Well, I found the previous blog I started a couple years ago. Rather than repost every thing or try and combine them for right now, I will just post the link to it here and you are welcome to follow it and catch up on it. :) Maybe one day I will learn how to combine the two but for now, this will have to do! Enjoy!
http://markandlaci.blogspot.com
Monday, April 7, 2014
Childhood: Fantasies and the Sometimes Harsh Realities
Has anyone seen the month of March? I am pretty sure I missed it! Normally I would complain about having time move too quickly, but at this point, I am okay to be in April, but I would like time to slow down just for a minute so I can enjoy the fact that my first "little baby" is turning FOUR!! Seriously, when did that happen?? Parents help me out here. Do any of you still look at your children, regardless of their age and think to yourself, "When did they get so grown up?" My children amaze me every day! Watching them grow and learn is truly amazing to me. Carylon has shown us a mature side I wasn't expecting for a few more years, but don't worry, she still acts like her four-year-old self most of the time. :) Picking on her younger sister is her favorite past time I am pretty sure. Madison has even learned how to fight back occasionally. Biting. It has been an adventurous couple of weeks around here! I know without a shadow of a doubt, though, that they are still the best of friends, even if they can't always get along. The love shown between the two of them more often than not is incredible to watch. They are always looking out for each other and insist on being together. On more than one occasion, I have found them in the same bed in their room cuddled up close together. It took a few weeks for them to be okay separating into their classes at church since Carylon became a sunbeam in Primary in January. Luckily, now they are content as long as they can give "lovins" before separating. And as soon as they are reunited it requires a big hug and Carylon asks if Madison had fun in class. They are beautiful little spirits! Even when they are driving each other, and essentially Mom, crazy.
This son of ours, on the other hand, I am pretty sure his main goal is to torture his mother to no end! I just hope that comes to a halt once he is born! (Please just let me live in my fantasy reality for a while, then you can start the "I would have told you so's" in a few more months okay?) Sleep is non-existent at this point due to the inability to get comfortable. It is fabulous! Hence the reason I am okay to have missed March. That gets us that much closer to meeting this little man of ours! I am ready for some Traydon cuddles where if he kicks too hard, I can hand him to Daddy. :) The girls are so excited to meet Baby Traydon. They have slowed their asking to only a couple times a week, but they are more than happy to tell everyone they meet that Mommy has a Baby Traydon in her tummy. I know they will make great big sisters! They already love his so much! Carylon will come up and just rub my tummy some times and look at me with the sweetest eyes and say, "I just love Baby Traydon so much, Mom." Naturally, I tear up and blame it on the hormones. I mean, what else would I blame it on? I love the sweet spirit my girls bring to our home and our life. Sometimes they are too smart for their own good, Carylon especially, but I know she is learning and growing and thriving in life and that is all a mother can ask for. I continue to pray that I can be the mom they need to really succeed in this life and grow up to be the strong women I know they can be. I am sure my slip-ups and lash outs are harder on me in the end than they are on the girls, but that thought doesn't make them easier to face by any means. Motherhood isn't a science, and everyone has different struggles. Knowing we aren't alone in the world of motherhood is such a blessing and, in reality, should bring us comfort. Anyone have a mirror so these words can bounce off of it and back to me? Maybe hearing myself say them will help the realization sink in! We need the support of the other mothers around us, so here is my challenge to you this week. If you haven't done so in the recent past, find a mother you know and just be her friend! Reach out and take her hand to let her know she isn't alone in the world. Let her know there is at least one person near by that isn't judging her actions one way or another and just be there. Friend, relative, stranger, who cares! Make a new connection! Let me know how it goes for you, and I will do the same! :) Have a great week!
