Tender Mercies ~

This Christmas season has been a slightly challenging one for me. I typically love this time a year and all the fabulous things that come with it. Unfortunately with work being as unrewarding as it’s been the past several months, I have really been an “angry elf”. My poor husband gets the brunt of it most days (the joys of working together He He He) the sad thing is that I have tried harder than I thought possible to have a great attitude and make myself have the spirit of Christmas. I joined not one, but two stinking Christmas choirs so I could sing all the wonderful Christmas music and feel so peaceful. Well, while it was nice and all, sadly it did not spark the Christmas light inside me. So I tried Christmas shopping, I usually love being out in the crowed and getting things for my loved ones, well going back to the “angry elf” I could not stand anyone, I could not get out of stores fast enough, I was completely irritated by everyone! My life is always so rushed and I’m constantly feeling like I can hardly keep my head above water. I was unable to find time to send out Christmas cards this year. I was unable to get everyone that perfect gift that you just know they will absolutely love. I was unable to do a lot of things that I would normally do. To top it off, this is the first time in almost 5 years that I can honestly say I hate my job. It’s sad to me because I use to love my job, I get to help people all the time and it has always been very rewarding for me. Since I took on this project in Arizona and have had to get use to people not being as grateful as I’m use to and to daily deal with rude, hardened, thoughtless, downright not nice people, I have changed. I have hardened myself. So I had to turn elsewhere to fulfill this horrible void this season. I prayed with all my heart to find a way to be softened and to FEEL what I so desperately needed to feel. The feeling, that uses to come so natural to me.. …..All I had to do was ask... Then, the Lords tender mercies poured down on me, like they do so many times if I’m in the right spirit to receive them. I was given the opportunity to teach sharing time in primary on Sunday. It was on centering Christmas around the Savior. Finally, the light came through, once I stopped long enough to focus on my Savior, once I stopped and took a deep breath and looked into the faces of my daily tender mercies that I have been entrusted with here on this earth, I was completely and indisputably once again complete. My blessings have grown even more since then; I had the great pleasure of selecting a few families to help out this Christmas season and to be the one to deliver the news to them. It gave me the opportunity to find people on my property that would not only need but appreciate this. I had to truly look for the good in people and I have not really allowed myself to have a different opinion then the typical rude people I usually encounter. The immense joy that these people showed, the tears that fell down their faces, their speechlessness were priceless. The spirit of giving is alive and well. I know that my family and dear friends will forgive me of all that I was “unable” to do this year, they all know that I love them with every piece of me and while at times I I’m sure they get sick of my pity parties, I know that I am loved by every single one of them. Merry Christmas ~

Forgotten Carols ~

On Monday at the last minute,I was able to go to Vegas with a bunch of friends. we had dinner and went to Michael McLean's Forgotten Carols. As you can see from the pictures we had a blast! It was nice to go out for a girls night and also have the opportunity to get in the Christmas Spirit. I absolutely love being around these fabulous women. We always have a great time and laugh till it hurts! (some of my pic's did not turn out that great but you get the idea!)

Santa... I know Him!

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. The kids had a blast. They did such a great job with Santa's introduction, it was a fun night!

36 Hours

Gordon and I got to runaway for 36 fabulously smashing hours of "us time"! We had our company Christmas party up by Zion's National park in Utah, so we decided to stay up there for the night and make a getaway out of it! We stayed at the Desert Perl (totally recommend) and it was absolutely gorgeous. The views were breath taking. The river was right out our back porch and at night the moon was almost full. The air was pretty crisp but it added to the romance of it all! Coby & Tiff came over after the party so we could all watch The Office. We had so much fun with them. Tiff was in rare form and was totally workin the camera! I need to send a big fat juicy smooch to my friend Jamie. She kept the girls overnight for us and they had a BLAST! They are already asking when we are leaving again. It was so nice to get away, I love spending alone time with my sweet hubby, he truly is the most amazing husband,father & best friend. i have been so blessed. We were able to end our trip by going to the St George temple and doing a session with my parents. It was the perfect end to a perfect getaway!

You Smell Like A Dog ~

You gota love when your man walks through the door all bloody with his latest kill in hand! On of my very most favorite things about Gordon, is that he has so many hobbies that he is so passionate about. One is coyote hunting. He loves to go out and call in the dogs. He is the manliest man I know, yet he will come home and wash, dry and yes, even put away laundry! This is a game I like to call... I WIN!!!!
I love you babe, your the best!

Shake-N-Bake ~

The girls and I spent Sunday afternoon doing a little baking. We had a blast making some yummy cookies. The girls did most of the work, I was on snap shot duty. So here are a few pic's. They even managed to talk me into letting them eat some of the cookie dough because Julie Hatch, a friend of mine from St George, let them sit and eat her bowl of cookie dough last time we visited them and they have not forgot how fabulous it was!

