John's birthday!!!

John's birthday was last week, (Dec. 30th) and though I am late with this post, that does not diminish the importance of it. This is my best friend and the man that I have been married to for 17 years. His birthday probably seems to get lost in the shadow of holiday, but it is always a day for me to remember how lucky I am to have him. My favorite things about John: (well, a short list...otherwise I could go on forever)

-He is my best friend
-He makes me laugh...and we have long standing (I mean LONG) inside jokes
-He is the best Dad and every one of our kids would probably prefer him to me...but I'm cool with that.
-He is ALWAYS thinking of me...and many times utters my favorite words, "What can I do to help you?"
-He is a hard worker, but still has the ability to "chill", and watch a movie with his wife. I like a man that can enjoy his "down time".
-He likes garage sales as much as me (well, not quite as much...but he does enjoy a good find)
-He compliments me...often.
-He honors his priesthood and is diligent in his church callings
-He has done the dishes almost every night of our marriage (how can you top that ladies?) I guess for quite a few years we have made the girls do it as well...but he always helps them a little.
-He loves the beach as much as me
-He gives my kids blessings when they are sick, or scared, or just need some extra help
-He supports me in all my little hobbies and projects, and is my biggest fan
-He is happy with simple dinners and never asks..."What's for dinner".
-He bathes the boys most of the time, and usually does a good share of the tucking in. I know that my children will have such fond memories of a Dad that had time for that.
-He loves to travel and is always up for a new adventure
-He is so creative and smart
-He is humble and kind and thinks of himself last
-He kisses me every time he leaves the house, and when he comes home...and he still holds my hand...all the time (unless our hands are occupied wrestling a toddler...which they usually are)
- He is usually the one to get up in the middle of the night with the kids
-He has integrity and does what is right
-He makes my birthday special and always give thoughtful gifts...and does a great job with breakfast in bed...and fun activities planned all day.
-He once planned a treasure hunt sort of thing for our anniversary, and left clues that I had to follow in various places. I ended up finding him up the canyon at a neat hotel...waiting for me...and he had made all the packing and babysitting arrangements. You don't forget something like that easily.
-He loves his mother
-He does service for others
-He always treats me with respect and love
-He teaches my girls what to look for in a husband, and he teaches my boys how to be good to their wives someday.
-He is still my sweetheart 17 years later
...and the list could go on and on.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!
This year we really felt like "getting away" for John's birthday. Well, we did not have the money for that, and so we did the next best thing. We "pretended" to get away. We spent the day together and began it at an amazing hotel here in Orlando (The Galord Palms). Inside this hotel...it looks like we were able to "get-away", and we felt like it too as we munched on a wonderful breakfast, and then enjoyed the sights in the hotel. We sat and relaxed, and just pretended we were staying there. Maybe we are pathetic...or maybe just really creative. If you have been to that hotel, you would agree that it is a pretty neat experience. Afterwards we hit a movie and walked around Downtown Disney. It was a really fun Day-date.

John even let me snap his photo to my hearts content. Well, maybe not to my hearts content (that would take a long time), but a few shots at least.

All of this is inside this hotel...plus a bunch of alligators, tons of flowers, a recreation of a Bayou, and many other fun sights.

Backing up a little...the night before John's b-day, we celebrated with the kids by having a "NIGHT PICNIC" at the town square in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful night with perfect temperatures. We had pizza, played soccer, and had a nice time.

Cake and ice cream to end the night. Kinsey did an amazing thing for John this year. She organized a really neat gift for him. She worked and worked and worked, earned a bunch of money, and then got some of his siblings and mom to go in on it with her (and I helped a little). She bought him a really fancy phone that he had been looking at. He would not have purchased it for himself, so it was such a surprise when he opened it. Kinsey said that her Dad never gets the "cool stuff" because he is always thinking about someone else and he just doesn't get caught up in all of that. I truly love that about him, but I also love that Kinsey would do something so special for him. What a sweet girl. John was really touched.

