Kids and braces

My beautiful daughter and friend. :)
Here is a cute pic of the kids this year at Valas pumpkin patch. You can see Matt and Shelley's braces.. they look so cute in them. Nick and Holly are posing as usual. lol

15 YEARS

In June Richard and I celebrated our 15th wedding Anniversary! I still remember that day like it was yesterday and I am so grateful for the wonderful marriage that he and I have and for the beautiful family we are raising!

June 15th 1996


June 2011.... STILL in love :)
And our love has grown into a beautiful family!!!! So thankful for my eternal family!

Nick's special day.. January 2011

When we went to Nauvoo, Nick told me that he felt spirit so strongly. I know that his testimony has grown since his baptism.

I am so grateful that Nick made the decision to be baptized. He was so excited to do it and I know that he will be blessed. Of course it was a beautiful day watching his daddy baptize him a member of the church. One we will always remember.. I am glad that my sweet hubby is worthy to baptize our children. what a blessing!!!

It's been a year... where to start?

Really?? Am I really this bad of a blogger? Wow.. It has been an entire year.. Not much has changed. Our kids are getting bigger and they sure do keep us busy. We just enjoyed a beautiful Christmas season and I am sorry to see it all end. We probably had one of the busier Christmas holiday breaks ever. Christmas Eve was spent with my parents and my brother Henry's family. My brother DeJay and his family came for a week after Christmas. It was sooo fun! We got to go ice skating, hang out and play games, visit and sing around the guitar and piano. We spent New Years in with Richard's family. Richard was able to go to a Broncos game with his brother and had so much fun. We enjoyed bowling and games and shopping with his family and we miss everyone already. I think I am still in shock that it is all over. I absolutely love the Christmas season and I am always so sad when it is over.. but, I am looking forward to the new year. Does anyone else think that each passing year keeps going faster and faster? Isn't there a pause button I can push somewhere? Matt is in High School and I can't imagine him growing any bigger and growing up. All of the kids are doing wonderfully. We are grateful for such sweet kids.

NEW MEMBER OF THE FAMILY......

No, we didn't have another child.. BUT, we have a Golden Retriever named Daisy. I swore forever I would never have a dog.. Too much work and the pee and poop everywhere. But, when I met this 4 1/2 year old dog I knew that she belonged to our family. Our wonderful friends the Pattersons moved to Valentine, Ne where they adopted this sweet doggy. She was having a hard time staying in their yard and kept wondering off (the previous owner allowed her a lot of freedom).. so they asked if we would want her. Long story short, we adopted her in September and we have all fell in love. She has totally captured my heart. She is the most exceptional dog. Really and truly the most sweet and wonderfully well behaved animal. She never makes a peep.. she has never had an accident in our house and is so gentle. The moment I saw her I knew that she had a gentle and sweet spirit. Her favorite thing to do is to go "bye, bye" with me in the car. We are so grateful for our sweet girl Daisy.

Here is some of the highlights from 2011:

Matthew: Sang solo in the Choir concert, plays the trumpet awesome,played football, bowls for the High School bowling league, went to Youth Conference and is old enough to go to church dances. He got braces. LOVEs to play Call of Duty on the PS3. He looks forward to turning 15 this spring and getting a permit.. (YIKES)

Shelley: Played a lot of Volleyball, plays the piano and flute. She is a beautiful 5' 10" young woman and enjoys to listen to music and have fun with her friends. She loves YW and went to Girls camp this year. She also got braces and is enjoying 7th grade.

Nicholas: Got baptized last January.. (what a special day). He played flag football and played basketball. loves to play the piano and practices all the time. He got eye glasses and spent his summer doing daring tricks on his bike. (scaring his mother all the time). He is so sweet and made sure that Santa got a special letter just from him.

