat and organized. I love the feeling of getting all of my pictures hung and all of my kitchen organized just the way I like it. I want to live in this house for a very long time! Paul and I love it so much. It is so perfect. I know you are all so sick of hearing about our house.... it has been the main topic in our lives right now though. This picture is of Alex's room and the basement bathroom. I am going to change out the shower curtain and do things a bit more masculine in there but it is what we have right now and there are other priorities that take precedents. We still need to post some pictures of the basement. Taylor's room looks so awesome. We decorated it in tan corduroy and denim. I have a huge loft that is my scrapbooking room. I have been getting it all decorated and organized. I will post pictures of that also. I need to run, there is a handyman here that we hired to put in some ceiling fans on the top floor. Have an excellent weekend.

And so we wait and wait!

Family is the best!

Last night we went over to my Husband's brother's house. We laughed and had a great time. The kids wrestled with the Uncles. It was fun to just hang out and relax. Later on that night we watched fire works go off in their backyard. There was a park nearby that were lighting them off. I can't tell you how awesome it was to be around Paul's family. Paul's brother is so kind and I love his wife. We get along so well! We weren't able to be around family in Missouri so we are thoroughly enjoying it! Her are some pictures of last night. Can you tell that they are brothers? They look so much alike. We move into our house on Friday. I am so excited!

We found the perfect house!

We are so excited!!!! After looking and looking we found a perfect house!!! The home was only for sale for 4 days when we found it and there was another offer put in on it a few hours before we put in our offer. They accepted our offer last night and so we will close July 27th! If you would like to look at the house here is the link: http://www.forsalebyowner.com/slideshow.html?20926419,23#
If you push play on the slide show there are a lot of pictures of the house. The house is 100% finished,3000 square feet,it has 6 bedrooms,3.5 baths, 4 living/family rooms, it was built in 2003, and it's fully fenced with a garden. We are so thrilled. We should be in this home for at least 10 years...maybe more. The slideshow does not show the basement but that is one of our favorite parts of the home. It has a big game room and a really nice bathroom and two bedrooms do. The women that owns the house now is an interior designer and very talented. We won't have to paint or change anything. We love that there is a lot of color and that it is not just white. The home has a perfect size loft for my scapbooking room! All of our belongings are in storage with the company that moved us out here so I am going to be busy getting caught up on all of my design work that I was working on before we left Missouri. I have been in touch with a lot of different companies that I want to design for in the scrapbooking industry. I am going to really focus on my graphic design skills and try to get some work lined up that way also. Paul and I feel so blessed that we found this home. My excitement has taken over and I have probably gone on just a bit more than I should have. I am off to look at some furniture. Have a great day!

We are in Utah!

We made it! We are staying with my Mom and Dad until we close on a house. Paul and I have been looking every day from sun up to sun down. The process is exhausting! We are so happy to be here though. Being around our family members is so awesome. Tonight we will be going to my husband's brother's home to celebrate our nephew's birthday. Tomorrow we are having a lot of my extended family and Paul's brother's family over for a big dinner at my Parent's home. My Mom and Dad just finished landscaping their yard and it looks amazing. They put in waterfalls, a zen garden,a huge gazebo, it looks like it could be in a magazine. My Mom is out in the yard every single day and it shows! It will be so fun to have our family over to enjoy it. We have found a home that we have fallen in love with. It is so beautiful. We are going to put an offer on it tomorrow! I am using my parent's computer and I have to figure out how to post pictures. When I do figure it out, I will post pictures of the home we are putting an offer on. I can't wait to get back into scrap booking. If we end up getting the house that we want, there is an entire area that could be my craft room. The home is in Layton and it is only 18 minutes to Paul's work. Paul started work today. He was so excited. It was so fun to watch him be so happy about this new opportunity. We are so excited about this new chapter in our lives. We have been saving for a home for years and we are excited to be settled for years to come in the house of our dreams. My Mom and Dad have been so supportive in letting all 8 of us live with them. They are so excited to have us here. I miss everyone so much in Missouri. I know a lot of you read this blog and I want to let you know that we miss you and we are so excited to have you come out and visit us! It has been hard to find the time to post on this blog but please know we are thinking about all of you!

