Ivan, Christian and Meliah waiting for their swim events!

After the swim meet in Durham!  Christian's first meet and he did amazing!  This was

Meliah's 3rd meet but her first time doing the backstroke  (Second place is pretty great for her

first year of swimming).  Is this the same girl that cried everyday the first week? :)

Meliah and Grace looking pretty crazy in those goggles!  I must say that getting Meliah's

hair in the swim cap is a bear.

Cutie cousins posing for me!  Love them all so much?

My destiny group at girl's camp. Yes, we have fairy wings on our backs. We enjoyed each

other soooo much. We did a rap, Haka, a silly crocodile song and were probably the

craziest the destiny group has ever been. Love these eternal friends that I made. The girls

were pretty amazing too!

i am a mother of a teenager now!!!!!  nothing has changed really except for the fact that if he ever turns on me, which I can't imagine, he may just be a tad bit stronger than me.  i love my teenager so much!  i know this is what they all say but really wasn't it just yesterday that he was waking up and wanting to get in bed with us because he was scared.  feeling so grateful for a good relationship and a boy that really wants to choose the right!

 I hope to be updating more often. Thank you for your emails, comments and patience during my bit of silence this year.

 my quirky trio!  I love them to pieces!

 stud muffin

can i have some of that hair?? 

 this could be the sweetest girl ever!  momma knows!

 dog pile?  really??... okay!

I have kind of lived in a bubble the last year.  It seems it has all been sort of a daze. I have focused on so many of the things that are required of me instead of the things that I really enjoy or want to do.  Balance has always been a challenge for me.  I look around me and see so many mom's and women that seem to have it all figured out and I wonder how??  This is the first time in my life that I have control over a long period of time everyday because all of my kids are in school.  So why?  I constantly ask myself why am I not keeping up with it all, afterall I only have 3 children.  Somehow I have lost sight of what are the most important things and need to make priorities again.  I have learned recently that it doesn't matter if my kids go out of the house without looking perfect, that I can close doors to cupboards and bedrooms that are a disaster, and that I can pile things up for work saved another day.  Right now I am a mom!  The most important thing I can do is to make sure that my children are saying their prayers at night and that they understand that they can have a personal relationship with God.  I also want to make sure that they know how much we love them.  I want to have this record so they do know that. 

 It has been almost a year since I have updated my blog and I have been feeling the urge to get back on it for a couple weeks.  After some nudging from some family members and friends I will start again and try to do better than I have.  I have so many reasons to be thankful and need to remember some of the things in my life that make me feel so.  #1 is my family who  keeps me in line and loves me unconditionally.