My Birthday ~

Okay so lets be honest, Birthdays are just not so fun the older you get. I really don't look forward to them and my girls just don't seem to understand why I don't start planning a party or beg to go out to eat where they will sing you a lame song and totally embarrass you saying "and she only 21 today"! Not my cup of tea, however this year was fabulous! I just had a Birthday and my rock star husband was able to pull off a surprise for me. I have a HUGE love, well okay slight obsession with purses. The best part is he let's me have this love and he very rarely says a word about how many purses I have in our closet or how much they cost. Anyways he took the girls to an air show in veges a few weeks ago and he stopped at the Coach store and on his very own picked me out a smashing purse and wallet! I know, he is a keeper! We were in St George for half the day on my Birthday, then we had to hit the road to go home, but before we left we had lunch and cake with my family who unnecessarily spoiled me. They are the best!
Since we were out of town for my Birthday, my girlfriends here took me out Wednesday night. We had a blast! We went and got our piggies done and laughed our guts out, then filled our guts back up up at chili's after! Thanks Amber it was so much fun! So basically what I'm sayin here is 32 was not so bad after all! Thanks everyone for making my day special ~

Melinda ~

Gordon cousin Melinda is a Nursing student back in St George and I'm 100% positive she has way funner thing going on in her life, but bless her heart, she came all the way here to visit us! She is so stinkin cute and we have so much fun together, I just lover her to death! Anyhoo she came the weekend we had to speak at church so it was not as fun as it could have been, stress levels were running high in our house that week, but we still loved having her here. I have missed working with her and hanging out, she is a huge part of my little family! We were able to sneak in some shopping at our awesome mall (wink wink). We could not resist playing in the hat store.

Twilight ~

I have a lot to catch up on so I will try to be quick and just sum things up!
Gordon & I were able to make a quick trip home so we could go to See Twilight with my family.I know everyone has an opinion about it, but I knew going into it,it was not going to win any awards for best acting and I also knew it was pretty low budget as far as movies go, so I was able to just go and be entertained & enjoy it. Some in my group who shall remain nameless, (OK Gordon was one of them. I can rat him out) picked it apart but since this is MY blog and I can put what I want, I liked it and I plan on taking the girls next week so they can see it! Anyhoo we had a blast hangin out and chatting before the movie and of course we took LOTS of pic's, much to Gordon's disapproval...umm he was pretty much a party pooper but good times were had by all. So if you saw the movie, I hope you liked it, if you did not like it, I don't want your hate comments....you can post that on your own blog! Yep I sure did say that!

So What DoYou Think?

So, my sister and I have been pondering on something lately, maybe it's not super blog worthy but I'll go ahead and throw it out there anyways. Is it just me or have you been around people who try to be like who ever they are around? Don't your find this incredibly annoying? I mean don't you get past that stage in life, like in high school? It's all very confusing to me, why pretend to be something you are not or act like you like or don't like someone that you really don't or do like? seriously this is must take a lot of effort because I really can not and don't fake it. If we don't mesh or I don't see good times down the line, I'll be nice but I'm not gonna lie, I won't be like "we should hang out" I mean really why do people do this. Whats wrong with what you see is what you get? Do you have any thoughts on this or are Kacie and I left to forever wonder???

Our Family Vacation ~

We had an opportunity a few weeks ago to take our family to Disneyland for a little vacation. My sister Kacie and Tyler, Savie & Demie were able to come with us. To sum it up, we had a BLAST! It was a greatly needed getaway for all of us. I love that when you walk through the front gates at Disneyland, all your cares, stresses and life’s realities seem to be placed oh hold. You can watch the looks on your children’s faces as they get lost in all the fantasies and you begin to feel the child in yourself come alive! We laughed SO much, I LOVE being with my sister. The weather was perfect, the lines were not long at all and I finally got to have my favorite Disneyland chocolate covered frozen Bananas! They are to die for! Everyone had their favorite amusement park food and we made sure we tried them all….some, multiple times, I swear every time my cute hubby disappeared he came back with a banana for me! Our days we jam packed; we went from sun up to the wee hours of the next morning. We made so many priceless memories with our families on this trip. I tired to cherish every minute of it. On our last day we sadly said goodbye to the Lunt’s, then took the girls to the beach. It was beautiful. I have missed the familiar smell of the ocean breeze. Gordon taught the girls to boogie board….well until they were flip upside down and rolled in with a pretty big wave. I knew they would pop up in tears and not want to go back in. I was right. They now know all to well the burn of salt water in your nose and the strong taste it leaves in the back of your throat. We hope kids had as much fun as the adults. We are already looking forward to next time!

