Sing! Sing! Sing!

I have been swamped with music lately and I love it! Trying, but so rewarding.
The end of October I organized "Women at the Well" for our relief society. It was so amazing. We have such great talent in our ward and sisters who stepped out of their comfort zones to help present this amazing production. It went so well. The spirit was so strong! I could barely sing.
Then they had a stake fine arts festival and I had to get some people to participate. I thought I had found enough, four. But no, they asked me and Rachel Gurnsey to sing our song that we had sung for "Women at the Well" called "If Thou Had Been There" The night was amazing we have such talent in Great Falls!
Then Bring on the Christmas season. We are practicing for the Christmas day program for our ward. I am the choir director, and seriously three years ago when I started I thought this call was truly a call of desperation, not inspiration. I had no clue. I still don't have much of a clue, but in the process of trying I have learned so much, and mostly what I have learned is that when you accept a call, even if you feel completely inadequate, if you try, the Lord makes up for your inadequacies, and blesses you and those who chose to help you. The difficult thing about choir director is that you are totally at the mercy of those who will give of their time to come and help you. Without them you have no calling. But each Christmas we have been able to pull off amazing programs. Here's hoping this year is thought provocing and spiritual as well.
Aside from the Christmas sacrament, we had a relief society Christmas party and I had to learn a new song for that I also had to get some music together for the ward Christmas Party. It was our Primary Sacrament meeting program and all the kids had to learn a song. Then the little boys (Caleb and Max) were asked to sing at Stake Conference and I was asked to sing the song I sang with Rachel for the saturday evening session of Stake conference.
Like I said, SING! SING! SING!
I love Christmas! I love the music at Christmas. I love the feelings of peace and Hope the music instills. One year I didn't sing in a choir at Christmas time, and I totally felt like that Christmas was missing so much. I vowed never to miss out on that again....but this year more than makes up for my missing one year...I think!

Guess Who Has a Toother? {Annalee}

She loves her tounge. Mara taught her where her tounge was and Caleb figured out that if you touch her bottom lip she will stick out her tounge. She does it everytime and the little kids think it is so funny! They just giggle and giggle. She is GREAT entertainment! Yesterday Caleb was trying to make her perform and stick out her tounge and discovered a TOOTH!!!

Yep! It's there!Bottom Left!

{Thanksgiving 2011}

My parents came for Thanksgiving. They tried to come on Monday, but after sitting at the airport all day, they never got on a flight. So Tuesday they tried again. The flight to Great Falls was full, so they went over to the Helena counter and she got them on! yeah. Helena is only 80 miles away, so I drove there to get them, then we shopped at Costco! Oh! How I miss Costco!

We baked all day on Thursday! I love that!

Appetizers and turkey started at 6 am. We ate at 2. I had to take a picture of the stuffing. It was so pretty with the green celery and the red cranberries. I have to remember next year what I did.

cubed stuffing package, lots of sage, rosemary and thyme. bread (three rolls) celery, onions, waterchestnuts, cranberries! So delicious!

Emma Helping with the rolls! She just snitches and snitches until you give here a piece of her own!

Where there is flour, there Emma will be.

I love it on her cheek!

Homemade Rolls!

Waiting for the big meal...just playing the computer

Time to eat!

Happy Thanksgiving you all! We hope this season finds you thankful for ALL that you have!

Cereal {Annalee}

I love this little mug! She is such a great little baby. The kids have been waiting FOREVER to give her something to eat. I always wait until they are six months old before I introduce solids, and Caleb especially has been counting down the days. So When she was six months old on 11-11-11, He was thrilled. He got the dates and we soaked them overnight, took out the pit, made millet and threw the dates, water and cooked millet into the blender for some deluxe baby cereal! ( I don't use rice cereal because it is not the best for little babies digestion. Millet is alkaline , Rice is acid. Dates have the same sugar as mother's milk, so I always start with this) Truth be told though, this was not the first thing besides mommy's milk to go through her system, I found paper the other day...yuck! and a starburst wrapper. We have now entered the oral phase where everything goes into the mouth! She loved It!
Wanted more!

and loved to touch it! The younger kids thought it was great to finally feed her!

Hummm! I think I like it! YuMMMmm!

{Ilove those big blue eyes!}

Miss Emma

She has the strut, she has the hip thrust, she has the grin, she has the attitude! I love it how she poses everythime the camera comes out.

Serious Cheeser! I love her...so does her daddy!

Lost Another Tooth! {Max}

If he loses many more, he won't be able to eat! But we did find out he has a blue fairy who does not like to travel when it is 0 degrees. She waits until the sun is shining and we have left for church to leave her money.

You may think it is a forgetful fairy...I just think she is smart! I wouldn't be outside when it is zero degrees! What about that doesn't make you smile? Love that kid!

