Something exciting happened for Jacelin!

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,

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

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

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

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!