Lynzie Ilene...

Lynzie is such a sweetheart...

Did you know her birth certificate still says, Lindsey?

She was born Lindsey, but after a year we changed it to Lynzie,

and I haven't official changed it, as of yet.

(come on, it's only been 10 years!)

She's named after her great-great grandma Elizabeth Lindsey Thomas,

and her great grandma Ilene.

Over ten years ago,

I knew that there was one more person to add to our family and I knew that it was a little girl,

and I knew I wanted to name this little girl Lynzie.

but,

I wanted to name her Lindsey after my great-grandma, I was conflicted as to which spelling I wanted, I loved the spelling Lynzie, but I wanted to honor my great-grandma also,

I ask Kurt and he said he wanted to spell it L.Y.N.Z.I.E. so he could call her "Z"!

but,

at the last minute, I went with the spelling of Lindsey out of love and respect for my great-grandma, because after all that is who she was named after...

but,

with her first year of life, the spelling of Lindsey never stuck,

every time I said her name I always though of the other spelling,

so finally at her first birthday, I said, that's enough,

I'm going with the other spelling and I haven't regretted it since!

she's our LYNZIE.

(great-grandma Elizabeth Lindsey, grandma Ilene, my mom, & me, on my blessing day)

Lynzie always amazes me,

she is a sweet soul, and has always had a strong sense of where she came from and where she's going.

Three days ago, our church magazines came in the mail, and the first thing we always do is;

look in "The Friend" magazine to see if Lynzie is in there yet,

a while ago, a long, long while ago, Lynzie sent in a little story about an experience she had had and a picture of herself,

we know that it takes along time and that there is always a big chance of not getting into the magazine, but, it's always still fun to look!

As she was looking and reading,

she read an article about how to build your testimony in 4 simple step;

1- scriptures

2- prayer

3- worship

4- service

she cut out the page and taped it upstairs in her room,

she first read it to me with great seriousness and was concerned of how she was doing,

because her heart is so open, it touches her deeply,

she talks about it with me a lot and it strenghtens mine too.

This year she tried to read the Old Testament, but it was too confusing to her because of the language, and because hello, it's the Old Testament!

So, I suggested to her to try the New Testament and she,

being the Lynzie that she is, she's jumped into it with her big heart and has loved it,

and get this....

she's even taught me a thing or two about Herod

and how he tried to trick the 3 wise men!

Lynzie is such a sweetheart!

We are just trying to come down from our Christmas high....

Christmas was great, and I'm so glad Santa actually made it to our house...

altho, as we were sitting around the table eating Christmas dinner we all

(well, all of us except Lynzie, she was having no part of it!)

decided that next year we're going to adopt a Christmas family and fore go some of our presents, and then go shopping after Christmas and hit all the 75 percent off sales and pick up a little something for each other...

my kids are at the age where we can do that now!

Christmas day was a beautiful day with presents, family, food and fun,

then, later that evening we went to a baptism,

Have you every been to a baptism on Christmas day?

well, it just kind-of wraps things up for ya in a nice little spiritual package with a great big red bow on top!

We took Arik with us and it's always nice to share the spirit with others.

then, of course,

the next day was Sunday and we had our Christmas program in church,

I sang in the choir and was so uplifted to sing such beautiful songs all about our Savior and the icing on the cake for me was hearing Candice play the flute as we sang....

let's just say, it really doesn't get better than that!

I've still been humming the songs and get all goosey-bumped,

with a tear in my left eye,

every time I thing about it...

Candice is amazing, and she doesn't even know it.

so, of course,

yesterday was our day of just trying to relax, playing the x-box 360,

riding electric scooters, playing 'just dance2' and of course staying in our p.j.'s all day,

while all the while, smelling really good from all our yummy lotions and sugar scrubs from Santa!

it.was.nice.

but, today we are up and at 'em again,

all showered, shampooed, and shined!

I'm taking down Christmas decorations,

I've taken down 2 of my tree's, but I'll leave the big one up just for a few more days.

Kurt is sitting at Olive Garden in Tennessee, as we speak,

eating lunch with his mom, grandma, and his two sisters,

they drove out from Virginia,

just one of the perks of being able to drive yourself across the country in a big green truck!

wow, it's 2:20, time to go feed my kids lunch!

bye.

a HO, HO, HO, was had by all!

I got an droid x smart phone,

and all I know, is that it's actually smarter than me!

but, since I'm so blind it's nice to have something so big that I can actually see!

electric scooters...

Oh, just modeling our new Christmas p.j's...

guess what?

try not to be jealous but.....

