Service: the way to find true happiness.

Have you ever wanted to feel happier.  Have you felt exhausted by all that life gives you? Have you ever wondered if you are doing enough for your family.  Today scripture study has given me answer to these questions. The answer is service.  When we serve others the rewards will be heaped upon us we will be at peace and feel happy.  We will be forgiven of our sins we will be drawn closer to our loving Father in Heaven.  When we serve with our children we are helping them gain the keys to eternal happiness.  We are not expected to serve some one by giving everything we have an leaving us with nothing.  Our Heavenly Father knows us and know the intent of our hearts he knows what we can handle if we try and do the things we can (even though to others they may seam small) we are serving himself and he will be the one to fill our heats and our lives with the blessings we need.  When we Do not serve others we will lose all those great blessings.

Mosiah 4:16 - 4:30

Mosiah 4:16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

Mosiah 4:17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just--

Mosiah 4:18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

Mosiah 4:19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

Mosiah 4:20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

Mosiah 4:21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

Mosiah 4:22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.

Mosiah 4:23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.

Mosiah 4:24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.

Mosiah 4:25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.

Mosiah 4:26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you--that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God--I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.

Mosiah 4:27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Mosiah 4:28 And I would that ye should remember, that whosoever among you borroweth of his neighbor should return the thing that he borroweth, according as he doth agree, or else thou shalt commit sin; and perhaps thou shalt cause thy neighbor to commit sin also.

Mosiah 4:29 And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.

Mosiah 4:30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not. 

For my catch up today I will talk about my little Ryan.  Ryan is 4 know and oh how he loves letters.  He knows all his letters and all the sounds they make.  He can write his name and he is anxious to learn to read.  He wont go to school until 2014 but he loves to learn.  Ryan is my funny little boy he always has something funny to say and he loves to be the center of attention Ryan is a happy little boy he loves to sing and he loves to be silly.  

Helping siblings to love one another

It has been a very long time since I have updated this blog.  So much has happened in the last 15 and half months.  last week was spring break, and over the week end was one of my favorite times, General Conference.  I love the spiritual high I get from listening to the loving messages from our prophet and church leaders.  I love coming away from conference feeling uplifted and encouraged.  I truly believe no matter what religion you are the key is to walk away feeling like you have a renewed conviction to be better that you have hope to be better.  Nobody is perfect except for our beloved Savior Jesus Christ.  We are not expected to be perfect but we are expected to strive for perfection by trying a little harder everyday to be a little better then you were the day before.  I have come away wanting to be a little better.I want to use my blog to help share my thoughts and feelings about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To share the little things I am doing with my family to strengthen them I also hope to share a little more about each of them. It will take me a little while to get caught up but with baby steps and small goals one at a time I will be able to achieve this.

Today in my scripture study I read:
Mosiah 4:4 - 4:15

Mosiah 4:4 And king Benjamin again opened his mouth and began to speak unto them, saying: My friends and my brethren, my kindred and my people, I would again call your attention, that ye may hear and understand the remainder of my words which I shall speak unto you.

Mosiah 4:5 For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state--

Mosiah 4:6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body--

Mosiah 4:7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.

Mosiah 4:8 And this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.

Mosiah 4:9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Mosiah 4:10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.

Mosiah 4:11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

Mosiah 4:12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.

Mosiah 4:13 And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.

Mosiah 4:14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

Mosiah 4:15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

Oh how I needed to here this.  Both Heavenly father and Jesus love us the want to help us.  The want us to succeed they will help us along the way.  I don't know why but today has been one of those day where my children have been fighting all day long.  I have heard many mean things said just to try and hurt the other sibling.  After reading this I came up with a fun little Family Home evening lesson we are going to have tonight.  We were suppose to do FHE last night and it was suppose to include preparing the garden beds we are making this year for a new veritable garden.  It was very cold and rainy then the wind started so Eric did not pick up the railroad ties and we decided to push it off until the weather is decent. (which is not today) so instead I came up with this we are learning about saying nice things to each other.

We will start out with a tube of toothpaste and a clear disposable cup.  then I am going to have each child take a turn squeezing out the toothpaste while I repeat some of the mean comments I have heard them say to one another. When all the toothpaste is out I am going to ask them to please put the toothpaste pack in the tube.  Then I will explain how just like we can not put the toothpaste back we can not take back the mean and hurtful things we say to one another. then we are going to try an experiment I read about. http://2-our-healthy-hearts.com/id89.html We are taking two jars that are identical and filling each up with the same amount of white rice (no butter or salt added) one will be labeled love and we will list 5 or 6 loving phases on this jar. The other will be labeled hate here we will list 5 or 6 hateful things on it. Everyday everyone will pick up each jar one at a time and walk into the laundry room where they will say the things on the jar to the rice.  then they will bring the jar back and set it next to the other on my little bakers rack.  We will then watch over time what happens to these two jars of rice and see how the change.  I will take pictures and post them latter.  This is my hope that the children will realize how much the things they say effect each other.

