Happy New Year!!!

It is officially 2011!

Another year has come and gone...AND VERY QUICKLY if you ask me!!!

2010 was a year of many ups and downs for us Tostensons!!!  Some of the downs consisted of Nick not working from January until July, our old van breaking down and being way too much to fix, BILLS BILLS BILLS, losing some friends/family, and almost losing a surprise pregnancy due to some issues with my placenta! But with the downs, comes some ups!!!! Nick started working in July and has been employed since (even through other lay offs,) we got a new van, bills are getting back on track, our relationship has grown tremendously, Nick was baptized at church, our relationship with the Lord has grown soooo much, we have also really gotten closer to our true friends, and the best up was welcoming Josiah David into our lives.

As much as I did not like 2010 due to a lot of stressors, I would go through it all over again. I feel like 2010 was full of a lot of lessons to be learned and really taught me to Trust in the Lord!!! I know that God will get us through anything and provide for us as long as we trust in him and we do all that we can on our part. He is such an amazing Father who really took care of us, his children. Thank you Lord for that!!!

When it comes to trust in the Lord, we made a very big decision in the last month of 2010, one that takes a lot of trusting in the Lord....I am now a stay at home mom. I will probably have to work some part time hours, but after losing child care due to school responsibilities, we realized we just could not justify me working full time to only pay for 3 children in child care, plus preschool for Julia. It would be financially smarter for me to stay home with them and work part time. We are going to try our hardest to find ways to cut expenses in order for me to only work very little or not at all.

I am excited to see where 2011 leads us! We are going to be doing things a lot differently this year from being better at budgeting, using coupons, price matching, making as much as we can home-made (laundry soap, dish washer soap, etc,) more devotional time with the Lord, better at attending church on a weekly basis, more family time and less tv time, better at organizing our house and our lives at a whole. I can't wait to start our new journey!!!

One thing I can't wait to start and hope to keep up on so much better than I have the past few years is SCRAPBOOKING!!! I got a cricut for my birthday and can't wait to start using it!!!



There are so many cool things you can do with this little machine and I am sooooo thrilled to start being more crafty with it. I will be toting it with me to my good friend Rachel's house to her crafting cave :) (You better be ready for me Rach!)

Here are just a few things you can do with it!!!

Well, one last thing I hope to be better about is this blogging business. I really slacked during pregnancy! Now that Josiah is here, on a better routine and I have more time to sit and do things, I hope to be better about it again!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!!!!

2011