Welcome New Year

Now that school is out and Christmas is over, I've had some quality thinking time. My husband would define it as "boredom" but I have enjoyed my moments of wondering and reflection. I love being able to wake up and just lay for a while, reflecting on my dreams of the night before, what I'll be doing that day, and anything else that happens to run through my thought process. (I have been having some crazy dreams lately, too. And I will not be writing any books about them.)

As the new year approaches, my musings have been filled with what I have learned and how I have grown this year. I am happy 2009 will soon be behind us, for it was a year of pain, heartache, misery and hell, but it has also been a year of incomprehensible miracles. I am astounded at the amount of love, hope, and faith that have filled my life during this year. Because of our hardships, doors opened and opportunities presented themselves and now my life is on a course that is very fulfilling and full of joy. It is a course much better than one I would have chosen for myself and I stand all amazed and humbled because of the circumstances which have brought me here.

I have come to the realization that we make our own happily ever after's. We enjoy the storybooks and movies so much because they take us away from the realities we live in to worlds full of damsel's rescued by prince charmings. Reality contains the damsel wielding her own sword, and it's very heavy. Her dragons must be fought off alone much of the time, and she chooses to either find strength to succeed, or be consumed.

I used to be one who turned to the saying "We're never given more than we can handle" for comfort. I no longer do that. I have learned that I am often given more than I can handle. In fact, I can barely handle anything. As this realization has come to me, I have rejoiced, for I know that I need not handle anything alone, nor can I. My entire purpose on this earth is to learn that I must rely on one much more powerful, loving, and patient than I. As I turn myself over to Him, I am filled with His power. What more could I desire? Of course, this is more easily said than done and I find my pride and foolishness constantly tripping me up. But my stumbles are less frequent and my falls much shorter now than just a year ago. I find myself filled with love more than fear. And now, more often than not, I have peace.

Welcome, new year.

Another Quick Update

Hello blogosphere. We are in our new house and enjoying it immensely. We didn't end up moving in until November, but that's what happens with buying houses. :) I am loving school this semester, too, and another of my classes is helping me write and get published! Look out world, here I come! (No, I'm not the next Stephenie Meyer and do not desire to be. I'm shooting for more like the next Jane Austen. ;) Anyway, life is good (today. ha.) the kids are happy and healthy and you'll notice I never blog on a bad day! Thank your stars, count your chickens, and good night. (You'll also notice that I do blog when I am very too tired. :-)

Quick Update

Just wanted to share that summer semester went great!! All A's! I am really loving school. Plus, we have an offer in on a house and are hoping to close mid-August! It's a cute little thing out in the very northeast corner of Washington, right near the sod farms. We just love it and can't wait to move in! Maybe someday I'll post some pics. We will probably be moving in the week school starts for Braden and I, so life will be busy once again! Life is good. And we have worked hard for it. I'm talkin' blood, sweat, and tears. But that's for a different post. :)

So sorry I have not been updating. Life is so full of busy-ness and surprises. I suppose the purpose I began this blog has been fulfilled: to re-connect with old friends and keep in touch with each other. I may update more often, but who knows? I am starting school full time next week and do not plan to make time for the blog-o-sphere, for a couple of years at least. :) I am going to study English Secondary Education (teaching 7-12 grades). I still browse through people's blogs every so often and catch up on what's going on, so please don't forget me if your blog goes private!

MORE SNOW!!!

The next day was even better! Much warmer and much less wind.

Snowball fight! With Grandpa Boyd who came down from Payson for a visit.

We're so proud of our snow people. I don't think I've made a snowman since I was twelve. The kids and I all had a blast!

Poor Daddy. He tore a ligament in his knee on Sunday and couldn't play in the snow with us. Hopefully we'll get more snow next year!

SNOW!!!

I hope everyone in St. George got to enjoy the beautiful snow today! We had a lot of fun!

Hannah, Adelyn and Kyler making snow angels!



