So I have been wondering how to bring my family closer together.  I felt that we needed some unity because we are not really the Plante family, and we're not really the Nelson family, so what is our family name?

I was inspired to talk to my kids about it.  We decided to come up with our own family name.  We are now The Creative Golden Mickeys!  I am so excited about it!!  Our family motto is "Shining Like Diamonds!"

Not only did we come up with a family name and motto, but we also came up with rules that everyone has agreed on.  We have a punishment jar with punishments that everyone agrees with as well.  The kids helped think of the punishments and the rules.  When a rule is broken, we pick from the jar.  There are all kinds of things in there such as "Complete an act of service for another family member", "Take care of the bunnies for two days that aren't yours", and "No electronics for... (mom chooses the amount of time)".

We have also set some goals.  We have individual goals and family goals along with rewards for when our goals are accomplished.  Our family goal is to unpack the kitchen by the end of the month.  We have recently moved and I refuse to send the boxes to the basement without going through them first.  Some of these boxes have followed me for more than half my life and I am determined to dejunk!  We are starting fresh and this is part of that.

My kids are all on board and are as excited as I am!  This has been wonderful at this time in our lives. It's a new year, a new home, and a new start for our family.

Kolton is Walking!

Kolton is walking now.  He is so big!!!  The kids and I have so much fun playing with him.  It's been a blast to sit in a circle and let Kolton go from person to person while we cheer him on.  We all have so much fun playing that game.  He's been getting better and better every day and now he walks around by himself!  


He likes to talk a lot too.  When I took him to the doctor for his one year check up, the doctor kept commenting on his vocabulary.  He mentioned four different times that he was amazed at how many words Kolton can speak and how clearly he speaks them.  He also liked that he babbles a lot.  Yep, he's definitely a big kid now.

Here is to a New Year!!!!!

So 2010 is gone and here we are in 2011.  I have left this blog behind for so long and I have missed it!!  I would like to start afresh.  There have been so many changes in my life since I started this blog.  I have moved from my Tooele house to one that is in West Valley and is about 3 times smaller than my other one.  I have come to love this house.  It isn't all bad moving into a smaller home.  For one thing, I had to de-junk ...A LOT!  I actually went through the boxes that I had packed up back in 2000 and hadn't looked in since.  They had followed me from move to move and I couldn't just get rid of them without at least looking to see what was in there.  It was nice to throw the old memories away and move on with my life.


I had a baby boy that I absolutely adore!!!  I didn't think that I would ever have any more kids.  That just wasn't how I had planned my life.  Now, I can't imagine what I was thinking.  Kolton fits into our family so nicely and my life would be so much different without him.  I am really glad he came into our family.  He is such an incredible little person and he brought joy back into my life.  I had been so unhappy in my marriage for so long, that I had forgotten how much better life could be when I actually felt like being part of it.  My kids love their little brother and are so good to help take care of him.  They love to play and laugh together and it brings joy to my heart to watch them interact.  I adore all of my kids!!!


Right now, I am in the process of getting divorced.  I am extremely happy to be moving on from the living hell I have been wading through for years.  I am not however happy about the problems it has caused with my children.  They are finding themselves stuck in the middle of head games that my husband is trying to play.  My hope for this new year is that I can figure out a way to shelter them from the storm.  I want so desperately for my children to find the happiness that I have found in moving on without my husband.  I know that is hard when they have to interact with him on a different level than I do.  


I want them to find peace and I know they can find that through our Savior.  I have been trying to let go of a lot of things and hand them over to Him.  This is quite difficult for me to do, but I work on it daily and have many conversations with Him to help me through this. This is something I am trying to teach my children to do as well.


My kids are Amazing!!!!  Cannon has started us reading our scriptures as a family and I have seen an increase in love around our home since we have been doing that.  Kimberly has been a strength to her brothers and has helped them to deal with everything that has been going on.  She in remarkable.  Brycen is so full of love.  He undervalues himself and my goal this year is to help him see just how wonderful he is.  I have such deep love and devotion for all of my children.  It makes my heart sing to think of them and they have pulled me through troubled times.  My kids are my happy place!!


I am really looking forward to this new year.  I am happy to be moving on in my life.  I am happy to have so much independence restored to me and to feel liberated in my family life.  I am so happy for each moment that I spend with my children.  Having my husband take them every other weekend and split holidays with me has made me appreciate each second with them even more.  I truly feel blessed to be in love with my kids.  I have the very best family ever!!!!


I also have a new boss at work.  I love my job at IFA and I love the people that I work with.  I have been there for over 5 years now and I want to stay there forever.  My boss has now become the CEO of the company, and starting on Monday, I will be working with someone new.  This will be a huge change for me as well, and I am looking forward to forming a new friendship with someone I don't know very well.


I am so grateful for my friends.  I have so many people in my life that I love.  I feel blessed every day because my life is filled with friendship, love, and support from so many.  I have fabulous  parents, brothers, and sisters and I am grateful for the upbringing that I had.  I was raised well and I hope to raise my children just as well.  I have great relationships with my siblings and we all get along.  I love that I can call just to chat, share my heartaches, my exciting news, and always have someone to lean on.


I am really looking forward to this new year.  Welcome 2011 ~ Let's make it Great!!!

Kolton's Firsts

So Kolton has a tooth!  It just broke through last night.  He was having a hard time eating and seemed to be tugging on his ears.  I thought he had an ear infection & took him to the doctor.  Boy, did I feel stupid when we figured out that the cause of his discomfort was a new tooth!  DUH!  I totally should have thought of that!  LOL

Kolton also has his first bruise.  He got it this morning.  We have a bouncer that turns into a rocking chair for older kids.  We put Kolton in it this morning and he was so excited!!!  He was rocking and rocking and rocked himself right out of his chair and onto the floor.  He now has a bruise on his little head.  Poor little guy!

