Merry Christmas!

I have the best calling!! I have the opportunity to teach children the gospel of Jesus Christ through song.
At the end of SR singing time, I ended by admonishing the children to remember that the best gift that they can receive has been the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ and that they should remember that this Christmas season.
One boy said, "no it's not."
I could see that the wheels in his head were turning and he was trying to think of the best gift that he had received for Christmas.
I responded by saying, "Our loving Heavenly Father gave all of His children the greatest gift that we could ever receive and that was the gift of his Beloved Son.
The boy again said "no".
I then responded "He is our greatest gift, I PROMISE YOU THAT."
He looked at me, deep in thought. He was touched by the Spirit.

As I have thought of the experience I had today, I realized that those were not my words, they came without thought and consideration. The Spirit was speaking through me to touch not only the hearts of these children, but to once again testify to me that Christmas is a time to remember and celebrate the life of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that we have access to the greatest gift if we will but receive it.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life." John 3:16

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do.
Merry Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhmaHR1CRik&feature=related

Snow!

We had our first real snow this season on Thursday. The kids ended up going to school and came home to 8". When Andrew got home from work, they suited up and went sledding behind the 4 wheeler. They had tons of fun. They came in with icicles in their hair and on their eyelashes... and smiles on their faces.
Spencer and Hannah opted to "shovel" off the deck instead. Later on, Hannah went for a sled ride, got dumped once and was inside for the night.
As Colorado would have it, it was 60 degrees on Saturday and all the snow was melted.

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Alison, 9, Chad, 11!

Gods Army

I have a confession to make... I didn't think that Proposition 8 was going to pass. I don't think it was because I had a lack of faith. I think it was because of the law of nature...sheer numbers. I didn't think that that many people would even consider voting for Proposition 8.

Now came the day after the election. I was going about my daily business listening to the radio, discouraged. It seemed that everything Andrew and I had voted for was failing. The national news came on the radio. The words rang in my ears that Proposition 8 had passed. My heart leaped, tears came to my eyes. How could it be? I became excited. I immediately called Andrew at work. The news had made my day, and as I thought about it, something profound came to my mind. It made me think of the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites. How many times were the Nephites outnumbered, not just by a little, but by huge amounts of people. Yet the Nephites still won. Why? It was their FAITH. They were obedient to what the Lord asked them to do. The saints in California were asked to do things that were very hard, physically and emotionally-- to give of their time and money.... to put God first. The saints fought a good fight and did what the Lord asked them to do, and the promised blessing followed.

“...for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”

As I have read of the aftermath and reaction, I am saddened by the hatred, yet lifted at the same time. I am thankful for the example of such great members in California. As I have seen the awful scenes at the temples, I thought that in that very place so many faithful prayers were said in behalf of the battle that was and is being fought. I take courage in the words of a Primary song:

I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints

I know who I am, I know Gods plan, I'll Follow Him in faith.

I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. I'll honor his name.

I'll do what is right. I'll follow His light.

His truth I will proclaim!

I am proud to be a member of Jesus Christs church and know that He is at the head to lead us and guide us. Once again, it makes my heart leap and tears come to my eyes. It strengthens me to know that in this battle of good and evil, God will overcome. I will forever be on his side, firm and steadfast.

I am thankful to be alive at this time. I am humbled by the miracles that I have witnessed. Stand tall and strong, God will overcome all.

What a beautiful world we live in!

Colorado is beautiful!
And Hannah has noticed that too. We have a wonderful view of the mountains to the west and have spectacular sunsets! Every night Hannah gets so excited, "mommy, mommy, look at the sunrise!" (no matter how many times we tell her that the sunrises are in the front of the house and that sunsets are in the back of the house, she still calls both sunrises) Nonetheless, she loves to let everyone know which pretty colors she sees every night. It is so fun to see her excitement and joy when she notices the beauties of the earth.
I threw in a picture of a beautiful rainbow. They seem to go for miles across the sky. This one looked like it touched down on our property. I was almost tempted to go look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow :)
P.S. If you look close, it is a double rainbow.

Twin Bonds

Leanne and I were up with the twins waiting for them to go to sleep. We put them next to eachother. It seemed to be the first time that they noticed eachother. They both lit up and laughed. They were even talking to eachother, cooing back and forth. Benj softly touched Victoria and rubbed her arm.
It was so cute that we had to take a few pictures.
They are 4 months old and whenever I look in the crib I still can't believe there are 2 of them! They are getting so big so fast!

Happy Halloween!

We all had fun this Halloween. We had a Chili cook off/trunk or treat at church last week (We won best homemade costumes, yea) so that left Halloween night to do whatever. There was a trunk or treat at the school so we went to that and then hit some houses on the way home. We have never gone house to house before. I would just as well like to buy them each a bag of candy of their choice and split them up, but they really wanted to go, so off we went.
Well, out where we live you have got to work for your candy. The houses are few and far between, so we drove them from house to house. It took a while to get in and out, so if we do it next time Andrew and I decided we will hook up the trailer and they just hop on and off :). We went down 1 street, about 10 houses, and their buckets were full. One house gave them each 2 huge handfuls and said that they hadn't had many treaters. Most of the houses gave treat bags, not just a piece of candy but a small bag full. When they opened their treasures when we got home, they found that 1 of the bags contained a dollar bill. They were all excited about that. Halloween was a huge success for them.

