New Years Eve 2011

A picture of the three of us at midnight. This picture was taken during one of Madeline's brief moments of not crying.

This is the last of the 2011 posts, with this post done I will be ready to begin putting our 2011 family blog book together. To be honest I don't remember what we did New Years Eve, I know Grant and I were sleep deprived and just kind of going trying to put one foot in front of the other. What I do remember is that Grant spent majority of the day building ramps for our living room to help with Madeline's wheel chair. While Grant was doing that I was spent majority of the day cleaning up the house and trying to put some order back from all the holiday fun. I believe it was a beautiful day and so the kids spent the day outside with Daddy which made it easier for me to clean up. Later on in the day, my sister brought her little girl over for us to watch while they went out and celebrated. My niece fell asleep on the way to our house and remained asleep while her parents were gone, so we pretty much watched her sleep. Madeline decided to take a nap at the same time, which was good because she needed one. For dinner that night we did drive through, Grant and I didn't feel like cooking and since we were sleep deprived drive thru was an easy solution. From dinner to bed time I don't remember much, but I do know that when Grant and I were ready to go to bed (way before Midnight), Madeline's pain kicked in from her foot and for the next 3 or so hours Grant and I tried to comfort Madeline as she dealt with the pain. We had two different pain medicines and after one dose of one and two of another, and 3 or more hours of intense crying she fell asleep. During this time, since we were up we decided to watch the ball drop. Dallas has their version of NYC New Years Eve party and that is the one we watched. The ball dropped and with tiredness Grant and I declared Happy New Year.

2011 was a good year for us and we were able to makes lots of memories together and celebrated many things as a family. We went on a really neat family vacation for the summer, and Grant was able to experience life as a traveling engineer (glad that is over). Madeline stayed away from the hospital (except for her foot surgery 3 days before the new year) which has been a goal and wish for Grant and I. For 2011 I had a goal for our family and that was to make memories and celebrate. To celebrate the little holidays, the big holidays, achievements, and all of life experiences. I think we did that and I hope to continue that on into 2012. I know 2012 will be a great year and I am excited about all the things we will experience and learn. After Madeline was born, life took on a whole new meaning. You learn to find joy in the good days and the bad, and you learn that you don't need a holiday or a reason to celebrate; life is reason in it self to celebrate and enjoy. I love how Nephi says that although he had his share of hardships and trial, he was also blessed with the goodness of God. We have our trials and we have our hardships, but we also have been blessed with feeling and seeing the goodness of God in our lives, and those moments far out weigh our trials.

Oh if you think our New Years Eve was exciting, our New Years Day was even more exciting. Madeline was still experiencing lots of pain so she stayed home from church with Grant. Anthony and I went to church where I was blessed to give a talk (so I am done for the year). My talk was on the importance of the scriptures. The spirit was strong and I walked away with a stronger testimony and stronger desire to cling to the Word of God. Then after church it hit us, Grant and I were hit with the lovely stomach flu bug that evening. It was kind of hysterical, Madeline is screaming in pain while her parents are tending to their business. Neither one of us is feeling well but we trade off tending to Madeline; while one holds Madeline the other tends to the affects of the stomach bug. This went on for the evening and thru the night. Grant and I couldn't help but laugh.