Keepin it Real

Christmas In Your Heart

In church today one of the speakers said that at Christmas time we can get busy doing all of the celebrating and hustle and bustle and she said that she thought that is ok as long as we keep that spirit in our hearts. If we don't then it is just a empty hustle an bustle. I probably hammered her exact words, but it hit me that I believe that too.
I think I have always struggled with a balance at Christmas and my friend and I were just talking the other day about how the focus on Santa was causing pressure at our house. I have been threatening that Santa may not come in an effort to maintain any order with the extra rambunctiousness that has been jumping around. With the anticipation of everything that comes at this joyous time they seem to be extra crazy. Threatening Santa not coming though has brought an extra focus on Santa and I'm afraid that it may be what we were focusing on the most. Realizing this I have tried to take a different focus.
I really feel like this Christmas will be one for me to remember this year. I have had some humbling experiences that have taught me some lessons I needed. You can't be humbled without turning to the Lord and I know that I have drawn nearer in my prayers and in my thoughts to the Lord. For this I am grateful.
Although I know I don't have it all figured out, I feel like I have had a titch better spirit in my heart about Christmas. I haven't done all the things I have wanted to or kept all the traditions that I think are important. In fact I haven't wanted to go shopping for fear that I would lose that feeling. I also have felt guilty for not being able to give like I want or feel like I should. Weather it is time, money, or energy. I feel pulled in many directions. So I was grateful for the words of the speaker today that helped me to balance things in my heart and in my mind. One of those moments where you know it, but do you REALLY know it.
Tonight we had a talk with the kids about how we felt we had been focusing on Santa a lot. Santa is about the spirit of giving and that isn't bad, but that sometimes we can get caught up in all the things that come with the Celebration of Someone who is definitely worth celebrating. We need to make sure that the Spirit of Christmas is in our hearts and that it is about the giving but also about where our hearts are. As I tucked the kids in tonight I found myself asking Kyler "Do you feel like you have the spirit of Christmas in your heart?" rather than singing the song "You better watch out you better not cry....."
I know that my Savior lives and that he loves each one of us and I know that I have long way to go to be like him. And that's ok...............That's why He came.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Anika absolutely loved the turkey. She and my dad became instant friends as he carved the turkey and kept sneaking her pieces. I really don't know if she ate anything else.





Kaylee and Cloie doing pinkie promise. The kids had fun playing with Aunt Kaylee. She took the girls on bike rides and played basketball. She made the basketball team at school. Wahoo!







Kyler with a broken arm and the gun Grandma and Grandpa baught him for his birthday.







Monika in the purple and friend Alex.

My family came for Thanksgiving. Mom, Dad, Kaylee, and Monika drove down on Wednesday and picked up Grandma Dernoll. Monika is a foreign exchange student from Slovakia staying with my parents. We were able to meet for the first time. Grandma Dernoll is someone my Dad taught the gospel to on his mission and we call her and consider her to be a grandma. My brother Darren also came and brought his friend Benjamin whom he works with. We also surprised Monika with a friend from Slovakia who came to visit. Alex happens to be an exchange student staying in Kiran's ward here in Queen Creek. I think it was fun for them to meet and talk Slovak.

While cooking turkey and preparing the dinner, the kids were outside playing and Kyler fell off the monkey bars. He broke his arm. A closed fracture of the lower radius. I was slightly distracted with the dinner as Mike told me that he thought it was broken and he took him to the doctor with my dad. I had three thoughts one being here we go again, because we have had three broken bones before with Samantha and Keagan. My second thought was why couldn't he have been climbing the tree that I keep telling him not to climb because he is going to fall and break something. My third thought was poor little guy.

When he came home from the doctor and was able to get some pain meds in his system he didn't feel the pain anymore and he came to me and whispered in my ear that he was all better. I said I don't think so. He said "How many more minutes do I have to wear this?" (splint) When I explained that he will have to wear it at least until Christmas and I showed him on the calendar, he cried.

Priority check

Kyler had a birthday, but we lost all of the pictures because I tried to combine two files. I never have been technologically savvy. I was so very sad. We lost a bunch of files, but most of them have copies on Snapfish or my favorites are on the blog. I think the only ones that I have no copies of Kylers 5th Birthday. So you can picture this with your imagination. Green balloons, yellow and blue Lego cake, root bear floats, friends and family. I think that he had a nice day.
I have been telling him that he doesn't get to go to kindergarten until he is five so the next morning after his birthday he got up and got ready for school. When I explained that he has to wait for another school year to start. You could see the excitement drain from his happy little face. He also keeps asking when he has to get his shots. He remembers Keagan getting his shots for Kindergarten.

