Kambri's tests

Yesterday Kambri went in for an ABR, a brain scan to see if she has nerve endings to the ear that didn't develop. The happy answer was YES!! We have all prayed for her, and were so excited to learn she will have hearing in that ear at some point. Jared and Steph, have been incredible, its been wonderful to see the love they have for this little girl. The entire family has showed great love and support for them and for little Kam.
We sure love the fact that experiences in life in whatever form they come, can bring us closer and fill us with more faith than before. We appreciate all the support we have had from everyone around us.. Thank you.

Andrew's birthday

Since AJ was sick on his birthday, we postponed our birthday date until last night. It was a busy night, I had a meeting at 7:00, Steve was busy too, so AJ and I picked up take out and met grandpa at home for dinner. They messed up our order but it all worked out okay. Then Andrew and I went to the new Wal-mart and did our shopping. We looked quick but hard and he picked out some cowboy supplies. AJ is a great kid, he's a hard working boy who does great in school. He is a super reader, and has earned big awards at school. He's got a kind heart and is a great help to his mom and dad. Grandpa and I love his big hugs and happy attitude. Thanks AJ for being a GREAT kid. We love you.

Witcha Paloosa

For my birthday Melissa and Tony and their family gave me a ticket to Witcha Paloosa. Its a dinner, play at Gardner Village. We went last year with Emily, and had a blast. This year Stephanie went with us, so did my sister in law Sharon, and her girls Heather (who is due any time) Meagan, and Cara. We had such a fun time together. All the husbands kept the kids including 3 with new babies. What good sports they are, we are all so lucky because of the excellent men we have in our lives. We had great visits down and back because we all fit in Melissa's suburban. We laughed and enjoyed the day. We all had Stake Conference this weekend so we didn't stay long afterward, because of Sat. night sessions, but had a wonderful time together. All five of the girls have either had baby girls or are expecting girls. Melissa's little Ellie, was first in April, next was Stephanie's little Kambri in June, then Meagan's baby Mia came in July, Heathers due in a couple of weeks and Cara is due in March. Wow in a year the girls have made a comeback in our family, and we are all thrilled!
We decided next year we'll have our neices from Vegas come and we'll do an over nighter. Good luck to the dads who will have a great time with the kids!! Like I said we're all very blessed women, because we really do have great men in this family too.

A Truth I Know

What a wonderful weekend, I spent most of it with a group of great women, including my daughters. (My favorite women in the world) I was so uplifted and inspired, hearing the testimonies of so many was just what I needed. We were issued a challenge to bear testimony of one thing we know. I know that I am known and loved by God. That knowledge changes how I feel about everything in this life. The things I do, the places I go and the thoughts I think are all influenced by that. I am a daughter of God, thats incredible! We can do anything we deside to do. He loves us and wants us to be successful. Knowing that the Lord loves me personally and cares about me is the greatest source of peace I have in this life.
Mary Ellen Edmunds said something like this, it's not an exact quote,
When your heart is heavy with sorrow,
Come unto Him
When your happiness is so full you can hardly contain it,
Come unto Him
When the pain you bear is more than you can handle,
Come unto Him
When the pressures of life overwhelm you,
Come unto Him
When you want to know how to help a family member or a friend in need,
Come unto Him
When you are overcome with love for everyone around you and you want to bear testimony of the goodness of God,
Come unto Him
Whatever comes in life, good or bad, sweet or painful. He knows us, our thoughts and feelings and He loves us. I Know it! "Be Still and Know."

Work Trip or Vacation?

