For Christmas, from Grandma Brown, the boys received a Pickle Ball set. When I told Grandma that the boys would like a Pickle Ball set, she was like.... "A Pickle what?" Well Grandma came through! We set out recently for our first pickle ball excursion.
And what a blast!!! The rules are similar to tennis and table tennis. Serve the ball corner to corner, one bounce inside the square, and you can only get a point if you serve. We only have 2 pickle ball paddles so the younger two played with the tennis rackets while the rest of us took turns playing. Luke and I played the first game. The game is suppose to go to 11 points and you win by 2. But, it soon became apparent that we needed to play only to 7 points since we weren't gaining any points. We had a great time and plan to go out again this week. And that has nothing to do with me winning the first game. :)
Notice anything different with Ben's super cute smile? Oh yes. He "officially" is becoming one of the big kids as he has lost his first tooth. Yeah Ben!!
Consider this an invitation to join me with my New Year's resolution..wait..I hate resolutions. A friend of mine recently said "If it wasn't worth your time to do it two weeks ago then it probably isn't now."
I guess this isn't a resolution...more like a life style change.
This past year I have had some unique experiences for me. One of them was the "Time out For Women" that Deseret Book produces every year. All of the speakers spoke a lot of truth and touched me greatly, but two of them really spoke to my soul.
One was Mariama Kallon. She grew up in a war torn country, was the victim and was a witness to horrid war crime, and then became a member of the LDS church. She served a faithful mission and then immigrated to the USA. She has been through so much and yet, she is happy, confident and inspiring. All three are my goals in life. How do I get there?
Hillary Weeks was also at the event. She told about an experience she had where she used a "clicker"..or counter..to count all of her good thoughts that she had in a week. She spoke about the profound change in heart and mind that this brought about her. People everywhere had a clicker in their hand and were counting their good thoughts. She had about 1000 good thoughts in a week. It intrigued me..do I have that many?
She also sang a song that has become a mantra for me. I'm sure she wrote it just for me. It is titled Beautiful Heartbreak. It describes the pain that I have tucked away that comes growling out every once in a while. It describes the heartache that I feel when I think about the assault. I feel the heartbreak part easily..but do I feel the beautiful part? That is very difficult for me.
I was pondering these moments for weeks. Trying to figure out a way to incorporate them into ME.
I was perplexed on what I needed to do. I need to be better..I want to be a better person. I think I am doing ok..but ok isn't where I want to be.
At Thanksgiving I received my answer of what I needed to do.
I was reading my friend's blog (Hi Besty! ). She wrote a list of 100 things that she was grateful. Wow I thought. That is super cool. As I pondered her post I knew it was connected to the heart's change that I was looking for.
I recently read an article by Pres. Thomas S. Monson. It is about gratitude, and how if we have a grateful heart then we "unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love." (Its an amazing talk, go read it!)
I figured it out. I needed to be more grateful. I needed to be grateful for everything, always. When I made this realization, I suddenly became very aware of ungrateful attitude I often had.
I desire a grateful heart. A grateful heart will bring healing, joy, confidence, and peace.
This year is the year that I learn to be grateful.
For Christmas I made a few plaques for a couple of friends to join me on my "grateful journey" this year. (Write on them with and erasable marker..changing it as they see fit.)
My goal is to everyday write three items of gratitude on my grateful poster. Something that I am grateful for in my spiritual life, my home life, and in the world surrounding me. By the year's end I want to have more then 1000 things that I am grateful for.
I know many people use gratitude journals, and I think that's fantastic. But here's my thing..I want to remind myself every time I am in my bedroom of all that I am grateful for. I don't want to forget! I seriously am like Dory the fish in Finding Nemo..I forget things very easily! When I have bad days, and I get crazy depressed, I want to have a visual reminder of how blessed I am. I am so blessed to have the gospel, my family, and this world to live in. I need to see it.
Why am I sharing this on my blog? Seem a little ostentatious? That,s not my intent...I share to keep myself in check. If its a secret, then I will easily find excuses to not fulfill my goal. I will be posting a small update, hopefully monthly, to help keep myself on task.
I've only been writing on my gratitude poster for 5 days now and it isn't to difficult so far. It is nice to already be thinking of things that I want to put on the poster tomorrow. Maybe this will change this heart after all.
What are you thankful for?
I invite you to keep a gratitude journal/poster/paper this year. Learn the blessings of being grateful with me.
