Kraync + KLAN = Mission

Ahhh! I love General Conference

2009-10-04T22:34:00.002-06:00

I am always a bit sad when General Conference weekend is over. I always feel so inspired and this weekend was no exception. There were several talks that were VERY poignant to me. I loved Pres. Monson's talk on service and Elder Eyering's talk! I did have some favorites. One being Elder Hollands talk on the Book of Mormon! Wow, what an amazing, courageous, testimony and a HUGE example to me. I am determined once again to read that book and feel my testimony grow stronger! Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon will be a classic in our home, listened to and studied over and over again.

My VERY favorite talk would have to be Elder Todd D. Christopherson's talk on morality!!!! I loved this ENTIRE talk. It is very hard for me to pick out some highlights but I'll try: "For positive out comes, moral agency must be accompanied by moral discipline. By moral discipline, I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent use of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life, in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christ like service." "The societies in which many of us live, have for more than a generation, failed to foster moral discipline. They've taught that truth is relative and that everyone decides for himself or herself what is right. Concepts such as sin and wrong have been condemned as value judgements." "As a consequence self-discipline has eroded and societies are left to try and maintain order and civility by compulsion. The lack of internal control by individuals breeds external control by governments." Police man and laws can never replace customs, traditions, and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior. At best the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance upon laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we've become." "There can never be enough rules so finely crafted as to anticipate and cover every situation, and even if there were, enforcement would be impossibly expensive and burdensome. This approach leads to diminished freedom for everyone." "In the end it is only an internal moral compass in each individual that can effectively deal with the root causes as well as symptoms of societal decay." In reference to teaching moral discipline to our children he states: "Each must be persuaded that service and sacrifice for the happiness and well-being of others in love are far superior to making ones own comfort and possessions the highest priority. President Henery B. Eyering expressed the vision we try to attain: 'The pure gospel of Jesus Christ must go down into the hearts of our children by the power of the Holy Ghost. It will not be enough for them to have had a spiritual witness of the truth and to want good things later. It will not be enough for them to hope for some future cleansing and strengthening. Our aim must be for them to become truly converted to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, while they are with us. Then they will have gained a strength from what they are, not only from what they know. They will become disciples of Christ." "We cannot presume that the future will resemble the past that things and patterns we have relied upon economically, politically, socially, will remain as they have been. Perhaps our moral discipline, if we will cultivate it, will have an influence for good and inspire others to pursue the same course, that we may thereby have an impact on future trends and events. At a minimum moral discipline will be of immense help to us as will deal with whatever stresses and challenges may come in a disintegrating society.

I love this Church, I love our Prophet and his counselors, I love the Quorum of the 12, I love my Savior!

My Grandpa, Benjamin Noyes

2009-09-03T07:54:00.006-06:00

Late last night we were on our way home from Colorado when we recieved word that my dear old Grandpa had passed away. It is hard for me to put into words the emotion that this news effected in me. We all knew it wasn't long. For several weeks now he has been a real trooper and such an example to me. Well, what am I saying, he has been a huge example to me all my life. I was relieved for him, heart broken for our family and my sweet grandma. And although I was crying and I felt like a piece of my heart had been taken from my chest I was blessed very strongly to feel Granpa's spirit. It was not a spirit of sadness, nor of worry. There was no anger, or pain, just simply peace. I felt like he, yet again, was giving me a gift. A final gift of peace.

My children's hearts have been hurt badly. I tried to get them to open up and feel this gift of peace that Grandpa so wanted them to have. After getting home from the hospital at around mid-night we were able to have a brief talk and cuddle on the couch. Karl said a family prayer and told our loving Heavenly Father to tell Grandpa how much we loved him. The sweet spirit of peace came again VERY strongly and even my children were more calm after that prayer. I think they, in some small way, were also able to recieve Grandpa's gift.

I love you Grandpa Noyes, with all my heart. There have been countless times I have gotten down on my knees and told my Heavenly Father how thankful I am to be your grandaughter. You are one of my biggest heroes. For 33 years now you have been a very special part of my life. My mind is filled with memories of you. You have taught me so much. Thank you! I love you, and I will miss you dearly every day!

This family is friends of ours. They could use any help and all prayers!

2009-08-03T10:36:00.002-06:00

Vittoria is a sweet little girl who is the daughter of friends of ours. She went in for open heart surgery and has had a very tough time recooping. Needless to say her parents, grandparents, and the rest of her family would be grateful for any prayers or help. If you could take the time to read her blog, you will be very inspired with their faith and testimonies!

http://vittoriascorner.blogspot.com/

A Christ Centered Easter and Elder Holland's Talk!

2009-04-05T17:28:00.007-06:00

What a wonderful weekend it has been. Not long ago we finished listening to the last session of the 179th General Conference for our church. It was so special, and many of the talks touched my heart. One imparticular was by Elder Holland and it was such a touching tribute to our Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ.

Easter is my favorite holiday. I found a book several years ago that has been a HUGE influence on the way we spend Easter. It is called A Christ-Center Easter By. Janet and Joe Hales. Click on the picture for a link. It is subtitled: Day-By-Day Activities to Celebrate Easter Week. Easter Activities for Latter-Day Saint Families. We have incorporated many of these ideas into our Easter Holiday and it is soooo amazing! My love of the Savior and an appreciation of his life and sacrifice have been deepened thanks to these activities and I pray that they will do the same for my children as we repeat these activities each year.

I feel it very appropriate to share at the beginning of this Easter week, Elder Hollands talk. I will not print the whole thing in it's entirety however it is so touching that I will print most of it. So be sure and read the whole thing when they have it posted at lds.org. Please enjoy:

We know the divine plan required Jesus to be Crucified, but it is wrenching to think that one of his special witnesses, who sat at his feet, who heard him pray, and watched him heal, and felt his touch, could betray Him and all that He was, for thirty pieces of silver. Never in this world has so little money purchased so much infamy. We are not to judge Judas' fate, but Jesus said of his betrayer, 'good were it for this man, if he had not been born.'

Of course, others among the believers had their difficult moments as well. Following the Last Supper, Jesus left Peter, James, and John to wait while He ventured into the Garden of Gethsemane alone. Falling on his face in prayer, sorrowful unto death, the record says, 'His sweat came as great drops of blood,' as He pled with the Father, to let this crushing, brutal, cup pass; but of course it could not pass. Returning from such anguished prayer, He found His three chief disciples asleep; prompting Him to ask, 'could ye not watch with me one hour?' So it happens two more times, until on his third return he says compassionately: 'Sleep on now, and take your rest' though there would be no rest for Him. Moments later after Jesus' arrest and appearance at trial Peter, accused of knowing Jesus and being one of His confidants, denies that accusation, not once, but three times. We don't know all that was going on here, nor do we know of protective counsel which the Savior Himself may have given to his apostles privately, but we do know Jesus was aware that even these precious ones would not stand with him in the end and he had warned Peter accordingly. Then with the crowing of the cock, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord and he went out and wepted bitterly. Thus, the supporting circle around Jesus gets smaller, and smaller, and smaller, giving signifigance to Matthews short verse, 'all the disciples left and fled.' Peter stayed near enough to be recognized and confronted. John stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother. Especially and always the blessed women in Saviors life stayed as close as they could but essentially his lonely journey back to his father continued without comfort or companionship.

Now I speak very carefully even reverently of what may have been the most difficult moment in all of this solitary journey to Atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically, but which he may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually. That concluding desent into the paralyzing despair of Divine withdrawal when he cries 'My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?' The loss of mortal support he had anticipated, but surely he had not, apparently, comprehended this. Had He not said to his Disciples: 'Behold, the hour is now come that you shall be scattered, every man to his own and leave me alone. And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things that please Him.' With all the conviction of my soul, I testify that He did please His father perfectly, and that a perfect father did not forsake his son in that hour. Indeed it is my personal belief that in all of Christs' mortal ministry the father may never have been closer to his son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Never-the-less, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus, the comfort of His spirit, the support of his personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central, to the significance that this perfect Son, who had never spoken ill, nor done wrong, nor touched an unclean thing; He had to know how the rest of human kind would feel, us, the rest of us, when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically, but spiritually. To sense what it was like, to have the Divine spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone. But Jesus held on! He pressed on! The goodness in Him allowed Faith to triumph, even in a state of complete anguish. The trust that He lived by told Him inspite of his feelings, that Divine compassion is never absent. That God is always faithful, that He never flees, nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christs determination to be faithful was as obvious, as it was utterly invincible, then finally and mercifully it was finished. Against all odds and with none to help or up hold him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God restored physical life, where death had held sway. And brought joyful, spiritual, redemption out of sin, and hellish darkness, and despair. With Faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph 'Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Brothers and Sisters one of the great consolations of this great Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long lonely path utterly alone we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company to us for our little version of that path, the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, Prophets and Apostles, teachers, leaders, friends, all of these and more have been given us as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone or unaided even if we may feel that we are. Truly the Redeemer of us all said 'I will not leave you comfortless. My father and I will come to you and abide with you.' My other plea brothers and sisters at Easter time is that these scenes of Christs lonely sacrifice laced with moments of denial, and abandonment, and at least once out right betrayal, must never be reenacted by us! He has walked alone once. Now may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without aid and assistance. That He never again will be found unresponsive or see unresponsive on-lookers. In our present day as we approach this holy week.....may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not in the word only, and not in the flush of comfortable times, but in deed, and in courage, and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always may we stand by Jesus Christ at all times and in all things, and in all places that we may be in, even until death, for surely that is how he stood by us, when it was unto death and when he had to stand entirely and utterly alone.

Happy Easter all of you!!

The Lady and the Lion

2009-03-27T11:28:00.002-06:00

Announcing a fun new blog that will help keep you updated on an activity my kids are participating in! It's called the.......

CASTLE VALLEY ACTING COMPANY

The first play they are doing is called The Lady and the Lion and Kenzi got one of the leading roles! She has been working hard and is very excited. Jax and Jacee both have several roles they are playing. They are having a good time. When their director sent this email with a new blog address I thought you might be interested in keeping up with them.

Hope everyone is having a nice day!

A little update, if anyone is still around!

2009-03-04T17:53:00.003-07:00

It has been a very long time since I updated this blog and I'm on the verge of giving this blogging thing up, I just keep asking myself is this the BEST thing I can be spending my time on. LOL I'm probably just making excuses because I feel bad whenever I don't get the thing updated for so long.
Things have been going very well for us. I am very excited that things have started to change from winter to spring. I love all the seasons but I'm always so excited when the cold starts to be overcome by the warm. We have been enjoying the outside air and I am dying to go to the Arches. It seems as if that is going to be pushed off for about three weeks more however. SAD!
We have had lots of birthday celebrations going on around our place. Jax and Luke both had birthdays in January and Kenzi in Feburary. Jacelin's birthday is on the sixth. Kenzi turned 12 and started Young Women's. She is loving it and I am trying to adjust to the fact that she is that old! SAD! But she is a beautiful girl and I often marvel at how I was blessed with such a good girl, and one so strong and steadfast in her beliefs. I'm so thankful for each of my kids.
The end of January, actually right during the two boy's birthdays we got SICK. Man we got strep throat and then the flu, which turned into RSV in my baby and he was soooo sick for about three weeks. We avoided the hospital by the skin of our teeth and because we were blessed to have resources at home that most don't have. It was a heart wrenching and stressful three weeks, but we have all recovered and Luke is back to his little rambunctious self. HAPPY!
We are looking forward to our first trip to Colorado with Karl on Monday. The first trip out in the camp trailer is always a happy occasion for us. We are going to the Draper Temple open house on Friday for Jacee's birthday and then Karl, I and Kenzi are going to the Thomas Jefferson Education Forum on Saturday. We are very much looking forward to this. It always gives us more inspiration and a great reminder of what we are doing! HAPPY!
Homeschool is going good. My younger children have both taken an interest in animals and have been studying away. Jax has learned all about fish and has earned the money to buy a fish tank and supply it with fish. Unfortunately he has lost several of them but this keeps him reading and learning. He told me today if he was to set up another tank all the things he would do differently. Jacee is learning all about bunnies and has pulled at her Uncle Chase and her Grandpa's heart strings enough that they are actively helping her set up a rabbit cage. She is constantly doing chores so she can earn money to buy pellets (that is what she tells me they eat) and she wants to have a bunny birthday party! (This could be lots of fun!) Kenzi is still writing stories and reading, reading, reading! That girl puts her mom to shame when it comes to the amount of reading she does. It has been fun however, we both share a love of Anne Shirley, we get talking and giggling quite a lot about her. She is now up into the series where she is married and so the tone of our talks will change a little I'm betting. It will still be fun though! Luke is talking up a storm and makes us laugh constantly. He can tell you the sounds of several of his letters thanks to a little secret we have! LOL
I hope things with your families are going well. We love you all!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T11:24:00.005-07:00

We had a wonderful New Year and I hope you all did as well! It was the first time in a long time that my whole family was able to just get together and hang out. Not all of us was able to be around for Christmas. We had some fun activities:

Several of us shot some hoops!

We had a lot of snacking going on, of course!

We just hung out and enjoyed one anothers company!

Some of us played games, while grandpa pretended to read a story!

We pulled Honey candy! That was some fun!

During the time we got to spend with our family, someone asked Kenzi what her goals were for the next year. I was interested to hear what she would say because we hadn't talked about any thing like that. She thought about it for a while and then replied: "I'm going to read through the Book of Mormon." "Oh thats a good goal," says Uncle Chad. "Yeah, I've already started." She said. What more can we ask then that our children 'walk in faith'.

I was reading an incredible talk by Pres. Uchtdorf. I liked his thought:

"You have agency, and you are free to choose. But there is actually no free agency. Agency has its price. You have to pay the consequences of you choices."

Traditions! Traditions! Old and New Traditions!

2008-12-21T21:15:00.010-07:00

All of us have many precious traditions that we look forward to sharing with our families each year at Christmas time. We have several. Many that are service oriented like our 12 days Nativity. Some that are just fun and have originated over the years almost by accident, like the rabbit hunt that Karl and the kids go on while I wrap presents or do other things that get us closer to being ready for that special day. Our most popular and favorite tradition so far is our Christmas Story tradition. Each year we wrap up a Christmas book and then on Christmas Eve we open the gift and add it to our previous years Christmas books. Then we stay up reading our books until we can't keep our eyes open any longer.

This year has been BY FAR and away our most memorable Christmas yet. We added two new traditions to our holiday season. Both of them added to contribute to our Christ Centered Christmas. One was simply a Jesus Tree. This tree is covered in white lights and ornaments that remind us of Jesus. The next new tradition will require a little explanation.
To introduce the other new tradition to our children, we bent our Christmas Story tradition just a little. We let the kids open the Christmas book for this year about 3 weeks early. The book we gave them this year is called, The Last Straw. I read this book at the end of the holiday season last year. I felt impressed to purchase it right then and put it away just for this time. I didn't fully know what I was going to do with this book but I just knew we needed to have it in our family. After our decision to not have Santa visit this year I continued to think about how to make our Christmas just as magical and fun as all the other years. As I was thinking about this I remembered this book. I pulled the book out and read it again. I love the idea of the serving combined with the giving of Jesus a gift. I started to pray about how I could add this to my families Christmas.
After letting the kids open the book and after reading it we presented our family with a Jesus Gift. It is an empty box with a slit in the side. We then told them that it was empty right now but we hoped to have it filled by Christmas morning, when it would be the first gift we would open because it was Jesus's birthday. "Well what are we going to fill it with?" My children asked. Karl and I explained that we were going to fill it up with secret services that Jesus would love! We talked about who Jesus would love to see them serve (anyone) and told them that each time they did a 'Secret Service' they could go to the Jesus Tree were the box would be hanging, fill out a slip of paper that explained what they had done, fold up the paper and put it through the slit! Their eyes lit up! And so began our most memorable Christmas ever and it's not even over yet! It has been a joyful experience.
The other day Jax and I went walking into his room, he stops, gets wide eyed, and says, "Wow mom! Was my room this clean when you came in here just a minute ago? Some one did a secret service!" He was so pleased and it brought joy to my life and his and whomever did the service. Since that day I've heard, "Hey someone did a secret service!" Exclaimed joyously many, many times. It has been a joy for me as I myself have hurried to do a secret service without getting caught. Can you imagine my joy when my youngest daughter came in and said to me that she would like to do a secret service by taking some bread to her singing teacher who had just gotten home that day from the hospital, where she had had a baby, and would I help her make it? We have all had little notes of love found all around the house. And a few of us still have some secret service surprises up our sleeves before the holiday season is over. I think we are going to reach our goal of having our box filled before Christmas morning and I can't wait to open it up and see who did what kinds of service!

Before ending this post I just wanted to share some photos and a couple videos of our pre-holiday moments!

Karl and the daughter of our very good friends share the same birthday, Dec. 12th. So we had a little party for the two of them. It was a lot of fun.

I have such cute children! We found Luke was fine with sitting on Santa's lap as long as there was someone in between him and that big bearded guy!
This is our Jesus Tree it really is quite pretty. The Jesus Gift is hanging on the other side. Karl forgot to take a picture of it. I will try to get one and post it later.

Jax had a great time putting lights on our one lonely tree in front of our house.

This is our regular Christmas tree with our cat laying under it. She is so funny every year she loves to hang out under the Christmas Tree.

Just another family tradition of decorating the tree.

Even Luke helps!

We had the opportunity to return the visit of our friends and visit them in Eagle Mountain. It snowed a lot that day and Kenzi, Missy, and Jacelin had a great time playing in it!

The girls are in a singing group and here they are hanging out with some of their good friends.

This is a picture of their whole group and the videos I'm going to post are of each of them singing one of their solos.

We hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We love you!

Our Christ Centered Christmas

2008-12-05T13:30:00.006-07:00

Today I received an answer to a silent prayer I have been offering for some time now.
Let me explain. Karl and I have had the feeling for several years now that we should take "Santa" out of Christmas. He has become so commercialized and very few people really stop to think about what he represents. This is sad but obvious. The commercialization of Santa has become a tool that Satan uses to create greed in the hearts of men. It is always amazing too me how Satan takes so many good things and uses them to actually become exactly opposite of what they represent. It's so sad.
This year we decided to go with our feelings and let our children know that we were going to have a Christ Centered Christmas, no Santa. At first they were a little surprised. They were worried that they wouldn't get "lot's of fun stuff" for Christmas. This confirmed my thoughts on Santa creating greed, because my children have never been what I would call greedy. They have never been the type to write a long list of things they want, and their response to Santa when he asked what they wanted for Christmas was always: "I don't care, I know I'll like whatever you bring me."
They are still a bit unsure about Christmas without Santa and I have been also, but I just kept getting this overwhelming feeling that this is what we needed to do. Then today I was reading in my May 2008 Conference Report Ensign and read Sister Lant's talk "Righteous Traditions". I had an overwhelming feeling of peace as I read these words: "The most important traditions are connected with the way we live our lives and will last beyond us as our children's lives are influenced and shaped. What kinds of traditions do we have? Are they what we want them to be? Are they based on actions of righteousness and faith? Are they mostly material in nature, or are they eternal? Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just happening to us? Are our traditions being created in response to the loud voices of the world, or are they influenced by the still, small voice of the Spirit? Are the traditions that we are creating in our families going to make it easier for our children to follow the living prophets, or will they make it difficult for them?"
As I continued to read my Heavenly Father again spoke peace to my heart through Sister Lant as she said: "Our efforts must be toward hearing the interpretations of the Spirit rather than the understandings of the world."

As she asked this questions towards the end of her beautiful talk: "Will their hearts and lives be full of traditions that make it easy for them to accept and follow the Lord and the latter-day prophets?" my heart was gladdened to know that the Lord approved of what we were doing with our family because we could, in regard to this tradition, shout "YES!"

I'm so thankful for the tender mercy of my Father in Heaven. He, despite His endless work, granted me a knowledge of His acceptance of our actions, and gave me peace in knowing that He approves of us striving to put our Lord and Savior at the head of our Christmas season.

Talents, Halloween, and, to top it all off, a road trip!

2008-11-08T12:05:00.011-07:00

I have the wonderful opportunity of serving with my friend Amy as the Activity Days leader for the girls in our ward. Kenzi is in activity days for a few more months and so I also get to enjoy the activities with her as well. A couple of weeks ago we had a Talent Show. It was a great experience for the girls to bring a talent to share and explain their talent to us. I was AMAZED at the amount of talent in our girls.

As you can see from the picture above we had six girls attend.

We had three different musical instruments played for us, Kenzi sang and brought her prize winning stories for display. We had scrapbook pages, sewing, baking, and art projects!

These girls are sooo talented and so blessed and they blessed our lives by being willing to share their talents with us. I have a video of Kenzi singing but it is too big, I need to figure out a way to make it smaller and then I will post it.

Now for Halloween!

We had a mixture of characters as you can see....

No agreeing on a theme in this bunch, well okay, Luke didn't have a choice or he might have sided with Jax. Raggedy Andy is my very favorite boy costume we own so he didn't have much of a choice. The ONLY thing I like about Halloween is dressing up. However, I have to admit, that it was funner when they were younger and I pretty much could just choose what was cute and help my mom make it! Luke really didn't hate his costume as much as you might guess from all his pictures. He had just woke up, was HUNGRY, and we were in a hurry to make it to a trunk-or-treat, so he was ticked that we wasn't getting food right now! Once he got to eat he was great and left his wig on the whole time. Can you guess what Kenzi is? Well maybe I'll tell you when we get to the individual pictures if you haven't figured it out by then. Oh I'll just do that with the other two as well. LOL Because they aren't obvious.

This year we had a Halloween party. It was the day after Halloween but it was still pretty fun. It was a family Halloween party so I let each of the kids pick a family to invite and we had fun games that we played in teams of families. Below are the decorations. Yep, none other than our creative little Jacee girl, (speaking of talents) made them. Oh, with the exception of the paper lantern you see in the picture below. We bought that and the pumpkin garland.

Pumpkin carving was great this year! I had play practice so I helped get the pumpkin carving going and Kenzi and I had to leave (DARN) LOL just kidding. I actually enjoy carving but not the mess! Karl had to carve Luke's pumpkin below. Luke quickly lost interest.

Jax's (bet you couldn't guesss!) pumpkin turned out great. He did it all by himself!

Kenzi's turned out way cute. She also did hers all by herself.

Jacee's looked cute but she insisted on having help! LOL She didn't want to ruin it! How funny, aren't we already ruining the pumpkins? LOL

Luke, loosing interest!

OK, here's my little Sacajawea with her papoose, of course!

Ok, he's not just a solider! Do you give up? Come one think Jax?

OK, OK

He's SPECIAL FORCES! LOL

And you probably won't guess her completely right. Kenzi is a country singer!

Go Figure!

Below is a picture of our wrap the mummy relay game. The object was to pick a person in your family, wrap two rolls of toilet paper around them and send them across the room. The first one to the other end of the room is the winner!

The winner was the Jesperson Family!

Way to go! You look very mummyish Emily!

Next on the game list was, hmmm, what was the name of this game.

Ummm, Throw the candy corn in the cup. Whoever has the most candy corns wins the game.

As you can see from the picture the person wearing the cup felt a little insecure! LOL

Thanks to Trevor of the Gunderson family, the Fausett family won that game. Trevor enjoyed packing the candy corns and putting them in the Fausett family cup. LOL

Next was Hot Potato Laundry Bag.

We passed around laundry bags full of dress up items if the music stopped while you were holding the bag you had to draw something out of the bag and put it on.

These were the results:

The Fausett Family

The Jessperson Family who tied as the winners of this game! Love, love, love, Mark's get up!

The Gunderson Family

The other tied winners of this game!

And lastly, the Kraync Klan

Lastly my kids had begged to have a silly sting war so I bought each child a can of silly string and they had a great time out back shooting each other with string! Below is a picture of Mason covered in silly sting.

We had a great time at our party!

Thanks everyone for coming!

We were pleasantly surprised when my brother Chad brought his family and came home for the weekend. It was so great to see them. Below are some pictures of their family. Jax and Kyler were fighting. It was pretty funny. Kyler is a little toughie! He is soooo funny and dang cute!

Here is a picture of precious Tanner with Jacee and Chad.

We had the opportunity to go on a VERY LONG road trip with Karl. We went to Casper Wyoming, through Vernal then back down to Rifle Colorado and home through Grand Junction, Colorado, 1200 miles in all! Here are some pictures of the things we saw on our way! The rainbow was beautiful. Full and bright. We could even see where it ended. In fact the end of the rainbow followed us a long way. I didn't get a picture of that end of the rainbow but it was beautiful. It was a double rainbow also. I couldn't fit them both in the camera.

Just a cute picture of Jax chillin' and Gracie having a nap.

OK, here is what I learned or should I say remembered as we were driving to Casper.....

I never want to live in Wyoming! LOL No offense to anyone who HAS to! LOL

On our way back from Casper headed to Wyoming we stopped at Martins Cove. We were the only visitors there. It was cold and we didn't stop to go on the trail but just to let mom and dad look at the visitors center and find information about camping here next year and doing a Trek as a family.

The deer were so pretty and only about 15 feet away from Jacee for this picture.

Elder and Sister Thomas!

Do these guys look familiar to any of you?

Probably not but they did to us and it was sooo good to see them. Sister Thomas served as my first counselor in Primary in our Wellington Ward. I just love these two people. I admire them soooo much. I cannot say enough good about them. I knew they had gotten called on a mission here but I expected them to be gone by the time we got there. Last I heard they had only been called on a 6 month mission. But, to our pleasant surprise they had been asked to extend their mission for another year so they were still there when we stopped. It was a sweet blessing to get to see them.

LOL, what is this?

It's not Halloween, Just Gracie being played with, or in her thoughts, tortured.

I thought this was a sweet protrayal of my two middle children actually getting along for a brief moment. They are cooking pasta over the campfire. LOL I know it is taking the self suffcient thing to the extreme a little but they loved it! I will have to remember to get pictures of my dad and Jax and the fishing. Then you will wonder about us and the self sufficient thing! LOL

New Pictures!!!!

2008-10-23T16:52:00.008-06:00

As you can see from my new header we had new pictures taken. Thanks to Aunt Jeniel we were able to have a very fun FHE on the Helper park way. There are many more cute ones, so I decided to post them so you could see all of them.

Enjoy!

I've been tagged!

2008-10-17T10:28:00.003-06:00

This tag is very fun and really simple! Thus, I actually followed through with it!

The tag works like this: You simply go to your picture file click on your fourth file and the fourth picture in that file you post on your blog!

The fourth picture in my fourth file was this:

It was one of my rodeo royalty pictures, but I can't remember which rodeo it was for! Any how, it's that simple. So now you are suppose to tag four people! I tag:

Mimi, Brittany, Natalie, and my friend Sondra! (Because it's been a week since her last post!) LOL

Happy tagging!

Amy

A Plethora of Fields........

2008-09-30T15:23:00.010-06:00

After looking through my pictures I realized that maybe I'm a little too hard on myself about making sure my children get a "good education". What do you think? We have had studies in various fields, just to name a few:

Field: Reading

Next Field: Physical Education

Next Field: Mentoring- refers to a developmental relationship between a more experienced

mentor and a less experienced partner.

Next Field: Construction

Now this requires a little explanation: What you see before you used to be a screen tent that Grandpa couldn't put together. (I guess he was never taught to read or speak Chinese. Aw Oh, that's something else I haven't gotten to!) My children noticed all the butterflies and grasshoppers around and they needed a net.......Need I say more!

We learned about assembly line production. Grandpa bent the metal, Dad strung the nets on the ring, Aunt Jeneil sewed the nets up and the kids........

Well they were the testers, of course! After a little modification on the length of the handles they were off and catching!

So now we move onto the field of Entomology. This is Jax's speciality. He can tell you almost anything about any kind of bug you can imagine. Let's see how they did:

Oops, dad is confused! That's not a bug! He doesn't meet the qualifications! If Jax were here he could tell me what they were, and I could write them for you. But, be assured, you would be able to tell that what is in that net is not a BUG!

Way to go Jax! Now that's a bug! Or is it? I think a butterfly is a bug! Ahhh, where is Jax!

Next Field: Animal Husbandry and Bird watching!

Grandpa Boyd is the proud owner of 7 or 8 calves that are motherless and they need to be fed quite regularly. So he has employed the help of my kids. It has been a great and enjoyable experience for them. But, one morning after walking home from studying the field of Animal Husbandry; raising and caring for livestock, my children entered the field of Bird watching! Here they found three of these huge birds resting in our trees and Jax couldn't wait for me to come and take a picture of them. He informed me they are Turkey Vultures. YUCKY!

Next Field: Fashion and Design:

These pictures speak for themselves!

Next we explored a little Mechanical Engineering by bridge building!

Next Field: Civil Engineering Do you know the difference? I didn't, but I do now!

Next Field: Hydrology- The study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water

throughout the earth. We all learned that, in this case, the the water is moving down!

Ha ha!

That the water quality is VERY COLD this time of year!

And that it is distributed pretty much all over us!

Next Field: Geology- The Study of Rocks. Now if you know us well you will know that we LOVE

Geology and we study it frequently but none the less here Kenzi is

studying it yet again!

Geology is also the study of soil. Luke has been closely inspecting the components of the soil in Payson Canyon!

Next Field: Creative Arts

And last but not least, our favorite field: Culinary Arts, of course!

I hope you all got a good laugh and enjoyed seeing our crazy family in action. I am so thankful to be able to spend so much time with them and I love them all soooo much! They are the biggest blessing, challenge, and aspiration of my life.

Just one of many treasures from a book we are reading together as a family:

My highest aspiration is to be a clean, thrifty housekeeper, a bountiful cook, a faithful wife, a sympathetic mother. This is life work for any woman, and to be a good woman is the greatest thing on earth. To be a good wife and mother is the end to which I aspire. To hold the respect and love of my husband is the greatest object of my life.

-Mother

From the book Laddie, by Gene Stratton Porter

Life is so fragile

2008-09-20T21:20:00.003-06:00

My heart is tender tonight as I have recently learned of the death of a super special boy who was in my primary in Wellington. His mom served as my primary secretary and is a sweet friend. His three sisters were also in my primary and Karl was their home teacher. They are an amazing family and have been such a great example to me about what it really means to have love and respect for one another.

Caleb Williams passed away during a scouting camp-out, when a sand tunnel he was digging collapsed on him. He was an amazing boy. His strength of character was phenomenal and very rare in a child as young as he, especially in this world today. He was so full of determination. He set his goals and worked hard and fearlessly to achieve them. He was respectful to his elders and kindhearted.

Jax had a special opportunity to spend several one on one hours with Caleb as, at one time Jax was wrestling and that was Caleb's passion, and he was good at it! Caleb was excited that Jax wanted to learn. He invited Jax over to his house and mentored him in wrestling. Caleb and his mom also took Jax with them on several occasions to Springville where they had wrestling practice. Caleb's many accomplishments in wrestling and other sports speak for themselves about how talented and dedicated he was.

His character didn't end with sports. I wish I could remember all the details of the little stories I have running around in my head about Caleb that his mom has shared with me. He was an exemplary boy and my heart is aching for his family.

Our whole family has just felt a hole in our hearts. My children have asked many questions and are saddened. It is so hard to make any sense about why Caleb was taken. We have to put our trust in the Lord. I'm certain their aren't many people out there with his strength of character. He is not done living and I'm thankful for my testimony of that. The Lord needed him at home to help him with something that only someone with Caleb's character could do.

I pray for his family. I can't imagine how they must feel. My heart aches for them. I'm thankful for the opportunity we had to be touched by Caleb's life. I know his example will forever stay with my son and myself.

This is a very young picture of Caleb the only one I could find in my files.

Pray for his family please.

Family, Fun, 4th of July, House, and Wedding! Finally!!!

2008-08-10T14:47:00.019-06:00

Well guys it has been a while so I have a lot to say! Well maybe I have a lot to show. We are moved into our house and we now have the internet here and so I can get back to BLOGGING! There has been a lot going on in our lives. In June we had a ward picnic at the park and I have some pretty cute pictures from the picnic to post first.

We, as you can see, had a great time with the babies on the slide. This is Luke with his cousin Charity. We have the awesome opportunity to be in the same ward as my little brother Chase (in the first picture) and my parents. It is pretty fun!

As part of our summer we were lucky enough to have two of my cousin's kids come and spend several days with us! Nathan and Maddy were a great joy to have around! They are great kids and we love them! We love our family! We are very fortunate to be able to be close to our extended family! I consider it a great blessing!

Our 4th of July was fun, but uneventful! We weren't able to go camping for the Kraync family reunion and that was a bummer but we had our own little firework show at home with Grandpa and Grandma Greenhalgh. Luke was quite impressed with the fireworks but didn't want to get too close. He did like the sparklers though.

The day after the 4th we did get to go to our traditional Scofield trip to watch the fireworks over the lake with Karl's family. I have to admit it is not my favorite tradition, but my husband and my kids love it so what do you do? LOL

Does this look like trouble to you? Three boys with matches? AHUH! LOL

Finally we get a little respite from the rigors of the house building! Around the 14th of July the kids and I were able to go with Karl to Colorado! Even though we had a broken trailer! We stayed at Island Acres campground. It is a great little place with several fishing lakes and a little lake with a beach for swimming! We went on a bike ride along the Colorado River while Karl was at work and the kids had a blast playing in the lake. It was soooo good to get a way.

If you can't tell that is a little tiny frog in Jax's hand. They are all over the place at the swimming lake. The kids had a whole frog town going on in the sand. I wish I would have got a picture. It was pretty cute!

Jax and Jacee were chasing the geese. I told them to be careful but they didn't seem to be afraid of them.

I thought these pictures were cute. Luke and his sisters enjoying books together. Memories!!!

This is a picture of Jax smoking Chris's bees. Chris is Karl's friend and project manager in Colorado. He has bees, as you can see, and he was so kind to let us come over and see one of his hives. He even let Jax smoke the bees and see how they respond to the smoker. It was a great opportunity even if Jax did get stung! LOL Thanks Chris!

On our way home I was able to get a video of Luke saying some of his cute words. He has really started talking a lot the past week or so but I still have to try and post this video of him because it is soooo cute!

We had the very RARE chance to get to gether with my whole family for a short couple of hours one weekend and I captured some cute moments of the afternoon:

My beautiful Kenzi Kim with my sweet little nephew, Tanner.

Cute little Kyler!

Grandpa with all the little ones! They were having so much fun on that hammock with Grandpa!

Trent and Natalie were married on 8-8-08 at 8 a.m. in the Mt. Timpanogas temple. It was a beautiful day. They had their reception in Natalie's parent's backyard and it was beautiful. There was a couple of hours there when we had a blizzard. It was a bit hectic but, after lots of prayers, the evening turned out to be beautiful! Here are a few pictures:

This is my grandpa and ma Noyes with my sister Tracy!

This is the back of my niece, Kassandra, LOL! My nephew Travis and my brother Chad, and brother-in-law Kevin.

This is my Aunt Leila and Uncle Larry with their daughter Joann, her kids, and my sister!

This is just the beginning of the blizzard. We had to set the backdrop down and, as you will see in the next pictures, everyone huddled under the covered patio. Thankfully this only lasted about 1 hour.