Tomorrow I will start with my first individual update. I think I will start with my Ryan and work my way from youngest to oldest.

Happy New year in 2012!

2011 has been a long hard year fraught with never ending trials and tribulation.  So often I can look back and say I am grateful to have gone through the trials I went through, that I would whole hardly choose to go through those trials again because of the growth that took place that would not have otherwise taken place… 2011 is not one of those years; although I can say my life was still greatly blessed. I am so thankful for all the blessings the Lord has given me to help me get through the tuff times. I am grateful for all the people who have acted as instruments of God to help great blessing pour out on me and my families head. We were so richly blessed this past holiday season, I don’t know how so many people knew of our needs, and yet I have never felt more love for myself and my family. As I say goodbye 2011 I am so Thankful to say the Lord will never leave us alone in are time of need, no matter what the future has in store for me I know the Lord will be there. I also know that so many others are so willing to listen to those sweet whispering of the Lord and be there for us as His hands. No matter what 2011 was like for you I hoe 2012 will be much better, Happier, and more peaceful!  Happy New Year!

Dogs are not the same as cats

This is Toby he was our dog for 12 days.  I have deiced Dogs are not the same as cats Dogs are the equivalent of a two year old.I could not handle the dog any more so we gave him away. Ryan Sammy and Toby were always fighting over toys and then Toby deiced he was the boss and would ignore the rules like stay off the furniture.  My children then asked for hamsters (Dumbest move in the world they all know how I feel about rodents) lizards, iguanas, parakeet, a canary and fish. I asked if they were looking for pets or food for Sarah the one cat we keep.  I also said no more pets mom is to stressed to deal with anymore pets we got rid of our fish before because I could never remember to feed them and neither did anyone else. I feel bad but at the same time I feel like I need to keep my sanity.  I wish I could give them another pet but I don't like reptiles I will never have a rodent, birds are too messy and noisy They want something they can cuddle but I want something that does not take a lot of mom involvement.  Toby was cute but man with 8 kids and one depressed hubby it was just to much.  We love cats but Jason has to be able to breath, so I guess we are down to just Sarah.

Much to be thankful for!

November is coming to and end I am so excited to be seeing the end of 2011.  This year has been full of so many challenges and I know in the end are corners will be smother our surfaced will be more polished ans I feel like we will shine like a diamond.  The girls are doing well Alex still has a limp but both legs are healing nicely.  Alex has to concentrate to walk with out a limp.  It is interesting Alex being Right dominate  had a hard recovery with the right leg, she was slower then Emily to get up and go but when she did she ended with no limp.  Emily is Left side dominant and she was fast to be able to get up and go put had a limp still at 3 months out.  Then the girls went in for their other leg and Alex was up and moving quicker she was better on her crutches first out of the wheel chair but she has a limp.  Emily struggled more in the beginning and she does not have a limp.  I guess if you have to have the same thing done I would say do your dominate side last!

Jason has topped out of three types of asthma controller medication: he is on three Allergy medications and about to get shots.  she has also been on an extra steroid predisone; but he still is having trouble breathing.  We found out he was allergic to cats but not dogs.  So we got rid of the kittens.  ( I am officially the meanest mom in the entire world and will wake up on Christmas morning with nothing in my stocking but a mouse saying ha ha you are so mean you can have this SANTA.  Well I hope Jason is wrong about that considering I have a major phobia about rodents, and will understand that Jason needing to breath was really important.We did get The family a new pet, a dog.  He is a 4 month Golden retriever - White lab mix.  He is a very good calm dog.  He has not barked yet in 4 days he listens and is potty trained.  We are working on more training but so far he is real good.   Jason went from hating the dog to think he was not to bad to loving him in the 4 days we have had him.  He lets Ryan lay all over him and try to ride him.  I think we have gotten our selves a good pet.I am going to take a picture with my phone and see if I can upload it on her other wise it will be a coupe days before I post a picture.

We signed all the paper work and I believe the bank officially owns the rental.  All I can say  is never rent your property out!  There are good renters out there but all it takes is one like we had to do about $40,000 in damage and the place is destroyed.  I hope some one buys it cheap from the bank and can fix it up but it is heart wrenching to know I will always be left with the image of walking in to that house and seeing all the damage and those 30+ cats.  I do not hate  the lady who did this I pity her life what a sad existence that you had no one and brought in all these animals to try to feel your life and how very sad to think you laid down and died in the huge piles of animal feces.

I am grateful for my family I love them all so much and I am grateful for our thanksgiving tree, this year we made a tree on the wall then every day for the month everyone put a leave on it saying something they were grateful for.  Tomorrow we will have 100 leaves on our tree!  What a joy it is to see and hear all the things the kids are thankful for.  This is going to be our new tradition and I am excited to watch how things change each year.

