Christmas talk

I am so excited to speak on Christmas Sunday I have always wanted to and am way excited to be able to teach out of the Old and New Testament today!

Christmas cay pulls a very close second place to Easter for me. My family has gotten a little obsessed with the celebration of Easter and we do a very fun whole week long celebration for that holiday! Gordon B. Hinckley said “There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the resurrection.

I believe it is a FACT that Christ was born of Mary in Bethlehem and he came to fulfill all the prophesies foretold of him. He came to redeem the world because he loves all of us.

Isaiah prophesied many things about our Savior. In chapter 7:14 we find that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.

Russell M. Nelson gives one of my favorite thoughts on scripture when he says “Fulfillment of that prophesy was not just unlikely it was humanly impossible. Incredible! Everyone knew that a virgin could not bear a child. And then for that child to be given such a pretentious name was doubly daring. The Hebrew name which Isaiah prophesied Immanuel literally means “with us is God” That name was subsequently given to Jesus in the New Testament, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants”

This seemingly crazy prophesy did come true when in Matthew 1:8 Mary is found a virgin caring the Savior of the world.

Isaiah gave many names for Christ in 9:3 he listed a few. Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace.

Elder Nelson also teaches us “Each of has a responsibility to know the Lord, love him, follow him, serve him, teach, and testify of him.”

WE must learn and understand what the Savior is for each and every one of us. The many names given to him can help us throughout our whole life, and may change with what we need him to be. Are we struggling with our children and family and we need a comforter. Are we a young teenager who is struggling and making mistakes and he is our loving judge? Have we wandered from the path and he is our redeemer. He is always our Mighty God. He is our Everlasting Father because he is the creator of all things. He is our judge, our shepherd, our brother and our friend. I hope we can all come to find out who is for each of us and draw strength from who we need him to be.

Micah declared “But thou Bethlehem... but though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.”

How significant is it that the one who calls himself “the bread of life” came from Bethlehem which translated means “House of Bread.”

Joseph and Mary were compelled to Bethlehem. A five day journey, 30 miles each day. The end of which from Jericho’s desert to Bethlehem is a 3,500 ft uphill hike!

I gain strength from the very pregnant Mary who probably suffered much to fulfill this prophesy. I must then ask myself. What am I doing, what climbs am I willing to make to fulfill the Fathers plan for me? There are things foretold of me. Am I fighting my way toward and through those things? Am I embracing my struggles so my Father can make me what HE needs me to be? What am I doing to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal life of my fellow man? Am I doing all I can to bring my brothers and sisters to knowledge the great plan of Happiness.

In Isaiah 61:1 says speaking of Christ “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tiding unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to them that are bound.”

In the Sermon on the Mount our Savior teaches more (Matt 5:2-12)

“Blesses are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in sprit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the poor in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Rejoice and be exceedingly glad; For great is your reward in heaven

The glad tidings proclaimed to the shepherds who swiftly departed to find their Christ is such a perfect reminder to those of us who were brought to earth for our own purposes to feed the Saviors sheep.

At Christmas time I issue this challenge to us all… Is Christ our Savior, the babe of Bethlehem, born in you? In all of us who are filled with glad tidings, does the world notice that life can be full of joy even through sorrow? Does the light of Christ shine so bright in our eyes that strangers will follow our example like the shining star did for the baby? Are we proclaiming our glad tidings with the joy and kindness on our homes?

I know that we must! We must shine for this ever increasingly wicked world. We must stick out and be a beacon of light for those who need to know the Savior. We must proclaim the truth of all things. We must read and understand our scriptures, and know the warnings the prophets proclaime to our day.

I have a testimony that the babe of Bethlehem was born among the lowest of men, he lived his life a wanderer, and man who did all for his fellowman. He gave his life for those who even do not believe in him. I know that he lives and loves me. I know his greatest joy will be to see me enter the kingdom of heaven with my family. He wants me to come home. HE loves me so much and gave his life for me. I will do all I can to live my life for him!!

