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Thirteen years and going strong!

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

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?

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?......

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

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: