Happy Halloween!

Good Read

I just finished this book and it was wonderful and I am ready for Christmas! It is about the Jensen family who get 12 letters from Santa, who helps the family remember the true meaning of Christmas. My favorite gift/lesson he teaches is the gift of family. Here is a quote from the book,

"What would this world be without family? Where would you be without family? And what truly is a family?

A family is more than just a group of people living in the same household. It is more than people who share a common ancestor or relative. It is much more than a string of people on a pedigree chart. These are people who have been tied at the heart throughout generations of time and space...

The Savior referred to each and every one of us as his brother or sister, knowing that we share the same parentage-- a perfect Father in Heaven. What better ties could you have than that? You are literally the offspring of God! Despite what you face here on earth, how could you deny your potential when you come from such a royal lineage and such a perfect parentage?"

I think my favorite thing about Christmastime is being with family. Last year I got a little stressed trying to have the "perfect" Christmas, with cookies, candies, decorations, treats for the neighbors and all of the little things and to be honest it didn't make Christmas that fun. My husband lovingly helped me remember that isn't what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about celebrating the Savior's birth and the blessings he has bestowed upon us. What I loved about this book is that it helped me remember that our focus should be on the true miracle of this time of year and the real gifts of Christmas.

This is a great, fast read! I laughed, cried(often :), and had warm fuzzies. It is a great book to start off the Christmas season! Enjoy!

Love-ruba

A picture is worth a thousand words...



We had a great time!

More pictures to come :o)

Quote of the Day

Matthew: "Brayden, you a trouble-maker!"

Reminds me of another saying, "the pot calling the kettle black"

Aruba, Bahama, come on pretty mama...

Well, I am not sure why I haven't blogged about this yet (maybe because I couldn't believe the day would come!) On Thursday, Nate and I are leaving for Aruba, without our kids! Nate won an outstanding sales award last year, actually he found out he won the night I went into labor with Brayden. So we were supposed to go last October but we had just moved and I was still nursing so we decided to put it off for one year. And here we are, hooray! Our wonderful neighbors are going to take care of the boys while we are gone for 4 days (technically we will be gone 6 but with travel we will only be in Aruba for 4). Our neighbors have 3 boys, so I know that our boys will be all set playing! Also, as of right now there are no hurricanes brewing in the Atlantic, yea! Right now it looks like we will have some showers but hey at least no hurricanes! Needless to say we are a little excited for this weekend!

What we have been up to!

People keep asking me what I have been up to lately and it just seem like the same ol stuff but yet I seem to be really busy. So here is what we have been doing recently:


Canning! Lots of it! We have canned about 35 quarts of peaches and 20 of pears. Also some pear jam and some peach jam. I also froze a bunch of peaches too for ice cream, yum! The peach jam didn't really turn out it was odd, oh well!


Brayden helped me make brownies!


I ran into the office real quick to pay bills and I came out to see that the boys unloaded all of the silverware unto the floor. Brayden then decided to lick every piece. It was time for me to clean out that drawer anyway. Also, you can't tell but Matthew also got out the chocolate syrup and spilled some all over and then dumped the rest down the sink. So was chocolate syrup on the few pieces of silverware that Brayden didn't get to!



The ward campout! It was pretty fun and cold! We went up to Mt. Charleston which is only about an hour from our house and it was about 30 degrees colder. The boys loved the dirt, rocks and fires. Brayden ate a few too many marshmellows and woke up in the middle of the night moaning, poor guy. And Matthew woke up cause I think that he was cold. Our air mattress really isn't made for 4 people. So we all had naps when we got home!


This was actually Brayden's favorite part of camping, the water spout! What is it about little kids and water?