This son of ours, on the other hand, I am pretty sure his main goal is to torture his mother to no end! I just hope that comes to a halt once he is born! (Please just let me live in my fantasy reality for a while, then you can start the "I would have told you so's" in a few more months okay?) Sleep is non-existent at this point due to the inability to get comfortable. It is fabulous! Hence the reason I am okay to have missed March. That gets us that much closer to meeting this little man of ours! I am ready for some Traydon cuddles where if he kicks too hard, I can hand him to Daddy. :) The girls are so excited to meet Baby Traydon. They have slowed their asking to only a couple times a week, but they are more than happy to tell everyone they meet that Mommy has a Baby Traydon in her tummy. I know they will make great big sisters! They already love his so much! Carylon will come up and just rub my tummy some times and look at me with the sweetest eyes and say, "I just love Baby Traydon so much, Mom." Naturally, I tear up and blame it on the hormones. I mean, what else would I blame it on? I love the sweet spirit my girls bring to our home and our life. Sometimes they are too smart for their own good, Carylon especially, but I know she is learning and growing and thriving in life and that is all a mother can ask for. I continue to pray that I can be the mom they need to really succeed in this life and grow up to be the strong women I know they can be. I am sure my slip-ups and lash outs are harder on me in the end than they are on the girls, but that thought doesn't make them easier to face by any means. Motherhood isn't a science, and everyone has different struggles. Knowing we aren't alone in the world of motherhood is such a blessing and, in reality, should bring us comfort. Anyone have a mirror so these words can bounce off of it and back to me? Maybe hearing myself say them will help the realization sink in! We need the support of the other mothers around us, so here is my challenge to you this week. If you haven't done so in the recent past, find a mother you know and just be her friend! Reach out and take her hand to let her know she isn't alone in the world. Let her know there is at least one person near by that isn't judging her actions one way or another and just be there. Friend, relative, stranger, who cares! Make a new connection! Let me know how it goes for you, and I will do the same! :) Have a great week!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Happy Chaos
Sometimes I wonder if life will ever slow down long enough to genuinely enjoy what is happening, good, bad or otherwise. So far, that has not been the case with our little family. Life is moving quickly, and it is a good thing my body breathes without my conscious effort, or I would probably forget! Mark has taken to his new calling with a vigor I have never seen in him. The entire presidency is brand new to the Elder's Quorum so watching them all grow and learn is a precious sight. I am excited to see them come together and accomplish the tasks they wish to accomplish, and with this group of men, I have no doubt all goals will be met, and soon! I know they are being led by the Lord and will be successful in everything the truly set out to do. Mark actually used the phrase, "I am excited," the other day and I about fell out of my chair! Knowing Mark knows he isn't much of an outwardly emotional person. When it does happen, it is generally about his kids, or his wife, or something of that nature, never does he show outward emotion about tasks he is given or other "worldly" things, if you will. I can't wait to see what he does with this calling and the excitement that he has already expressed. Stay tuned, things could get interesting!
Call me crazy, but I am going out on a limb here and shouting from the roof-tops...
Call me crazy, but I am going out on a limb here and shouting from the roof-tops...
CARYLON IS POTTY-TRAINED!!!
I cannot express my excitement for this enough!! It is like something finally clicked with her, and she just figured it out. Whatever that was, I will take it! Mark keeps thinking we need to try and potty train Madison before Traydon gets here, but I am exhausted! Who knew potty training was so much work? Not to mention we finally broke Madison of playing in the toilet and sink water in the bathroom, do we really want to re-encourage her to spend more time in there than is necessary at this point? I am thinking, "NO!". Regardless, Loni is potty trained and we have even taken day trips into town to run errands and do the dreaded grocery shopping without an accident. She is very good about telling us when she needs to go, if we are out and about, and she will just go on her own now at home. If she does happen to have an accident, she is quick to tell us about it and helps with the clean up... Even in the middle of the night. Luckily, they are few and far between, otherwise those late nights would be a little much for me to handle given my lack of sleeping time as it is! :) She is doing very well, and I am so glad it finally clicked with her.
On a personal note, for the first time, I have finally finished reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover! Sure I attended Seminary, and sure I have studied certain portions for talks or lessons, but for the first time, I was able to simply read it from cover to cover, in its entirety! This is quite an accomplishment for me. I have started reading it, I don't even know how many times, and never made it all the way through before needing to start over because I had forgotten what I had read after putting it down for months at a time. I am ready now to read it again, even faster this time and find even more doctrine that I missed the first time. I have also started studying it in depth. Mark can't stand it with all my markings and notes in the margins, but that is why I tell him, it is a good thing he has his own set of Scriptures, so I can mark mine up all I want. :) He still thinks I am crazy... I think my next challenge will be the Old Testament. There is so much that happens, even if I know the main stories, what am I missing from them?? I am determined to find out!
