Family Pictures 2011

We finally did it!  And by the time we were done... I wanted to cry!  The kids (all three of them) struggled!  Jackson likes to day dream, which means following direction is very hard!  Harrison has a pirate face whenever he encounters light... not even bright light... just light!  And Reagan pretty much had a meltdown 3 minutes out of the car!  Full on meltdown... wiping dirt on her face, snotty nose... tantrums!  It was awesome!  So it's a miracle (REALLY!) that we got a single picture!  Sigh... But we did it... :)

I LOVE this picture!  :)

I love every single one of the kids pictures!  Especially the candid ones!  They turned out SO great!  They are the cutest kids in the whole world... so even with tears, boogers, pirate face and wondering eyes... there was a good chance of at least one great picture... and we got a few!  :)  

Fun with Grama & Papa

Grama and Papa Salisbury came to town for a nice long trip!  They got here the weekend after Thanksgiving, which worked out really well for our belated Thanksgiving dinner. Sunday we had our big feast!  We also planned a couple of fun home improvement projects for Papa and I to do! (By "Papa and I" I really mean "Papa"!  He did most of the work!  But he did let me play with his cool saw! :) Always fun!  We made these valances:

The idea came from here.  We made 6 of them for the kitchen/dining/family room. 

And this for the wall!

It finally feels like I've decorated a little!  Here is the rest of the room and colors.  I am loving having it come together! 

And I LOVE the way everything turned out!  :)  Thank you Dad!  It took us a while to get it all done, but it was so much fun to do together!  ...They were also here for our ward Christmas Party and then took the boys to Home Depot for the Kids Crafting session.  The boys had a blast... and they got to paint!  :)  They also took the boys on a movie date to see The Muppets!  :)  The kids were really spoiled... ok, we all were!  :)  They babysat for Patrick and I so that we could go to his work Christmas dinner.  And they also took us all out to dinner at my favorite place, Texas Roadhouse!  :)  I even got to have a Girls Night Out, just me and my mom and a Twilight movie!  hahahaha.  It was so much fun to get to have them here! 

A couple of nights before they had to go, they let the kids open up a couple of presents early!  

Tradition... Christmas pjs and slippers! :) New travel gear and... of course, Angry Birds!

We felt very lucky to have them come and stay and play with us!  And we were especially glad that they got to stay longer than they planned!  :)  They left us a load of presents under the tree and excited for their next visit!  It's always SO much fun to have family here!  We love and miss them so much!

(I somehow always manage to miss out on picture taking while we have guests at our house!  I really need to do better!)

Just because it's funny!

We have some little white-boards (because of a project to be posted soon)... we've been playing with them a lot and the boys asked me to draw a picture of them the other day... so I did! hahaha.  I am not an artist, but I did think they turned out pretty funny!  hahahaha.

They were totally cracking up over it too!  It was hilarious!  :D  There is the tiniest bit of resemblance!  hahaha.

Santa!

Our ward party, the official "Santa Meeting"!  :)  It was a great party, with lots of wonderful people and food!  And when it was all over, the big man showed up!  The boys were smart and hurried into line.  (The line was INSANELY long!  We have something like 200+ kids in our ward!) 

Jackson just kept talking, which is normal. And he had a long list. :)

Harrison only got a couple of things out, smiled for a picture and then he was done.  This shy boy knows his limits.  But he was brave!  :)

After they were done I realized I should have just gotten in line with them to get Reagan a turn too.  But I was slow thinking, and she and I were very last!  :) 

She actually really liked Santa, she just sat there petting his beard!  hahaha. 

They are all getting so big!  Time is just going too fast!  But I love that they are still young enough to completely light up when Santa enters the room!  :)  I though Harrison was going to tip over in his chair!  hahaha.  I love the magic of Christmas!  And I LOVE getting to experience it through these little people!  :)

Grama and Papa were here for the party too.  I don't have very many pictures, but our adventures will be in another post! :)

Dear Santa,

The boys decided they wanted to write letters to Santa this year.  It was pretty funny to sit down with them and do it.  Jackson wrote his all by himself, I didn't help him at all!  I was very impressed!  And Harrison dictated to me while I wrote.  He knew exactly what he wanted!  :) 

(Dear Santa,
I would like Mario Kart for my Wii and a real Harry Potter wand and Harry Potter Lego set.  Have a great Christmas. 
From,
Jackson E Swain)

Harrison wanted to be sure to tell Santa he had been good, just in case. :)  They are the sweetest boys!  I am getting so excited for Christmas! 

Annie & Oakley

Oakley is our dog, she is 5 years old.  She has been the best dog, especially with kids!  But moving to the desert has been kind of hard on her!  No room to run around.  No grass to lay on.  No horses to coral around.  And of course there's the HEAT!  She was in need of a friend! 

And so...  as part of Christmas this year for the boys (Patrick included) we got a new PUPPY!  Introducing Annie!  :) 

She is pretty cute!  And it's a good thing, because she whined all day and night for the first 2 or 3 days.... and after no sleep on my part, she almost got fed to the coyotes on the other side of the wall!  Ok, not really!  Fortunately, poor Oakley gave in and has become her new mom.  And she whines no more!  (And when I say she gave in, I mean Annie broke her!  hahaha.  A couple of times I got up to she if the puppy was dying, because she sounded like she was.  And Oakley would just look up at me from the dog kennel, where she is trapped at night with Annie... and the whining, and I swear to you she was begging me with her eyes to make it stop... or wondering why we would do this to her!  hahaha.)  Despite the rough start, they have become fast friends!  And Annie has been a great addition to our family!  :) 

If I could make a list...

