Because I don't want to forget!

              Once again I have recommitted myself to blogging. And it's not because I have a fan of loyal followers that are checking everyday anxiously awaiting a new post. I know hard to believe right? Ever since I have had children my life has passed by at a lightening fast speed.. My children are getting older everyday. My oldest is getting baptized this year (how did that happen?)
          I blog because I don't ever want to forget all of the moments that are my life right now. the happy, the sad, the ugly, the dirty, the stressed, the joy, the laughter, the tears, and the spills. All of it. I want to soak it in, write it down and never forget it.
         I don't want to forget that right now my 7 year old Maddie is my shadow. When we are at home I can always be sure she is always just 5 steps behind me watching, listening and soaking in everything that I do. I don't want to forget because she may not enjoy being so close to me a few years down the road. I don't want to forget that she loves school and that she is a role model for the other students.(that was said by her 1st grade teacher.
       I don't want to forget that my 5 year old Ava loves to sit on my lap. If ever I am sitting down she climbs right up and wants to be snuggled. I don't want to forget that she is becoming such a good reader and loves to read the scriptures.  I don't want to forget how easily she makes friends and how contagious her smile is.
     I don't want to forget that my 4 year old Nora wants to be sure she is noticed amongst her siblings and when she needs my attention and I am not giving it to her. She will grab my face and turn it toward her and hold it there until I listen to everything she has to say. I don't want to forget how Nora tells me many times each day that she loves me. She often says Mom, and when I say what she simply says I love you. I don't want to forget her sweet voice and her prayers that very often pray for me. I know I have been blessed by her sweet prayers of concern.
     I don't want to forget that my 2 year old Jack is nothing like his sisters were as babies. He loves trucks, and trains, and lawn mowers. And he has a "deep" voice he uses when he is talking about those things. I don't want to forget that he adores his sisters and looks up to them, so much that he has his toenails painted hot pink right now. I don't want to forget that he has so much fun with his big sister Nora and the first thing he does is look for her when he wakes up. And if she is still sleeping he goes and wakes her up.
       I don't want to forget that I have learned patience, like I never thought I could. I don't want to forget that I have experienced Joy like I never thought I could. I don't want to forget that I have experienced heartache that I never thought I would.
      Yes it's true my memory is lacking and I just don't want to forget.

Lovin on this craft blog!

I am all over this Valentines subway art. You can check it out along with other great craft ideas at This Address. Looks Like it's time to get my craft on!

A Tale of a Dream Come True part 3

By day three we were getting really excited. We woke up and were heading to check into our Disney hotel where we would stay the remainder of the week. This was our first time ever to stay at one of the Disney Resorts. We arrived at the All Star Music Resort and before you can get to the property you have to pass some attendants and as we told them we were there to check in they said " Welcome Home" and I teared up a bit. I am a sappy like that.
Everything at Disney is over the top. The music hotel is one of the value resorts, but they still go over the top with the decorating and theming. When you arrive you are immediately taken to another time and place. We checked in and our room wasn't ready yet. But they told us to unload our bags and to go and do whatever we wanted for the day and when we arrived back they would be in our room waiting for us. That is what I love about Disney all the extras that just make everything so nice and convinient.
Our plan was to head over to the magic kingdom for the rest of the day. There is nothing like getting that first view of the castle as you enter the park to get you in the Disney Spirit.
I wish I would have had my camera recording when we entered Disney World. The kids were squealing with delight. It was so great. I was of course tearing up again.
We had a nice afternoon at Magic Kingdom. It was pretty crowded since it was still Thanksgiving weekend but we were still able to enjoy quite a few things.
When we arrived we had lunch at Caseys Corner. Its a cute baseball themed place that serves Hotdogs.
One of the first things we did attraction wise was see Mickey's PhilharMagic3D show. We all loved it and the kids were begging to see it again. Good thing we knew we would be back to the magic kingdom a few more times during the week to have that opportunity.
next we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride. That one also became a family favorite. After Jack rode it for the first time he exclaimed " I like that Poop" (he wasnt too familiar with Pooh before the trip) It remains one of our favorite quotes from the trip.
We got to do a few other things but really we just wanted to walk around and get familiar with the park for the remainder of the week. We knew all the big rides had long lines and that it would be easier to ride them next week when the Holiday crowds were gone.
We had our first sit down dinner at The Diamond Horseshoe. It was in Liberty Square. It was a family style meal and it was all you can eat and it was wonderful. We had ham, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, green beans, salad, and apple crisp. They brought all the food to our tables in platters. It was nice not to have to go through a buffet line with all the kids. And if we needed a refill on something they brought it right out.
We were on the Disney Dining Plan so we got to have some really great and fun dining experiences. We all ate like Kings...and gained a few pounds too.
After Dinner the kids were very tired and we rode the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Carribean and then were ready to call it a night. We still had not settled into our room.
When we got back to the resort we were happy to see all of our bags had made it and were there waiting for us. The room was nice and we quickly got everyone settled down for the night.
here are Pictures of Day #3

At the hotel

outside our room

first view of the castle

Casey's Corner

Enjoying a lunch of hotdogs

nora loves Casey's Corner

Chocolate Milk...does a body good

Castle Stage Show

Watching the Stage show...they LOVED it..we all did

Maddie always posed for a photo

Peter Pan

Jack passed out

Mickey's Philhar Magic...one of our favorites

Winne the Pooh Ride-Another Favorite

I Love Avas excitement

A view of our feast from the Diamond Horseshoe

Ava getting ready to dig in

There was nothing quite like seeing the Castle lit up for the first time

A Tale of a Dream Come True Part 2!

