It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

(Our Christmas wreath on our front door)

Remember how I love Christmas?! Well, here we are again already. I can't believe we are already a week into December!

This last weekend we had one of our girl's sleepovers (which was so fun again, by the way, with 10 girls under 12.) On the way to the sleepover I went to pick up the pizza and I had one of my nieces with me. We had to wait a few minutes for the pizza and while we were waiting, my cute 5 year old niece kept singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" over and over. We had been listening to Christmas music in the car and I guess that was what stuck with her! It was so sweet.

I have thought a lot about that phrase since then and how, for me, it really is "the most wonderful time of the year." I started memorizing "The Living Christ" last week and I love the phrasing about Christ in that document. I was thinking as I was memorizing this weekend the He is the reason it is the most wonderful time of the year.

As much as I love the Christmas music, the decorations, the parties, the food (especially the food...), the reason I love December is because it gives me so much more of an opportunity to ponder about Christ and His life and sacrifice. I love that all over are words like "joy," "peace," "hope," and "rejoice." All of those hopeful words are because of His life and what He did for all of us!

Here are the phrases that struck me this weekend as I was memorizing:

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice…


He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.

Aren't those beautiful phrases? I love the whole thing of course, but those were the ones that stood out to me this weekend as I was studying it. His life and sacrifice are the greatest gift we will ever receive!

I thought I would again include a few of the Christmas decorations at my house, mostly because I like to look back each year and see what my decorations looked like:

We have done a few fun Christmas things this year, but Jen has the pictures on her camera at work, so I will write about those later.

I did want to end with a few pictures I took on Friday when we went to the Festival of Trees:

This was one of my favorite trees, mostly because I loved that it has many of those wonderful words I was talking about before.

I thought this was the most inventive tree--a snowman Christmas tree!

This one reminded me of my sis-in-law Stace since it was all purple--this one is for you Stace!

So, this picture is lopsided, but I had to put it in because I loved this house, especially the entryway with the big candy canes!

Check out this gingerbread village. Can you imagine the hours it must have taken to make that!

I hope you have a wonderful December!

P.S. Look below for a post I wrote three weeks ago and never posted!



A Baptism and a Funeral

(Saturday, November 13, 2010)

I have had a few experiences this last week that gave me a chance to "let the solemnities of eternity rest upon [my] mind." (D&C 43:34)

The first one was a baptism. On Saturday November 6 my nephew Logan was baptized. It was such a nice day! Logan, who is normally very active, was unusually subdued that day. He really seemed to sense the significance of the day and that made it really special.

Jen and I went over to Seth and Karla's a little early and I read a book to the kids while we we waited. I love being an aunt!

Right before we left for the baptism we had Logan open up his present. Here he is holding the baptism book and "future missionary" tag we gave him. What a handsome boy!

Here are a few more pictures we took before the baptism started:

Logan with his parents and his Southern grandparents. (Doesn't my Mom look great? She has lost 100 lbs this year!)

Jen and I with Logan



After the pictures we went into the chapel and waited for the baptism to start. It was fun for us to sit again surrounded by our many nieces and nephews.

Logan was the only one being baptized in his ward, so he asked Jen to give the talk on Baptism and me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  That was a sweet experience. During my talk on the Holy Ghost, I noticed that Logan was attentive and nodding at things I said. It was so neat to see him listening so carefully!

After the baptism we had a luncheon at Seth and Karla's house. Overall it was a really nice day. I love the Spirit I feel at baptisms and the opportunity it gives me to reflect on the blessing of my membership in the church and the restored Gospel!

On a sad note, we also attended viewing on Sunday night and funeral on Monday for the mother of one of our good friends from High School. She passed away at the age of 61 from a brain aneurism. They lived in Orem in our old ward and stake, so even though it was a sad time, it was so nice to see so many wonderful people that we had grown up with.

It was also so nice to see my friend Tammy and her family again.  They have been good friends for many years, but we have not seen them as much lately.

We spent a lot of time with Tammy and her husband when her first two kids were little. That was before we had any nieces or nephews of her own, so we were really close to her kids. In fact, once when her daughter was very young, she asked Tammy if Jen and I were family! So cute!

Well, we got to see that daughter this weekend and she is now a beautiful 18 year old! It was so good to talk to her and see the wonderful young woman she has become. She was even wearing her Young Women Medallion. Here is a picture of her with Jen and I:

The picture turned out a little yellow, but I thought I would include it anyway. I can't believe one of my high school friends has a daughter that is so old! She is already taller than me!

