Picture of the day

Mark LOVES his binki. LOVES them. I think we may need to do an inervention soon though because one binki doesn't seem to be enough anymore. Now he has to have a binki in his mouth AND one in his hand as well. If he spies a third binki in the course of the day, he becomes obsessed with that one too. For a while I was confiscating them and putting them on my dresser--trying the whole out of sight out of mind. Well, one day he saw them. He REALLY wanted them. So much ,that he ended up dumping out my garbage can in my room to be able to turn over the can, stand on it, and grab the plethora of binkis taking refuge on the dresser.
Before we knew it, he had three shoved in his mouth and one in his hand. With a little help from Cory, he was able to enjoy-for the first time-four binkis in his mouth at the SAME time.

I know I know...so exciting..

Mark will be 2 in January, so he really does not need a binki anymore and I DREAD the day we decide to wean him off of it. But he's my baby, and I think I am trying to keep him my little baby as long as possible. I love my Mark!

I am thankful for....

There are so many things that I am grateful for. I could never name them all..lol..

This week with my boys, we are doing a thankful jar as described in the Friend magazine this month. It has been a fun blessing for all of us. I love watching the boys come up with all sorts of random things that they are thankful for.

As I have pondered recently about what I am most thankful for I have come up with the usual....family, home, great mentors, friends, blah blah blah... There is so much more that I am thankful for. Deeper stuff ya know. The stuff that lies underneath that layer of your heart that gives meaning to the family, great mentors, friends and all of that blah blah blah.

Like depression. (Did you see that coming? Yeah me neither...)

It isn't a secret that I struggle with depression. As weird as this sounds, I can be thankful for these bouts of depression (within reason..lol..) It helps me really appreciate and love those days that I am happy and love life. The days that I have peace, that I smile easily, and the world is full of opportunities, full of love, full of acceptance. I am thankful for the sunny days. I am thankful that I have many more sunny days then black days.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." Thomas Paine

And faith.

"Faith fuels hope... As it flows freely, our perspective changes; our vision becomes clearer. We begin to look for the best, not the worst, in life and in others. We gain a deeper sense of life's purpose and meaning. Despair gives way to joy." David Baxter

For me, faith is interconnected to hope. I have faith and hope that I will be able to raise my four amazing boys to be men of courage, valor, strength, and character. I have faith and hope that I will be guided to the mentors that we need that will help accomplish our family vision of being an eternal family. Everyone knows that raising children nowadays is difficult. Having faith in the eternal plan and knowing that we can be together forever as a family gets is through the hard times (like my dark days) and even strengthens our relationships.

"Strong moral character results from consistent correct choices in the trials and testing of life. Your faith can guide you to those correct choices." Richard G. Scott

Last year for our family vacation we decided to hike Delicate Arch in Moab. Now, for those that know me, you know that I am NOT an avid hiker. Not at ALL. It was probably the most difficult hike I have ever been on and it was only a couple of miles...with a fairly good incline. But we did it! And we did it as a FAMILY! We pulled and pushed each other (ok really it was just me that needed pushed and pulled..lol..) we constantly gave encouragement and we were all excited together once we arrived at our goal. This difficult experience was a great builder for our family. To work together at something HARD infused a sense of WE CAN DO IT among us. The boys still talk about it and how awesome it was to finish as a family.

That is what faith does for me. When life is painful-whether it is my depression or some other trivial thing- having faith that the difficult times will make me/us stronger. It will.

"when was anything really worthwhile easy?" Richard G. Scott

And I haven't even scratched the dust on the surface of what I am thankful for! I could go on and on about prayer, how it has given me such a beautiful testimony of eternal families, of the realness of my Savior and the personal knowledge that he has of me. But alas, I will expound on that another time. :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving with those you love. What else is everyone thankful for--that isn't a typical seasonal gratitude

I need picture help!!!

I have loved everyone's beautiful fall pictures with their kids. I just love the fall leaves. So, being greatly inspired, I took the kids out to try to take some pictures.


















It started out semi-bad....


















and just progressively got worse.....




































And I gave up.























































Maybe we will try again....someday.

Happy Halloween...and stuff

Happy Halloween everyone! I am a couple of days late but here are a few pictures from halloween and such.
To start our Halloween fun we always go to the corn maze. The kids and Cory love going and getting lost. I, however, like it for the first 1o minutes and then I don't like being lost! I really like knowing where I am all the time. We went with the homeschool group and had a great time!


I was made for the farm life. :-) Well, in my dreams anyway. I love the atmosphere of the georgic lifestyle. The open spaces...the animals...the gardens.....in my dreams I can do it all! Not so much in reality, but I like to think that someday I will have the self mastery to do all of that.

For Halloween we partied with the ward trunk or treat and then came back and watched Ghostbusters. The kids had never seen it before and thought it was a hoot. It scared the bageebees out of me when I was younger, but I found it mostly amusing now.

Luke dressed up like a Jedi again, his costume I think has finally been outgrown. James was King Arthor, Ben was a horsee (not a horse, but a horsee, I guess there is a big difference.) Mark was a giraffe but I forgot to get a picture of him. -so here is one just as fun.


All in all, I love fall! It gets me excited to start on Christmas. I know Thanksgiving is in the middle, but really, Christmas is the season that I LOVE. I am already making gifts and trying to find new Christmas music for my ipod(any suggestions for some great Christmas music??)