After gaining several new followers I figured this would be a good time to re-introduce our family and tell you a little bit about us!

Matt and I met in December of 2014 and married a mere 4 months later in April of 2015. We met in an online grieving group for widows and widowers. Matt’s first wife passed away July of 2013 and my first husband passed away June of 2014.

We combined our 2 families into one JUMBO family of eight children! Matt had five children, I had three. Together we have had one child together and we are now complete. Nine children is a lot to handle! Here is a picture of us right after I had our little baby boy:

Let me introduce our girls!

All of girls are super active. We currently have them in cross country running, cheerleading, gymnastics, and even a fishing class!

Let me introduce our boys!

Our boys are all so fun and involved in many different activities just like the girls. Our oldest is currently living in Santiago, Chile serving a full time 2 year religious mission for our church. The other boys are busy playing lacrosse and volleyball, actively involved in Boy Scouts, lovers of the XBox and the game MineCraft, and the baby is the busiest baby who keeps us all on our toes!

What do we like to do?

Well, that is tough to answer. When you blend two families together you are putting together two families with different interest. Matt loves hiking, backpacking, and adventure so he has introduced that into our family. We have enjoyed several family hikes and bike rides and even I have had a good time ha!

I enjoy the beach, working out, and trying new restaurants (I’m kind of a foodie!) so that’s been tricky to try and introduce to our family because we live in Utah (no beach) and with nine children it’s very expensive to take everyone out to eat.

We are learning more and more about each other’s interest and discovering together what everyone likes to do and what events we don’t care for…like the rodeo haha!

Why do we write this blog?

When we started our journey of blending our family it was tough. So tough that I honestly wasn’t sure we would make it past the first year or even the second year. As Matt and I have met more families just like ours we have learned that we are all sharing similar struggles. How wonderful it’s been to share our story, have others share theirs, and to know we are NOT ALONE. Marriage is hard, remarriage is hard, blending is very hard, but we can do it!

I can tell you this much after 3 years into this new marriage: I love my new family more than I could have ever dreamed. It is possible to love your stepchildren as your own. It is possible to love another man as much as your first love. It is possible if you have hope, thus the name of our blog: Blended Hope.

What is our family’s goal?

Our goal is to raise our children to know that they can like and love their new family, that it’s okay to love their stepparent AND their biological parent, and to make each family member feel loved.

We love having you as a follower to share in our journey.

If you are not yet a follower, click below to join!