So things are a little different in our family...

We have struggled with things and have found some solutions. It has been a rough road.

I wish the phrase life isn't fair never crossed

my mind. Please God, help me.

Dang it is cold.

I have lived in Utah for what 9-10 years with a year and a half break in between that and has it every been this cold for this long of a time? No!!! I am used to it snowing and then the snow melting within the next 2-3 days. But it has been below 40 degrees for awhile now. How frustrating. Maybe I have to actually shovel snow to avoid the ice skating rings around the outside of my house now. Crazy!!! But the snowpack is going to be good this year...so good for the summer activities.

Anyway, life is going well. It has been a little better around the house since N left. It's sad to see him go, but the family dynamic was crazy there for quite awhile. We also gave away our six month old lab Marley...the kids just don't care much about him and we figured he needed a home where he could be trained and given more attention. He reminded me of Hedo when he was a pup.

Overall things are going great. We are doing some family therapy to see if we can continue to grow as a family and clear up some issues we are having. But hopefully the hard work pays off and we can foster again soon and have a baby someday...

Anna starts her new position next week...she'll be working from 2-10am. She seems to be excited for the extra time during the day. Her current job is quite the busy position and seemed to really stress her out when you consider the issues we were having at home with a full time job. I hope this helps relieve her stress. I appreciate her sacrifice right now in working as we are trying to financially set ourselves up after moving into this new house last year.

Christmas was fantastic!!!!

We had such a great time over the break. I was off of work for about 10 days and that was great in and of itself. But we had some fun times with my parents in town as well as Anna's brother Ben and his girlfriend Sara. So let me try to go through what we did:

My parents wanted to upgrade our pathetic air hockey table we had just bought for $10. So we found a brand new one that was seven feet long. So my dad and I headed into Lehi on Thursday to go pick up this new one who didn't want this in the box table. Little did I think I would have trouble fitting it into my pilot...well it was quite squishy. Imagine us cramming the seats all the way forward to where my gut was squished against the steering wheel. Had to adjust some and imagine us going down the highway looking sideways with my gut driving the car as my head was hitting the ceiling. But it was a great gift and the kids love it. My parents also got us a nice used pool table that is fantastic.
Went up to Temple square with everybody, including my brother and sister law and their kids. Was fun and came back to a nice Christmas eve dinner and small reading of Luke and the night before Christmas. Anna and my mom then got going on presents and got very little sleep. I didn't get to bed until 1:30am trying to help wrap presents and get things organized. But there was so much to do. My mom likes to do projects with Anna...they were making Christmas pillow cases and some aprons for the girls. Then my mom even got some drapes and a rod to place over the guest room shutters. The room looks very nice as they chipped in some lamps from some online store. My parents spoil each of us when they come visit each of us...I'm sure she misses spending time with us as she spends so much time with Craig and Joanna in Sacramento and gets to spoil them year around.

Christmas morning I went and picked up our foster son that is moving to a new home so that he can be with his siblings. They haven't found a new home as of yet. Woke up at 6am to drive down to Provo. We were all tired on Christmas...came back and took a nap. Did presents around 9am. Hung around and cleaned up and had dinner around 4pm. We had turkey and ham. It was nice to have so much room for everybody in our new house!!! Having the basement done is a definite plus as well with all the new toys. We also got a new playstation 3...for the bluray of course. The boys happen to like it for the games too. Then we went to a kids movie...yogi bear was boring. But the kids thought it was okay.

Sunday was just another day of church. Nothing too exciting. Last day of 11am church for awhile...
Monday we had Damon watch the kids while my parents, myself and Anna went to Little Fockers. It was quite the funny movie. Had a nice lunch at olive garden. Went home and got my parents packed. Went down to watch Gullivers travels with the kids and my parents. It was okay. I feel asleep and my mom kicked my chair. Went to mountain mikes for half price monday pizza with everybody including Ben and Sara. I then drove my parents to the airport for their way late flight home.

The rest of the week was crazy as Anna had to work some days and I was home with the kids. I'm sure they love it. Had a small new years party with some friends and Dan and Becky with the kids. Our hour lock on the directv even turned off right before it hit 10 seconds to midnight...it was quite the crackup as everybody was counting down. Went and picked up N from his current spot and took them to a nice lunch at Tucano's for some Brasilian bbq buffet and then a movie seeing Tron. Tron was pretty good. Anna, Yesenia and Bekah saw Narnia.

Overall it was a great ending to a very interesting year. We moved twice, adopted four kids, trying to deal with four adopted kids and one foster son, get our new house ready, get a new dog who we are giving away now, and I have been sick for the past 3 weeks. Finally went to the doctor today. I was talking to my mom on the way to the airport. I think I have been doing a lot she was doing when we were teenagers. So caught up in things/worrying, that we weren't enjoying the ride. I am working on not worrying so much and being myself. I am a very easy person to get along with. I usually don't get worked up over the smallest things. Anyway, I am feeling much better lately.

Here's to a fabulous 2011!!!