Holly Anne: Holly started Kindergarten and mom has missed her so much! She is a big girl who sings and dances and cracks us up all the time. She is a bit of a drama queen.. but she is hilarious. She loves her friends and loves to play. She is a pro at riding a two wheel bike (been doing it since she was 4) She can beat me at a game of Checkers and loves to play "Go fishing" with cards. She looks so grown up holding her cards in her hands and being silly.

Mom and dad: Richard got a promotion this year he is a manager at Signal Design at the UPRR. He is busy working and being an awesome dad and hubby. I love him so much! We love watching our Huskers play football and Broncos too! I still teach piano lessons and I still love it. We love our membership in the LDS church and we are so thankful for the peace and happiness it brings us each day. A highlight of our year was when we went to Nauvoo. It was so wonderful to be with our children in such sacred places.We know that we are so blessed by our Heavenly Father and our Saviour.

2012..We look forward to the new year and hope that we are able to reach the goals we have set for ourselves.

2010 in Review

I can't believe that 2010 is almost over! I really believe that your life just goes into fast forward mode as you get older. We have had a pretty basic and busy year. Enjoyed spending time with our loved ones this past Summer and our children have grown and kept us busy.

We are so grateful for our blessings!

I am not a great blogger, but would love to do better at writing and journaling about our little family.

This year:

January and February: Nicholas turned 7! In Feb. I hurt my back pretty bad.. didn't enjoy that too much ;). We had a lovely Valentines day and Shelley was busy playing Volleyball.

March and April: Birthdays anyone? Richard turned 38, Matt became a teenager, and Holly reached four years old! We ate lots of cake :) We enjoyed Easter and stayed busy with the everyday life.. school, work and piano.

May and June: Had the Spring Piano Recital where the 3 older performed. In June, we attended the funeral for Richard's grandmother Bernice. Saw all of Richards family in Idaho. That was really nice. We went to the Wiedrich Family reunion in Colorado up in the mountains. It was so wonderful! Shelley stayed in Wyoming to help with her new little cousin Maddison.

July and August: Celebrated a fantastic block party for the Fourth of July! Went swimming lots with the kids. For my Birthday several friends took me out and surprised me! (I have the greatest friends here) The kids went back to school. Matt started 8th grade, Shelley the 6th, Nick started 2nd and Holly started Pre-school... although she would still like to stay home with mom.

September and October: Husker football started!!! Matt played football for his Jr. High. Loved the weather and went to a fantastic Halloween party with amazing friends to sing Karaoke!!!

November and December: Saw lots of family over Thanksgiving and through the Christmas Season. Shelley turned 12 and started Young Womens. Matt and Nick played Basketball! Enjoyed and LOVED the Holidays and had a magical Christmas with my parents in town visiting. Looking forward to a new and exciting 2011!

The Children are doing so well. Read about their activities in the posts to follow!

I am so thankful for an amazing family! We are so blessed with such amazing friends. Really, Omaha is the coolest place to live. We feel like we belong here and love our Church family, our jobs and our friends! We Wish you all a wonderful New year and hope that you had a magical Christmas!

Holly Anne

Isn't she darling? She is so sweet. She constantly tells her daddy and I how much she loves us. She loves to twirl our hair when we snuggle her. She started Pre school this fall, and actually isn't a huge fan. She doesn't like to leave me home alone.. and would prefer to stay home with mommy. It is good for her though, and I know it will help her prepare for Kindergarten next year. (Which blows my mind!!!!) She loves to go to Primary and she sings Primary songs all the time. Sometimes mixing up the words, which makes it pretty hilarious. She is so loved by her siblings. They think everything she does is the cutest. I can't believe our baby is so grown up! We are so lucky to have her!

Nicholas

Nicholas is so fun! He has grown up so much this year. He's makes us laugh all the time. He is doing a great job as a 2nd grader and is reading really well. He has been learning piano and loves sports. He played Basketball this fall. He would wear sweat pants every day if I let him, and usually I have to argue with him to get him to wear a nice shirt and jeans. Silly kid. He loves to spend time with his family and is excited to get baptized in January. He is such a cutie too!!! I love all those precious freckles!