2010: Our Year in Review

If I was into sending out Christmas letters with our postcards, I would have sent a letter that was way too long, bragged way too much about my wonderful family, and still wouldn't have even touched on the enormous amount of gratitude we feel  for all we've been blessed with this year.

I do know, however, how much I love reading about all of my treasured friends and loved ones' families, so for those who took the time to search out my blog to see what we've been up to, here's our year in review (and what you would have read, had I sent out a Christmas letter this year)....

The two most exciting things we can share from 2010 is our family vaction this summer and our move this fall. We spent the first half of the year saving our pennies and in June, we packed up our Suburban to the very top (not kidding) and drove to Alaska. We spent almost a month traveling through Canada and Alaska. We drove about 8,000 miles in our car, rode to the top of the Space Needle, hiked a glacier, saw the ocean and lots of wildlife, caught our “first fish”,  rode a ferry, dug up clams, played with cousins, swam in a hot spring, camped in the rain, and had many other grand adventures. We had a wonderful time together and have so many happy memories! In August, a wonderful opportunity and blessing was dropped in our lap, and we took it and moved forward with faith! We moved moved into a new pre-loved house that is just perfect for us! It has lots of room inside and out, and is absolutely beautiful! We really like our new ward, and love that we have so many new friends already. We've all adjusted pretty quickly, which helped our new house feel like "home" almost from the very first day. It's just where we're supposed to be!

Steve (our Daddy) still works for U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson. He loves his job, and also had an opportunity to help his boss get re-elected by working part-time at night and on weekends on the primary campaign. By June, he wasn't quite busy enough, so he accepted the Mayor's appointment to fill a vacant seat on the Pocatello City Council. It's been an eye-opening experience, and as much as he loves working with the other members of the board, he's really had to make some tough decisions and then stand behind what he feels is right and best for Pocatello. We're so proud of him. As entrepreneurs do, he's also found time to pad the family income with his direct mail business which helped out a lot during the campaign season (and our move) with 65,000 pieces of mail we designed, had printed, labeled, and sent out for several candidates. He has also been crazy busy this year getting our old house ready to rent, working out the little kinks in our new house, serving on a couple of other community and state boards, spending incredible quality time with his family, and tinkering in a couple of other business ventures. He was also recently called as the Cub Master in our new ward. He really likes having the opportunity to be the "funnest" 10 year-old in the ward!

Julia (Me, the Mommy) still loves being a stay-at-home mom. My kids are my life and I love that I have the opportunity to be totally involved in their activities and schools. This was also a year of change and growth for me as I discovered and learned much about myself and developed many new physical and spiritual strengths. I end the year much healthier and happier than I started it, and much more the person I want to be. I spent  a few months preparing for our trip and then a few more preparing to move. It's been a crazy year, but so many blessings have been thrown our way, I know that the Lord has watched over and blessed me to be able to keep up and be the kind of mother and wife I want to be. On our 3rd Sunday in our new ward, I was called to serve as the 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. In the short time I have served there (almost 2 months now), my heart has been changed, and I've seen the Lord's plan for our family start to unfold. As you can guess, I haven't had a lot of spare time for hobbies this year, but I still love baking, blogging, and reading, and playing with my family the most.

Sarah (17) has had a pretty good year. It's been a healthy one (heart-wise) with relatively little action in that department. She found out this year that she has a pretty severe case of Scoliosis, which has caused much more heartache and many more challenges, but takes it all in stride and remains her sweet little self. She is a senior in High school, and is beginning the new year with college and scholarship applications dancing in her head. Besides our family trip and moving, the highlight of her year was attending EFY at BYU-Idaho. It was such an amazing experience for her and she came back a changed teenager! She loves to spend time with our family, and all of her extra time with friends (live or on Facebook).

Rachel (14) has become the best traveled member of our family. In March, she went on the American Heritage Tour with other 8th Graders in the community. Her favorite things were spending time in New York City, and seeing "Wicked" on Broadway, and making so many new friends! She earned all $3,000 herself (with help from her terrific parents) and had a wonderful experience. She also started high school this year and absolutely loves it! Being in a "real school" now, she can wear make-up, "real clothes" and make many new friends. She stays busy with piano lessons (taking and teaching) and friends, and thoroughly enjoys having her own room!

Bryson (11) is in 5th Grade now and still loves school. He was recently released from his occupational therapy and had grown and matured in such amazing ways. We hardly ever see evidence of his Asperger's anymore, and his confidence is apparent in his constant smile. His drawing talent has continued to blossom as he draws everything from the most detailed dragons you've ever seen to cartoon mice with goofy grins. He absolutely loves scouts, and earned his Arrow of Light just before we moved. His new scout leaders are amazing and he is looking forward to camping and many other adventures in the spring with his new troop. With our move came a whole handful of friends just down the street, a few he already knew from school. Having so many friends to play with all the time is a new thing in his life, but just one more blessing that came with our new house.

