Hello Blogworld

So, I want to apologize to my small following of blog readers. Many are good friends who I do not get to keep in contact with enough, so I use this blog to let them stay up with our lives. It's expected that I didn't blog in January. I don't know about any of you, but after the holidays I'm just too worn out to do anything. Then February came and I was actually enjoying our slow paced life. Than came March and life took off, like crazy took off and I just haven't had the time. Okay, enough with my excuses. I'll give a quick warning: we moved our computer and the internet died, so I am typing on my laptop, ie the computer with no pictures. So, this will be a pictureless post. I'm really not offended if you stop reading now, I like pictures on other people's blogs. December: For Christmas we decided to spend the holidays with Brad's family in California. It was so fun. We had Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins to play with on rainy days. We had fun placed to go when the weather cleared up. We made and painted pinewood derby cars, saw the big tree (tree at the mall), rode the Christmas train, went out to eat, and did tons of things I can't remember. Grandma made Christmas magical making Christmas cookies and decorating gingerbread houses and Santa was good to us this year. We loved spending the holidays with family and miss them when we can't see them. January: We got back and had just enough time to recover when my parents came to visit us. They have been on a mission for our church for the past 2 years in DC. It was so fun to see them and get to see all the grandparents in such a short time. It didn't take Madde and Hunter long before they were bosing them around and playing anything they wanted. Dayton even saved a few hearty giggles for them. We've missed seeing them and hope to see them much more this year. Brad started working as a missing persons detective. He really enjoys the change of pace. He's just getting to where he feels he actually knows what hes doing. With it comes hours of M-F, 8-5, which I love. The circus came to town for a weekend in January. They gave half off for cops families and Madde had a free ticket, we figured we couldn't miss it. Madde and Hunter loved it. The elephants and tigers, tight rope walkers, everything. Dayton hated it. I can't express that too forcefully. He giggled as the lights dimmed and even as they started flashing the lights, but the minuted the music started (it was loud), he started screaming. Me and him walked the halls for the next two hours. We were able to pop in here and there, so I did see some of it. February: February started off cold. We had a snow storm that cancelled school. We missed 2 days due to the storm, 1 day because it was so cold, the busses wouldn't start and one day because we had a natural gas shortage. So 4 days in a row. I loved having the kids home. Madde was bummed because she missed her snack day. Oh to have my biggest problems center around when I got to be the line leader. I miss childhood. My youngest sister, Christie had her 2nd baby and my parents went out to help her. The beauty of being in Albuquerque is anytime they head east we get to see them. So we enjoyed having them for two short nights on their way over and back. March: Here we go, this is when my calendar looks like its exploded black and blue ink. If you look close there are tiny words in that explosion. First, me and Brad decided that we would like to down size our house. Why? That is the question and seems to have a ton of answers. Some of it is financial. Not that we can't afford this house, but we do so by not doing much else. That really doesn't bother me, we aren't big getter outers, but we are watching the needs of our kids start to grow and we would like spare cash. This house is also too big for our needs and so its not really going to impact our life style much to down size. Mostly we just feel really good about it. We feel like its what the Lord wants us to do and we aren't entirely sure why, but I believe that we are needed elsewhere and there is a house that will better fit our needs. We really have loved this neighborhood and while I won't shed too many tears over the house, I'm truly sad to leave our awesome neighbors. So, a good portion of March has been spent packing, painting, rearranging, digging, gardening. We've had more trips to Lowes and Home Depot, I can't even remember them all. For whatever reason, we also felt we needed to get the house on the market as soon as possible. So Brad's usually come home from work with a project for the night. The house is on the market - YEA. It's crazy clean - not how I usually keep it. It's almost alien. Hunter must not like it cause he's constantly emptying drawers of toys. Grrrrr..... Spring Break hit in the middle of the madness. Since we don't get to see our friends as much as we would like and it finally got warm. We tried to spend as much time outside playing with friends as we could. We went to the park, had friends over to play and went to the zoo. It was fun but because we were so busy, I was somewhat glad for school to start up again. We also got a diagnosis for Dayton (yes in the middle of the madness). He has Angelman's Syndrome. It's a chromosome disorder. He's missing information off chromosome 15. The information affects his brain (though they aren't quite sure how), so Angelman's is associated with developmental delays, sometimes extreme, but doesn't effect the rest of his body. The CVI (vision problems) is completely unrelated (as far as the docs know). One of the symptoms of Angelman's is happiness (hey it could be worse). Meaning that he will most likely stay our sweet, happy, giggly guy that we adore. So how is Dayton doing? He's good for the most part. We ran a swallow study (over spring break of all weeks) and while they couldn't confirm reflux, the little stinker wouldn't eat, they suspect reflux. He's now on meds and we're hoping that helps him calm down. He's still not sitting, but rolling consistently. We have therapy walker and crawler, so we can get him in those positions and push him around. He actually enjoys both, if he's moving. He's still can't talk, but so social and will giggle when anyone talks to him. He's so sweet. How are we doing? Good, while not quite the diagnosis we wanted, we are thrilled to know what we are dealing with. We also have a good idea of what the future holds and the issues that we should we looking at. We have been blessed to feel the calming influence of our Savior Jesus Christ and our grateful to know that in the resurrection not a hair of his head (or in Dayton's case, a piece of his chromosome) will be lost and all will be restored. While this is something our sweet guy will have to endure, we trust that its for the best and that he will be made perfect in the next life. April: Today is my anniversary. Yes, me and Brad managed to remember, but only barely - as in yesterday afternoon. While I love and appreciate my marriage to such a wonderful, amazing guy, we aren't much for celebrating. But I am grateful to have this sweet man by my side and for some reason, I've managed to hood wink him into loving me. I'm definitely a lucky girl. Well, congratulation if you managed to make it this far. Hopefully sometime soon I can post pictures of my cute kids and their fun adventure. I love how a trip to the store can be an adventure. They keep my life so fun and enjoyable. PS - So I just looked at my blog and for whatever reason, blogger has deleted all of my paragraphs. Sorry if its a crazy read