On Christmas Eve we attend the community Christmas Program. Traditionally it is done by the city royalty. This year it was great! The only thing missing was the reading of the Christmas story from the book of Luke. I don't know if it was an oversight, but it was notably missing.
Also missing was a smile from Mark when he went and saw the big red guy.
All smiles in their Christmas pj's!
Since it was Sunday, we attended church before opening gifts. I absolutly love having church on Christmas morning. I really wish that we would have church every year on Christmas like a lot of other religions do. Usually we sing just about every Christmas song you can think of, but my massive Christmas song book somehow ended up packed and placed into storage. so there is stayed. The kids (and big kids) were all smiles on Christmas day.
This just says James ALL over it.
Luke has wanted this flag for as long as I can remember.
See the little fuseball table???? Oh yes it is much fun!
Ben with his slightly-to-big-jacket-thats-really-warm-and-cozy.
Cory and his porta-potty...hee hee hee
No pictures of me (oh darn!) but I was ELATED when my hubby got me a cheese making kit. YES! If the world ends in 2012, I will still have my cheese.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and the New Year is looking good!
Luke is enrolled in the choir at his private school. He loves to sing. This post is mostly for the relatives that wanted to come, but were unable to. Everyone else is just lucky. :-D
Luke is a gifted singer, as are ALL of my handsome boys.
Every Christmas the commonwealth choir has their Christmas Concert. In the past it has been held in various churches and community centers, but not this year.
His choir teacher is very talented. The commonwealth is very lucky to have her involved. She planned this special concert over a year ago to be held in the Tabernacle in St.George. Only a few choirs are given this opportunity, especially at Christmas time, but she pulled it off.
Luke has a solo at 2:56. :-)
Proud Grandma Sutton.
Even Cory got to come to this one!!
Cousin Mia Celeste and Conner with James. They were rocken out during the concert..in a good way.
Luke and one of his good friends Zach.
I love the choir! I can't want to see what they are able to accomplish this next semester.
Ok pardon the Christmas posts...after Christmas. Oh well.
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is driving around looking at all of the Christmas lights. We usually do this on several outings. We love to drive around town and the town next door "judging" which ones are best. Here are a couple of our favorite..
This house had displays in their windows and all sorts of light displays. Winner! We loved it!
Our FAVORITE place to go look is at "the music house" as my kids have named it. Each year they place tons of lights and then synch it to music that we listen to on the radio. Each year seems to be better then the last. What I love most about the music house is the sheer delight in my little ones. They really think its magical. Mark cries out "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!"repeatably and is just so excited about the lights. Ben still thinks it is magical as well. He will do just about anything to go and see the music house. The older two still enjoy the house, but they spend most of their time trying to figure out how it works and patterns with the lights. It amuses me. I still think the lights are magical. I look forward to my cup of hot chocolate and watching the twinkling lights in the dark sky.
Enjoy the lights...not just my kids arguing. :-) Mark is cute, when the bell rings, he declares "Ding! Ding!!" Ahh so cute!
I have always wanted to have my house lit up at Christmas time. However, I seem to find many more things to do. I am so grateful for those who put the lights on just for me and my kids to enjoy. Thanks!!! At the temple..a poor picture but we had a great time.
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is decorating gingerbread/graham cracker houses. The kids love any excuse to play with their food AND have it be candy they are playing with. Who wouldn't love that?!
The kids LOVE finding different ways to creatively place THE MOST candy on their "house". They they throughly enjoy eating their houses in the following days/the next day. --I am not a candy police, if they want to eat all of their candy in one day so be it. Its their tummy.--The older ones have learned this lesson and are pretty good with not eating it all in one setting.
Mark loved this tradition. After giving him his bowl of melted chocolate (aka the glue) and his cup of candy, he promptly dumped all of his candy into his bowl and declared "DONE!...Now I eat it!"
Ben had the most stress. His house tumbled over twice. Thank goodness Luke has had experience in this area of repairing the graham crackers and was able to save the day!! This insured a happy Ben at the end of the evening.
James is a skilled candy stacker. No cracker is unable to hold his placement of carefully balanced candy. If the world ends and grahm cracker houses must be built to save the world, James will be there and see it through to the end. No cracker is to small nor any amout of candy to many to accomplish his task.
Luke enjoys this creative process and is starting to venture out into the more functional, decorative realm of cracker houses. He is adding doors, different levels, and even gumdrop people. As for me and my house? Well..I skip the graham crackers and just stick with chocolate houses.
