enjoying our time...

It has been so nice just being home. James does not need to go back to work until January 5 and we have really enjoyed having him around. I suppose I should record what happened with his surgery. He went in for rotator cuff surgery and was given post-op instructions for rotator cuff surgery. He thought something must be up because although he had some pain it was not nearly as bad as everyone was saying it would be. He was very limited in his movement and still has some really painful days and nights but regardless he was expecting more severe pain. When he went to see the doctor a week and a half following surgery the doctor told him once they got in there he decided all he needed was some bone spurs removed (yes, I was surprised nobody from the office told us his surgery was changed post-op). He was able to get rid of the sling and begin his own exercises for physical therapy. So he only had a couple weeks of hurt rather than six to eight weeks. He still has limited motion but is doing very well.
Since he is home he was able to go with me to enjoy a lunch with Susan. It was good to see her. We also visited her the night before Christmas eve. She is a blessing in our lives - so nice to have some family living nearby even though I wish she was closer.
Yesterday James and I attended a session at the temple. A wonderful day. I am so glad we went. With the new year coming there is much on my mind regarding my calling in young women. Many decisions to be made and items to ponder and I feel as if I found a lot of peace in attending. Following our visit to the temple we quickly stopped in and visited our friend Christy and then stopped to see the Olsens. How I miss all of them.
I'm also babysitting this week for my friend Joanne who is visiting Washington state...





I don't mind babysitting these beautiful blooms! Should I be sorry that I am enjoying them blooming and that their magnificent scent is filling my kitchen and that they just might be drooping by the time Joanne returns? Maybe if I talk to them they will last for her return?


We also enjoyed some snow the day after Christmas! It was a wet and slushy snow that did not stick but beautiful for the hour it lasted. So pretty!


James and I took ornaments off one of our trees this morning since he needed to take it to the church for decoration for the stake youth New Year's Eve dance tonight. Hopefully I will soon get to all the other Christmas decorations. I especially enjoyed our nativities, here is just some of them:


I don't really mind putting Christmas things away but am not necessarily motivated to move in that direction just yet.

Thanks Nana and Papa!

This post is for my mom and dad.
Last year our family was blessed to spend Christmas with my parents and boy, we sure did miss being around family this year. Since we were not together I want my parents to see the joy on five little faces that their gifts brought (gifts they would not have received without them). Thanks mom and dad!

Ryan with his Fisher Price jungle:

Chase with his Wii Star Wars Force Unleashed:

Reid with his tabletop pool table:

Molly with her Wii Sing It game:

Austin with his Wii Animal Crossing:


Their Grandma (James' mom) was especially generous too, giving the kids more than they wished for:
Ryan: Batman slippers and Cars rain boots
Chase: Club Penguin for DS
Reid: Chaotic cards
Molly: a new red clock for her bedroom and Becoming Jane dvd
Austin: Batman, the dark knight dvd.

Our kids were pretty blessed this year. James and I really cut back this year and I don't think the kids even noticed. With such great grandparents however they can never feel like they went without.
Santa brought a new trampoline with enclosure - I just know he understood the importance of a trampoline and how the deep pressure it provides for Chase and Ryan is so important. We actually got snow yesterday (I'll need to post some pictures)for about an hour that was followed by lots and lots of rain. The snow didn't stick and was very wet, slushy snow but pretty fun to watch. When the weather is a little better we hope to get the trampoline built. (One-arm man is doing much much better - that's another story I'll need to post.) :)

Christmas Eve

Our family had a wonderful Christmas eve. It was nice to spend the day together. We made graham cracker houses...

Each of the kids made their own, I thought they were pretty clever in their designs. The finished products...

We read from our scriptures about the birth of Jesus and we all dressed up to portray different people as we read...

I got to be Mary and Ryan was a wise man...

We threw oats out for the reindeer...

And left some celery for them as well as cookies and milk for Santa. (Ryan made these particular cookies special for Santa). The kids had fun cutting out shapes from the dough, getting out all the Christmas themed cookie cutters...

The Christmas trees are lighted, this one is near our kitchen...

This tree is in our front room...

Chase is hoping to get another Nutcracker on Christmas morning...Last year Santa brought everyone one so our collection is growing. The boys really enjoy them.

