Wow a year goes by so fast

I can't believe a year has gone by! I usually blog once a month but I have been crazy busy. I'm always busy I know but I have been even more crazy busy if you can believe it.

We are still in Wilder Idaho which we love and it has been nice to be out in the middle of no where again. We bought horses and chickens and another dog so that is lots of new fun stuff to do. We have been fighting with the weeds again because that is what you do in the country. In the suburbs you fight with your neighbors and in the country you fight with mother nature. I also started back in school. I am studying International relations with an emphasis in African cultures which is what I wanted to study in the first place so I'm doing that now. It's so much fun to learn about stuff I actually care about. It is a huge contributing factor in my busy life though.

Everyone is doing well. All the kids keep getting older even though I strictly forbid it at home. (They do it at school when I'm not looking)

 Ricky is living in Boise with his sweet fiance' Brooke. They are blissfully happy. We are so glad. They plan to marry next summer or whenever anyone has enough money. :)

 Jacob just turned 12 and is now passing the sacrament. Weird that he is so big. He is going on a week long leadership training camp in Washington DC next month by himself on a plane and everything. He is terrified and so am I but he will love it and I will get over the fact that he is growing up too fast. He also loves the kung-fu class he, Nic, Caleb, and Randy have been taking. They all love it.

Josie is so helpful and sweet. She is always looking for ways to be given more responsibility. She can't wait to get older. I remember those days. She wants to start dancing which I am really excited about. I just need to find a dance company that is good and not too far away. Unfortunately I'm picky because I have cousins who are professional ballet dancers so I know what dancing should be. She is still young though so maybe I can compromise.

Nicholas is as sweet as ever and loves to do cartoons. He is really good at it. He is having a little bit of a lesson in hard knocks this year with school but he will figure it out. Assignments are not optional for a good grade. You have to actually turn them in. He is usually pretty jovial but he takes Karate seriously.

Caleb is very compassionate and always concerned with others. He is also a good friend to our neighbor and they love to jump on the tramp and play war or something like it. He just switched rooms and now gets to be with the big boys. He is so excited. He thinks they are like rock stars. So cute. He also loves Karate and he gets to be in the Adult class.

Hunter continues to be a lot of fun to watch grow up. He is so curious and always asking questions about why the world is the way it is. He feels very passionately that things should be a certain way and lets us all know when we are not living the way he thinks we should. Any time life isn't fair or just he has a very hard time coping. I think it is because this life isn't fair but maybe the one in heaven was. I remember my Aunt saying life isn't fair to me at about the age of eight and I was shocked. I thought well it should be. Ha

Matthew and Naia are the best of buds. They really are twins. They do everything together and love to spend time playing together. I'm so glad we have the girls. They fit so perfectly into our family. I didn't even know there were holes but Heavenly Father did. So glad I listened. Matthew is so cute it's really hard to punish him. He has a way of making our hearts melt and we just start to laugh. It's terrible the things he gets away with. Naia has a very infectious laugh. Anytime she starts to laugh we can't help but join in.

Well enough gushing about my perfect children:) I really do have it good. I'll just gush about my perfect husband. :)

Randy is loving his job at Zion's bank here. He is also loving Karate with the kids (although I think he wishes it was a little cheaper to take them all). We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last week. Wow! Lucky 13. He is awesome. He likes being in the bishopric but I think he has a different opinion about those leadership callings now than he did before. He is busy.

Overall we are good. We are loving life as always and are living it to it's fullest as much as we can.

Settling in

We are starting to come out of the unpacking marathon that has been going on this past month. We really are almost done unpacking thanks to so much help from friends and family. Randy's new job is great. He is traveling a lot more which I don't love but he loves his work which is always a plus.

Here is another great photo from our session with my good friend Eva Barnett. Her website is evamelissaphotography@blogspot.com. Check it out. She works anywhere in the Boise area of Idaho. I just love that picture.

The girls are doing great. Josie has started in her journey of becoming a young woman... (girls you know what I mean) It was a very hard day for her. She was totally freaked out. I guess all our talks about what was coming didn't quite get through. She is definately not 8. I'm guessing she is at least 11. We still need to have a dental exam to really know.

I am starting another grand adventure. We are homeschooling all the kids starting in the fall. I have enrolled them in idahoidea.com it is an online charter program and it looks like just what we are looking for. My friend Janet is involved with it and it sounds great. I am really excited.

We continue to get the house closer to all cleaned up and usable. There are still quite a few weeds to battle with but I know by the end of summer it won't even look like the same yard.

