Our Yearly Update, sigh......

     I am sorry, I am having such a hard time blogging!!!! It is so much easier to just "hop" on Facebook and "chat" with friends and leave short quips about your life, but I promise to get back into blogging!

     The past year has been so busy and so so fun. The kids and I traveled to Utah in June to visit family and attend the first Brinkworth grandchild wedding. Mike was out on the first of many summer fires. We had so much fun, we played with cousins and met up with old friends. We also finally got to show off the now not so "new" twins.

    As the summer heated up we spent our days in the backyard swimming in the pool and basking on the trampoline. The oldest boys rocked at baseball. Braxton loves the game and so wants to rock at it, but I think he judges himself to hard and compares himself to Carsten way to much. Carsten loves the game and has the natural grace and ability  that makes watching him play is beautiful. After a hard season of play Carsten made the all star team and played very well. It is heart breaking to see one of your children overlooked and be passed over for the team.

    The rest of the summer passed in the traditional way, sun burns, snow cones and fun. Mike spent a large part of the summer chasing fires around the western United States, and wow was it ever a busy season.

   Finn and Emerson spent five days in the hospital being treated for RSV, they were forced to be separated into separate rooms. It sucked for breastfeeding. They both spent two weeks on oxygen after that. Poor Emerson she had only been off the O2 for six weeks and then was back on it.

    We decided to withdraw our children from the traditional "brick and mortar" school and try to make a go at it with an online academy. I love it, the kids are being challenged like they have never been before, Mike and I are getting to see how each of our children learn and the best part is we get to set school to our schedule.

September brought a nasty cold that sent two of the kids to the hospital to be treated for pneumonia. Carsten was admitted on Thursday night and Dawson on Saturday morning. I have never felt like such a failure as a mother as I did that week. How could I have let them get that sick? Carstens oxygen levels were so low and he struggled so hard it breaks my heart to remember. They were both released on the following Tuesday and with the blessing of their Dr. we left Thursday morning for a much needed vacation. How funny we looked, seven kids all our luggage and 10 large tanks of oxygen all in the new polyg rig. The joke was if we had been pulled over we would have been arrested as terrorists.

    The vacation destination was not of our planning, we wanted San Diego, we got Island Park, Idaho. My parents divorced several years ago and my mother remarried. I will be honest, I did not want to be there but sometimes one needs to step up and be uncomfortable to let ones children see you be the adult.

   We spent an extra few days and took the kids to see Yellowstone and to see Old Faithful, like everything in life Old Faithful did not blow as high as it did when I was a child. We also took the fam through the Tetons on the way home, they were beautiful.

   We again got to spend some time in Utah visiting family, I can honestly say that while my parents divorce has strained my relationship with my mother it has only strengthened my relationship with my Dad. Oh we had fun, spent time getting to know cousins again, eating our last range burgers ant Parkers and I introduced my children to square doughnuts from the Lehi Bakery. They are in love!!! We worked our way down to Blanding to visit more Grandparents and visit for a few days before returning home.

   Braxton turned 13, I am officially the mother of a teenager!!! He is such a handsome young man, He is now almost taller than me! I honestly don't think anyone has ever loved his younger brothers and sisters as much as he does. He has such a crazy sense of humor he asked me at Walmart last week if I would buy him a calendar, he wanted the Sports Illustrated Swim Suit one. I had to laugh, I said no but I did laugh.

   Carsten reached 11, and is still in love with his animals. Out of all the gifts he received for his birthday he loved the one from me the best. Knowing my little bears love of animals and now birds he received his first "bird book" and a pair of binoculars. He is in love. I did have to remind him to stop yelling at me about those birds as we drive down the freeway.

   The Holidays came fast, Santa spoiled as usual and then Finn and Eme reached their first birthdays. Oh these two are fun, I cannot believe that we have been blessed with them. Finn has learned to crawl and then walk before Eme but of the two she is the braver and also the bigger of the two.

Dawson turned five. A more patient laid back boy has never been born, He is by far my most easy going child. He wanted "Chicken corn on blue" for his birthday dinner. After I made it and served it to him, he looked at it, then looked at me and calmly asked "what is this"? After finding out it was chicken corn on blue he smiled and ate every last bite!!

   Ardynn is so excited to turn 10 next week. Me I am sad I am losing my little girl, I see her turning into a young woman way yo fast. She is such a beautiful girl and a wonderful little mama.  I am so excited for her but will always miss my first baby girl.

   Kallison also has a birthday coming up, this year her day falls on Friday the 13!!! Such a tease this girl. She always has a smile on her face and a silly joke for you. And as always she is our pink lover.

As you can see our past year has been a busy one, full of ups and downs and a little crazyness. But we would not have it any other way!!