Look what James made us today! His sister has a stocking holder like this that we both admired last year and now we have our own. I love it! We couldn't find all of our stockings this year so we bought new ones today at Safeway for everyone. Thankfully they were already on sale. :)

We have a tradition to have breakfast casserole each Christmas morning. It is nice that it is something made the night before and then just heated in the oven Christmas morning. It's in our refrigerator ready to go...

Hoping for warm Christmas wishes for all!

Gadsen Train Museum

Saturday was James day to go shopping (for me - yippee!). He took Molly with him as his helper since he is still a one-arm man. While they were gone I took the boys to the Gadsen toy train museum. One great thing about the blogging world is hearing about different places to visit. A big thanks to Sharla for sharing this local museum! I never would have known about it and it was a fun (free) thing to go and do together. Here are some pictures of our afternoon...




I loved the details of this miniature farm - I just had to get a picture.

We are getting ready for Christmas on the slow and steady track. I am realizing all that James does around here, and is now unable to do since his surgery. He folded a load of laundry the other night without my knowledge and then hurt the entire next day. So, we are getting things done slowly and remembering the true meaning of the season. I think we are just about there with the purchase of gifts and the decorating. Now to plan the dinner menu...

music

Last night James, Molly, Ryan and I all went to Reid's elementary school Christmas band concert. Reid performed trumpet with the advanced band, they all did a great job! It was our elementary school's first concert at the new Vail performing arts center. It is a beautiful new building that all in the community are thrilled to see complete and benefiting not only our community but our kids.

I am thankful our kids enjoy music and that their enjoyment goes beyond filling their ipods. The other night I was asking Austin if he would like to begin playing violin again (he said yes!), Austin and Molly were playing around on the piano and then Reid brought his trumpet down and Molly tried that out (I'm sure Reid was beaming that she couldn't even get a sound out of it), James brought out his ukulele and showed Molly a little song. Now if we can just get our boys to sing!

journal entry

Things are good: busy, but good. James' surgery went really well. He was at the hospital a lot longer than anticipated, but I suppose that is to be expected. The day of the surgery and the day after he really laid low and took it easy but by Friday he was out and about (he attended a funeral). It is amazing that he never complains. I hope he remembers to take it easy so he doesn't encounter more pain later on in his recovery.
Thursday night I attended the high school band/choir concert. Austin performed in the band and Molly in the choir. Molly was part of a group of six young ladies which were asked to sing a song together - so beautiful. Austin did amazing with the band - it was a great show! Following that I drove straight to the elementary school to watch Chase perform in the fourth grade musical performance of "I need a Christmas vacation" It was very cute and fun to see Chase be so involved with all the movements and he knew all the words to the songs.
Friday James and I went to his Christmas work party which was pretty fun. He works with a great group of people, fun to get to know them better.
Saturday James stayed home and worked on the finishing touches of a sacrament meeting talk he gave Sunday while Austin and Molly studied for finals all day. I had a stake camp meeting at 8 a.m. then took Ryan to a birthday party. That night Ryan and I went to the neighbor hay ride activity. It was a lot of fun!

We brought cookies to share and they provided hot chocolate and hot cider for all. It was fun to ride around the neighborhood looking at the Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols. It was great to meet new neighbors and get to know better ones that have lived here awhile.
Sunday James had his high council speaking assignment. He brought Austin with him as his speaking companion. Their topic was the Book of Mormon.
James had a birthday Sunday (yesterday)! We celebrated after church with a quick dinner, cake and gifts (he got two BYU t-shirts, two church books, a BYU hat, a tie, and lots of root beer, chocolate and nuts, but I think the best thing was the handmade cards from the kids) before we headed out to the Stake Christmas program (Molly sang at that in a ward youth choir).



Today is our 18th wedding anniversary! We hope to have a date tonight. James went back to work today so we'll see how his pain level is by tonight.
I want to give a shout out today to our friends, Cindy Jo and Dustin Gordon. Happy belated b-day Cindy Jo and Happy Birthday today Dustin. Cindy Jo- I will have something in the mail for you really soon. I want to take all my boxes to the post office the same day and I'm not quite ready yet, but be looking soon. :) I do hope your day was great.