Another big bummer happened this week. I still can't believe I did it. I crunched the door of our Suburban. I side swiped the metal thing ( I don't even know what it is called.) as I turned the corner in the carpool lane. The first thing that Samantha said as she got in the car right after it happened was, "Dad is going to be sooooo mad." I was still in denial and ready to bawl. Mike took it pretty well, but I can no longer argue the fact that I am a good driver. I have never hit anything moving. I have only hit things that were standing still. Needless to say I am enduring a lot of teasing from my family and Mike.

So my thoughts lately have been thanks that things are not worse. Things could have been so much worse. The second thing is if I truly believe the statement, the best things in life are not things, then why in the world am I still so sad about this. Priority check. I suppose it is a good one to have right before Christmas.

Halloween Pictures

This is on Halloween before we went trick-or-treating. If you can't tell Samantha is Mulan, Keagan is Batman, Kyler is Spider man, Cloie is Cinderella and Anika is a fairy with no wings. My nephew Gavin is a lion and Brody is Pooh Bear dressed as a bumble bee.


I forgot Anika's wings when she went trick-or-treating. I kept calling her the bed time fairy (because she wore her pajamas) and everyone just didn't get it. When we were near done I realized that I had forgotten the wings. Silly me. In this picture Anika kept wanting to play with the cows tail. I thought it was the funniest thing.

This is at the ward party/carnival

Fall Break

Warning the pictures make it look more fun than it is.

For fall break we checked out the Casa Grande Ruins. They are in Coolidge which is very close. We went thinking it was free, and ended up paying $5 each for Mike and I. Not to bad for a family of 7 but my vote is, it wasn't that cool. The kids didn't want to read and look at the stuff in the museum and then when we went out to the ruins there are signs saying don't climb on the walls. Of course you don't want children jumping on an ancient community that is being preserved. Try telling kids not to climb on the awesome fortress of mud. The kids were surprisingly very well behaved and did not climb on the walls. The big castle part was locked and you couldn't go in.

A fun activity we did do was to go to a real drive in movie in Scottsdale. I have never been to one and it was a double feature. Cheers for Cheep too! It cost $14.50 for all of us.

Drive in Movie

We had the funnest activity at the kids school. It was a drive in movie and they had a contest for the best car made form a box. They gave out free popcorn, water bottles and glow in the dark necklaces. It was lots of fun!

Random cute pictures

Kyler would blush if he knew how many people were going to see this.


The green sticks go to a race track, but are most often used as weapons.

I just love this picture of my nephew Gavin

They built this themselves. About a month ago I took this picture and I remember thinking why can't they play like this every day.

The things they shouldn't get into

So first we try rules and natural consequences and when that is not enough we try putting it up high and then they climb, so we resort to locking it up but there are just not enough locks or high places. We are also famous for losing the keys. Just throwing it out there because I'm a little flabbergasted. Not surprised just numb at this point.

Kyler was supposed to be cleaning his room and he went in our bathroom and was playing with dad's beard trimmer which was on the master bathroom counter. He didn't know he had a new hair cut until I came up to check on him and told him to look in the mirror. He started bawling! I had to wait a while to take the picture because he was so upset. Four hours later he says "I'm still sad about my hair mom." Ya me too buddy!

The street I grew up on...

We were able to spend a day at grandma Lundbergs house and on the same streat are some of my cousins.It was water day which is the day they irrigate with the cannal water. The kids floated thier shoes down the ditch, and splashed in the puddles. We had a picnic and more swinging on the tire swings. This is the streat I grew up on from the time I was 12. My cousin Anneli came and she has a little girl r and My sister in law Sarah with thier kids. It was a fun filled day. My aunt Jodi made the adorable barn out of cardboard boxes and I wanted to feature it.

Cub River

We were able to go to the Lundberg family reunion that I haven't been to for a long time. Michael had gone back home for work and so it was me and the kids which is a big job, but my brother Jeffrey was there and he was a huge help. The kids had so much fun swinging on the rope swing, and playing with cousins, and Roasting marshmallows. I loved seeing everyone even though I didn't get much visiting done. I had forgotten how bad the mosquitoes are in Utah.

Grammy and Grandad's

We went to the park one day and Becky took some fun pictures. Thanks Becky!

We had some great times staying with Grammy and Grandad, and Becky Matt and Colton. Anika and Colton played really cute together and I just love visiting and playing games. Mike and Dad did a lot of playing and working together and they even took the boys fishing. Us girls were able to go on a shopping day and out to lunch for my birthday. One of my favorite things was going on a run/walk around neighborhood on the country roads. It is so beautiful there and the evening was so nice and cool. I could so live there.