Things we got last week

Don't get excited, Lucky is a "loaner" while her owner recoups and Lucky finds a permanent home.  She is old and deaf and tolerant for the most part of the kids.

We also got our tickets to go to Scotland last week.  My parents are serving an LDS mission to Scotland and (in full disclosure) offered each of us kids financial help to come see them.  Well, in the final 4 months of their mission, they are getting visitors Feb, March and April!  I have planned and accumulated credit card rewards for this trip ever since they left in October of 2011.  I never thought it would really happen until I bought the tickets.  For the first week, I looked up the itinerary every day just to "pinch" myself that this was real.  We are going to be in the UK for 10 whole days not including travel time, so that is a long time away from the kids.  Any tips on "not worrying" about them are appreciated.  But mostly, I CAN'T WAIT!!

What will you cling to?

Yesterday at church a visiting member from Victoria BC told us of a quote he'd heard that profoundly impacted him and it really struck a chord with me too.  His eldest daughter got married last weekend and the person who sealed them in the temple ("married them" in non-church venacular) gave them some advice.  One thing he said is that your spouse is sure to hurt and offend you.  You can either cling to that hurt or you can cling to your spouse.  I think that's so true.  Figuratively and literally, you have to make conscious efforts to cling to one another rather than all the little things that bother you.  This visitor also went on to say this applies in nearly every walk of life.  In a church congregation, you are sure to be hurt and offended by others.  You can cling to that hurt or you can cling to the gospel of the church.  You often have to choose whether you are going to cling to one thing vs another, there are so many instances when you have to let go of pride to retain friendship or hurt to obtain peace and forgiveness or loneliness to obtain fulfillment.  The list goes on and on and I wish I could have put it so eloquently as our visitor.  I am glad he came to church and chose to share with us and I am glad I chose to go to church and ask Stephen to stay home with a very sick Franklin.  With Stephen and I having some heavy callings, when we have sick kids we have to sometimes call the Bishop and ask "who would you like to have at church today?"  ha ha.  I was glad to be there, I needed it.

And so we move on to a few holiday leftovers- the kids in their Christmas Eve PJs- they are posing that way to show off the "ROCK" on their legs (Ada's split chin and bandage really pull down her face here).

Franklin loves being on "sissy's" desk

 And here are too many pics of the girls in their Christmas dresses.  We all stayed home with a sick Odessa last week, so yesterday was the first day they wore them.  Flash vs natural light- makes a real difference!

And more Franklin cuteness- feel free to skip if you are not a grandparent :  )

What I wished I had on tape was the night when Stephen yawned while reading the words and Franklin copied the yawn right along with it.  Now THAT was cute.