Picture Dump From Jm's Phone :)

We went hiking recently with the Sessions' (family friends) and my parents. The kids were troopers even though it was hot.

Caleb liked walking as much as he could. He got carried a lot by Jon Mark and Ty.

Luke is a mountain goat! This kid! My goodness, he's a climber without fear.

Mercedes did it! It was a hard hike for her, but we practiced positive thinking and she completed the hike. I told her that exercising your body is also mental exercise. We tell ourselves that we are strong and capable. When we want to give up, we don't-- we push harder. We thank Heavenly Father for the gift of our bodies and the wonderful things our bodies can do.

Zander and Joshua are good playmates and so are Mercedes and Brinlee.

Luke and Joshua are hiding under the table at church.

He's my biggest fan and to say I love him is an understatement. He's seriously the best match for me. He's supportive and kind, he's the best father and friend. How did I get to be so lucky? I'm thankful Heavenly Father helped us get together all those years ago.

We took the kids to Toys R Us to get ideas of what they'd want for Christmas. They wanted everything.

Jon Mark is young at heart and is always a hero.

Jon Mark was in a car accident. Luckily he is ok. But, his car was not...

Joshua won't let me take too many pictures these days. We get what we can get. We went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa (but realized we didn't have tickets after we had gotten there) and rode the merry go round.

Caleb LOVES the chickens at Lindsay's house and they ate a LOT of food while we were there. He kept feeding them handfuls.

Hannah is the HAPPIEST little girl. Her favorite place is the store and loves to make up songs and dances. Her theme song is, "I love life, I love life!"

Jon Mark bought a bunch of swords to play with.

Joshua ripped his own tooth out. He's growing up way too fast!

This is at Nick and Bethany's house. Luke wanted us to take a picture of the cookie he decorated. I'm not sure he knew when the picture was taken though.

My mom is great about bringing Christ into Christmas. Every year she organizes a nativity reenactment and I'm thankful she does.

My Aunt Martha joined us.

Highlights from December and November

Joshua: He's loud and he is obsessed with nuclear weapons and army stuff. He acts like a noisy monster to make his siblings run and scream all around the house like crazy people. He has been very thoughtful and cleaned the entire house for me one Sunday as his act of December service (lighting the world with Christ's light through the month of December--this has been a wonderful new tradition!). Michelle has a Gavin tree that she puts up every Christmas to help her family remember and include Gavin. We always give her some sort of ornament that we think Gavin would like. This year, Joshua and I laminated a Pokemon card to hang on the tree and Joshua selected his best and favorite card from his deck. Luke also made Gavin an ornament and said that by giving it to Michelle, he was making Gavin, Michelle, and Jesus happy.

Mercedes: She is growing into a little lady. She is happy most of the time, but she does cry at the drop of a hat still. She is responsible and has a kind heart. She is excelling in first grade this time around. I think holding her back was such a good decision. She loves going to the park and riding her skates. She's such a great big sister to Hannah, they are becoming good friends.

Luke: Luke is super strong. He does monkey bars like a pro. The other day at the park, he hung effortlessly in a chin up as he scanned the ground to see where he could jump. He moved Caleb's crib all of the way over to the other side of the room by himself. He moved our very heavy, broken TV to under the stairs because he didn't know if I'd let him take it apart. He's fearless. The other day, Michelle, Lindsay, and I took all of our kids to Payson to hike the Natural Bridge. I stayed away from the cliffs and the pools of water with the youngest kids, while Michelle took the other kids forward. I saw everyone looking up at this steep incline and acting like they were getting ready to catch something or someone. I looked up the cliff area (not really a cliff but a really really steep incline) and saw Luke scaling it. Some men were at the bottom getting ready to catch him in case it went wrong and he fell. He was able to do it by himself and he scared me to death.

Hannah: She is a delightful child who has such enthusiasm for life. She hits crack up hour every night around 8:00, but for the most part she is happy and loving all of the time. She says really funny things. The other day when Jon Mark was tickling her she started exclaiming that she couldn't breathe. Jon Mark let her up and said, "Hannah I wasn't laying on you. You could breathe just fine." She shook her finger at him and scolded him saying, "Dad, you're crazy!". She makes up funny songs like, "deck the halls with pointy noses." The other day she was crying and screaming. It was crack up hour and I was trying to make her happy. Finally, when nothing worked, I threw my arms up in the air and said, "Hannah, I don't know why you're crying." She threw her arms up in the air just like I did and exclaimed, "I don't know why I'm crying either!" 

Caleb: His favorite word is NO. He says it all of the time. He loves holiday decorations no matter which holiday we are celebrating, he gets so excited. He loves candy canes and hot cocoa. When we were decorating the Christmas tree I thought that some of the ornaments were plastic that were actually glass. Jon Mark also believed that they were plastic so he threw one on the ground and it shattered. We learned they were indeed glass so we took them all and put them back into the box. We missed one. Caleb found it and walked over to the same spot Jon Mark had thrown the other one, he looked at it like Jon Mark did, and then (it was almost as though he thought to himself, "I know what to do with these") he chucked it onto the ground. 

Mercedes dropped Hannah at a Relief Society activity and she really hurt her head. It bled a LOT. I had so many women in the ward helping me. 