Itchy, Itchy

We were blessed to find free wood for the stove. Last week Andrew, Chad, and I went and got a load of wood and then went back a few days later for another load with the whole family. It was a lot of work! Andrew cut and we hauled. Now we are in the process of splitting it, a lot of work, but great exercise. (we may just end up buying a log splitter.)
So, the first day Chad, Andrew, and I went I noticed some reddish looking leaves all over and thought, is that poison oak? No, it couldn't be because poison oak has 5 points on it. About 1 hr later Chad asked "mom what does poison oak look like?" I said, "I was thinking the same thing. That's not poison oak." While we were eatting lunch I was looking around wondering what that pretty leaf was. THere were only pines and aspens around. So, I guessed they must be aspens. We got home and we all had scratches all over our arms from hauling the wood. A few days later when we went back, we all worked hard, had many more scratches and bruises. That night the girls complained of itching. My arms were itching too, I just thought they were irritated from the scratches. It wasn't until the next day, that it hit me like a load of bricks, poison ivy!!! Chad, Alison, Leanne, and I were all itching the rest of the weekend. Andrew felt bad for us and bought us some lotion on the way home from work. We are just now getting over it. It wasn't as bad as it could have been.
The real kicker is a few days after we realized what it was, I was in the shower thinking about all that itching and realized that the first day we were there and I was trying to figure out what tree that leaf belonged to, I remember thinking "it looks like our oak trees, but couln't be because they are not in the forest." That is when I reconded that they must be the aspens.
So, a word to the wise, poison oak leaves DO NOT have 5 points, they actually look like oak leaves.... go figure.

Warmth

It's taken a while to get to this point, but the day has finally come.

We are almost done installing the stove....

A few months ago we unanimously picked the tile. We had never done tiling before and to tell the truth it wasn't too bad. The results were beautiful.

Andrew has been installing our stove these passed few weeks. We are not quite complete yet. We just need the cosmetic work done.
We are hoping that the baby makes its money back in just 1 short winter. Andrew put in the chimney on a cold and blustery day.

In between rain, while he was working on getting the chimney installed, the rest of us were harvesting everything from the garden since it was going to freeze that night. We have a few dozen pumpkins, lots of green peppers, and a ton of green tomatoes. (They are ripening nicely in the basement)

Now isn't that a beautiful sight!

Jennifers Birthday!

Jennifer looks so grown up in this picture. She had a great birthday.
She is 7 now and is looking forward to her baptism next year.

A Wonderful Visit!

It was so nice to have mom come out and visit. I think we ran her wild just by our sheer numbers. She helped out so much especially with the babies and the kids going back to school. Grandpa surprised everyone by coming out midweek and it was absolutely wonderful! Spencer, the little detective that he is, put 2 and 2 together and figured out what the surprise was when we were in the airport parking lot walking into the terminal. He didn't want to ruin the surprise for Hannah, so he whispered in my ear....
GRANDPA PEG. I had quite the laugh on that one and am still laughing. It is fun to see how little minds work. The kids are still talking about all the things they did and the talks they had with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a WONDERFUL visit!! Thanks for taking the time to come visit us!!

*Elvis*..... again

This time it's Leanne! Mom is teaching me how to blog so I decided that I would do Elvis. In this picture, dad is giving Elvis a pill because he got sick. Mom forgot to mention that Elvis has a special marking on him. You can see this in the picture. Elvis has a butterfly on his stomach! That and his unique sideburns (mom already mentioned) got dad to let us have him. Those marks also gave him his name. I think thats all I have to say.

P.S. I made Elvis bold since this blog is about him, and I feel like it.

P.S.S.
This is Janeen (AKA Mom). Great post Leanne!
I just wanted to add that Andrew is loving these calves. It brings him back to his childhood. He really enjoys helping the kids and teaching them how to take care of them.

ELVIS IS IN THE HOUSE!

Elvis is in the house... not really, he's outside!

There are a couple of additions to the scenery in the pasture. We bought 2 2 week old Holstein bull calves.
When we went to pick them out, one caught Leannes eye that had markings that look like sideburns, so she called him Elvis.
The name stuck and so did he, we ended up taking him home.
Andrew picked the other one for his robust energy and height.
We named him Hank.
The kids love to go out morning and night to bottle feed them.
They are just starting to eat grain and hay.
It was fun to watch Chad and Leanne herd them into their pen.

Blessing Day!

Benjamin and Victoria were blessed by their wonderful father on Aug 3.
They looked like little angels.

Since I am on a roll... here is one last post. Mom sent me a couple of cute 4thof July shirts. Here are Benjamin and Victoria sporting those shirts on the 4th being held by Alison who adores them both. All of the children love their new brother and sister and are willing to hold, feed, and change.
They have even offered to get up with me at night.
(Between you and me, a few nights of that and they might just rescind on the offer.)

June 21, 2008

When it rains, it pours.... I figure since you are here (viewing the page), and I am here (got the computer up and all the files out) I will post a few.
On June 21 we were blessed with the arrival of Benjamin John at 7:10am. He was 6lbs. 3 oz. Followed by Victoria Florence at 7:17am. She was 7lbs. 1 oz.
They are both very good babies and we are blessed to have them as part of our family.

This is about 1 month before the twins were born. This is the closest picture you get to my feet. I contemplated posting one of those, but am still embarrassed by them. Lets just say, elephant. Looking back though, I still question whether 1)the swelling caused the clots or 2) the clots caused the swelling? Either way, I am a blessed woman.

I am still here to raise my wonderful children and both babies are here safe and sound
(and yes they make themselves heard).
Heavenly Father has His way of reminding us that He is there and His hand is in our lives. My family has definitely been blessed by His tremendous love and mercy.

Baby Shower

My visiting teachers and a wonderful friend of mine threw me a "diapers and dinners" baby shower. It was nice to see so many of my old friends from our other ward and many from our current ward. I was amazed at how many diapers and wipes we got.... 836 diapers and 2534 wipes to be exact. We also got many cute outfits and some frozen dinners. I especially loved the cake...
"Peek-A-Boo. We are waiting for you two".