OGDEN, UTAH!!!!

WE are moving...it is official!!!! We will be moving to Ogden, Utah at the end of this month. Wow...I am going to be busy. I am scared, excited, terrified, and happy all at once! We have been wanting to get closer to family for along time. THis is what we have wanted. It just seems so real now! I hate to move. Who likes it though really. I am off to call the moving companies. I just wanted all of my friends and family to know....We are coming home to the West!!!

Summer is here...

Well Tricia finally graduated and it is all behind us. We have had some very thoughtful relatives that have sent her money for her school fund. Tricia really wants to be a Dr. so she has been looking into going onto the Air Force. She took the ASVAP test and she scored extremely high, high enough to get into the medical program. I have been very leary about it, but this is something that she really wants to do. It is so hard to sit back and finally watch Trish want to make decisions on her own. I am scared to death to be honest. She is 18 though. I am still giving all kinds of advice. Stay tuned. If Tricia had it her way she would sign all of the Air Force documents tomorrow. I have been trying to slow her down though. My Mom and Dad were her for 10 days and we had a great time with them. We spent some time in Branson with them. They have a time share that they used there. The Condo was so beautiful. I have truly never seen a condo so beautiful. My parents just love spending time with all of the grandchildren I enjoy watching them spend so much time with them taking all of their personalities in. My Parent's just glow when they are around their grandchildren. Here are some Pictures....

Senior pictures!

I know the the last few posts have been of my oldest daughter, Trish. There has been so many things happening in her life because of her graduating. I know that there are a lot of relatives that read this blog, and I promise to get some other pictures of the other kids on here soon. In the mean time, I took Tricia over to the park so I could take her Senior pictures. I am not a photographer by any means but I do have a decent camera and so I thought I would give it a try. I was having a tough time dishing out all of the $$ it would have been to hire a real photographer. I really think they turned out o.k. though! I told Tricia that I would hire a real photographer if the pictures I took didn't turn out. You can give me feedback if you would like. Sometimes it can take an objective eye! Please don't hold back if you think I should hire someone! I won't feel bad! To all my family members... I will be sending out Tricia's graduation announcements in a few days. Tricia and I are making all of them so they are very time consuming! Here are a few of the pictures I took out of 86 pictures...I think these are the best. We are going back tomorrow so I can take some pictures in her track uniform. I will post those when I am done. I can't wait to scrapbook these!

Earth Angel!

This is a new Layout that I just finished. My scanner is not working so I had to take a photograph of it. The photo didn't turn out very well. The picture is not that dark in real life. I used Queen and Company felt and mm brads. I used Melissa Fances angel wing rub ons. I don't know if you can see the angel wings???? Thanks for looking though! Can you believe I have done 2 posts in only 2 days! Wahoo... I am getting better!

My Queen Indeed!

Here are some pictures of Tricia on Prom night. Prom was on Saturday. A big group of kids met down on Main street in St.Charles. Tricia decided to not go with a date. She thinks that big groups are fun, without preasure, and having strings attatched! Tricia was on Prom court also. That means that she was voted for Prom Queen by the Student Body at her school. The ballot starts out with 20 girls on it. Then it goes down to 10 girls, then 6 girls, then 3 girls. The last 3 girls are on "Prom Court" Tricia was one of the 3 girls. It really made her feel good that she was liked by so many students. The night of Prom, the 3 boys and the 3 girls came out on the stage together and they announced who the Prom Queen and Prom King was. Tricia was not named Queen, but loved having the experience and loved being one of the 3 girls! That was a huge compliment! I made sure to tell her that she was my Queen for sure, no matter what! I am so proud of her. Tricia was nominated because of the way she behaves at school!! From the very beginning Tricia has refused to get involved in all of the school drama. Instead, she is kind and nice to everyone and she is happy without being obnoxious and she has made good choices about what activities she does on the weekends. Tricia has made a stand about not drinking, swearing, etc...
So many people respect her because of the values she has set for herself. CAN YOU TELL THAT I AM A JUST A BIT PROUD OF MY DAUGHTER??? I don't mean to go on and on, but I really think the world of her. I love how she looked in her dress. Tricia decided to do her own hair. It looked so elegant and natural! I don't know if you can tell but it is in a low bun. I am proud to call Tricia my girl.....MY QUEEN GIRL!!!
So..... I have been tagged by Emine. This girl is so dang talented. Her work is just breath taking. Some people that read my blog may not know what it means to be tagged. If you are tagged, you are supposed to tell 7 random facts about yourself. I don't know if they will be that interesting but here it goes....
1. I am a night owl. I have the most amount of energy between 8 and 11 p.m.! I usually stay up untill 2 a.m.! My Dad is the same way.
2. I love sweets! Chocolate is my favorite but it can't be just any chocolate. It has to be Godiva. mmmmm!
3. I am terrible at mailing things! I right thank you notes, birthday cards, christmas cards that never get sent! It is so bad I know! I am trying to be better. Everyone in my extended family knows that they are going to get their b-day card/present in the mail a week late :)!
4. I have always been a size 3... super skinny, my entire life!! Even after I had my kids I stayed super thin! I could eat whatever I wanted and I would stay skinny.....Untill about 5 years ago! After I had my hysterectomy I gained a lot of wait. I am trying to get rid of it though! (LOL!) Having an irregular thyroid doesn't help! Loving sweets doesn't help either!
5. I love to be bare foot anytime I can! NOT at the store people, just in my home. The bad part of going bare foot is that I have really ruff feet. Even if I get a pedicure...they are still ruff! I always keep them painted though!
7. I buy way too many scrapbooking supplies. Way to many! I am a sucker for packaging! I could never use all of the embellishments I have. I am trying to buy less and use more of what I have. O.K. I am lying... I love to buy supplies!
So there you have it... 7 facts about me. I am supposed to tag some other people. I will post that a little later. I will leave you a message on your blog if I tag you.

A Queen for Sure!

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5050224366518632786" />

My darling daughter was nominated for Prom Queen this year. I am so happy for her. We are truly best friends and I love that we can have such a close Mother daughter relatioship, and I can still be her parent. I really think it is important to have a balance. If I wasn't Tricias friend, she wouldn't be able to tell me everything! I also tell her No....all the time!!! So proud of her! I was called to be in the Young Women's presidency last week for my church. I am so excited to be with my two girls in there! So much is happening in our lives lately. I feel like I am going a million miles an hour all the time with my 6 kids, but they are such a blessing. I am amazed at what they are teaching me all of the time! I am so excited to have my Mom come for Tricia's graduation! I am so close to my Mom and I have that bond with my 3 girls. I always want that close bond with them. We have really been enjoying this warm weather outside, until today! We have a lot of kites at our house. The kids love to go to the park to fly the kites. Even the bigger kids look forward to flying them. We went kite flying 3 times last week. Good memories! It is late so I will post some more later. We have a big day tomorrow looking for Tricia's prom dress! It is so hard to find a modest dress these days. Wish us luck! I wanted to thank eveyone that reads my blog. I love when you leave me comments. I love to know who is actually reading this blog!

We should all be a bit more greatful!

You should really take a minute and read this story!

I couldn't resist posting this today, it really touched me. I think that in our crazy world, we get so caught up in what we want, and getting more, more, more, that we forget that more than half of the world can only dream of the necessities. I am ashamed that with all of the things I have been given in life, I have less faith than those who have been dealt nothing but a bad deck of cards their entire lives. My eyes filled with tears as I came acroos this. I cannot believe the faith of the children in this story...

This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in South Africa.

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter.

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly withtreacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates). "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.

As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

"All right," I said, "put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the babycould so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

During prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God" she prayed, "Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon."

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?"

As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say "Amen"? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the verandah was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes.