(pardon the pictures I cannot find my USB cord for my camera so I had to use my camera on my phone for the pictures)

I know it has been so long since I have updated my blog. To be perfectly honest I hvae not felt like doing it when we did not get our new house in Salem I was heartbroken. I got really sad, and I will admit that I got depressed and hid in my home for a while. Finally, I cam eout of my funk and decided that if I was staying put in this house for a while longer that I needed to spruce it up a bit. My mom came up and helped me tons.
We found this Perfect painting for my kitchen, I had almost as fun with my mom shoping for it as I have had looking at it each day in my house.





The next day she was here we went over to IKEA and found some shelves to put on this huge empty wall in my living room... They are so cute. I do not have pictures in them yet but, that is a whole different story!






I have also been crafting a bit latly and have made some fun things!
Here is one of the magnet boards I made for the girls room.



These are some luminaries... They are so cute at night when we light them at night.




I painted the window next to my front door.



Here is the cork boards in my boys room!

These are the magnet boards in the hallway, I will no longer have a million peices of paper all over my fridge. They have a cute things they bring home froom school all the time and now they have a few different places they can put them up.

Firsts

This last week we started school. Michael began First grade and Ora started Kindergarten a few days later. It has been pulling at my heart strings to see my little family going on and expanding further than our own walls.

Here he is at the doorstep. Wearing the shirt he picked out at Target for this day. I can see my Dad and brother smiling down proudly at him wearing his Star Wars t-shirt!

Him and trees for the first day, So funny! Last year he could not have climbed up this far and it was fun to see how he has grown!

Again he would not let me walk him up he walked away from the car all on his own!

And then he was gone ALL DAY! I was not sure we wold make it through, but we did! He came back at the end of the day and was with us once again. He was so cute and he had such a great day! His teacher was awesome and she took such great care of him. She tested him on his reading and he was further along than we thought he was! She sent him home with some harder work and he was so excited to read it. He was so proud I asked him after school where he thought he was in reading adn he said he hoped he was at an I and when I told him he was at a J he went staight on to tell me he will be at a Z by the end of the year! I bet he will be too!

Ora began Kindergarten today and she was so cute, we got her ready and dressed in her sute minnie mouse shirt and we went outside to take her picture. She climbed straight into the tree. I started laughing and she just sat there proudly, just like her big brother!!

He has been so proud of her! She fit right under Michael's wing and he lead her into school. He id not let her go till we were safely on the playground.

She kind of left me behind and went straight into the playground. And when I called her to take her picture she realized she forgot somthing...

I got my hug!!

She had a great first day Wehn I asked her if she had a great time she looked up at me and without any hesitation said "Mom, the bathrooms are fabulous!" I guess it was everything she wanted it to be!

Even piggy was proud of her!

I am such a lucky mom to be able to share these precious moments with these kids! I would not miss them for the world!!

Final Project

For the last week of Kindergarten Michael was given an assignment that would hopefully get him ready for big kid first grade assignments. So his teacher gave him a packet and with questions about the animal of his choosing throughout. He was given free reign over the project. He was to answer the questions in his own words, and then he could either, draw, clip and paste from a magazine, find pictures on the Internet and do the whole thing on the computer, really just do anything he wanted to do.

I sat down with him to figure it out and quickly realized he knew just what he wanted. I was just not sure how we would pull it off. We spent time over at Michael's, the library and then Borders for the right magazine. We worked VERY hard and in the end even fought a little over our ability to do it. But it was so cute and, in the end, just what he wanted it to be.... SO here it is.

Made out of foam paper he began. He picked bears because he liked that they ate fish and were fishermen like his dad.

Different bears eat different things. Some like honey, some like fish, and some eat baby seals.

Bears live almost (he was so particular about that word it was funny!!) all over the world. American Black bears live in the forest.

