"The Way"

I was reading the Enisign the other night(they have become my new nightly reading companion), the article I was reading was, from the last Conference Address titled "The Way" by Elder Lawerence E Corbridge. A passage towards the end caught my eye, and I wanted to share it with you. I love when we are reminded of these simple truths, that maybe we have even grown up with, but sometimes forget along the way. When life isn't all we want it to be, and it seems like it would be easier to give up and go a different way, somehow you read something, or a good friend comes around and gives you just what you need. However it happens, our father in heaven is there watching over us, and will always be there.

The passage reads,

"Take my my yoke upon you, and learn of me... and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don't quit, and you will make it.

There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. Jesus Christ is the way, any other way, whatever way is foolishness.

So what do we do when life seems hard and not fair? We don't give up, and when we don't give up, tomorrow always gets better. Todd and I are so blessed in our lives right now, and want to thank all our family and friends who love us and have stayed by us, when we have gone through hard times. You have all helped us get back on or stay on the path.

The Parks

The Parks are our neighbors and a few days ago RoAnn asked me if I might be able to make a t-shirt for her Father-in-law for his birthday, since we have our fun little Heat Press. She told me she would take some pictures of her kids the next day and then she could give them over to me to edit and put on the transfer paper. I took this as an opportunity and ask her if she wanted me to take some pictures of them, since I just got my new camera and it would be fun for me. We went to a neighbors house who has a great backyard, and the kids were great, because it was freezing bum cold. I think they turned out fun, especially since I am still learning. The very last collage/picture is the one we put on the t-shirt. We also put around the pictures the saying "Grandkids are God's gift for growing older"

They loved it and are so excited to give it to him tomorrow for his birthday!

Draper Temple Open House

Today we got the opportunity to take our kids to the Draper Temple Open house. Is was a great experience for our family. The older kids really enjoyed it, the babies not so much! The temple was beautiful and we got to share many things with our kids and have some great gospel discussions. We asked the kids what where their favorite rooms or areas, Taylar thought the sealing rooms and the baptismal font room were wonderful, though she couldn't decide between the Celestial Room and the brides room, for which one was the prettiest. Kelten thought they where all great, but especially liked the baptismal font and thought that it would be great if all fonts where like that. Ki was my favorite, he thought the stairs were the best, go figure!! Knightin and TJ I believe, thought the tents between the Temple and the church were the best because they finally got to get out of our arms. We were hoping to take some pictures at the temple, but it appeared they were blocking the grounds off, so we choose to go to the Jordan River Temple and spend a little bit of time there, get some pictures and talk about the temple a little more. I highly recommend going to an Open House if you have not a had a chance to do so!

Here are some pictures we got at the Jordan River Temple!

My Girls!
Taylar is getting so big, she has decided she is getting big too, and that calling me Mommy is to little kiddish now! So Todd and I are now Mom and Dad, I have to admit it sounds a little wrong, mommy just fit. I'm so excited for this new stage of life that she is entering into, but reality is starting to set in and I think it's going to take a little getting use to.

After spending some time at the temple, we went to Aunt Marylou's house to meet up with Uncle Pete Pete, Aunt Beezie, Uncle Jake and Baby Gwen. Then went out to dinner at a Chinese Buffet. As we were getting ready to leave, Peter was talking to Gwen and she was making the cutest little noises and faces. So we got a quick little picture.

She is so cute!!!
All in all it was a great day!

Early today Kelten wanted to have scrambled eggs for lunch. Todd decided that Kelten could make them himself. He was so very proud of himself, and wanted me to take a picture of his very first, made all by himself scrambled eggs!

