It's A Wonderful Life

This is Ressa, the eighteen year old daughter.  I have to know how to blog for a Technology Skills Assessment at BYU so I figured I could learn by doing a post for my mom.  She thought it was a great idea because she doesn't have to feel guilty for not updating!      People often ask us what Christmas is like at our house and today is your lucky day because you get to hear all about it.  Christmas weekend was crazy, but it was a blast!  Christmas Eve started off with getting ready for our new family picture.  This picture's the best we could get in the midst of a crazy day. Our family changes so often that doing occassional snapshots in our living room is much more reasonable than getting professionals done every year...or sometimes even twice a year.  After taking this picture, we ran last minute errands, ate a very yummy Christmas dinner, and opened new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.  We read Christmas stories and then everyone slept (or attempted to sleep) in our family r

Sitting in a restaurant after the finalization for Olivia, Clayson got Hot Chocolate.  Clayson, "Mom, this is still too hot!" Me, "Do you want some of my ice?" Clayson, "Is it warm ice or cold ice?" In the same restaurant, which happened to be all you can eat, so there were A LOT of gray haired people. Emma very loudly says. "Grandma Dead!" Her grandma died a year ago and still thinks about it. OK, Casey has had a couple of good ones lately but these two are the best. We were watching a special on some orphans in Uganda.  These kids were between 6 and 11 years old and cute as can be.  For those that don't know, Casey is black and so were these children. Close to the end of the program Casey says, "It's hard to tell them apart, they all look the same." I was getting ready to go pick up a friend about 30 minutes away.  I was looking forward to the drive down without children that could talk to me. Just my ow

I just came across this video yesterday and it helped to clear up some thoughts that I have had.  There are times when I have wondered if it wouldn't have been better for one of my children to have stayed in the orphanage.  This child has suffered so much and if they had stayed there these things would not have happened. I know it would not have been the ideal but maybe better than what they have been through.  I have to trust God that what He puts into place is always the best thing for each individual. So that means that no matter how difficult the challenge this chain of events will serve them best throughout their life. Watching this video has helped me to see that in the long run what all children need is love no matter the road to get there. A little background on the video: The girl in the video clip was adopted days before she turned 14 this past April. To know what she is talking about you need to know that she has severe scoliosis.  Her mother was preparing some thing

OK, today was one of those days for me.  At 3:30 I very calmly said "everyone needs to clean the kitchen and family room."  Then I walked out.  On the way to my room to lay down to pull myself together Bria wanted to be held. I just needed some time alone but that doesn't ever happen right now. I put her on the bed and laid down.  Bria sat and stared at me while I closed my eyes.  I finally told her she could go play and she took the bait. I just laid there for a while longer before I got up. I had a lot of things to do that didn't get done because of other circumstances today, including going shopping.  We have food but I had no idea how to put it together to make it tasty. I made pancakes and sat the kids down to eat while I finished cooking.  I usually try to finish cooking before feeding the kids but I just wanted it done.  While cooking Pierce got up and told me to go eat.  He is very in tune with my needs and thoughtful.  I was close to being done so I told hi