I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas – that would make a batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the..... could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle.

I cried.

I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully-dressed dolly.Her eyes shone! She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?"

"Of course," I replied!

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "that afternoon."

"Before they call, I will answer." (Isaiah 65:24)

Belated St. Patrick's Day!

Sorry about the bad scan of the tags. I had to scan them onto my computer instead of taking pictures of them and them posting them . They look a lot better in person! They were fun to make! I would love to know what you think. Feel free to leave a comment!

Is there such a thing as; Happy belated St. Patty's Day?
Ha Ha HA!!! Just a quick post of some tags I sent out to my awesome family members.
Ty and Shell, I sent you one today!
I am going to be posting some fun projects I have been working on in the next few days,
and I am also going to be giving out some RAKS.
A RAK is a random act of kindness, in the scrapbooking world.
I have so much ribbon and flowers that I want to give away! Stay tuned!
Have a great night!

Thoughts of gratitude!

I have been thinking about my Mom and Dad for the last week or so. I just have to say that I have the best parent's in the world. I know that my siblings read this blog and they feel the same way about my Mom and Dad. Each of my siblings have an extremely close relationship with them. It takes work and we all know that, but the pay off is so rewarding! There was a time, about 7 years ago, that I was having a really hard time in my life. My Mom happened to be over at my house and something set me off. I asked her to leave my house. I remember the look of hurt she had on her face. It is heart breaking just thinking about it right now. My mom was very hurt and yet, the next morning I got a letter of apology from her! I was the one that was offensive!! I was the one that should have apologized, but because she was my mother and she never wanted anything to happen to our relatioship, she was the one that was the bigger person. In the letter she dropped off,my Mother was so humble, she was sorry for anthing she said, and for the hurt is caused me. From that day on, I really understood what being a Mother was all about. There have been times in my teenage years that I felt that my Mom and Dad were not treating me right. I was a teenager though, I was stupid! They were always humble, my entire childhood, and now. They have been so good to ALL SIX OF MY CHILDREN. My Mother has a special relatioship with my 2 older kids. I am not their biological mother but that has never stopped my parents from having a relatioship with them. They show them the exact amount of love as they show my four younger kids. They are coming from Utah to see my oldest daughter graduate in May. They come to visit 3 or 4 times a year . It is important to them to maintain a relatioship with them, even though they live 1600 miles away. As a parent, I will always do whatever it takes to always have a relatioship with my kids. I will be at every wedding, and do my best to be there for the important days of my kids lives. That is what our lives should be about...family. I just have been thinking about this a lot lately. I have such a supportive, loving husband that is such a good father. I couldn't be happier with him!! I am close to my siblings and talk to each of them all of the time. We are all spread around the U.S. but we were all raised with the knowledge that siblings should be close. This is a picture of my beautiful Mother and my little Nephew, Lawrence. I just felt like I should express my gratitude. Our family vacation was so much fun. I will not soon forget it!

Showing some of my True colors!

Do not adjust your computer screen. This IS my new hair color. And YES, This is exactly what I wanted! The pictures don't really show how red it really is. I will post some pictures tomrrow that ere taken outside. The kids take on it... They love it!!!! Pauls take on it? Well, let's just say I don't want to talk about it! o.k., so he hates it! Since when do we care what our husbands think about our hair anyway ;)! LOL! I actually have had a ton of compliments, who cares if they are from people that you would see hanging around downtown, with mohawks. All kidding aside, I really wanted something different. I decided to dye the underneath section of hair brownish black, and then do auburn, and then fire engine red on top! It kind of reminds me of strawberry shortcake! Haven't you ever had a time in your life that you wanted to switch things up a bit? I can only imagine what my Primary kids are going to say on Sunday! I hope I won't be having a lot of converstaions with their parents!
Other news, I entered a really big contest called: making memories idol. There were over a 1000 people that entered and only 50 were picked. I was not one of the 50. I was pretty sad, but the odds were not that great to begin with. There are so many talented people out in the world. There will be so many other contest that I will be able to enter. I stayed true to my style and I was happy with what I entered. It was fun to see my family be so encouraging and supportive of me. They are truly my biggest fans. I love that! Here are some pictures of my NEW DO! You will have to leave me a comment and tell me what you think. BE Honest, my feelings will not be hurt! Have a good day. We have the Blue and Gold banquet to go to tonight. The boys have all passed off a bunch of merit badges in scouts. Hugs to everyone!