Remembering

This Christmas, more than ever, I wanted to keep Christ in our Christmas celebration and help my children more fully understand that the greatest gift we have ever been given is the gift of the atonement and eternal life, from our Savior Jesus Christ. As I found many ways to teach my children this, and we talked about it daily, and tried to do service to each other to "give presents to Christ", I realized that if I wanted to have Christ in our Christmas celebration, I had to start with myself. I knew that my relationship with Christ was key to teaching my children. I began some scripture study that differs from my "usual" daily study. On recommendation from our Stake president, I studied a different aspect of Christ each day. I just went straight from the topical guide and went down topic to topic, looking up the different scriptures in all the different books of scripture. I would mark them, think about them, and then write about them in a journal. I learned SO much about Christ from every different topic. I could feel the spirit so strongly as I did this. I was amazed. Some topics took one day, and others I would read about for two or three days. The week of Christmas I happened to be on the topic of "Jesus Christ, the birth of". As I read through the many familiar scriptures, and the prophecies of old, I was so overwhelmed and grateful for the plan of salvation and for the gift of our Savior in our lives. Each day that I read, I felt closer to my savior, the Nativity story had more meaning, and the season was filled with more joy. The Christmas carols that I listened to truly sounded like angels hailing the birth of our Savior, I seemed to be more aware of the needs of others, and everything had more meaning and I felt Christ in our home. It was an amazing experience...one that many probably have all the time, but I was thankful to be having during this holiday. I am going to continue this line of study and I am grateful that we can learn so much about Christ, just by opening our Bible and Book of Mormon.

I love the above picture of Christ. It is a photograph taken by a LDS photographer named Mark Mabry. I LOVE his work. He has recreated many of the scenes of Christs life...and the results are awe inspiring. To see a slide show of these amazing shots, go to www.reflectionsofchrist.org If you click on Multimedia and then go to video or slide show, you can see all of his work put to a beautiful song. Watching it, I felt so close to my savior and felt a personal connection. I think this slide show is being shown at the Arizona temple visitors center. There is also a documentary about this photographer, and it captures the process he went through to get these amazing shots. I think you can watch excerpts of this on the website. So beautiful.

So though this Christmas could have been a hard one for us as John's company closed recently and he is now out of work, money is tight, and many that we know are going through hard times, it ended up being a very special season for me. There are so many around us dealing with struggles greater than our. An amazing and humble father is fighting a life threatening cancer. A dear friend has lost loved ones and dealt with horrible sicknesses in her own family. Divorce, job losses, and home losses are all things that people around us are dealing with. Our heart and prayers goes out to all of those around us who are struggling. We have been so grateful for the generosity of friends and family to our little family. I know that the Lord blesses us through angels on earth. Through all of this...we are able to "REMEMBER" that Christ has suffered for All of our pain. He knows us all and wants us all to come to him. He truly is the "ultimate gift" that we have all received. I am so very grateful for that.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night before Christmas...and there were LOTS of people in the house. We had such a fun Christmas Eve party with friends. When you live away from family, Friends become such a huge part of our lives and we are so thankful for all of these great people. We had some fun and crazy gift exchanges, a bingo game, tons of food, and some fun games.

The friends went home, the Christmas PJs were opened (thanks Grandma Fulks), the True Christmas story was told, and the stockings were hung.

hugs...kisses...and much excitement

Cooper and Carver in their "Caterpillar" pajamas, as my dad would say. Oh...the cuteness. I would have put the girls in these pjs too if I had thought there would not have been a full blown rebellion.

CHRISTMAS MORNING. Gotta love my kids. They slept until 9:00. They know the value of a good "sleep-in" day. So excited to run down the stairs to see what Santa brought.

Carver as "Dash" from the incredibles. Man he is fast!!! This picture fully describes his excitement to see his presents.

Both of the girls got huge magnet boards for their rooms. I LOVE the way they turned out and they were my favorite Christmas projects. John made the boards, and I made about 50 magnets, all different, and I printed pictures of the girls and their friends for the boards. They were very excited and so surprised.

Cooper loves his new trike, Carver loves EVERYTHING...especially his "bat cave" and bakugans (or how every you spell those things)

We had the best and most relaxing Christmas day. We had a wonderful brunch, which is our tradition, with monkey bread, eggnog, and breakfast casserole, then we spent the day watching movies, playing DDR, and napping. It was a great Christmas.

Christmas is coming...

We had such a wonderful Christmas holiday this year. I am all about the anticipation of things...and the Christmas season provides a great deal of that...for all of us. We had some fun family experiences together and lots of excitement and happiness in our home (along with the occasional shouting and grouchiness...anticipation does not bring out the best in all of us).

Many hours were spent gazing at the tree and trying to figure out what were in those wrapped presents. Of course if you are cooper, all you have to do is go in...unwrap what you want...and if it is something boring like a CD, just shove it under the couch. Poor Kinsey had some of her wrapping go to waste because of that little stinker.

The Sunday before Christmas"Oh look at my most wonderful tower I made with one of mommy's many nativity scenes. I will admire it...and then I will knock it over and hide the pieces" (which he did)

Where did that come from? Wow, John is really getting into the spirit of things. And yes...the kids did laugh and said we looked nothing like the dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance". Are you kidding me?

