Pictures

Christmas morning cereal.

By Grandma's Christmas tree before opening presents in their new Christmas Eve Jammies.

Sunday Christmas Clothes.
Joey

This is after church so the shirts are un-tucked and they are ready to change :)
David

I love my boys!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, tonight :)!

Merry Merry

I had such a wonderful relaxing weekend for Christmas.
Our boys were in St. George for a few days before and are staying one extra day in St. G with their cousins and grandparents.
Dave and I drove down together on Christmas Eve and we stayed at my mom's home for the weekend. The boys seemed very pleased with their gifts and overall happy to be with family!
That was the best part of it all for me as well. I love my family!

We went to see both families each day. Christmas Eve with both parents, Christmas day breakfast at one brothers and Christmas Dinner at another brothers. We were spoiled with delicious food that day.

Sunday Dave headed home with his sister for work reasons and I got to stay with the boys and hang out. We went to church with Leishmans then ate dinner at my brothers. I was able to visit with my cousins Sunday night and then stayed at my moms again.

Monday was the best because I ran 10 miles in preparation for the half marathon on Jan. 22. Then I went and got pedicures with my mom and neices, then we went to Cafe Rio for lunch and hung out with my kiddos. I love David and Joey. I also got new tires on my van cuz the old ones were scary! I am so thankful for the long weekend I was able to have in beautiful, sunny St. George. I am so thankful for all of the time I was able to spend time with SO much family.

I am rejuvenated and have more hope for the future.

Christmas Cards

I do not want anyone to feel bad if they do not get a Christmas Card this year...

Dave's sister Jacquie took these for us one day before church, but I am not going to make Christmas cards.

I am choosing instead to simply enjoy how cute they turned out and love my little family!

Silly Boys!

Thoughts

WARNING: This may be a long and boring journal post to some of you.

Every morning at work we have a meditation with the clients. I love it.

Today during meditation my mind was thinking and bringing up many emotions.

1. I am so grateful for good friends. Seriously, life is so much easier and funner and blessed with good friends. I get emotional a lot of times thinking about friends. I am thankful that my family members are my friends. I have some of the BEST family in the whole world who I consider my Best Friends. Love you all!

2. Then I thought of my friends babies and I love babies! I want to hold them and love them and help take care of them since I do not have my own at this point.

3. Then I thought of the history in the Provo Tabernacle as I thought of it burning this morning on my way to work. As I was driving I saw fire trucks pouring water into the beautiful structure. The streets were blocked off. Although I have never been in that building, that I recall, I felt sadness as I looked there and thought of all the history that building must represent.

4. Then I thought of my blessings. I am so blessed. I am so gratedul to have a job. I am grateful to have my education. I am so grateful to be able to afford all the necessities of life, Plus some. I am so grateful for my health. I am thankful for my body, it is an amazing piece of God's miraculous work. I am thankful to be a mother. I am thankful for my boys. Even though they can be rough at times and I do not have the best patience, I love them and am grateful for all they teach me. It is such an amazing miracle to even have the opportunity to be a mother. I want to be more grateful to others for who they are to me.

5. Then I thought of this time of year. I Love Christmas! I am so thankful I am done with my Christmas shopping early so I can now think of other things, like Jesus Christ and family, and just feel the peace of the season. My mind was racing during meditiation and I was a tiny emotional, so I wanted to come in my office and journal my thoughts as I wait for the next client.

6. Last thought to share was about the priesthood and being able to receive blessings. I am glad there are men in my life that I can ask for a blessing when needed.

Goals

I guess I am getting started on some new year's resolutions early...

1. Lose 10 more pounds. I gained about 30 pounds while in school plus I had an extra ten before that so 40 total. I have already lost 30 so here we go for the last ten. My cousin Brittany and I are being teammates in this endeavor.

2. Maintain the healthy eating and exercise habits I have made since loosing the weight. I am sure that less stress has helped, but I did not use any of those fad diets or loose weight quick pills. Just some good old fashioned healthy habits FINALLY.

3. Finish scrapbooking all of the photos I have printed sitting in little file boxes. This morning I started organizing things in our office/extra guest room and decided to get out the scrapbook stuff. Well I have found some motivation to get the photos that are printed into books. From now on I will probably only make those online books which seem way easier and a lot less messy, but I need to finish the pictures I had already printed YEARS ago.

4. Run St. George half marathon in January. I have such great motivating friends. I will be running 8 miles tomorrow for my long run. I do those on Mondays now since that is my day off. I am loving running without all that extra weight!

I guess this post is really for me to help me remember and keep me accountable. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Pictures of Activities

We decorated gingerbread houses for family night last week.

The boys.
David , Joey and Dave Sr.

I made a blanket and I loved it. I posted about it in November, one of my gratitude's.

The boys got to bring out their sleeping bags from Aunt Angee and fam from their birthdays and watch a movie on the laptop for several nights under the blanket.

My nephew and I took the boys to get Ice cream at Iceberg one night and then he and I went across the street to Jamba Juice and got us a treat.

Helaman, Joey, Momma, David

Be Yourself

We just took the boys to see the new Narnia movie.

The biggest lesson I got out of the movie was when the little girl did a spell on herself to make herself beautiful like her sister. She ended up wishing herself away.

That is what I think each of us does when we are not ok with who we are and wish we were someone else.

I am giving myself permission to be me, in order to give you more permission to be you.

Three things I like about myself are:

1. I feel peace and serenity and I share that with others.

2. I think I am pretty.

3. I know how to have fun my way.

What are 3 things you like about you?

Destiny

"True success in this life comes in consecrating our lives—that is, our time and choices—to God’s purposes (see John 17:1, 4; D&C 19:19). In so doing, we permit Him to raise us to our highest destiny."

- D. Todd Christofferson

One of my Friends has this on her blog and I liked it so I am sharing it with you!

CHRISTmas Thought

"The Christmas season is wonderful in many ways. It is a season of charitable acts of kindness and brotherly love. It is a season of being more reflective about our own lives and about the many blessings that are ours. It is a season of forgiving and being forgiven. It is a season to enjoy the music and lights, parties and presents. But the glitter of the season should never dim our sight and prevent us from truly seeing the Prince of Peace in His majesty." UAdd a Note

"Let us all make this year’s Christmas season a time of rejoicing and celebration, a time when we acknowledge the miracle that our Almighty God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world!"
- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2010

Vacuuming stairs

So yesterday I vacuumed the stairs and as I was doing it I was thinking. I was thinking I really do not like this chore.(And I really do not like cleaning showers.) As I was thinking about this I thought how good it would feel when the "chore" was done. I brought the vacuum up from the basement to the 3rd level 4 days prior, but still didn't do the job. I left the vacuum sitting by the stairs for FOUR days. Then I thought ah-ha, as I was vacuuming, when something is difficult or not easy the reward in the end feels so much greater for having accomplished it.
So here I go again with another of my life lessons... life is like vacuuming the stairs, u may not always want to, you may procrastinate, it may not be easy, BUT in the end it WILL be worth it!