A 2013 Conversation with...

  

Past Conversations:

2012

2011

Christmas Morning, 2013

Enjoy this little snippet of our Christmas morning, set to my newly acquired 98 degrees CD--(bringing back those High School memories...oh yeah!)

Merry Christmas!

This is one of my favorite Sunday's of the year...and next year (when we move to 11:00 am church) we will be able to get a family pictures in our coordinating outfits BEFORE church, instead of after!

But this year, you get the family photo in all it's 

'I need a nap.' 

'I don't want to be tucked in.'

'I got spit up on.' 

'My hair died.'

'I'm late for a meeting.'

'I need to go to the bathroom.'

glory!  Enjoy! :)

And, here are a few before church snapshots I got with my phone--one by one, as the kids were all finished.  If you could have seen me...not so finished!  But we made it in time...I am looking forward to 11:00 on these meeting mornings!

A quick Holiday re-cap, thus far

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in Pleasant Grove at Mike's sisters' house.  Gotta love good food.  And I was particularly happy the weather cooperated with our need to drive.

A favorite holiday tradition is walking through and driving through the Layton City lights.  We lucked out to get a Family night that was warm so we were able to stay for a long while!

Katelyn also had a school choir concert--poor girl, sick as sick can be for the big event.  We have had better evenings. :)

We also enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree.   We broke down this year and bought a fakey--boo.  Real trees are so much fun, but we just can't keep them alive!  So, our fake tree will just have to do until we decide to try again!

We look forward to Christmas..  It seems like it came so fast this year, and yet we just can't seem to wait for it to arrive! :) 

 PS...we are getting SLAMMED with snow! To my Texas family coming to town, it's going to be a WHITE Christmas! :)

Thankful

Donate to Kasey!

Prayer FHE

We are going to be re-visiting the topic of prayer for FHE tonight. Katelyn does a great job with her prayers, but the boys tend to speed through them and act like maniacs.  So we are going to talk about it again, this time, focused on the boys.

We some help from Pinterest, I came up with this:

We are going to talk about trains!  Each part of the train is like a part of our prayers.  We start with 'Dear Heavenly Father.  We tell Him the things we are thankful for, then we ask Him for blessings we may need.  Then we close with, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." (anybody else have a song go through their head here?)

My boys have a hard time thinking of good things to pray for. So I came up with this: 

  

We are going to post it in the kitchen where they see it.  We will write and attach pictures to our "Remember to pray for" board so we can think of good things to pray for. Currently, in our family, we daily pray for Aunt Becky (who is undergoing Chemo), Uncle Kyron (who is serving a mission in California), the missionaries in our area and other missionary family members, and the Prophet.  We could also pray for Grandma and Grandpa's, other Aunts and Uncles, health and strength, for the weather or safety.

We sometimes struggle in the FHE department.  You have any great ideas?

Happy Halloween!

How was your Halloween? Ours felt like it lasted forever (4 days in a row of dressing up), but we had great fun!  Yeah for the fall holidays!

This year I let Mike convince me to for-go a theme and opt for easy. Although is was AWESOMELY stress free, I was a bit sad we weren't all in costume!  I told Mike next time we have a baby at Halloween we are going as BYU football people--the baby will be a football, Katelyn can be cosmo, Mike can be the coach, I'll be a fan, the boys can be the players. So cute! :)

However, this year we raided my cousin's Halloween stash and had a great time.  Ben did participate, but we didn't get any pictures of him...perhaps this week I'll dress him up and snap a few! :)  Poor 4th child...so neglected~!

Katelyn was a cat--specifically Marie from Aristocats.  Everybody thought she was a lamb...I can see the confusion.  Oh well!

Josh was Batman, and probably the most excited about his costume. What a great batman he was!

And Luke was a red power ranger. The kids are really into power rangers these days, and they are just as poorly done as they were when I was a kid! Only now there are more of them!!

Ben was a football. I used a different kind of vinyl for his costume, and I didn't really love it--going back to my tried and true supplies!

We visited with Aunt Ev (Mike's Aunt, who spoils the kids rotten), we attended our ward Halloween party (always awesomely attended and one of the funnest of the year!), we sent the kids to my parents ward party (while Mike and I went to a parenting class we have been taking) and then we enjoyed Halloween with our good friends and trick or treated in their neighborhood. 

All in all, it was a great holiday! 

And, for kicks and giggles, my mom dug up some old pictures of ME on Halloween!  What a hoot!

Bring on Thanksgiving! :)

Reasons I Love My Faith

Sitting in Relief Society today the teacher asked a question:  If you were to strike up a conversation with a stranger who was curious about your religion, what things would you want them to know about the LDS church (Mormons)?  I hope I would be excited to share my feelings about this church that I love so much--not to get the stranger to baptism, but perhaps to cross of void a misunderstanding or confusion. 