I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying life. I know I am.  :)

Guess What!!!!

We really are moving!!!! Randy finally got a job in Idaho. We leave on the 26th of May. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

Yeah... Birthday Season is Over!

We had our last birthday of the season on Sunday. Thank goodness! I love birthdays but seriously 9 in a row gets a little old. I'll post pictures from each if I remember to load my pictures from my phone before I post next.
I just got back from women's conference in Provo. I love going, and this year I got to bring a dear friend. It was her first year to go and we had a blast. I also was there with three of my sisters and my mom. We got to run around BYU and get spiritually filled. What better way could you spend a couple of days. SO fun!!!
Randy has yet another interview on Thursday so wish us luck. It is going on ten months of paying for two mortgages and things are a bit tight. We are still trying to get back to Idaho so we can rent the house here and live in the gangsta house in Wilder. Hee Hee. Look to an older post about it getting shot up if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.
The thing I remember most from conference besides not getting any sleep was that God appreciates the things we do for him. I had never thought about that before. If you are feeling under appreciated just remember that the eye in the sky that watches all you do also is thankful for your efforts.
Have a great day!!!

Crazy moments in mothering!

Here is a crazy video. Enjoy!
Caleb got stuck!

Don't worry he got unstuck but he had to eat milkshakes for a week!

Birthday Season

In the dead of winter after the holidays when everyone else has nothing to do till spring we are busy with our family holiday season. All our birthdays except 1 are from Jan until April. We have at least two each month. That makes for a lot of cake and tablecloths. Here are a couple pictures of the first Four that have happened in the last month and a half.

Randy's was Jan. 13th I don't know why we have no pictures of his but oh well.

Here is Matthew's Jan 22 

 Naia's Feb. 5

And Josie's Feb. 22

It was so fun to have Josie's party. She had a few friends over and they played pin the tiarra on the princess and drop the hairclips into the jar. We also had a piniata. I love low key birthday parties. Luckily we don't have friend parties for the babies just the kids in school so it's not too crazy yet.

Our next round of birthdays starts next week with Jacob's on the 6th and mine on the 7th. Wow I'm seriously going to gain 10 pounds just from all the cake.

Oh the Places WE Go

 Hey everybody. How's it going? Just thought I'd share some pics of what we've been up to lately.

 We have been eating a lot of Ghanaian food like banku and okra soup. It's pretty good. I must say that Josie cooks it better than I do.

 We have all learned how to wrap Naia. We have decided to call Nadia Naia just because Nadi is confusing when you are trying to tell a two year old not to be naughty and that is her name. So Naia it its and she loves it. Jacob Nic and Randy have all learned to wrap Naia although she isn't asking to be wrapped as much as she did the first few days she was home.

 Here is our first snow of the season. Interesting that the season is fall. We have enjoyed the early winters that come with living here in Utah but will be glad when we move back to less snow.

 We made our traditional huge snowman and forts for a big snowball fight.

 Josie was soooooo cold. She still is. She is always wearing a jacket or sweater. I guess I am too with the cold weather we've been having.

 This picture just proves I was there.

 We got Josie's hair done. I love it!!!!! It's called a crochet for all the other white people out there. It's called that because they cornrow all of her real hair and then take fake braids and use a crochet hook to tie them into her rows. The things I never knew before. I'm just really excited we don't have to do anything but grease it for three months! Yeah!! I want to do it to my hair. I don't think it would be the same.

 We went to the Layton Surf'n'swim. I love going there. During the cold months they cover the pool with a big dome. It is a wave pool and it gets really shallow just like the beach.

 Here is my sweet hubby. So CUTE!

It's a great place and it's cheap!

Another of our favorite places is the treehouse museum. We bought a season pass because for all of us it is only $100 for the whole year.

 Everybody loves going. I love that they can make a mess and it isn't at home. Ha!

 They have so many different themed places on two floors with a huge tree in the middle that you climb through.

 My kids love the dress as heroes station and the western area.

 Yee ha!

 Howdy.

 Naia loves the hospital station because there are baby dolls. Josie and Jacob love the art room.

This music room is great but really loud!!!! We will be spending lots of time there until we move. Well we will keep doing fun things and taking pictures.
By the way our Thanksgiving was awesome! Although it was just our family we still had nine and it was loud and great. I made everything that we traditionally do. I was fun to make all our favorites like layered jello salad and candied yams. I miss my family lots though and we are looking forward to Christmas when we will get to see most of them.