'Tis the Season

“True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service. It is the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedience to which will bring ‘peace on earth,’ because it means—good will toward all men” (David O. McKay).

When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with the flocks,

Then the work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost, to heal those broken in spirit,

To feed the hungry, to release the oppressed,

To rebuild the nations, to bring peace among all peoples,

To make a little music with the heart…
And to radiate the Light of Christ,

Every day, in every way,
In all that we do
And in all that we say.

I'm not sure who wrote the above poem, but I really liked it and wanted to share it.
As I sit here thinking of all the ways I need to improve myself over the next year I become very grateful that I belong to Heavenly Father's church which is a church all about improvement. We don't need to be perfect right now, not even close, all He asks is that we give our best efforts every day to improve ourselves. And so that is what I will continue to try and do... improve myself, and by so doing my family life, home life and personal testimony. None of my resolutions are new or profound, I will just keep plugging away and try to be more cheerful along the journey.

A Wonderful Christmas

We had a beautiful Christmas. I am so glad that we stayed home this year. It was different not seeing family, but we really enjoyed just being together this year.

Christmas Eve was really nice with acting out the Nativity Story, singing songs, reading books and of course, opening Christmas jammies!

The kids were really excited that morning to come see if Santa had come. Brandon went straight to his stocking and began opening presents and Lindsay went straight to the cookie plate to see if he really did eat the cookies and drink the hot chocolate.

Santa brought Lindsay a Baby Alive (which she refuses to give a name to like Katie, Kelly or something... the doll is to be known just as "Baby Alive".) He brought Brandon some Star Wars Legos and Logan an "Exploration Station". The kids all really loved their gifts! Santa hit it right on the nose this year (whew!)

Here are some more pictures of us just enjoying our day. The gift Maddy sent Logan was a HUGE hit with everyone... including dad! Logan loved his sucker Santa left in his stocking (he didn't even wait for the wrapper to be taken off) and Lindsay is making a candy necklace.... too much sugar for one day!!

I am so grateful for this time of year. It is my favorite. I love spending time with my wonderful family and enjoying the spirit that seems to be in abundance. I am grateful for my Savior who was born, lived and died here on earth and for my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with so much in my life. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We have a walker!!

Shortly after Logan turned one, he really started to walk! Here is a video of one of his earliest attempts!

Mommy's little helper

Lindsay loves to help me in the kitchen!! Whether it's a birthday cake for dad or a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich for Brandon's lunchbox, she will be in the kitchen helping me! Even if it's just boiling water, she wants to be the one to put the water in the pot! Whatta good helper!

Party Animals

On the 15th of December, we let the kids invite friends over for a little Christmas party. We made graham cracker houses and santa faces and chocolate covered pretzels. IT was a lot of fun. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the event! I love the difference between Brandon's house and Lindsay's house. Brandon loved assembling the house and Lindsay loved decorating it!

IT'S HARD TO BE NEAT WHEN YOU'RE LEARNING TO EAT!!!

Logan is enjoying his favorite messy foods: SPAGHETTI and MASHED POTATOES! YUM!

Tagged!