Later that day, the rest of us were all snowed out, but Adelyn begged and begged to go back out. So I let her. She played out there alone for about half an hour in the wind and freezing cold, loving every minute of it! I didn't get any pics of her but got some good video. Kids are so crazy! I guess we should savor every moment of snow we have because it comes so rarely. We're hoping we get more tomorrow so we can make some snowmen. So much snow fun!

Craziness

Here are a few things I missed out on posting that I wanted to make note of before life gets so full of chaos once again for us:

Happy Birthday to my little sis, Chrissy on November 2nd. She is such a beautiful young woman and such an example to all of us! She is always ready and willing to love and serve and keeps her life full of wonderful things. I love my little Kissy Mia sister so very much!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope all was well with all of you! Ours was a lot of fun with dinner at the Childers' with some family and friends. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard than when my sissy la la's and I played clue charades in the middle of the night. Naomi, please forgive us!!! We had a "Christmas Dinner" the next day with the Ericksen fam which was also a lot of fun. I was sick that morning and wasn't much fun myself, but it was good to see all the "up north-ers" and the kids loved seeing their cousins!

So glad my Grandpa Jones is up and well after his scary stay for a couple days in the hospital over Thanksgiving. Love you tons Grandpa!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous mother on December 4th. She is stressed to the max with finals and everything this week, but ever and always the best mom in the world!!!! Check out my post on December 28th on http://womendoingmore.blogspot.com find out what I really think of her. :) Love you Madre. You can do it!!!!!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Proud Decorators

We were very lucky and excited to get a free tree this year! Not only was it free, but it was one from the Jubilee of Trees here in St. George. A lady down the street had it for a few years and didn't want it anymore, so we were more than happy to take it off her hands. I always vowed that I would never have a fake tree, but we couldn't pass this up. So I just bought a pine scented candle and called it good. :) And now we save the expense of a tree for years to come! We stripped it down a bit and put some of our own decorations on it to make it more Ericksen-y. :o). I hope our neighbor doesn't come over and gasp when she sees it! But we're so proud of our "improvements." I don't know what the theme of it was supposed to be, but it had the violin on it and the kids insisted on leaving it there, so there it is. (It's a fake violin, of course). Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Adelyn!

Our girl is five years old. My mom summed it up when she said, "when you're five, you can do anything." Adelyn is very conscious of her new five year oldness, and is suddenly even more independent. She told me yesterday, "Now I'm five, I need to have privacy" and went into the bathroom to change her clothes so her brother and I couldn't see her. She was wearing some play clothes before her party and I asked her if she wanted to wear those, or change into some clean clothes. She thought for a second and then said, "I want to wear somehting fancy!" So she picked out a dress and some "sparkly" shoes to go with it. She still won't let me do her hair, though. Oh well.

We had a fun party with our Boo and she enjoyed her presents immensely. She got to decorate the cake all by herself and was quite pleased with the outcome. :) During the opening of her gifts she was very sober faced and I only got a couple of small grins out of her, but afterward and for the rest of the night she kept saying "This was the best birthday ever!" over and over again.

Addy's best birthday ever started out with a birthday breakfast and making of cupcakes. I tried those ice cream cone cupcakes and they turned out fairly well, but we tried to frost them when they were too warm and the kids had some trouble. The kids didn't mind, though, because they got to lick off their fingers and the table whenever their cupcake cone tipped over. :)

Adelyn got a journal for one of her gifts, and I helped her write in it. Her first entry says something like "Hi. This is Adelyn. I had the best birthday today. I had such a good birthday I wanted everyone to be surprised." I'm so proud of my little big five year old girl!

Happy Halloween!

This year was very easy for costumes, because the kids wanted to wear the same thing as last year! The costumes still fit, so might as well get twice the use! Then Adelyn changed her mind last minute and decided she wanted to be a magic fairy dancing princess instead of a witch with pink hair, and Kyler stayed a tiger. We trick-or-treated down the street to Grammy's and then went to Grandma's for some dinner and movies. Very laid back, easy Halloween. Hooray! It's also very convenient that both Grandma's live down the street. :)