January 31

Seth turned one on Wednesday. Seth is such a wonderful boy. He's so happy and mild. He loves his silkies ("gigies") and reading books. He also loves anything we use a lot--the computer keyboard and mouse, all the phones and remotes and the piano. He's having fun learning to walk and can't get enough of holding my fingers to get around. He loves his brothers and sister and puts up with their constant hugs and kisses. He's such a sweet boy and he's a great snuggler.

Friday night was new beginnings. They have a sleep over in our ward for new beginnings. It was really fun to hang out with the girls. I feel like I'm starting to build relationships with the girls. It's a good feeling. We had a spa night and the bishopric spoke. I stayed until 2 am and then went home to sleep in my own bed.

Saturday night Bob surprised me and took me on a date to the movies and dinner. It was nice to spend time with him.

I'm going to work on earning the Young Women medallion by May when they award the medallions for the year. It's been really great to get started on it. I was worried at first that I might not have enough time to get it done, but so many of the things it asks you to do, I'm already doing as a wife and mother. It's such an inspired program that really does help prepare the girls.

January 24

Rachel and I had a date this week. We went to Disney on Ice with Savannah and Kata Dean. We had a great girls night. Bob watched all the 6 other kids because Collin had to go out of town. He even volunteered to do it. He's such a great man! And we drove down to the show. It was raining a ton. We all got soaked shoes walking in and out. It was so fun to be with my sweet girl. She loved Ariel the most.

Rachel also did a cheerleading camp on Saturday done by the high school cheerleaders. Jaclyn went too. She said she had a fun time. She was sure cute there.

We went to Danny's basketball game on Saturday and then I signed up Danny and Aaron to play baseball and teeball in the spring. Bob is so excited. I think the boys are too.

Tonight we went to Danny's baptism preview. I can't believe he's old enough to get baptized. He's such a great kid! And he's super excited to get baptized. He'll get baptized on May 1.

It rained all week last week. Bob said we got more rain last week than all last year. So on Friday we took the kids out of school a little early to go up and play in the snow. We couldn't get high enough to do some good sledding because it started snowing again and we didn't have chains. But we found a good place to get out and play in the snow. We had a great time.

January 17

We've been having a great little home vacation this weekend. We all have Friday and Monday off. So we've just been having a good time being together. Yesterday we had the Deans over and then Danny and Bob and CJ and Collin went to the UNLV basketball game. Aaron and Rachel and I rented a movie and made bracelets. Aaron liked it almost as much as Rachel did. He kept making bracelets for me.

Aaron's plan isn't working as well as I hoped. He doesn't nap and barely lays down, but his tantrums have been a little better.

My finger hurts. I smashed it in the folding camping chair when I was setting it up today to watch the kids ride bikes and scooters, so this is all I'm writing today.

January 10

We had a great New Year's. We had a party at home with the kids. We had treats and fireworks. We had a wii tournament and played board games. Then we watched the ball drop in New York at 9:00 and went to bed.

The next morning we got up and drove to Utah. We had a fun-packed trip. As soon as we got there we got the kids all dressed in their new snow gear and went sledding. The kids LOVED it. We left Seth with Linda. We stayed for about three hours. We made a snowman and sledded. All the kids were in heaven. Then the next morning we got up and went again for another hour and a half. Then we left the kids with Linda and Bob had lunch with Josh while I had lunch with Amanda. Then we went bowling at BYU and at night we went to a BYU basketball game. Then Sunday morning we went to church and came home.

Danny started basketball and he and Rachel started piano lessons.

This weekend I went on a YW leaders retreat. We left Friday afternoon and went up to someone's cabin outside of St. George. There are 12 YW leaders because there are so many girls. We had a great time. We went to dinner and stayed up and talked and ate a ton until 3 in the morning. It was fun to get to know everyone better and have girls night. Bob did great at home with the kids.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better at my scripture study. I've decided to study by topics. This month I'm working on faith. And a started a notebook where I keep a record of what I read and what I learned or impressions I received. I thought that would be hard to do, but so far it's been fun and easy.

Another resolution is to do more service. I signed our family up to make blankets for a nonprofit. Disneyland has a program where if you give a day of service you can get a free ticket to Disneyland. We're all excited about the program. I think it'll be a great first exposure to service for the kids. Then I'll look into more ideas for projects we can do in the future. I'm also going to see if I can find a nonprofit or two that I can make a website for. I tried to do that a year or so ago and nothing ever came of it. So this time I'll follow up better and make sure I find some way to help.

Aaron and I have "plan" for his tantrums. He doesn't like them either, so he welcomed my help. The tantrums are at the very worst when he's either tired or hungry. So he has to make sure he eats something right when he wakes up and he has to take a nap on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. But on those mornings he'll also get to pick something fun for the two of us to do. This week his tantrums were much better than last week. So I'm really hopeful that this plan will be quite successful.