Merry Belated Christmas!!!

Oma wrapping presents late into the night Christmas Eve!!!!!

Matt gets the essentials for Christmas!!!!!

Bangs not so healthy cereal, but ohhhhh so goood!!!!!

Bangs ....just what I wanted for my mission a Wii controller !!!!!!

Timmy a healthy guy his favorite cereal!!!!!

Oma with her new Scriptures!!!!!

What's this Obpa got new Scriptures too?????
Luke with NCAA Football game for the Wii!!!!!!

Logan with Symphonia......what's with all the video games???
What's this Obpa and Oma got Wii Play for the Wii?????
Bangs opening the family's main present!!!!

Finding the Rock Band Kit for the family

I am a little late with this Christmas post, but as the old saying goes better late then never! It has been a hectic week, with work and the family around, but what a wonderful time of year, to Celebrate the Birth of Christ with those you love the most!!!! We had a wonderful time having the 5 youngest boys with us for Christmas! We tried to surprise them with a change of attitude from the past as in the last two Christmas's we had a no video game rule. This year though when they came for Thanksgiving they brought their Wii and we got to see first hand how much fun it was and how much exercise you could get with some of the different games they have out there, so we decided to surprise them and have a Wii Christmas!!! First off I had wanted to get them the Rock Band kit after seeing the Brunners using Skyler's over the summer, it seemed like a really fun family activity that the whole family could get involved in. I had a little trouble though at first finding it and had accidently bought a kit for the Playstation 3 from Walmart online, since they would only give me store credit back and that particular day they had recieved a shipment of Wii's in we decided to get ourselves a Wii system with our credit, in the meantime online on Amazon I found an incredible deal on the Rock Band kit 1/2 of what I was going to pay so I purchased it. Luke and Logan each had a game they wanted, and with a little help from Best Buys reward points we were able to purchase both of their games! Luke's NCAA Football game seems to have been a hit and is actually fun to watch as he and Benji pick BYU as their team when they play out a game. The Rock Band was a hit for the whole family!!! (even I had fun playing the guitar and singing). Most of all though we enjoyed just spending time with the family playing card games and sharing old stories of times long past! Of course we missed Kerstin and her family and Brent and his along with Cynthia and Joe, but were happy to see that each of their families had a wonderful Christmas themselves!

On Saturday we all travelled down to visited with Grandma and Grandpa, we had a nice time, visited, watched a bit of football and had some excellent lunch, it was good times, always fun to listen to Uncle David's humor and wonderful attitude!

To all who happen to venture upon this post we at the Watt's would like to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!!!!!

Luke's awesome snow adventures!!!!

We have had a lot of snow the last couple of days and Luke has been couped up inside the house. Yesterday afternoon right before dark he asked if we could get the sled out so he could go sledding, so this morning when we got home from work Obpa got the sled out for Luke. When I got up from my sleep Luke was excited to showing me his sledding skills, it was a lot of fun, he also decided to make a snowman, at first it was hard cuz the snow was so powdery that it wasn't sticking together, but eventually this is what we came up with. He said it was the greatest time he had had in the snow! Check out more pictures on his slideshow to the left at the top of this blog!

Tis the Season to be Jolly!!!

It seems that Christmas is around the corner, just over a week away. I love this season, but this year it seems like it has really sneaked up on me and found me nowheres near being ready. It has been a lot of fun these past few weeks having Luke stay with us and being able to do a lot of the traditional things with him, like the twelve days of Christmas and other activities. I think I have found myself spread a little too thin though, this last week I have come down with either a cold or the flu which has made me just feel yucky all the way around. I don't know if it is the change in schedule from last year or just a combination of things, but I do know this.....I hate being sick at this time of year. I have still been working 7 graveyard shifts a week between my two jobs, but now instead of 7 ten hour plus shifts, I work 4 eight hour graves with one swing at one job and 3 eleven hour graves at the other, this would be okay, but with Christmas coming down upon us and having Luke around, I find that I am getting very little sleep. We got our first really big snow storm this last weekend. I was suppose to go pick CC, Joe and Matt up from BYU Idaho on Saturday, but after I read the weather report, which gave a 100% chance of snow on Saturday, I decided that they would need to be ready for me to pick them up on Friday, this was a bit tricky, cuz Joe still had a test to take that afternoon and Matt had to checkout at his apartment and I had to be back at work at 8pm. Things worked out well and we arrived back home in Utah at about 7:45 without any problems and no snow!!!! Then next morning however it began to snow and snowed off and on through Sunday. We really enjoyed having Matt here until he flew out Sunday morning for Vegas ( that trip was not fun, a blizzard), and CC and Joe flew out this morning with no snow. I could not resist taking these pictures on Sunday of the kids eating their babyback ribs, I don't think I have ever seen them make such a mess before, but they were good! This week we look forward to trying to get better from my cold, catch up on the Christmas Shopping and getting ready for when the boys come at the end of the week or beginning of next week......Goooooooo BYU!!!!! And a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and a Happy New Year!

