Welcome 2009 - Bring it on!

A big THANK YOU shout out to all our friends and family who MAILED us Christmas card pictures and letters. For those of you who emailed stuff, I understand why...but having said that it is NOT the same and for the most part I couldn't open up anything. :(



On the way home - note the beautiful Arizona sunshine pouring through the airport windows. Also - note the children's table and cartoons on the TV. Go Southwest!


Happy Belated New Year's everybody! We've been home for a week now and are starting to feel settled again. Since Matt's in the first week of his semester, we were able to have him home more than normal. We ended up rearranging our whole house - it was practically a mini-move. Matt was such a good sport taking apart all of the beds and shelves etc... in our house so that we could move them. After countless hours of work however, we made a vow not to move anything else until we move out and to who knows where for residency.

One of the highlights of my week was the family home evening lesson we had on New Year's Resolutions. It took a great deal of effort to help Emma and Brady realize that setting a "goal" isn't just saying something you would like to acquire within the next year. Matt is a great teacher though and with his help, they've set some resolutions that I wanted to share.

EMMA - Learn telephone manners. Learn some jump rope tricks. Learn how to hula hoop.

BRADY - Learn to use scissors better. Learn Karate.

ELLIE - Wear "big girl" underwear. Throw away her "iers." (aka - pacifiers)

One of our family New Year's resolutions is to help the kids memorize a new article of faith every month.

There are plenty more, but I'll leave it at that. Good Luck with your New Year's Resolutions...and remember it often takes a little failure in order to succeed.