Friday Letters

Dear Children, you've had a lot of fun this week and were definitely very excited for Christmas. I Love that everywhere we go someone always comes and comments on how much you all seem to love each other. I love our family. Dear Santa, you got every single one of the kids to sit on your lap and have a long conversation with you at the ward Christmas party. Best Santa ever. It helped that he gave them a big bag of goodies afterwards. Dear Scout Leader, who I think knows Santa pretty well;). Thank you for being such a good leader to Kade. Kade said"he didn't forget me!" when you brought him a gift. He really looks up to you. Dear Christmas Eve , dinner with Will's side and extended family. Mexican potluck that was super yummy, and a fun white elephant gift exchange that the kids loved. When we got home the kids were insane with excitement. They opened their jammies and then they had a musical gift exchange. When Liam got a bag of choclate coal all the kids were jealous. When deciding if he would share he said "well let's see...who has been the nughtiest this year" All the kids started spilling all the naughty things they have done, just for a piece of chocolate! Liam ended up winning that one with him having bitten Becca. It gave us a good laugh. Reverent Christmas songs and then all into bed! Too bad Will and I were up until 3:30 am. Dear Christmas Day, the kids let us sleep until 8 am! We had fun opening gifts and watching thee kids play happily. We had a visit by Clark Grandparents and at the same time Kade accidentally shot me in the mouth with his nerf gun. It hurt! I got him back ha. The day went by so fast. It was a good day. Dear Will, we survived Christmas and even had a little fun too. Thank you for the gifts. Here's to many more Christmases. I Love You. Dear Self, this time of year, and life, it has been nice to have a reminder of what the Savior really has done for me. As I think about this past year and all the hardships and trials, blessing, along with all of the things I want to change, I am grateful I have the opportunity to start over each day. Grateful for the Sacrament each week, for the gift of repentance. And as I take advantage of that gift I am reminded of how much we all need to give others the same thing we seek, forgiveness. Even when they don't ask for it. As I see others who suffer and won't seek the Lord, won't even turn to Him when His hands are outstretched to them offering, well, offering everything they are looking for everywhere else but Him, It makes my heart ache. At the same time it reminds me of what I know to be true from my own experiences. It reminds me of the only place, the only person I can ever receive what my soul longs for. Worth, Rest, Healing, Peace, Forgiveness, Love. He really is The Gift.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, we had sick kids, concerts and half days. School is officially out for Christmas break. Dear Rain, i like rain, but I like it a lot more when I don't need to go grocery shopping. And grocery shopping is so much worse during Nov and Dec in a small town. Dear Pictures, waiting too long for a family picture means using the self timer in the back yard. Not too shabby even when one child was bound to make me mad. Dear Will, it will be nice to have you home for the weekend. I wish we could go on a real date, but we will have to wait for that. And by the way, you are kind of hard to buy gifts for. Dear Self, i wish I was as crafty and festive as I used to be. I've learned to let a lot of things go for now. That's fine as long as it's not forever.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, we have a list of traditions you love to do at Christmas time. So far we have decorated the tree and decorated gingerbread houses. Dear Emi + Liam, you guys were great in your play with EAC. I am glad we went opening night cause poor Liam has been sick the last 3 days. Dear Becca + Hailey, you girls went to the school dance and sounds like you had fun. You both looked so pretty. Dear Kade, you started playing basket ball this week. You have mixed feelings, but I think it can be good for you. Dear Hazel, you had your Christmas program for school. There are a lot of 1st graders! We spotted you right away, good thing cause the first thing you asked was if we saw you. Dear Avary, you decided to stop by the neighbors house after school instead of coming home first. I wasn't too happy about this after worrying about you for an hour. I am always interested to see what you say in your prayers. The last couple of days you have been praying for our elf Jerry not to lose his magic. Dear Headaches, I wish I knew the rhyme and reason why sometimes I go to bed, dream and wake up with a horrible headache for days and days. But man, it's not fun at all. Dear Road Trip, having to drive down to Chandler to pick up Hailey's trays of invisalign, have a quick lunch with my Ma and Sis, run errands, and drive home was supposed to go smoothly. My ipod was dead, my lunch was gross but the company was good, I failed to make a list and had a horrible headache all day making the drive home miserable. Those trips are more fun when Will goes with me and he drives. Dear Will, you may be experimenting to find out how many days you can work in a row. Yet you still find time to make me smile every day and listen to the kids jabber on during your lunch break and take the garbage out and attend the kids holiday concerts. Everyone is always so happy to see you walk in the door. I am really grateful I get to spend my life with you. Dear Self, it does me good to get out a little yet when you struggle with health it makes it really hard to do things that make you feel better emotionally. This has been such a long year physically and it's not quite over. You learn so much emotionally and spiritually when dealing with health problems, not just about yourself but about those around you also. As much as I hate it I am also grateful for the things that I have learned. There is a time and a season for everything. Have patience.

