Welcome to our blog!

I've been debating for months and months whether or not I should start a new blog.  Our old blog was private, and I was unable to continue adding friends because I had reached the limit a long time ago.  Friends kept asking to be added (you know who you are!) and I told them I didn't know how to add more readers.  Sorry!  So, I decided that it was time to just start a new, public blog.  Because it is public, I will be using nicknames for my family instead of our real names for privacy's sake.  Hopefully this blog will motivate me to post more about our everyday life (for my own personal journal) instead of only the big events. And since it's a new blog, it's a clean slate to start posting what happens from now on instead of feeling guilty that I never posted about things that happened two years ago. :)

To catch you up, here's the latest on our family:

Hubby - finishing up his last year of medical school.  Instead of residency, he is going to be working for a consulting firm in the metro D.C. area starting sometime after graduation.  He loves to play basketball and soccer with guys from the ward each week.  His current calling is ward choir director/ward chorister.  This has been one of his favorite callings!  I love watching him get so excited about pieces that the choir will be performing and when I catch him practicing his conducting it is so cute!

The Mommy - keeping our lives in control.  :)  Sometimes I feel like a soccer mom (minus the mini-van) with all the schedule coordination and driving people places, but I really love it.  Since the oldest is in kindergarten, I only have two at home, and it is SO easy!  I love to go to Zumba twice a week and get my dance on.  I haven't danced since I was in college, and it is fun to feel like I can follow the choreography pretty easily again.  Ever since we discovered Blue Bell ice cream, I've been pretty obsessed.  I've tried over 40 flavors and will highly recommend it to everyone I meet.

Roo - the oldest of our three kids.  Started kindergarten this year and absolutely loves it.  She is learning how to read and can usually read almost an entire verse each night during family scripture study.  She still loves anything princess, although now that she's in school, she doesn't get to dress up as much.  One of her favorite things is drawing pictures and writing descriptions of the pictures.  I love the descriptions because she writes it based on how it sounds to her and it is so adorable.  She started soccer this fall and until recently was the most passive player ever.  She would just walk around following the ball but wouldn't even attempt to kick it.  However, at her last practice and game, she got slightly more aggressive and actually scored her first goal.  We were very proud of her hard work!

Miami - the middle child.  Her personality is full of spunk and attitude.  She is the most resilient of our children.  At the end of this summer, she fell out of our second-story window onto our concrete driveway.  Luckily, she walked away with only scratches.  The other night she fell out of her sister's top bunk bed, and again, was fine.  She loves her older sister and tries to do the exact same things.  Being the oldest one at home during the day, she is trying to figure out how much control she has over her little brother.  She loves all things Cars and enjoys building with magnetic shapes.

Bubs - finally has cut his first tooth!  He is 11 months old and is crawling everywhere.  He pulls himself up onto everything and loves to pull all of our books off of the shelves.  He cruises along the couches and loves to play with his sisters.  He thinks they are the greatest!  This boy is a total mommy's boy and is pretty calm as long as all of his needs are met.  I only nurse him once a day, and he is taking formula the rest of the day, so he's pretty much weaned.  If I take him outside, he is instantly happy and really enjoys rides in the wagon.