The Christmas Spirit

I saw this yesterday on www.lds.org and we loved it. It's to good not to share!
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The Christmas Spirit

This is a test, this is only a test!

This is something I sometimes have to be reminded of hourly. We are here for a purpose, to be tested to see how faithful we will be keeping the commandments, serving, learning (sometimes the same lessons repeatedly because we are to dense to get it the first time, or maybe because we have some sick need to make things harder on ourselves then they really need to be!!!) repenting and just a general test of the most amazing gift, our free agency.
All throughout the scriptures are stories of God testing his people. Especially when they had been prosperous because for some reason that causes us to be prideful, lose site of our priorities and harden our hearts to the teachings and example of our Savior.
We are no exemption and unfortunately I think we as a people have gotten pretty ugly. We will be tested, but we have much to be thankful for. We have an understanding of the plan of salvation and why we are here, not everyone is that fortunate. We are not alone. We have family, friends, church members and best of all a Heavenly Father who LOVES us UNCONDITIONALLY. He is there waiting to lift us up, bring peace to our spirits, if we will only be faithful and ask. Each of us will be challenged and tried in different ways, and it will be difficult. But the beautiful thing is NO MATTER WHAT, we have our families, our knowledge and all the promises from our Heavenly Father. They are ours, regardless of how much money is in our savings account, whether we have a job or not, whether we have lost a loved one or are suffering with a terminal illness. How we deal with and overcome our challenges is completely up to us and how we choose to respond! I am so thankful for this knowledge, for my family, I am thankful for friends and the examples they are to us, I am thankful for the lessons I have learned and continue to learn and most of all for my Savior.

To my sisters and family!

A little preface to my thoughts!

Being the oldest of 8 sometimes had its perks growing up and sometimes it REALLY didn't. I definitely didn't always appreciate being from such a big family but just like they say as you grow older and mature you learn to appreciate your heritage, realize how much you had to be grateful for and appreciate the lessons that come from sometimes difficult things. When we moved from our small Utah town which I had known my whole life to the huge Phoenix area it was truly a culture shock. I really struggled when I would tell people how many brothers and sisters I had and they would react like I was some kind of freak. We had really never thought anything of being from a big family. So me and my insecurities were sometimes embarrassed of my family. I was the oldest and a girl so with that came MANY responsibilities that most kids didn't have a clue about. I had more of a mother role, rather than a sister role and that somewhat affected my relationship with my younger siblings/sisters. I didn't really facilitate or nurture my relationships with them the way I should have. My four younger sisters were a lot closer in age and grew up pretty close friends and have always been a huge support system for each other. There have been times that I have felt a little jealous of their closeness but really didn't make a strong enough effort to do something about it and felt like I was doing ok on my own. as we have all grown and gotten married, started our families and faced personal challenges we have changed.
I feel so blessed to have grown up in such a diverse family. To have learned so many valuable lessons and even for the trials. The last few years have brought some real emotional challenges for all of us and was quite the process of overcoming those. For each of us it has been a different process but we have each worked through our issues and I feel we have truly come out on top, closer and more appreciative of each other. I am most thankful for family members who overlook my imperfections and quarks and love me just the way I am. I have not always been that way and I have learned more Christ like love from them.

I love my sisters, who are my dearest friends. I love how different we all are but how well we compliment each other. I am in awe of their crazy talents and creativity!!!! I am thankful for their examples and the things they have taught me. I love that our kids adore each other and will grow up to be each others friends and support system as well!! I am thankful that our family of 10 has grown by 4 brothers and 2 sisters and I love them dearly as well!!! I am looking forward to the future and all that it has in store for us and I pray that we can continue to grow stronger and closer. I pray that my kids remain as close and as good of friends as they are now forever and for always!!