I got a glass figurine from a truck stop!

yep, that's just one of the many, many blessings of having a husband who is a trucker!!!

a cherish heirloom or a perfect white elephant gift???

Christmas 2010

Luke 2:15

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

Matthew 2:11

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

(this got me thinking of what "gift" I could give the Savior when I see him again,

thats when my missionary memories came flooding back, and just wanting to be that much better as a parent,

remembering that there really is no greater gift than,

helping others come to known their Savior and to feel of His love!)

Luke 2:16

And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

I opened my last gift of the baby Jesus this morning,

Isn't it the sweetest manger set, it really is, I wish you could see it up close,

all the expressions on there little faces are so sweet...

Thank you Amy and Shona for the true gift of Christmas.

I'm grateful for the birth of our Savior...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

.

swaddling...

Believe it or not....

I'm almost done with Christmas shopping,

the last 2 days I've been able to knock it out,

it's been fun to shop at midnight,

there are enough others shoppers so it's not scary to be there in the middle of the night,

but

not so many people that it's Christmas crazy and your waiting in long lines...

altho, I did have a thought through all the craziness,

we need to start a "movement" and get Christmas back to were it should be....

it's stressful and I'm sure I'm not the only parent that thinks it's stressful in trying to come up with all the extra time, and money....

not to sound like The Grinch' but it's all become too commercialized

just like every other holiday in this country.

I love simple and sweet...

speaking of,

let's end on a simple, sweet spiritual note,

my gift this morning was another

*wiseman,

and I let Lynzie open this one, she was just as touched as I have been,

Luke 2:11-12

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

(I totally got chocked up reading this one.)

I learned something about swaddling this year that I wanted to share with you;

During Biblical times after a baby was born it was washed,
rubbed with salt then oil and lastly swaddled. Swaddling was accomplished by tying strips of cloth together and then wrapping them around the baby to restrict movement. Swaddling kept the child warm, and it was thought that it also ensured that the baby would grow strong without deformity. Because of this a swaddled baby took on the metaphor of being a loved and cared for child. Thus Ezekiel says of Israel,

“And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut,

neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee: thou was not salted at all,

nor swaddled at all” (Ezekiel 16:4).

In other words, because of Israel’s wickedness they have been abandoned and not cared for.

Perhaps the reason Luke gave us this small detail about Mary swaddling her baby was to help us realize how much she loved this child and to let us know He was well cared for.

To learn more about all the symbols of Christmas

and read an amazing blog,

go here.

To all a good night!

days 4, 5 & 6....

day 4;

Luke 2:8

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

*A little sheppard boy kneeling on one knee, with a satchel over his shoulder,

and he is holding a little lamb.

day 5;

Luke 2:9-10

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

*a beautiful little angel girl in a crimson colored dress.

day 6;

Luke 2: 13-14

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

*one of the 3 kings, bringing a gift for the baby Jesus.

I am still enjoying opening a gift each and every day,

and this morning when I woke up at 2:oo a.m.

I opened my gift for today because it was officially today, right?!

Caitlyn is 17....

It's actually Monday, but to me it's still Sunday, I haven't gone to bed yet....

Caitlyn's 17th birthday,

she was actually born on a Sunday morning 17 years ago....

I remember being woken up around 7 that morning, cuz something didn't feel right,

and wahla, sure enough, I was in labor,

and so true to a Caitlyn attribute,

I skipped the first stage of labor and was on my way, very fast and intensely, to the second stage,

(it makes me laugh cuz Caitlyn is still like that, she is a fast learner and likes to get thing done, she doesn't mess around!)

she was a few days late, her due date was on the 14th of December,

and I remember I was so ornery and tired of being pregnant and if one more person called me on the phone to ask if I'd had the baby yet... someone was going to get hurt!

Kurt called our Dr. and was relaying information to him,

(because, I was to ornery to talk),

about when labor started and how far apart the contraction were, and he, Dr. Campbell, had the nerve to tell me that he thought it would be awhile and to call him back in a few hours,

(Dr. Campbell delivered both Candice and Caitlyn,

he use to call them, Candi, the dandy and Cate, the great!

he was the best doctor....

Charlottesville, Virginia)

Hint..... don't try to tell a pregnant women her own business!

well, I remember saying to Kurt,

"well, you two can sit and talk on the phone and decide when you want to show up at the hospital BUT I'm going to the hospital now to have this baby"!

that's when I walked out the door, that's when Kurt realized I was serious and ready to go!!!!

