My First Baby

  This picture was taken about a month after Jacob was born.  My first baby.  I was 25 and it really feels like a long time ago.  We were living in El Paso.  Jason was in the Army working as a pathologist.  We'd been married only a year and four months.  I had had a baby!  I didn't know what I was doing.  I was happy and scared and nervous and in love and worried and overjoyed all the same. 

   Today Jacob, my first baby, turns 12.  He's receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and becoming a young man.  It makes my heart happy to see him grow up into a wonderful person.  He truly is special in so many remarkable ways.  It also makes me a tiny-bit sad to see this little newborn in my arms and wonder why it went so fast.  And where did the time go?  And why must he grow up at all? 

  But I'm so proud of who he is and so proud that he's my little son.   

Good Morning!

We decorated our tree this morning since we had to let it thaw out overnight after our purchase.  So we're all looking a little sleepy and pajama-y.  But we had fun decorating and remembering all our ornaments from over the years.  The kids get so excited to see the things they made at school.  Their faces tell the whole story of what Christmas is all about.

Christie and Jacob carefully loop each ornament over the limbs.  Jimmy just lays the ornament on a bough.  No looping.  Ha ha ha -- love these kids.

Thanksgiving/Birthday Extravaganza

And that's what it was!  It was an extravaganza by all accounts.  We headed to St. George to my parents' home for the festivities.  It was lovely.

 

The kids all slept in one big king-sized bed.  Christie in the middle so she wouldn't roll out.

 Jason and I escaped to Vegas for two nights for some cozy birthday time.  I turned 37 on Thanksgiving Day.  This was our room's view from the Bellagio where we stayed.  We shopped and ate out -- my favorite things to do.

 Thanksgiving Day, my mom and I joined forces and threw it all together!

 Selfie in the kitchen!!!  Perhaps I could show more teeth next time.

 And the men did this ...  ha ha ha

 And the kids did a lot of this ...

 Jason and I the morning after Thanksgiving.  Ha ha ha ha ha!

 Sweet Christiana pie!

 And we did lots of this -- playing with our cute cousins at their house and at our house and at the park.  These kids are such good friends ... just warms my tender heart!

Happy Thanksgiving.  Happy Birthday to me.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, too!

Just Stuff

Jacob's basketball team took 1st place in the Gallatin Gateway tournament!  It was an exciting time.  I'm so proud of Jacob and their cute team.  They did an awesome job.

 

 

L to R:  Noah S., Jacob, Noah R., Alton, Gerardo, Dallin, Brendan.

There are other teammates but I couldn't fit them all in.  Go Wildcats!

  

Also this week, I had to make about a thousand cookies to take to our Young Women in Excellence program this past Wednesday.  The program turned out really well and the cookies were a hit.  Christie was unable to wait for the frosting to be completed so she just ate a plain cookie with sprinkles.  The smile says it all.

So as I was cracking an egg over the mixer bowl while making the chocolate chip cookies, one tiny egg chip flew off and into the spinning dough!  Well, I was mortified because I couldn't find it as it was instantly mixed into the dough.  I tried and tried but could not locate it.  Oh well, I thought.  Someone will get a shell crunch in their cookie.  Not good!  But what was I supposed to do???  This is the night where the bishopric comes and all the parents -- ugh ... I'm feeling so mad about the eggshell chip.

So I bake the cookies and let them cool on the counter and then stack them up to get ready to package them.  And lo and behold, the cookie on top has a tiny, white eggshell chip poking out the top!!!  Can you believe this???  The angels above helped me!  How else -- out of all those cookies -- would I have been able to find the shell if it had not been on top?!?!?!  I was so happy and freaking out and saying Thank you Thank you Thank you a million times!  I pulled out the shell and all was well.

You can see the white little shell poking out of the top cookie above, the chocolate chip cookie stack placed about 2 o'clock on the plate.  Can you see it?  I took pictures of my cookies and then noticed it.  How crazy and how wonderful is that?

Tender mercy!

Do Good

"I did good on my test today."

"I don't feel good.  I need to lie down."

"How are you today?"  "I'm good."

These are just a few examples of incorrect grammar that I am constantly noticing and silently changing in my mind to "well" instead of "good."  When my children use grammar incorrectly, I remind them.  I'm kind of obsessive about it and really annoying to my family, I'm certain, with the way I constantly correct everybody.  I can't help myself.  Of course, I am imperfect (totally!) and make grammatical errors probably all the time.  But once in a while, these things just jump out at me and, funny enough, I even get UPSET with people about it.  Like my whole day is wrecked because someone was just flat wrong.  Ha ha!  Harsh!

Anyway, the point of this post is Ether 4:11-13.

