And to all who suffer—to all who feel discouraged, worried, or lonely—I say with love and deep concern for you, never give in.

Never surrender.

Never allow despair to overcome your spirit.

Embrace and rely upon the Hope of Israel, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart.

*Dieter F. Uchtdorf - "The Infinite Power of Hope"


I have some very sad news to share. David and Tiffany lost their little girl yesterday. Tiffany was seven months pregnant and had to deliver their baby girl who had already passed way inside her. I don't have any details right now but just please keep them in your prayers as they will need some extra comfort and strength to keep going.

already a couch potato...

Actually Sean is enjoying his Christmas present from us (grandma and grandpa)! We found a cute little mini recliner chair just his size. Tiffany reports he loves it because he can get in and out all by himself, Bob says it looks like he is almost outgrown it.

facebook...

This is just a writing post, no pictures.
So I finally have a facebook page, thanks to Katie.
I have not decided if I like it yet or not.
I am confused about exactly what to do with it.
I have getting tons and tons of email's now of people wanting to be "friends".
I don't know if I have time to keep up a blog, read emails and keep up a facebook page.
So, you all out there tell me WHY it is a good thing to have a facebook and what the heck do I do now that I have one???

Thanks :)

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee - our FHE message tonight!

We watched this video for FHE tonight. lds.org has tons of great "mormon message" videos. It was a perfect one to start a new year. Probably one of the things I am most thankful for as a member of the church:
we can always have hope
we can change
we can be forgiven
we can move forward and not back

Happy New Year!

I decided before I can move on to a new year I need to catch up last year!

So...

Here's it goes,

this picture is Christmas Eve after everyone had gone to bed and Santa Claus had come and gone.

Once again my kids must of been very, very good this year.the chair in the picture above was Brian's loot...
Christmas morning before the unwrapping had begun. We had Christmas music on the TV (in case you were wondering why the TV had to be on while we were unwrapping presents) :) On Sunday we got up and drove to Bellevue (New Castle) to spend the day with Bob's family. Everyone (except his sister and her family from Texas) was there and it was great to see them, it had been a while. We had 5 small kids and 5 young adult kids plus the adults in one house! We ate and ate and ate and the kids had a few presents to open. We spent the night at a hotel near-by and Monday my car got it's 5,000 mile service and we went to lunch with Elena and Ashleigh and mostly looked/browsed around Bellevue Square.


Christmas Eve

Here we all are by the tree before dinner. We stuck pretty close to tradition, nice dinner, short spiritual thought, games, dessert. We had fun with the Toolson's and am so thankful we had some family close by to celebrate with us.

the cousins eating dinner together (Joe was sitting at the other end of the table and didn't get in the picture here)

and last but not least I had promised a few more pictures from Katie's birthday,

here she is with some of the students she helps TA on the day before her birthday. Of course you have to have something new to wear, it doesn't show it but she had a cute new sweater on. She had a few friends over after the basketball games Friday night...

and I think (THINK) that was my last official birthday party I have to plan for a child!! I am not sad to see that come to an end...

Happy New Year everyone,

I sure hope it's a good one!