Birthday Weekend For Jade & Mom

My mom's and Jade's birthdays are on the 2nd and the 5th so they decided to have their birthday dinner the next weekend when my nephews would be here.
We had a great dinner and my mom made a red velvet cake at Jade's request.  Those boys love to blow out the candles, they get so excited!

 Those boys always make family get-togethers so much more fun.  They love parties and during the next two months every time they will be here, we will be having a birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Mom and Jade!  I love you both so much!

Welcoming 2012

Well since 2011 is history and 2012 is brand new, I am welcoming this year.  I'm still trying to figure out our word for 2012.

2011 was a lot of ups and downs for me.  It was my year of hope.  I lost it many times, especially with my last miscarriage in February, but tried to hold on to it.  I had a really hard time the last few months of 2011 especially.  I love the holidays for what they represent.  I love Thanksgiving for being thankful for all that I have been blessed with and for my present life.  I love Christmas for our Savior's birth and for His life.  But the holidays are also very hard for me.  Honestly, I get really depressed.  I hate to admit this but I guess it's not that shocking, I am so jealous of people who have children on Christmas morning.  I so badly want to play Santa Claus with Josh on Christmas Eve after we've tucked our child(ren) into bed and read Twas The Night Before Christmas to them.  I want to see their excited faces in the morning.  I may have romanticized in my head a bit but regardless, Christmas would be so much more fun. 

I'm glad the holidays over and it's time for a fresh start.

We're ready to try again for a baby.  It's taken a lot of time and a lot of prayer but I think I'm ready to put myself back on the emotional roller coaster.  I pulled the emergency stop on the roller coaster last time when I was going around loops and then plummeted straight down a deep dark hole.  I felt myself slipping further into a depression and knew I was fragile and couldn't take anymore.  So after building myself back up, I'm ready.  And I feel good about it.  I've been pregnant twice so maybe a third time will be the charm.  I feel like it's what I'm supposed to do here on this earth, I'm supposed to be a mother.  It may not come in a way I think but one way or another, we want to be parents.

Josh found this article by Thomas S. Monson in this month's Ensign and I love it.  It is my going to be my guide through this year.  I love it and feel like it was written for me.  I know it won't be easy and I am going to stumble a lot, but I'm going to try my hardest to pick myself up and keep going.  This message will be my guide.

Living the Abundant Life

At the advent of a new year, I challenge Latter-day Saints everywhere to undertake a personal, diligent, significant quest for what I call the abundant life—a life filled with an abundance of success, goodness, and blessings. Just as we learned the ABCs in school, I offer my own ABCs to help us all gain the abundant life.

Have a Positive Attitude

A in my ABCs refers to attitude. William James, a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher, wrote, “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”1

So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment.

Charles Swindoll—author, educator, and Christian pastor—said: “Attitude, to me, is more important than … the past, … than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.”2

We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.

Believe in Yourself

B is for believe—in yourself, in those around you, and in eternal principles.

Be honest with yourself, with others, and with your Heavenly Father. One who was not honest with God until it was too late was Cardinal Wolsey who, according to Shakespeare, spent a long life in service to three sovereigns and enjoyed wealth and power. Finally, he was shorn of his power and possessions by an impatient king. Cardinal Wolsey cried:

Had I but served my God with half the zeal

I served my king, He would not in mine age

Have left me naked to mine enemies.3

Thomas Fuller, an English churchman and historian who lived in the 17th century, penned this truth: “He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”4

Don’t limit yourself and don’t let others convince you that you are limited in what you can do. Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities.

You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith.

Face Challenges with Courage

C is for courage. Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live decently.

Said the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide on, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”5

There will be times when you will be frightened and discouraged. You may feel that you are defeated. The odds of obtaining victory may appear overwhelming. At times you may feel like David trying to fight Goliath. But remember—David did win!

Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.

Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

May we remember these ABCs as we begin our journey into the new year, cultivating a positive attitude, a belief that we can achieve our goals and resolutions, and the courage to face whatever challenges may come our way. Then the abundant life will be ours.

Here we go 2012, let's make it great!

New Year's Eve and Day

Cody's company was putting on their annual New Year's Eve party at Pioneer Valley Lodge so Josh and I went over there for a little while.  They have a free buffet that night and the line was so incredibly long that Josh and I just decided to sit in Cody's office with Tara and Morgan.  After it was over, we went over to Cody and Tara's house to play Balderdash and to watch the ball drop.  We had the New Year's Rocking Eve show on in the background and have so much fun playing the game.  By the time it was midnight, we were all beat.  We are old these days and can't stay up past 11 most nights!
The next day we went up to Lava Hot Springs for the afternoon.  I grew up in Idaho and for some reason had never been there even though it's so close!