...of the things I am grateful for, I would start with the irreplaceable.  The people.  And even just that would be a LONG list. (You know who you are!  :)  But for now, I want to say how extremely grateful I am for the ones closest to my heart.  They are the ones I live for.  The ones I want to be better for.  The ones I want to keep forever!  I'm not very good at putting words to how I actually feel about them... I'm not sure the right words exist.  I just love them so very very much!  And I am so very grateful for the blessing it is to belong to them! 

It is the season to be Grateful!  I tried to actually count my blessings the other day, and I was literally overwhelmed (to tears) with the list! I couldn't even finish it!  The more I thought, the longer the list got.  And then I started to think about how time sneaks by so fast and I forget sometimes how VERY blessed I am!  ...And then I thought about my trials, as if my life were hard... and how very small they really are!

I realized something after all of this thought.  There were a great many things on that list of blessings I wouldn't have written down or even thought of a few years ago... or appreciated quite so much.  My list was longer, better even, than it would have been... if there had been no bumps in the road.    


I am grateful today! For EVERYTHING! But especially for the things (and/or people) that change us, make us stronger, better, more loving and kind people! Even when they are the things that seem like they may break us. There is beauty in the breaking! And we see the world differently when we put it all back together! I wouldn't trade anything for this view!

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving! 

(I wrote this post on Thanksgiving Day.  I am late in posting it, I know.  But life happened, and it had to wait!  Along with about 5 more posts that are coming!) :)

Time Out For Women

I had the opportunity to go to TOFW again this year, and it did not disappoint!  I wrote A LOT of what was said last year, you can read it here.  Last year I was in a very spiritually vulnerable place, I needed everything that was said!  It was about Hope, and I was completely filled with it when I left!  This year the theme was:
Choose to Become
"ALL THINGS are possible to him (or her) that believeth"
Mark 9:23

And this year, the feelings I had were quite different.  They talked a lot about Becoming the person you were are meant to be.  Not adding more to your to-do list, but simplifying.  Finding something, one thing, that you can really focus on.  And by doing so, making your life better, bettering other lives, being happier.  

They talked about talents a little in a video at the beginning, and I have to say, I was suddenly very discouraged.  I am not a really talented person.  I like to do a lot of things, and I'm not bad at them, but I don't have a stand-out talent that I am passionate about and excel at.   

So... there was a lot of thought over the 2 days I was there and continued to listen and learn.  And as the time went on, I started to realize it wasn't all about talents.  It was about finding that passion in something, becoming better at it, and the possibilities that follow. 

My list of things I wanted to Become read as follows:

A present mother
More patient
Self-disciplined
In shape
A supportive Spouse
Better organized

As time rolled on and my list got longer and longer, I kept waiting for one of them to jump out at me.  But instead, very persistently, a quote from Pres. Uchtdorf was constantly on my mind:
"In regards to relationships, LOVE is spelled T-I-M-E."

TIME
If I could manage my time better, just about every thing on that list would become a possibility.  If I got myself on a better schedule, I could sleep more = patience; I'd have more time for things I want to do = getting in shape; I wouldn't always be running from one thing to the next = organized, present mother, supportive spouse.  Imagine the possibilities!  :) 

I should point something out...  I am the worst Time Manager ever!  Don't get me wrong, my kids lives are planned down to almost the minute, but me... ya, well, sleep is optional!  It's that self-discipline thing that's going to be my Achilles heal!   So this is my promise to myself... right here for everyone to see... I am going to get myself on a good schedule!  I am going to go to bed earlier, even if I don't want to.  I am going to take advantage of the quiet moments to pray and read my scriptures.  I am going to eat at normal times and exercise because I have the TIME!  :)  And let's face it, who isn't a generally nicer person with more sleep under their belt!  I am going to become a better, higher functioning, me!  :)  Or at least... I Hope to! 

"We Become what we want to Be, by consistently Being what we want to Become." - Elder David A. Bednar

...That's right, we're in "Fake it 'til ya make it" mode!  :)  But you heard it, right from a general authorities' mouth, it totally works!  So here goes nothing!  :)

Some of my favorite quotes:
"Don't be the one thing standing in your way!"

"Do the thing you think you cannot do!" 
- Laurel Christensen

"Jesus chose to become like us, 
so that we could choose to become like Him."

"A God that requires nothing of us,
will make nothing of us."

"Christ is not only concerned with Saving your life.
He wants to make it better."

Redeem = To make Better 
- Brad Wilcox

"Who I am is who I have always been.  
From the seed to the roses death, it has always contained it's whole potential - It was always a rose."

"Becoming is about Remembering... who we Really are... and Returning."
- Mary Ellen Edmonds

"We have a duty to not only enjoy happiness, but to produce it." 

"We can have a bad day and still have a good life."

"Remember it says 'and it came to pass', not 'it came to stay'."
- D. Kelly Ogden

There was SO much good stuff!  I could just keep going and going!  hahaha.  I had an amazing time with a couple of very wonderful ladies in my ward, and it was a weekend I really needed... for so many reasons!  I am already excited for next year!  :)  

*If you made it to the bottom of this post you should get a gold star!  :D  This is the longest post EVER!