Mark and I have the opportunity, along with our Stake, to attend the Temple in Billings this weekend, and for another first for me, we are taking family names through! I am so grateful for this opportunity and the opportunity I have to teach my children the importance of the Temple. Knowing this may be the last chance we get to go before Traydon gets here makes it that much more special as I will be able to say I will have attended the Temple with all three children, in a capacity I can actually feel their movements and essentially their spirits before their arrival. I was a little worried we wouldn't get a chance to go to Billings while I was pregnant with Traydon, but it is quickly approaching us, and even though I generally wish Monday would never rear its head, I am anxious for this week to go by so we can get to the Temple! I can only hope my girls children (I am still adjusting to the "having a boy" idea...) learn the importance of the Temple through my example and have the same excitement to attend when they are old enough. I love the Temple, and I can only hope to portray that to my children as they grow.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Ups, Downs, and a Few Sideways
The Lord certainly works in mysterious ways, and our family is no exception. The last couple of weeks have been sprinkled heavily with the good, the bad, and sometimes the downright scary! I cannot express my gratitude for all of it enough. I know it is making us stronger, preparing us for the unknown, and bringing us closer as a family! What more can a girl ask for?
**This is a long post, bear with me!**
For sanity's sake, I will cover the good news first, and unveil the newest adventure in the Zollinger household. But first, a short back story! Last fall/early winter, a very dear friend of mine started asking me questions about scrapbooking, really out of the blue. Some of you may know, I love to scrapbook, I just don't make enough time for it, and that really needs to change! Anywhooo, after asking these questions, she got down to the point and I discovered she was planning to start her own business! I was so excited for her! I am pretty sure I was jumping up and down, though she couldn't see me. This was great news for her and I was willing to do anything I could to help. Little did I know, I could do more than I thought! As of January 1st, I am officially a partner in Scrapbooks Ect. LLC! I have loved every minute and thoroughly enjoy putting a creative side I haven't used in years as well as talents I didn't know I had to good use! I am excited to be in business with a best friend and confidant and helping to make both our dreams come true! We even had a successful trade show this weekend, and had a blast! I can't wait to help this business grow and flourish! **Check us out on Facebook! Chances are you have already received an invitation to "Like" our page! :)**
In other good news, we had an ultrasound last week and all fears of Traydon not being a boy we quickly extinguished when he gladly put his feet straight in the air. What a goober! In not so good news for Mommy, he is currently in the 80th percentile for weight. We have told him multiple times since the ultrasound that he isn't allowed to stay in that percentile and he needs to slow down on his growth spurt! He is not allowed to be over 8lbs when he is born! Mommy's orders! Think he will listen? Yeah... me neither. It is worth a shot though!
MARK GOT A CALLING!!! On Saturday evening we received a phone call from our High Council member asking to speak with Mark and I on Sunday during church. We agreed and my mind went about 100 different directions trying to figure out what he wanted to talk to us about... the obvious, a calling, never crossed my mind! So we find him after getting the girls to primary and nursery and walk in to talk to him. He says since I already have a calling, we can probably guess why we are here, to extend Mark a calling of course! (I didn't mention that it had not in fact been one of my million guesses! Though looking back, it was the only logical one, which Mark was quick to point out to me after church.) He was asked to serve as the Elder's Quorum 1st Counselor! I almost cried! I was so excited for this calling, and have been waiting for it to come, I just didn't think it would be right now! That's what I get for thinking apparently! I am very excited to see Mark excel at this calling, but slightly surprised because for whatever reason, our callings have always been "together" so I guess I was kind of expecting to be in the Relief Society when he was in the Elder's Quorum, but this is still going to be great!
**DISCLAIMER: We are now moving on to the "not-so-good-news" portion of today's broadcast.**
First, I would like to express my gratitude for our Lord's tender mercies. In times of struggle or hardship, it really is the little things that can make all the difference! With Mark's last paycheck, we noticed it seemed a little low, but in my rush to get other things done, I didn't look as closely as I should have. Come to find out, he wasn't paid for a mandatory training course he took at a different time than originally scheduled to take. We were shorted a few hundred dollars... Once I finally realized this, it was too late and I had already paid all the bills that were due. I knew money was going to be tight and from that point I moved some bills around that could wait and scheduled just the things that would have it deplete our account, but not overdraw the account. Then it was up to prayer to make sure none of the automatic payments came out before the next pay check. Then came the trade show for the weekend... I offered to use my credit card reader so we could take cards as payment and I would keep track and transfer money after it was available in our checking account. I woke up this morning thinking the money from the trade show should now be available and I was relieved to see that it was. I was not so pleased to see that an automatic payment to a company we had meant to cancel had also been posted to the account... AFTER THE CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS WERE DEPOSITED! It was such a relief to see that it had happened in that order and I know it was just meant to work out that way. No overdraft fees, no bank calling to ask when we will be depositing money, none of that! Simple perfection. Like I said, Tender Mercies. It really is the little things.
And now on to even more "not-so-good-news" that I will ask my prayer warriors to help out with! Although my life is being immensely blessed, my heart is still very heavy. When Mark and I lived in Casper, we made a lot of friends and one of those friends, who is very dear to me and was always a great friend to our family is struggling. In the matter of weeks, her world has been turned upside down, and that is the understatement of the year. Her 12-year-old son has been diagnosed with a rare liver cancer and is currently undergoing chemo-therapy treatments at Seattle Children's Hospital. This young man was in Mark's scout troop when Mark was a den leader and we know the family on a very personal and loving level and I can't even imagine what they are going through. She has been able to keep us all updated via her own blog here on Blogger, and every time I read them, I just hug my girls a little tighter. With that said, I am asking for prayers for the Dirk's family. Young Caden is a fighter and will pull through this, but prayer never hurt anyone. His mom, Stephanie has been stronger than I can even imagine being, and has expressed her love and gratitude for the prayer in her family's behalf. She testifies that it is because of the prayer that she has been able to handle this as well as she has. All I keep thinking is, "I need to be doing something!". Stephanie was there for our family on many occasions when we both lived in Casper, and though we have both moved away, my love and gratitude for all she did for me personally as well as my family will forever burn in my heart. Being so far away, I don't know what I can do, so until I can come up with more, asking my personal prayer warriors to add them to your prayers is what I can do. It doesn't seem like near enough, but it is a start! So please, add them to your prayers! They are a wonderful family and deserve everything we can offer them! Prayer works miracles and Caden will win this battle against "StupidCancer" as it has been referred to on their blog. Lifting them all in prayer can only help the process along.
I know my family is blessed to have such great friends and I would hope you can help me with this family. Here is to a little less activity around our house! Have a great week everyone!
**This is a long post, bear with me!**
For sanity's sake, I will cover the good news first, and unveil the newest adventure in the Zollinger household. But first, a short back story! Last fall/early winter, a very dear friend of mine started asking me questions about scrapbooking, really out of the blue. Some of you may know, I love to scrapbook, I just don't make enough time for it, and that really needs to change! Anywhooo, after asking these questions, she got down to the point and I discovered she was planning to start her own business! I was so excited for her! I am pretty sure I was jumping up and down, though she couldn't see me. This was great news for her and I was willing to do anything I could to help. Little did I know, I could do more than I thought! As of January 1st, I am officially a partner in Scrapbooks Ect. LLC! I have loved every minute and thoroughly enjoy putting a creative side I haven't used in years as well as talents I didn't know I had to good use! I am excited to be in business with a best friend and confidant and helping to make both our dreams come true! We even had a successful trade show this weekend, and had a blast! I can't wait to help this business grow and flourish! **Check us out on Facebook! Chances are you have already received an invitation to "Like" our page! :)**
In other good news, we had an ultrasound last week and all fears of Traydon not being a boy we quickly extinguished when he gladly put his feet straight in the air. What a goober! In not so good news for Mommy, he is currently in the 80th percentile for weight. We have told him multiple times since the ultrasound that he isn't allowed to stay in that percentile and he needs to slow down on his growth spurt! He is not allowed to be over 8lbs when he is born! Mommy's orders! Think he will listen? Yeah... me neither. It is worth a shot though!
