Filling Spiritual Reservoirs

The best part of getting back in to a routine of things is getting back to some personal scripture study. Even in the last few days I have felt a great power in the words of Prophets, Apostles, Priesthood holders, converts and General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I must express how wonderful it is to learn simple truths and to be challenged to become better! I know the Gospel is true!
Here are a few pearls I have found just in the last few days (please follow the links and read the whole article!):

Our spiritual journey is the process of a lifetime. We do not know everything in the beginning or even along the way. Our conversion come step-by-step, line upon line.
We each have moments of spiritual power, moments of inspiration and revelation. we must sink them deep into the chambers of our souls.
- Elder Neil L. Andersen "You Know Enough"

"Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many tiems you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts... the Spirit of hte Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of hte living reality of the Son of God"
Pres. Gordon B Hinkley qtd by Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis "Because My Father Read the Book of Mormon."

No matter how bleak the chapter of our lives may ook today, beause of thelife and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we may hope and be assured that eh ending of hte book of our lives wille xceed our grandest expectations.
President Dieter F Uchtodrf "The Infinite Power of Hope"

The latter days are not a time to fear and tremble. They are a time to be believing and remember our covenants.
Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested int eh kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.
Elder Jeffery R Holland "The Minishtry of Angels"

People who try to find God sometimes think that they have to look for HIm in intellectually complicated concepts. However, our Heavenly Father is always available to us. He adapts to our level of understanding.
Elder Gerald Causse "Even a Child Can Understand"

There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. He (Jesus Christ) is the Way. Every other way, any other way, whatever other way, is foolishness.
Life is hard, not the gospel.
Every good thing depends on getting and keeping the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
Elder Lawrence E Corbridge "The Way"

Ametuer Potty Training

We have been working on getting Faith to do her buisness in the toilet. She has given us the necissary cues that she is ready (strained face and tight body when BM is coming on) to put her on the pot. Unfortunately, because she is a pro butt squeezer we have several false alarms. On Tuesday we had such a day -- several runs to hold her on the toilet with no results. Well, at least I know it is getting through to her when I noticed that she had taken her dolly into the bathroom, lifted her dress, and calmly sat holding her on the edge of the toliet telling her to 'push.' I asked Faith how she was doing, she gave me a patronizing look. Then when all was done, I asked if Dolly had made a stinky in the toliet. Faith said yes. Faith was more than a bit jealous when we gave Dolly her due treat when Faith had not gotten her 'potty treat' all day.

Merry Christmas!!!

It wasn't hard to fast get into the Christmas spirit once arriving back home in Boise. The snow followed us in, laying a nice blanket of holiday white. We drove in late Friday night and Saturday morning was the ward party "Breakfast with Santa." Faith was excited to see the jolly old man, and had no issues butting in line to sit with him several times. I had made sure we had everything unpacked first thing in the morning so after seeing Santa we would be set to get our house all decorated for Christmas! We cut our tree on the east side of the state, strapped it on top of the van and brought it home for us. We put it in the tallest part of our living room, ten and a half feet of mountain tree. It is lovely! Josh was wedged on top of our plant shelf to get the angel on. I love having Christmas in our home, oh so festive!

Sitting

Danny decide to sit up by himself last week. He is a pro now.

Faith is starting to catch on to the concept of consequences. Granted, most almost-two-year-olds can't see very far into the future to know that if you kick your brother he will be sad and mom will get mad, but that is why we teach them consequences. Such as: you will sit on your bed if....
Well, Faith is full of twists and turns. So just as I was teaching her the result of some of her actions she learns how to put together a negative phrase (she became a talking champ with the "I want to" and "I need a" phrases last week). I tel her if she kicks mommy in the back of the head one more time she will go sit on her bed. "I don't want sit on bed" she replies. What do you do? The kid can express her feelings all a sudden and you just got a foot to the cranium? So much discussion has to take place, all the while I am thinking, 'she can't really be understanding this.'

Later that night as Faith is once again kicking things (really what has gotten into this kid? she is like a toy soldier gone wrong), before I have a chance to even give my consequence statement, Faith cuddles up to her brother, strokes his head and says "I-shcorry broddee, I don't sit on bed." She is brilliant. Took the wind right out of my sails.

Moral of the story; I am still a softie and have some serious dicipline learning to get under my belt if I am ever going to keep ahead of this girl.

