Well, hello 2012!

Wow, this year went fast for me. The year after I've had a baby is always sort of a blur because so much is going on and everything is so full of growing and changing. I cant believe my baby is almost 1! but that is a post for another day! This past year was a great year for us filled with highs and lows and lots of fun and tears and so many wonderful memories. We couldn't be more excited about 2012! We are excited and looking forward to moving although the sting of sadness that I will have to leave all my friends is growing and growing all the time. This entire season I keep thinking that next year we wont be here anymore. Next year when we set up our Christmas tree it will be in another house, next time we celebrate new years it will be in another state without our good friends...its sad and exciting at the same time.

I just filled in my calendar for the next two months, man it is going to be busy! three birthday parties, a tea party I'm throwing, our anniversary, lots of appointments, throwing baby showers, young women's activities and lessons, Stewart's vacation, Stewart's step 3 boards exam, Angeli's dental surgery thingy, and so on and so forth. Busy or not I have a good feeling about this year. I think it will be a good one for us. This year we are making lots of fun goals and here they are:

- We plan on reading the Book of Mormon everyday as a family and when we finish we are going to take the kids to Disneyland for a week long extravaganza! We are keeping it simple and just reading a page a day so it should take us about 18 months which should be good timing for us - not to mention it will probably take us that long to save up for it! LOL. We ordered a new book of Mormon for everyone and made a scripture box filled with crayons, scripture coloring books, our books of Mormon, and our cute little chart to track our page by page progress. We've been doing it this week and so far so good!

- Training our dogs! Oh, boy they are cute but they are sure annoying sometimes too! I don't what it is but this week they have been pooping in the house like crazy and so today I am keeping them outside all day or in their kennel. I have had it with their nasty tiny little poops! So help me if they aren't trained by next year so they can obey and poop outside I will never own a dog again! Okay, this was a bit strong but I just found their second poop in the house and it 9:30 am and I already took them out to go this morning! How much poop do they have to poop anyways?!?! :O)

-Like always our goal is to attend the temple at least once a month...our stake wants us to go once a week but that is not a possibility.I think once a month is good with the Lord for us right now.

- Like always Stewart wants to write in his journal daily

- Keep up our weekly FHE, weekly movie night, and weekly game night...those have been a lot for us as a family this year.

-Like always, Get my body where I'd like it. I am happy to report I have lost all my baby weight and am under my weight I was when I got pregnant but I wasn't really in a great place when I got pregnant so I am now going to pick up where I left off before I had the baby and try to get back to my favorite weight. My goal which might not be possible is to be at my wedding day weight on our anniversary. I've got ten pounds to go and 44 days to do it. If my math is correct I need to lose 1.5 lbs a week. not too bad so I hope I can pull it off...the past 2 weeks have been awful for my "live the life" so I hope I can get back on track!

- DATES! Stewart and I need to make dating a priority. I want to go on one date a month. I need a break from the kids and he needs a chance to have some fun so I hope we can make it happen. It is a big ordeal to accomplish that but I know it will be worth it. Residency and the daily grind has taken a toll and we need time to rejuvenate from all of it.

- Sell our house! It will be such a relief financially to sell our house. It will be sad to say goodbye but nice too. I will be so grateful to pass that road block once and for all!

-Move to Tucson. The worry and hopes of finding the right rental home and schools, and neighborhood, and ward is a bit much. We really will be moving once again to place where we really have no friends and no family and no references to help us and that is over whelming. We aren't the moving type (we tend to set in roots and stay) and so I really want to find a home that will at least be good for us for a couple years. Its weird to think that when we leave Tucson We'll have a 10 year old, an 9 year old, 7 year old and a 5 year old. I know the Lord will help us but I will be so grateful when its found and we are moved in. I have a wish list that isn't too long but is really important to me: square footage...big bedrooms (I believe in kids sharing rooms and we have a lot of kids), a pool (its hot there!), and good schools....and if possible a little space for my craft stuff. :O) On Stewart's budget he set for the house that will be a long shot...we'll see!

- budget...get a savings account going: we need to save up for new cars, bigger furniture (our table is too small for our family, the kids need real beds, no more toddler beds since that is all they have right now, and I want them to have a desk to do their homework on), I want to buy some food storage in the form of freeze dried meals (Glenn Beck advertising for this company and their food is good and affordable) and we need an emergency fund.

- and I hope to get pregnant with number five in September.....I know probably too much information but whatever. Its my goal. I hope to have time to gear up this time around instead of being hit with it out of nowhere. I hope we will be established enough by then and I will have had a chance to make friends (I am a really lame friend when I am pregnant so I hope someone learns to like me before I turn into a monster lady) and Stewart and the kids will be settled in and I hope we'll be ready for it. Pregnancy is such a trial in many ways so I want a heads up if possible. I think it will be our last and so I want to make the most of it. I hope we're blessed with things going smoothly but life sometimes throws curve-balls so we'll see.

- Get Bridger and Angeli squared away with their issues. They have both be diagnosed with stuff and I have been working on getting them help for about 9 months now and things are falling into place and I hope by the time we move they are in a really good place.

-Enroll the kids in more extra curricular activities...I'm of the mind set that in this department often less is really more but I do think they are very important. I have already gotten the kids in soccer camp (ben & Angie) and softball camp (bridger)...if I am fast enough (the registration is a tricky business here in Sparks set your alarm to register them the second the online registration opens up!) I hope to get them in swimming so they are ready if we are lucky enough to get a house with a pool.

- get the kids settled and thriving in school. Bridger will start first grade and Angeli will start kindergarten. I worry a lot about school since school was such a hard thing for me most of my life...I want my kids to be successful and happy in their schooling.

- And before we move we want to: take the kids sledding, go to the drive in movie at least once, spend time in Tahoe and drink up the mountain air, visit family in Utah, visit the kids museum in Reno as much as possible, and have lots of play dates with our friends.