MARK GOT A CALLING!!! On Saturday evening we received a phone call from our High Council member asking to speak with Mark and I on Sunday during church. We agreed and my mind went about 100 different directions trying to figure out what he wanted to talk to us about... the obvious, a calling, never crossed my mind! So we find him after getting the girls to primary and nursery and walk in to talk to him. He says since I already have a calling, we can probably guess why we are here, to extend Mark a calling of course! (I didn't mention that it had not in fact been one of my million guesses! Though looking back, it was the only logical one, which Mark was quick to point out to me after church.) He was asked to serve as the Elder's Quorum 1st Counselor! I almost cried! I was so excited for this calling, and have been waiting for it to come, I just didn't think it would be right now! That's what I get for thinking apparently! I am very excited to see Mark excel at this calling, but slightly surprised because for whatever reason, our callings have always been "together" so I guess I was kind of expecting to be in the Relief Society when he was in the Elder's Quorum, but this is still going to be great!
**DISCLAIMER: We are now moving on to the "not-so-good-news" portion of today's broadcast.**
First, I would like to express my gratitude for our Lord's tender mercies. In times of struggle or hardship, it really is the little things that can make all the difference! With Mark's last paycheck, we noticed it seemed a little low, but in my rush to get other things done, I didn't look as closely as I should have. Come to find out, he wasn't paid for a mandatory training course he took at a different time than originally scheduled to take. We were shorted a few hundred dollars... Once I finally realized this, it was too late and I had already paid all the bills that were due. I knew money was going to be tight and from that point I moved some bills around that could wait and scheduled just the things that would have it deplete our account, but not overdraw the account. Then it was up to prayer to make sure none of the automatic payments came out before the next pay check. Then came the trade show for the weekend... I offered to use my credit card reader so we could take cards as payment and I would keep track and transfer money after it was available in our checking account. I woke up this morning thinking the money from the trade show should now be available and I was relieved to see that it was. I was not so pleased to see that an automatic payment to a company we had meant to cancel had also been posted to the account... AFTER THE CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS WERE DEPOSITED! It was such a relief to see that it had happened in that order and I know it was just meant to work out that way. No overdraft fees, no bank calling to ask when we will be depositing money, none of that! Simple perfection. Like I said, Tender Mercies. It really is the little things.
And now on to even more "not-so-good-news" that I will ask my prayer warriors to help out with! Although my life is being immensely blessed, my heart is still very heavy. When Mark and I lived in Casper, we made a lot of friends and one of those friends, who is very dear to me and was always a great friend to our family is struggling. In the matter of weeks, her world has been turned upside down, and that is the understatement of the year. Her 12-year-old son has been diagnosed with a rare liver cancer and is currently undergoing chemo-therapy treatments at Seattle Children's Hospital. This young man was in Mark's scout troop when Mark was a den leader and we know the family on a very personal and loving level and I can't even imagine what they are going through. She has been able to keep us all updated via her own blog here on Blogger, and every time I read them, I just hug my girls a little tighter. With that said, I am asking for prayers for the Dirk's family. Young Caden is a fighter and will pull through this, but prayer never hurt anyone. His mom, Stephanie has been stronger than I can even imagine being, and has expressed her love and gratitude for the prayer in her family's behalf. She testifies that it is because of the prayer that she has been able to handle this as well as she has. All I keep thinking is, "I need to be doing something!". Stephanie was there for our family on many occasions when we both lived in Casper, and though we have both moved away, my love and gratitude for all she did for me personally as well as my family will forever burn in my heart. Being so far away, I don't know what I can do, so until I can come up with more, asking my personal prayer warriors to add them to your prayers is what I can do. It doesn't seem like near enough, but it is a start! So please, add them to your prayers! They are a wonderful family and deserve everything we can offer them! Prayer works miracles and Caden will win this battle against "StupidCancer" as it has been referred to on their blog. Lifting them all in prayer can only help the process along.
I know my family is blessed to have such great friends and I would hope you can help me with this family. Here is to a little less activity around our house! Have a great week everyone!