Having a nice time with Luke!

We have been blessed to have Luke stay with us over his Christmas track break! As you can see we have had a lot of fun doing things like changing the look of the tree this year, blue lights and white ribbons with snowmen on it and silver bulbs along with some of the kids traditional ornaments thay have collected over the years. We have had fun shopping and hanging out at the mall, so he can play the football game on the psp and as you can tell we have even taken him to the Asian buffet so that we could teach him how to use chopsticks! We hope you all are having as much fun this season as we have had having Luke stay with us!

Thanksgiving

I feel a little embarrassed to so slow getting my Thanksgiving Post posted, but better late then never. I have had a very busy last week between finishing up on some presents that had to be sent off and preparing for Thanksgiving I have not had much time to write. The week started when after work last Monday we drove up to Rexburg and picked Cynthia and Joe up for the week, then the next two days were spent getting ready for the kids to arrive and working along with all the preparing of food that goes along with the Holiday.

I don't think I ever quite realized before how much work it was to prepare a complete Thanksgiving Dinner by yourself before, in the past we were always combining our plans with either the extended family or friends, thus sharing the work in preparing the meal. Luckily for me I was able to cook a lot at work and Cynthia was willing to help so she could learn for herself.

The boys from Vegas showed up on Wednesday at about 5pm, it was great seeing them and they were pretty tired so we had dinner and played a couple of games before we headed off for work. It was nice feeling like we had a family instead of being just an old single couple, I will say though you forget how much time is spent in dish clean up, food preparation, and just doing the basic family things like scripture study and prayers, I can honestly say there was never a dull moment.

For Thanksgiving we were blessed to not only have our children there, but also one of the boys from work and Darin's niece Leila and her husband Josh, we really had a nice time eating and playing games, we actually were able to start eating at about 1pm and then slowed down for the night after game playing, video watching and visiting at about 10pm, it was very nice and I was grateful not to have to go to work that night because I had not slept for the two days before.

On Friday I had totally planned on venturing out on Black Friday at 3:30 in the morning, but I didn't have the ads, so had to rely on the internet which was slow and tedious to go through, with small pictures and discriptions. I finallly got to bed at about 11pm and had set my alarm for the appointed time, well I woke to the alarming finding I had a horrible head ache, when I got up to use the rest room I found that it was raining also, I decided that nothing was worth venturing out in those conditions. Instead I got up at 8:30 woke the kids that had planned on going with me and we made it to Kohl's by about 9 or so, we were able to find everything that we had came for and I got into line, then lines were long, which is even worse at 3:30 in the morning so after about 30 minutes in line I call Benji to come pick CC and Timmy up so they could go get ready for the Temple. I was finally checked out by 11 and headed home with my treasures. Later that afternoon we got to Old Navy whose ad went all day.

Joe had family names to be baptized for so the family went down to the Bountiful Temple at noon on Friday to do those, it was a good opportunity for Benji, Timmy, CC, Joe and Darin to do Temple work together, we look forward to a year from now when all the boys will be able to go and so we all will be able to go inside. I stayed outside with Luke and Logan, we had a good time.

Saturday was spent visiting extended family in Utah County and then home to play more games, I had to go to work so it was sad to leave the family at 9:30 to do so. All in all it was an excellent day though.

Sunday all stayed for Church, Matt showed up at lunch and then after lunch he and Nate, CC and Joe headed home, shortly thereafter Benji, Timmy and Logan head home and we were blessed to keep Luke for track break. We were very blessed indeed this holiday! We missed the rest of our children, but were happy to see they had a Blessed Thanksgiving theirselves.

Fan or Foe?

