I know, I know......I'm silly for taking these pictures, but it was so pretty!

Our little getaway...

I neglected to take any new photos at the temple when we went a few weeks ago, but when we got to our suite that night we were pleasantly surprised. It turned out that we had been booked in the Presidential suite, the Jefferson suite to be exact, and I just had to take pictures before we messed it up. This was definitely the nicest suite I've ever stayed in, and just happened to be the cheapest room I found near the temple. When we came home, Bethany was singing "I Love to See the Temple" and I asked her to do it on camera. After several tries so that I could get the perfect video clip, I settled for the best one and decided to stop being a stage mom. You can see that the first and second verses were meshed together a little bit, but I hope you enjoy it. I cannot get enough of my girls singing primary songs, well - any song, really.

Random Things to Share

I just realized that I haven't blogged in like 2 weeks, so here is what has been going on with me....

• My brother, Daniel, and his family spent the last several days at my house for Thanksgiving and we had a GREAT time with each other and the rest of our family who came together for this holiday. I LOVE to see my kids playing with their cousin, Jaxson, and the patience that my nephew, Matthew, has with the little ones.


• I baked an apple streusel pie from the Pampered Chef cookbook, and it turned out yummy! I wish I'd taken a picture.


• We had tons of snow on Tuesday. I'll include some photos. Notice the ruler that I held above the snow, and then the ten inches that were covered up when I put it to the ground underneath! We got a couple more inches after that. Brad and I actually enjoyed shoveling our sidewalks and steps and putting down salt. That may change by the end of winter, though.


• I went shopping with my mom on Veteran's Day, with Brad last Saturday, and with the whole family on Black Friday. I think I'm finished. Unbelievable, huh? Now I can wrap and enjoy the rest of the season. Maybe I'll bake goodies this year....


• Because we've been visiting with our family I haven't started Christmas decorating yet, and I'm SO ready to do that tomorrow. The question is, how will I get everything up from the basement while Brad is at work? I'll let you know how that goes.


• I talked with a friend of mine last night who has been having major struggles in her life, and I was reminded of some very painful experiences from my past. I'm grateful to know that I've come through to the other side after hurt, pain, grief, fear, and so much more and am truly happy. Without my Savior, none of that would have been possible. When people say I'm strong, I truly cannot determine where my strength really exists amidst all that has been given to me. I have felt the love and support of my Father in Heaven through prayer, the hugs and tears of friends and family, words of wisdom, priesthood blessings, and in so many more ways that I won't list here. Thank you to so many of you who have loved me and allowed me to struggle and fall short yet continued to be my friends. I am so blessed! I feel so humbled to know that I have the responsibility now to share my own life and lessons with others, and maybe somehow help in even the tiniest way. Isn't that what our trials are really for, anyway, to help us grow and then be able to better understand the trials and tribulations of others? I am even thankful for those trials, now.

My Favorite Place on Earth

I get to go to my favorite place on earth this weekend!!! Brad took tomorrow off and we're going to drive to DC tonight with the girls so that I can go to the Washington DC Temple tomorrow morning, and I'm so excited. Isn't it sad, though, how you know you're sacrificing to do something wonderful, but this little thing inside of you tries to convince you that it's not worth the trouble.......I woke up this morning with this lazy feeling and thoughts like, "the kids aren't going to sleep well, and the gas and food will cost more than we can afford, and I'm not going to be able to do very much because of the long drive, etc., etc." You-know-who wanted me to feel that way and think those things, but he did not win!!!! I have not been able to go often, and every opportunity that comes available, I need to take it. I feel so amazing and loved and safe and special when I'm in the temple. Not only do I get to do some pretty great work for somebody else, but I get to feel wonderful while doing it. And my favorite part is sitting in that celestial room afterwards, praying and feeling the love and peace offered me there. Plus, our girls get to be on the temple grounds and visit the Visitor's center which I feel is so important for them. I want them to love the temple and want to attend long before they're old enough to actually go inside. And, on top of all this happiness we get to visit with a treasured friend of mine, Erin, while we are in the area and her two little girls who we love. Tom is running a marathon that day, so we won't get to see him, but we love him, too and will miss him!

Jumping Ahead......???

For some reason, I'm wanting to just skip over Thanksgiving and move right into Christmas this year. I've been tempted to break out the Christmas music early -I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving- and shop and wrap and finish it all right now! I don't know what's going on with me. I just LOVE Christmas, and guess what?! This will be my first ever Christmas Eve and morning in my own house - just me, Brad and our little ones!!! Maybe I already mentioned that in a previous post, but I am very excited about it. Just thought I'd share my excitement. :)

6th photo in 6th folder TAG????

Here we go, Deana.......this is a photo of Brad and his brother, John, and sisters Shellie and Anita when we went to the beach a few years ago. I was pregnant with Mallory at the time. He'll love me for posting this one....;) I'll tag whoever would like to do it.