Grizzly bears can run as fast as 30 miles per hour. Polar bears sometimes have to swim in freezing cold water.

People are a bears greatest enemy. In New Delhi people capture the Asiatic black bear and teach them tricks. Moon Bears are killed so their bones can be used as magic charms.

I hate to brag (okay that is a lie) but, he is so stinking cute! This was all him. It came from his brain. I wish I could take credit but, I cannot. He is such a Smarty! He even did the sentences without much help from me.

He did it!!

Michael is my Smarty pants! When he turned three years old I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he told me very seriously that he wanted to learn to read. He was so thrilled to go into Kindergarten I thought he would burst at the seams the day I dropped him off.

Turns out that Smart cookie thing kind of bit him in the rear int he end. He got left behind (or ahead I guess really) BIG TIME!!

His teacher did her best to keep him interested but, with so many kids in her class he ended up working with other kids and helping them rather than moving forward and learning all he could have learned. By then end he was kind of bored and he is ready to go on to first grade and Maybe... second if when we move I decide to test him up! ( all input on that topic would be appreciated)

All in all he had a great year. He only disliked about the last month or so. In then end he was happy to move on and proud of the work he did in the year.

Too Many BOYS!!

Poor little Ora! She is surrounded by boys, she definitely has more than her fair share. And don't get me wrong she does like having her "fellas" (as she calls them) around some of the time. But lately it seems like she has had her fill. She was ready for a girls day. So while I had an older friend here yesterday playing with the boys she and I had a girls day.
We started with a Teddy Bear Picnic. We had so much fun that we will be doing it again next week with a few of her girlfriends.


We set up her blanket in the front yard and layed out some strawberries, pound cake and of course chocolate chips.


In the glass was some sparkling water. She thought that was the best part. We kept clinking the glasses and "cheersing"

Of course in the end our hands were covered in chocolate But, we had such a fun time.

After the picnic we came in and did "hair dones" We then went to do nails! She chose sparkly purple nails.

The day spent with my girl was SO worth! the piles of laundry, and dishes that added up as I did the things that will really matter!

Remember with a Smile!

I write this post without thinking every year. I do it for solice and so whatever comes....comes, you get what you get! I don't edit it, for anything other than spelling so here comes what will come....

Once again it is that time of year! The Day of Days as my family calls it. The day when all of us.. Even so many years later... Take a time out to remember those we loved and lost so long ago.
My Dad was so special, to all those who knew him he will never be forgotten. I wish so badly that I was one of those people, I wish for just a moment I could remember him. I wish I could pull on some sweet memory that I have of his arms around my waist or his lips on my cheek but, all I can do is imagine, dream sweet dreams where I can pull my own moments from. They may not be real but they are what I have, and I am grateful for them.
My kids and I sing at bedtime. They sing sometimes to me but, most often I sing to them. The Rock n' Roll lullaby my Father wrote.

I'm gonna sing you to sleep now
With a rock n roll lullaby
Your gonna dance with the sand man
So just close your sleepy eyes
Daddy's Girls and Boys
You know you bring me so much joy
You've been fightin this battle for an hour or longer
Now's not the time to prove your stronger
See that man rounding the bend
the man with the dreams to lend
He's just waiting
For you to close your sleepy eyes.

I have no idea how he would have sung it, but I sing it my way and the memories I get can transform to him singing to me when I went to bed. I can picture him holding me as an infant while I screamed for hours and hours. Thinking up this song to soothe me. When I have had one of those nights with my babies, where I get to the place where I can take no more I call on him. I lay my little one down and leave the room, get on my knees and pray for the Father to send my Father to my baby. Then I wait.... It always works!! As I hum this tune outside of the room I get to the end and the crying stops. He comes and takes over while I sleep. I have done it more with some babes than with others and have not used "my trick" often for fear it would go away. But, I know in the reality of Heaven and a visit back here from there is not out of the question.
Maybe sometimes my brother comes, maybe he sits by me as I struggle to keep things together. Maybe he hold my hand when I think no one else is there and I cry. Maybe, just maybe they are guiding my life more than I would ever think.