I might find myself saying: I don't care if you become a member of my church, per se, but there are some things that I love about my church, that I think would bless your life too!

1.  Families Can Be Together Forever.  Do you have someone you love?  Do you wish to have someone you love?  In the LDS Church, we believe that families are eternal.  We can strengthen and grow relationships here, but the beautiful thing is that it doesn't end here.  The family unit can be forever!  Because families can be forever, we are a family focused church. We learn about families, we strengthen our relationships, we spend time together, we study and pray and attend church together.  We are encouraged to be selfless and understanding within our families.

2. The Relief Society.  Did you know that the Relief Society is the largest and oldest organization of women in the whole world?  We have over 6 million members in over 170 different countries.  Each Sunday--and once a month at optional, weeknight meetings--you can gather and join hundreds of other women around the world as we learn about our Savior and try to learn how to live better the Relief Society Motto: Charity Never Faileth.  We are made up of a whole bunch of women--old and young, crafty and sporty, tall and short, thick and thin, mothers and non-mothers, married, single, divorced, widowed, and any other combination you can think of--who make mistakes and are only human, but you will always be able to find a friendly face and a friend who can be a support.  Our goal is to uplift and support each other.

3. Our clergy are NOT paid!  Everything you do in the Church is volunteer.  You are needed!  We need more friendly faces. We need more skilled workers. We need more leaders and supporters and attenders.  We are a whole bunch of people who are doing the best we can--despite full work schedules, little babies, lawns to tend to and grocery shopping to do.  We give of our time, but we find that we receive back tenfold what we give. There is nothing like the feeling of pulling up to a church parking lot on a dark weekday night to find a group of people who need you and who can lift and support you.

4.  We have a Living Prophet.  Our current Prophet, President Monson, is a fabulous guy. We believe he is the Lord's mouthpiece in this modern day--just like prophets anciently.  He gives us direction and love from our Heavenly Father.  What a privilege it is to be led and directed--not left to wonder and wander alone. Plus, have you ever seen General Conference? He is an awesome storyteller!

5. We spend a lot of time working with our Youth.  Few other callings in our church take as much time as a youth calling.  Adults who are called to work with the youth spend at the minimum, 3-4 hours a week with our youth.  Then there are also youth dances, youth trips to the temple, youth presidency meetings, youth training's,  youth camps, and youth award ceremonies--not to mention the opportunities to support our youth in a non-religious manner. We, as a Church, pray for the youth in meetings and in personal places. We teach them to be strong, to be courageous, to be humble, to be obedient, to think for themselves. We love them and think about them and hope for the future for them.  We are invested in them.

               

6. Members of our Church are eligible to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost as their constant companion.  Shortly after baptism, you can be confirmed.  The Holy Ghost is a third member of the Godhead, a Spirit, that can be with you always. The Holy Ghost does many things for those who are worthy and who listen: warn, comfort, support, testify, direct, answer questions, give peace, lift spirits, and show love.  You can feel the Holy Ghost in many ways, and every person feels it differently. For those who listen and obey, the Holy Ghost will help one to live a life of happiness and service, of faith and perspective.

7. We are a Church full of Service.  Look at just about every disaster that happens--you will see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints helping in some manner--food, clothes, water, shelter, teaching skills, counseling, support--and usually it happens within HOURS of the emergency. We open our churches to communities of all faiths, we ship supplies halfway across the world at no small  cost, we have an entire humanitarian department of the church.   On a smaller level, we are taught to help our friends and neighbors. We set up chairs for meetings, we re-roof houses, we move families in and out of homes, we take cookies and dinners and cards to new mommies, we shovel walks and rake leaves, we pray and pray and pray.  Each week, members of our faith take the Sacrament--which is our form of communion. By doing so, we renew our baptismal covenants which teach us to be "willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light;...and are willing to mourn with those that mourn;...and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in." 

8. We are all imperfect. I love that my friend sitting next to me probably yelled at her kids sometime this week, that some of us have been judgmental to a situation we didn't understand, and that every one of us has a reason to ask for forgiveness.  Lots of us will have messy kitchens and will be pressed for time.  Many of us have been offended, many of us have offended others.  But--many, Many, MANY  of us are trying so hard to be better.  We seek the power of the Atonement every day to help us be more understanding, more forgiving, more open, more loving, more friendly.  We believe that Grace is something that makes up the difference everyday--not just at the end of our lives. As we do everything we can do, Heavenly Father and the power of the Saviors' Atonement make up the difference.  We can try again tomorrow to be better than we were today. Sometimes we struggle with the same thing for years. Sometimes we come off judgmental or condemning.  Some of us are judgmental and condemning.  But so many of us just want to love and be loved. To be better. To help others.  To bring the same joy that we feel into other peoples lives.  We get wrapped up in ourselves and our families far too often, but you will also see us step outside ourselves and notice another.  We are challenged to grow and forgive and try to overcome our shortcomings.

9. We have modern scripture and modern revelation. Have you heard of the Book of Mormon?  It really is a miraculous little book--somehow it holds all the answers to every question you might have.  How to be a better mother. How to be a good friend. Why do bad things happen to good people. Why do good things happen to bad people?  Through the power of the Holy Ghost, the Book of Mormon (and other modern scriptures) become a conduit for personal revelation.  The answer I get while reading my scriptures may be a different answer from yours, but each will be tailored to our own lives and circumstances.  How cool is that?

10. We believe in and love Jesus Christ, our Savior. He paid the ultimate price and showed us the way to return to our Father in heaven.  Through His example, we can become better people and learn the lessons we were sent here to learn.  He understands and knows each one of us individually, and he can cater his help and love specifically for us, one by one.

******

How would YOU answer the question: 

"If you were to strike up a conversation with a stranger who was curious about your religion, what things would you want them to know about the LDS church (Mormons)?"

Goblin Valley Awesomeness

Going to Goblin Valley has been on my bucket list for the last couple of years.  I had heard that it was a great place to take little kids and that nobody was ever sad they went. Catch was, it's HOT, without a lick of shade, so you really need to time it right!  After we stayed in one of the East Canyon yurts last year, we knew that Yurting was the way to do Goblin Valley!

I was a bit worried on our way down that Goblin Valley wouldn't be all that it was touted to be.  It had been a stressful morning getting ready to go (Mike ended up having to work...man, how helpful he is to have around!), I was worried it would all be for nothing.

I couldn't have been more wrong. It was SO fabulous! We are going back, just as soon as I can reserve the yurt again. We LOVED it!!

We headed down on Thursday, early afternoon. It took just about exactly 4 hours from our front door.  We broke it up with a few stops (picking up Daddy at work, getting lunch, connecting with the Strongs, bathroom breaks), so it really didn't seem bad at all. 

(A little sidenote about our favorite Yurting buddies...sometimes I think Holly married Davis so that she would be in place when I got in the family. Man, I love that lady.  A more real, more hopeful, more dedicated, more understanding, more friendly, more obedient, a more faith-tried lady you won't find. What a great example.  She's been through a lot--their family has been through a lot. I hope someday to weather my own personal trials and struggles with as much grace and poise and 'realness' as she and Davis have.  Love them!)

Our Yurt.

We had a great one this time around--only downside was we were upwind from the bathrooms so we sometimes got a most pleasant aroma! ;)  Couldn't have found a cooler place to spend three days though--awesome!  This Yurt came with a BBQ grill, so we ate yummy food.  A picnic table, firepit, bunk bed, futon, dining table and heater were also included.  It was great!

We got a camping site as well.  We were over the body limit for the site, so Davis and Holly's two oldest slept in the the tent. If you are going to camp at Goblin, get campsite 19--it had the most shade of them all!  And, there are flushy toilets and showers! Whoop!

The great thing about Goblin Valley is that it is a little kids (and big kids) paradise.  There is climbing everywhere! And relatively safe/easy climbing at that.  I did it with a baby in my arms. Katelyn didn't have a problem. Joshy didn't even get nervous. Even Luke didn't have any big problems.  It was great!  And all this climbing was before we even went into the actual valley--just right at the yurt. It was perfect.  We could see the kids for miles, and hear them too.  Really, a very un-stressful parenting vacation.

These two crack me up! Watch for all the sass!

LOVE Benno in this picture! Ha!

Ady was probably the most climbing-est one of us!  She was nuts!

 

Our view, across the porch of the yurt.

After we got all settled in and unpacked, we headed into the actual valley of the Goblins. Awesome. Totally awesome.

The next morning we got up and did it all again.  We really spent hours just exploring the valley.  We had a slightly dramatic adventure when Holly and I took the littles back to the Yurt for lunch and naps (it was a LONG walk back from where we were!), but we made it and enjoyed happy quietness!

We went Geo-caching (and no, Davis is not doing what you may think he is...just chasing a little climber!)

After Holly and I headed back with the babies, Mike and Davis and the big kids kept going until they reach valley 2.  It was apparently awesome.

Thanks for my dear Friend, Elena, I discovered that there are Junior Ranger programs at all the state and nation parks. Super fun! We are well on our way to collecting many badges.  It was a good quiet time activity--and electronics, of course. What can I say, we're wimpy parents.

The bottom line--we'll be making this a tradition. Maybe not yearly, but probably bi or tri-yearly. I'm already working on convincing my parents to go down with us again over Spring Break.  It is fabulous!