Family Pictures 2012

 

Praying for trials

I seriously doubt anyone reads this blog anymore because of my neglectful nature towards it but lately I have been tring to take it easy and I feel like writing. This has been a weird 2 months for me. I must admit I am just like my father and I like to fill my schedule so full that it's bursting at the seams. Several weeks ago that overfilled schedule exploded and I refuse to pick up the busy pieces that are left behind. For the entire month of September I have done nothing but sit on my couch and sulk. We all have times that we sit back and reflect upon our lives and wonder where we are going. For most people it only lasts a day but for some reason my sulky attitude has lasted this entire month! I have dropped everything that was not a necessity. Everything but my husband and kids and believe me there were days where I wanted to drop those responsibilities too. Trying to fix myself and my poor attitude I have been doing alot of scripture reading and sitting by myself thinking about how I want this life of mine to turn out. I have had a pretty easy life thus far and I know that no one gets off that easy. Deep down I feel that there will be mountains to climb and very difficult lesson to learn ahead of me. Maybe I have an idea of what those trails may be but maybe I am completely dead wrong. Whatever they are they have been giving me the most uneasy feeling. While I was reading past confrence talks I ran across a talk that struck me. I can't remember who it was that gave it and I could stop to take the time to find it but right now I don't have the emotional energy. He talked about praying for trials. At first I thought "what a strange concept, praying for bad things to happen to me? Who would want to do that?" but then I remembered the uneasy feeling that I keep in the back of my mind. The thought of getting down on my knees came to me but I quickly pushed it out of my mind. I knew that if I prayed for trials that life would only get harder and thats not what I needed. I needed my life to get easier. Ignoring my instincts I went about my day, my week, the rest of the month all the while that little talk kept popping in my mind and I kept pushing it out. What if the trails that come are not ones I am expecting or want?  What if they are the trials I know I can't overcome. Tired of worrying about it I finally gave into the ever nagging prompting and got on my knees. I wanted to get it over with I wanted to start my hike up whatever mountain was coming so that I could hurry and be done with it.

The next day I got a call from the Bishopric asking that my husband and I come into meet with one of them. Knowing that this meant a new calling I was a little frustrated. C.J. and I both held major callings in the church. He was the Sunday School President and I was the Compassionate Service Leader and now they were going to give us ANOTHER calling. I was already struggling to keep up with the one I had! Once we got in the second counselors office I was ecstatic to find out that they were releasing me as the Compassionate service leader. My excitement was short lived though. I remember it like he was that fat little chubby red headed kid on the movie Sand Lot. G-O-S-P-E-L   D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E   T-E-A-C-H-E-R............... what? I heard it but it didn't make any sense in my mind. I heard my husband gasp. After all he was the Sunday School President. He would know better than to call ME as the Gospel Doctrine Teacher! The only reason I know the stories in the scriptures is because I had a diligent Mother that read them to me and I loved watching the animated scripture movies when I was a kid. I sat there in shock thinking this is a joke. They wouldn't call me. I am a mom with two kids. The ward was full of teachers and scholars why would they call me. When it finally sank in that he was serious the tears started to well up in my eyes. How could they do this to me! I hate talking in front of people. I am probably the youngest married adult in the ward. What did I know that they didn't! As the second counselor asked if I would accept the calling I put my face into my hands and the tears started rolling. Through my sobs I told him My Father taught me never to say no to a calling and that I would give it a try. After leaving the office I attempted to control my emotions as we walked into the chapel but couldn't. I handed over the baby to my husband and left him to fend for himself during the sacrament meeting where I was sustained without being present. I ran out the building doors and thought "What in the world are you thinking Heavenly Father" This was definitely not the trial I had anticipated. After a lot of crying and fears whirling through my mind I am happy to say that I have peace of mind and I am ready to fulfill my calling. There are callings that are given to people that are solely to benefit that individual. I believe that this is one of those callings. Maybe it is preparatory to the trails that are to come. Maybe it is the hill before the mountain. But I believe it will benefit me and will prepare me for what is to come. Whatever it may be I try to remember that without difficult tasks we cannot grow as an individual. Challenges are what make us better people. I am ready to be made into a better person. I am ready to let the Lord mold and shape me into the person I am supposed to be. I know that this will be a difficult calling especially for me but I believe that I was called for a reason and that I need to do this for myself. I give my first lesson in about 3 weeks and I hope that there is someone out there that will get something out of my lesson besides me.

Petting Farm and Lake

Here are a bunch of pictures I took while we were at a petting farm. I love Paisley's faces in all these! She is so expressive!

Day at the Lake

 Who needs clothes when your buns are this cute!!!!!

Since I started my Garage Sales R Us blog our family blog has taken a back seat. C.J has been telling me I need to update it so here is a really quick post. Hopefully I can get some pictures of the girls up soon because they are growing up way too fast!!!!

Over the weekend my Husband, C.J. and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary! 

 6 years and 2 babies later I know marrying this man was the best decision I have ever made! 

My Mom came up to take care of the girls and we spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. Friday we went to a movie and hiked out at Pine Valley.

Saturday we headed out to Zion's National Park and did a hike called Angel's Landing. I have been wanting to do this hike for a while now. Angel's Landing is one of the parks most dangerous hikes. It's a 5.2 mile hike which is mostly up hill and very physically taxing. There are even points where chains had to be installed so that hikers could have something to help pull themselves up the rocks with. I am not going to lie, Angel's landing has had a few fatalities which scared the CRUD out of me. I am also not really afraid of heights but when we got to the part of the hike where you had mile high cliffs on either side of you and had to pull yourself along by holding on to chains all I could think about was, "What if I fall?!" I am happy to say we made it to the top safely and the view was incredible! 

