Janie

Oh Janie. You are so cute, so cuddly, and so hard to say no to!

Your sister is going to preschool and tumbling in a few weeks, and I know you are going to be so sad because you always want to be with Sami, and do fun, big girl things, but you get to hang out with me! Please like it. :)  

And please always think I am so cool when I give you candy corn and ask for kisses. 

Oh, and please stop shrieking when Sami tells you no or shushes you. That wears on me by the end of the day.

And please remember how much I love you. 

(Even when you poo in your pants and I growl at the mess. I am really going to work on not growling anymore. Promise.)

Working on myself...

These past several months have been a bit challenging for me. 

I have found myself working through some big issues and weaknesses. Issues and weaknesses that I didn't know I had. 

I am so thankful for my husband, who is so patient. One night when I was talking to him about my frustrations, he simply said, "Chrissy,  you're wrong. You're not thinking correctly." 

I am so thankful for that gift he gave me. He said it kindly, and I realized he was right:
with some issues, I simply wasn't thinking correctly.

Then I was faced with the question of how to change my thoughts. And what are the right thoughts that I should have.

Now, I am not talking doctrinally here (my testimony of the restored gospel is alive and well, thankfully). I am talking about how I process events, conversations, and everyday random interactions and thoughts. And how I view myself and my worth to Heavenly Father and those around me.

Of course, the greatest source for truth and change is the scriptures. I believe that with all my heart, but sometimes I need a little help in interpreting them and applying them to my life.

I have read several books over the past months that have blessed my life greatly. I thought I would share them with you. I own them all and I love what they have taught me.

"Through His Eyes, Rethinking What You Believe about Youself," byVirginia H. Pearce. I love this author. She is Pres. Hinckley's daughter and is a great leader. I want to meet her someday. This book is so good. It's small, but full of wonderful stuff. One of the things she taught me was to look at whose mission my thoughts support-Christ's or Satan's? She teaches that if you want to change your emotions, you need to change your thoughts. A good book.

"Change Your Questions, Change You Life,"  is by Elder Nelson's wife. I thought the title seemed a bit melodramatic at first. But now I don't think so. Wendy Watson Nelson has been a counselor for over 25 years, and I love her perspective and insights. One of the things she taught  me was to take a question to the Lord. To really ask the Lord a question that I need answered that day, then ask the Lord in prayer, picturing the Holy Ghost by my side, and then read the scriptures until I find the answer. This book has impacted me greatly. I love it.

"Weakness is NOT Sin." I needed this book. I have been confused about weakness vs. sin for a long time. I want to be good, I want to be obedient, but I always find myself very short of where I wish I was. This book helped me to understand that weakness is part of Heavenly Father's plan. She says "Sin can take us to hell. Weakness can take us to heaven." She tells us how to tell the difference between sin and weakness and how to make weakness into strengths. I will read this book again, for sure!

This book was so sweet and touching. Gerald Lund talks about seeing the Lord's tender mercies in our lives, how to deal with trials, and how to have stronger faith. One of the things he taught me was that how we feel about Heavenly Father is just as important, or more important, than what we know about him. How we feel about Heavenly Father will make or break us in our trials. I was sad when this book was over, I wanted it to go on and on 

I feel like I have grown so much this year. I feel like I am seeing myself and the world around me differently. That I am not a victim and that I get to choose what I believe. I don't have to believe everything that comes into my head. I am still learning and changing.

I love that our church is a church of truth. That we seek truth and that the truth literally sets us free. I love that we can change. I love that we can repent and the Lord forgives us. I am so thankful for people who share their insights so that I can learn from them too.

Reminiscing

A few months ago, I sent a bunch of photos into a company to have them digital scan them for me. I had a voucher from Groupon and it was about to expire by the time I actually sent them, but this week I got my pictures back and my digital copy. So I thought I would share a few of my favorites. 

I'll start with my sweet Jonathan. 

I love this picture of him. He always has been a hard worker :).

We always laugh at this picture, because he buttoned his top button into his collar, is missing teeth, and is dressed like a lumberjack. But a very adorable lumberjack.

This captures Jonathan's personality:

His senior picture:

And his mission to Portugal. It is so interesting that there is a horse drawn cart and an automobile in the same place. I am thankful that Jonathan served a mission and when we were dating, I knew it was a good sign that he always talked positively about his mission and said he wanted to take me to his mission someday. He still says that, and I hope he does take me there one day.

And now on to me.:)

My grandma thinks this is a picture of her grandparents. Anyway, they are my family and I am grateful for the picture. And even more grateful that I didn't live back then.

And more teepee pictures. I couldn't resist, especially since this one had snow in it. I still ask my mom how she did it out there. Amazing and crazy at the same time!

We had goats. I didn't like the goats. They were big, and stinky. My mom had to get up and milk them every day. Needless to say, I have drunk my fair share of goats milk.