The funeral the next day was so inspiring even though it was very sad. My friend Tammy is the oldest of nine kids and they had all the kids participate except one who is on a mission and one who has autism. As I sat watching those kids pay tribute to their wonderful mother I thought about how motherhood is the highest calling and best work we can do in this life! I thought of my own parents and the sacrifice they had made to raise nine kids. I also thought of how grateful I am for the gospel--even though it was such a sad time, each of the kids that spoke bore testimony that they knew she was happy and that they would see her again.

I was especially touched by one of the talks by her son. He talked about a journal entry by his mother that he had read after her death in preparation for his talk. In her journal, written a few years before her death, she wrote about how she had been pondering and studying about faith and that one night she woke up in the middle of the night with this thought: "Faith is the antidote to any trial." 

In the entry, she talked about how she thought at the time that antidote was an interesting word to be used in that context, but that as she looked it up later, she found it meant "something that relieves, prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects." She talked about how she realized again that because of Christ's Atonement we would be protected and supported in trials. She then wrote this, "Our whole lives should be spent rejoicing because of our faith in Christ."

I thought that was so profound. Because of Christ, we can survive any trial! He truly is the antidote to any trial because He has experienced it! He knows how to "relieve, prevent and counteract" the injuries we receive from our trials. He truly is the great Healer of our Souls! I am so grateful for Him and what I learned about Him at that funeral.

 

I am grateful for the experiences we have in life to reflect on the "solemnities of eternity" and for what we what we have waiting for us in the eternities because of the sacrifice of Christ!

I'm Back...

Wow, where did three months go?  I can't believe it has been that long since I blogged! I was telling my sister-in-law Stace that I was finally going to blog today and would be including the birth of her baby (three months ago) and she said I could say, "This is Savannah and now she is in college..." (Ha, Ha, Stace, you are funny!) That is about how it feels though!

I don't have any REALLY good excuse for not blogging. I guess the best one is that so much has happened in the last three months that it was a little overwhelming to think about trying to blog about it. So, I will put the highlights, and hopefully you won't get bored!

JULY

July was a packed month but so much fun! The week of July 11-17 I went to the Oregon coast with my parents and my brother Dave and his family. It was really fun. About ten years ago we went on a sisters trip to the Oregon Coast and loved it so much that I have been back four times now. It is so peaceful and beautiful!

My sister-in-law Melissa, who is amazing at finding deals on the internet, had found a great rental house that was a three minute walk to the beach with a gorgeous view of the ocean. We spent a lot of time at the beach, built sandcastles and had a treasure hunt with the kids, went on a boat trip, went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, went to lighthouses and watched sunsets. My favorite part was being with family and walking on the beach.

Here are a few pictures:

Jen and I on the windy beach. Look at the beautiful waves!

My Dad at the Yaquina Bay lighthouse. I like the smile on his face--we don't often get candid pictures like this of my Dad. Don't you love the combination of green trees and ocean behind him? I love Oregon!

My Mother in our beach house.  You can see the big windows behind her that had a beautiful view of the ocean. I think she looks really pretty in this picture!

Cape Foulweather--one of my favorite places on the Oregon coast! It is up on a promontory overlooking the ocean and had a cute little gift shop. This is the view looking north. So breathtaking!

This is Dave and Mel and their cute kids at Cape Foulweather. What a sweet family! We had so much fun with them.

This is kind of overexposed, but I thought it was cute with me and Mieka. This was waiting to get on the boat.

On the beach with Annika. I loved walking on the beach!

I couldn't resist a sunset picture, since I am "enamored with sunsets!"  This was a beautiful night! It was really cold, but worth the cold to see the sunset progress.

I got back from Oregon and was back for two days before I left for girls camp.  On one of those days (July 19th) my sister-in-law Stace had her fifth (and unplanned) baby Savannah. She is such a cute baby. Like I said before, she is 3 months old now, but here are a few pictures of her birth:

Holding Savannah--isn't she a pretty baby?

You can't really see Savannah's face, but I thought this was a cute picture with me, Jen and Stace. Doesn't Stace look good for just having a baby?

I left for girls camp the next day and was there July 20-23. Camp was really fun, but I won't spend a lot of time writing about it since I still have a lot to write.

My favorite part was our sunrise hike. We decided to raise a flag of virtue as Sister Dalton, the General Young Women's President, has suggested. We hiked up to a beautiful lake and I was assigned to give a talk on our theme, "Daughters of a King" and virtue. It was a challenge and I prayed a lot, but it went really well and the spirit was strong. I actually got a sweet note later from one of the girls that said it had really helped her. I love the blessings we get from fulfilling our callings! Here are a few pictures from the hike:

The sun just coming up and hitting the mountains--it was so peaceful and beautiful!

