Utopia.

U·to·pi·a [yoo-toh-pee-uh] an ideal place or state.

A long time ago, in a neighborhood sort of far away...I was in my pre-mom, pre-wife stage.  I could not WAIT to begin the adventure of having my own family.  My little family was going to be my magnum opus.  I had dreams---big, big dreams of how I was going to create my very own mini-utopia complete with clean faces, perfect hair, darling clothes, brilliant children, and on and on and on.  People were going to look at my family and think, Wow, if having _______ kids is that much fun, I want some!  (please, for those of you who know us, quit laughing :)).

Time went on.  Diapers and puke came into the picture.  Disagreements were had (and resolved)...and had some more :).  Temper tantrums thrown.  Cute outfits were stained.  Hair was messed up.  Children were hyper.  DVD's failed to stay put away.  The list goes on :)  This was not my vision for my perfect family.  Because, by darn, it's not perfect!  What the what?!  After I wiped myself off the floor and got over the shock and frustration of it all, we all put some time, effort, and prayer into figuring out what we could do better.  Slowly, inspiration came, a piece at a time.  We worked harder on making our home more like the temple (still have a long ways to go on that one).  We worked harder on keeping the house clean and doing our own chores.  We worked harder on making sure the kids had time to play with each other and make memories together.  We worked harder on making time to pray and study together.  We worked harder on meal times.  In short...we worked.

Time keeps moving on.  We still have diapers (though only one child in them...hooray!).  We still have disagreements, temper tantrums, messy hair by the end of the day, and I'm STILL fighting to keep those silly DVD's put away.  And even though my little family still isn't the picture of perfection I had hoped for all those years ago, I have found my Utopia in the process of creating perfection.  We are moving towards our goals line upon line.  My kids love each other (some days more than others).  And best of all...

...they are mine (for a little while anyway).