SNOW IN FLORIDA!

Yes, it does snow if Florida...kind of. We went to a fun little celebration in the little town of "Celebration" (if you can believe that), and they had all sorts of fun lights and festive activities there. And on the hour, it would snow while beautiful music played. Yes...we can make it snow at will here in the land of palm trees. Or at least have soap suds falling from the sky. Either way, it was exciting for us...and probably totally pathetic sounding to my family in Utah.

It was actually COLD this night, and though I thought that would make it more festive, I soon realized that I HATE BEING COLD. I think it was around 47 degrees, but I was far too cold. I guess I am a true Floridian...what can I say.

Kinsey's Candlelight Procession at Epcot

Candlelight Procession at Epcot center is such a neat event, something they do every year, every night, apparently for years, during the Christmas season. High schools from all over the country come to be involved in it, but it is a tradition for Timbercreek high school choir. We knew nothing about it, and so when Kinsey asked me to be a chaperon, I didn't have any idea what it would be like. I thought the choir just went and sang a few songs in Epcot. I should have realized that Disney does not scrimp on anything. This was a huge event, a huge performance. Kinsey's choir sang with two other high school choirs, members of the community, and also some of Disney's professional singers. They were singing with a full orchestra, on a beautiful stage with all sorts of decorations and special lighting effects. Each night there is a celebrity narrator for the Christmas story. This night it was Marley Matlin, and her interpreter. It was beautiful to see her sign this story as her interpreter spoke the words. The songs were AMAZING, and they truly sounded like angels to me. I think they sang 10 songs with narration in between. The performance followed the story of Christs birth from the bible. In a world where so many people are trying to push Christ out of Christmas, I certainly felt the opposite effect this night. People were standing in line for over an hour to get into this performance. I could see how touched so many of them were by hearing this beautiful story and music. One couple approached us and told us to thank our children for being a part of this...because it was so touching to them. I am so glad that Kinsey got to be a part of this and that I got to see her perform. What a special opportunity. Two of Kinsey's best friends from church are in choir with her. Shaina Machado, and Savannah Raskey. Here are Kinsey and Shaina getting ready to walk do the processional to the stage. I thought they looked just beautiful in the gold robes.

Savannah proceeding to the stage.

The stage was so beautiful and the light show and effects were amazing too.

Being a chaperon for this event was a piece of cake. We got to ride on nice buses, with wonderful kids who were so well behaved. Disney fed us all and then while the kids were rehearsing, me and my friends got to go and walk around Epcot for a while as we were waiting for the performance. It turned into such a fun "girls day out" for all of us.

Me and Shaun VonHack in "Morocco"

Shaun Vonhack, Laura Machado, and I in "Japan". It was beautiful day, with a bit of a chill in the air, and it was so wonderful to be out and enjoying the day together.

Kennedy's "Christmas" dancing

Kennedy had some fun and meaningful dance performances this month. She got to be a part of an event called, "Flight to the North Pole", that Continental airlines and Florida Hospital put on. It was to benefit the kids that are being treated for cancer. These sick kids are put on a plane, they taxi down the runway, then they arrive at the Continental hanger, where the firetrucks are spraying foam that looks like snow. They enter the hangar (The North Pole) and get to watch dance performances, see live penguins, play in bounce houses, make ornaments, and eat and eat and eat. It really was such a neat event, and we were thrilled to be a part of it. All the dancers and their families also got to enjoy all the festivities and the food. It was a wonderful day, Kennedy danced well, and it felt good to be a part of something where we were helping others.

Cooper looks very frightened in this picture...but it is not because of the penguin. He LOVES animals, just doesn't care for people so much. He was wanting to play with the penguin, but the minute he had to be close to this lady...he wanted to get away.

Sara Rose (one of my best friends) is Kennedy's teacher, so it is always fun to be with her at these events. Emma Rose hung out with us for a while. She danced great too...and fits into our family perfectly (or she will one day when she and Carver get married).

Avalon Aglow

Kennedy also got to perform at "Avalon Aglow" which is a festival they hold right in our neighborhood downtown area. They had all sorts of performers, tons of booths, food, and it was a fun festive night. They even truck in some snow and the kids have a make-shift sledding hill. I couldn't take a picture of it because I knew my family in Utah would think it was pathetic, but for kids here, it is the only chance to see the snow. We had a fun family night watching Kennedy dance and walking around.

Above, Madi and Abby Hillis who also performed, and are Kennedy's good friends . Below, Kennedy's dance team getting ready to dance.

Carver next to the giant Christmas tree that sits right in our town square, just minutes from our house.