Much to be thankful for

I love, love, love the holiday season and most everything about it. I start getting excited in October and it continues right through the New Year until the post holiday blues kick in! We look forward to traditions, being with family, baking, and everything in between. This year I feel more grateful and at peace then I have in years past. We have been really trying to live in the moment and not take the little things for granted. I am most thankful for my family, our health and all the tender merices our Heavenly Father shows us.
It's been a few years since my side of the family has been together for Thanksgiving and we were really hoping to get all of our Utah peeps down here this year. Life kind of got in the way and none of them were able to make it but the rest of us (our family and my other 4 siblings, spouses and kids) still planned to get together for dinner and games at our house and we were all looking forward to it!
Eric and I and a friend of ours signed up to run a 10 mile Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. This was our first real race and neither one of us felt like we were totally prepared but we were committed and going for it and truthfully it was kind of exciting. It was fun having something to work towards. We all did pretty good (of course you always wish you did better) but for our first one we were pleased to have done it and finished!!!
After the race, it was race number two trying to finish getting everything ready before everyone got there. It is so nice having kids that are old enough and willing and able to help out! We are a good team!! It was such a relaxing and mellow Thanksgiving and I enjoyed every minute of it. I love that all of our kids love each other so much and enjoy being together! We played some kickball and had a Turkey Hunt and played games and ate a LOT of really good food! I am so thankful to have such an awesome family. I am thankful for the progress we have made as a family and for the trials we have endured that has helped us grow closer and appreciate each other and our diversities. Unfortunately I was a little to mellow and did a stinky job of taking pictures but I love this one we shot of the kids. Shadows, funny faces and all, I love these kiddos!!! We really missed the ones that weren't here but hopefully after Christmas!!

It's no easy task getting 16 kids all looking and smiling at the same time!!
This is as close as we got!!

Fabulous Friday!!

This week was awesome! Not for any particular reason but many small reasons. Just feeling overall good about life, happy and helpful kids, productivity, energy, the Christmas spirit in the air just to name a few and tonight was a fabulous finish to the week!
A few weeks ago our good friends the Stubbs asked if we and our two oldest kids would be willing to go to the temple and help do baptisms for some family names they were working on and of course we were happy to oblige. I made some serious goofs in the planning stages but we were able to make it work. So tonight The Stubbs, the Dutry's and their son Riley and the four of us headed to the temple. It was so special being there together and being able to participate in such an important ordinance. It was so cool watching Kiley participate for the first time and having her dad be the one to do the baptizing and seeing Riley and Braydon dressed up in their white shirts looking so handsome and being excited about being there. It was awesome!! Definitely something we hope to do again soon!! We walked around for a minute and looked at the lights and finished off the night by going to Cafe Rio, YUUUUM!!!

For the love of socks!!!

Keaton is the baby of our family, he is the most easy going and happy go lucky guy around. There are only a few things that really get him worked up. One is not being allowed to go outside and play, or being told it's time to come in, he would live outside if he could!! Being hungry, when he is hungry you had better feed him and he seems to ALWAYS be hungry! But the absolute biggest thing that will push him over the edge is his socks!!He has a thing with his socks. There will be 15 pair in his drawer but he won't wear any of them because he doesn't like how they fit. No one else would be able to tell the slightest difference but if you try and put a pair on him you will see the melt down of all melt downs!! How does this happen? I don't get it but I have learned there is really no point of trying to convince him, it ain't happening!!! The socks he will wear are practically brand new and have huge holes in them already and I have to watch to make sure he doesn't wear the same dirty pair for days in a row!! I really need to stock up on the ones he likes to wear but of course I can't remember where I got them. Hopefully his sock issues will be short lived. We still think he is one of the cutest kids around despite being a little obsessive.

Halloween 2009

Halloween snuck up on us so fast, it didn't even seem possible that October was almost over! I usually go all out making costumes etc. But this year it just didn't happen and it was ok! We have so many costumes that we can recycle, it worked out great! Keaton was pretty intent on being a Cardinals fan and I think we did a pretty good! We did our annual pot luck chili dinner with friends and went trick or treating. It was pretty low key, but we had a great time!

This Picture ought to be good for some serious blackmail when they get older!!

classic Keaton face!!!

The trading of the candy after trick or treating!!! HOLY pile of JUNK!!!

Still Catching up on posts!!!

Conference was two months ago, I am just a little behind!!
We went on our Semi annual conference camping trip in October. We have gone to Stoneman Lake the last handful of times, but it is a good spot and it accommodates a large number of people pretty well! The weather was a little more pleasant then it had been in April (no snow this time!) The wind was at a minimum, we didn't even have to put up the huge canvas tent. This trip we were missing some of our usual families which is always sad, but we had some newbies! It is always a good time when new people join in on the madness, and the kids always welcome new friends!! Conference was amazing as always, I always look forward to being spiritually fed and uplifted. It is to bad conference is only twice a year. One of my favorite things about our camping trips is watching all of the kids have a blast together! They play and laugh so hard and are such good friends, it is awesome!! We are so thankful for such good friends and the opportunity to do things like this as a family!!!

I guess they are a little tired from playing so hard!!

We did an taco bar for our group dinner Saturday night. I think it was a hit. GOOD food!!