This past week I had to go to Price and Moab to teach some classes for work. Steve usually goes with me, but couldn't go this time. Tony was so kind, and took care of the three older kids so Melissa could go with me. We took Porter and Ellie with us, and what a blast we had. We left tues. morning and went to Price, the great thing was I only had to teach from 6:30-8:30 each evening. That gave us the day to play together. Theres a dinosaur museum in Price that Porter enjoyed alot. While I went to class they planned to swim in the pool, but we noticed early on that it had been filled that day with a hose. Plans changed and they only played in the hot tub that night.
The next morning we headed to Moab, which is a fun place to visit. We visited the hole in the rock, a cave blasted in the mountain side and made into a house. It was an interesting place to visit but not a place either of us would want to live. We enjoyed the tour there, there was also a petting zoo. It had some interesting animals, like zebra, camel, african cattle with huge horns, ostrich, emus, angora goats, buffalo, a variety of animals. There were a group of little sparrows flying and lighting around us and they took most of Porter's attention. He totally loved the little birds. Plus his favorite animal of all was a huge plastic elephant and a plastic lizard. (Interesting little mind.)
The next morning we drove thru the Arches National Park, this truly is a beautiful world, but we desided theres no place as beautiful to us as Cache Valley. We visited Tyler in Orem and took him to an early dinner. The kids along with Melissa and I were thrilled to see him. He's doing great and is excited for school. We had great fun eating at the Panda Express which Porter loved too. He said this is my favorite place, Kung Fu Panda.
Last of all we stopped at my sister Loretta's house in Bluffdale. We didn't mean to stay long but enjoyed our visit and so we didn't leave til dark. We didn't get home till late and we were a little giddy driving thru Sardine Canyon. We laughed til we cried, we wondered if we were really that funny or if we were just tired. We desided it was total tiredness, but it was so funny at the time. All in all it was a great time, work only got in the way of fun a little.
What a great time we had, thanks to Tony for keeping the kids, and thanks to Stephanie for keeping Kimball for Tony during the day. And thanks to Melissa, Porter, and Ellie for some wonderful memories. I totally enjoyed it!

New Phase of Life

Change is usually a really good thing, but many times it is painful too. For the past five years Steve has as Bishop of the Woodruff Ward. Last Sunday he was released. The release comes with such mixed feelings, it will be good to have more time together, and the stress level in his life will probably go down alot. But we have recieved many wonderful blessings in the past 5 years. The Lord has blessed us individually and as a family.
It was with sadness that I walked into the church on Sunday, but as I left my heart had been lifted and my faith and testimony had been strengthened. As the new bishopric was called we both had a witness that this was right. What good and inspired men we have to lead us.
We are excited to move into a new chapter in our lives. As much as we have enjoyed the past 5 years, we lokk forward to the new phase we are entering now.

Funerals inspire me

I love funerals, its weird I know but I think their very inspiring meetings. It gives us perspective on the things that matter most in this life, plus we get to see the lives of amazing people. Those two things make me love funerals. I attended a wonderful funeral yesterday, for Dean Parker, quite an amazing man. I have known that since I met him, but stories of his life were so uplifting, it made me want to step up and be better. He never did anything half way, he put his heart into everything he did. I came out of that meeting with new insight into some things I need to change in my life. We live amoung amazing people and many times we don't even recognize how incredible their lives are.
Another funeral I attended recently was the funeral of a baby girl, 10 days old, Meredeth Smart. As her parents spoke I was amazed at the faith they had, and the peace that comes with that faith.
The other funeral of late that comes to my mind is a soldier in Irak, who had been in our ward, Michael Alleman, I worked with him and his wife in nursery, and had great respect for their family. My respect increased 1000% as I heard his wife tell of his desire to serve his country, and fight for our freedoms. What an honor it was to rub shoulders with him, but I didn't recognize at the moment how honored I should really be. I think we live with truly amazing people and don't recognize their goodness. I think we are all ordinary people doing extrordinary things. I love watching people and recognizing that there is greatness all around us. I want to see it more and recognize the incredible things that are happening right here and now. Its easy to look at the hard things going on in the world, but I want to open my eyes to the good and see what opportunities there are to rub shoulders with amazing people every single day.