So I have been wanting a DSLR for about 5 years now, and for the last couple of years have been close to getting the money, but then something happens and the money needs to go else where. Well, Todd decided (because he loves me so much), that before our tax refund went to paying off bills or saving or whatever else, I got to get my camera. I just got it this past Monday and yesterday and today were the first days that I have really had a chance to play with it. I love it already and I really don't have a clue how to use it yet. I can do all the basics and those pictures come out so amazingly better then my other simple digital camera, that I can't wait to start pulling out it's potential. Today was a beautiful day so we took the kids to the park and I played with it to start to get a feel for it, nothing to amazing yet, but one thing I was able to do was get up so close and have the picture actually come out clear. So beware to all, you may be seeing more pictures from me, so I hope you aren't sick of them already. I can't wait to get proficient with the camera and Photoshop, WhaHoo I love stuff like this!

Happy Presidents Day

So the kids were home from school yesterday for the holiday. This usually means, do somethings together that is a little more fun. Instead this day was used for me to accomplish or at least try and accomplish many things. Todd is still working his night so he was asleep and I didn't end up spending much time with the kids at all. I started off the morning by giving a couple of massages to friends. One just likes to get them once a month, the other is one I just started and we are trading massages for babysitting so Todd and I can get away a couple of times a month. Yeah, for having something that I can use to trade with.The rest of the day, pretty much was spent on the phone gathering information that Todd and I need to start making some decisions in our lives for some stuff in the future.
I didn't even think about it until this morning, how wonderful my kids were yesterday. I don't even think I can remember a time where they fought, which is amazing since some days it is an hourly event. I do remember a few times where they got extremely loud when I was on the phone which is always a little annoying, but they where just playing. Taylar was continually playing and helping with the babies and the boys spent a lot of time working quietly on a puzzle, it's not a real easy one either, but they kept at it. So I want to tell everyone what wonderful amazing kids I have, and tell them that I love them and I am grateful everyday that I have them in my life.

Sunday Games

On Sundays, we try and keep the day as calm as possible. This isn't always easy with my 5, but we try all the same. We watch church movies ans play church games. We try to keep things church centered. Today after we got home from church, which was the first day in the new chapel, the kids were pretty wired from all the excitement, so we went on a drive. When we got back, the decide to play church, the did the sacrament meeting portion, instead of Primary. I was working on other things and over heard them. I started laughing, they were sustaining new leaders and all. They other thing that made me laugh was Taylar was the Bishop. She knows that the bishops is always a man, but I guess playing church in the playroom allows the oldest to be Bishop despite the sex. Kids are fun!!

Happy Valentines day!!!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope your day will be spectactular!!!!

Holidays are always interesting in our home, almost from the time we were married, Todd has worked for a 24/7 establishment, which means Holidays and weekends are not sacred. We don't see him many of them. Christmas and Thanksgiving we have only had him half the time if that. He does see to however, end up getting those days off like Veterens day, when the kids are still in school and we can't do anything anyway. It ends up be like any other day off. So like History has proven, he is yet again working. He is on nights right now, so at the moment is slepping, and will get to work all night. I have to admit, I think my Valentine's Day will be better then his. He didn't forget me though, I don't like when he buys my flower, they just die and Chocolate ( though I do quite like it) has never been very good since I'm always trying to lose weight. So, he drew me the picture up above, and had it set up with valentine colors and confetti. Very cute! He has done me a couple of other pictures on Valentines as well, they are always on the funny side, he loves to make me smile. He is amazing and I love him. Happy Valentines Sweety!

The kids got some art stuff and a simple box of chocolate, that really weren't very good. It the thought that counts right?!? They love the art stuff, and that is what we were going for anyway, then we got knightin yet another car and TJ got some play Jewelery, she has been into putting things around her neck and walking around proudly.

Today I think is just going to be spent inside, trying to have a relaxed day. I was going to go up to my Parents and let the kids play around for a little, but I 'm thinking that plan might get curbed since we woke up to a mini blizzard outside, we will see if it clears up this afternoon.

So Sweet Pictures!

I was backing up some of my mom's photo and came across these cute pictures that I didn't even know my mom had. Went went up to ride 4-wheelers for the day with my parents and Knightin was just a week or 2 old. He was soooooo cute!

An e-mail I thought this was worth sharing.