The girls get their sense of fashion from me :).

Me and my sis. We didn't let a lack of electricity and running water slow down our beauty regime. A girl has to have priorities. 

This was our swimming pool-plastic covered tires.  I wasn't a big swimmer.

Every girl has a chopped bang picture.

And then the awkward tooth phase, when you have adult teeth in a kid mouth. This is me and my brother David.

Then the 80s hit. Look at me rocking the jean jacket, the neon, and the poof hair. Oh yeah. 

This is me with all my brothers and sisters. I love them. (And check out the rolled jeans. I tried hard to be stylish. Sometime it worked, sometimes it didn't.)

I love this picture with Sherri Dew in the MTC. She came and spoke and let us take pictures with her. She is one of my heroines. And I served with Hermana Scoville in the MTC and in our mission. She is one of my faves.

And well, you know what happened after that. I met my true love. ♥  I am so blessed to have him. He is so amazing. I love him more today than I did when we got married, although I didn't think that was possible then. 

And, as they say, the rest is history!

Bath Time

A while back I made the goal to take ten pictures a day with my camera. The point was to learn how to use my camera. In actuality, I don't take ten pictures a day, but when I do pull out the camera, I take like 90 pictures. It's ridiculous and is filling up my hard drive fast. 

But I love that I have all these pictures of the girls! They are my subject of choice to photograph, since they are the reason I wanted a nice camera.  

These are my favorite photographs from this past week. I opened up the blinds in the bathroom and let them take a bath in the early afternoon so I would get lots of natural light.  

These pictures remind me how blessed I am, and how I want to be better and do better for these little angels in my life.

Working the camera...

Some days, we just feel like getting our picture taken...

and I love days like that!!

Swimming Lessons

The girls just finished their swimming lessons on Friday. And they loved it!
Except for at the beginning. 

At the first lesson, Sami and Janie were begging to go home. At one point Sami ran out of the pool telling me she wanted the blue van, meaning she wanted me to drive her home. Their teacher, Miss Allison, had them stick their faces in the water and started teaching them how to swim and reach for the side of the pool from the first lesson. Which is great, but didn't go over very well with the girls. 

I wasn't sure I was going to stick with it at that first lesson, but Miss Allison assured me that after 2 or 3 lessons, they would like it. So I decided to pull out the big guns for the second lesson: I told them if they did good and didn't cry, I would take them out for hamburgers and french fries. 

From that moment on, they have loved swim lessons. 

Seriously.

And I only bought them burgers and fries that one time! ☺ 

She taught them how to float and Janie loved to float. She would smile and it was darling! Swimming and kicking under water was a little bit harder for Janie, but floating was great.

Miss Allison also taught them to dive. Sami loved it, but it was a bit of a struggle for Janie, but by the end, she was doing really well.

Sami seemed to catch on to how to kick and move her arms right away. When Miss Allison told her to swim, she would kick ferociously. She loved Miss Allsion, she loved swimming, and her favorite was at the end of the lesson when she would dive for rings. She loved the rings!

I will say that when Miss Allison asked me to drop my girls off the diving board, I had serious heart palpitations. I kept saying "What? You want me to do what?" She was under the diving board and always caught them. But it was hard tossing my babies off!

At one point during the lessons, I told Jonathan that I hated seeing Janie cry when she was learning dives or being dropped off the diving board (sorry, Janie!), because I know just how she feels. I was afraid of that too (and truth be told, I still am). So I feel sorry for her. But Jonathan asked me if I wished someone had helped me work through my fears. And the answer is YES! So Janie and I stuck with it. And now I find her pretending to be a pool and diving for rings. 

They both learned a ton and I am so proud of them.

So next year, we will be back with Miss Allison.

We started off this holiday in Arizona City with Jonathan's brother, Jeremy, and his family, Aunt Tami, and Grandma.  We played, talked, had a bbq, and played some more.  

Grandma is one of our all-time favorite people. No question.

In the afternoon, we decided to get some sparklers and some butterfly firecrackers (they spin on the ground and change colors).  We hadn't even started and the girls were in a corner of the yard, nervous. We assured them it was very fun. 

This is the picture I took as Jonathan was lighting the first butterfly. Janie was so nervous and I'm not sure she knew why she was nervous.  I was scared of fireworks too at her age, but I can't say exactly why either. So Janie must get it from me. 

The girls decided sparklers could be fun.

Sami put her sparkler down on her foot and got a little burn. It didn't leave a mark, I think it mostly just scared her, and then she was done. Later Jonathan and I were like "What were we thinking giving the girls fire on a stick?!!" Jonathan said he had nightmares of Janie lighting Sami on fire. Where are the sparklers that we did as kids, that just light little sparks?

We had a great holiday. The girls were tired out by all the excitement. I am so glad Jonathan was home or I don't think we would have done anything fun (because he is the fun parent-always has been).  

God bless America.