Daily Dose of Awesome

Thank you, Chris, for who you are.  You are an inspiration to our family and millions of others!

Planting a Garden

We moved into our current home in September of 2007.  When we moved in there was a nice little garden plot that the previous owners had planted.  We were able to reap the benefits of their work that first fall, and we really quite enjoyed it.  We had never planted a garden before, but we have done so every year since then.  Two weeks ago was the day this year.  We were on a pretty tight time schedule that day and Christi was VERY sick, so I relied heavily on the older kids.  Taylor and Parker weeded the plot while I took Lexi, Elli and Sophi to Home Depot to get the seeds and starts that we needed along with some garden soil.  Once we got back Taylor and Xander helped me till the ground and add the new soil.  We all worked together to plant.  Parker planted a row of carrots on his own and worked with Lexi to plant a row of spinach.  Taylor planted radishes by himself, peas with Jesi and onions with Xander.  Graci , Xander and Jesi planted beets.  I worked with several of the kids to plant our tomato starts along with a couple of pepper plants and some basil.

Although it's a fair amount of work each year (and it would likely cost less money to just buy the produce at the store:), planting a garden has been a really rewarding experience for our family over the years.  The kids LOVE the fresh vegetables each summer and fall.  And it teaches good lessons about the value of work and the law of the harvest.  They all enjoy being a part of the planning process, deciding what will be planted.  Plus, we keep it small enough that they're not weeding all summer long:)

As a side note, the reason we were so rushed that day was because we had been invited to a cookout at the home of an old friend of mine.  As I mentioned above, Christi was under the weather.  So I took all the kids to the cookout by myself.  It went unbelievably well!  Without any prompting from me, the older kids really took it upon themselves to help me out since mom wasn't there.  They were so polite, so helpful with their younger siblings, and so good to volunteer help with clean up after the meal was done.  I was a proud papa!

I think I'll keep them...

Yesterday after church, Jeremy asked if I wanted to go on a Sunday ride.  Let's see... go home and face the huge mess we had created that morning and the night before, or take a leisurely drive around town?  Of course, I picked the drive.  It wasn't very long before a few of the kids were obviously not having fun on the drive, so we offered to drop them off at home.  We kept Sophi, Lexi and Parker with us, and started off again on our drive.  I looked in the back and mentioned that Sophi looked a bit pale.  Seconds later, we heard a choking sound, followed by two rounds of VERY projectile vomit.

Just what we needed.  (:

So we turned right around (we were only a few blocks away) and I went inside to clean up Sophi.  I got her bathed and down for a nap, put Lexi in the tub, and went back out to the van.  Jeremy worked on getting that all cleaned up.  I was still not ready to face the house.  So, we did what any responsible parent would do... We told the kids that we were still going on our drive, except this time by ourselves!  We asked Graci to get Lexi out of the tub and otherwise left them with no directions.  You can do that with responsible kids like Taylor, Grace, and Parker.

Awhile later, we pulled into the driveway.  Taylor came out and told us that we should really go out for awhile longer.  In other words, we weren't supposed to go inside.  Hmmmm....

So, we continued on our relaxing drive around town.  When we finally got home, we walked into a beautiful, clean house.  The kids had obviously thought it would be a fun surprise, and boy were they right!  (:  What started out as a very overwhelming afternoon turned out to be a very pleasant evening.  We had pumpkin waffles, read, and played games. 


Thank you, sweet kids!

The Sealing

First of all, jump on over to Elli's blog to read a beautiful post from Jeremy. I love him. He is such a good father. As we lay on our bed after I read it, both of us crying, we talked about how there aren't words to convey the depths of feelings raising and loving Elli evokes in us, but I think he did a pretty good job. (:


I'm a bit late in writing this post. I have actually tried a couple of times, but couldn't find the words to do it justice. I still can't, so I'll just rely on pictures!

On May 28, we took our family to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to have Lexi and Sophi sealed to us. For those of you who don't understand the significance of that, I will explain. In our church, we believe that when we are married in one of God's temples, by proper priesthood authority, we are sealed to our spouses for all of eternity. We believe that family relationships perpetuate beyond the grave, and that children born to us under the sacred covenant of marriage are sealed to us forever.

When we adopt a child, that child has not been "born in the covenant," so there is a special ordinance that takes place to seal them to our family. During this beautiful ordinance, the children kneel at an altar with their parents, all dressed in white. When completed, those children become as if they had been born to that family, with every blessing and privilege.

There are no words to describe seeing your children, all dressed in white, in such a holy place and being reminded of what awaits us in the eternities. There is nothing like it to put daily struggles into perspective!

We had some very special, sacred experiences while in the temple. I am so grateful for my knowledge of Christ and for what He has done for my family.

Love you, our two newest girls!!
















And... just for fun:

Elli's sealing, Salt Lake Temple, 2007




Graci's sealing, Provo Temple, 2008



Xander's sealing, Oquirrh Mountain Temple, 2009

Indescribable

This will seem random, but...

I am convinced I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world! And lately I have been just completely overcome with that beauty. Like on the verge of tears with it all of the time. It seems almost every day I am calling Jeremy or he is calling me, or the kids are running in the room saying, "Look out your window!" The clouds, the colors, the mountains, the trees, the sunsets-- they have all just been taking my breath away. I was taking Jessica to dance the other day and literally had to pull over and just STARE at the sun's rays bouncing off the mountains. I was in tears. I was a moment where I felt completely connected to my Heavenly Father and so aware of His majesty.

I was just talking to my friend, Heather. (Yes, the Heather as in "everyone needs a Heather.") (: She said something that I could totally relate to. She said that all she has to do is walk out her front door and take a deep breath of air, look around, and she is high for two hours! I am the same way-- I feel drugged by the beauty surrounding me! (In a good way!)

I googled "Utah images" to try to get some pictures of what I am talking about. I found some good ones. VERY good ones. But even they can't portray the majesty of it all.

One of my favorite hymns:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!


If I were a writer, I would have written this song! (: It describes perfectly what my heart feels when I see this kind of beauty:













And I know that Utah doesn't hold a monopoly on beauty-- so everyone, go out and breathe some air and get high! (:
While you're at it, pray we'll be breathing China's air soon!! Still waiting for the darn TA...

Feeling so grateful tonight...

Christianne


PS I couldn't find the names of all the photographers, but here are a few: Greg Busley, Danny Burk, Bruce Barker, David Schultz, and Willie Holdman. Credit to them!