Merry Christmas!!

This is for my father-in-law:


Is it just me or is it both hilarious and brilliant that you can turn on the TV for your cozy Christmas fire?

We had a great Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with my parents where we ate homemade pizza and opened our traditional Christmas Eve presents of pajamas and slippers. Devon even got some pajamas for me this year!



This year Grace got a digital camera and Jenna got the Barbies that she has been dying for. This took some real gritting of the teeth on the part of her parents because these particular Barbies sing, together, in harmony, whenever she wants them to. Boy, we love them. But we had one happy little girl this morning.




The girls' last present was the most exciting and one they were definitely not expecting but have been asking for for a great many years now. They got a message in a bottle.



Guess what the message said?


A miracle!! Coming July 28, 2009!

Gratitude (a belated Thanksgiving post I suppose)

I have really been neglecting my blog lately. We're so busy that something has to fall by the wayside and that seems to be my blog. I suppose better that than time with the kids. So the holidays are upon us and I expected they would be difficult for me. While that is true, it has not been quite as hard as I thought. There have been moments, however. Devon and I were doing some Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago and happened to walk by the baby section. I was really sad thinking about what I had planned on doing this Christmas. I would be 33 weeks pregnant by now and preparing for our new arrival. There would undoubtedly be presents under the tree for our little one. And I would be relishing in my large belly. For some reason the sadness only lasted a few minutes this time and was then replaced with gratitude for all that I do have. My two beautiful daughters, a loving husband, a house, jobs, food. There are a lot of people struggling to even make ends meet this year and I'm grateful that we have sufficient for our needs. I was also reminded of all the things I've learned in the past year--what I now know about my Savior and how that has changed me; what I better understand about the plan of salvation; what I feel for my family that wasn't there before. Would I choose to be 33 weeks pregnant if given the choice? Sure. But I'm grateful for the things that I've been given in place of that pregnancy.

Last week in church we were singing one of my favorite sacrament hymns, God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son. We sang the 4th and 5th verses, which doesn't always happen as they are written below the music so we only sing them if the priests aren't finished breaking the bread. I had never really noticed the 4th verse before. Or maybe it just held a different meaning for me this time.

In word and deed he doth require
My will to his, like son to sire,
Be made to bend, and I, as son,
Learn conduct from the Holy One.

That rings more true to me now than ever before. In bending my will to His, I learn conduct from Him. What a glorious blessing and one for which I am eternally grateful.

Designer Blogs

My fabulously creative sister-in-law, Erin, just started a new business. It is called Designer Blogs by Erin. She will design a custom blog for you and her work is awesome. Check out the deal she is offering through January 10th at her home page.