Come, Come Ye Saints

This is a special day for our family. On this day, 152 years ago, the surviving members of the Edward Martin Handcart Company reached the Salt Lake Valley. The company left Iowa City, Iowa with 575 saints, on July 28. 145 of these pioneers perished enroute, due to the freezing cold and starvation. Among the survivors were my great-great-great grandparents, Joseph and Mary Moss and their six children, ranging in age from 21 to 8. Also, in the same company, and also surviving was Jeff's great-great-great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Haydock and her daughter, also Jeff's grandmother, Mary Haydock (later Luke). You can read a good, yet heartwrenching account of the crossing here. I'm sitting here at the computer crying as I read the journal entries.

We had a really nice dinner after church today and talked about our pioneer family from the Martin Handcart Company. Reading the account of the unbelievable sacrifices that were made, especially after eating such a filling meal, was heartbreaking. I know I speak for all of us herewhen I say that we are so grateful for that sacrifice. Words cannot express, nor our tears convey our feelings. Today, we often speak of sacrificing for what we know is right. 152 years ago, so many saints made the ultimate sacrifice. For their examples of bravery and obedience, we say, Thank you.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

For the first time in our nearly 11 years of marriage, we have our tree up on the day after Thanksgiving. Having a six and three year old talking about it for the past week may have helped light a fire under us... We love our tree and we love decorating it. I think it looks great. We spent some time today "Christmasifying" the blog and our house. Much of the music selection, especially the Miley Cyrus song, is courtesy of Regan and Hadyn. Here is wishing your families a very merry Christmas season!

So Blessed

This is one of my favorite holidays. I love having family and friends gathered together. I love the smells of the food. I love the baking and cooking. I love eating the food and visiting. I love having my husband home for an extra-long weekend. What a great day! Our family is so blessed and we have so many things to be thankful for, we thought we'd start the day off with listing some of our greatest blessings.

We are thankful for such a great family. We love each other and we love spending time together, which is good, since we plan on being together forever, something for which we are so very grateful.

We are so grateful that we live in Boise. We miss (daily) our friends in Arizona, but being here, with so much family, and so many activities that we love is amazing.

I am grateful for the friends I have, both herE and scattered about the country. All the support I need is always just a phone call away.

We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the direction it gives us and those we love. I don't know how we would go on sometimes without it.

Okay, so the girls want their chance to say what they are thankful for as well.

Regan is thankful to be sisters with Hadyn.

She is also grateful for her family and her cousins, because her cousins are fun to play with, Thanksgiving, because it's fun to be with the family, and Christmas, because "it's my favorite. On the day before Christmas, we dress up like shepherds and eat like the shepherds, by our Christmas tree."

Hadyn: "I'm thankful for food. I'm thankful for Mom. I'm thankful for Regan. I'm thankful for Dad, and myself. I'm thankful for dinner."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

When In Doubt, Pinkie Out

Regan and Hadyn prepared a tea party for the three of us for lunch today. How cute is this? They made sandwiches and drinks all by themselves, set out blankets, dishes, even a vase (mason jar) of flowers (silk). It was a lot of fun. We decided we are going to make it a weekly event for after school snacks. A few things to note as you look at the picture:

1. Notice the teacups. They are from their kitchen play set, and hold, maybe 2 Tablespoons of lemonade.

2. Notice how vibrant the lemonade is. That is a smaller than average pitcher we bought in Malaysia, it holds just over a quart of liquid. The girls insisted on doing everything themselves, including mixing the lemonade. It's Crystal Light and is supposed to be mixed with two quarts of water. That was some very lemony lemonade. My cheeks still ache.

It was the best lunch date I've had in a long time. They were so proud of themselves, and I was proud of them too. I am the luckiest mom! Great kids, great husband, great life.

P.S.: Here's a little trivia question...Where does my post title come from. If you lived in my house, you'd know...

New Callings

Jeff and I have both received new callings. Jeff was called to be the Assistant Executive Secretary, and if you know Jeff, you know how much he likes to make phone calls...if you don't know Jeff, trust me, he's not a phone guy. He doesn't make phone calls, he doesn't answer our phone when it rings, he won't even order a pizza. This call will be great for him :). Actually, he was called last week, and after one week, he has foundthat he is actually liking it. Today he was officially released as a Sunday School teacher to the 14 year olds.