Yes you are seeing correctly! I didn't even know Jax was standing in for the throwing of the garter and yes, of course, he caught it! It was pretty funny! We got quite a chuckle out of this!

Trent dancing with my mom. They invited Kenzi half way through the dance! It was cute!

Jax had a good time dancing with Natalie during the money dance!

This is a picture of the beautiful evening and the bride and groom dancing together! In the background you will see my little nephew, Kyler. He was less than impressed with all this mushy stuff!!!! As I said the evening turned out to be beautiful and Natalie parents yard and it's views were both breathtaking. To top it off they even were blessed with a beautiful rainbow on their wedding day!!!!

Okay before I end this VERY LONG post I will post a few pictures of our home. Which, by the way, we are LOVING! It is so nice and peaceful to finally be where we know we belong! We plan on raising our children here and growing old together here! We are still not all unpacked. You will see boxes in some of the pictures and we still need to get some electrical done, but it's still peaceful. I am so blessed I feel as if I'm living in a dream.

The front entry

This is our great room

This is a picture of our rock arch being taken from the kitchen looking into the great room.

Our railing in our house turned out beautifully, in my opinion, but Karl worked hours and hours on them. They were a nightmare, but now they are a dream! LOL

This is our master bathtub and below is the master shower.

I took this picture so you could maybe see the glazing that is on certain walls in our home. It is very, very beautiful and I get A LOT of compliments on it. (Thanks Bryan!) I love it! This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty. It sort of gives my home the Tuscan style feel. That and the color of my trim, the railings, and the rock bring the most compliments. Nearly everyone who comes to see it falls in love with these features. I love them too! They are just warm and peaceful and inviting, welcoming! And if there is anything I want to portray in my house it is that everyone is ALWAYS welcome!

Short Update!

2008-07-19T08:04:00.002-06:00

Hey, for anyone out there who is still reading my blog! I did not forget about it! In fact if you will notice on my side bar I added a new blog. Natalie, my soon to be sister-in-law, and Trent have started a blog. I was very excited about this so go and check it out!
As for my inactivity, well all I can say is HOUSE, HOUSE, HOUSE! We are getting very close to moving in, and it is a very good thing. We are very tired. We usually go up to the house ASAP in the mornings and come down for dinner and to get the kids ready for bed and then go back up to the house until at the earliest 11 p.m. We did however, get to go with Karl to Colorado this past week and that was soooo enjoyable. Yes, our trailer is still very broken but as long as we go somewhere that has full hook-ups it is still useable.
I have many, many pictures to post of our short, but refreshing trip, and of our beuatiful home (sorry Jeff!), but I can't post them today. I have a bridal shower and then it is back to the house!
We are so excited about our home and feel very humbled and blessed by having such a beautiful place. It is turning out just like we had planned. We have had much help from my dad, Mike, and Ryan Nelson, we couldn't have done it sooo quickly without them. Thank you and Thank you!!!!!
Heavenly Father has helped us so much and it is my prayer that we can do the things He would have us do, anything He would have us do!
Our door is always open to all of you!
We love you all so much and miss you terribly. Come anytime!
Love you all,
Amy

Fun stuff!

2008-06-24T12:25:00.001-06:00

Look where I have been! Fun for us Travel loving people!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Thirteen years and going strong!

2008-06-09T08:56:00.008-06:00

Before you start reading this post be sure to click play on the playlist to your right. I couldn't figure out how to get it to autoplay. I had to post this song with this entry because WE LOVE IT! It describes Karl and I perfectly!

As I look back over the years of my life I am always left to wonder at all the amazing things my Father in Heaven has blessed me with.
-It starts with totally supportive parents who overcame a lot of things to make it to the temple to be sealed together.
-I have enjoyed Freedom and Prosperity my whole life.
-I live in a time when we think nothing of the miracle and convenience of electricity, running water, electric heat, air conditioning, telephones, cellphones, and flushing toilets that live right inside our homes!
-I have been blessed with the gospel around me from the time I was just young.
-I have been blessed with health.
-I have been relatively protected from the burdens of sickness, death, and loss that so many people seem to be constantly surrounded with.
-I have four beautiful, healthy, children that I have had the fortunate opportunity of spending lots of time with, making many happy memories!
-I have been extremely blessed to see many truly inspiring, things in this country that I love, things that have changed my heart and my outlook on life.
-I have been blessed to meet many, many giants that have touched my life and have opened my eyes to the true meaning and purpose of life.
-I have been privileged to have some of these giants stay in my life. They are my "kindred spirits".
-I have on several very special occasions felt Heavenly Fathers spirit witness to me that He is, and that He loves me very much.
-I have been blessed with time. Time to spend with my kids, time to spend with my family and friends, time to spend reading, learning, and growing, time to spend thinking and feeling.

I could continue on, and on, and on. The point is, I never cease to be amazed and humbled at the things that I have been so lovingly given by my Father in Heaven. I am always grateful. However, of all these things, the blessing that amazes me the most, the thing that, try as I may, I can never comprehend, is.....

The gift of a most amazing, devoted, intelligent, attractive, strong, and righteous man-

My Husband!

Karl,

It has been 13 years ago today that I married you in the Manti temple for time and all eternity. I remember my feelings that day, feelings of excitement, hope, and dreams for our future together. I remember feeling like the luckiest girl on earth.
After 13 years of marriage I now know that I am the luckiest girl on earth!
When I married you it seemed that 13 years of marriage would just never come. It just didn't seem like that much time would ever elapse. I say that with a little chuckle. I now realize that time doesn't just click by, it is very sneaky and when we're not watching it flies very quickly forward. I'm grateful for time however quickly it goes! It now seems as if I can't remember a time that I have ever not loved you and I look forward to much more time to love you!
There is a Scripture that describes what you are to me: "...Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people."
How I could love you this much, I don't know!
But, I do!

Happy 13th Anniversay
With an Eternal Love,
Amy

Greenhalgh Reunion on the West Desert

2008-06-01T21:57:00.008-06:00

Well if any of you have been wondering where in the world I have been, we left last Wednesday for our annual "Chick" family reunion. It was out on the West Desert this year and with the exception of the bugs we had a great time.

Here are some snap shots of people in our family:

This is my Aunt Pat and Uncle Dave, they moved to Cleavleland around five years ago from the Salt Lake area. They are visiting with my Grandma Wanda's brother Jean and his wife. This was my first time meeting them and it was fun to hug someone who grew up with my grandma.

This is Aunt Jeneil with my sweet niece Charity.

My beautiful mom! Happy Birthday Mom!

Uncle Chase with Luke!

This is my Uncle Pete, graciously showing us his "Duh" look, one more time for the camera!

LOL Thanks Uncle Pete!

Here is Grandma Kathryn with Charity!

Kenzi with her little sidekick, Charity!

Here is Grandpa "Chick" with my dad in the background.

Here are a few of the fun times we had:

Four Wheeler riding, Bean Bag tossing! (Grandpa Chick and Uncle Jim, Chase and Trent above)

This is our family performing our skit! It was about the "blockheadism" that runs in our family! LOL! You had to be there! LOL!

Climbing!

Believe it or not this is an OLD grader we found almost at the very top of a mountain.

Mine Exploring!

There are old mines all over up there. This particular cave went back quite a ways. Chase and I were not very brave and so were at the very back of the crowd. When they got to the end of the mine shaft and seen the bat, needles to say, we were the first one out!

No reunion is complete with out sitting up late around the campfire!

Star Gazing was fun! The sky was so clear! We were wishing we had our telescope.

We got a lot of good laughs out of our hairdo's and dirty clothes. But Jacelin's picture tops them all! LOL

Last, but definitely not least, was the hunting that was going on:

Yes, even Jacelin learned that those sneaky reptiles can be fun! She found a Horny Toad and made it her pet for about two days while we were there. She made it a cage and then tied a rope to her cage so that she could pull her "pet" with her every where she went. There were tears when it was time to go home and she had to let it go. Below is a picture of her pulling her horny toad along with her.

Now for the major league hunting expeditions:

Warning: The following pictures contain graphic images! If you are sensitive to large and/or fuzzy creeping, crawling creatures you may not want to move forward with this post!

Jax spent 90% of his waking hours walking around with his face to the ground finding all kinds of critters, Horny Toad, Lizards, Beetles, and..... well I will let you discover for yourself his other findings!

This was Jax's first catch not more than an hour after we had arrived in camp.

Jax's second catch.

Uncle Don caught him several lizards also. The one he says is his favorite came from Uncle Don and I didn't even get a picture of it. I feel so bad! It was very cool it was dark with a white ring around it's neck. Very cool! I'm so sad that I didn't get a picture of it.

Yes, you are seeing correctly! He did manage to find one of the hugest Tarantulas I have ever seen! Okay so I haven't seen very many, but still. The next picture shows you exactly how big it is in proportion to the 1 gallon ice cream container it is in. He felt really bad about not getting to take this thing home, but I told him ABSOLUTELY NOT! I could just imagine having lots of little baby Tarantulas running around our desert hills behind our house! NOPE! SORRY!

As we were leaving to come home he come running with this ever so cool lizard. It looked like it had leopard spots except it had orange ones and the underneath of his tail was all orange. We had to take some quick pictures before he set it free!

Our house is coming along good. The drywallers should be done close to the end of this week and our stucco should be getting started. Our tile guy is coming in to start laying hardy backer tomorrow and our paint is scheduled for the 15th of June! Wow!

Hope everyone is having a great spring now that the weather is starting to warm up a bit!

Love you all,

Amy

Need help remembering what the really important things are?

2008-05-22T16:49:00.006-06:00

The other day when it was so nice outside I called my dear cousin and asked her if she would come and help me tansplant some of my plants. I don't have a very green thumb and I'm am trying to learn. Any how, she graciously came and we had a great time. Pretty soon my Jacee, my little girl who loves any form of art, found us and had to join in the planting fun. She has recently discovered the joy of planting and now I have 5 or 6 paper cups full of soil sitting around my house because she insists that her plants have to come in each night! Some of them are starting to bloom and she is so excited. I'm glad to know she has an intrest in learning this skill. It has to be a legacy passed on to her from two of her great-grandmothers. It is fun for me to see her so excited about something so beautifully simple.

Speaking of simple. During our planting time we had the hose running very slowly. We weren't using it all the time so when we weren't using it, it was just laying on the lawn running. It was at one of these times that Luke discovered it. He was so intrigued. It was so heart warming to watch him discover this new and interesting thing. I took some pictures and you can just see the wonder in his eyes. He had us all captivated. We watched him, and videoed him, and took pictures of him for 45 minutes. Later that night I thought of this experience and realized that this quote by M. Russell Ballard is so true:

The purposes of the Lord

in our personal lives

generally are fullfilled

through the small and simple things,

and not the momentous and spectacular.

I got on my knees and humbly thanked my Heavenly Father for this special moment in my life. For the sweet reminder that life is to be "enjoyed, not just endured" and thanked Him for an even bigger reminder that generally the small and simple things are the momentous and spectacular!

I found this fun sight that allows you to make scrap blogs. Take a moment and visit this scrapblog of Luke's discovery of the water: http://www.scrapblog.com/496a266041/0BE0D60F-7047

Here are some pictures of Jacee and her friend planting with my cousin, who my kids call "Aunt Jill"

Here is a video we took of Luke playing in the water. It is so fun. I don't know how to take the sound off so you will have to ignore those of us enjoying him in the background.

Before I close this post, I have to add pictures of one more HUGE event in our life........

LUKE'S FIRST HAIR CUT!!!!

I know, I know, laugh if you want, but it was a very, very sad day for me. I couldn't bear the thoughts of cutting off his cute, but willy curls! Thanks to my good friend Kristine for being so understanding! LOL

Here are the before pictures:

And here are the during pictures:

Being pretty good, looks like it's going smoothly you say.........