I thought since I am staying home for part of church with Logan today (hopefully after a nap we'll be able to go) I would listen to some of my favorite Christmas music and do one of my favorite things.. BLOG!
I was "tagged" by one of my dear friends, Kristi. It is to disclose 6 things about myself "not to be limited to habits, deep dark secrets, and so on." So let me think.... I am trying to think of things that are readily known about me ( I'm a mom, LDS, etc.). Ok lets try this...
1. I LOVE absolutely LOVE a new box of crayons! My husband can't believe how many times I buy new crayons... but oh there is just something about them when they are all perfectly color coordinated in the box and sharpened. Maybe I should buy a box just to look at and not for the kids to destroy!
2. I am pretty shy. I often feel pretty uncomfortable in social situations. So, don't think I'm being unfriendly... just shy. Around people I know well though... well, that's a whole 'nother story!
3. For those of you who didn't know me in highschool, I was in drama. Did the plays every year... was in a group that traveled around to elementary schools performing skits about drug and alcohol abuse, even competed!
4. When I was small I ate a slug.... disgusting. Of course I don't remember this, but the thought of it makes me shiver!
5. My poor parents put up with MANY accidents my first year of driving. Nothing ever really major, the worst being I crushed in the sliding door to our van when I was pulling out of a car wash, I knocked off the side rearview mirror probably 4 times, backended someone twice (pretty softly no damage done to either car), ran into a pole, scraped the side of our car against a lightpost... is that all? Probably not, but you get the idea.
6. Two years ago for Christmas my husband bought me painting classes and I took painting for almost a year. I love it!!! I'm not that good, but I love it! In fact everytime I see a good picture (especially thinking of Becky's photography lately) I think, how could I paint that? However I don't think I could ever paint portraits! Too hard!
So those are my six things! Maybe now you feel like you know me better!

HERO OF THE DAY!!!

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I lost the pictures of Thanksgiving and of Logan's birthday!! Well, happy day! My hero of a husband restored everything good as new!!! I have all my pictures back and it just made my night!!! So here are the pictures I wanted to share.

This first one is of Brandon at Thanksgiving. He just HAD to have the drumstick so we let him! When I was a kid, my grandpa ALWAYS got the drumstick no matter how much we begged, and this year, I wish he could have been, but my grandpa wasn't with us and no one else really wanted it. So even though it felt worong to me, we let Brandon eat it and he sure enjoyed it!
Now for Logan's birthday! He LOVES cars so we had a car theme. He was so cute... he was afraid of his candle so here is Logan crawling away from his cake for Grandma to save him! Also one of him enjoying one of his gifts and eating his birthday cake... which he wasn't that sure about. He would grab it, squish it between his fingers and then try to get it off his hands by flailing them all about. ( I am still finding remnants of that cake)

And finally I wanted to post of my three cute kids playing at my sister's wedding while we were waiting for pictures to be done.

thank you thank you thank you my dear Shane for restoring all of our pictures!

I LOVE YOU!

6 1/2 minutes of laughing...

Watch the video labeled "emergency room part 1" then this one... it'll make more sense!

emergency room part 2

This guy is halirous! My family and I enjoyed his videos on YouTube after Thanksgiving dinner! His name is Brian Regan... he's got lots of bits so check it out if you want!

He gets even funnier if it's one o'clock in the morning and you are dead tired!

emergency room part I

Did you ever have one of those days?

Did you ever have one of those days when everything you tried to do went wrong? Yesterday was one such day for me! I was doing laundry and shrinked one of my favorite sweaters because I absent-mindedly put it in the dryer. I baked some pumpkin bread (a family favorite) and burned it because somehow I set the temperature to 420 to bake for an hour instead of 350. And finally the worst mistake of all.... I was attempting to update my blog with pictures of Thanksgiving and Logan's first birthday and our computer started freezing up and I lost everything! Off the camera... off the computer!!! SCREAM!! I am having anxiety just remembering it all! I can live with a shrunken sweater and burned pumpkin bread, but how in the world can I not have pictures of Logan's first birthday?!?!?!??! Well, Shane said he might be able to get them back.... might be able to get them back... MIGHT. I sure hope so... everyone cross your fingers for us!
Signed,
frustrated mom

I just finished...

While in Utah, my little sister told me to read Twilight by Stephaine Meyer. It's one of her favorites. So I started it and just finished. It's a good book. I enjoyed it, it's really easy reading which was nice. It was also clean which is great. I would recommend it, but I don't recommend reading it late at night... some parts were kindof intense for me. I was dreaming about it one night and Lindsay came up to the side of my bed to tell me she had a bad dream. I actually screamed when I saw her and scared the poor girl to death! Anyways... that's what I have been doing the last 48 hours, thanks Melinda!

