Happy New Year!

Ok, ok, its been a month. But I'm not too late for Chinese new year!

A lot has happened in our lives these past two years...

So pretty much, we moved to Irvine. had another kid. got sealed in the LA temple. and that was the jist of 2008.

2009 goes like this. at the beginning of last year i told everyone we were pregnant with number four. i had volunteered to be the den leader for the tiger cubs. which was awesome, until some of the parents got on my nerves and started taking over. First grade was great for Nephi, he had bunch of adventures. i took a parenting class through the school, which was awesome. What was not awesome was Nephis first grade teacher, Mrs. Glassen. She called me in a couple of times to have a parent/ teacher "conference" which actually turned out to be a verbal attack on me as a parent.

(in a high pitched bubble-your-throat tone) "you're a bad parent. take more parenting classes. you are neglecting Nephis talents. hes doing poorly in school because you dont enforce the ridiculous rules i have set for him and make him do the absurd amount of homework i dump on all the five year olds. he doesn't do his schoolwork well because of you, even though hes doing the homework perfectly. blah, blah, blah, im a judgmental, old cynic. and lets not forget how hypocritical i am!"

ok, so i was paraphrasing, but thats pretty much what she did. and being pregnant at the time all i could do to keep myself from screaming in her face was to cry.

enough of that.

and then came the sweet release of summer break. i never wanted Nephi home from school more than i did from her class.

June, the last month of only three kids! and a fun one it was too. i think we had enough summer fun to last us the whole summer. we needed to because the baby was due july 8 and i would be out of commission for at least the rest of the summer! But i thank the good Lord every day that i had Deanna there to help me. Not to mention two mothers and two fathers less than an hour away, for when i needed them.

and thus on her due date Willow was born!! seven eight oh nine. my longest labor, eight hours, i know, you can hate me. when i saw the red hair i knew i had to name her Willow. it fit so much better than River or Zelda. of course Rose would have been nice. Faye was perfect for her middle name. I wish my Grandma Teddy could see her. thats silly to say because i know she can. i just wish i could see her see Willow. Faye was Grandmas baby sister who had red hair. She talked about her all the time.

Earlier i had mentioned Deanna.

Deanna moved out on October 6th. it was sad to come back from our famous free trip to Hawaii and there was no Deanna to be seen (not to mention Elsie >

I didn't cry when she left. i wanted to, but i couldn't really believe she was leaving, or that she was gone! she was with us for two years plus one month, approximately. I never thought about how much she meant to me until my mom mentioned that she was like part of our family. i mean we were always joking that Deanna was my sister or my daughter, hahaha. but it really hit me that she was like my family about a month after she left. i haven't had a best (girl ) friend since Alise, we were about 18 when we stopped hanging out, mostly because i moved to Santa Barbara. ive been talking to Alise more recently and, even though it had been a few years, its almost as though we were never apart. like we are really sisters. that kind of sisterhood bond is forever. Alas, that is a story for another post. it has been five years since i had a bestie, another girl who i can go shopping with, work out with, eat guilty ice cream with and watch stupid movies and talk about stupid things with. i appreciated all of those times that were spent huddled in blankets on my comfy couch, watching ghost hunters and Seinfield and "i didn't know i was pregnant", those times will be missed, but they will never be forgotten. there will be a time when we can do that again. i know that in my heart. i love all my sisters and my besties still, and i always will.

there will always be a place in my heart and my home for any of my friends and family who need me.

We decided that four is our magic number, so i got an IUD. look it up.

Now i can sit back and watch my beautiful children grow. and wait for my siblings and friends to have kids!!