So last night I was with some friends and one of them told us about this video. I loved it! I noticed Kara put it on her blog, too......since I want to be like Kara, I am gonna do it, too! :-) Anyhow, it's really good! My 2 older boys were really effected by it. We had a great talk about the church Humanitarian services and how when we make the hygiene kits and things it helps people like the ones in this video. Enjoy!

Daniel's Appt Update

So we got back from Daniel's California doctor's appointment last night. The qutoe this time from the doctor's was "Daniel is the picture perfect poster child for kidney transplants." He has been really blessed with good health, kidney functioning well, meds working on the viruses we tried to avoid, etc. We know if has all been Heavenly Father's doing from all thoughts, prayers and fasting of family and friends. Thank you! His ALT (liver enzyme) was a little on the high side so we are going to watch that over the next few months in his labs. They said it could be a number of things....meds, virus, etc. So hopefully next time it will be better numbers. Other than that his labs were great! We go back in May and then his 2 year biopsy is a little later (his one year was a little late, too) so that will be in October or November. We then have a 3 year biopsy and we are DONE with biopsies! So the appointment went well.....roads over Donner Pass were blizzardy (is it a word?) but not sticking to the road. Thanks to mom and dad Lords for watching the other kids for us! We never have to worry about the kids.....just for g-pa and g-ma! :-)

To Lisa S.

OK...so you probably won't be interested in this post....it's for a new 'twin' friend that has 3 little girls....2 of them being twins. I am posting this for her to see if she wants to inherit the Limo of strollers!

Lisa, here is it. The chairs do recline a little bit, but once the girls start sitting upright (which will definately be by spring and walking time!) they should do well. It's kind of a small picture....I had to scan it from a scrapbook. So maybe it you click on it you can get a better picture of it. My kids in this picture are (from front to back) 4,3,2, and 6 month old. There is a hand brake on the handle. The wheels are regular bike wheels and the front tire needs an alignment.....a bike shop does that if you don't like that it veers (sp?) to the right a little bit. Every once in a while you have to pick up the front tire and set it straight. I was too cheap to pay for the alignment. It rides REALLY smooth and easy to push.



Also, if you scroll WAY down to the bottom of the front page, you can see where "My Babies turned 4!" That is the title.....there is a pic of me pregnant with them! The morning I went over to Reno to have them.

It was so good to talk to you! Let me knwo what you decide!

I am SO proud of you!

My friend that I have been encouraging (oh so subtly) signed up today to take voice lessons! Her 2 daughters do and now she is, too! I am VERY excited and happy for her! She just made my day! Goes to show, doesn't matter how old you are, you can do ANYTHING! if you want to! Good job, T! Now I have someone as 'mature' as me to sing with at the spring recital! YEAH!

New Year's Party....and an addendum at the end!

OK....I didn't get my camera out last night! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?! But we had 5 other familes and the missionaries over last night for dinner, snacks, games and our 2nd annual "Write Your Blessings" Party. Doesn't look like I posted last year this little tradition we are going to do every year, but there is a story from President Packer in his book "Memorable Stories with a Message" about him and his wife being invited to a New Year's Party. The host read a quote that stated we could write our own blessings inserting everything we desire and if we do what it right, we will be granted those blessings. President Packer then says they wrote 6 what seemed like impossible blessings. The host took all the envelopes and held them for one year. The following New Year's they gathered and opened their blessings. All had come to pass. Anyhow, we do this. Last year was our first year and so we opened them this year on New Years. I had written 7 and was blessed to have 5 done. My other ones were CLOSE, but not all the way. (Lose weight and pay off debt) Anyhow, we wanted to share this with more families and hope that it, if anything, will help them see blessings thru their lives over the next year. Not that they don't see blessings, but for example, one of mine was my gas and electric bills would decrease. THEY DID! And my gas bill when down twice! I don't know if I would have acknowledged that, maybe, but anyhow.....

