One of the reasons....

If you feel like you never see us you are right.  The biggest reason we are so busy is we are building a house! Technically we are part of a group building 5 homes.  If you want to find out more you can visit this site.  We are tired, sore and excited.  Even though it's hard work we know it will be worth it in the end, plus we have met some really wonderful people.  Here are some pictures of our home, if you ever want to see pictures of the other homes we are building visit here.

Yes! Life is busy

Things have gotten so busy I can't believe that we are almost done with the first month of Summer Vacation. That being said I decided to take some time today and post some pictures of my sweet princess graduating Kindergarten.  

Fablehaven Series

I've decided to tell you about the series of books I just read.  Please remember that I love to read almost everything and I'm not a professional book reviewer.  The Fablehaven series consists of 5 books.  I finished the series in a month maybe a little less.  I really enjoyed reading the books.  I like the story line and how this book had mythical creatures.  I liked the way there were surprises, moments of sadness, and moments of joy.  If you want an easy read I would recommend these books.

2013 so far.........

Today I decided to give you a glimpse into what has been going on in my life this year.  The first 2 months have been hard, stressful, emotional, tiring, and so much more.  For most of January and a lot of February Emilee and I were sick.  That was hard enough as it was, I really began to wonder if we were ever going to feel normal again.  During all of that, fortunately during one of the few times I was feeling okay, my Dad had a heart attack.  That is never a phone call you ever want to get, it crushed me.  It was so hard to see him in the hospital, I can only imagine what my Mom and Dad where going through.  Happily he his still with us today.  Looking at it you can see tiny miracles that happened to help him survive.  A couple of weeks after that my Grandmother passed away.  I was not expecting it to happen, and it also crushed me.  It's still hard for me to think about everything that has happened and not start crying.  Which tells you a lot, my husband and a lot of my family would tell you I am not a crier.  Not everything has been bad, we celebrated 2 nieces birthdays, a nephews birthday and baptism,  my moms birthday, and Emilee's birthday (I'll tell you about hers later).  The day after my Grandma passed away we had a cute nephew join our family.  We also got to see Curtis for a few days while he was here for the funeral.  So the last 2 months have been pretty dark, with just brief moments of sunshine.  I am hoping that I have had my fill this year, and that everything will be much better for the next 10 months.   We will just have to wait and see.

One of My Favorite Things to do

I love to read.  It's such a simple statement but it's so true.  I remember in 3rd grade not being a very strong reader, something happened that year.  By the end of the year I had grown in leaps and bounds.  My love of reading has only grown since.  The last few years I have found it hard to read as much as I use to which really made me sad.  When Emilee started Kindergarten, I started volunteering an hour a day every day.  It didn't make any sense for me to drive all the way home and turn around 30 minutes later to drive back to pick her up.  I started finding things I could do, that hour that I wait has become magical to me.  I sit back and read while I wait for her, I am loving it.  Between September and December of last year I read a lot of books.  This year I decided I would keep track of the books I read, and thought there is no better place than my blog.  I am going to try to keep a list of the books I read for me to remember, and maybe if you are looking for a book to read you could look at the list I have and pick one.  If you ever feel like you have found a book that I would like to read let me know, I will more than likely read it.  With Emilee starting to read, I thought it would be a nice thing to keep track of the books she reads.  One day she can look back and see the first books she ever read by herself.

If you look at the side of my blog you will find the way to our reading list.

Another New Year

For the past few weeks I have been thinking about the goals we set in 2012 and the things that have happened.  It is exciting to know that we kept our family goal.  Because of the goal we did see some blessings come into our lives when we needed them.  It was also a year of testing our faith, there were some things that we thought would happen for us that didn't.  I know the things I wanted to happen  didn't happen for us because it wasn't time yet.  I am excited for the goals that I have set for myself this year, and the goals that Adam and I have set as a couple. It is wonderful to realize the goals that we have kept over the last few years.  I look forward to 2013 and the adventures that are awaiting our little family.

The most wonderful time of the year

 I really do love this time of year, even though everyone is a little busier and the weather can be crazy.  I love the way people remember to be kind, think of others, and to spend time with family.  The traditions that we start help form memories for years to come.  Emilee loves the countdowns that we do.  Yes I said countdowns, we have 4 different countdowns. 

We have a chocolate chain, this is a tradition from my family.  As a Child I loved getting a little piece of chocolate each day.  Now it's Emilee who reminds us every morning that we need to eat a piece of chocolate. 

 We have an Advent Calendar that I love.   Adam bought it for our family a few years ago.  It's fun and sometimes hard to think of different activities to do each day.  Emilee loves opening the doors to find what we are doing for the day.  Some of the activities we do have become traditions.

I love books, I am very lucky because my Husband also loves books.  We buy Emilee a new Christmas book every year to read on Christmas Eve. Thanks to that tradition and the books that we bought before she came into our lives we have a lot of books.  Last year, thanks to pinterest, we started a new tradition.  We wrap the books we have, place them under Emilee's tree and unwrap one each night.  It's a great way to make sure you keep reading the books you have bought in previous years. 

 

This year we wanted to do more to keep reminding us of the True Reason for Christmas.  We decided that we would buy a large picture of Christ.  We covered the picture with 24 squares a card stock with a date on them.  Every night Emilee takes down a square eventually to uncover the whole picture.  We read a scripture, sing a song and then read a story to remind us of Christ and his kindness.  Emilee has been trying to guess what the picture is since day one.  I love the traditions we have in our family.  I know that the traditions will change and grow as our family gets older.  I hope that Emilee will always have fond memories, and maybe want to carry on at least one of these traditions when she is older.