Taylor's Winter Recital

 It was another wonderful night as we heard our daughter sing with more poise and confidence than she ever has before!  I had tears during her number, "God Help The Outcast."  Love our little songbird!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

 How did I get so lucky?

Seriously?

PS- Alyssa crowned me queen of our home!  And all along, I thought I was just the maid. :)

January Fun!

When it's cold outside, we find FUN things to do inside!

Play dates with our neighbors!

 Sewing lessons with Grandma Barbie!

 Painting our basement

(Yay!)

January 1, 2014: NEW GOALS, and a NEW WORD

Each new year, I love to choose a word to inspire my heart to become a stronger woman, a more loving mother, a better companion to my awesome husband, and to help me grow in spirit and testimony as a daughter of God.

During the Thanksgiving Holiday, I had some one-on-one time with my dad.  When we were alone one night and talking in the car, I shared with him some things going on that I just brushed off as a new "normal" although they were very negative and bitter.  As we talked about things, I realized that I was allowing someone else's bitterness toward me affect me.  He suggested I need to forgive and move on, move forward with Dave in a way that allow my freed heart and spirit to co-lead our sweet family.  

And thus, my word for 2014 will be

Forgiveness

If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would need to choose this word, I would have contested it and felt even a bit insulted.  Completely.  One of my greatest blessings has been that of relationships.  And in a lifetime of literally thousands of positive friendships and relationships, there is one that has been dealt to me that is unfair in every way.  It is one laced with bitterness and with an intent to hurt.  And it has hurt.  Badly.  It has hurt not just me, but my spouse and children.  And although I believe deep in my heart that this person does not want what is best for me or my family, I do need to forgive.  

Perhaps the greatest obstacle for me in the process to forgive has been fear.  Fear of expectations of others, of new expectations.  Fear that decisions we make in the best interest of our family will be misinterpreted as not what forgiveness should look like.  Fear that we will have to surrender what we believe is right for our family in order to keep peace in the bigger family.  

But on that cold night in the car, my wise father reminded me that forgiveness will bring me peace.  And that even one or two kind sentences, however rejected or received, will bring ME peace of heart and allow the spirit to better direct my life.

Inspired by one Holocaust survivor in particular, who after giving a speech on forgiveness recognized a Nazi guard who had been in particularly horrible to her and her sister, said that when the former-Nazi guard came up to speak to her, extended his hand to hers.  She said, although there were no words, the only thing she could do was pray that the Lord would help her extend her hand in forgiveness. 

And he helped her.

As he will help me.

2013: It's A Wrap! New Year's Eve Comes Again!

 We brought in the new year with fabulous friends at Nate and Meredith's beautiful new home!  New Year's Eve was awesome.  We played some new games, answered questions from the infamous "IF" book, ate yummy food and watched some TV.  The kids played so sweetly with their friends.

Happy New Year!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!

 I LOVE Christmas!  I love watching my children open their presents, squealing with excitement when they see everything (even socks and underwear)!  I love "spoiling" them for one day of the year with things they need and dream of and even things they didn't know they wanted but discovered the joy.  This year was no exception for our family.  Cindy and Carson  are a huge part of the Christmas magic for the children, especially Taylor who has no memories of it being any other way.

The kids slept in until almost 7:00am.  We kept them in their bedroom until all teeth were brushed and I had put a little paint on the old barn.  This is what our living room looked like before the fun began!

Alyssa was the first one into the livingroom!  She wanted a Barbie swimming pool and Orbee-thingie for Christmas.  Santa knew how wonderful she had been and she got both of those things, along with a hot hue Barbie, clothes, underwear, socks, a cute hat and the game, "Spot it."

Next came our Austin, with his one, front permanent tooth!  He had hoped for the following:  Lego set, guitar, and a basketball hoop.  Santa gave him a lego set, sketch pads, the game RUSH HOUR, socks and an angry birds winter hat.  Mom and Dad surprised him with a beautiful, black guitar and lessons with Max Hanson beginning in January!  Throughout the entire day, he thanked me again and again for the guitar.  I'm so excited for him!