The Christmas Card Insert SCRATCH

I have been struggling this year to put together a little update to go with our Christmas cards. I have been creative, and almost good in times past. This year I started with this:

“Momma, what’s Christmas?” asked little Faith as she watched the Chistmas ornaments placed on the tree. Mother was up on the stools taking the shimmering balls from her tiny daughter.
“Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.” She replied without noticing the intent look on Faith’s face.
“No Mamma. What’s Christmas for us?” she pressed the question again, a bit more earnestly. Mother turned around from the colorful lights of the Christmas tree she had been hurriedly decorating.
“Christmas for us? Well, I guess it is when we think about all the best things that have ever happened to us because of what Jesus did for us.” Mother replied, tentatively at first, watching carefully to see if this answer would ease the searching look on Faith’s face.
“The best things? Like how we get presents and cookies and have people over to visit a lot?” Faith rebuttled.
“Yes, but more too. It’s the best things

That was obviously going nowhere quick in my brain, so I turned to this:


Top 10 Reasons why this Christmas will be the Best for the Buttons yet:
10- We got to cut down our own live Christmas tree.
9- We figured out some lovely presents for the

When I realized I can't count backwards.  Which lead to this diatribe

My train of thought has crashed, my creativity gone caput!  Whatever on earth do I have to say! No rhyming, no reason for this Christmas season just a bunch of

blah blah blah Okay, count your blessings and keep it short so people will at least get to the good stuff.

We had a great year

no duh! Are you kidding think of some thing new and alluring!

 We’re happy and healthy this year

Well that got me snoozing, got anymore bright ideas?

 having been blessed and full of great cheer!

Josh finished one year of graduate classes, seems slow as molasses, and now he’s only got one left

Good grief that was a horrible! Who ever rhymed  molasses on purpose? Get moving lady, this card’s almost full!

Nancy and Faith spend most of their time at home. Danny stays with us too, usually smiling. We called lots of places our own for awhile; Just moving about, trying not to shout, and being supportive during trials.

You almost did it with out rhyming, but of course you blew it and got into a rhythm

At least you said something of substance.

We’re back in Boise now as Josh faces he last few rotations. Looking forward is much easier than looking back at the year we have conquered.  Nevertheless, we are grateful to have had such blessings in our life as 2008 comes to a close.  We love remembering at this time how much we are grateful for Jesus and His Gospel. 

Merry Christmas to you all in snow or sun.

Finally, a perfectly good Christmas insert statement!  Hey if you keep this up, you might have something figured out for your 2009 Christmas cards!  Oh, and don’t forget to let everyone know you love them and are grateful for their support too.

And then I gave up and just wrote SOMETHING out of spite.  Well, Merry Christmas card insert writing this year.....blah blah blah.

Traditions

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time to be with my family! We had half of the family at the cabin at various times. Time at the cabin is WONDERFUL!! I am so grateful for my parents' frugality in bringing that wonderful Haven into existence. The kids love both the indoor activities and the outdoor.


As far as the traditions go: I made the mashed potatoes and rainbow jello this year for the Thanksgiving feast. Both were a disappointment. The potatoes were clumpy and the jello runny. Boo. Brooke made excellent rolls however (which I usually muff up of course) and we had Chocolate Haupia pie - a tradition that came of family visiting me in Hawaii one year for Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving is the Christmas tree hunt day. We drive to the mountains and cut down trees of our own picking and height. We always get a lovely tall one for the cabin. Josh and I got a 10 footer for our home in Boise. Jeff was smart this year and let the kids play while he went and cut the trees that would work instead of making the kids try and pick a tree in the forest that was good enough for them. I staked out at the heating hut - our van. It was all perfect timing as the kids were getting cold and bored we had hot cocoa and then loaded up the cut trees and came home. It was a pleseant time.



We also went to Green Canyon Hot Springs. I was disappointed that there were more people there than usual, making it a big more challenging to locate the kiddos, and a longer line for the diving board (they long since removed the swing, bummer).


We put a few twists on a few other traditions:
instead of the classic spagetti - Jeff put the noodles in a Lo mein dish.
instead of a wiener roast outside, we did the hot dogs in the fire inside and later burnt a few mallows over a gasoline fire outside.
instead of endless hours on Rastan and Raiden, video game time was spent more so on the Wii Rockband (we unlocked all the songs)

Showing him the ropes

While packing for our week at the cabin, I put a Baby Einstein on the compy so Faith would stay still...well what a good sister she is, she showed Danny how it is done.
this photos are totally unstaged!