I love my Veteran..........

So tonight I told Bethany that in the morning we're going to meet Grandma to go shopping because she doesn't have school tomorrow. Then, I remembered why she doesn't have school...VETERAN'S DAY! I asked her if she learned anything about Veterans in school today,and she said yes, but couldn't give me anything specific. I started thinking about my dad and told her that her grandpa is a veteran because he served in a war and that many of her friends' daddies are veterans. So, I tonight I'm thinking of many of my friends who maybe read my blog....some of you are married to veteran soldiers, in or out of the military now, some of you have sons and daughters serving or other family members, or maybe your dad and/or grandpa - maybe even your mom or sister - served.....I'm thinking of all of you who sacrifice for and serve in our armed forces today. I am grateful for our Veterans, and praying for them.

A Child's Prayer

Tonight, Bethany said our bedtime family prayer. She always has very thankful prayers and rarely asks for anything, but tonight was so honest and innocent. I want to share it with you. Here is some of it....."Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for our good day. I'm thankful for my sister, my mommy and daddy, and all of our friends and family and my toys and my fun times and my heart, and I'm thankful that you will help Mallory to never lock us out of the house again when our backs are turned....." So, I have to stop right here and explain. The girls and I made our weekly WalMart run after school today, and when we got home I took the girls, my purse, and half of the groceries up onto the porch, unlocked the door, put my purse and keys on the chair by the door and set the groceries just inside the door. Usually the girls play around on the porch while I finish up, but Mallory had stayed in the house this time. The car is about 10 yards, if that from the front door, so I go to the car with Bethany to get the rest of the stuff out and as we get back to the porch I notice that the door is closed. I think, "OH, NO! I hope the keys are still in the lock." But, they're not. Then I think, " Well, it should be unlocked because I just unlocked it." But, it wasn't. I must have turned the key back around to the locked position. My 2 yr old had locked us out of the house! I didn't have my phone....it was in my purse, or my keys, obviously. And, she is too small to reach the door knob and doesn't even know how to work a round door knob, so now what???!!!! For a while I talked to her through the door and tried to coach her to open the door. I made suggestions like, "go get your stool from the bathroom and turn the knob, honey!", to which her response would be , "nope." I realized this must be pretty fun for her. She has complete access to the house AND the groceries which I'd just set inside the door including a carton of eggs. I start to hear the bags rustling, and I KNOW she is playing with the eggs. Oh, well....what can I do? Finally, a guy from up the street comes by on a bike, and I asked if he had a phone so I could call and try to get my spare key from my in-laws. At the same time, I'm thinking "HOW AM I GOING TO GET BACK INTO MY HOUSE???" because I knew that they were out of town shopping today. I had to track down my brother-in-law to see if he could find a key to their house (because we're the only ones with keys to their house - mine was in my purse and Brad had his at work with him) so that he could go see if he could find MY spare key and come to rescue us. How crazy is this situation?! Shortly after I send him on this errand, Mallory starts crying inside the house. I'm trying to console her, and starting to get a little panicked. Did I mention that Bethany had been saying she had to use the bathroom since WalMart and I told her to wait until we got home? Then, my hero, Ed - or as Brad likes to call him - Champ, comes around the corner with the key. I open the door to my crying baby and step over the broken eggs to pick her up and check for eggshell injuries and...... all is well. Not hurt, just scared and messy. The whole thing lasted about half an hour I think. Bethany and I had stopped at one point during this ordeal and prayed that Ed would find the key and we would get to Mallory quickly and that she would not be hurt. Our prayer was answered, and I found it so sweet that she thought to mention it in her prayer tonight......and kinda funny, too. ;)

More Halloween

Halloween Pics

Okay, as I uploaded my photos from Halloween tonight I saw, as I'm sure you noticed, that I have zero pictures where both of my kids were making picture friendly faces. So, some are good ones of Bethany and some are good ones of Mallory. Mallory was not happy to dress up or pose for pictures. I do love the heart on her bum, though. Bethany was so composed and graceful in her "Fairy Godmother" costume. She walked in those shoes the whole night.....wow! And, you won't believe this, but my kids have not asked for Halloween candy since Friday night after Trick-or-Treating. Crazy, I know, but I'm not complaining.

Grateful to be an American.....

In my prayers today, I've been so grateful for the right....the freedom to vote for our leaders, and so thankful for those who fought and suffered and even died for me to have that right!!! Race, gender, economic status.....it doesn't matter - as Americans we have this sacred right. I don't share who I vote for as a personal rule, but know that I VOTED today, and my girls will hopefully remember going to the polls with Mommy and choose to exercise their own right to do so in the future. I can't believe that there was a time when women in my own family did not have the right to vote. We're so fortunate.