An interesting thing happened in September shortly after we got our new car, it was still hot and we had decided to take a drive up the canyon to do some 4-wheeling, well we forgot to take some hats and since we didn't want to sunburn our heads (espeically Darin he is bald on top) we decided we needed to buy some hats, well we were already close to the turnoff for the canyon and we did not want to back track, we needed gas anyway so we stopped at a Chevron and to our great surprise and pleasure they had some hats, unfortuneately though they only had these two styles and colors, off white Y and black Utes. I didn't mind the white, but since Darin uses his hats a lot for work and sweats a lot we decided to buy one of each.

We have had a great time going places each wearing their hat, you would not believe the comments, people can't believe that we could be married and be fans of competitive teams, well the thing is we are both BYU fans, but the fact of the matter is they are only hats. We had a lot of fun yesterday because Darin could not find the BYU hat (of course this week we would wear BYU) and we had to go out, so he put on the Ute hat and ventured to Dan's (grocery store) and DI, of course people asked about the hat and we admitted that we were BYU fans, but it is interesting to see how heated people can get over this rivalry especially here in Utah, even in Sunday School the day after the game, yes arguements have insued.

The thing is mine and Darin's families are all die hard BYU fans especially the one who graduated from the U, we also find it interesting to note that the Utes President graduated from the Y and the Y's President graduated from the U. Football is a lot of fun and while it would be beyond awesome if the Y could win this game and move way up in the poles it is still just a game! With that said I'd like to say GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!!!!!

The Ending of a Perfect Day!

Our Sabbath started out on a good note this morning, we even made it to church before the song or the prayer, which is a major accomplishment for us, since I get off work anywhere from 7 to 8 in the morning on Sundays and we have to be to church by 9. We had some wonderful talks on accepting the Lords will for us even amongst trials and one on virtue. Darin gave his priesthood lesson and was a little disappointed how it turned out but it must have went well since the Elders were the last ones to get out. We went home and had lunch then our Home Teachers came to visit and then while Darin went Home Teaching I made a pie recipe I wanted to try out before Thanksgiving it was a Sour Cream Blackberry pie.

Finally just after 4 we got down for our Sunday nap before work, generally we like this nap to be 5 to 6 hours because of our graveyard shifts that night, but today we only got about 3 1/2 hours sleep.

When we arrived at work and were getting out of our car we hear some screaming and yelling in the apartments behind our work where we park. At first we thought maybe it was a child being beaten because the man was so much bigger then the person he was beating, he was man handling her and would not let her go while she was screaming for help and for him to leave her alone and let her go. Darin immediately went to her defense and was ready to jump the fence as we could see what was going on because they were out on the patio of their apartment while this was taking place. I told him I was going to call the police and not to go over there, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. Meanwhile Darin and one of my co-workers were yelling at him to stop and that we had called the police, he started cussing at them and somehow the girl got away and started to leave, he started to go after her, but was distracted by those yelling at him to stop, he was yelling threating remarks towards them and at one time raised his shirt which revealed a gun tucked unto the waist of his pants. In the meantime I was out front waiting for the cops, which got there pretty quick by the way, I explained to them what was happening, the guy when he saw that the police were coming quickly turned off the lights of his apartment and slipped out the front to avoid being caught by the police, anyways to make a long story short he got away and here we sit tonight wondering if he is going to come back and retaliate in some why towards us. On a brighter note, we both are so tired and were concerned about how we were going to stay awake tonight, needless to say the problem is solved, I don't think we have to worry about falling off to sleep. Even amidst the fear in a world of guns and a lack of value of human life, I am grateful for a husband that didn't think twice about his own safty when someone else was at risk.

Looking forward to the Holidays!

With Halloween and the true signs of fall setting in I am getting excited for the Holidays, of course there are somethings I wouldn't mind skipping this year like raking the leaves. On Saturday we decided that we needed to get the leaves raked because we were suppose to get snow Sunday and Monday. Well we spent 4 hours raking until it got dark and were only able to get the leaves raked into piles, we ended up with 57 piles of leaves by the time we were done and decided that we would have to finish moving the piles of leaves down to the garden area on Monday, fortuneately we never did get the snow, but unfortuneately it has rained everyday since and we have still not gotten around to moving the piles, rain or shine we will have to do that on Friday.

Back to my excitement over the Holidays, this last week I have been compiling a list of the menu for Thanksgiving, we will be blessed with Cynthia and Joe, Benji, Timmy, Logan and Luke. Of course the food will be great, but some of the other traditions I am looking forward to is shopping at 4 in the morning the day after with a couple of the kids, which usually awards us some priceless treasures and a good time (there is just something about standing out in the cold for hours waiting to get in to a store to save 50% on a toy or two that really bonds a family)! Also this week I have been working on a special homemade gift for my married children and Darin's sibblings, we have gotten so excited about this project we are even doing it for Darin's Home Teaching Families.