Well: (looks can be decieving, you know!)

Yes, he is laying down and throwing a fit, and yes Kristine is cutting his hair side ways! LOL

And Kenzi comes in for the save!

Luke was as mad about getting his curls cut off, as I was sad!

Now what you have all been waiting for:

The after picture.......

He still has the curls, and yes he still has those gorgeous baby blues!

Thanks for keeping in touch with our family. I love to hear your comments. Keep them coming!

Love you all,

Amy

What have we been up to?......

2008-05-14T08:29:00.006-06:00

Okay, okay, it has been a while since I posted anything on my blog. Well that is mostly because we have been busy, busy with our house and figuring out who to vote for at our Republican State Convention where Karl and I had the awesome opportunity to go and represent our county as State Delegates. It was an awesome experience and I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for the rich opportunities he has given us to learn more about our government. He truly does love and care for this Nation. Karl and I have felt a huge responsibility to do our part. We are so passionate about Freedom and have committed to do our part to insure that we keep it. It has not all been fun. It has required A LOT of reading and learning and A LOT of prayer to sort out what we learn. But we have gained a passion and love for our country and a desire to learn and do more to insure that it regains and retains it's greatness. Did you ever think that I would become a politician (well okay I don't feel like a politician, I just feel like Freedom!)? Did I? The Lord does work in mysterious ways! LOL

Just sharing a couple of pictures of the state convention.

I received this email message from a good friend of mine (thanks Jeff) and I had to post it here. It sends chills up my spine and really touched base with me. I hope you get chills too!
Here is the message:

Dear God:

Why didn't you save the school children at ?

Northern Illinois University

Virginia Tech

Amish Country, PA

Columbine High School

Moses Lake, Washington 2/2/96

Bethel , Alaska 2/19/97!

Pearl , Mississippi 10/1/97

West Paducah , Kentucky 12/1/97

Stam P, Arkansas 12/15/97

Jonesboro , Arkansas 3/24/98

Edinboro , Pennsylvania 4/24/98

Fayetteville , Tennessee 5/19/98

Springfield , Oregon 5/21/98

Richmond , Virginia 6/15/98

Littleton , Colorado 4/20/99

Taber , Alberta, Canada 5/28/99

Conyers , Georgia 5/20/99

Deming , New Mexico 11/19/99

Fort Gibson , Oklahoma 12/6/99

Santee , California 3/ 5/01 and

El Cajon , California 3/22/01?

Sincerely,

Concerned Student

Reply:

Dear Concerned Student:

I am not allowed in schools.

Sincerely,

God

How did this get started?...

Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools. And we said, OK...

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible that says: 'Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, And love your neighbors as yourself.' And we said, OK...

Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehaved because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. And we said, "An expert should know what he's talking about." So we won't spank them anymore...

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said "No faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. And we accepted their Reasoning...

And the entertainment industry said, "Let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex, and let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said, it's just entertainment and it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, classmates or even themselves. Undoubtedly, if we thought about it long and hard enough we could figure it out. I'm sure it has a great deal to do with...

'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,'

---------------------------------------------------

There are soft and subtle things going on all around us that threaten our precious liberty. I love this quote by Benjamin Franklin: "Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship." Can we afford to keep giving in to these seemingly "small" encroachments on our freedoms?

We must remember something that Martin Luther King, Jr. taught:
"Injustice everywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Here are some good things that I strive to remember. They are quotes from a man whom I very much admire:

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within. -Ghandi

Let us fear God and we shall cease to fear man. -Ghandi

We live in the greatest nation on earth. I know you all feel the same. I'm so thankful for all of you in my life. I'm thankful that I live in a country that allows me to have these relationships with you. I'm thankful that I live in a nation where I'm allowed to share part of my testimony and beliefs with you. I'm so grateful to belong to the true gospel. A gospel that gives us hope, that teaches us that even with all the scary things that are going on in our nation, our Constitution, that Divinely Inspired document of Freedom, WILL be preserved! I'm thankful for that hope and I am honored to do my part to help fulfill that prophecy!

Okay thanks for letting me share some of my passion with you. Now for the fun stuff:

PICTURES!

Karl and I have been blessed with some of the greatest grandparents on this earth! We have been experiencing some difficulty with all of them this year. Grandpa Chick just go out of the hospital with internal bleeding and heart issues. Grandma and Grandpa Noyes have been very sick, down in bed with the flu. Grandma Lila is doing good, but slowing down. I never thought I would see that! It is hard to watch them age. We are so aware though, of the heritage we have inherited! We are so thankful to belong to families of such high character!

Derby's, Daughters, and Friends

2008-05-04T18:07:00.006-06:00

On May 30th, Jax was able to participate in his first ever Pine Wood Derby. He and Karl worked together to build what was the first Pine Wood Derby for both of them. They had a great time and even Grandpa Boyd got into the spirit by helping to sand the axle's. Finally the time came to race and Jax was so excited. His anticipation continued to grow as he waited for his turn to race. Finally his name was announced and it was his turn. You can imagine his disappointment when he lost the very first race! LOL He handled it very well with an "Oh Shoot" and a big smile. He continued to race and didn't loose once after that! When they announced the winners for the Bear group he was told that he needed to stay after for the overall race! That was pretty exciting news. He was going to be racing against the two best derby's in the Wolf and Webelo's group. When all was said and done he was very excited to have taken 2nd in the overall race division! Every one complimented him and his dad. Someone even joked around about what an engineer his dad must be! The mom of the boy who won first place said: "Well we've been doing this for fifteen years so you have that long to work on first place!" It was fun and Jax had a great time.

Kenzi recently entered a contest called "7 Reasons Why I Love My Mom" To enter it you had to write a list of 7 reasons why you love your mom (of course) and send in a picture of yourself with your mom. These pictures turned out so cute (Thanks Aunt Jeneil) I wanted to post them here for everyone to see. I'm going to post her list also because it was so tender. It touched my heart. These are the moments that make it all worth it! I love being a mom and I love being Kenzi's mom. I often marvel at the amazing girl she is and wonder what I did to deserve her. She is such an incredible girl. So thoughtful of others, so helpful to me. Out of this world smart, and so responsible. She has such a cute personality and is developing into a sweet young lady. I thank Heavenly Father every day for her. And pray that I can be the mom she deserves!

7 Reasons Why I Love My Mom

By: Kenzi Kraync

1. I love my mom because she cooks good dinners

2. I love my mom because she does not get mad when we accidentally do something wrong.

3. I love my mom because she loves us better when we get hurt.

4. I love my mom because she is afraid of moths and that makes me laugh

5. I love my mom because she teaches us a lot.

6. I love my mom because she always wants hugs.

7. I love my mom because she laughs with us.

Lately I have been thinking so much about why I have been blessed to have such amazing friends. Heavenly Father has truly given me the best friends a person could ever hope to have! I'm so thankful that he has sent these people into my life, and my families life. They have truly made us better people. You know who you are and I love you all!

You know you have true friends when........

*You are feeling your worst, the phone rings, and when you pick it up you hear: "Are you alright? I just felt like I needed to call you. Whats up?"

*Your girlfriend lends you $40.00 bucks to run to the store because you forgot your money!

*They haul their whole family two hours down to your house just to help you work all day in the home you are building and turn around and go home!

You know you have true friends when:

*You don't agree on everything and it's okay because you agree on the important things.

*You feel as comfortable at their home as you do your own and vice versa.

*You know you are always welcome.

You know you have true friends when:

*Even though you haven't seen them in months you can pick up right were you left off. It's as if you were never apart.

*They make it a point to keep in touch even if miles and miles separate them.

*Your whole family is able to go on a two week vacation with their whole family and you still love each other just as much when it's over!

Here is a quote I love:

Life is a garden.

Good friends are the flowers and time spent together....

life's happiest hours.

And friendship like flowers blooms ever more fair....

when carefully tended by dear friends who care.

Update on the home:

We now have windows and doors (except for the front door)! Yeah! We are so excited about that. Here are a couple of pictures to keep you updated on the progress:

Something exciting happened for Jacelin!

2008-04-25T13:40:00.003-06:00

Well we were so excited for Jacelin that we had to share the news with all of you. About two weeks ago Jacelin found out about an earth day poster contest and decided she wanted to enter a watercolor painting into the contest. She painted her poster and off we mailed it to California. In the mail today she recieved a certificate stating that she had won the contest! Yeah for her! You can see her amazing picture on Amazing kids. Here is the link: http://www.amazing-kids.org/edcontest08.html#winners

Bees, Bees, Bees,

2008-04-20T09:02:00.004-06:00

Well here are the latest pictures of our newest adventure!.......

Jax the BeeKeeper!!!!! (so cute!)

This is the cage that the queen bee comes in. You can't see her very well, but she is darker and bigger than the others.

Jax has had an intrest in being a beekeeper for a little more than a year now. He has read several books that he found and begged his dad to take him to class that our county offered on Beekeeping. He absolutely loved the class. He comes to talk to me often with information he learns from his bee books. He truly amazes me. Karl and I decided that for Jax's birthday we would get him the stuff he would need to start his dream of beekeeping. I was so funny to see his face when recognition dawned! He opened the present and seen the funny white hat. He looked confused but as he pulled it out and seen the yellow net he realized what it was and he just lit up! It was so fun. I will never forget the joy that registered on his face. He is hoping that he can make a go of his hobby and make some money for himself. Karl and I decided he would need some help for the first little while and so Karl also got himself a hive and starter kit. It should be a great adventure for them..... and me! I'm excited to learn about candle making and soap making. (That makes me sound like a pioneer, huh?) Oh well, I'm still excited. If any of you have a good recourse on beekeeping we would love to know it. We have ALOT to learn! Love you all and enjoy the rest of the pictures!

A little bit of the joy in our life

2008-04-15T11:30:00.006-06:00

I know that you are all anxious to see progress on our house but I just wanted to take a second and share with you some of the things that make our life a little brighter.

The kids just finished up a production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat with our community theatre. It was the first time we have been envolved with our community theatre, and it was GREAT! The kids loved it! They got to see what is envolved behind the scenes. They learned how much time and practice it takes to put together a show. They made new freinds, and performed very well. I've found that there are very few things in this life that actually make my children better people. After all the hours that I have spent taking my children to basketball practice and sitting on the bleachers watching gymnastic meets and wrestling tournaments, I am finally learning that lesson. There have been a few amazing oppurtunities that have made a difference in our families life. Oppurtunities that I know were worth all the effort. I know without a doubt my children will always remember the comradary they gained by working together with a group of people as a team. They will never forget the satisfaction that comes from working hard at something and seeing that something bless other peoples lives. I know they will always carry with them the lessons of forgivness and personal mission that Joseph taught them during that short period of time. I'm so thankful my kids were able to have such a good experience at such a young age. I pray that I can be more selective in our activities and make the choice to only participate in the ones that are truly going to help my children become who they are meant to be. Anything else is only keeping them from accomplishing this goal!

You've all read the story I'll Love You Forever. Do these pictures strike a cord?

I couldn't help but be reminded about how much I love my children when I witnessed this little incident. Luke got out of sight for two minutes and this is where I found him. I had to take a minute and snap some pictures! It's moments like these that make my memories! I had to share them with those I love!

The weekend before conference weekend we had the special oppurtunity to travel to Garland, Utah and see my new little nephew be blessed. Chad pronounced such a special blessing upon him and I had witnessed to me, as I have had with my own children, that Tanner was sent here for an amazing purpose. Heavenly Father has a special plan for these children. I am so thankful for the power of the priesthood and men who are worthy to hold it, and use it to pronounce spectacular blessings on their children.

It was a also a special time because it was the first time that our whole family was all together at once since Trent returned home.