Today I'm taking this guy...

to the hospital for shoulder surgery. He has been is so much pain, even being kept awake at nights, so it is good to know relief is in sight. He is such a good patient (so low maintenance!) I need to remind myself to pamper him because he never complains. The doctors have told him it will be a six to eight week recovery but James thinks he's going back to work on Monday. We'll see I suppose...

time with Ryan

We have been busy putting up the Christmas decorations (three trees this year!) but of course have also taken time to play.

Ryan chose the pictures for this blog post!

The weather has been so nice that we've been spending more time outside. Here is Ryan with his 'rock collection'. There are a lot of collections happenings for this 6 year old. He enjoyed showing me all the differences among the rocks he has chosen.


We also have spent a few days creating (and recreating) different 'cities' with blocks. Ryan likes me to help because of my ability to create a McDonald's, a library, a school, etc...




Ryan says thanks for stopping by, he hopes you will leave him a comment.

Christmas temple lights

Saturday evening the young women and young men of our ward took a trip to the Mesa temple to view the Christmas lights and tour the visitors center.
Here is a photo of just some of our young women and leaders taken outside the visitors center...


We had the opportunity to view several nativities from around the world. This one is from Tucson, AZ that one of the young men really wanted a photo of (here you go Brian!). I collect nativities so it was fun for me to see the variety.

Of course the Christmas lights were spectacular and the different life size displays were inspiring. It was a wonderful evening. I especially enjoyed that the young women recognized that it felt nice being on the temple grounds.

Molly's birthday celebration

Molly had a wonderful birthday on Friday! She received cupcakes, brownies AND cookies from friends! She also got lots of notes, cards and well wishes along with a cute make-up bag and a already very enjoyed Taylor Swift CD, all from some very sweet friends who made her day at school extra special.

Friday evening before we went out she had surprise visitors. Her mia maid leader, Sister Nichols, came over with some young women from her mia maid class and delivered to Molly some balloons and a singing telegram. It was so great! They truly spoiled her with a series of birthday songs -so fun! It was extra special because they stayed and watched her open her b-day gifts from family so it was like a little party before the party!



Afterwards we picked up Molly's friend Katie and begun our evening out. Molly choose to go to MiMi's cafe for dinner.

We had about a half hour to waste before our next stop so we wandered the local Super KMart and laughed and laughed. SiLlY GiRlS!!!


Our next stop was the Gaslight theatre for their Christmas show - A Smalltown Christmas! We had wonderful seats right in front. It was the first time both girls had been there and they both loved it! There was a lot of talking that they both want to work there when they are 16 so they can see all the shows, then moved on to when they can date they will have their dates take them because it is a great outing for a date but then concluded maybe they will just go together when they can drive and forget the boys! love it.

Yes, we were there too and had a wonderful time.

Happy Birthday Molly

Dear Molly,

Happy 15th Birthday Molly!

I am wishing for all of your birthday wishes to come true. You deserve a most wonderful day today and all year through!

You have blessed our life from the moment you joined our family. I remember when you were born - it seemed like the room was full of family and friends to witness your birth because my birth experience with you was so pleasant. You entered this world without a fight and have continued on in life with being such an easy-going individual. We were so surprised, so happy, that you were a girl! After numerous ultrasounds the doctor could never tell us if you were to be a boy or a girl (you were much too shy, even then, to show us) so we were thrilled when you were born.

You fit so easily into our family. When you were a newborn, Austin would always give you kisses on your forehead, then when you were a toddler the two of you were inseparable. The two of you loved to play outside together, play with costumes, help me cook and bake, do crafts, and be together.

You have always loved to sing and dance. Anytime there was dancing on the television you would break out dancing yourself. You started to sing at an early age and have not stopped yet! Although we tease you for always singing I hope you know we recognize your talent and are thankful that it blesses our home.