Of course we will miss not having Kerstin's and Brent's families or Matt with us, but know they will be busy making traditions of their own wherever they are and if there is one thing we are grateful for at this time of year is our children and their families whether they can be with us or not.

Some thoughts on Family, Religion and Country

It seems that these last few weeks a lot of heated discussions have come about regarding these elections, some of the things that I have noticed with mixed emotions have been the division among not only family members but church members alike on topics that our Prophet has made a stand on and has made it clear that there is no debating the issue. I am aware that part of Heavenly Father's plan is that we are allowed our free agency and so difference of opinions is not only natural but necessary, but as members of the church does that agency include disagreeing with a Prophet of the Lord? I admit that sometimes I don't fully understand why the Lord gives certain counsel, but I can promise you this, when I have questioned prayerfully and with faith, the Lord has ALWAYS given me the answer. The fact that these events are happening does not surprise me, because the scriptures have prophesied our day, but it does sadden my heart to see so many of the ones I love be caught in the adversaries snares. I am grateful for the wonderful examples in family and friends who have stood tall and honored our Lord through sustaining our Living Prophet, and I testify in these latter days that is the ONLY way we will survive the storm. I don't know where our country is headed with so much political uncertainty, but I do know that if we stay true to the gospel and stay worthy of the covenants that we have made we have no need to fear. I would also like to thank those faithful saints in California who made an effort to follow the prophet and showed that we really can make a difference by supporting and voting to restore the definition of Marriage on the law books of California to be between a man and a women. With that said I am proud to be an american where the voice of the people can still be heard.

My weekend!

You will have to excuse me for this post being so late, I have been a bit under the weather and have not felt well enough to do much. We started our weekend by going to the Library on Friday and voting early, we are guessing it saved us time, as voting during the Primary took us about 2 1/2 hours, compared to the 1 1/2 hours we waited for on Friday, we both felt very good about our vote and encourage everyone else to get out and vote today! That day was Halloween and I could not resist carving a pumpkin I haven't carved one since having the kids around and I really missed it, I found online this program that helped you design your own pattern for the face, I had to hurry to get it done though because I started at about 4:30 and I figured the trick or treaters would be starting soon. I finished just in time, I made pumpkin seeds of course, Darin had never done that before so that was a treat. As we waited for the trick or treaters to come we watched "The Ring", we only got about a total of 20 trick or treaters as it started to rain, I had to be to work by 8 so we had a pretty early night. Last week I had had a sore throat and sore glands on my neck most of the week, but by the time I got home from work on Saturday morning it had caught up to me and was a full blown head cold or whatever, so I rested most of the day and didn't accomplish much. I did have to go to work that night and was pretty miserable but still made it, when I got home Sunday morning I colapsed again and unfortuneately didn't wake up for church, I do not like the way I feel when I miss church, so when we got up in the afternoon we watched a DVD on president Willford Woodruf, we were able to fast though and fasted for baby Seth and Darin's Aunt Alice who just found out she had cancer. Again we had work last night and I felt the worst I had felt yet, I went, but slept most of the night I am afraid, when we got home I once again slept most of the day. This time when I went to work I took some Alkaseltzer Plus and have felt kinda okay most of the night. Pretty much that was our weekend, we did get to talk to Kerstin's kids on webcam on Saturday and that was a lot of fun to have Landon sing to us. It was also nice to talk to Matt and Cynthia too. We sure hope all is well with you and are looking forward to the up coming Holidays!

With the up coming Election in mind!

I couldn't resist sharing this with Halloween tomorrow and the Election coming up next week!

My little boy a Daddy once again!

I couldn't help think of a day long ago in a different place, a different baby, one baring the resemblence of a baby born today! EBN was born just over a week late in December of 1981, he weighed in ate 9lb 7oz and was 21 inches long. The nurses could not believe that he was not born by C-section because he had the most perfectly round big head and they insisted he looked like he was 2 months old. Brent was what he was called even though his full given name was Edward Brent Nelson, when he was about 1 year old he had a rag doll that I made him that he called Dada, he was always doing things a head of schedule in life, started walking at 9 1/2 months old, graduated a year early from high school etc. I always knew he would be an outstanding Dad because he was such a good brother and very responsible. Who would have ever known that this little boy would grow up to be the wonderful father that he is to two beautiful boys of his own, Brighton and Seth. Congradulations Brent and Shayla you have a wonderful family and a beautiful home!