Third to be allowed entry into the living room was Carson!  Carson is hilarious every Christmas!  He sees the one thing he really wants and just fixates on that item with less interest in the other, less-priority items.  Carson loves the HOBBIT and got a cool book and the full set of LORD OF THE RINGS dvds with all the extras one could ever dream of!

JAXSON AND TAYLOR hugged their way down the hallway (because I could have just one kid left  as "last" on Christmas morning) and ran to their gifts!  Jaxson wasn't too thrilled with his gifts from Santa (he even whispered to me that it was his worst year of Santa gifts ever) because he got a Snap Circuit Set, Drawing pads and Spiral kit, the game UNO GRAB and a very cool monster hat!  Mom and Dad gave him some clothes and his favorite gift of all:  a cotton candy maker!  He is already planning on when to start selling cotton candy to make some money.  hee hee

Taylor got some new binders and organizers for school, headbands, clothes, scarf, the game TELESTRATIONS and The Sound Of Music dvd.  She got a bunch of new clothes she is crazy about and her big gift from us is a.......sewing machine!  Grandma Barbie is going to do sewing lessons with her.  I am very excited about this gift and hope it will become a life-long talent which will bring her much joy.  And having lessons from Grandma will be priceless!  Those are memories that carry on forever.

(It just dawned on me that Dave and I have only our Santa stockings to show for the Christmas morning!  That is okay and kind of normal for us.  For the past two years, we have donated our gift money to people in need and this year, we are kicking out our basement so neither of us was interested in gifts other than finishing that 2250 sq foot project!)

It was a wonderful Christmas morning, filled with love and joy in our family!  Grandma and Poppie came over for a while.  We were lazy throughout the day and ended it over at Grandma and Poppie's house for leftovers and a game night.

Our family has been very blessed, not necessarily from the things we received for we did have a nice Christmas, but from the experience we had as a family throughout the holiday to grow closer to the Savior, feel the spirit of His love and understand just little deeper what His life, death and resurrection mean to all mankind.  Yes, it has been another beautiful Christmas holiday.  Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!

 Favorite things about Christmas Eve 2013:

1.  We were together:  Dave, Jody, Taylor, Austin, Jaxson and Alyssa!
2.  We were able to enjoy a very scrumptious dinner and wonderful party at Grandma Barbie's house!
3.  In our own home, we sang songs about the Savior and His birth, read the Bible and talked about our own spiritual journey to Bethlehem for the upcoming year.
4.  We wrote what our gifts to the Savior would be and put them in a little box.  We will pull them out 3 times during the 2014 year to self-evaluate where we are in our progression and inspire ourselves to be more like Him.
5.  The kids were all asleep by 9:45.  A record we have never known.
6.  I was asleep by midnight (waaaaay better than 3-4am from the past 5 years)
7.  We tracked Santa Clause's journey and that motivated our children to hurry to bed.
8.  There was no bitterness or negativity experienced by anyone in our little family.
9.  The gifts we gave to others were greatly appreciated.
10.  While we enjoyed the excitement and fun of presents and party, this year was the most Christ-focused Christmas Eve our family has ever experienced.

Here are my two Christmas Angels!  I love them both so much!

For Steve and Cheri, I had an ornament designed for them (and all the Lindsays) with a picture of the adoption of the their girls.  Then I put together a book of pictures of the adoption for their family.  They loved it!

Can you say CHOCOLATE?????

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS EVE  PICTURE IN FRONT OF THE TREE!

....and the picture the kids wanted to take! Gaaa!

Our Children...how precious!

How adorable is this?

Cousins are people who love you forever!

Our family 2013

(If you look closely, we are not all very happy but are faking it.  Jaxson, in his hyperness, had just hit Dave in the eye.  Dave and I are just trying to get the shot before shooing off the kids to bed!)

Tracking Santa's route proved to be the most helpful thing we did to get the kids to bed quickly!  I read them a new book called, "Santa Comes To Utah" and then the lights went out.

Ho HO HO!  Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!