C.J. and I had so much fun together and I am so happy to be married to my best friend! I love you babe!

Long Time No See

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time since I have posted on my blog and I promise I have a good reason for it and one that I think you all will love. I have actually been working on another blog. I have not told very many people about it yet but I think I am finally ready. Yes, I am coming out of the blog closet! As some of you may know I LOVE to garage sale. It has become a passion of mine that really started when I was a kid and my mom would take me out with her on Saturday mornings. I am taking the things that she taught me and all of my many garage saleing experiences and putting them into a blog to teach and show people what I find at garage sales and the endless amounts of possibilities that you can do with your finds. One of the things I love about blogging about garage sales is that I can talk about ANYTHING! There are so many different sides to the things we find. You can can find thrifty ways to decorate your home through "A Thrifty Decorator," cute and inexpensive fashion through "Fashion on a Dime," there is even a section that you men out there will love called "This is a Man's World." Follow us through our "Week to Week" posts and see what we find each week! And please if you love me follow the blog and post comments so I don't feel like an idiot! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest! PLEASE help me grow!

http://www.garagesalesrus.blogspot.com/

TEXAS TRIP

Our trip to Texas was long but lots of fun! I didn't do the best job of taking pictures while we were there so most of these are pretty random.

Jaysa wearing Kindra's wig. She is actually pretty cute with pink hair....

and pink clown lipstick. Jaysa and Breklyn LOVED playing makeup. They had a little spend the night and Jaysa came home looking like this! ha ha ha so cute!

Spend the night over at Aunt Kajsa's with Jaylie, Breklyn and Crew! Breklyn and Jaysa slept in the same bed and in the middle of the night Breklyn went into her mommy's room and said that she didn't want to sleep with Jaysa anymore. ha ha (I don't blame her. She is a WILD sleeper!!!) So they made a little bed for Breklyn on the floor. By this time Jaysa was up and Kajsa had to go put her back in Breklyn's bed. Jaysa asked Kajsa was afraid that if she left Jaysa would cry so she layed with her till she fell asleep. Kajsa said that she would try to get up to go back to her bed but Jaysa would always shoot up and say "Come on, stay with me" ha ha so Kajsa finally fell asleep in the bed with Jaysa. She said at one point she woke up and Jaysa was starring at her. Jaysa then gave her the Hook'em sign and laid right back down and went to bed. Ha ha we all thought it was pretty funny when Kajsa told us.

Paisley eating pancakes for breakfast. She has whipped cream on her nose.

Ryan took C.J. to go fishing with Ryan's buddy, Charlie.

We went to Chick fil a and they had this cow in the santa suit. Jaysa loved him but wouldn't go near him so I had to get in the picture with her.

Ha Ha this is a funny story. C.J. and I were sitting at Ryan and Brandilyn's house and we were all in the living room talking and all of the sudden C.J. goes "Dude, there's a mouse!" So we all go looking for it and the boys chase the mouse into the bathroom while Brandilyn and I find town to stuff at the bottom of the door so it can't get out. So Ryan and C.J. are in the bathroom with the mouse looking for it and me and Brandilyn are outside listening. All of the sudden we hear both of them start screaming like little girls. From the outside all Brandilyn and I can hear are things crashing and both the boys screaming in high pitched voices "there it is....get it.... AHHHHHHH" Brandilyn and I are laughing histerically outside the door because are husband are such babies. So finally everything falls silent and they open the door holding this bad boy. Ha Ha I love Ryan's face too.

The girls taking a bath...... such a typical Paisley face!

Me hold baby Briggs after he was blessed.

At the Park with Jaysa, Paisley, Breklyn, Jaylie and Crew

Miss Paisley loved swinging.

Crew and Koda!

C.J. and I went to Corpus Christi and stopped by the ocean while we were there!

MERRRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

:) C.J.'s stop taking pictures of me face. I was trying to figure out my camera

Helping Paisley open her presents

Jaysa opening her's

C.J. got a cool camo hat that has light on it so he can she at night

Jaysa loves it too!

Jaysa got her favorite movie, Cars!

Jaysa is finally brave enough to sit on the horse!

Blurry but such a goofy face!

Aunt kinda is feeding her whipped cream out of the can.... ha ha she loved it.

Worn out after a long day

Best budds

BABY BRIGGS

I don't know if I have talked about Mr. Baby Briggs on the blog just yet. Briggs is Ryan and Brandilyn's baby. He was born about 3 months ago. He has a hole in his heart and a"blockage" is what I am going to call it cause I don't know the medical term. He went in for heart surgery a few weeks after being born to attempt to repair his heart but the surgery was not as successful as the doctors had hoped. At 3 months old he weighs about 10 lbs. If he does not gain more weight soon the Dr.'s want to do an open heart surgery on him. Our hope is that he will begin to gain weight and that he will not need a second surgery.

UPDATE ON JAYLIE

Jaylie came home from the hospital yesterday and has finished her last round of chemo!!!!!! We are so happy she is finished and believe that in a few weeks she will start to feel normal again. The Dr.'s say that there is a 60% chance that the cancer will not come back. Her mom is doing a GREAT job of figuring out what sorts of things will help to reduce her chances of getting cancer in the future. We are so proud of you Jaylie!!!!!