Back From Our Caribbean Cruise!

We had such a wonderful time on our cruise! It was so fun to see all of my siblings, and my Parents. We are already planning our next family vacation. Although we all loved cruising, we have all decided that we would have enjoyed more time in Mexico. I think we will probably go to Cancun next time. The water in Cozumel was so beautiful. All of us went snorkeling. We saw all of these tropical fish, squid, jelly fish, etc... I am so hooked on snorkeling now. I want to get certified in scuba diving! I cannot wait to go back to the Caribbean again! We had so much fun laughing, and eating WONDERFUL food!!! The last night that we were on the boat I had 3 giant Lobster tails! All of the meals on the ship were A+! Taylor loved it so much that he took pictures of his food every night at dinner. That is what he wanted to remember. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun it was to sit around and to be entertained all day by singers, dancers, magicians, watching all of the cousins interact! I loved seeing my nephews and nieces. I am so glad that I was brought up in a home that valued family so much. My Mom and Dad planned this entire trip for their anniversary because it was important to them for everyone to be together. I love that I talk to my Mom almost everyday, and that my Dad takes so much interest in everything Paul and I are doing. He cares so much about us! Paul really looks up to my Dad. It was so cool to see my brother Matthew, put his work aside and interact with us. He makes all of us laugh so hard. When you put both of my brothers at a table together, the two of them make us giggle like a bunch of little school children! My brother Matthew, works 80 plus hours a week so I enjoyed watching him make his sweet wife smile, him whispering in baby Peter's ear to put him to sleep, playing ping pong, telling jokes etc... When my Brother talks to you, he makes you feel like you are the best person ever. His wife Wendy is a super mom. I look up to her so much! My Brother Crismon, is such a good Father! It is amazing to see his little 2 year old son obey him. Crismon is so consistent with him and he is so attentive to his wife who is 7 months pregnant! My sister Lisa has so many good ideas I love watching her be a mother. I get so many good ideas about being a mother by just watching her. My son Alex, told me that he loved being around Lisa because he really felt like she cared about him! Again, I am so blessed that I was able to spend a week with my entire family. I loved going to NASA space center on the way home. We were able to take my brother's family because we had a 15 passenger van. I will not soon forget all of the kind words, the laughter, and the smiles on my parent's faces as they watched us all talk, laugh, and tell stories to eachother. I know that I will pass on the family values that my Parent's have instilled in me. I hope I can sress to my children, the importance of staying close to your family. The pictures are of the ocean! The picture of the four older kids was in Cozumel, in front of a big fountain. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees. I am about to turn up our heat becasue we are supposed to have a fearce ice storm tonight. I will try to think of the warm sun rays over all of us in Mexico as we freeze for the next 30 days here in Missouri.

Missing in Action!

Check this out: http://www.bravia-advert.com/paint/thead/
It has been really hard to keep this blog updated. I will try harder. I want share some pictures from the Holidays. On Christmas morning the children line up from youngest to oldest. Our tree this year was pretty funny because some of our lights were not working. The kids had a great Christmas. They were all happy with what they received. They were mostly excited about what they were able to give. We draw names in our family and then the kids exchange the gifts they have bought for each other on Christmas eve. We are looking forward to our cruise in five weeks. The ship leaves from Galveston, Texas. We are looking forward to seeing some of our family members along the way. Happy New Year to everyone. We are all so happy to have so many close friends and family.For some reason I am not able to upload in photo's so I will try later.

Fun Halloween pictures

These are just a few of the pictures from Halloween. I will post more later
Chandler was a Pirate. Adelaide was Cinderella