Blessed

With a new year, I have started reading the Book of Mormon once again.  I know 1 Nephi 1 & 2 are probably some of the most read chapters, but I forget how much I love them.  I love Nephi's many acknowledgements of the Lord's hand in their lives, right from the get go.  He never said that their life was easy and perfect, on the contrary, they had some huge challenges to overcome and learn and grow from.  But looking back, Nephi recognizes they have been "highly favored of the Lord" and the "tender mercies" in his life.  Lehi exclaimed "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty" after seeing the good, bad and the ugly of what would happen to his people.

As I cleaned up from the holidays and reflected on the past year, that is how I felt too.  We had many ups last year: Micah getting baptized, a trip to Europe, Benjamin's first play,  Jacob's first football season, many baseball and soccer games and finding our new home!!  We had some downs too, especially trying to sell our old and find a new home.  That was a very challenging time for us, especially because we loved our ward and neighbors so much. We relied a lot on the Lord, especially when we were under contract of another home and even under contract on this home and things weren't going quite as smoothly as we had hoped.  It was a very long summer!!  But, looking back, it is very easy to see the Lord's hand in our lives and see those tender mercies along the way.  I felt like it was time, had confirmation on several occasions and I'm grateful for the way things worked out in the end.

So thank you 2014 for teaching us many things and here's to 2015 and the many great things ahead. Happy New Year!!

First Lego League

Have you met our son Ben? 

Rumor has it that he's a dependable, awesome builder with a good sense of humor who loves bacon.  Oh yea ... and he created Steve.

Meet Steve, Ben's robot that he built for his team to compete in a Lego League Competition

 

Ben designed and built Steve to compete on this obstacle course.  Each of the boys on his team got to program Steve to accomplish certain tasks

 

Ben's task was to go through that turnstile to turn the blue flag 90 degrees, turn left and position Steve in front of the green and grey goal on the left there....

 

Where he shoots....

 

...and scores! (most of the time)

 

Then he turns, scoops up that little basket by Micah and brings it back home (most of the time)

 

As a rookie team, the Robot Rattlers didn't have high expectations going into the competition, and they learned that even when they're programed just right, these robots don't always do exactly what you ask them to, but the team actually took 4th place out of 12 teams (and were only 10 points away from tying for 2nd place).  It's always fun to see your son take on new challenges.

 

Nice Job Benji!

 

Now what's with the Bacon Thing?



Christmas 2014

I'm sure Phil was the first one up!  He gets as excited as the boys do.

 Ready to come down stairs...

 the descent...

 Jacob got a new basketball, a sweatshirt, kendama, book etc.

 Micah got some solar robots, new pjs and robe, games, legos etc.

 Ben got a drone (still figuring it out), new robe to match his dad, legos, games etc.

 And a NEW PING PONG TABLE! It has been a great addition to our basement.

Phil and his new toy:)

 And probably one of our best presents...fresh snow!!  The boys have been waiting for a long time to try out a sledding hill down the road.  It was so fun waking up Christmas morning and see the world blanketed in a layer of white.  So pretty and fun to play in!!

 We were so grateful that the snow plows were out and about though...cause we had Christmas plans in Idaho after we enjoyed ourselves at home.  It was a nice clear drive (til we hit the land of no slow plows :)

 We had a great time visiting with Phil's family.  I think the biggest "hit" was the chimes we gave his parents.  With Phil as our director, we got pretty good at ringing in the Christmas Spirit.  Fun!

 After visiting with them a couple of days, we were able to hit my family party on the way home, complete with food, gifts, talent show, music, family histories and lots of laughing and fun. 

I'm so grateful to have been able to see all of our families at Christmas.  It's such a wonderful time of year.  I'm thankful for our Savior and the life He led that can lead us home together, as families, to Him. 

Christmas Eve

It pains me a little to be discussing Christmas in the past!  Every year it comes and goes and leaves me a bit broken hearted to see it over!!  It was a "the best Christmas ever" again, according to Micah.  We have a great tradition that we began a few years ago of going to Temple Square on Christmas Eve.  Unfortunately others have also seen the light(s)!  It was a bit more crowded than we like but we started early, which means we got to see the sunset and the lights.  Beautiful!!

We got distracted by the candy displays at Macey's on the way over.  Fun!!

 Ben has been on a penguin kick this year, so he loved seeing two of his favorite things (penguins and candy) together.

 Hello Cousins!

 It's all about the birth of a Baby and Family.  Love it!

 We hope these cousins will always be such good friends.  They have a great time together and as you see, they are our other half :)

 Merry Christmas!!

 We ended with a wonderful dinner at our house and of course the nativity (mostly action shots so this is as good as I got.)

 Ready for bed and a cookie for Santa.

As I set up Christmas this year, I was a bit saddened about not being in our old house.  Christmas decorating always brings lots of memories with each item I put out.  As I look back on December though, I truly loved being in our new home and the new memories we were able to make there.  So I'm looking back with fondness and ahead with true happiness and contentment being in our new home that we love!