When we got to the hospital sure enough, I was ready to go,

but, I had passed the window of opportunity to have an epidural,

I had just had Candice naturally 13 months earlier so my body knew what to do,

so hooray for me, I was having a natural childbirth again!

it really wasn't that bad!

my Dr. did arrive in time, and Caitlyn was born just right after that!

We loved her the moment we saw her...

We had a few names picked out,

both boys and girl names cuz at our ultrasound appt. they told us 90 percent chance it was a girl but don't paint the room pink just yet...

when she was born, unlike Candice, we didn't know what to name her,

our #1 name for her was Miranda, (a family name)

but for some reason, it just wasn't right,

I remember thinking, this girl has a name, I just don't know what it is yet?

The next day after she had spent the morning with me in my room, I sent her to the nursery so I could get some sleep, everything was quiet and my heart was just so full for this new baby,

I had just closed my eyes when I heard "Caitlyn" it was so loud,

I opened my eyes and sat up,

I sat up so fast, I winched in pain....I couldn't believe what I had just heard, and thought someone was in the hall, I sat there and listened to hear where it had come from, but again, everything was quiet and still....

I reached over and wrote Caitlyn on my bedside table, picked up the phone,

called Kurt, and said "come on over, I have her name".

When I said the name out loud to him, he just let the name soak in for a few seconds and then smiled...

Caitlyn is a common name nowadays, but 17 years ago, I had only heard it one other time years earlier from a sister in my mom's ward.

We are so glad to have Caitlyn in our family,

this morning as Kurt was saying our family prayer, he got all chocked up as he thanked our Heavenly Father for giving us the gift of Caitlyn, we are lucky to have her...

Happy Birthday Caity!!!

We love you!

I know it's only the third day in,

but...

something is happening to me!

Each morning when I open a gift, it's like I'm seeing a piece from the nativity for the first time, first of all, they are about the cutest little figurines ever, I read the scripture that goes along with it and all day long I catch myself thinking about that piece for the day....

like the first day was the little sheppard boy,

he was carrying a walking stick and a lantern to help light his way, I thought about his sweetness and pure humbleness that must of been in his heart to follow the star to meet a baby that he'd never met before but that he probably loved already.

don't we find ourselves in the same situations sometimes?

and don't you find so much symbolism in each piece?

you see, I have about 8-9 Nativity sets, all different and unique,

I try to collect a different one each year,

my mom surprised me and sent me one a few weeks ago,

and the one thing I asked for this year was a big one,

I told Kurt if we played our cards right we could get one the day after Christmas on the big sales, that's beside the point,

but, my point is......

I've never gotten a Nativity one piece at a time and it's really allowing me time to think about each piece, and even maybe some of the thoughts and feelings that each person might have thought or had been feeling who played a role at the time that our dear little Savior was born.

Today I opened number 3....

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

~a donkey~

This gift is doing exactly what my visiting teacher intended for it to do,

it's really bringing me the tenderness of what Christmas is all about!

which is a blessing in itself...

after I had all my decorations up this year,

I thought it looked all pretty and such, but I knew what was missing, I could feel it,

I was missing the spirit and love of what Christmas should be all about, so I made a mental note to myself that I would have to bring that special Christmas feeling and spirit into our home....

Don't ya just love when your prayers are answered!

On the second day of Christmas,

my visiting teachers gave to me.....

~Mary~

with another scripture that says,

"To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered."

Luke 2: 5-6

I am grateful for my visiting teachers,

not only for this gift,

but

a few months ago my vacuum broke,

I hadn't vacuumed for a week, I hate cleaning toilets, but I do love to vacuum,

so not being able to was ugggh---

when my V.T. ask me what she could do for me,

the words, "can I borrow your vacuum" spurted out of my mouth before I even realized what I had said,

a few days later there she is with two vacuums in hand!

she brought hers and even barrowed one from her neighbor,

I vacuumed the upstairs and she vacuumed my downstairs

and we knocked it out in no time at all!!!

see.....

I told you I was grateful for my Visiting Teachers.

.

.

.

.

I get to see Kurt in a few more hours

and

it's been 6 years today since we've seen Steve...

It was fun to open my first gift early this morning, and get this....

it was a little shepherd boy, with a scripture from Luke 2:4 that read;

"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem"

(because he was of the house and lineage of David)

I have a good feeling about this and it did tug at my heart...

I am indeed looking forward to the next 9 days,

I'll keep ya posted.

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner, as in next week,

am I the only one who isn't finished with Christmas shopping,

truth be told, I haven't started...

altho, that's a scary thought, I know that next week, I'll be able to knock it all out...