This is Rachelle Bolingbroke, my good friend and the Stake YW President, and I on the hike with the virtue flag. After my devotional all of the YW and leaders signed the flag as a commitment to return to virtue. It was a really special experience!

On July 31, my niece Kate was baptised. It was such a neat day. Kate is such a sweet and good girl. She is so helpful to her Mom and sisters. She had asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and it was nice to have time to reflect on how grateful I am for that precious gift. Here are a few pictures:

Janelle, Kate and my brother Mike.

Jen and I with Kate. Such a sweet girl!

Kate and I at the luncheon afterwards.

AUGUST

August was not nearly as busy as July, other than my normal day to day things. In fact, I only have a few pictures:

Another sunset... I know; but this was so beautiful I had to put it in. This is a picture I took at a YW activity on August 18. Even though I am in the Stake YW, I go to weekly activities because our Stake is small enough that we combine. So, every Wednesday night I have YW. I have enjoyed it a lot, especially getting to know the YW. It does make my week busy with YW on Wednesday and the temple on Thursday, but it is worth it!

On August 20, I went to Lagoon with my sister's family and another niece. It was a fun day. I just love summer activities! I will only put one picture, one I took of myself with my two nieces, Annika and Emma. I just love that I have all these wonderful nieces and nephews that love me so much. What a blessing!

This next picture is from our family birthday party on August 22. Our family gets together every month for birthdays and I thought this was a cute picture of the kids on the balcony at my parents house:



SEPTEMBER

On September 16 I had another little niece born. My sister Emilee had her third baby and named her Isabella. Here are a few pictures:

Emma and I holding Bella. You can't see Bella much, but I liked the picture.

There is a picture of Bella, such a sweet girl!

This next picture is me with some of my nieces and nephews at my parents house on September 19. We had gone over to my parents because my sister-in-law Janelle had found out she had an abdominal tumor that the doctors were suspecting could be cancerous, so she was getting a blessing from my Dad. The blessing was very comforting--I am so grateful for the Priesthood--and during the blessing my nephew Joey and two of my nieces came and snuggled next to me.  How can I even feel bad about not having my own kids when I have so many wonderful nieces and nephews?

  

The weekend of September 25-26, Saturday and Sunday, Jen and I watched Mike and Janelle's kids while Janelle was in the hospital recovering from her tumor removal. (We found out later that it wasn't cancerous. It really was a miracle--even when they took it out they were sure it was cancerous--it wasn't until we got the path report back that we knew for sure. We are all so grateful!) Even though we were worried about Janelle, we had a great time with the kids. We took the kids to a movie and had a sleepover. They really wanted to have their cousins come along, so Emma and Matthew are in the pictures as well:

In the car on the way to the movie. We were singing songs and having a great time!

The girls at our house for the sleepover. So cute!



OCTOBER

Really, if you have made it this far in my post I am proud of you. It is really far to long. I should have not tried to catch up, but when I started looking through pictures I found so many cute ones. Actually, you should feel lucky, I left quite a few out! :)

The last thing I wanted to write about is Conference. I loved Conference this year! The weather was perfect, the speakers were amazing as usual, and overall it was a great experience.

On Saturday morning Jen and I took Logan and Kate, our two newest 8 year olds (well actually, Logan was not quite 8, in fact, his birthday is today...) to the Conference Center to see Conference. They slept over the night before and then we drove up early to get good seats. They were so good and we had a great time. Here are a few pictures:

Kate and Logan at our house before we left in the morning. Don't they look so nice all dressed up?  And, I just have to mention that I tied his tie...we didn't realize he would have an actual tie until that morning, so I got on the internet and found instructions.  Looks pretty good for a novice, doesn't it?

Me with Logan and Kate before Conference--perfect weather!

Logan and Kate in front of the fountain. Notice they are holding their Conference packets.

Jen made these great little packets with pictures of the General Authorities and other activities to keep them occupied. We got there at 8:30 to get good seats, so they ended up sitting up for 3 1/2 hours, but they had a lot of fun before Conference and were very reverent during Conference. 

The highlight before Conference was seeing all of the General Authorities walk in. Our seats are close to where they all walk in and Kate and Logan were so excited to mark them off in their packet as they saw them. Sister Wixom, the new General Primary President, came up and shook their hands and asked them their names. About ten minutes later, she came back and introduced them to her counselor and remembered their names! Later in that session she gave a talk about ministering one by one. I thought she was a great example of that.  They also got to shake hands with President Samuelson (a member of the Seventy and president of BYU), Sister Dalton, (the General YW President), and Larry Gibbons, (a member of the General Young Men's Presidency).  It was so neat for them to get individual attention from some of our leaders. 

After Conference, as the General Authorities were all walking out, Sister Perry saw them and nudged Elder Perry and they both looked over and waved at them. That was really fun for them.