Feasting upon the Spirit!

Once again it seems our weekend was full, with trying to get to the Temple and then to the Ward Harvest Feastival, which we were paritially in charge of, being on the activities committee. We had planned to try and get to the temple right after I got home from work on Saturday morning, but due to a very long work schedule Friday, working all but a couple of hours, when I got home shortly after 6am, I crashed and did not wake up till almost noon. Darin and I were still determined to get to the temple and do inititories even though we had to be to the Stake Center by 3:30 to set up for our ward Halloween party.

We had decided that this week we were going to do 10 names no matter what, well when I got back to inititories they were very busy and only wanted to give me 5 names at a time, which meant that when I got done I would have to be put at the end of the line and wait for others to go before me. Well I got my first 5 names done and got put back in line for another 5 names, during the time I was waiting, I started reading from the Doctrine and Covenants in section 122, it seemed the spirit directed me to this chapter and I found myself caught up in a lesson from the Lord given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It taught me much about what the Lord expects us to endure in life to be worthy of him, it also taught me that we should never complain when we have trails to go through or feel like that means that we have done something wrong or that we are not worth it, after all who descended below them all, but our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ! After about 30 minutes waiting I started to worry that Darin would be done way before me, since generally he can do 10 names in a hour and it had already been an hour and a half and I hadn't even started my last 5 names, it was 2:30 and we had to drive back to Kaysville and be to the Stake Center by 3:30, so I decided not to do my last 5 names, well I came out to the waiting area and Darin was not there yet, I waited for a long time and started to feel bad realizing two things, first we had committed to do 10 names and I should have followed through and secondly since being my husband he had directed me to do 5 names and I should have had the faith to do it and not to worry about the time, this was a great lesson to me, because as it turned out he was finished about 2pm, had I stayed and done my other 5 names I would have been out only a few minutes later then him.

We did not make it to the Stake Center by 3:30 but closer to 4 and all was well there as we decorated and set up for the carnival part of the activity, we were in charge of a ring toss that involved throwing rubber rings over the top of 2 liter bottles of soda, if you ringed one you won it. We had a wonderful time running that booth throughout the night and visiting with the ward members, afterwards I had to get ready and head for work to do my graveyard shift.

I love Sundays, but getting off of work at 8am (generally the staff that relieves me comes in early so I can be gone at least by 7, but not today, I had to work till 8) and having our meetings start at 9am can be a challenge, mainly because I have a hard time staying awake through Sacrament meeting. Luckily because I teach Primary I don't have a problem that last 2 hours of meetings. It seems to me that every Sunday it seems that all the lessons fit so well together! Today we learned about praying through Christ and the sacrament, these two things fit very well together. I am always amazed at how smart my 9 year olds are in my class and I am sure I learn as much from them as they do from me.

After church as we were driving home we passed a couple in the wards house where the husband is bedridden and the wife pretty much is having to care for him by herself, my mother in law, kept a watchful eye on this sister and would check in on her and her husband almost daily, I am ashamed to say though that since mom and dad have been gone on their mission this last year we have only checked in on them maybe 3 or 4 times. Today as we were passing I said to Darin we needed to go visit them, he quickly pulled into their driveway and we got out and went in to see them. As we came in a couple of Priest were leaving from bringing the sacrament into them, we were happy to see that, but we noticed that Sis. Shoemaker had been crying, as we visited with her we found out that her husband had been just sleeping for the last couple of days and had not been really waking up, she was worried that he was going to pass on soon, mostly we could tell she was just lonely, I am grateful that we listened to the spirit which prompted us to stop and can't help but wonder how many times I have ignored that spirit for my own selfish needs, I pray that I will be more aware of the spirit and act on it's promptings, so that I am not the cause of lonliness in the future.

All in all this was a wonderful weekend and our lives were blessed!

A Tribute to Timmy's Big Sixteen!

What can I say that these pictures don't already say, except Happy Birthday Timmy!!!! Look out girls cuz he's a heart breaker, sesitive, good looking, spiritual and funny, what more can you ask for in a date? Timmy if you get to read this (not sure he reads my blog) I just want to tell you how much I love you and am sorry that I can not be with you on this your Birthday, especially to share with you your ordination to become a Priest and to hear your first Sacrament prayer. I am so proud of how much you have grown in the gospel and what a good brother, son and friend you have become, thank you for texting or calling me whenever you need comfort or advice, I love you and wish you the best!