Man I miss them! The two men I never knew who shaped my life so well. My reason for being who I am and wanting to be with them again so badly that I will face ANY challenge of this life and overcome it just to get the chance to make my own memories some day with them.

Who you gonna call?

Every Sautrday night (okay most Saturday nights) you will find the Short family all in our living room huddled up on either one blanket or on the couch having Family Movie Night! We get a new movie every week and have a great time being together. My kids look forward to it and by Thursday at bedtime they are asking when Saturday is coming. They get excited but, I think Joe and I enjoy it even more than they do. We usually pick out a movie and when I go grocery shoping I pick up a treat. Most of the time just popcorn or a small bag of candy, and if they have been really good I will pick up some ice cream.

About two weeks ago Michael asked me for something I was not sure I could give him. He wanted to make the Marshmellow man from Ghostbusters???

We watched Ghostbusters like 6 months ago, and I was not thrilled about it, I think I probably spent the whole movie reading while they all loved watching it. But this took me by surprise. I do not even know what the marshmellow man is but I was willing to make an effort for my kiddos and thier fun.

This is what the marshmellow man AKA Stay Puft looks like!

Yes I wanted to make this happen, that is untill I realized that I had a very adorable other half in the form of my sweet husband to do it instead. I did arm him with a bag of large marshmellows and a container of Q-tips and put him to work.

Off and running!Or should I say off anf getting really sticky! I love Ora in the background, isn't she working hard!! The concentration in her mouth is priceless.

Finished product's

This is the one we made for Abby, Jordan had fun being a "strong man" with that one.

Michael, Oh so proud!! All of this was so worth it just for this picture!!

Dad comes for lunch

Dad came home to visit us at lunch time a few days ago. Of course in all out cool Dad fashion he brought his new truck! He came home and told Michael he got a new truck a few weeks ago and Michael has been excited about it ever since. So when he pulled up for lunch in this the kids could not wait to get out and see what it does.

Showing the controls. Watching the bed raise up and down. Jordan and Michael got to try it out and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Climbing on! Ora was terrified!! I had to convince her that she would be sad if she missed it and to trust me, she did eventually climb on but, was not so sure about it.

At the top she was still scared! But, she made it and when she got done she told me I was right. She would have been sad to miss it.

We are so blessed to have such a great Dad!! He is so much fun and even when he was running a little bit late took a few minutes to make our kids day. They have not stopped talking about it.

A couple tales of ORA

Yesterday I was in my room folding some laundry when I heard Ora yelling, "Mommy, mommy come here!!" So I went outside to see what was happening and there she was, swinging herself! A few days ago we were at the park and we had a few lessons on the swings. I tried to teach her by doing the spider swing thing. You know, where you sit on the swing and then she sat on my lap with her feet behind me. It did the trick perfectly. She learned how it felt to push off from the swing and do it yourself. But, she was too afraid to try it on her own there. I was so excited to come out and see her swinging on her own. She has been on the swings ever since. Yesterday she sat and was smiling for hours.

Ora is such a girl. On Saturday We needed to mow the lawn. It was the perfect day warm and sunny, and beautiful. We played most of the day outside and then it came time to mow and Ora FREAKED OUT!! She came running inside and grabbed the basket we keep our family scriptures in. She had to save the dandelions! She ran around the yard grabbing up as many of those precious flowers as she could get her hands on. Her sweet brother Michael, saw her worries and helped out. they 'saved' a ton before Dad could run them over with the mower. We kept them safe all day and then the next day they were magically gone. Michael is such a sweetie he kept our little secret about what happens to flowers after you pick them. Once again the pictures kind of suck but, hopefully soon we will have a new camera and we will be able to share more perfect pictures.