Now for the house:

It has been super cold and I have felt very bad for our great framers! They have worked tirelessly in getting the house standing even as the wind literally knocked them down several times! Thankfully no one has been hurt and we are making progress. Karl has been busy, busy, busy, working! And we haven't seen him much. When he is not working he is up at the property and because it has been so cold we haven't been able to be up there with him. Thanks to my dad we are keeping caught up. He has made him self sick and tired, wearing himself out up there. Our house is coming together and I am so excited. I feel such a spirit of peace when I am near my home. I am so thankful to my Father in Heaven for allowing us this oppurtunity. I know He is overseeing it all. He is taking care of us and we are so blessed.
Our house is completely covered now and shingles start going on tomorrow if the weather holds. I will have to post more pictures after the shingles are on.

We love each of you and hope all is well with your families!

Me, Myself, and I

2008-04-08T22:37:00.003-06:00

I was informed by my friend and cousin that I had been tagged! LOL! This is a new one for me but here goes. She says I just have to list facts about myself. Actually this has been a thoughtful time for me.
Me? Who am I? Have you ever wondered who your real self is? Do you ever feel like you have this sort of untouchable reality of who you want to be? A peaceful, happy, self? I do! But how do I become that peaceful happy self?
I have been reading a book. This book explains that we are all made up of a body and a soul. We are all familiar with this concept, only we think of it a little bit differently and call it a body and a spirit. It goes on to explain that we also have a "mortal personality" I like to think of this as "the natural man". The book talks about how the spirit part of us, or our subconscious, remembers who we are, knows our mission! The spirit, the book explains, "endeavours to bring this mission to expression..." It goes on later to state, "If the personality could and would act wholly in harmony with it's soul...man would be living in perfect harmony." The book calls this state of perfect harmony, or living our full potential, our "Higher Self." This is what I like to call our Soul Potential.
To free that peaceful person, to "put off the mortal man", to live in perfect harmony, to reach my "Soul potential", to find and complete my mission, this is my quest!
The scriptures say: "Man are that they might have joy!" I have pondered that a lot lately. I feel that if I could just learn how to really live the gospel fully, then I would be a woman of joy! It's not that I am unhappy. I am happy. I am happy to be a mom and a wife. I have everything I need and many comforts that make my life comfortable. But I'm talking about the joy that comes from loving all men unconditionally with a Christ like love, never having a mean thought towards anyone or anything, having complete faith in my Father in Heaven's Plan of Salvation and His love towards me, never feeling angry and raising my voice. The joy that comes from living in harmony with the rest of the world and, therefore, every aspect of the gospel.
As I listened to conference this past weekend I noticed that several of the speakers mentioned hidden knowledge, spiritual gifts, and our right to have these things. And not just how it is our right but, that this knowledge and these gifts are going to be completely necessary, in these times of uncertainty, to carry us through. These are the deep down personal things that will help me free that peaceful person who lives inside of me. I'm going to find that hidden knowledge and gain those spiritual gifts that are mine! I'm going to find the joy that comes from reaching my "Soul Potential" and being ME!
Me? Who am I? What are some facts about me?

I love the Lord.

I love the gospel.

I love my husband.

I love my children.

I love truth.

I love light.

I love beauty.

I'm trying to be like Jesus! I'm thankful for His love.

Easter

2008-03-25T12:03:00.015-06:00

Each year when Easter comes I always decide that I am going to do things to make Easter more Christ centered. We do have traditions that we carry out each year to try and accomplish this goal. We start our Easter celebration off on Palm Sunday. We read stories about the symbolism of the palm branches and sometimes we make our own palm branches and act out the triumphal entry. We always read a bit in the scritptures each day, of the Saviors last week here on earth. After reading we hang up corresponding gospel art pictures, from our kit, on our wall. We leave these up for the following week. My children love this and always start asking when it is time to start the picture time line.
This year Karl and I decided that we wanted to take the Easter Bunny out of Easter. Where did he come from anyway? We felt like it was time. We prayed about it and felt impressed to go with our feelings. We have a tradition that we always put the Easter baskets out on Saturday so that Sunday can be left for more reverent and relevant things. This year we put cards in each of our childrens baskets that read something like this: "To our sweet children, On this holy holiday we celebrate God's greatest gift to us, the life of our Savior. With these fun gifts we wish you a Happy Easter. We hope you will always remember the special reason we celebrate Easter. With love, Mom and Dad." After they read this card and got done looking through their baskets we started getting the questions we knew would come. So when does the Easter Bunny come? or I thought the Easter Bunny brought us our baskets? It was a great oppurtunity to explain to them that we had decided that we didn't need the Easter Bunny at our house. We explained to them that Easter was about Jesus, not the Easter Bunny and we wanted Jesus to know that we loved him more than anything. We went on to explain that Heavenly Father and Jesus gave the whole world the greatest gift that anyone could ever give: First Jesus came to earth, lived a PERFECT life, suffered many hardships and much condemnation, loved and served everyone, lived selflessly everyday never thinking of himself, and then allowed his life to end, not in glory or respect, but in pain, suffering, abuse, mockery, and death never once cursing or hating anyone. And He did all of this for US! We told them that no Easter basket could ever replace the gift that we celebrate at Easter but that their dad and I wanted to give them the Easter baskets to help them remember the joy that comes from gifts. One day, if we live the best we know how, we will come to fully understand the joy that will come from the gift that Jesus gave us on Easter, 2008 years ago. The kids were very excited and understanding. Taking the Easter Bunny out of Easter didn't bother them and boy was I relieved! It was funny though, several people asked Jacee what the Easter Bunny brought her this year and she said: "The Easter Bunny doesn't come to my house." Needless to say we got some concerned looks, it worried me, but the only looks I should really be concerned with is the looks my Savior gives me. We recieved a confirmation of approval of our desire to make Easter more about Jesus and that's all that matters. I hope you all had a wonderful, peaceful, joyful, Happy Easter!

This year we added to our tradition by making oil lamps out of scoupley clay. then we burned them the night we read and discussed the parable of the 10 virgins. It was a fun addition to our scripture reading. Here is a photo of the three lamps the kids made:

For Easter we also did all of the usual things:

Colored Easter Eggs

Had Easter Egg Hunts

On Saturday we roasted hot dogs in the wind at our property and enjoyed our families company!

Over the Easter holiday we also did some very unusal things:

Like digging trench and laying water pipe! Blah! I don't recomend incorporating this into your Easter traditions! By the way thanks so much to Uncle Jim (my trench rat partner), Aunt Kneen, Mike and Jill for all their help! Even if they laughed right out loud at me when I fell flat of my butuskie in the trench! LOL!

Jax is taking a welcomed break from the work. He is sharing his lunch with Sugar.

Nor would I reccomend burning houses down as a traditional event! But it was very intriguing. It's not everyday you get to conduct an expeirement of house burning ON PURPOSE! It was amazing to see how fast and how hot a fire can burn. Both the big boys and the little ones were totally impressed! I have to admit the girls and I were pretty engrossed also. Now why was we burning a house down, you ask? Well because it was caving in and mouse infested and it is, or should I say was, on our property. We didn't want the kids getting in there and getting hurt or getting sick!

Here is the house or should I say the "Haunted House" as all the little kids in the neighborhood used to call it. My kids are and thier cousins are standing in front of the house just minutes before we start in on fire.

The kids are saying good-bye to the Haunted house!

The kids are watching pretty closely as the house starts on fire! It doesn't take them long to move quite a far ways back and shed their jackets. It was amazing how hot it got!

Carter (above) was a little uncomfortable with the fire. I thought it was cute that he went that far back to observe the fire. He wanted to be sure he was a safe distance away.

In a matter of just minutes like maybe 20 from start to finish the whole house was burnt to the ground but, there was one pole remaining. Jax couldn't have that. So he tried.....

And Mason tried.....

And Karl tried........

Then Carter got fed up with all the trying and gave Uncle KK the tool he needed to do the job right and.......

It worked! Jax, as you can see, considered them victorious!

St. George, New Home, Old Home, Parents Home, and Family!

2008-03-16T21:31:00.005-06:00

Well our lives have went by in quite a blaze the last three weeks. We had a great time during our annual trip to St. George to see our great friends, the Barlows! (Who at this very moment are enjoying a trip to Mexico!) We had fun looking at houses. The picture Jeff is modeling for us is a picture of a dream room I would love to have in my own home one day. It is a stage. The next picture shows the audience chairs and a big screen on the wall that you can watch yourself on! Way fun!

Jeff and Karl took some time away from the home show and played with the kids. They had a great time as you can see by the pictures:

After we got home from St. George we had an interesting surprise. We knew we had our home sold but we thought we had until the end of March to be moved out. Well on the 27th of Feb. our realator called and informed us that the buyers were ready to close and wondered if we could be out by the end of the next week. Can you say WOW! We moved in about a week's worth of time. It was crazy and I'm glad that it's over. We now live in the basement of my parent's house and all is going well. It is cozy and we are at peace. Here are a few pictures of our current living arrangements:

Here is the latest update on our home: We have a basement and a garage floor and stairs leading to our garage. The framers started on our house last week and are planning on starting floor trusses Tuesday or Wend.

Oh I can't forget Karl's new toy:

Yes you guessed it. He thinks his Tractor's Sexy! LOL!

Well here is an update on the Greenhalgh side of the family: (It is growing and changing alot!)

Uncle Trent is home! YEAH! Happy Belated Welcome Home Uncle Trent! We love you and are glad to have you home! Natalie is in the picture with him and yes, we love you too!

We have had two new additions to our family that have brought so much happiness! I have failed to get them on my blog and I am sorry for that but here they are. Better late than never! Below is Charity. She is 5 months now I believe. She belongs to Chase and Jeniel. She is an absolute joy. Always happy and smiley! She is a little spit fire. Always wanting to be up and looking around and moving. It won't be long until she is crawling everywhere. Below her is our newest addtion, born the first part of January: Tanner! He is Chad and Brittany's second little boy. He is adorable and looks just like his dad only without all the fat rolls! Sorry little brother you are never going to live that down. We had a chance to meet him last weekend and hold him. He is a precious kid. We love each of member of our family so much! I'm so thankful Heavenly Father gave us families!

Below is a picture of all but two of my mom and dads grandkids! The family is growing so quickly!

I hope everyone enjoys this post! Let me know if you stop by. Even if you just post Hello. At least I know I'm not wasting my breath and my time! Love you all!

The Next Leg of Our Journey

2008-02-20T12:26:00.005-07:00

"Life is about changes, nothing ever stays the same." The next leg of our journey has finally got a good start! Karl and I have bought a beautiful piece of property and we are building our dream home! The process has seemed very slow, but looking back it has went quite quickly. We purchased the ground,nearly 40 acres,at the end of Novemeber, and we immediately started clearing Russian Olives to make a 1500 foot driveway up to the place where we desired to have our home sit. After months of phone calls, paper work, county meetings, and lots of signatures for the bank, WE ARE ON OUR WAY!

I thought it might be fun to share our progress with you:

Our beautiful property!

Remember: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Yes, you guessed it, our VERY LONG driveway!

Right in front of this hill is where we are building our house.
The kids had a great time trying out the sleigh rididng hills while their dad and grandpa built fence.

It was cold, and they also had a great time keeping the fire going so they could stay warm.

Our hole is dug! The excitement is growing!

The footers are being framed and because Karl was out of town working, the responsibility of getting the casing for the electrical under the foundation fell to Grandpa Boyd and Jax. Jax is learning a lot about hard work and responsibility.

We now have footers, as you can see and they are framing up the walls. They should be poured by next wend. We will keep you posted.

Love you all.

Happy Valentines Day Baby!

2008-02-14T01:06:00.003-07:00

It is Valentines Day already, and I haven't even went to bed yet. I hope I'm the first to wish you a Happy Valentines Day. I have to admit Tammie inspired me in coming up with this idea, but it was so sweet and I thought it would be a great Valentine. I have had a lot of fun putting this slide show together. I do you love you and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for you. I want everyone to know what an amazing husband I have. I can't wait to see you. Thanks for taking such good care of us, ecspecially me! Drive home safely.

Getting directions, the right ones!

2008-01-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I am sure everyone has given up on checking my blog and rightly so since it has been months since I have posted. We had a wonderful Christmas and a very fun New Year. Jacelin got a Karaoke and she and I have been singing together a song sung by a mother and daughter. It is called "God Gave You to Me". It is so sweet. One of the lines on the song: "The responsibility God has given me with you." has made me think a lot about what I am teaching and instilling in my children. I have spent a lot of time on my knees and in my scriptures the last little while praying that Heavenly Father would guide me in the important decisions of my life, or maybe I should say guide me in the decisions that should be important in my life. There is such a feeling of urgency permeating my soul. I realize that the time I have to spend with my children goes by so fast and that it is such a short amount of time. I want to make sure they are prepared for life, that they have learned the lessons that it is expedient for me to teach them, while I have them. I want to know that they are learning the most important lessons, the ones that will help them complete their lives missions and hold to the rod!

It has been interesting to watch them catch the fire that Karl and I have had over this presidential campaign. I overheard them telling their friends who they would never vote for and who they would vote for. I giggled right out loud but then I realized that this, although it was very cute, was a good thing. I never remember having discussions like this when I was their age nor for years and years after I got older. I spoke with them later about their feelings as to why they would not vote for a particular person and was amazed that they had an intelligent answer. I have to admit that the reason they said they would vote for someone was good also, however, it probably did not have enough bearing to cause them to be 100% for the particular person. We had a good discussion and spoke about why learning about the candidates and what they stood for was our responsibility as citizens of America. They asked about the national health care system and why the government wanting to pay for every ones health care was so bad. We had a good discussion about that and it was so inspiring for me to see my kids taking an interest in what their country's government was suppose to be all about. We are going to start reading The Making of America (just a little bit each time) at the beginning of our family read aloud time.

That book has changed my life. It has helped me to gain a respect for my founding fathers, gain a testimony and conviction of the divinity of the Constitution, understand why it is important for me to be informed and fight to defend our liberties and the principles which keep us free. Karl and I are in the process of reading it again and reading the book called the 5,000 year leap. We have a study guide that we are using to discuss the things we are learning in these books.

It is amazing how I have felt my heart change and my soul enlarge as I have struggled to gain wisdom. Heavenly Father does help us if we will not only have a desire but put forth an effort to do the thing which He desires for us. It is my prayer that over this next year we will each go to our Father in Heaven in prayer and seek out his desire for our lives and the lives of those we are responsible for. I also pray that when He gives us direction we will have the faith to do our part. I am learning that sometimes the things He wants us to do are scary. They require us to step out of our comfort zone and do things we are not sure we are ready for. He will help us if we have the faith to just DO IT!

Here is an update of some of the things that have been going on in our lives:

Halloween: Jax was a Mountain Man, Jacee a princess, Kenzi a baby, and Luke a scarecrow.

The kids have had a great time this winter. We have about 18" of snow on the ground.

The girls are in a singing group called the Center Stage Singers:

We had good times with both of our families this year at Christmas. We talked to Trent and he will be returning home from his mission around Feb. 7th. Christmas was full of love and peace.

We love each of you and thank Heavenly Father for what your presence add to our lives!

2007-10-29T22:41:00.001-06:00

Guys I created my posts in the wrong order so after reading this post and the next post you are going to have to scroll to the bottom, click on older post link and then go to the bottome of that page to the Flying High post and start there and read up so that you get our whole story and get it in order! Darn, I'm dissapointed but I haven't been doing this long enough to have it all down! Enjoy.

The "Stuff" you've been waiting for!

2007-10-29T22:37:00.000-06:00

George Washington, The Declaration of Independence, The Founding Fathers, Freedom, The Crossing of the Delaware, Henry Knox and Fort Ticonderoga, The American Flag, The Pledge of Allegiance, The National Anthem, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, Abraham Clark, John Morton, Sacrifice, Courage, Conviction.
I could go on and on. These words hold a special place in my heart. They have great meaning in the history of our country. Are you familiar with all of them? No, probably not. Many of us were not privileged to be taught about these amazing men, events, and the miracles that attended them. If you were, I'm so glad, teach others. If you were not, take the time to learn about them. I have experienced an unexplainable love for my country and an unshakable testimony that the men who were called to found this country were some of the greatest men in the history of the earth. I know without doubt that God performed many miracles, through and for these men. His hand was in the founding of this country and it was only by his intervention that we are free today. I know also that our continued freedom is based on the continuity of Allegiance to God.I'm Proud to be an American! I don't understand all of the principles of the government that our founding fathers organized, but I want to continue to learn and support it. I don't want their sacrifices, and they did sacrifice, to be in vain. I hope to teach my children to love their country and understand the "stuff" their founding fathers were made of. I believe Heavenly Father made our children of that same "stuff"! We have heard many times that the constitution will hang by a thread. We will need leaders who are firm in their belief in God, courageous enough to stand up for their convictions, and dedicated enough to sacrifice all to achieve those convictions. A person who possesses all of these traits will be the means through which God will perform His miracles. We know this because we see it occur all through the pages of history. History repeats itself. I am very thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me this testimony and for granting our family amazing opportunities to visit places that instill this "stuff" into our hearts. I hope you enjoy sharing our vacation with us.

The Atlantic Ocean

2007-10-29T22:26:00.000-06:00

Our family loves the beach. We spent our last day of vacation on the beach. It was a great day and the kids had so much fun. We found that shell finding on the Atlantic Ocean coast was more abundant than on the Pacific Ocean coast. We brought home many very pretty shells. Before going home we drove through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. That was very cool also.

Jax enjoying the water! He was soaked to the bone. My fault for not planning better. Jacelin below is also enjoying the beach. She is carrying her bad of shells.

Jamestown

2007-10-29T11:59:00.000-06:00

We had a great time in Jamestown. We enjoyed touring the ships: Susan Constance (the biggest one and the one pictured above), Godspeed, and Discover. They were replica's of the ships that first landed here at Jamestown. Jax and Dad and Grandpa were excited to see them shoot the cannon off the dock. It was interesting to have them tell us how the ammo evolved and became more dangerous as time went on and they became more ingenuity. Below you will Grandpa with an ornery old pirate, Captain of the Susan Constance.

Leaving the ships and dock and moving on we learned how they made pegs which they used as nails and the kids got to set down at the machine and practice. We learned how canoes are made and the kids enjoyed scraping a canoe out they were working on. We took advantage of a photo op by hoping into the completed canoe.

Moving on the fort we had opportunities to pack water buckets, hold swords, try on armor, and speak to a man all about his musket. Grandpa and Jax loved that and spent 2o minutes or more watching and talking to him. The people at Jamestown were very informative. They knew their stuff and LOVED to talk about it! We were there when there wasn't alot of people so we were able to ask lots of questions and listen to lots of stories. The only part we didn't spend too much time at was the Indian Village. After growing up were we live it is just hard to believe a white man with a beard dressed in Indian clothing. It just didn't work for us. But the rest of the village was GREAT!

At Historical Jamestown (the place where they are actually digging and have found Jamestown to actually exists, not the replica of Jamestown) they were demonstrating glass blowing! That was so neat! That was something we had never seen done before and the process is so cool. Did you know that glass is made by heating up sand, potash, and lime? They said they can change the color of the glass by putting in other minerals and things. The kids and Karl and I watched, fascinated, for a long time. We wore mom and dad out and as you will see in a picture below. We wore them out and we found them taking a little nap!

Here is a picture of him just starting to blow the melted glass he got out of the furnace. You can see the irons in the furnace in the background of the picture below. This bottle below is the finished product. Quiet an amazing process!
Mom and Dad taking advantage of a quick nap!

As we walked the actual acres of historic Jamestown we were told that we could pick Pecans from the old orchards that a man planted here when he came to settle in Jamestown. The kids had a great time doing this and we took advantage of another photo op. And another below! Aren't they sweet!

Williamsburg

2007-10-29T11:28:00.000-06:00

After our fun time at Jamestown and Yorktown we spent a day at Williamsburg. We were not overly impressed with Williamsburg, but a few highlights of our trip was listening to Patrick Henry speak. He was fabulous. Very good acting and after his wonderful speech it was very neat to hear him answer questions (still in character) from the audience. It was very interesting to hear his answer to the questions: "Do you ever forsee a time when women will be allowed to vote?" "If you could look into the future to 2007 what would you think of the government today?" and many others. He was very accurate I think and spared no words is answering these questions. But then again, that is what Patrick Henry is known for right? It was awesome and I loved him. I know I would have loved Patrick Henry. His views are very close to my own. If you are interested in hearing his answers you should bring it up. We could have a great discussion one day. I wish that I would have had the ability to record him. Very Good!

Patrick Henry, himself.

We visited the Jail or the Gaol as they called them back then. The kids are sitting on the "throne" or the "privy" as they called it. Kenzi said "I wouldn't want to use this mom, someone could just open the door and walk right in on you." Cute huh? Well she's right.

Jax locked in the jail!

Our home away from home!

2007-10-28T20:49:00.000-06:00

After we were done at Mount Vernon we had a three hour drive to the place that would be our home for the next seven days. It was a two bedroom, two bath, condo. It was great. A very comfortable place to rest and eat. Below is a view of the kitchen and the views off our little balcony. Our condo was the one on Jacee's left, we were on the second level.

O Mount Vernon!

2007-10-28T20:31:00.000-06:00

Mount Vernon was my absolute favorite place! It is the one thing I feel bad about on our vacation because we didn't get to spend near enough time there. We easily could have spent a full day there. One day I will make it back to Mount Vernon and DC and I will spend hours at each place. The picture below is with a "slave girl" who worked and lived at Mount Vernon. She did a short act telling what it was like to be Charlotte, an actual slave at Mount Vernon. She was very good at being in character.

This picture is of the kids standing on the side of Mount Vernon. We spent 1/2 hour just enjoying the view out the back of Mount Vernon. Below you will see pictures of us enjoying the view of the Potomac River. It is incredible! No wonder George Washington would have rather been there then anywhere else in the world.

George and Martha Washington's bodies are entombed on the Mount Vernon acreage. Before we left we took time to walk down and look at their tomb. It was a sacred, special place. The picture below shown George's tomb very well. If you closely to his right you will see the corner of Martha's as well.

Before we had to leave Mount Vernon because it was closing we were able to spend a few short minutes in the underground museum. This was so neat. We had to take a picture of the kids with General Washington!

2007-10-27T21:43:00.000-06:00

On our trolley tour we were able to just drive by many things. We didn't have time to visit all of them. We drove by the Lincoln Memorial and most of the Smithsonian Museums. We drove by the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial the first day but were able to visit them the next day. The pictures below of the Washington Monument were taken from the Jefferson Memorial.

Below the Jefferson Memorial was by far my favorite memorial. Beautiful, peaceful, and inspiring.

Inside the dome of the Jefferson Memorial stands a colossal statue of Mr. Jefferson himself. On the circular walls surrounding him, carved in stone, are some very touching statements made by him, including part of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaking of the Declaration of Independence. One of the things I was most excited to do in DC was see the actual Declaration. It is on display in the National Archives Building. My children were a little put out that we were going to actually wait in the line that was nearly a 1/2 mile long. I almost didn't have the heart for it either, but my dear husband knew how bad I wanted to see it and encouraged us to wait. I'm so glad we did! It was amazing. It brought tears to my eyes, and still does every time I think of it. I spent all last year learning and teaching about the Declaration of Independence, and the Founding Fathers. I even memorized the entire Declaration, except for the injuries of the King. However, in a year or two when I teach the class again, I will memorize these as well. When you enter the Archives you are not allowed to take pictures with a flash because the document is so sensitive. It has faded almost to the point where you cannot read it. The picture below is as good as we could get without a flash.