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Challenge Accepted!
This year Mark and I have sat down and found specific goals we want to accomplish as a family. One of those goals was spending more time with our children on an individual level. With Baby Traydon's arrival creeping up on us every day, I know that my girls will end up having even less time with Mom and Dad than they already do. This, as I decided last night, will become my next priority for a little bit in hopes of setting up a routine and making it work for our family. This morning, I woke up and decided I needed some new ideas for things I could do with each girl on our own. I had a few ideas from different blogs I had read previously, but I was really hoping for some new, abstract ideas that would just jump out at me and scream, "Loni would love that!" or, "Madi would have so much fun with that!". My research ideas failed me... I went to my trusting idea generating site (Pinterest, naturally), in hopes that I would find some great ideas! And while I did find a couple that I hadn't thought in depth of before, nothing really jumped out at me, and nothing was a completely foreign idea to me. Thus began my thought process of taking on this challenge myself. This post may end up being the beginning of a long series, which is my hope actually! I am hoping that through my own experiences and research from our little area, I will be able to find those abstract ideas I was looking for and share them with the world! If no one else is my Pinterest world wants to take on the challenge, I WILL!
My plan for executing this idea would ideally be as follows:
My plan for executing this idea would ideally be as follows:
- Each child gets one date a month with each parent
- For now, the dates would be on the same night equaling two date nights a month allowing for us to continue to maximize our time as a family. (Mark would take one child, I would take the other and on a different night we would trade and take the other child)
- No two date nights are the same for a minimum of 6 months!
- Child gets to choose date night in its entirety once every 6 months at least.
- Zero interruption policy! (Excluding Emergencies obviously!) No technological distractions, no shopping or unrelated errands to run, etc.
- Take lots of pictures and make lots of memories!
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Goals and Adventures
It took a little while but Mark and I finally got around to setting our goals for the year... Well, I set goals for the year, Mark took a little different approach and set goals for a longer term life. We needed to compromise a little bit to figure out what we wanted, but we finally got it set down and on paper! It was such a relief to me to have set items that we, as a couple and as a family will be working on for the year 2014.
Just another set of adventure for the Zollinger clan! Here is to a great 2014 full of adventure and new experiences. Anyone else have any great news for 2014? I'd love to hear about it all! Let me know! Have a great week everyone!
- Regular dates; whether they are family dates, couple dates or even Parent/Child dates. It is important for us to remember that even though we are a growing family, there are individual people and individual relationships that also need nurturing.
- Regular Family Home Evening; our children are beginning to understand the importance of church and why we need to go every Sunday, but it is important to us to give them as many spiritual experiences as we can. In the world we are living in, non-spiritual experiences FAR outnumber the spiritual experiences and we need to keep Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in our daily lives as much as we possibly can. This goal will include lessons, prayer and hopefully increased spiritual music in our household.
- Build up our savings; Some of you may know 2013 was rough on us in more ways than one and that included financially. It is important to us to build back up our savings so we can be stable again and feel secure in times of crisis.
- Read the Book of Mormon as a family; our Ward at church has actually been reading the BoM together and they have a goal to finish it by Easter. I have liked this idea since I heard about it and personally I am actually ahead of the goal, but as a family we are not even close to on track. With that said, I feel we can start and make it a goal of our own to read it. My goal is not so much on finishing by a certain time but being able to include the kids and show them the importance of scripture reading as well as the awesomeness of the stories.
- Better communication; though this is at the bottom of this list, it is far from the bottom of our priorities. On the contrary, actually. Better communication is crucial to accomplishing any of the rest of our goals. We need better communication between Mark and I, better communication between the girls and I, and possibly even better communication between our family and those around us. It will be a good experience all the way around.
Just another set of adventure for the Zollinger clan! Here is to a great 2014 full of adventure and new experiences. Anyone else have any great news for 2014? I'd love to hear about it all! Let me know! Have a great week everyone!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Re-Update!
For those of you who were following our previous blog, I apologize for making you come to a new one! I am not sure what happened to it. :( Sad day!