Today I was released as a Beehive Advisor, a calling I love, but called as the Young Women 1st Counselor, so I get to stay in the Young Womens' program and, I'll get my girls back in, at most, two years, so I'm happy. The Mia Maid girls that I get to work with now are great, and I am really excited. There are 20 of them (gulp) but with the three awesome advisors and I, we should have a lot of fun. Wish both Jeff and I luck in our latest endeavors!

Deep Thoughts from a Six-Year Old - Surviving Sisterhood

Regan has been on track break for a couple weeks now, and, although Hadyn and I are loving spending our days with her, there has been a noticeable increase in the little spats and yelling matches between the girls. They are still trying to adjust to sharing things, giving each other space, the usual problems that two girls that are two and a half years apart in age go through. The other day when I found myself with some one-on-one time with Regan, I talked to her about how, although little sisters may seem annoying at times, that all Hadyn is really trying to do is be exactly like Regan. So I asked her to try to be the kind of sister that she would want Hadyn to grow up to be. Regan smiled and really understood. I walked away, patting myself on the back. Since that talk, I have been blessed with some priceless gems of wisdom and understanding from Regan.

"Mom, I'm only yelling at Hadyn because she yelled at me. You told us to treat each other the way we would want to be treated. So, I'm yelling at Hadyn because that must be how she wants to be treated." Stated with a big innocent eyes. She really thought she was doing the right thing. You can't argue with the logic. Who new the Golden Rule could be turned around that way?

Regan had just come to me after laughing and giggling with her little sister. With an out-of-breath, very excited voice, she told me, "Mom, being nice isn't so bad!"

My work here is done.

Go Steelheads!

We were given some tickets to last night's Idaho Steelhead's hockey game, so we thought we'd introduce the girls to the world of skating, hockey pucks and gratuitous fist fights. Actually, I forgot how much I love watching hockey. Many may not know that Jeff's and my first official date was to a hockey game in Spokane. Ahhh, it really warms the heart, doesn't it.

Anyway, this was our first hockey game in...possibly a decade, and our first time in Qwest Arena. We were surprised by how small it was. It was awesome. There weren't any bad seats, and ours were better than most. The girls really seemed to love it. Regan even cheered enough to have a t-shirt tossed to her between 1st and 2nd periods. Strangely enough, they didn't get the same satisfaction as their parents the first time gloves were thrown off, shirts were bravely pulled over the opponents head and fists started flying. I will admit that that is one of my favorite parts. The first time it happened Regan and Hadyn just sort of stared and then asked a serious of very logical questions (rudely interrupting my cheering to let the fight continue) such as "Why is our guy trying to pull the other guy's shirt off?" and "Why are they acting like little kids?" Don't worry, by the end of the game they were cheering right along with the rest the aggressively repressed crowd. That's my girls.

Here are a few shots of them enjoying the evening. Sorry about the picture of Regan. She was sitting right next to me, so it is blurry. As I said, they really did enjoy the game, and really got into cheering for the Steelheads. The only two sad points of the night:

1. We lost, but we put up a good fight. Watch out next time Fresno Falcons!

2. We never got on the big screen. Regan really wanted to...me, not so much...

Strike a Pose

We loved the pictures Mandie took of Regan and Hadyn a few weeks ago so much, that we set up another sitting for her to do our family pictures. Once again, she did such an amazing job! I love that we are having a hard time deciding which pictures to print, they are all too good. Would it be weird to just wallpaper a room or two of our house with her photos...of us? Anyway, here is just a fraction of the amazing shots she got. Enjoy! (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger).

Happy Halloween!

Just a quick look at Regan and Hadyn on Halloween. They had a great time and made a serious haul on treats. Hadyn has been wanting to be a skeleton since she was scared by one last Halloween. She explained that if she was in the scary costume it wouldn't be scary. Very logical. I doubt she was the scariest skeleton that night, with that big smile on her face all night, but she was definately the cutest! Regan loved being a good witch, emphasis on the good. She is our super-sensitive child, and was brought to tears when some suggested she was a wicked witch. So sweet...

Jeff took us into HP for some early trick-or-treating in the afternoon. They filled their buckets there, and then filled them again walking around one of the subdivisions in our ward. Needless to say, they have been a sugar high for a few days. I'd be stricter with rationing it if they weren't nice enough to share the chocolate with Jeff and I. Hmmm, it's almost midnight and I'm blogging, maybe they aren't the only one's on a sugar high...