We had a fun time eating, playing games, eating, visting and eating some more! Thanks everyone who came! We missed you Sommer Family and hope your little "Write Your Blessings" party went well in Utah!

Happy New Year everyone!
OK So I have added this on.....I have had a few requests of exactly what we do, so here it is:

I started by reading this:
Memorable Stories with a Message by President Boyd K Packer
Chapter 4
Host of Goals

Donna and I attended an unusual holiday dinner at the home of one of our beloved friends. It was a New Year's Eve party. Our host had an activity for the evening. He read a quote by Heber C. Kimball: "I have said often, you may write eblessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, and it will all come to pass on your heads, if you do right." (from an address given in tteh Old Tabernacle, August 1835).
He gave us each a sheet of paper and an envelope and suggested we write upon the paper the things we hoped to achieve in teh new year. We were asked to seal the envelope and put our name on it.
"I will take these to the bank and put them in teh vault," he said. "A year from now we will meet again and have a dinner and I will deliever them to you. And we will tell, if we wish, how nearly we have achieved our goals."
We thoughtfully set our goals that night and sealed them up, and they were delivered to the vault to lay unopened for a full year.
Six things were on our list, each relating to a blessing for someone dear. Each seemed near to teh impossible. One, for instance, related to a sister and temple marriage. Worthiness was no problem; it was her body - so crippled with disease that a temple session was out of the question, or as it?
the year rolled by and the envelopes were delivered to us again. During the year, with those goals in mind we had prayed now and then little opportunities or advantages came by. They would have gone unnoticed if we had not set the goals.
We were able to move forward, first with one goal, then with another. Five impossible things had happened. The sixth related to a solsutin of a problem of a friend.
It was on New Year's Eve that I received a telephone call from across the country. My friend excitedly told me that the problem had been solved. He knew nothing about the notes in teh envelope.

I have a letter envelope and sheet of paper or note card for each family member. I then have a little bigger manilla envelope that all the letters are kept in. On that envelope I have printed on labels Amy Lords Open 12/31/10, Heber C Kimball's quote, D&C 130:20-21, Psalms 37:4 and Deut 28:2. (They are big labels....and there are 3 of them.)

Anyhow I hope you guys enjoy doing this. I loved talking to my kids about Heavenly Father blessing them. It's just another one of those teaching opportunities!

Christmas Morning

Once Sammy woke up he was really excited whenever he opened a present!


Here Sammy is excited again......



Here Sammy is....AGAIN....excited to open a present.....



It was a fun day! Our 'big' family present? In February we are going to Las Vegas to see Broadway's "Lion King". We are really excited!
Hope everyone had a great Christmas, too!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dinner.....DELICIOUS! Prime Rib, potatoes & gravy, Jell-O salads, veggie trays, pies, ice cream.....VERY FULL!!!! YUMMY!
Here are Kevin, his father Ken, Abram and Ryan.

Kevin's sister, Beth Anne and brother Kraig. Andrea and Josh on the other side of the table.

Kevin's mom, Carmen, Nathan, Daniel and Shawn. I didn't get the camera out until we were almost all done eating. We had 19 there.

For Family Home Evening we had a talent section. Here Beth Anne and Josh told jokes. It was great!

Sue and Luke sang a song together.

Abram played his clarinet.

Andrea and Dallin sang a song together.

Shawn played the piano for us.

Comptyn thought of his own talent. He took everyone's name and thought of a Christmas 'thing' that started with the same letter. So Comptyn was Comet. He did such a good job! It was cute!

So our family talent was to shove 2 bags of marshmallows in our mouths. We didn't make it.....only 1 1/2, maybe, got in our mouths. Daniel didn't want any part of it and Sammy just ate the marshmallows.






We then had 2 pinatas and it was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast!



Then before bedtime we had to warn Santa that daddy and grandpa were going to try and capture him. Grandpa even had magic rope this year. But Josh helped us put the notes on the roof and throughout the house.

As you can see, Santa WAS caught, but he got away! His hat remained on the pole where he was tied up.