Friday Letters

Our 3rd Thanksgiving together, it's just the beginning.

Dear Children, you all came home soaking wet from school. None of you seemed to mind too much walking home in the rain. Dear Hazel, when I was putting you to bed you were almost asleep and asked if I had picked out your clothes for the next day, I said yes. Then you asked "do the pants have holes in the knees" I said no, "good cause I chase boys at school". And then fell asleep. You are so funny. Dear Becca, I got to take you to get your braces put on this week, I think you look cute. You have only two years to get used to them. Dear Avary, you have such a special heart. You never fail to pray for Will's brother, who is ill, whom you have never even met. You are so genuinely concerned for him, he is in every single one of your prayers. You just amaze me. Anyone that you pray for is a lucky soul because I know your prayers are being heard. Dear Boys, Kade and Liam, I swear you both have grown many inches in the last couple of months. You are growing too fast! Dear Hailey and Emi, I was glad we were able to make it to both of your choir concerts which were back to back but on opposite sides of town. You both love to sing and you both did great. Dear Activities, there are just so many! Comes with having lots of children and lots of schools and lots of talents. It is a very busy month and we are only 5 days in. Dear Willy, If I have to spend 6 hrs in the car in one day I am glad it is with you. I love the time we get to spend with each other. I count us lucky that we are still surviving after we both cracked open our fortune cookies and they were empty...I say it's cause we write our own future, right...? Dear Self, nearly every day I am reminded of all the ways I fall short and all the ways I need to be better. I am just really grateful for all the blessings I am given and for my Savior who makes change possible. Others can't see what my trials and burdens are, but I know the Lord does. When I can't adequately express those things it is a comfort to know that the Savior already understands my heart.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, you only had two and a half days of school this week, got to eat yummy food and play with cousins, your favorite. Dear Hailey, you had a great family party for your birthday followed by a little party with some friends at our house. We had a nice fire going in the back and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. A week later the same friends showed up early morning to kidnap you to breakfast at Denny's. You have nice friends. And I overheard one of them say that you have cool parents. I think they are right about that. Dear Refrigerator/Freezer, you decided to die on a Sunday and we lost so much food. After a lot of searching we now have a new one with a lot less food in it. The kids don't believe me when I tell them that is their Christmas gift... Dear Oven, perfect timing to stop heating well is the day before Thanksgiving when I am trying to bake pies and pumpkin bread. Please don't die completely yet. Dear Thanksgiving, Will worked late the night before and early the morning after, but we still traveled to Mesa to be with family. We didn't get much sleep, but it was well worth it because it was a great day. The kids had so much fun being with cousins and it was nice to be able to visit. Dear Ice Cream, we had a good friendship for a whole month. I was surprised because I haven't even liked you for years. The love may be over now because you sound pretty gross. Dear Keys, (someone) left my keys at the post office over the weekend. Thank you to the kind soul who put them in the drop box and called the post office and left a message to let them know they were there. I was surprised when I stopped by to look for them and they had 5 other sets of keys also. Dear Will, you make me laugh. I am super grateful for that because when life feels really hard we can still laugh. Also you rub my shoulders when I have a headache and you do a lot of dishes. I think I will keep you around;) Dear Self, I won't ever skip over Thanks giving, it is such an important reminder even/especially when you have "less" than others or less than what you wish for. Love that gratitude makes what you have more than enough.