Tomorrow,

the kids get out early for Christmas break,

I got out the card table today and set up the 750 piece puzzle,

it's a crazy puzzle that has so much small details,

we actually started it last year,

we'll see how far we get this season...

doing a puzzle is just one of those fun family traditions,

it's also so tedious that it gives the kids something to do over the break besides fight.

We're still waiting to hear word about the Utah job,

it's still up in the air but I'm feeling calm and content about the whole thing!

which has surprised me...

I am seriously thinking about homeschooling Lynzie for the second half of the school year???

she wants too...

there's pro's and con's of course,

but, nowadays it's such a popular thing, that it's made easier to do,

and I don't worry about Lynzie cuz she is a self-starter,

and loves to learn.

Kurt should be getting home in the next day or two,

and everyone is looking forward to Christmas,

of course, getting gifts is the best, but spending family time together is priceless to us these days,

it always makes me laugh cuz Kurt is like a celebrity when he comes home,

even little Sadie bids for his time and attention!

we all miss Kurt so much during the week while he's gone.

Oh, we'll try again sometime this week to do family pictures,

I've had to cancel two times already between every one's busy schedule

and it's killing me not to have them done already,

but....

I'm going to do them no matter what,

so just expect our family Christmas wishes later,

instead of sooner!

Caitlyn's 17th birthday is Sunday,

we'll be celebrating on Saturday and I have a few fun surprises up my sleeve for her!

We sure love her!

I've been having a bit of a maple donut problem the last few mornings....

those things are just toooo good!

yep

Yesterday,

this little basket of gifts was dropped off at my home,

and was waiting for me when I walked in the door,

with a cute little note that read.....

How fun is that!!!!

I seriously about pee'd my pants with the thought of getting to open a gift for

10 days in a row!

10 days people, how exciting is that!

What other mom gets to do that???

I never have!

10......10 gifts of love....

thank you Amy and Shona!

sweet. sweeter. sweetest.

.

???

Oh, don't mind me,

I'm just sitting here looking at homes for sale in Utah...

it.just.might.happen!

.

....finally.....

all the stockings are hung....

now, I just hope St. Nicholas can make it!

But,

I do love when 'Barbie' and 'The Wise Men' can hang together outside the stables,

and still love and honour baby Jesus...

Another year of Thanks....

From our family to your....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I am so grateful for days like today!!!!

it has got to be one of my favorites days

it seems like everything is how it should be...

FAMILY.

my family is home together,

I love my family.

the weather took a chill last night and it feels so good,

the house is warm

I love the Christmas music softly playing,

the little ones are playing games,

I love the smell and lights of the tree,

I set up one of my Christmas trees earlier this week,

I started a new tradition this year,

I'm doing 3 trees,

the big one in the front room,

the kids tree upstairs

and

my new tree,

I did a tree of Christmas cards from past years,

I love receiving family Christmas cards but I can never throw them away,

there always too sweet....

so

now you all are on my tree,

so

send me this year's cards so I can add you to my tree,

it's so fun to see you all up there

and especially from year to year....

can you find yourself???

I love making the turkey and after all these years living in Texas,

Kurt and I have it down to perfection....

the turkey smells delicious,

I just love the feel of today...

I love taking a nap after lunch,

and I love watching all the fun movies that come on tv,

I love that it's just a 'family day'

a day for families,

with nothing else happening,

nothing else on the 'to do list'

a day of just being together

happy together.....

.....that's what I'm thankful for.

.

.

and

I love to hear the girls laughing and just being sisters.

'the gink'

It's birthday week for this one....

~Candice J~

I can't believe she'll be turning 18 years old this Saturday.

my head believes it, but my heart can't,

it's too much to take in,

I've been thinking a lot about her and her 18 years of life since last week,

we've been laughing at some of the funny things we remember about her when she was little.

I have mixed emotions,

it's so fulfilling to watch your daughter grow up and yet,

you just want to keep them tiny forever.

she was the cutest little "gink"

somehow Kurt deemed her that a very young age,

it was just her...she was so "ginky" and cute!

Our Attitude of Gratitude...

Our theme for this month in sacrament mtg. has been

'Gratitude'.

