New Year Ahead, Time for Some Changes and Updates

So with the New Year coming up, there are a few things in my life I would like to improve upon.  One of those is blogging.  Since I am not very good or very interested in scrapbooking and rarely post pictures on facebook either for family (living far away to see), and it also doesn't give me a lot of space to update family on what is going on either, I need to get back to blogging.  So here we go!

2014 has been a very busy and exciting year.  Some highlights, (some good some bad) are:

Camden turned 8 mid february and got baptized in March.  He was very excited and we are very proud of him and his decision to get baptized.

In April, we had a scary experience with Malia (despite receiving and being up to date on all her vaccines), contracted Pertussis (aka Whooping Cough) which lasted for several weeks and she still unfortunately reaps some of the consequences from.  We are very grateful however that she was still vaccinated as we feel her case may have been worse had she not been.  We were grateful everyone else's vaccines did work fully and no one else got it, though we all had the joy of taking antibiotics as well because we had been exposed.

In June, we made a trip to Utah for baby sister, CieJae's wedding.  It was beautiful and we enjoyed the time we had with family as well as friend's.  It was also my 15 year High School Reunion and the first high school reunion either Brady or I have ever been too.  It was low key, but a great experience to catch up with some old friends.  We were also blessed that things worked out for a dear friend, Natalie (Link) Norton to take our family pictures while both our families were in town.  It was also the last chance we had to spend time on the Pack Family Farm where I grew up as a kid before my dad had to sell it in July 2014 after it had been in the family for over a hundred years.  Very bittersweet.  Here are just a few of the wonderful pics she took:

In August, the kids and I, thanks to my dad's willingness to take road trips, were able to go back to Utah for another week and a half while Brady was at Scout camps.  It was fun to go back and attend the Pack Family reunion while we were there.

In August, I began a parttime job (which turned more into a fulltime job) from home helping a cousin with some data entry work.  I'm relieved to see it come to an end and have more time to dedicate to our family and other things, but very grateful for the opportunity it was to allow us to replenish some savings that has been lost over the year due to the lower patient load Brady has had at work (as they've been a lot of changes with building a 2nd facility and hiring on a lot of new PT's in the clinic.)  We are sure praying to have his patient load get back to normal hopefully in the near future so that we don't have to subsidize income elsewhere and can have more time together as a family.

In September, Brady became a parttime Professor!  He taught a Geriatrics course Fall Semester at the PT school at George Fox University.  It was a great experience for him and also a huge blessing to also help subsidize his loss of income at the clinic.  He has been asked to return again Fall 2015, and we hope by then it might be bonus income, not just making up for lost income. :)  But either way it has been a blessing in providing for our family and we are very grateful and it has been a great learning experience for Brady.

Also in September the kids began school again.  Tayson is in 5th grade (last year of elementary!), Camden is in 3rd grade, and Baylee began Kindergarten (though a rough start while struggling with separation anxiety from her mom which began back in June when I recieved a new calling in church and was taken from Primary to the RS Presidency.  The first month of Kindergarten, drop offs were a nightmare with her crying while her teacher held on to her while I left.  But now she is back to her Confident happy self, which we could not be more grateful for!!  She is brave enough to be dropped off at the curb finally and LOVES to ride the bus home after school. Hooray!!!

In November/beginning of December we had the opportunity to go to DISNEYLAND!  Which the kids all LOVED of course. We spent 3 days at Disneyland with Brady's parents, siblings and families.  The kids LOVED being with their cousins most of all.  Then we spend a week in Palm Springs just hanging out at a guesthouse all together.  The drive was LONG of course, but thankfully we were able to break it up coming home and spend a day in San Franscisco and visiting a redwood forest as well.  Brady was able to check an item off his bucket list too.  The boys joined in as he ran across the Golden Gate Bridge.  They had a lot of fun.

Then when we got back we enjoyed all the Christmas festivities, etc.  The kids were thrilled with Christmas, even keeping it more low key, and they all said it was the best Christmas EVER!  Success!!  :)  We took time to remember our Savior and the FIRST Christmas gift ever.

We are looking forward to the new year and the challenges that await us.  The biggest event we have scheduled so far for 2015 is the upcoming arrival of baby #5 in June 2015!  God decided to take things into his own hands and give us a bit of a surprise.  Oh the adventures that await us there!!  But we are very excited for the blessing of another little one, and trust that we can handle it all with HIS help and guidance.