A Tribute to My Daughters!

Lately I have reallly come to appreciate my beautiful daughters (Kerstin, Cynthia and Shayla). As a mom when they were younger I know I didn't do them justice, not having any sisters of my own and having 5 older brothers I think I was just more comfortable around my boys, I had high hopes and dreams of what having girls would mean, but since my girls had their own personalities from the start, I was taught very quickly not only can you not live vicariously through your children, but that you shouldn't, because they each are unique. I think I also kinda had the false impression that my boys would always be there to talk to and share things with (when they were younger they did share more with me then the girls). I have found though that as my girls have grown they have become my best friends, they are the ones who call me to see how I am doing, they are the ones who recognize the reason I do blogging and take the time to comment and make me feel like it is worthwhile. I want all three of them to know that I love them and am very thankful to be a part of their lives! I have a new found love and respect for daughters and wish I had had more!

What I learned this weekend!

This weekend was a very full one, which both Darin and I are greatful for, this time of year can be tough for both of us being so far away from our children. At any rate our weekends generally start after we get off work on Thursday morning since we work 4-10 hour graves a week, I actually work 7, but I don't really count my last 3 because I can get some rest during those graves, but this week on Friday I had to work an extra shift pulling in an 18 hour shift at that job, so I will start my weekend with Saturday morning. When I got home from work on Saturday morning we hurried and got ready for the Temple, we have been trying to get there every week and since we had been assigned to volunteer at the Grand Opening of the new Deseret Industeries from 12:30 to 4:30 we knew we would have to go in the morning. I had also realized that I had forgotten about a baby shower for Darin's cousin when we had signed up for the volunteer work, so we decided if we went to the Bountiful Temple then stopped on our way home at his cousin's to drop off a present we could still get back to Layton to do our shift at DI, so that was our plan.

We arrived at the Temple at about 10am, we had decided that we really enjoyed doing Initatories and renewing that experience so that is what we did this day, it was a very special experience doing the work for those who have gone on before us without the gospel, many times I have felt the spirit of the indiviual I am doing the work for there with us, especially when I take the time to fimiliarize myself with the person, their name and where they are from, before I do their work. We were done and to Darin's cousin's house by 11:00 and had a very nice time visiting with their family for about an hour before we had to rush off for home and then to the DI. Then new DI is great, big and very nice, we could not believe the amount of people that were there during the Grand Opening (Thurs, Fri, and Sat)it was seriously worse then Christmas. When we got there to help, I was assignned to pass out helium balloons and Darin was assigned to work the floor. It was great, I must have passed out about 300 or so balloons and later when we were grocery shopping a mother had to stop me and ask if wasn't I just at the DI passing out balloons, cuz her kids were like look mom there's the balloon lady! It truly was a great experience to help out.

Today after work we headed down to Lehi for Darin's cousin Karlin's sons talk after his mission. The thing about Rodney is his family were never really active and so when he was in High School even though he wasn't active at that time, his wrestling coach kept telling him that he was going to go on a mission and continued to encourage him, finally somewhere along the way of his re-activity he read the Book of Mormon and recieved a testimony of his own and decided that he was going on a mission. He gave a powerful talk and was and is a great example to his family and I believe someday will be the key to bringing them back to activity in the church. While at this ward though, I learned a few other things that touched my heart. First when the Sacrament was blessed and passed there was a Priest who had some speaking handicaps (not sure what, maybe autisim or some other disability) at any rate one of the other Priests slowly said the prayer and this young man followed after him saying the sacrament prayer, what a great loving service this Priest did to help give this other young man an opportunity to experience his role in the Priesthool, I also realized once again how very much our Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. I realized during Rodney's talk what a great opportunity we have to bless the lives of our friends and families by our example if we but follow God's plan for us. Then finally the talk given after Rodney's, the sister talked about our trials and tribulations in our lives and how we decide whether to use them to make us better or worse, I think I always knew this, but something that both Darin and I have been feeling in our lives lately as we face our trails is that we are not alone and that there is someone who really does know exactly how we are feeling as we face these trails and that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to realize that he had a choice and chose to go through these experiences just so that we would not have to go through them alone is the most incredible gift that we could ever be given. So with that said I would like to share with you my gratitude for these things from this weekend:

1. Temples

2. Family

3. Service

4. Being a Child of God

5. Good Examples

6. Trials

7. A loving Savior who has shared all my trails with me

A Fire Rainbow

Just wanted to share with you this very rare occurance in nature it is called a Firerainbow and does not happen very often, this picture was taken this week on the Idaho/Washington border and lasted for about 1 hour. I hope you all enjoy, only God could create something so beautiful in nature.

