Celebrate 2008!!

I saw this idea on my nieces blog and decided to do one too.

I took the slide show that Jon, Melanie, & Beth put together just recently.

The music is our Acapella Quartet singing the songs.

Soprano - Melanie, Alto - Me, Tenor - Jon, Bass - Doug

It's a little long...there's a lot of us to see!!

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!

Bethanie Did It!!!

That's right!! She finally did it! What?? You say...


Pierce her ears, of course!

At first she was wondering why Dad was taking pictures...


Then they decided to send me this one... psyche!!





Anticipation is the worst!!

First ear!! She says, wow, that's not bad at all!!



Second ear, not so bad!



I have to tell the story for you to appreciate her finally doing it.


Doug and I are pretty conservative when it comes to ear piercing. We decided not to let the girls do theirs until they were old enough to take care of it all themselves and they really have to want it. Well Bethanie was the first one to actually ask and then keep asking. When she first asked, I didn't think she was old enough to keep them clean and such. But about two years ago, I decided to go ahead and let her do it. I did all the calling and found out there wasn't a place here in Bountiful. We had to go to Layton (not that far about 15 to 20 minutes drive). We took the time to pick out the earrings, got her in the chair, her ears marked, all the paperwork filled out and signed. And yup! she chickened out!! We sat there for an hour trying to talk her into it! It was horrible. I wasn't even sure I wanted her to have it done in the first place, and here I was trying to talk her into it for over an hour!! I decided to give her an ultimatum...I am leaving this store, so do it now or we're out of here, and I am not bringing you back! She tried to be brave but just didn't have it in her. The funny thing was by this time I was not happy about wasting my time. I called Doug and told him she chickened out, and he spent another 15 minutes trying to talk her into it. I said, forget it, I am leaving! So we left.


She tried to talk us into taking her again, but I wasn't convinced that she was ready to actually do it. She started talking about it again alot in the last few months, especially since Melanie went and got hers done last year for her 18th birthday.


I guess Dad was convinced she would actually do it and was willing to take the chance on her. He came home from work and took her in. I almost forgot about taking pictures...I called him about the time they were picking out her earrings, so he had to take them with his camera but here she is.



I can't believe how happy she is! She's walking around here like she's on cloud 9!! She's wanted this for a very long time. She said she wished she would have done it sooner!

"Stand a Little Taller"

Almost every morning we gather together to have Family Prayer. We found that reading the scriptures as a family works best at night for us, but I also realize we need to start the day off right. A few years ago we came across this book by Gordon B. Hinckley called "Stand a Little Taller". It has daily scripture gems and Pres Hinckley's thoughts on each one. I so love these little daily gems. Sometimes I swear they move around and come up as we need them.

Some recent entries are...

"The Blessings of Work, 'the labour of the righteous tendeth to life' Prov 10:16 Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality."

"He Answers Prayers, 'I know that God will give liberally to himthat asketh...Therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee' 2Nephi 4:35 Get on your knees and thank God for His goodnees to you and express unto Hi the righteous desires of your hearts. He hears, He respods, He answers. Not always as we would wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers."

"A Positive Attitude, 'Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing...Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.' Psalm 100:2 Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the Lord. Be positive. I do not know how anybody who is a member of the Church can feel gloomy for very long. This is the day which has been spoken of by those who have gone before us. Let us live worthy of our birthright. Keep the faith. Nurture your testimonies. Walk in righteousness and the Lord will bless you and prosper you, and you will be a happy and wonderful people."

Good stuff, huh!!?


This year I came across another book with "daily gems", it is called "Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice" by Lloyd D. Newell. I couldn't give up Pres Hinckley's book, so now we read from both. These are quotes from past and present General Authorities.

This one is from this morning...

"Do you want peace in your families?...If you do, live your religion, and the very peace of God will dwell and abide with you, for this is where peace comes from." John Taylor

'Many people long for peace in their lives but don't know where to find it. Some search for peace on the dead-end streets of selfishness or take unsatisfying detours through empty fields of pleasure-only to discover more unrest, more uneasiness. Peace is a gift of God; it comes to those who strive to live righeously, those who sincerely submit to the Lord's will in their lives. When our trust rests in the Lord and our lives reflect his teachings, we are blessed with peace of mind and courage in the face of adversity. What blessing is greater, what peace more lasting, than the peace of God! His promise is certain: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" John 14:27"

I so love them both. They are short enough and yet profound enough to get our spiritual fix in the morning before we start our day!

Merry Christmas!!

