Homecoming

Last weeks homecoming was great fun. We always love a good excuse for a parade and the homecoming parade had a fun them of 'remember when' where they made fun of the many fashions that have come through MHS. Peter is in show choir this year and so was in the parade. I am excited to see the perform.

On his way to pick up his date for the dance. They had already done a road rally, dinner and trap shooting. (The guys were hoping a nice big buck would walk by while they were there, it is the middle of the hunt.) The dance was fun, the girl was cute. He was home just after midnight. What a gentleman!

FHE

I love fall. I hope we get to spend at least one day a week in the leaves and mountains enjoying the changing season and being with my family.

Isaac at soccer

Isaac is loving soccer this year. It is especially nice to have Uncle Jay and Aunt Lauri as coaches and two cousins on the team. Isaac is number 16.

Emily turns 19!

Sweet little Emily just had her golden birthday--19 on the 19th. Wow where does the time go. Now she is grown, has moved out and we hardly ever see her. I love Emily. It is always so fun when she is with us and we all love her smile. Thanks, Emily, for being such a great daughter, sister, example, friend, student, driver, soccer player, scriptorian, cookie baker, . . . you are great.

homecoming's coming

Peter is going to homecoming this weekend. Jenni said yes and here is the proof. Now he has to plan the date.

Still warm enough for water fun

This is a great place to come throw rocks, wade, and catch water skeeters. All these boys had a great time together

In case you noticed, yesterday Simeon managed to get a smile similar to Isaac's. No we did not pull his front tooth just to get a picture of our twins. Simeon was climbing up the refrigerator outside to get pickles and fell. He came in scream minus one tooth. He now has a single tooth in front because he has lost on on either side. We are just hoping that one tooth in the middle will survive a few more years and then come out naturally. It seems that his mouth tends to get the worst of his falls. He is fine and in good spirits, after all, the tooth fairy still came a left a paper dollar. That makes everything better and we just cut his corn off the cob for dinner.

more info

For those of you who want to help, please consider joining me in this fight. I don't think it's right for the California church members to have to do this alone. You can do one or more of the following things:
1. Go to protectmarriage.com and place you endorsement there.
2. Give a donation on protectmarriage.com

Protect the family

I just received an email about the efforts that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are putting forth along with other churches and people of like mindedness in their fight against same sex marriage in California. They are trying to get people aware of the dangers of same sex marriage and encourage the vote for proposition 8. I know that same sex marriage is wrong. I trust the feelings of my heart that scream that it is wrong but when I need to defend those feelings I don't know how to explain it or describe all the reasons why anyone and everyone should be against same sex marriage.

In this email was a link from the LDS newsroom http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage that is a great help to me in understanding the many additional dangers in a way that I could hopefully explain in defense of the family, children, and marriage between a man and a women as ordained of God and essential to society. Please be educated in this issue and join in defending our rights, our liberty, and our freedom.

Mosiah 4, my understanding

“And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another and serve the devil, . . .” (Mosiah 4:14). This is an oft quoted scripture, especially in relation to child rearing. I would like to share an Aha I had a few years ago. I have been hesitant because I was waiting for my priesthood leaders or others to say it first. I haven’t heard it over the pulpit but it continues to speak truth to my heart and so I share it here, prompted by my sister and the Holy Ghost.
As I have studied the scriptures I have felt a desire to hold to promises shared there. It is fun to look for the “If. . . then” kind of statements.
“. . .If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, (then) surely these things shall be made known unto you.” (1 Nephi 15:11)
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 31:13).
Well, as we seek to keep our children from fighting and quarreling we have been given the ‘how to’ in this chapter. If we back up to verse 11 and start there with accepting Christ, repenting, and remembering His greatness in gratitude, calling upon the name of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in the faith, then we come to verse 12 “if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, . . .” that is the beginning of the ‘then’s. We are told that we “will not have mind to injure one another”, “will not suffer your children that they go hungry. . .and fight and quarrell”(and it is suffering when we have to watch or deal with it), “but ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another. . . “. These are just the natural outcome of living to honor Christ and his ways. These will just happen. To me it means that I need to be right with the Lord first. I need to have a soft heart and continually be working on my relationship with Him. As I do this I will receive these promised blessings. I am not commanded to stop any fighting, I can't control them; I am commanded to humbly call on His name. He will handle bringing peace to my family. How he does that is up to him and it may include prompting me to put in place standards and guidelines in my family or maybe they will feel His love through me and my efforts to feel His love. Either way, the answer to “how?” is given to us. I have faith that he can care for my family, we can care for my family together, when I put my relationship with him first. My Heavenly Father loves me and provides a way for me to succeed in fulfilling my mission and purpose here on earth.

me, fast? I don't think so

I confessed at a party last night that I have never run a mile. Maybe this is more the things I know I should improve--after all, we are given weaknesses to make us strong.

Your Superpower Should Be Super Speed

You're quick witted and fast to act. You're mind works at warp speed. From your perspective, everyone else is living in slow motion. You get so much done, people have accused you of not sleeping. Definitely not a couch potato, you feel a bit crazy if you're not busy doing something. Why you would be a good superhero: You're be the first on the scene... and likely to finish the job before anyone else shows up Your biggest problem as a superhero: Being bored by everyone else. Including other superheroes!

What Should Your Superpower Be?

I'm not

It has been 3 weeks since someone asked me if I were pregnant or if I knew yet if it was a boy or girl. Yahoo! Just for the record--I am not pregnant, just fat and we are not having any more children. As I understand it, eight is enough for now. I am open to the right person joining my family in the right place at the right time. Natalie is available and Emily is working up to it ;)

Missy D

My sweet baby girl loves to do everything herself. As a result, when I tried to help poor the ranch dressing on her plate . . .
"Nooooo, Debbie help"
get down from chair, climb on couch and whinily sing
"mommy mean, mommy mean, mommy mean"
followed by
"Debbie wake up now" at which point she comes back and spends another 20 minutes eating her dinner.

Guess who?

This very cute pioneer came to visit me this week. She is very friendly and quick to smile.
This sweet little pioneer girl dresses just the same. She had a harder time walking across the plains in this too long dress.

I love it when my kids get a little silly and creative. Can you guess who this mystery pioneer is?

Labor day labors

Labor day, the last big fling, BBQ's, yard clean up, outings or camping are all common. We managed to stay home, get a few things done around the house (including cleaning the garage--a major feat). We did BBQ steak and mashed potatoes, our first ears of corn from the garden and of course, squash. Our exciting event was having Isaac's front tooth get very loose on a cob of corn. He was so excited that we had to document each of the next steps to his jack-o-lantern grin. This is Isaac with 2 front teeth--1 baby and 1 permanent(we hope).


Naturally he calls on dad to do his magic with the dental floss.
. . . and YANK!
Isaac was immediately smiling and thrilled that he lost his tooth. Actually he quickly found it on the floor and saved it for the tooth fairy. He likes this brand of making money.