A New Beginning

After a year and a half hiatus I'm ready to blog again.  (My old blog can be found here.)  Since life has changed so drastically in the past year I decided to start fresh with a new name and a new look.  Jessi was married to Stefan Brown in August 2013, so Jeff and I are now EMPTY NESTERS!!  We've waited for this day for a long time and it is different but wonderful.  Amy and Luke had a new baby, finally another boy to add to the pack.  Logan Larsen was born on Oct 11, 2013.  Unfortunately I've missed documenting so much in our lives, but after recently attending a 3 day RootsTech Conference I came to the conclusion that life is not going to get easier or less stressful so I need to leave a record of our lives, my thoughts and rantings, and pics of us even though we are getting older and plumper. 

We just spent a few days as a family in Oceanside, California, which is about 30 miles north of San Diego.  We had a crazy, but good crazy, few days together.  Imagine having 1- seven year old, 3- five year olds, 3-two year olds and a 4 month old baby together for 4 days and it is easy to imagine the craziness.  The amazing thing was how well all the grandkids got along.  I hope they will remember some of the memories made during these few days.  My greatest desire is for my family to be close, to be able to depend on one another, and to enjoy each other.  

The most amazing gift of this trip was that all five of our children were together for the first time in five years.  As I was thinking about this trip I was trying to recall when we were last together and could not even think when it was.  When we got home Carly looked up on her blog (benefit of blogging or recording family history) and discovered that the last time we were all together was in June of 2009 at Lake Powell.  How sad is that.  I'm hoping this never happens again.  I can't even explain the peace I felt to know that all five of them were asleep under one roof with Jeff and I close by once again.  I remember thinking that same thing when they were all living at home. I loved that contented feeling of knowing that my family was all together as I slept at night.  I was incredibly emotional as we all began to go our separate ways at the end of our vacation, really not knowing when we will all be together again.  I guess no matter how old my children are, they will always be my babies.