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??)

Beauty and the Beast

I wasn't going to blog about this, but I am feeling particularly grateful for Cory. He has been so patient with me lately. RAINN day really did a wringer on me, and the recovery has been intense at moments. But he has been nothing but great for me.

Earlier this month he asked me to homecoming at the college. He is a senior at Dixie and is getting to graduate in a few weeks (WOO HOO!!)

Remember way way WAY back in high school when you asked someone to a dance and you would do it in a silly way. Well, for one of the dances back in High school he asked me to homecoming. He filled up my bedroom with a bunch of balloons with puzzle pieces in them. Then I had to pop the balloons and put the puzzle together. (and yes...I STILL have that puzzle..) When I came home from Shakespeare class earlier this month and walked into my bathroom imagine the squeal I gave as balloons came toppling on me. He had once again filled the balloons with puzzle pieces for me to put together. And he asked me to go to the homecoming ball. Ahhh sweet I know!!!

And of course I said YES!!


We had such a good time! We went to the Gala and had a lovely dinner of chicken cordon bleu. Then we danced the night away! The theme for the dance was "Tale as old as Time" from the movie Beauty and the Beast. The first part of the dance was for the dance majors. --well it seemed like it anyway. It was 50's music and big band music. Everyone there knew how to do the jitterbug and the swing. They looked great! I felt just slightly intimidated. At one time in my life I knew how to do the fun dances, but those days were a LONG time ago. My feet got a little tangled up..lol...but it was great! After the first hour they had a DJ come and provide the music --of which I recognized NONE of the songs. But it was still fun!
We doubled with Cory's sister and Ken-they were so fun!

After we were done dancing, (like at about 10) we decided that we were beat and were going to head home. I know, big time partiers. we went out to the fountain and became true REBELS and kissed in the pond. -The water was really really cold.


It was a night to remember! My hubby spoiled me and pampered me. I loved it!
Thank you Cory for such a memorable evening!
I love ya!

Yeah James!!

This last week in scouts James recieved his Webelos badge and his Arrow of Light. He has worked so hard for these awards. He has alwasys loved scouts, andthankfully he has had some great scout leaders that have been very patient with him. His leaders wanted to do something very special for him so that he would always remember his arrow of light, so they flipped him upside down and congratulated him. He laughed so hard! He loved it! It fitted James just perfectly. He is such a physical kid that doing something physical to help is right on his level.

Way to go James! We love you!

Random events aka lots of pictures

For the last few months there have been several things that have happened that I have wanted to blog about. But since my life has been insane, I am now creating a modge podge of a post with everything that I wanted to blog about...but procrastinated until now. :-D


Ben camping with his dad for Fathers and Sons outing...he got really dirty.



This is at Cory's work. We love to go visit him and have him take us for rides in his golf cart.


Cory and Luke were able to participate in the CERT training locally. This is Luke with his practice bandage eye.





Luke and I went to the Shakespeare festival and watched Merchant of Venice. We saw the green show too. Luke spoiled me! He bought me a treat every time he turned his head! We had a great time!


We went to Dixie's first day of school hoora thing.
Ben was able to shoot Osama with an air soft gun.....



James, Luke and Cory were able to climb the rock wall....


And Ben loved his sucker, snow cone and cotton candy. Yummy!


Cory tried a fro-hawk....it wasn't him..lol..



The Brown reuion was held in Nevada this year. We went camping....



...at a condo in Vegas. My kind of camping!!!




We also spent a day at circus circus. It was great to see my family again.


Luke earned 14 merit badges this summer. He is earning his Life in November. Then he only has 5 merit badges and an eagle project to go! CRAZYNESS!


I took my awsome scouts to the 100 year event. The day was CRAZY! At the end, we watched a spectacular fire work show and listened to some great speakers. But this was the view in front of me the whole evening! It drove me nuts..lol..I just wanted to reach up and POP it.


Cory went with the Boy scouts in the morning. Luke and his friend Jimmy were able to participate with the ham-radio call to the space station. They even got to talk to the astronauts! They loved it!

Luke finished the Shakespeare Race again this year. He read/watched/ or listened to 17 plays. The rules were a little stricter, so it took him 2 weeks to do it this time. Good job Luke!