 Overall we had such a great time! What a blessing to be able to take these kids up to Conference and to help them understand the blessings of having Prophets and Apostles and the importance of Conference. Here are a few more pictures (including a picture of all of us at The Roof restuarant, where we took them for lunch afterwards):

 Congratulations! You have reached the end of my post! I hope it wasn't too long and boring...

Other than all of these fun activities, life is the about the same. I am still working at the hospital and loving my job and still working at the temple and serving as a Coordinator on Thursdays and loving it. As I have written this post this morning I have been struck over and over with how blessed I am! I really do have a wonderful life.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

I have not posted much lately, mainly because I have had a great spring/summer with lots of fun activities. I thought I would post a few of my favorite things that I have done or seen in the last six weeks or so:

This is a picture of the beautiful spring flowers as I walked into the Timpanogos Temple on May 20th. I always think the spring flowers are the most beautiful!

 

 

These pictures are from a visit to Temple Square on May 22nd.  Jen and I went with our brother Mike and his family and had a great time. His family is in the first picture and the second picture is me with my sweet niece Kate. I was holding the camera and taking the picture, so it is a little close, but I love how Kate has her head against my shoulder. The last picture is Jen and I with the three girls.

Later that night we had a 30th birthday party for my brother-in-law Steve. We have a fun tradition of having a big party complete with pianta and games for 30th birthdays.

The top picture is of the kids waiting to do the pinata (look at their cute excited faces) and the second picture is of my sister-in-law Karla and Steve (the birthday boy) using the remnants of the pinata as hats. It was really cold that day, so we did the rest of the games inside, but we had a lot of fun that night.

 

This picture is from our Memorial Day BBQ/Family Birthday party on May 31st. I thought this was such a cute picture of the cousins having fun together.

These two pictures are from June 4th. I went to the Provo Temple one day and as I walked out, I was struck by how beautiful the day was!

The first picture is looking over the valley from the entrance of the temple and the second picture is looking back at Rock Canyon as I drove away. I used to work in that area and drive to Rock Canyon during lunch sometimes. I have always thought it was very beautiful and peaceful. I especially love the clouds!

This picture is from June 5th. I went to my parents house to help them plant some trees and flowers. My brother and his wife live in the basement apartment and his kids came out to help. It was so sweet! They carried things for us, helped us dig the holes etc. This picture is of me watering the flowers with Brianna and Josh after we planted the flowers together. They were so excited to help.

I just had to add this picture because it was so cool. We went to fly kites for FHE on June 7th and the clouds were amazing! This looked almost like a funnel cloud was starting to form! It was the perfect night for kite flying with lots of wind.

This picture was taken on June 12th at Stake Youth Conference.  We spent months planning it with the Stake Young Men's Presidency, and it all came together and turned out great!  This is a picture of our Stake Young Women's Presidency at Mutual Dell in AF Canyon. We had such a wonderful time, and it was fun to spend time with my wonderful friends in the Presidency. 

This picture may be hard to see, but it part of a full rainbow that we saw driving home on June 13th. I loved the many different types of weather we had this spring.

These two pictures are from June 25th at Thanksgiving Point. My sister-in-law plans field trips every week during the summer months and I was able to join this one. We saw the animals, made butter and ice cream and went on a wagon ride. It was a really fun day.

These pictures are from my nephew Brendan's baptism on July 3rd. The first picture is my brother Jon and his family and the second one is Jen and I with Brendan. I love the spirit at baptisms and Brendan was so cute and excited. What a neat day!

After the baptism we went to my sister's house for awhile. I was helping my sweet niece Kate work in my sister's garden. In these pictures we were measuring and drilling holes. Kind of scary--me with a power tool...but Dan was supervising and it turned out really fun!

 

These last two pictures are from that night at our traditional July 4th Southern Family Olympics. Jen put a bunch of pictures on her blog, so I will only put these two, but it was such a fun night. We have such a fun family! 

I was on a team with my sister Michelle's family, so the first picture is me and Jenny doing the three legged race. The next picture just shows how much fun we have. I love that everyone in the picture is smiling and obviously having fun (and as a side note, I love the view of the lake and mountians from my parents back yard.)

Well, I suppose that is more than enough pictures for now. No wonder I haven't had time to post, I've been doing too many fun things!

Other than those fun things, I have been working more at the hospital lately. I have some big decisions to make in the the next few months about work.  There is a possibility of a full time position opening up that would be a good career move, but would require A LOT more time, so I have been thinking and praying a lot about what to do. So, that has kept me busy as well.

Overall it has been a wonderful spring and summer so far.  I really do have a wonderful life!