Little Mommy {Mara}

I love this little mommy. She is always looking out for Annalee. She is forever carrying her all over and playing with her and making her smile! Love it.
She has had a hard time going to kindergarten. She does well when she is there, but there are often tears in the morning when she doesn't want to leave. She is so torn between wanting to be as big as the big boys, and still wanting to be home with the girls. She has a brave heart though and wipes her tears as she runs for the bus. It totally breaks my heart. What doesn't break my heart though is the incessant whining!!! Seriously. I don't know if it is a girl thing, or a Mara thing, but I so hope this thing ends soon.

Love it when she smiles though, it totally makes my day!

Tender Mercies from a Loving Heavenly Father

In our church we have the blessing of paying tithing. I have always loved to pay tithing. The fact that I am so blessed by my Heavenly Father in so many ways overwhelms me sometimes as I don't feel worthy to be blessed so abundantly. The fact that I can give 10% back to him, has always been a privilege. Never a question, never a thought as to how much, just a flat 10% always paid, always paid first. This last four years has been hard for us. Hard emotionally, hard financially, and hard physically. We have encountered obstacles that I never dreamed of. Been faced with challenges that for us seemed more than we could bare. Had bills that there was no way of paying.

I had an experience many years ago when Ryan and I were trying to get out of debt, that was life changing. I had just listened to conference and they had yet again encouraged us all to get out of debt. I remember thinking "why do they keep saying that? Those who can do, and those who can't...well they can't." I felt that we couldn't. We were living within our means, but college loans, and car loans and a few credit cards that came with the marriage were looming.
Then I read Nephi's response in the Book of Mormon when his father told him that the Lord required them to go back to Jerusalem for the plates of brass. That would have seemed impossible, that would have been very scary, difficult and overwhelming. But he didn't say no, he didn't say impossible, he said "I will go and do it." Why? Because it was a commandment and he knew that the Lord wouldn't command him to do it, unless it was possible.
It was a new thought for me, I had read this story so many times, but this time, I applied it to the commandment to get out of debt and knew, without a doubt, that since the Lord(through His prophets) commanded us to get out of debt he would help us do it. It totally worked. He helped us in so many ways to fulfill that commandment that seemed impossible to accomplish. We have stayed out of debt since then.

I also have always wanted a big family. I have since the time I was little wanted 10 children. I have always loved babies, children and teenagers. I have always felt that the Family Proclamation was just obvious declarations of truth. I have felt that the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth was important, and have felt it very important to allow as many children as the Lord wanted to send our family to come. Then fast forward seven kids later and many experiences with people preaching "overpopulation" and that having large families is "selfish" and finances not being as plentiful, and more people dependant on one income, and doubt has crept into my little brain.

We are short about $400 every month. I have been thinking if I could just find a job with flexible hours, when Ryan or the older boys could be home, that would pay $400 a month, we would have a little more money for gas and food and piano. We don't do a lot of extra-curricular activities, but piano. With 3 boys taking lessons though, it is $150 a month and that is the last thing we could give up and I really don't want to. I feel like that is something that is really important that our boys do, but it is seeming impossible. If I just had a way to make about $400. Then one day a thought struck me. I pay $400 in tithing each month. I know exactly where that thought came from. Not a good source.But We were desperate at that point. I had no money, food to buy, lessons to pay for, fees that needed to be paid and a Doctor bill ( for the first time in 12 years). I was thinking okay, how are we going to do this. I was so fearful. It was such a dark time. Here I was, I had all these kids that I love greatly and enjoy fully, and we couldn't make it without going into debt, and I knew if we went into debt, we would be breaking a commandment, if we didn't pay tithing we would be breaking a commandment. I felt like there was nothing I could do. And just when I thought it was impossible, Tender mercies poured down upon us. Ryan gets paid every other week, so every once in a while (two or three times a year) we get an extra check that doesn't have to go for bill. Just when I thought there was no way to stay out of debt, an entire extra check came.

Why do I doubt? Why do I fear? How many times does the Lord have to show me that he is in charge and mindful of us? That he commands and prepares a way to keep those commandments, and provides blessings beyond measure when we do keep those commands.

Many look at us and judge. Many don't understand why we pay tithing. Why I don't work. Why we do "without much of the worlds goods" Why we rely so much on the Lord. Why we have so many children. Why we live such a simple life. The truth. I love it. I love my children. I love the simplicity. I love the JOY they bring to me. I think we are happy. I think they are happy. We do without much, but do we really? Do we really need ALL the world has to offer? Do we really do our children an injustice or rob their childhood by teaching them to work? To earn their own money? To save for what they really want? To weigh what they want NOW over what they want in the long run? I don't believe so. I hope they grow to be responsible citizens who love their country, love their fellowmen, but most importantly love their GOD. I just hope my example is enough, and that the Lord makes up the rest.