Joshua (7) is in 2nd grade and has discovered the joy of reading. He loves non-fiction the best, and any information he can gather about space, electricity and mysteries of the natural world are the best. He still loves to take apart and build things, but has discovered a new love for science experiments. He loves to draw, too, but his drawings are usually of mechanical or body systems, or data charts from his experiments. He also loves to play the wii, run around the yard, and play with his brothers and friends.

Nathan (5) is spending his last year at home with Mom. He is such a fun boy. He spent the first part of the year being a pirate, and the last part of it being a scarecrow. He often changes several times a day, and mom has to be careful to keep up. He also loves to draw and shows much promise of following in his big brother's footsteps. He started sounding out words this fall and has recently "published" his first book, "The Wizrd of Pos." He also loves running errands with Mommy, reading books, visiting Great-Grandma Mangum, and following his brothers around and playing legos with them.

Our family has been blessed beyond measure this year, and knowing that our Heavenly Father loves and watches over us is among our greatest treasures. We are so grateful for our forever family and all the amazing things that have happened this year to help seal our bonds of love and friendship. We pray that you, our family and friends near and far, have also felt the love and blessings of God rest upon you this year. We love you and hope you all have a merry Christmas and an amazing new year!

Christmas Blessings

I just tucked five of my most amazing blessings in bed on this beautiful Christmas night, and headed to bed with tears streaming down my face and a giant lump in my throat. I felt I just had to take a minute to record the gratitude I feel gushing from my heart. I am so blessed to have such amazing children. They are so eager to do what is right, so happy to serve, so thoughtful and kind (most of the time), and very forgiving (the rest of the time). They love to learn, thrive on love, and love to make me smile. They each have such different personalities, and I wouldn't change a single thing about them. Those individuals are so very extraordinary I am so thankful for each of them, and so grateful that they are mine - forever. I went back into their rooms and told each of them that tonight...that I was thankful that Heavenly Father gave them to me and that they were part of our family. That's when the tears and lump started forming. What a great way to end a wonderful Christmas day. Now I get to crawl into bed with their father - the love of my life, my best friend, and the other greatest blessing in my life -  and snuggle down in his arms and cry with gratitude some more. I can't believe how much my Heavenly Father must love me to give me the privilege of loving such choice people, and helping me realize it again tonight. I'm still sitting here wondering if it's the tiredness from getting up at 5:00 this morning, the lingering sweet Christmas spirit we started the day with, or the nyquil I took to help me sleep thorough my cold, but whatever helped prepare me for this experience tonight, I'm...well, ...grateful.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

Here's what our Christmas postcards would have looked like, had they arrived in any of our family and friends' mailboxes this year. We got them back from the printer a week or so before Christmas, but they had a problem with all the shadows around the pictures, and had to be reprinted. I'm hoping to send the new ones out next week (yes...a whole week after Christmas) just to make sure everyone knows we still love them and were thinking about them again this year!

Merry Christmas to Me!

I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! Last night, I went to weigh in at Weight Watchers, and after 33 weeks of weigh-ins, I met my weight-loss goal! After only losing a total of about 7.5 pounds through our Dixon Girls' Biggest Loser contest, I realized that my my eating was still a little out of control, even when I was "trying". I had hit a brick wall, and it seemed that stubborn spot on the scale just wouldn't ever give way. My mom, after having come to the same conclusion about her weight-loss adventure, joined Weight Watchers and told me all about it and that she was really excited. It sounded like exactly what I needed, too. I decided that I needed someone to be accountable to on the scale besides myself, and a place where I could go that someone else would tell me what to do, and ask me how I did. Obviously, my methods weren't working. So, I joined Weight Watchers last April - at 154.6 lbs. I just wanted to lose 15, just to get past that brick wall, and closer the mid-point of the BMI scale. (I later changed my goal to include another 5, to put me right smack in the middle of it.) I love the Weight Watchers Program. It encompasses all aspects of how our bodies process the food we take in, healthy eating, healthy smart habits, exercise or increased activity, group support and encouragement - and most importantly - it includes slow, steady maintain-able weight loss. It took me a while, (with the trip to Alaska and the last 3 pounds I lost over and over again) but I DID IT! Through this process, I broke a few really bad eating habits I didn't even realize I had, gained some self-control, and got a whole lot healthier! Oh, and I went down another pants size and feel terrific about myself! Merry Christmas to ME!

Why is life so crazy?

I've thought about my blog a lot the last few weeks and really planned to spend some time at least every Sunday posting, but time never seems to slow down enough to get to it. I've got at least 5 major things to post, in addition to our Family Road Trip to Alaska, plus all the things I wanted to put in since we've moved. We had half of Steve's family here for Thanksgiving (which was wonderful), and now I'm working on Christmas projects, cards, decorating, and shopping... Stay tuned, maybe I'll have some time to catch up before the year ends! I think I've decided all I want for Christmas this year is a couple more hours a day...