Sorry Katie

This post is for Katie, who is the only one who commented on being sick of my previous post over a month ago! Well, Katie, I guess I'll get everyone else up to speed. I do have a good excuse for not blogging as much. I went back to work at the end of January for the first time inn 3 1/2 years. I feel very fortunate to have been able to get a job with the state of the economy lately. I'm working about 25 hours a week but starting in April I'll be working 32. I am working for an OB/Gyn office again which is my favorite. So needless to say, keeping up with work and the kids has been quite a challenge. But I do like my job. It's a great place to work and it's nice to talk to adults for a change! I do miss being with my kids during the day, but it's been working out well so far.

Michael is still working on the City Center Project. Again, another blessing that he is working on one of the only large projects that haven't been shut down. He's doing well and will hopefully journey out by the end of the year! Yeah! He's also been a great help with me going back to work and has been so supportive.

Matthew is doing well in school, as always, and has started soccer again. I love spring soccer because the weather is so nice! He's playing on a new league with a new coach so it's been interesting. He is playing defense and got chosen to be captain the first game of the season. He is glad to be playing again and I'm glad to be watching him again!

Livvy is still dancing and loving every minute of it. The next couple of months have quite a few performances and recitals so I should have some more pics to post. She has also developed an interest in tumbling so we're going to try to do that over the summer. She is doing well in school and we only have a little drama every day so I think I can handle that.

Jeffrey is very nearly potty trained! It's been a long time comin' but he's doing really well. He likes going to the sitters and thinks he's going to school because he gets to take a backpack. He is excited to be old enough to start playing soccer in the fall! They get so big so fast!

Finally to Zak. He is 15 months going on 5! He loves to play with the big kids and is a climber. His favorite place is to sit on the dinner table or to climb on the computer desk which he is doing at this very minute so it's taking me forever to type this post! But he has such a fun personality and is such a cute boy!

Hopefully soon I will post more pics but I wanted to catch everyone up. I do spent a lot of time on Facebook (sorry I know) so you can catch up with us there too!

Martha Stewart

Many of you who know me know that I was in the bathroom when they handed out craftiness and decorating sense. But we found an awesome sofa and it has thrown me into decorator mode. Michael is wondering what has gotten into me. I even bought new towels and am decorating bathrooms! I've never done that! So I absolutely love my sofa and my poor children are getting sick of "No Jumping!", "Get that Pop-Tart off the sofa!" and on and on. But from someone whose majority of furniture came from others, its exciting to have something new! You'll all have to come over and sit on my new sofa!

Slow Tag

I'm finally getting around to the tag that I got from Alisha. I'm spending more time Facebooking than blogging. Anyway her tag was to #1- go to your pictures, #2 - pick the 4th folder and #3 - pick the 4th picture and tell about it. So here goes...

I was hoping to get a picture that no one had seen yet, but this is what came up. It had been forever since we had a family picture and this is the first professional picture with all of my kids. My friend Sarah Goodsell took this picture in the desert behind her house. We hiked a little ways and found these cool rocks. It was cold and overcast but we had an hour window between the rain and the overcast clouds ended up making great light. Anyway, these are my four children and I loved the way Zak was holding on to his big brother. I think this picture really captures each of my children's different personalities!

So now I get to tag 4 people: Natalie, Michelle, Cami, and Deana

Conflicted

I may be a late bloomer but I am now addicted to Facebook. I've been finding so many people there and have been having a blast re-connecting with my youth. So Facebook has been taking me away from blogging. I apologize to my Facebook/Blogging friends as you may see some of the same pics. Anyhoooo...

My kids were on track break since Christmas and just went back to school this week. It was a long 5 weeks! But we did take the opportunity to go out and visit my 92 year old Grandma Cecil. I am so glad I was able to get some good pictures of her with my kids. They are so fortunate to be able to know their great-grandma. Even though she has a hard time with some things, she remembered all my kids names. Considering she has so many great-grandchildren, that is a feat! She has lived a wonderful life, the majority of it on her own. My great-grandfather Cecil passed away when my dad was a teenager so she raised 3 boys on her own, she lived on her own until recently and I have always admired her independence. She now relies heavily on a caretaker, but can still get around and has a good memory. I am so grateful for her and her life and her example and love that my kids have had the chance to know her.




A little update: I started working part-time this week for an OB/Gyn on the other side of town. It's been good to get out of the house and do something I love for a little bit, but the downside is that I've been exhausted! Hopefully I'll get used to this new schedule and it won't take my time away from the hobbies I have grown to love! Oh, and my kids too :)

Flash Way Back

Thank you to my sister-in-law Jordon who tagged me in her flashback post. I'm a heckuva lot older than Jordon so my flash-back took a little longer since I had to scan in pictures. Digital wasn't invented back in the 80's. Also, I should apologize ahead of time to Katie, Alisha, Kristen, and Natalie who are also included in the flashback. Hope I'm not embarrassing you too much! So let's take a stroll WAY down memory lane....(Sorry about the scans) These pictures are in no particular order.Me and Alisha waiting for the bus to Burkholder Jr. High. If I remember right, it was 8th grade Valentines Day and we were showing our true Valentines day colors by wearing black. We thought we were pretty cool. Love the bangs!
Back in the good old days the YW/YM got to take trips. This was our ward trip to Disneyland. We are all in line for the Matterhorn. I'm not sure exactly when this is, maybe Katie or Alisha will have a better memory.


Graduation from Basic High School in 1992. Good times, good times...


This is a slumber party at Alisha's house I'm guessing 7th or 8th grade. I can only tell from the big bangs and perm.
I had to include this one just cuz it's so funny. This is Michael (my husband) and my sister Natalie at Homecoming 1991. I won't go into details to protect the innocent.