We read these verses this morning and I was all in a panic because Christ says, "...for good cometh of none save it be of me.  I am the same that leadeth men to all good." 

For a second there I was thinking that all would be well with us if we follow Christ.  But that is not the case.  That's not what He's saying.  He's saying, "For because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good."

If we believe in Christ, if we are Christians, if we believe His Gospel is true, then we will do good.  "Do" being the operative word here.  Not that our lives will be perfect.  We will not necessarily just sit in our beautiful houses with everything we need; no troubles, no displeasures, no trials, no devastating losses.  The Gospel isn't about sitting there and basking in the glory of being saved.  This Gospel is about DOING GOOD, not BEING WELL.

I know I'm reaching here, but with all my obsessive grammar bossy-ness, I noticed that Christ is saying exactly the correct thing and Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon perfectly, without error. 

"And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me."

These are phrases of action.  These are not phrases of well-being.  We will experience many things in this life that are difficult.  We will experience many things in the life that are marvelous and joyous!  The point is to do good, be believing, and trust, and have faith, and serve, and love, and pray, and work, and live.  Action words!

I am so thankful for this tiny insight I received this morning.  I love this stuff.

Have a "GOOD" day!

One Dollar

As usual, on Monday mornings, I shop at Walmart for the week's groceries.  And each time I shop, there is always without fail a homeless person or panhandler or whatever you want to call them standing on the corner with their sign.  Today was no exception.  As I drove into the parking lot, I said to myself, "This is the day I will give this homeless man some food.  There's a McDonald's inside the store.  I will buy this guy breakfast and hand it to him on my way out."  Each and every week, I normally ignore these people.  I totally 100% ignore them.  I have never given them anything from my hand.

I've been told not to give these people money because they'll spend it on drugs or alcohol or cigarettes.  These people don't actually "improve" their circumstances by the money you give them because they have an addiction which is why they are even on the streets in the first place; right?  If they really wanted to turn their life around, there are resources available for them to do so.  And I actually tell these things to my kids, too.  Don't give money to homeless people.  It does them no good and it gets spent on their addictive lifestyle.

So I shopped and checked out and headed to McDonald's.  Long line.  I am not going to wait in this line.  I'm not going to do it!  But I promised myself I would buy this guy a meal.  I told myself that today was the day!  But now it's the lunch menu and I don't know what this guy will want for lunch!  Too much pressure!  Should I get a Big Mac or a Quarter-Pounder?  Will he just throw it away because there's onions on it? 

I'm having this debate in my mind.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  What should I do?

So I leave.  I load my groceries in my van and head toward the exit.  There he is!  He's there.  His sign reads:  "Hungry.  Will work for food.  Anything helps."  I reach into my wallet and pull out a dollar.  A dollar!  One whole dollar!  As I approach him he flips his sign over that reads, "Thank a vet."

I smile really wide, hand him the dollar.  He says, "God Bless You!  Thank you!"  His teeth are rotten and he smells like cigarette smoke.  Then he says, "And thank you for your service."  He noticed the veteran license plates on my van.  He was thanking me!  He was telling me Thank You and God Bless.

Well, my eyes filled with tears and I had to blink them away so I could drive!  I have everything.  We have everything.  And this kind homeless man was blessing me and thanking me for Jason's service in the Army.

I don't know this man.  But he made my day.  I don't know and would never be able to verify if this guy is a vet.  Maybe he's a liar, a scam-artist, a convicted felon.  But my heart says otherwise.  My heart went out to him, standing in the cold.  Even if he uses my dollar to buy more alcohol or cigarettes, it doesn't matter to me.  It's not my dollar anymore.  It's his.  And if he is a veteran, well, God bless him! 

And God bless all of our veterans today.  I have such righteous pride in our military and such righteous pride for our country. 

Halloween

Every year we look forward to Halloween with great anticipation.  We go trick-or-treating.  We do the school parties.  We buy and eat pounds and pounds of candy.  And when it's all over, I collapse on the couch.  Ha! 

Jimmy dressed up as a Star Wars clone.  Jacob decided he was not interested in trick-or-treating and wanted rather to stay home and be the man of the house and pass out candy to everyone.  Mind you, Jason's been out of town all week at a conference in San Diego.  (Don't get me started on that one.)

Christie was back and forth all day on what she wanted to do.  She tried on every costume in the Halloween box and finally decided on the Mulan outfit, or the geisha.  I put white powder all over her face and filled in her lips with my "Russian Red" lipstick.  She looked so cute.  I even stuck skewers in her hair bun. 

We had a fun day.  Glad it's over.  Now all the kids are in bed and I'm sacked out on the couch.  But I could use a Snickers bar.  :)