Changes

Isn't it funny how you want blessings through all the messes you go through and then when you finally start getting the blessings, you're wondering when life is going to take a downturn?  We have been extremely blessed lately and we almost don't know what to do with ourselves!

Steve has worked at Oracle for the last 6 years. He started with Siebel and they were bought by Oracle. And downhill went the raises - as in NO raises.

We have many reasons to be mad at them such as mess-ups on paychecks, forgetting to turn in time cards on time, no raises, being forced to work graveyards, etc.  BUT we have many blessings from his job too.  Job security, amazing benefits for medical, dental and vision, and most of all work experience. He has 6 years of experience doing CRM OnDemand that very few people have. He has become very valuable. He even got a really cool trophy for his hard work.

So on to greener pastures.  Steve has been given the amazing opportunity to work for NEC as a consultant. He's THE CRM guy.  He builds and supports the application for them.  That means travel for the next few weeks and then he'll work from home.  Best news? NO MORE GRAVEYARD SHIFT!!!

In other news,  Gavin and Ashley both scored goals in their soccer game yesterday!  Ashley has scored at least one goal in almost all of her games but this was Gavin's first and it was awesome.  He ran with a whole group of kids following him and kicked it right in!

Jakob's doing well his soccer team and has done awesome in his ALL class(Accelerated Learning Lab). And he's almost as tall as me.

And Andy lost his front tooth!!! It was hanging by a thread (well, nerve) for a few days and I finally got it out.

Oh, and me? I'm barely sane but hey who needs sanity anyway?

Stuff

Hello. Its been a while since I last blogged so I figured it was time. Lots has happened. Birthdays, races, Heidi learning to push herself all over in the walker, awesome book signings at the store, flooding neighborhoods (we got missed)... oh, and I was made 1st Counselor in the Primary!  We also learned a little about prayer today.

Not to get into specifics, we misplaced a rather large chunk of money. I KNEW where I set it and it wasn't there later.  We looked through the whole house, cleaned out the toy room (big mess which needed done anyway) and then prayed about finding it.  I went down to tuck my 4 year old into bed and I found a $10 bill and a $5 bill in his bed.  Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: Uh, where did this come from? I need to know where the rest is!
Son: .......... ok.

He pulled back his pillow and it was all there - except the bag it came in. That, of course, was under his blanket.

Son: Look Mom! The money bag!

He was so proud of himself for 'finding it.'   Silly boy.  Anyway, here are some fun pictures that have been taken recently.  There are birthday pictures amongst them for all 7 of us (Heidi hasn't had a birthday yet so you got her newborn pictures earlier!) since I missed blogging about them all! The photos are in no particular order.

This picture is after trying to juggle forks, napkins, treat bags, my breakfast and a glass of juice while pushing an umbrella stroller on the grass. I hit a bump with the stroller,  my pancake fell on Heidi's head, and I laughed hysterically. My family couldn't figure out why when I got over and sat by them until they saw Heidi - and pictures were taken... What did Heidi do? Nothing. She just took it. What a "sweetie-pie".

Heidi's first time with cereal! She did great and loved it.  She ate most of it!

 

                                    

Don't ask because I don't want to know...

This is "Betty Girl", our newest family member that Andy got from his aunt, cousins, Grandpa and Grandma. She is much loved!

Ashley is my little princess! She got this photo taken during Pony Express Days at the park.

Heidi got 3rd in the baby contest! She was in the 3-6 month category - having turned 3 months old that day! She laughed and talked and cooed. It was so much fun!

       

Heidi's first time swimming! We went to St George in June and had a great time there. Heidi loved the water and I LOVED her new swimming suit!

We combined a few birthdays for this cake - which was YUMMY! Happy Birthday to everyone!

And now its time for bed. Good night!

Our Family Pictures

This is the last post of our pictures. Then maybe I'll get to our birthday posts!!!  These were done inside our store (except the first one that was done outside obviously).  Each child got to pick where they wanted to get their individual pictures done.  Ethan just plain didn't want to but apparently sitting on his daddy's shoulders worked because he was happy for those!!  These are some of my favorites because it shows what our life has been about for the last year!!

My Mother's Day Gift

This year for Mother's Day we got to do our family pictures.  We started up in the mountains behind our house and then ended up at our bookstore. The store photos will be posted later.  We did pictures of each child and then some of Steve and I. For some reason the ones of Steve and I being serious didn't turn out - can't imagine why... But the goofy ones of us did. Maybe the camera knows us a little too well!!  Have I mentioned that Cherylann does an AMAZING job?!   So here they are: