Guess the art work

This picture I was so surprised at. Can you guess what it was and maybe who drew it. Hint of hew drew it, look at the little fingers holding the picture.

Wonderful Temple Experience

If those of you that follow my blog and you don't know as part of our religion we believe in eternal marraige. If you and your spouce are worthy of entering the LDS temple then you can go and be sealed for time and eternity. He are earth when a coupld is married they are married for just this time on earth. We believe that if you are sealed to your spouce you can be married even if one of the spouces die. It is a very special spiritual experience to be able to participate in.
Friends and loved ones checking out a menu for lunch.

Some of the guys gabbing about the football game going on in the background.
Gals talking about their sons
Sisters waiting to be seated
Close friends enjoying in their special day. This is John and Carol our very dear friends. We were so excited to be able to be a part of their special day. John joined the church a little over a year ago and they wanted to be sealed for all eternity.
You have an escort that will help you through the temple. John's escort was Victor. We were so glad he could come back and be a part of it. Carol had her mom and her sister in law as her escorts. They are there if you have questions and you need help.
Carol's family Brother and sister in law on the left and mom and dad on the right.
And just a few special moments with the bride and groom just after their big day. How cute do they look!!!

One Word- EWWWWWW

The kids found this lizard crawling around while we were outside one day. They decided to pass him around. The put it on me and I just won't put that picture on here cause I look like a silly person. At least the kids were brave.

A great piercing

Welp we have got our first piercing of the family. Sweet Sarah decided she really really wanted her ears pierced. She kept asking and asking. I asked other mothers opinions and why and why they got their daughters ears done. The we asked what Dad thought. I thought that she was a little bit young but let me tell you I was obviously wrong. She did so well getting them and cleaning them. She can't wait till she can start changing them around. I was 12 and thought that was a good age. I had a friend that had her daughters done at 5. And she had a friend who let her daughters get theirs at 8. Her reasoning was if she can make the decision to be baptised then she can responsibly make the decision to get her ears pierced. I loved that reasoning!!! So one night as our friends were over she got it done. Carol is a beautician and all the stuff to do it in her car already.

The is the before shot of her ear.
Waiting paitiently listening to the explanation that is about to happen.

Marking spot where the whole was going to go.

I think this was a cleaning and numbing of the ear.


Here we go. Are you sure your ready Sarah?

Her reaction to them in the mirror. I LOOOOOOOVE this shot.


And the two after shots of each ear. She looks beautiful and she was sooooo ready. Emma really wanted hers done that same night but I think we will make it an 8 year old tradition if they want them. Emma would be wearing make up and wearing high heals right now too if I let her.

What a beautiful girl!!!!!

First scout campout

So this was Daniel's firs scout campout. He was so excited. He ready to go and waiting for a long time for his ride. Aaron on the other hand has been on many campouts. He was not near excited as Daniel was but he needed to go to get some merit badges and was so glad that he went. I think the first two pictures their faces were alittle bit dramatized but those packs were very heavy apparently. The bottom picture I think was a little more acurate.

I stood still and was grateful

Grrrrrr. I have had so much trouble trying to get this post going. All of the pictures posted are just silly little pictures of my family. I read a comment on facebook this morning about how he thought the church made a mistake in saying what they said about prop 8. He said because of the results that have come about and the persecution that many memebers face because of their belief both as memeber and politically. It sparked something in me. I didn't even know this guy and I had to comment about what he said. It really got me to thinking about how grateful I am for my family. You get going in the day to day life, did you do your homework, did I sign all your papers, did you make your lunch, did you do your chores, dinner, go to sleep and wake and busy busy busy all over again. I get so caught up in that, and luckily the Lord brings to my attention in such small ways sometimes how wonderful I have it. I have a big family and wonderful kids who yes make mistakes and irritate me sometimes but they are learning so much right now. I hope when they are older they are my friends. They are my friends sometimes right now but at the same time I still have to be their parent. I want to make it very clear especially if you had any question as to what I stand for. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, yes a Mormon. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. It at times can be bad and ugly I am sure for every marriage. But for the most part it is sweet and beautiful. I feel very strongly that there are 2 things that we and I are to fight for, the sanctity of marriage and free agency. Just because I believe so very strongly about marriage, doesn't mean that I will beat up another person for believing in any different, that of coarse would be taking away that persons free agency. They have the right to believe in what they want. However I know what the sweetness feels like when you are in the temple of the Lord and have been sealed to your husband for time and all eternity and you sit quietly together feeling so grateful for what the Lord has given you. My brother in law is a very straight forward kind of guy. He is the type of guy that would say right is right and wrong is wrong. And thats that. My opinion and strong knowledge of right and wrong does not change the fact that others have the right to believe what they want but it doesn't mean that I will sit by and keep MY shout. I have the right to believe and stand up for what is right just like other people have the right to fight for anything otherwise. That is what is so great about our Country. I will not apologize for offense. If you disagree, great you are entitled to that opinion. Doesn't mean we have to hate eachother over it.