I need to keep up with my trip log. I don't want to forget the details of our vacation.
We woke up on the second day of our trip ate a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed for our next destination. Tallahassee,FL.  We went there to visit Art's sister Lori who has been living there for the past 2yrs. We were able to visit with thir family and have a nice Southern Thanksgiving Dinner complete with macaroni and cheese, fried okra, and mince meat pie. It was a nice visit and meal, but we were anxious to get back in the car and make our way to Orlando. We of course ran into rain, which was pretty much the story of our ttrip down there. We drove through some pretty intese rainstorms. We worried a lot about our luggage which was in a canvas cartop carrier. Overall our stuff stayed pretty dry, which was amazing considering the conditions! We arrived at Baymont Inn and Suites, our destination for the night. We went to bed happy to be done with traveling for the rest of the week.
Day two did not have many photos but here are a few of our visit with Lori.

We got to meet Kathryn for the first time.

Here is Robert

Here is everyone Rockin Out to Taylor Swift

Mom behind the Wheel

A Tale of a Dream Come True!

We just got back from an amazing family vacation to Disney World. We decided to take the kids out of school to go and enjoy the parks all decked out for Christmas, without the major crowds that a school holiday brings. We started our journey on Thanksgiving day. It proved to be a really great day to travel. There was really no traffic....there was some torrential rain....but no traffic. We left early 4 am and the kids were in pretty good spirits. They had movies GALORE  and a DS, Leapster, Laptop and I pod. So there was plenty to keep everyone busy and entertained. Also there was plenty to fight over too. Over all we had a really nice first day and we were so excited when we reached Tennesse and we could feel the warmer temperature and we could go without coats.

Our ending destination for the first day was Atlanta, GA. We got there about 5pm. The hotel we stayed at had a nice complimentary dinner and got everyone settled down for a good night sleep. Getting everyone settled down was not the easiest task, the kids were way too excited to be in a hotel, I know we could be heard clear down the hall. But eventually all were asleep and we could get ready for day #2 of driving.
Some photo and videos of Day #1.

So happy to finally be in Tennessee!

Jack and Nora Passed out!

                                                            Jack is gaming.

Nora's turn on the DS

Ahh...the rain!!!

Happy Travelers!!!

Jack loved his suitcase. He insisted he pull it all by himself! Infact everyone pulled their own bag. it was great!!!

Finally settling down for the night!

Scripture Power!

After Listening to General Conference this past Oct., I was convinced that we could do a better job with our family scripture reading. We always tried to read but often times it ended sourly with loud misbehaving kids.
After Listening to this talk  Stay on the Path I decided that considering the ages of our children we needed to focus a little more on quality then quantity. So we started the Book of Mormon again. Maddie is a great reader and loves to read as many verses as we will allow. Ava is coming along great on her reading and usually gets through just one verse with help. And Jack and Nora take a turn also. Sometimes it is short and sweet and only takes a few minutes but the consistency had been wonderful for the kids.

The other night as we were reading about Nephi and his brothers getting the brass plates from Laban, Art spontaneously assigned everyone parts and we acted it out. It was great fun and the kids are learning a lot.

Each night as we gather for scriptures we sing Scripture Power. The kids all love that song and even Jack has learned it and it's not rare to hear him singing it around the house at any time of day.

It's time to update!

I have been thinking about this blog for the last few months. Wanting to update it, but I have just been lacking the energy. Always a lot going on in our world.
I am happy to report that we are all doing well.
I do think an update on the kids is in order....
Youngest to Oldest...
Jack William-

I am loving my little man. He turned 2 and he has really grown up. He is not my baby anymore. It has been fun having boy. He is talking so much now and always let us know what he wants. He is now 32lbs and weighs as much as Nora his older sister by 2 years. I am not used to this size and he is growing my muscles everytime I pick him up. He loves to eat and he can open the fridge all by himself. I really need to get one othose locks. We just moved hom out of his crib when he learned to climb out. He loves his "truck Bed" as he like to call it. He is a happy and busy 2 year old and he keeps me on my toes. We love having him as a part of our family. His sisters adore him. Now that the older two girls are in school Nora and Jack have become great buddies, it is fun to watch them play together. I can hardly believe how fast he is growing up.

Nora Kate:

Our Sweet 4 year old. She is just a bright and happy girl, always. She has always been an easy child and I am thankful for that. She is in preschool this year. We are once again doing a home preschool. This year we have just 3 girls. It has been a lot of fun. Nora really looks forward to it. We have already had a field trip to the zoo. I am really enjoying teaching her. It's neat for me to see her growing up. I want to soak up this last year before she heads off to school. She has also started ballet. Her friend Xandra is in her class, and she really looks forward to it. It's fun to see her interests develop. Nora has always been a big sweetheart, and still is.

Stay Tuned for the Rest of the Update.