The speakers said a few things that touched my heart....

it seems like I have forgotten to be grateful lately and I really needed to hear what was said....

our bishop stood up at the end of the meeting and encouraged us to make a list of the things we were grateful for, with

sheets of paper or whatever we wanted to use, anything that would work for our family,

(I used a big poster cuz I figured a family of 6,

we should have alot of things to be grateful for....)

the bishop recommended to place it somewhere central where it's very noticable,

so, I went to work and hung it up first thing when I got home

and while we ate our Sunday dinner I explained it to the kids,

they all seemed excited about it,

I just asked everyone to write at least one thing a day,

and then at Thanksgiving we can take down our poster and talk about all the things we have been grateful for.

Being grateful is a commandment and when your happy,

more happiness is added upon you.

and seeing that I've been so sad lately I'm sure this will help us all out of our rut!

my favorite one is;

'I am greatful for edgication'

at last...

Whilst I was gone last night, Spencer took this picture of the pink clouds,

I'm so glad when he sees something that he thinks is cool, he grabs my camera and captures the moment.

at last,

I'm feeling better.

I'll tell you, when I'm overwhelmed with life it's just too hard to try to write on this blog, because the only thing that comes out is a big fat pity party, and believe you me I know!

I have a private blog that I write in almost daily, you see, I love to write and I think writing down some of your feelings is the best free therapy, and so while I was struggling this past few weeks, I would write, and it wasn't pretty, in fact it was kind-of ugly...

but, it was free ugly therapy and it works for me,

I just didn't want to share all the ugliness on my cute little family blog.

I'm afraid someone would have read it and tried to commit me to the loony bin or something!

in a nutshell,

having Kurt gone so much has been hard, really hard!

it's been emotional and financially and physically hard to start a business, and I guess it's all just been taking it's toll the last few weeks, and I have this crazy problem that I don't like to burden others with my pity party problems so,

I don't talk about it and then that just makes me feel lonely, like I'm the only girl in the whole world with problems, I know that's not so, but sometimes it can sure feel like that!

half the time I feel like a headless chicken, and the other half I feel like a dog just chasing my tail..... pure craziness.

we only have one car right now, do you even know how past crazy it gets to taxi 4 kids around to everywhere they need to go, not to mention that our 2 teenagers aren't to happy about having to be drivin everywhere, and I don't blame them, not one little bit,

but it is what it is right now and I'm sure it won't last forever, right? right!??

I could go on but what's the point?

at least I am feeling a little better about all my craziness,

good enough to try to blog again,

and having an "Attitude for Gratitude" poster hanging in our kitchen has helped,

that was a sweet little answer to a prayer that I didn't even know I needed.

at last,

I'm coming out of my funk.

cutest picture ever...

(cousin Lauren, Caitlyn, and Cj)

I have so much to blog about,

so many thoughts to write down

and back blogs to publish,

but

I'm in a small rut right now,

and, I'm afraid I won't do it justice.

I'm trying to climb out...

I had a neat experience on Sunday that is helping

and I want to blog about that later too.

but in the meantime,

I'm going to take a little morning nap

cuz

it was one of those nights last night and I was awake until 4.am.

happy napping.

What month is it?

just one of the things we did today....

(October in Texas)

#10 on 10-10-10...

Lynzie has been counting down her birthday week,

this was a BIG birthday for Lynzie this year....

Lynzie was turning 10 years old on

10-10-10!!!

(did I ever mention she weighed 10 lbs. when she was born,

10.8 to be exact.)

thankyou.thankyouverymuch!

she was sooo excited that she made us wake up at 6:00 am to open her present from grandpa and grandma........

she loved her present so much that this is a picture of her kissing it!

her grandma and grandpa gave her 10 new $10.00 bills...

do the math people......$100.00 buck-a-roos!!!

singing Happy Birthday to Lynzie and her pathetic cupcake!

(I'm lame, I already know!)

p.s. Abby if you read this, please try not to laugh too hard at my lameness.

thanks to grandma and grandpa we were able to go on a shopping spree.

first order of business...

ear piercing!!!.

then to build-a-bear workshop,

to make a cute puppy that she named McKenzie...

I call her TENzie McKenzie, cuz she got her for her 10th birthday!

then some clothes and shoe shopping at her two favorite stores,

which was a success.

that girl can shop!

my favorite memory of the day:

watching the confidence ooze out of Lynzie

and

listening to her talk like she was a big girl or something!

then, of course, it's always fun to end the day with cousin Lauren....

Happy Birthday Lynzie ,

we love you!

Lynzie had a perfect day!

Kurt took Spencer to Salt Lake to go to his very first Priesthood session at the Conference Center,

what a memorable experience for Spencer to remember for the rest of his life!

(I'm just impressed that Kurt took pictures with his phone, thanks Kurt!)