So Blessed ~

We had a very special and emotional day today. Haylie, Gordon & I had to speak in our new ward. It was nerve racking to say the least. I was so Proud of both of them, they did such a fantastic job. They did not even sound as nervous as I know they were! Gordon and I were also put into our new callings. Gordon was called to be the Sunday school teacher for the youth. He will do such a great job. I know they will love him! I was called to be the primary president. I am so completely overwhelmed. Two days before we left for Disneyland my Bishop called me in and said they had a calling for me. I was complete blown away. I did not see this coming at all. I felt like there are so many better qualified sisters that would be great at this. As I have had a couple of weeks to let this all sink in, I'm very grateful for this opportunity to serve and for the faith that my Heavenly Father & Bishop has in me. This has been very humbling for me and I'm so excited to work with these precious children. I know they have a lot to teach me and I am eager to learn. The Lord has blessed me abundantly and I am so grateful for all that he has seen fit to give me. My only hope is that I live each day Worthy to be so blessed ~

Madison & Mom ~

My girls are always full of questions when I go canning, so this last weekend, I took Madison with me. She was so excited to see what it was all about. We canned flour, rice, beans and some apple slices! It was fun to spend time with her and to also teach her the importance of food storage and being prepared!

Jalapeno Jelly ~

One of our very favorite treats is Jalapeno jelly on top of cream cheese on a Ritz cracker! We go through it pretty quick around here, so Gordon and I put some more up last weekend. This time we made it even hotter! Gordon's Grandma makes it and can't keep up with the demand at our house because we put it on everything, so I had to learn how to make it and now I'm hooked! Thanks Grandma~

To Scary...Gota Go Private ~

I have gone back and forth about this so many times, but I think it's time to go private. I'm really bummed because I love letting friends (past and present) peek into our life, but it's just getting too creepy. I really really want to get all your
e-mail addresses to be able to let you continue to access our blog. I really don't mind anybody that I at least know in some way looking at our blog, I just don't want any weirdo, psyco, freak strangers lookin at my precious little ladies! So Don't be LAME and not give me your e-mails because you don't want me to know that your a blog stalker!!!..... Just kiddin, but really let's keep in touch. Below is the link to a news story that my Aunt shared with me and it put me over the edge. Feel free to check it out for yourself.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4699330

Anyhoo I'll wait a week or two before I make the final leap, so you have sometime to decide if you wanna be in or out!

1st Chemo Day ~

My Mom made it through her first chemo experience. It was an emotional day. It is really hard to imagine all these poisons being pumped into your body. My Mom has always been healthy and has never put anything into her body that would be harmful to it, so this was really difficult. She was pretty light headed and felt a little off but she did amazing. Haylie and I drove to St George to be with her. We were only their for a few hours but I would not have missed it for the world. My Mom has been such a trooper through all this. She has so many love ones and friends right beside her to Love & support her. We are all still having a hard time believing this is real and we are just so sad that our mom has to go through all of this, but at the same time I am just so overwhelmed by the outpouring of prayers and genuine concerns for My Mother. I have the best friends that are always thinking of my family. I don't know what I would do with out all of you. xoxox

I am also grateful for the quick "road trip" that Haylie and I got to take. She is so funny, we laugh a lot and she talked my ear off the entire time. I enjoyed our time together. she is such a sweetie and I can not believe how fast she is growing up. She is beautiful inside and out ~

Happy Birthday Mallorie ~

Our sweet Mallorie turned 10 on the 26Th. She is such a sweetheart. Mallorie is very talented and does very well in school. She is so special to us and we would be lost without her. It is sometimes hard around our house with 3 girls, they are all very competitive and always making sure that equal attention is given. It's nice when their Birthdays roll around and they get a day all about them, well it's more like a few days that are ALL about them! I hang a Birthday sign and put candy all over their door on their Birthday and they get to choose the activities we do for their special day. Mallorie chose to go to Peter Piper Pizza then of course it would not be complete without seeing High School Musical 3! I'm pretty sure that was Daddy's favorite part! Anyhoo we had a blast together. The Lunt came to get pizza with us,the girls had so much fun. Mallorie has been asking for a bow for months and she finally got one! It is so stinkin cute and of course she is a natural1 She has also been asking for silky PJ's so we got some sweet pic of her in the PJ's shooting her pick camo bow. Mallorie would be so sad if I did not say that she is an avid animal lover and does not plan on ever shooting an animal, she just wants to be a target shooter! Bless her sweet heart! She gets that from her mother.