Oh the water was so warm and felt so good!  The bottom of the pools are little pebbles that feel good on you feet at first but by the time we left, they were starting to hurt!

We headed back home and the sunset was beautiful!

 It was a great way to spend welcoming in the new year, being with our best friends.

Christmas Day

Josh and I got up today and went to church.  It was only for 2 hours and our 2 wards combined.  No talks were scheduled except from the two bishops.  I was really excited to hear what they have to say.  We don't get to hear our bishop talk much but when he does it's always so good.  The way he talks about Christ, I can feel that fire burning within, I know it's true.  I know Christ lives.  I don't like this holiday for the commercialism of it.  I don't think we went to church on Christmas morning when Christmas fell on a Sunday when I was growing up so it was really nice to actually go and worship Christ on his birthday.  The talks were wonderful.
We came home and I made our baked french toast, oh man is it yummy!

We went up to my parents' house for the afternoon to eat and hang out.  On the way up, I told Josh I was not going to live my life mourning a life I don't have.  I'm going to start being more grateful for the life I do have.  Because I have a great life.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I have a wonderful family and they all love me.  I have a husband who loves me and I love him so much and am so thankful and excited for the journey we are on the get sealed in the temple.  I have friends who love me.  We are blessed to have jobs and jobs that we like!  We are healthy, all of our needs are met, we are safe and I'm so thankful for that.  So I need to be better at not wishing my life away and always wanting something more.  I am blessed with everything I have.
I'm so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his life, gospel teachings, sacrifice and atonement for us.  I'm thankful for the atonement and for being able to repent and get forgiveness.  I'm thankful that Josh and I are finally on the way to getting sealed which is something we've wanted since before we even got married and here we are 8 1/2 years after our wedding getting ready to be sealed.  And it's all through Christ.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve Party

We went to my grandparents' house in Brigham for the annual Christmas Eve party.

I love going to this party.  It's just one of those memories from my childhood.  I remember every  year on our way home from that party, after we played pool over and over again and played with the air hockey game and ate so much food and got our presents from our grandparents, our mom and dad would tell us to watch for Santa in the sky to  make sure we beat him back to our home.  We would see the red blinking lights of the radio towers and when we were young enough to believe them, our mom and dad would tell us that was Rudolph's nose glowing in the sky.  We  rushed home and got to open our traditional Christmas jammies and then went to bed.  My brother, sister and I would go up to our rooms but always ended up in one bed together reading stories and watching our parents bring presents in through my brother's bedroom window as we were older.

I love getting together with our family and catching up with everyone.  I was so glad my Uncle Garth and his kids came to this party this year as well.  It was great to see them again.

My cousin Ashley, the one in the black, was a baby when I was about 8 or so.  Whenever our families were together, I always packed her everywhere.  We went up to Seattle to see them one summer and she was attached to my hip the whole time.  And now she's pregnant and it makes me feel old!

And this little Bryn is just so dang cute!!  And I love that our cousins are back in our lives more so we can get to see these cute kids!!

Christmas Party #2

The day after we had my Grandma Lowe's Christmas party, we had my parents' Christmas party.  We had a yummy Turkey dinner and then opened presents.  My nephews were so excited to open their presents.
They were so spoiled!  Josh and I brought them home Rex and Bullseye from Disneyland and got them each a pillow, blanket and a movie.  They got race car tracks and a huge dragon castle from my mom and dad.
Kids are so much fun to have during Christmas!

The Dragon Castle they got from my parents really caused some fighting, they both loved it so much.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Party #1

We had our annual Christmas party with my Dad's side of the family on Saturday night up in Franklin.  We all eat and then play the Left Right passing game and then open presents.

This crazy kid couldn't give me a real smile with a cookie all over his face!

Gavin kept handing my mom these cookies one at a time and then wanted her to put them all in her mouth.  He thought it was the funniest thing!

My mom helped Branson decorate one sugar cookie and he loved it.

Then he took to it by himself.

The Merry Okee microphone was the prize toy that the boys wanted to play with and fight over.

 My Uncle Garth's kids all came this year except for Amy.  We were so excited to see them, it had been years!  My cousin Jessie and I were always close growing up and I was so excited to see her and her beautiful two babies!

It was great to see them all and a great way to kick off the Christmas Holiday!