July 30th 2009

For the last couple of months I feel like I have been just going through the motion. Sure I have been saying my prayers morning and night, going to church faithfully, having FHE weekly, and reading my scriptures about 3 or 4 times a week, which should be daily. However, I feel like it has been routine for so long that over the past few months I haven't put much thought into it. I can feel me slowly being desensitized to worldly ways. Occasionally I will forget to pray one morning, or do my personal scripture reading and therefore I am not putting on the Whole Armour of God.

On Sunday I really enjoyed the Sacrament program and I made a renewed commitment to Raise the Bar for myself. I want to be a better person, I want to be more Christlike. I really do try to do whats right, but I still have a long way to go to become the person I want to be. Sometimes I get caught up in everyday living and I'm consumed with the NOW and forget about the whole picture. It is so good to be reminded about the whole picture and what really matters most.
This is my thoughts and I just wanted to share:)

What a ride!!!

So today my husband came to my school and gave me a dozen roses; one for each year! No, this is not our anniversary, however 12 years ago today we met at Retrix in Logan. He thought I was totally hot(hey this is my story, I'm stating it from my point of view) and I thought he wasn't so bad looking either. He asked me to dance a few times and later that night he asked me for my phone number. I told him I didn't have a phone number. I REALLY DIDN'T! He took it as a blow off and that I didn't want to give out my phone number. We eventually met up the following week and our relationship took off from there.

Wow 12 years!!! We have had our ups and downs. In fact five months after we got married I was sure we were headed for divorce. It took a few years for us to grow up and get use to each other. We were awfully young. (19 and 20 years old) Marriage is sooooo worth the roller coaster ride. There are times I sometimes want to give up, but I am so grateful that I never do. One of these days we will be celebrating our 50th year. I can't imagine the rest of the ride!

Blue and Gold 2009

Our blue and gold banquet was held Sat Feb 28th. We had such a good time. Here is some pictures from it.

skiing

Well we went skiing Wed night the 17th at Beaver Mountain with Elwood town. It was so much fun. I can say that now because it is over. At the time I was very frustrated. Bryan and Cody decided to take snowboarding lessons and the 3 girls and I took skiing lessons. Bryan and Cody learned a lot faster than we did and so they got to go up on the hill. While they were having a great time, I was stuck trying to help a 5 year old and a 6 year old try to ski. I was very frustrated and unfortunately let the frustration show. Some of the town saw a different side of me. Madison got cold and I ended up taking her to the lodge. Then McKenzie got stuck down on the bunny hill. She didn't have enough strength to hold on long enough to have the cable/rope lift lift her up the hill and I didn't have the strength or experience to hold on to the cable and hold on to Kenzie. We were down trying to get up the hill for about 40 min. Finally we walked up. I got a big old bruise on my leg from the cable and my arms are still just killing me. I guess my upper strength is weak. All in all we did have a great time and even the kids had a good time despite their mothers awnryness. (I think I spelled that wrong, oh well.)

blah blah blah

I am sitting here at home. It is 2:41 pm. My kids were home sick today so I got to stay home with them. It was wonderful! I think my kids were faking it though because they sure don't seem sick to me. I do have to admit it didn't take much for me to say "ok lets stay home".

Yesterday I was feeling a little down, well little is an understatement. After church I came home, went to my bedroom and just cried. I had pushed myself all week with so many activities by Sunday it all caught up to me. I had sharing time and it didn't go as well as I thought it would in my head. I came home discouraged and wondering why the Lord even wants me as a teacher. To top it off I had to prepare for a family home evening later that night for Bryan's whole family. I wasn't even going to go.

After my crying session I was ok. I thought "how could get discouraged when the Lord has blessed me with so many things." Within minutes I was back to normal and Family Home Evening was a success. We all had a good time. Family's are great.

Christmas 2008

We had such a wonderful Christmas this past year. We usually have a huge Christmas Eve dinner with Shrimp, Ham, Clam Chowder, homemade rolls, jello, deserts, and more. However, this year I wanted to simplify things. It is a lot of stress trying to get everything ready for Christmas Eve, not this year though. This year we just had beef Stew and homemade bread. My mother-in-law did bring over a vegetable dip tray. (By the way that IS NOT wine, it is sparkling grape juice.)
I wanted my kids to experience just a taste of what people ate back in Christ's time. They didn't have a lot back then and ate what they had. It was so wonderful! It brought the spirit into our home and as we ate we talked about the birth of Christ. We then read the story from the scriptures. Afterwards, we sang some Christmas songs as I played for them and we watched "It's a Wonderful Life". We then discussed how important each of our lives are. It was such a great Christmas!!!

Bryan had the Monday before Christmas until the Monday after New Years off. I of course had the Holiday break off as well. It was so fun to spend all that time with my family. We slept in, exercised, watched movies, played board games, went sledding and just had fun being together. Sunday night, the night before we all had to go back to school/work, me and the kids cried. We just wanted to be together all the time. We have now adjusted back to routine, but it was probably the best Christmas holiday we have ever experienced together.

Cody got an electric guitar. We now need to find a guitar teacher.

Katira got a digital camera.

McKenzie wanted a violin,instead she got a keyboard. She loves it!!!

Madison got Hannah Montana stuff.

Sledding at JackRabbit hill over Christmas break.

Disney World 2008

I got to tell you it is hard to balance being a mom, fullfilling my church calling, working full time, and keeping up with the rest of my hobbies, such as blogging. I know, I know I have been terrible at keeping up to date with my own blog and reading my friends blogs. My sister-in-law keeps giving me crap about how I need to update my blog... so here is the update.

Last Oct, 2008 my mother, sister and her daughter, two of my sister-in-laws and their daughters and me and McKenzie and Katira went to Disney World. It was such a fantastic trip!!! Below is a few pictures from our trip. I actually put all my pictures onto photostory and made a DVD with music of our trip to Disney World.

It was so magical. I have got to admit I am not really a big disney fan, but as I was at Disney World with my two girls, I became a child again. All the cares of the world were forgotten just for a few days and we just had fun being together. We woke up early and didn't get back to our resort until 11:30-midnight. Next time we will take the whole family:)