Better Late Than Never!

Please excuse my absence from my blog. I have been busy with these four crazy kids. Supervising this:
Watching Cousins:

Alyssa is one of Nathan's best friends. One day I found them sitting like this. When I started taking pictures their younger siblings had to get in on the action. Adam, Nathan, Alyssa, and Sunny

Cleaning up after this:

Natalie loves to get into the kitchen drawers

And this:

She also loves pulling books off the book shelf

Teaching Preschool, February was my month:

Harlie, Nathan, Alayna, Darren, and Xander

And on top of all that I have been working a lot, trying to pay off our van (DONE! We're debt freeeee!!!), and serving as the Relief Society Secretary in our ward. (Surprisingly, I have no pictures of Adam doing crazy stuff! I guess Natalie has replaced him as the crazy one in the family.) I really want to do better at this. It is important to me to preserve my memories of this crazy, busy, but wonderful time of my families life. Here are some of the more memorable things that happened in our family in January and February.

I had a birthday, my 31st if you must know. To sweeten the deal my neighbor, Brian, made me this awesome cake. Seriously the best birthday cake I have ever had. It had to be at lease 5 lbs of chocolate. I was in heaven. Unfortunately, that 5 lbs of chocolate translated to 5 lbs on me.

Jacob had a birthday 3 days later, his 7th. He is getting so big. He can read, he can do math, he can reason. It is fun to watch him grow up. I love him so much, he is an awesome boy.

I guess having "Happy Birthday" sung to him at his party made him embarrassed.

Randy got a new job. He started February 1st. It is awesome. He is now working for a company called Xi3. They make computers that can sit in your palm and use a ton less power than regular desk top computers. You can read more about them here. Randy is the VP of operations, which sounds really impressive until you find out there are only 6 employees. Even though it is a small company now, they have the potential to be HUGE. We are so excited about this opportunity, not to mention the way better pay and benefits, which will allow me to quit the before mentioned job that has been keeping me extra busy. I am really excited that I will be able to just stay home and focus on my kids for a while. I am scheduled through April and then I will be done.

My sweet Grandma, Ruth Carmen Larsen Christopherson Dement, passed away on February 8th, her funeral was the following Saturday, February 12th. It was an interesting week. My dad had a business trip in Layton and so my mom came down with him. She was going to spend the week at my house. I was excited to have her, and had all kinds of things planned for us to do. They got to my house on Friday night. On their way they got a call from my mom's brother saying that Grandma Ruth was in the hospital and not doing well. On Saturday she was still doing poorly and the doctors were saying she wouldn't live much longer. My mom's oldest brother lives in Layton, and he called my mom Saturday afternoon and asked her to drive to California with him so they could see their mom one last time. So, Saturday night they left. My mom was able to spend a few days with her mom, she was there holding her hand as she took her last breaths. It was a really good experience for my mom and I am glad that she got to go, even if she didn't get to spend the week with me. Since my dad was here in Utah working I was able to hitch a ride with him down to California for the funeral. I took Natalie, but left all the boys behind. I just didn't think it would be any fun for them. We left on Friday morning and drove all day. Natalie did really well, considering. We got to my Uncle Gerry's house late in the afternoon. Grandma Ruth lived with Gerry and his family for about 9 years. I was able to stay there, I even slept in my Grandma's bed. It was neat staying in her room. I felt close to her there. I was able to look through her things, her music books, her pictures, her recipe cards. I read a life history that she had written. My Grandma was a quiet woman, I guess I got that from her, and I didn't feel like I knew her well, but I do know that she loved her family, and that she had a very strong testimony of the Gospel. I am grateful for her example. I realized, staying in her room, that I am a lot like her. The best part about going to the funeral was seeing all my cousins, aunts, uncles, my other Grandma, and most importantly my brother, Aaron and his family. I miss them now that they live in New Mexico.

Aaron, Sophia, Grandma Vicky, Me, Natalie, and my dad

Me, my mom, my dad, Aaron, Natalie, and Sammy
for some reason we couldn't get all of us together for a picture.

So, that is my update, if anyone is still reading here is one more thing. In January Natalie's hair was long enough to do this:

But now it is long enough to do this:

Natalie's first pig tails, aren't they so cute!