The "Stage" has begun

I am so very sad. Very very sad. The "Stage" has begun in our family. I am no longer publicly loved with my older two. Its just private love now. It was down right pouring this morning and even if you did have an umbrella you would still get damp. So I offered to walk the boys out to the bus stop with an umbrella and they both declined. I said wait are you embarrassed of me in front of all those kids? Yes was not the answer I was hoping to hear but unfortunately my ears deceived me. YOu would rather get drenched than to be embarrassed of me walking you to the bus stop? Yes was not the answer I was hoping to hear but yet again my ears deceived me. Dang it I think I might have to have my hearing checked. Now they told me I can still come eat lunch with them and that is not embarrasing but for me to walk them to the bus stop would be embarrasing. Whats up with that?? I do love them so much but it actually hurt to think that they are at that stage. Please tell me all kids their age go through this????

The

Kangaroo's

Emma and Matthew were invited to a friends birthday party. The party was at a place called Kangaroos. It was this place with big inflated jumping things the kids could jump around on. Mr. Kangaroo decided to make his apperance and Emma was suprisingly very excited. I didn't think she would care much but she wanted to shake his hand and have her picture taken with him. I hardly saw Matthew becuase he was jumping his heart out.



As you can see his whole head was wet from sweat. He had a blast. It was a nice fun activity.

Sarah's baptism

So its tradition now that we get a group family picture to go in a 3 set frame for the baptism child, a picture with the Bishop, and a picture with dad. We had technical difficulties at the baptism and didn't get all the picture we wanted. So the other pictures came later. We usually get one with the whole family with the kid in the white clothes. My batteries went dead and we only got one and that was with Tom's eyes half closed. That is one big thing I regret not having fresh batteries "just in case" and not going out and finding a baptism dress for her to wear in the water. They have a very limited selection at the church and they only had a jumper that swallowed her whole. But other than that it was an absolute wonderful day. We tagged on with another family in our ward and she thought of things that I didn't and she filled in the gaps and I was so grateful for that. The spirit was soooo strong. She came down stairs the morning of and was so excited. I said sarcastically what are you sooo excited about. And she said to me in a tone like I really had forgotten or something. Mooooommmm I am getting baptized today. What a wonderful day.
Sarah and Bishop Drewes



Sarah and Dad

Cougar Fans to the Core!!!!

So if you know us a little bit you know that Tom went to BYU and we are huge cougar fans. Well a once in a life time opportunity came up. They were playing Tulane down in New Orleans and Tom, Daniel, Aaron, and Nathan all went. When I first found tickets they wanted $100 bucks a ticket. There was no way. Well a couple of weeks went by and they had more reasonable prices. I would have love to have gone but I just felt like the younger kids were a little bit too young to take. So my family , Uncle John(our friend that we have become so close to the kids all call him Uncle John), Quinten and Kyle another couple of guys from a family in our ward all car pooled. They saw several other people from our ward. The Bishop and a few of his kids and he even saw a guy that he graduated BYU with was there too. This was a place they ate lunch before the game began. They raved about the food. It was just hamburgers and stuff but apparently it was the "best burger I have ever had" each one of the boys said.

This is the huge Y flag they run around before the game and every time they make a touch down.


Daniel saw Quinten decking himself out so he thought he would do the same. What spirit they have!!!

The boys were able to go to the bottom of the seats and actually slap the hands of the maskot Cosmo. They had soooo much fun. It was a wonderful experience for all my boys. They came home talking non stop and talking over eachother to tell me what had happened. They were so excited they didn't even realize they were talking over one another. I am so glad they had fun and that they were able to go together!!! GO COUGARS!!!!!!!

Braces

That is one beautiful boy I have there. Well maybe beautiful is not the right word for a boy. He is completely and totally handsome!!!!! This was his before shot of his teeth. He was sooo nervous about getting braces once he was in the seat. He just didn't know what to expect so I think that is why. I have never had braces so I didn't know what to tell him. What I did tell him was that the Lord knows and he can help you through it. He said that he was just fine after a few minutes and with a silent prayer. I had no idea that he wanted me to be with him when they did it so I had planned to run an errand and had the two youngest with me and couldn't possibly stay because of them. He did just fine!!!


I told him I wanted an after shot and this is what he gave me silly boy.
This was not the smile he had on his face after they were put on. He was in lot of pain. He didn't eat for a whole day. And for him at this stage is big for him. But he is now use to them and has been back for them to put a new wire in. He says his mouth hurt for a few hours and that was it. I know at least one other kid for sure that will have to have braces. But for now its just Aaron. His teeth weren't so much crooked but apparently he has a huge over bite or under bite or something like that. Anyway my boy is growing up. Sad but exciting at the same time.