Wow, what a day! It is amazing that we can spend weeks, even months getting ready for Christmas day and then it's all over in a matter of hours!

I was amazed that I had to wake my kids up at 9! Yup, I had to wake them up!! Even the little ones!! The dog woke me at about 8:30 to go out, so I got up and started breakfast. We have a tradition that we eat a good breakfast before we open presents. We figure it will be the only decent meal they actually eat for at least a couple of days because of all the junk they get. Before I was done, Steven was up, he helped me get ready. Then we went and woke everyone up. We finally got everyone fed and downstairs ready to open presents a little after 10am!

We also have a tradition that we open presents one by one. It gives a chance for the kids to play with and examine each gift while someone else is opening their gifts. By the time it's their turn again, they are ready for the next one. But it can end up taking a while, especially in a big family such as ours!! We finished opening presents after 1pm. It's always a relief when everyone is happy with their gifts, and you know you did well!

It was perfect though, because then Nattie Girl was ready to go back to bed. She was safe in bed and it gave us a few hours of not having to be extra careful what was down and all over. By the time she was up again, the house was fairly cleaned up and in some kind of order.

The rest of the day, we just played games and watched movies.

We were excited the storm we were supposed to get was too warm to be snow, so it was raining in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it did turn to snow and we ended up with just about a foot of snow before morning! We finished watching Prince Caspian at 1am and decided we better shovel before going to bed because our newspaper carriers were going to have to leave soon. So we went out and shovelled for 1 1/2 hours! By the time we were done, it was 2:30am, Wow, we are crazy!!

All in all we had a great Christmas day!

It's just too hard to pick which pictures to put up!! I took quite a few!

Today we are doing much of the same thing, just being lazy and enjoying the day!!

Christmas Eve Jammies!!

You know we've been doing something for a while when even the little kids knew that the present they get to open on Christmas Eve is going to be jammies! Some of them were commenting weeks before how they couldn't wait to see what their new jammies are going to look like.

Poor Bethanie was the worst because she wears her jammies the most, and they were wearing out fast! Once they started ripping, they just kept getting bigger and bigger. I didn't realize it, but I actually got her some that were pretty much exactly the same! After a few washes, no one will ever know!!

We had to laugh, because when Nattie opened hers she kept saying "Oooo, pretty!" Later when it was Shawn's turn, he let her help him open his. When they got to the jammies, there were no exclamations! In fact, she picked them up and threw them!! I guess his weren't pretty!!

We always do the traditional poses...

One with the girls....

One with the boys...

Then of course one of everyone!!

Now we're all ready for Christmas morning!!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, I have been so busy with Christmas preparations I've hardly been on the computer at all!!

Yesterday was a big Cookie day for me. I volunteered to make cookies for Aaron's Christmas program today and decided to make them yesterday. I needed about 2 dozen. Doug found out I was making cookies and said he signed up to take treats to work for today and would I mind making some for him too. I said sure how many do you need? He said well, there's about 31 people in our department. I said okay, so you need at least 62? The look on his face was priceless...He said well some might want 3! I just had to laugh! So how many do you want me to make????

When all was said and done the final count was 195! I sent 100 to work with Doug, 12 on the neighborhood pass along plate we got the night before, 30 for the program today and the rest, the kids have been eating. It only took me six hours!!! Only?? I was bushed last night as I fell into bed!!

Anyway, I was frosting them and set them out on the counter for the frosting to set enough to put in the boxes. Doug thought he should snap a picture...I'm glad he did, it was an incredible sight!!

It was funny to have all these cookies and then, just have one little pan that were staying home for the kids to eat. Although, they did have some right off the counter after dinner before I had boxed everything up.

Doug already called me this morning, they are a hit at work! Yummy, Sugar Cookies. Whenever I make these, I think of my good friend, Gwen! Thanks Gwen!!

Here We Go Again!!

I just can't believe it... Look what Beth found in her room this morning!

I am so worried that it has brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, etc, etc!! Doug keeps saying he thinks maybe he is just a stray and just happened to get in. I think he's just trying to make me feel better, but I certainly hope he's right. I guess we need to be on the alert now for signs and evidence, uggh!!

Well, I have to go decorate the stage for the RS Christmas dinner tonight, wish me luck!! (on both counts) :)

Happy December!!

This is going to be quick.... I just wanted to say .....

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Ours went waaayyy too fast!! I will post some pics soon.

I also wanted to say...

Happy December!!

I can hardly believe it's here!! This year has completely flown by!

Christmas here we come!!

Love to you all!