Through the years you have been involved in many different activities. I am thrilled you have a desire to try new things. You have written poems and stories, taken art classes, been an exchange student to Mexico, played the flute, piano, vocal lessons, guitar, soccer and volleyball, involved in choir and drama, take seminary seriously, work on your personal progress, provided service for families other than your own, helped friends in need through a listening ear and compassionate shoulder, strived for (and gotten) straight A's, begun learning cooking skills and serve in the Church. For this I am proud. I really don't even like to use that word - PROUD - it often sounds wrong. But I am so very thrilled that you have chosen to stand on the Lord's side. Within the world, I have often found you standing alone, but you have an understanding that you are never really alone
A mother's heart aches to see their child worry about finding good friends but I am in awe of your strength. You inspire me! High school today is tough but you continue to handle it without a compromise of your standards. The good choices you are making now will affect you for eternity. Stay strong Molly.
I have such respect that you are a self-starter. You prioritize and recognize the value of hard work. You love to be involved and give 100%. You are an outstanding young lady and I am blessed to be your mother.



Happy Birthday Molly! I hope your day is great!
Love, Mom

a family favorite

Have you heard these? Tennis Shoes among the Nephites. They are "a modern adventure in an ancient land" The story centers on a young man, Jim Hawkins, his kid sister Jennifer, and his best friend, Garth Plimpton, as they accidently stumble upon a mysterious passageway hurling them into another world - an ancient American world.

I purchased these books on cd to take along on our car ride to Utah and we all loved them. They have been around quite a few years, we've even listened to them before years ago (Thanks Wendi for loaning them to us!)but I bought book one and book two for our family and they were a huge hit. We have about a nine hour car ride each way when we go to Utah and each of these lasts six hours. When we got home from our trip we were partway through book two and Reid came home and found the book (we own them in paperback) and is finishing up the story by reading the book - great! I'll definitely be adding more to our family collection.

A change in the YW theme!

I am so excited! I just opened an email regarding a change in the YW theme! Here is what the letter states:


"We are pleased to announce the addition of the attribute of "virtue" to the Young Women theme. This addition will assist young women in developing high moral standards. We invite parents and leaders to teach the doctrine of chastity and moral purity to help each young woman to be virtuous and worthy to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple."

It is signed by the First Presidency and dated November 28, 2008.

They also note that YW leaders should immediately include this addition as they repeat the theme and that "Virtue" will be added to the Personal Progress value experiences and projects.

I suppose we will also be getting a new value color!

So now the theme states the following:

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father,
who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God
at all times and in all things, and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9)
as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family,
make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple,
and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

I am so excited to be in Young Women as this change is occurring. It makes me want to go re-read Sister Elaine Dalton's General Conference address: A Return to Virtue. This change is truly going to affect young women for good.

Our Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation in Southern Utah! We left on Wednesday afternoon and got to the Gubler home late that night so we all pretty much went straight to bed (me with a sore throat!). The next day, Thanksgiving, we had planned to go out to a restaurant for our turkey dinner but instead ended up getting a premade meal at the local grocery store.

While I pretty much slept the day away with my sore throat and aching bones James did all the dinner preparations, even getting out a linen tablecloth and china. I just had to snap a picture before we ate, please excuse the silly faces on the kids. We really had an enjoyeable meal together.
On Friday 'us girls' (my sister in law, niece, Molly and I) of course did some Christmas shopping, enjoying the sales and we hit a craft show I go to every year at the Dixie Center
On Saturday we had dinner with grandma (pictures below), Patty and her family and Clairey and her family. Patty hosted a wonderful meal, the tables were beautifully set and the company was terrific!

Chase and grandma

Edna and I

The cousins minus Lindsey and Austin...It is so fun to have cousins the same age!

Our niece Clarissa and her husband Drew. It was so great to see them!

(above) Our hostess!

The kids had a fabulous time playing in the piles of leaves! It is funny that we don't have leaves like that at our home and so great to see how much joy they brought to the kids' fun.

Lindsey and Molly:

We took the kids to the St. George temple to see the Christmas lights and visit the visitors center.

The outdoor nativity is especially beautiful

I had Molly pose at the 'wedding exit' at the St. George temple, she didn't know there was such a thing so it was fun to tell her about how the couples come out that door with all their friends and family waiting for them.

We took this last photo when we said goodbye to Edna, the night before we left to come home. She looks so beautiful and seems to be doing really well.

I am thankful for the blessing of family!