I've been thinking alot about the people who influence us and make a difference in our lives. There are so many people who have helped us and supported us through all of our happy and sad times. We were at a ward campout a couple of weekends ago and as I visited everyone there, I realized what an impact each of them have had on us. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people. As we were at the campout we were retiring a flag and it was a reverent and sacred time. I didn't notice but a woman was hiking and stopped instead of passing by, Steve moved over to tell her she could go on. People were talking about it after and I had missed the whole thing, I guess my concentration was on the flag. Anyway Steve told me it was Stephanie's first grade teacher, (Barbara Abbott) I felt bad I missed her, she was a great influence in my life and Stephs. She was the teacher the year Grandpa Larsen died. She helped Stephanie thru that time, and she really blessed my life in the process.
She is a baptist and I must say one of the best Christian women I have known. What a good woman with a kind heart. We visited each others churches and enjoyed our associations with one another.
Many times people have come into my life and blessed it greatly. Thank you to those of you who have made a difference to me and my family.

What a Trip

A few weeks ago our sons, Justin and Tyler went on a motorcyle trip up hwy 1, along the coast in California. They're both busy with work and school and wanted to do something fun before they get deep into studies again. They went to UCLU to visit a freind Tyler Nelson, and then started up the freeway to ride the coast. On Monday night the 28th of Sept. they called us, and not finding us home left a message, "Save us, save us!" Well Justin had blown a tire in Nevada and it would take 3-4 days to get a new one and he needed to be back to work the next night. So by 10:30 that night we had the trailer on and were ready to start our trip to save them. The hwy they were on is called the lonliest road in America, Justin says theres a reason for that. It's miles from nowhere, and that is a true statement. We drove to Wells Nevada, getting there about 2:00 am, and decided we needed a couple of hours rest. If you've never tried seeing in the cab of a truck in back of a gas station, with semi's motors running right next to you, don't feel bad. There was not alot of sleep going on for either one of us. We tried to rest for a couple of hours but finally desided we may as well be driving. We got into a little town called Austin about 7:00, and found their hotel, it was good we didn't blink, it truly is the middle of nowhere.
The bike was about 60 miles out, hidden in the sage brush, we loaded it and headed back for Austin for a bite to eat. A little family owned place, I don't think they had a lot of customers to practice serving, because they were so slow.
Their stories of the trip were histerical! We laughed and laughed, what a good time we had the whole way home as they relived the trip with us. Nothing had really gone good, and it turned out super expensive to boot. But what a memory!! I love the fact that they love each other so much, they would never admit that, but they are great brothers. The two of them are entirely different from one another, but they sure enjoy one anothers company, and I'm so happy to see that.
We enjoy our family, we love the good times and we stick together and support each other thru the hard times. And thru it all we have alot of good laughs. Life's good!!

AJ and Kimball (both winners)

This year we didn't even make it over to walk thru the fair, but we did go to the rodeo with the family, and what a fun time we had. AJ and Kimball both rode sheep and hung on tight, both had excellent rides. It was a blast to see their determination and bravery, Even as a kid I would have never climbed on the back of a sheep at all. It went well except that the kids got out of order so when they announced Kimball I was cheering with everything in me, and then saw it was a girl. Oh well I can cheer for all the kids. Then when Andrew was announced it was Kimball, anyway all in all it was a little mixed up but tons of fun.
The mixed up part did make a little confusion in the award of the trophy. The judges called AJ's name but the trophy ended up going to Kimball. Way to go Kimball!!! In my book they were both winners, but AJ was pretty excited and as he walked out to get the trophy, they grabbed up Kimball and awarded it to him. How disappointing to AJ! But I was so proud of him, he was such a good sport even though it was a disappointment. It was tough to get announced and think he had won and then lose it. But he handled it with such kindness. I think being a good sport is as good as being a winner any day. Way to go AJ!!!
I'm sure proud of both of them, because they are GREAT brothers and love each other so much. Way to go guys!!! You're the best.