HELP!

Ok... so I feel pretty idiotic. From looking at other blogs I know it is possible to manipulate the layout of the pictures better.... how do you it? Anyone? For example on my post about my sister... how would I get the 3 pictures to all be side by side.... I thought I had it and when I published it... gone! What'd I do wrong? Most people are much smarter than me.... share your knowledge!

GORGEOUS BRIDE

I have been in Utah since last Friday. We got back last night. The reason for the long visit was that my little sister, Stephanie Shelton became Stephanie Hintze. She got married!!! I am so excited for her! I am so excited for me!!! I am really looking forward to having a married sister to talk with. It was a really nice week. I enjoyed being with her and my family. So many people came to show their love and support and I was really grateful to see that and feel that and if you are reading this and were one of those people... THANKS!
Steph and Zach were married in the Mt. Timpanogus temple in American Fork Utah on the 10th. It was such a great day, despite getting lost while searching and searching for the Pizza Factory in Lindon Utah. (They really shouldn't allow TWO addresses for one place. Those of you familiar with American Fork/Lindon/Pleasant Grove area might know what I am talking about!) But she was the most beautiful bride and I am so proud of her for getting sealed in the temple. It really is amazing to think of the generations affected by their union in the temple. What a blessing!

A Tradition Born

My niece is getting baptized Saturday and I made one of these pillows for her for the special occasion. On the back, is embroidered her name and date of the baptism. I love these pillows and have decided that from now on, I will make one for all my nieces and nefews when they are baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

While Halloween is not my favorite holiday, I do like seeing the kids dressed up and so excited. this year was no exception. Brandon FINALLY decided on Batman after changing his mind once a week for 6 weeks. First a jedi, then cheetah, spiderman, superman, a spy. He's the same way with anything.... each week he is obsessed with something new. Lindsay wanted to be an elephant like her stuffed elephant, Elephie. How in the world do you make an elephant costume?!?!? I did the best I could and I learned a lot so if one of my other kids decides this is what they want to be for Halloween I know better...... change their mind!!! No, it wasn't that bad. Logan was my little tiger. I wish you could see his little ears in this picture. The kids had a really good time treak or treating (with what must have been at least 50% of our establised neighborhood), which is why we do these things right? So Happy Halloween to all the ghosts, ghouls and witches out there tonight!

"Where there is great love, there are great miracles."

Now, while I am sure my love story with Shane will never be told to generations to come like the famous "Romeo and Juliet" I do believe it is just as strong and even better because it is real. Our love gave us three miracles so I love the quote, "where there is great love, there are great miracles". We have proof of that every day.

thanks to Chelsea for the picture!

The Princess, the Fisherman and Mr. Mischievous

here's a little bit about my kids. Brandon is following in his dad's footsteps, he loves to fish, camp, and can't wait to start hunting. Shane took the kids fishing and Brandon caught this fish completely by himself. he was SO excited and proud! Lindsay is our little princess. she is very girly. she loves princesses and pink. she HATES bugs, and being dirty. at times she is very dainty, but if you cross her or catch her on a bad day... WATCH OUT!!! she has a raging, burning ball of fire in her that will be used for all sorts of chaos if provoked. Logan is my handful. I have NEVER had or seen a baby quite like him. he is so happy and mild mannered, but he loves getting in to anything he can reach. the things he loves the most right now are pulling all the toilet paper off the roll and "unloading" the dishwasher. now I know you with kids are saying... "that's normal kid stuff" and the things he gets into isn't out of the ordinary, it is the speed in which he employs to get into stuff that is remarkable. and it's every day all day. he's our very own little curious george. they are unique and remarkable and I love all three!

Ahoy there matey!!

I am really excited to be a blogger! I look forward to this new and different way of letting all of my loved ones know what's going on in my life. It will be fun to share pictures, stories, thoughts and feelings. Hopefully it will also help me to expand my minute knowledge about computers and internet workings! Gonna have good times!