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. .(I just want to add cell phone/texting too. I watch my nephews and other teenager on their phones constantly texting, when you ask them to go talk to a person in real life, they actually respond by saying they can tell the person that, to their face, that they will just text them. Communication is going down the tubes. Cell phones are great, don't get me wrong, but they like everything that is really good in life seems to have a bad side too.) Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

It's Done!!

Since we moved to Mona over a year and a half ago, we new that they were going to build another church building here. Mona has grow considerably since 2000. The small church building here already was just barely holding 2 wards, so the new new ward created May of 2007 has been going to Nephi, the next city to the south. Which to me wasn't that big of deal, since everywhere but UT you do have to drive to go to church. It wasn't until moving here 19 years ago that I experience walking to church. All the same Mona is growing, and that called for the approval of having a second building built here. We were all very excited, and have watched and waited as the building has gone up. Originally I believe it was suppose to be done about 6 months earlier, but things don't always go how you want them to. The waiting is now over and we get to have our first church meeting there this upcoming Sunday, and we also finally get to have a church schedule that isn't 1:00 pm. That is a hard time for me with kids who should be napping. I'd rather get up early and out the door then have them miss their naps. Sometimes change and growth is a good thing, though I'm not sure all the old timers tat have lived in Mona forever would agree, I think they might want their little town back. I'm still glad that we were able to move here. It is still a really small town to me, and I love it. Knightin and TJ have gone crazy with the fact that I had some left over lollipops from the kids Valentines they made. They want them pretty much 24/7. Which is a pain for me, since I am a mean mom and only give them one a day. Well, last night Knightin got into the kids valentine bags and stole one and went and hid. When he realized he wasn't in trouble he was being really cute, so the camera came out.

TJ was really happy and was going through her routine happy, crazy time of the night until she realized that Knightin had a lollipop and I wasn't going to give her one. Then it became Tantrum time. They (the tantrums) are still kind of cute at this age.

My Baby

Drawing

It has been a few years since I have really drawn, but since my kids want us all to enter stuff in the County Fair this year I thought I'd better pick up a pencil and see if I could still do it. I'm drawing Indians because that is one of the things my parents want to hang up in the office where they work. I found out drawing is like riding a bike, once you know how to, you can get back in the swing of it quickly.

New School Shoes

So, there hasn't been a lot to blog about these last couple of weeks. It has been a pretty normal, routine life. Which I guess is good, it at least means nothing bad has happened, but it also means we haven't done anything that great and exciting. So since I really wanted to be able to put something new on this blog I decided that I'd share with you all a picture of Taylar's new school shoes, she is so way excited about them. What do you think? I think she is going to start a new trend.I got these boots a few years back for a Halloween costume. We had them out recently, because a friend borrowed them, for hers daughters 17th birthday party, it was 70's themed and her and two other sang Dancing Queen at the party. I would have loved to see this performance. This lady is amazing and so much fun, I guess the party was a great success. Anyway, when they brought them back Taylar decided they were fun and was walking around in them for a couple of hours. She was so excited to be tall enough to reach so many more things, she didn't even have to get a stool to get up in the kitchen cabinets, Very Cool!!!Taylar had one of her friends over last Friday, and they decided to give themselves make-overs with Taylar's make-up kits, they were quite the Divas when done, but before they finished they decided that Poovy needed a new dew, he was rockin the new hair style. I need to get a picture of this dog right after he has been groom so that all of you can see his crazy teeth. He has one of the worst crooked underbite I have ever seen. So stay posted for that picture in a few weeks. You can see a little of it in this picture, but it is definitely hidden some.

Oh yeah, One great thing has happened, we did our taxes and we got an amazing return. One that was very surprising since weren't thinking we were getting anything back. So because of this Todd let me buy myself a DSLR. I am so excited I have been wanted one pretty much since they came out, but for the last couple of years we have almost had the money and them something would break down and there went the money. So before we could do anything else with the money we ordered the camera and it should be here next week. I am so excited now I just need to learn how to use all the cool features. So in the future you might be seeing a lot more photos!