Summer came and then it went.

I can not believe how fast time as gone,  We had a crazy summer. Emily tuned 12 and started young womens and then went to girls camp for the first time an Alex was there for her second year.  Jason turned 9, Katie 6 and Sammy 4.  Then on the 24th of June Alex and Emily had surgery to correct their Femoral anteversion (in-toeing due to twisting of the thigh bone). They had this on their right thigh.  The possess was long.  Basically the doctor had to going and slice threw the thigh bone, in the girls case he had to rotate each of their bone 30 degrees.  Then he place a meddle rod through the leg and inserted pins or screw to keep in place.  He did this all with only two incisions one at the hip about an inch long and the other just above the knee which is only 1/4 of an inch long.  before the girls woke up he would but in a pain block (Basically the same thing as an epidural except it is in the hip and goes down the leg only.  This would help with the majority of the pain.  The girls still had to be on oxycodone and Valium but this helped with the majority of the pain.  Emily came through hers with flying colors; Alex had some problems with hers when he did the block it went up instead of down, since she was asleep he did not know this.  When they brought her to the recovery room she woke up with 100% of the pain.  They had to put her on Fentanyl and keep giving it to her until the anesthesiologist could do another block.  I have to say it was the worst thing I have ever gone through watching my child be in so much pain and there was nothing I could do about it except try and talk calmly to her.   then she would start to fall asleep but her oxygen rate would drop and we would have to rouse her then she would scream out in so much pain, once again they would have to give her more Fentanyl and we would start the whole process over.  When they put the second block in they sent me away I had to go find a place in the hospital where I could cry I hope I never have to see one of my children in that kind of pain.  


After her block and everything was stable she came up to her room, the girls had conjoining rooms so we just left the door open and I was able to be with them both the whole time.  Emily was better off that entire day then Alex, But I keep talking with Alex and showing her how her sister was doing and promising her it would get better and that this was not the normal thing.  Luckily Alex does not remember allot about it except that she was  in a lot more pain then Emily.
They had no cast because the pins support all the weight for the leg.  they used there crutches for 4 and 4.5 weeks.  The Doctor said they could quit using them after three but they still felt it hurt to much so we let them deiced when to stop using them.  Then they went down to one crutch and then just to walking.  We were able to see the bone growth at 3 weeks after and again at 8.5 weeks. there has been allot of bone growth the breaks are not fully healed but both are looking good.  The girls still walk with a limp but there right leg is straight.  They will go back in and have the left leg done on the 27th of September. which will be 13 1/2 weeks from when the first one was done.  They are nervous for this they know what kid of pain to expect.  This time we have lots of ice packs on hand so they can continually change ice packs, we know to just give pain meds every 3 hours that Valium will cause them to sleep lots.  And this time they will have to go back to school.  This time we will be renting a wheel chair to help the girls be able to get around while they are at school.  Alex is afraid of the block not working right again but I told her it is really unlikely.  


On July 5 Ryan had surgery to correct his eyes it is called bi-medial recession it basically corrects the eye mussel and makes them work together.  Basically Ry-ry had two lazy eyes and this makes it so they can both work together.  David to has the same problem when he was two we took him to several ophthalmologists and they all said it would correct itself they were wrong, When Ry-Ry go referred to this ophthalmologist ad he was willing to fix the problem we had him look at David, David will be having the same surgery on Tuesday.  The sad thing is while it should work good to make they eyes appear to be looking together there is only about a 5% chance that it will actually work so thew brain tells both eyes they can see at the same time. We are praying that we are one of the lucky ones and this will work he has very littl depth perception because they don't both work together.  Ryan's recovery was fairly quick he was a little ornery being two it was hard to get him to talk about it, he also deiced he would not take any medicine, and he gave up eating for a week.  So the trick was to put ibuprofen infant drops in his cup of chocolate milk, he would drink his milk and be happy about 20 minutes latter.  Daddy tried mixing it in so e pudding once, to bad Ryan saw him but something in his pudding then he refused to eat the pudding and cried for an hour before I came home and fixed him a "good" cup of chocolate milk.  With David being 11 I hope we don't have to mix his ibuprofen in his milk. 

In August David had his birthday and turned 11 3 days latter the kids started school on the 17.  It is nice having them back in school after a long summer.  Katie is in 1st Brandon 2nd Jason 4th David 6th Emily 7th and Alex 8th wired to think next year I will have seven of my kids at the same school.  then When they go to high school they will go just to the regular public school.  I will try and post their 1st day pictures but I took them on my phone so I will have to figure how I can send them to the blog if possible.

I love doing my girls hair

Here is one blog I go to for ideas http://www.princesshairstyles.com/  they also do contests for hair related things right now they are doing one for gimme clips, you should check them out.