A Short Easter

Or not so short, this year Easter at our house was 7 great days. I read a quote recently that hit me like a ton of bricks, don't you just love when that happens.

"There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection" Gordon B. Hinckley

Last year in the Ensign at Easter there was an article all about the week before the Crucifixion and resurrection. It stood out for me and the minute I was hit with the Gordon B. Hincley quote this year I went right back to this article. The author, Eric D. Huntsman did another work. He put together a Holy Week packet I went straight to Kinko's and had a fabulous time printing and putting together our Holy week packet. We began on Palm Sunday. We talked about the Triumphant entry of the Savior and our week began perfectly. The kids had a BLAST talking about our perfect KING,our Savior Jesus Christ. They had a ton of fun doing Hosannas!! We ended up having several Hosanna parties, hosted by Ora during the week.

On Monday we had F.H.E. and talked about the cursing of the fig tree. we helped them understand that we need to be producing "good fruit" for our Savior in order to call ourselves his servants. We continued to have F.H.E. every night during the week. It was a week full of spiritual thoughts and precious moments shared with our children. I highly recommend you guys try this in your own families. We did have to modify the packet to fit our family and our own children's ages. Our plan is as the years go by this week will become something our family looks forward to every year. We had so much fun playing and having Family Home Evening for 7 days straight. It was something that I hope sticks with our kids and as we come to this time next year they will remember and be excited to begin again.

As for Easter Day we had a great time. After Christmas Joe and I were able to go to a clearance store closing and got a fabulous deal on these wiggle carts. It was so hard to wait for Easter morning to give them to the kids, but we made it and then on Easter day it was snowing. So we had wiggle cart races in the kitchen. So fun. I even got on and had a ride and race with Michael.

Abby broke into the candy and did not stop till she was done!

Ora spent her whole day in between conference on the cart. She ate and had a blast hunting and re-hiding the eggs all day. They put together a egg hunt just for Joe and I. It was so much fun to have it be conference weekend. We just stayed home and had a ton of fun together.

I miss having a camera!

I MISS IT SO MUCH!! But, I will share with you what we have been up to anyway, even if the pictures are kind of horrible. I have been in "house fix up" mode.  And since I am not about to go and buy new things for a house I am renting that mean I want to fix up what I have and add a few nice touches here and there. Lately this means getting out some cute paper, or pictures and using modge podge to make things seem new and fun!!

The kids and I did this nightstand with Uncle Bobby a few months ago. My sister Cristen was here with her husband for a conference and Joe was off doing something for the day(I cannot remember what?!?) Joe has been wanting a nightstand for a log time now and so I went with Bobby to D.I. and I found this piece. I am sure it is an end table for a living room but, after a bit of work it turned out great. We painted it black and then added some torn paper and pictures of Joe and his kids all around. This one above is the top level of the piece the one below kind of lets you see how it all turned out. 

On another trip to D.I. while looking for a dresser for my bedroom (that is a whole other post) I happened across two school style desks, you know the ones with the chairs attached. EIGHT DOLLARS (did I mention I LOVE D.I.) When we got them home and went to put them away Michael was shocked, looked at me and said "wait we didn't finish them"  He brought up the papers and picked out his favorite. He found one that was a map and then he realized he had a winner. We did a girl one too. But, I could not get a great picture from my phone. It ended up being pink with all kinds of girly patterns. So cute, maybe I will get a picture someday!

I found this tile board (I bet you know where) and last year we had a Dr. Suess calender. We pulled it apart and have been doing some fun things with those papers but, this is my favorite thing so far! It is from the book 'Did I ever tell you how lucky you are' It is all about how your life could have been so much worse! A nice funny gentle reminder that your life is pretty great! This page says "Just suppose for example you lived in Ga-zayte, and got caught in that traffic on Zayte highway eight"

I know this has not been redone but I thought she fit in with the Dr. Suess theme with her "who hair" She is just too cute not to share!