The passing of our beloved Prophet, President Gordan Bitner Hinckley

" President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days. "

- taken for the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, http://www.lds.org/

I heard the news last night around 10pm and I just bawled. President Hinckley has been in the first presidency since I was first introduced to the church when I was 11 years old. He was the first counseler to President Ezra Taft Benson when I joined the church. He has been such an amazing part of the growth of the church over the last 12 years. He has been such an amazing example of hard work. He's has spent so much of the last few years traveling all over the world, visiting saints and dedicating temples, a great feat at his age. I absolutely adore his sense of humor and the great happiness he had for life. I was so sad for him when his sweet wife Marjorie passed away in 2004. I'm so glad that he can be with her now for eternity. It's hard not to be sad when you lose someone who has made such a difference in your life and in the life of millions all over the world. But, fortunately, I have the knowledge that he is in a better place, reuniting with our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. He will be sorely missed by millions of people all over the world. We love you President Hinckley....

Grateful for friends.....

I finally had to take down all of my Christmas cards....this was sad. Receiving so many Christmas cards each year is one of my favorite parts of that season. My little card holder was bursting at the seams this year! It was actually difficult to try to fit them on there, I only put the pictures up, no cards. I love seeing how people change over the years and how their kids grow. We received 70 cards this year. Not bad..... I send out around 100, so at least I'm getting almost as many as I'm sending.

It is such a blessing to know we have family and friends who love us and want to share the Christmas season with us. I've been having a bit of a struggle this last week and my friends have meant the world to me. It make life so much easier to get through when you know you have friends out there praying for you when you are down. I have a testimony of prayer, I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers. I have felt so much comfort this week and I believe it is because of the thoughts and prayers said for me. I would do just about anything for my friends, even my friendly aquaintances.....I hope you all know that. I am so grateful for my friends.....

Counting my blessings....

The following quote was given to me at Christmas time in a journal from my friend and Relief Society President Jennifer Penney. The journal was to be a "Grateful Journal" like the one President Eyring spoke of in his conference address titled "Oh Remember, Remember". He reminded us to think often of our our many blessings and to record them for posterity. After the business of the holidays, I've finally been able to settle down and get back to normal. I finally picked up my new journal last night with the intention to write down some of my many blessings. I opened the journal and read this quote pasted in the front cover. It came at the exact time that I needed it. Even with the Gospel in my life sometimes I forget what to do when I'm having a hard time. This was the perfect reminder that I needed.

" Never forget that you came to earth as a child of the divine Father, with something of divinity in your very makeup. The Lord did not send you here to fail. He did not give you life to waste it. He bestowed upon you the gift of mortality that you might gain experience- that will lead to life eternal. He has given you this glorious Church, His church, to guide you and direct you, to give you opportunity for growth and experience, to teach you and lead you and encourage you.
Of course there will be some problems along the way. There will be difficulties to overcome. But they will not last forever. He will not forsake you."

When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done....

So amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discourgaged, God is over all.

Count your many blessings; angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

("Count Your Many Blessings" , Hymns, no. 241)

"Look to the positive. Know that He is watching over you that He hears your prayers and will answer them, that he loves you and will make that love manifest. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in all that you do as you look to become the kind of woman of whom you dream. You can do it. You will have friends and loved ones to help. And God will bless you as you pursue your course."

- Gordon B. Hinckley

Our trip to Arizona

We stayed with Dave's parents while in Arizona. They live in a town called Queen Creek, outside Mesa. All the cousins live there so it was really fun for our kids to have all their cousins to play with. Dave's sister Amy and her husband Tom have five kids: Amanda(13), Adam (11), Ryan (11), Brooke (7), and Tyler (4).
Brookie with Roman, she was so cute with him.
Grandma has a golf cart to drive around the neighborhood with. We drove it to the cousins house since it is just around the corner. The boys LOVED it!!

Grandma bought Disney's "Underdog" while we were there and oddly enough, the boys loved it. They watched in while sitting on Grandma and Grandpa's bed, at least 8 times.
The older cousins couldn't get enought Rock Band. They got really good at the drums, guitar and even the singing. Uncle Tom gave singing a try too.
Amanda, Uncle Steve, Adam, Brooke, Dave, Ryan, & Logan at midnight on New Years Eve!

The nice thing about going to Arizona at Christmas time was supposed to be the beautiful weather. Well, it was unseasonably cold, like 50 degrees. Grandpa had heated the pool though so everyone still went swimming.

Grandpa & Mason

A Merry Christmas Day!!

Here are all my boys on Christmas morning on there way down the stairs. I like to torture them by making them take a few pictures before they see if Santa brought them presents. They're still smiling though.
Santa put foam swords in all the boys stockings so they can swash-buckle each other up and not hurt anyone too much. Great idea Santa!!

Santa brought Logan and Mason a huge Lego Airport city. They were sooooo excited, they put the whole thing together that morning.
Santa also brought them a huge gumball machine that doubles as a piggy bank. They won't be saving much money though. We found out soon that you don't actually need change to get a gumball. No one bothers to ask for money before twisting the knob anymore. Well, the gumballs will be gone soon I guess....

We had a lovely Christmas! It was nice to have our own little family Christmas and relax a bit and enjoy the day to ourselves. Oma came over later in the afternoon for a bit to see what the kids got, that was nice to have her visit. We had to pack up that night to get ready to leave in the morning. I was pretty tired and didn't end up finishing my packing before going to bed. We ended up having lots of packing left to do the next morning and didn't end up leaving until 11am. We drove the whole way to Arizona in one shot. We thought about staying the night in Long Beach but decided to just power through. Dave let me drive for a few hours. I did great once we got my IPOD working. I discovered that if I listened to music that I could sing to I didn't get sleepy. I sang through both High School Muscial soundtracks and my "favorites" playlist that I run to, that kept me awake!! We arrived in Queen Creek AZ around 1:30am (our time)- 2:30am (their time).

Some of our Bitter Christmas....

Dave got this ginormous stocking as a white elephant gift this year. We thought it would be cute to see if Roman would fit into it. Sure enough....
The best stocking stuffer ever!!

This is Noah at his preschool Christmas performance. He had little bells on his hands and shook them at a certain part in the song. He was so funny during all the songs.
Santa came to his school that day and brought all the kids a book and a candy cane!

On Christmas Eve, my family came over and we had a great dinner of finger foods and bbq pork sandwiches. Here is Mason opening his present from Oma, a Slurpee maker, he'd wanted forever!
This is my nephew Kian, he's such a cutie pie. He's opening his
Thomas the Tank Engine legos.Logan, our super reader, was so excited to get a Goosebumps book from Aunt Stephanie!!

Here is our family with our Christmas Eve jammies on! The kids were so excited to get in bed and wait for Christmas morning to come.
Here is my sister Stephanie and her boyfriend Aaron. Stephanie is holding her son Kian and to the right is Autumn and Elliott (Aaron's kids, who are awesome!!) and Steph's daughter Sophia. We had such a great time with everyone on Christmas Eve!