Anywho, It is a new year and a time for making those near-dreaded resolutions again. This year is going to be an exciting and crazy one for our little family. Carylon started sunbeams at church and will turn four in April, Madison just turned two last weekend and is growing like crazy, and in May we will be adding our first boy into the mix! Mr. Traydon will make his arrival mid-May sometime. We are excited. Mark's unit is starting their rotation for deployment this year so that will be a new and interesting bridge for us to cross when we get there. Luckily, it isn't until towards the end of the year so we have some time to prepare for that.
Today we had Madison's birthday party and I went to blog about it and share the pictures and I couldn't find my previous blog, so I figured, what a better way to start a new year that to just start a new blog. Okay, not really, I was pretty upset but what can you do? I am hoping to have our FHE go over our family goals for the year will let you know how that goes, in the meantime, I will cover some of my personal goals.
As far as an update on our family... for those that haven't been able to follow us for the past year, it has been a crazy one to say the least. We moved from Casper to Gillette, Mark attended Basic Combat Training, or Boot Camp, in Fort Sill, OK, we moved from Gillette to Newcastle, and then finally from Newcastle to Wright. Laci returned to school, then had to take more time off again due to Mark being gone and found it was a very good choice as this past six months on 2013 we WAY to crazy to have been successful in school. Carylon started pre-school and will return in September at a new school. Madison has grown and progressed much faster than Mom and Dad would like, but such is life, and now she has the opportunity to be a big sister too! We have had our ups, we have had our downs, and now we are more than ready to see what 2014 has in store for us. I am personally hoping for a little less adventure, but will take whatever comes our way. Hopefully I will even be able to do so with a smile on my face!
Here is to a brand new year, with much better job updating friends and family near and far as well as working on being a better version of me, and bringing our family even closer together!
I would LOVE to hear your goals for the year! Feel free to leave them in the comments. Let's all share ideas and maybe find some new goals we hadn't thought of! :)
Anywho, It is a new year and a time for making those near-dreaded resolutions again. This year is going to be an exciting and crazy one for our little family. Carylon started sunbeams at church and will turn four in April, Madison just turned two last weekend and is growing like crazy, and in May we will be adding our first boy into the mix! Mr. Traydon will make his arrival mid-May sometime. We are excited. Mark's unit is starting their rotation for deployment this year so that will be a new and interesting bridge for us to cross when we get there. Luckily, it isn't until towards the end of the year so we have some time to prepare for that.
Today we had Madison's birthday party and I went to blog about it and share the pictures and I couldn't find my previous blog, so I figured, what a better way to start a new year that to just start a new blog. Okay, not really, I was pretty upset but what can you do? I am hoping to have our FHE go over our family goals for the year will let you know how that goes, in the meantime, I will cover some of my personal goals.
- Write more regularly in my personal journal and in the girls' childhood journals.
- Read and STUDY the scriptures to find more personal opportunity for revelations and answers to prayers.
- Spend more quality time with the girls (and boy) and not let myself get caught up in the "life crazies".
- Learn to stress less... Yes. I know the seriousness of this, as well as the near impossibility of it... It will be a work in progress I am sure!
As far as an update on our family... for those that haven't been able to follow us for the past year, it has been a crazy one to say the least. We moved from Casper to Gillette, Mark attended Basic Combat Training, or Boot Camp, in Fort Sill, OK, we moved from Gillette to Newcastle, and then finally from Newcastle to Wright. Laci returned to school, then had to take more time off again due to Mark being gone and found it was a very good choice as this past six months on 2013 we WAY to crazy to have been successful in school. Carylon started pre-school and will return in September at a new school. Madison has grown and progressed much faster than Mom and Dad would like, but such is life, and now she has the opportunity to be a big sister too! We have had our ups, we have had our downs, and now we are more than ready to see what 2014 has in store for us. I am personally hoping for a little less adventure, but will take whatever comes our way. Hopefully I will even be able to do so with a smile on my face!
Here is to a brand new year, with much better job updating friends and family near and far as well as working on being a better version of me, and bringing our family even closer together!
I would LOVE to hear your goals for the year! Feel free to leave them in the comments. Let's all share ideas and maybe find some new goals we hadn't thought of! :)
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