Our first snow of the season!

So this morning at work an hour or so before it was time for me to get off work, I looked out the window and saw that it had started snowing. Anyone that is fimiliar with Utah knows that this is not so unusual getting snow this early, but since we have had such a hot summer and really until

last week the tempature has not really been below 50*, it was kind of a surprise, especially since the weather reports have not been right very often. We were happy to see Brent, Ben and Ed yesterday before they went to the BYU football game and hope that they don't have any problems traveling today! The snow does kinda excite me for the season this is my favorite time of year! Happy Sunday everyone!

Listening to the spirit

Tonight while at work the wind started to pick up, I had been dosing and when I realized that it was quite windy, the still small voice said get up and go move your car, well I really didn't think much of it but thought that I'd rather be safe then sorry, so I got up went outside and move my car out on to the street. Well about 30 minutes later I hear a noise and look out the window and the basketball hoop which was in the drive way had been blown down right where my car had been. I know this sounds like a small thing but it is just another testimony that the Lord loves us and wants to direct our lives if we but will listen, for those of you that don't know our car is the only one we have and we have only had it for a month, so to have it damaged or out of commison would not have been a good thing. I am grateful to know that the Lord knows and loves me and cares enough to tell me to move my car!

My Seven Elevens

Cynthia quoted her crazy 8's so I thought that I might do my 7/11's!

MY ELEVEN GREATEST BLESSINGS

1. Darin

2. Brent

3. Kerstin

4. Matt

5. Cynthia

6. Ben

7. Tim

8. Logan

9. Luke

10. Macie

11. Carlee

SEVEN MORE THINGS TO BE GRATEFUL FOR

1. Jared

2. Shayla

3. Joe

4. Landon

5. Brighton

6. Toriynn

7. Ellalyn

ELEVEN FAVORITE SHOWS (if I can think of that many)

1. Without a Trace

2. Cold Case
3. Law andOrder

4. The Office

5. House

6. Bones

7. Sienfield

8. Trauma the untold stories of the ER

9. Flip this house

10. What not to wear

11. Forensic Files

MY SEVEN FAVORITE ACTIVITIES

1. Talking to my kids on the phone

2. Seeing pictures or videos of my grandkids

3. Shopping with Darin (usually electronics)

4. Reading scriptures with Darin

5. Going to Temple with Darin

6. Playing games with the family

7. Going on an adventure in the Jeep with Darin

Last but not least is my true 7/11 where I go to buy my 64 ounce Ultimate Gulp to get me through the long nights on graveyard!

A Legend in the making -18 years coming!!

I would like to take this moment on this special day of celebration to recognize 18 years of excellence in that of Benjamin David Nelson. As a mom I have a hard time expressing myself, but there is not a day that goes by that I don't thank my Heavenly Father for the greatest blessings in my life-that of my family and more especially my children. As I look back at the precious memories that I have of each one of them, I think this day of Benji, who from the start had a very special and compassionate spirit, as a very small boy he had a way of making you laugh and his smile was contagious. As he grew he recognized the underdog and almost always he would be cheering them on (that would not be the case with BYU football I am proud to say). I watched him go through very difficult times and saw how close he stayed to his family and more importantly to his Heavenly Father. I remember before his brothers went on their missions he would be found studying the scriptures and other materials with them as they prepared and was surprised when he started quoting scriptures and other quotes from prophets in attempts to teach others about life and the course that they were on. ( you are a huge example to me and have taught me tons!) I have seen him turn into a sensitive and loving Son, Brother, Uncle and Friend and am sure that all reading this would like to join in with me in wishing him a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! We love you Ben and are very proud of the man you have become. As a baby we knew there was something unique and special about this child

Over time he grew in stature and wisdom!
A Happy Boy!

A wonderful Brother!!!
A great Friend!
Popular with the Girls!!
An Avid Sportsman!!!!
Is there any wonder that this is a man to be reckoned with?