Can you see the hand print on the bottom left hand corner? It is very light, but it is surely a hand print. I would love to find out the story behind it. It was so fun to see the real thing and see the hand print on it!

We had the special opportunity to walk right up to to the front door of the White House, because we happened to visit during the fall open house. It was very fun. Jacee particularly liked being so close to the White House. In fact when asked she tells everyone that was her favorite part. We even got to see the Presidents dogs come out for a short run around the lawn. In fact as my mom and Kenzi were walking across the lawn to try and get a picture of it they got thoroughly hollered at by the security lady. I was trying to tell them because I had seen another person get hollered at but they didn't hear me and kept walking. Boy did they hurry sheepishly off of the lawn. Mom did get pictures of the cute little things. I will have to try and post them later when I get the pictures she took during our vacation.

We had the awesome opportunity to get tickets and ride the elevator up 500 feet of the 555 feet of the Washington Monument. These pictures above and below are views from up there. Above looking at the World War II Memorial and on past that at the end is the Lincoln Memorial. Below at the end of the green you can see the Capitol Building. Out the north window you can see the White House and the south view is of the Jefferson Memorial.

The District of Columbia

2007-10-27T21:13:00.000-06:00

The very next morning we rode the Metro transit system from Alexandria, Virginia, where our hotel was, up to Union Station in DC. At Union Station we caught a Trolley and rode around the District of Columbia, getting off at stops we were interested in taking a closer look at.

Kenzi, Jax, Grandpa, Jacee,(If you look close you can see the tip tip of her head.) Luke, Karl, and Granny at Union Station waiting for the Trolley to take us touring!

First stop was the Capitol Building. It was very neat to see. We learned that when the house and the senate are in session there will be a flag flying over each wing of the Capitol Building. They weren't flying obviously because it is October.

Next stop was the Botanical Gardens. We all enjoyed this stop. I have to tell a side story before I go on with our trip. When Jax was little, very little (He started speaking sentences at 15 months of age.) he loved to smell things. His favorite things to smell were candles. But, he would smell anything flowers, weeds, perfumes, clothes, anything. He used to walk around saying "mell dis." "mell dis" "mell dis" to anyone all day long. It brought back memories, and I watched with joy as he walked around still smelling each flower but being more selective in his urging of others to now "smell these".

Our next stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. This was a neat place but we didn't spend much time here. There was people everywhere and the kids were not very interested. Kenzi enjoyed this museum more than the others and she was very impressed with Ivan Ivanwhich. I'll let you do your own research on him or maybe you can ask Kenzi about him. I would be interested to see if she remembers who he is.

Yes even in DC, Jax can find the wildlife. If you want to call it that. We all got a great laugh watching him try to sneak up on the pigeons all over DC. It was even more funny to watch the people around us look at him! It was great! Memories, Memories, Memories. I will only feel bad that we didn't get the pictures of him being really sneaky! Oh my goodness, so cute! He almost caught one!

DC Temple

2007-10-27T09:45:00.000-06:00

After arriving at the Dulles International Airport and getting our rental van we headed to the DC Temple. It was late when we got there, about 8:30 p.m. Even in the dark, it was so beautiful! We kept thinking we were lost because we thought we should be able to see a temple if we were anywhere close to it. My brother, Chad served a mission here and warned me that we wouldn't be able to see until we were right up to it and he was exactly right. I have heard him say many times what a beautiful temple this was but you don't fully understand the meaning until you are there! It is HUGE- so majestic. One day I plan to go back with just my hubby when we can go do a session here. Visiting the temple was a great experience.

Jax, Kenzi, Granny Nancy, and Jacelin are standing at the visitors center with the temple in the background.

This temple is unique to any I have ever seen before. What makes it unique is the stained glass window type things that extend up each of the four corners of the temple. They have huge lights shining on them that make them glow. Very beautiful. The kids were so fascinated with them. Before we left we had to walk around to were they could crawl through the bushes and touch them. They love to touch all the temples they go to now because our stake president extended a challenge for them to go to a temple, touch it, and promise themselves they would go there someday. It was the same with this temple, but they had to touch the stained glass!

Flying High!

2007-10-26T14:36:00.000-06:00

The first adventure of our vacation started with the kids' first airplane ride. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20 so at 6 a.m. we were up and at 'em and the kids were eager to hit the road, ummm, more appropriately, the SKY! Unfortunately (you could hear that coming couldn't you?) our plane was having some problems. Our flight was delayed until 8:45, oh wait a minute, I mean 9:00.

Oh excuse me the flight has now been delayed until 9:20. We are still smiling!

"We are sorry for the inconvenience but the mechanics need to replace the fuel filter. You will be leaving Salt Lake at 9:45." The smiles are fading, but we will just have a rest! After all we don't want to try flying on a broken plane! (At least this is what I try telling them!)

"The fuel filter has been replaced, but the mechanics are now reporting a bad O-ring. The flight is scheduled to leave at 10:35." O no! We are a little worried now because we have a different flight to catch in Texas. The attendant assures Karl will will have time to make it and the kids start to entertain them selves as best they can. As you can see in the picture above.

Finally we are off! (or should I say, ON.) Take-off went well, no O-rings seem to be malfunctioning, and the kids enjoyed the thrill of taking off in the airplane.

Okay now remember how I explained that the attendant told Karl that we should have plenty of time to make our layover flight in Texas? Yeah. Well the layover was originally suppose to be three hours and by the time we got to the Dallas airport we had exactly enough time to get to our next gate and load on the plane! What an adventure!

This is a beautiful sight of the clouds as we were coming into DC. We didn't get a good view of the area because of the clouds, but they were breathtaking so it didn't matter.

After arriving in DC and as we were exiting, Jax caught a glimpse of the cock pit and was amazed. The pilot was a very friendly man who invited the kids right up in. We stood just outside the plane and waited while Jax asked him what nearly every control did! He learned that they use LOTS of gas. He even got to push the lever forward until the plane talked to him! The pilot was great and very patient with Jax and his questions!

Finally we arrive in DC. Jax caught a ride with Grandpa. He and Granny met us at the airport. They were on a flight that came in two hours ahead of us. We had quite an ammount of luggage as you can see! Most of it was for the baby!

Luke Boyd Kraync

2007-10-10T21:11:00.001-06:00

As you all know, we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy on January 20th. Luke Boyd Kraync is the joy of all of our lives. He is such a sweet, good baby boy. He is almost nine months old. Wow, time flies! It seems like such a blur. He is growing and learning so fast. He crawls all over and pulls himself up to things. He has been my earliest teether. He has two teeth and is working on a third as we speak. He LOVES to eat and is very good at it! His favorite snack is melons of any kind. He loves every kind of baby food I feed him. He escpecially likes his bottle and boy is he good at screaming! Yep, I have a screamer. You would think that after three kids I would have expeirenced it all, but nope. This is my first screamer. I think he is practicing for the opera. You never know. He is such a blessing to our family. There is nothing quite like a baby to bring the spirit into a home. Hope you enjoy his precious smile. He is about 6 months is these pictures.

Cortez, Colorado and Arches trip....

2007-09-30T22:12:00.000-06:00

Every year Karl has to work in Cortez, he takes dad with him to help with the work. So we all go for a fun little vacation. This year they were able to finish in one day, Tuesday. So we were able to spend the other three days just playing. We went to Mesa Verde, of course! We love that place. Then we drove down to four corners. That was alot of fun and the kids thought it was neat to be in four states at once. After this we had a LONG drive, (dad chose the wrong road!) but it was pretty none the less, back to Monticello, Utah and stayed up the canyon there for one night and a day before we left mom and dad (they didn't want to hike!) to go to the Arches.
We met our dear, close friends, Tammie and Ryan Nelson and their kids there and spent two nights at the Devil's Garden campground. The first day we took the kids to Sand Dune Arch. It is their very favorite place and we very rarely go to Arches that we don't stop there for a visit. Later that night, with our 8 children and three of my other friends children, who happened to be there also, we left for a hike in the dark under a nearly full moon to Delicate Arch. It was a memory maker! We had a great time on the way up and while we were there. The night was a cloudy one so we waited a while in hopes that it would clear up and the kids played games. On the way back we ran into some other people on their way up and one asked Jacee "Isn't it past your bed time?" I laughed. The kids were getting tired, but over all it was a great time!
The next day was WINDY but the kids and Karl and Ryan managed to have a good time none the less. Ryan bought his repelling gear and they had a great time repelling on the rocks at the campground. Kenzi was all about that! She has recently decided that she wants to be a rock climber when she grows up! Can you imagine!

Mesa Verde. Balcony house in the background.

Four Corners National Park.

Sand Dune Arch. The kids would race down the hill and then they would face plant or roll until they were covered in sand! YUCK

Resting on our way up to Delicate Arch!

The kids playing Down by the Banks.

Curtis, Luke, and Karl cuddling at Delicate Arch.

Kenzi is getting ready to repel. She did so good but the wind was blowing so hard that she didn't dare go down too far. She felt like she was loosing her balance. But they had done a smaller rock before and she loved it!

Liberty Kids go to BASIC TRAINING!!!

2007-09-30T21:34:00.000-06:00

Last week as you know we talked of George Washington's childhood. This week we talked of his life as a soilder. We had a great time when Chris Bernard, a drill sargent for the U.S. Army, came to visit our class and teach us a little bit about what it means to be a soilder now days. The kids were put into a formation and taught some drills. They were then tested to see who could be the best "soilder". They tried hard but most of them got out because of giggles! They had a really good time. Jax got dubbed as "Mr. Questions" because he and his friend Jaren asked many, many questions-mostly about guns and tanks! They were put through an obstacle course and even competed in a push up contest, in which Jax came in second behind his friend Jaren. It was a great day! When I asked the kids if they had plans of being in the army I knew Kenzi would say no but I was interested in Jax's response. He told me he didn't think he was too intrested. Boy did I breath a sigh of relief!! Only time will tell. Here are some pictures of our fun day:

Welcome

2007-09-20T00:40:00.000-06:00

I have been enjoying so many of my friends blogs that I couldn't stand it any more, I had to start my own! I hope it is a great way for me to share all the memories we make with our kids and keep in touch with all of our friends and family!
By the way Aunt Gay, if you read this, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I forgot to tell you when I talked to you. I'm sorry we couldn't make it to your party. Hope you day was great.
Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Liberty Kids Class!

2007-09-19T23:49:00.000-06:00

Meet our Liberty Kids class!
Top: Jax(of course!), Jaren. Standing: Lizzy, Dakota, Daniel, Kimmie.
Front: Adam and Kenzi (class officers).

This year we have a name for our school: Liberty Light Academy, and a place! It is a little cozy house. It is wonderful. I will send pictures so everyone can see what we are doing!

On Monday, Oct. 17th the Liberty Kids Class had it's youth conference at Huntington Lake. We had a great time eating, playing games, making Liberty Kids shirts, learning about the childhood of George Washington and then participating in one of his favorite childhood activities..... Canoeing!

Yes, I'm the one in the canoe! I think that was my first time ever in a canoe. I'm the mentor so I got to help the canoers! (Is that a word? lol) I really enjoyed myself.

In this picture Kenzi and her friends are in the canoe with me. She is the girl leaning back.

Where is Jax, you ask? Well don't worry he was there. He was playing in the stinky mud, finding a crawdad, sticking his finger in it's claw and screaming when (imagine this) it pinched him! (I'm not kidding!) He makes a smile!

Our Summer Recital

2007-09-19T23:16:00.000-06:00

This was Jacelin's very first piano recital. She did a great job! This picture shows her bowing, after her duet, with our wonderful, inspiring, teacher! Yea, Jacee!

Kenzi finishing her solo: Minute in G major by Bach. It was a beautiful piece one of my favorite that she has done so far. It wasn't one of her favorites, but she did a great job none the less.

Each of us had to play a solo and a duet at this particular recital. Kenzi and I had the oppurtunity to play our solo together it was fun and might I say we didn't do too bad.