In the winter of 1990 the Clark County School District began girls soccer. My brothers all played so I figured I'd give it a shot. I wasn't very good and I warmed the bench an awful lot. Our coach was the boys football coach and I thought he was too mean to be coaching a bunch of girls. So needless to say that was my first and last season. I'd much rather be on the sidelines cheering than on the soccer field.



I must say that me and my kids had a good time dragging out old pictures. Olivia keeps asking about what I was like when I was younger and so I got to tell her some fun stories. I am so glad that I still keep in touch with some of the people in the pics. It makes me feel not so old! I'm not going to be mean and tag anyone, but, whoever can dig up the best old pics, I dare ya!

New Year, New Pics

While Michael and I went out for New Years, Matthew, his cousin Dallin, Olivia, and Jeffrey had their own party. They watched movies, ate lots of candy, popcorn, and soda, and stayed up past midnight. They also got poppers and those little firecrackers and went outside at midnight to let them off. Michael and I got back around 11 and went to bed, too tired to stay up. But not the kids, they partied till well after midnight. A bunch of party animals!

This is a bunch of empty Coke bottles, candy wrappers etc. etc.

This is just a cute picture I caught of Matthew and Zakary. They were watching a movie and Zak just crashed on Matty's lap. What a good big brother.

Zakary's new favorite place. Everytime the fridge gets open, he runs and tries to sit down inside the fridge before it gets shut. He sits there and smiles and laughs like that is the best seat in the house. Actually, it probably is.

2008 Top 12

Thanks to my good friend Claire who tagged me in the top 12 of 2008. I have no idea where to start so I am going to start at the bottom and work my way up. 2008 was a long year for me so here goes....

12. Zakary came into the world officially in 2007 but I did get to start 2008 with my last little Gill in hand. He is such a sweet addition to our family. He is always happy and loves to play. He was a great baby and came at a time when our family needed him most.

11. In April I was released as YW President. I didn't think I was ready to be released, I loved that calling so much, but I am truly thankful for the inspiration of our bishop who knew when the time was right far better than I did.

10. (WARNING: COPIED IDEA FROM CLAIRE) We did get to take two trips to Disneyland in 2008. The first came in May and was so last minute that I didn't even know until that morning that we were leaving that afternoon. My mom decided to take the kids and I to the happiest place on earth, since we were having a rough time. Then on a much happier note, we ended up getting to go to Disneyland for FREE in November and went just with our little family. It was a great trip, everyone had fun, and how many people can say they did Disneyland for a family of 6 for under $150 (including gas and food)!! Thanks again Claire, we owe ya!

9. I read, or re-read for that matter, all 4 Twilight books, went to the Book Release of Breaking Dawn with some great friends for a super fun girls night out, then went to another release party, this time the premiere of Twilight with another good friend, got the Twilight soundtrack, saw the movie again. So in summary, this was the year of Twilight for me! (And I can't wait for the next movie in 2009!)

8. We moved to a bigger house! We were so glad to get out of our 3 bedroom townhouse and into a 5 bedroom house in a real neighborhood. It was another blessing in disguise when we found out that we got to stay in the same ward! We love having more room and a yard which our kids are enjoying fully now that the trampoline has been added!

7. We also got a newer car. We got the same Dodge Caravan but it was 2 years newer and a lot less money so that was a good thing.

6. I quit working part-time for Deseret Women's Healthcare, went back part-time and had my hours cut completely before Christmas. Just temporary of course and I'm sure 2009 will see me back working there again!

5. Michael started working on the City Center project. We were so worried about him working there because it is so big, has so many workers, and has had a lot of injuries and deaths. But another blessing came our way when the economy started to turn sour and several other big projects and thousands of carpenters found themselves out of work. Thankfully City Center was too far into construction and did not or will not shut down. So we are guaranteed work until the end of 2009. And the project Michael is working 0n is a lot smaller and a lot safer since he is the safety guy!

4. I got in touch with several long lost friends! Thanks to the wonderful world of blogging I have re-connected with some good friends and their families. Hopefully 2009 will see more old (sorry) friendships renewed!

3. Matthew turned 10, Olivia turned 6, Jeffrey turned 3, Zak turned 1 and both Michael and I turned 34. I hate that everyone is getting older! But I'm so glad my kids are growing, learning, developing personalities and talents, staying healthy!

2. The last two kind of go together but they had to be separated or it would make for a super long one. In 2008 my husband decided to start living his life truthfully and to stop pretending which caused some major changes that I wasn't prepared for. We had a rough few months and he even moved out for a time. But thanks to answered prayers, he moved back in on July 1, 11 years to the day of our engagement. We celebrated our 11th anniversary in September and are continuing to learn new things about each other and through our trials, our marriage and family have been strengthened. I would not choose to re-live this year or experience any of the tears and heartaches again, but I can now look back and see how much I've learned and how much better things are.

1. I fell in love with my husband again. Actually, a more accurate description would be that I found out how to truly and deeply love him in a way that I never had before. My husband is a wonderful husband, partner, friend and father. He is a good provider and he knows and understands me better than I know myself. I am so greatful for the best of times and worst of times that 2008 brought and look forward to leaving those things behind and moving on to a new year full of love, peace and happiness.

Sorry those last two were so sappy but they had to be included. So now the tagging continues with Katie, Alisha, Deana, Natalie, Jordon, Sara, Sarah, Carmen. The reason why I chose so many is because this was a great opportunity for me to contemplate and think on this last year. The good and the bad and it's made me more ready to tackle the new year head on!