Meeting the Prophet!!

This has been an incredibly busy week!!

On Monday we went to the Utah State Fair with Bryan's cousin Debbie.  While we were there, we met and got our pictures taken with President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We met the Prophet!!!  It was the coolest experience and I am so grateful that my children were able to take part in that even if they don't know the significance of it right now.  They were more excited by the fact that they rode the Ferris Wheel for the first time and the Moby Dick ride.  :)

Primary Program

My kids ROCKED Sacrament Meeting today!!! We had our primary program and they were totally ready. They knew the songs and they had their speaking parts memorized. Kimberly, Cannon, and Brycen were extremely clear when they said their parts and they sang loudly. I heard Cannon over everyone and he sang Great!!! Brandon passed the sacrament, and Kolton was so adorable. He loved watching the kids up front and even joined in singing himself. (He has been saying Da da da and various other babblings lately.) It was really a nice Sunday!

I LOVE MY KIDS!!!!!

Kolton is Crawling!!

Today when I got home, Kolton crawled over to me!! It was so cool that he came to greet me. He has been pulling himself up for a while and he likes to walk around while holding your hands. He also walks a little while he is holding onto the furniture. He really has had no interest at all in crawling. Until this week. He's been trying it out a little here and there. Bryan called me at work to tell me that he crawled 6 "steps" & now that he has figured it out, he's really excited. :D

Jen's Work Party August 10, 2010

My little sister Jen works at a daycare. They were having a water day and we were all able to go. It was so much fun playing with all the kids, my sisters, and even my Grandma Veda! It's so great to be able to do things together as a family. Our kids are so close. They love their cousins!!

Heather was there with her kids. This is Ooshi playing with the digger. There was face painting so Maddi got hers painted like a kitty and Samuel got his painted like a clown.

The sandbox is huge and they have big umbrellas for shade. All of the kids loved playing in it and each spent a lot of time there.

There was also a water table. Kolton loved that the most. It was just right that he could hold on and look over it. He really likes to splash!

Here is my sister Jen, her husband Kevin, and my Grandma Darn.

Becky was there with her two kids Kayden & Ethan. That little bus bike was most definitely a favorite of Kayden's.

There was a bounce house that my kids loved! It had a huge water slide! That's Brycen's cute face peeking from the inside of the bounce house.

Kim was really great to her brother and put him on the swing with her for a while.

Kolton had fun playing with Daddy too.

Thanks Jen for inviting us to a really fun day!!!

Camping with the Schull's

Last month we went camping with our good friends Val & Tracy & their kids. Val's brother Rick came along too. We had such a blast!! We went to our favorite camping spot and Bryan got there early to make sure we had the site that we like.

This was Kolton's first time camping and he LOVED it!!! He was so excited and full of wonder when he woke up in a tent! I took this picture less than a minute after he woke up. He thought it was pretty cool.

Getting him to take a nap in the tent was another issue... Bryan and I took turns laying with him because he was getting a little freaked out laying by himself in the tent. By the 3rd day though, he seemed to be getting used to it.

Val brought her dart board and I played my first game of darts. Yep, I sucked! But it was a total blast. I actually got better as we went along and by the end of it, I hit the dart board more times than missing it ~ LOL :P This was the best shot of the day though (thrown by yours truly). Directly above the 20 & straight into the board!

Everyone had a chance to play a couple of games and it was really fun! Kolton watched from his play pen.

The guys got up and started cooking. Man ~ Bryan and Tracy make a yummy breakfast!!!

Val is one of my very best friends. They brought their dog Brownie and he was so cute with Kolton! I had Kolton sitting on this blanket and Brownie came right up to him and snuggled with him. They were so cute together!

We did a lot of just lounging around, relaxing, and creating fun memories while we reminisced of times past. This is Rick, Tracy, and Becca. I'm so glad we have such great friends! We are very blessed!!!!

The kids got to play on the swing and they loved every second of it. Bryan got quite the work out swinging all the kids on "gigantic" swings! He would run over to where I was standing taking the picture and then let go. Man, they went high.

The kids also managed to swing themselves, though not quite as high. Kolton loved to watch and we would take him with us while we were supervising the kids. I am sure he can't wait until he is big enough to swing too!

Kim and Brycen slept in their own tents this year. Cannon slept with Austin & Nick in the truck. It was so weird having a big tent to just Bryan, Kolton, & myself. Kim & Brycen had to make sure their brother spent some time in their tents with them. All of my kids are so good to their little brother!

We played cards for a while and it was really fun. The challenge was keeping Kolton out of our piles and making sure he didn't launch himself off of the table. LOL

Kolton can barely reach between the arms on the chair. He really liked sitting in the camping chairs though. We really had such a great time! I think we will make camping with the Schulls a yearly tradition!

Kolton's New Milestone

This is a picture of Kolton standing up by himself. It was the first time he stood unassisted. We bought him this dancing bear toy and he absolutely LOVES it!!

Last night Kolton stood up from a sitting position all by himself!! I looked over at him and he was sitting on the ground playing with his toys. When I looked back again, he was standing next to his toybox! None of us were around him right then. He had done it all alone :)

He's been practicing for a long time. It is so much fun to see him accomplish new things! The look of triumph on his face is wonderful. It's times like these that I really enjoy being a mother. Whenever one of my kids does something that I know they have worked really hard on, I am just as proud of them as they are of themselves! I LOVE BEING A MOTHER!!!!