Jon Mark had his throat scoped and he was hilarious afterwards. He was saying embarrassing things that should have only been heard by me, his wife, but he was saying them loudly to everyone. 

Jazmine has had a rough week. She made Goldfish snow and then she chucked a block at the TV and shattered it. Jon Mark was also in a car accident and totaled our car, so we've been spending a lot of money. Mercedes said, "it's a good thing Santa is the one that brings us presents because that would cost a lot of money too!"

This is a comparison of flexibility. HA!

Caleb lives on top of our table. This was me taking a picture of this feat so that I can show him when he is older.

As an act of service, I took the kids to Walmart to hand out candy canes and pictures they drew as part of Light the World. This was a wonderful experience for them. We even came across a lady who had no food or electricity so we gave her the rotisserie chicken I had purchased. This left quite an impression on them.

A couple of paintings I did. Yes, the geography is not correct. Who said it was Earth?

Angels

Recently I set a goal to run a Ragnar race with a friend of mine who had organized for me to be on his 12 person team. In the weeks of preparation prior to the race, I worried. The Ragnar is a 204 mile relay race and some of the legs are lengthy miles ran at night time. Running alone in the dark in perhaps the wilderness was a frightening concept for me. I wanted to run, and I prayed for days following that the Lord would protect me. It was then when I realized something. The Lord has promised to send to us His angels, He has given them charge over us. I realized that perhaps those angels were indeed my Grandpas and Gavin, and my Grandparents in law. I realized that perhaps they were near to us and I could call on them when I wanted to. I prayed daily that I would feel them near.

I'm not sure why, but when I am running, whether it be on the elliptical or out in the open, I feel very close to the spirit and to my ancestors who have graduated from mortality. I think it's because my mind is quiet, I am often reflecting, and I am allowing myself to feel them near. I have questioned whether or not anyone is really there, am I really feeling their presence? Or, am I feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost? Either way, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the spirit is teaching me in those quiet moments, and I do believe whole-heartedly that my angels, my loved ones, do visit me. My garage is kind of a piece of Heaven on earth for me lately. I am very careful about what movies or songs I listen to when I am working out in there. Not that I watched or listened to anything inappropriate before, but I am conscientious that what I listen to has a good message and isn't too hard in it's beat.

The other day, I was in my garage on my elliptical when I found myself in despair over the events happening in the world. I had read an article earlier about the over-sexualization agenda regarding our youth. It was most disturbing. I found myself thinking that there was no hope. I send my children out into the world every day and they are battling evil on all sides. Satan is very deceiving. Words are used that soften the evil messages and people are confused. Children are targeted, the walls that I build around my kids to protect their innocence is prematurely dismantled. How can there be hope when the progressive liberal agenda is attacking their innocence? I can hardly teach them gospel principles fast enough. I send them out with a prayer and a scripture, but really how can that be enough with all that is happening in the world? It was hopeless. I was feeling so incredibly hopeless.

I started to pray. Yes, all while I was exercising. And a scripture came to my mind. D&C 84:88:

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

When I remembered that scripture, I was filled with a knowledge that our angels (more specifically, my grandpas) are there when we need them most. They are there at school with my kids, They are there in my garage, they are there at a Ragnar race, they are there in my home, they are there at play, when they are needed they are there. Our Heavenly Father will not leave us alone.

A situation that had moments prior seemed hopeless, suddenly I was full of hope and gratitude. In my mind's eye I imagined my grandpas. I miss them so much, They are men I loved and who loved me, men I trusted and had admired, and they had charge over my children. I cannot explain how I felt at that realization. My children weren't alone, there is always hope. I cried. There on the elliptical, drenched in sweat, I cried. My tears were full of gratitude and relief. I was feeling so thankful to my Heavenly Father for never leaving us alone in this mortal journey. I was so thankful that He had given me renewed testimony over the concept that our Heavenly Father hears our silent cries and comforts us in our times of need. I needed comfort and I felt so very comforted. Later, I read a talk given by Elder Holland. Elder Holland says all that I am trying to say so much more eloquently than I can. These excerpts are applicable here. 

   In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. Our present day is filled with global distress over financial crises, energy problems, terrorist attacks, and natural calamities. These translate into individual and family concerns not only about homes in which to live and food available to eat but also about the ultimate safety and well-being of our children and the latter-day prophecies about our planet. More serious than these—and sometimes related to them—are matters of ethical, moral, and spiritual decay seen in populations large and small, at home and abroad. But I testify that angels are still sent to help us, even as they were sent to help Adam and Eve, to help the prophets, and indeed to help the Savior of the world Himself. Matthew records in his gospel that after Satan had tempted Christ in the wilderness “angels came and ministered unto him.”8 Even the Son of God, a God Himself, had need for heavenly comfort during His sojourn in mortality. And so such ministrations will be to the righteous until the end of time.  (...)

I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight [our] battles, [our] children’s battles, and [the battles of our] children’s children.”10 And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing[. Then] all things shall work together for [our] good, if [we] walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”11 The latter days are not a time to fear and tremble. They are a time to be believing and remember our covenants. (...)

My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”13 On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal. (...)

May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite scriptures: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”